Couchpotato's Random RPG News

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But they want you to socialize. It binds you to the game. Peer pressure. All that stuff.

Generates more revenue.
 
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I prefer to do my socializing in person, with folks that I know. Gaming is an escape, has been since the seventies for me, and that will likely never change. Even back when I played EQ one and two, I would bet close to half my online time I was off doing some solo stuff.
 
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BioWare Celebrates “N7 Day” Video & Dev Blog

Every year, N7 Day gives us an opportunity to celebrate the Mass Effect universe. Whether reminiscing about surviving the suicide mission, shooting bottles with Garrus, or whipping around Andromeda in the Tempest, we hope you’ll celebrate with us.
Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones Update - Maps and UI Design Update
The map system is also an important aspect of Stygian which adds another layer of gameplay to the experience with also the help of some basic survival systems built around it. Whether it's a must-go destination of a quest stage, specific hub or the location of a random encounter, all points of interest in a given instance will be displayed in the maps of the game.
Tyranny Gold Edition Now Available
As per Kyros' will.

A new Edict of Renaming has just been issued by Kyros the Overlord and it decrees that two of Tyranny's versions be renamed thusly:

- Commander Edition is now called Standard Edition.
- Overlord Edition is now Deluxe Edition (same for the respective upgrade).

Additionally, a new Gold Edition is now available, which includes every piece of Tyranny content that's been released, including the two expansion packs.

All versions just received an update which adds a Portrait Pack and a Sword and Armor DLC for free.

To celebrate Kyro's wisdom, these Tyranny versions got their base prices readjusted and are 50% off until November 12th, 11pm UTC.
The time to claim your destiny in the Tiers is now.
 
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Divinity: Original Sin 2 Update 3.6.32.1810 Released.

328d7e3f5a3f2d7e6fbc71ee7ffb3e3b425718e6.png

Our latest update is now live. This update fixes a known crash for some users and adds extra logging information to help us make your game experience even better.
 
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Just reached Arx; I'm finding the definitive version much more buggy than the classic version with regards to quest and companion issues. No actual crashes but certain events with companions and quests are just not being triggered or completing. Kind of disappointed with the bug level.

 
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Pathfinder: Kingmaker Developer New Livestream
Paizo Publishing's James Jacobs and Mark Moreland joined the official Owlcat Games developer livestream in order to talk about Pathfinder: Kingmaker.
Pathfinder: Kingmaker Patch 1.1 Beta Test Released
Dear Pathfinders,

version 1.1 is almost here! To get ready for it, we are launching an open beta-test. It is going to run for about a week, and anyone who owns the game can participate.

All you need to do is switch to the "betatest" branch and enter the code "Ms0SJWRhSRuo". Find detailed info and instructions over here: https://owlcatgames.com/content/beta-test

The test will be first available for Windows users, with Mac and Linux joining them in about 3 days. Patch notes shall be published in about 2 days. As for reporting bugs, you will be able to do that via a special button inside the game.

We are very grateful to everyone who decides to take part in this test and help us make this game even better! Your feedback and continued support are invaluable to us!
Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord Developer Blog - Towns
In the medieval ages, castles and strongholds were not meant to be dwellings, but military tools that were strong and easy to defend, positioned in choke points to protect an important region or trade route. Villages, on the other hand, were the population centres - places where people would dwell and sleep after a long day of work in the fields or herding their cattle. Towns were somewhat a combination of the two, but they were also very different (and complex) places. They had walls for defence and a high population count, but they were much more than just dwellings and defensive structures: they were the most important places around. Towns are where kingdoms forged their real power. Artisans worked raw materials into quality goods and merchants turned them into wealth. Courts were established in towns, so they were also the heart and brains of any realm -- where politics, conspiracies, and plots took place.
What the Games Press is Saying About Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden
We recently sent out a beta version of Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden to press and the coverage has been amazing so far! We’ve collected some of the previews we’ve gotten in the announcement below for your perusal.
Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden Demo Stream

The Funcom community team sits down to play a portion of the recently released beta demo of Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden, running down the game's main mechanics, plot and some gameplay tips and tricks along the way.
 
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Beamdog Livestream Recap & More NWN:EE Mobile Gameplay

Full recap on the Beamblog


Today Beamdog CEO Trent Oster and Producer Luke Rideout shared the latest Infinity Engine and Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition news. They went through the current NWN:EE Roadmap, and talked about the upcoming open Beta of Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition on Android.
New Rain Of Reflections Trailer Covers Mixed-Genre Gameplay

Lionbite is proud to finally present the first look at the gameplay in our upcoming dystopian adventure Rain of Reflections, with a trailer consisting entirely of in-game, real time footage. The gameplay trailer briefly touches upon everything ranging from the world exploration and in-depth dialogues to the turn-based strategy components and hacking minigames.
Dragon Quest XI Ships 4 Million Copies
“I was truly delighted when I heard the news that Dragon Quest XI had exceeded four million sales worldwide. Back when I created the first Dragon Quest game, over thirty years ago, I could not possibly have dreamed that it would become a series that would cross the seas and be played by people all around the world. This is the eleventh numbered Dragon Quest title, and in depicting a ‘hero’s tale,’ also represents a new beginning for the series."
GameBanshee Pathfinder: Kingmaker Review
Even today, games like Baldur's Gate, Fallout, and Jagged Alliance 2 stand proudly as benchmarks of their respective genres, since for whatever reason, video game developers spent the past 20 years not building upon the foundation of those games, but instead streamlining and simplifying their mechanics.

No more, says Owlcat Games with Pathfinder: Kingmaker. It's time to move forward, to take the old classics as the baseline and expand them, add more features instead of taking them away. Massive, complex, and immensely fun, even a heap of bugs was not enough to diminish my enjoyment of this game.

If you like isometric RPGs, you simply owe it to yourself to play Pathfinder: Kingmaker.
Battle Brothers Developer Blog #111 - Psychology & Resilience
The ‘Beasts & Exploration’ DLC is set to release on the 29th of this month and by now it’s essentially feature-complete. We’ve moved on to thoroughly test, balance and polish everything, but there’s still so many interesting smaller things we haven’t even talked about yet. Let’s shine a light on some more of these this week!
Phoenix Point - Backer Build Three Overview
With Backer Build Three just around the corner, we’re taking this time to run you through some of the features and changes to expect to see. At the time of writing this, finishing touches are being applied. As a result, the released version may vary slightly from this update in appearance and features.
Colony Ship Update #32 - The Skills & Learn by Using
Loose unquotable text and a bunch of screenshots so just read it
 
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GameBanshee Pathfinder: Kingmaker Review

That is a good review, I mostly agree with it :)

I have to admit, I had a good laugh with this quote.:

During the campaign, Kingmaker was said to be inspired by Baldur's Gate, Fallout, and Arcanum, and after spending roughly 100 hours with the game, I can safely say that those weren't just marketing buzzwords, even though Arcanum's legacy is mostly represented by an abundance of bugs of all sorts. Still, out of all the games released in the past decade or so, in my opinion Kingmaker comes closest to recapturing the magic of those classic cRPGs.

It hurts, but so true lol.

Also, whole heartily agree with the conclusion:

Conclusion

Even today, games like Baldur's Gate, Fallout, and Jagged Alliance 2 stand proudly as benchmarks of their respective genres, since for whatever reason, video game developers spent the past 20 years not building upon the foundation of those games, but instead streamlining and simplifying their mechanics.

No more, says Owlcat Games with Pathfinder: Kingmaker. It's time to move forward, to take the old classics as the baseline and expand them, add more features instead of taking them away. Massive, complex, and immensely fun, even a heap of bugs was not enough to diminish my enjoyment of this game.

If you like isometric RPGs, you simply owe it to yourself to play Pathfinder: Kingmaker.
 
https://wccftech.com/bioshock-remastered-1-2-infinite/
It seems that Bioshock Remastered, Bioshock 2 Remastered, and Bioshock Infinite: The Complete Edition will soon all be released separately.
As spotted by Gematsu, all 3 Bioshock games recently received individual PEGI ratings, and it appears that Take-Two intends to release the titles individually.
Almost posted it in bs thread.
 
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The Not-Quite-Making of Baldur's Gate III on PCGamesN
It started with an iron shortage. The most dramatic and memorable D&D story ever told on PC began with the sort of regional news you might skip over in the newspaper.

But via a handful of encounters with a meddling wizard named Elminster, and an unfortunate personal connection to the god of murder, Baldur’s Gate and its sequel built to become perhaps the most celebrated fantasy epic in RPG history.
The rise of 3D brought change to the genre, leaving Baldur’s Gate largely undisputed as the definitive party-based D&D experience. And so when somebody like Brian Fargo suggests that a Baldur’s Gate 3 might be in development – but won’t tell us where – gamers of a certain age tend to lose it faster than Minsc in a pet shop.

We gathered a party of classic RPG developers to tell us why Baldur’s Gate 3 still feels like such a big deal – and to peek into the bag of holding at a couple of the cancelled Baldur’s Gate 3s they’ve worked on before.
The full Chris Avellone interview also on the same site.
Much has been made of Chris Avellone’s way with a companion character; his ability to squeeze philosophy into a dialogue box. But to my mind, too few have been able to appreciate his writing in another medium. Which is to say: Chris Avellone writes an absolutely lovely email.

An Avellone email is concise yet courteous. It respects your time and manages expectations about replies to your questions. It is humble to a frankly absurd degree.

“Thanks for thinking of me,” one reads, as if he wasn’t the most celebrated RPG writer in the industry. “I’ll try to do you proud with the answers.” The answers in question were for an article about a possible Baldur’s Gate 3 that brought together the thoughts of a few key Black Isle alumni. Avellone’s response offered a fascinating insight into the studio at the time, as well as his tenure at Obsidian, and we didn’t much like the idea of losing any of it.
 
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Torchlight Frontiers Relic Weapons & Forts Dev Stream

Watch Tyler and Jared go in depth on the new Relic Weapon and Fort systems, and hear answers to viewer questions in this VoD from the 11/08/2018 Twitch dev stream.
How Zenimax Management and Bizarre Marketing Decisions Hurt Fallout 76

What's up guys! Back with another Controversial Fallout video but today, I figured I would give you guys my theory as to why Fallout 76 is bad, a disappointment and is just being so poorly received. As you may have guessed based on this videos title, a lot of it I think comes down to Zenimax Management and Bizzarre Marketing Decisions that have been made.
Grim Dawn Grim Misadventure #151 - Rotten to the Core
A Grim Misadventure is here, and we are really emphasizing the ‘grim’ this time around.

Last time, we unveiled the full breadth of details on just how the upcoming Shattered Realm game mode will function.

Today, we are taking a turn for the gross.

Every once in a while, the collective minds of Crate come up with something that nails the atmosphere of Grim Dawn, and then we DOUBLED IT.

But without further ado, let us take a gander at the latest additions to our monster repertoire!
Talkin Games has a five part interview with Josh Sawyer.
It’s a relatively warm autumn night of 4th October 2017 A.D. here in Berlin and I am standing outside on the street in front of a local wine
bar impatiently awaiting the arrival of one of my favorite game masters
of the cRPG scene, Obsidian’s one and onlyJoshua Sawyer. Upon his arrival we sit down at a table in the intimateenvironment of a wine cellar and whilst he enjoys his glass of red, weare quick to find a common ground in history. He is very passionate andknowledgeable about the subject of medieval history and is also fluent in German. But before I hit the record button of my voice recorder and for the first time, so that conversation can switch to the games, we transit into a slightly more affordable establishment (due my typical lack of dineros) just down the street. During the short walk, we talk more on a subject of local history and I am learning about the forceful Germanization of Jewish names in the late 18th. Finally, at ourdestination we find a quieter compartment at the rear end of the bar andwith a mixture of excitement and nervousness, my index finger slowly proceeds to that magical red button…
 
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Path of Exile: Betrayal Announcement Video


Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden - Scraplands Gameplay


Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen November 2018 Newsletter
Making video games is not a task for the faint of heart. It’s a cutthroat business that has traditionally left large segments of the development community looking over their shoulders and keeping an eye open for their next opportunity. Visionary Realms is not only creating a game that is community based and community focused, but we are also creating a company in that same vein - focused on building a long term home with a common goal. There have been several high profile shake ups in the gaming world recently and, thanks to your help, we hope to bring some of those affected into our fold
ATOM RPG 0.9 Update Released
Finally, it’s time for yet another large update, 0.9!

This time around we made another huge step towards the finish line, which we, hopefully, will soon cross. While the previous update had the most new characters, this one will feature the largest amount of text, quests and new ways to solve old assignments!

After this huge leap, we only have one grand update remaining, after which ATOM RPG will officially leave the Early Access stage. Yes, that’s right! Release version 1.0 is going to be out this December!
 
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Druidstone: Secret of Menhir Forest is coming in Spring 2019
 
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Good find @daveyd it's the latest game from a few developer's of Legend of Grimrock.

YouTube Provocateur Responds to Kotaku's Defense of Bethesda's Game Engine



Blizzard Meeting with NetEase Raises Microtransactions Concerns

 
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Underworld Ascendant Accolades Trailer

Play now on Steam! From the creative minds behind the acclaimed Ultima Underworld®, System Shock and Thief series. In Underworld Ascendant®, Paul Neurath and Warren Spector's OtherSide Entertainment challenges you to think creatively in an interactive sandbox environment. Enter The Stygian Abyss, a dangerous, highly interactive dungeon world. Mix and match dozens of combat, stealth and magic skills to develop your own unique style of play.
Warren Spector Discusses His Latest Project
If you’ve been playing video games since the ’90s (or earlier), chances are that you’ve played a game from Warren Spector. The legendary game designer and producer is behind some all-time great games including System Shock, Deus Ex, and a number of games in the Ultima series, including Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss in 1992. The Underworld series is back in Underworld Ascendant (due out on November 15th) thanks to OtherSide Entertainment, and I recently had a chance to visit the studio, check out the game, and interview the creative team.

During my time with Warren Spector, he talked about leaving teaching to return to gaming, his role in the development of Underworld Ascendant, trying to recreate that experience he felt the first time playing Dungeons & Dragons, and more.
 
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Beamdog November 16th Livestream & Recap

Beamdog CEO Trent Oster and Producer Luke Rideout share studio news, talk Neverwinter NIghts: Enhanced Edition, and answer a ton of community questions.
You can read the full recap on the Beamblog

Battle Brothers: Beasts & Exploration DLC Gameplay Footage

Take a first look at the new 'Beasts & Exploration' DLC for Battle Brothers! Developer Jaysen will talk you through changes and additions while trying not to die horribly.
Call of Cthulhu its First Update Released
Today, we’re very happy to release an update for Call of Cthulhu, addressing feedback that we have received since the release of the game on October 30th.

This update is now live. Please find the changelog below:

Changelog:

  • Added options to modify FOV and Motion Blur
  • Added a scroll bar in the graphics menu to include these new options
  • Fixed an issue where players were unable to progress in Chapter 12, due to dying immediately upon respawn
  • Fixed a number of cases where players would be unable to leave scene reconstructions
  • Fixed an issue where mouse input was not registered during dialogue
  • Fixed an issue where cutscenes wouldn’t trigger, preventing players from progressing
  • Fixed display issues with 4:3 and 16:10 resolutions in the diary and during dialogue
  • Various minor bug fixes

In the future, we plan to produce another PC update which addresses performance drops, the frame rate limit and an issue with fullscreen implementation.
Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord Developer Blog - Abdullah Nakipoğlu Q&A
Animations are a big part of video games, apart from the obvious reason (a totally still game wouldn’t be much fun, would it?), because they actually have a deep impact on gameplay. If animating a movie is hard work, just imagine animating something that will change and evolve depending on players’ input! Animations give you the visual cues you need to react to what’s happening on screen, especially in combat, so they need to feel natural and realistic. But at the same time, as a player you want to retain control over what’s going on, so animations need to be short and always keep the ability to change on the fly. Then you’ve got all the technical challenges related to motion capture – and that’s not counting animating animals such as dogs or birds, where MoCap is out of the question. This week we talk with one of our character animators, Abdullah Nakipoğlu, who will give us a sneak peek at the complex process of animating characters in Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord.
 
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Path of Exile: Betrayal Skill Reveal Vidoes



Fallout 76 Reviews

PC Gamer - In Progress
IGN - In Progress
Metro - In Progress
Just Push Start -7/10
Hooked Gamers - 7.6/10
Xbox Tavern - 5.6/10
Attack of the Fanboy - 2.5/5

Pathfinder: Kingmaker Coming to Consoles
Pathfinder: Kingmaker, the cRPG funded via Kickstarter and launched in late September for PC (Windows, Mac and Linux) by developer Owlcat Games and published by Deep Silver, is being worked on for a release on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch consoles.

There hasn’t been a proper, official announcement yet. However, THQ Nordic’s latest financial report (where they also revealed the studio acquisitions of Coffee Stain and Bugbear Entertainment) included the title in a slide mentioning the most important announced projects in the pipeline, such as Metro Exodus, Dead Island 2, Wasteland 3, Shenmue III, Biomutant, Darksiders III, Wreckfest, Generation Zero and the console port of Pathfinder: Kingmaker. There are also two AAA, ‘top-secret’ projects by Volition and Deep Silver Dambuster in there.
 
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Fallout 76 Patch 1.02: Does The 47GB Patch Really Improve Performance?

A follow-up to our initial analysis. Does this latest update resolve any of the performance issues or glitches we saw originally? Tom dives in to find out with every console version re-tested.
Fallout 76 an ambitious project that hasn’t quite panned out
Fallout 76’s world is beautiful in its own flavor of post-nuclear apocalyptic horrors that I simply can’t help but love, even if that’s something that’s already better served in the other Fallout games. I really want something that will keep bringing me back to it that it currently lacks, a reason that will help it stand out. Considering Bethesda’s long term support for their games post-release, I’m hopeful that Fallout 76 will get some much needed improvements and, well, actual substantial, worthwhile content that makes the hours I play well spent. I don’t want to completely write it off, but as it stands, it’s a game that’s hard to recommend even to die-hard Fallout fans.
Fallout 76’s Multiplayer: The Promise Vs. The Reality
In the week since Fallout 76's release, it since has become one of 2018’s more divisive games. Its Metacritic page is a horrorshow; its official forum and subreddits are battlegrounds between those who have found something to love in the buggy online survival game and those who think Bethesda has taken the series off a cliff. While there’s a lot of hyperbole on both sides, many players’ disappointment is reasonable, given how Fallout 76 was pitched to them when it was originally revealed at this year’s E3.
It Sure Is Interesting To Rewatch That Fallout 76 E3 Reveal Now
Fallout 76 has arrived not just as a middling title in a storied franchise, but as possibly the worst-reviewed major release of the year. Of the last few years, in fact. Time to take a look back to how this started.
Biowares Anthem Still On Track For Scheduled Release
It seems that gamers were worried that Biowares super anticipated title Anthem would be delayed. This worry appeared like a comment due to a random twitter question wherein a gamer was seemingly mistaken about when the title was supposed to launch.
 
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