Blackguards 2

Years ago in my Blackguards post I said wasn't going to buy Blackguards 2 but then it was on sale on GOG for next to nothing at the end of last year and I thought I might as well buy it after all. Although, had I waited just one more day, I could've played it on Origin Access for completely free.

The Surge

Here's another of them methodical third person action roleplaying games. I actually played The Surge a bit last fall already during my second month of Game Pass but then ragequit and uninstalled after dying and dropping a considerable amount of scrap which is the game's main resource. I had just spawned the first boss who appears between you and the level's medbay which is your respawn point. I thought there was no way to get to the scrap in time with how I would need to beat the boss first. I now know it would've in fact been quite simple to go around, although I don't remember if I had unlocked a particular shortcut then.

Darksiders III

Vigil Games' founder David Adams moved with most of the studio's people to hastily established Crytek USA when THQ went bankrupt in 2012. Adam quit soon after however, and founded Gunfire Games with many of Crytek USA's leads as staff. THQ's Darksiders IP was bought by Nordic Games -- now THQ Nordic -- who hired Gunfire to develop Deathinitive Edition of the second game and then finally Darksiders III. Thus the franchise continues to live on with the people who created it. THQ Nordic also acquired Gunfire Games in last year's August, pretty much ensuring the fourth game will come from the same people as well.

RAGE 2

I wonder if it was Bethesda/id who saw Mad Max, thinking its engine would be a good fit for RⒶGE 2 (as it's stylized), and approached Avalanche Studios for a collaboration. Or was it vice versa. The credits have more Avalanche's people than id's so I would guess it was mainly their project.

The Outer Worlds

Epic Games released their own digital games store and launcher about a year ago. Epic's approach to competing against Steam's massive market share on PC has been simply to offer a game library -- a reason to stay on the platform. One half of that tactic has been giving away weekly freebies of already released games and the other half -- which has caused considerable ire -- has been paying developers/publishers for timed exclusivity of their new titles. One of those titles has been The Outer Worlds by Obsidian Entertainment.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey

Perhaps due to the success of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (2015) and desiring a piece of that success too, has Ubisoft introduced more roleplaying elements to their Assassin's Creed franchise. Perk trees, equipment, and combat was made more complex than before, and dialogue choices and story branching were added. Assassin's Creed Origins (2016) had some already, I believe, but it was Assassin's Creed Odyssey (2018) that took it even further. What really got me interested in the series again however, was seeing Odyssey's The Fate of Atlantis DLC. It appeared Ubisoft Quebec had gone full fantasy action RPG with the game.

Far Cry New Dawn

Far Cry New Dawn could have included the digit 5 in its title. I have trouble understanding why exactly it is not there. Most often -- if not always -- the reason companies do anything is money, though. Maybe there's no 5 because this way the game seems more like a new title instead of DLC which people generally aren't as keen on buying. Regardless, New Dawn is very much a sequel to Far Cry 5. I'd say it's also a better game, a more even experience even if somewhat smaller in scale -- thus the lower asking price.

Far Cry 5

I was late to Ubisoft's Uplay+ service launch. Playing their games for free in September would've been nicer than paying for a month later on but I thought it would still be worth it since Ubisoft doesn't really make games that I'd see myself replaying after finishing them once. Thus Uplay+ was a good way to knock three Ubisoft titles off my wishlist even though 15€/month is a pretty hefty amount compared to something like the Xbox game pass for PC beta with its 1€ price tag. You do get an access to the complete editions of the games however -- all released DLC is included.

Tiamat's Wrath

Don't be a whiny little cunt, Avarasala said in his imagination. Hope in one hand and shit in the other. See which one fills up first. Get to work.

Blair Witch

Bloober Team's newest, Blair Witch, came available on the Xbox-PC game pass on day one of the game's release. I thought I might as well quickly play through it and get slightly more value out of my second month of subscription. Having played two of the developer's earlier titles, I wasn't expecting much from it however.