Name and explain your favourite "New Shit"

[Carlos' Bitch1]

We seem to have been overcome by 3D action 'RPG's', many of which large portions of the Codex seem to love. I think it time that people here write about their favourite 'popamole' games, educate others on why they believe such games are worthy of a purchase (or even a non purchase, so to speak) and playthrough.

The only one, lately, that I have played of these new games is Risen. I found it a refreshing return to the Gothic 1 and 2 system that, while not quite living up to the same standards, is a welcoming restart from Gothic 3. The difficulty of the game, the way the world works, and the various ways to make your way through problems kept me quite happy throughout the game...even the ending could not spoil the experience.

Unfortunately, I cannot comment on other new entries into this genre, as that last game I played before Risen was Gothic 3 or The Witcher, whichever came last.

From looking at quick writeups, I would imagine other new games would include, but not be limited to: Fallout New Vegas, Venetica, Divinity 2, and so on.

I now hand over the mic...

 

[torpid]

 

[Destroid]

I haven't played and rpg for longer than an hour since Morrowind.

 

[Ion Flux]

I liked the Witcher. Despite having a boring combat system, a largely meaningless skill tree, annoying discontinuity with the NPCs, a silly story, cliche characters, and insanely irritating cutscenes that frequently interrupted gameplay, I still had fun playing it.

I liked the art design and the sound, and for some reason Geralt's character appealed to me. The story was occasionally not awful. The end result was that the gestalt experience of the positive aspects outweighed the negative for me.











Also, I am Polish. : x

 

[Kaanyrvhok]

Haven’t played New Vegas but even the reviews that trash it make it sound better than FO 3 and worth a buy. So far its still Shenmue 1&2 and Oblivion (w-mods).

 

[Mister Arkham]

I found an awful lot to like in New Vegas, despite some glaring flaws. Alpha Protocol was also an interesting and occasionally brilliant experiment on Obsidian's part.

 

[MicoSelva]

I guess ME1 is my choice, since I've finished it twice. No other 'new shit' is close to that score for me, at least for now. I haven't played many of them, though.

 

[Shannow]

Gothic 2 NotR: It combines great gameplay with great exploration, great character development, great balance, great challenge, great atmosphere, good characters and dialogue and a good story (well, apart from the dragons). It all falls a little apart near the end. But even G2 endgame is better or at least not worse than any popamole game that came after.



EDIT: Oh, and modded M&B: Warband is pretty awesome, too.

 

[attackfighter]

I thought mass effect 2 was pretty good, although everyone here has already played it so it is pointless to continue

(mass effect 1 was also decent although not as good due to the kraaaaaaaaaazy story)

 

[Derek Larp]

I´m a big fan of CombatMission::ShockForce, despite it being RTwP (never played phasebased) and its popamolish cover system.

 

[janjetina]

There are two games that qualify as "The New $hit" that I like enough that I've played them more than once, and will play them again in the future.

One is Vampire: Bloodlines. The main reasons for liking it are superb writing, characters and atmosphere. In my mind, strength in those areas overrules the weakness in combat (twitch-based) and main quest design (linearity, proportion of abysmal combat to non-combat, especially in the late game). I'm aware that makes me a ''storyfag", because, as mentioned earlier, Bloodlines offers very little in terms of gameplay.

The other one is Fallout:New Vegas. As a game, it is much better than Bloodlines (though the atmosphere and writing in Bloodlines were better) due to its quest design, with multiple ways to solve quests and multiple outcomes to each quest. Paired with good writing and setting that matches Fallout 2 in spirit most of the time (and sometimes even gets the Fallout vibe right) this makes F:NV my favorite "New Shit". The fact that combat encounters are short (so the game doesn't force you to spend much time twitching, unless you want to) helps. If you want the details, VD's review is a good source of information.

 

[mondblut]

I liked Fallout 3 due to all the sexy lingerie reskins and prostitution scripts. I wish some modder would drop the combat crap altogether and only leave the good parts.

However, earlier today I uninstalled it to give space to a bunch of Total War mods.

 

[SimpleComplexity]

I liked the NWN2 OC and then i tried to play the addon which is praised by everyone here: MotB, i stopped playing it after 2 hours or so, i didn't enjoyed it at all. My memories are fuzzy but i remember being in a cave and then talking to a bear god or was it a wolf ? Then suddenly you have to go through some portal and you are in a black and white world (alternative universe or some shit?). I tried to connect the dots how does this shit makes sense, i couldn't.

And then there's Risen.

There are some negative aspects to this game, the replayability factor is very low (not enough C&C) and the game ending sucks everything else is perfect.

 

[Andyman Messiah]

Mass Effect 2 because it's a total fuck off to Mass Effect 1 and the best work Bio has done since Baldur's Gate 2. They're not a one hit wonder anymore.

I don't count New Vegas as "new shit". If anything, it's actually old shit that's been forced to look like new shit in order to sell. But I've been playing it like a motherfucker. Finally a good Fallout game.

 

[Crooked Bee]

The most recent one I liked is New Vegas, for all the reasons stated no less than a thousand times here on the Codex.

But then there were Drakensang 2, Risen, Divinity 2, Mass Effect 2 (see the Horsie's post above), M&B Warband, TWitcher (action-adventure), Alpha Protocol oops. Not sure if MotB or NotR, also mentioned in this thread, qualify as "new shit", but they both were very, very good.

There are some good recent JRPGs as well, such as Dark Spire, the Etrian Odysseys, Strange Journey, TWEwY, etc., or even the small FF-spinoff I'm LPing, which is surprisingly decent so far.

Too lazy to expand on all that further, but to me there was at least *something* enjoyable in all those games, but that's not of course to say they're all perfect or "great" or "instant classics" or anything. They were able to provide some fun and/or challenge to me, however.

 

[torpid]

Mass Effect 2 because it's a total fuck off to Mass Effect 1 and the best work Bio has done since Baldur's Gate 2. They're not a one hit wonder anymore.

I don't count New Vegas as "new shit". If anything, it's actually old shit that's been forced to look like new shit in order to sell. But I've been playing it like a motherfucker. Finally a good Fallout game.

Someone is rationalizing -- New Vegas is definitely new shit. It's good, but it is what it is.

I liked Risen, as there's a bit more thought to it than kill stuff with your sword. Some nice quests in the three major "camps," exploration, decent combat, and a good if somewhat bland setting. Is Gothic 3 any good?

Mass Effect 2 sucked pretty bad. Sure, it dropped most pretenses of being an RPG in favor of cover shooting, but that's just trading blandness and mediocrity for popamole and romancing.

 

[grotsnik]

MotB...I tried to connect the dots how does this shit makes sense, i couldn't.

Nah, I'm not sure the dots do entirely join up. Or the plot is...convoluted, at least.

Spoiler

If I've got this right...you're rescued by the two witches, who teleport you to Rashemen, take the shard out of your chest and turn you into a spirit-eater in the hope that you'll free the first spirit-eater, Akachi. In the process of this, your soul ends up in the Wall of the Faithless. Then they dump you in a barrow, send Safiya - who's part of them - to fetch you back out of the barrow and bring you back to them. At the same time, they're attacked and killed by the forces led by Araman, Akachi's brother, who coincidentally also worked at their Academy. Luckily for you, the entrance to Kelemvor's Realm and your salvation exists in a shadow realm in the very town in which all of this is taking place, and even more luckily for you, your old sword is the key to the portal. There's also some other stuff about a hag coven and a spirit-filled forest that mostly serves to move the plot on. Simple!

But the specifics of the plot weren't why I liked MOTB. It had an atmosphere that I felt was seriously lacking in NWN2; a strangeness and an offbeat quality that I think is appreciated here.

As importantly, it was clearly trying to be 'different' and hearken back to PS:T but it did so with elegance - it managed to put a hagspawn-dream-wanderer, a schizophrenic Red Wizard, a rebellious angel, a gruff god-bear, and an undead construct that only you can see into your party without coming across as self-consciously quirky.

What else? Interesting moral 'choices'; an excellent couple of scenes with Myrkul and Kelemvor, a theme that fitted with the epic character levels, and one or two areas that even managed to make the NWN2 engine look vaguely attractive (Ashenwood was rather lovely).

And that's why it's my New Shit Pick.

 

[Jools]

Divinity 2: DKS - I have just recently picked this up, and am finding it quite enjoyable. The world seems consistent, the balance between action and questing is alright, graphics are good (for those who care, I guess), the plot is pretty decent too, so far. It is stirring up mixed emotions in me, a bit of Diablo and a bit of Gothic1. I quite like it so far and really hope the rest of the game won't let me down.

Gothic 2+NOTR - does it qualify as new shit? I dunno, but I still play it on occasions. To me, this is like the GTA of RPGs. I love absolutely everything about this game (alho Gothic1' atmosphere was sort of better, but that might be just because I played it first).

Drakensang - now this was a nice surprise, as it was mostly overlooked by so many people/sites. I can't even remember how I stumbled upon it. The character (stats/skills/feats/etc) system felt really awkward at start, and still does, but if one can get past that, the game provides an altogether nice experience.

The Witcher - again, not sure if it counts as "new", but I am so in love with this game that I can't miss a chance to recommend it. Apart from a few technical issues on release (fixed in the free, massive, enhanced-edition patch), the game is absolutely lush.

Risen - only played a couple of hours through it, but it had the Gothic feeling, so I'd say this is going to be a good game. Tho, a little bird told me that it goes FUBAR towards the final chapters...

And last, to draw a few insults upon me:

Mass Effect - I actually quite enjoyed the first game, which marked the last sort-of-decent game from Gayware, for me. It does not have as much bullshit (homo sex, I.W.I.N. combat, gratuitous sensationalism in the form of background rape/killed family or dead companions, retarded DLCS, etc...) as ME2 or DAO, and the settings was quite intriguing.

 

[Andyman Messiah]

Someone is rationalizing -- New Vegas is definitely new shit. It's good, but it is what it is.

It's all I have left from the war.

Mass Effect 2 sucked pretty bad. Sure, it dropped most pretenses of being an RPG in favor of cover shooting, but that's just trading blandness and mediocrity for popamole and romancing.

And it's a trade I'd be willing to do again and again. Romances has been present in every single Bioware game. If anything should be said about ME2, it's that Bio finally managed to make a good game that doesn't bore the shit out of me. I can't speak for you.

Most of ME2's improvements are actually just outright removing stuff, like the inventory. I for one welcome this type of design. Especially if they can't seem to fix it. Since NWN, starting with KOTOR they haven't managed to make a good inventory system. After five games a wise person said, better get rid of it. Voila, instantly better game. And people complain about that? And the fact that they removed most RPG elements? The RPG elements fucking sucked! Mass Effect didn't have any roleplaying. I have no idea why people are so prone to forget about that. Shit, Mass Effect was just as much a cover shooter except it sucked. As an action game it was slow and clumsy. As an RPG it was just as bad as the rest of the Bio catalogue.

Fuck Mass Effect 1. It only happened as a Wikipedia entry.

 

[MicoSelva]

Romances has been present in every single Bioware game.

There were none in BG1.

EDIT: I also sign under what Alexandros has written below.

 

[Achilles]

I quite liked New Vegas but that has already been done to death. I also liked Alpha Protocol (inb4 someone calling me an obsifag) but that has also been done to death. So I'll talk about Mass Effect 1, which I liked much more than it's sequel. Since most people seem to think that ME2 was much better, my opinion should provide a decent basis for discussion.

Mass Effect had a better storyline. Yes, some of it didn't make sense - but as a whole, it made the player feel much more like a badass agent with license to do whatever the hell he wanted, while in ME2 you are basically the Illusive Man's bitch. Also, the epic scope of the story was prefereable to the boring one in ME2, while the game as a whole was more cinematic and immersive (notice the use of popular buzzwords, in order to keep the newsht theme). Rounding up people is less undead super space agent and more middle-aged bus driver.

Mass Effect 1 was also more of an RPG compared to ME2. Stats visibly affected your performance in combat, you could manage your inventory and tinker a lot more with your weapons and armor, plus the various locales gave the impression of a big place instead of a linear corridor, so you could explore a bit.

Conclusion and tl;dr summary at the same time: If you're a shooterfag it's logical to like ME2 more, but if you're an RPGfag ME1 is the better game.

 

[Turisas]

There were none in BG1.

Just click Boo in Minsc's inventory, when he squeaks you can imagine Minsc fingering him.

 

[MicoSelva]

There were none in BG1.

Just click Boo in Minsc's inventory, when he squeaks you can imagine Minsc fingering him.

[butthurt]I can also imagine an intelligent response. Or rather, have to.[/butthurt]

 

[Andyman Messiah]

Mass Effect had a better storyline.

Mass Effect: SHEPARD IS THE CHOSEN ONE AND MUST TRAVEL TO THREE PLANETS AND FIND THE PLOT DEVICES NEEDED TO TRAVEL TO THE FOURTH PLANET IN ORDER TO STOP THE VILLAIN FROM DESTROYING THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE. VILLAIN'S MOTIVES ARE QUOTE UNQUOTE TOO COMPLEX FOR OUR FEEBLE HUMAN MINDS. I CALL BULLSHIT.

Mass Effect 2: SHEPARD IS THE CHOSEN ONE AND MUST GATHER A TEAM OF SPECIALISTS FOR A QUOTE UNQUOTE SUICIDE MISSION AGAINST MYSTERIOUS ALIENS THREATENING MANKIND AND MAYBE EVEN THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE. VILLAIN'S MOTIVES ARE TO CREATE A REAPER MADE OUT OF HUMAN GOO. SILLY, BUT LESS BULLSHIT.

Mass Effect 2 wins because of its originality. Sorry, greekbro.

edit: There were no romances in BG1, true, but everybody knows Bioware's first real game was Baldur's Gate 2.

 

[MicoSelva]

Mass Effect 2 wins because of its originality. Sorry, greekbro.

You are (deliberately?) omitting the fact that the ME1 plot is unveiled in the course of the game, increasing in scope after certain points, while ME2 is presented to You in the first 15 minutes of the game.
The main story point may be similar in both games, but the delivery is way better in ME1, making the storyline have much more impact.