/v/ - Video Games

Planescape Torment: I genuinely enjoyed it each of the three times I've started playing it, but I will just slowly stop playing it until I've forgotten where I was and start again. I have no major complaints whatsoever, it's probably more a problem on my end.

Tyranny: Shit. I can't think of anything I liked about it and many I disliked. The preachy tone it had really turned me off, and the single example of the leader of the quantity-over-quality faction playing with his baton over the course of like four paragraphs is all that I can think of because it pissed me off so much.

Pillars of Eternity: Gameplay wise I found it very boring as it felt like everything was made for the sake of balance. While I liked stuff like the ease of recruiting mercenary companions the writing was extremely verbose without giving me anything to care about and I stopped playing after the first town. I will say the dungeons seemed nice, but due to not having any excitement on planning out character progression or any interest in the plot that means little.

Torment: Tides of Numenera: While the writing seemed a bit better than PoE it was still quite bad compared to BG or FO and Planescape Torment. The setting was actively disinteresting to me, the politics of the developers shining through as bad if not worse than Tyranny, the gameplay not exactly worse than Tyranny but somehow less interesting, and the horrid attempts at surrealism turned me off to the point where pic related happened.

Wasteland 2: The writing seemed mostly OK, but the Morrowind style dialogue (slightly improved from Morrowind but still awful) and the gameplay feeling very at odds with the setting (it felt like it was meant to be a pretty realistic feeling, like a more grounded Fallout but you had shit like two guns that use the same ammo but one does 5x the base damage because it's more rare) turned me off of it after 10~ hours. I also felt like I was always making the wrong choices as far as skills go, and the constant feeling of missing out is never pleasant.

Pathfinder: Kingmaker: Probably enjoyed this the most out of the newer RPGs, but it's by far the worst made from a technical perspective. It's buggy, it runs poorly at times, the loading times are insane (loading my throne room from the kingdom screen took me 16 seconds on an SSD. Your throne room barely fills the screen, and it requires two loading screens to go from your throne room to the world map.) and the companions are absolutely the fucking worse I have ever experienced in an RPG. I'm going to continue playing it after it has been patched more.

Temple of Elemental Evil: Currently playing this and, despite feeling like I have no idea what I'm doing since I haven't heard a word about the sword I'm supposed to be hunting and I haven't done ANY quests besides a quick one in Hommlet's inn it has blown me away with how much better the combat is than any other CRPG I've ever played. It feels closer to playing actual P&P (something I do whenever possible, often GMing games) than to other CRPGs which it damn well better to make up for how buggy, crash ridden, sluggish despite its advanced age, and just all out clunky it is. It feels very strange to play a CRPG for the combat, but I guess hack n slash campaigns were done on P&P despite narrative being a much more interesting thing to do in that situation to me.

Underrail: Interesting setting that, unless I'm simply retarded, seems to be completely glossed over at least early on. I wanted to know more about the strange world I was in, but the game seemed to want me to constantly be engaged with its badly balanced combat far more. I played perhaps 10-15 hours over my two attempts at the game, but didn't find it to be that enjoyable.

>>15564076

Regarding ToEE: You better finish all the fedex shit in Hommelet or you'll have serious problems in the temple. Don't worry about your alignment quest, everything is in the temple. That game has the most accurate implementation of 3.5 rules we'll likely ever see, including magic item creation using exp. It's a fucking brilliant game with zero pozz.

>>15564090

What sort of trouble? I'm currently 9th level and just finished the second floor (killed everything except prisoners). I've killed trolls, the cthulhu-crab statue, ogres, one encounter with about 30~ bugbears, earth elementals, and more minor shit. Oh, I have to kill the fire priest and his minions too, forgot that. Now that I have 5th level spells on my wizard, though, that shouldn't be a problem.

>>15564096

It's just harder, that's all. You lose out of some xp for magic crafting too. And some content.

Seems you made it just fine so don't worry and have fun. Plus as I recall there's nothing preventing you from going back to collect the xp if you want.

>>15564096

Oh: Another question. I gave my wizard all the item creation feats. Is there a way to temporarily shuffle the party so he can regain some of the lost experience?

>>15564103

Kick hirelings if you have any in the party. Other than that, it's simply resource management. I remember equipping all permanent party members with all necessary trinkets and making some wands to extend time between rests. And my wizard still wasn't far behind in levels. So it's pretty reasonable if you don't get carried away.

>>15564109

Oh and you should have a divine caster with crafting skills too because they can make things the wizard can't. And distributing the xp cost also helps.

sage for double post

>>15564075

I'm just playing Arcanum right now, and all I have to say is play Arcanum, it's basically Fallout fantasy steampunk edition, and it's excellent, there's even power armor and gory deaths, and there are multiple ways to solve in game problems. I failed to get into it 2x after first starting it, the third time I discovered the unofficial patch and that greatly enhanced the games playability, it fixed loading times, it fixed alt tab, it fixed performance, it greatly enhances the archaic original game.

I have it on GOG so if you play it that way turn off updates, it gets updates, and it overwrites the unofficial patch, I don't even know why it gets updates.

I have yet to finish Arcanum but I just finished the siamese twins storyline and it's easily one of the greats, the whole thing is completely on point in it's adaptation of technology to a fantasy world on a political and social level, much to the same degree that Fallout was for a post apocalyptic world.

Baldur's gate is actually kind of shit, you aren't missing much, the best that the game has to offer is its combat system, but that's mainly because the real time with pause is just smoother and easier than many other combat systems, especially when dealing with easier fights which you can breeze through without thinking unlike turn based combat systems, also the pre rendered backgrounds are nice.

Here's some more

Serpent in the Staglands.

>have to keep your own journal

>great visual style

>magic is imbalanced

>great setting

>made by like 2 fucking people

>literally better than most of it's contemporaries

<actually kind of light on story and quests

Copper Dreams

<not out yet

>made by serpent in the staglands developers

>combat system looks fucking excellent

>cyberpunk crpg with large stealth focus

>injury based damage system

<not out yet

>>15564152

That serpent game looks interesting, although a few things about it concern me. I'll pirate it. Thanks for letting me know, I've never heard of it before.

>tfw can never get into cRPGs

I've tried a good deal of them but never last very long.

>>15564223

>Edwin

heh

>Mazzy

really wanted her for a halfling PC romance option. Alas…

>demisexual

and what the fuck even is that?

>>15564274

How RNG-reliant Underrail is? Do you need to save scum to hit anything during your first 10~15 hours like in Fallout 2?

>>15564279

The combat is doable on hard difficulty as long as you don't build your character like a retard.

>>15564281

>muh builds

Eh I hate minmaxing and munchkinning.

What was good about DOS2 is that you could "fuck up" your build and still have fun and beat the game.

>>15564285

What is the point of creating a character if you can't fuck up? That's part of the challenge.

>>15564290

To roleplay? Have fun? Experiment?

Challenge is one thing, but game being unbeatable if you don't play the way devs wanted is just not fun.

>>15564293

Eh, I guess. Fighters with low STR and CON don't really do too well in the real world either.

>>15564299

Don't apply real world logic to games.

Shooting at point blank with simple pistol and missing just because you don't have military training also isn't something happening in real world.

>>15564076

>>15564075

There is meme spacing and then there is having an impenetrable wall of text. Please use blank likes and

> greentext

or

< redtext

when appropriate.

>>15564152

BG1 is a slog in the beginning simply because low-level combat in 2E DnD is sh*t. Wait until you get a mage and your chars learn new abilities.

>>15564223

Aerie's romance is well-written since it nails down women's emotional outbursts to a tee. Most other writers come up with flings or one-night standish relationships and I don't know why people call that romance.

>>15564307

>>15564307

>Shooting at point blank with simple pistol and missing just because you don't have military training also isn't something happening in real world

>>15564315

Yeah posture and the way you hold your gun is important. Without proper training stress and adrenaline throw off your aim like nobody's business.

>>15564319

>>15564315

Yeah let's now talk about how women in games can actually fight and shoot.

>>15564178

Serpent in the Staglands plays like Baldur's Gate with real time with pause combat, and it's a spiritual success to darklands, an early 90s crpg.

Someone recommended age of decadence which reminds me of a few more games.

Dead State

>built on the age of decadence engine

>zombie survival crpg

>lots of player choices

>lead writer is the lead writer from vtmb

<it's only alright

Freedom Force

>superhero crpg

<i never finished it

>can't remember much other than it being over the top

Shadowrun Returns

<not for me

<ugly visuals

There's also the SSI Goldbox collection, a series of older crpgs that use the dungeons and dragons licence but unlike later ones they aren't all set in forgotten realms, I haven't played these but I have seen others recommend them so I guess it would be nice to bring them to your attention.

>>15564313

I beat both Baldur's Gate games, I just didn't care for them, everyone holds them up as the gold standard for crpgs for some reason, they aren't, it's just that the combat doesn't become tedium incarnate when fighting lower level enemies like in fallout, a series which had far far superior role play systems, world building and writing

>>15564075

>>15564076

I'm on an rpg bender myself OP but I'm not reading this wall of text. Holy shit.

>>15566023

I'll never understand people who refuse to read something they declare they're interested in because they find the formatting subpar. It strikes me as about the most asinine thing you could possibly do.

>>15565967

Just want to go on record saying Shadowrun Returns and all the games around it are trash and should be avoided. And I say that as a pretty hardcore Shadowrun fan who loves CRPGs, I put hours in trying to love those games but they are just cheap broken shit made by SJWs who couldn't code their way out of a fucking box. Fuck HBS and I hope someone comes along and makes a better Shadowrun game that totally cucks them.

>>15564223

What I find most alarming about these faggots is that people are either hypersexual beasts carrying every STD known to man and will fuck anything, or they are sexless amorphous objects devoid of a soul. The fact that people could have a sense of balance or restraint never occurs to them. I really truly hate them.

Bump

>>15566428

Now that it's mentioned I did try shadowrun returns on launch. I actually enjoyed most of the writing but the combat was abysmal. To be fair, though, I barely experienced any of the game so perhaps the writing wasn't consistent.

>>15567047

Dragonfall was supposedly the best of the series. I honestly hated the combat though.

>>15566419

Almost as asinine as writing something you want people to read and refusing to adjust the formatting to aid in readability and lessen eye strain.

>>15566419

How dare you reply to me. You don't even have enough firing neurons to be able to format your text properly.

>>15564223

Yeah but why?

>>15566428

I only mentioned it in case OP wanted to try, i personally found it hard to enjoy, I never beat the first release, I don't see a reason to try more.

>cool world and setting

<linear story

<combat focused but with boring combat

<story was nothing special

<didn't appear to be much branches in the story

I couldn't recommend it specifically it was just a mention.

Outside of that I've got nothing, at least for top down crpgs, if you go to first person then that's easy, although there were mysteriously fewer of these games, and even fewer that hold value.

Arx Fatalis

>inspired by

>world that reacts to your actions

>great level of interaction with objects

>natural style of interaction

>ending is pretty good

>story ranges from great to uninteresting

>pretty good visuals for its time

>a look into a world of first person rpgs we never got to enjoy

>non linear and allows for sequence breaking

<bunch of issues including bugs and drawing runes

<never got a fucking sequel

Vampire the Masquerade

>fucking excellent game that greatly affected games that came after it

>great writing

>great characters

>great visuals

>somewhat linear

>excellent replay value

<combat sucks ass

<buggy as all fuck

<last troika game

Fallout New Vegas

>great writing

>great characters

>non linear

>many improvements over fallout 3

>loads of mods

<bugs on bugs

<ugly as fuck game

TESII Daggerfall

>large open world

>rich rpg stat system

<limited non repetitive player interaction with world

<world is way bigger than it needs to be

<player choices don't effect enough of the game world

TESIII Morrowind

>non linear open world

>can abuse the fuck out of the magic system

>great world building

>generic fantasy setting with unique take on generic cultures

>significant modding potential

<graphics are fucking hideous

<openmw is taking forever

<openmws value is quickly declining in the face of mwse 2.0

Journey to the Center of Arcanum

>follows right off arcanum including characters from arcanum

>great level of player choice and interactivity

>great writing

>great story

>great characters

>excellent replayability with different races and builds offering an extremely varied amount of different story routes with the 2nd and 3rd chapter having 3 different variants each based on player decisions

<was never released

That said most people don't consider these CRPGS, they tend to mainly reference SSI to Black Isle era top down rpgs, while this is somewhat arbitrary perhaps having a largely arbitrary definition is a good thing.

I'm done shitposting

>>15567047

>>15567057

>>15567167

That's the thing, is the writing in the games is good to a degree (little pozzed tho), but honestly that's just because it's Shadowrun. It's hard not to write Shadowrun well because it's a very interesting setting. But the fucking games themselves are jokes that feel like cheap mobile games. It's a crying shame honestly. Again I really hope someone comes along and turns Shadowrun into the insane cyberpunk CRPG we deserve, but life isn't fair and true 80's cyberpunk is out of fashion.

>>15564299

I sort of get what he's getting at; if you make it to where minmaxing is the only viable option then it takes a lot of the freedom and experimentation out of the game, yet if you make it to where even a crappy build isn't much less effective then it weakens the impact of the leveling decisions you did make.

The ideal scenario would probably be where build components are able to naturally synergize with each other, such that mixing builds would create interesting interactions you could abuse, but spreading too thin would leave you without the stronger abilities/bonuses deeper in the builds.

Bump

>>15571777

I think Wasteland 2 tried to be too much like fallout instead of working on being it's own thing, which is ironic because fallout was trying to be like wasteland but actually managed to strike out on it's own.

Arcanum has a very interesting fate points system where you can expend extremely hard to come by fate points to cause any action to succeed critically, s

Baldur's Gate is the same tripe that Bioware have always made, it completely lacks the nuance of Black Isle/ Troika titles and its status as the epitome of the genre shows that people aren't interested in good writing, depth or anything resembling an actual roleplay, but flashy visuals and romance subplots

The Elder Scrolls/ nu fallout is extremely overrated and I often lament the fact that alternatives failed to pop up.

I'm legitimately confused as to what happened to Obsidian, they made a few good games and then completely fell apart, I personally think that a buyout by microsoft is neither bad nor good, does anything pertaining to Obsidian matter at this point?

Whalenought studios is actually surprisingly good and have a far better idea of what to do with crpgs than even the legends of the genre, the combat system shown so far for Copper Dreams is something else

I can't think of anything else to say.

>>15572154

>Baldur's Gate is the same tripe that Bioware have always made, it completely lacks the nuance of Black Isle/ Troika titles and its status as the epitome of the genre shows that people aren't interested in good writing, depth or anything resembling an actual roleplay, but flashy visuals and romance subplots

You are full of shit.

>>15572226

There was absolutely nothing of worth in nu men era

>>15572224

>you are full of shit

That would be Bioware. my main problem is that it's held in the absolute highest regard when it's mediocre at best.

>>15572233

Well fuck

>tfw a friend spent his hard-earned shekels from his shitty job on the collector's edition of NuTorment

>warned him against doing that

>he didn't listen and got completely disappointed with the game

I'm not going to rub it in, but he really is a dumbass.

Also, OP. consider using paragraphing.

>>15572280

I never finished BG1, but I did think it was an all right game, albeit with an unnecessarily bloated and barren outside world.

IWD was better.