Divinity Divinity: Original Sin - Enhanced Edition

[J_C]

There was a really good one for Human Revolution, and I can never remember it.

Human Derpolution maybe?

 

[Doktor Best]

Hmm...then iam on the right path to become a true codexer.

No sorry, trying too hard.

 

[Ninjerk]

There was a really good one for Human Revolution, and I can never remember it.

Human Derpolution maybe?

No it was quite a bit better than that. It was an H word and an R word that rhymed with Human Revolution and mocked its popamole aspects.

 

[Turok]

How many days take go to Belgica from Venezuela on foot?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

There was a really good one for Human Revolution, and I can never remember it.

Human Derpolution maybe?

No it was quite a bit better than that. It was an H word and an R word that rhymed with Human Revolution and mocked its popamole aspects.

Hurr-durr Rapelution?

 

[mindx2]

- All testing will take place using console controllers.

I really hope all their energies have not gone into the darkside console portion of this EE....

 

[a Goat]

@up: and how else would you do it? They're happy with m+kb interface so they want to do tests for controllers and have more feedback on it.

There was a really good one for Human Revolution, and I can never remember it.

Human Derpolution maybe?

No it was quite a bit better than that. It was an H word and an R word that rhymed with Human Revolution and mocked its popamole aspects.

I don't know.
The only thing I can think of is Dude Sex: Homo Reproduction.

 

[Ninjerk]

@up: and how else would you do it? They're happy with m+kb interface so they want to do tests for controllers and have more feedback on it.

There was a really good one for Human Revolution, and I can never remember it.

Human Derpolution maybe?

No it was quite a bit better than that. It was an H word and an R word that rhymed with Human Revolution and mocked its popamole aspects.

I don't know.
The only thing I can think of is Dude Sex: Homo Reproduction.

That'll do.

 

[PhantasmaNL]

Any codexian volunteer near Gents fritkot to endure a full day of console torture, get some insights on the EE, maybe even ask some questions and report back? It is a tall order, but you will be taking one for the team.

 

[Volrath]

Any codexian volunteer near Gents fritkot to endure a full day of console torture, get some insights on the EE, maybe even ask some questions and report back? It is a tall order, but you will be taking one for the team.

That's what you get for not reading my posts.

 

[Cadmus]

Any codexian volunteer near Gents fritkot to endure a full day of console torture, get some insights on the EE, maybe even ask some questions and report back? It is a tall order, but you will be taking one for the team.

That's what you get for not reading my posts.

I don't think he got anything
I was thinking about how such a day at Larian, playing with a controller would look like and decided it would be horribly boring. I have no idea how can you preview a game in such an environment, especially when it's just a big update and you got some assholes breathing down your neck and asking you for feedback, that would be horribly stressful and I can't imagine I'd get anything out of it. Poor game journos

 

[PhantasmaNL]

You get to spend the day in a geek-rich environment plus you get to see the Larian-ites in their natural habitat. Could be amusing.

Also iirc in Belgium the avarage lunch is a Burgundian extravaganza topped of with fine belgian beer, for which ample time is taken (an hour or 2).

(it could be you will just get a plate of pommes frites from the Larian kitchen to be eaten during playsessions though)

 

[Cadmus]

You get to spend the day in a geek-rich environment plus you get to see the Larian-ites in their natural habitat. Could be amusing.

Also iirc in Belgium the avarage lunch is a Burgundian extravaganza topped of with fine belgian beer, for which ample time is taken (an hour or 2).

(it could be you will just get a plate of pommes frites from the Larian kitchen to be eaten during playsessions though)

I can't imagine anything worse than being in a geek-rich environment, lol. I also don't know what's so amazing about seeing a bunch of programmers sitting behind their PCs, but that's just me. All I'm saying is I don't find the prospects of such a visit interesting in any way.

 

[Athelas]

I can't imagine anything worse than being in a geek-rich environment, lol.

A lot of people are afraid of self-reflection.

 

[Trodat]

A day at Bioware would be much more interesting, though you may lost your mind after the expedition, but hey, sometimes you got to take one for the team.

 

[Volrath]

You get to spend the day in a geek-rich environment plus you get to see the Larian-ites in their natural habitat. Could be amusing.

Also iirc in Belgium the avarage lunch is a Burgundian extravaganza topped of with fine belgian beer, for which ample time is taken (an hour or 2).

(it could be you will just get a plate of pommes frites from the Larian kitchen to be eaten during playsessions though)

They get you a sandwich last time I was there.

If I go, I'll ask them if they can show me the new PC UI as well.

 

[Cnaiur]

You get to spend the day in a geek-rich environment plus you get to see the Larian-ites in their natural habitat. Could be amusing.

Also iirc in Belgium the avarage lunch is a Burgundian extravaganza topped of with fine belgian beer, for which ample time is taken (an hour or 2).

(it could be you will just get a plate of pommes frites from the Larian kitchen to be eaten during playsessions though)

You're Dutch - why don't you go, it's practically within walking distance!

 

[PhantasmaNL]

You get to spend the day in a geek-rich environment plus you get to see the Larian-ites in their natural habitat. Could be amusing.

Also iirc in Belgium the avarage lunch is a Burgundian extravaganza topped of with fine belgian beer, for which ample time is taken (an hour or 2).

(it could be you will just get a plate of pommes frites from the Larian kitchen to be eaten during playsessions though)

You're Dutch - why don't you go, it's practically within walking distance!

It is a 30 hour walk though.

 

[Sykar]

I can't imagine anything worse than being in a geek-rich environment, lol.

A lot of people are afraid of self-reflection.

My brain and inner skull surface are quite reflective.

 

[Grokalibre]

True codexers lost their virginity to some Bioware npc.

 

[Roguey]

Dear old Winterfox/Lesifoere gets an appropriate mention in a Larian game. She would have enjoyed playing this.

Finished on hard all the way through. There were a couple of places where I really loathed the +25% to enemy health, but overall they were good tweaks. It's keen how this is the opposite of D&D in that the -10% means nothing in the hit-heavy early game, but the gulf gradually increases as you go on (of course stun/freeze/knockdown/petrify make the hit roll irrelevant and blessing/precision give a massive +30% to accuracy. That's the equivalent of a +6 spell in D&D which is crazy).

The character system is as messy as I thought it would be, but as I mentioned in an another thread, it feels like a much better execution of what Bioware wanted to do with Dragon Age (see: spell/cross-class combos). The only thing I'd say DA:O has over it is the separation of combat and non-combat skills. This isn't Fallout, so putting points into the likes of lockpicking, pickpocketing, bartering, and charisma is only going to hurt you since you spend far more time in wilderness areas than you do in towns, and whatever randomized loot you acquire with those skills likely isn't going to give you any kind of edge you could get by putting those points elsewhere.

There are some pretty great spells though, and my ranger and melee fighter were definitely valuable parts of the team (though a melee rogue seems like it'd be difficult to play, stench likely mandatory). I was pretty impressed with how every skill has a few great low-level spells to make one-point sinks a worthwhile investment, though the highest level elemental spells were all extremely disappointing because they're all unreliable AoEs. Fix that for the EE Larian, because at it is now, none of those spells are worth the AP (also a thing to include for the EE: automatic health regeneration).

Incidentally, I don't know if Stabbey was wrong or if there was a stealth fix, but there were a few tenebrium weapons that required 4 or 5 points so that ability is all right... except for the fact that the endgame enemies have 200 resist to it and I bought an awesome tenebrium weapon just for that fight

I was totally right about how this is nothing but a series of corridor maps, which makes it funny how people who had actually played it claimed I didn't know what I was talking about. The price of full 3D graphics. I did think it was a great idea how they deliberately decided to use the big bosses as just-plot gates as opposed to area gates, since this means you can just put a more-demanding fight on hold while you go mop up stuff elsewhere until you're capable. I had to do this with King Boreas, the bane of my existence.

I actually liked the writing more than I thought I would. As expected, I liked the funny parts the best and thought the exposition was the least interesting, except when characters were talking about their personal tragedies, like the Icara/Leandra/Zandalor deal. I was impressed with how Madora's (intentional) obnoxiousness was given a tragic expalanation, though I think it's kind of a shame how even if you convince her to sympathize him, you gotta kill that orc anyway to clear the quest off your log. Jahan was eh. I didn't interact with the DLC companions so no comment there.

As for the content, this turned out to be the best combat crawl I've played yet (to quote Josh Sawyer, "I can take a ride through paradise in a crappy Chevy Cavalier. My environment does not diminish the crappy nature of the Cavalier.") They did a good job with those post-release balance tweaks because I enjoyed virtually every fight with my cautious, conservative and crafting-free playstyle, with just a few obnoxious exceptions. Since Larian eschewed strategic gameplay (very likely the right call), it did have some pacing problems, even in Cyseal, where you have to go from one demanding fight to another without any exploration/puzzles/dialogue/a filler battle to break the routine. And yeah, after spending over an hour killing Cassandra (at least half that time mopping up all the damn undead she spawned) and over an hour killing Balberith (most of the time spent taking out the other creatures one at a time before demolishing him), I took a look at what was surrounding the Source Temple and said hell no. Thankfully, invisibility and stealth meant I could bypass all those fights. I ended up hitting level 20 anyway, so unless you're the most severe of xp junkies, you don't even "need" to fight those guys.

I did have to use degenerate tactics a few times, but eh, without those easy outs I would have been brickwalled or maybe forced to spend points I was reluctant to spend (as I said, conservative). My go-tos were covering an area in oil and setting it ablaze, covering a chokepoint in ice for slippage, retreating to choke points (hear this is pretty useful in Pillars of Eternity too) and blocking said choke points with summons and/or furniture (it looks dumb but it's hilarious and I only did it thrice). When I fought Braccus Rex I wished this had an Arcanum-esque magic lock spell, because that damn monster would keep opening the door and I'd just close it again.

The battles I enjoyed most were the ones where the enemies had comparable or slightly greater amounts of health than you; naturally, the ones I liked least were where you have one with tons of health. The enemy damage values were acceptably high throughout, as was their ability use. I understand this wasn't the case post-Cyseal on release, so thanks for the post-release balancing. Glad I waited.

I beat the Void Dragon on the first go and had zero trouble with Astarte's health, so of course I felt appropriately smug, having remembered all the posters who struggled with that fight. I'm sure some of youse can be delighted with my nigh-eternal struggle with Boreas.

This was Larian's Hitman: Blood Money in more ways than one. Hopefully their next one won't be their Absolution. Forktong has me ignored, so someone else will have to tell him I said he and Larian did a good job, and that I'm very likely to buy/preorder future Larian products.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

Pretty balanced perspective. I played before much of the balance patches and by reading your impressions I am guessing I am in for some nice surprises when I play the EE with jacked up difficulty. I really found it to be quite a step up from their previous games and I am pretty excited to see next iterations of TB combat and character systems from Larian.

 

[Crooked Bee]

I beat it before the balance tweaks as well and am waiting for EE / hardcore mode now before replaying it, so I'm glad to hear they did a good job with those.

 

[Cosmo]

...

So you liked the game, but did you like it enough to swallow your tirades about Larian's cargo cult approach to game design ?

 

[Roguey]

I forgot to mention that the "find the tiny button(s)" puzzles were in fact as frustrating as I thought they'd be. Also Pokrovsky's non-trad soundtrack was as good I expected. I imagine it's going to be difficult for Larian to find a suitable replacement.

So you liked the game, but did you like it enough to swallow your tirades about Larian's cargo cult approach to game design ?

The removal/tweaking of its cargo cult elements would make it better, so no.