What games are you playing now?

JDR13 said:

Ah ok, in that case I have to agree, even though I wasn't particularly impressed with the Aurora engine.

It would have been interesting to see how that engine handled a full party-based system in a single-player campaign. What made the campaign so disappointing to me was the single character + henchman format. It didn't feel much like D&D to me.

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I can appreciate that. It was more or less designed for multiple players forming a party. Game supported up to 64 players, IIRC.

JDR13 said:

Ah ok, in that case I have to agree, even though I wasn't particularly impressed with the Aurora engine.

It would have been interesting to see how that engine handled a full party-based system in a single-player campaign. What made the campaign so disappointing to me was the single character + henchman format. It didn't feel much like D&D to me.

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Interestingly for me coming from so many years as primarily a FPS player, I really loved that format - in NWN and KotOR there was a very player-central focus not there in more party oriented games.

Trying to get ja2 working on my win 7 x64 with only partial success. Couldn't install off my cd. Broke down and bought the gog version. 800 mb download with galaxy? wtf? It runs but no sound, no cutscenes, black screens, and can't type for save game names. Maybe should try installing a non-galaxy download?

I always preferred single-character games myself, but I do like the option to have party members - and I really think they could have done a better job with NWN.

That's one area where NWN2 is clearly superior, even if Obsidian's party AI was terrible. But there's a mod for that.

Single character vs party-based depends on the type of game for me. More specifically, how I'm viewing the game world.

If it's a third or first person view, I prefer to play a single character as I find it more immersive. I prefer a party for overhead/isometric games.

40% Legends of Eisenwald
40% Might & Magic Heroes 6
20% Europa Universalis 4

JDR13 said:

Single character vs party-based depends on the type of game for me. More specifically, how I'm viewing the game world.

If it's a third or first person view, I prefer to play a single character as I find it more immersive. I prefer a party for overhead/isometric games.

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Third person definitely single player but I can handle party in first person mode alas blobber type games. Overhead/isometric, I don't mind its single player or party.

NWN is awesome. I haven't played the original campaigns yet, but I'm playing a fan-made module called "Saleron's Gambit", and it's really fun.

I have a few games "on hold" while I play a heavily modded Oblivion on YouTube. Games like:

Temple of Elemental Evil
Neverwinter Nights
Elminage Gothic

Enjoying all of them quite a bit.

Oblivion heavily modded is worth checking out. I am using Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul and it changes a lot of things in the game, including things such as making it a more static world, with dangerous areas the further you go from the roads, and safer area closer to the roads. Entire zones like the Jerall Mountains, for example, are completely dangerous and feature higher level enemies right from the jump. It's been a lot of fun thus far and I would highly recommend it, although I've only played about 20 hours of it thus far and haven't gotten a *huge* feel for it yet. In 20 hours I've only reached level 3, so the leveling process is slowed a bit as well.

So many good mods for the game, it really makes the game feel fresh and brand new.

Fluent said:

NWN is awesome. I haven't played the original campaigns yet

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Cognitive dissonance?!?!

txa1265 said:

Cognitive dissonance?!?!

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Give him a break, he means NWN the engine and all the mods

Fluent said:

NWN is awesome. I haven't played the original campaigns yet

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Now the question is why. Scared by all the comments you read on the web about it?

I remember only 3 things of the main campaigns:
- A certain boss fight using a dagger
- The end with my unkillable Fighter (damage reduction FTW!)
- Henchmen are annoying, so I didn't use them.

Maybe I should replay the game, it has been a long time.

I haven't played the original campaign of NWN because I recently installed the game and wanted to jump right in with an interesting-sounding mod campaign.

I will get to the original content sometime in the future, though.

And when I say NWN is awesome, I mean the D&D lore integration and the game systems, not the original campaign content.

NWN is indeed awesome. It can be modded to buggery as well so check out http://neverwintervault.org - not quite as great as the original vault but a most excellent resource none the less.

Checkout NWNCQ for a base line textures overhaul, the reforged weapons mods and OldMansBeards OHS Henchman System to create your own party in any module.

With all the good user modules available there's hundreds of hours of fun, even more so if you're interested in D&D at all.

To stay on topic... I'm playing Oblivion as well at the moment. I stopped trying to enjoy my FCOM install that I'd always had and have been far more careful on the mods I'm using in this build. The game is finally living up to fun factor I'd hoped for when I picked it up years ago.


-kaos

I didn't think the original campaign was that terrible. In fact, one side quest area was one of my most memorable RPG gaming experiences (in a good and creepy way).

LOL well, I guess no matter what I say, people will still say a game is great because it has great mods and good DLC.
Doesn't matter it's called mods and DLC. They'll continue to believe mods and DLC are synonyms of a word - game.

You can't play any mods or DLC without the game to start with... So your point is?


-kaos

Thrasher said:

I didn't think the original campaign was that terrible. In fact, one side quest area was one of my most memorable RPG gaming experiences (in a good and creepy way).

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The campaign is mostly remembered for the ending which started with politics! and ended with WTF! or at least this is how I remember it.

And all this talk about the game means that I have now reinstalled NWN.

I've tried to play some modules...but it had compatibility issues with different patches. And there a Lot of them, including community ones( not to be confused by ones made by communists). Is there any kind guide of anything on how to go through with this?

Thrasher said:

I didn't think the original campaign was that terrible. In fact, one side quest area was one of my most memorable RPG gaming experiences (in a good and creepy way).

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I played the OC twice and quite enjoyed it. I'd also like to clarify that NWN had true expansions and has nothing in common with today's DLC.

Just started playing bloodborne today. Only for an hour or so. Early,early impressions are that it seems easier than DS, I don't enjoy the setting or atmosphere as much but it's not bad either, story is just as vague ( I'm in a nightmare and need to kill everything to put an end to it, as far as I can tell at this point anyway), I was expecting better graphics after hearing some talk about how great they are but while they're not bad for sure, they're not really impressive either.

Combat is typical souls despite having a gun and no block. Not loving the controller but getting used to it. One thing that's a bit baffling is the O button sprints so when I'm sprinting I can't control the camera, which is fine if I'm locked on but a big pain if I'm not.

Fun, but nothing impressive in the very early stages.

I've been through the NWN OC twice as well. Once when it was released and once a coupla years back.

I have to admit, I still remember being bored by it's progress and finding some parts of it to be somewhat uninspiring at release. The ineptitude and general lack of companions was also a big shock coming so fast off of the IE games. The plot was also pretty bizzaro and barely worth following. But that was about as far as my criticism went. They just happen to be quite big criticisms that can't help but shape someone's enjoyment of the game.

However, there was enough there to keep me until the end and there were plenty of memorable encounters, such as the dual Dragons, the boss in the sewers, stalking around wealthy homes. And it didn't feel particularly linear which was nice, it actually felt like a gigantic city, which is actually quite rare in RPGs and one of the points where they did IMO improve on BG2 even. I can't begin to list all the RPGs where the primary settlement consists of so few dwellings you'd think the Orcs would have raised it on a drunken Sunday afternoon imbetween a barbecue and going fishing.

The second time I played it some of the criticisms had reduced because, firstly, it's a lot quicker knowing where you're going, so the sense of boredom doesn't get a chance to linger so long in boring areas. Secondly, I knew not to care about the plot and just treat it like adventure for the sake of adventure, like a sort of aRPG with cRPG elements.

3/3.5 is also quite a fun D&D system regardless of everything else.

I agree it's held up well to the test of time with regards to looks and user-friendliness. I believe it still sells quite well and doesn't have graphics whores turning their nose up at it to any great extent like they might refuse to play IE and earlier games for looks-alone reasons.

But the main beauty of NWN still has to be the expansions and modding community. In this regard there are no words to adequately say just how poor the OC was in comparison to the extra stuff it produced. Which is a shame, because most people will play the series chronologically and I suspect a sizeable audience is lost during the somewhat bloated OC.