Let's Play Arx Fatalis

[Baron Dupek]

Yeah, hoomanz have horrible voices, but villians have so evil is so romantic

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

Update #6 - Guardian

I used fucking thumbnail links but fuck it I am not going to fuss with it; you're all big boys.

Spoiler

After obtaining the Troll Idol, I head of to see Pog, King of the Trolls.










Finally now we are getting some quests completed. Off I go to see the king and tell him the good news. As I enter I see him holding court with his advisors. Ill omens…







Once I am alone with the king I give him the good news.



Carlos walks in with some news on another sacrificial ritual. It is likely linked to the mysterious murder of Fallic Obritalbone, whom I don’t miss.

The king asks if I will act as his agent, in the hopes that the assailant will not know me as an agent of the king. I am asked to investigate this evil sect on behalf of the king. For some reason, I agree!










The king is grateful. He gives me my own digs, a key which presumably opens my chambers and he has granted me free passage throughout the castle. Nice!

I am to convene a meeting of the council once I have news to report.




I went to check out my chambers. Simple but elegant, with two chests holding not much of interest other than a bag which allows me to hold twice as much junk!

I explore a little more upstairs now that I am able… all doors but mine are locked.

I do find an interesting room with a strange magical door. Beyond, another one of the odd contraptions.


Right, first things first. I have some loot to sell now and I want to get the keyring I overlooked earlier… off to the merhants.

When I arrive to the general store, Sanny’s mother is distraught…






After some convincing that the keyring holds the secret to her daughter’s hereabouts, she agrees to sell it to me…



I combine my keys onto the ring, freeing several inventory slots.


I stop into the smithy to repair my things and buy a nice hat.


I search the nearby homes and some odd character warns me away from their door or they will call the guards… OK have it your way… I check the house next door and I hear the person flee, leaving their door open. Inside is a chest holding a note…



I wonder if that is related to Shanny or the dead astronomer. I head to the castle to poke around some more now that I have a key. Also, I want to speak with the council members.

First I meet with the snake lady.









Serbius, the new astronomer, hasn’t got much to say.




In the basement, the court alchemist is very helpful indeed! He gives me the key to the dead astronomer’s quarters, a bunch of potions and alchemical ingredients and some new runes! Excellent!














I notice that I haven’t taken my levels in a while and decide to distribute 30 skill points and two stat points. Here are before and after shots. I get my stealth to 50% allowing me to pickpocket!



I head back upstairs immediately to investigate fallic orbitalbone’s room…



Behind the hanging tapestry is a safe.. I read the trivial puzzle clues and open the safe, only to make a most fortuitous discovery, cracking the mystery wide open



The council meets. Rather than past 100 screenshots of this sequence, You can watch the council .

My quest entry…



I leave the castle and am greeted by the snake lady. Ah! She explains the mystery of the warp gates, teaches me the spell to unlock them and gives me the necessary runes to incant the spell!


Now that I can pickpocket, the first thing that I am going to do is rob the bitch that walks around town with her nose in the air talking about how rich she is.





Not bad… I wonder what that key opens.

…And so the Guardian saunters off to see…

 

[Crane]

Honestly, that thumbnail issue makes the update a chore to read.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

Yeah I agree. That won't happen again but I don't plan to soend 30 minutes to correct it in the near term.

 

[Lord Azlan]

Not sure if it's permissible to hijack someone else's thread. I am currently doing the 70 things to do before you die and trying to play through the codex top all-time RPGs.


On Steam and Windows 7. This game has been updated so many of the errors mentioned about the game have been fixed. Graphics ok and sound pretty good. I did encounter a memory error which I was able to navigate through by liberal use of a rolling save game feature, basically save before going up or down levels. The constant having to eat mentioned by others seems to have eased. I just ate what I found later on the game after hoarding all food at the beginning like a end of the world survivor.


Anyone wanting to play an Ultima Underworld remake should try this game. It feels both underworldy and dungeon. Interaction with the game world is excellent as you can almost do anything to anything. The interaction with characters is storyline cuts scenes only. It is vital you read and print off the manual. In those days, manuals were useful and gave tips about the gameplay. In those days in game tutorials and tooltips etc were in their infancy. Another tip, don't play the game with the footy in the background, the main character mumbles some key information every now and again and it is easy to miss if you are paying attention to who scored that goal in the last minute.


The engine is quite clever in the way you can interact with the environment which leads to many people saying "I did not know you could do that" or even more common, "How the hell can I do that". So READ THE MANUAL and a bit of trial and error works, exploration is the key element in the game and that also means exploration with the game engine. Hidden places, spells, locks can all be found.


Towards the end I found the game to be a bit of a hard slog. You run out of places to explore and end up going round and round, backwards and forwards. Very satisfying game experience in the end though. It could have done more with a bit more NPC interaction and quests - the world ends up being a bit small. Who knows what the developers could have achieved with the mighty backing of EA behind them and produced an official UW3?


Apart from the chit chat with goblins and the infamous Goblin King crapping his pants section, my most satisfying bit was in the Crypt levels. I was stuck down there for a bit and ended up having to rely on an online walkthrough for assistance. The solution was obviously complicated even for the writer as his text made no sense to me and to the writer as well apparently. In the end I did a bit more exploring and linked other rooms to the puzzles and solved it myself - that was great!


In terms of the dungeon rompy stuff, the game also felt a bit like Dungeon Master/ Legend of Grimrock which is no bad thing.


So anyone else looking to do some RPG before they die, could do a lot worse than playing Arx Fatalis.


Now - does anyone know how to get Gothic 2 working properly in Windows 7? I can get the game running ok but the graphics are choppy and disappear sometimes - how do I fix that? Or best move on to Gothic 3? I have tried running it in XP mode and renaming or deleting some files with no success.


By the way, the key mentioned above I believe opens the locked door you encountered earlier in the Tavern where flirtiness with the barmaid may have occurred and you got certain papers signed by a grateful goblin mate.

 

[Aeschylus]

Now - does anyone know how to get Gothic 2 working properly in Windows 7? I can get the game running ok but the graphics are choppy and disappear sometimes - how do I fix that? Or best move on to Gothic 3? I have tried running it in XP mode and renaming or deleting some files with no success.

Gothic 2 works fine under W7, though it's pretty broken in W8. Make sure you turn off the Steam overlay.
This page also has some good info on improving the graphics and fixing a few known issues.
http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Gothic_II

 

[Crane]

That thumbnail update killed the lp.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

It'll be back. Been busy... and lol @ random questions.

 

[Metro]

Arx is one of those games with a great setting but a pretty awful story.

 

[Lord Azlan]

[/QUOTE]
Gothic 2 works fine under W7, though it's pretty broken in W8. Make sure you turn off the Steam overlay.
This page also has some good info on improving the graphics and fixing a few known issues.
[/QUOTE]

Thanks for that link. Spent a number of hours installing and deleting Gothic 2 on steam ,tried a lot of things to get it working. In the end decided life is too short and started playing Risen instead, by the same game developers. Found some other hints on GOG though, all filed away for future use. At the moment Gothic 2 is officially labelled as "Wasted use of resources, no chance of getting my money back".

I got to say, Risen has knocked my socks off, reminds me a lot of an old game I used to play called "Faery Tale Adventure" from the the late 80s. Having not played any Gothic or Risen, I was pleasantly surprised about how good the graphics and sound are. Combat at 'normal' is very frustrating, but in a good way. Seems quite open ended as you can explore a lot, but you may get your head kicked in.

Loving it

 

[Stereotypical Villain]

... been busy licking shanks.

That's what I said, five years ago... here's hoping you don't follow the same path.

 

[CyberP]

Yeah, hoomanz have horrible voices, but villians have so evil is so romantic

Bullshit. I love the Human's VA.

"HELP! I HAVE SEEN THE DEVIL!".

The guards in the castle complaining about the snoring.

Carlo, Captain of the guards is hilarious (bad VA, a little, but I love it).

Honestly everything about Arx makes me so nostalgic. It has atmosphere like no other and the at times bad VA is part of the charm. It wouldn't have it any other way, but maybe I'm just being short-sighted.

 

[CyberP]

Arx is one of those games with a great setting but a pretty awful story.

I wouldn't call it awful. the writing isn't terrible and there are no major plot holes, it's just pretty straightforward...perhaps a little cliched, but it does it's job well enough.

 

[Baron Dupek]

Well, ok I may somewhat agree. There is some french manner (especially in more dramatic moments) in their voice, which make them good in the middle label games' voiceacting.

 

[CyberP]

Well, ok I may somewhat agree. There is some french manner (especially in more dramatic moments) in their voice, which make them good in the middle label games' voiceacting.

Eh, this wouldn't apply to all. For example Falan Orbiphlanax was voiced by Stephen Russell.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

OK, I tried to put another update together and came to the sad realization that I can't be bothered to play the game. It hasn't aged well at all for me as someone who has finished it twice already. Though the goblins are great, UU it is not.

I am abandoning this LP.