Personal backlog struggle

Fallout 3 was actually one of the best gaming experiences I had in the last 10 years, but only after I modded it to my liking. The vanilla game is quite mediocre.

Your first priority should be to tweak the difficulty. Out of the box, the game is a cakewalk, and you level up far too quickly. I used "Arwen's XP Reducer" to lower the XP gain by 60%, but iirc there are a number of other mods you can use as well.

"Darnified UI" and "Iron Sights" are both must haves imo. You can tweak the Darnified config file to change what the compass shows if you like. I didn't like how the compass basically shows you where everything is, so I removed all the markers except the directional pointer. I felt more satisfaction from discovering the landmarks on my own.

I also used a mod that removed the bonuses given by the bobbleheads. I felt they added to you being overpowered, but that's just my opinion. I used another mod to remove the achievements because I didn't like them popping up on the screen while I was playing.

Oh, and definitely install "Delay DLC". It makes the game more realistic by making you discover the DLC quests on your own rather than just being given them as soon as you leave the vault.

I've been thinking of picking up FO3 again (haven't played in 2-3 years) but it's quite difficult to do after playing with the superior engine of New Vegas. If I were to play tomorrow, however, I'd flip a coin between FOOK and FWE, add Mart's Mutant Mod, and then maybe a weather mod to de-greenify everything.

DArtagnan said:

Just remember that came from someone who spent years of his life playing EverQuest

That's like a black hole sucking your life energy and you're left with nothing to show for it.

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You seem to have this strange fascination for repeatedly bringing up the fact that I played EQ in the most random and irrelevant of places, Dart. And, for the record, I and many of the people I know from that time in my life have plenty to "show for it" - friendships that persist to this day. Let me know when one of your 13,000 patronizing novella posts bears witness to the same and we can speak to "nothing to show for it".

Drithius said:

You seem to have this strange fascination for repeatedly bringing up the fact that I played EQ in the most random and irrelevant of places, Dart. And, for the record, I and many of the people I know from that time in my life have plenty to "show for it" - friendships that persist to this day. Let me know when one of your 13,000 patronizing novella posts bears witness to the same and we can speak to "nothing to show for it".

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Struck a nerve?

Well, think of it as a consequence of being pointlessly negative in nearly all your posts. When you tell people that a beloved game is monotomous - I thought it appropriate to demonstrate that one man's monotomy is another man's addiction.

As for EQ - I'm sure you feel you had something to show for it. I mean, you couldn't have made friends somewhere else doing something less cyclical and pointless

Anyway, I've been there - so I'm not taking the high ground.

I guess your closed minded negativity just inspires me to approach my 14.000th patronizing novella.

I seem to recall a time when you weren't quite so negative? What happened?

JDR13 said:

Fallout 3 was actually one of the best gaming experiences I had in the last 10 years, but only after I modded it to my liking. The vanilla game is quite mediocre.

Your first priority should be to tweak the difficulty. Out of the box, the game is a cakewalk, and you level up far too quickly. I used "Arwen's XP Reducer" to lower the XP gain by 60%, but iirc there are a number of other mods you can use as well.

"Darnified UI" and "Iron Sights" are both must haves imo. You can tweak the Darnified config file to change what the compass shows if you like. I didn't like how the compass basically shows you where everything is, so I removed all the markers except the directional pointer. I felt more satisfaction from discovering the landmarks on my own.

I also used a mod that removed the bonuses given by the bobbleheads. I felt they added to you being overpowered, but that's just my opinion. I used another mod to remove the achievements because I didn't like them popping up on the screen while I was playing.

Oh, and definitely install "Delay DLC". It makes the game more realistic by making you discover the DLC quests on your own rather than just being given them as soon as you leave the vault.

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All of those were firmly on my list. I've done my homework

About disabling questmarkers etc, I always found the idea tempting but did it actually work in practice? I mean Beth quest givers aren't the most specific when it comes to instructions and the game is literally designed with having the compass in mind. I was tempted to have that part of the UI appear on toggle (for immersion's sake) though..

Drithius said:

I've been thinking of picking up FO3 again (haven't played in 2-3 years) but it's quite difficult to do after playing with the superior engine of New Vegas. If I were to play tomorrow, however, I'd flip a coin between FOOK and FWE, add Mart's Mutant Mod, and then maybe a weather mod to de-greenify everything.

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I'm actually planning to install all 3 (through Blackened). Not sure yet about de-greenifying things. As stupid or ugly as it may be I'd rather stick to Bethesda's general art direction. I've yet to decide between Project Reality and Fellout, and adding the ENBs and the Directors Chair mods is only going to make it harder.

Blackened actually doesn't handle FOOK; no up-to-date patch handles merging FWE & FOOK. I actually started work on one a couple months back but it's more hassle than it's worth. The general lack of ironsights, the mostly shoddy weapon textures (in both FWE & FOOK), the added tedium that the use of FWE entails (rebalancing all weapons in the game)… it just wasn't worth it to me personally when you're talking about hundreds of hours of patching.

You could try Freddy Farnsworth's My Utility World if you wish to totally overhaul the entire game, but I've never tested it myself.

Kostas said:

Lots of Modding Research Required

• 
  ..
• Fallout New Vegas (2nd attempt)
  ..

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Unless the 2nd attempt means you´ve already played a good chunk of the game and/or found the first attempt a sorely lacking experience, I´d say F:NV does not need any modding whatsoever - the game has enough meat on its bones and is pretty well balanced already and it doesn´t have any major systemic issues. It´s overall also a tighter, somewhat less sandbox-y game than, for example, Skyrim and as such doesn´t work quite as well as a modding playground. Maybe a UI mod and some experience limiter and that should be enough, in my opinion. Just thought it may be worth mentioning the option .

Kostas said:

Need a controller, mine is malfunctioning

• Dark Souls
• Dark Souls 2

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I can see a case against m/k being made when it comes to Dark Souls, but I think it´s worth pointing out that Dark Souls 2 plays excellently using m/k out of the box, especially after the latest patch. The console prompts may be distracting for a short while and you may need to rebind some keys to your liking, but otherwise I can´t think of better PC action RPG in terms of controls, particularly when I take its complexity into account.
That said, the recently released DLC is a treat and it´s head and shoulders over pretty much anything in vanilla so it might be worth waiting till the other two are released (end of September) and play the game by then. With a working controller, if you must .

Kostas said:

Bloody DLCs

• Mass Effect series

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I think playing through the whole series in one go with all bloody DLCs installed is potentially a fun and unique experience, but it requires a lot of time and specific state of mind. Play it when you have a persisting flu and feel like watching a long TV series, except you´d also like something more interactive .

Kostas said:

• Alpha Protocol

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Certainly not a "fully fledged" cRPG experience, however it´s the most "fledged" narrative C&C experience out there, at least when it comes to games with cinematic presentation. And it´s short!

Kostas said:

Divinity Series (sans Beyond Divinity)

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With the Divinity: Original Sin out, personally I´d extend the "sans" to Divine Divinity as well. OS feels quite like a remake of DD, except it doesn´t have ridiculously rushed second half and tons of trash combat. As a bonus it comes with one of the best turned based combat systems out there. The first half of DD is cool (bar combat, of which there´s a ton), but it´s a long game which I feel has been made rather redundant by Larian´s recent effort.

I disagree about DD, except that the last part is crap. I recently replayed it up to that section and had a blast. D:OS is probably better, but it takes nothing away from the original!!

Kostas said:

About disabling questmarkers etc, I always found the idea tempting but did it actually work in practice?

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Iirc, there are still markers on the map screen. Those were enough for me.

Corwin said:

I disagree about DD, except that the last part is crap. I recently replayed it up to that section and had a blast. D:OS is probably better, but it takes nothing away from the original!!

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Yeah, I thought the first 4/5 of DD was great. It was only that endgame section that dragged for me.

Drithius said:

Blackened actually doesn't handle FOOK; no up-to-date patch handles merging FWE & FOOK. I actually started work on one a couple months back but it's more hassle than it's worth. The general lack of ironsights, the mostly shoddy weapon textures (in both FWE & FOOK), the added tedium that the use of FWE entails (rebalancing all weapons in the game)… it just wasn't worth it to me personally when you're talking about hundreds of hours of patching.

You could try Freddy Farnsworth's My Utility World if you wish to totally overhaul the entire game, but I've never tested it myself.

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Including an unfortunate setback which forced me to reinstall Windows (Windows DiskCleanup identified 90% of my C: files as temporary and deleted them) it finally took me a bit over a week
I opted for a FOOK-less mix of FWE and MMM and am planning to go with the FWE defaults and switch to the Harsh set if it feels too easy and fast. I took a look at Arwen's realism set and my utility world but FWE seemed to do most of the obvious things I was looking for.

DeepO said:

Unless the 2nd attempt means you´ve already played a good chunk of the game and/or found the first attempt a sorely lacking experience, I´d say F:NV does not need any modding whatsoever - the game has enough meat on its bones and is pretty well balanced already and it doesn´t have any major systemic issues. It´s overall also a tighter, somewhat less sandbox-y game than, for example, Skyrim and as such doesn´t work quite as well as a modding playground. Maybe a UI mod and some experience limiter and that should be enough, in my opinion. Just thought it may be worth mentioning the option .

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Nah my first attempt was basically abandoned about 25-30hrs in due to a mix of spending more time trying out mods than playing the game, playing most of the game (aside from combat) on godmod due to always being overencumbered and putting off most faction decisions until I'm sure who I wanted to side with and therefore ending up with more half solved quests than I could manage. The game itself I loved so I intend to avoid those mistakes next time around.

I can see a case against m/k being made when it comes to Dark Souls, but I think it´s worth pointing out that Dark Souls 2 plays excellently using m/k out of the box, especially after the latest patch. The console prompts may be distracting for a short while and you may need to rebind some keys to your liking, but otherwise I can´t think of better PC action RPG in terms of controls, particularly when I take its complexity into account.

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Good to know, I've read terrible things about the first port so I assumed the second one was no different.

Certainly not a "fully fledged" cRPG experience, however it´s the most "fledged" narrative C&C experience out there, at least when it comes to games with cinematic presentation. And it´s short!

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I thought it was a 30h affair?

With the Divinity: Original Sin out, personally I´d extend the "sans" to Divine Divinity as well. OS feels quite like a remake of DD, except it doesn´t have ridiculously rushed second half and tons of trash combat. As a bonus it comes with one of the best turned based combat systems out there. The first half of DD is cool (bar combat, of which there´s a ton), but it´s a long game which I feel has been made rather redundant by Larian´s recent effort.

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I quite like the idea myself but since there doesn't seem to be a consensus on this I can't quite write DD off.

JDR13 said:

Iirc, there are still markers on the map screen. Those were enough for me.

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Good idea That's what I'm going for then.

Kostas said:

Good to know, I've read terrible things about the first port so I assumed the second one was no different.

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The first game got a really crappy PC port in terms of controls and visuals, but thankfully there are two mods (DSfix, mouse fix) which make it nice looking and playable if you´re willing to take some time to get acquainted with the controls (personally I got used to the non-modded controls fast, but I´m willing to ascribe this to an individual quirk or something ). Still, controller is likely a superior device, at least if you´re already familiar with it.
Personally I´m glad the first game got released on PC at all because it´s such a superb piece of virtual entertainment .
At any rate, the second game really doesn´t have the above issues.

Kostas said:

I thought it was a 30h affair?

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I´d say it´s more like 20, though I´m aware this kind of estimations tend to be unreliable. What I´d say with certainty is that the game is highly replayable when it comes to experiencing narrative differences, IF you don´t mind the game´s somewhat weaker non-narrative (aka combat/stealth) sequences.

Kostas said:

I quite like the idea myself but since there doesn't seem to be a consensus on this I can't quite write DD off.

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To further elaborate on this, my experience was mostly having a good time with exploring the first main map + separate map for the main city, but I really didn´t enjoy the game´s two other big maps, most of the dungeons and, as a persistent issue, I really disliked the combat (of which there is a lot, to eminently repeat myself ).
If you find yourself not minding the combat, you may as well be in for a good time, with the exception of the endgame which seems to be universally (and rightfully in my opinion) frowned upon.

Alpha Protocol shouldn't take 30h to go through once. It's probably more of a 15-20h affair.

I think Alpha Protocol is a full fledged RPG, with some of the most impactful roleplaying decisions I've ever seen in a cRPG. Not sure what people are missing.

Thrasher said:

I think Alpha Protocol is a full fledged RPG, with some of the most impactful roleplaying decisions I've ever seen in a cRPG. Not sure what people are missing.

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C&C alone doesn't make a good game. Personally, I think the gameplay in AP sucks for the most part.

It's got a 7.5 on Metacritic though which is better than I would have anticipated.

Just because you didn't like the gameplay, doesn't diminish it being an RPG.

If one wants a better shooter or sneaker or brawler, look elsewhere. There's lots of better action games out there.

I'm not debating whether or not it's an RPG. I couldn't care less about classifying it.

Point is, C&C is it's strong point, but it's lacking significantly in other areas. If it wasn't then it would have been a lot more popular around here.

Not disagreeing with that, just the label "Not Full Fledged RPG".

My biggest complaint is its buggy and inflexible checkpoint save system.

JDR13 said:

I'm not debating whether or not it's an RPG. I couldn't care less about classifying it.

Point is, C&C is it's strong point, but it's lacking significantly in other areas. If it wasn't then it would have been a lot more popular around here.

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I actually liked Alpha Protocol's gameplay. Clearly defined as an RPG because your skill in aiming is not the character's skill (i.e. you can point at the heart of someone and still miss, because your character is not as good as you. To me that's a requirement in an RPG)

Of course, I maximized pistols and used chainshots and didn't really have this issue.

But what I mostly did, except for bosses, was sneak around and use non-lethal takedowns. That gameplay was just fine.

Also, I played well after release and patching. Could have used more patching more.

wolfing said:

I actually liked Alpha Protocol's gameplay. Clearly defined as an RPG because your skill in aiming is not the character's skill (i.e. you can point at the heart of someone and still miss, because your character is not as good as you. To me that's a requirement in an RPG)

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That's exactly the kind of gameplay I don't want in a game where you're wielding guns. There's nothing more immersion-breaking than missing a target when you're aiming at point blank range.

I don't mind a hybrid system, like in Deus Ex, where your character's skill level makes it easier or harder for you to aim, but whether or not you hit something shouldn't be determined solely by your in-game skill.

Deus Ex system was silly, really. A trained agent who couldn't hold a tiny pistol steady for the life of him. Don't even get me started on sniper rifles.

The way to incorporate RPG elements into such a game is not to have weapon skills be affected much at all. Rather, you should develop abilities past the point of basic aiming and hitting, as in being able to spot weak areas - and pull off stuff like chain shots and what not. New feats and stuff that's plausible for a trained agent to develop.

DE:HR was much better.