Lorfean

Impressions after playing the demo twice on PC, once as a male melee Rogue and once as a female ranged Rogue: - Combat seems very similar to DA:O in terms of what you do, the difference is that everything happens faster. The "press a button and sth awesome happens" design philosophy can really be noticed, and it will be interesting to see how the faster-paced combat will function on higher difficulty levels. I expect that setting up tactics for your party will be more important than it was in the first game because of the accelerated speed. Also, Bethany was throwing fireballs all over the place and they often ended up hitting me and other party members, but didn't damage us because friendly fire was turned off in the demo -- I wonder how this will work on higher difficulties where friendly fire *will* be a concern, and also how effectively we will be able to control groups of monster through Grease, Earthquake, etc. and then deploy AoE spells, like we did in the first game. It seems that, with the faster pace of combat, this would be more difficult. - The new interface style took some getting used to, but I like it now, and I like how easy it is to see the difference between activated and sustained abilities and how they've color-coded every ability tree more clearly -- at higher levels in DA:O (and especially in Awakening) it became a a huge pain to keep a good overview of all the abilities on my group's quickbars, so I'm happy to see improvement in that area. - The first location of the demo was a very, very poor choice to show off the game's graphics and atmosphere. A barren wasteland with a few ruins scattered about, it was just plain boring. The second location, the city, was more impressive, but that section of the demo was so short and fast-paced (when I wasn't fighting, I was busy running, trying to keep up with Isabela) that I never even got the chance to be impressed by it. - Most of the character models seem to look better than in DA:O, except for the darkspawn -- I liked the look of the darkspawn in the first game far better than what I saw in the demo; they look pathetic. Even the ogre. Which is a real shame, as it makes them feel more like sword/bow/spell fodder then an actual threat, and a lot less satisfying to kill, too. Crossing my fingers that some modders agree with me, and will find a way to get the old darkspawn models into DA2. Male Hawke's looks bothered me as well, but that I can remedy through character creation. - The dialog wheel and VO Hawke bothered me less than I thought it would, but only the final game will tell if it is as much of a step backwards as some people make it out to be. In the end it's about telling an interesting and engaging story and having the player feel like he is impacting that story, and if the game accomplishes that, then I'll be satisfied. As for the rest of the characters... I didn't feel any connection whatsoever to my family, and couldn't care less when my brother died. I'm not sure how this will be handled in the final game, but in the demo they felt more like a liability than anything else, and aside from Bethany (mostly because she was the only Mage in the group) I couldn't wait to be rid of them. Varric seemed like a fun guy to have around though and Isabela was interesting, but didn't get enough screentime to leave a lasting impression. Overall, I'm just looking forward to trying more of the game. BioWare took a big chance in making such huge changes to the look and feel of the world (though gameplay itself doesn't seem to be *that* different) and I'm curious to see if they pulled off what they set out to do, or if it will end up feeling like a big mess.

So not impressed. I'm very happy that GoG.com is around to provide some proper, classic CRPG's. I have a feeling I'll be spending a lot more money on their website in the coming years than I will on new titles.

Any word on an english version of this game?

The Best - Baldur's Gate + Tales of the Sword Coast : This game introduced me to D&D and the Forgotten Realms setting, so strong nostalgia probably plays a big factor in my enjoyment of it these days. But enjoy it I do, despite the average story and big empty areas that don't have anything to do with the plot. - Baldur's Gate II + Throne of Bhaal : Absolute favorite RPG of all time. - Icewind Dale + Heart of Winter & Trials of the Luremaster : Second favorite RPG. Tight story, great art direction, great gameplay, awesome bestiary, challenging encounters, and lots of old school dungeon crawling. What's not to love?! - Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark : Just a very well designed epic level campaign with a good story and many interesting characters. To me, it felt like a return to form for BioWare. Easily the best of their NWN modules, retail or otherwise. - Neverwinter Nights 2 : Mask of the Betrayer: This expansion "saved" NWN2 for me, which was (initially, upon release) a MAJOR disappointment. Love it. The Good - Planescape: Torment : Great story, great characters, and arguably the best writing in a video game to date. I just never took to the setting quite as much as I did to other fantasy settings (D&D or otherwise). - Icewind Dale II : Too obviously plagued by its short development cycle... I would've loved to include this one in the above category, but it just doesn't cut it. Feels too incoherent. - Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir : I loved the IWD-like feel of this expansion, and adored the overland map feature, but it lacked the awesome dungeons of the IWD games. The Inbetween - Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide : Can't decide whether to place this under "Good" or "Average"... So, yea. Kinda enjoyed it. Finished it several times. But there's something about it that just annoys me, and I can't put my finger on it (and no, it's not Deekin). The Average - Neverwinter Nights : Just a cringe-worthy campaign... Suffered too much from BW having to split their focus between implementing a new D&D rules system, developing a new engine, a robust multiplayer component, a toolset, a DM client, and creating this campaign. - Neverwinter Nights Premium Modules : Meh. - Neverwinter Nights 2 : Again, a boring campaign and hardly any interesting characters to be found. The gameplay was a mess as well, but has vastly improved with patches and the two expansions. - The Temple of Elemental Evil : Best implementation of the D&D rules system in a video game. Ever. And gorgeous graphics, too. Sadly, that's about all there's to it. - Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance series : Had a lot of fun playing these co-op, but they're hardly RPG's imo. The Horrible - Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor : Nuff said.

Hm. Maybe not as obvious as you might think then, eh? Anyway -- I see you rate VtM: Bloodlines pretty high. I assume you play with the unofficial patch? I haven't followed the project in a while, but noticed they recently released v6.5. How much does it alter/improve the game these days? It's been some time since I played that game, and for a while now, I've been tempted to give it another go.

Well, that shouldn't be too much of a surpise on these forums and, in case you hadn't noticed, is true for most people posting here. So... thanks for stating the obvious?

In no particular order... Except alphabetically 'cos I'm compulsive like that. Baldur's Gate with Tales of the Sword Coast Baldur's Gate II with Throne of Bhaal Chrono Trigger Dragon Age: Origins Icewind Dale with Heart of Winter & Trials of the Luremaster Icewind Dale II Mass Effect Max Payne Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark Portal There are probably more games that deserve to be on that list, and some which I haven't payed that will most likely end up there once I have, but this is it for now

I've noticed that, if I select one of my party members (by pressing the corresponding F# key or clicking on them), and then press = to select the entire group, the character that was selected prior to me pressing = will move to the "leader" position of the party formation. Not sure if this is what you're looking for, but as far as I've seen it's the only way to influence the formation.

They're scared of the Big Bad Publishers knocking on their doors and telling them off for being mean to their multimillion dollar games. Let's face it -- if someone like Yahtzee presented his opinions in well-written reviews accompanied by numerical scores, he would've been fired long ago. They only let him do what he does because he does it in an entertaining, tongue-in-cheek way and doesn't take himself (or his audience) too seriously. L.

Speaking of 'not getting it', I really don't see what all the excitement about the upcoming Street Fighter IV is about. Grew out of fighters over a decade ago, and SFIV just looks like the old arcade one, except in 3d, yet everyone is going ape over it. Yea, the hype around SFIV is a lot about nostalgia and the fact that the devs seem to be catering to the fans' wishes for the franchise and improving on the formula, instead of making it into something else in a forced attempt to be innovative. It's similar to what Blizzard is doing with StarCraft II and Diablo III. That said, I can't wait to play it As for God of War... I don't really get what the deal is with that one's popularity either. IMO they quickly become repetitive and boring. L.

Right. Well, see, I never did that either so that probably explains it then. Look, of course we took jabs at each other while playing, just not the shooting-each-other-in-the-back-during-a-tense-moment type of jabs. We did that in the competitive multiplayer modes. Bottom line is that I simply didn't enjoy the Halo games that much. Taste differs and all that L.

Um. No. I was under the impression that that's what the competitive multiplayer modes were for... L.

I played through both Halo and Halo 2 in coop with one of my friends who is a die hard Halo fan, and I didn't really enjoy either of them too much... They just didn't impress me -- not story-wise, not gameplay-wise and not that much in terms of visuals either -- and near the end of the 2nd one I was bored to tears. I had a hell of a lot more fun playing through Dark Alliance with my girlfriend tbh. I guess in the end it just comes down to taste. I know I'll pass on Halo 3, coop or otherwise. L.

Just out of curiosity... Why would a KotOR MMO be such a bad thing? L.

Um... You hated WoW because you "had" to reroll after being destroyed over and over again by players using unfair strategies? What an odd and narrow-minded (not to mention "wrong") way to describe the way that game works... I assume you played on a PvP server and got your chosen class "nerfed" in one of Blizzard's infamous patches? (OMG Blizzard RUINED Priests!! They don't listen to us!! I'm gonna cancel my subscription and will NEVER buy ANY game from them again!! You SUCK, Blizzard!!!!) Well, in my experience Blizzard has done a pretty good job at balancing the various classes' strengths and weaknesses and actually *preventing* the use of "unfair strategies". If you felt that your character was a victim of unfair play then you should've just switched servers or maybe re-arranged your talents or tried and get some better equipment. Rerolling is never something that you "have" to do. From what I've seen, it's mostly something that players do out of a kind of childish frustration for their class losing a bit of its former uber-powers in the balancing process, suddenly rendering them "useless" in their eyes. It's kinda silly. L. Edit: If your reply to this consists of you calling me a n00b and telling me that I should learn2play, I'll laugh at you. Hard.

I'm probably gonna be flamed for this, but I'll take that risk and say that I couldn't for the life of me get into Troika's Arcanum. I tought the animation was awful, the interface unwieldy, that AI seemed buggy, the controls in general (but particularly the two available combat modes) felt odd and clunky and the story didn't manage to grab me in any way, shape or form. So, yea. Arcanum is probably one of the worst games I've bought. It didn't stop me from purchasing Troika's other two offerings tho, both of which I have very fond memories of (ToEE, although completely devoid of any story, still has the best implementation of D&D rules in a video game, ever, and had gorgeous graphics. And Bloodlines has one of my favorite settings in a CRPG and ranks right up there with the best when it comes to atmosphere and story-telling). L.

Awesome indeed :D Can't wait to play it Congratulations Obsidian!! L.

Although I played many games before them, the games that got me truly hooked on gaming were DOOM and the second generation of Commander Keen games (the Goodbye Galaxy games and Aliens Ate My Babysitter). The game that got me hooked on CRPG's, pulling me in like no other game had, is Baldur's Gate. L.

World of WarCraft. Gotta love those flights at sunset L.

Ok, my girlfriend wanted me to post a picture of her desktop as well, so... here it is :cool: L. PS. Bloody boards wouldn't let me edit my earlier post <_<

Very cool thread idea :cool: L.

I don't think I gave any indication anywhere in my post that I thought your opinion simply "sucked" and that that was the driving force behind my arguments. The intention was to give constructive argumentation to your earlier posts, some of which were, in my opinion, bordering on immaturity. The "and you know it Volourn" comment was simply a way to put some force behind it, because it seemed to me that you were writing off some of the other posts in this thread through "witty" remarks instead of constructive arguments. And even now you seem to be focusing on and fussing over a very small aspect of my post, instead of providing arguments to support your own opinion. It makes me wonder who should really be labeled the troll here... But, fine. You can strike the "and you know it" comment from my post. Does that leave anything else that you'd like to fuss over, or are you now maybe willing to provide some arguments to support your own opinion? L.

lol Yea. Ok. That was very constructive and mature of you. I didn't say it was the same, or even similar. I said it was closer to that story than to the BG and NWN series' stories and I stand by that. L.

The PC was chosen by Aribeth to recover the creatures. She chose to let the survival of Neverwinter depend on him/her -- an inexperienced, still wet-behind-the-ears youngster who had graduated from the academy just that day. She made this choice because the PC was supposed to be a remarkably talented individual, who had completed their academy training with astonishing results. He/she was SPECIAL in that way. Something that was remarked by multiple NPC's in the prologue. So, we have a remarkably talented youngster with no connection to the city of Neverwinter - let alone its political powers - whatsoever, but who gets chosen by one of the most powerful people in Neverwinter to save the entire city from a deadly, destructive plague... If this isn't a chosen one story (with a setup that imo makes very little sense), then I don't know what is, Volourn. How on earth does that make the story a chosen one story??? The PC is just some poor schmuck who, as an infant, happened to be living near the site of a battle and got a piece of sword that exploded across the planes when it was destroyed during the battle stuck in him/her. The owners of the blade have spend years gathering the pieces of their broken weapon, while the PC has been living his/her perfectly ordinary life, and then one day -- BOOM! They come to claim the piece that's inside the PC. By a stroke of luck he/she survives the battle that ensues and has little choice but to set out and try to discover what in the nine hells can be done to get this bloody sword piece out of their body. There is no mention of the PC being chosen by anyone, mortal or divine, to do anything, but if they want to stay alive they have no choice but to try to find out what can be done to get rid of what they have inside them. Not to mention the fact that the PC's fellow villagers - or anyone else for that matter - probably wouldn't appreciate someone who has planar beings hunting them sticking around for too long. The story is about the PC, yes, but no one cares whether he/she lives or dies. No one cares because nothing depends on it -- there is no city or land or universe to be saved. NOTHING depends on the survival of the PC and if he/she dies, well, tough luck and too bad. The Giths will have their sword and will probably go back to doing what they've always been doing -- roaming the planes, fighting Illithids and Githzerai. No-one loses anything, except for the PC. This is not a chosen one story and you know it Volourn. This story seems more akin to Planescape: Torment's story than to anything that was seen in the BG and NWN titles. It is a story of self discovery and survival. And it sounds very good at that. L.