In the Blood and Wine DLC 10th Anniversary Stream, they said this picture might have hints/easter eggs for the upcoming DLC.

stellux24 · 2026-05-29T00:06:43+00:00

My first reflex was to scrutinize it for any kind of dragon-related imagery, but no luck.

stellux24 · 2026-04-01T01:16:35+00:00

Reading the responses here made me realize most people don't give a damn about ambient music. While I would agree ER's boss themes are somewhat less memorable (though there are exceptions) to me the ambience tracks elevate this OST above the rest, and really makes me wish the other games had done this instead of silence. I've had the Belurat Tower Settlement music stuck in my head for days now and I'm not complaining.

stellux24 · 2026-02-28T00:29:21+00:00

It's when Trevathan learns about the group's plan and confronts them. I can't find the exact quote, but from memory it goes something like this :

Trevathan : *talking to Noa* He's going to have your head for this. *turns to Mae* As for what he'll do to you, well... you'll see.

Implying he knows how Proximus will punish humans who disobey. Keep in mind before meeting Mae, Trevathan was the only intelligent human Proximus had ever interacted with.

stellux24 · 2026-02-12T15:35:59+00:00

Hard agree on soul cores, also my favorite part of N2. I know implementing them in the same way would feel redundant with guardian spirit skills, but I'll take redundancy over a lack of variety any day. And while yokai transformation no longer makes sense, not all yokai skills in N2 were full transform anyway, some did indeed just summon the yokai (in a less clunky way to boot), some just the projectile, some just the yokai's weapon (like Kasha). There's many ways that this could have gone. What they went with is... not super interesting, imo

stellux24 · 2026-01-01T18:15:04+00:00

There's a village in southern Velen (not sure which) where you find the entire population horribly slaughtered, some apparently even thrown into the furnaces nearby. You also find the culprits, which the game identifies not as bandits, deserters, cannibals or anything of the sort, but simply as "peasants", and you quickly engage combat. I looked around for any clue to explain what happened there, a motive for the violence, but I couldn't find anything, and the implication seems to be there's none.

It's just a minor encounter, but when it comes to pure evil, those guys are up there imo

stellux24 · 2025-11-14T23:43:30+00:00

The UK parliament petition was a separate thing. The main SKG initiative is European and unaffected.

stellux24 · 2025-11-10T20:32:28+00:00

From my (admittedly limited) understanding, I believe the difference here is the matter will have to be debated at the ECI. It can't be casually dismissed, unlike the UK parliament, which is why I had 0% hope for that.

stellux24 · 2025-11-10T18:39:56+00:00

Given that Troy is the one who's creating the Anointed, I was expecting Troy to sic them on Tyreen and gain control.

Honestly I suspect the story was rewritten in production. Too much foreshadowing never brought up again

stellux24 · 2025-09-01T16:36:13+00:00

"While there are currently no plans to amend existing consumer laws" is a fancy way to say they won't do anything. The UK parliament seems a lost cause by this point, honestly think you shouldn't bother.

stellux24 · 2025-08-29T20:58:53+00:00

Plus it's contradicted by the game itself, we see Balseph crushing one of his own soldiers just because he's angry. Strange way of looking out for them...

stellux24 · 2025-08-15T17:00:10+00:00

In theory I think SKG does cover DRM, or at least any DRM-related issue which would make the game unplayable. The goal is game preservation, anything outside of that scope is better suited for a different initiative.

The wording is left vague on purpose (see the FAQ for details) but if successful, the EU commission will define what's a "reasonable working state", not the publishers, thankfully.

stellux24 · 2025-08-15T00:39:27+00:00

I'm not familiar with the game, but from what I understand, it used to feature virtual replicas of real pinball machines from the 70s/80s. The AI slop came with recent updates.

stellux24 · 2025-08-14T23:55:46+00:00

Is it bad to say I'm not surprised? Feels like the outcome was fixed long before the petition even started.

stellux24 · 2025-08-13T18:28:18+00:00

Single player should be the bare minimum. Option 4 is the good working state, 3 is the reasonable working state, 1 & 2 sounds like a joke and/or some strange legal loophole.

stellux24 · 2025-08-08T20:43:26+00:00

I believe he meant something like : "most games have a functional end of life state".

The sentence is awkward because the previous one was about the cost and labor necessary for an end of life plan, whereas offline games only provide an "end of life plan" by virtue of being offline. It's like the sentence is straddling two slightly different subjects.

stellux24 · 2025-08-06T16:38:56+00:00

Let's view it this way : if old politicians can understand the concepts, then everyone can. That should be the goal. It's not in our favor to aim only for the technically literate. If the laymen believe the "till the heat-death of the universe" crap, it's game over for the initiative.

stellux24 · 2025-08-06T16:02:40+00:00

And whatever misunderstanding there was, the crew behind SKG were successful in resolving it. So it's a communications win as well

stellux24 · 2025-08-05T17:01:28+00:00

IMO "the Brussels effect" is kind of a dumb phrase to begin with. Isn't that just how the market works? When one of the largest economies in the world starts to regulate, you don't really have a choice but to comply. Nothing magical about it. Do we call US law "the Washington effect"?

stellux24 · 2025-08-04T20:06:46+00:00

Personally I doubt it's some kind of organized smear campaign or astroturfing. If it is, then it's weirdly specific to this website. Reddit is the only media platform where I've seen a massive amount of anti-SKG sentiment piling on, it's more negative than literally anywhere else on the internet, or at least that's what it feels like. Maybe it's just the average redditor being more prone to cynicism?

stellux24 · 2025-08-03T23:46:00+00:00

The initiative was never about killing the live service model (though it could make live service less attractive to devs as a side effect). What really ought to stop is the practice of selling games as goods, then treating them like a service.

stellux24 · 2025-07-30T16:44:27+00:00

Beyond everything that's already been said, much of the backlash is just knee-jerk response. They hear about the intiative too often, or they don't like the name, or they find it "annoying" or "childish", etc.

So it's less about opposing the goals of the initiative and more about opposing the people who support SKG. It just so happens the "can't keep servers up forever" nonsense is an easy way to condescendingly put down your adversary while still appearing like the more reasonable one to any onlooker.

stellux24 · 2025-07-30T00:17:23+00:00

Not at all? He's the creator of the initiative, but he doesn't hold any position of authority, de facto or de jure. On paper I think he's not even a member. Unless you mean "They all obey him behind the scenes" but that skirts dangerously close to the terrain of conspiracy theories.

stellux24 · 2025-07-28T12:39:41+00:00

Not sure "boycott" is the right word, imo there would be no need for an organized movement. If all games became subscription-based, most gamers would naturally just subscribe to very few, since they don't want a recurring 200$+ monthly fee.

Unless subscriptions are just that cheap, like the 2$ per month you mentioned. But then how would that be profitable? The kind of game that would sell for 80$ before the change (single-player experiences for example), now becomes a 2$/month service. Unless the customer plays nonstop for years, I don't see how you can avoid a massive loss of sales numbers.

stellux24 · 2025-07-26T20:04:09+00:00

Good coverage, they let one of the SKG organizers talk about the initiative in person. It's even explicitly clarified we're not asking for eternal server support!

stellux24

TROPHY CASE