Dishonored 2 Gameplay Trailer from E3

Besides the very exciting new gameplay trailer from Mass Effect:  Andromeda, we also got a brand new video for Dishonored 2.  Unlike Andromeda, Dishonored 2 is slated to come out this year...yay!  Here's the new video for your viewing pleasure:

So, it looks like Dunwall is still the same ol' politically charged murder-fest that it was in the first game.  But it looks like those murders are going to happen with some spiffy new abilities--like the foggy/shadowy go-go gadget arms that seem to allow you to grab a guard from far away or the time warping ability that lets you pause and shoot.  I had read that Emily wouldn't have exactly the same abilities as Corvo (seeing as how Corvo had that extra special relationship with the Outsider--who, surprisingly, appears in this video) but her abilities appear to be at least inspired by his.  For the most part it doesn't look like the gameplay will be changing drastically.

The people who appear in the video also leave some room for speculation.  There are some strange masked people--(maybe more creepy city guards?), a woman who looks an awful lot like one of the Brigmore witches, and several shots of those weird, robotic sentinels that we initially saw in a trailer from E3 last year.  These characters suggest an interesting stew of issues and people who could really spice up a second game.  Oh, and the Outsider!  He's apparently still poking his bizarre black eyes into the business of the denizens of Dunwall.

Now that E3 is over we can stop "oohing" and "aahing" over all the smokin' trailers for these upcoming games and put in some serious time on our backlogs.  But all that stabbing....damn.

If Three is a Crowd, Six is a Stampede

I've played many RPG's with varying party sizes.  Some might just be your character and a companion while others sit at a comfortable four member group.  Thes smaller groups are relatively easy to control and manage.  But what about a group of six?  My newest adventure in Pillars of Eternity has pushed my party numbers up and requires some serious management.

I started off with myself and my one companion.  It was pretty easy managing my little group, but two characters just wasn't cutting it.  Encounters with multiple opponents were a roll of the dice, so I hesitantly decided to expand my group.  I was hesitant because it felt weird making all my own party members from scratch--many of the RPG's I had played before included party members that were part of the storyline and who joined at various points.  I'm still a little boggled about this as I have two characters in my current party who are story characters.  Even though this is a little strange, I have to admit that I am enjoying the ability to design my own characters rather than simply choosing from pre-made adventurers.

How can you go wrong with six people in your party?

As my party has gotten larger, combat has become increasingly easier but also more difficult to manage.  Pausing to issue commands is happening almost constantly.  It can be difficult to continually command party members to change targets or activate and re-activate certain abilities.  I still haven't figured out how to have a sort of tanking character draw and keep the attention in large groups of enemies.  My poor rogue continually gets pounded and has spent much time unconscious during many encounters.

Learning the ropes of this complex RPG system is taking some time and I hope that I am making the right choices.  Pillars of Eternity is definitely not the simple RPG that I play so often and that has become popular as gaming expands into the masses.  Playing a complex RPG is a nice change--even with the gigantic party.  The more, the merrier, right?