Baldurs Gate 2: Capstone to the Golden Era of crpg's?

[Andhaira]

Well to be honest the goldbox games are strartegic hack and slash.

 

[DraQ]

Let's say it like this: If Oblivion wouldn't have been hyped as the best thing ever, but rather Bethesda had accurately described its real features before release, I wouldn't have been disappointed. Disappointment only comes when you expect something else than you finally get.

I don't fully agree. Beth was known for large freely accessible worlds with rich background lore, so, apart from not hyping shit that wasn't in game they'd have had to not rape the lore and hide the fact that world was so fucking tiny.
Also, level scaling, it's autofail if implemented to such extent as in Oblibians.

 

[Andhaira]

The real place Beth fucked up was in hyping that radiant AI. lol yeah, Ultima 7 is still the king in that dept, and they had no fancy name for it.

YOU COULD BAKE BREAD!!!!!!!!!

 

[JarlFrank]

Let's say it like this: If Oblivion wouldn't have been hyped as the best thing ever, but rather Bethesda had accurately described its real features before release, I wouldn't have been disappointed. Disappointment only comes when you expect something else than you finally get.

I don't fully agree. Beth was known for large freely accessible worlds with rich background lore, so, apart from not hyping shit that wasn't in game they'd have had to not rape the lore and hide the fact that world was so fucking tiny.
Also, level scaling, it's autofail if implemented to such extent as in Oblibians.

Well, yeah. The lore raping was pretty shit, too. But we knew that Cyrodiil wasn't true to its previous descriptions from the beginning.

Also, the level scaling was the thing that ultimately killed the game for me. I tried to like it, but failed because the level scaling is so fucking stupid that it removes challenge, excitement and fun completely from the game.

 

[doctor_kaz]

I will explain: most non-drone larvae think P&P is all about role-playing and choices, and hence call the older RPGs like Goldbox and EoB non-RPGs because they don't have that. They conveniently forget how D&D developed and what those RPG systems were, back in the day, and hence cling to their delusion that everything that isn't a Fallout-like is not an RPG, whereas to them every real RPG, good old dungeon crawlers, are not RPGs. Hah! They'll even call them "combat simulators", and then go at lengths to prove that System Shock and Deus Ex are RPGs in their sick, twisted minds.

I still hold up the Goldbox games as the ultimate example of what a D&D CRPG should be. I recently re-started a Curse of the Azure Bonds game and played it for five hours straight before realizing I needed to wake up the next morning.

The RPG tag is slapped on everything nowadays. Mass Effect, Bioshock, the diablo-esque crap that was called "Two Worlds". It's rather sad how many games are called RPGs now that back 15-20 years ago would have been called Shooters or "Adventure games"

This is why I still play ToEE.

I have tried replaying the Gold Box games about four times and I can't get past the primitive technology. Specifically, the interface. What's really sad is that shitty interfaces are making a comeback, thanks to consolizing.

 

[Andhaira]

Hmm consoles seem to be moving away from interfaces as well. What game in particular are you talking about?

 

[Saxon1974]

I loved the gold box games except for the amount of time spent in combat. I like the turnbased combat, but the battles take so long to finish and there are so many of them!

I couldn't play pools of darkness at all because it was 1 huge fight against like 20 creatures one after another.

Speaking of BGII, I just got to the drow city. PRetty cool place, the Drow are very cool in an evil way

 

[ghostdog]

Speaking of BGII, I just got to the drow city. PRetty cool place, the Drow are very cool in an evil way

You're in the best part of the game. Underdark has great NCP's, very interesting quests with meaningful c&c and some epic battles. I'm hoping for a (new) game that plays completely in this area, underdark is by far the most interesting place of forgotten realms.

 

[Jasede]

Yes.

 

[Saxon1974]

Speaking of BGII, I just got to the drow city. PRetty cool place, the Drow are very cool in an evil way

You're in the best part of the game. Underdark has great NCP's, very interesting quests with meaningful c&c and some epic battles. I'm hoping for a (new) game that plays completely in this area, underdark is by far the most interesting place of forgotten realms.

Sure seems like it, its pretty fun so far. What Im wondering is if I decide to try and kill the dragon, would I then have to fight my way out of the drow city? Not sure that would work.....Dont tell me though, I wanna find out myself.

Not sure I would want a whole game based on the underdark. What I do think would be cool would be a game based in a surface city somewhere but many of the quests involved getting into a drow city for various reasons. The Underdark kind of feels like a dungeon to me, really cool to explore but I want to occasionaly go back to a good city and sell stuff etc....

 

[ghostdog]

I don't want to spoil it but you can finish the deal in almost all possible ways, you can double cross one of the interested parties , some of them and all of them. I always anded up killing most of them for their loot , but have in mind that killing the dragon is really difficult (and evil of course) but the reward will be silver dragon scales for your new armor and blood for another evil quest, although I think you get less XP that way...it's up to you !

 

[Saxon1974]

I don't want to spoil it but you can finish the deal in almost all possible ways, you can double cross one of the interested parties , some of them and all of them. I always anded up killing most of them for their loot , but have in mind that killing the dragon is really difficult (and evil of course) but the reward will be silver dragon scales for your new armor and blood for another evil quest, although I think you get less XP that way...it's up to you !

Awesomeness!

Im not sure I could get myself to attack a good Dragon, I have this weird thing where I can't seem to be evil in a game. I can play a rogue and steal and stuff but some reason I never got a good feeling about killing someone in a game. Guess I was not made to be an assassin! I would like to kill all the drow in the city, but im thinking that's gonna be a tough feat to pull off.

 

[Andhaira]

Not relaly actually. Just kill as many, rest, rinse and repeat.

btw do you have viconia in your party?

 

[Jasede]

Resting while you're attacking a Drow city? That's unrealistic. Don't do it; it makes the game too easy anyway. Try to only rest when it makes sense.

But feel free to when you just can't take the challenge anymore and need an easier game.

 

[spiwak]

Man, BGII was my favorite go-to game for a long time (I'm only 20 so I wasn't really around playing computer games before 1998 (Fallout 2 was my first computer game ever)) and I spent at least one whole summer playing it a few different ways. I did a couple solo run-throughs which, apart from the first dungeon, actually made the game easier for the most part. Anyway, I don't know if I'd call it the capstone of that era. Obviously it's the capstone of the Infinity Engine era but at the moment the last great RPG in the same vein as Fallout or Planescape that I've played would have to be Bloodlines (despite its flaws). It's not even like the story was amazing, but the characters were rich and the role-playing was top-notch.

 

[youhomofo]

It sucks that BGII is becoming the game that's chic to dislike. At least here.

ONOES PPLZ LEIKS BGII I AM COOL AND SOFISTIKAITED SO I HAETS IT

Go fuck yourselves.

 

[Murk]

Awesomeness!

Im not sure I could get myself to attack a good Dragon, I have this weird thing where I can't seem to be evil in a game. I can play a rogue and steal and stuff but some reason I never got a good feeling about killing someone in a game. Guess I was not made to be an assassin! I would like to kill all the drow in the city, but im thinking that's gonna be a tough feat to pull off.

i did it once to make that special armor you need the blood (or was it scales?) from the good dragon, it sucked anyway so i didn't even use it.

killing all the drow aint too bad, when i did i was playing a solo 40 fighter/40 cleric though and i was pretty much the avatar of rape

energy discs = instant death to anyone

 

[Texas Red]

Awesomeness!

Im not sure I could get myself to attack a good Dragon, I have this weird thing where I can't seem to be evil in a game. I can play a rogue and steal and stuff but some reason I never got a good feeling about killing someone in a game. Guess I was not made to be an assassin! I would like to kill all the drow in the city, but im thinking that's gonna be a tough feat to pull off.

i did it once to make that special armor you need the blood (or was it scales?) from the good dragon, it sucked anyway so i didn't even use it.

killing all the drow aint too bad, when i did i was playing a solo 40 fighter/40 cleric though and i was pretty much the avatar of rape

energy discs = instant death to anyone

From my experience a pure cleric can own everything on his own. But multiclassing is overpower in BG.

 

[Lumpy]

It sucks that BGII is becoming the game that's chic to dislike. At least here.

ONOES PPLZ LEIKS BGII I AM COOL AND SOFISTIKAITED SO I HAETS IT

Go fuck yourselves.

Yeah, that must be it. We are so sophisticated we only enjoy games nobody else likes, such as MotB, Gothic 3, the Witcher, Planescape:Torment, Arcanum and Fallout.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

It sucks that BGII is becoming the game that's chic to dislike. At least here.

ONOES PPLZ LEIKS BGII I AM COOL AND SOFISTIKAITED SO I HAETS IT

Go fuck yourselves.

Yeah, that must be it. We are so sophisticated we only enjoy games nobody else likes, such as MotB, Gothic 3, the Witcher, Planescape:Torment, Arcanum and Fallout.

Nobody like Big Rigs either... So shall we start enjoying it to be moar underground?

 

[Section8]

If Big Rigs had a Bioware sticker on it and NPC romances, the Codex would be all over it, and wretched, horrible undermen would be saying things like "The only reason Fallout had turn-based combat is because they didn't have the technology to implement pathetically inept truck driving physics."

 

[Murk]

From my experience a pure cleric can own everything on his own. But multiclassing is overpower in BG.

yeah clerics are total h4x in d&d, don't even know why they bothered with a paladin if giving a cleric a few levels of fighter is the same thing but like, better

 

[1eyedking]

BG2 was like a quick affair: Fallout replays could no longer satisfy me and I needed some excitement in my game life.

But it was no more than that. It lured me with its lustful contours, but deep inside she was a cold, empty bitch.

 

[Andhaira]

I'm bumpnig this controversial baby back to the top to get the opinion of the new blood which has come to the Codex.

@New people who didn't see this thread: Do you agree with the statement in the OT? Please explain.

 

[King Crispy]

edit: sniper kitty.