Couchpotato's Random RPG News

In the PC version of the game at that point, even on a fast machine, loading would routinely take upwards of 20 seconds. And these were not some infrequent large loads, but rather loading which occurred e.g. every single time a battle started and ended. Additionally, significant loading stutters were present frequently throughout the game.

This was of course not an acceptable state of affairs. After a lengthy analysis, I figured out that the primary reason for both the stutters and the loading was that the game’s engine used Nvidia Cg (a – by now – very outdated and unsupported high-level shading language toolkit) to compile and load shaders at runtime. By caching and reusing shader compilation results, I was able to reduce loading times (after the initial load) to ~2-3 seconds, and also eliminate most stutter after a startup phase. Satisfied with the progress on the particular issue I was contacted about, I reported my findings and code.

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Idea Factory International announced they will bring Record of Agarest War Mariage to PC-via Steam in 2019.

Originally released on PSP in 2012 in Japan, Record of Agarest War Mariage tells the story of a multigenerational war where players will play through a fully realized RPG with a battle system and dating elements. However, in this entry of the series, the protagonist in the second generation of the story will be a female, which was generally only a male.

Record of Agarest War Mariage allows the player to begin their journey with the task of defeating the Archdemon. The word’s society revolves around the mythos of Yiris, the Larva known as the Sacred Princess, who fell in love with a human and blessed the world. If this doesn’t make sense to you, that’s okay because you’ll probably have to wait for more details to really understand, but hey, it’s a JRPG. Furthermore, Yiris and her followers are now at war with the invading Archdemon and must use the infamous Ciel Blade to destroy him.
The publisher details the key features:

• True Love Waits –Begin the story as the first generation protagonist Rain, where players will have the chance to choose from various bachelorettes. The story’s path will change depending on the girl you choose! The story extends through two generations with each new protagonist inheriting stats and abilities from their parents.
• Up-Close and Personal – The Unification System allows players to unlock special interactive CGs when reaching a certain Heart Level with your love interest. The higher the Heart Levels, the more intimate the experience! Earn your partner’s trust for your chance to inspect your partner’s pleasure spots that will ultimately unlock new abilities and weapons!
• Class Is In Session –Assign your party members as an Attacker, Defender, Healer, or Supporter. Choose to upgrade a specific class for your character to unlock multiple strategic opportunities!
• Custom Kawaii Outfits For All –Craft various outfits for your party members by using items picked up from enemy forces and the local shop! Check yourself out in a 360-degree viewable gallery!

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Checkmate is the fifth and final episode of The Council’s inaugural season. The Complete Season of The Council grants access to all 5 episodes.

As his assumptions about reality come crashing down around him, Louis de Richet must take the final steps on deciding his path – and the fate of the world. Democracies, monarchies, and the future of nations hang in the balance.

This finale brings all your decisions, mistakes, and victories to the fore as Louis’ alliances, enemies, and family all come together for a climatic confrontation. Who will win, and can the De Richets survive the island in the end?

Finish the adventure in The Council Episode 5: Checkmate as kings fall, pawns rise, and the choice, as always, is yours.

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Heroes,

It's a great honor to announce that Tokyo update is scheduled to mid-December.

This update brings Tokyo Main Scenario, additional support items and game stability changes, including those based on your feedback.

Thank you for your helpful feedback over the past couple of weeks. We appreciate your time you take on writing reviews, leaving comments to help us improve the Hellgate:London, and we try our best to fix all the reported bugs.

We will get back to you with the final update announcement.

Cheers!

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UI has come a long way since the 8-bit era, when bosses would flash shades of yellow or red at an accelerating tempo when they were teetering on the brink of defeat.

These days, character models serve as a kind of sophisticated UI of their own, and conveying complicated systems like stamina or damaged systems to players without the use of big garish red bars or dry percentages is an art unto itself.

To get a closer look at how developers use models as UI we reached out to three studios working on very different games, with very different protagonists, and very different needs in terms of communicating information to the player in a way that feels unobtrusive and intuitive. How you show damage differs dramatically, it turns out, if you’re displaying it on the galvanized steel of a giant battle mech or a starship instead of the fragile flesh of the human body.

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Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition is now available on Google Play! Get one of the greatest classic Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying games of all time on your Android phone or tablet!

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Can Fallout 76 be saved? I find a hope among some key roleplayers that Bethesda can improve the game. There is a tangible willingness to stick with it, just in case Fallout 76 realises its potential. A lot of this hope is pinned on the promised mod support, coupled with private servers. As Bethesda struggles to recover from perhaps the most disastrous launch in the publisher's history, modders may be the best chance Fallout 76 has got.

"As it stands right now it's not viable for roleplay," Tony, one of the co-owners of Fallout Roleplay admits.

"We're holding out specifically for private servers. With that said, we keep up to date with what Bethesda has promised and we've been made aware that push to talk is coming in December and as for a chat box for text, that should be down the line. However, without a set date for private servers this makes it difficult for us given public and private do not usually mix well due to the risk of disruption and immersion breaks within the game world environment.

"We knew this from the beginning, but were willing to wait it out and network roleplayers together in preparation for the day we get those private servers to do what we all love."

"It was a clumsy first step, but that's what it is," Lori adds. "This is a first step. It's the same process they went through with Elder Scrolls Online. Now, ESO is well polished and a grand old time."

"The day it's opened to the modding community, where we have those private servers, we imagine it'll be very different from what we're seeing right now," Tony says.

"When this happens as a roleplay platform, it'll not only be ideal but likely one of the best. It just takes patience and for anything else… there's us."

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Beamdog CEO Trent Oster and Producer Luke Rideout dig into the latest Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition and Infinity Engine news.

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Greeting warriors of Calradia!

Becoming a noble is a major milestone in Mount & Blade games. It is the moment that your dedication and hard work is recognised and rewarded with land and title. In most cases, this will be in the service of a liege lord, however, we know that some of you prefer not to bend the knee and would rather carve out your own path in Calradia! But, regardless of how you obtain your own holdings, it is what you do with your new found gains that truly matters.

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Obsidian Entertainment has garnered a reputation over the last decade and a half for a unique penchant for writing engaging and reactive narratives, usually with a heavy emphasis on weighing a high degree of consequence against the player's choices. The Outer Worlds seems to be poised to continue that trend.

We already saw a glimpse of the game's unique brand of humor in our preview of the title, but being able to see the long-term narrative permutations in a limited amount of time is a bit more difficult. The next best thing though would be to be able to talk about the design philosophies behind writing for an Obsidian RPG, so we did just that.

RPG Site was lucky enough to have the opportunity and sit down with Megan Starks, the Senior Narrative Designer on the studio's newest game. Megan has also worked as a narrative designer for Obsidian's fantasy RPGs Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire and Tyranny. Prior to her time at Obsidian, she's worked on the MMOs Wildstar and Fallen Earth in various design and writing roles.

We chatted with Megan about working as a lead narrative designer on The Outer Worlds, the design difference when writing for a single-play game compared to an MMO, and more.

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Dear gamers, We decided to suspend support for the UWP Windows Store version of GWENT. The game has been removed from the Windows Store, and starting today, playing GWENT’s UWP version is no longer possible. Your account can still be used to play the Xbox One version of the game thanks to the Xbox Play Anywhere feature. On PC, all UWP players can continue their GWENT experience by means of account transfer to GOG.COM. This means all GWENT in-game progress and unlocked content (ore, meteorite powder, vanity items, unopened card kegs and card scraps equivalent of all the cards in your collection) are transferable between the UWP version of the game and the GOG.COM.

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Life as a mid-sized independent games development studio must be terrifying at times.

Companies like Remedy or Ninja Theory, which make these wonderful, high quality games that are sort-of-but-not-quite AAA projects. Games that are single-player, mostly, with a dedicated audience that isn't quite big enough to justify the big budgets.

We speak to these companies all the time about survival. And it's often about trying new things, being careful with budgets, and always, always, always raising money -- hoping to find that magic hit to take them to the next level.

"It's always been difficult for development companies to become self-sustaining no matter which business model you are using," says Brian Fargo, CEO of InXile.

"At least 50% of my time is in fundraising and we have so little room for error. It generally takes a mega hit to break you out of the cycle and that is always hard to come by. A mid-size hit is nice, but the after-tax monies from that generally support another five to six months of payroll and leave you back on the hamster wheel. It turns out that talented game developers are expensive. My friends always like to comment that I should 'just make a Fortnite or Minecraft'."

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Check out the latest official livestream with Matthew Perez and Alex Scokel

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A lot of people have been asking - when we will see ATOM? Will it be this year or the next one? Now, we don’t want to ignore our community so here is a small informational post about what we are up to right now.

First of all - the game will come out in the end of December, 2018, no second thoughts about it! Right now we can’t say the exact date, but we will say it in out traditional pre-update post that will come out in the next week. We will use this time to focus on all the new features and quests which there are many! Although, testing the new content, bug fixes and finalizing the new content is not everything that we still need to do.

Aside from that we are also working on adding some of the hottest features that you, the players, asked for! For example, now you can check your dialogue history in the game, use your items on the characters without starting a dialogue, zoom out the camera further and change the game options without quitting to the main menu.

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We’re here, and so is a Grim Misadventure. Last time, we delved into the land of items. Today, we are ready to talk about your unusual new allies in the upcoming Forgotten Gods expansion.

The Witch Gods are said to wield unfathomable powers. Their followers worship them in the hopes of getting a mere taste of this vast potential. Naturally, the Erulan emperors did not approve of such heresy and the Luminari were dispatched to exterminate any that defy the commands of the throne and the faith of Empyrion.

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We spoke to Warner to find out how interactions with these characters will fit into a shared experience, how Anthem compares to its main competition, Destiny, and why players aren’t allowed to get down with any of their NPC teammates.

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Eternal Arena is a new game mode which pits your best combat tactics against quick-play challenges! Sandbox-style battle options, different gameplay rules, alternate turn order mechanics, timed tournaments, leaderboards and more!

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The reveal of Obsidian Entertainment's The Outer Worlds was a highlight of the The Game Awards 2018. The studio has built up a solid reputation over the years for crafting creative and engrossing narrative-heavy RPGs, and if nothing else, The Outer Worlds shows many signs of being directly inspired by recent entries in the Fallout series, one of which--New Vegas--was developed by Obsidian less than a decade ago. The Outer Worlds is also the brainchild of Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky, two creatives with a storied history in PC gaming. Their most notable chapter by far? When they and a small band of collaborators created the original Fallout in the mid '90s. But after following up with Fallout 2, they've had to watch while Bethesda took the series in its own direction--despite being at Obsidian now, neither Cain nor Boyarsky were working there at the time of New Vegas' development.

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Last week's Game Awards was filled with dynamite announcements and surprise reveals from dozens of game developers and major publishers. One of the most exciting reveals came from Obsidian Entertainment, which is going from the fantasy world of Pillars of Eternity and blasting off into the farthest reaches of space with The Outer Worlds.

The Outer Worlds represents a chance for Obsidian to step into uncharted territory. And yet, a few ideas might feel familiar, coming from the creators of the original Fallout and also from the studio that put together Fallout: New Vegas. But narratively, what is Obsidian aiming for with this new outer space adventure?

To learn more about what's on the horizon, Shacknews recently sat down with Senior Narrative Designer Megan Starks. Starks brings along her experience from Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire, along with a resume that includes Tyranny, WildStar, and Fallen Earth. Among the topics discussed include the Outer Worlds story, character development, "Dumb" dialogue, and branding run amok.

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