If you like SimCity-style building and management games, Tropico Reloaded is well worth the cash, with one caveat - Tropico 3, which is essentially a remake of Tropico 1 with fancier graphics and more features, goes on sale quite frequently.
If you like SimCity-style building and management games, Tropico Reloaded is well worth the cash, with one caveat - Tropico 3, which is essentially a remake of Tropico 1 with fancier graphics and more features, goes on sale quite frequently.
So if I have Tropico 3 already I can skip 1? Because I do.
If you like SimCity-style building and management games, Tropico Reloaded is well worth the cash, with one caveat - Tropico 3, which is essentially a remake of Tropico 1 with fancier graphics and more features, goes on sale quite frequently.
So if I have Tropico 3 already I can skip 1? Because I do.
Great, one game eliminated!
Well, Tropico 3 is Tropico 1 prettied up.
Tropico 2 is a whole different game though. You are basically king of pirate island, and you have to build and crew pirate ships to go out and procure treasure, while keeping the pirates happy when they're ashore.
I'll just go ahead and say I'm really opinionated on this subject.
I think Dungeons & Dragons is a horrible system for PC gaming. It's a system designed with face to face gameplay between friends in mind. But mechanically speaking it's brutal. Between a group of friends with a good DM, this is no problem. Rules get modified, DM's can mitigate the worst of circumstances, turning a crippling roll of the dice into an interesting situation. With a computer arbitrating your campaign, this turns into lots of save scumming, especially when you are getting started. I'm happy that RPG systems have gotten more intuitive and balanced since then.
All of that doesn't mean that I think D&D games on the PC are bad games. They aren't for me, really for a lot more reasons than I want to go into, but their record speaks for themselves. People love them. Personally, I think it's a lot of nostalgia boosting the experience. I'm not sure if new comers are going to get the same connection that came from playing these when they were the best of their kind available. Still, if you enjoy Bioware/Black Isles modern games you'll find that most of that stuff is in these older games too. For most people that's worth the price of admission.
Mechanically speaking you're absolutlely right. D&D is a bad system for PC games and really wasn't a very good game (again mechanically speaking) for pen and paper either. The original game was cobbled together from other unrelated games and stories and then wrapped in duct tape to keep it all together. The concept of playtesting was pretty limited at the time considering the meager resources of the time. DnD mainly kept it's dominance becasue of some good writers and the mere fact is was the "first" game like that. The 1st ed AD&D manuals were so poorly organized you might think the designers did it on purpose.
As you mentioned above the goofy rules were not a problem when you could make house rules on the fly and DMs could fudge dice rolls behind his screen or just ignore stuff when he wanted to for any dramatic or practical reasons. When you translate this to the PC all the glaring flaws become obvious and the computer, the DM effectively, becomes the worst kind of rules Nazi that you hate playing with but you do anyway because he has all the best minatures and scenery.
Also in PnP one combat encounter could take hours if not a whole day sometimes (often depending on player munchie runs). The same combat in a PC game takes only a few minutes. This throws off a lot of the balance in the game. In PnP I always felt the "sweet spot" was levels 5-10. Mages and thieves started getting some good stuff and were good for more than the odd locked chest or magic missle. Fighters grew into their own and clerics had enough resources to keep people in the fight. After that the game would start getting silly as the power levels started getting out of control. Fights would either take forever because of the number of spells and modifiers that stacked and had to be crunched, or be over in an instant because somebody found a combination of spells or powers that were unbeatable. And it often just turned into monty haul with people running around duel wielding Blackrazors and Swords of Kas while scratching their nuts with one their several vorpal swords.
Where as with the PC, and the more frequent combat, the game actually finds it sweet spot around 15+. Since the computer is the one crunching the numbers it goes quick. If people get killed it's not a big deal as you can rez easily. Orgainizing the loot is easier and the monty haul aspect becomes more enjoyable (if still a bit silly). It is still wobbly in the higher levels with all the contigencies and time stops and the like. And the classes quickly become unbalanced. This is in contrast to earlier levels that can be brutal due to the rigidity of the computer and the small range of numbers.
Also in PnP one combat encounter could take hours if not a whole day sometimes (often depending on player munchie runs). The same combat in a PC game takes only a few minutes. This throws off a lot of the balance in the game.
It never clicked, but I guess this is the reason that the old spell memorization system always felt so limited and stupid to me. Sleeping every few encounters is normal when playing on the tabletop, but in CRPGs they just throw combat at you willy nilly, you often do dozens of encounters before the end of the day; a system that only gives you back your spells if you sleep just isn't balanced around that at all.
Ok so my fears having been properly assuaged, of the three big names (BG2, NWN, & IWD) which would generally be considered the better game from an story perspective? From an game mechanics/engine perspective?
TheCanMan on
0
Sir CarcassI have been shown the end of my worldRound Rock, TXRegistered Userregular
Ok so my fears having been properly assuaged, of the three big names (BG2, NWN, & IWD) which would generally be considered the better game from an story perspective? From an game mechanics/engine perspective?
Baldur's Gate 2 out of those.
If you want to play an Infinity Engine D&D game for story, Planescape: Torment is supposed to be the end all be all. It's the only one that really tempts me. I should probably pick it up, since irrelevant combat in one of these games may actually make it playable for me.
Ok so my fears having been properly assuaged, of the three big names (BG2, NWN, & IWD) which would generally be considered the better game from an story perspective? From an game mechanics/engine perspective?
Ok so my fears having been properly assuaged, of the three big names (BG2, NWN, & IWD) which would generally be considered the better game from an story perspective? From an game mechanics/engine perspective?
Ok so my fears having been properly assuaged, of the three big names (BG2, NWN, & IWD) which would generally be considered the better game from an story perspective? From an game mechanics/engine perspective?
Of thsoe listed:
BG 2 has the absolute best story (but c.f. Planescape: Torment).
IWD is a tactics game; the story there exists only as such to move you on to the next (really cool, admittedly) combat. Both IWD and BG2 are 2nd Edition rules. IWD2 is 3rd-Edition lite.
NWN is 3rd Edition - which is largely considered to be a superior ruleset (despite some ... licenses ... the devs took when making NWN). The original campaign is ... lackluster, largely because it was supposed to take you from 1st-level to, say, 6th to 8th or so, and then you were supposed to play downloaded modules with your character until you hit 20th. "The suits" said, "Why are we programming 20 levels if you aren't going to use all of them? derp derp," so the original campaign got padded out and it shows. The expansions have much better campaigns.
The downloadable modules range from "Eh ..." to "Holy shit, that was amazing."
Personally, I own all three games, and love them all for different reasons.
In terms of pure hours of gameplay, I think nwn is a fair way ahead, and it also has the best designed (or at least most modern) interface. BG2 feels a lot more like an oldschool rpg, with all that entails. From my experience with it the difficulty level there is a lot more brutal, I tended to see my characters get one shot a lot early in the game in seemingly unavoidable ways. NWN does a lot more hand holding, and levels you up pretty quickly at the start so you're not a complete weakling.
In the end despite being superficially similar they are very different games, and which one you want comes down to what you're looking for. BG2 has a better story and characters but the engine / rules leaves a lot to be desired, whereas NWN has a great engine and and easier to follow mechanics, but you'll be travelling alone or with just one companion for much of the game.
Zedar on
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cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
edited December 2010
Is there a good reason to get Another/Out of this World anniversary if I already own the Sega CD version?
cj iwakura on
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CheesecakeRecipe"Should not be allowed to post in the Steam Thread" - IsornSqualor Victoria, Squalor Victoria!Registered Userregular
Is there a good reason to get Another/Out of this World anniversary if I already own the Sega CD version?
The new HD visuals are pretty breathtaking (and you can switch to the original look at any time), and there's also some great extras that come with the GoG version. For $10 you should buy it without hesitation.
CheesecakeRecipe on
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cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
The sale is nice if you're planning on buying half their catalog, but otherwise, I dunno.
And Tyrian 2000? I wouldn't have set up a countdown for giving away something that was already free.
Maybe they're tricking us again, like they did with the shutdown stunt?
The sale is nice if you're planning on buying half their catalog, but otherwise, I dunno.
And Tyrian 2000? I wouldn't have set up a countdown for giving away something that was already free.
Maybe they're tricking us again, like they did with the shutdown stunt?
Yeah, they're discounted individually. But "up to 50% off" 5 dollar games only really pays off if you're buying in bulk. :P
Then buy more of them? Don't see how getting the choice to just buy the games you want (rather than 20% games you don't give a shit about) is less of a deal.
Yeah, they're discounted individually. But "up to 50% off" 5 dollar games only really pays off if you're buying in bulk. :P
Fun activity: try gifting one of the free games and watch what happens!
How so? I mean, frankly the only stuff I'm interested in that I don't own is the Infinity Engine stuff and NWN. They sell so well that they're not going to be going on sale for less anytime soon, so because I held off from buying them at release I'll buy them at the slight discount. The whole point of a sale is to motivate people into making a purchase they otherwise might have waited to make - very rarely is it about making something you literally cannot afford something you can afford.
Bioptic on
0
DrakeEdgelord TrashBelow the ecliptic plane.Registered Userregular
The sale is nice if you're planning on buying half their catalog, but otherwise, I dunno.
And Tyrian 2000? I wouldn't have set up a countdown for giving away something that was already free.
Maybe they're tricking us again, like they did with the shutdown stunt?
Tyrian follows the pattern of them putting up things like Beneath A Steel Sky and Teen Agent. Even though these games have been free for a while, I think GoG is the first place that visibly hosts these games in a state that is going to work (for most people anyway) after installation.
Ok so my fears having been properly assuaged, of the three big names (BG2, NWN, & IWD) which would generally be considered the better game from an story perspective? From an game mechanics/engine perspective?
Baldur's Gate 2 out of those.
If you want to play an Infinity Engine D&D game for story, Planescape: Torment is supposed to be the end all be all. It's the only one that really tempts me. I should probably pick it up, since irrelevant combat in one of these games may actually make it playable for me.
The only way to cure your weak temptation, and make you buy this game, is
Which was the super beloved strategy series people rave about even today? Age of Wonders or Master of Magic ... Shadow Magic? It was something people were super excited about when it released but I'm not sure which it was.
emnmnme on
0
mrt144King of the NumbernamesRegistered Userregular
edited December 2010
Now I'm 50 bucks poorer thanks to Bauldurs gate, NWN, Planescape Torment and a few other games.
Which was the super beloved strategy series people rave about even today? Age of Wonders or Master of Magic ... Shadow Magic? It was something people were super excited about when it released but I'm not sure which it was.
Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic is what people were freaking out over (AoW II mostly) but Master of Magic also had people incredibly happy because that's also one of the all-time classics. Out of 1,200 votes, Master of Magic has 5/5 stars on GoG. The Age of Wonders games have a few hundred votes and 4.5 stars.
Basically to sum it up they are both extremely good old games.
Which was the super beloved strategy series people rave about even today? Age of Wonders or Master of Magic ... Shadow Magic? It was something people were super excited about when it released but I'm not sure which it was.
Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic and Master of Magic are both awesome games, so it was probably both.
Hrm, anyone know a surefire way to force old games into windowed mode? I'm trying to run Lords of the Realm 2 but I don't want it full screen. adding -w doesn't work.
Is it running in DOSbox? That should work in DOSbox. But if it's disabled for some reason, dig up the DOSbox config file for the game. You'll find it in the games directory (assuming it's running in DOSbox). Open up the file in notepad and change Fullscreen=False to Fullscreen=True.
Posts
Why are there all these sims and 4X and RTSs on sale? I don't even know anything about these games and I want to buy them all.
Empire Earth 2 & 3, Patrician 1, 2, & 3, Tropico, Port Royale 1 & 2, Settlers 2, Stronghold.
Arghhhhhhh.
If you like SimCity-style building and management games, Tropico Reloaded is well worth the cash, with one caveat - Tropico 3, which is essentially a remake of Tropico 1 with fancier graphics and more features, goes on sale quite frequently.
Serious same, postal 1/2 and Painkiller sound good too
So if I have Tropico 3 already I can skip 1? Because I do.
Great, one game eliminated!
Well, Tropico 3 is Tropico 1 prettied up.
Tropico 2 is a whole different game though. You are basically king of pirate island, and you have to build and crew pirate ships to go out and procure treasure, while keeping the pirates happy when they're ashore.
Mechanically speaking you're absolutlely right. D&D is a bad system for PC games and really wasn't a very good game (again mechanically speaking) for pen and paper either. The original game was cobbled together from other unrelated games and stories and then wrapped in duct tape to keep it all together. The concept of playtesting was pretty limited at the time considering the meager resources of the time. DnD mainly kept it's dominance becasue of some good writers and the mere fact is was the "first" game like that. The 1st ed AD&D manuals were so poorly organized you might think the designers did it on purpose.
As you mentioned above the goofy rules were not a problem when you could make house rules on the fly and DMs could fudge dice rolls behind his screen or just ignore stuff when he wanted to for any dramatic or practical reasons. When you translate this to the PC all the glaring flaws become obvious and the computer, the DM effectively, becomes the worst kind of rules Nazi that you hate playing with but you do anyway because he has all the best minatures and scenery.
Also in PnP one combat encounter could take hours if not a whole day sometimes (often depending on player munchie runs). The same combat in a PC game takes only a few minutes. This throws off a lot of the balance in the game. In PnP I always felt the "sweet spot" was levels 5-10. Mages and thieves started getting some good stuff and were good for more than the odd locked chest or magic missle. Fighters grew into their own and clerics had enough resources to keep people in the fight. After that the game would start getting silly as the power levels started getting out of control. Fights would either take forever because of the number of spells and modifiers that stacked and had to be crunched, or be over in an instant because somebody found a combination of spells or powers that were unbeatable. And it often just turned into monty haul with people running around duel wielding Blackrazors and Swords of Kas while scratching their nuts with one their several vorpal swords.
Where as with the PC, and the more frequent combat, the game actually finds it sweet spot around 15+. Since the computer is the one crunching the numbers it goes quick. If people get killed it's not a big deal as you can rez easily. Orgainizing the loot is easier and the monty haul aspect becomes more enjoyable (if still a bit silly). It is still wobbly in the higher levels with all the contigencies and time stops and the like. And the classes quickly become unbalanced. This is in contrast to earlier levels that can be brutal due to the rigidity of the computer and the small range of numbers.
Yeesh, sorry about the novel.
Steam Support is the worst. Seriously, the worst
Baldur's Gate 2 out of those.
If you want to play an Infinity Engine D&D game for story, Planescape: Torment is supposed to be the end all be all. It's the only one that really tempts me. I should probably pick it up, since irrelevant combat in one of these games may actually make it playable for me.
Planescape: Torment
Plansecape: Torment
Of thsoe listed:
BG 2 has the absolute best story (but c.f. Planescape: Torment).
IWD is a tactics game; the story there exists only as such to move you on to the next (really cool, admittedly) combat. Both IWD and BG2 are 2nd Edition rules. IWD2 is 3rd-Edition lite.
NWN is 3rd Edition - which is largely considered to be a superior ruleset (despite some ... licenses ... the devs took when making NWN). The original campaign is ... lackluster, largely because it was supposed to take you from 1st-level to, say, 6th to 8th or so, and then you were supposed to play downloaded modules with your character until you hit 20th. "The suits" said, "Why are we programming 20 levels if you aren't going to use all of them? derp derp," so the original campaign got padded out and it shows. The expansions have much better campaigns.
The downloadable modules range from "Eh ..." to "Holy shit, that was amazing."
Personally, I own all three games, and love them all for different reasons.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
In the end despite being superficially similar they are very different games, and which one you want comes down to what you're looking for. BG2 has a better story and characters but the engine / rules leaves a lot to be desired, whereas NWN has a great engine and and easier to follow mechanics, but you'll be travelling alone or with just one companion for much of the game.
The new HD visuals are pretty breathtaking (and you can switch to the original look at any time), and there's also some great extras that come with the GoG version. For $10 you should buy it without hesitation.
http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/anotherworld/anotherworld.htm
An exhaustive article on what makes AW a classic.
Why do you have Lords of the Ream, Lords of the Realm 3 but not Lords of the Realm 2, which was far and away the best of the bunch?
Why?
fuck
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
Lords of the Realms 1, 3, and of Magic, happen to be the ones I remember playing.
I'm not saying 2 wasn't the best though.
Didn't they remove sheep from LotR2? How can it be better?
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
And Tyrian 2000? I wouldn't have set up a countdown for giving away something that was already free.
Maybe they're tricking us again, like they did with the shutdown stunt?
How so? Aren't the discounts on individual items?
Fun activity: try gifting one of the free games and watch what happens!
From Lords of the Realm: Royal Edition page:
Thank you so much! I lost my copy years ago and every once in awhile I get that jonesin and it just hurts so much.
EDIT: Is there a way to remove those shitty free games out of my game list?
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
How so? I mean, frankly the only stuff I'm interested in that I don't own is the Infinity Engine stuff and NWN. They sell so well that they're not going to be going on sale for less anytime soon, so because I held off from buying them at release I'll buy them at the slight discount. The whole point of a sale is to motivate people into making a purchase they otherwise might have waited to make - very rarely is it about making something you literally cannot afford something you can afford.
Tyrian follows the pattern of them putting up things like Beneath A Steel Sky and Teen Agent. Even though these games have been free for a while, I think GoG is the first place that visibly hosts these games in a state that is going to work (for most people anyway) after installation.
The only way to cure your weak temptation, and make you buy this game, is
a fan-made trailer
XBL: GamingFreak5514
PSN: GamingFreak1234
Dak'kon is SO overpowered. I love it.
XBL: GamingFreak5514
PSN: GamingFreak1234
Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic is what people were freaking out over (AoW II mostly) but Master of Magic also had people incredibly happy because that's also one of the all-time classics. Out of 1,200 votes, Master of Magic has 5/5 stars on GoG. The Age of Wonders games have a few hundred votes and 4.5 stars.
Basically to sum it up they are both extremely good old games.
Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic and Master of Magic are both awesome games, so it was probably both.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
Steam Support is the worst. Seriously, the worst
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
Is it running in DOSbox? That should work in DOSbox. But if it's disabled for some reason, dig up the DOSbox config file for the game. You'll find it in the games directory (assuming it's running in DOSbox). Open up the file in notepad and change Fullscreen=False to Fullscreen=True.