Top 10 CRPGs of all time

Definitely not Gothic, where by default you play an arrogant ruffian.
If by arrogant ruffian you mean someone not retarded enough to be kind and run around helping people without any reason or explanation - like in most cRPGs.
 
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I very much enjoyed the "talking" part. This shines especially against the fact that we live in an "age of action" and action is too often the only gameplay element well developed nowadays.

No doubt, I just enjoy games with a little less dialog than Planescape featured. I'll certainly rail on JRPGs enough that they're usually movies strung together and there's little actual game and Planescape was similar with just text dialog instead of video. Don't get me wrong, I liked Planescape, I've played a lot worse but for me it wasn't worth playing twice. I'm much more of a "roll" player than a "role" player though.

The "age of action" has pretty much killed my cup of tea, my top 5 games were all turn based. Sadly even the "action" portion of action games isn't done well with a lot of the schlock that gets put out.

I always wonder if there's not a lot of money to be made out there in a niche market at the right price point for good modern(!) turn based games. I've been hoping with the advent of internet distribution and more cheap/free resources available someone's going to set up a shop catering to "classic" gamers.
 
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If by arrogant ruffian you mean someone not retarded enough to be kind and run around helping people without any reason or explanation - like in most cRPGs.

You know you make a good point. I'm starting to get sick of playing a goody goody all the time. However I've been trained by a generation of gaming to take every quest and be nice to everyone in case you miss that extra xp or worse the sword of wonderful that fedex grandma has been keeping in her attic.

Dear game developers, while spreading a message of kindness and compassion is a good thing, we only act that way because we think we're getting something out of it. I wonder if games started including more no reward/negative consequence results to kind actions ( more like real life ) if gamers would start acting more like real people in games.

In Kings Bounty you can make peace with plant/thorn creatures by bringing them a cow so they can live peacefully near the humans. The first time I did that quest I said to myself, how awesome would it be if my kindness here came back and bit me in the butt if in 20 hours of gameplay later the thorn things had built up their strength and were now powerful enough to eat all the villagers. So instead of me snuffing out a couple of plants when they were weak I instead was enabling them to bring much greater harm on the world. I guess Mass Effect had a similar moral dilemma with the bug queen but it was only a thought provoking attempt with no results realized in the game.
 
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I guess Mass Effect had a similar moral dilemma with the bug queen but it was only a thought provoking attempt with no results realized in the game.
I killed her so I don't know how it would turn out :)

Actually I think most of cRPGs have bad dialogues - stupid, without sense or not realistic. For example Baldur's Gate (which I love but I love to criticize what I like! Well... actually I love to criticize everything :) ) has so many dialogues like "Hi, I've got quest for u, go to forest find 10 bugs and bring them to me!" or "Hello, kill [name here] and I'll give u [item here]". And it's in the most cRPGs. Dialogues like that are ok but not if there are more of them than "normal" dialogues. I know it's hard to reach perfection (ok, nothing is perfect but still these are the best) of VtM Bloodlines or Planescape Torment but The Witcher managed to have interesting and "deep" dialogues and it's new game so it's still possible.

And about new Bioware's great idea about dialogues in Mass Effect. I wasn't sure what my character will say after selecting option 1/2/3 and sometimes it turned out that Shephard said opposite what I wanted. I hope they won't do the same with Dragon Age.
 
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I'm not entirely sure what cRPG is, but these are my favourite games..
2. Final Fantasy 12 (sorry)

Apology not needed, FF12 was a great game :)
Now had you mentioned FF8 or that overrated FF7, ugh!

Oh and cRPG is Computer (PC) RPG or Western RPG.
Whereas FF12 is a JRPG or Japanese (or console) RPG.
 
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Luckycarbon, you think BG2 is overrated but consider NWN's OC one of your top CRPGs? Are you on crack?????? :)

Ok, seriously, it's YOUR list but I think I won't be the only one to find that strange.

NWN's OC was sooooooo bland. The whole game was linear. The characters were lifeless except for that thief Tom what's-his-name and even then he got annoying really quick. The game just felt like seperate modules slapped together - which is actually what it was.

BG2 is it's complete opposite. The world felt more alive, cohesive. And there was a LOT going on with all the various side quests and characters. There was just so much to do. I never really liked the villian but the main quest was still good. It was just a truly epic game with all the locales and people you met. NWN just felt like a demo to show what the engine could do. NWN 2 was a much better game (and even that wasn't great, just ok - MoTB was awesome though).
 
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You know you make a good point. I'm starting to get sick of playing a goody goody all the time. However I've been trained by a generation of gaming to take every quest and be nice to everyone in case you miss that extra xp or worse the sword of wonderful that fedex grandma has been keeping in her attic.

I'm not sure we've been trained, maybe it's just our nature, but I feel a bit the same way anyway. I've tried to play through several games as evil, such as BG1&2, NWN OC, Ultima V remake, Ultima VII. I just can't do it. I'm not evil. I'm a goody goody!
 
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If by arrogant ruffian you mean someone not retarded enough to be kind and run around helping people without any reason or explanation - like in most cRPGs.

No, that's absolutely not that I mean. What I mean is that even if the Gothic hero is willing to help (and he often HAS to), he treats most people like crap. He obviously doesn't like listening to people, is bored or annoyed quickly, threatens randomly and never made any compliment even to a friend. He's fun to play though.
 
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Luckycarbon, you think BG2 is overrated but consider NWN's OC one of your top CRPGs? Are you on crack?????? :)

Personally I *love* NWN OC, but I know that is because it holds the distinction of being the game that brought me back into the RPG fold after so many years away ...
 
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I did enjoy the NWN expansion packs more than the OC though.
SoU was just a little better than the OC but HoTU was a fun time.

And I can't get myself to play an evil character either...usually it's good or neutral if possible, heh. But I think it has more to do with Evil characters being done poorly in most RPGs. They come off as one dimensional and forced.
 
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Speaking of NWN, playing an evil character in Mask of Betrayer ruled.
 
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Here is my list, in NO specific order.

  1. Ultima VII The Black Gate
  2. DarkSun: Shattered Lands
  3. Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura
  4. Planesacape: Torment
  5. Gothic 2
  6. Fallout
  7. Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos
  8. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
  9. Deus Ex
  10. System Shock 2
 
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No, that's absolutely not that I mean. What I mean is that even if the Gothic hero is willing to help (and he often HAS to), he treats most people like crap. He obviously doesn't like listening to people, is bored or annoyed quickly, threatens randomly and never made any compliment even to a friend. He's fun to play though.

See to me, I find this aspect of the Gothic hero to be refreshing. He has his own personality. Sometimes I am bored and dont like to listen to people...lol
 
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1. Vampire: Bloodlines
2. Final Fantasy VII
3. World of Warcraft
4. Might and Magic VII
5. Divine Divinity
6. Legend of Mir (for some reason)
7. Gothic 1,2
8. Oblivion (yep)
9. Fallout 1,2,3 (the 3 is not a typo)
10. Diablo
These are in no specific order.

These are the ones which come to mind at the moment. Legend of Mir I really put there because I spent so much time playing it, even if I can't put my finger on why. (I did like it though :p)
Fallout 3 I put there because I became completely addicted to it and I think they managed to capture the mood of the previous Fallouts.

EDIT: Just realized this was a top 10 CRPG list ( In which I guess you couldn't put MMORPGS). I really don't know which ones to put in their place :)
 
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Hmm my list covers some very old games

1. Ultima IV
2. Faery Tale Adventure
3. Dragon Wars
4. M&M 4&5 : World of Xeen
5. Ultima VII
6. Phantasie 1
7. M&M 6
8. Balder's Gate
9. Morrowind
10. Devil's Whiskey
 
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Top 10 RPGs

1)Gothic 2
The first computer game I felt I was living in the world. With a realistic night and day coupled with an open world and intelligent monsters, this game sorta spoiled me for all other CRPGs

2)Deus Ex
My first rig could not run this game so I had to wait about a year after its release. With all the anticipation you might think I was in for an eventual let down, I wasn’t. And due to a recent article here, I’m thinking of reinstalling.

3)Might and Magic 6
After the garish color palate of the previous M&Ms, the pastel look of this game was somewhat of a surprise. But the superb game play coupled with a late game flying ability made this one of the few CRPGS that I replayed

4)Land of Lore 1
When this game was released it was just a tad behind the technology curve. I wanted smooth 3d motion and this game provided step motion. After I got over the chip on my shoulder I was totally into the game world and the fun interface. I think LOL was the first game that had monsters (spiders) approach from the ceiling.

5)Morrowind
While the game play was somewhat slow I was always interested. A vastly different fantasy world that was much appreciated me. I initially stopped playing this game after about half way through, but restarted and finished about 2 years later.

6)Fallout 1
As you can see from my list, I’m not much into overhead perspective. But this game changed my feelings about that. I just loved the choices the first game made you take. You simply could not power game. I went into this game with some bad feelings also, I wanted to see the real sequel to Wasteland, turned out this was far better.

7)Divine Divinity
The buzz on this game was unbelievable. The buzz said forget about the boring first dungeon and you will find a gem. The buzz was correct and great great game was made even better with perhaps one of the best sound tracks of all time (any gaming genre)

8)Might & Magic 7
While this game was vastly better than M&M 6in so many aspects, it simply was not overall better than 6. Still, it rates in my top 10.

9)Gothic 1
I started with Gothic 2 first. I was a Morrowind fanboy who bought into the hype of Gothic 1’s inferior interface, so it was not worthy to be played. Gothic 2 showed me how wrong I was. Playing Gothic 2 first made playing 1 second a very interesting experience. Sorta like going in a time machine. For instance the dragon cave in 1 was a human settlement in 2.

10)Ultima 9
What say you? I know this was not really a true Ultima game but damn, I had a ton of fun playing this game. Of course I played this game years after it was released and well behind the technology curve so I had no problems. Also unlike the real Ultima games when the mid game get bogged down, I didn’t feel that in this game. I remember this game fondly.

Some games that didn't make the cut but were truly worthy( Anvil of Dawn, Wizardry 8, Arx Fatalis, Fallout 3, StoneKeep, Two Worlds, Arcanium, World of Krondor, Menzoberranzan & Neuromancer)
 
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World of Krondor,

World of Krondor ?!?!?!?! is this a Krondor game I never heard of and didn't play ?!?!?!?! Betrayel at Krondor is one of my all time favourite games!!!

Please give me more info ASAP, great list BTW.
 
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My bad, I was referring to Betrayal at Krondor. But, I was one of the few who actually enjoyed Return to Krondor. And breezed through that game quicker than Betrayal.

I'm smiling now because I can still remember my crappy lute playing in the pubs as I started the game. I wish more fantasy CRPGs would utilize that game mechanic.
 
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