Lorfean

As far as a "games to play before I die" type list goes I think you're on the right track, so I'll just put in my two cents... BG, BG2, PS:T, IWD and IWD2 are all must plays. Some people are quick to write off the IWD games because they're light on story but I find the first one in particular to be a classic, expertly paced dungeon crawling adventure that can't be missed -- lots of beautiful locations, a great bestiary, and many interesting and satisfying battles. The second one is mostly worthwhile because of its mechanics. The conversion to 3E D&D rules offers a fresh experience compared to the earlier IE games and provides a lot of new options for character development. It *is* too long for its own good and definitely drags on, and some areas feel rushed and unfinished, but it's a fitting swan song to the Infinity Engine and worth at least one play-through.The first Neverwinter Nights and its expansions can be skipped entirely IMO. The strength of the original series lies in its toolset and you will definitely be able to find some great modules that offer unique experiences, but the core releases don't offer anything that you can't find in the BG series (and all of it was done much better in those games, too). The OC of NWN2 could (arguably) be skipped for similar reasons, but there are some worthwhile moments (the trial and Crossroad Keep come to mind) so I wouldn't write it off entirely. NWN2 really hits its stride in its expansions though, both of which change up the formula of the series in refreshing ways and are must plays.You already have some experience with Fallout 1 and 2, so I'd recommend finishing the second game and then moving on to Fallout: New Vegas and its DLC's, which are amazing. Fallout Tactics is optional and Fallout 3 not worth your time.Arx Fatalis is overrated. It wouldn't be on any of my lists.Dragon Age: Origins *might* be worth considering, but IMO only after you've already played most of the other titles on your list. It does its thing well, but is mostly just very generic and doesn't break any new ground. DA2 is not worth your time. Mass Effect 1 and 2 are great and definitely belong on the list. I have not played ME3 because of BW / EA's ridiculous launch day DLC shenanigans (amongst other things) so can't comment on it.Chrono Trigger is amazing.KotOR 1 and 2 should be on there.The Ultima Underworld games and Ultima VII Part 1 and 2 should be on the list if your comfortable going that far back and if you can find a way to enjoy them. Don't feel bad if they turn out to simply be "too old" for you.I haven't played the Gothic series, Chrono Cross, Jade Empire or the old school Might and Magic games, so I can't comment on them.Darklands should be on the list.System Shock 2 should definitely be on there.Arcanum should probably be on there since you specifically mentioned wanting to experience isometric CRPG's. It has its flaws, but offers a very unique setting and experience.VtM: Bloodlines should definitely be on there.The Witcher 1 and 2 should be on there.

Fallout: New Vegas is the best Fallout game in the series and Fallout 2 is much better than Fallout. Icewind Dale is an expertly paced dungeon crawling masterpiece with a underrated story and the most accurate and awesomely enjoyable implementation of the AD&D 2E rules in any video game ever. Knights of the Old Republic is an incredibly overrated game with some of the most boringly cliche companion characters ever. NWN and NWN2's OC's are equally horrible, but NWN2 followed it up with awesome, unique expansions while HoTU only received the praise it did because it was a shallow copy of BG2's Underdark section that played heavily on people's nostalgia in a time where the western CRPG genre was virtually dead. Mask of the Betrayer's story is better than Planescape: Torment's. I don't understand how CDPR got away with making The Witcher 2's interface, controls and gameplay so blatantly console-ized compared to its predecessor. They basically Mass Effecced all over the game and didn't even do a proper job at it. The UI is unintuitive, the controls choppy and unresponsive, and the gameplay feels messy and unpolished. When you first played the Baldur's Gate series as a 14-18 year old and thought it was the best thing on the face of the earth, playing them again as a 28-32 year old is quite the eye-opener...

Rock, Paper, Shotgun: Apparently We Won’t Hear About Fallout 4 For ‘A While’ The pathetically desperate fanboy in me wants to interpret this as a sign that Obsidian *could* be doing another Fallout game for them... I guess we'll find out at GDC, but by god I SO want it to be Fallout. F:NV is easily my favorite RPG of the past ~12 years.

I tried ranking them but it didn't seem fair or realistic, so here is my Top 10 of what I consider role-playing games in alphabetical order: Baldur's Gate + expansion Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn + expansion Fallout Fallout 2 Fallout: New Vegas + DLC Icewind Dale + expansions Mass Effect 2 Neverwinter Nights 2 + expansions Planescape: Torment Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines Honorable mentions: Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura Icewind Dale II Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords Mass Effect The Temple of Elemental Evil The Witcher And lastly, some titles that have made an impression but were excluded because I have not played enough of them yet to form a solid opinion: Dark Souls Deus Ex Deus Ex: Human Revolution System Shock 2 The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

I don't have the K either.

I have, from the start, felt that one significant difference between most of these other Kickstarter projects and PE was the fact that Obsidian was already an established and pretty successful developer, with several releases in the genre they were kickstarting for receiving critical acclaim in recent years (KotOR2, MoTB, F:NV). In other words -- they had already shown me that they could create great RPG's, under pressure even, whereas most of the other projects were either by brand new studios (Shadowrun Returns, Banner Saga) or ones that hadn't really done anything significant in the genre they were kickstarting in the last two decades or so (Broken Age, Wasteland 2). So, for me, Obsidian's Kickstarter felt like much less of a risk compared to the others I backed, which is also why I felt a lot more comfortable about spending more money on it. And everything I've seen and heard so far has only increased my confidence. They seem to be managing the project and their resources intelligently and every time they've show us in-game content I have been impressed. The same goes for Wasteland 2 actually, which has been a very pleasant surprise. Of the others I backed, Broken Age has been the most difficult for me. Their documentary has been very (sometimes painfully) transparent about the struggles they've gone through -- and probably are still going through -- to deliver the game they promised and envisioned. It is obvious that they mis-managed their funds but I can't decide if they did so to an unacceptable degree. I disliked them splitting the game into two chapters, but I understand why they had to do it and believe the final product will be better for it. Having played the first chapter I agree that it is short, that the UI is lacking and that the puzzles are rather easy, but the writing and atmosphere are amazing and the game just oozes charm. I guess I'd describe it as 50 / 50 in terms of success / failure -- it's a success in terms of the creative freedom the Kickstarter campaign gave them and how they used that freedom to create something extraordinary, and it's a failure in that the hurdles that Kickstarter helped them avoid (publisher pressure and meddling, restricted freedom in terms of making the games they want to make, etc.) were just replaced by problems of their own making that could've been avoided by better management of the project.

For anyone who's played both -- how does this compare to D&D Online? I liked the approach Turbine took with that game quite a bit and thought they did a decent job at capturing that "D&D feeling" and translating the 3E rules into an MMO environment. Also, for the purpose of pure speculation, how do you guys think Neverwinter will effect DDO? I think DDO is probably doing a lot better than Star Wars Galaxies was when it was taken offline as a result of TOR's release, but it's still pretty much a direct competitor of Neverwinter, isn't it?

GOG.com's Icewind Dale Complete includes TotL.

Baldur's Gate. And the reason I tried it at the time was Diablo... I'd already been playing PC games for several years by then -- the Commander Keen series, One Must Fall 2097, Doom 1 and 2, Command & Conquer, Red Alert, Little Big Adventure 2, and a LOT of Diablo -- when a friend of mine mentioned this new game that was "kind of like Diablo but bigger and more tactical". I bought it, played it, and never looked back It turned gaming from a just another hobby into a passion.

Very nice of them I don't own the game and haven't played it before either. This Steam version also includes the original classic trilogy btw -- not sure if that's true for all versions of the game out there, so it might be interesting for people who already own it.

I saw The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in HFR (48 fps) 3D yesterday and it was an amazing experience. First off, the movie itself is great -- visually it is completely consistent with The Lord of the Rings as it re-visits familiar locations and introduces plenty new ones that fit right into Peter Jackson's original vision of Middle-Earth. And the same goes for the characters -- Ian McKellen, Cate Blanchett and other familiar faces seem to slip right back into the skins of their characters as if a decade gone by is nothing, and new characters don't feel out of place but allow us to see and explore this world and its stories in new and interesting ways. Radagast the Brown, Thorin Oakenshield and Balin in particular became instant favorites. The simpler story allows for much better pacing and this is a major advantage -- where TLotR often felt like PJ needed every single second of running time to fit in all the different elements of the story, here it feels like they had time to spare and used it masterfully to give each act the attention it deserves as well as expand upon the story. There is no doubt in my mind now that the decision to turn this into a trilogy was the right one -- the core story of the book might be a simple and short one, but it touches on many historic events and interesting characters that deserve to be explored (and were explored by Tolkien himself in The Lord of the Rings and its appendixes as well as works like Unfinished Tales and The Silmarillion). As for the technical side of the experience, this was by far -- by far -- the best 3D movie-going experience I have ever had. Where 3D worked "nicely" with some other movies (Avatar, Prometheus) I never felt like the experience would be much different without it and didn't worry about not having the 3D element when I'd eventually watch those movies at home on Blu-ray. The combination of HFR and 3D however, is something else... Yes, it took some time to get used to the higher frame rate (about 15-20 minutes for me) but the amount of detail and the clarity it brings to the images is breathtaking. It was like looking into Middle-Earth through a window. I loved it and I am glad Jackson had the guts to take this risk. This will change cinema in a major way in years to come.

It's part of this whole cat-focused internet sub culture thing. There is an inherent cuteness / amusement factor to cats doing random things and the way they look while doing them that some people are, let's say, extra sensitive to. It's OK if you don't get it. That said, I found it amusing

I'm not all that interested in Spider-Man to begin with -- though I've enjoyed some of the movies and liked the "amazing friends" cartoon when I was younger -- and I haven't played any of the games. My impression however, is that his various video game incarnations have been mediocre at best, so there hasn't exactly been a lot of incentive to try them either. I do like comics though (big Batman fan) and absolutely loved Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, so if they could bring that type of quality, vision and respect [for the source material] to a Spider-Man game, I'd probably try it. The trick is to approach it in a way that hasn't been done before, like Rocksteady did with those Batman games, which isn't easy.

I doubt GOG.com is very interested, what with them posting their own modding guide to "enhance" the original games. Heh. Also, the mixed reactions to the EE are probably working to their advantage atm.

Fair enough. I'm skeptical -- and that's a putting it mildly -- but won't lose any sleep over it either. I still very much enjoy the originals and actually like the modding process because it allows me to tailor these games to my personal tastes / eccentricities, so I don't think I'm their target audience anyway. That said, I would like to see the games receive the enhanced editions that they deserve and only time will tell if Overhaul will deliver in that regard.

I enjoy different CRPG's for different reasons. Some examples: Narrative (PS:T, BG2, KotOR2, MotB, F:NV) Exploration (BG, IWD, F:NV, Skyrim) Combat (F1, F2, IWD, ToEE) Character development (F1, F2, IWD2, ToEE, NWN2 series, F:NV) Full party creation (IWD, IWD2, ToEE, SoZ) Cinematic shootery action (ME1, ME2)

So it's been out for a week now. Considering the [insert adjective] release, how they have handled the project and which aspects of the game they chose to enhance / replace, how do you guys feel about them moving on to "enhance" BG2 next? Their contract was for both games so, unless some unforeseen factor alters that contract and / or their plans, BG2:EE will be their next step. It's a much bigger game, it's a much more complex game, and it is widely considered one of the best, if not the best, CRPG's of all time.

That's the main problem with this project though, isn't it? It was in a very crappy situation from the very start, both contractually and from a development standpoint: 1) They weren't allowed to change any of the original in-game content, and 2) They didn't have access to the original art assets, so it was impossible for them to actually properly "enhance" the game's environments, character/creature sprites, animations, spell effects, etc. Knowing these facts, most developers would probably just have dropped the whole thing right there, and Overhaul should have, but they didn't. OK, so what was next then? They needed to look at what they could bring to this game that would make their version a worthwhile purchase at a price point that is double of what the original is being sold for. Port it to latest version of the ToB engine? Yes. It had already been done very effectively by modders and results in a bunch of new, updated and streamlined features, so this was pretty much expected. Bug fixes? Yup. These have also been provided by modders for years now, so they're expected. These guys are pro's, right? Get in there and fix that ****. Widescreen / high resolution support? Again, done by modders and a requirement for modern video games, so expected. New interface? This ties into the previous point and is where they really could have made their edition shine. Screen layouts, fonts, icons, paperdolls, etc. etc. There was huge potential here but they didn't take it, most likely due to the time and resources needed for all the other content they decided to add. They also should've separated the interfaces for different platforms instead of using the same one for keyboard+mouse and touch. Really -- that decision baffles me. Creating the illusion that the camera is "closer" to the game world by zooming and applying shaders? This was not necessary for me personally, but I understand some people feel that content becomes too small on high resolutions, so sure. Though they should have implemented it at a set zoom level and made it optional -- a box that can be ticked: "Enable/disable camera zoom + shaders" -- instead of the unnecessary dynamic mouse wheel zoom. And that's where they should've stopped. If they had spent their time and resources on these enhancements and really dug into them -- and made sure that, for the love of god, they created separate, specifically designed interfaces for the PC / Mac / Tablet versions -- they might've ended up with a worthwhile product. This game is HUGE already. It didn't need more joinable NPC's and it definitely didn't need some tacked on arena-mode. The wisdom in their choice of re-doing the cinematics is debatable too, especially seeing the results, and I really doubt old or new players would've had much of a problem with them retaining the originals. All in all, what we ended up with just seems the result of very poor decision making. Which is a real shame, because there was huge potential here. People only need to look at the mod communities' efforts to see the possibilities -- just look at all the screenshots in the attached readme for Erephine's One Pixel Productions mod. Some of her work was used in BG:EE, but look at her work on the original BG2 interface, the fonts, the icons, the paperdolls, the spell effects... That stuff looks amazing. Why, if a modder can improve the game and streamline its visuals to such a degree, do we have to suffer a broken and badly executed $ 20,- "enhanced edition" from a professional developer? readme.html

Ok, I like the resting cinematic -- the fire looks nice and the atmosphere matches the original. Not a fan of the death cinematic. It just doesn't look very good and feels too short. As for Nashkel... I have the same problem with it as with the Friendly Arm Inn one -- they're basically just still images with some zooming. Sure, there's a day/night cycle thingie in this one, but what's the point of that? The original, with the farmer's family and the sneaking kobolds did a great job at showing you that the care-free lives of the people living there were about to take a turn for the worse -- or already had. I really don't mind the hand-drawn cinematic style and think it has worked to great effect in many RPG's, including BG2 and the IWD's, and more recently Dungeon Siege III, but the quality of the ones I've seen so far from BG:EE is inconsistent and most of them feel too short. But the biggest problem is that they don't match the effectiveness of the originals. They're poor replacements.

Thanks Bartimaeus, I didn't know about the mine flooding one. I'm pretty sure the ones I listed were already confirmed to have been removed without replacements btw. Something else that I see being reported on the official forums now is that several minor enemies, such as Bassilus (the insane Cleric with an army of resurrected relatives) and Nimbul (the assassin that attacks you outside the Nashkel Inn after you return from the mines), are missing their original opening dialog audio files. Stuff like Bassilus saying "Oh brother Thurm, why not grace our ears with a ripping tale of the old days! Always a delight!" and Nimbul's line "I am death, come for thee. Surrender, and thy passage shall be… quicker."

If that is true and working as intended (which would be a completely baffling decision on their part) and not the result of some bug, then I would like to know how many new cinematics they actually made for the EE? So far I have only seen the intro and Friendly Arm Inn ones, and know that most of the other originals -- Beregost, Nashkel, Gnoll Stronghold, Duchal Palace, Candlekeep Library, Durlag's Tower, etc. -- have been removed without replacement... Are there any other cinematics in the EE aside from the intro and the FAI?

I apologize. I did get overly defensive and it was mostly due to having just read Trent's tweet saying his first thought when seeing a certain cinematic for the first time back in 1998 was "what the hell were the animators thinking", and then proceeding to remove that particular cinematic and a bunch of others for the EE without replacing them with anything new. I feel it was a bad call and his comment made it seem like that decision was based on personal taste more than anything else. Your comment, at that moment, just felt like it piled on and triggered an unreasonable response. I'm sorry. You make a good point. Of course the videos are not the component that will create the most vivid memories, but for me (and a lot of other players, I'm sure) they were a part of the package that made the game have the huge impact that it had and I definitely hadn't forgotten about them. IMO if you're gonna release an "enhanced edition" that looks, sounds and plays extremely similar to the original -- in fact, the graphics look pretty much identical to vanilla BG with a couple of mods installed -- I imagine most people who buy it will know (or at least see) that its graphics and animations are basically over a decade old. So it's an old-looking and -playing game already... why, then, remove most of the cinematics because "they look too old"? I would've understood a decision to replace all of them with new stuff, but I don't understand removing most and then putting in only a few new ones that have low production value (and still use the originals' music and voice over) and don't even have half of the intensity and dramatic impact of the originals. Anyway, in the end it just comes down to me wishing BG had gotten a better "enhanced" treatment than what beamdog came up with. It deserves it. So does Crusader btw... But that's another story

They cut the music off at the end, which makes no sense to me, especially since the "scene" is basically a still shot. And it's also lacking the awesome drawbridge sound effect from the original's introduction. Of course, there is no drawbridge animation in this new one so it would've been out of place, but I always liked it in the original -- it was a very effective little intro before the music came in. Overall I'm not impressed with the replacements I've seen so far. Looking at the originals, they haven't lost any of their charm and are still very effective at introducing locations and story elements in the game. If this is what they offer in return for removing most of the original cinematics, then it was not worth it IMO. Not at all.

This. I hadn't seen the new intro yet and... ugh. The point is that the original is 14 years old, Alan... It was awesome 14 years ago and even today works a hell of a lot better than what beamdog replaced it with. The dark atmosphere and the sense of utter futility in the bhaalspawn's struggle is on full display, especially in the scene where Sarevok just lifts him up, rams him through the fence, and then the camera swoops back and up and you see him frantically kicking his legs, hitting the broken fence in the process. Beamdog managed to make sth that lacks all the tension, power and drama of the original, but still uses the original's music and dialog, which makes the whole thing even more awkward and amateuristic... Also -- both you and Trent have now criticized the original's cinematics which, frankly, just makes you guys look petty and disrespectful. Sure, they look dated by today's standards, but nobody complained about them 14 years ago and they certainly didn't stop BG from becoming one of the all-time classic CRPG's of our time.

Heh. I actually had to check some titles' release dates... Knew New Vegas' DLC's were from 2011, but wasn't sure about Arkham City and Skyrim.