RPG Codex Top 50 cRPGs - Retards who cannot read and Discussion thread

[Themadcow]

For sure. I consider myself a big fan of RPG's with 30 years of gaming experience but I sure as hell couldn't list more than 12 or so that I consider to be the best. Hell, in all that time I've probably only played 25 CRPG's to completion - if that! Adding on console RPG's I could probably manage 20 or so at a push.

Just as long as no-one expects this list to be more than "games the Codex has played and doesn't consider to be rubbish" then that's cool.

 

[Captain Shrek]

I am incapable understanding that things are not simple..

Well, no game is the epitome of a genre unless defined to be so. DnD and White Wolf games have a lot of differences. Still they are considered RPGs.

 

[Carrion]

Dungeon crawlers are not decline when CRPGs are concerned. They are the best computers have (yet) to offer. Until we see a proper AI, computers can't simulate a DM, and without a DM, the only relevant aspect of RPGs kept intact by CRPGs are combat and exploration.

I've never understood why cRPGs should try to only simulate PnP games instead of simulating, I don't know, an actual adventure or something. Using already existing PnP mechanics and settings is all fine and good, but surely the ultimate goal shouldn't be to create a game that simulates another type of game that already simulates something else.

 

[Rpgsaurus Rex]

Dungeon crawlers are not decline when CRPGs are concerned. They are the best computers have (yet) to offer. Until we see a proper AI, computers can't simulate a DM, and without a DM, the only relevant aspect of RPGs kept intact by CRPGs are combat and exploration.

So PS:T was a worthless game (awful combat / minimal exploration)?

 

[evdk]

So PS:T was a worthless game (awful combat / minimal exploration)?

Ask mondblut

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

So PS:T was a worthless game (awful combat / minimal exploration)?

I consider RPGs trying to offer stories or dialogues as their main focus way more decline, given the shit they actually deliver (Torment excluded, of course).

I've never understood why cRPGs should try to only simulate PnP games instead of simulating, I don't know, an actual adventure or something.

It makes sense that CRPGs try to emulate RPGs. Otherwise, they should be named differently. Like adventure games or something.

 

[suejak]

Well, thank the lord RPG doesn't mean "sitting in a closet with your pale friends and rolling dice".

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

Posting shit alone ain't any better.

 

[mondblut]

So PS:T was a worthless game (awful combat / minimal exploration)?

Ask mondblut

As worthless as they get.

Cool visual novel though. Couldn't find the "game" part, however.

 

[Carrion]

It makes sense that CRPGs try to emulate RPGs. Otherwise, they should be named differently. Like adventure games or something.

Different medium, different strengths and different possibilities. If you take a book and make it into a movie, you don't want the movie to be about the book, you want it to be about the story that is told in the book. A CRPG can try to do the same things a PnP RPG does without using the same mechanics. You don't need a DM if you can create an area twice the size of Great Britain and make it react to the player's actions.

 

[mondblut]

It makes sense that CRPGs try to emulate RPGs. Otherwise, they should be named differently. Like adventure games or something.

Different medium, different strengths and different possibilities. If you take a book and make it into a movie, you don't want the movie to be about the book, you want it to be about the story that is told in the book. A CRPG can try to do the same things a PnP RPG does without using the same mechanics. You don't need a DM if you can create an area twice the size of Great Britain and make it react to the player's actions.

CRPGs are attempts to simulate tabletop roleplaying on a computer. This is historical fact. They relate not as movies to books. They relate as audiobooks to books. If you want to make a movie out of it, you've got to invent a new genre and stop pretending it has any relation to the audiobooks we've been knowing and loving for 35 fucking years.

 

[Excidium]

I am incapable understanding that things are not simple..

Well, no game is the epitome of a genre unless defined to be so. DnD and White Wolf games have a lot of differences. Still they are considered RPGs.

That's because RPG isn't a genre. It's a type of tabletop game. Those games have their own genres and classifications to fit in.

That's like saying "Baldur's Gate and Fallout have a lot of differences. Still they are considered Video Games".

 

[Jasede]

RPG isn't a genre

???

Edit: Ah.

 

[Excidium]

Yes? We aren't talking in the context of video game adaptations here.

 

[Blaine]

Dungeons & Dragons and White Yiff are for faggots by the way, GURPS and BRP are where it's at.

 

[Johannes]

I think that too many people haven't played enough RPGs to give a decent listing. I'm guilty of this as well. I just finished Might and Magic 1 and 2 for the first time and thought them great, so they made the list. I only played the Magic Candle 1 for a couple of hours, mostly because I was just tooling around with my DOSBox archive, as I am focused on the M&M series right now. I can already tell that Magic Candle is a pretty solid RPG and will likely make my top 25 next year when I get more time to play it. I also haven't played Dark Heart of Uukrul, Darklands or the rest of the Gold Box series past Pool of Radiance, its sequel and FRUA, but I am sure some of those games will make the list, too, when I get around to them. The RPGs with large marketing budgets were the ones that most likely were played by more Codexers, which skews the list. If 10 Codexers played Magic Candle 1 and nine of those put it in their top 25 list, it must be a pretty good game. On the other hand, 200 Codexers might have played Diablo 3 and 11 of them put it in their top 25. Percentage wise, that would look like a horrible score, but the eleven Diablo 3 fans outnumber the nine Magic Candle fans, and so the combined list we are developing is skewed in favor of a worse game.

True enough but with the Magic Candle example, you've got to keep in mind that if you'd hand it out to all those Diablo III buyers, chances are most of them would not like it either.

 

[empi]

World of Xeen (Clouds and Swords of Xeen) can be listed as 1 vote. IF you feel one of them is more worthy, then list that one games title only. This will be considred when I collate the votes.

I presume here you mean Darkside of Xeen, not Swords which was the add on game in the same engine etc.

 

[Jaesun]

World of Xeen (Clouds and Swords of Xeen) can be listed as 1 vote. IF you feel one of them is more worthy, then list that one games title only. This will be considred when I collate the votes.

I presume here you mean Darkside of Xeen, not Swords which was the add on game in the same engine etc.

Could someone finally fucking explain this to me?

What games are a part of World Of Xeen and what games are a part of Darkside of Xeen? This shit is so fucking confusing.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Could someone finally fucking explain this to me?

What games are a part of World Of Xeen and what games are a part of Darkside of Xeen? This shit is so fucking confusing.

Dammit nigger, what's so damn confusing.

World of Xeen is a conjoined version of MM4 (Clouds of Xeen) and MM5 (Darkside of Xeen) that also adds some endgame content because the games were twins that got separated at birth and reunited after daddy and mommy decided it was time a few years later. Swords of Xeen is a non-related silly fanmade expansion.

 

[Jaesun]

Thank you. OP updated in the vote thread. For some fucking reason I keep confusing swords with Darkside. I blame alcohol.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Alcohol is probably the reason for the existance of Swords of Xeen.

 

[Anac'raxus]

I decided to cut my list to ten, since I missed a lot of games in my misguided D&D fanboy youth, and I would hope that many of them were better than DA:O or other filler stuff I'd have to put on a top 25 list.

 

[Esterhaze]

If Prelude to Darkness does not make final list RPGCodex loses 10 prestige points, be aware

 

[Mastermind]

^

Game of Thrones
Dragon Age: Origins
Witcher

 

[Roguey]

If Prelude to Darkness does not make final list RPGCodex loses 10 prestige points, be aware

I played this for a bit and didn't like it because character creation wasn't transparent enough, the camera was a pain in the ass, and the content in the first town didn't grab me.