The RPGWatch?

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

I was a long time member of RPGwatch but censorship is dangerous and I won't be going back their any more if they even come back.

Aren't you from Ohio anyways? People from Ohio are generally shit.

You mean like Aubrielle? Then sure.

Pretty sure the strict D diet can turn Aubrielle or any other woman into a normal human being.
Anyone willing to test that theory?

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Pretty sure the strict D diet can turn Aubrielle or any other woman into a normal human being.
Anyone willing to test that theory?

Sorry, that contradicts the "Don't stick your dick into crazy"-rule.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Pretty sure the strict D diet can turn Aubrielle or any other woman into a normal human being.
Anyone willing to test that theory?

Sorry, that contradicts the "Don't stick your dick into crazy"-rule.

Sure she's crazy and not pretentious? Usually the "crazy" part occurs when the woman is longing for a cock.
Heck, half of the femnazis could be healed by tying them up and giving them the D, while beheading will work for the rest.

Just avoid impregnating them in case the plan fails.

 

[Black]

You guys still talking about Scrooge?

 

[Bubbles]

New feature:

Autumn: A Meager RPG Harvest
by Aubrielle (Emma Yorke), 2016-10-12
Last Christmas, we gathered around the RPGWatch tree and tried to add some chill to the air by reminiscing about the snowiest games in our collections. We griped together; that old Yuletide nip had gone out of the air, leaving us stranded in a muggy winter wasteland with solid cloud cover for weeks on end. But at least we had those good old wintry games.

As I sat down to write this article, I ran into a huge obstacle right away - there seem to be far fewer autumn-esque, Halloween-y RPGs than I thought! Here in the midwest, fall is a big deal. Pumpkins everywhere you look, corn mazes, farmers' markets with their rustic barn doors thrown wide, jams, jellies, apple bobs, primitive Americana crafts. Our local coffee - some of the best there is - is at your fingertips, bursting with flavors like cinnamon, candied pecans, apple, and of course, the ever-present pumpkin spice. And Halloween is just around the corner. But where's the fall RPGs?

I mean sure, there's a few. The obvious solution is already on your tongue - there's Skyrim and Guild Wars with their beautiful autumn zones. Lords of Xulima and Pillars of Eternity also have areas with beautiful fall coloration. Then there's non-RPGs, like Assassin's Creed: Syndicate and Saints Row: The Third, with their own taste of October. But as I write this, I'm gazing out my window into the autumn sunrise, casting its ever-weakening golden light onto the faces of leaves just beginning to turn from forest green to olive. Soon the trees will be ablaze in oranges and bright reds, the mornings will be just a little bit chillier, and here in Ohio, we'll have to start wearing hoodies.

We all play RPGs for different reasons. Some of us just like tweaking stats, crawling dungeons, trying different classes, cranking up the difficulty to test our minds and our mettle. For me, RPGs have something of a unique purpose. Video games are a whole new artistic medium, one that allows us to truly immerse ourselves in another world, at least for a little while. That's why I play. And since autumn is my favorite time of year, I would love to have rich autumn-themed games to delve into, as fitting companions to cider, sweaters, Dragonlance books, and hoodies.

We have a few autumn RPGs, at least. Let's talk about what we have, then we can throw another log on the fire and talk about what we want.



1. Skyrim


My own heavily-modded version of Whiterun, re-imagined as a cozy autumn hamlet.


If you said "autumn in an RPG", Skyrim is the first thing most gamers would think of. The Rift is probably the most familiar fall setting in the video game industry, and rightly so; properly modded, you'll never see autumn scenery like this anywhere else. Still, if you'll permit me to nitpick, I will say that Bethesda could have done more than just giving us a forest of birch trees. Low-lying banks of chimney smoke early in the foggy mornings, descriptions of the sharp odor of hickory smoke, fall festivals, vivid fears of the things that prowl the night close to the Harvest Moon...these things would have done so much to evoke a chilly autumn atmosphere. But, as we all know, Skyrim wasn't a title renowned for stellar writing or immersiveness. Those things had to be added later by talented modders. Even Skyrim's gray, uninspired color scheme failed miserably in delivering the experience of traversing the varied climates of the wide north of Tamriel; at release, it looked like seeing the world through the eyes of a severely depressed person. It took ENB addons to bring out the game's real beauty.

Skyrim might be one of the most famous examples of fall scenery in an RPG, but unfortunately, scenery is all it's willing to offer.



For me, fall isn't fall without a wide, beautiful blue sky to offset the smoldering colors.



2. Guild Wars


The breathtaking beauty of Pre-Searing Ascalon. Listening to it with the right piece from the Guild Wars soundtrack will pour burning salt right down in your nostalgic feels.


That image takes you back, doesn't it? Come on, you can admit it. I won't shame you for it.

The original Guild Wars doesn't get talked about too much these days; a lot of players seemed eager to toss it into the trash bin of history and move on to its sequel. Some diehards still play, though, and my nostalgia takes me back every once in a while to hang out in Pre-Searing Ascalon. It might not have been the very best MMO, but my goodness, Ascalon was beautiful. It blended New England-level autumn color with red poppies and grim skies to create a unique experience.

Walking the ruins of Ascalon in Guild Wars 2 might be depressing, but it still delivers some pretty scenery.



3. Lords of Xulima


The Golden Woods are aptly named. The zone's beauty more than makes up for its frustrating puzzles.


I can say, without any reservation, that the photo above was the reason I decided to get Lords of Xulima. Any game with that kind of seductive autumn beauty has gotta be worth a try, I reasoned. I admit that I was rough on LoX at first. I still don't think the interface and effects are all that amazing, and it came out around the same time as the embattled Dragon Age: Inquisition, which is still a game I love. But Lords of Xulima has a lot of charm. Its forests and settlements are full of a beauty all their own, and the game brims with nostalgia.



Non-RPG Fall Scenes
RPGs are arguably better at immersing us than any other genre; RPGs by nature require more attention to stats, your character's physical and mental health, and many other factors that keep you focused on the world around you. But sometimes you can't find what you're looking for in an RPG.



1. Assassin's Creed: Syndicate


The scenery alone is almost reason enough to pick up this game.


On the surface, Assassin's Creed: Syndicate might look like just another awkward console port rushed through production so it could start making money for corporate investors. Sure, it's a AAA title, and sure, it could use a touch of polish (not to mention a complete rewrite of the brittle story). But for me, this is the cleanest, most polished title in the Assassin's Creed series. Lots of care went into the environment, prettier and more historically accurate than most of its predecessors. The weather feels more real; nights are rainy and oppressive, making your chest tight with vapor and industrial smog. Days are bright and vivid, revealing a new direction for the series. The same lazy, ape-like animations used for the main character in every other version has been scrapped, replaced with newer, more believable movement. Victorian London has never felt so alive in a game.

And of course, the whole Lambeth district is resplendent in all the colors of autumn, making one of the game's most beautiful buildings a fitting home.



2. Saints Row: The Third


Its graphics and engine might no longer be cutting edge, but Saints Row: The Third is still one of my favorite open world games.



I never thought I could have so much fun with something so silly. While the Saints Row series (minus the first one) doesn't take itself as seriously as the games it's modeled on (Grand Theft Auto and others), Saints Row: The Third changes up the formula by giving you the choice between a male or a female protagonist. Sure, I like my games a little serious, but this game's open world mayhem and fun soundtrack got me through last summer. And that's ironic because the game has some decent autumn scenery, especially in the Deckers-controlled district of Stanfield.



Conclusion
There are too few games with gorgeous autumn backdrops. Period. Some of the best ideas never got implemented; for a while, it seemed as if we would get a Dragonlance module for Neverwinter Nights, but the project was abandoned.

I'd love to see more Victorian or Rococo streets shivering in November chill as the leaves go swirling around you. Gothic valleys, alive with color, where you can't help but dread the imminent sunset. A haunted New England countryside, still echoing with the curses of witch hunters from remote Puritan times.

For a season so beloved, with so many occasions deeply important to us (such as Halloween), fall is terribly under-represented in the RPG world. It's my hope that that changes soon. We've got enough palm trees and steamy jungles to last us for a good while, and I can assure RPG designers that autumn would be a perfect backdrop for just about any RPG.

Are there any backdrops - autumn or otherwise - that you feel are under-represented? Do you have a mental image you'd love to see brought into reality in the form of an excellent RPG?

https://www.rpgwatch.com/articles/autumn--a-meager-rpg-harvest-395.html

 

[SausageInYourFace]

Quality content.

 

[Kev Inkline]

If Guild Wars should be remembered about anything, is should be remembered as an attempt at a competitive pvp mmo with monetary rewards for tournament winners that actually almost mattered - at first.
And, in particular, as an innovative way of building skill decks, inspidred by MtG, where clever builds could be actually used to compensate for lesser micro skills/twitch reflexes.

Alas, it was its success as a pve game that caused its eventual downhill - as there were no subscription fees, they would have to make more content, which of course was pve content, for people that enjoyed scenery and lore (I can somewhat understand the former, but the grand plot was horrendous).

 

[Severian Silk]

Autumn is sooooo Goth.

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

Why can't Infinitron write awesome pieces like that?

 

[Modron]

Why can't Infinitron write awesome pieces like that?

Yeah he could write a winter piece fluffing wasteland 3 all along the way now that he and Brother None are friends again.

 

[Roqua]

Speaking of rpgwatch - why is it okay on sites where everyone is a puritanical quack to have carte blanche use of calling anyone a troll. You can't call someone mean, but troll is okay? According to the puritans I am not a person, just some imaginary monster thing whose feelings and posts don't even count. I'm a person damn it. Legally. A real person. And what the fuck do you think someone who is of able body and mind that could work to suck off of society with SSD? That is a fucking real troll. People work until they earn retirement. Trolls are fucking parasites who leech off of real people so they can play video games all day and call real people who work trolls just because they aren't a fucking puritanical hypocrites completely full of shit in every possible way.

And does it bother anyone else that both sites have members who almost exclusively do not like rpgs? Is this genre so bad that people who do not fit in anywhere else have to pretend they like rpgs to have some sort of online social community they belong to?

 

[Chinese Jetpilot]

You should demand your own pronoun, its all the rage now.

 

[Roqua]

Demand it from whom? And which pronoun should I demand?

 

[Leechmonger]

Demand it from whom? And which pronoun should I demand?

It. In response to both questions.

 

[Roqua]

Demand it from whom? And which pronoun should I demand?

It. In response to both questions.

Since you used it as the first word and had to capitalize it I am not sure if you mean subject or object. I would rather be it, as in an object pronoun. May I please demand this from it or It?

 

[Bubbles]

Slacking off on the Watch watch? No matter, here's their newest article:

Wolcen: An Early Look

Aubrielle takes an early look at Wolcen, the gorgeous new ARPG made in CryEngine.

Most of us have thought about our favorite ideas for an RPG, or what it would be like to make one. You might have even thought out details - animations, writing, particle effects. A few of us may have even considered what engine we'd want our ideal RPG built in - I know I have. But it wasn't until Wolcen came along that I personally decided to take an honest shot at learning game design; I saw a game that looked exactly like something I'd want to make myself.

Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem (formerly known as Umbra) was brought to public attention a couple years ago through Kickstarter, that notorious place that has spawned brilliant successes and miserable failures alike, forever changing the way we play games. It might have been just like any other Diablo-like ARPG except for one crucial factor - it was being made in CryEngine. It didn't exactly take an expert to see that this was going to be a very different game than anything we'd seen before.

On the surface, Wolcen may not look much different than a lot of favorite Diablo-like ARPGs. It includes fast-paced action combat, loot, intricate skill trees, and unlockable portals to take you quickly from one zone to another. But it differs in a few key ways. For one thing, CryEngine technology allows for beautiful weather and atmospheric effects never before seen in a game this style. Rain-slicked streets and puddle-ridden dirt roads glimmer with the light of sunrises or guttering torches. Forests come alive with realistic trees and undergrowth, and are made gloomy by low-lying fog or sullen, miserable rain. Even from an isometric view, it's absolutely clear what the sky looks like, even if you can't see it directly. CryEngine allows a developer to easily render realistic atmosphere in their RPGs, doing far more to immerse the player than the less sophisticated environments used in many recent ARPG titles.



A rain-slick road out of town at night. Notice the damp fog and the flare of torches shining on the wet ground. With proper sound effects and attention to monsters, this trip could feel quite perilous indeed.

Because of the technology used by Wolcen's dev team, the game has enormous potential. It's far too early to tell whether the game will live up to the high standards it's setting for itself. The game, currently early in alpha, is a fraction of what it will be on launch. Graphics this good will need equally sharp sound effects to create strong atmosphere, and not many of those sound effects are in place right now.



So what about role-playing mechanics? The devs have just rolled out Wolcen's skill tree in their latest update, along with their highly-experimental housing feature. The housing looks fun, and even though it's a long way from being perfected, the skill tree is up and running pretty well.

The game runs on a classless system, allowing you to divide the skill points you earn every level between any of five separate branches of the skill tree: fighter, ranger, thief, guardian, or arcanist. Assigning skill points into arcanist will increase your mana pool and the effectiveness of your spells, while assigning points into fighter will increase your strength and melee damage. You'll find an NPC that lets you respec right in town, should the need arise.



The skill tree is an excellent example of Wolcen Studio's attention to detail. They've clearly put a lot of thought into both character skills and the exquisitely-rendered artwork.

Another notable difference between Wolcen and its cousins (Grim Dawn, Diablo, Path of Exile) is in the speed and flow of combat. Diablo and Grim Dawn have you lining up, tanking hordes of mobs, and absorbing their damage while slaughtering them in groups. Wolcen allows you rolling dodges to get behind enemies and eviscerate them while they're still swinging at where you were a second ago. This becomes especially satisfying if you're playing a more rogueish character who relies far more strongly on her dexterity than on heavy armor and loads of hit points.

Magic is integral to the entire combat system as well. You play a character given magically enhanced abilities, and you're able to mix spellcraft with swords in any way you choose. The beginning of the game will see you fending off increasingly large groups of enemies with your weapons, quick thinking, the occasional dodge, and the spells in your arsenal. You may find yourself playing in this all-around sort of way until you level up and begin to further specialize your character. That's not to say that you have to use magic, if you don't want to. But it definitely helps. If you do, you'll find that individual spells level up the more they're used; your magic will get blanket benefits by points spent in the arcanist skill tree, but your only truly effective spells will be ones you've used consistently.

Final release is still a ways off; I'd only recommend the early access version if you're instantly smitten with it, if they offer a nice discount, or if you're willing to playtest and help with development. Right now, the game is barely playable; the characters have placeholder portraits (that aren't really very good, in my opinion), a lot of the sound and assets aren't in place yet, you only have access to the first area and a few quests, and there's still lots of bugs. The characters also don't look very impressive just yet; even after tweaking her body at character creation, she had grotesquely unrealistic proportions and a strange, awkward stance that reminded me of a misshapen woman from a really old cartoon. The developers put a lot of emphasis on making sure that, no matter how you distributed fat and muscle mass, no matter how chubby or skinny, your girl would always have melon-like breasts, a tiny waist, and a bulbous, insectoid butt made to thrust at an impossible, inhuman angle. Worst of all, the game lags; one of the most requested improvements on the Steam forums is an optimization patch. My system is a middle-of-the-road gaming PC, more than enough to easily handle most new titles, and certain parts of the game saw my framerate drop quite a bit (I idled in town at 30fps). I also hope that they go all the way with polishing the UI; while the basic Calibri font in the character screen looks better than the ugly disaster that Grim Dawn used for text, it could still be improved a bit to match the attractive standard set by the rest of Wolcen.

But even in its unpolished alpha state, the game is still tasty and addictive, and I've had to stop myself from going back for another round to avoid spoiling the game when it's done. Will it be as solid and rich as Grim Dawn? It very well could be, and Wolcen offers a whole lot of promise. If the game's current state is anything to go on, the final product could be a truly excellent ARPG, and possibly one of my absolute favorites.

https://www.rpgwatch.com/articles/wolcen--an-early-look-396.html

 

[A horse of course]

The developers put a lot of emphasis on making sure that, no matter how you distributed fat and muscle mass, no matter how chubby or skinny, your girl would always have melon-like breasts, a tiny waist, and a bulbous, insectoid butt made to thrust at an impossible, inhuman angle.

Nice

 

[Bumvelcrow]

The developers put a lot of emphasis on making sure that, no matter how you distributed fat and muscle mass, no matter how chubby or skinny, your girl would always have melon-like breasts, a tiny waist, and a bulbous, insectoid butt made to thrust at an impossible, inhuman angle.

Nice

Aubrielle. What a shock.

 

[King Crispy]

Aubrielle. What a shock.

 

[muds_animal_friend]

The developers put a lot of emphasis on making sure that ... your girl would always have melon-like breasts, a tiny waist, and a bulbous, insectoid butt made to thrust at an impossible, inhuman angle.

A goal of women themselves since time immemorial.

 

[Baron Dupek]

Aubrielle. What a shock.

never heard of it, wha-

Spoiler

-t

Spoiler

the

Spoiler

nevermind

 

[Kev Inkline]

The developers put a lot of emphasis on making sure that, no matter how you distributed fat and muscle mass, no matter how chubby or skinny, your girl would always have melon-like breasts, a tiny waist, and a bulbous, insectoid butt made to thrust at an impossible, inhuman angle.

Nice

Aubrielle. What a shock.

I wonder if it's trans fats we are talking about?

 

[throwaway]

Why does Bubbles of all people care that much about the Watch? I'd understand if it was KONY2012 or some other edgelord but this is intriguing.

 

[duanth123]

Why does Bubbles of all people care that much about the Watch? I'd understand if it was KONY2012 or some other edgelord but this is intriguing.

The Watch is our gently retarded, enthusiastically self-censoring, goose-stepping foil. It's the patriotic duty of all Codexians to check in every one in a while and remind ourselves of the many horrors of "current year".


https://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1061419527&postcount=27

 

[Murk]

Bubbles writes good shit; humorous and detailed. It's probably like a skilled musician watching karaoke night at a dive bar.

EDIT: I, perhaps ironically, wrote "write" instead of "writes". Illiterati, etc.