Incline Of the Big Three, which is your favorite? (Fallout, PS:T, Arcanum)

[Pink Eye]

Isn't it funny that all 3 games have loads of feats and features that don't actually do anything and are just LARPs, and all 3 funnel you down to only a few builds that are actually effective, often based on obscure items that you wouldn't know about unless you know the game inside out? But I suppose that's just the equivalent of a difficulty slider - LARP harder and pick useless feats if you want a challenge

Strong disagree.
I mean sure, you can possibly make weak characters there, but then its on you. There are many strong combinations in all 3 (guess the least in PST, as it only has 3 classes - but all are valid).

Not to mention in PST the game showers you with tattoos and items to increase stats.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Fallout, no contest. I enjoy Arcanum but overall it's very inconsistent which hurts the experience. PST I just don't enjoy at all.

 

[Xzylvador]

Arcanum. Somehow the worldbuilding and many of the ideas, despite all of its flaws in execution, make it stand out above the others (for me)

Objectively, Fallout is a superior game of course; but Arcanum 'felt' more special to me.

 

[Volourn]

Anyone who claims FO has *poor* combat is retartet and can't be taken seriously.

 

[Diggfinger]

Fallout

Arcanum

 

[Snufkin]

That argument about Arcanum being bugged on release always weirds me out. I mean i know Drog patch did a lot, but i never encountered any bugs in PRE UAP times.

 

[Tarkleigh]

I have not played Arcanum but I like PST more than Fallout. Fallout is great, of course, but Torment's amazing story makes it the king of the troika. I remember well who blown away I was by the confrontation with Ravel when she asked me "What can change the nature of a man?", Fallout was great fun - especially melting everything with the plasma rifle - but Torment had more impact.

 

[Mychkine]

Torment has its fair share of faults, including its much weaker second half, plagued by bland and clunky and hard to skip combat. Fallout ought to be the better RPG, the tighter game, but Torment has better writing, to my opinion, than most fantasy novels, while offering multiple paths to completion (at least when in Sigil). I never managed to play Arcanum more than a few hours, the premises and systems look excellent, but the fighting is even worse than in Torment, and even harder to skip.

 

[Haplo]

Torment has its fair share of faults, including its much weaker second half, plagued by bland and clunky and hard to skip combat. Fallout ought to be the better RPG, the tighter game, but Torment has better writing, to my opinion, than most fantasy novels, while offering multiple paths to completion (at least when in Sigil). I never managed to play Arcanum more than a few hours, the premises and systems look excellent, but the fighting is even worse than in Torment, and even harder to skip.

You're not wrong, by I wouldn't call PST combat "bland". At least with the mage class. It is very flashy, cinematic almost. Sometimes called jRPG combat - for a reason. Some spell effects are very cool (Mechanus' Cannon!).
Some other spells are pretty awesome/crazy (like Missile of Patience).

 

[Snufkin]

Torment has its fair share of faults, including its much weaker second half, plagued by bland and clunky and hard to skip combat. Fallout ought to be the better RPG, the tighter game, but Torment has better writing, to my opinion, than most fantasy novels, while offering multiple paths to completion (at least when in Sigil). I never managed to play Arcanum more than a few hours, the premises and systems look excellent, but the fighting is even worse than in Torment, and even harder to skip.

It's possible to finish Arcanum with 0 kills.

 

[Mychkine]

Torment has its fair share of faults, including its much weaker second half, plagued by bland and clunky and hard to skip combat. Fallout ought to be the better RPG, the tighter game, but Torment has better writing, to my opinion, than most fantasy novels, while offering multiple paths to completion (at least when in Sigil). I never managed to play Arcanum more than a few hours, the premises and systems look excellent, but the fighting is even worse than in Torment, and even harder to skip.

You're not wrong, by I wouldn't call PST combat "bland". At least with the mage class. It is very flashy, cinematic almost. Sometimes called jRPG combat - for a reason. Some spell effects are very cool (Mechanus' Cannon!).



Some other spells are pretty awesome/crazy (like Missile of Patience).

More annoying and uninspired than bland, you are right. High level spell effects are flashy indeed.

Torment has its fair share of faults, including its much weaker second half, plagued by bland and clunky and hard to skip combat. Fallout ought to be the better RPG, the tighter game, but Torment has better writing, to my opinion, than most fantasy novels, while offering multiple paths to completion (at least when in Sigil). I never managed to play Arcanum more than a few hours, the premises and systems look excellent, but the fighting is even worse than in Torment, and even harder to skip.

It's possible to finish Arcanum with 0 kills.

I know that, but lots of quests are not doable without fighting, especially when doing side quests / exploring optional locations on the world map. If the systems had been better designed, I wouldn't have minded, but here, it always kills my mood.

 

[Volourn]

Biggest issue with PST's with its combat is not that it is bad (it isn't) but there is no excuse for it not being even better since it shares the same exact combat as two other series that had pretty darn good combat despite technically not having as many bells and whistles as other games.

Arcanum's combat is alright but could be better. TB in it is way better as it's RT combat is just a huge cluster fuck. Enemies need more special abilities and needed more effective mage combatants. The biggest issue, though, is the absolutely retartet way it handles combat xp. I think only PE's way if dealing with combat XP is as bad but not quite.

I think FO's Master is overrated, but still solid main villain, but people pretending he is deep simply because you can talk him into suicide are idiots. People complain about allies literally shooting you in the back, but that AI part of the charm. Lol Thankfully FO's load times are not like modern games. Heh.

Character creation/development in PST is lacking compared to the other two even though C&C clearly exists. But the Vault Dweller and the Arc MC is yours while TNO - no matter your choices - doesn't really belong to you. He belongs to the writers and that holds it back as a RPG.

 

[Snufkin]

Torment has its fair share of faults, including its much weaker second half, plagued by bland and clunky and hard to skip combat. Fallout ought to be the better RPG, the tighter game, but Torment has better writing, to my opinion, than most fantasy novels, while offering multiple paths to completion (at least when in Sigil). I never managed to play Arcanum more than a few hours, the premises and systems look excellent, but the fighting is even worse than in Torment, and even harder to skip.

You're not wrong, by I wouldn't call PST combat "bland". At least with the mage class. It is very flashy, cinematic almost. Sometimes called jRPG combat - for a reason. Some spell effects are very cool (Mechanus' Cannon!).



Some other spells are pretty awesome/crazy (like Missile of Patience).

More annoying and uninspired than bland, you are right. High level spell effects are flashy indeed.

Torment has its fair share of faults, including its much weaker second half, plagued by bland and clunky and hard to skip combat. Fallout ought to be the better RPG, the tighter game, but Torment has better writing, to my opinion, than most fantasy novels, while offering multiple paths to completion (at least when in Sigil). I never managed to play Arcanum more than a few hours, the premises and systems look excellent, but the fighting is even worse than in Torment, and even harder to skip.

It's possible to finish Arcanum with 0 kills.

I know that, but lots of quests are not doable without fighting, especially when doing side quests / exploring optional locations on the world map. If the systems had been better designed, I wouldn't have minded, but here, it always kills my mood.

Arcanum have some really cool secret quests and places, its worth it to mow down the filler combat, which isnt hard anyway.

 

[Harthwain]

Planescape: Torment is my favourite and I have a great deal of respect for what Arcanum was aiming for, but ultimately I am going with Fallout. It always felt to me like this should be a gold standard for the genre. Not because it's a flawless gem, but because it is more than a sum of its parts.

Planescape: Torment had shitty combat and wasn't taking the full advantage of the roleplaying part of the gameplay (in terms of character building. Fallout and Arcanum win here hands down) and Arcanum had a lot of potential in many areas, but it was buried under so many technical issues that it was difficult to actually enjoy the game. Having a working product is a fundamental step that has to be accomplished before anything else. There are very few things I hate more than technical problems interrupting my playing time.

 

[Crispy]

[Arcanum's] biggest issue, though, is the absolutely retartet (sic) way it handles combat xp. I think only PE's way if dealing with combat XP is as bad but not quite.

Solved with Drog's patch. You simply uncheck xp on hit, now everyone in the party gets experience points per kill instead.

Yes, it was not that way upon release, but it's a non-issue today.

 

[Chippy]

How can Crispy not have completed PS:T? That's a bit like saying you're a professional racing car driver but you've never completed a circuit of one of the best tracks in the world. I think you're in denial fella - PS:T is your best game and it's so good you don't want it to end.

 

[Volourn]

Fuck fake patches. I judge games based on the released game I paid for not a codexer's work.

 

[jackofshadows]

Arcanum has such impeccable balance, why not improve it even more by letting companions farm you xp on mobs while learning any non-combat stuff?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Fallout, because one of the most important aspects in an RPG to me is actually using your character to interact with the game world.

 

[Jrpgfan]

My thread has raised the dead

You've accidentaly spoken the three secret words to cast the spell.

 

[Ismaul]

It's interesting that although Fallout clearly is the popular choice for favorite, it's the Arcanum fans who seem to be the most passionate about their choice.

Arcanum's the underdog. You gotta have some special love for it to rate it as best despite all the significant flaws that affect the gameplay.

Fallout's and PST's flaws can be ignored/minimized (such as PST's combat), or they're a lack in features/improvements we'd like to have, not flaws in the basics.

 

[Tyranicon]

PS:T as a game is pretty lackluster, but I can jack off to that writing and atmosphere all day.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Torment has its fair share of faults, including its much weaker second half, plagued by bland and clunky and hard to skip combat. Fallout ought to be the better RPG, the tighter game, but Torment has better writing, to my opinion, than most fantasy novels, while offering multiple paths to completion (at least when in Sigil). I never managed to play Arcanum more than a few hours, the premises and systems look excellent, but the fighting is even worse than in Torment, and even harder to skip.

You're not wrong, by I wouldn't call PST combat "bland". At least with the mage class. It is very flashy, cinematic almost. Sometimes called jRPG combat - for a reason. Some spell effects are very cool (Mechanus' Cannon!).
Some other spells are pretty awesome/crazy (like Missile of Patience).

I don't really like PST, but Mechanus' Cannon is one of my favourite high level mage flexes. Opening up a transdimensional portal just to blast someone with an insanely huge extraplanar cannon? Sign me up!

 

[ItsChon]

I mean if you can't figure out how to pay for Arcanum on GOG, then apply Drog's patch, then install a simple DX wrapper to get the high-res patch to work right, then... yeah, don't bother. This game isn't meant for your kind.

Arcanum is simply a broken game and any potential that might be gleaned from it by those who have the patience and know-how to get the game working is not enough to carry it to the top of this list

It's literally just installing the game and then installing a patch. Just running an .exe. If it's not working, there's something else that's going on in your computer that's screwing everything up and can affect other older games too. For example: Windows 11.

I did what you guys said and the game still didn't fucking work right. The game was still playable though, it was mostly visual bugs, but I found the gameplay to be mind numbingly bad. Joke all you want, it's a broken game and the combat is terrible. Way worse than PS:T's combat, which is actually not nearly as bad as people claim it is. It's serviceable enough to not be annoying so that you can enjoy everything else the game does great.

And I put it down, if all these FO stans had played Underrail before FO, the game wouldn't be nearly as highly rated. Underrail is the superior gaming experience in every way.

 

[laclongquan]

Planescape Torment is still among top 3 for me, despite changing my life experience over the years. its writings and dialogs are presented in a way that stimulating imaginations and immersion. Maybe too storyfag for some of you though.

Fallout is nough said.

Arcanum. I looked at it over the years and my conclusion is that it being a game for niche players (best of steampunk/magicpunk genre). And they are a loudmouth and influential bunch which give it much more weight than it need to. Great? yes. But top 3 of all time? Nah.