Thanks. Doesn't sound like my cup of tea, then.

How about Parasite Eve? Keep in mind: I don't like JRPGs, I hate turn-based combat, I dislike crappy dialog/Engrish, and bizarre control schemes are a major turn-off. I also svck at fps games and I get scared easily - so horror games are generally right out.

Which reminds me, did you make up your mind about System Shock 2?

Has anyone played Risen? Gameplay videos on youtube look pretty good, but I'd like to hear other opinions.

EDIT: And what about Sacred 2: Fallen Angel?

There's a demo for the PC. If you can only get it for the 360, I would advise not to. I've heard the 360 version is not that great.

Anyone play Shadow Man or Shadow Man 2? Are any of them any good? I don't know much about the gameplay (or plot/premise, setting) other than that it is 3rd person action. I think. Are there guns? I don't really like shooters, I like attacking enemies with melee weapons and magic. Is either of the games any good?

It's really good if you like story driven and emotional games



I don't understand how it doesn't get good until after 20 hours because I thought pretty much the whole thing was awesome up until you got to



But maybe it's because I'm not the kind of person who has to be like "I have to be able to play the game right now so I'm going to skip all the tutorials and cutscenes even though I won't know how to play or know what's going on"

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While this may not be the recommend type of game thread I was wondering if anyone knew any games for the PS2 or Xbox (has to be backwards compatible) that has like a hand drawn type of feeling

Not cel shading but more like http://satucl.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/gfs_50597_1_3.jpg

Hmm I don't really have any more examples

Enemy Territory Quake Wars is about $2.50 on Amazon (plus about $5 for shipping), just wondering if anyone has any experience with them game. If I was home I would consider getting it but don't want order it until I am back there. Just wondering what you guys think about it.

I just wanted to say I got Assassin's Creed 2 and I'm very impressed, it's a huge improvement over the repetitive original. No more simple sidequests with about 3 lines of voice acting variety and character models for the quest givers, and only like 5 types of sidequests alltogether.

More weapons, more combat/assassination/exploration moves, money and things to buy with it, outfit customization, fast travel, no more annoying bleeps when you are detected and such, no more drowning in water, more useful interaction with civilians (like punching them without getting desynchronized ), more ways to hide from guards, climbing is smoother, the cities are bigger, and other little things like the memory borders desynchronize you if you go through them, instead of working as a solid wall...

Another thing is that it does not artificially lock you out of skills and things, which made no sense in AC1. 'I'm taking away all your assassin ranks, now you lose the ability to grab onto ledges while falling, or countering attacks in combat. Now I'm magically restoring one rank, so you can keep 10 throwing knives on you instead of 5'. All those little skills and items were slowly given back in AC1, which was a very cheap way of adding 'variety' to the gameplay.

AC2 has an awkward menu for the sound/control options, and in the game when it says 'press [picture]' it doesn't actually say which button it is by default which is annoying because I constantly had to check the controls at first, but other than that it's a damn good game.

Except that there are still unskippable cutscenes. <_<

Yeah, I loved it. My Xbox destroyed my disc though so no more AC2 for me... >_< I just got onto the bit where you can use a Paraglider as well!

Just Cause 2 looks fun, but how is it really? Does it get repetitive quickly?

Try the demo.

Personally, I found it really fun, but got CTDs on my PC, so I didn't get the full game. A lot of people prefer realism style games with immersion and stuff. This is a pretty over the top campy title with a crappy storyline and bad voice acting. The open world gameplay is fun, though.

Ah nevermind, I just found out the game doesn't support XP.

I'll get 7 at some point though...

I dont know wether i even want to touch this game. Just Cause was one of the worst games ive ever played, it was definitely up there with Big Rigs. If theyve changed everything about it, then it might be good. I just dont know.

The first one actually made me feel sick.

I know Baldur's Gate series and Icewind Dale are supposed to be the most awesome RPGs on the planet.

But, I've had people tell me [game] is awesome, and I buy it, and I find it isn't to my tastes.

So, okay, here it goes. I do not like boring combat, and I do not like to micromanage skills, inventory, and parties. Given all that, I have the opportunity to purchase all of the following games for $40 total:
BG 1 + expansion
BG 2 + expansion
Icewind Dale 1 + exp
Icewind Dale 2
Planescape: Torment

most have boxes, all have inserts/manuals/etc

Should I go for it? :unsure:

I played it on the 360, expecting something to at least occupy me for a little while, even expecting that was too much. Truly a terrible game, I really hope it's better on the pc, because it seemed like it had potential.

I felt the same way about Just Cause 1. It was utter crap. This one is finely polished and offers tons of replayability. It looks gorgeous (on the PC) but the 360 version is pretty damn good looking too.

Grab the demo if you're a 360 owner and give it a whirl. The sheer amount of detail, content and explosions will amaze you.

IIRC it's difficult to find Planetscape: Torment in a box (correct me if I'm wrong), so if you can buy a boxed copy I would.

Edit: No it's not hard to find it's just expensive.

I know, I've been eyeing Planescape for months.

I think I'm going to go for the entire lot - the price is fantastic.

Indeed, especially considering it has the manuals and all that.

Where the hell did you find this anyway?

Craigslist! I was that desperate. It's amazing how many people want to sell their old video games at low prices - especially the computer games.

I've only played BG1&2 out of that lot, but IMHO, they're worth $40 alone. Baldur's Gate 2 is one of my favorite games of all time. Planescape: Torment is also supposed to be very, very good--I've been looking for a cheap copy for ages. Icewind Dale..ehhhhh. They're more linear dungeon crawls than anything else; definitely the weakest of the lot, especially story-wise. I'd still consider it worth it for that price, though.

As for micromanaging...with the Baldur's Gate games at least, you can tweak the combat settings to be more or less whatever you want, ranging from real time to so turn based, the game will pause after every tiny twitch. I never found combat to be boring, personally. You won't really have to micromanage inventory, aside from keeping track of quest items, making sure the archer has enough arrows, etc. I'm not sure what you'd consider "micromanaging."

Skills...BG and Icewind Dale at least are D&D based, so most skills are "set it and forget it." PS:T is the same way, I believe, though I'm not sure. I think I spent about twenty seconds max picking out some proficiencies (and abilities, in BG2) when it came to the level up screen.

You probably will be micromanaging your party a little, since those are all very much party-based games. The joinable NPCs in the BG games have so much character and charm, though, that I'd gladly micromanage the lot of them all day long if I could. They're not just meat shields and item carriers, and I think you'll find that herding them around will pay off in terms of the sheer entertainment value they provide.

Yes you should. Note that the Baldur's Gate series uses 2E AD&D rules, and you may need to reload several times. I know that Icewind Dale 2 uses 3E rules but haven't played it yet. As for the others, I've never played them (or come across them) so I wouldn't know

I'm going to pick them up in about an hour!

What site do I go to in order to download patches? Are there any unofficial/community patches and/or content? I'm running Windows XP 64-bit, do I need a patch?

You can get patches right from the website, even for ye olde http://www.bioware.com/games/baldurs_gate/. 64 bit, I wouldn't know. There is some third-party content floating around, but it's of variable quality; there's no toolset and as such not much of a mod community. It's not something I'd recommend looking into before playing through the normal games, anyway.

What I do recommend as far as community patches is the set of http://www.baldurdash.org/ patches. They contain many, many bugfixes and corrections to text mistakes not addressed in official patches, and are non-offensive to purists since they fix things only. There are some "tweaks" to change balance, but those are kept to separate files for those who don't want them. Of special note are the David Gaider enhancements found in the BG2: Throne of Bhaal section. These are unofficial files released by one of the developers. One increases the difficulty of a special boss who was toned down for fears people would complain it's "too hard", while the others spruce up and increase the challenge of many of the major battles in the expansion. Also of special note, in the BG2 tweaks section (non-expansion), is a file for "bonus CD merchants." Those who got some special edition or other of BG2 got these extra purveyors of magical items, and the files were eventually released free to everyone.

Aside from 3rd party quests and such, other community content you might look into are custom character portraits and sound sets. I know many can be found at http://www.sorcerers.net/index.php, and I'm sure other sites can be found easily enough via Google.

It's also possible to play BG1 in the BG2 Engine with http://www.pocketplane.net/mambo/index.php?option=content&task=blogcategory&id=143&Itemid=98. This offers many advantages.

Also for higher resolutions in Planescape Torment you really should get the http://www.shsforums.net/topic/37219-about-ghostdogs-planescape-torment-ui-mod/?quot;%5DWidescreen mod%5B/url%5D (also for resolutions like 1280x1024, not just widescreen) combined with %5Burl=%22http://www.shsforums.net/topic/37219-about-ghostdogs-planescape-torment-ui-mod/?quot;.

Lots of mods for BG/IWD/PS:T on the Spellhold Studios forums there. You'll probably want at least the http://www.shsforums.net/forum/552-pst-fixpack/ for a first playthrough.

And if you get problems with stuttering or low FPS in Torment (problem with some modern graphics cards), read http://www.shsforums.net/topic/43616-how-to-deal-with-the-ddraw-problems-of-pst-and-other-ie-games/. Hopefully it won't happen to you, because it's a pain having to disable the Direct Draw acceleration every time you play. The other solution never worked for me...

I haven't experienced any 64 bit issues or any other technical issues with these games, besides the stuttering problem in Torment related to my graphics card (ATI HD4850).