what game next?

Shine · Post by **Shine** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 11:01 am

Well, I must say I'm enjoying the Baldur's Gate games hugely. I've played BG, and am going through BG2-ToB right now. I've already played Icewind Dale 2 (picked that up from a sale bin, which got me into this in the first place).

Now I'm wondering what to try next. I like the way BG2 played and am hoping to find something similar. Should I be looking at Icewind Dale or is that not going to be all that great after already having played Icewind 2?
I prefer BG2 over Icewind, in terms of how the game was written. I prefer the RP aspect, NPC interractions, subplots, etc over the actual hack 'n slash bits.

Is Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance just for Xbox?

BlueSky · Post by **BlueSky** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 11:29 am

I think it is, but I was dissappointed by it.

You might try Morrowind, I fell in love with it for PC,

plus has lots of mods like the BG series...by the way have you tried the various mods for the BG series?

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 12:27 pm

BG2 tends to spoil you forever, there's not really anything else quite like it, unfortunately. However, Planescape Torment comes quite close, and in certain aspects it could even be called the better game. If you prefer amazing storytelling, some great dialogue, and roleplaying over hack and slash I'd definitely suggest checking out Planescape Torment. Hint: during the character creation process be sure to focus on Wisdom, Intelligence and Charisma... this gives you far more dialogue options and the ability to solve potential conflicts through talking.

Morrowind is good... but you really need *a lot* of mods to create a feeling of life within the gameworld. Mods that provide better dialogue (such as the Less Generic NPC series) are a must, for example. Also, be aware that Morrowind is a huge resource hog; if your PC is basically set to play Infinity Engine games (i.e you have an older computer, graphics card etc), Morrowind may tax your system.

I'd also suggest looking at Icewind Dale One. Like IWD2, you create your own party and it is hack and slash oriented, but it's still a pretty good dungeon crawl, especially with the two expansions installed as well. This is purely subjective and personal, but I find IWD1 to be the better game, it seems a little richer somehow.

fable · Post by **fable** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 12:49 pm

Moving this to RPG Discussions.

Shine · Post by **Shine** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 2:45 pm

Hi
Thanks for the reply. Had a quick look at Torment. Not sure if I can relate to the "companions", from an RP point of view. Half of them seem meant to appeal to male gamers and the rest seem a little cartoonish to me.
I found an edition of Torment and "soulbringer" online. Is that the one to get?

How about Neverwinter Nights?

fable · Post by **fable** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 3:31 pm

NWN is very linear, and the combat is awful: you control one character, while any associates you take on pretty much do whatever they want. Also, the game itself is boring as hell; the two officiall add-ons (especially the second) are much better.

Planescape: Torment is probably the best-written RPG I've ever played. The party NPCs have great depth, as does the storyline, and the mechanics are very similar to BG2.

You might want to check out King of Dragon Pass, an RPG/strategy hybrid, by A-Sharp. Remarkably detailed simulation of leading a tribe, and then a clan, to victory or defeat among many other tribes and clans. About the only game I've played that successfully manages to be highly randomized while offering great depth.

Crenshinibon · Post by **Crenshinibon** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 3:58 pm

Yes, definitely try Planescape Torment. Also, if you do get Icewind Dale, I strongly suggest that you get the Heart of Winter expansion as, in my opinion, it adds a lot to the game, plus you can download the Trials of the Luremaster expansion... but it's quite literally a dungeon crawl. The bad thing about the downloadable expansion is that you can't access any other area until you beat it and that there isn't too much interaction.

I do not reccomend Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance. It is not accurate in portraying the city and the storyline isn't that impressive. I'd choose Demonstone over it.

If you have a Windows 95/ DOS emulator then you should try out Fallout.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 4:14 pm

Shine wrote:Hi
Not sure if I can relate to the "companions", from an RP point of view. Half of them seem meant to appeal to male gamers and the rest seem a little cartoonish to me.
I found an edition of Torment and "soulbringer" online. Is that the one to get?

I'm not sure if that is the game you want....
Below are links detailing Planescape Torment:

The Greatest Games of All Time: Planescape: Torment - Features at GameSpot
Planescape: Torment for PC Review - PC Planescape: Torment Review

Planescape: Torment - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (warning, contains spoilers)

From the Wikipedia entry:

Planescape: Torment is notable for the quantity of textual dialogue it contains. An estimate by the creators of the game places it at almost 1 million words. A review in the New York Times noted that, "The game's level of detail and its emotional impact have prompted some players to cast about for literary peers."

The complex and storyline-based nature of the game means that gameplay often focuses on resolution of quest and story objectives through selection from available dialogue choices, rather than through combat encounters. Simply stopping and having a long - often a very long - chat with one of the other members of the player's group can often advance the game more (and reveal more surprising things) than hours of combat and questing in other games. In fact, there are only four or so required combat encounters within the game, as compared to tens or hundreds in contemporary role-playing games. All other encounters can be resolved or avoided through dialogue or stealth.

kmonster · Post by **kmonster** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 7:35 pm

I liked both "Icewind Dale" and "Planescape Torment" far more than BG2.

BG2 is more a mainstream product with many things thrown in for marketing, no real interaction and freedom of choice as in PST and no honest combat as in IWD.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 7:45 pm

kmonster wrote:I liked both "Icewind Dale" and "Planescape Torment" far more than BG2.

BG2 is more a mainstream product with many things thrown in for marketing

I wish it *was* a mainstream product. Were that the case, we might have more games with extensive party dialogue, character development, and a decent story

Shine · Post by **Shine** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 10:12 pm

Thanks, all.
Reading this, I think I'll give Torment a try.
I am a little put off by the graphics but I guess I'll get over that. (I mean, really, a talking skull, a transformer-type individual and something that looks like a multi-armed television? Not sure I could look at Annah's (sp?) outfit for very long without wanting to find her a pair of pants with a decent AC) I already miss Jahiera, Minsc and Boo
The reviews look promising - thanks for the links!

fable · Post by **fable** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 10:22 pm

I think you'll find the party NPCs in Planescape: Torment quite memorable...to say the least. Good luck with it!

cyndric · Post by **cyndric** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 10:26 pm

Temple of Elemental Evil wasn't bad, I actually finished it. Its similar to the BG style of play, but not as good.

Besides you can find the Sword of Omens from The Thundercats while adventuring, can't beat that.

Shine · Post by **Shine** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 8:32 am

Does anyone know anything about a "Soulbringer" game that is bundled with some copies of Torment?
Also, does this game have various version such as in the number of CD's (requiring a lot of swapping) or patched/unpatched versions?
There seems to be quite a variation of prices for this online, without explanation (i.e. number of CD's, manuals included or other items that might affect the price)

Kipi · Post by **Kipi** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 8:37 am

Crenshinibon wrote: If you have a Windows 95/ DOS emulator then you should try out Fallout.

You don't need any kind of emulator to play Fallout games...
They usually work fine with WinXP.

I really recommend Fallout 1&2, bot have very good story and lots of dialogies. Yes, they are not fantasy-based games but more future/scifi.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 9:59 am

Shine wrote:Does anyone know anything about a "Soulbringer" game that is bundled with some copies of Torment?
Also, does this game have various version such as in the number of CD's (requiring a lot of swapping) or patched/unpatched versions?
There seems to be quite a variation of prices for this online, without explanation (i.e. number of CD's, manuals included or other items that might affect the price)

I don't know anything about Soulbringer, personally, but I did find this review. I'm pretty sure Soulbringer has absolutely nothing to do with PS:T.

As far as CD swapping goes, my version contains multiple discs. It's not too bad, though, because you tend to spend quite a long time in a single area anyway. Also, there might be a way into fooling your system into only needing to use one play disc, as apparently can be done with BG1; I've never tried that, however.

btw, if you are interested, here is yet another review for PS:T, this is a bit better than the others, IMO:
Electric Playground

CFM · Post by **CFM** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 1:28 pm

My 2 Cents

Shine wrote:Now I'm wondering what to try next. I like the way BG2 played and am hoping to find something similar. Should I be looking at Icewind Dale or is that not going to be all that great after already having played Icewind 2?
I prefer BG2 over Icewind, in terms of how the game was written. I prefer the RP aspect, NPC interractions, subplots, etc over the actual hack 'n slash bits.

The BG Saga has a perfect combination of story & combat aspects, with both aspects being of a high quality level.

The IWD Series is close with regards to quality level, but with much more attention to combats, and less with story.

PST is the IWD inverse, so to speak, with much more attention to story, and less with combats.

IWD does combat well, and BG does everything well... but nothing does anything as well as PST's story. It's that good. For sure, imo, you should next do PST, and then IWD1 directly thereafter.

This let's you hit all the titles that use the great BG engine... then shed a tear for the fact that NWN is what replaced it.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 1:38 pm

CFM wrote:This let's you hit all the titles that use the great BG engine... then shed a tear for the fact that NWN is what replaced it.

Sadly, this summarizes my own view... It simply boggles my mind how they went from amazing games like the aforementioned to NWN...

The HoTU expansion is much better than both NWN and SoU... But even so... With the disintegration of Black Isle Studios something wonderful was irrevocably lost..

CFM · Post by **CFM** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 1:42 pm

Shine wrote:Does anyone know anything about a "Soulbringer" game that is bundled with some copies of Torment?
Also, does this game have various version such as in the number of CD's (requiring a lot of swapping) or patched/unpatched versions?
There seems to be quite a variation of prices for this online, without explanation (i.e. number of CD's, manuals included or other items that might affect the price)

Soulbringer is a separate game, which was sold at some point as a little bundle pack with PST for $14.99 or whatever. I've seen it before at Best Buy, Target, CompUSA, and Walmart.

I personally have the 4-disc version of PST. You can place all the CDs' content on your harddrive, and modify the game's .ini file to look for the content in "c:\" instead of "d:\". Do a search in any PST forum (including GameBanshee's) for details. After this install, there won't be any disk swaping.

Great game. You'll be hard-pressed to find anyone who actually played it to not rave about it.
The only potential downer is that you'll have to role-play a dude.

fable · Post by **fable** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 2:08 pm

CFM wrote:I personally have the 4-disc version of PST. You can place all the CDs' content on your harddrive, and modify the game's .ini file to look for the content in "c:\" instead of "d:\". Do a search in any PST forum (including GameBanshee's) for details.

Or just look here, since this is the FAQ.

I reinstalled PS:T earlier today, have the 4-CD version, and am using the "all CDs on drive" tip. You might also want to considering downloading the PS:T Fix Pack 1.37, plus both the Restoration Pack and The Candlestick Quest. They repair a number of game errors, while the quest mod restores a mod that left unfinished and removed from view in the released game.

Note, too, if you have the 2 CD version, you don't want to install the 1.1 patch. That can cause problems. The patch is only for the 4-CD version.

Enjoy!