STS was Java running on libgdx.

STS2 will be C# on Godot.

Based on this: https://caseyyano.com/on-evaluating-godot-b35ea86e8cf4

I believe the acts themselves will be longer and more fleshed out but there’s less of them.

6 acts in Path of Exile 2 instead of the 10 acts that PoE1 has.

It’s actually an upgraded version of the same engine, and Path of Exile 1 is getting a lot of the new tech backported.

It was originally supposed to replace Path of Exile 1, but now they are going to exist together.

2 will be more refined and slower, with a brand new story and 6 new acts. Should be a fun time.

I didn’t enjoy the first one, I am enjoying the second one a lot more. It’s not perfect, but the stories are generally better and things feel more polished. It’s still an old-school JRPG though.

SSDs have gotten so cheap and fast recently.

Most games now assume you have one. Games are generally built around having minimal or even no loading screens. So fast storage is a must.

Personally I much preferred Lies of P.

Lords of the Fallen is sitting at 55% positive reviews on Steam. Lies of P is sitting at a nice comfortable 89% positive reviews.

Lords of the Fallen had a pretty troubled development cycle (changing studios 3 times) and it has some problems.

It’s on Gamepass. Just get that for $10 and beat it. Might be able to find a free trial somewhere too.

Lies of P was extremely good. Not quite on the same tier as Elden Ring, but super enjoyable and polished.

Yeah RF is an amazing mapper but not a great bosser. Sometimes I’ll make two builds. One to blast through mapping and one to nuke down bosses.

Or you can use Explosive Arrow which currently does everything well lol

The nice thing with Path of Exile is that you can always play next league and try out other content and systems.

I’d suggest picking one or two systems and just really learning those each league instead of attempting everything all at once.

Recently beat Lies of P.

I am a huge souls fan, and Elden Ring is probably my favorite game of all time.

I was expecting Lies of P to be a competent souls knockoff, but it’s so much more than that.

It has some issues, sure. But I really think the game is superb. I am beyond excited to see what they do next in the genre. They got so many things right.

I played a bit of Craftopia awhile back from the same developers. It was weird, disjointed, buggy and strange.

I expect this will be more of the same. But I hope I’m wrong. It would be wild for this game to be decent to good.

Steam Deck is excellent for work travel. Easy to set up and play in bed at a hotel.

Definitely agree with this. Locked 30fps mode with motion blur set to 2/5 was the ideal way to play this game. Performance mode was far too unstable and blurry especially on a larger TV. Digital Foundry also suggested just locking it to 30 and not switching back and forth. Your eyes do eventually adjust.

I wish the performance mode was better, but it seems pretty clear that 30fps was the performance target.

If you want a turn based RPG, OctoPath Traveler 2 is a really excellent option.

I know what this post is referencing, but I don’t think that was really the message that they were trying to convey.

Baldurs Gate 3 is an incredibly good game, but it will be difficult for most average studios to emulate their success.

They had a very long developmental cycle of 6+ years, very successful early access, and a team of 400+ experienced developers who know this genre better than anyone.

I would absolutely love to see another studio attempt something this ambitious, but it’s going to be really hard to top this game for the foreseeable future.

I really like Divinity Original Sin 2, but this game is far better in almost every way. It definitely feels like an evolution.

Pretty much a perfect summary, well said.

The short version:

• Game is good, came out at the right time, had a lot of hype and lived up to the hype

Longer details:

• The game is just really well made. It’s extremely fun, very polished (except for a few weird bugs), and complete
• It has a massive IP tied to it. This game had impossible levels of hype and it met those expectations somehow
• The recent D&D movie was a large success, and D&D in general has been the most popular it has ever been lately
• Divinity OS 2 Definitive Edition was very well received, people trust Larian to deliver a good product
• People are sharing this game with their friends. They had a strong marketing push as well as really strong word of mouth
• Final Fantasy 16 left a lot of us wanting a more traditional RPG after FF16 was anything but traditional
• We currently live in an era of games like Diablo 4 which ask for a $70 price tag, and then also have a paid battle pass and paid cosmetics. This game came out at $60 content complete with no additional microtransactions. Ultimately that makes this game much easier to reccomend to people.

The game does have an easy mode if you want it to be more brain dead. But it definitely does still require some thought for sure.