Game News Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition announced, to be released within a month

[Awor Szurkrarz]

A new "Story Mode" difficulty setting to allow players to experience all of the story with none of the Game Over screens

What bothers me is not the dumbing down... is the concept of someone playing Icewind Dale for the story.

What else could it be played for? Combat is shit, character system is shit, dungeon crawling is shit. Story, dialogues, locations and nice graphics are the strong sides of the game.

 

[himmy]

I think what actually happens is not that im super smart or anything like that, In fact my intelligence is only average for humans that are on our social status (that is we aren´t in hoping tomorrow we can find fresh water and the idea of having time and a computer to play games is not just a dream) though I´m a professional gamer so i have the mentality to learn fast games though training.

>equating intelligence with social status

>using the term "professional gamer" non-ironically, yet obviously wrong

>using the term "mentality"


It's like you want to make sociologists cry.

 

[Bulba]

To me a hard game is a game that put me in situations where i have to make decisions in regards to a goal, and making that decision, despite i have all the information needed to make a rational decision available to me, is gonna require of deep analysys. Think of chess and go that are hard games. The deeper analysis it requires to find very efficient or optimal plays, teh harder it is.

BG had a lot of exactly unfair situations, situations where you couldn´t possible know X, like instant death traps, or walk into a fight heavly underleveld with no information to avoid it. But other than that, it has extremly low % of fights that require decisions that require more than 2 seconds to find an excellent play.

A game may make you reload because it puts in situations that you can´t prevent (so analysis would no brought you to a better spot) or high amount of variance. And that doesn´t mean the game is hard. So the number of times you have to reload is not a direct indication on how hard the game is.

no offence but I have no idea what you are talking about - give examples of those decisions. also chess is not an rpg so don't try to make it an example

 

[Waterd]

I didnt equate intelligence with social status, professional gamer is not wrong, and mentality is fine. Sociologist wouldn´t cry, people with lack of vocabulary or a disconnection with reality might.

 

[Waterd]

What relevance it has that chess is not an rpg?

 

[Raghar]

This is crazy these remakes. I didn't play IWD2 yet. Would this edition contain IWD2?

 

[Bulba]

What relevance it has that chess is not an rpg?

lol I find it hard to eat 3 bananas in 15 seconds and I want hitting head against a wall to have a similar emotional engagement

imagine we are playing chess and I can load any turn during our game, surely I will always find it easy to beat you

 

[Waterd]

I don´t understand what you mean with that chess idea of loading during the game

 

[imweasel]

This degenerative gameplay looks so good. I can hardly wait to give money to Trent after I have flogged off my PoE stuff shit on Ebay.

 

[Oesophagus]

What else could it be played for? Combat is shit, character system is shit, dungeon crawling is shit. Story, dialogues, locations and nice graphics are the strong sides of the game.

And the music and ambient sounds. Overall IWD is still one of the prettiest games I've seen

 

[logrus]

If PoE is a hit I would imagine that would clear the way for Beamdog to "make" their own BG3...

It's not gonna happen since WotC could be (maybe) convinced to greenlight BG3 if it's D&D Next single character Skyrim-style sandbox AAA+ with additional co-op DLC dungeons (basement-dwellers alternative: party character slots purchasable via in-game microtransactions for 999 WotC Dragon points).

Not a chance they allow someone to develop party-based 2D game based on 3.5E.

 

[Bulba]

I don´t understand what you mean with that chess idea of loading during the game

you are making chess as an example of difficult and complicated game, but loading makes it just a boring micromanagement of your pieces. if failure + reload does not equal difficult game then all I have to do is see through your moves, reload and make my boring moves same as in bg - play through the battle, see what enemies can do come up with counter tactic and play it through - easy and boring micromanagement.

 

[Waterd]

The problem is that those games are easy playing ironman, as I said, I ironman RPG when i play. Naturally reloading is a loss and the battle you reloaded, there is no place to claim it was easy. In fact if you died even once and not through terrible luck, we could say the battle or part of the game had enough challenge. The problem is that even on the first try, there is no challenge.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

The problem is that those games are easy playing ironman, as I said, I ironman PRG when i play. Naturally reloading is a loss and the battle you reloaded, there is no place to claim it was easy. In fact if you died even once and not through terrible luck, we could say the battle or part of the game had enough challenge. The problem is that even on the first try, there is no challenge.

What RPGs did you iron man through without loss?

 

[Waterd]

Your question is directly purely to WRPG? Aslo you are asking if i ironman the game on the first try or if i did a succesfull ironman run?

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

Your question is directly purely to WRPG? Aslo you are asking if i ironman the game on the first try or if i did a succesfull ironman run?

Yes. Both.

 

[Waterd]

I think no game I did ironman on the first try. Generally by the most lamest unfair deaths possible. (for example, on my first run of Divinity original sin, I died because I did excavate cyseal graveyard and was instantdeath.)

Games that I did a one or more complete ironman run. Darksun SL, TOEE, KOTC. I guess there ends my list Unless Diablo 2 counts :S In fact i did ironman diablo 2 on the first try.

 

[Volourn]

"(for example, on my first run of Divinity original sin, I died because I did excavate cyseal graveyard and was instantdeath.)"

Life sucks then you die. Life is unfair. DEAL. WITH. IT.


*or whine about it on the internet*

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

What else could it be played for? Combat is shit, character system is shit, dungeon crawling is shit. Story, dialogues, locations and nice graphics are the strong sides of the game.

And the music and ambient sounds. Overall IWD is still one of the prettiest games I've seen

Yeah... If it only had a decent gameplay... But we can't expect that from Klingons... Which reminds me that I have to read the JA2 book.

 

[roshan]

Is is just me or does this game still look so much better than Pillars of Shitternity?

 

[Edward_R_Murrow]

Games that I did a one or more complete ironman run. Darksun SL, TOEE, KOTC. I guess there ends my list Unless Diablo 2 counts :S In fact i did ironman diablo 2 on the first try.

That's pretty impressive, beating a bunch of turn-based D&D games ironman. I don't recall enough of Shattered Lands (I'm pretty certain it was easy with powerful races and abundant multi-classing), but both ToEE and KotC had a handful of encounters in which winning initiative was paramount; going second could mean that multiple party members were already down before you even had a chance to act. Outcomes like this seemed common in both the final battle of KotC as well as the post-game challenge scrum as players lack sufficient control over sequence of actions. Even with Improved Initiative, a party of four is rolling fewer (virtual) dice than 20+ foes who each have enough firepower to down a player character (or Dominate them).

That's probably the main drive of my preference for RtwP over turn-based as far as D&D cRPGs go...that (relatively uncontrollable) variance has less weight upon the outcome, that there are fewer “screwed by dice” scenarios and even fewer which can't be planned for or meta-gamed around. That's why I've found Infinity Engine ironman runs to be pretty fun (even successfully completed both Icewind Dale games like this), but would never think of trying this in KotC or, especially, the Gold Box games.



On topic, I don't understand the need for what amounts to a $20 port of IWD1 with some hastily-added extra content of dubious quality. Seems like a hustle on the uninformed and computer-illiterate. Though I suppose, like BG:EE, it may be worth the markup to some to play on a non-standard gaming device/OS.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

That's probably the main drive of my preference for RtwP over turn-based as far as D&D cRPGs go...that (relatively uncontrollable) variance has less weight upon the outcome, that there are fewer “screwed by dice” scenarios and even fewer which can't be planned for or meta-gamed around.

Err... Infinity engine also has initiative rolls that can screw you over.

 

[Waterd]

KOTC required on the third time I played it i completed the ironaman run because I abused crafting and fireplaces + I started with MAx HP when level up and one 18 stat assured for your characters. (Crafting is just insane in KOTC)
After that I tried to get a run with no crafting and only one use per fireplace (and other rules, you can see here the thread http://www.heroicfantasygames.com/Forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=334). and had my best experience with an RPG ever it took me 16en tries, it was so fun to do each run and I wish i could have so much fun with other RPGS out there.
The key to run in KOTC is 2 clerics, no matter how bad you got shafted in the initiative roll, 2 clerics can get your team back up to fight. The major problem of KOTC are the early game fights when you don´t have OP spells, once you get things like stoneskin, the game becomes quite easy, once you are level 18 and you get dominate monster and true resurrection, it´s almost impossible to lose, the only hard fight at that point is one where you start and a lich stun almost your whole team, then it becomes a race of your clerics brining back your team fast enough, once you manage to have 2 clerics operating, then its gone. If you notice several of my runes ended on the first 1 hour of the game. I place at the bottom the fights that i consider harder and most happen in the first hour of the game, I find that a trend in RPGS.
Im a walking promotion of KOTC because I wish more games were like KOTC. I really had one of the best experiences of my gaming life trying to complete an ironman run with rules in that thread.

http://www.heroicfantasygames.com/Forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=419
Here Trying to recover the fun i had i made a new challenge, right now im on the 5th run and so far failed, as you see this is 2013.... Im not having too much fun because I dont know even if its possible to complete the game with 1 cleric in ironman to be honest and i just replied the game too many times, but Surely i will try again sometime when i have time.

 

[Minttunator]

Make the bad man stop!

 

[crawlkill]

A new "Story Mode" difficulty setting to allow players to experience all of the story with none of the Game Over screens

What bothers me is not the dumbing down... is the concept of someone playing Icewind Dale for the story.

this. I never played the first one. I got IWD2 expecting a Baldur's Gate-ish experience. what I got was a good script, but a linear, tactical combat-oriented RPG in a system I'd long since out-thought. I guess if people like dungeon crawls in which the party has no real personality, they're fine, but. meh.

PS:T:EE

this would probably be a pretty good thing? it's not a game that's gotten the same radical modification that's made BG2 so eternal, so an EE would just be a way to catapult that style of dialogue-heavy game momentarily again into the limelight.

hopefully PoE and Wasteland will accomplish that on their own, but. I play Torment again every few years, and since I barely mod it, I wouldn't mind a version that fixed widescreen support and random bugs (it wasn't really that buggy a game, was it? surprisingly) and otherwise added interface conveniences.

it took me 16en tries

there is a home for people who like this kind of play. it's called the roguelike genre. people have already figured out how to do single-player permadeath well. it involves relatively short games with heavily randomized elements. a game full of scripted combats? not that game. it's fine to enjoy it, but don't talk about it as a highlight of the genre. it isn't.