Review RPG Codex Review: Darth Roxor on Disappointment, thy name is Pillars of Eternity

[Ladonna]

I wouldn't post here either if I were them. I would certainly lurk here though, quite a bit. Anyone willing to bet they don't do just that?

As for the 'Oh, don't offend the devs! We won't be respectable!!' attitude from staff, I have seen that happen before here...good to see that has long since blown over now.

 

[mastroego]

PoE fans seem more butthurt about the review than critical Codexers are butthurt about the game.
The Codex is feared, it seems, even when fractioned.

 

[Admiral jimbob]

Wasn't there suspicion a few years ago that Obsidian devs had been told to stop posting here because a few of them disappeared for no apparent reason at exactly the same time? I vaguely remember that

 

[Hatred]

All this talk about don't offend the devs is confusing me. I've seen three game developers posting on these forums. They seem to be just fine posting here.

Edit : 4 if you count VD who used to be staff I gather

 

[Gangrelrumbler]

Probably Sawyer shouted at them for posting at such non PC forum.

 

[Vault Dweller]

This site has been in decline for years. From VD's shill reviews being published for MOTB, Wasteland 2, and next POE, to games that are not even liked on the forums somehow winning GOTY - really, how the fuck did DOS end up being GOTY last year when there's barely anything good to read about it on the forums?

Yeah, I too don't understand why people vote for games I don't like. It's like they do it to spite me or something.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Wasn't there suspicion a few years ago that Obsidian devs had been told to stop posting here because a few of them disappeared for no apparent reason at exactly the same time? I vaguely remember that

Yeah, they were ordered so by Bethesda around the time F:NV was in development.

 

[ZagorTeNej]

Let's get real here. This is probably the only honest review the Codex has published in years, despite the obvious use of kid gloves so that the Codex staff would have to approve it. This site has been in decline for years. From VD's shill reviews being published for MOTB, Wasteland 2, and next POE, to games that are not even liked on the forums somehow winning GOTY - really, how the fuck did DOS end up being GOTY last year when there's barely anything good to read about it on the forums? How did several crappy JRPGs end up on the top 10 and top 20? I think many years of not fulfilling this site's purpose (to offer critical opinions/views on RPGs) have led to the deterioration of this site and it's userbase. Still probably the only forums where you can find honest, critical opinions, but at this point, there's a lot of rubbish you need wade through to get to them.

BTW this year non-posters really shouldn't be allowed to vote on GOTY polls.

Now hold on there, VD"s review of MOTB (and Mysteries of the Westgate for that matter, an underrated game) is top notch and that game plainly deserves the praise. Just because it doesn't rip the game a new one doesn't automatically make it a shill review.

Darth Roxor's review isn't good because it's edgy but because it's well written and informative about game's faults.

 

[hiver]

Let's get real here. This is probably the only honest review the Codex has published in years, despite the obvious use of kid gloves so that the Codex staff would have to approve it. This site has been in decline for years. From VD's shill reviews being published for MOTB, Wasteland 2, and next POE, to games that are not even liked on the forums somehow winning GOTY - really, how the fuck did DOS end up being GOTY last year when there's barely anything good to read about it on the forums? How did several crappy JRPGs end up on the top 10 and top 20? I think many years of not fulfilling this site's purpose (to offer critical opinions/views on RPGs) have led to the deterioration of this site and it's userbase. Still probably the only forums where you can find honest, critical opinions, but at this point, there's a lot of rubbish you need wade through to get to them.

That is unavoidable on a site that supports trolls and shitposters through the staff inaction and leniency towards those who keep spamming their unfounded empty declaratory statements as facts.

Despite publicly bragging about how it is necessary to support opinions with actual well reasoned arguments around here...
Not that i would argue for too extreme measures but it is rather clear where policies like the current ones lead and what they achieve.

Good posters simply dont post and stay silent, with a few cases like me raging away and then getting the blame. And pathetic self-defeating tags from the same people who failed at arguing some point in ways that actually make sense.

This site has been in decline for years. From VD's shill reviews being published for MOTB, Wasteland 2, and next POE, to games that are not even liked on the forums somehow winning GOTY - really, how the fuck did DOS end up being GOTY last year when there's barely anything good to read about it on the forums?

Yeah, I too don't understand why people vote for games I don't like. It's like they do it to spite me or something.

I think roshan was talking about how there was no good supportive posts to see about DOS (im sure there were but got drowned in torrents of unfounded negativity and shitposting declaratory statements) yet it won in voting.

 

[Turok]

Keep wasting time posting on a forum because the game is not what you want,
i am on the level 5 of the mega dungeon having lot of fun.
This time that dragon got no chance (or i will die miserable again),
Wish me good luck.

Bye.

 

[Decado]

Let's get real here. This is probably the only honest review the Codex has published in years, despite the obvious use of kid gloves so that the Codex staff would have to approve it. This site has been in decline for years. From VD's shill reviews being published for MOTB, Wasteland 2, and next POE, to games that are not even liked on the forums somehow winning GOTY - really, how the fuck did DOS end up being GOTY last year when there's barely anything good to read about it on the forums? How did several crappy JRPGs end up on the top 10 and top 20? I think many years of not fulfilling this site's purpose (to offer critical opinions/views on RPGs) have led to the deterioration of this site and it's userbase. Still probably the only forums where you can find honest, critical opinions, but at this point, there's a lot of rubbish you need wade through to get to them.

BTW this year non-posters really shouldn't be allowed to vote on GOTY polls.

I will confess to not understanding some of this mentality. What if a game is simply good, and there isn't a lot of negative shit to say about it? I know I am biased here because I wrote the review, but Legend of Grimrock II was a pretty kick ass game and there wasn't a lot of bad things to say about it. Is the honesty of the review called into question because I wasn't a complete grognarding dickhead?

I will agree with you about D:OS, though. It was a good game, and I gave it a good review personally, but viewed against the backdrop of what else is out there, it feels fundamentally underwhelming a year later.

 

[Whisper]

You can read through pages and pages of people complaining about the difficulty, every now and then there will be a guy like J_C or Iren saying they are playing on normal and find the game plenty challenging but of course the autists won't care and keep repeating that its too easy over and over and over. To bring up that most 'normal' players experience the difficulty diifferently from them is pointless, cause most normal players are of course 'the stupid retarded masses' in their mind, so there goes your argument. Inside their little grognard fish tank of course they find enough reinforcement to make their argument objetively true, at least 'for the real RPG fans', not for the unwashed plebs that is the outside world. Note also how these people have apparently endless time on their hands to just keep posting and posting. Nothing wrong with that in principle if posting is your thing, but there are certainly people I deliberately avoid since I don't feel like engaging in a pointless internet debate for the next few weeks.

Some people are challenged on Normal in PoE - and its ok.
Some people think that game is too easy even on hardest difficulty setting - its also ok.

Why not make difficulty setting where encounters are harder. Not more hp/damage bloat - but lets say some spells have chance to fail, or there are invisible enemies, or you can be ambushed or some enemies use potions when low hp, this kind of stuff that makes game more varied - and harder.

 

[Vault Dweller]

This site has been in decline for years. From VD's shill reviews being published for MOTB, Wasteland 2, and next POE, to games that are not even liked on the forums somehow winning GOTY - really, how the fuck did DOS end up being GOTY last year when there's barely anything good to read about it on the forums?

Yeah, I too don't understand why people vote for games I don't like. It's like they do it to spite me or something.

I think roshan was talking about how there was no good supportive posts to see about DOS (im sure there were but got drowned in torrents of unfounded negativity and shitposting declaratory statements) yet it won in voting.

Disclaimer: I didn't like D:OS. Not my cup of tea. At the same I'm well aware that the game was overwhelmingly praised and is probably one of the best (if not the best) received KS games on the Codex. Thus, it's not really a mystery as to why it was voted #1.

 

[Morality Games]

Let's get real here. This is probably the only honest review the Codex has published in years, despite the obvious use of kid gloves so that the Codex staff would have to approve it. This site has been in decline for years. From VD's shill reviews being published for MOTB, Wasteland 2, and next POE, to games that are not even liked on the forums somehow winning GOTY - really, how the fuck did DOS end up being GOTY last year when there's barely anything good to read about it on the forums? How did several crappy JRPGs end up on the top 10 and top 20? I think many years of not fulfilling this site's purpose (to offer critical opinions/views on RPGs) have led to the deterioration of this site and it's userbase. Still probably the only forums where you can find honest, critical opinions, but at this point, there's a lot of rubbish you need wade through to get to them.

BTW this year non-posters really shouldn't be allowed to vote on GOTY polls.

Codex is a culture of disappointment and criticism. When the butt hurt are on the war path its rare to contradict them; its the natural state of even people who like the game to join in and pick over the aspects they disliked.

 

[hiver]

Vault Dweller
Yeah i know you didnt like it.

Thats not the issue in roshan post - i think.

I think he was merely wondering how come there was not more of the positive but good posts about it before the vote,
Seems to me he is talking about the general culture of these forums, as i tried to explain. And used DOS as a direct example of that.

I think he is speaking about shitposters winning and taking over.

 

[Kz3r0]

I will agree with you about D:OS, though. It was a good game, and I gave it a good review personally, but viewed against the backdrop of what else is out there, it feels fundamentally underwhelming a year later.

D:OS was GOTY because of Larian BRO atttitude.

 

[Nikaido]

Mask of the Betrayer is, by far, the most enjoyable thing Obsidian has released. It's a beautiful deconstruction of forgotten realms quirks, features strong C&C, has an interesting, involving story line and is one of the few RPGs out there that had good pacing, a virtue it probably gained from being a smaller scale expansion, it has just about the right amount of content for the story it has to tell and doesn't outstay its welcome with things like NWN2's own OC orc caves. To lump it together with the bland PoE as a "shill review" because VD liked both games is beyond inane. Even broken clocks can be right twice a day. If VD says the sky is blue, it doesn't become a lie and we don't suddenly start seeing a red sky.

 

[ArchAngel]

I just hope Anthony Davis has enough balls to keep posting here. I like that guy.

Now that you mention him, I have not seen him in a while in RPG section. Sawyer might have cut off his hands so he cannot post what PoE devs think of Codex spiting on PoE in last few weeks :D

 

[Lurker King]

This is like when Infinitron was in the shoutbox saying:
"Some people claim the staff is pushing an agenda to kiss up to the devs. Regardless of whether or not that is true, that policy gave us most of the recent news and interviews"

Parapharsing a bit because searching the shoutbox archives is tedious work.

Then he went on to mention the codex getting all those free Might & Magic X keys and sending Grunker to Gamescom. How'd that review go again? Oh, right...

In summary, MMXL does not quite live up to the expectations that I had when reading everything that was released by Limbic about the game, as well as the Codex previews. Perhaps no game could have lived up to the expectations one builds after 12 years of waiting for the next entry in a beloved series, an entry that no one ever expected would see the light of day.

Followed a few lines later by:

The final verdict should be obvious by now: MMXL is a must-buy and a must-play. Limbic did a superlative job in bringing together many beloved elements from the series, improving where they could and not dumbing down where it matters. The flaws are immaterial in the grand scheme of things

Infinitron? Noooooooooooooooooooooooo!

 

[Lurker King]

I still remember fondly the day when a friend of mine barged into my house with 4 floppy disks, in that distant year of 1992. He said: "Hey! I've got this cool game here. It's called Ultima Underworld! You should try it. I think you'll like it!"

4 fuckin' floppy disks!! For a game that I had never heard of in my life before.

Nowadays some guys get a buget of 3.000.000$ to make a game that only fits in 2 DVDs. Said game is released after an over-hype of several years. The game is mediocre.
Not good. Not bad. Just mediocre.

FO/FO2 and BG/BG2 were created by young guys full of energy, working seven days a week, poorly feed, unwashed and without a care in the world beside playing more games. POE and W2 were made by oldfarts that develop games for a living, have wives, mortgage to pay, kids and another million distractions that suck most of their energy. Do you want more classics? Take a good look at the guys that are making their first games. They have the necessary passion to achieve greatness.

 

[Lurker King]

Let's get real here. This is probably the only honest review the Codex has published in years, despite the obvious use of kid gloves so that the Codex staff would have to approve it. This site has been in decline for years. From VD's shill reviews being published for MOTB, Wasteland 2, and next POE, to games that are not even liked on the forums somehow winning GOTY - really, how the fuck did DOS end up being GOTY last year when there's barely anything good to read about it on the forums? How did several crappy JRPGs end up on the top 10 and top 20? I think many years of not fulfilling this site's purpose (to offer critical opinions/views on RPGs) have led to the deterioration of this site and it's userbase.

The critical opinions and views on RPGs will vary according to player’s tastes. You are a oldfag, you should have known better. There is no such thing as objective edgy critical taste here. For instance, I agree with you that D:OS winning GOTY was a shame, but I also think that you shouldn’t complain about the review for MotB or for being underwhelmed by Fallout.

 

[Night Goat]

I think that D:OS' GOTY might have had something to do with the fact that it came out in fucking 2014. Were there even any other RPGs released besides Wasteland 2 and Dragon Age: Inquisition?

 

[Hatred]

Comfortable people often don't make the best art 'tis true

 

[mastroego]

This is like when Infinitron was in the shoutbox saying:
"Some people claim the staff is pushing an agenda to kiss up to the devs. Regardless of whether or not that is true, that policy gave us most of the recent news and interviews"

Parapharsing a bit because searching the shoutbox archives is tedious work.

Then he went on to mention the codex getting all those free Might & Magic X keys and sending Grunker to Gamescom. How'd that review go again? Oh, right...

In summary, MMXL does not quite live up to the expectations that I had when reading everything that was released by Limbic about the game, as well as the Codex previews. Perhaps no game could have lived up to the expectations one builds after 12 years of waiting for the next entry in a beloved series, an entry that no one ever expected would see the light of day.

Followed a few lines later by:

The final verdict should be obvious by now: MMXL is a must-buy and a must-play. Limbic did a superlative job in bringing together many beloved elements from the series, improving where they could and not dumbing down where it matters. The flaws are immaterial in the grand scheme of things

Infinitron? Noooooooooooooooooooooooo!

So the butt-licking is between_the_lines official?

 

[tuluse]

I think that D:OS' GOTY might have had something to do with the fact that it came out in fucking 2014. Were there even any other RPGs released besides Wasteland 2 and Dragon Age: Inquisition?

Neoscavenger. I think Dragonfall or at least the Director's Cut. Some jRPGs.