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Incline RPG Codex's Top 50 cRPGs - Results and Reviews

eremita

Savant
Joined
Sep 1, 2013
Messages
797
When the resource wars are over and humanity is reduced to wandering tribes led by barbarian warlords, I will take a shit on the corpse of a vanquished foe and call it a cRPG. Since everybody else will be too busy dodging the roving cannibalistic machete-rapists and eking out a miserable existence on a dying earth to worry about making a point on a long-dead forum, it will be the best cRPG released around the time. I hope you will treat it with the same consideration you treat DAO despite its 'compromises'.

:bro:

Also New Vegas IS a mediocre spin-off, I don't know how anybody could tolerate it without modding it into something resembling an actual RPG with a bit of challenge like I ended up having to.
Fuck you. New Vegas is great, factions in that game were done superbly, as was the end game structure. Some of the dlc was very enjoyable and they did wonders even with the limitations of the engine.

Also mods mostly enchanced the game, instead of merely fixing it like most of beth crap.

felipepepe You know better than to say codexers dont play old titles because new shit has prettier graphics. Or at least you should.
Fuck him twice. There's no game with better quest design than F:NV. Everything else in that game is unsubstantial...
 

tuluse

Arcane
Joined
Jul 20, 2008
Messages
11,400
Serpent in the Staglands Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Good 2d art is timeless IMO and comparison to shiny 3d graphics is apples and oranges. FFS look at 3D games of the late 90s or early 2000s (exception for Wiz8 2D/3D hybrid). The only reason they didn't make people barf at the time is the previous gen was even uglier.
This probably makes me a hipster, but I like a lot of late 90s early 00s 3D games. Games like No One Lives Forever look fantastic to me.
 

Doctor Sbaitso

SO, TELL ME ABOUT YOUR PROBLEMS.
Patron
Joined
Oct 22, 2013
Messages
3,348
Codex 2013 Codex 2014 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Grab the Codex by the pussy Serpent in the Staglands
Good 2d art is timeless IMO and comparison to shiny 3d graphics is apples and oranges. FFS look at 3D games of the late 90s or early 2000s (exception for Wiz8 2D/3D hybrid). The only reason they didn't make people barf at the time is the previous gen was even uglier.
This probably makes me a hipster, but I like a lot of late 90s early 00s 3D games. Games like No One Lives Forever look fantastic to me.

That is one of the best looking ones for the time yeah and a great game over all!
 

felipepepe

Codex's Heretic
Patron
Joined
Feb 2, 2007
Messages
17,274
Location
Terra da Garoa
Yeah, I also like early 3D games... but let's face it people, we're "old", from another era of gaming. Black Isle closed in 2003... a kid born that year is now 11, playing Skyrim on his Xbox. A LOT has changed since then, not only in technology, but also in style. Even the best-looking game from the 90's will look dated. It's like the jump (or fall) from the 1989 Batman movie to Batman: The Dark Knight.

Now, I'm not saying that we must forget the classics, embrace the new popamole shit and all that. Far from it. But I appreciate how DA:O is a attempt to fuse "Infinity Engine Era" RPGs with current gen games. Some games in the list are there due combat, others due storyfags, some for dungeon designs.... DA:O, at least IMHO, is there as a (d)evolutionary step, the link between Baldur's Gate 2 and Mass Effect (like it or not, THE RPG of this generation, much more than Skyrim).

It's a game that showed us a grim dark future, but also a gate to a more elegant time, for those on the other side.
 

DalekFlay

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Oct 5, 2010
Messages
14,118
Location
New Vegas
At the moment I'm raging less because of Dragon Age's position on the list and more because someone decided to call it a 'great game' and declare any hatred directed towards it completely unjustified posturing. And then because you seem to be saying it magically turns into a better game just because it happened to be released surrounded by shit that's even worse (not even the base assumption there is really true, I mean Geneforge 5 for instance was released not even a full year before DAO). And also because it's been a good long time since I had a proper rage about anything RPG related, and I was starting to not feel like a true Codexer anymore.

There's plenty of reasons to personally not like the game, never would say otherwise. However to say it's utter shit that doesn't deserve a place on the list at all is poser B.S. It's passed the "enough intelligent Codexers like it" test by a large margin.
 

DalekFlay

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Oct 5, 2010
Messages
14,118
Location
New Vegas
DA:O, at least IMHO, is there as a (d)evolutionary step, the link between Baldur's Gate 2 and Mass Effect (like it or not, THE RPG of this generation, much more than Skyrim).

Skyrim sold a fuckton more than Mass Effect so not sure what you're talking about here.

Anyway I think Dragon Age's release time-frame is important, as you say. However I also think if you compare it to Baldur's Gate and trade flaws (smoother interface versus more trash mobs or what-have-you) it holds up as a solid game in its own right.
 

Ignatius Reilly

Scholar
Joined
Jan 26, 2011
Messages
131
Location
Detroit
ToEE at 21. I can live with that. And I still have yet to play PS:T. Every time I want to, I accidentally play ToEE instead. It's a real problem.

That timeline incline graph is absolutely beautiful. Bookmarked for later viewing and pleasure.
 
Last edited:

Lhynn

Arcane
Joined
Aug 28, 2013
Messages
9,823
felipepepe You know better than to say codexers dont play old titles because new shit has prettier graphics. Or at least you should.
Hell, even BG2 and Fallout, while looking GLORIOUS to me, are extremely dated for today's audience. That's why it belongs on the list.

Good 2d art is timeless IMO and comparison to shiny 3d graphics is apples and oranges. FFS look at 3D games of the late 90s or early 2000s (exception for Wiz8 2D/3D hybrid). The only reason they didn't make people barf at the time is the previous gen was even uglier.
He just said it's not only about graphics for fuck's sake...

I also agree that DAO is good as introduction to CRPGs.
Yeah i guess, for a 6 year old or grandma.

:rpgcodex: No, its not a good introduction, its a good way to spoil them into the genre, look at bioware forums and tell me its not full of people that played an "RPG" for the first time when they got ME2.
 

felipepepe

Codex's Heretic
Patron
Joined
Feb 2, 2007
Messages
17,274
Location
Terra da Garoa
Skyrim sold a fuckton more than Mass Effect so not sure what you're talking about here.
But it's basically the same game as Oblivion and Morrowind, only dumber.

Mass Effect is more a portrait of the era, going to third-person shooter, romanceable party members you don't directly control, a "cinematic feel" and even SJW stuff. You can teel it's part of the same mindset that gave us games like The Last of Us and The Walking Dead.
 

Gregz

Arcane
Joined
Jul 31, 2011
Messages
8,510
Location
The Desert Wasteland
Skyrim sold a fuckton more than Mass Effect so not sure what you're talking about here.
But it's basically the same game as Oblivion and Morrowind, only dumber.

Mass Effect is more a portrait of the era, going to third-person shooter, romanceable party members you don't directly control, a "cinematic feel" and even SJW stuff. You can teel it's part of the same mindset that gave us games like The Last of Us and The Walking Dead.

Have the mods gotten around to adding your screenshots + reviews yet? Any eta if not?
 

Scroo

Female Quota Staff
Patron
Staff Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2010
Messages
1,865,340
Location
Too far away from the sea
Codex 2014 Codex Year of the Donut Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2
I thought about writing a short review about Divinity 2 but I just realized that I have completely forgotten everything about this game. Like, literally.
 

Bilgefar

Savant
Joined
Oct 3, 2012
Messages
184
And a list that also includes Dragon Age: Origins can never be taken seriously.

Dragon Age: Origins is a good test for poser cynicism. It's a great game in the middle of a decline studio in a decline era, so poser cynics are caught hating it without much reason, showing they would hate just about anything released at the same time. Meanwhile true cynics who just want their classics back are like "yeah it's alright, I dunno, RPG of the year I guess." True open-minded optimists are then like "wow this is a great game how did this happen."

How you respond to Dragon Age: Origins says a lot about you.
Bull.

Fucking.

Shit.

I went into DA:O optimistic. I had heard lots of good things about it and I generally did want to like it.

And I did. For a while. The first few hours with the origin stories and all that seemed pretty cool. I didn't like the MMO-style combat much at all, but I could overlook it while I was enjoying the game. They very clearly put a lot of work into the beginning of the game and it shows. It's solid. While I wouldn't say they completely hit on the promise to bring back the BG2 style, I was getting some good IE nostalgia and generally having a good time playing the game.

Sadly it didn't take too long to realize that the rest of the game wouldn't be very much like that. As others have said, the game has a lot wrong with it. Level design is generally atrocious (Deep Roads is the most recognizably shitty part, but there are tons of awful levels), and encounter design is basically copy-paste. These two issues, by themselves, killed the game for me, because it just became a boring slog to play through. There are certainly other issues (boring plot, annoying characters, cone of cold), but it's the terrible tedium caused by bad level and encounter design that killed DA:O. Which is sad, because it had a very promising beginning. But there are certainly plenty of reasons to dislike the game without being a "poser cynic".

That DA:O won RPG of the year for 2009 is one of the Codex's great shames, given that the same year Knights of the Chalice and Risen were released (at least KoTC beat DA:O on this poll).
 

felipepepe

Codex's Heretic
Patron
Joined
Feb 2, 2007
Messages
17,274
Location
Terra da Garoa
Less bitching, more reviewing.

Johannes, Humanophage, Awor Szurkrarz and Noddy, you guys voted for ADOM.

Sunsetspawn, Hirato, Vagiel, Jedi Exile, Dreed, Revenant and dr. one, you guys voted for Divinity II.

oreimo_05_02.jpg
 

Gozma

Arcane
Joined
Aug 1, 2012
Messages
2,951
I haven't been following the latest Biskup/Jade/nu-ADOM shit in the slightest and that all needs to go in there in some way
 

DalekFlay

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Oct 5, 2010
Messages
14,118
Location
New Vegas
Skyrim sold a fuckton more than Mass Effect so not sure what you're talking about here.
But it's basically the same game as Oblivion and Morrowind, only dumber.

Mass Effect is more a portrait of the era, going to third-person shooter, romanceable party members you don't directly control, a "cinematic feel" and even SJW stuff. You can teel it's part of the same mindset that gave us games like The Last of Us and The Walking Dead.

Good points, however I find it endlessly amusing that all this shit Bioware considers essential to modern success is ignored by Skyrim and then Skyrim outsells them by a factor of five.
 

DalekFlay

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Oct 5, 2010
Messages
14,118
Location
New Vegas
Sadly it didn't take too long to realize that the rest of the game wouldn't be very much like that. As others have said, the game has a lot wrong with it. Level design is generally atrocious (Deep Roads is the most recognizably shitty part, but there are tons of awful levels), and encounter design is basically copy-paste. These two issues, by themselves, killed the game for me, because it just became a boring slog to play through. There are certainly other issues (boring plot, annoying characters, cone of cold), but it's the terrible tedium caused by bad level and encounter design that killed DA:O. Which is sad, because it had a very promising beginning. But there are certainly plenty of reasons to dislike the game without being a "poser cynic".

I find the idea that Baldur's Gate had some kind of great level and encounter design pretty laughable honestly, but to each their own.
 

Rake

Arcane
Joined
Oct 11, 2012
Messages
2,969
Sadly it didn't take too long to realize that the rest of the game wouldn't be very much like that. As others have said, the game has a lot wrong with it. Level design is generally atrocious (Deep Roads is the most recognizably shitty part, but there are tons of awful levels), and encounter design is basically copy-paste. These two issues, by themselves, killed the game for me, because it just became a boring slog to play through. There are certainly other issues (boring plot, annoying characters, cone of cold), but it's the terrible tedium caused by bad level and encounter design that killed DA:O. Which is sad, because it had a very promising beginning. But there are certainly plenty of reasons to dislike the game without being a "poser cynic".

I find the idea that Baldur's Gate had some kind of great level and encounter design pretty laughable honestly, but to each their own.
We are talking about BG2 here. And if you think that BG2 had bad encounter design, you are out of your fucking mind. It was one of the highlights of the game.
 

tuluse

Arcane
Joined
Jul 20, 2008
Messages
11,400
Serpent in the Staglands Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Baldur's Gate had a wide variety of levels. Wide open, Nashkel Mines, semi-open buildings and cities. If you hated one type, if you could make it through 3-4 screens, you got a change of pace. DA:O only gives you corridors.
 

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