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[Minsc]

DO NOT BUY JAGGED ALLIANCE ON STEAM it's bugged and no fix incoming, get it from somewhere else.



Currently playing Krondor and it holds up pretty damn well and it's also freeware
http://i28.tinypic.com/2vlp1xy.jpg

I don't buy anything from Steam, but thanks for the warning, and others might appreciate it too!

I think technically it's not freeware anymore, they released it as freeware for a while, then took it back. But I don't see what the big deal is, the franchise went south, and they certainly aren't selling it anymore. But if you do end up with the disc & no box (like me), I came across this cover on the 'net that I cleaned up a little. There might even be better ones, but this one does the job well enough for me.

I mean this game had everything, even rations... and on top of that you could get screwed over with poisoned rations (I think this is part of the main plot at some point)! How can you not love a game that employs such guerilla tactics! I loved the riddles from the chest lock system too. Also this game featured a decent size cast that you switch from time to time, which was also a nice touch in RPGs, though it's always slightly disappointing not having your favorites in your party.

 

[Kreuzader]

Oh yeah, and looking at the Interplay-style list, there is one obvious major title left out. That is quite intentional: Neverwinter Nights 1 and its expansions just aren't any good at all. It's not even good enough to slip in with reservations, like KotOR does.

Have you tried any of the user-made NWN1 content? There are a few gems out there (modules that got the developers hired by BioWare and Obsidian); also, was it the henchman system you disliked in the first game's official modules? I agree that the original campaign and Shadows of Undrentide can be underwhelming, but I'm enjoying Hordes despite having to sheperd the idiot AI around Undermountain traps.

Well, as I said, QFG was the first major RPG I played, unless you count a couple of old freeware or shareware RPGish things I played a bit of (CaveQuest, Castle Adventure). Admittedly it does have action-style combat (all three of those do, actually; Castle Adventure isn't an RPG, it's really an adventure game with combat...), but I think QFG is RPG enough to list, even if the series really does go in its own genre of Adventure/RPG and not in the straight "RPG" genre. But QFGI: So You Want To Be A Hero... I loved that game so much... it places high in my all-time favorite RPGs list.

Yep - QFGII was my first PC game (I had to go back and play QFGI later when the VGA remake came out), and I never looked back.

I'm replaying the original QFG1 with FreeSCI now to get the nicer rendering - http://freesci.linuxgames.com/?page=games

 

[Shoho]

I tried playing a demo of BG2 and... Its just so old and ugly now. im too used to high quality cinematics with AAA voice acting... reading is not fun...




I tried to get into the witcher and I have played it for like 10-15 hours, but I really dried out on it... I thought I would freaking love it, but I think some of the quests and mystery solving is hard to figure out. often I dont know what to do, and the voice acting translations are kinda crappy.

I understand that they are reworking the games voices and stuff... I thought it would be more streamlined and casual like Diablo 2 in 3D.


But its more like a complex mix of morrowind and KOTOR... hard to get into like morrowind, but the conversation system of KOTOR, with a slice of good vs bad choices, and the combat... the combat is kinda mindless. In a way its like Assassins Creed, which is also based on timing but in a different way.. when you get the hang of it, it kinda looses its depth. But the combat in AC looked really sweet and had tons of different animations.

Thats on regard I think Witcher was hard to appreciate.

 

[bishopcruz]

Definitely some great suggestions though if I may I need to drop in some more Ultima love.

Ultima VII was what I would consider the first 'modern' PC RPG. It's a shame that the series went downhill after Serpent Isle, but Pagan still had some really cool stuff, and even Ascension wasn't as bad as it was made out to be, in fact it had some amazing dungeons.

 

[Kreuzader]

Also, you can play Betrayal at Krondor in Linux with xBaK:

http://xbak.sourceforge.net/

 

[Prime crotch]

I mean this game had everything, even rations... and on top of that you could get screwed over with poisoned rations (I think this is part of the main plot at some point)! How can you not love a game that employs such guerilla tactics! I loved the riddles from the chest lock system too. Also this game featured a decent size cast that you switch from time to time, which was also a nice touch in RPGs, though it's always slightly disappointing not having your favorites in your party.

I'm surprised at the writting quality, it's among the best I've ever seen in a game, the actors are a bit cheesy in that special "old fmv PC" days though.

 

[bishopcruz]

Betrayal at Krondor was awesome, it got me into the novel series it was based on too, (though that love dies out a quadrology ago.) Were the sequels any good? I know Betrayal at Antara was supposed to be a gameplay sequel but I remember the demo sucking.

(Sorry about the double post. Didn't mean it, friggen IE.)

 

[Minsc]

Betrayal at Krondor was awesome, it got me into the novel series it was based on too, (though that love dies out a quadrology ago.) Were the sequels any good? I know Betrayal at Antara was supposed to be a gameplay sequel but I remember the demo sucking.

(Sorry about the double post. Didn't mean it, friggen IE.)

Some people will say they enjoyed the sequels, but they're like needles in a haystack. Hard to find, and out of place.

I never did get in to the novels, but I meant to, took one or two out from the library a while back, even bought one, but I didn't get in to it at the time. Same for Warhammer, I meant to read a few of those too.

Unfortunately there's just one BaK, what I wouldn't give for a sequel to that game that was everything the original was and more. I don't think it's possible anymore, just like a sequel to Baldur's Gate 2 which is everything that game was and more isn't possible.

Man, QFG2 hasn't aged well. It wasn't particularly great at the time either to be honest. How did leveling work again in the QFGs? I can't seem to remember, the point system is throwing me off, I'm pretty sure you just had stats that went up by themselves like an Elder Scrolls game (which is also how BaK works too).

 

[Sectus]

Man, QFG2 hasn't aged well. It wasn't particularly great at the time either to be honest. How did leveling work again in the QFGs? I can't seem to remember, the point system is throwing me off, I'm pretty sure you just had stats that went up by themselves like an Elder Scrolls game (which is also how BaK works too).

Yeah, I'm pretty you had a bunch of stats which increased the more you did certain actions (And each game in the series increased the max amount for each attribute by 100). Like throwing rocks made you stronger... I can still remember picking up all the rocks I could carry and then clicking the mouse like a madman to throw them all.

Hmm, I'll have to look in to Jagged Alliance 2, I agree with everything else in your post, and my love for FF:T is enough to get me intrigued in JA2.

So 3 games to get now. JA2, W&W, and QFG:A. Just when I was starting to catch up a little on things I wanted to purchase list a bit too...

Just don't expect it to be that similar to FF:T, I only mentioned it because it was the closest mainstream RPG I could think of. Fallout might be a better comparison, although I honestly haven't played a lot of that game.

And the game has a bit of a steep learning curve, but once you get into it it's pure heaven. And it definitely kicks every RPGs' ass when it comes to interesting and unique characters.

And yeah, as the guy below me mentioned, you should really avoid the Steam version. It's very buggy and not in a playable state at all. You should be able to find Jagged Alliance 2 Gold very cheap in a local store, ebay or somewhere else.

I mean this game had everything, even rations... and on top of that you could get screwed over with poisoned rations (I think this is part of the main plot at some point)! How can you not love a game that employs such guerilla tactics! I loved the riddles from the chest lock system too. Also this game featured a decent size cast that you switch from time to time, which was also a nice touch in RPGs, though it's always slightly disappointing not having your favorites in your party.

Yes yes yes. I replayed the game last year, and I was worried the game would feel very dated. But I was really surprised how modern and unique it felt. I think BaK is a good example that the RPG genre has stagnated greatly the last 10 years or so. We need another BaK NOW which throws away all the standard RPG conventions and shows what the RPG genre is really capable of.

Other things which I thought made BaK unique and great:
-The game throws you right into the game once you start it. There's no boring "prologue" phase where you're a nobody doing random trivial chores for anyone you meet (something which is way too typical especially for JRPGs).

-Great mix of "static" and big open explorable world. Most other RPGs tend to either have a very linear progression throughout the game, or an extremely open world where things starts to feel the same and doesn't change at all. BaK has a very interesting chapter system where you have a specific overall objective for each chapter, but the majority of the huge open world is open to explore. And the really nice thing is that the world actually changes with each chapter. Go to different cities in different chapters and new things will happen there. Of course, certain things will stay the same, but it's different enough that each chapter feels unique.

-No grinding and no imbalance in the game. Some people might be put off by this but stats in the game doesn't matter a whole lot. You can increase them but it doesn't make your characters 100x more powerful, you even completely change your party from time to time with new characters. The huge advantage of this is that there's absolutely no grind and fights never feel too easy or frustratingly hard. You can get the upper hand in combat by finding powerful one-use items but that's optional.

-No mana! Another standard RPG convention which is taken for granted in other games is handled quite differently in this game.

-Magicians are freaking powerful. Which is a nice change of pace compared to most other RPG games where swordsmen are always as powerful as magic users. In this game they basically control the battlefield.

-Riddle chests are absolutely awesome. It's such a huge disappointment that a new RPG like Mass Effect uses a stupid "simon says" minigame when a 15 year old RPG uses the most clever lock system I've ever seen.

-"Random" encounters is handled in a rather nice way. You can see enemies while travelling the world (many times they'll be hidden in forests or similar, but you can still be able to see them, and there's a chance one of your party members will warn you that you're walking into an ambush), and once you see them you can choose to try to manually walk around them or click on them to make the party aware of them so that you would start the fight with a small tactical advantage. But there's no real random encounters in the game, you're never forced into a random fight while travelling the world map.

And there's probably other interesting things I've forgot as well. Overall BaK is just incredibly amazing.

 

[Minsc]

And there's probably other interesting things I've forgot as well. Overall BaK is just incredibly amazing.

Let's see what comes to mind (with a little help from the net too). Mostly smaller things, but the whole package is quite unmatched.

Inspecting items. I think I am remembering this now because of the poisoned rations, but your characters have an ability to learn about items by inspecting them, and there's nice wordy descriptions of everything in the game I think.

Lutes!!! You could actually develop your lute playing skills at pubs/tavers and get laughed at, and eventually good enough to be praised. Funny songs accompany on the CD version.

Riddle chests. I'll expand on this a little. Not only is this truly the best lock system ever made in a RPG game, I mean what's more satisfying than solving a riddle and opening the chest to find awesome things inside, but the riddles get very hard, and there are actually clues scattered around the world to help you answer them, whether by finding notes, or talking to people.

Treasure chests could be used for storage. Unusual for it's time. And to make it more realistic, if there was no lock, you might not find your items when you returned later, heh.

Enemies had a realistic inventory, usually if they wore it or used it in battle, you could find it on them. Also, notes. This is a small feature, but this game scattered notes around from time to time you could find and puzzle out the plot with. Small and nice touch.

Day/Night system that is used in the game nicely, and certain things only happen during night. Some enemies are stronger too.

Also, pricing system that varies from town to town, and certain regions had better pricing than others, not to mention the whole conversations you have with the priests and priestesses in temples, which had some importance that I can't remember.

Also in combat, the archery system was very well developed. You could line up your people to maximize your advantages by putting your melee enemies between yourself and your enemy archers, so they'll take any shots fired at you.

All the houses in the towns on the map you could at least attempt to go in and usually find someone who tells you something or find it locked or abandoned. Lots of good rewards scattered around different places.

 

[Kreuzader]

Yeah, I'm pretty you had a bunch of stats which increased the more you did certain actions (And each game in the series increased the max amount for each attribute by 100). Like throwing rocks made you stronger... I can still remember picking up all the rocks I could carry and then clicking the mouse like a madman to throw them all.

That's exactly how it worked; while it was tedious (I don't think the term grinding was used back then?) when you had to say, climb a wall over and over to finish a quest to get a phoenix feather, it made more sense to me than the D&D system of being able to spend skill points upon leveling on things your character had never actually done.

 

[A Black Falcon]

You can find it here for cheap, $18 new, or $5 used. CD version (might as well do it right if you're going to). If you're still not sure, pm me and I'll send you a used copy from there.

Here's a youtube of some of the gameplay at the beginning, jump around it a little, it's not the same as playing it yourself, but you can see it's got a very nice style. All the spells and items have custom animations, and there's a lot of dialog for a game from it's time. It's all voiced over too, and the king is done by Patrick Stewart, who I think actually has more lines in this than he did in Oblivion. What makes this game such a classic is the gameplay is so damned fun, and it does have a fun story that you play through. And it had a catchy tune or two to boot.

Okay.

My "If there's one title that should be played..." thing would be Wizards & Warriors.

I wouldn't recommend getting a copy that doesn't include the manual, though... it really is invaluable, particularly with how the game doesn't support task switching (when you try to switch back the screen is black and unless you've memorized where the buttons are on screen so you can manage to save without being able to see anything (and remembering the mouse-only interface), all you can do is close the program. Ouch.) and a lot of things are explained only in the manual and not ingame (skill and spell descriptions, for instance). The game also came with a paper map of the overworld that is somewhat helpful until you've mapped more of it out ingame, as the ingame automap can only display what you have explored, of course. I guess you could play with an FAQ (there are some on GameFAQs), particularly if you printed out some key parts, but it's better to have the actual manual of course.

Those videos I linked do a decent job of showing how good the game is, particularly in its atmosphere atmosphere, music, and (all voice acted) writing. People shouldn't let the annoying interface, unfixed bugs, and obviously incomplete game elements (as I describe in the post I linked) dissuade them from playing the game. Even as it is in its sadly incomplete state it's more than great enough to be a must-play, I would say. Anyone who can find a copy should definitely try it! The sheer greatness of the dungeon designs easily make up for all the flaws.

I agree completely. I have to buy the QFG anthology and revisit them, I regret losing all the games from that series. I remember bits and pieces vaguely, but it did have quite a bit of sadness to it, which is unusual for RPGs from it's time.

QFG: Collection Series... so expensive... it'd probably actually quite possibly be cheaper to buy disk versions of the first three games (four, if you want both versions of QFG1) and a CD copy of QFGIV (really, only consider the CD version. Losing the voice acting would be horrible.)... and QFGV is separate, of course. But it's a great series well worth having.

Oh yeah, and in QFGIV CD, the narrator, who does the vast majority of the speech, is voiced by John Rhys-Davies, who later played Gimli in the LOTR movies. He does a great job.

Remember, in QFG games the narrator says a lot, including all of the descriptions of things when you click on them, all of the descriptions of what you are saying (because in order to make you feel like the hero more the hero does not speak. Instead, the narrator describes what you asked or talked about without actually using your specific words. Awesome system.), etc.

In addition to the original floppy disk versions and the CD version of 4, there are actually two different QFG collections.

Quest for Glory Anthology (1996). Includes QFG1-EGA, 1-VGA, 2, 3, and 4 (CD) on one CD. There is a thin manual, but most manual content is included as text files on the main CD.

Quest for Glory: Collection Series (1997). Includes QFG1-EGA, 1-VGA, 2, 3, and 4 (CD) on one CD in a jewelcase. There is a thin manual, but most manual content is included as text files on the main CD. Also includes (on a second CD in its own jewel case) the QFG5 soundtrack CD, which is really, REALLY awesome (this disc also has a QFG5 demo on it, I believe). This goes for a lot more than the Anthology, even though often on EBay only the main game disc is included, not the box, manual, second CD with the Dragon Fire soundtrack on it, etc -- and that is the only major difference between the collections!

Anyway, within the series, QFGIV is unique in having horror elements. The first game is a more straight German forest fantasy adventure (with Baba Yaga too), and the second, third, and fifth go to Arabia, Africa, and Greece, but the fourth one is Eastern European, and the serious, forboding atmosphere fits the theme quite well.

Trailer for QFGIV: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siA3GgCgGUY

QFG1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Uo3piMlbVg

Hmm, I'll have to look in to Jagged Alliance 2, I agree with everything else in your post, and my love for FF:T is enough to get me intrigued in JA2.

So 3 games to get now. JA2, W&W, and QFG:A. Just when I was starting to catch up a little on things I wanted to purchase list a bit too...

JA2 is a strategy game (tactical strategy) with some RPG elements... there's no way I'd consider it an RPG.

What's wrong with the Steam version, specifically?

As for why I included QFG... well, I said that it was an adventure/RPG really, not an RPG, and has action-style combat. It really is in a category of its own and definitely isn't a standard RPG. (For another example, how about the purely skill-based stat system? There are no levels in QFG, just skills that improve as you use them...)

The fact that depending on which class you played as some elements of most games were very different was also pretty awesome. Playing as a warrior, wizard, or thief (or paladin) really made for a quite different game!

That's exactly how it worked; while it was tedious (I don't think the term grinding was used back then?) when you had to say, climb a wall over and over to finish a quest to get a phoenix feather, it made more sense to me than the D&D system of being able to spend skill points upon leveling on things your character had never actually done.

That's true, you did sometimes have to 'grind' trying to climb a tree a hundred times or something, in order to get your climbing skill high enough to be able to reliably climb things. But yeah, that makes sense: what better way to get good at something than by doing it over and over until you get good at it?

The only restriction is that you can't improve a skill that you have 0 points in at the start of the game, so when you start, make sure to put the minimum point value in any skills you think you will need. Anything with points in it at the beginning can be improved with effort.

Have you tried any of the user-made NWN1 content? There are a few gems out there (modules that got the developers hired by BioWare and Obsidian); also, was it the henchman system you disliked in the first game's official modules? I agree that the original campaign and Shadows of Undrentide can be underwhelming, but I'm enjoying Hordes despite having to sheperd the idiot AI around Undermountain traps.

Yeah, maybe I should have said that I've only played the base game (and not all of it), not the expansions or user content. I'm sure some of it has a much better story than the pretty poor original game... but even so, you get no party, in a D&D game! D&D without parties is worthless... and yes, similarly, I would say that one of the biggest flaws of Fallout is that it's just one character and the other 'party members' are NPCs. NWN2 is infinitely better without even considering anything else just because it gives you actual parties again.

Yep - QFGII was my first PC game (I had to go back and play QFGI later when the VGA remake came out), and I never looked back.

I first had the VGA version. I don't know if I'd have liked the original versions as much, I always found text parsers annoying (and particularly so in QFG where you have a lot of things you can ask people but don't know what those things are!)... I think the only parser games I actually finished were the first two Hugo games. But the VGA version was incredible.

I'm surprised at the writting quality, it's among the best I've ever seen in a game, the actors are a bit cheesy in that special "old fmv PC" days though.

Well of course it did, much of the writing was done by Raymond E. Feist himself.

 

[Minsc]

Okay.

My "If there's one title that should be played..." thing would be Wizards & Warriors.

I wouldn't recommend getting a copy that doesn't include the manual, though... it really is invaluable, particularly with how the game doesn't support task switching (when you try to switch back the screen is black and unless you've memorized where the buttons are on screen so you can manage to save without being able to see anything (and remembering the mouse-only interface), all you can do is close the program. Ouch.) and a lot of things are explained only in the manual and not ingame (skill and spell descriptions, for instance). The game also came with a paper map of the overworld that is somewhat helpful until you've mapped more of it out ingame, as the ingame automap can only display what you have explored, of course. I guess you could play with an FAQ (there are some on GameFAQs), particularly if you printed out some key parts, but it's better to have the actual manual of course.

I'll keep that in mind, thanks. The game actually looks pretty fun from the videos.

QFG: Collection Series... so expensive... it'd probably actually quite possibly be cheaper to buy disk versions of the first three games (four, if you want both versions of QFG1) and a CD copy of QFGIV (really, only consider the CD version. Losing the voice acting would be horrible.)... and QFGV is separate, of course. But it's a great series well worth having.

Oh yeah, and in QFGIV CD, the narrator, who does the vast majority of the speech, is voiced by John Rhys-Davies, who later played Gimli in the LOTR movies. He does a great job.

Remember, in QFG games the narrator says a lot, including all of the descriptions of things when you click on them, all of the descriptions of what you are saying (because in order to make you feel like the hero more the hero does not speak. Instead, the narrator describes what you asked or talked about without actually using your specific words. Awesome system.), etc.

In addition to the original floppy disk versions and the CD version of 4, there are actually two different QFG collections.

Quest for Glory Anthology (1996). Includes QFG1-EGA, 1-VGA, 2, 3, and 4 (CD) on one CD. There is a thin manual, but most manual content is included as text files on the main CD.

Quest for Glory: Collection Series (1997). Includes QFG1-EGA, 1-VGA, 2, 3, and 4 (CD) on one CD in a jewelcase. There is a thin manual, but most manual content is included as text files on the main CD. Also includes (on a second CD in its own jewel case) the QFG5 soundtrack CD, which is really, REALLY awesome (this disc also has a QFG5 demo on it, I believe). This goes for a lot more than the Anthology, even though often on EBay only the main game disc is included, not the box, manual, second CD with the Dragon Fire soundtrack on it, etc -- and that is the only major difference between the collections!

Anyway, within the series, QFGIV is unique in having horror elements. The first game is a more straight German forest fantasy adventure (with Baba Yaga too), and the second, third, and fifth go to Arabia, Africa, and Greece, but the fourth one is Eastern European, and the serious, forboding atmosphere fits the theme quite well.

Trailer for QFGIV: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siA3GgCgGUY

QFG1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Uo3piMlbVg

Thanks for all that! I completely forgot you could import characters from the previous games in to the sequels. Now I'm remembering how the stats work.

QFGI lets you max to 100, II to 200, III to 300, and IV to 400 I think.

The real benefit of importing in to IV though is you can become a Paladin in III easily enough, and then play IV through as a Paladin, I'm not sure if you can become one in IV (through that ghost maybe you can actually), but either way, starting out as one gives you some unique lines from the people in the town from what I remember.

Pricing is high, but not too bad when you consider you're getting 2 great games, and another good one. I'd pay $100 for 3 games like that (which I really loved), and the anthology/collection is going from $75-100, so it's not overly high, one just obviously wishes it was lower, but oh well, you would have paid that much or more back when they first came out too. Maybe I'll get lucky when it comes around to buying it, or do it in pieces like you said. Did they ever make I or III voice overs? I don't think so, but am not sure.

The voices in IV are totally worth it I agree.

The fact that depending on which class you played as some elements of most games were very different was also pretty awesome. Playing as a warrior, wizard, or thief (or paladin) really made for a quite different game!

Yes, there were very unique ways to solve puzzles for each race, and usually a special training area for that race too. Forgot about that 0 skill point thing as well, were there any timed quests in QFG? I remember certain things needed to be done in the day or night, but can't remember about time limits.

I vaguely remember there were dream sequences in IV, that were triggered by events.

 

[Prime crotch]

Ok I can't figure this out, on Krondor when you select which skills you want to develop how exactly do I know which are selected? They have either a redish or blueish glow on the sword handle but I have no idea which means which.

 

[Sectus]

By the way, does anyone have any recommendations for how to run Quest for Glory series on a modern PC? I've always wanted to play through the CD version of QFG4 but when I tried it some years back it would simply crash. I even set up an old Pentium 433 to be able to play the game in pure DOS with a slowdown utlity... but it still crashed after playing for a few minutes.

Ok I can't figure this out, on Krondor when you select which skills you want to develop how exactly do I know which are selected? They have either a redish or blueish glow on the sword handle but I have no idea which means which.

That is actually the one thing I never got to understand fully in Krondor. But from what I understand red skills will increase a bit faster but other skills will then increase slower, while blue skills will increase slower but let other skills increase slightly faster.

Edit: Just checked the manual. It doesn't explain things in detail, but it gives an impression how it works:

"Skills displayed in red indicate that skill level has changed since you last viewed it.

To improve the rate at which a skill increases, select the sword handle that represents the desired skill. The fewer skills you select, the greater the increase. The more skills you select, the slower they will increase. Skills also improve slowly if none are selected at all."

JA2 is a strategy game (tactical strategy) with some RPG elements... there's no way I'd consider it an RPG.

What's wrong with the Steam version, specifically?

Well, I personally think it has enough RPG elements for it be regarded as that. You can create your own character, there's a ton of different unique characters with a distinct personality you can interact with, there's quests, there's stats you can increase, there's a big open world to explore. If an action hack'n'slash game like Diablo is an RPG, I don't see anything wrong with calling a turnbased tactical game like JA2 an RPG.

And the Steam version is completely messed up. The expansion pack is advertised to come with the game but it doesn't start at all. The main game has some serious issues with saving which leads to some big consequences (like you always have unlimited cash). And as far as I know the Steam version can't be patched either. And it's been in this horrible state for over a year, it's definitely something to avoid. Especially since you can find the JA2 Gold edition cheaper elsewhere.

Well of course it did, much of the writing was done by Raymond E. Feist himself.

Actually, Feist himself didn't do much regarding the game. http://nealhallford.com/ - This guy did the majority of writing for the game. His site also has some very interesting info about the development of the game, and a bit of info about how the business side really messed things up after BaK (they were going to make a direct sequel using the same team... but thing didn't go according to plan).

That's exactly how it worked; while it was tedious (I don't think the term grinding was used back then?) when you had to say, climb a wall over and over to finish a quest to get a phoenix feather, it made more sense to me than the D&D system of being able to spend skill points upon leveling on things your character had never actually done.

Yeah. It was a bit tedious though... it's ages since I played through the QFG series but what I remember most were the various "exploits" to increase skills faster. I got a feeling that whenever I'll replay those games that's something which will makes the experience a bit worse. After trying some MMORPGs I've learned to absolutely despise grind.

Also, pricing system that varies from town to town, and certain regions had better pricing than others, not to mention the whole conversations you have with the priests and priestesses in temples, which had some importance that I can't remember.

That reminds me of another thing. Death was handled in a very special way as well. In combat your characters won't die if you get to 0 health (unless the entire party is defeated), they'll just get to a "near death" state. And after the fight they'll remain in the "near death" state until you find a temple and a healer, or slowly heal them back to health using medicine.

That reminds me of another important thing. There's no health potions or mana potions to rely on. You have something similar, but it's insanely expensive and rare to come by so you can't depend on it. Instead you'll have to heal your party members slowly using medicine outside combat.

Gah, we need a new BaK nooooow!

 

[Minsc]

Ok I can't figure this out, on Krondor when you select which skills you want to develop how exactly do I know which are selected? They have either a redish or blueish glow on the sword handle but I have no idea which means which.

Here's a link to the manual, but it doesn't really specify. The answer is red focuses the skill. If you're going to do a specific thing and want to get the most out of it, enable a single focused skill for what you're doing.

This isn't necessary, but if you powergame that's what you do for the best results. Solely focus on barding when playing at the taverns, etc.

From what I just read accuracy is one of the most important skills to focus on, as it enables you to actually hit your opponents, which as you might guess, is pretty important.

By the way, does anyone have any recommendations for how to run Quest for Glory series on a modern PC? I've always wanted to play through the CD version of QFG4 but when I tried it some years back it would simply crash. I even set up an old Pentium 433 to be able to play the game in pure DOS with a slowdown utlity... but it still crashed after playing for a few minutes.

DOSBox says it runs all the QFG games. I have no doubt it does, if it can run Crusader No Remorse, it can run anything.

 

[Prime crotch]

Here's a link to the manual, but it doesn't really specify. The answer is red focuses the skill. If you're going to do a specific thing and want to get the most out of it, enable a single focused skill for what you're doing.

This isn't necessary, but if you powergame that's what you do for the best results. Solely focus on barding when playing at the taverns, etc.

From what I just read accuracy is one of the most important skills to focus on, as it enables you to actually hit your opponents, which as you might guess, is pretty important.

ahhh thanks, I've also read the manual but they didn't said anything other than red lettering means the stats have changed. The interface of the game is pretty good for such an old game btw I'm usually not to keen on old PC RPGs because of their clunkyness but not Krondor's case.

 

[BlueTsunami]

Every Ultima game

 

[A Black Falcon]

I'll keep that in mind, thanks. The game actually looks pretty fun from the videos.

It is. It's really too bad that after W&W and Wizardry 8 around 2000-2001, that genre on the PC has almost completely disappeared... at least those games were both pretty incredible, though.

For instance, D.W. Bradley, who had designed Wizardries V-VII and then Wizards & Warriors, made for his next game the third-person hack and slash game Dungeon Lords. I actually thought it was okay (especially once it was patched; at launch it was quite incomplete, just like W&W...) and kind of fun. It keeps the tradition of a lot of W&W's awesome dungeon atmosphere, for instance, but it's certainly not a hardcore RPG like W&W was.

And Sir-Tech, the company behind Wizardry 8 and the Jagged Alliance games... well, we all know what happened to them.

Thanks for all that! I completely forgot you could import characters from the previous games in to the sequels. Now I'm remembering how the stats work.

QFGI lets you max to 100, II to 200, III to 300, and IV to 400 I think.

The real benefit of importing in to IV though is you can become a Paladin in III easily enough, and then play IV through as a Paladin, I'm not sure if you can become one in IV (through that ghost maybe you can actually), but either way, starting out as one gives you some unique lines from the people in the town from what I remember.

You can't just import anything. When you finish one of the first four QFG games, you are given the opportunity to create a special save file. That is the file you can import. So this is not like Baldur's Gate where you can just import any game save; you can only import one of the special saves you make when you finish a game.

You can, however, import into any successive game in the series -- so you can import a QFG1 complete save into QFGV. It will scale up your stats if it's from an earlier game, so you don't start at a huge disadvantage...

But yeah, that's how I got a Paladin in QFGIV: I imported it from QFGIII, where it's easy to switch to. And yeah, the base stats and stat max go up with each game.

Pricing is high, but not too bad when you consider you're getting 2 great games, and another good one. I'd pay $100 for 3 games like that (which I really loved), and the anthology/collection is going from $75-100, so it's not overly high, one just obviously wishes it was lower, but oh well, you would have paid that much or more back when they first came out too. Maybe I'll get lucky when it comes around to buying it, or do it in pieces like you said. Did they ever make I or III voice overs? I don't think so, but am not sure.

The voices in IV are totally worth it I agree.

No, there are no voiced versions of the first three games, unfortunately. I agree that it'd have been pretty cool, but they didn't do it.

But yeah, if you have the money, QFGCS (complete with the great soundtrack disc) is definitely the way to go. The price difference isn't much (between Anthology and Collection Series), and the CS has more content, provided that it's complete. You're absolutely right that you're getting two great games and two good ones. Even so though, compared to Sierra's other collections, the Quest for Glory collections are quite pricey. The others are all pretty cheap really, but not QFG! Of course, the QFG games are better than any of those others, so it balances out.

Anyway, The Quest for Glory V Overture (first track) on the soundtrack disc is simply incredible...

Yes, there were very unique ways to solve puzzles for each race, and usually a special training area for that race too. Forgot about that 0 skill point thing as well, were there any timed quests in QFG? I remember certain things needed to be done in the day or night, but can't remember about time limits.

Class, you mean. There's only one character, the blond male hero guy you name.

They were originally going to let you play as two other characters in QFGV (the other two competitors for the throne), but that got cut, just like the multiplayer mode and the expansion pack they were working on. Black Monday...

The differences... fighters solve things through more fights, mages through magic, and theives through stealth, essentially. Some things can only be solved one way, but many have multiple solutions. Plus there are class-specific quests or activities like the theives' guilds, the Mages' Game in QFG1, etc.

Not sure about timed quests, though... I don't remember any, but it is possible. Day and night certainly are very different, and there are many things you can only do during one or the other, but I'm not sure about timed quests.

I vaguely remember there were dream sequences in IV, that were triggered by events.

Yeah, there are (like Baldur's Gate 1? ).

By the way, does anyone have any recommendations for how to run Quest for Glory series on a modern PC? I've always wanted to play through the CD version of QFG4 but when I tried it some years back it would simply crash. I even set up an old Pentium 433 to be able to play the game in pure DOS with a slowdown utlity... but it still crashed after playing for a few minutes.

DOSBox.

That reminds me of another thing. Death was handled in a very special way as well. In combat your characters won't die if you get to 0 health (unless the entire party is defeated), they'll just get to a "near death" state. And after the fight they'll remain in the "near death" state until you find a temple and a healer, or slowly heal them back to health using medicine.

That reminds me of another important thing. There's no health potions or mana potions to rely on. You have something similar, but it's insanely expensive and rare to come by so you can't depend on it. Instead you'll have to heal your party members slowly using medicine outside combat.

Yeah, it's stuff like this that makes that game so hard... unique, sure, but frustrating. It's kind of like Baldur's Gate I: sure you can resurrect dead characters, but it's so expensive and time consuming to have to pick up all their stuff and go back to a temple that it's easier to just load your last savegame.

Yeah. It was a bit tedious though... it's ages since I played through the QFG series but what I remember most were the various "exploits" to increase skills faster. I got a feeling that whenever I'll replay those games that's something which will makes the experience a bit worse. After trying some MMORPGs I've learned to absolutely despise grind.

Eh, a lot of stuff is really either/or. In QFG1 for instance you don't really need climbing AND throwing (and as a mage don't really need either), you just need one or another (or certain spells). Then you solve puzzles by using the skill that you have -- by either throwing things at that bird's nest to knock it down, climbing the tree, or using Fetch to magically bring it to you, for instance. Building skills is a little tedious at times (though simple ones like sneak and run are easy), but it's not that big of a deal. I think that the skill system is great. The TES games also have skill systems, but they also have standard levelling, so they kind of mess it up... QFG's pure skill system is better, really. It shows that RPGs don't really need set levels.

Oh yeah, and for QFG1 and QFG4, either make a map of the overworld (and the castle in QFG4) or download one. You'll need it. The overworlds are small, but complex enough for it to be necessary.

Actually, Feist himself didn't do much regarding the game. http://nealhallford.com/ - This guy did the majority of writing for the game. His site also has some very interesting info about the development of the game, and a bit of info about how the business side really messed things up after BaK (they were going to make a direct sequel using the same team... but thing didn't go according to plan).

Huh, interesting. I didn't know that.

Oh yeah, one other thing about BaK: the freeware version is the floppy disk version only. It's the version I have, so I've never played the CD version...

 

[Sectus]

Yeah, it's stuff like this that makes that game so hard... unique, sure, but frustrating. It's kind of like Baldur's Gate I: sure you can resurrect dead characters, but it's so expensive and time consuming to have to pick up all their stuff and go back to a temple that it's easier to just load your last savegame.

Yeah, temples were extremely expensive. But manually healing your "near death" party members wasn't bad at all. If you had enough rations to rest a bunch of days then that was definitely the ideal way to do it.

Oh yeah, one other thing about BaK: the freeware version is the floppy disk version only. It's the version I have, so I've never played the CD version...

Well, you're not missing out on anything. The only difference is that the music is in higher quality played from the CD... but it has a significant drawback as none of the tracks loops anymore. I personally prefer playing the disk version so the music plays correctly.

 

[Minsc]

Well, you're not missing out on anything. The only difference is that the music is in higher quality played from the CD... but it has a significant drawback as none of the tracks loops anymore. I personally prefer playing the disk version so the music plays correctly.

This is correct, but I really enjoyed the music, so getting the higher quality songs playing, even if they drop, is worth it for me. You get about 2 minutes, and most battles last just over that, so it's not too bad for me.

There's one really bizarre track on the CD with singing about counting your pigs too... I forget when they use that, if at all in the game.

Also the barding at the pubs, there's about 30 different tracks on the CD of lute playing depending on your skill level (some of the seem like duplicates, but I can't tell).

 

[Kreuzader]

If you're trying to play QFGI, run it in FreeSCI, as I mentioned earlier.

It'll go from looking like this:

to this:

You can also become a Paladin at the end of QFG2 if you start out as a fighter and complete a bunch of optional quests in an honorable way; III introduced the special abilities for that class like the flaming sword.

The ability to import characters from game to game is something I missed in almost every other game series after being able to do it in Quest for Glory; that's one reason why I'm playing the second NWN1 expansion right now - a bunch of my friends and I played Shadows of Undrentide cooperatively years ago, so I played through a user-made module set immediately after that, then imported my character into another Forgotten Realms user module to level some more, then sent that character into Hordes of the Underdark. Character continuity helps a lot with immersion

 

[Jefklak]

Because I think these aren't promoted enough

VIDEO VIDEO VIDEO

 

[Prime crotch]

Wizardry 8 is truly amazing even if I couldn't finish it, Arcanum on the other hand is.....a missed opportunity by Troika. I have the game right here and still install once in a while to try and play it again but I just can't seem to get into it.

 

[darkjacob]

Fallout 1 (best game ever)
Fallout 2 (sequal to the best game ever)
Baldurs gate 1
Baldurs Gate 2
Baldurs Gate 2 - Throne of baal
The Witcher (Best game of 2007)
Neverwinter Nights + Mods (main game is garbage)
Neverwinter nights 2
Neverwinter nights 2 - Mask of betrayer
Diablo 1
Diablo 2
Planescape torment
Icewind dale 1 & 2 (D&D dungeon crawling goodness).

 

[A Black Falcon]

Wizardry 8... the big question is, which is better, W&W or Wizardry 8? They have some similarities, but also some significant differences... play both and decide.

If you're trying to play QFGI, run it in FreeSCI, as I mentioned earlier.

It'll go from looking like this:


to this:

Bah, just play the better VGA version.

You can also become a Paladin at the end of QFG2 if you start out as a fighter and complete a bunch of optional quests in an honorable way; III introduced the special abilities for that class like the flaming sword.

If I remember right, you can only become a Paladin in the second or third games... but it is a cool class. Worth the effort.

The ability to import characters from game to game is something I missed in almost every other game series after being able to do it in Quest for Glory; that's one reason why I'm playing the second NWN1 expansion right now - a bunch of my friends and I played Shadows of Undrentide cooperatively years ago, so I played through a user-made module set immediately after that, then imported my character into another Forgotten Realms user module to level some more, then sent that character into Hordes of the Underdark. Character continuity helps a lot with immersion

Agreed, being able to import your character is great. QFG and Baldur's Gate both used it to great effect... more serieses definitely should use similar systems.

 

[Minsc]

If you're trying to play QFGI, run it in FreeSCI, as I mentioned earlier.

It'll go from looking like this:

http://i29.tinypic.com/2jaccur.jpg

to this:

http://i29.tinypic.com/350vsx0.jpg

You can also become a Paladin at the end of QFG2 if you start out as a fighter and complete a bunch of optional quests in an honorable way; III introduced the special abilities for that class like the flaming sword.

Wow, that first screen is different from what I remember:

I guess there's a certain something to typing through the game, but I really prefer those VGA graphics. Especially some of the close up portraits and other renderings.

The ability to import characters from game to game is something I missed in almost every other game series after being able to do it in Quest for Glory; that's one reason why I'm playing the second NWN1 expansion right now - a bunch of my friends and I played Shadows of Undrentide cooperatively years ago, so I played through a user-made module set immediately after that, then imported my character into another Forgotten Realms user module to level some more, then sent that character into Hordes of the Underdark. Character continuity helps a lot with immersion

I agree with the importing, it is fun, especially when they put the time in to acknowledging it somehow in the game, whether by unique dialog about past achievements, or something else.

 

[isamu]

Yeah those are great and definitely playable (mod BG1 and patch Vampire though).
I've been playing Arx Fatalis, which is fucking awesome. Deus Ex is great too.

Only one you mentioned Arx Fatalis, for shame!

Hello DKnight and Primal Crotch how are you guys?

Can you please tell me how to run Arx Fatalis better?

Here are my specs....

Sager Notebook with desktop processor
Pentium 4 3.6Ghz DESKTOP processor
2GB DDR Ram
nVidea 7900GTX GeForce Go
160GB HDD

I bought this game last October off steam. Has there been any new patches since then? Because the max I am getting on my notebook is 30fps and movement is a bit choppy.


With a machine like this shouldn't I be getting much higher framerate?

Add another one for The Witcher here. It starts a bit slowly, but give it a chance, it won't disappoint I promise

Edit: If you DO get the Witcher, make sure to get the latest patch, DO NOT play the game without the patch.

I'm thinking about getting the Witcher and deleting Arx Fatalis if I can't get it to run better on my notebook. How well will The Witcher run on my machine rabhw?

 

[isamu]

Isamu did you solve your Arx problems bro?

Not yet, bro

 

[Labombadog]

Okay so I got Planescape recently and was surprised how open ended it was. Like it literally dont tell you where to go next like for example when I was in the prison (beginning) I didnt know where to exit, because you cant tell if your going through a door or if its just a wall. Its really hard to go playing this after being spoiled by The Witcher. NOT bashing, but I really believe most people are having nostalgia with certain games.

I really hope the other games like Fallout 1&2, Gothic series, and Baldurs Gate is not like this. I had such high hopes, but its my fault for waiting for so long to play these games. BTW, am I playing Planescape wrong? Please tell me how is the best way to enjoy Planescape, because I am truly trying to enjoy it.

note: I'm a little drunk, so don't mind my spelling. :lol

 

[A Black Falcon]

Okay so I got Planescape recently and was surprised how open ended it was. Like it literally dont tell you where to go next like for example when I was in the prison (beginning) I didnt know where to exit, because you cant tell if your going through a door or if its just a wall. Its really hard to go playing this after being spoiled by The Witcher. NOT bashing, but I really believe most people are having nostalgia with certain games.

I really hope the other games like Fallout 1&2, Gothic series, and Baldurs Gate is not like this. I had such high hopes, but its my fault for waiting for so long to play these games. BTW, am I playing Planescape wrong? Please tell me how is the best way to enjoy Planescape, because I am truly trying to enjoy it.

note: I'm a little drunk, so don't mind my spelling. :lol

You can't see through walls. You can see through open doorways. It's not hard.

 

[bengraven]

I wish Bethesda would put Daggerfall on it's site for free, much like what it did with Arena a few years ago. I would kill for a workable version of that. I admit to trying it out by dubious methods, but could never get it to work properly and always deleted it. (that and guilt)

Wizards & Warriors -- My summary of the game: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=9194042&postcount=204

Video -- The Overworld (the music is so amazing...): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HZauGPtwms

Video -- First Dungeon (just the very beginning, just a tiny taste of how awesome the dungeons are): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9nXLSxyHPg

Video -- Boss (Xydusa): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xp7lRZEEQ5I

It really is a great game. It should be better known.

I was going to lash at you because of your lack of TES love, but then I remembered your Wizards and Warriors post from some months past that actually made me want to play that game.

If only a lot of these games were freeware.

 

[Minsc]

You can't see through walls. You can see through open doorways. It's not hard.

I don't know if starting with Torment is the best idea to be honest. I think you'd be better off saving that one for later if your going for all the isometric games. I'd do the IWD's, then the Fallouts or BG's, and then Torment, as that will sort of keep them in order of linearity / action first to get acquainted with the engines quirk's.

I did feel that Torment becomes a lot less confusing once you make it out of the initial area and in to the city / starting dungeons.

 

[eve241]

EDIT:Oops wrong thread. The Planescape : Torment recommendation still applies though.

 

[lastendconductor]

Hello DKnight and Primal Crotch how are you guys?

Can you please tell me how to run Arx Fatalis better?

Here are my specs....

Sager Notebook with desktop processor
Pentium 4 3.6Ghz DESKTOP processor
2GB DDR Ram
nVidea 7900GTX GeForce Go
160GB HDD

I bought this game last October off steam. Has there been any new patches since then? Because the max I am getting on my notebook is 30fps and movement is a bit choppy.


With a machine like this shouldn't I be getting much higher framerate?

Howdy! I ran into the same problems as you do. There's a bunch of patches... don't install the latest one!. I know it sounds ridiculous, but yes, it fucks up the framerate (caps it at 42 !??). Just try the earlier version, 1.17 I think it was. I also had to install a texture replacement pack because some were not showing, but I have a different video card so you may not need it. Godspeed.

 

[isamu]

Howdy! I ran into the same problems as you do. There's a bunch of patches... don't install the latest one!. I know it sounds ridiculous, but yes, it fucks up the framerate (caps it at 42 !??). Just try the earlier version, 1.17 I think it was. I also had to install a texture replacement pack because some were not showing, but I have a different video card so you may not need it. Godspeed.

Hello DKnight and thanks for the reply. I downloaded the game off steam, which gave me the latest version. Do you have the Steam version? If so, how would I go about rolling back to version 1.17 of the game? Can you please provide a link to 1.17, as well as a link to the texture pack replacement? I'd appreciate man, thanks

 

[lastendconductor]

Hello DKnight and thanks for the reply. I downloaded the game off steam, which gave me the latest version. Do you have the Steam version? If so, how would I go about rolling back to version 1.17 of the game? Can you please provide a link to 1.17, as well as a link to the texture pack replacement? I'd appreciate man, thanks

Sorry, I have the retail version. Steam version probably comes already upgraded to 1.18, and I don't think you can downgrade (tried it when I was at 1.18, had to reinstall the game completely). I guess your best option is to contact the steam support and warn them about this bug. Try convincing them about reverting back to 1.17, as this bug really breaks the game.

 

[A Black Falcon]

I wish Bethesda would put Daggerfall on it's site for free, much like what it did with Arena a few years ago. I would kill for a workable version of that. I admit to trying it out by dubious methods, but could never get it to work properly and always deleted it. (that and guilt)

I was going to lash at you because of your lack of TES love, but then I remembered your Wizards and Warriors post from some months past that actually made me want to play that game.

If only a lot of these games were freeware.

Oh, I recognize the accomplishment of the TES games. On other forums I've argued about them (Morrowind and before, anyway) at length before. I just think that Bethesda's focus on creating a large world above creating a game with a strong narrative is flawed. Sure, you can create a huge world, populate it, fill it full of generic quests and generic towns and generic dungeons... but what is the game? Several gigabytes of mods to make the game into something usable? "Just wander around and explore"?

The combat is very seriously lacking too. I prefer RPGs to have strategic combat. The Infinity Engine, Wizardry 8, Wizards & Warriors, Fallout, Neverwinter Nights 2... these games all have strategic combat. Sure, I enjoyed action-RPGs like Diablo II, but when I think PC RPG, I think depth, and that means a complex, strategic battle system. I definitely think that the TES games suffer for their FPS-style combat.

Oh yes, and I also think a bit more highly of Arena and Daggerfall than Morrowind and Oblivion, because the first two games had much larger scopes and scales than the latter two. Sure, they did have much less unique areas, but they were some of the only games with fantasy worlds that actually were believable in scale -- Daggerfall truly felt like it was provincial (or national) in scale. Arena too. Morrowind and Oblivion? Sure, it's pretty, particularly with fog pushed back... but then you realize that those two mountains and city and twenty minutes of travel time are all you get, and the cities are five minutes of running apart. It's ridiculous and ruins the immersion. At least Oblivion brought back the quick-travel map, though... Morrowind really was ruined by its absence. That made it far too annoying to be worth the time.

I also thought that the "drag the mouse while clicking to swing the sword" attack system of the first two games was pretty cool... it's too bad they got rid of it in the adaption to the Xbox controller (oh, and what happened to being able to make notes on the map?).

As I said, my ideal open-world game is one that balances those two sides, exploration versus focus. Games like Baldur's Gate I (not II, it's much more linear -- better, but much more linear) and Fallout 1 or 2. The first half of Planescape: Torment would apply as well,as it is wide open and you have a great many things to do, with little direction -- but all of those quests are interesting and you eventually get led forward. The second half is largely linear, though... I did kind of wish that it'd been as open as the first half was. Oh well.

... Oh yeah, and Wizards & Warriors is pretty cheap on EBay or Amazon, even for copies that include the manual. There's no reason not to get it. It really is great.

I don't know if starting with Torment is the best idea to be honest. I think you'd be better off saving that one for later if your going for all the isometric games. I'd do the IWD's, then the Fallouts or BG's, and then Torment, as that will sort of keep them in order of linearity / action first to get acquainted with the engines quirk's.

I did feel that Torment becomes a lot less confusing once you make it out of the initial area and in to the city / starting dungeons.

Hmm... yeah, perhaps. Starting with Baldur's Gate I or Icewind Dale or something like that might indeed be better... going from nothing in the genre to Torment is a big jump. Baldur's Gate is a better entry point, probably.

 

[isamu]

this bug really breaks the game.

Yeah, this issue has already caused me to lose significant interest in playing the game. Plus the mouse pointer randomly changing from the 'hand' to the 'look magnifier' for no reason got annoying really quick.

I dunno....after coming from Half-Life 2, it felt really slow. I don't think I have the patience to play western RPGs at the moment. Half-Life 2 has given me a serious shooter bug. Shame because I wanted to try and get into Arx, but now I think it's too late.

 

[Minsc]

Oh, I recognize the accomplishment of the TES games. On other forums I've argued about them (Morrowind and before, anyway) at length before. I just think that Bethesda's focus on creating a large world above creating a game with a strong narrative is flawed.

Agreed, generally I prefer gameplay mechanics > story > (way distant third) size of game world.

... Oh yeah, and Wizards & Warriors is pretty cheap on EBay or Amazon, even for copies that include the manual. There's no reason not to get it. It really is great.

Is this the correct manual? I just wanted to check in case I (or someone else) ends up with a copy missing a manual, I don't go thinking this is all I need to have if it's not.

 

[-Mikey-]

Should I go back and try to play Guild Wars again? I played with 2 friends for a short amount of time and enjoyed questing but since they dropped out I tried to solo my quests and would end up dying. The people I could hire usually got in the way and since there isn't aggro, the mobs would run straight for me. Since I was a monk and something else...it was hard to solo stuff. After that whole ordeal I uninstalled and have since reinstalled/uninstalled the game about 2 times.

If I would get back into it, magically, where would I go after the main GW game? Do you have to play the expansions in order? Just curious because even after the trauma I went through I still like the game and am anxious for GW 2.

 

[A Black Falcon]

Should I go back and try to play Guild Wars again? I played with 2 friends for a short amount of time and enjoyed questing but since they dropped out I tried to solo my quests and would end up dying. The people I could hire usually got in the way and since there isn't aggro, the mobs would run straight for me. Since I was a monk and something else...it was hard to solo stuff. After that whole ordeal I uninstalled and have since reinstalled/uninstalled the game about 2 times.

If I would get back into it, magically, where would I go after the main GW game? Do you have to play the expansions in order? Just curious because even after the trauma I went through I still like the game and am anxious for GW 2.

Well, Factions and Nightfall are stand-alone stories. You don't need to play them in any order. Factions was released first, followed by Nightfall, though, if you want to do them in release order. Eye of the North, was last, and is different -- it is a direct follow-up (expansion) to the original Prophecies campaign. Only play that after finishing the original Guild Wars (Prophecies) campaign.

And really, the game is NOT meant for solo play. It's meant for parties. Some people do manage to solo, but you're not really supposed to... That's why there are henchmen and (with Nightfall) heroes to help you, if you don't have human party members. Heroes were a great addition, they can be individually told to go to specific places, attack specific targets, etc, and also with Nightfall you also get more control over henchmen... I think the party system in GW works really well.

Agreed, generally I prefer gameplay mechanics > story > (way distant third) size of game world.

Yeah, it really counts for a lot when you can specifically design and focus on every encounter in the game, instead of just creating a huge amount of content and tossing it out there. Each encounter in an Infinity Engine was designed to be a certain way, and they were able to focus on that... and on the story surrounding it, of course. With a TES game, you just don't get that, and it makes for a much less interesting experience.

That and the simplistic action combat system are my primary complaints.

Is this the correct manual? I just wanted to check in case I (or someone else) ends up with a copy missing a manual, I don't go thinking this is all I need to have if it's not.

Yup, that's it! Just print out the key parts to avoid the task-switch incompatibility -- most importantly the Characteristics and Traits listing sections -- and you should be fine. Replacementdocs doesn't have the map too, unfortunately, but as there IS an ingame overworld map, that's okay... there's a place that does (have a small image of it, that is)

For more W&W info, I'd highly recommend this site. Main site:
http://www.tgeweb.com/ironworks/wizardswarriors/index.shtml

They have a shrunk picture of the overworld map, guides, and the official and unofficial patches. I'd recommend using both patches.

Forum: LOTS of information in the posts. http://www.ironworksforum.com/forum...&sort=lastpost&order=desc&daysprune=-1&page=2

You may (almost certainly will) have problems getting the game running, or with crashes. This thread is invaluable for trying to solve those problems. The game has problems running in both Windows XP and Windows Vista.

http://www.ironworksforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=31762

My old computer had WinME, so the game ran fine. I haven't tried to run it in XP, but as that forum shows, many people have gotten it to work (though not all, it seems, without problems). I now have Vista, and the game mostly works fine (patched with both patches, and in compatibility mode), with only one bug: When I click 'Intro' in the main menu the game crashes to the desktop. The only video files are the intro and ending, though, so that's not a big problem, particularly when the two video files will play in things like RAD Game Tools (they're just standard bink video files). As a result, it's a pretty minor issue. Other than that, I have no problems, which was nice, considering that I was worrying that I'd need to do that "re-convert some video files" thing many people had to do to get it working in XP (see the forum/thread for info)... but it seems that that problem doesn't show up in Vista, just this one with the videos, which matters a lot less.

I don't think there is a better W&W site out there.

 

[A Black Falcon]

Well, you're not missing out on anything. The only difference is that the music is in higher quality played from the CD... but it has a significant drawback as none of the tracks loops anymore. I personally prefer playing the disk version so the music plays correctly.

I was at the flea market today, and saw some PC games in a pile I hadn't noticed before...

So, for $4, I got (all jewelcase only) Command & Conquer: Red Alert: The Aftermath (which I didn't have before; I have the original and first expansion, but not the second one), Betrayal at Krondor CD, 3-D Ultra Minigolf, Max Payne, and an unauthorized X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter levels disc.

Maybe the only difference is CD music, but still, it's pretty awesome to have.

And the Steam version is completely messed up. The expansion pack is advertised to come with the game but it doesn't start at all. The main game has some serious issues with saving which leads to some big consequences (like you always have unlimited cash). And as far as I know the Steam version can't be patched either. And it's been in this horrible state for over a year, it's definitely something to avoid. Especially since you can find the JA2 Gold edition cheaper elsewhere.

I already had JA2 Gold via Steam, actually. I just never quite got around to playing it yet...

However, I got it when it was on sale, and packed with Disciples II Gold, for $7 or something. I really loved Disciples II and Disciples II: Rise of the Elves, but never got Guardians of the Light or Servants of the Dark, so it would have been worth $7 to get just those... and it came with JA2, too!

Have you tried any of the user-made NWN1 content? There are a few gems out there (modules that got the developers hired by BioWare and Obsidian); also, was it the henchman system you disliked in the first game's official modules? I agree that the original campaign and Shadows of Undrentide can be underwhelming, but I'm enjoying Hordes despite having to sheperd the idiot AI around Undermountain traps.

None of that can fix the fatal flaw that you can't control the rest of your party.

 

[Varshes]

I really want to try Neverwinter Nights 2 Gold, is that something that would come to Steam, now that Atari is on Steam?

 

[Minsc]

I really want to try Neverwinter Nights 2 Gold, is that something that would come to Steam, now that Atari is on Steam?

It's in the works:

In the coming weeks, The Witcher®, the award winning RPG of 2007, Neverwinter Nights™ 2 and the expansion pack NeverWinter Nights™ 2: Mask of the Betrayer - the sequel to one of the best-selling and genre-defining role-playing games ever – will also be added to Atari’s Steam lineup.

I don't use Steam, so I don't what the status is exactly. Maybe it's already on it? That was from March, so I imagine if it isn't, it should be soon.

I was at the flea market today, and saw some PC games in a pile I hadn't noticed before...

So, for $4, I got (all jewelcase only) Command & Conquer: Red Alert: The Aftermath (which I didn't have before; I have the original and first expansion, but not the second one), Betrayal at Krondor CD, 3-D Ultra Minigolf, Max Payne, and an unauthorized X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter levels disc.

Maybe the only difference is CD music, but still, it's pretty awesome to have.

I really have to start going to flea markets... nothing like stumbling across classic games from the late 80s and early 90s for a few bucks. Sure beats ordering them online for $50+ :lol The CD audio is indeed awesome for BaK. I'm curious to hear QFGV's when I get that, I still have to pick up that anthology and the W&W game; decided to get the final GCN game I wanted in my collection instead, SoA:L.

 

[Varshes]

It's in the works:



I don't use Steam, so I don't what the status is exactly. Maybe it's already on it? That was from March, so I imagine if it isn't, it should be soon.

Ah, thanks for the news. It isn't there yet, but I will wait until it is.

 

[A Black Falcon]

I really have to start going to flea markets... nothing like stumbling across classic games from the late 80s and early 90s for a few bucks. Sure beats ordering them online for $50+ :lol The CD audio is indeed awesome for BaK. I'm curious to hear QFGV's when I get that, I still have to pick up that anthology and the W&W game; decided to get the final GCN game I wanted in my collection instead, SoA:L.

Yeah, I know. I'm sure I've saved quite a bit of money overall by mostly not buying online. Of course, sometimes you will pay more, and it's harder to resist all those piles of old cartridges when they are sitting right in front of you...

... I often fail to resist and come home with some 'new' NES, SNES, or Genesis game.

Anyway, yeah, as I said, either just get a complete copy of QFGCS or loose (main disc only) QFGCS or any QFGA plus a separate purchase of a QFGV: Dragon Fire Soundtrack CD and QFGV.

The MIDI soundtracks of the first four games are also really awesome, though, of course...

You won't get it for the $10 plus tax I paid for the two in a local store, of course, but that was just awesome luck... most of the time I'm sure I pay prices close to or above what I'd pay for stuff online, except with limited selection. Still, I prefer buying things I can look at first...

For instance, that local PC stuff store that has a section with old '90s PC games in it, both boxed (complete and unopened) and jewelcase only. A few months ago for somewhere around $20-$25 I got Claw (the rare DVD version, jewelcase only), Descent: FreeSpace (disc only), RedJack: Revenge of the Brethren (complete in box), and PowerSlide (jewelcase only). I was pretty happy with that, needless to say... but something like this, where you pay almost nothing ($1) for an awesome, awesome game like the CD version of Betrayal at Krondor? It doesn't get better than that.

Oh yes, and Skies of Arcadia: Legends was a very good choice. It's my favorite console RPG ever and a game I really, really liked. Story, gameplay, graphics, theme... I loved it all.

 

[Chris R]

Needs more Morrowind love

 

[Proc]

I love this thread. This may have inspired me to give Vampire: The Masquerade a second chance. Saw it playing on my roommates desktop; thought the opening cutscene was fugly and laughable. Maybe it was his rig because the number of times its been mention makes me think that my initial impression is way off base.

edit: I need to add my love for wizardry 8; I got completely lost in that game for days...I'd be curious on how it holds up.

 

[firex]

thanks a lot, thread, for reminding me to replay VtM. I got kind of near the end of it before and my computer died so I lost my save, but I wouldn't mind replaying it anyway... I'd rather pick a different clan than what I was before. and that game took awhile to grow on me but after awhile I really found it fun. It's buggy as fuck, even with the unofficial fan patches, but it's too fun not to enjoy.

I'd replay TQ but for some reason the Steam version won't work for me anymore. I'd like to blame it on Vista (or more like Ironlore not updating the game for Vista since they probably were going bankrupt around the time Vista came out) but it could be something else. All I know is when I try to load it on Steam it never gets past the Steam message telling me it's preparing to play TQ.