Lands of Lore (child of the Dark Messiah thread)

[Jaz]

Do not be afraid - this is a collection of Lands of Lore snippets cut and pasted from other threads. No wonder it seems jumbled as I actually stole the posts, but perhaps we'll have a more... linear discussion after a while ;).
Here we go...


Btw saw your listing of LoLs in the best of RPGs, since everyone was making a list and without one I didn't want to post in that thread, but wanted to say I had lots of fun with those, especially GoD. ;)..and once I have a new DVD drive (the old one broke a few days ago), I'll reinstall GoD. This time I'll finally try to be evil. I won't succeed for sure, but I'll try.

[Acleacius]

Nah, I couldn't do that Dawn is too, (how do you put it, Squeeeee! ) nice. ;)

I am sure you know about the 3d patch they did for GoD, also.

It drives me crazy years ago I had the guide and was able to finally find my way in the secret chambers under the Temple where you meet Rixx.
Now I can't find the book and after all this time the solutions aren't on the net anywhere.
I may have try to find it on Amazon or Ebay, since it annoys me I can't get in now. :p


You know you can get the Fire Sword without actually being evil and get Thohan's Sword repaired with the Power Orb?
Spoiler


Before you leave the village to cross to the Jungle and have done everything, given the power orb to the Magican to repair the sword, go to the cantina.
You start to hit on the bartender and you change causing the guards to lock the fornt gate, Kelrick attacks you and you are forced to kill him.
Then just exit through the Thieves hideout and get the Sowrd without being evil. :)

[Jaz]

Patch loaded and ready. And I have a new DVD drive as well! And thanks for the tips :)...
Tee hee.

[Acleacius]

Well as JemyM said it can be done but it's damn hard, don't even try it on Hard or Hardcore (new patch level) modes and the other 6 or 8 you can save much easier. :)

How is LoLGoD going?

[Jaz]

Oh, I want to finish LoL1 first - I set my mind on replaying the four games in order (with C&C Tiberian Sun between parts 2 and 3). But I'm already in Castle Cimmeria, so it shouldn't take me too long (thinking of it, this is my third Ak'shel game out of six... I must like him for some reason or other).
As for GoD, I heard it doesn't run under XP so it might have to wait until my dual boot machine has become a triple boot machine.

[Acleacius]

I may have to replay LoL too. :)
I never have played Strats, though I hear C&C was a popular franchise. :)

GoD Runs fine, just set your shortcut to WIn 95 compatiblity.
Now the install was a little tricky I had to right click and set compatablity on the installer too and possibly run the setup in a DOS box.

I copied all 4 cds on the hardrive in addition so runs very smoothly and don't have to wait for the Dvd to read, you still have to change out cds to load areas and a couple of the movies studder a bit.

[Jaz]

Thanks for telling me it might be possible to run Lol 2 under XP! LoL 1 ran just fine for me while others couldn't get it to run at all.

The C&C series was fantastic (in fact, all Westwood RTSes were, the first one I played was Dune 2, and I got a new processor just because I couldn't beat the last level of Dune Emperor with my old one). All about rushing like all other RTSes, but C&C had quite intuitive controls and great cinematics (if you don't count Generals). Besides, there was this C&C crossover into RPG territory in LoL 3... sigh... the memories...

I was a serious Westwood nutcase back in the days (just like some people are addicted to other games nowadays ^_^, but I never was rabid). I even bought the original version of the rogial C&C because it was uncensored although hubby already had the localized game, I bought the LOL CD version even though the floppy game was in my possession, and even after all these years my heart made a leap when I dicovered Eric Gooch's* personal website (http://www.cybergooch.com/index.htm) :).

Sheesh, just copied a new thread together, and hijacked already. To get back on topic: why was LoL 2 your favorite out of the three?
______________________________
*Westwood graphics man, Geron's voice in LOL 1 and Seth in C&C.

[Acleacius]

Wow, nice work thia looks great, I wasn't sure LoL was popular enough for a whole thread. :)

"I was a serious Westwood nutcase back in the days"
Wow you definatly knew much more about Westwood than me, I only knew them by the LoL and was really frustrated that we didn't get the promised new engine for LoL3 but in retrospect I guess they were having finacial troubles and couldn't afford it and C&C was there big hit.

"I got a new processor just because I couldn't beat the last level of Dune Emperor"
Hehe, video games have a bad habit of upgrade to run syndrome.


I was mostly weened on FPSs, though while many were playing Doom more Army based to me, I liked Heretic an Hexen more Medieval in style mostly from D&D days.

Most of my computer friends were not into RPGs and the WWW reall seem to start taking off around then and I was able to get infomation more independently of my FPS crowd friends and I was getting left farther behind since I never like Deathmatch that much.
I only played them for the Coop so Heretic, Hexen, Duke3d and Unreal which I guess is still the last great Coop FPS they all at least attempted something different whether humor, story or fear.

So I think I like GoD 1997 because if was one of the first signs of crossovers CRPG to RPGs for me and next year when Buldur's Gate hit I was pretty hooked especially since it came with Coop. :biggrin:
GoD had the sorta openended feel they were able to give to the liner story, exploration, the alchemy, lots of secrets to find especially as the Lizard and I have always been a sucker for a good story, while it wasn't great I did enjoy it very much not to mention it was a pretty good looking game too at the time. :)

[Sorcha Ravenlock]

LoL was my first RPG ever :)
Like Acleacius above me, I was weened on FPS games, maily because that was what my brother's friends brought over. I spent hour upon hour in Heretic, i just loved the fantasy setting.
Then I picked up LoL (the first game I ever bought for myself) and a new world opened up for me. Unfortunately I got stuck, and with no friends who played the game and no internet connection to look up walkthroughs, I never finished it, despite restarting several times.

After that I played through a Shannara game that I finished, but gave up on RPGs for a long time, since others picked up after that left me stuck as well.

Anyway, then I met my now-hubbie, and he got me back into playing games , mainly city builders and tycoon-games. We picked up LoL3, and guess what? I got hooked on RPGs again :)
From there I went on to Diablo, from Diablo to Icewind Dale2, and from IWD2 to Morrowind and Neverwinter's Nights.
With internet acces and thus acces to walkthoughs, patches and forums RPGs had become playable to me again. my only regret is that I never got to play PS:T, Arcanum, Ultima series and BG when they came out, now both graphics and gameplay seem hopelessly dated to me.
I went back to LoL recently though, and absolutely loved it. I got stuck again though, this time because I couldn't fight my way past the snake-ghost-thingie in the Amazon tower... I guess I'll never see the end of that game :D

[Corwin]

There's not really a great deal to see at the end, though the first one was the only one I ever finished!! :)

[JemyM]

Since I always was a serious Eye of the Beholder fan who have often been in serious work on an Eye of the Beholder II conversion for Neverwinter Nights and now NWN2, Lands of Lore is on my "to play sometime" list. I have too many other games throughout this and next year though. Will probably pick it up later.

[Jaz]

Vhoa, so many Heretics...! I am another FPSer who later branched out to play other genres. Heretic and Hexen are among my all-rime favorites, and I replay them at least twice a year :). If you love these games AND LoL, you might enjoy Realms of the Haunting (http://www.the-underdogs.info/game.php?id=889). Though not a Fantasy game (it's an action adventure in a modern day occult setting), RotH was one of the gems of '96, a true underdog if you ask me.

The last game we coop-ed was Quake 2 :).

Back to LoL... I can't tell which one I favor, as it depends on my mood. I like 1 because it was my first CRPG, and because it featured so many unattractive characters :D. I liked 2 because of Luther and his curse... loved that game... and 3 because of the C&C references, and because it gave you the chance to conclude some unfinished LoL 1 business.

I would have loved to play the EoB games, but I couldn't get my hands on them.

And now sonny wants to type Xes....

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[Alrik Fassbauer]

LOL 1 was once released as the CD version on a German gaming mag's CD, I think that was at the time they brought out LOL 2, to promote it.

I bought LOL 2 only a few years ago, but never really got into that. It appeared too hard to me, in the beginning.

I don't own LOL 3.

Last year (or was it this year ? No, I think it was last year) I bought the "Eye of the Beholder Trilogy" on CD-ROM on a flea market. I was actually quite surprided to find it at all ! (My surprise range in about the same measure as a few weeks ago I bought that multimedia version of Laura Bow : The Dagger of Amon-Ra).

I have played the first of these three games quite far, but got stuck in a dwarfish "cellar" which is infested with lots of spiders and very, very few health potions and food. That's why I stopped it. And the puzzles as well.

But I still have it on my hard disk.

This is one example of games which I believe were harder in the earlier days of gaming.
For example because there was not such a thing like an automap.

[Jaz]

I went back to LoL recently though, and absolutely loved it. I got stuck again though, this time because I couldn't fight my way past the snake-ghost-thingie in the Amazon tower... I guess I'll never see the end of that game :D
That critter turns up irregularly, especially when you stand still and try to rest. The best path of action in the ghost levels of the White Tower is rushing. Once you know where to go to, run, ignore enemies if possible, and if you MUST rest, get back out to level two.
Hah, my first time through (the floppy version back then) I played through to the end - and halfways through defeating Scotia, the game crashed. No matter how often I reinstalled or how many savegames I went back, the game always crashed at the same moment. I knew the end was near, so to say, so I shrugged and went on, but when I got the CD version later, it was my main motivation to replay the game. Well, no crash this time; Scotia died straight after the 'crash moment', and there was a short FMV and picture of the main character, and that was it. But I was still glad I had seen it.

When you're in the White Tower, Sorcha, you still have the siege of Yvel, the Catwalk Caverns and the Castle ahead of you. If you find the ghost snake too difficult, you might turn down game difficulty - you can switch between difficulty settings during a game if you want to.

@ Alrik: I found LoL2 a tad difficult at first, too - the element of chance was one thing. Once you get used to the involuntary shape shifting, you'll know to save often, and once you can control it better, things will be a lot better. And once you realize you needn't fight all the critters you meet, the game will become a lot easier - I had to go back a few save games after realizing this, but Luther's life became a breeze ;).

Usually, I'm not exactly fawning ower fancy FMVs/cutscenes. Some games just don't need them. The ShadowCaster (http://www.the-underdogs.info/game.php?id=1411) intro, for example, was a lot better in the floppy version - it was hand-drawn and looked professional. But the CD version had a shiny new 3D animation intro, which was not nearly as good (ShadowCaster was a Raven game based on the Wolf3D engine... a Fanatsy-themed game where you played a shapeshifter, another underdog). The Westwood games had, as a general rule, very good FMVs and cutscenes, especially those with real actors (something I usually don't like at all), and they lost a lot of their charm when EA disbanded the Westwood movie section along with the rest of the Las Vegas studio. Generals was a huge letdown in this regard.
In some games, cutscenes are necessary, and if they are badly made, it subtracts from the experience instead of adding to it.

The last game we coop-ed was Quake 2 :).
Yep, quoting myself there, because I forgot to add something... Q2 coop play was great, *unless* you picked one of the Cyborg player characters available with one of the addons (was it The Reckoning?) *and* your group split up for some reason or other. I suffered so many deaths by friendly fire because my mates just saw another Strogg turn up that I actually wrote a fanfic about it. And they ripped it off to make Quake 4 (just kidding here, but still, they might have done it, both my story and Q4 were based on the same concept, a logical conclusion from Q2).

[Alrik Fassbauer]

What does "FMV" mean ?

[Cormac]

Fitfully Mating Vixens. Or Full Motion Video, not sure.

[Jaz]

Correct! :p I meant the latter, though, as the C&C series didn't feature too many fitfully mating vixens.

[Corwin]

I'd be interested to learn how vixens can mate!! Purely in the interests of scientific research, of course!! :)

[Cormac]

By magic, of course. Everything happens through magic.

[Acleacius]

There was one fitfully mating vixen, in GoD and she was magical, I think Cormac on to something here.
Corwin with maybe more of us studing this phenomenon it could help mankind, maybe enough to give up wars and focus solely on mating vixens, I am thinking world peace. ;)

[Corwin]

Well, STUDING as you put it, would seem to be part of the mating ritual!! :biggrin:

[Jaz]

I finally made it to LoL 2. I survived both installation and the intro, and I clicked around in the first cave. Now we'll see how stable this game will run, I have heard stories of unsolvable questst due to XP...

[Cormac]

Jaz, how much time did it took you to finish LOL1 ? I remember that it took me slightly less than forever when I first played it, mostly because of the damned puzzles (pre-www days).

[Acleacius]

Jaz
"I survived both installation and the intro,"
Execellent. :)
That Intro took my breath away, most realistic castle and mote I have ever seen and the flyby at the time 1997, wow! ;)

[Jaz]

Jaz, how much time did it took you to finish LOL1 ? I remember that it took me slightly less than forever when I first played it, mostly because of the damned puzzles (pre-www days).This time around, it took me about a week... an hour a day or so. But that's mainly because it was my sixth time through, and I knew the solution to the puzzles.
My first time through took me at least two months - the mapless room alone cost me two weeks of my life. Now that i knew where the exit was, it was a matter of 20 minutes.

@Acleacious: I was blown away by the installation sequence back then. The FMVs were so good, but I was slightly disappointed by the game graphics.

[Acleacius]

So how goes the GoD run? ;)
I still get frustrated since I can't recall how to get in all those little areas, you can see through the peep holes under the Monestary, via secrets. :p
Next time I have a big enough order from amazon I think I will pick up the official guide, seem them for as little as $2 upto about $5.

It's funny if you look at guides on the net they tell you to rush through the big circular room to get out asap, when in reality it's a great spot to level up. :)

If you get half the windows opened to expose enough sunlight in the room you go up several levels, not to mention the supply of ghost to attack to raise your fighting skills, you can even do it after you get Firestorm (iir) I think only the Huline village not the Monestary closes.

[Jaz]

Well, the game CTDd last night (early in the jungled of the Wild Ones). Now is the time to decide if it's Good or Evil Luther time...

[zakhal]

I once owned the whole series but I lost a cd of the last game. I would rate LOL2 the best. LOL1 was great but LOL3 was average at best.

[Acleacius]

Since they are out of business the games might be freeware or abandone ware, so you might be able to find that missing cd, not sure.

I agree that's about how I rate the games as well, plus LoL3 is pretty easy, getting the most powerful weapon in the game at about 25% completion from a certian castle resident. ;)

[Jaz]

SQUEEEE! :biggrin:

Currently, my favorite is LoL 1, but my list of faves changes from time to time. No. 3 will never rank first, though... probably due to Copper. He's a kid. And a rather strange-looking kid at that. Give me a full-blooded Dracoid anytime... (Go, Ak'shel!)
Plus, having to kill two of my favorite LoL denizens (one by default, the other by choice) didn't help much, either, though I have to admit they deserved a rough treatment (but probably not more that that).

[Jaz]

Now it happened to me, too... could retrace my steps to five savegames before because I managed to get stuck in the Dracoid cemetary. Why did I not listen to the old LoL 2 saying that if you can't proceed in one location *without difficulties*, leave for another one?

[Acleacius]

Hehe, was it rolling the barrel down the hill and then sparking it to open the tunnels below?
That does get bugged sometimes and wont rolll out of the door.

[Jaz]

Hehe, was it rolling the barrel down the hill and then sparking it to open the tunnels below?
That does get bugged sometimes and wont rolll out of the door.

No, it's not 'barrels of fun' time yet. I got stuck in the tunnels without a way of going back. That, and I turned into the darned monster every tother step. As I said, I didn't heed the 'if progressing feels unnnatural, leave' warning. I'm in the Drac Ruins now, which is where I'm supposed to be now (I hope). Let's see how things will progress next Sunday.