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

[ItsChon]

I don't know how to respond to your counterarguments so I'm just going to pretend you didn't make any and go back to being a massive faggot.

Sounds good to me, try not to prolapse too hard.

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

Fallout, never actually played Planscape, maybe only D&D game I have never played. Hate the planscape setting, don't care about the 'planes' or gods or any of that shit, bores me to tears, and the stupid looking talking skull character just made it even easier to avoid all these years.

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

the stupid looking talking skull character

 

[Ladonna]

Almost an impossible thing to answer.

I love all three, but with that said, I remember loving Fallout, but thinking after I had finished it, that it was like a souped up but heavily shortened Wasteland. The story had a similar arc, but the game and locations seemed much smaller to me, and the game seemed too short. Now I just think it was a good thing that I was left thirsting for more, but that is just how I felt at the time. I didn't replay the game many times because of the severe effort it took to keep damn Dogmeat alive. It still chills me every time I think of replaying it.

Torment was a wildcard purchase. I still remember the totally crazy video about the game that piqued my interest while installing the Baldur's Gate expansion pack.



The game itself blew me away. What a great, but strange, experience. Most of the combat was largely forgettable, but the story and locations made up for it. I did replay the game once, optimizing my character so that I could complete things like Dak'kons circles, and other obscure things I heard about after completing it the first time (I never found the Modron guy the first time either). I will have to play it through again one day.

Out of the three, I have replayed Arcanum the most. The first time was a very buggy experience, but I pushed on, missing a lot of content I found in later playthroughs. I loved having the different ways of accomplishing things, through magic or tech (or the brute force "idiot" run, which while short, was hilarious). I loved finding new ways to use skills, spells and items. Finding all sorts of odd things off the beaten track. And turning the whole "chosen one" story on it's head. The ending did also genuinely throw me off the first time, finding out I was chasing a Red Herring (again), something that CRPG's don't normally succeed in doing for me.

So, out of the three, I would have to pick Arcanum. It isn't easy, because all three are part of the magic I had finding worthy games after a lot of the 90's were, to me, terrible. But Arcanum was the high point (a clunky highpoint in some ways, with some regression from the slick interfaces that came before) and, unfortunately, also the start point of the "Decline" that was to come about after it's release. Black Isle died, Bioware became Biowhore, and Troika, after releasing two more great but flawed games, fell off a cliff, with Arcanum: Journey to the centre of the Earth never to be seen.

 

[Humanophage]

In PST, you are on TNO's journey and everything else simply serves as a vehicle for this narrative. As a simple example: How many side quests can you remember from PST if you haven't replayed it recently? I remember enjoying them, but if I was forced to name some at gunpoint, I'd be fucked.

I probably liked P:T even more for showcasing the setting. It is also one of the rare RPGs in an almost entirely urban setting, and an inventive one at that.

With regards to side quests, the division into the main quest and the side quests was less strict in P:T. You don't really separate the main story from the rest, and the reward is often some additional spin on the story. For example, I am not sure if the Siege Tower is an obligatory location. The bit where you acquire Nordom is sort of a side quest, but there is no point in avoiding this since it's a major party member. The fact that those quests come at you in an unexpected fashion rather than "go to place X to advance plot" is to the credit of the game.

 

[0sacred]

Arcanum. No contest.

it's almost a tie for me between Fallout and Arcanum because I love engaging in dialogue with well written NPC's. PS:T was way too verbose and edgy for me to enjoy the dialogue.

I'm a sword and sorcery guy, so Arcanum it is. No contest.

 

[0sacred]

The RTwP combat plays like shit with harm being broken and the TB combat didn't feel much better. Of course, I will add the caveat that the version of Arcanum I played was not working correctly, which one again circles back to my point that it's broken and bugged.

Harm isn't even broken. It's more of a mem, a bait, don't fall for it and repeat what others say all the time. Clearly you didn't play the game enough for yourself to judge. It's like saying neural overload is broken un UR because you can go through the entire game with it (you can't even do that with harm because it doesn't work vs all enemies and you won't be able to kite everyone in rt either). As the Merchant said, tech problems are on your end. Some people play and enjoy it even w/o patches (mods).

didn't Harm cause your alignment meter to drop? That's a pretty cool way to balance things IMO.

 

[Devastator]

I voted for Fallout because:

• It has nice beaches
  Spoiler

  
• You can dress up in robes and imagine to perform rituals on dead aliens
  Spoiler

  
• Trolling Butch Harris is fun
  Spoiler

  

 

[Beans00]

Underrail dwarfs FO in terms of the sheer amount of builds you can play

Well you can't play Underrail as a pacifist whereas fallout gives you the option. So... Yeah I guess in terms of ways to kill scorpions Underrail has fallout beat.

You also can't interact with Tchort in any way. Which broke my heart playing it because I believe Tchort was clearly innocent and wronged by the faceless. In fallout you can convince the master to end his plan and destroy himself. He is given depth, you see his motivation and reasons. You are given multiple solutions to deal with him. You can do the underrail thing and kill him. You can convince him or you can set off a non strategic nuclear warhead.

What option does tchort get? Kill him with mind magic? Kill him with a sub machine gun? Kill him with a hammer? Kill him with a knife? Kill him with a shotgun? Kill him with fists? Kill him with chemical pistols? Kill him with energy pistols? Kill him with mechanical pistols? Kill him with assault rifles? Kill him with crossbows?

What vindication did Tchort ever get? He was scientists clearly working for the betterment of mankind before a bunch of violent brutes forced him to mutate. These violent brutes later murder dozens, maybe hundreds of people near CORE city and the railyard and then are painted as hero's. 'They're only mean because tchort aka society made them that way'.

BULLSHIT. The faceless are thugs, and thieves because they choose to be and want to be. Did anyone ever stop and think tchort may need the cube to survive? Did anyone ever notice all the good the institute of tchort did for the underrail? How good their soundtrack was? They gave me fair warning before going to the west wing. They gave me good experience and rewards. They sold me great items at fair prices.

Yet we are told 'these guys who murdered all these people at the rail yard and who attack you in a cave in core city' are good guys, and 'these guys who are nice to you and help you whenever you interact with them are bad'.

Not even going into all the propaganda against the protectorate, who are clearly a justifiable organization with mostly well meaning people. Although anarchists and criminals clearly wont see it that way. I gassed the free drones, deal with it.



I hope in underrail infusion we continue to see the entirety of south underrail choke on their own vomit. They don't deserve Tchort, or Biocorp, or the protectorate and I enjoyed watching them suffer.

 

[Ryan muller]

Fallout 2 is much better than all of those.

But between those, its fo1

Ps:t is good because of its writing and it certainly standa strong on its on due to how greatly you can shape your character's mentality and how more in depth side quests are compared to other 2, but combat sucks and its not Very replayable compared to arcanum or fo1, i also stopped caring about it since Disco elysium released.


Arcanum is underwhelming. Lots of great ideas, shitty execution. I cant forgive how buggy and broken the game is, the system is also not fun at all, played this blind and my build sucked because to make it work, most builds are way too point expensive and it takes a lot of knowledge to do that. I mean, hell to make a gunner work you need PE (which no other build needs), DX, STR and a bunch of inteligence to get the crafting right, you also need throwing for the early game, points in the tech trees for both the guns you need AND healing items as virgyl's spells wont work after a time. May i remind you, you only get 1 point by level and 2 at each 5. Its a nightmare

Then you mix it with the fact that the combat is one of the most horrible ones in existence, how slow paced the plot is and how grindy the game gets once you reach the black mountain mines and see you have no way of progressing without grinding and there you have it, 4/10

 

[Beastro]

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.

While we're on the topic of Arcanum, does anyone with cable still know if Virgil's voice actor is doing promo's for ABC?



Have to admit, it was really bloody weird hearing him do those for the first time.

 

[Shaki]

Arcanum is underwhelming. Lots of great ideas, shitty execution. I cant forgive how buggy and broken the game is, the system is also not fun at all, played this blind and my build sucked because to make it work, most builds are way too point expensive and it takes a lot of knowledge to do that. I mean, hell to make a gunner work you need PE (which no other build needs), DX, STR and a bunch of inteligence to get the crafting right, you also need throwing for the early game, points in the tech trees for both the guns you need AND healing items as virgyl's spells wont work after a time. May i remind you, you only get 1 point by level and 2 at each 5. Its a nightmare

Noo, game actually requires some thinking and you can't just randomly click attributes like in PoE, and still get godlike character!!!!!!

Another faggot filtered by prestigious system, another proof that Arcanum is #1 of all time

 

[Ryan muller]

Arcanum is underwhelming. Lots of great ideas, shitty execution. I cant forgive how buggy and broken the game is, the system is also not fun at all, played this blind and my build sucked because to make it work, most builds are way too point expensive and it takes a lot of knowledge to do that. I mean, hell to make a gunner work you need PE (which no other build needs), DX, STR and a bunch of inteligence to get the crafting right, you also need throwing for the early game, points in the tech trees for both the guns you need AND healing items as virgyl's spells wont work after a time. May i remind you, you only get 1 point by level and 2 at each 5. Its a nightmare

Noo, game actually requires some thinking and you can't just randomly click attributes like in PoE, and still get godlike character!!!!!!

Another faggot filtered by prestigious system, another proof that Arcanum is #1 of all time

shitty point, balancing things out =\= making everything equal

This is poorly done regardless.
Having enough feedback to know what you have to do doesnt even work when half of the skills are garbage in game and the game OBVIOUSLY wont point out to something being garbage.

And this is not even true since everybody who put one point at the "harm spell" doesnt even need to have a brain.

But if you like such a garbage system that makes you distribute points like its the last thing you do in your life, you do you.

Fallout came before and destroys that shitty ruleset.

 

[Maxie]

big three shit games

 

[Goldschmidt]

Fallout is the inferior predecessor of Path of Exile and hence wins. Think about that one.
Arcanum is the american version of Divine Divinity but with worst combat possible.
PST is a satire on 90s style rpgs that obviously doesn't take itself seriously but ironically is taken
very seriously by the codex elite who thinks it is the finest literature.

My dick stays limp though; I'd rather play a tabletop game. Or if I am forced to take a videogame: Legend of Grimrock.
Some of you fags need to replay them instead of drooling over your 2 decade old 'cock-ring' cd-roms.

 

[0sacred]

PST is a satire on 90s style rpgs that obviously doesn't take itself seriously

sure bro, I slapped my thighs a lot chuckling at TNO's quips and one-liners

 

[Falksi]

I'd honestly have to replay them again to give a proper verdict, but as it is I'd pick P:T, simply because what it does well it does supremely well.

And Baldur's Gate 2 should make this the big 4. I'd pick that over all 3 of those suggested.

 

[Ivan]

Arcanum is not even close to top 2.

Fallout>Torment

 

[ResetRPG]

Out of the choices, Planescape Torment.

If I could choose freely, I'd put Baldur's Gate 2 above all.

 

[Haplo]

Hard to judge between Fallout and PST. I love them both. Personally I rate PST a bit higher, because its setting is so unique and because of the in-depth party interactions and bonds with the companions, which even have gameplay consequences. Also because of the cool jrpg high level spells that don't care about balance. And Missile of Patience. Combat was not challenging, complicated or balanced, but I still found it fun. Similar to Fallout, really - with its one-of-a-kind critical hit effect tables and gib animations - noone ever made the crits half as cool - as they were in the classic Fallouts.

Also I agree, Arcanum, while was very creative and also had a very cool setting and atmosphere, does not deserve to be anywhere near the top position. Combat in that game was a trainwreck, probably worst I have ever experienced.

 

[santino27]

For me, PST > Fallout >>>> BG 2 (if we were including it) >>>>>>> Arcanum.

 

[Konjad]

For me, PST > Fallout >>>> BG 2 (if we were including it) >>>>>>> Arcanum.

It's not even storytardation, since BG2 doesn't have a good story. BG2 focuses entirely on DRAMA. Look how bad he treats you! Look, all your party members have emotional issues! Look, the big bad man is also an emotional wreckage!

Behead all drama tards.

BG was way better than BG2 because it focused on adventure and exploration.


As for the topic, Arcanum is my favorite RPG, and my second favorite is Prelude to Darkness, which is basically Arcanum in a dark fantasy setting instead of steampunk.

Planescape Torment does have the best story and quests of them all, probably the most memorable RPG (and had some depressing stories and moments without going retarded drama like BG2).

Fallout was a great game, but it's at the point where I start to think there are other just as good or even better games, like Gothic.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

Torment was a wildcard purchase. I still remember the totally crazy video about the game that piqued my interest while installing the Baldur's Gate expansion pack.

I remember watching this trailer from the Fallout 2 CD.

Then, after playing Fallout 2, I started Baldur's Gate and I remember immediatly saying to myself "What is this shit?"

 

[Lagole Gon]

Baldur's Gate.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Arcanum. I made many different alts on this one. Favorite was the rogue who kept stealing shit and selling it back. Second was the cunt & high char/personality (i fucking forget now) with all her simps attending her.
Third is the mechlord.
Fourth magi dude.
Fifth the average SMASH & KILL every fucker I can. Maybe get dog.. maybe not.
Sixth was sheepfucker orc. What else do orcs do but fuck?

yeah, i guess you could do that in fallout. PS.... eh.... i can't recall if i could fuck sucubi or not or hurl the skull like a weapon.

You just made me realize that Arcanum was the isometric rpg that allows for Bethesda rpg gameplay... and that this freedom was a big part of Arcanum's appeal for me.