The "I Got A New Game!" Thread

[cybrxkhan]

I'm not expecting myself to be really impressed with the game (though more so because I don't really get impressed by anything (games or not) that easily), but hopefully it'll provide me some amusement.

Or, at the least, I hope the generic fantasy-ness of it won't bore me to tears like the generic fantasy-ness of Dragon Age (no offense to anyone who liked Dragon Age).

 

[Double A]

I'm not expecting myself to be really impressed with the game (though more so because I don't really get impressed by anything (games or not) that easily), but hopefully it'll provide me some amusement.

Or, at the least, I hope the generic fantasy-ness of it won't bore me to tears like the generic fantasy-ness of Dragon Age (no offense to anyone who liked Dragon Age).

Forgotten Realms is pretty generic fantasy, I guess, but there are probably more books set in it than any other setting ever created. D&D is generic but not too generic because of Vancian magic, the way skills work, and the gigantic established canon.

 

[Arakhor]

I'm a big fan of the classic D&D games, especially the Black Isle games such as Baldur's Gate I and Planescape: Torment. I spent countless hours playing BG:TotSC at university when I should have been doing other things, like sleeping or studying or stuff.

I recently picked up the complete Gothic series in the Good Old Games sale, but I have yet to install them. I also got the five-part Tales of Monkey Island and realMyst, a 3D 360-degree-view version of the original game.

 

[KaiserElectric]

I plan on picking up the AoE2 HD for me and my mom as an early Mother's Day gift.

 

[cybrxkhan]

Forgotten Realms is pretty generic fantasy, I guess, but there are probably more books set in it than any other setting ever created. D&D is generic but not too generic because of Vancian magic, the way skills work, and the gigantic established canon.

I figured as much. But then again since D&D is, alongside Lord of the Rings, one of the important foundations (if you will) of the fantasy genre, I can sort of give it a free pass.

Anyhow hopefully the game will amuse me enough. I bought it on a sale, although I was hesitant to at first, fearing that the fact I don't know about D&D rules (nor do I care to want to learn them) would hinder me, though from what little I've seen this doesn't seem to be the case. Yet. I suppose it helps that NWN2 is probably one of the more recent (relatively speaking!), big-name, classic-style D&D games out there.

 

[Double A]

I figured as much. But then again since D&D is, alongside Lord of the Rings, one of the important foundations (if you will) of the fantasy genre, I can sort of give it a free pass.

That's more or less what I was trying to say. Sure, it's riddled with tropes, but I'm sure it named more than a few of them.

Anyhow hopefully the game will amuse me enough. I bought it on a sale, although I was hesitant to at first, fearing that the fact I don't know about D&D rules (nor do I care to want to learn them) would hinder me, though from what little I've seen this doesn't seem to be the case. Yet. I suppose it helps that NWN2 is probably one of the more recent (relatively speaking!), big-name, classic-style D&D games out there.

I think NWN2 is the most recent game running D&D rules, which would make the second-newest KOTOR2, oddly enough.

The rules are actually pretty easy to grasp in video game form, most of it is just "right click, kill zombie" for the first few levels. I recommend not being a wizard, sorcerer, cleric, or druid for your first playthrough due to their squishyness and quadratical progression. The two first companions you get are a fighter and a thief, so best not be either of them either (though you might not like either of them, though they're probably my favorite party members). You only get four companions, so doubling up on anything in your party is not really wise. My NWN2 character was a ranger, they're pretty neat, but you should be whatever you want. I can answer any questions about character creation if you need answers.

 

[cybrxkhan]

The rules are actually pretty easy to grasp in video game form, most of it is just "right click, kill zombie" for the first few levels. I recommend not being a wizard, sorcerer, cleric, or druid for your first playthrough due to their squishyness and quadratical progression. The two first companions you get are a fighter and a thief, so best not be either of them either (though you might not like either of them, though they're probably my favorite party members). You only get four companions, so doubling up on anything in your party is not really wise. My NWN2 character was a ranger, they're pretty neat, but you should be whatever you want. I can answer any questions about character creation if you need answers.

Thanks for the info. I don't really care too much about character creation process, so long as I can make a character that won't be roflstomped on easy difficulties. So far I just went with as boring and bland as I could with basically a human bard (though it's for RPG purposes, I'm roleplaying a character from one of my creative writing projects (well, technically an ancestor he's a reincarnation of, but close enough)). It seems relatively good enough for me... but I dunno, I'm an absolute D&D noob so.

 

[Till]

I'm a big fan of the classic D&D games, especially the Black Isle games such as Baldur's Gate I and Planescape: Torment. I spent countless hours playing BG:TotSC at university when I should have been doing other things, like sleeping or studying or stuff.

I recently picked up the complete Gothic series in the Good Old Games sale, but I have yet to install them. I also got the five-part Tales of Monkey Island and realMyst, a 3D 360-degree-view version of the original game.

Make sure to install the community patch for Gothic 3. It's quite possible that GOG ships it with the game, but it's better to double check.

 

[Arakhor]

Make sure to install the community patch for Gothic 3. It's quite possible that GOG ships it with the game, but it's better to double check.

Thanks. I'll do that.

 

[The_J]

Better recommendation: Install #1, #2 + addon, and don't install #3.
It's also with the community patch not a good game (IMHO).

 

[Maniacal]

Its a pretty decent game still (#3 that is), certainly far better than the dull slog and dim shadow of its predecessor's experience that is Risen, which I am glad I got for free off of GamersGate through its VOID program instead of buying for $5 on sale like someone almost talked me into.

 

[Arakhor]

Well, I paid £12 (I think) for all four, so even if the third is poor and the fourth rubbish, twelve hours shouldn't be difficult to spread over the other two.

 

[The_J]

If you can take the graphics (and the controls; they are at the beginning a bit...strange, but you can really get used to that after time), then yeah, the time/cost ratio should still be more than good.

 

[Double A]

Thanks for the info. I don't really care too much about character creation process, so long as I can make a character that won't be roflstomped on easy difficulties. So far I just went with as boring and bland as I could with basically a human bard (though it's for RPG purposes, I'm roleplaying a character from one of my creative writing projects (well, technically an ancestor he's a reincarnation of, but close enough)). It seems relatively good enough for me... but I dunno, I'm an absolute D&D noob so.

Bards are... interesting. And not in a fun way, because if you want to sing a bard song, you have to stand still and do nothing else (though there might be a feat you can take at a higher level to counter that). Also in a four person party, it really isn't very helpful for one of the members to not be killing things. If you want to be a bard, I highly suggest you pick up a Baldur's Gate or Icewind Dale game. BG has a really good story (or so I'm told, I've only just gotten into it) and IWD is a murderfest of evil stuff. IWD2 is the only one that runs 3rd Edition rules, though. They both have 6 member parties, and in IWD you actually create all of the characters. Really not much to the story.

Character creation is one of the most fun parts of any D&D game because there are so many choices.

 

[cybrxkhan]

Bards are... interesting. And not in a fun way, because if you want to sing a bard song, you have to stand still and do nothing else (though there might be a feat you can take at a higher level to counter that). Also in a four person party, it really isn't very helpful for one of the members to not be killing things. If you want to be a bard, I highly suggest you pick up a Baldur's Gate or Icewind Dale game. BG has a really good story (or so I'm told, I've only just gotten into it) and IWD is a murderfest of evil stuff. IWD2 is the only one that runs 3rd Edition rules, though. They both have 6 member parties, and in IWD you actually create all of the characters. Really not much to the story.

Character creation is one of the most fun parts of any D&D game because there are so many choices.

Ah okay, thanks for the tips. Would being a bard be too much an issue if I'm playing at an easier difficulty?

I was just going for the bard because it sounded like some sort of battlemage/spellsword/melee+magic class to me. Would you suggest some other class if I'm going for melee+magic (particularly a human)?

 

[Polycrates]

Ah okay, thanks for the tips. Would being a bard be too much an issue if I'm playing at an easier difficulty?

I was just going for the bard because it sounded like some sort of battlemage/spellsword/melee+magic class to me. Would you suggest some other class if I'm going for melee+magic (particularly a human)?

Yeah bard is probably not a great choice (although if memory serves, that's one of the games where bard lets you go for the extremely cheesy Red Dragon Disciple build).

Cleric is a good choice, especially if you mix a few levels of fighter in there. Good with heavy armour + shields and some weapons, and has a whole bunch of spells (many of which further enhance your melee potential, as well as the obvious healing and anti-undead ones). You can focus more on the melee or the spell side as you progress. Very good all-round class.
Otherwise ranger or paladin both have a bit of casting ability (but paladin is quite restrictive).

Offensive magic tends to be a bit of an all-or-nothing affair in these games - if you don't go all-in, you just won't be doing enough damage to make it worthwhile. Buffing magic tends to be better in that regard.

 

[Double A]

Yeah, one of the great things about D&D is you can multiclass instead of being locked in to one class the whole time, though it's typically a bad idea to take more than two classes because of exp penalties. You also get exp penalties if one of the two classes you want isn't favored by your race. And since the game has finite exp, the penalties really suck. Of course, you're practically invincible when you get to level 20.

I think the best cleric/fighter build for 3.5e is four levels of fighter, then taking cleric levels until you're level 20, where you then take another level of fighter and then just do whatever. Doesn't really matter if you start off as a cleric or fighter, just get to level 4 before starting on the other class. Also you're going to want max wisdom, constitution, and strength. Dex doesn't matter a whole lot due to heavy armor. Int is nice for skills but that shouldn't matter much, and Cha would be nice since you're the party leader. It's annoying how you can't have someone with higher charisma speak for the party (though I don't think I tried one or two things to fix that). You're probably going to be using a hammer unless your god has a cool favored weapon, like bastard swords.

 

[Radio Noer]

I got KotOR, it's been fun, but it seems to be affecting my gamma settings whenever I run it. Does anybody else have this issue?

 

[Arakhor]

Nope. Mine just crashes a lot, but then I have the original 4-CD set, not an updated version for modern computers.

 

[Maniacal]

There isn't an updated "HD" version, but the Steam one works fine for me.