@BrianKnouse5 - man, I cannot get over how great Dragon Age Veilguard looks and runs. It’s a technical marvel. The environmental artists have created what is probably the single best looking video game I’ve ever played.
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Totally agree the environments have blown me away. Hands down the best fantasy environments I have ever seen!
Here is another one I am playing recently using Emulator - Grand Knights History (with English fan translation) on PSP from Vanillaware (developer of Dragons’s Crown / Unicorn Overlord etc) released back in 2011.
It is another great Boardgame-like overland Adventure with random bounty quest / travel events etc. There isn’t really a grand story here as it was designed as a multiplayer game with solo mode in mind but man - the art style is just amazing and if looking it from a perspective of a digital overland adventure board game - it is just great (character progression / ease of combat due to video game streamlining)
Highly recommend to anyone who are willing to try emulation.
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Also recently played a PS3 era game called Deadly Premonition (the first game not the sequel) - I played it on Switch. It is just PHENOMENAL!
It is just one of the best Twin Peak like experience I have had in a video game. It is not a gameplay focused game (some considered combat and exploration as bad which I dont find it a problem) but man - the story, the characters, the dialogue etc really nails the twin peak quirky feeling and charm.
Below is a video about it. It does have spoilers but did a good job explaining why this game is great.
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Picked up Dragon Age Veilguard after hearing Daniel’s thoughts and seeing it was on sale. I had planned on playing it at some point and Path of Exile II was growing repetitive, so it seemed like a good fit.
I really hadn’t tracked the reception it received but could see Dragon Age fans having opinions about the move away from pause-time-and-assign-commands model.
I played Origins and Inquisition and enjoyed both. My initial impressions of Veilguard are pretty positive, even though it feels like BioWare took a bushel of RPG tropes, put them in a blender, poured it into a glass, pointed and said “new Dragon Age”.
But as Daniel said - the end product is fun to play, has a good gameplay loop and looks great. I normally change games to Performance mode but didn’t here and it runs very smoothly. Impressed.
It’s not reinventing anything but it’s a well constructed RPG that’s fun to pass the time playing. Excited to play more.
And I’d be remiss if I didn’t include the Dragon Age: Origins trailer set to the Hawaii 5-0 theme https://youtu.be/7yTVjUY9wMg?si=IR_PVY43dLcsPmj3
Edit - ah @BrianKnouse5 forgot you linked this too above. Thanks to you and Daniel for putting it on my radar. Fun stuff!
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Preordered Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, looking forward to playing that when it is released on February 4.
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KCD2 sure look like a step up. Im waiting to see if it runs on Steamdeck.
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Addicted to Subnautica again here. Love this game!
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As we do a lot of more strategic and turn-based table games every night, I’ve been leaning into more action-oriented video games these days.
Just finished Laika: Aged In Blood, which was a great 2D metroidvania with souls-like death mechanics, where you play as a coyote riding around on a dirt bike. Had a surprisingly strong and sad narrative. And a decent soundtrack.
Now I’m playing Dynasty Warriors Origins… Never thought I’d pick another one of these games up. I don’t even recall which was the last one I played in the series. But I’m having a good time with it (despite the painfully lackluster dialogue).
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Nice re: Dynasty Warriors.
I have only played about 2 hours of a DW game which was maybe 15 or so years ago. Was considering this new one as the series has a sizable fan base.
Recommended for a relative newcomer to the series? Or hold off?
Well, I think half the draw is nostalgia. There’s not a ton of depth, nor is it particularly difficult most of the time. There’s more to the combat than previous entries but it’s still nearly brainless action. Running around beating up crowds while taking a bit more care around officers and named enemies.
You’ve also gotta move to where you’re needed on battlefields, but it’s almost always obvious where you should be going. There’s multiple weapons with their own movesets but they aren’t as varied or complex as Devil May Cry or something like that.
I’m not sure I’d recommend it to a newcomer unless this kind of mindless action is absolutely what they were looking for. That said, it might be the best in the DW series if you arent bothered by the fact that instead of switching characters you now just switch weapons.
Edit: I’ll also add that I just played a bugged mission where my army forgot to advance with me and I solo’d more than 3500 enemies, including the main general and a handful of officers. And I’m on the hardest difficulty.
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Got a PS5 Pro a week ago and been playing some Horizon Forbidden West and man it looks so good. Loving the game so far.
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Still about Dynasty Warriors:
I hit Chapter 3 and am still unlocking new mechanics. So a little more depth than I thought yesterday. And the big battles definitely got more difficult. Just in case you’re still interested…
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Thanks for your rundown on DW. Put it on my wish list for now.
Glad to hear there have been some new interesting mechanics as you’ve progressed.
I dig the overall game concept and will look to grab it when the price dips.
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Still playing Dynasty Warriors Origins. And I gotta say, I did not expect so much of it to feel like a sexual romance of the 3 kingdoms… But it’s really added something for me to enjoy amidst the rest of the lackluster dialogue.
Sorry for anyone who would be bothered by LGBT themes - I’m not trying to start a discussion on that point. But there’s a slew of characters going so far beyond the normal appreciation of your male protagonist that you couldn’t even pass it off as just ‘bromance’. The below is not even the most blatant innuendo, but it is Guan Yu:
It’s got my wife (who normally dislikes watching anyone play games) coming over to the screen during dialogue to see what’s going on now.
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You don’t tell your friends you wish to etch the features of their face into your memory?
I thought that’s how all bros started a hang session.
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Well, I didn’t used to…
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Nice to see Kingdom Come Deliverance II getting largely good reviews.
Picked it up and am working my way through the intro. Already enjoying it - seems they took the bones of the first and improved basically everything.
Still a bit of light jank. First one had quite a bit of jank. But the overall intent and presentation is quality.
I remember when the devs released the first one and I thought “super cool and ambitious but holy heck that’s a tough style of game to get right”. Very cool they built off it to make a (so far) well received sequel. Hats off. 
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I receive my preorder later today. I am an old timer and like having the disc.
I absolutely loved the 1st game.
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