Tigranes

An unnecessary qualification - why, are you getting defensive, Purk? You can probably attribute your original point to people that still refuse to buy anything without a box, I guess, but as far as Steam goes it really doesn't have much to do with it.

As time goes by I'm thinking Mafia is not my thing - I like Hitman-style sneaking, hiding bodies and infiltration, but I don't like GTA-style games and I doubt I'll have much fun driving cars or shootin gpeople in the face. And it's sounding like thel atter will be the core gameplay? I don't know if that was the case with the first one?

That's what you get when you get a game that lets you create wildly different builds, and then actually makes you feel the good and bad consequences of those builds. People think the game is unbalanced, or broken, or too easy, or too hard, etc.

ME has 6? Everything I've seen leads me to believe you rarely get more than 3. Not a big issue since Bioware writing rarely uses more than that, anyway - and Dragon Age could certainly cut down on word filler. The console combat sounds more like KOTOR/ME - i.e. control one person at a time, generally rely on the AI, and forgo having strategic control of the entire party at all times. Don't mind as long as it's not that way on the PC...

You're right Volo, there is a twist with the demon at the end - it is a nice touch to offer that final temptation, especially because whereas the initial decision is debated on moral lines, the demon gets right to the point and offers you immediate, tangible rewards in the gameworld. I think generally DAO C&C had a good structure and interesting things peppered across, but I don't think they had an overriding philosophy of 'have no one best decision' - and suffered for it. Also, please, not the Redcliffe debate again :spam:

Numbers is right on this one. Anyway, at the end of the day, semantics aside, the important thing is: 1) Steam exclusives demand that you use Steam, if you want to play X game. 2) Therefore, it's exactly like exclusivity deals on an Xbox or Playstation, except it's not a hardware / development constraint that contributes to the reasoning, it's exclusively a decision made to increase Steam's market share and improve its market dominance. 3) In other words, Steam is making naked power grabs to broker these deals with developers so that it can become the all-pervasive digital gaming platform. 4) Because of this maneuvring, people who don't like it are forced into a choice of dealing with its stupidities or missing out on an increasing number of products. This unpleasant choice is made doubly unpleasant because we all know this situation is forced on us by Steam's power-grab. 5) Finally, all it takes is for Steam to introduce a $5/year subscription fee or something a couple of years down the line. How many millions of people would stay on Steam now that they're used to it and don't want to lose their games or new exclusives? A lot of people. Why don't I want Steam dominating the market? Because they are already, through Steam exclusives, putting non-Steam users at a disadvantage. It's not even a "don't like it? don't use it". It's a "if you like X games you better use it". Because, in terms of making good business sense, it's easy to see them taking this farther. It's actually different from the Starforce example: as terrible as Starforce is, at least DRM has a sensible reason to be there in the first place, even if it screws up what it's meant to do. Steam has no sensible reason to be mandatory for anything. Optional, go ahead, float your boats.

The only good C&C about the Redcliffe decision is one Volo describes - if you wiped out the mages before, then hell, you don't get their help at Redcliffe. Otherwise it's a boring nobrainer. If you didn't go to the mages tower first, you still get the solution to ask them - and despite everyone whining about time, you know, the demon possessed boy will wait days and weeks for you to do your tower romp. Missed opportunity - it would have been very interesting if the order in which you went to each place mattered that way, and also changed the situation of each place a bit. (e.g. go to Redcliffe last, then the boy's condition is so bad that you can't ask the circle for help anyway; go to the mages tower last, then Wynne is alive but most of the kiddies she was protecting are dead; etc.) And of course, unless you are fooled by the game's talk of urgency and think going to the mages is a risk, if you carefully consider each of the 3 options, the mages option really is by far the best option practically and morally. You don't do anything wrong, you save everyone, nothing is lost. So in fact it is not a grey decision - there is a clear best solution that the game PRETENDS has a nonexistent risk to it, a ruse that you might or might not fall for. Decisions are hard decisions and good dilemmas when (a) every option has its own advantage and disadvantage that are played out in a meaningful way, and (b) no option is clearly the best or worst option. DAO did (a) pretty well, sometimes, but for (b), yeah, Orzammar was the only one that really made you hesitate.

You know, I played that game when I was like 10 - that character design really is ridiculous. I mean, look! Goat horns!

It shows fine on my computer - I don't know why it turned into ??? when I put it in the G3 forums. Might have something to do with how my .txt (non-Unicode) are set to Korean. I know this prevents me from installing Paradox games. But I've just tried clean install, and tried using English as the language (and as you say, it hsouldn't matter anyway) - no dice. I haven't seen something like this before, either, and I've seen a huge amount of BG bugs over the years. Exact error is: (also, gogo thread hijack)

Thanks for the email numbers - unfortunately, doesn't do the job. Must be something with other mods or WeiDU going nuts or something. Maybe I will just play without Tweaks... though that does suck. (And the ???? are just due to Korean language for .txts - shouldn't matter. If that's what you're talking about. O_o) Gah. Waiting for my new copy of IWD to arrive so I can try an ironman run.

I have version 7, and version 9. You could upload the .tp2 for either one... or, if you could trouble yourself, whatever version you have (I don't think it's big?). I know my way around BG2 mods and files somewhat, but I'm not sure on this one - thought it had to do with WeiDU autopatching but the workaround didn't work. No hotfix out there either. conversely, WeiDU installs take way too long - I've spent at least 2 hours into this now. Edit: Yeah, I only remembered I had dispel arrows before the last chapter - good thing, too. I seem to remember them not being so cheesy, but they took down Angelo(? the final fight mage)'s protections down in one go. Of course, it can't beat Wand of Monster Summoning - the cheesiest item in BG1. It's what lets me get past Aec'Letec without seventeen tons of frustration, with the stupid 'countdown of death' hold gaze.

Just finished BG1. In the end, the XP from TOTSC & mod quests had me at about 150k xp: combined with years of replay and a lot of money the party was a walking bag of doom by the end, stocked full of detonation arrows (on Kivan, something like 5/2 attacks/round) if nothing else. Even Sarevok went down within a couple of minutes: Kagain tanking it up with that barbarian health with Jaheira support, Imoen firing dispelling arrows, Kivan firing piercing arrows, PC & Edwin summoning monster fodder. Now for BG2, if only BG2 Tweaks would install properly... it's dying for some reason. Does anyone have that mod? Woudl they mind uploading the .tp2 file on here?

Same person.

If the sound is choppy *and* mouse barely responds, sounds like the entire game is slowing down - some sort of serious issue (graphical, etc) or the comp specs not being up to scratch. What are your exact specs? And even if the mouse 'barely even responds', can you still get it to try and click New Game oranything? And see if it responds?

Try again when the patch comes out - I've had games that won't run from all kinds of developers so I feel your pain, but perhaps it will help. Unfortunately runtime errors don't usually tend to have makeshift 'community solutions'.

Why, Purkake, I thought you were morally against narrowminded one-sided views that ignore evidence to the contrary! I never used groin shot, of course... Fore! will be another silly gag that gets entirely too much attention from the media.

Oh, Fallout was always about violence. It's just a question of degrees, and it's also a question of doing it in a sensible way. Everything appears ironic if you ignore those things, though.

I don't understand why Bio are flinging all these screenies at us when clearly NONE of them are actually in fully fledged environments. Just about every single one of them are half-done stuff placed in the middle of nowhere. Still, I think from Flemeth et al we can pretty much confirm the Anime Style. I guess that'll go great with their Dragon Age anime, Dragon Age figurines, Dragon Age plush toys, Dragon Age toothbrushes and Dragon Age lunchboxes. (You'd think I'm being hyperbolic here, except the first two are already real, eh?) Result of hype round 1: Dragon Age 2 will hurt your eyes.

This thread makes little kittens bleed. Remember, keep to arguments not personal attacks.

Dear Monte, I am now playing Baldur's Gate again to satisfy my tunnel-fighting needs, but surely you have the connoisseur's knowledge of hidden gems. How best should I resolve my tunnel-fighting urges? Tigranes

Got all the BG1 characters, though I'm replaying the game right now. Got everyone in the BG2... except Nalia, of all people. I guess I sort of block her out by now. Makes me think - it's not so much that NPCs in these games were a lot better than NPCs these days, it's just that you had a much wider pool. I completely ignore the likes of Safana, Aerie and Nalia, imagine if I was forced to take Aerie on some missions. *brr*

I don't know why I have a soft spot for NWN2 OC - I can totally sympathise with arguments that it's too long, bland, has a couple of particularly badly designed areas, has bland characters, cliche story, etc. But hell, I played it through 3 times with a computer that could only run it at 5fps. I just liked the fact that it was a big traditional fantasy romp I think, it was like BG2's younger, blander brother. Probably because it came after the monstrosity that was the NWN1 OC, and then the KOTORs & Jade Empire. Of course, then MOTB came and took the cake. edit: my BG1 playthrough reaches Durlag's Tower, with characters on around 1mil XP. I can draw the place in my head by now (in fact, I can probably reconstruct the entire series from scratch in the event of an apocalypse), but you still really have to watch out or traps will bust you, bad. You know, Durlag's Tower would be awesomely done with the Oblivion engine - if there's one thing that game did right it was traps (well, when you modded up the damage). It would be amazingly terrifying. Kivan is like a machine of death with his bow by now, something like 5/2 attacks per turn and a THAC0 of ~0, from memory: summon some fodder in front of him and he tore three greater dopplegangers before they got to him.

NWN2 OC is overall a fairly ordinary experience, I'd argue. Combat is fairly solid but nothing amazing tactically, the story is pretty hum ho but it allows for a couple of really interesting bits like the Trial and the Keep, and the writing is generally fairly run of the mill with occasional good bits. I think if you like the core gameplay (i.e. you're enjoying it as a whole not just particular bits) then stick with it, as its probably best bit is how big it is, but if not just go to MOTB, which is superb. I don't know. I think the Trial at least is worth getting to.

In other words, the tiny gremlins that work 16 hour days for a pay of cold rice and warm beer.

The invisible thief warehouse is famous for its idiocy, sure. But that's one broken area - and even then, if you know how the game mechanics work it's not difficult. I think there was one other encounter similarly broken, but in general? NWN2 is not a difficult game, unless you don't know how the D&D stuff works and make screwed up parties (which, to be fair, is a bit too easy to do).