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Its really sad, cause I really liked it when I started playing. But after spending soo much time in the first dungeon and finding the game some what "buggy". With this I mean, combat seems to be "rigged" somehow. One encounter I am slaugthering them as the come, the next im just killing air and my opponents are hitting like nobodys buisness.
Im also growing very tired with the interface/combat. Soo many time I have try to do something and ending up closing a door, smashing a table or something else along these lines.
I have just quit my current game and I just really have this: "How the hell did this thing pass through Quality assurance" feeling. There are soo meny obvious flaws and limitations, that the game gets boring fast. BG2 had alot of undead... but this game takes the crow... Another poor design decision is the fact that you are walking in a dwarven city (Right?!?) in the first dungeon, if so.. why are the zombies, skeletons etc of human build?
And dont even get me started on character creation.... or completly LACK of it. You might as well just pick the premade ones, hell they could have dropped it all together and just let you edit the name maybe.
One of the most important things in RPG's is character creation. Designing your hero and walking him trough a grand adventure. If the design team behind this title dont get fired, then there is something really wrong with the game industrie today.
Also, is it just me, or is there more ingame dialog in Diablo?!?, might be worth checking out. I have played, i dont know... 5 hours. So far I have meet 4 NPC's. 2 elves, a merchant and a scorerer thats stuck in some rock. YaY!!
At this point in any BG game or torment for that matter, you would already have read enough dialogs to write a small novel(I know.. I know..)
Its like they started out with the idea of creating some great RPG and at some point, a guy from blizzard walks in and says... Hack N' Slash is Da BoMB!!...

Ack.. im gonna leave be for now, maybe they will release some divine patch in the future, after they finish up the bug hunting.. *coug* *coug*

[ 10-12-2001: Message edited by: KaaZe ]

Seems alot of people have this problem. It's fun if the Diablo-style-beat-down is all you like, but I think BG2 set a new standard, and this game just doesn't measure up.

And it's even buggier than BG2. Seriously, this thing froze during the exact same battle eight consecutive times. I can understand occasional glitches, but when something is so screwed-up it interferes with gameplay it gets irritating.

Furthermore, the characters are dull as hell. I believe the designers made some excuse about not wanting to confuse the plots, but did they ever think that maybe extensive character interaction and is what people want? Talk about being out of touch with your consumer base.

Know what else this game reminds me of? The Final Fantasy series. Breathtaking graphics, but tedious fight sequences, dull characters, cliched plot(really, how many times can you save the world?), and almost nothing else. I say less fighting, more roleplaying.

I came to this game expecting a dungeon crawl, not an RPG, so I wasn't disappointed. There are definitely problems with the game mechanics, but that was true about BG2 when it first appeared, as well; and some bugs were only fixed by Baldurdash's Kevin, rather than the Bioware team.

I think it deserves a little time. The first patch is out, and the next one (for corrupted saves) is due out in a week. A third patch dealing with gaming issues is scheduled to appear sometime after that. Given Stormfront's record, I think we should extend the benefit of the doubt.

I dont think I was expecting a new BG1/2 game. But I just feel the game tries to be everything and ends up being nothing. If they wanted a dungeon crawl with alot of fighting, then the combat system should have been much much better. If they wanted a >Role<playing game. The they should have either made a character for you to play, like Torment or invested much more time on character creation.
A patch could raise this game, but if sales drops dramatically in the coming month. Then I doubt it will be released. Im all for removing big interfaces, but if you do, you better have something really good to replace it. I just feel that PoR fails in this department. BG2 had a big interface that took up alot of pixels on your monitor. But at the end of the day, it worked. Navigating through the menu's in PoR quickly gets annoying.

BTW, does anyone know how to set up a quick save shortcut key?

Originally posted by fable:
<STRONG>I came to this game expecting a dungeon crawl, not an RPG, so I wasn't disappointed.</STRONG>

I too was expecting a dungeon crawl, partly because that's what the first POR was, but also because I believed that SSI's return to D&D would be tentative and exploratory, just as Baldur's Gate had been for Bioware. However, I am still disappointed.

IWD was a dungeon hack, but I still felt like I was doing more than just moping around some old ruins; there was stuff to do and things to kill, not just go thataway until you find something. Kalduhar provided a base to perform a number of minor quests just as Phlan did in the first POR. Stillwater could have been that for the early part of the game, but it isn't.

I think many of the complaints about the lack of role-playing could have been fixed fairly easily: a well-placed NPC dialogue, some plot-advancing artifacts and equipment, nogoodniks with something to say before they killed you, etc.

My other disappointments with the game run deeper to the game's content and fundamental mechanics.

1) How can you have a D&D3 game without basic classes like the Bard, Druid and Wizard? We're not talking about an unpopular sub-class (ie-acrobat) or an obscure kit (beast master) or prestige class (traveling minstrel); D&D without a wizard is like Star Wars without Anakin Skywalker.

2) What good is a scout (ranger, thief) if he can't walk more than 10 feet from the main character?

3) Clerics don't have to choose and pray for spells. What the hell is this about?!?! This completely takes away the strategy of choosing cleric spells and the connection with the gods that is so vital to the class (in the spirit of the game).

4) The points system in character generation. As I have said before, the points system brings parity to individual characters. However, all characters are not equal (and nor should they be). Some are bigger than others, others are smarter, and still others are better looking. However, there are a few rare people that are smarter, faster, bigger and prettier than everyone else they know. That's called random chance and is integral to the D&D setting. I know the game says that the points system is "endorsed" by the D&D3 creators. So what? So is the 4d6 dice-rolling method that they saw fit to include on the Character Generator CD that comes with the 3E Players Handbook. Dice rolls reflect variations in the gene pool and reward player perseverence.

5) The spell selection sucks. One 8th level sorcerer spell and 10 first level cleric spells; What's up with that? BG2 had as many first and second level mage spells as all of ROMD's spellcasters combined. Sure they included the major ones, but what happened to the importance of knowing the Identify spell?

6) You can't move around the map to areas you already been to. This is one of the most annoying things for me because it makes the game feel slower than it is. For instance, in the Main Halls there are a lot of blocked passageways and times when you have to take the long way around to get somewhere. In BG2 or IWD, you'd set a bunch of waypoints then click on the map and watch your characters move there. In ROMD, you have to sit over your characters while the plod along one screen at a time. If you hit the map button, the characters stop in their tracks and you have to start them moving all over again.

7) The game picks your feats and skills for you. What fun is there in that? The Infinity Engine didn't have much in the way of character customisation (partly because it was based on the 2E rules), but at least you got to pick your own WPs and theives got to choose which skills they'd emphasise.

Some folks out there don't like the interface and don't care for the turn-based combat system. The interface is clumsy, but not hard to get used to. However, in some ways it's easier to use (but less intuitive) than the Infinity Engine.

I rather like the turn-based combat, but I'm annoyed at it's inconsistancies. For instance, sometimes I can run clear across the screen and still attack. Other times, I can only go five feet then get a message telling me that I have already taken an action that turn. I've also noticed that sometimes, I get to attack someone then have to hit the space bar to go on to the next character's turn, but other times, I attack then hit the space bar to go to the next person, but instead end up skipping that character. The game needs to make up its mind. Plus what they try to pass off as pathfinding sucks.

All that said, I don't hate the game; in fact I like many thing about it, and I want to like it even more. Maybe it's because the original SSI Pool of Radiance et al were so cool (twelve years ago). I also have yet to experience any of the alleged technical glitches which afflict many other players :crosses fingers and knocks on wood: . However, the "rushed to production" feel brings it down a couple of notches in my book.

I hope UbiSoft addresses all of ROMD's shortcomings in future D&D3 CRPGs because the basis is there for a good product, but it hasn't quite brought it's A-game yet (just like the San Diego Chargers).

[ 10-12-2001: Message edited by: HighLordDave ]

Originally posted by HighLordDave:
[QB]All that said, I don't hate the game; in fact I like many thing about it, and I want to like it even more. Maybe it's because the original SSI Pool of Radiance et al were so cool (twelve years ago). QB]

I feel the same way... I REALLY REALLY want to enjoy this game. I have already givin it alot more patience then I do most games. The only technical bug I have encoutered is the install bug. Cant install it on my E: drive where all my games are. But its not something that has a direct influence off the quality of game play.

Damn it.. im gonna start one more time... if I dont get hooked now, im gonna uninstall and come back later.

Gina de Charney, level 1 elf figther is gonna reawake one more time

Just hit the save bug

I had just hit the save button when the game decided to crash to the desktop (second time in two days) Result: invalid save, wiping out the previous good save. The nearest save to it was about 10-15 game hours hence (Auto-Save).

Damn it, it just doesn't get more irritating than that! A game might be tedious and repetitive, have no character development, and no dialogue, and I still might enjoy it. But when it starts eating your saves, THAT really pisses the Hell out of me!

Advice to those willing to give this game a try: Save under multiple names! And wait for the save bug patch to come out!

BTW, if anyone knows how to map a quick-save, I'd also like to know. Then I would have been prepared for this unforgivable glitch.

@HighlordDave: I think I can explain the combat "bugs" you were referring to. Actually, they're not bugs. Each individual's movement in combat is affected by their encumbrance (0-1/3=light, 1/3-2/3=medium, 2/3- =heavy and very heavy) There's a significant difference in movement rate between each one.
And pressing the space bar and missing a character's turn isn't random. You can move and attack, or attack and move. If you move and attack, THEN press space bar, you skip your next character's turn. It's irritating and unintuitive, but it's not a bug

I keep about ten saved games. When I get ready to save another, I delete the oldest one. So far,no problems.

Originally posted by Magus:
<STRONG>@HighlordDave: I think I can explain the combat "bugs" you were referring to. Actually, they're not bugs. Each individual's movement in combat is affected by their encumbrance (0-1/3=light, 1/3-2/3=medium, 2/3- =heavy and very heavy) There's a significant difference in movement rate between each one.
And pressing the space bar and missing a character's turn isn't random. You can move and attack, or attack and move. If you move and attack, THEN press space bar, you skip your next character's turn. It's irritating and unintuitive, but it's not a bug </STRONG>

I understand about the encumbrance affecting a character's movement rate. It does make a lot of sense that a guy carrying only a club and a shield would be able to move farther than my pack mule who's carrying all of the party's junk.

However, I've noticed that on one turn I can move my character across the screen, then on another turn the same character will only be able to move five feet. Since you can't pick anything up during combat or otherwise change your encumbrance, I think the engine still has some kinks in it.

I played PoR on the C64 around the age of 7 or 8. Was enthralled and loved every minute of it. As long as I didn’t lose the Adventure Journal (The bugbear whispered…Adventure Journal Entry 34) or the low-tech anti-piracy paper decoder ring, I could play for hours. I went on to Curse of the Azure Bonds and Co. happily excluding Hillsfar (what the hell) I got into the paper version, tutored by my brother seven years my senior who gave me his original copies of the handbooks. I became a little disciple of RPG’s, the genre with the most nonsensical name (who has played a game without playing a role?) From there I went on to a bright future…
For the last couple of years my only real contact with the D&D world was R.A. Salvatore’s books, I mean I bought Baldur’s Gate but it felt more like Diablo than D&D to me, good game and all. So anyway when I heard of PoR:RoMD being toted as adhering faithfully to the 3rd addition rules, I was some what ecstatic. I was almost hoping they would including the original with it or one of those little decoder wheels. Still I was excited. Installation went fine, FMVs uhhh a little rough but light years from the original. So get thru that got to character creation and ok, wizards & bards axed in favor of Monks and Barbarians, not that big of a deal. All ever used was a cleric a few fighters maybe a ranger maybe a thief (remember the level-based titles, cut throat, slip purse..) So I figured I would play a 2 fighter, 1 cleric, 1 rogue party. I had an idea that the fifth and sixth slots where for NPCs and come back around and play again with a monk, barbarian party. You know what really made me kind of start wondering… the loading graphics, I mean the FMVs weren’t great but look it’s Elminster!! So I was still hopeful, more than that really, I was happy. Then I started to play and one detail at a time it began to fall a part. The non-scrolling screen thing pissed me off first, I had the occlusion set low so I could see much of anything, I mean they could have let you scroll back over known territory, hell use a Fog of War type thing if you have to. Then the whole thing about everybody having to stay within arm’s length got to me, thank heavens it wasn’t a city b/c you know how inconspicuous those thieves are walking with their Half-Orcs and tricked out clerics. Next, well next was how slow does it really seem they are walking? It is like don’t worry about the souls being eaten in New Phlan, take your time. That and the fact that I am used to games with the ability to let your characters run.
One of my prized possessions were my set of monster manuals, I loved to read them, figure out which was the coolest, strongest, smartest… and sometimes I colored the illustrations if I felt up to it. Now with that punk rock assembly of denizens and demons don’t you think they could have worked some of them in; two in a half hours into and the only really memorable encounter was with the scarred mage. A huge sprawling dungeon crawl full of nothing but skeletons, zombies, and orcs. Woo Hoo. In the first one I felt a sense of achievement when I made it to the next quarter or cleaned out another, remember the actual Knock spell. God how horrible are the loading graphics? I am trying to force myself to believe that they are in some way paying homage to the original manuals illustrated apparently by Gygax’s semi-talented friend (wizard twitching his fingers, fighter slipping on a banana peel) But, it is hard to swallow. Hell I was thinking that honestly Tyranthraxus was pretty cheesy to begin with.
D&D wasn’t perfect, case in point the advent of AD&D. Improving on a great idea can work well (physics) or can burn horribly ( Descent Twelve: More Descent). But AD&D was cool. Cost of castles?!? I mean pretty smooth. I refuse to believe that the D&D world has to remain so simplistic in the computer gaming world, annoying ungodly ungainly interfaces not counting. Anyone increase combat rate; now you have even less time to fumble through the menus while the zombies shamble along at a brisk crawl. It looks awkward doesn’t it? I don’t believe that round based combat is obsolete but it looks kinda of silly watching five healthy level 9 characters stand there for a minute as the zombies inch along showing absolutely no interest in the battle. Maybe zombies are the wrong choice, I guess that what makes them zombies, but traditional D&D with a DM has the advantage of allowing you to conjure, or a well-honed DM, the world your characters inhabit. I remember sometimes even imaging facial expressions of my party or Lloth when I ran her through (Insanity-like level 28 Titans, but then again our DM exercised the thumb-of-god techniques, ‘thumb of god crushes you, you are dead&#8217 . There is none of that here, they crouch… I am riveted. I am not saying we need to go so far as have the character eat and purge but some behavior that goes beyond, combat mode and non-combat mode stances would be much appreciated. I remember in the original in one of the quarters of the old town there was an old woman you could get to using the knock spell that depending on how you responded to her could kill you on the spot. I find that, while maybe excessive, to be much more enjoyable than ‘fetch me Deathbane’ like we were not expecting that.
If they took the Dark Elf books or the Icewind Dale ones and adapted them for the PC, you know without a doubt that regardless of the development team, there would have to be interaction between the PC and NPCs beyond the ‘hello, here is your quest’ variety. Remember Parlay? Even with orcs, telling kobolds how you were going to string there bowels was the least of it but on occasion it decided major directions of the game.
PoR:RoMD… a good idea executed with little passion.

Wow, first off.. great post!, really enjoyed reading that.
And I cant really say or do much more then agree with you. I was really looking forward to this one. It has been so long since BG2 got here and good RPG's dont come every day in the computer industrie. But, at the end of the day... its just not fun to play. I get bored quickly with combat.. tired of running around in a dungeon that makes as much sence as a dialog from minsc in BG2.
And... it will take along time before I feel the need to fight the undead again. Im so darn tired of fighting skeletons, Zombies and their homies. Not to mention that every wall, floor and door looks the same. Its not like the dungeon is 3d generated, so the could pretty much give it much much more detail and color without it have a big performace impact. Like Irenicus prison, alot of different settings.. keeps you interrested.
Also, there are too meny locked doors that requires too meny different keys. A great example of the overuse of keys are when you face the lizardman cheiftan(Spoiler?!?). He has a key called "L" and that opens 1 of 2 chets behind him. Strangely enough, its the one on the left... wich contain a key called "R" and that opens...... Please... why not just have the chest's pickable?!?

I really feel that they started out trying to create a honorable RPG and at some point, a guy from blizzard walks in and say Hack 'N SLash Is Da BoMb!?!

I would really like to try and play som of the originals, anyone know where you can get them on the net?!?.

At the end of the day, Pool Of Radiance has absolutely nothing to with Roleplaying games. I really dont know why the payed wizards of the coast for a license to D&D... other then for the comercial value of such a thing.

Next please... IF all goes well, that should be NWN. But Morrowind just got delayed if I read correctly(Microsoft is most likely behind it, they want it for European launch of x-box). NWN might get the same.

[ 10-16-2001: Message edited by: KaaZe ]

KaaZe, I think you and our friend R.I.A. have hit nail on the head about the feel of this game. It lacks passion. When BG2 came out, I couldn't wait to get home from work or through with my "honey do" list to get back on my machine and return to the adventure. Not only do I not feel the overwhelming urge to get back to ROMD each day, but I actually have to debate whether I'd rather play Pool of Radiance or Rollercoaster Tycoon.

If you want to recapture the magic of the old Gold Box SSI games (Pool of Radiance, Death Knights of Krynn et al) you can buy them at[url="http://www.babbages.com/product.asp?product%5Fid=479463"]Babbages[/url] for $20.

Originally posted by HighLordDave:
<STRONG>KaaZe, I think you and our friend R.I.A. have hit nail on the head about the feel of this game. It lacks passion. When BG2 came out, I couldn't wait to get home from work or through with my "honey do" list to get back on my machine and return to the adventure. Not only do I not feel the overwhelming urge to get back to ROMD each day, but I actually have to debate whether I'd rather play Pool of Radiance or Rollercoaster Tycoon.

If you want to recapture the magic of the old Gold Box SSI games (Pool of Radiance, Death Knights of Krynn et al) you can buy them at[url="http://www.babbages.com/product.asp?product%5Fid=479463"]Babbages[/url] for $20.</STRONG>

Can't say I ever liked the Gold Box clones, but I do agree: the game lacks any reason for passion. Even IWD, which is another dungeon crawl, is considerably more exciting. And some of that is because the designers of IWD put so much more detail into their product.

PoR puzzles me. Stormfront is a very good development house, yet they really made some remarkable errors in designing this game. It couldn't have been lack of time; so was it lack of input? Or badly distributed time, which led them to rush certain things? Or did the funding die for a while, and they moved onto something else? I'm left wondering.

I think the reason I don't care about this game is because it lacks 1) compelling characters and 2) a compelling (and even plausible) story.

Let's take for granted that in a dungeon hack, compelling characters are going to be in short supply. IWD was severely lacking in the department of character development, but the villains each has something to say or their own story arc, as did some of the main NPCs. Whether it was Kesselack, Arundel, Yxunomei, Larrel, or Poquelin/Belhifet, they all had some dialogue before they engaged you or sent you somewhere else. Heck, even Lysan had a story to tell. It's little pieces like that the ROMD designers overlooked, but would have been easy to add and make the game a whole lot better.

The backstory of ROMD is not only paper thin, but incoherent. If you hadn't played the original Pool of Radiance, did the opening truly explain what one was or how they worked? Why are the adventurers in New Phlan? Remember in the first Pool of Radiance how you could interact with a bunch of people in the town (at the bar, in the armoury, city hall, training hall, etc.)? Who do we have to talk to as ROMD opens? Nottle and the Beriand. Not only are they the sole voices of plot exposition, but they are at best shallow and at worst annoying. I am into the Halls of Stone and have not found anyone else to talk to. That's just plain wrong.

I'm not saying that ROMD needed to have a multi-layered plot with the complexity of a Tolstoy novel, but lacking motivation and direction, I truly could care less about this game. Without a good story, the player is not engaged and therefore doesn't give a damn about the game (plus ROMD is handicapped by a cumbersome and unintuitive engine; don't get me started on that).

Converesly, a superior story and plot combined with average graphics and a few other bells and whistles (ie-BG2) will keep a player enraptured and coming back for more. While we're talking about the gold box games and in a late-80s nogistalgia mode, remember the movie The Breakfast Club? Why did it do so well and why is it a cult classic? It's not because of the action, either sex or violence. It's because each of the 8 characters (the six kids in detention, the principal, and the janitor) all were compelling characters (at least for anyone growing up then, like me). The movie speaks to people, while ROMD only says "Go beat the hell out of skeletons."

For whatever reason, Stormfront dropped the ball on ROMD, which is unfortunated because they inherited the legacy of a good product and had a lot of potential, but squandered it with poor decisions and a lack of development (like Jeff George).

Well, I'm not nearly as eloquent as R.I.A. or the rest of you (well written, by the way), but while I've managed to avoid all but the install bug and some occasional blinking graphics (Radeon users beware.. just go to the save screen and cancel, problem solved) issues, I can get by.. with cheats. Normally, I do NOT endorse cheating, but I'm finding that even with the current character editors, you can only take yourself to Level 16, which means that by the time you exit the Dwarven Dungeons, you'll START to be challenged slightly, and by the end of the game, you're back to normal, essentially. (This is assuming you don't do anything but XP cheats, btw)

I'm actually beginning to enjoy the game slightly, now that I'm not in those long, dreary dungeons.
Which brings me to my chief complaint: backtracking. I hate it. And there are several places where you have to pass a door by because you don't know the word of power, only to have to trudge your bored ass, screen by slow scrolling screen, all the way back down to that door, only to find a trinket. Now, I'll qualify this complaint by saying that it's a habit(psychosis?) of mine to complete every possible quest in a game. Don't know why, I just like being thorough. Half of these quests can be skipped, and half can't. Problem is, without any meaningful dialog, there's absolutely no way to know which.
Good game, should have been great.

PostScript: R.I.A. - Actually, you can make your characters run with the right-shift key, though it only brings them up to what should have been walking speed.

[ 10-16-2001: Message edited by: Phyrebird ]

Hmmm... I never really did like IWD. When the game propts me to create all the characters in the game, there is just something that puts me off. I mean, I cant remember ever creating more than 1 character while playing D&D Pnp. Learning to cope with the limitations of NPC's is an important part of the game. The NPC interaction is how BG2 sweept me of my feet. I love reading the dialogs from them. Sure there are some fiarly boring NPC's in BG2, but there are far too meny good ones. Same with BG1.

I started out liking PoR, but after playing about 1-2 hours... it started to fade really badly.
I feel that when you make a Adventure game, you should always have a carrot in the near horizon for the player to try and eat.
In BG2, its was:
Get out of the prison
Get 20.000 gold pieces
Get back Imoens soul
Get Irenicus
I dont feel at any point in the game that I lost what it was I was working for.
The start of PoR didnt make much sense to me, that could be because I havnt played the old ones.

But, on the positive side, PoR did make me start a new game in BG1

I liked IWD because it reminded me (fondly) of the gold box games in which you created six characters and ran them through a campaign. I was used to rolling up six characters to cover each others weak spots.

I thought it one of the weak points of BG that you only got to generate one character and were at the mercy of the designers pre-gens for the other five (in pairs!). I believe that by creating all six characters, the players takes more ownership of the party and is immersed further in the adventure.

The disadvantage is that the game then lacks the NPC character romances and interactions (Minsc & his witch, Korgan vs. Aerie, Edwin vs. Minsc, Sarevok vs. Nalia, Viconia vs. everyone) that added some side-quests and an extra dimension (and some humour) to the game. However, I think a lot of people liked to create their own six member party because there was a lot of talk about playing a multi-player game alone so you could generate/control all six characters yourself.

Well, I think that learning to uses the NPC in game poses a challenge in it self. I mean, not much fun in taking 4-6 "perfect" characters through a game. I like missing something in my party so I have to think of new ways of completing a quest. Although, so far RPG's have been much centered around Rogues to complete. But then again, that could be because D&D is centered around rogues. Spotting traps, and disarming them shouldnt be a rogue only skill. It should be something fighters and adventures as a whole can pick up on. You only press that strange rock and get blasted with a fireball one time. Next time around you would most likely think twice. In D&D, traps and locks are as square as the alignment system. And lets face it, its the only reason you really have rogues in your party, to disarm traps, pick locks and the occasional pick pocket. Sure they do have backstab, but you can easely defeat your foe without it.

Ohh well, now im back to D&D bashing.... I seem to end up doing that alot. Guess its because I never really got into it, as a PnP game. We (The group I played with) would always play games that where much more open and didnt really have any such thing as classes. But 3rd edition rules looks like they might actually be fun to play.

Cheers All,
Thanks for the compliments, I appreciate it. I do not post to message boards often; I usually just silently simmer. Almost everything really has been said about it, and just saying I agree with the last post would be perfectly adequate; I just want to say a few other things not about the game entirely but b/c I think after all of the years I stood behind D&D I have some right, be it obscure and misguided, to say my peace (piece??). Foremost, I suppose would be to abolish the myth. Next years governor could have been your old dungeon master. There is no stereotype anymore. I was commenting about the game waiting in line at a movie and these two younger guys kind of gave me goggle eyes as if I had said Queen Elizabeth walks my dog. It is funny how the myth still lingers. I may look nothing the part but you bring it up and I will defend it wholeheartedly. It just makes me laugh, I’m sorry. I often trade games with my fiancé’s boss who is a lesbian with a science degree who creates stained glass art in her spare time. She enjoyed the older Sierra games while I switched over to LucasArts adventures games until standards where increased a bit. Jane’s Addiction got it right, Nothing is Shocking.
I have 1500+ books, this is my passion and it is probably going to be my life’s work. And it you think that this has nothing to do with matters you really need someone to explain it to you: stories are not the settings, they are the leading roles. With RoMD they never stopped to think that the original story stemmed from a more innocent time, we were willing to suspend our disbelief a lot more so than we do today. I worked at a bookstore for a while and you know what we sold the most of? Romance novels. We sold so many romance novels, some authors were preferred over others but then those were preferred over none. You have absolutely got to have the capacity to suspend your sense of disbelief to even read one. My mother reads two a week. This is the fluke, this and Disney movies. Everything else is critizced more than a presidential candidate. In a way this sucks, it scares some people away from trying and industries into molding formulaic products. In a way it rocks, anyone read the Dark Tower books? What about Jonathan Carroll or Douglas Coupland? It is absolute brilliance. A product of this scrutiny. Now bear with me please, but do you see what I am trying to say? The original game rocked, I loved it, a lot of us did. The story kind of sucked. Let’s face it, even the name kind of makes me wince; “Pool of Radiance”. Didn’t stop me from frothing at the mouth when Pool of Darkness came out, was there a collective decision to forget about that one that I missed.
They thought they could ride in on nostalgia, I wanted to believe that they could. Some one has to agree with me by the way, how bad did those loading graphics really suck? It isn’t just me… I think. And I suppose I am the person they where selling to. God, how much did they overplay the strict adherence to D&D official rules bit only in the end to have this be one of the most truncating factors. Heresy? No, just common sense. I just finished Arcanum and while Arcanum has its own board, I really want to say I enjoyed it immensely. I loved the Fallout games and it played like a fusion between those and a sword and sorcery game. I really thought it was excellent. It blows my mind, number one gripe? Graphics. It looked more Diablo than Diablo II. Who really is so anal that this becomes the deciding factor in there enjoyment of a game. FMV’s and Loading Screens were beautifully 3D, so take that. I mean I know we all want the best possible game but I can’t stand it when that is the major focus. That and computer bugs. It’s a computer, It’s real life. If only people boycotted Windows for some of the little things they boycott a game over. So you couldn’t see the hairs that sprouted from the mole on the NPC’s left ankle you will live. The interface was conventional, and it worked a whole lot smoother than RoMD’s. You know what else graphic wise I didn’t get. I personally liked the fact that the game actually looked anti-aliased. Does any one else like that? I like it so much more than the sharp crisp little sprites floating on a rendered back drop. It is the reason CGI and movies was so horrible at first. I am really somewhat mad that I bought this game now. I really like to support game developers who don’t go straight for the mainstream jugular but Wizards of the Coast sure as hell doesn’t need my money. Maybe they should have ponyed up a little on the expenses, maybe I would feel like actual playing the game I bought instead of going to sleep after (ok, sorry) ranting about it.

RIA writes:
They thought they could ride in on nostalgia, I wanted to believe that they could.

Nostalgia is often misunderstood. I think Stormfront believed people wanted an update of the same look-and-feel of the old gold box games--which, I'll be frank, I disliked intensely when they first appeared. (They were a bunch of quickly assembled clones, thoroughly linear, poorly plotted, depressing in their visuals, and non-existent where character interaction was concerned.) I know a lot of people disagree with me on this, but for me, the RPG in CRPG really didn't became apparent in a traditional fashion until Ultima VI and Betrayal at Krondor. The gold box series, the earlier Ultimas, the Wizardry series and the Might and Magic series were all dungeon crawls.

But in any case, what gamers really wanted was the excitement they felt from playing those old gold box games when they first showed up, not the look-and-feel of the original. I am also worried by the rushed feeling to the code that PoR provides: the dull, identical backgrounds where they could simply drop various identical monsters makes me wonder where those three years worth of development were placed. And there are so many major design flaws that give a sense of something finished quickly and rushed out the door long before its time.

I just finished Arcanum and while Arcanum has its own board, I really want to say I enjoyed it immensely. I loved the Fallout games and it played like a fusion between those and a sword and sorcery game. I really thought it was excellent. It blows my mind, number one gripe? Graphics. It looked more Diablo than Diablo II. Who really is so anal that this becomes the deciding factor in there enjoyment of a game.

Unfortunately, a number of people demand fantastic 3D graphics, and some of them write very influential reviews of game software. My main gripes about Arcanum are the lack of distinctive faces when you're talking to most people, and the lack of party comment and involvement with you, and one another. (Virgil is rather a special case. I wish there had been more.) But all in all, Arcanum is an excellent CRPG.

If only people boycotted Windows for some of the little things they boycott a game over.

It does make you wonder about the priorities of people, doesn't it? Over on the RoMD boards, there are some obsessives who insist on loadly cursing the game and those who enjoy it even in the Spoilers forum. Because they don't like it, it becomes absolutely essential that everybody share their vision of reality.