>More complex and fun combat than vanilla Skyrim (use melee, spells and ranged weapons all in the same fight without any menus/pausing, more reasons to use heavy attacks/parries, etc)
>Multiple densely packed zones for you to explore (reduces open world bloat)
>interesting moral and political decisions that have consequences and contribute to an ending slideshow so you feel the impact of what you picked (like F:NV)
>a small cast of party members written with a lot of depth and possessing varying views on the world based on their experiences (they'll call you out on your choices and you can either justify them or piss off your companions)
>cool fantasy world that was already well received in the Pillars of Eternity games

This game has a ton of good in it. Was it really ruined by ugly human models and weird writing?

This is the game that Avowed should have been.

>>715496778
Is it really *that* good? I looked at some gameplay and it looks pretty plain.

>>715497691
its like vanilla skyrim but good

>>715496470 (OP)
it was ruined by being woke.
thats more than ugly models.
woke shit is only made by woke people,
and woke people make SHIT.
its not just ugly this or politics that
its the lack of polish and general quality that comes as a result of having these people who care more about ugly things and politics than doing a good job.

>>715497828
Aside from the anticolonialism messaging and the gay fish man I really didn't notice much I'd consider to be woke.

>>715496778
It's broken slop, but Avowed is worse, so I guess sure.

>>715496470 (OP)
>Depth possessing varying views.
Say one thing that every companion from another woke game, outer worlds, would disagree.
>More complex than Skyrim
I shouldn't have to elaborate on why that's not a acceptable bar.
>Moral and political decisions
Except being a heckin' racist, or doing anything but submit to the girlboss?

>>715497691
>Act 1 is fine, act 2 gets a little muddy, act 3 is trash
>Can't shoot magic from anything other than your fucking hands with staves and wands serving as buffer
>Don't get to actually visit kamelot
>Story ends with a bunch of gay CGs

Other than that, it's okay

>>715497958
correct.
not every woke dev is gonna be stupid enough to put together the scam that was concord.
the woke shit in the game is more of a red flag to signal the general SHIT of poor quality that always accompanies it.

>>715496470 (OP)
Apparently in the next Oblivion update they are letting you individually change enemy damage and player damage, meaning you can kill things fast but also be able to die fast yourself which is something people have wanted since OG Oblivion. There's probably going to be 0 reason to play Avowed soon.

>>715498035
>Concord for ants

>>715496470 (OP)
>cool fantasy world that was already well received in the Pillars of Eternity games
This part is bullshit.
The PoE universe sucks. All of the world building is encyclopedia wankery. It is just proper nouns, dates, and names of countries and kingdoms to make it sound deep but none of it means anything. The average dialogue in Avowed/Pillars is:
>So anyways, the [KINGDOM OF AVAR] were worshipers of the [GODDESS LILZLI] but they were opposed by the [PROTECTORATE OF REESE] in the [WAR OF THE GOLDEN GHOST]. We saw [KING ROOZLE] win at the [BATTLE OF GOSTON] to end the war on the side of the [KINGDOM OF AVAR] and usher in the [AGE OF GOSTON] where worship if the [GOD FEESE] was outlawed. By the way we just met.
It is dogshit. I liked PoE1/2 in terms of gameplay but the world building was always trying way too fucking hard. Keep it simple, stupid. Also all of the races they invent just seem like they're absolutely fucking desperate to avoid "cliches" but just putting in elves and dwarves would be better than ugly fish people and ugly little furries.

>>715496778
I can confirm, even though Taint'n'Grail is extremely buggy jank, I enjoyed like 65% of it and even beat it. Act 3 felt like an afterthought however. But fucking Avowed I dropped in the first act.

>>715496470 (OP)
I think the biggest issue is just that there are not enough enemy types and/or the combat system just doesn't allow for interacting with enemy attacks much. You just fight a bunch of dudes at the same time and they all basically have either a melee attack or a ranged attack. I finished the game on hard and most fights were basically just a stat check, where guys with 3 skulls would take a long time to kill and anything under that was very easy.
Attacks and dodges and so on on the player's side feel good but maybe you just have too much mobility compared to the enemies. I wish it had been designed for smaller group fights with more capable enemies.
Besides that the exploration as fun, the RPG mechanics kind of basic but acceptable. I personally love the world of PoE so it was fun to see it from a different angle.
Solid 7/10 video game all things considered.

>>715496778
Don't play this game for like another year. Act 1/2 went through the EA ringer and actually got fixed up and put into a good state with a lot of content. Act 3 released with 0 testing and it shows.

>>715498035
Moral decisions like, "let this plague keep killing people and creating zombies OR kill several thousand people instantly who aren't even infected to permanently stop the infection" or "should you let the dwarven city get destroyed because they feel obligated by their culture to live there even though it's a miserable place that is slowly killing them or let them continue to live in the awful hell desert and hope they can improve themselves over time". There's some good stuff here.

>>715496470 (OP)
I liked it a lot. The weird plastic graphics looked beautiful to me and the world was fun to systematically explore. Story actually wasn’t bad if you look past some millennial writing. The character designs did suck and they had reddit personalities though.

>>715498402
I liked the stuff about the gods and how involved they are in the world. And the reincarnation stuff.

>>715498296
It's bodycam the resolution is shit normally.
>>715497958
>Dude you're just being followed around by a immortal gay fish trying to fuck you, a weird purple gay gremlin man, and the girlboss giving you lectures in your head about how wite peeepoo don season der foo.


The game opens with pronouns, you moron.

>>715496778
>As of this reply, there are literally only around 350 people playing this on Steam
How does this game get demolished even by Starfield? It shouldn't have even come out of the brainstorming room.

>>715498579
Presented as "Girlbooss genius scientist" and "evil wite peepoo bad man wants to be evil and kill the poor refugees." and "traditionalism is gay, and stupid people have no reason to want to defend, and improve their homeland this is stupid please convince them to live in the pod, and eat bugs. No? Okay they all die you stupid wite peepoo."

>>715496470 (OP)
>combat is slightly better than a 14 year old game
wow what a achievement but everthing else is worse than a 360 game

>>715496778
shit is unfinished and buggy

>>715499063
by "this" I mean Avowed. Sorry. I meant to reply to OP here >>715496470 (OP), but I'm a bit tired.

>>715498953
>>715497958
>gayfish is also the only romance in the game

>>715499225
I appreciate that you are doing a serious follow-up on your low effort shitpost and giving us context for your mental state

>>715499269
It is hilarious to me how much they hate romance. Does Sawyer have anything to do with Avowed? We know he hates heterosexual romance.

>>715498953
Genuinely what are you talking about, man?
Fish literally does not initiate romance, it's all about his war buddy he realizes he had feelings for unless YOU romance HIM
By "purple gay gremlin man" do you mean Yatzli? She's a woman in a relationship with a man...
Also, what "girlboss" in your head are you talking about? Sapadal isn't a woman and is more like a child or a wild animal than a boss.

>>715499335
Why is this even a post? Concord was the most expensive and sold literally 0 copies because they refunded everyone.

>>715499063
>>715499225
It's because if you're playing Avowed on PC and NOT using gamepass for it you're basically throwing away money. A trial of gamepass will let you play Avowed and a bunch of other stuff for free.

>>715496778
I keep hearing about this shit at random. I'll probably try it out eventually. My friend described it as, "buggy shit like Elder Scrolls, but like a shit that was pushed out with some tears and blood."

>>715499458
Piracy allows you to play most of the stuff for free, what's your point, bozo?

>>715496470 (OP)
Every modern rpg looks utterly gay both figuratively and literally

This is what happens when you don't gatekeep
Entire industry ruined by insane leftoids

>>715499384
Yeah, Concord is genuinely impressive in how badly it failed, especially when it was TRYING to have mass appeal.

>>715499458
buy an ad

>>715499315
Something something objectification of women or whatever. I'm sure they'd love to make romanceable male companions and lesbians but if they did that they'd kind of have to do it for straight men too so they'd prefer to just not have any romance at all if they have to do straight romance.

>>715499335
Wat about forespoken

>>715499682
I’m saying the Steam numbers for Avowed aren’t really a good metric of how many people are playing it because logically most PC players shouldn’t be playing it on Steam.

>wearing colored shirts
nice

>>715498402
>So anyways, the [KINGDOM OF AVAR] were worshipers of the [GODDESS LILZLI] but they were opposed by the [PROTECTORATE OF REESE] in the [WAR OF THE GOLDEN GHOST]. We saw [KING ROOZLE] win at the [BATTLE OF GOSTON] to end the war on the side of the [KINGDOM OF AVAR] and usher in the [AGE OF GOSTON] where worship if the [GOD FEESE] was outlawed. By the way we just met.
as someone who just beat poe1 and is playing through 2 now, you're spot on. it doesn't help that in 2 they now start introducing other dialects and the new history that comes from the other factions.

good game(s), but yeeeesh.

>>715499734
I mean that is basically what Sawyer said. He doesn't like "harem anime" because it appeals to male sexual fantasies, but he himself is gay and has no problem with gay romances. I think Sawyer is a good writer but I also think he is being an idiot.
Romance is part of an adventure. No, I don't want the games to end up like Dragon Age or Mass Effect where all anyone cares about is the romances, but having no romance is a real buzzkill.

>>715496470 (OP)
>use melee, spells and ranged weapons all in the same fight
Do you realize, that's not a good thing? Lack of class fantasy is a serious downside. It's a fantasy game where you can't be a mage, just spark shitter without anyone noticing it at all.
>Multiple densely packed zones for you to explore
It's boring to explore in Avowed.
>interesting moral and political decisions
Name one.
>a small cast of party members
Every single one of them sucks. You can decorate turd all you want, it will be a turd nonetheless.
>cool fantasy world that was already well received in the Pillars of Eternity games
World is the worst thing about poe. Everything interesting about it vanishing in Gilded Vale. I don't even understand how it's possible to make a game world this boring, when you are not chained by someone like WotC and can imagine ANYTHING.

>>715499384
How many copies did Unknown 9 sell? Nobody even knew that game existed when it came out...it was unknown...

>>715499872
That is pretty much my point. I liked PoE1/2 but the world building is just amateurish. They think that making up names and countries and "history" makes it deep, but it doesn't. It just comes across as jerking off your in-game encyclopedia and your "click to learn more" system which is cool but overused.

>>715499571
It's more like first person Gothic.

>>715496470 (OP)
Don't forget the bad performance

>>715499975
The “destroy the ruins / end the dreamscourge” choice was pretty great.

>>715499886
Pretty sure people like Mass Effect and DA:O for a lot more than just the romances though.

>>715500192
I am probably the only guy who remembers this, but there was a point where Bioware was marketing DA:I almost exclusively through romances on their twitter. They kept teasing about this one woman having the folders with the romances and how SHE WON'T TELL ANYONE!!! or UH OH THEY MIGHT LEAK!! And the discussion on their official forums was almost entirely centered around the romances, even those fags over at resetera were giggle squeeing and bickering over if a woman would be straight or bisexual or if a character was gay, etc. Mass Effect had an emphasis on the romance, but due to it being a series of direct sequels instead of games that vaguely take place in the same universe it wasn't hit as bad.

>>715500009
I tried PoE1 and I was honestly just bored so I quit about a third of the way in. I was never nostalgic for RTwP RPGs like BG1 or BG2 so the gameplay didn't grip me and neither did the lackluster writing.

>>715500307
PoE2 at least added a turn based mode which makes it far more playable.

>>715500307
I had the same exact feeling even though I beat both PoE1 and 2. I can only vaguely remember what the fuck the main conflict was even about, it all felt extremely uninspired. Something about souls and reincarnations and ancient elves or whatever.

>>715500285
I vaguely remember, but mostly about their gay options. They were really proud about those. Remember that 2014 was truly the beginning of the woke/SJW wave that infected gaming and Bioware was among the first infected by that crap.

>>715500307
They plan to add turn based to poe1

>>715500474
Yeah but at least Bioware had the balls in DA:I to make some companions actually restricted based on gender/race. Solace only fucks female elves. Casandra (if I am remembering her name right) only fucks dudes, etc. They didn't just write exclusively player-sexual companions who will fuck you no matter what.

>>715500505
It doesn't really matter even if the gameplay is a little bit better. Why would I play a narrative heavy RPG with a really boring story.

>>715500565
They also made all females unattractive, what they did to Cassandra is borderline a crime.

>>715499975
There has to be a synthesis between classes and classless as weird as that sounds. Class just makes it feel too restrictive and if there is a gazillion of them then it's pointless kludge that you can get from a classless system but i feel like there should be like a baseline standard of what you character should be able to do. Maybe a loose class base system where you can be a knight that casts magic spells, even high-tier ones but you can't regenerate magic and thus magic is still precious and rare to you, while a mage can't do anything fancy with a sword but can be strong and big?

>>715500709
Yeah she is pretty fucking fugly ugly.

>>715500565
>They didn't just write exclusively player-sexual companions who will fuck you no matter what.
Personally I don't mind this approach as long as the companions (especially the male companions) don't thirst after your cock unprompted like in BG3. I think the player needs to be the one to select the option to open up that route before any flirtatious dialogue happens.

It's not a nice feeling for a straight man to have to romantically reject every male companion, many of whom you just wanted to have a perfectly normal platonic broship with. Like Garrus or Alistair for instance.

>>715501059
>Like Garrus or Alistair for instance.
As examples of a characters that you can have a perfectly normal platonic broship with is what i meant.

>>715501059
It's bad unless they actually put in the effort to change dialogue/sex scenes to accompany it.
>Gale's entire backstory is he has a goddess GF
>Still down to fuck a man
>Karlach literally pegs a male in her sex scene
>Shadowheart talks about wanting a house with pets and animals but not kids (cause you might be a girl)
Like if they could at least make it so Gale mentions that he doesn't mind dudes it wouldn't feel so out of place. Or maybe Shadowheart talks about wanting kids if you're a male, etc. Realistically though, even then it is worse than partners with actual preferences. I actually think race needs to be a bigger deal. Right now WRPGs are like:
>MY ENTIRE FAMILY WAS RAPED AND KILLED AND RAPED AGAIN AND THEN EATEN BY A BAND OF ROAMING GREENSKIN ORC BASTARDS
>btw are you an orc? Lets fuck!

>>715500307
act 1.5 really is pretty boring, but the story picks up a bit towards the last bit of act 2 where you start the Leaden Key investigations and then go do white march 1/2, which is great.

>>715501220
I can agree with that. I just don't necessarily trust devs with making gender locked romance options because we get dogshit straight male romance options like in DA:I, or they remove conventionally attractive female options that straight men wanted like in Cyberpunk (Judy), or any of the Owlcat RPGs (Amira and Sister Argenta).

>>715501485
I'm realizing that the Owlcat examples are probably not the best examples cause those characters aren't romanceable at all.

>>715501485
Panam is more attractive than Judy anyways though, but with Judy it is cringe because her male romance is literally in the game but just turned off and can be turned on via a simple mod.
I feel like Larian originally had gender locked romances previously. Minthara had a whole cut pregnancy thing (only makes sense if you're a male), Lae'zel specifically mentions laying eggs so she can fuck without pregnancy (heavily implies she prefers men) while Karlach's sex scene is very heavily lesbian coded (and she herself is very butch). Astarion is a bisexual Vampire pervert who would fuck anyone, etc. Then they just made them open to everyone to avoid any controversy or people getting upset.

>>715500009
Obsidian can only copy people's homework. Except they ran out of people to copy because nobody ever wants to work with them twice.

>>715499384
Suicide was also very expensive and tanked a formerly prestigious studio. Things aren't that easy, you simpleton.

>>715496470 (OP)
>from the developers of fallout tranny vegas
it was doomed from the beginning.

>>715496470 (OP)
I legitimately 100% forgot this game exists, and probably never would have thought about it again if this thread didn't remind me of it