The Miscellaneous PC & vidya Games Thread

[Norgy]

Understood. 

[crazy canuck]

We may need to stop before the Baron cuts this off into another disaster thread with me as a threadstarter. 

We didn't start

[Norgy]

I am sorry, I thought this was the room for abuse.

[crazy canuck]

That is down the hall, first door on your right.  This is the room for arguments and your time is now up.

[The Minsky Moment]

GeForce Now updated, using RTX 5080 now for supported games on Ultimate.  $200/year for that tier.

Not a fan of Nvidia but I like the service.

[Norgy]

I promised a full review of Kingdom Deliverance 2.

Now that there are two DLCs, both adding content and lots of quests, this is a very, very long and fulfilling game.
You start off as a pauper after everything goes to shit in the first ten minutes of the intro.

Henry, your Henry, can be shaped in different ways. In the Trotsky region, the first thing is surviving, and that can be hard enough. Running into bandits everywhere is not great for my blood pressure. And not for Henry either.

The main questline in Trotsky is to get into a wedding. This can be done in two ways, as a blacksmiths apprentice, risking your life chasing carts and a lost sword while improving your skill as a blacksmith. Or, by becoming a miller's apprentice and chasing around half the region for various ingredients to what turns out to be schwarzpulver. Black powder, as we call it nowadays, and something I am all too familiar with.

I would say choosing doing both those questlines is rewarding for building a balanced Henry. He needs both strength and stealth, because in the beginning, he is a weakling. There is no Chosen One or Dragonborn here.

The mini-games of smithing and alchemy have both been satisfying for me, but a lot of players don't like them, I have noticed.

The side-quests usually involve "fetch" or to something that puts Henry at risk. I've chased down poachers, become a master craftsman, won three tournaments in "fechten" and chased around much of the Kuttenberg region after a thunderstone.

So, let's do the good first:
This game looks good. There are few games that look better that I have played. The storyline, while having some gaps, is both exciting and funny. The combat system is better than in KCD1, but still rather different than in most RPGs.
Henry is a character you feel empathy with and you want him to succeed. That was my driving force. "The Legacy of the forge" adds some quests where Henry can get more of his stepfather's backstory and adds more to him as a character. He is no Geralt of Rivia who can cut down every opponent, but you can build Henry into a rather unbeatable swordsman. Or choose stealth and the bow and crossbow. Shooting one challenging bastard in the final stages of the game with a "hand cannon" when he called Henry out for his Kuttenberg tournament wins felt particularly satisfying.

The not so good:
After certain points, you are sort of railroaded into the final stages of the main questline. I am not sure that the writers could have done it differently, but it feels a bit like you are just waiting for the next bad thing to happen.

While I am sure it will be patched, "The legacy of the forge" is as buggy as, well, a bug that flew into a Turing machine.
And it feels a bit like the Privoslavitz DLC in KCD. You get to spend your groschen for feeling good about yourself.

Tecnical stuff:
It is a very stable game, and runs a lot smoother and with less heat on my computer than, say, Oblivion: Remastered.
The bugs are mainly in-game, rather than crashing.

There is one more DLC coming this winter.
And I can't wait to try it.

[Syt]

Thanks for that review, Norgs. KCD has been in my to play list for a VERY long time. (Together with plenty other games - I feel I should maybe stop buying narrative driven games and play/finish the hundreds or so I've accumulated over the years. )

[Valmy]

Yeah. I don't really understand. Maybe it is just I have a lot to do these days but it is remarkable how it now takes me months and years to get through a game whereas back in the day I would roll through these in days or weeks. Gaming as a middle age slob is just a different experience than when I was younger. Weeks and months seem to roll by in a blink of an eye.

[Norgy]

I tried playing Elden Ring, and honestly gave up after I could not defeat the first boss in what felt like umpteen attempts.
Souls-like games are not for me.

I nearly gave up on KCD2 as well, as it was too hard. Since I enjoyed the setting and landscape, I struggled on.

A good tip is to get your dog Mutt back early, as he will sic enemies and won't die. A horse is useful, but your Pebbles, that you will find early in the game, is useless until you reach horsemanship 16 and have ridden about 30-40 kilometres with her. Fun fact: In the first game, Pebbles was not a mare.

I really wanted to get into Oblivion again, but my rig just can't handle it without becoming a furnace.

Why Bethesda chose an Oblivion remake over a Morrowind puzzles me, but is probably down to some intellectual property rights.
Bethesda stamped down hard on some modders who re-made Morrowind, if I am not mistaken.

Life is short, but I recommend spending at least some hours in Bohemia, 1403. 

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

Why Bethesda chose an Oblivion remake over a Morrowind puzzles me, but is probably down to some intellectual property rights.
Bethesda stamped down hard on some modders who re-made Morrowind, if I am not mistaken.

Probably because it allowed them to jump straight into remastering Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas (since they use the same engine).  Gotta get those out while the show is still hot.

[Norgy]

So Elder Scrolls VI in 2070, then. Great.

[The Minsky Moment]

So Elder Scrolls VI in 2070, then. Great.

Checking . . .
Let's see.  2069 is . . . release of the Remastered Director's Cut of the Skyrim Super Duper Special Upgraded Collector's Edition.

You're right. 2070 it is.

[Syt]

In 2068 they release Skyrim GTA edition, which you can play on computers in GTA 7 which was released the year prior, briefly crashing the global economy.

[The Minsky Moment]

In 2068 they release Skyrim GTA edition, which you can play on computers in GTA 7 which was released the year prior, briefly crashing the global economy.

Ah yes, GTA 7, the first game to go for $1 million retail.  Except in the US where it sold for $1.5 million because of President Barron Trump's 50% tariffs on all ideas and mental functions.

[Syt]

In 2068 they release Skyrim GTA edition, which you can play on computers in GTA 7 which was released the year prior, briefly crashing the global economy.

Ah yes, GTA 7, the first game to go for $1 million retail.  Except in the US where it sold for $1.5 million because of President Barron Trump's 50% tariffs on all ideas and mental functions.

It was the first A⁴²-Title