Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => Gaming Discussion => Topic started by: Sarafan on July 17, 2009, 03:27:05 pm
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I'm currently trying to find a good medieval RPG to play but havent had much luck so far, can anyone recommend any good titles (no Baldur's Gate, got that one already ;))?
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Baldur's Gate II? :p
Planescape Torment. I hear The Witcher was excellent.
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Icewind Dale I&II, Temple of Elemental Evil.
Provided you don't mind dungeon crawls, anyway.
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Summoner is quite good as well.
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ohh I feel like playing NWN online again.... NO! I... must... resist! :nervous:
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I second Icewind Dale II, if only because of the books in the same setting.
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Icewind Dale I&II, Temple of Elemental Evil.
Provided you don't mind dungeon crawls, anyway.
How much dungeon crawling we're talking here? Like 99% of the game is a freaking dugeon?
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40-60%, by time. The plotline is actually coherent, and interesting, as well as the backstory of the Ten Towns and the denizens of the surrounding countryside.
By area, it's more bordering on 80-90% dungeon crawling.
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Seconding Summoner. It's not the best, but it's good, and it's by our beloved [V]. :D
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What are you looking for exactly? Mount&Blade is quite a bit of fun combat-wise (can be really repetitive, AI is predictable but also rather deadly). I've won battles nearly single-handedly by having my forces line up in formation while I go after two dozen cavalry with a Greatsword or a lance of some sort (my favorites are the military scythe and the ashwood pike, actually). The combat's more based around skill and not getting caught vulnerable. Then again, castle sieges are a little bit unfair. Defending is either really easy or really hard. I've had good "luck" defending as I tend to do a little exploit that the AI simply won't, which is to force ALL my troops outside of the castle. For some reason, that gives me a huge advantage and they typically get run over.
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I tried Titan Quest, wasn't too bad, but too much doubling back in order to get supplies etc, sometimes you could spend hours wandering back and forth in the same area.
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Two worlds
not in any way medievil but fantastic is bloodlines
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I'm going to go out on a limb here and say Oblivion. You can get it pretty cheaply now, if you can find it.
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Or wait a bit longer for Dragon Age.
Soon....oh yes, it will be here soon.
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Dragon Age will probably have tons of intrusive DRM on it. I'm not holding my breath.
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no intrusive protection confirmed.
by Chris Prestly
Hi Everyone,
I have some good news to pass on to you today that answers one of the most frequently asked Dragon Age: Origins PC questions.
We’re happy to announce that the boxed/retail PC version of Dragon Age: Origins will use only a basic disk check and it will not require online authentication. In other words, the retail PC version of the game won’t require you to go online to authenticate the game for offline play. We have chosen not to use SecuROM in any version of Dragon Age that is distributed by EA or BioWare.
Some other cool stuff that we hope you’ll like - we have already launched the Dragon Age toolset beta, which offers developer-grade tools, and we’re looking forward to what fans will create with it. We’ll also be supporting the game with a ton of great downloadable content that will be available for purchase after the game’s release. Together these features will provide some very cool reasons to go online with Dragon Age: Origins.
We’re really excited as we head towards the release of Dragon Age: Origins this fall on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, so keep an eye out for more news as we’ll be providing you with more details shortly.
Stay tuned for more coolness to come…
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Okay, I stand corrected. Dragon Age will most likely be totally awesome, especially if those promised developer tools get released to modders. I might actually grab it.
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I was really excited for Dragon Age, but all the hands-on reports so far, as well as the trailers they've shown, aren't looking too good. :(
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Why?
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Heard the Witcher was like an MMORPG with all the good parts gutted.
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To be fair, I have no idea what Dragon Age is like anyways. All I know is that BioWare is developing it. I just hope the gameplay is similar to KOTOR or KOTORII (I loved the KOTOR games!).
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Medieval rpg... how about Mount and Blade? I believe its was an independent game, but its fun and well made. Its available on Steam. Theres a demo, so you can try it out before forking over the cash.
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Why?
The writing isn't up to snuff. It looks like it was written by a bunch of teenage metal fans. I'm assuming this is because Black Isle isn't there any more, as they were with Baldur's Gate.
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That seems a slightly presumptuous judgement to make given how little dialogue has actually been revealed. I thought Black Isle was just the publisher for those.
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The writing isn't up to snuff. It looks like it was written by a bunch of teenage metal fans. I'm assuming this is because Black Isle isn't there any more, as they were with Baldur's Gate.
WAAAAH?
You conclude that based on what? The blood and violence trailer? That one was deliberately targeted for a more general audience.
I talk to the devs on a daily basis. Trust me - this thing will be bigger than Baldurs Gate. It took one dev 60 hours with cheats to finish one playtrough, so it's big. There's more written text than in BG2.
The story and fluff/atmosphere are the hardest, if not impossible, to convery over a short trailer. From what I've gathered they really did put in a great effort into creating this new world.
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Nah, I'm going off the hands-on time the gaming press has had with the games. A lot of the previews have been kind of skeptical (I believe one RockPaperShotgun person wrote on his notepad, during a romance scene: 'THIS IS EMBARRASSING.'
No telling for sure until it comes out. Don't get defensive.
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I talk to the devs on a daily basis. Trust me - this thing will be bigger than Baldurs Gate. It took one dev 60 hours with cheats to finish one playtrough, so it's big. There's more written text than in BG2.
What does quantity have to do with quality?
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I'm saying that the game is big in every aspect. And quality? This is made from Bioware with Luv. They all wanted to make this game for a loong time. The work on the universe itself started a looong time ago.
I can see the devs really put an effort in it. Bioware games are great by the track record alone. I have no reason to doubt this one will deliver, and then some!
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Medieval... :lol:
Fantasy. Or maybe medieval fantasy. But not medieval. You'd have a hard time finding ANYTHING set in the real middle ages, except maybe something revolving around the crusades.
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Probably stuff like 'Total War' are about as close as you can get to 'real' games of that genre, to be honest, RPGs are more like 'Gothic' or 'Renaissance' Fantasy, since both those periods were heavily interested in Demonology, Alchemy, Fantastic Creatures and Magic, and much of the literature from that time formed the basis of modern Fantasy writing (Though it could be argued that much of THAT literature was stolen from Homer, this is not surprising if you consider the nature of the Renaissance - which was at least in part inspired by a re-interpretation of ancient Greek ideas).
That said, we all know what he meant :P
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Being defensive about it is bad yet making sweeping generalisations from a single scene is good?
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Again, these are the impressions of game journalists who spent time with it, drawn from multiple sources who have proven themselves reasonably trustworthy in the past.
And as I said, there's no telling how it'll really be until we get to play it.
Honestly, Bioware have never been great writers - merely solid. Mass Effect was one of the best they've done, but as in most of their other titles, it played a heavy-handed black/white morality game even when dressed up as 'gray areas'. KOTOR I's story was just as straightforward. The best work done on 'Bioware' games has been by other studios.
They are, however, fantastic storytellers, which often makes up for their straightforward writing.
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They're still for the most part impressions drawn from a single scene.
The whole "don't know until you play it" thing seems a bit at odds with the idea of trusting game journalists, which itself seems to verge on being an oxymoron.
The best work done on 'Bioware' games has been by other studios.
Care to justify that?
They are, however, fantastic storytellers, which often makes up for their straightforward writing.
Which is why the game isn't looking good?
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Is this Dragon Age: Origins we are talking about here?
If seen some stuff on that, and it looked nice graphically, if nothing else, the story didn't leap out as something incredible (King trusts Royal Knights, General betrays king, new recruit starts on a journey of vengeance), but then, a story is never about its highlights, oddly, it's about the journey, and I'm guessing I'll have to wait for the release to find that out.
The morals system didn't look too taxing, 'kill him, don't kill him' type choices, but only a single example was given, so I can't say for certain.
There's some Videos on it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Djq_nBP-aTc
Which give a nice idea of the quality of the graphics, but very little on the scope of the game or the world it takes place in.
My only concern is that it presents the game as a bit 'cutscene-riffic', but, once again, that's because the 'Gameplay Video' actually shows very little gameplay ;)
Edit: And is it me, or does the guard at the end of Video one look like an extra from Tron?
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The best work done on 'Bioware' games has been by other studios.
Care to justify that?
Even unfinished, KOTOR2 was far better than KOTOR. As for Neverwinter Nights....
Baldur's Gate II was pretty damn awesome, though.
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Even unfinished, KOTOR2 was far better than KOTOR. As for Neverwinter Nights....
Baldur's Gate II was pretty damn awesome, though.
KOTOR2 was only better than KOTOR in the mechanics area. It had more levels and more diverse settings, but storywise, KOTOR kicked KOTOR2s ass.
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You fail at life I, ah, disagree. Strongly.
Oh! I forgot about Torment. Kicked the ass of BG/BG2, used the Infinity Engine.
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Overall, BG2 probably was better. Maybe Bioware should get partial credit for PS:T anyway; they did provide the game engine.
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Even unfinished, KOTOR2 was far better than KOTOR. As for Neverwinter Nights....
Baldur's Gate II was pretty damn awesome, though.
KOTOR2 was only better than KOTOR in the mechanics area. It had more levels and more diverse settings, but storywise, KOTOR kicked KOTOR2s ass.
I agree.
Circle gets the square and the Win!!! Goodnight Everybody!
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Honestly, Bioware have never been great writers - merely solid. Mass Effect was one of the best they've done, but as in most of their other titles, it played a heavy-handed black/white morality game even when dressed up as 'gray areas'. KOTOR I's story was just as straightforward. The best work done on 'Bioware' games has been by other studios.
They are, however, fantastic storytellers, which often makes up for their straightforward writing.
I would disagree with that.
I'm so glad they're doing away with D&D rules and any aligment meters whatsoever. No lightside/paragpn/LG and darkside/renagade/CE stuff. It will be more like Witcher with a lot more grey morality.
Of course, that's easier said than done. A lot of choices that seem grey to you would be clear cut to me and vice-versa. And having "surprise" bad consequences for "good" actions is just screwing the player over. I've seen games that aimed at moral ambiguity and the who dark setting thing, but ended up horribly overdoing it.
If you save a woman it turns out she's a mass murderer. If you kill her, it turns out she was a loving mother. That kind of crap where the game throws cheap shots at you.
F'course, the devs don't like to talk about it much, since such things are esentially part of the story , but fro ma few examples I have been given by them it looks very well thought out.
Basicly, available choices and consequences of the same will be logical, which is how I like it.
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Right, I'm glad they're doing that too, but as it stands they're just playing catchup with The Witcher, Planescape: Torment, and other games of the like.
As for this:
They're still for the most part impressions drawn from a single scene.
The whole "don't know until you play it" thing seems a bit at odds with the idea of trusting game journalists, which itself seems to verge on being an oxymoron.
The best work done on 'Bioware' games has been by other studios.
Care to justify that?
I don't quite understand the hostility here, I'm sorry if I gave offense.
I think good game journalists are our best source for impressions until we get the game itself. For the most part, these journalists' feelings about games pre-release have jived very nicely with mine post-release.
As for justifying it - put simply, Baldur's Gate II, Planescape Torment, Fallout, KOTOR II, all had fantastic writing (though in KOTOR II's case, arguably inferior storytelling) as compared to pure-Bioware games. And remember, I'm just talking about the writing here.
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I don't think The Witcher really belongs in a discussion of quality writing. It's a great and unique story with some wonderful moments, but the writing is decidedly inferior to most BioWare games, let alone Black Isle/Obsidian.
That said, I do agree. What BioWare does is tell uninventive stories very well. I don't think there's anything wrong with that, though, considering how light the industry is on quality storytelling.
Dragon Age, now - that's a bizarre business. My expectations remain high. The marketing just seems like a bid to ensure sales are strong on an otherwise fairly risky new property, and perhaps I've missed the good ones but I haven't been moved by any journalist impressions either. But more than anything it just boils down to a trust in BioWare. I trust the company's philosophy, I trust the writers who work for it, and the idea of a spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate influenced by GRRM is something I couldn't be more sold on.
All in all, the lead up to its release has been very uneven and I don't feel like anybody outside of BioWare has an accurate picture of the product yet. I suppose we'll see.
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That I can all agree with.
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I'm still waiting for some evidence for Black Isle taking a significant role in writing for BG2.
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Ah, that's what you wanted support on? I'm afraid I can't provide any; I'd just assumed it based on Bioware's track record since.
People seem to be reacting very defensively to my earlier posts. I'm a huge fan of Mass Effect, and I'll probably enjoy Dragon Age. I'm honestly a little startled by the venom of these responses.
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Pretty much your entire attitude is based off blatant generalisations based on previews of unknown quality making similar generalisations based on one scene chosen by an utterly retarded marketing strategy probably instigated by EA.
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Just about everyone's previews of it are based on an unknown quantity, you can't say that talking to the devs at Bioware is any less biased than an 'alleged' smear campaign by EA? Do you think they are going to say, 'Well, we tried, but it's ****'.?
Now, no-ones stated that you aren't allowed to like the game, and GB is as much entitled to his own opinions based on hearsay as anyone else, I note he is not attacking you for liking the game, so I don't understand why people are attacking him for expressing concerns.
Now, I think some people in here need to calm down, it's a game, it's not even been released yet, and already people are yelling at other people for daring to say it might not be as good as people hope?
Just wow...
Edit: I'm going to leave this unlocked for now, but let's be a little less aggressive, eh?
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Good, we're back to everyone's opinion is equally invalid!
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We're back to 'stop acting up or the thread gets locked' actually.
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OHH OHH! FIRE EMBLEM YEAH!
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This really isn't serving a purpose any more.
And fix the signature, it's ridiculous :P
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Good, we're back to everyone's opinion is equally invalid!
Well, like I said at the beginning, we can't be sure of the quality of the game until we actually get our hands on it...which seems to be exactly what you're arguing in your attacks on my posts...which is odd, because that disclaimer has been in my posts since the second or third one on the topic.
It's strange, I'm usually very much in agreement with everything you post, and it's a little hurtful that you assumed I was just consigning the game to the rubbish bin when in fact I'd made it clear the whole time that my mind was open.
Probably just a misunderstanding, but I wish you'd been less kneejerk about it. I've been on your side this whole time, but in return I get told that 'my attitude is based off blatant generalizations' when the whole time I've been trying to present a fairly nuanced and open opinion without simply resorting to that old trap of plurality, 'all opinions are equally invalid.'
Oh, I see the thread is locked. Ah well, going up anyway, I think it's a fine coda.