Yeah, I very much agree with your sentiment that playing these old games on emulators somehow makes them far more disposable and easier to forget. I have yet to finish any game I start on an emulator, but as soon as I plug in the old systems, I can lose myself for days in the classics.Originally Posted by sabrage
I'm going to be trying the Baldurs Gate series for the first time ever, I picked big pack of games for cheap from Impulse. Any recommendations before I do?
There's a few mods I'd recommend to tidy up the graphics and fix a few bugs. Afaik, none of these change the story at all (though a few quests that were cut from the original are added) and the mechanics only in minor ways. All the detail you'll need is in this GOG forum here http://www.gog.com/en/forum/baldur_s...ial_mods/page1. This is the set up I've been using. I'm half way into BG1 with no issues so far (running the GOG installer on Win 7).
Also, if you're not familiar with the AD&D ruleset then I'd recommend a read of the manual as some of the game mechanics are complex. The game is pretty flexible and you can start out as whatever class/race combination takes your fancy (I've gone with a half-elf cleric myself).
Finally, the difficulty level of the combat can be quite high, and low-level characters vulnerable, but don't give up because the game rewards patience - once you get the hang of some tactics that work for your party, it gets rather satisfying. Strategy guides are easy to find on t'internet and you might want to look at some of the tips for how different combinations of starting character and party members - this site is pretty good: http://www.sorcerers.net/Games/BG/index.php.
Hope this helps!
There is nothing more powerful than a bad idea who's time has come...
1. The best kind of monster.
2. ...I may have made a bet with a friend re: Mario Kart 64. This, inevitably, calls for me at some point soon to retrieve my N64, Mario Kart and a couple of controllers to settle this bet. She seems to think she can win using Peach whilst I use Toad. Preposterous! Also, she hasn't played Ocarina of Time. I will attempt to fix that. An N64 at uni alongside my PC? I may have gone back in time. Ninty might have made some odd recent decisions, but the quality they use to command was absurd.
Anyhow, on-topic. More Star Trek Online! I spent a seminar yesterday thinking up ship names (in my defence, I wasn't the only one bored at the presentation going on; when one of the presenters wasn't speaking, he was looking at stuff on his phone!) and have named my newest cruiser, a Cheyenne class, the USS Century.
Dreamfall made me want to play a better, less irritating adventure game, so I blew through Ben There Dan That and am now working on Time Gentlemen, Please! both of which have proven to be pretty entertaining.
This amidst continuing to poke around Academagia and playing some SotS 1 multiplayer.
Last edited by vinraith; 28-01-2012 at 02:19 AM.
Buying games you aren't going to play is a waste of money (no matter how cheap they are). Forcing yourself to play games you wish you hadn't bought is a waste of time. Both are best avoided.
Seriously thanks a lot for this, that guide is absolutely perfect! I'll give the rules a read up, I'm very much in it for the story so hopefully I can get my head round some of the more complex stuff. I'm excited to give it a shot, I enjoy most of Bioware's work, so to try a game many consider to be their better work is awesome.
I tried to get the AMK 1.4 mod for STALKER: SoC to work, I really do. But it just gets buggy as fuck, I end up not playing at all. Especially, after that "fix" i downloaded. Replaced the system.ltx file in the gamedata folder and then, it kept crashing everytime i start a new game. I'm playing this on 1.0005 and I can't be arsed to reinstall the damn game and download the 1.0004 patch. So, I need help on this. Badly.
Crysis 2 really is a bit rubbish, and that's comparing to to modern shooters. Compared to Crysis 1 it's painful. Everything just feels off: the movement is too heavy, the weapons feel weak, there are invisible walls in odd places, the game/story takes itself far too seriously when it's obviously B-movie content, and the AI is too all-knowing.
This final point is the most annoying because the AI in Crysis was so good. Take cloaking for example, it's apparent to me that the AI knows exactly where I am when cloaked but there is a block in place to stop it firing. As soon as I uncloak, regardless of if I'm behind them or barely visible behind several fences/objects, they will open fire with perfect accuracy. I was just trying to put C4 on a LAV and, as I crouch-moved towards it with my cloak slowly running lower, the damn thing pulls away then stops, then pulls away then stops, then pulls away then stops, every time I almost reach it until my cloak is entirely drained. It was just so damn blatant and would have been really funny (like a tank playing keep-away) except I was kind of pissed off by this point.
I'll struggle on with it but I have a horrible feeling the game will conform to the usual Crytek model of having the best bits in the first half then sucking more as the game goes on. If the best really has been already then damn, that'll have been my first bad purchase in quite a while.
I've been playing Napoleon: Total War as the Russians and am going for the Medallion of the Imperial Psychopath achievement. I'm typing up an AAR as I play and will post it on RPS when I am finished. This is my first AAR and I find that I'm spending at least twice as much time writing as I am playing, but it's been a lot of fun so far.
I bought Serious Sam 3 on impulse (not Impulse) earlier this week, just finished it on single player. It's by no means a perfect game; it takes itself a bit too seriously (har) at times in contrast to the previous parts and it feels like the game is constantly holding itself back, the start is famously slow and I personally miss the sheer batshit insanity of The Second Encounter (my favourite game of the series). The thing is though, it manages to rub my cravings for a FPS game excellently. FPS has always been one of my favourite genres but the current design trends in the genre have made it the most disappointing genre for me for years now and I've been desperate for ages now to get a new shooter I can fully enjoy (rather than always rely on the old favourites; those are great to replay but I want new experiences too!). Which is what SS3 is. I can actually dodge things, I have more than two weapons, there's proper action going on and I can even explore the levels (I've kinda missed hunting for secrets) should I wish to do so. It just feels so... fluid. It's linear but it doesn't feel chained by it, it turns its straight lines into playgrounds. I'm not saying every FPS should be as over-the-top arcade action as Sam is, but its sheer mental shooting has really hit the spot for me right now, even with its flaws.
Going to soon play the campaign through again in co-op with a friend who I've played the previous Sams with. Can't wait.
Give me steam and how you feel to make it real.
Let me second others in saying thank you for that. It's been about a decade since I last played BG and BG2, so I'd been a bit unsure what the best modding path was at this point. This appears straightforward, and seems to set the game up the way I'd like it to be set up, so that's fantastic. I don't suppose there's an equivalent guide somewhere for the Icewind Dale games?
Buying games you aren't going to play is a waste of money (no matter how cheap they are). Forcing yourself to play games you wish you hadn't bought is a waste of time. Both are best avoided.
The Gold Box games are more fun.
I'm looking forward to this. Please don't get burnt out.
The widescreen mod is the same for all the IE games. I don't think there are "Unfinished Business" mods for IWD, but you should be able to find equivalent fixpacks and tweak packs at the same sites you download the BG ones.
I don't know if there's a way to make IWD1 run in the IWD2 engine, though.
Alice: Madness Returns
Knowing that someone wants to read it is definitely encouragement for continuing.
Let me ask you this: would you rather read an AAR after it is complete or in small chunks while it is being played? It won't affect how I'm doing this AAR but it may for future ones I hope to do.
Playing through Batman: Arkham City at the moment. There's an absolutely insane number of collectibles, somewhere in the range of 400. It's honestly way too much for anybody to care about.
I'm fine with whatever, personally, but the feedback you'll get if you write as you play (or post updates as you write) could provide the encouragement you need to see it to the end. Assuming that's an issue, of course.
Glad my BG tips were helpful to a couple of you. @Vinraith, I've never played IWD, so can't be any more help there unfortunately but the GOG forums are an absolute goldmine for tips on modding.
With BG I made 3 or 4 attempts to get going with the game, but that combination of mods coupled with finding a class that I really like the feel of (tended to go fighter or mage in my tabletop days) was enough to get me addicted. The graphics actually look really nice with the resolution cranked up and there's something about the art style that pulls you in to the world.
There is nothing more powerful than a bad idea who's time has come...
I would also definitely read this, I like both AAR's (I think this one is probably my favourite ever: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/tag/captain-smith/) and a bit of Napoleon or Empire:TW. I've noticed that a lot of really good AAR's are done in parts, so maybe try the RPS style of posting some of it when you feel like you've finished a chapter?
There is nothing more powerful than a bad idea who's time has come...
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