Desperate for a kick ass dungeon crawler?? [Archive]

Ocelot

05-20-2008, 08:26 PM

Before I start my rant..I need to find a killer RPG that is like Ultima Underworld, System Shock 2 etc....yes Bioshock was meh!

Ok, so I have a 360 and PS3...yet I'll sit there thinking of times flipping from game to game wishing and thinking pf the past where I was mindlessly addicted to Ultima Underworld, System Shock 2, Thief, Eye of the Beholder and Lands of Lore! I guess what I'm trying to say is, I need a break from all the DMC's, COD's and Halos!

God I remember being trapped in the Stygian Abyss and picking up the nap sack with some small rations to eat and a bone for a weapon. I remember visiting the goblin city and then stumbling too far down underground and bumping into those creepy headless creatures and running back up to civilization....Shivers!:eek:

I'm sorry but while Oblivion is good for what it is, I'm not feeling it. I have Dungeon Seige which is creepy but seems all hack and slash. NWN is about as close as I can get to what I truly crave. I'm also attempting to get my hands on Gothic 3.

HELP?!?!?:confused:

Intangir

05-20-2008, 09:36 PM

Ocelot

05-20-2008, 11:00 PM

Hmm. Wizardry 8? Or Arx Fatalis? Maybe some isometric Divine Divinity? I'd even throw Anachronox out there if you're looking for something different with great characters and humor. It's not really a dungeon crawler, but it does still fulfill the "kick ass" requirement.

Thanx man, yeah doesn't have to be Dungeon Crawler but just a good kick as adventure or RPG...I just find Oblivion so boring...even the Shivering Isles. I loved Arx Fatalis...I'd romp through that again!

Mochan

05-21-2008, 12:14 AM

Ocelot

05-21-2008, 05:07 PM

Gothic 3 is closer to Fallout 2 in Oblivion Warcraft world.

For the true successor to Ultima Underworld, go grab Arx Fatalis. *** Ooops you played it already. Guess you should tryout Gothic 3, which is the best RPG I've played in years.

To fill in your Lands of Lore and Eye of the Beholder craving, go get Wizardry 8, arguably the best game of this class.

Oh, and while you're at it get Dark Messiah of Might and Magic which is like Thief (or rather can be played like Thief). I still think this game is superior to Bioshock. It's not as "sophisticated" in plot and characters etc. but who cares it plays better.

Lol, Dark Messiah was the game that kick started my interest back into D&D style games or RPGs. I getting Gothic 3 probably tomorrow...I am just soooo bored with Oblivion. I heard Gothic 3 has tons of bugs...have they patched it since release?

Now I hear there is a new Thief and Deus Ex game on the horizon!

Mochan

05-21-2008, 05:47 PM

All I know is by the time I played Gothic 3 I was at patch 1.8 -- and it was very playable despite still having quite a few bugs. Some people like Bane still can't get it running right even with the latest patch. So it's a bit of buyer's beware. If you want to chance it make sure you get a good deal because you might be unable to play it.

But I think it's worth the risk. The level of polish is far below Oblivion's but the resulting gameplay experience is a lot better due to the true open-endedness and the clever world design. It's also mad-hard as is the tradition of Gothic games so you will definitely have to hang in there at the start. Epic combat is also truly epic in this game compared to Oblivion where it's usually just you vs. 1-4 opponents, with just like 2 big battles. Gothic 3 is full of big battles (though you can avoid many of them if you so choose to use a more subvertive approach) and they are a riot to survive through.

The bugs also get stronger in intensity as you go longer into the game. The first part of the game which takes place in what looks like medieval Europe was fixed up a lot more, however the latter parts which take you through deserts and icelandic tundra are less polished.

Gothic 3 has a combat system that is less sophisticated than Oblivion's in my opinion, and your character stat and skill system are also not as impressive but on the whole I loved it a lot more simply because of the more-fleshed out role-playing design and by that I mean really taking a persona and playing it through the different situations of the game. Here you can truly choose what kind of character you want to play and what kind of bad-ass, weak-ass, benevolent spirit of ruthless villain you want to be -- and have fun unmasking the different endings. Your results will vary depending on what you did throughout the entire game.

Good to hear Dark Messiah is what turned you around -- that game is vastly underrated and is IMO one of the best first person games to come out in the past 5 years or so.

Also if you don't mind playing an RPG with a Dialbo-esque interface I would like to recommend Divine Divinity. I think it's 5 years old by now but it's a really good game in the old swords and sorcery fantasy tradition and yes it feels a lot like an old school dungeon crawler albeit you crawl through all environments underground crypt, forest, orc-infested town, etc. I would call this game the blueprint for Sacred, so if you are looking forward to Sacred II this is the game it took inspiration from.

Aku

05-21-2008, 06:20 PM

Thanx man, yeah doesn't have to be Dungeon Crawler but just a good kick as adventure or RPG...I just find Oblivion so boring...even the Shivering Isles. I loved Arx Fatalis...I'd romp through that again!

I've got Oblivion GOTY and so far I have the same disconnected feeling about it. I remember when I first started Morrowind how I was sucked right into it...and didn't stop playing it for two years. Oblivion just isn't grabbing me in the same way, despite the similarities it's lacking something. Wizardry 8, yes, if you are looking for a lot of "crawling" then that is the game for you. Above ground or below, you move at a crawl through this one. The enemies are brutal, the fights are long and turn-based, and the maps pipeline you from one place to the next so there is no way to avoid anything. It's the hardest and most frustrating rpg I've ever played (if ever an rpg could make you cry, it's this one), but also has the most awesome party-based system I've ever seen. If you can last long enough, you will be amazed at all the things your party can do.

Mochan

05-21-2008, 07:13 PM

Renzatic Gear

05-22-2008, 07:25 AM

Etrian Odyssey all the way. I absolutely loved that game, and with the sequel on the way, you'll have tons of oldschool fun on your hands.

I also give a heart recommendation to Eschalon: Book 1. It's a cool little indie game I recently grabbed. For 27 bucks, it'll give you a solid 20-30 hours of good fun.

Lastly, if you haven't already, play STALKER. Specially with the Oblivion Lost mod installed. It does amazing things to an already amazing game. I've been playing it since I got my graphics card up and running (long story short, I'm an idiot), and it's been one of the most immersive, scary experiences I've had with a game in a long, long, loooong time.

Aku

05-22-2008, 10:00 AM

Hehe Aku Wizardry 8 is probably the easiest Wizardry in the Wizardry series. Would love to see how you'd react to the original Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord. That game was instant hell murder. Wizardry 6 also stood out for me as really hard.

And Etrian Odyssey makes Wizardry 8 look like a walk in the park.

I do agree Wizardry has one of the best party character system ever. It's on the same level as Elder Scroll's system, actually even better. The only game with a better system in my book is Final Fantasy Tactics -- and that is debatable even to me.

I loved Wizardry 8 it reminded me a lot of Jagged Allaince 2 meeting the Wizardry series, mostly because your party now had goofy animated faces and could be assigned voices -- and the voice actors were the same people from Jagged Alliance 2.

Elder Scrolls,,,party system...huh??

Well, there was nothing "easy" about Wizardry 8. My party could get pwned by a single wood sprite. As they got better the fights became more manageable, but the battles could still become very long and drawn out. In a lot of places enemies in the whole area would get activated, and I rememer one fight standing inside a tent and killing wave after wave of Rapaxes (?) in a fight that lasted literally a half-hour. I also remember that tree town where you had to fight your way just to travel 20 feet across a bridge. Even in the so-called safe zones, you aren't safe in W8. I got killed once in one of the shops. I didn't know that the voice actors were from JA2. I thought they were really funny, especially this goofy bard who was on my team. I picked him to be the one who mated with that demon goddess, it was a laugh riot.

Oh, and one rpg series that I forgot to mention that is at the top of the dungeon crawl list is Might and Magic. Might and Magic 6 and 7 (and to a lesser extent, 8) were loads of fun.

Mochan

05-22-2008, 10:25 AM

Oh, I'm not saying Wizardry 8 is easy. I'm saying it's the easiest of the Wizardry series. :)

Re: Elder Scrolls I am talking about just the character system. Wizardry has something like the TES Character systems, adapted to an entire party, and then some. I also remember the Rapax City I got into really big fights every playthrough when I got to that part, you basically massacre the entire city. Good fun. :)

Hey Renz regarding your PC what happened? How did you get the card working fine? Did you upgrade your PSU or did you overhaul everything? Our PCs are practically carbon copies of each other right now with you having just slightly better components, but I think my PC is slower than it should be probably because I have a problem component somewhere (either my PSU or the memory).

Intangir

05-22-2008, 12:16 PM

In a lot of places enemies in the whole area would get activated, and I rememer one fight standing inside a tent and killing wave after wave of Rapaxes (?) in a fight that lasted literally a half-hour.
Haha, man I had the same thing happen to me in the Rapax Castle. I went in, foolhardily ran through an archway to where a fairly large band of enemies were chilling and then I hastily got my party all buffed up to "ambush" them. I totally misjudged how many enemies were around the area and as the battle dragged on, groups and patrols from other parts of the castle slowly worked their way into the battle. I had to retreat back out of the room and stand in the archway and bottleneck them so I'd have a chance, but in a stroke of bad luck a patrol of Rapax guards lumbered into the room behind me and flanked me in the midst of my epic fight. I had to pull just about every little Wizardry 8 trick I had learned up to that point to get through that battle, and it took a long, long time. That turned out to be one of my favorite battles in the entire game. I still have a picture of a piece of it (check out all the red dots in the compass-map):

http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/203/rapaxoverloadmk4.th.jpg
(http://img299.imageshack.us/my.php?image=rapaxoverloadmk4.jpg)

When I first started Wiz8 and was picking through those voice sets, I was 90% sure that I'd end up hating the voices for my characters and they'd get tired and grating after a few hours. Surprisingly I ended up really liking them, and even when they said certain things repeatedly I never really got tired of it. Come to think of it, there were a number of things about Wiz8 that I was sure I wouldn't like that ended up with me either liking them or not-really being bothered by them (like how the enemies leveled up with you--which I hate--but it didn't ruin the game for me somehow). Crazy. Speaking of voice sets and the demon goddess, I naturally gave that honor to my bedeviled samurai who had a Chaotic voice set. That was hilarious, too. He totally loved it. Well, until we tried to leave http://forums.videogamereview.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/4845/ohbenedictut4.jpg

Aku

05-22-2008, 01:58 PM

Haha, man I had the same thing happen to me in the Rapax Castle. I went in, foolhardily ran through an archway to where a fairly large band of enemies were chilling and then I hastily got my party all buffed up to "ambush" them. I totally misjudged how many enemies were around the area and as the battle dragged on, groups and patrols from other parts of the castle slowly worked their way into the battle...

Yes, same thing for me. I started the fight in the main hallway, then worked my way into some back room where they were all funneling toward me from the front. I then had to slog it out in another half-hour long battle.

The cool thing about those fights was when you would hit them with area spells and you would get some crits and see all the damage you dished out in exact numbers.

Yeah, the demon goddess was the comedy highlight of the game. My halfling nerd bard had me in stitches.

Mochan

05-22-2008, 07:25 PM

It was my ninja who had that voice set and yeah he said the exact same thing. :)

BaneNWN

05-24-2008, 03:53 AM

I thought gothic 3 was easy actually it wasnt as hard as 1 or 2 imo.I got to above level 20 so i got pretty far into the game.Oblivion is by far a better game then gothic 3 mostley because its pretty bug free and to me that is the absolute most important thing for me as far as grading a game.I can talk all the smack about not liking warcraft 3 but damn that was probably the most polished game ive ever played.

No way in hell id reccomend gothic 3 to anyone the game is already on patch 7 or 8 and its still buggy as ****.no excuses this game should have never been released it was released atleast a year before it should have been.Oblivion id reccomend for sure but gothic 3 is laughable at best and to be honest it wouldnt have even been that good even if it was bug free oblivion is just the better game and dont forget the mods oblivion has to enhance gameplay in all aspects so gothic 3 cant even compare get oblivion stay away from gothic 3 period!

Renzatic Gear

05-24-2008, 08:21 AM

The same guys who made Hellgate are making a free to play (and I think free to get) MMO called Mythos (http://www.mythos.com/) that might be pretty cool. It looks pretty Diabloesque, might be worth keeping an eye out on.

Ocelot

05-25-2008, 12:24 PM

Intangir

05-25-2008, 01:33 PM

I loved The Witcher, but you should play something else before that. The hope is by the time you're done with that other game the Enhanced Edition (availiable in a free patch) of The Witcher will be ready. It was supposed to be out earlier this month but it got delayed. I don't think they set a new expected date for its completion, but hopefully it'll be soon. :(

Mochan

05-25-2008, 01:41 PM

Guys thanks for all your gaming input. I'm going to look into a few of these titles. I like the sound of Gothic and grabbed a copy. I think i'm going to check out one called "Witcher" also!

I figure I might just get more into NWN again and see where that takes me. Oblivion while decent just lacks that traditional dungeon crawl feeling. Even though Two Worlds sucks, I find it has more what I'm looking for over Oblivion as crazy as it sounds....I'm loosin it!!:eek:

I actually would have liked Two Worlds but it just plain needed more polish. It's an embarassment frankly to put out something that looked as bad as that game in some places. I do agree Two Worlds has a little something Oblivion doesn't. It's a shame that it also LACKS a lot of things Oblivion has.

If you liked the idea of Two Worlds then go get Gothic running already. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

G07H1C

06-12-2008, 06:17 PM

I believe you will be happy with your Gothic 3 purchase. After I installed patch 1.6 and a CPU driver upgrade, I had no problems at all with the game.
Oblivion didn't do it for me either, it had all the features I liked - open world, RPG elements, a decent storyline, and quests galore, but couldn't keep me interested! I don't want to go into details & end it with my first sentence!

Aku

06-12-2008, 09:41 PM

I have Oblivion GOTY installed and it still hasn't grabbed me yet, but I'll be getting back to it shortly. Sometimes it takes me awhile to warm up to a game. Still, given the thousand-plus hours I put into Morrowind and its expansions and mods, I expected that Oblivion would capture my interest more than it has.

Mochan

06-12-2008, 11:01 PM

One of the problems of Oblivion was how generic it was. Everything seemed like straight up medieval fantasy, I guess it downright plagiarizing the look of the Lord of the Rings made it even more generic.

And no matter how you slice it, although the plot was decent enough, the characters were remarkably forgettable as usual. While Gothic wasn't all that better, the goofiness of the characters (without them appearing as inane overacting lunatics like they did in Oblivion when they tried to get a laugh out of you) made them a bit more likable.

G07H1C

06-13-2008, 03:36 PM

I can go along with that, I guess what really done it for me was - KotN, terrible (IMO), the Shivering Isles was actually the best of the 3, again IMO.
By no means was Gothic perfect even after the patches, but they did seem to present the game a little better, and packaged the gameplay & storyline a little better, just another opinion.

Mochan

06-13-2008, 03:48 PM

I agree Shivering Isles was the best of the lot. Vanilla Oblivion was too much of a generic swords and sorcery high fantasy fest. Knights of the Nine was just downright boring stupid fetch quest fest. I didn't even finish it. Shivering Isles was very amusing even though the characterization of the Mad God was pretty off in my opinion, it was still the most intereting Oblivion experience.

Gothic's main probem is how rough around the edges it is. It could use a ton more polish. But unlike say Two Worlds where the lack of polish really kills the game, Gothic 3 was very playable and had the best mix of open-ended exploration, multile story paths/free gameplay and plot/characterization -- for some reason I found most of its side quests to be more amusing than many of Oblivion's main quests. There were only a few really good Oblivion quests that I really enjoyed like the painter quest and the Clue Do assassination in the mansion quest.

G07H1C

06-13-2008, 04:37 PM

I could not have said that better myself, what else is funny is that I couldn't finish KotN either! The best ending for the game was to just turn it OFF!

Mochan

06-13-2008, 08:26 PM

Bethesda included KotN because a lot of people on the BethSoft boards were complaining that you should be able to join the Nines guild because you were in the imperial capital afterall, there should most definitely be a prominent presence for the nine deities here. Some how it didn't turn out the way a lot of people expected, I'm sure.

Were that they spent less time making stupid expansions like that and more time on more imaginative ones like Shivering Isles. Hopefully we get to see another decent expansion for Oblivion, Morrowind's best expansion was the Bloodmoon one I am hoping Oblivion comes out with one more before TES5 hits.

G07H1C

06-14-2008, 05:23 PM

Makes sense to me. No kidding - KotN & Shivering Isles were night and day! I had a bad experience with Morrowind, nearly completed.....lightning....surge.....bye bye cpu & mobo 2 months after warranty.....down 3 months......never finished!
A couple of times I wanted to restart but I was like 70-80 hours into the game etc. I now use ups!!!!

Aku

06-14-2008, 07:35 PM

I thought KoTN was just a collection of additional content, not a campaign expansion. Since it's included in the GOTY I've got, it's pretty much invisible to me what's KoTN and what isn't anyway.

G07H1C

06-14-2008, 08:35 PM

You are basically right! I payed $19.95 for the expansion, expecting to somehow make a sub great game better. I know that a lot of people liked Oblivion, I just was not one of them, IMO Beth's marketing team was top notch.
It wasn't bad though, I did like "Shivering Isles", it had some flavor! I didn't mean to bring this up again, my bad!

Mochan

06-17-2008, 01:21 AM

As I recall, KOTN basically just added a series of quests that you get by listening to some old crazy preacher talk about some kind of apocalypse. I heard him do it in Anvil. This ends up with you going to some tomb where some knights died and their ghosts give you a quest to look for the 9 shrines of The Nine and it's basically just you romping around the map looking for the shrines. Something happens after that and you probably get some armor and magic items but overall very boring and bland especially compared to Shivering Isles.

I didn't finish the Nines quest so maybe it got better later but it was torture going through it.

G07H1C

06-17-2008, 04:55 PM

I think you got further than I did, there was no fun factor at all, the only reason I even tried Shivering Isles is because a friend said that it was unlike the other 2 and was actually worth the price tag.
Like I said before though, I'm not gonna dis the Oblivion trio, a lot of people really liked the game. IMO, I just feel as though I wasted a lot of money including the expansion packs.
I am doing a small test at home with my son, he finds good in almost every game, so I hooked him up with 3 games to play at once (1) Gothic 3 (2) Fallout 2 (3) Oblivion. The rules are: Play a game until you are bored with it or stuck, or the fun factor is gone, then you have to go to the next game using the same rules, then the next, etc....then he has to tell me which game he finishes first. We'll see how it turns out, he started about a week ago!

Mochan

06-17-2008, 08:20 PM

LOL are you kidding? Fallout 2 has the advantage it's shorter than the other two. :)

Gothic 3, if it pulls it off, will be the acid test as that game is considerably longer and harder to finish than the other two games. Oblivion is pretty easy to finish especially if you just stick to the mainquest and rely on your compass.

I don't diss Oblivion really (well no more than all the criticisms I level it) because despite all my whining about it I did enjoy the game. But on a critical level it falls short of other outstanding games in terms of how I would critique its features.

G07H1C

06-17-2008, 08:33 PM

I thought it might be a little unfair to put those 3 games together, but I figured, Fallout fell a bit short in the graphics, and might get stumped in a couple of the quests. Oblivion was kinda simple in some of the quests, but lacked the fun factor. Gothic was a work horse and will take him the longest to play, but the fun factor is high, and the killing is plenty. I'm just curious to see what a 13 year old boy who knows nothing but what's in front of him to play.

Mochan

06-17-2008, 08:42 PM

Yeah, Oblivion quickly fell into the "go to point A then Point B back to point A" kind of deal that is more of a chore than actual fun gameplay. You end up just zipping by the quests as quickly as you can rather than enjoying the experience of doing it. It's fun for the first several hours but as the lack of depth in the quests and narrative wear on you and you begin to exploit the game's character and combat system, it becomes a mechanical affair.

This isn't a problem for Gothic 3, at least not for me and not for at least 80% of the game. I did fid myself sort of rushing near the end when I was completing Xardass's quests because I wanted to see the ending, but generally the quests were more engaging because there were real consequences to your actions and you had to weigh in on these. You couldn't "do everything" in one run for this game, you really had to decide and choose what you wanted to do.

Unlike in Oblivion where your actions in one quest tend not to close off any paths later on so you are just free to do everything and you tend to just do quests mechanically. The nice thing about Shivering Isles was that it wasn't too long, so it never really degenerated into a fetch quest deal, and the scenarios were interesting enough while it lasted.

You're also right, Fallout 2 was a lot shorter than the other two but there were spots there where you could get stumped if you didn't think it through. Fortunately, in Fallout 2 there is *always* another alternative if you don't feel like thinking it through. :) Every problem in Fallout 2 can be solved with a gun. :D

G07H1C

06-18-2008, 05:12 PM

Oblivion (IMO) got way to repetitive, once you knew the destinations, the quests were like you said - just back & forth. I ran so much between A & B that I personally broke a sweat!!! It seemed as though there was no thought process, no deciding factors on certain decisions, sorry I get to rambling sometimes.

I actually took longer time deciding my path at the end, plus after 100 hours, I didn't want to rush the ending. Eventually, I probably will play it again, just to try the evil path, it's cool that you even get the choice!

Fallout 2 was a blast, and like you said "when in doubt.....kill". But, for a 13 yr old, will he come to the same conclusions? I am starting to see a pattern in his game choices, in my opinion, he has already let one of the games slow down to a crawl. I'll wait and inform you in the end!

Mochan

06-18-2008, 07:29 PM

Heheheh that's what I loved about Fallout 2. Incidenally the same can be done in Arcanum although you should avoid doing it too much because you'll miss out on a lot of quest and story branches -- moreso than Fallout 2 because these avenues were developed more than in Fallout 2. It *can* be done though!

If I can find the time I will probably go back and replay Gothic 3, I want to get the other two endings as well.

G07H1C

06-18-2008, 07:47 PM

I ordered Arcanum!!!
I believe I am finally going to put Fallout2 in the RPG Hall of Fame drawer and let it rest! With the hope that FO3 will at least keep it in the drawer.
There are about 4-5 games I am looking forward to, I hope I'm not to disappointed on a few of them!

Aku

06-18-2008, 10:54 PM

Arcanum's great, just the travelling sucks. I know how to build a kickass all-tech dwarf character who can assemble an army of mechs.

Mochan

06-19-2008, 06:41 AM

Hehehe I must have played Arcanum like 4-5 times. First time I was a sniper thief, which was pretty weak compared to the bad-ass Disintegrator Mage I tried the next time around. Balancing in this game could use some work. The mech army maker build was also quite fun LOL. I even tried the game as a debutante once playing that was a real challenge, LOL. Had to rely on Sog Mead Mug a lot for all the combat at first.

G07H1C

06-19-2008, 03:26 PM

Sounds like I am in for a treat!!!
I just read up on some of the new releases coming out soon: Sacred 2, Rise of the Argonauts, Space Siege, & JA3. I'm not feeeling any of the RPG games, the best of this bunch may well be JA3!

Mochan

06-19-2008, 05:47 PM

I am definitely looking forward to JA3 the most there. After that Argonauts, then Sacred 2. But the level of my interest between JA3 and Argonauts is HUGE.

I definitely want JA3 the most!

G07H1C

06-19-2008, 06:30 PM

JA3 does look like the best of the bunch, something doesn't seem right with Argonauts - realism might have something to do with it! I might lean toward Sacred 2 as next in line!

I believe the test is over, I caught him not following the rules. Typical 13 yr old, he said that the rules were stupid, & that he lost the order he was following!

Anyways: He stopped playing 1 all together, he played a lot of another, but he said he is going to finish the one he liked best before continuing the second, if that made sense!

The winner was.........Gothic 3. He said by far G3 was the best of the 3. He said that FO2 was a good, fun game, but he just couldn't wait to get back to G3. He then said Oblivion was ok, but after a week or 2, the game didn't keep his interest, so he just went around killing things, and even that didn't keep his interest because the other 2 games even did that better!!!

Probably wasn't a fair test, oh well!

Mochan

06-19-2008, 07:31 PM

Fallout 2 is just too dated, it's not fair at all to compare it side by side with the other two. Yet despite that it's interesting to hear how he still found it more compelling than Oblivion. You raised a good kid their dude!

Gothic 3 should be the clear winner as it is, so all is right in the world.

Regarding Sacred 2 and Argonauts, I am just more interested in what I am hearing about Argonauts. Sacred 2 was a Diablo-esque game with a larger more traditional RPG-world instead of plain hack and slash (ala Divine Divinity) and it was great but the problem is I did not like the cooldown time for special skills and the lack of flexibility in assigning skills to the interface. So I come with lower expectations for Sacred 2. Argonauts sounds like Blade of Darkness but with more free-form RPG exploration, it sounds very interesting and appealing to me.

G07H1C

06-19-2008, 09:46 PM

Thanks! He's something, he also plays games like: Age of Mythology, Age of Empires, and Battlefield! He just finished Assasin's Creed on PS3 about 3 weeks ago, he really liked it, but I'm hearing a lot of negative reviews on the net though!

I see your points on the 2 games of mention, I liked Diablo II, but it wasn't like game of the year or anything, but I do like free roam, quest filled, traditional RPG build type games.
It seems as though no one can make the perfect RPG game - if we get better graphics, the gameplay suffers, if we get multiple endings, the quests are linear, if we get multi alignment, then the vocals are cheap, etc.

Argonauts sound like it could roll my way, I will have to see I guess! What's coming out first?

Mochan

06-20-2008, 10:03 AM

I still play Age of Mythology to this day. Mostly because my GF loves playing it. But it was seriously my next favorite RTS after Starcraft. After the Starcraft era the only RTS that was worth playing in my book was Age of Mythology. Warcraft 3 was a huge disappointment and didn't have the same intensity or depth of strategies as AoM.

Assassin's Creed I started it out but haven't really gotten into it. The gameplay and setting/concept seems assinine to be honest -- like a cross between Grand Theft Auto and Thief gone wrong. I hate how you can do a mission, screw it up, then go back to the person who gave you the mission and do it all over again in trial and error -- exactly how it's done in GTA. It just ruins the immersion of the experience especially when the mission is like the first one -- you get the mission by strolling next to a guy, the mission is to tail him and mug him. If you screw the mission, even if you beat him up, you can activate the mission by casually strolling next to him again and he doesn't give a crap what you did just a few seconds ago!

Granted the in-game fiction allows for it because in Assassin's Creed you are actually this guy from the future using a "gene regression" device to go into your gene pool memory (what?!) and you are actually reliving your ancestors memories -- so if you fail you simply press the "load" button and "try" the memory again. So you can make this as the excuse -- but frankly the fiction is stupid and so is the mechanic.

This is a shame because Assassin's Creed looks like it could be a fun game -- but the atmosphere is shot because of the aforementioned quest setup and in-game fiction -- let's not even talk about the magic flag collecting that you have to do which just exposes the setup as an Easter Egg Hunt Video Game. I mean nothing reminds you that you're just in a game so much as collecting points like gigantic gold coins, get 100 of them and get a 1-Up for your plumber! The game is no Thief -- Thief thrived on atmosphere and this game has none of it. The most gratifying comparison you can give it is that it's like GTA -- except it has none of the speed and adrenaline rush that made GTA3 popular. In fact open of the main complaints people have about AC is how BORING it is -- riding around a horse cross country over miles of arab terrain doing nothing but look at your horse's butt gets boring. This is no Shadow of the Colossus (another game it seems to take some inspiration from -- but does not manage the atmosphere of SotC either and atmosphere was what made SotC work -- AC's atmosphere was crap with all that techno crap).

Someday we will get the perfect RPG but I fear it is not today, not tomorrow.

G07H1C

06-21-2008, 02:33 PM

I've tackeld AoM a couple of times, has some fun gameplay thats for sure!
I have also heard that Warcraft 3 was a pisser to say the least, once again, if a game is not broke......why fix it!!!

I have not ever played AC, but I have watched Zak (son) play it, there are some cool things that I had seen in the game, but there were some flaws I noticed as well, but since he looked like he was having fun - I never mentioned anything! You made all great points, some of your points I recognized, others I am gonna take your word for, the ancestors memories, I never quite got! - AC is normally not my type of game, but ok to watch for a short period of time!

I'm still waiting for the perfect RPG, before my gaming life is over!

BaneNWN

06-21-2008, 02:42 PM

I just got the witcher myself going to play some this weekend so far looks pretty good.Oblivion as a whole wasnt repetetive what was repetetive were all the gates though even the dungeons had more design then morrowinds yes some looked the same but atleast this time you had a variety.Im going to go back to oblivion when i finish the witcher and play through shivering isle which i have yet to try

G07H1C

06-21-2008, 03:00 PM

BaneNWN

06-21-2008, 03:10 PM

Well im asking myself why i went an bought a new graphics card when i didnt really need to so ya thats how much i like my new chip lol.Ill know more when i pick crysis up and slap in my 8800 GT.I play everything at max settings even with the x1900xt card.Prey must have an fps limiter cause it sticks at 62 and never drops below that.Another thing i like about it is there extreme overclockers.People are getting 4.4 air cooled and 3.6 easily on stock fan with little to no raise in core temps.Im going to buy an aftermarket fan down the road and stick it to 4 gigs and just leave it there

G07H1C

06-21-2008, 03:40 PM

I hear ya man, sweet rig! I do believe that Nvidia has ATI in graphics cards though, and you are changing that as well! Sweet!

Over clocking is the fad now, some go a little overboard, gotta watch the heat! I don't have that kind of money to just go buy $200 mobo's or $200 chips!

BaneNWN

06-21-2008, 05:36 PM

Well i havent read to much about the new geforce 9800 or whatever but im pretty sure the best GPU as of now is the Radeon 3870 X2 1 gig.Could be wrong though.My last 2 cards were radeons and ive had no complaints.I just find the high end radeons to be alittle to pricey for me at this time.considering that i can only play games at 1680x1050 with my flat screen it would have been pointless to go any higher then an 8800 GT.Hell even my radeon is over 2 years old now and its still plenty powerful for todays games.

BaneNWN

06-21-2008, 05:39 PM

I beat Witcher about a month ago, I liked it, I liked the combat, the story line was good, when you have beaten the game, I have a question for you - your opinion on the ending!

I think you will like Shivering Isles also, you are gonna be busy over the next couple of weeks!

How do you like your chip thus far?

From the little ive played of the witcher so far the combat reminds me of summoner with the chain attacks.summoner was a launch game for the ps 2 i actually got it for the PC to i felt it was highley underrated and i really liked the combat in that game to so im sure ill like the witchers combat system.