Drowsy Emperor

Well a bit of time has passed, so what's the verdict on this game?

New twitter stuff, nothing big here.

Level 5 dungeon in Grimrock now, the game is still quite good. Any RPG fan should have it in his collection, so sayeth the wise Alaundo.

Updates from Beamdog forums: - I don't understand this stuff about reddit.

I was hoping for a less wacky post apocalyptic experience than Fallout, but I guess that's out of the question.

This claim is based on one statement by one employee of BW. You know, the kind they drop every time they release a new game of the "its our best game yet" variety. So what if it supposedly made more money? The Titanic made more money than any film in history at the time, but that didn't make it a good film. Tons of games released after NWN made more money than it did, and that doesn't mean anything either way. NWN's campaign was rubbish. Its expansions were above average at best. From a design perspective it was a step backwards even from BG1. The single/two member party combat was ridiculous taking away everything that was tactical about the DnD system. The graphical design was poor, even at the time (Morrowind was released at about the same time and it looked light years more advanced), and the graphics themselves are particularly aged and ugly now. The only thing that was good about it was the kit that came with it for modding enthusiasts and the multiplayer. Its one full tool kit and half a game. Any comparison with BG, Torment, Fallout and any later BW RPG, even KOTOR, is a joke. Now please, go away.

I think there are no outside locations in the game.

I'm too weenie to not have the automap option just in case, but I've hardly had to use it. Think I've looked at it three times, and then only because I lost my bearing re:what direction I was facing in and was too lazy to walk a distance to figure out if I was going in the direction I'd intended. Funny...terrible memory for text/verbal things but visual memory is super high. Is Evasion supposed to work only on physical damage? Because I swear my Rogue, who has 24 Evasion, usually takes very little damage against, say, those poison spitters...her health will be almost full while the others have just a sliver left or something. ie, like her Evasion is kicking in. Dunno, mine is in the back row along with the mage and takes damage only rarely. I never allow enemies to hit me from the side or back if I can help it. Finished level 3 now, had a particularly difficult time against some green blobs.

Well, in these parts (those being Serbia) everyone was playing pirated games at the time because there were no originals and with the lack of widespread broadband NWN was to most people as good as its campaign + add ons - which is to say either good or crap, depending on previous experience. I was enthusiastic at first, but the campaign killed it for me. Sad thing is, when I bought a copy - in the forgotten realms deluxe package - it didn't work. Neither, to this day, do the expansions. It keep on requesting the cd, even though its in the drive. Bioware's updater didn't fix it either. I was disappointed, but I bought the package for BG and ID, so I just chucked it along on the pile of other disappointing crap BW did.

He means Games Workshop, the company behind warhammer.

Good luck defending that one EA.

Oh and a sequel to the Emperor of the Fading Suns 4x game. It wasn't a good game, but I love the universe and its really suited to 4x gameplay.

The pathfinding wasn't good, I won't disagree with that. I got into a habit of selecting shorter routes but even so the characters had a tendency to go the long way around, if one was available. The aurora engine was no better. Getting stuck on a small rock/terrain features was, as Delfosse said a regular problem. Used to get around that by leading my char with the keyboard. But then, who cares about the aurora engine or NWN, the only good thing that came out of it was the Witcher.

While I agree with you in principle, I literally laughed out loud at the irony of you of all people saying it. There's a difference. I am critical of BW's games, but I try to offer an argument/prove a point most of the time - he's just rude to everyone who doesn't agree with him. Obviously, if I criticise BW I'm interested in them, at least enough to talk about the game if I'm not going to buy it. He isn't, he's just baiting the new guy for no good reason.

Finished mapping level 2 in Grimrock. Portals were playing havoc on my map making skills. I think I could go through it blindfolded now though. So far I've got 9/71 secrets, 1/7 treasure (this reminds me of Wolfenstein 3D ). The designers have a sense of humor too, the level snakes back in on itself with the exit being one or two nodes away from the starting location. Its so much easier when you have a map to fall back on. I played a bit without the map a bit and after turning around because of combat I completely lost my bearings. Still, I'd never play it with the automap, its sooooo sweet to play this way. I wonder when it became a sin to make fun games.

Alpha Centauri remake.

Well that's a funny joke. I spent at least 2 years just playing on Russian persistent-world shards and there were more ways to get mobs stuck on just a small piece of stone laying on the ground than I care to remember. I don't remember anything of the sort in the IE. Like I said, IE managed badly the fact that someone was blocking the path. Aurora managed badly everything, including texture on the tiles (tiles with teeny-tiny stones could block a dragon and get him stuck forever, it wouldn't be anything out of the ordinary). I remember getting stuck in texture myself a thousand times, so please... You're fighting a losing battle there. The man thinks NWN is the best thing since pre sliced bread. You'll notice he replies to well reasoned arguments with nothing but persistence, so you shouldn't waste your time. Volourn, stop contaminating the topic. If you're not a fanboy/interested/whatever you want to call it - in BGEE then piss off.

Mod support has been confirmed by latest twitter "Mod support will be improved...".

DAO's item system never gave me the feeling of the unique loot of BGII. The sketches combined with descriptions and unique pictures for each item made them feel really special.

That's rather difficult in a few situations I've encountered, starting towards the end of lvl2 actually. (edit-or was that the start of lvl3...can't remember. Anyway...) And I hear it gets worse. I have only one mage and all he can do right now is the original lvl 2 fire ball, is that fireburst? Anyway, the controls are just too rapid/sensitive for me. I press a key to turn L and I end up turning almost full circle instead. Movement was better/smoother w/vsync off, too, but I can't turn it off. Yes, that's fireburst. Strange, I have v sync on and movement is fine. As long as I don't panic that is. Try to plan your encounters, bait enemies, etc. Any room that's at least 2x2 lets you beat them without damage. But it is quite frantic. TES games seem slow by comparison. So far I've only had problems with those poison spitting fungi when facing them down long corridors. They also move really fast.

I'm on level 2 and playing on hard. Still don't have any problems with the combat, but paying attention and dodging is mandatory. Enemy attack speeds are so quick you should never stand and wait for them to hit. Never fight more than one enemy at the same time. Multiple enemies sharing the same space are great target for fire burst and the like since it hits all of them.

I bet they got that idea from the back of a Durex packet

Laptops today are crappily made, and 5 years is as much as you can expect - even from expensive ones. The hinges are usually the first to go, even if you don't abuse them. The only thing you can save from damage is the keyboard if you buy a cheap USB one and use it that way at home. Other than being more careful (which really won't help much) there's nothing you can do.

So let me get this straight... you're blaming the players for having 'too high' expectations... which are actually based on the previous games? By ME2 it was obvious that they weren't so much as making a sequel or spinning an epic tale as revising the formula. ME2 practically ditched all your previous work, giving it a nod at times but really it was a wholly new game that felt to me more like a reboot of ME1. It was like what Gothic 2 did to Gothic 1. Technically they're a sequel, but really - its the same game with the same plot just polished up. If we agree on that, then its clear that nothing in ME's universe was really established and continuity was never at the forefront of the experience. To expect a coherent outcome out of something that was clearly made up as they went along is a case of misplaced expectations. Plus, its a goddamn blockbuster - just what did you expect?

After an hour and a half of mapping dungeons I can give a preliminary opinion on Legend of Grimrock. I'm playing on hard in old school mode (without automap). Food and torches are two things that are needed constantly but they are plentiful enough for this not to be a problem. You'd have to spend hours doing nothing to run out of them, and I can't see that happening. The graphical assets of the game are modest, but they work and the overall atmosphere is spot on. Monsters are susceptible to strafing and kiting in any room that's at least 2x2 tiles, but I have a feeling this isn't necessarily going to be enough later when there are more of them. This is a game to play strictly for its gameplay, which has been polished up without being dumbed down and its a very enjoyable combination of fun and challenge at the same time. Its exactly what it claims to be, what the developers claim of it, no more, no less. Recommended.