What'cha Playing?

[Zombra]

[Layers of Fear] made me eager to take a look at the studio's newest game, Observer.

I'm glad to hear LoF is short. >observer_ is good and I'm glad I played it, but it really dragged. From my Steam review: "This is like watching a pretty good cyberpunk movie with solid script, great performances and good direction, but overlong with criminally bad editing."

I also got Layers of Fear somehow, somebody gifted me their bundle copy I think. Thanks for your thoughts - I'm looking forward a little more to trying it now

[Drool]

Started up Pillars of Eternity again. A few thoughts:

1) Obsidian, get your shit together with the save system. I shouldn't have to exit and restart your game three times to get your game to realize that save files exist. The fact that this is still an issue nearly 3 years on is absolutely inexcusable. And yes, it's already running in Administrator mode. This is just bad coding on Obsidian's fault that they refuse, for some reason, to fix. It's a known issue on their forum and the Steam forums.

2) I still hate RTwP. Furthermore, I really don't care about the story. However, I've been enjoying just exploring the world. The world I like. The lore, not so much.

3) Thus, I'm playing on tourist difficulty while mostly ignoring the story but enjoying the hell out of wandering around and finding things. The Endless Paths are possibly the best thing in the game.

4) I really wish there was an easy way to tell the difference between "named NPC I should talk to" and "named NPC that's going to slap me in the face with boring-ass fanfic".

[Jozape]

I just completed Shadowrun Returns. Not the most memorable experience I've ever had. Any thoughts on replaying Dragonfall now or should I go straight for Hong Kong?

[Godfather101]

Started up Pillars of Eternity again. A few thoughts:

1) Obsidian, get your shit together with the save system. I shouldn't have to exit and restart your game three times to get your game to realize that save files exist. The fact that this is still an issue nearly 3 years on is absolutely inexcusable. And yes, it's already running in Administrator mode. This is just bad coding on Obsidian's fault that they refuse, for some reason, to fix. It's a known issue on their forum and the Steam forums.

2) I still hate RTwP. Furthermore, I really don't care about the story. However, I've been enjoying just exploring the world. The world I like. The lore, not so much.

3) Thus, I'm playing on tourist difficulty while mostly ignoring the story but enjoying the hell out of wandering around and finding things. The Endless Paths are possibly the best thing in the game.

4) I really wish there was an easy way to tell the difference between "named NPC I should talk to" and "named NPC that's going to slap me in the face with boring-ass fanfic".

to point 1:
Yes, thats something i'm plagued with too.
Its really annoying but well, you just need to get through that.

to point 2:
I like RTwP, but thats something everyone has their own opinion on, so either you like it or not, well it is as it is. ^^

to point 3:
Yeah, its a wonderful world, endless paths are great too.
I'm really looking forward for PoE 2 and what we get to explore next of the World of Eora!

to point 4:
The fanfic Guys have golden name-tags so you can easily see what they are.
Just look at the name over the head of the guy.
If its golden then you can ignore it.
Easy enough for me. ^^

[Zombra]

I just completed Shadowrun Returns. Not the most memorable experience I've ever had. Any thoughts on replaying Dragonfall now or should I go straight for Hong Kong?

Dragonfall is generally considered the best of the three. I liked Hong Kong as well.

[Godfather101]

Yeah, Dragonfall was an overall Improvement on nearly everything which Shadowrun Returns offered.
Hong Kong was also good but not as good as Dragonfall.

[Drool]

I like RTwP, but thats something everyone has their own opinion on, so either you like it or not, well it is as it is.

Oh, I fully admit that. A good friend of mine considers it one of the best RPGs he's ever played, partially because he likes RTwP. I just don't like it, and feel it brings what could be a great game down to passable. But not everything is geared for me, so I'm accepting of it and work around it. But I'll still bitch about it.

The fanfic Guys have golden name-tags so you can easily see what they are.

I saw a loadscreen tip that mentioned that, but never noticed a difference. I'll have to look closer. Either that or it's so faint that it doesn't show unless I'm perfectly square looking at the monitor.

[Zombra]

The fanfic Guys have golden name-tags so you can easily see what they are.

I saw a loadscreen tip that mentioned that, but never noticed a difference. I'll have to look closer. Either that or it's so faint that it doesn't show unless I'm perfectly square looking at the monitor.

FWIW it was very clear to me as well. Maybe your contrast or saturation settings are weird?

[Woolfe]

I just completed Shadowrun Returns. Not the most memorable experience I've ever had. Any thoughts on replaying Dragonfall now or should I go straight for Hong Kong?

Dragonfall and Hong Kong were much better than Returns.

I enjoyed Returns enough that I played through Dragonfall which I finished, and then HongKong.
I haven't finished Hong Kong though. No real reason just a bunch of others games grabbed my attention and as I had played Returns then Dragonfall then Hong Kong, I was a little burnt out on Shadowrun at the time.

I'll go back to it at some point...

[Jozape]

You won't see any argument that Dragonall isn't better than Returns from me. Anyways I've decided to go with Hong Kong before replaying Dragonfall as I'm reading Hong Kong isn't as good. I'd rather finish my Shadowrun diversion on a high note and I already know I can do that with Dragonfall.

Am I the only one that doesn't like the changes to the matrix in Hong Kong? I really don't like the hacking mini-game which seems to be entirely based on my own skill at remembering sequences rather than my character's skills. Not a fan of the real-time with no pause nature of the sneaking either. I guess forcing sort of gets around the hacking mini-game problem, but there doesn't seem to be anyway to randomly enable turn-based sneaking? Someone please tell me I'm wrong.

Seems to me that the quality of the characters is more spread out so far though. Dragonfall was biased towards Glory and Eiger at the expense of Blitz and Dietrich... but maybe I need more time with Hong Kong still to see how much the writers favored one character or another.

[Zombra]

Am I the only one that doesn't like the changes to the matrix in Hong Kong? I really don't like the hacking mini-game which seems to be entirely based on my own skill at remembering sequences rather than my character's skills. Not a fan of the real-time with no pause nature of the sneaking either. I guess forcing sort of gets around the hacking mini-game problem, but there doesn't seem to be anyway to randomly enable turn-based sneaking? Someone please tell me I'm wrong.

I enjoyed those sections, but you're not wrong. Real-time minigames are a very incongruous choice for a turn-based tactical game.

[Drool]

I've played a bit of two Shadowrun games, and it's weird. I generally enjoy them quite a bit while playing them, but then, at some point, I stop playing and have no interest in going back and finishing. It's like getting to page 75 of a novel and just saying, "Eh. I'm done."

I mean, I haven't even thought about the Shadowrun games in ages.

[Jozape]

I've played a bit of two Shadowrun games, and it's weird. I generally enjoy them quite a bit while playing them, but then, at some point, I stop playing and have no interest in going back and finishing. It's like getting to page 75 of a novel and just saying, "Eh. I'm done."

I mean, I haven't even thought about the Shadowrun games in ages.

I would say it's more like reading the first chapter in a novella and then abandoning it. For Dead Man's Switch anyways. It was too short for me to abandon. Dragonfall and presumably Hong Kong are a little more time consuming.

[Gizmo]

I played through all of the Shadowrun games; each beginning to end, and enjoyed them all. I have since played each more than once. Great games.

Gameplay seemed to improve with each, but Dragonfall has the best story.

[Drool]

That's it. I'm done with Obsidian. I've spent the last half hour loading and reloading Pillars of Eternity, trying to get it to find my save files. The fact that their forums are full of work-arounds, but not posts about how they've bothered to fix this critical, game breaking bug means I'm done. Losing 30+ hours of gameplay because they can't figure out how to use Unity is just absolute bullshit.

I mean, seriously, guys. Maybe spend a little less time thinking up new words for "magic" and a little more time making sure your fucking game works.

[Gizmo]

@Drool

I've never had this problem. Is this due to a recent update? (One that I might not have yet)

Where does your game look for the files? My copy of the game looks for its saved games in: "Users\[my user id]\Saved Games\Pillars of Eternity"

I knew this, but I checked to confirm the folder name that it asks of the API.



You can check this too. An easy way to do this (on Windows OS) is to use Process Monitor by Mark Russinovich; available (free) from Microsoft.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysint ... ds/procmon

Here is how to do it:
Run Pillars in a window; (uncheck fullscreen in the graphics options).
Run Process Monitor. There is a 'Bulls-Eye' icon on its tool bar. Click and drag it on to Pillars, and release.
In Pillars, select Load, from the main menu.

You should see everything coming out of PillarsOfEternity.exe
Now open the Filter menu, and chose the 'Filter' option.
Within Filter, create (from the drop-down lists): EventClass, Is, FileSystem, Include ; Click Add, and OK.


Done.
You should have a filtered list of Pillar's File system access.

*The PID filter was added by dragging the Bulls-Eye target on to Pillars.
_____

I ran this check after removing all of my saved games, and Pillars didn't find them, and Process Monitor showed the unsuccessful attempts. What was interesting though, is that after restoring the game files, Pillars had disabled the Load menu; the game wouldn't even look for the files. The fix for this is to click New Game, and back out of it. The load menu gets re-enabled, and the restored games were found.

[Godfather101]

This Problem existed from the beginning.
Had that Problem in all of my 3-4 Playthroughs through all Patchstations and Dlcs.

Although it never took my 30 minutes to get it to work, it took some time.
Not always but often.

still, besides this bug, i liked the Game alot and i'm excited for Pillars 2 which will be released at 03. April 2018.

And to stay on topic, right now i'm playing "The Red Strings Club".
Like that Pixelart-Cyberpunk-Minigame-Adventure.

[Gizmo]

This Problem existed from the beginning.

What does this bug do? (...Does it look and not find, or does it not look in the correct location?—and not find)
___

I am currently playing 'War for the Overworld'.

[Godfather101]

It does not look.
It shows nothing and its like you never played/saved a game.

I don't know if it is because it doesn't look in the correct location or if it stops to look because of...well i don't know.

Its just like you never saved a game you just can start a new game.
So you restart 2-10 times and then your saves are magically there.

As said, this bug existed from the beginning, and no patch or Dlc did solve it.
But well ,i really liked the game and it didnt take THAT long to get into my save game, so in just got through that inconvinience.

[Zombra]

Three very different games just hit the top of my playlist at the same time.

Subnautica, first-person exploration/survival on an ocean world.

Seven: the Days Long Gone, isometric real-time stealth/parkour on a post-apocalypse prison island.

D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die (Season One), cinematic psycho time travel detective thriller.

All three are pretty phenomenal, for highly contrasting reasons.