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[Antimatter]

Great informational finds here. Thank you so much for these.

What a coincidence. Just 2 days ago a Latvian source published a big piece about the HoMM music.

«Если бы не муж, я бы не написал этот саундтрек» «Героям-3» — 25. Одна из составляющих легенды — музыка Пола Ромеро. Подробно рассказываем, как композитор, никогда не игравший в видеоигры, создал ее — Meduza

В феврале 1999 года вышла компьютерная игра «Heroes of Might and Magic III» — пошаговая фэнтези-стратегия, которая стала культовой (особенно в Восточной Европе) и не теряет этого статуса по сей день. Важной составляющей успеха стал саундтрек Пола Энтони Ромеро. Сегодня музыку из «Героев» играют...

meduza.io

If you translate it with https://www.deepl.com/en/translator you'd get a pretty good understandable version. In this article, among other interesting facts, you can get a professional composer and musicologist's opinion about inspirations for the HoMM music, including Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss.

 

[BelgarathMTH]

What a coincidence. Just 2 days ago a Latvian source published a big piece about the HoMM music.

«Если бы не муж, я бы не написал этот саундтрек» «Героям-3» — 25. Одна из составляющих легенды — музыка Пола Ромеро. Подробно рассказываем, как композитор, никогда не игравший в видеоигры, создал ее — Meduza

В феврале 1999 года вышла компьютерная игра «Heroes of Might and Magic III» — пошаговая фэнтези-стратегия, которая стала культовой (особенно в Восточной Европе) и не теряет этого статуса по сей день. Важной составляющей успеха стал саундтрек Пола Энтони Ромеро. Сегодня музыку из «Героев» играют...

meduza.io

If you translate it with https://www.deepl.com/en/translator you'd get a pretty good understandable version. In this article, among other interesting facts, you can get a professional composer and musicologist's opinion about inspirations for the HoMM music, including Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss.

Thank you for the new link. There's a lot more fascinating information there, "straight from the horse's mouth", as it were. One of the nice things about being a fan of a living composer's music is that you don't have to speculate on what they were thinking or what influenced their compositions. You can just ask them.

I'm happy that Paul Romero is still getting lots of positive attention for his work, and much of his life and thoughts are being documented for posterity.

 

[Aerakar]

Just checking in after being away for a few months. I enjoy hearing about new games but only rarely have time to play anything so I stick to low reload BG or IWD. I am at BG city in my current elven thief run. I have not made it to BG2 in about 2 years, but maybe this time...

 

[m7600]

I'm currently trying the demo for Avernum 6. You can download it for free here. I've never played any games by Spiderweb Software, though I've read about them. Avernum 6 seems pretty cool so far. I like the old-school / indie vibe that it has.

 

[Skatan]

Started a playthrough of PoE1 after maybe 4-5 years since last time. I'm in Defiance Bay right now with a cipher, though I used a mod to respec. I like bards generally, but not so much Chanters in PoE. Love'em in theory, the idea of them are great, but I just find them underperforming in PoE. Had made up my mind to try one out anyways but at level 6 I just felt underwhelmed and respec'ed into Cipher. I have finished the game 2,3 times IIRC, once in my first playthrough with a barbarian, once with a ranger and I believe I had a long playthrough (but can't remember if I ever fully finished that time) with a paladin.

I still have never finished White March, a DLC I never owned back in the day. Perhaps this time I will.

 

[JustKneller]

Started a playthrough of PoE1 after maybe 4-5 years since last time

FWIW, I'm saying this having not fully completed the game yet. My plan is, after my current BG run, to play this one straight through.

I both really like this game and have the hardest time with it for a number of reasons, none of it having to do with difficulty and most of the issues are interrelated. I don't think the game has a good enough intro to give a player a primer on the setting. As a spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate, they created an entirely new and interesting world to get people into something different than Faerun. I'm really glad for that. I'm not looking for a lore dump, but I'm totally a fish out of water here. Because the game is so focused on metaphysical issues, I thought this element could have been tighter. I felt like mages are there just because that's what's expected in an RPG, but they don't really fit with the larger cosmology. I think Chanters and Ciphers are interesting and their more animistic method is a nice contrast with the more ritualistic priests. The gods do seem a little random, though, and I thought that narrative could have used a little more exploration. I especially like Ciphers spellcasting because I low-key hate Vancian magic. The fighting things to get charges is a little gimmicky, but I can forgive it because, practically, there's no other way to make it work smoothly. It's refreshing to play a spellcaster that isn't fire-and-forget. But, the thing that bugs me the most is that Eder (Ttnk), Aloth (controller), and Durance (support) are my core party and none of them are built for damage. So, I either have to play a Mig character and sacrifice how I want to roleplay (I prefer Int/Per and some Res). Or, I'm playing another controller.

All that complaining aside, I'm actually looking forward to doing this run. Ciphers are fun.

 

[Antimatter]

I'm back to playing ESO (not that I ever truly left it, heh). Seems a great time to jump back in because of an upcoming Jubilee event, one of the biggest events in the history of this game (as it celebrates its 10th anniversary).

https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/65753

Over this weekend, I played and participated in the Jester's Festival for very fresh and funny impressions. Events in an MMO make the game feel more "real" and resemble holidays from our RL, but in a fantasy atmosphere.

@shmity72 advised buying at least 1 month of ESO+ subscription for this holiday season, seems like a good idea, just to help with inventory management and accessing other (paid) areas.

I'm also looking forward to watching the ceremony about the future of ESO, with legendary Lawrence Schick (who switched to Larian for BG3) being one of the guests.

 

[Skatan]

FWIW, I'm saying this having not fully completed the game yet. My plan is, after my current BG run, to play this one straight through.

I both really like this game and have the hardest time with it for a number of reasons, none of it having to do with difficulty and most of the issues are interrelated. I don't think the game has a good enough intro to give a player a primer on the setting. As a spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate, they created an entirely new and interesting world to get people into something different than Faerun. I'm really glad for that. I'm not looking for a lore dump, but I'm totally a fish out of water here. Because the game is so focused on metaphysical issues, I thought this element could have been tighter. I felt like mages are there just because that's what's expected in an RPG, but they don't really fit with the larger cosmology. I think Chanters and Ciphers are interesting and their more animistic method is a nice contrast with the more ritualistic priests. The gods do seem a little random, though, and I thought that narrative could have used a little more exploration. I especially like Ciphers spellcasting because I low-key hate Vancian magic. The fighting things to get charges is a little gimmicky, but I can forgive it because, practically, there's no other way to make it work smoothly. It's refreshing to play a spellcaster that isn't fire-and-forget. But, the thing that bugs me the most is that Eder (Ttnk), Aloth (controller), and Durance (support) are my core party and none of them are built for damage. So, I either have to play a Mig character and sacrifice how I want to roleplay (I prefer Int/Per and some Res). Or, I'm playing another controller.

All that complaining aside, I'm actually looking forward to doing this run. Ciphers are fun.

Yeah I get your points, but after so many hours in the game it's hard for me to see your POV fully. I have played enough to pick up all the things you feel are missing, and the game is very easy to get into for me now. I too struggled somewhat the first time I played 'blind', but not that much TBH and I finished it with a character I had no idea what I was doing. The thing I remember most vividly I struggle with was the DR of enemies and how to balance DR yourself with action speed. I remember I constantly obsessed over action speed and kept too low armor class since I felt the -50% speed from ie Platemail was too punishing. But in the end once I got three fighter types all wearing plate and Estocs (twohanded, damage resist piercing weapons for those who haven't played the game); My own guy, Eder and Palagina, then after some time most things clicked into place. Normal isn't very punishing and most fights can be played out without pausing much, or anything at all, despite not having prebuffing. But after struggling to get into WOTR, playing a game without obsessive prebuffing is such a joy!

Durance just spams supporting spells, Aloth damage (though I prefer Druids), Eder isn't made for damage and doesn't need it, he's there for Engagement and locking enemies down so you can strike them with someone else. Chanters are fun but a bit underwhelming until later levels, so I haven't used Kana much TBH.

My games tend to end up mostly the same: always Eder and Palagina at the front, my guy as some kind of "DPS" who I monitor and move actively, Durance spellbuffing, Hiravas druid with mixing buffing with offensive spells and acts as a defence in the backline with his spiritshift and last slot I switch around depending on quest, but I tend to skip out on Aloth since I agree that mages aren't my favorite in the PoE setting. They are good but I can't make them great myself, they take a bit too much micro for my taste.

Just moved on from Defiance Bay at level 8ish and took down a engagement I remember from my first playthrough, a pack of druids in the map you meet Hiravas. I remember how I struggled there in my first playthrough but this time it was a very painless experience. I tried to start white march at level 7 but got my ass handed to me, hah. I think I need to be level 10 maybe, let's see.

Man, this game is so good. Even listened to the OST at work today. Great soundtrack and absolutely love the setting. Here's to Avowed being a huge commercial hit so that a real PoE3 might maybe be done one day.

 

[Xzarloxara]

I have been playing Caribbean Legend for the past few weeks. It is a sort of pirate simulator in an open world; the Caribbean. It has been a lot of fun so far, and I think I have only just scratched the surface of the available content.

 

[Chronicler]

Cleared a run of Final Fantasy 5 last night that was a personal best.

14 hours, 38 minutes. Level 28. Fastest I've ever cleared the game. I've possibly done lower level runs, but only with at least one tanky character to be an anchor when those total party kill attacks hit us. This party was thief, black mage, white mage, red mage, so it was pretty fragile and reliant on protective magics to survive much of anything. Very little margin for error.

 

[JustKneller]

Cleared a run of Final Fantasy 5 last night that was a personal best.

FFV is a great game. I still run some of the classic FF games on an emulator from time to time. It's always just as fun as the first time. I wish I could re-run FFIX (my fav), but my playstation is packed away and I'm sure my wife won't let me take over the tv for hours on end.

 

[Chronicler]

FFV is a great game. I still run some of the classic FF games on an emulator from time to time. It's always just as fun as the first time. I wish I could re-run FFIX (my fav), but my playstation is packed away and I'm sure my wife won't let me take over the tv for hours on end.

There's a port of Final Fantasy 9 for the Switch if that's something that would be more convenient for you.

 

[JustKneller]

@Chronicler Unfortunately, I don't have a switch (or any other handheld except an old Gameboy somewhere). I'm strictly a laptop gamer.

 

[Antimatter]

You folks are so much more interesting than me, what with your varied gaming repertoires. I only ever play the BG games anymore, and I haven't even done much of that this fall/winter, due to some really crappy stuff that happened. Having said that, it's probably time to roll a blackguard, being Christmas and all.

There is a good interview with Devolver Digital co-founder Nigel Lowrie now, that touches upon the subject of time being the bottleneck for gamers. I can recommend giving it a read:

Devolver co-founder says large-scale game dev "crushing under its own weight a little bit"

It's been a difficult stretch for the industry, so when we speak with Devolver Digital co-founder Nigel Lowrie at the G…

www.gamesindustry.biz

"Helldivers is an excellent example. I play a lot of Helldivers with coworkers and friends. It's hard to pull people away from such a fantastic experience. You're really fighting for time. I don't care if you're a one-person, self-published studio or someone that has 1,000 people making a live service multigenerational game, you're still competing for that player's time. And you may have a very interesting game, but to pull them away from whatever for the two hours or 20 hours a week they have to play games, you have to make a pretty compelling case. I think we're all competing with each other

"There's a combination of more and more opportunities – I think it's great for developers to sign with a partner, whether it's an investor, a publisher, or to find someone to help them self-publish like a consultant. There are so many great opportunities, which just then breeds more [competition]. We want everyone to do well, but the fact remains it's competition for time and competition for getting in front of people. It's getting tougher and tougher to set yourself apart and make a clear argument as to why you should spend time with this game vs. that game, for sure."

 

[JustKneller]

That's such a good point, and I never really consciously think about it, but I do currently have a queue of games that are kind of backlogged and I'm not even looking at new games because I'm so far "behind". After I finish my BG trilogy party run, I also have a classic B/X party Icewind Dale run, a full run through of the Pillars of Eternity series (I've never finished this game), then a BG trilogy solo run, and then a Temple of Elemental Evil run, followed by a Bioshock series run, which will lead into a Metro 2033/Last Light run...who knows how long that will all take? Along the way, I'm keeping my eye out for a sale on Wasteland 2/3, Tides of Numenera, and Dragon Age: Origins, so even the queue behind the queue is already being populated.

 

[Chronicler]

If I recall, some past Netflix CEO said something similar.

Something to the effect of "My competitor isn't other streamers. My competitor is fortnite. The battle at this point is to monopolize the user's time. Anything that takes them away from Netflix is the enemy"

 

[Chronicler]

Netflix thinks 'Fortnite' is a bigger threat than HBO | TechCrunch

Netflix thinks "Fortnite" is a bigger threat to its business than HBO. The company in its latest quarterly earnings report released on Thursday said that

techcrunch.com

Think this is what I'm thinking of. There might be better articles on it with more direct quotes.

 

[JustKneller]

Yeah, that's totally fair. At night, after the kids are in bed, my wife watches TV, but I'm using doing some kind of gaming. I think the last time I regularly watched a show, it was Breaking Bad on AMC. What was that? Almost 15 years ago?

 

[Adeptus]

Enderal. It is full conversion mod for Skyrim with new campaing/world and without some elements I dislike (e.g. level scaling).

 

[InGameScientist]

If I recall, some past Netflix CEO said something similar.

Something to the effect of "My competitor isn't other streamers. My competitor is fortnite. The battle at this point is to monopolize the user's time. Anything that takes them away from Netflix is the enemy"

I think many social media sites and services in general have this mindset. YouTube is certainly the same. Probably why TikTok took off because of its focus on snackable content...and like many snacks, you forget how much you've consumed until the whole package is empty lol

YouTube followed with Shorts of course, realizing that it was an additional way to keep users on the platform.

In any case, I'm rotating through Wartales, Wildermyth (excited for the new DLC, Omenroad, this Thursday!) and No Rest for the Wicked!