If you could only play one of these RPGs which would it be?

[Scarlet Lilith]

Arcanum is the obvious choice based on what you’ve written, but I think you have bandwidth for Fallout 2 as well.

I would skip Fallout 2 honestly, and give Arcanum preferential treatment. Once you have played the first Fallout then the sequel is really just more of the same, Arcanum is not. I mean, you could always play Fallout 2 if you have the time for it afterwards and it's super obvious that he would love Arcanum. I mean, hypothetically, we all know you're going to play whatever the poll tells you to play, Bloodeyes.

 

[Butter]

If you have time to finish Grimoire, then you have time to finish Fallout 2, Arcanum, and KotOR.

It's that big? I'm glad it's not winning then. I want to actually finish whatever wins. If these results hold it looks like I'll be playing Fallout 2. If it's as short as Fallout 1 I'll play the next most popular option as well.

Fallout 2 is bigger than Fallout 1, probably 40-50 hours on a first playthrough. Arcanum is about the same, maybe a little shorter. Grimoire can easily go above 150 hours.

 

[Lord_Potato]

Given your responses, games and the raw time you have to play, I would suggest Arcanum. Fallout 2 is inferior to 1 in all aspects that made fallout 1 interesting, with the exception of weapon and location variety.

That being said, if you really are going to iron man 18 hrs/day for weeks on end, you can play both. Knock fallout 2 out in several days so you have closure on the franchise, and start up arcanum. Arcanum is huge and will feel very comfortable with your familiarity with the fallouts.

To have closure on thr franchise he should also play Fallout New Vegas. And then the unofficial, but great Fallout Ressurection, Fallout of Nevada and then wait for the translation of Sonora.

Only then he can safely walk away from the franchise.

But I think in those 3 weeks he'll have time for both Fallout 2 and Arcanum. Especially with his 18 hours/day marathons.

 

[CappenVarra]

in that timeframe, you can finish Arcanum or FO2; i'd go for Arcanum, but hey - it's your time

yes, you can also finish Kotor, but unless you're a huge Biowhore and/or Star Wars groupie, you won't miss much if you never play it

Daggerfall, Wiz 8, and Grimoire can theoretically be completed in 3 weeks, but they're the type of game you want to spend months with if you're doing it properly

 

[Bloodeyes]

in that timeframe, you can finish Arcanum or FO2; i'd go for Arcanum, but hey - it's your time

yes, you can also finish Kotor, but unless you're a huge Biowhore and/or Star Wars groupie, you won't miss much if you never play it

Daggerfall, Wiz 8, and Grimoire can theoretically be completed in 3 weeks, but they're the type of game you want to spend months with if you're doing it properly

Months... I guess I could play them when I retire in another 40 years or so... Or I may have to adjust from total immersion playthroughs to a more measured approach. After all many people don't live to see their retirement.

 

[Casual Hero]

I would not suggest playing Daggerfall over your break if you want to complete a game. As much as I love it, it isn't really something that you sit down and beat. I mean, yeah, it does have a main story, but to me it is something that you play on and off over a long period of time. Daggerfall is more like a fantasy world sim. Good for RP. (If you do decide to play Daggerfall at some point make sure you play Daggerfall Unity. At this point there is no reason to play the original Daggerfall over DF Unity.)
I would probably say Arcanum or Fallout 2. A lot more narratively driven games than Daggerfall, so you are more likely to get through them quickly.

 

[Scarlet Lilith]

Or I may have to adjust from total immersion playthroughs to a more measured approach. After all many people don't live to see their retirement.

Yes, get more healthy habits, Bloodeyes! Grimoire is like a boiled sweet, you're supposed to savor it for a bit, not swallow it whole. I'm not sure if it would even be enjoyable that way, even though time flies when playing it.

 

[Bloodeyes]

Or I may have to adjust from total immersion playthroughs to a more measured approach. After all many people don't live to see their retirement.

Yes, get more healthy habits, Bloodeyes! Grimoire is like a boiled sweet, you're supposed to savor it for a bit, not swallow it whole. I'm not sure if it would even be enjoyable that way, even though time flies when playing it.

I have too many healthy habits. I work out daily. I don't smoke. I don't drink. I don't watch pornography. I don't smoke weed or bath salts any more. I don't even drink coffee after 12pm. I'm going to marathon the shit out of a game on my holiday. But yeah if I want to play more than a dozen or so more RPGs in the rest of my life I may have to start doing the little and often thing as well.

 

[Mikeal]

Dancing between Arcanum and Fallout 2.

 

[Scarlet Lilith]

Or I may have to adjust from total immersion playthroughs to a more measured approach. After all many people don't live to see their retirement.

Yes, get more healthy habits, Bloodeyes! Grimoire is like a boiled sweet, you're supposed to savor it for a bit, not swallow it whole. I'm not sure if it would even be enjoyable that way, even though time flies when playing it.

I have too many healthy habits. I work out daily. I don't smoke. I don't drink. I don't watch pornography. I don't smoke weed or bath salts any more. I don't even drink coffee after 12pm. I'm going to marathon the shit out of a game on my holiday. But yeah if I want to play more than a dozen or so more RPGs in the rest of my life I may have to start doing the little and often thing as well.

That's so healthy it almost loops back into unhealthy lol, you have to remember that it is important to relax sometimes, stress is terrible for you.

 

[CrunchyHemorrhoids]

Arcanum. Fallout 2's ok as well. You won't be able to stomach kotor 1's juvenile writing and spoiled story having already played 2.

 

[agris]

Or I may have to adjust from total immersion playthroughs to a more measured approach. After all many people don't live to see their retirement.

Yes, get more healthy habits, Bloodeyes! Grimoire is like a boiled sweet, you're supposed to savor it for a bit, not swallow it whole. I'm not sure if it would even be enjoyable that way, even though time flies when playing it.

I have too many healthy habits. I work out daily. I don't smoke. I don't drink. I don't watch pornography. I don't smoke weed or bath salts any more. I don't even drink coffee after 12pm. I'm going to marathon the shit out of a game on my holiday. But yeah if I want to play more than a dozen or so more RPGs in the rest of my life I may have to start doing the little and often thing as well.

As someone who has recently gone from academic to professional and has very many time constraints, I feel the need to alert you to how impossible it is - for me - to play cRPGs in tiny chunks. Minutes here and there get lost, and I inevitably end up rudderless when loading a save. Granted my constraints are different than yours, I have a family, but I’ve found anything less than an hour of playtime is essentially worthless. Too much time to reacquaint myself with quests and motivations and thoughts. Granted though that is not playing every day, that is more like playing once a week. If you play daily, you can probably avoid this scenario by playing a minimum of 20 minutes.

 

[Sykar]

Given your responses, games and the raw time you have to play, I would suggest Arcanum. Fallout 2 is inferior to 1 in all aspects that made fallout 1 interesting, with the exception of weapon and location variety.

That being said, if you really are going to iron man 18 hrs/day for weeks on end, you can play both. Knock fallout 2 out in several days so you have closure on the franchise, and start up arcanum. Arcanum is huge and will feel very comfortable with your familiarity with the fallouts.

Simply untrue. Size and scope of the game, party members and their handling/gearing, charisma being useful, Lynette battle of wits, finding out about the connections between NCR, New Reno and Vault City just to name a handful of things FO 2 did better. The only real problem FO 2 had was cut content and no quality control giving us the overabundance of cultural reference/fdumb jokes but then again the game was rushed. Temple of Trials is overhated and done in about 10 minutes or even less if you are a veteran of FO 1. FO 1 is tighter and more focused but whether that is better or worse is up to personal preference.

 

[curds]

My vote goes to Fallout 2.

I have actually started Fallout 2 a handful of times but I lost interest for some reason.

Fallout 2 really picks up after the first few hours, in my opinion. Now that you've got some free time you can push through the somewhat boring beginning and play this masterpiece to completion.

Fallout has a vastly superior early game, but I think Fallout 2 is better overall.

 

[aweigh]

Out of the choices in the poll the only real answer is Fallout 2, everything else is compromised in some way.

 

[Tweed]

Fallout 2, it's more accessible and it will provide a great experience, bugs and all.

 

[Darth Canoli]

Wizardry 8, Fallout 2 and then play at least half of Arcanum.

 

[Bigg Boss]

Play Fallout 2.

 

[Cat Dude]

Neither in the list. Dark Souls.

 

[luj1]

Tough choice but I went with Arcanum.

KotOR is streamlined and relatively short.

Dagerfall, Wiz8 and Grimoire are insanely fun, but can get monotonous.

Fallout 2 albeit not short isn't long either. Still has less content than Arcanum.

Technological playthough of Arcanum probably has access to the most content. There's so much delicious nonsense in that.

But again, it's a beautiful poll. You can't go wrong, I love all of them.

 

[Scarlet Lilith]

Neither in the list. Dark Souls.

He clearly wants to play an RPG! Dark Souls is an action game first and foremost, which doesn't mean it's bad mind you, but it doesn't belong on that list!

 

[Cat Dude]

Neither in the list. Dark Souls.

He clearly wants to play an RPG! Dark Souls is an action game first and foremost, which doesn't mean it's bad mind you, but it doesn't belong on that list!

it does have just as much merit as an RPG as anything else. The RPG is way too broad a genre, I mean you can loosely find reasoning for games like System Shock, Mass Effect, Deus Ex, and other games that have been merging RPG features into other genres. Ever since System Shock 2 in 1999 the line between action and RPG has been shattered, that was a FPS survival horror game with RPG stats, leveling, and of course making your character build with strengths and weakness like if you're full on commando then you probably won't be a good hacker or psychic. After SS2, it proved that any action game could run on full RPG systems without losing anything of an RPG or action game.

 

[Bloodeyes]

Neither in the list. Dark Souls.

He clearly wants to play an RPG! Dark Souls is an action game first and foremost, which doesn't mean it's bad mind you, but it doesn't belong on that list!

it does have just as much merit as an RPG as anything else. The RPG is way too broad a genre, I mean you can loosely find reasoning for games like System Shock, Mass Effect, Deus Ex, and other games that have been merging RPG features into other genres. Ever since System Shock 2 in 1999 the line between action and RPG has been shattered, that was a FPS survival horror game with RPG stats, leveling, and of course making your character build with strengths and weakness like if you're full on commando then you probably won't be a good hacker or psychic. After SS2, it proved that any action game could run on full RPG systems without losing anything of an RPG or action game.

Dark Souls is an action RPG that primarily focuses on the action side. I have it on ps4, and I'll get around to it one day. This thread is about traditional CPRGs, not hybrid genres.

Arcanum is getting quite the lead. I think it's going to win. That's good because I already own it. Bad because I'll need to ask for help making it run, when the time comes.