RPGs in the modern era?

[ghostdog]

Jarl, but you haven't yet played Deus Ex.

give the man some slack ! he's too busy playing lesbian warrior rapy...

 

[Hory]

And stroking the panting beast between his legs.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

And stroking the panting beast between his legs.

Hawt.

 

[The Rambling Sage]

Shin Megami Tensai

Very good game, but only the first chapter of the first game is modern world. The rest is supernatural post-apoc.

Cobra Mission

Warning: Hentai jRPG detected.

I had a LONG time figuring out which one I found the best WW game, Changeling: The Lost or Promethean. Eventually I settled for Promethean.

A Mage game would kick ass too.

Do you know if Old WoD stuff been left as "abandoned" in a way that could lead to the development of independent RPGs without the teams having to become WW's whores?

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

I had a LONG time figuring out which one I found the best WW game, Changeling: The Lost or Promethean. Eventually I settled for Promethean.

A Mage game would kick ass too.

Do you know if Old WoD stuff been left as "abandoned" in a way that could lead to the development of independent RPGs without the teams having to become WW's whores?

I was under the impression that they only ceased selling anything related to OWoD (except Jyhad) but retained the rights.

Oh well, if they really are free for the taking... Why hasn't anyone taken the opportunity?

 

[JarlFrank]

Well, Vault Dweller got me excited enough to check out Hammer and Sickle. Then I found out that it uses Starforce. I think I'll pass.

bligatory question about the availability of warezed version:

A crack exists. A warez version exists, too.

Jarl, but you haven't yet played Deus Ex.

That was about a month ago or so. I've started playing it quite some time ago, and I like it. I'm around the third level now and planning to continue when my summer vacation begins.

 

[buccaroobonzai]

BTW who remembers a modern age rpg/adventure but in a parallel timeline - in which the earth was covered in ice?

Answering my own question: Midwinter. Another masterpiece by Mike Singleton

http://www.mobygames.com/game/midwinter ... erId,1257/

This gamelooks excellent, here's the review from Moby Games:

"Platform : DOS

Summary
Amazingly original, all engrossing, an underrated wonder.


The Good
Everything. I don't even know where to begin singing this game's praises. Too overwhelmed.

The graphics were superb for their time, with lightsourced terrain, and objects that faded into misting snow in the distance.

The storyline and setting are very unique.

There are at least 4 different methods for characters to travel - skiing, hang gliding, cable car and several different types of snow buggy.

The strategy elements were intricate and many, but the action elements were ever present. While skiing between locales, if you were too cautious you might allow the enemy to advance too far, but move too quickly and you might broad side that conifer or dip into a sudden gully, bang your head and black out.

Characters need to rest and eat - just like in real life, and safe, dry spots are more beneficial - a real bed? Better yet. Wounds to characters actually affect their performance appropriately. A leg wound makes travelling more difficult, but an arm wound decreases accuracy with a rifle.

Actions and choices available to characters seem unending: should you go and search for a vehicle in the nearby settlement, take the time to blow up this fuel depot, climb the church tower and snipe at the oncoming enemy, or take the cable car up the ridge to try to convince 12 year old Davy Hart to join your resistance movement?

The character interactions were brilliant. Send Professor Kristiansen's grandson, Davy, to try to recruit him and you may get a favourable response. But try the same deal with Stark, and you'll find Kristiansen blanching at Stark's overwheening sense of authority.

Character abilities are likewise so widely varied as to make individuals really appear to have personalities. Virginia Caygill, the ski instructor, is an amazing downhill skier, but if you want that processing plant blown up, you're better off turning to Jeremiah Gunn, the mining engineer.

The world is so vast, and so beautiful, it's a delight to explore.

The combat system was a stroke of sheer genius. Higher ground means there's less in your way, and it's easier to aim if you brace yourself against something, or lay prone. But even looking through the telescopic sites of a high powered rifle, the character's breathing makes the sights bob and weave. More experienced shooters can control their breath better.

Taking down enemy vehicles really affects his play. Wipe out enough fuel transport vehicles, or sabotage enough depots in your scorched earth policy and his advance will slow. Take out enough armament carriers and his attacks will be less effective.

You are actually able to control 32 characters from a first person perspective in "real time" by moving them sequentially and synchronizing their watches afterward.


The Bad
Nothing. This thing was flawless. As per usual, just wish I could get it to work on a modern machine.


The Bottom Line
An absolute must see. One of my all time favourite games. I don't see how it has remained so unknown. (Apparently there was a sequel, too, though I never found it - if you know of it, let me know!) "

screenshots here:
http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/midwinter/screenshots

 

[onemananadhisdroid]

Football Manager.

Elvira mistress of the dark
Elvira II the jaws of cerberus
waxworks

Man, memories!

 

[jagged-jimmy]

I wish there were some more modern-world RPG. And Hammer and Sickle sounds very nice, dont know how i could miss that game!

 

[Oarfish]

(Apologies for the off topic)

Midwinter is a total classic. The sequel is good too. Get the amiga versions and emulate, I believe they were the best.

Mike Singleton's first two games, Lords of Midnight and Doomdark's revenge were incredible too, especially as they lived in 48K of memory.

Huge open world exploration, no two games the same, multiple ways to win and hard as hell. It's amazing how much games have not got better in 25 years.

Get the PC port of Doomdark's revenge here.

 

[mondblut]

Lords of Midnight and Doomdark's are awesome, awesome, awesome. Playing LOM on my old ZX, alone for days in a desolate cold suburban house in mid-october was one of the most fascinating gaming experiences of my life.

There is a nice-looking windows remake of LOM somewhere on Icemark site. Sadly they didn't finish Doomdark.

 

[MINIGUNWIELDER]

Goddamnit, someone should get the Promethean licence from White Wolf...

They shouldn't forget about the Changeling and the Mage licenses while they are at it.

Oh fuck, I remember the greatest Changeling:The Dreaming campaign ever ending with my character taking a bullet for Willie Nelson.

Mage would be awesome, but, doing it properly. D:

Text parser for item creation, or a huge-ass branching "tech tree"?

Fuck, does anyone have the books for 3rd ed Shadowrun?

 

[JarlFrank]

I played Hammer and Sickle now, and it feels more like Jagged Alliance 2 than an RPG [no wonder, since it uses the engine and combat gameplay of Silent Storm], but that's incredibly awesome. RPG elements are rather light, but it does have some choice and consequence, and the combat is just *awesome*. I wish there'd be more games like this one.

 

[Korgan]

Haven't anyone, anyone here played Liberal Crime Squad? It's SO win.

 

[Sodomy]

Has anyone here tried the Hammer & Sickle demo? I downloaded it, but when I try running the installer, nothing happens; according to the program manager, it starts a process, but then does nothing.

EDIT- solved the problem. Apparently the installer can only be run from the C drive, and the game can only be installed to the C drive. Bad style there.

 

[Sodomy]

I just tried the demo for H&S, and feel obligated to provide an "alternate" opinion.

Put bluntly, this fucking sucks. The dialogue is almost at Bethesda levels, and the game explicitly tells you what the best option is to get through any situation. About half of the perks are reliant on what time of day it is... but there's no option to waste time so that you can do something under the cover of nightfall and thus use those perks. Translation- about half of the character build options are completely useless. The combat system on its own is pretty cool, but the encounter design is terrible- if the demo is anything to go by, the "challenge" comes not from interesting tactical situations but by placing a bunch of snipers in towers where they can't possibly be hit, but are guaranteed to one-hit you.

In other words, just another shitty "strategy" game from the company that somehow managed to create an HoMM that was worse than the forth, with enough "interactive" cut-scenes that it can be marketed as an RPG.

 

[MaskedMartyr]

I just tried the demo for H&S, and feel obligated to provide an "alternate" opinion.

Put bluntly, this fucking sucks. The dialogue is almost at Bethesda levels, and the game explicitly tells you what the best option is to get through any situation. About half of the perks are reliant on what time of day it is... but there's no option to waste time so that you can do something under the cover of nightfall and thus use those perks. Translation- about half of the character build options are completely useless. The combat system on its own is pretty cool, but the encounter design is terrible- if the demo is anything to go by, the "challenge" comes not from interesting tactical situations but by placing a bunch of snipers in towers where they can't possibly be hit, but are guaranteed to one-hit you.

In other words, just another shitty "strategy" game from the company that somehow managed to create an HoMM that was worse than the forth, with enough "interactive" cut-scenes that it can be marketed as an RPG.

quit raging me

I haven't ever tried the Hammer & Sickle demo myself but there are in fact many solutions to 1 problem. Does the game start at the beginning? Do you get to visit whatever that place is called with the Hitler youths? The questline concerning the mechanic and the bandit leader actually has C&C beyond getting a french machine pistol, and the hitler youth you take with you can actually end up getting you killed because of how he reacts to the american spy.

http://www.tacticularcancer.com/screenshots/Hammer and Sickle/H and S plot diagram.1.jpg This is a diagram of the plot, it doesn't show how easy it is to fuck up and lose though.

 

[JarlFrank]

Maybe the demo sucks but the full game owns.

 

[LCJr.]

I'm surprised no one's mentioned Night Watch.

 

[Korgan]

It is a crappy game based on a pretty good but overrated book series. Silent Storm, but with magic and dumbed down.

 

[Shoelip]

I thought it was based on a movie.

 

[Korgan]

Nope. The plotline is entirely original (and wacky), although the world is from the books.

 

[inwoker]

good but overrated book series

Man, no offence, but you should read more books.

 

[Sodomy]

I just tried the demo for H&S, and feel obligated to provide an "alternate" opinion.

Put bluntly, this fucking sucks. The dialogue is almost at Bethesda levels, and the game explicitly tells you what the best option is to get through any situation. About half of the perks are reliant on what time of day it is... but there's no option to waste time so that you can do something under the cover of nightfall and thus use those perks. Translation- about half of the character build options are completely useless. The combat system on its own is pretty cool, but the encounter design is terrible- if the demo is anything to go by, the "challenge" comes not from interesting tactical situations but by placing a bunch of snipers in towers where they can't possibly be hit, but are guaranteed to one-hit you.

In other words, just another shitty "strategy" game from the company that somehow managed to create an HoMM that was worse than the forth, with enough "interactive" cut-scenes that it can be marketed as an RPG.

quit raging me

I haven't ever tried the Hammer & Sickle demo myself but there are in fact many solutions to 1 problem. Does the game start at the beginning? Do you get to visit whatever that place is called with the Hitler youths? The questline concerning the mechanic and the bandit leader actually has C&C beyond getting a french machine pistol, and the hitler youth you take with you can actually end up getting you killed because of how he reacts to the american spy.

http://www.tacticularcancer.com/screenshots/Hammer and Sickle/H and S plot diagram.1.jpg This is a diagram of the plot, it doesn't show how easy it is to fuck up and lose though.

The demo starts with you picking up Moshe, and goes through you breaking the guy out of jail. Also, you start with a pregenerated char.

Throughout that entire segment, there's one way to solve any problem. Going to town- drop your big guns and wear allied/civ clothing, or you get arrested and can't break out of jail. Rescuing that prisoner dude- pick the dialogue option that the game explicitly tells you to pick in a cutscene right before talking to the comandant. Demo ends. If you want to try doing things the violent way, there's only one way to avoid the snipers, and that's to come in with a set of wire snips, and cut the fence- and even then, you can't actually save the guy since he does the dumbass thing and charges the guards a few minutes after you enter the area.

 

[JarlFrank]

Wait... the prison break is full of snipers that one-shot kill you? You must be joking. I managed to get in the full frontal assault way. But then those stupid prisoners started attacking, which was a bad idea of them. That's why I chose the wirecutters and backdoor next time.