• I bought Avowed at full price, for feks sake

    From Rin Stowleigh@21:1/5 to All on Thu Feb 20 20:20:39 2025
    And the real shocker is, no regrets so far. In terms of action combat
    in a single player fantasy setting like this (which isn't really my
    genre), I really haven't seen something like this in quite a while.

    First I want to say I had no intention of paying full price for this
    game, I can wait forever for single player games since
    matchmaking/lobby filling is not even a consideration.

    I bought it mostly because [1] I found out someone I knew reasonably
    well wrote the entire soundtrack for it, and [2] it looked kind of fun
    and combat-mechanics focused which will draw me in much faster than a
    game where a few tens of millions of dollars have been spent on
    "story" that's been out-woked to Sweet Baby Inc or whaever.

    About [1] I've never met him in person, he's quite a bit
    younger/greener/less experienced than me in all aspects of life, but I
    have had enough conversations with him to know that I've had
    substantial influence on the choices made in his music career
    (especially regarding gear purchases which I know he struggles with financially).. , and I've learned a great deal from him (as I always
    do from music buddies), so there was absolutely no way I was not
    supporting him by purchasing the game whether I liked playing it or
    not. He does tend to be a bit of the type to talk because he loves to
    hear his own voice, and there is a YT video out there where he is kind
    of giving himself attaboys... but in terms of the soundtrack itself,
    the appropriateness for the game (and what I always look for, the
    production value), I think he recognized the value of the opportunity
    early on and stepped up to the plate appropriately, so kudos to him on
    a job well done!

    About [2]... I guess going into things with the expectations of the
    kind of changes we've seen over the last few years sets us up for
    going "wow" when we see something better than the usual crap? I
    definitely got a nice surprise here.. where I really feel the
    difference is simply combat that's actually fun. I'm not going to
    tell you it's necessarily as fun or impactful as Dark Messiah of Might
    and Magic back in the day, but it reminds me of that in the sense of
    the overall immersiveness of the combat itself.

    It's not a perfect game by any means. It comes in woke very quickly
    with the character creation thing (He/She/They pronouns), and very
    early in the game makes sure that every female or female-like being
    you might encounter is so far from sexy or fuckable, that it seems
    like an intentional-yet-subliminal libido passiviation mechanism,
    designed to be sure you never get distracted from anything but the
    game. Did they hire Kim Belair to design the female characters?
    Rodney Dangerfield used to joke that if you want to look fit, make
    sure all the friends you hang around are only fat people. I think
    this is Kim's strategy to game design -- to downplay her own
    unattractiveness by making sure everything else has trouble meeting a
    lower standard.

    It also has bugs.. pretty severe if you go wandering about the map,
    climbing rocks and such. You get into bad terrain clipping shit that
    quickly lets you know the game patches aren't ready for that.

    Mack from WorthABuy is correct that the world feels "too clean" and
    (my description not his) too Avatar-Movie-Like. But I got used to
    this much faster than I thought I would... and I remembered from the
    Zelda games on Switch, not everything needs to look realistic to be
    fun. The art in this game is fun, you just have to be willing to let
    your eyes adapt to it.

    So there ya go. I'm now a chump who has spent full price for a game,
    with absolutely no chance of refunding it. :) Most of you should
    probably buy this game too, if your machine can see it in all its
    glory and at a nice framerate.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From rms@21:1/5 to All on Fri Feb 21 07:39:53 2025
    I bought it mostly because [1] I found out someone I knew reasonably
    well wrote the entire soundtrack for it,

    soundtrack writers often have their own products on bandcamp or the like, where you can support them more directly. I did that with the soundtrack creator for Get Even, a game I really enjoyed when it came out:
    https://olivierderiviere.bandcamp.com/album/get-even

    rms

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Rin Stowleigh@21:1/5 to rsquiresMOO@MOOflashMOO.net on Fri Feb 21 10:48:01 2025
    On Fri, 21 Feb 2025 07:39:53 -0700, "rms"
    <rsquiresMOO@MOOflashMOO.net> wrote:

    I bought it mostly because [1] I found out someone I knew reasonably
    well wrote the entire soundtrack for it,

    soundtrack writers often have their own products on bandcamp or the like,
    where you can support them more directly. I did that with the soundtrack >creator for Get Even, a game I really enjoyed when it came out:
    https://olivierderiviere.bandcamp.com/album/get-even

    rms

    That will typically depend on exclusivity rights agreed on during
    soundtrack creation (generally in the form of a trade off between
    amount paid vs. freedoms).

    But yeah, if you like a musical artist's work, by all means support
    it, because these days it is damn hard to make a living in music.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Rin Stowleigh@21:1/5 to All on Sat Feb 22 16:47:17 2025
    On Sat, 22 Feb 2025 09:43:31 -0800, Justisaur <justisaur@gmail.com>
    wrote:

    On 2/20/2025 5:20 PM, Rin Stowleigh wrote:

    And the real shocker is, no regrets so far. In terms of action combat
    in a single player fantasy setting like this (which isn't really my
    genre), I really haven't seen something like this in quite a while.

    First I want to say I had no intention of paying full price for this
    game, I can wait forever for single player games since
    matchmaking/lobby filling is not even a consideration.

    I bought it mostly because [1] I found out someone I knew reasonably
    well wrote the entire soundtrack for it, and [2] it looked kind of fun
    and combat-mechanics focused which will draw me in much faster than a
    game where a few tens of millions of dollars have been spent on
    "story" that's been out-woked to Sweet Baby Inc or whaever.

    About [1] I've never met him in person, he's quite a bit
    younger/greener/less experienced than me in all aspects of life, but I
    have had enough conversations with him to know that I've had
    substantial influence on the choices made in his music career
    (especially regarding gear purchases which I know he struggles with
    financially).. , and I've learned a great deal from him (as I always
    do from music buddies), so there was absolutely no way I was not
    supporting him by purchasing the game whether I liked playing it or
    not. He does tend to be a bit of the type to talk because he loves to
    hear his own voice, and there is a YT video out there where he is kind
    of giving himself attaboys... but in terms of the soundtrack itself,
    the appropriateness for the game (and what I always look for, the
    production value), I think he recognized the value of the opportunity
    early on and stepped up to the plate appropriately, so kudos to him on
    a job well done!

    About [2]... I guess going into things with the expectations of the
    kind of changes we've seen over the last few years sets us up for
    going "wow" when we see something better than the usual crap? I
    definitely got a nice surprise here.. where I really feel the
    difference is simply combat that's actually fun. I'm not going to
    tell you it's necessarily as fun or impactful as Dark Messiah of Might
    and Magic back in the day, but it reminds me of that in the sense of
    the overall immersiveness of the combat itself.

    It's not a perfect game by any means. It comes in woke very quickly
    with the character creation thing (He/She/They pronouns), and very
    early in the game makes sure that every female or female-like being
    you might encounter is so far from sexy or fuckable, that it seems
    like an intentional-yet-subliminal libido passiviation mechanism,
    designed to be sure you never get distracted from anything but the
    game. Did they hire Kim Belair to design the female characters?
    Rodney Dangerfield used to joke that if you want to look fit, make
    sure all the friends you hang around are only fat people. I think
    this is Kim's strategy to game design -- to downplay her own
    unattractiveness by making sure everything else has trouble meeting a
    lower standard.

    It also has bugs.. pretty severe if you go wandering about the map,
    climbing rocks and such. You get into bad terrain clipping shit that
    quickly lets you know the game patches aren't ready for that.

    Mack from WorthABuy is correct that the world feels "too clean" and
    (my description not his) too Avatar-Movie-Like. But I got used to
    this much faster than I thought I would... and I remembered from the
    Zelda games on Switch, not everything needs to look realistic to be
    fun. The art in this game is fun, you just have to be willing to let
    your eyes adapt to it.

    So there ya go. I'm now a chump who has spent full price for a game,
    with absolutely no chance of refunding it. :) Most of you should
    probably buy this game too, if your machine can see it in all its
    glory and at a nice framerate.

    First impression from watching the trailer on the steam page is it seems
    to be a Skyrim type game. We could sure use more competition there. I
    might pick it up on sale eventually.

    To compare to Skyrim from the reviews,

    [x] bugs
    [x] mostly boring quests
    [x] mostly boring npcs
    [x] mostly pointless dialog choices
    [x] simple skill tree
    [x] mostly attack by left clicking

    There are some similarities to Skyrim I guess but the art style alone
    makes it not feel anything like an Elder Scrolls game. Overall combat
    is probably better I'd say? I'm adding a question mark because I
    haven't played Skyrim in a long time -- and it is an old game by now
    so maybe not a fair comparison in some regards.

    Of course I haven't played it yet to verify. Most of the negative comes
    from people expecting it to be like Path of Exile which are the same
    makers, or like some other games with more action combat instead of RPG >combat. If you take those out the reviews are pretty positive.

    I don't see much mention of the 'woke' bits, certainly not in the
    negative reviews, so it's not getting review bombed for that (unless
    it's because I'm not seeing those due to Steams algorithm which is a
    distinct possibility.) I looked up the female NPCs, at least half of
    them look o.k. to me, but yeah the other half look manly. I didn't
    really notice to begin with but after taking a close look, I can't unsee
    it. I don't know that it would bother me. Have to wait to see if
    modding will be available.

    I can't say it bothers me during gameplay. Games were never a source
    of tits and ass for me in the first place. If all the females were
    homely because it was an accident or just an art style specific to
    this game, it wouldn't even be an issue worth talking about. But it's
    that undercurrent... the feeling that you know why it's the way it
    is... that's annoying. Not annoying enough to not play it if the
    other aspects of it grab you, but it's there.

    I like the art for the cover for it, the in game stuff looks pretty
    enough, but nothing special.

    Playing at 1440p with visual quality maxed out and framerates of
    150-ish, I will say it's definitely a visually appealing game. It's
    just that it's very over-the-top fantasy... stylistically it kind of
    reminds me of Avatar (the movie, not the game, only ever saw the
    movie). I generally find things that are relatable to the real world
    to be more immersive, but that's just me. For those with an
    imagination that does well with fantasy themes I'd say yes, it's a
    pretty game.

    I've been keeping an eye on it, I'll probably pick it up if reviews get >better, or it's mod-able, eventually if it gets a discount. As usual
    with almost every single player game (or even many multi-player) give it
    a year and see if they manage to iron out bugs and improve content, and
    state of modding.

    It will eventually go on discount, and honestly I wouldn't have paid
    $70 for a single player only game like this if it weren't for the
    personal connection to the soundtrack creator.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Rin Stowleigh@21:1/5 to j63480576@gmail.com on Sat Feb 22 18:07:16 2025
    On Sat, 22 Feb 2025 16:16:15 -0600, Tahitian pearl
    <j63480576@gmail.com> wrote:

    Rin Stowleigh wrote:
    On Sat, 22 Feb 2025 09:43:31 -0800, Justisaur <justisaur@gmail.com>
    wrote:

    On 2/20/2025 5:20 PM, Rin Stowleigh wrote:

    And the real shocker is, no regrets so far. In terms of action combat >>>> in a single player fantasy setting like this (which isn't really my
    genre), I really haven't seen something like this in quite a while.

    First I want to say I had no intention of paying full price for this
    game, I can wait forever for single player games since
    matchmaking/lobby filling is not even a consideration.

    I bought it mostly because [1] I found out someone I knew reasonably
    well wrote the entire soundtrack for it, and [2] it looked kind of fun >>>> and combat-mechanics focused which will draw me in much faster than a
    game where a few tens of millions of dollars have been spent on
    "story" that's been out-woked to Sweet Baby Inc or whaever.

    About [1] I've never met him in person, he's quite a bit
    younger/greener/less experienced than me in all aspects of life, but I >>>> have had enough conversations with him to know that I've had
    substantial influence on the choices made in his music career
    (especially regarding gear purchases which I know he struggles with
    financially).. , and I've learned a great deal from him (as I always
    do from music buddies), so there was absolutely no way I was not
    supporting him by purchasing the game whether I liked playing it or
    not. He does tend to be a bit of the type to talk because he loves to >>>> hear his own voice, and there is a YT video out there where he is kind >>>> of giving himself attaboys... but in terms of the soundtrack itself,
    the appropriateness for the game (and what I always look for, the
    production value), I think he recognized the value of the opportunity
    early on and stepped up to the plate appropriately, so kudos to him on >>>> a job well done!

    About [2]... I guess going into things with the expectations of the
    kind of changes we've seen over the last few years sets us up for
    going "wow" when we see something better than the usual crap? I
    definitely got a nice surprise here.. where I really feel the
    difference is simply combat that's actually fun. I'm not going to
    tell you it's necessarily as fun or impactful as Dark Messiah of Might >>>> and Magic back in the day, but it reminds me of that in the sense of
    the overall immersiveness of the combat itself.

    It's not a perfect game by any means. It comes in woke very quickly
    with the character creation thing (He/She/They pronouns), and very
    early in the game makes sure that every female or female-like being
    you might encounter is so far from sexy or fuckable, that it seems
    like an intentional-yet-subliminal libido passiviation mechanism,
    designed to be sure you never get distracted from anything but the
    game. Did they hire Kim Belair to design the female characters?
    Rodney Dangerfield used to joke that if you want to look fit, make
    sure all the friends you hang around are only fat people. I think
    this is Kim's strategy to game design -- to downplay her own
    unattractiveness by making sure everything else has trouble meeting a
    lower standard.

    It also has bugs.. pretty severe if you go wandering about the map,
    climbing rocks and such. You get into bad terrain clipping shit that
    quickly lets you know the game patches aren't ready for that.

    Mack from WorthABuy is correct that the world feels "too clean" and
    (my description not his) too Avatar-Movie-Like. But I got used to
    this much faster than I thought I would... and I remembered from the
    Zelda games on Switch, not everything needs to look realistic to be
    fun. The art in this game is fun, you just have to be willing to let
    your eyes adapt to it.

    So there ya go. I'm now a chump who has spent full price for a game,
    with absolutely no chance of refunding it. :) Most of you should
    probably buy this game too, if your machine can see it in all its
    glory and at a nice framerate.

    First impression from watching the trailer on the steam page is it seems >>> to be a Skyrim type game. We could sure use more competition there. I
    might pick it up on sale eventually.

    To compare to Skyrim from the reviews,

    [x] bugs
    [x] mostly boring quests
    [x] mostly boring npcs
    [x] mostly pointless dialog choices
    [x] simple skill tree
    [x] mostly attack by left clicking

    There are some similarities to Skyrim I guess but the art style alone
    makes it not feel anything like an Elder Scrolls game. Overall combat
    is probably better I'd say? I'm adding a question mark because I
    haven't played Skyrim in a long time -- and it is an old game by now
    so maybe not a fair comparison in some regards.

    Of course I haven't played it yet to verify. Most of the negative comes >>>from people expecting it to be like Path of Exile which are the same
    makers, or like some other games with more action combat instead of RPG
    combat. If you take those out the reviews are pretty positive.

    I don't see much mention of the 'woke' bits, certainly not in the
    negative reviews, so it's not getting review bombed for that (unless
    it's because I'm not seeing those due to Steams algorithm which is a
    distinct possibility.) I looked up the female NPCs, at least half of
    them look o.k. to me, but yeah the other half look manly. I didn't
    really notice to begin with but after taking a close look, I can't unsee >>> it. I don't know that it would bother me. Have to wait to see if
    modding will be available.

    I can't say it bothers me during gameplay. Games were never a source
    of tits and ass for me in the first place. If all the females were
    homely because it was an accident or just an art style specific to
    this game, it wouldn't even be an issue worth talking about. But it's
    that undercurrent... the feeling that you know why it's the way it
    is... that's annoying. Not annoying enough to not play it if the
    other aspects of it grab you, but it's there.

    There were some relatively hardcore games for the Amiga, but on the ibm
    pc it's like how fucking long do I have to play this game before someone >shows some skin?

    But it takes kind of a sad fuck to even want or look for animated tits
    and ass in the first place doesn't it? They do make animated porn
    games for folks that are that bad off I guess. My problem is the fact
    that politics entered games well enough to even influence what goes
    into them at all, sexual or otherwise.

    I like the art for the cover for it, the in game stuff looks pretty
    enough, but nothing special.

    Playing at 1440p with visual quality maxed out and framerates of
    150-ish, I will say it's definitely a visually appealing game. It's
    just that it's very over-the-top fantasy... stylistically it kind of
    reminds me of Avatar (the movie, not the game, only ever saw the
    movie). I generally find things that are relatable to the real world
    to be more immersive, but that's just me. For those with an
    imagination that does well with fantasy themes I'd say yes, it's a
    pretty game.

    I've been keeping an eye on it, I'll probably pick it up if reviews get
    better, or it's mod-able, eventually if it gets a discount. As usual
    with almost every single player game (or even many multi-player) give it >>> a year and see if they manage to iron out bugs and improve content, and
    state of modding.

    It will eventually go on discount, and honestly I wouldn't have paid
    $70 for a single player only game like this if it weren't for the
    personal connection to the soundtrack creator.

    So you said...
    What enormous self-control!

    It's probably less that, than it is the fact that $70 to me probably
    feels like $7 to most people. I've managed my life well.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From candycanearter07@21:1/5 to Tahitian pearl on Mon Feb 24 23:00:05 2025
    Tahitian pearl <j63480576@gmail.com> wrote at 22:39 this Sunday (GMT):
    Justisaur wrote:
    On 2/22/2025 9:43 AM, Justisaur wrote:
    On 2/20/2025 5:20 PM, Rin Stowleigh wrote:

    It also has bugs..  pretty severe if you go wandering about the map,
    climbing rocks and such.  You get into bad terrain clipping shit that >>>> quickly lets you know the game patches aren't ready for that.

     Have to wait to see if modding will be available.

    Follow up on this.  It's made in UE5 which is apparently unfriendly to
    mods, or at least hasn't been around long enough for modders to learn
    how to mod it, from what I've read give it at least 2 years and maybe
    they'll figure something out.

    The devs have stated they aren't going to make any modding tools for
    this game either.

    So it's unlikely mods will fix any of the bugs or the manly women for a
    long time.  I can wait to see if they do.

    I think I also read something about Bethesda possibly going to UE5 for
    their next Elder Scrolls game as well.  I don't think that'll go over
    well either.


    The good thing about this is it will be mainstream. The errors I have
    in Skyrim astound me - how could these get past production? It's
    probably from Win 11.


    That's what happens when you rerelease a game from 2010(?) so many times
    with no changes.
    --
    user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)