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So I've been replaying Icewind Dale 2 and it makes me lament that we're never going to see crpgs like those again. When Baldur's Gate came out I was a senior in high school and my whole DnD group got copies and we played the hell out of it, for hours on end. When the expansions came out it was the same story. I picked up a copy of Baldur's Gate 2 a couple of winters ago on a whim because I didn't have a regular gaming group and found the game, if possible, to be better than BG1. The great npc interactions, the epic storyline, and the play control reminded me of why I loved video games in the first place. How many times are you going to be able to fight a great red dragon, black dragon, a crazed elven wizard, a decaying lich and battle alongside Bruenor Battlehammer's party (including that drow ranger everyone is obsessed with) all while trying to keep the mageslaying ranger in your party from killing your gnome illusionist who has a thing for turnips?

Last fall a friend of mine gave me a copy of Neverwinter Nights and rather than spending our cash on WoW we convinced a few buddies to form a NWN party and played on some of the servers that still exist. Awesome game, haven't played NWN2 but plan on it this winter.

I finished my roommates copy of Icewind Dale 1 last winter and have been playing ID2 off and on since May. It's also a great game if a bit repetitive but lacks the party management of the BG and Planescape series. That and the fact that I've got a weekly GURPS group means I get my rpg fix for the week.

Anyone else have any games from those glory days they wish would come back?

Beerforthebeergod wrote:So I've been replaying Icewind Dale 2 and it makes me lament that we're never going to see crpgs like those again. When Baldur's Gate came out I was a senior in high school and my whole DnD group got copies and we played the hell out of it, for hours on end. When the expansions came out it was the same story. I picked up a copy of Baldur's Gate 2 a couple of winters ago on a whim because I didn't have a regular gaming group and found the game, if possible, to be better than BG1. The great npc interactions, the epic storyline, and the play control reminded me of why I loved video games in the first place. How many times are you going to be able to fight a great red dragon, black dragon, a crazed elven wizard, a decaying lich and battle alongside Bruenor Battlehammer's party (including that drow ranger everyone is obsessed with) all while trying to keep the mageslaying ranger in your party from killing your gnome illusionist who has a thing for turnips?

Last fall a friend of mine gave me a copy of Neverwinter Nights and rather than spending our cash on WoW we convinced a few buddies to form a NWN party and played on some of the servers that still exist. Awesome game, haven't played NWN2 but plan on it this winter.

I finished my roommates copy of Icewind Dale 1 last winter and have been playing ID2 off and on since May. It's also a great game if a bit repetitive but lacks the party management of the BG and Planescape series. That and the fact that I've got a weekly GURPS group means I get my rpg fix for the week.

Anyone else have any games from those glory days they wish would come back?

'

Omg is it possibel, someone with good taste when comes to games??? Very good post sir. Yes Im afraid we will never see games that was so ful of epicness. NWN 1&2 was the last RPG games to really impress me with the story and all. Now its just ZOMG grafics and that kinda ork droppings

What i can not believe there are two more people out there that think the same as i do about games.

I hope someday they go back to a good story driven game instead of the eye candy crap they have out now.

Bioware is coming out with their spiritual sequel this December.

And yes, Neverwinter Nights is overrated. On the other hand I am tired of Baldur's Gate 2 after the disapointing expansion and Icewind Dale 2 was not as good as it could have been. The combat could have been more varied and generally more interesting, basically. B-.

I can't stop playing through Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II. Boy, that's challenging, because if you fight a troll without acid or fire, it doesn't stay dead and remains incredibly hard to kill in the first place, and the bosses like the Red Queen and the Vampire Lord are ridiculously hard to beat.


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Oh, and I am NOT looking foward to Diablo III. It doesn't even look GRIMDARK anymore; have you seen all the bright lights and colours in the gameplay demos?

Cheese Elemental wrote:I can't stop playing through Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II. Boy, that's challenging, because if you fight a troll without acid or fire, it doesn't stay dead and remains incredibly hard to kill in the first place, and the bosses like the Red Queen and the Vampire Lord are ridiculously hard to beat.

You mean the PS2 game?

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Oh, and I am NOT looking foward to Diablo III. It doesn't even look GRIMDARK anymore; have you seen all the bright lights and colours in the gameplay demos?

Yeah, D3 had so much promise...now it looks like it's made for children. YOUNG children mind.


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Tacobake wrote:Bioware is coming out with their spiritual sequel this December.

And yes, Neverwinter Nights is overrated. On the other hand I am tired of Baldur's Gate 2 after the disapointing expansion and Icewind Dale 2 was not as good as it could have been. The combat could have been more varied and generally more interesting, basically. B-.

Yeah I'm really bored with ID2, the story is really thin and the game is extremely repetitive. The puzzles they do have are more annoying than difficult.

BG2 is a masterful game, I actually liked the expansion too, it advanced the story in interesting ways (Even if overly predictable and not always logical) and the battles are difficult.

Blizzard is known for their Skittles oriented games. It's part of their "artistic licence."

Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II are simply great games. There's no other way to put it.

The Icewind Dale games were thinner on story, focussed more on fighting and building your party. They were good, but it was basically the gameplay of BG without the story.

NWN and NWN II had the advantage of the third ed ruleset, so you could spend more time playing around with character development, and build more interesting and unique characters. The single player campaigns weren't great though (the focus on single characters made ranged characters almost unplayable in the first game if you played solo). Running through fan built dungeons with friends was brilliant fun, though.

Those games were the end result of ten years of RPGs, starting with Wasteland (I think?). They were basically the most direct translation of pen and paper, containing some combination of a story, levelling and tactical combat. You still get rpgs with the first two, but for the most part the tactical combat seems to have been dropped for real time (either first person like Fallout 3 or isometric like Diablo).

Dragonage Origins promises to scratch that old itch. Not sure if it'll be any good, but hope springs eternal.

Baldur's Gate II expansion is too easy with an import party and not interesting enough anyway.

Icewind Dale 2 was a disappointment but at least they made it.

I am glad I finally got that out of my system.



Looking forward to the new Bioware in Dec. Yes, Dragonage Origins. Need a new computer anyway for Fallout 3.

Hopefully that Dragon game will have a better camera than NWN and NWN 2.

@Beerforthebeergod: Yes, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II is the PS2 game. It's very fun, and, as I said, ridiculously hard sometimes. As in, Nintendo Hard.

BG2 was indeed awesome, even though I've never finished it (keep rebuilding my computer, and now I'm running Linux).

For a game with deep characters and awesome dialogue, I'd recommend Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. Sure it's not a classic fantasy RPG, but I've found it quite immersive nonetheless. Nothing like running a full party of Sith and cutting through everything like a hot knife through butter.

Also look at the remake of the The Temple of Elemental Evil: it's apparently the most accurate rendition of D&D 3.5, but the characters, quests, and plot were pretty boring IMO. The battles are nice and difficult though, you really need to plan before jumping into virtually any encounter.

I would play Baldur's Gate 2 again if those fights against the enemy wizards were not so repetitive or if I could think of a cool character to play. I might try a monk or else a Cleric of some kind.

I got to watch a demonstration of Dragon Age: Origins at last years GenCon and it looks to definitely scratch that old (PC) Baldurs Gate itch. It also looks like you'll need a manly machine to run it as well. I saw an article for it being on the PS3/360 but when I was at the conference the developer said it was only being planned for PC so I don't know about that. I'm also wondering how the control scheme will work since it is a mouse driven game like Baldurs Gate and Icewind Dale.

I am happy about this, I found Mass Effect to be, for lack of a better expression, stupid.

I might pick up Dark Alliance II though, just for gaks and giggles. As malf would say, "So many games ...."

At least Bioware has not forgotten us.

The Dark Alliance games (and the Champions of Norath games) are fun if and only if you're playing with a friend. The "build your own weapons" functionality in DA2 is tremendously amusing, in a "let's make frost/acid crossbows and slowly melt our enemies to death" sort of way.

Knights of the Old Republic is a solid game. KotR2 is a bit weaker, but still worth playing. Both are actually better on the 360 than the PC ports, though.

I liked Mass Effect okay; Fable 2 similarly.

Best recent CRPG, though, is Fallout 3.

GO FOR THE EYES, BOO! RAAAAAAGH!

BG2. It rocks. It's a shame, what happened to Bioware.