Planescape: Torment - Now Available on GOG!

w00t!

Does anyone know what the latest & best patches are for this? I remember some people posting one that restored some lost content and one that squished the screen up to give an improved resolution, are there any others?
 
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Finally! Torment has always been hard to find around my neck of the woods.
 
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Benedict: Here is a more or less complete ultimate installation guide with all the high res and ui mods and unofficial fixpacks mentioned:
http://thunderpeel2001.blogspot.com/2009/01/planescape-torment-fully-modded.html

Edit: obviously if you get GOG version you can skip the part of moving files and modifying your .ini file.

Zaleukos: Same here. The only way was to pirate it or order it for insane shipping costs from Ebay. As far as i remember the game was never sold in any stores in my country. Needless to say GOG version is my first legal Torment.
 
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The writing. PS:T is more of an interactive book than a game really. The characters, the plot, the world itself - all extremely well written.

The gameplay is not all that great though, as it's basically a sluggish version of IWD/BG.
 
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I don't agree with the vlaim that it's mainly an interactive novel. Sure, there's a lot to read, but that's because the npc's have a lot to say. And that much of the progress in the game is based on talking. I like that. It reminds me of my other favourite games, the Ultimas, where you could go back to the same NPC's again and again, getting more information about what you were doing.

I found the game to be incredibly rich and flexible with respect to how you play the game. Most quests can be solved in different ways. You don't HAVE to talk all the time, but you don't have to fight as much either. Great athmosphere, and I really got to care about my character and the peoplem around him.

For me, like many others, it is in a league of it's own, the only games approaching it i my eyes are .. surprise, surprise … Ultima.
 
Gotta agree with Maylander on this :)

Take away the writing and replace it with run-of-the-mill stuff, and imagine the response the game would get.

It's not rocket science ;)

(I didn't really care for the writing, though - but that's on me)
 
@pibbur

That's why I call it an interactive novel, and not just a novel. Basically, I see it as reading a book, but a book where I can change the outcome, talk to the characters and so on.

Like DArtagnan said - remove the writing, and the rest is nothing special.
 
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Like DArtagnan said - remove the writing, and the rest is nothing special.
What about tasteful art design, superb music, frequent use of attribute checks, multiple quest solutions, unique character-based mechanics (Morte´s taunts, Dakkon´s sword, etc.), character alignment for once determined by the actions in-game?
As a side note, and that´s just a semantics issue, I´ve always felt merely saying the game has excellent writing doesn´t sufficiently communicate the high amount of creative/unique ideas poured into it (a lot come with the setting, but that doesn´t matter).
 
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Remove the writing from any roleplaying game and you have a strategy game ;)
 
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What about tasteful art design, superb music, frequent use of attribute checks, multiple quest solutions, unique character-based mechanics (Morte´s taunts, Dakkon´s sword, etc.), character alignment for once determined by the actions in-game?
As a side note, and that´s just a semantics issue, I´ve always felt merely saying the game has excellent writing doesn´t sufficiently communicate the high amount of creative/unique ideas poured into it (a lot come with the setting, but that doesn´t matter).

Well, I never finished the game - so I can't speak to what happens later.

The things you mention are highly subjective in terms of their quality - and if you think they stand out to make the game something really special, that's great.

Personally, I didn't think too much of the art/music and stuff like that. That is to say those aspects were done well, but they didn't "stand out" in any way - not to me. Still, I'll grant that the weight given to attributes in terms of dialogue responses was done well. Sort of like Fallout - and that's not a bad thing.

Multiple quest solutions I consider a pretty standard thing in most CRPGs of that era, and I don't recall anything too interesting. I played maybe 50% of the game at one time, and I've retried it 4-5 times in all.

I don't know, it just doesn't do anything for me - but again, that's subjective.

I'm just giving my personal opinion, and I suppose there must be a reason that it's so popular.

I could be wrong that it's primarily the writing - and I'd say more or less ONLY the writing that people remember it for, but since the other aspects didn't appeal to me - I have a hard time accepting those other things being such a big deal to most people.

With all that, I can see how it's simplified to just call it an interactive book. Obviously, that's not entirely fair - because it IS a game that works quite OK as a game, and there's combat and what not. Just not something that excited me at all, when playing it.

I much prefer Baldur's Gate - because I get to develop my own character, and even party if I wish - and I prefer freeform non-linear world exploration, when I can get that.

Beyond that, I just never cared for the Planescape setting.
 
What about tasteful art design, superb music, frequent use of attribute checks, multiple quest solutions, unique character-based mechanics (Morte´s taunts, Dakkon´s sword, etc.), character alignment for once determined by the actions in-game?

Arcanum was good at it and above all steampunk but gameplay wise it was crap , IMO games are about gameplay .
 
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But there *is* unique gameplay in Torment as well.

First of all, for this game the writing is more than "just" background story. It's gameplay as well. It plays a large role in character/party development for example.

Secondly there are all the, for its time, different game mechanics related to things like player death, item interaction/use, equipment, discovering doorways etc.

Then there are all the custom abilities of the party members you can (optionally!) pick up.

So all in all Torment is definitely more than a great story and average combat. But you *do* have to be able and willing to read a lot of text to play this one. No way around that. And since it takes a little while to really get going I can see why some people are turned off by the game, if they are not really enjoying the writing.
 
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I still believe, if the very beginning of the game hadfn't been so dreadful, it would have attracted more players. I especially didn't like the feeling of morbidity there not at all.
 
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I wasn't blown away by PS:T like some people were. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I played all of the other Infinity Engine games first.

Combat was a huge downer compared to BG or IWD. If they had included a greater variety of enemies, weapons, etc., I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more.

I still think it's a great game, but then again, all of the IE games were great.
 
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As far as I've understood it, combat wasn't the main focus of the game ?
 
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I could be wrong that it's primarily the writing - and I'd say more or less ONLY the writing that people remember it for,
Well, besides "ONLY" being quite a lot in this case (setting, characters, story), there´s also the audiovisual context and the actual organization of the writing (attribute checks, quests) which along with unique gameplay mechanics (portals, main char death as a way to solve quests etc ) make the game so memorable.

I prefer freeform non-linear world exploration, when I can get that.
While the game isn´t entirely open ended and the main quest is linear in its base, there´s a lot of freeforming to do as well thanks to side quests and multiple quest solutions and there are quite high chances player won´t discover everything there is to the main quest in one playthrough. What class you play, how you distribute attribute points, how thorough you are in exploration and how active you are towards your companions, all make difference. One of the biggest moments in main quest (near the end) is entirely missable, for example.

Arcanum was good at it and above all steampunk but gameplay wise it was crap ,
Yeah, but combat is still better in PS:T and unlike in the case of Arcanum, there´s not that much of it and most is avoidable.

IMO games are about gameplay .
Cutscenes without player´s input aren´t gameplay, dialogues in PS:T are.
Btw, what´s your stance on adventure games, like Monkey Island for example, is there a gameplay in there?
 
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