STS was Java running on libgdx.

STS2 will be C# on Godot.

Based on this: https://caseyyano.com/on-evaluating-godot-b35ea86e8cf4

They wrote this article: https://caseyyano.com/on-evaluating-godot-b35ea86e8cf4

And they released a tech demo as part of the evaluation: https://megacrit.itch.io/dancing-duelists

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.

I very much loved the first one. You probably don’t hear too much about it because the game came out 13 years ago as a standalone title.

It hasn’t been in the spotlight for quite some time. The game ended on a huge cliffhanger so I’ve been waiting for over a decade to get this one.

Personally I much preferred Lies of P.

Lords of the Fallen is sitting at 55% positive reviews on Steam. Lies of P is sitting at a nice comfortable 89% positive reviews.

Lords of the Fallen had a pretty troubled development cycle (changing studios 3 times) and it has some problems.

It’s on Gamepass. Just get that for $10 and beat it. Might be able to find a free trial somewhere too.

Lies of P was extremely good. Not quite on the same tier as Elden Ring, but super enjoyable and polished.

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.

I played a bit of Craftopia awhile back from the same developers. It was weird, disjointed, buggy and strange.

I expect this will be more of the same. But I hope I’m wrong. It would be wild for this game to be decent to good.

I played through the campaign, then got bored pretty much immediately after. Switched back to Path of Exile and made 2 characters this league. Having a blast.

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

Definitely agree with this. Locked 30fps mode with motion blur set to 2/5 was the ideal way to play this game. Performance mode was far too unstable and blurry especially on a larger TV. Digital Foundry also suggested just locking it to 30 and not switching back and forth. Your eyes do eventually adjust.

I wish the performance mode was better, but it seems pretty clear that 30fps was the performance target.

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

I know what this post is referencing, but I don’t think that was really the message that they were trying to convey.

Baldurs Gate 3 is an incredibly good game, but it will be difficult for most average studios to emulate their success.

They had a very long developmental cycle of 6+ years, very successful early access, and a team of 400+ experienced developers who know this genre better than anyone.

I would absolutely love to see another studio attempt something this ambitious, but it’s going to be really hard to top this game for the foreseeable future.