General video game discussion

[Bohandas]

Speaking of old games like MMO2 - what ever happened to the Commander Keen series? Does anyone even remember that? I am not really sure I'd want to play Jump & Run games, but that's a 'property' that hasn't been used in forever.

I remember that series. Now that you mention it I agree it's overdue for a new game.

 

[Gradine]

I am trying to figure out which CRPG from my backlog to tackle. The nominees are:
Baldurs Gate 3 (I have about 20 hours in this from a year ago and would restart with an intent to complete it)
Expedition 33 (I know, this is more of a JRPG)
Dininity OS 2 (I have like 8 hours in this from forever ago and would start totally fresh)
Drova (I started this; it felt hard)
Mirthwood (I don't even know when I bought this)
Rogue Trader (it looks good but complicated)
Solasta (I boiunced off early but mostly because of how it looks)
Temple of Elemental Evil (nostalgia ho!)
Wildermyth (I wanted this game for the generational stuff)
Wizardry 1 remake (because I hate myself?)

So, do you have any thoughts on any of those?

Unless the reason Arcanum isn't on this list because you've already beaten it, I'd toss Arcanum on the pile.

Nobody should ever hate themselves so much that they consider playing a Wizardry game, though. Have you considered, as an alternative, therapy?

 

[pukunui]

Speaking of old games like MMO2 - what ever happened to the Commander Keen series? Does anyone even remember that? I am not really sure I'd want to play Jump & Run games, but that's a 'property' that hasn't been used in forever.

I remember the name but I can’t remember what the games were like.

 

[pukunui]

Unless the reason Arcanum isn't on this list because you've already beaten it, I'd toss Arcanum on the pile.

Arcanum was a fave of mine back in the day. I do remember getting frustrated with item breakage and all the random encounters on long journeys. I used a cheat tool to stop the former and gave all my characters Teleport to avoid the latter!

 

[Thomas Shey]

Arcanum was a fave of mine back in the day. I do remember getting frustrated with item breakage and all the random encounters on long journeys. I used a cheat tool to stop the former and gave all my characters Teleport to avoid the latter!

That was another of my started-but-never-finished games that slowly taught me that CRPGs were, on the whole, not for me.

 

[Pale Violet Light]

Arcanum was a fave of mine back in the day. I do remember getting frustrated with item breakage and all the random encounters on long journeys. I used a cheat tool to stop the former and gave all my characters Teleport to avoid the latter!

Arcanum is the most overrated cRPG in the history thereof. Some of the worst combat I’ve ever seen in an RPG, both in turn-based and real-time modes. It had me longing for the sophisticated and entertaining combat of Planescape: Torment. The game was balanced by a tech-hating monkey (or maybe an elf!) - magic is powerful and easy to use, while tech is both underpowered and inconvenient. As a technologist you spend half your time rummaging around in rubbish bins for junk, while wizards can spam their way to victory with first-level spells.

Writing is good and worldbuilding is top-notch, and the plot has some nice twists and turns, but it’s hard to enjoy sometimes. I would actually recommend giving it a go, the folks who love it really love it. But I like the idea of Arcanum far more than I actually like playing it.

 

[pukunui]

Arcanum is the most overrated cRPG in the history thereof. Some of the worst combat I’ve ever seen in an RPG, both in turn-based and real-time modes. It had me longing for the sophisticated and entertaining combat of Planescape: Torment. The game was balanced by a tech-hating monkey (or maybe an elf!) - magic is powerful and easy to use, while tech is both underpowered and inconvenient. As a technologist you spend half your time rummaging around in rubbish bins for junk, while wizards can spam their way to victory with first-level spells.

Writing is good and worldbuilding is top-notch, and the plot has some nice twists and turns, but it’s hard to enjoy sometimes. I would actually recommend giving it a go, the folks who love it really love it. But I like the idea of Arcanum far more than I actually like playing it.

Yeah, I imagine my affection for it is mostly nostalgia-based. I expect if I played it again now, I'd end up hating it for being old and dated and clunky. (I always went with magic so never realized that the tech side wasn't as good.)

I used the opening scenario for a one-shot D&D session back during the D&D Next playtest. I had a bunch of pregen PCs who woke up in various places around a crashed airship on a mountainside swarming with orcs. They were all suffering short-term memory loss so it was about surviving the orc pillagers while finding their way out of the situation. A great time was had by all! (Would have loved to turn it into a full campaign geared toward solving the mystery but that never happened.)

 

[Pale Violet Light]

Yeah, I imagine my affection for it is mostly nostalgia-based. I expect if I played it again now, I'd end up hating it for being old and dated and clunky. (I always went with magic so never realized that the tech side wasn't as good.)

Honestly it felt dated and clunky in the 90s, at least to me. Though I wish I’d played through with a wizard the first run too; I might have come out with a different opinion. But in a steampunk setting, I gotta go with the guns every time.

I used the opening scenario for a one-shot D&D session back during the D&D Next playtest. I had a bunch of pregen PCs who woke up in various places around a crashed airship on a mountainside swarming with orcs. They were all suffering short-term memory loss so it was about surviving the orc pillagers while finding their way out of the situation. A great time was had by all! (Would have loved to turn it into a full campaign geared toward solving the mystery but that never happened.)

Sounds ossum; it’s a great plot hook and a shame it didn’t expand into anything more. (But orcs!? It’s not the true Arcanum experience until you’ve been ganked by a wolf at the crash site.)

 

[FrogReaver]

I'm having fun on Diablo 3 at the moment. It's been easy mindless fun.

I find that anymore I mostly just recycle old games for a bit.

 

[jian]

In my usual quest to play and complete two JRPGs a year, I’ve stalled on Tales of Graces f (Switch) at almost exactly the same place installed on PS2 a decade ago.

I have played, enjoyed, and completed Onimusha Tactics on GBA. I’ve nearly completed Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories (also on GBA) but Riku IV keeps kicking my arse, he’s such a cheap boss.

Am now playing LiEat (Switch) for a cosy break.

LiEat was rather dull and so I played Power Quest (GBC) instead - basically a fighting robots RPG using a low-res version of the Street Fighter Alpha engine. Way too grindy and too much reliance on player skill, but passable.

Now playing Lunar Legend (GBA) which is, I am delighted to find, much more than a simple port of one of my favourite JRPGs of all time (Lunar Silver Star Story for PS1).