Good offline CRPG for XP/Vista

Ranger REG · 30th May 2008, 11:34 AM

Any recommendation. Been looking at Fate lately ... for my first new laptop.

Thanee · 30th May 2008, 12:33 PM

The Witcher (a new enhanced edition coming out later this year, but with the old game it will most likely be a free upgrade then)

Mass Effect (new for PC this month)

Bye
Thanee

Mercule · 2nd June 2008, 04:13 PM

Fate is pretty good, especially for the cost. It's a lot like Diablo 2, with cuter graphics. I definitely got my $20 out of it. Nothing earth-shaking, but entertaining.

Currently, I'm playing Neverwinter Nights 2, but I'm late to that game, so you've probably already played it. If not, it's a lot of fun. My wife and I had been alternating evenings to play it before I got three new PDFs that require my attention.

andargor · 3rd June 2008, 08:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thanee

The Witcher (a new enhanced edition coming out later this year, but with the old game it will most likely be a free upgrade then)

Seconded.

I assume you've played KotOR? If not, you should.

Ranger REG · 4th June 2008, 09:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mercule

Fate is pretty good, especially for the cost. It's a lot like Diablo 2, with cuter graphics. I definitely got my $20 out of it. Nothing earth-shaking, but entertaining.

"Cute" is an understatement. Fate happens to be one of the My HP Games feature in my new laptop. Been mulling over whether to purchase it for $20. One thing, though. Don't like playing the game with the touchpad, so I plug in my USB mouse.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mercule

Currently, I'm playing Neverwinter Nights 2, but I'm late to that game, so you've probably already played it. If not, it's a lot of fun. My wife and I had been alternating evenings to play it before I got three new PDFs that require my attention.

Actually, no. As of May 29, my laptop is probably more powerful than my 7-year-old desktop PC. I've yet to buy NWN2 but I doubt it can run on my laptop, which is not really configured for hardcore gaming.

Is it me or are those software's system requirement labels very confusing? I know I have touched upon the topic before but still... most never to bother listing whether they work on multi-core PC.

Ranger REG · 4th June 2008, 09:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by andargor

I assume you've played KotOR? If not, you should.

I have, on my old PC. I wonder if I could install it on my new Vista laptop.

I tried to install my old favorite, Arcanum, but the cursor won't move. Touchpad or mouse, it doesn't work. Had to bring up Vista's Task Manager just to shut it down.

Ranger REG · 4th June 2008, 09:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thanee

Mass Effect (new for PC this month)

I thought Mass Effect is a pay-2-play MMORPG. Don't think would work on my laptop. Hopefully I will upgrade my desktop soon (probably going with AMD multi-core CPU).

Dire Lemming · 4th June 2008, 09:56 AM

I hated NWN2. It was the same old crappy pseudo-real-time with pause combat as NWN1, just as much, same old, skirmish, rest to get all your spells/hit points back, skirmish, repeat. The story was uninteresting. The characters were either uncompelling, annoying, or minor, and the much vaunted choices are few and far between and most of them don't make any difference in the long run.

I've heard that the expansion pack for it was very good though, and I've heard The Witcher is very good too, but NWN2 is highly mediocre.

Mass Effect is another Bioware RPG which means more of the same. If you really like Bioware's formula you'll probably love it, if you don't you probably won't. It's not a MMORPG, it's single player and free once you buy it. Where did you get that idea?

HyannisRPGER · 4th June 2008, 11:32 AM

I've played mass effect on the 360 and NWN2. Both play totally differently. Also with the real time combat in NWN2, you can set options for it to pause at the end of combat rounds, ect and issue orders.

If you are looking for a hackenslash/ diablo type RPG, titan quest is goood.

Dire Lemming · 4th June 2008, 12:02 PM

I should also point out in case anyone didn't know that NWN2 was not made by Bioware, but by Obsidian Entertainment. Same thing with KotOR 2.

dvvega · 14th June 2008, 04:22 AM

Quote:

Actually, no. As of May 29, my laptop is probably more powerful than my 7-year-old desktop PC. I've yet to buy NWN2 but I doubt it can run on my laptop, which is not really configured for hardcore gaming.

I own a 1.6 Ghz Laptop with an AMD Turion chip (essentially behaves as a Dual Core under Windows XP). It has 2GB of memory and a separate NVidia graphics chipset.

The laptop is definitely not a gaming machine, however I've successfully played The Witcher at Medium Resolution (except in Act 3 where there are just too many AIs running). You shouldn't have a problem playing anything half-decent on your new laptop.

The key here is the graphics card. If it is an onboard one then you will generally have problems, but if you have a card (or chipset) that has a GPU (like mine) then you should not have problems.

D

drothgery · 14th June 2008, 05:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ranger REG

I thought Mass Effect is a pay-2-play MMORPG. Don't think would work on my laptop. Hopefully I will upgrade my desktop soon (probably going with AMD multi-core CPU).

No. It's a KotOR style RPG (though in Bioware's own universe, rather than Star Wars).

Bront · 14th June 2008, 09:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ranger REG

most never to bother listing whether they work on multi-core PC.

That's because they don't need to. There were only a few games that had consistent problems with dual core PCs, and those were fixed with patches. Even if you didn't patch it, you can solve it by setting the program to only use 1 CPU manually, so it isn't an issue.

stonegod · 22nd June 2008, 09:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ranger REG

I tried to install my old favorite, Arcanum, but the cursor won't move. Touchpad or mouse, it doesn't work. Had to bring up Vista's Task Manager just to shut it down.

Ah, Arcanum. My idiot savant half-orc technologist who made his own friends makes me smile (and I'm still playing version of him in D&D)...

As for getting to work on Vista, I've heard running it as Admin under Compatibility mode *should* would. My want to check some of the patches at Terra-Arcanum as well.

JediSoth · 22nd June 2008, 06:49 PM

If you have any questions as to whether or not your computer will run a specific game, check out System Requirements Lab. It has yet to steer me wrong.

JediSoth

Grog · 22nd June 2008, 07:19 PM

Have you played Planescape: Torment? Best PC RPG ever made, even though it's almost 10 years old now.

stonegod · 22nd June 2008, 07:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grog

Have you played Planescape: Torment? Best PC RPG ever made, even though it's almost 10 years old now.

That's a strong claim... though not wrong.

Torment, Arcanum, and the original Fallouts are my top ones.

stonegod · 22nd June 2008, 07:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JediSoth

If you have any questions as to whether or not your computer will run a specific game, check out System Requirements Lab. It has yet to steer me wrong.

But Arcanum is not on there.

Grog · 22nd June 2008, 09:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stonegod

Torment, Arcanum, and the original Fallouts are my top ones.

The Fallouts are good too (well, the first one, anyway; the second one was good too, but was hamstrung by being buggy as all get-out), but I don't think they've aged as well as Torment has. Still worth playing if one hasn't played them before, though.

silvermane · 23rd June 2008, 08:47 AM

Quote:

If it is an onboard one then you will generally have problems

I bought one of those (GeForce 7050), and boy am I screwed. The salesman lied to me that the played NFS Carbon on it with no problem. Well, he may have *played* it, but conveniently forgot to mention that it froze after 10 minutes or so. I can't even play Doom 3, NWN or any older 3D game without freezing, not to mention newer ones.