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 Post subject: Re: Recommend me RPG computer games

Posted: 2012-02-08 10:37pm 

Morrowind arguably has a much richer world than some of the others (despite the gravel/cliff racer nature of it) because the 'lore' bullshit is directly connected to the world; you can read about a secret underground base, then go find it and explore it.

And 'dicking around with broken <mechanic>' is what heaps of people do; its almost certainly why Bethesda has no interest in balance (or even bugfixing, once the bug has become 'cool').

 Post subject: Re: Recommend me RPG computer games

Posted: 2012-02-08 11:27pm 

Witcher is something you need to put in a lot of hours to really get into, but it's well worth it. The beginning is a bit slow and I had a few stops-and-starts when I first played it, but near the end of the second chapter it starts kicking the plot up and you start realising there's an intricate plot shaping up and it becomes really rewarding to follow it all. Your choices have consequences but they're often not immediately obvious, and they tend to come back and bite you later in the game. So you'll do something, think nothing of it, then when you're in a new area or you meet a new NPC you'll get a cutscene saying 'SHIT MAYBE I SHOULDN'T HAVE DONE THAT THING I DID'.

MFG: I'm basing my warning against Beth games off of my experience playing Oblivion. Sure the game is pretty and all. But what good is that when only morons populate it and you're forced to interact with them in complete bullshit ways? And the whole 'you can go anywhere, do anything... so long as 'do anything' means 'do these half a dozen things constantly with slight variances here and there'.

Fallout 3 might be significantly different, I don't know - I'd need to replay it to really get a firm idea. It's just I started playing it at a time where I was really burntout by oblivion, so when I saw similar things happen I just shut down. Stark hit it on the head when he said they're basically soulless sandbox games that don't railroad you in the slightest when it comes to the main plot arc - which is not surprising, because the main plot arcs are literally the blandest shit ever, at least in the case of Oblivion.

Skyrim might be a breath of fresh air, I don't know, I haven't played it. There is a common thread I've noticed in Beth games though, from what people have told me, that they're full of bugs and exploits and Beth are really lax when it comes to fixing them (in the case of exploits, they actually don't fix them at all - there is an enchantment in Oblivion called chameleon, which basically turns you into the Predator, if you have chameleon on all your clothing and gear. It breaks the game and no NPC can even touch you because the AI literally cannot determine where you are, but that's fine by Beth because that shit was never fixed. Skyrim had at least one thing where if you got crazy good at thievery you could steal everyone's clothes without them knowing about it. 10/10, GOTY)

 Post subject: Re: Recommend me RPG computer games

Posted: 2012-02-09 12:01am 

Also, combat = walk backwards and stab.

Or go archery and become untouchable murderer in about three game hours.

Or use alchemy or magic both of which are always crazy broken.

GOTY MATERIAL.

 Post subject: Re: Recommend me RPG computer games

Posted: 2012-02-09 12:07am 

@Stofsk
Shep's review of Fallout 3 sums up my feelings fairly well. Still, I did end modifying the game heavily because I was really annoyed by how easy it got after a few playthroughs to kill Enclave troops. In my first run, when I didn't know what the Hell what I was doing, the only reason I didn't die at Adams Air Force Base was because of my near-invulnerable Super Mutant companion Gatling-lasering everybody to death while I cowered in a corner with a few slivers of health left. Beside the health bug, there's a bug that caused the 50 DR tacked on to Fawkes to double, though game settings restrict it to only 85 or whatever you set the max to in the GECK instead of 100. Now, even with high-end characters, it's a bad idea tackling Enclave camps without very high end armor and lots of stimpaks.

Oh, right, and stealth is broken. Having the Chinese stealth suit with the Perforator or a hard hitting melee weapon means you have won the game as enemies will just walk away muttering that they must have imagined the knife wound and being lit on fire.

 Post subject: Re: Recommend me RPG computer games

Posted: 2012-02-09 12:34am 

That Beth havent fixed fundamental flaws in their format after twenty fucking years makes it pretty hard to look past their stunning lack of creativity or vision. Nobody's even mentioned their total inability to pay a uni student $50 and get a UI design that isn't both ugly as fuck and clunky as hell.

Theyd be the worst developer in the world if Paradox didn't exist.

 Post subject: Re: Recommend me RPG computer games

Posted: 2012-02-09 12:48am 

Meanwhile games like The Witcher, Alpha Protocol, Vampire Bloodlines and Arcanum (personal shill) get fucked over because reviews and gamers pick apart the bugs and issues (and these games have bugs and issues) and whine about how the game has consequences and deeper, ambiguous moral and other "faction" systems than Biowares "kill puppy or send puppy to happy fun land full of pats".

Seriously, give these smaller stranger one's a try long before you look at fucking SKRIM or Dragon She.

 Post subject: Re: Recommend me RPG computer games

Posted: 2012-02-09 01:38am 

Re: modding. I don't even look at a Beth game anymore until the modding community has fucking fixed things.

That's a pretty sad indictment really.

Some games don't need mods at all, or they add something to the game that is kinda neat. Sometimes people do total conversions, like turning Sins into a Star Trek fleet game. Beth games need mods for them to be playable. Gameplay mods like Oscuro's overhaul basically turned Oblivion into a completely different game. But even besides that, just the sheer number of bugs that Beth just refused to fix which the mod community had to pick up the slack for.

How the hell are these guys A-class studios?

 Post subject: Re: Recommend me RPG computer games

Posted: 2012-02-09 02:05am 

Because they've trained bitches their customers that not only is this ok, it actually makes them BETTER than other people.

That's right, buying a broken game then installing a mod is a saleable quantity. Beth are total failures as game designers and obviously don't even play games (their own or any others) but they have totally sold millions on buying a hat full of shit ... It'll be nice after you clean it. Good as new!

 Post subject: Re: Recommend me RPG computer games

Posted: 2012-02-09 05:47am 

If you're dead set on the newer Fallout games I'd recommend Fallout: New Vegas over Fallout 3. They're both kinda crap, but FO: NV at least has differing textures for environments and a few factions you can choose to support that'll sort of change the game. Plus there's only one super exploitative companion who's slightly worse at close range! Hooray!

 Post subject: Re: Recommend me RPG computer games

Posted: 2012-02-09 07:06am 

NV is much better than F3 overall. Still a few game-ending quest-scripting bugs to avoid, but its less stupid and less hopelessly unbalanced than the earlier game.

 Post subject: Re: Recommend me RPG computer games

Posted: 2012-02-09 09:29am 

Since Witcher and Alpha Protocol have already gotten various recommendations, I'll second playing Bloodlines. It has plenty of faults, but it's one of the few RPGs out there that sometimes rewards you for not killing everything you see. Plus it has some pretty hilarious stuff thrown in there if you know where to look, like one of the major bad guys prank calling the late night radio show, or the TV news guy having conversations with Malkavian PCs.

Specifically, I recommend playing it twice. First time, play as any clan except Malkavian. Second time, play as Malkavian. Malkavian dialog makes no sense for first time players, but in later playthroughs it's interesting to spot all of the plot spoilers that are hidden in the gibberish.

Plus, John DiMaggio (better known as Bender from Futurama, Marcus Fenix from Gears, or Jake from Adventure Time) plays a crazy bearded vampire pirate.

 Post subject: Re: Recommend me RPG computer games

Posted: 2012-02-09 01:21pm 

Witcher 1, Alpha Protocol.
Then play Baldurs Gate 1/2 with various mods (PM me) for the best experience of them all. But I am hesitant to promote it as it will most likely take you 220 hours to play through. In terms of Gaming length, Alpha Protocol is very short (12 hours at most), Witcher 1 is decent and may be the best balance between aceesibility, price/value and story.

 Post subject: Re: Recommend me RPG computer games

Posted: 2012-02-09 11:37pm 

I remember seeing Spell force in stores a few years ago. Anyone had experience with this?

I plan to pop by a computer store shortly just to see what games are available. If the recommendations aren't available, I guess I just have to get it off ebay. I will also just see if there are any other games not recommended, which look nice, and I will ask the board what they think.

But your recommendations have been helpful. I will certainly look into the Witcher game which I had never heard of before.

 Post subject: Re: Recommend me RPG computer games

Posted: 2012-02-09 11:44pm 

http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/the_witcher for $10

 Post subject: Re: Recommend me RPG computer games

Posted: 2012-02-09 11:49pm 

Yup. You won't find a better version.

 Post subject: Re: Recommend me RPG computer games

Posted: 2012-02-10 12:05am 

I actually don't like the EE voice acting.

Spellforce is a quirky sort of game. I can't comment on the story because I skipped it all, but it's a hybrid Diablo/RTS game that has some interesting approaches to user interface, but is pretty rough (like all Jowood games).

 Post subject: Re: Recommend me RPG computer games

Posted: 2012-02-10 12:17am 

Anyway, if you don't mind bad graphics, here are the links to the Avernum games. There are free demos to download. I may hold off on buying, though, because they're remaking the games again, which the remake of Avernum for Windows coming out in April. Yeah, Spiderweb is a bit weird in developing for Mac first.
Avernum, Avernum 2, Avernum 3, Avernum 4, Avernum 5, Avernum 6

 Post subject: Re: Recommend me RPG computer games

Posted: 2012-02-10 12:26am 

Why would you individually link to six games that share the same website? How much are Spiderweb paying you?

 Post subject: Re: Recommend me RPG computer games

Posted: 2012-02-10 12:44am 

To save him some time from going to the "Our Games" and then checking them, which on second thought is a very moment because I could have just linked him to that page which has all of them anyway.