We need another BG/BG2, Forget the MMORGs!

[iwarrior-poet]

Baldur's Gate is what got me back into D+D after a 18 year hiatus. The gameplay was fun as heck, the NPC's were lively and interactive, and leveling up was almost as much fun as playing the game itself! I got back into D+D with the hopes that there would be more crossover products like this... No dice. I am not counting Icewind Dale 1+2 because it was the same engine---with even fewer NPC personalities (and no Minsc!). Either way it has been a long, long time since any computer game could really hold up to D+D's turn based style of play.

I have played with some MMORGS (Guild Wars, D+D Online) and was disappointed. I also want to be able to play the game on MY terms (20 minutes here, a few hours there...) and not have to depend on a huge commitment just to stay current on the game (ie Evercrack/WoW).

NWN 1+2 were clunky and EXTREME resource hogs on my PC. Plus (again) no cool party NPC's.

Elder Scrolls was OK---but compared to BG it was also pretty clunky and I couldn't get a gang of NPC's to join my PC. I (for one) don't need a 1st person shooter interface---gimme an eye-in-the-sky situation where I can manipulate the party, plan my defense/attack (and save/reload for when I get fried...)

Heck---I got back into D+D thinking that E-Tools was going to be as much fun as BG's character interface... LORD what a disappointment that was...

Awhile ago there were rumblings about a BG3. Now I am not particularly looking forward to 4e (both for gameplay and the changes wrought on the Forgotten Realms), but I could definitely be swayed if there was a slick BG3 based in the new 4e campaign. And----(but this might be too cool for school), there were some way to import/export PC's between the game and the new Digital Initiative character builder. How sweet would that be?

 

[Ilium]

The Temple of Elemental Evil computer game is for you. It's based on the 3.5 rules and has exactly the style of play you're describing. Find a copy, but that's just the first step.

This game, as released, was HUGELY buggy. As in unplayable. But there are patches to get you going. More importantly there's an excellent modding community that has expanded the game a bunch and fixed all the really bad bugs. Check it out:

http://www.co8.org

Look under the TOEE Modding forum.

WITH all the fixes, this is a great game that I play a lot.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

I think someone needs to somehow one day get everyone from Black Isle and Troika together and form a new RPG-centric company, WITH a good debugger crew.

That would be one of the most amazing CRPG companies ever.

 

[Steel_Wind]

I think someone needs to somehow one day get everyone from Black Isle and Troika together and form a new RPG-centric company, WITH a good debugger crew.

That would be one of the most amazing CRPG companies ever.

While I express no opinion as to your conclusion that such a company should be "amazing", the resume qualifications you seem to prefer comes pretty close to defining the creative staff at Obsidian Entertainment Inc..

 

[The Ubbergeek]

For some reasons, I didn't like much BG2....

I prefered ICWD 1-2, and it's less story, more action side perhaps. And NWN 1 which is finaly not too demandign now and the NPC and story, while not as dearing, was cool.

 

[GoodKingJayIII]

While I express no opinion as to your conclusion that such a company should be "amazing", the resume qualifications you seem to prefer comes pretty close to defining the creative staff at Obsidian Entertainment Inc..

... and they don't have the best track record.

I loved BG2 and ToB. I still love them, actually. It was just a confluence of a lot of great things, and I think it'd be difficult to match for any company.

 

[Remus Lupin]

Well, once I got it working on my new computer, I fell in love with NWN2! Mostly, it's the graphics and the avatars. I was never very keen on the NWN graphics, which gave me very limited character portait and customization options, but with NWN2, I'm very happy with the "look" of the thing.

But, it is true, there really hasn't been anything "epic" in terms of story like BG/BG2/TOB for far too long, and I miss it. I, too, have little use for the MMORPGs.

 

[Rl'Halsinor]

Well, once I got it working on my new computer, I fell in love with NWN2! Mostly, it's the graphics and the avatars. I was never very keen on the NWN graphics, which gave me very limited character portait and customization options, but with NWN2, I'm very happy with the "look" of the thing.

Could you tell me what your system specs are? I am trying to figuree out if my system can run it before purchasing NWN2. I have read far too many stories of even high end systems being brought to their knees because of this games poor coding. Plus there is the SecuRom issue...

As for BG3 it would have to have an excellent plot and time to develop. The shame is publishers rush projects and look at all the buggy games released.

 

[Remus Lupin]

I'm working on a brand new iMac, running windows XP under bootcamp. I can't remember. It's standard issue. Here are the specs, to the best of my knowledge:

2.0 Ghz Intel 2 Core Duo Processor.
4MB shared L2 cache at full processor speed
800MHz system bus
1GB (one SO-DIMM) of PC2-5300 (667MHz) DDR2 memory
ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT graphics processor
128MB of GDDR3 memory

It runs well when I'm running in Boot Camp mode, but I tried running it under Windows Parallels, and it wouldn't run because it couldn't do the 3D emulation. No doubt, it's a resource hog, and I've even had to back off on some of the graphics to avoid it crashing my system. But it still looks great.

 

[Psyckosama]

Thats not going to happen. Games today are all made for console kiddies who have twitch reflexes and the attention span of a pound of yak butter.

The best your going to get is Oblivion... or maybe... Oblivion wif Gunz.

Bethesda needs to die.