This game was published and likely almost fully funded by Epic.

I can definitely understand not liking them and not wanting to give them your money, but in this case I think the game wouldn’t exist without their involvement. So it may never see a Steam release, or it will be very delayed.

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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.

You can still play the game offline and single player just fine. Multiplayer has never been a core feature for my playthroughs. I don’t think it ever worked particularly well.

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.

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.

Well they also launched a full month earlier than they anticipated, because they didn’t want their launch to compete against Starfield. Sounds like they had some tough tradeoffs. The ending definitely does fall apart a little bit, but they are quickly releasing patches. It’ll get there eventually.

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

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

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.

On Windows 11 with an Intel CPU and Nvidia GPU I’ve had better luck with DX11 at the moment.

Vulkan has been slightly less stable for me overall, and has had more visual glitches.

Meanwhile DX11 has been largely flawless on my system.

I think if you’re using an AMD system Vulkan may be slightly better. But it definitely feels like DX11 is the current “default” option for a reason.

I completely agree with this take.

I have my gaming desktop, gaming laptop, and Steam deck.

My gaming desktop is my strong preference. It’s powerful, I built it myself, and it can handle basically everything I can throw at it.

My gaming laptop is really nice for travel, where I can’t bring my desktop. I was working at a job that was like 30% travel, lots of flying. It was nice to have in the hotel to get some gaming in.

On shorter/busier work trips though, I’d usually opt for just taking my iPad and Steam Deck. It’s a bit more limited in terms of what’s available, but the Steam Deck is a super capable machine. The Steam Deck also didn’t exist when I started traveling originally.