Sarex

Clicking on dialog options is not what I consider a fun game and your view on interactivity is very close-minded. Anything that makes a player do something in a game is considered interactive, because it requires an action from the player. Yeah, no. There isn't event comparing, books outclass games no matter how interactive their stories can be. I haven't played a game yet, that had a story comparable to a good book. The plain fact is game writers are average at best, as can be seen from many D&D books out there (the same goes for script writers). Also, ultimately books unlike games and movies leave the story interpretation to our imagination.

The game is combat oriented, it never tried to hide that, thus it will not be to everyone tastes. Why? If I want a good story, I will read a book which will always have a better story then a game (unless it's a bad story/writer). I play games because they offer something that other mediums don't, interactivity, and if the game has a good story attached to it then that is just a happy bonus.

And on the flip side it would be just a visual novel with combat tacked on to it just for the sake of it (Torment). I am almost to the end of my IWD2 heart of fury playthrough and I have encountered the respawing of enemies in dungeons maybe 2 times. I think you need to replay the game. Any time that an enemy appeared "out of thin air" there was an accompanying narrative to explain it.

You do know why they had a different xp requirement? It was balancing issues, so for it to be transferred to P:E just for the sake of transferring it would cause balance issues. Also, I don't really see how it would serve to drive the player to play more, the difference between on kill and quest xp is that you have to finish a quest to get xp. So there wouldn't really be a case of the player thinking "just a little more to get that little bit of xp", but "I need to finish another quest to level up all my characters". If the balancing requires it, then sure make different classes have different xp requirements, but if it's just for the sake of it, I don't see any point in it.

First party will be: Paladin Paladin Paladin Paladin Paladin Paladin (adventure hall op) second party: Paladin Fighter Rouge Mage Cleric Druid third party is whatever I think is good from the previous playthroughs, but I don't know what can beat an all paladin party.

Then what, pray tell, is the point of this forum, or at least this section of the forum? Also what are you doing in this thread? Why are you not in the "What part of P:E has you the most exited about it's release" telling the same things? This is a forum, people discuss things on a forum, that is what it's for. We don't know if the good things will be good, or the bad things will be bad until we play the game, but guess what, we sure as hell can guess. To be honest you are just coming across as a kid yelling, hey everyone look at me.

I would go back for the first pile, after I sold the second.

Thief-fighter, where at the end levels you could wield any weapon (thiefs had a skill that let them use any item no matter the restriction on it) was the strongest class I saw, with the exception of maybe thief-mage.

Heh.

Are we speaking the same language. I really don't know how you got all that from my post. When did I say that if a game is linear it has no gameplay? The rest is... I don't even know how to try and answer that. I really think you missunderstood something I said, and it would really help if you quoted the part you are referring to, because I really can't connect what you are saying with what I said. I said in a previous post what I consider gameplay to be. I also said that P:T could have been a visual novel and would not have suffered for it. The dialog functions identically to the ones in the rest of IE games, with the exception of wisdom and intelligence were also taken in to account besides charisma. The difference between BG/IWD and P:T is that it was used much, much rarely. The content of the dialogues fall in to story/narration.

Or just not reading the comments before downloading something. xD

He said: To which I replayed that is not gameplay, that is story/narrative. This is linearity. edit:Also it was stated that IWD was more combat oriented, but it had side quest though in a much smaller quantity. This is also linearity.

You need to stop putting words in my mouth, I said I view gameplay as a technical aspect of the game, whether that is how dialog works or how sneaking, lock-picking, crafting, opening doors, specking your character, getting xp, items, etc. functions. What you described in your previous post, was story, narration and linearity. If you want to divide a game in to story/gameplay/graphics that is your problem, for me it is simply too general and vague to discuss it that way. Also, yes not every game has combat, but this one does and the games it is trying to emulate did, so the biggest part of its gameplay is, yes you guess it, combat.

I think you are confusing what gameplay is or at least what I am considering gameplay to represent. To me the things you describe sound a lot like story, narration and linearity. You are thinking too generally when considering gameplay, while I am looking at it as more of a mechanical aspect.

Yeah, I don't know why I called Infinity Ward the publisher for IE games, but just to correct my self, the publisher was/is called Interplay Entertainment.

@Sensuki I agree about everything except the armor, I really fell that they should have a fantasy flavor like in the previous IE games and if that is too hard to animate or won't look as good because it is too small, then I would like them to have a drawing of the item in the inventory like in BG2.

I totally forgot about those, yeah illithids where such a pain in the ass (so much reloaded games) the beholders where not so hard if you could summon enough cannon fodder or had the Balurian shield which I always got after my first playthough.

What you where expecting a replay? I don't know, you stated a very subjective opinion, so there wasn't really much to say. The fighting with mages was usually a puzzle in BG because most of the time those mages where "boss fights" of a quest. That is why mages where overpowered and there where few interesting non mages fights (except for dragons). The story wasn't a focus in IWD, but I personally liked it. As for the fights being easy, if you where good enough there was always "heart of fury" difficulty which I played on (you get buffed items, but also much stronger enemies). For me, IWD 2 was my first game in the IE series so there is undoubtedly some nostalgia going on there, but I remember when I played BG after it, I always felt that the combat was easier overall and the combat system was no where near as complex. Even Trent Oster said in one of his tweets that IWD2 was the culmination of their experience with working on IE games, which is logical seeing as it was the last of its kind. You can look at the IE games as a tree, the main branch is the Baldur's Gate series, on one side of it is the story branch which is Torment and on the other side is the combat branch which is Icewind Dale. (this wasn't a very good metaphor but you understand what I'm getting at)

I think P:E has a lot to learn story wise from Torment that was never in question and I agree in most cases story>gameplay, but never the less I still want it to have great gameplay.

That was 13 years, I really doubt you knew how it was then and look what he said, "Something I haven't expected, but hey, who cares!" Meaning that he was surprised that Torment did that badly, meaning he had no agenda. As for the words of Scott Warner they where 3 years after this, so yeah it could have reached those numbers, but who considers a game a success if it needs 4 years to make a profit. Point in fact inxile said them selves that the profits weren't enough to garner a sequel. http://www.vg247.com/2013/04/04/in-bloom-inxile-on-torment-tides-of-numenera/

I found it on a blog but the source is 404ed. I will link you to the blog. IWD2 was after the year 2000. Scroll down to may 16. http://www.nma-fallout.com/content.php?page=news-archive-05-2000

I'm not, but combat is the major (biggest) part of it. Those aren't statistics. Ask any developer would he even look at those polls and take anything they say to heart. Those numbers are ridiculously small and as for those political polls you mention, I trust them even less. - No, I'm pretty sure they are just loud. Oh, and Sarex, check this link. http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?5156-Games-You-Liked-Got-Great-Reviews-Yet-No-One-Played&p=117970&viewfull=1#post117970 Who is Scott Warner and what was the profit? If the game had sold as good as he claims the publisher wouldn't have kept quiet while the press reported bad numbers. Seems fishy to me. That post was also made 4 years after the game released. In may 2000 these where the numbers for IE and some other games: Baldur's Gate (all formats) 500,000 BG expansion pack 156,000 Fallout 144,000 Fallout 2 123,000 Diablo 1,300,000 Revenant 37,000 Darkstone 75,000 Ultima IX: Ascension 73,000 Planescape: Torment 73,000

IWD 2 improved on BG combat, so in my opinion it outshines BG gameplay. BG series was a great melting pot and over all it was the best. Torment had a great story and narrative and nothing else. I hope you get 0 xp for it, and I will take my loot down with me.

Tomorrow at dawn, beneath the clock tower. You may chose your weapon, potatoes or carrots.

Then what was the point in saying "Torment has critical acclaim(more than BG)"? Please link me a source for IWD2 being a failure, this is the first time I heard of it. Only thing I could find on IWD2 after a short skim is this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icewind_Dale_II#Reception