I see the game that Trav is currenlty playing the most is "Smilies "  ...

Arx Fatalis ditto Fnord, i tried twice, have not made it past the beginning and so am curious...they put a lot of work into it, and the graphics look good even for that era...and i have always enjoyed Subterreanean Sci fi Stories.

Pirnce of Quin is another I own and have studied but never played...did you finish it?

sorry about Crusader, i had hopes for that but never worked to get it to run on XP.

just finished a marathon three days in Star Wars the Old Republic MMORPG and my hands are totally tired out from all the mouse work and battling..it is superb, one of the best games i have ever played and they made every world space HUGE and fully detilaed, not sure about the long term game lay but i bought it and am going to try it for three months.

Still working on Mafia I, II, now Mass Effect 2, and Assasins Creed 2 Brotherhood, some heavy game play coming up, but i really want to see Venice...wish they did not have quite so much leaping around on high places....

also now studying the most advanced Train sim, RW2 and the graphics are superb....complex to use still but they did a good job on it.

Did you finish up with Freespace 2 Fnord? there are a ton of add ons campaigns. and they keep improving it all the time. they just need to add some planets and space stations that you can enter to really finish it up. And interiors of space ships, my one complaint about space sims is no one game has it all, planets, interiors of stations and ships, and a real story that is immersive...

I just recently finished Arx Fatalis, and it was a really good game. I think the developers were aiming a bit to high with it, as you can at points see that they might have tried to do things that they could not quite pull off, but this is more a sympthom of the developers really wanting to do something great rather than greed, and I commend them for their effort. Heck they even released a patch for the game last year, a patch for a 10 year old game. It is a fantasy game though, apart from some high tech dwarven gadgetry (which probably was magical) it is a fantasy setting. A bit like a more modern Ultima Underworld, with with better controls.

If anyone plans to play Arx Fatalis, then remember that the game is not all that well balanced. Magic is, as soon as you find the fireball spell, better than melee, and archery is nearly useless. It is possible to successfully play as a mage, warrior or hybrid.

Prince of Qin sadly got a bit too repetitive after a while, and the translation did make things more confusing than it had to be. I guess the devs simply did not have the money needed to hire good translators, but the game sadly suffers for it. Several good concepts and not a bad game though.

As for Crusaders, it was no big loss. The game was really cheap and I had no real expectations for it. I was just surprised by historically incorrect a game that boast that it was made in collaboration with the History channel  actually turned out to be. It was not the worst game I've ever played, but most games that are worse turn out to be so bad that they become funny (for a while). So it was no Stalin vs Martians that's for sure. 

And yep, finished Freespace 2, and I still have it on my computer with a few mods installed. I'm just waiting for my next space sim urge. Currently playing SWAT 4 and doing a Let's play/walkthrough of Majesty: The fantasy kingdom sim.

Thanks i was curious about AF, just got to the spiders and said  YUCK..and took it off my computer

glad it had some good parts.

Originally Posted By Traveller (19 MAR 2012 5:38am)

Originally Posted By markornikov (18 MAR 2012 8:57am)

I'm bored with my mass effect playthroughs, so i started Dragon Age: Origins for the first time as a human warrior.

Enjoying it a lot so far 

 

 

 yet another gem i discovered mainly because of you!!!

Bioware's strong point really is the story telling. And I love the in-game maps, something i really miss in modern games are detailed maps of each location. 

Is there a lot of difference storywise if you choose a different origin?

Originally Posted By markornikov (21 MAR 2012 6:32am)

 

 yet another gem i discovered mainly because of you!!!

 

Bioware's strong point really is the story telling. And I love the in-game maps, something i really miss in modern games are detailed maps of each location. 

 

Is there a lot of difference storywise if you choose a different origin?

 

 

No, the origin will only have a minor impact on the story as a whole. Each origin has a separate starting point though. 

Originally Posted By markornikov (21 MAR 2012 6:32am)

Originally Posted By Traveller (19 MAR 2012 5:38am)

Originally Posted By markornikov (18 MAR 2012 8:57am)

I'm bored with my mass effect playthroughs, so i started Dragon Age: Origins for the first time as a human warrior.

Enjoying it a lot so far 

 

 

 

 

 yet another gem i discovered mainly because of you!!!

 

Bioware's strong point really is the story telling. And I love the in-game maps, something i really miss in modern games are detailed maps of each location. 

 

Is there a lot of difference storywise if you choose a different origin?

 

 

Good, I hope you enjoy the entire game,  Marko!  Your origin has minor effects on the story and ending, and each origin is a story on it's own, and worthwhile trying out just for seeing all the different point of views and stories.  You get an opportunity to conclude the "story" started in each origin, during the course of the game, but it doesn't have an impact on the main storyline axcept for slight varations in the ending.

Which origin did you choose?      Ok, Human warrior I see.  Yes, that's a good one to continue with, if you chose a female to play with, reasons for which I don't want to mention since it would be spoilers.

But try the dwarf noble as well - that's a nice one... actually I must still play the dwarf commoner, that's the only one I haven't done yet.

In fact.. I might just go play DA: O myself this week.

phew, that's a bit of a relief, because i'll never have enough time to play through all the different storylines.

I usually start with a human male warrior in any RPG if possible, it's always a safe bet.

So logically I'll be a female elven mage next time around.

One that doesn't piss off Morrigan at everything i do, if i keep this goodie-two-shoes attitude up i'll probably lose her at some point. 

Originally Posted By markornikov (21 MAR 2012 2:06pm)

phew, that's a bit of a relief, because i'll never have enough time to play through all the different storylines.

 

I usually start with a human male warrior in any RPG if possible, it's always a safe bet.

So logically I'll be a female elven mage next time around.

One that doesn't piss off Morrigan at everything i do, if i keep this goodie-two-shoes attitude up i'll probably lose her at some point. 

Oi, I wish I could explain to you without it being a spoiler, why it's important to be a human FEMALE, the gender thing is only important for that specific race, as it affects something you can do later on, which ties in with a romance you can have... 

I'm not sure if a mage female can do that thing.  Sadly, because I was an Elven female, me being elven excluded me from the prerogative.

I did play as an mage quite far in a second time, but not far enough to see if I could do that thing that I can't mention.    I can't remember if the mage is automatically elven, but only a human female- preferably a noble can do that thing.  Anyway, it's not really an important thing, it just was for me in the context of a specific romance and all.   I'll tell you when you get there.  We should start up a new spoiler-tagged DA

Originally Posted By Traveller (22 MAR 2012 2:44am)

Oi, I wish I could explain to you without it being a spoiler, why it's important to be a human FEMALE, the gender thing is only important for that specific race, as it affects something you can do later on, which ties in with a romance you can have... 

 

I'm not sure if a mage female can do that thing.  Sadly, because I was an Elven female, me being elven excluded me from the prerogative.

 

I did play as an mage quite far in a second time, but not far enough to see if I could do that thing that I can't mention.    I can't remember if the mage is automatically elven, but only a human female- preferably a noble can do that thing.  Anyway, it's not really an important thing, it just was for me in the context of a specific romance and all.   I'll tell you when you get there.  We should start up a new spoiler-tagged DA

thread, I think our old one might be full of spoilers.

Oh it's nice to know romancing is also possible in DA. Otherwise i would probably have missed out on that, like on my first playthrough of ME1. I'd better start chatting with my party members then 

If you want to know for certain there's probably an article about romancing on the dragon age wikia.

Not only is romancing very possible, you can have quite deep relationships.  Spoiler AlertEspecially if you're a woman, with Alastiar, and that's very cool- but then I'm a chick....

But I was actually talking more about a position that flows forth from a romance.  You'll see when you get there.

Have you finished your origin story yet?  Have you entered the next section?

I must try Dragon Age origins..i was a bit bored with the original...i know from knowing some of the writers and developers at Bioware that they really like the DA series and have put a lot of heart into it..some of the guys that were team leaders on the KoTOR game are working on the DA series and are very proud of it.

Originally Posted By Traveller (22 MAR 2012 1:21pm)

Not only is romancing very possible, you can have quite deep relationships.  Spoiler AlertEspecially if you're a woman, with Alastiar, and that's very cool- but then I'm a chick....

 

But I was actually talking more about a position that flows forth from a romance.  You'll see when you get there.

 

Have you finished your origin story yet?  Have you entered the next section?

If you are a male a very good relationship is with Spoiler AlertMorrigan, who has a very very special ending

I really like the trend of having real chacter development in games with people that have relationships and optoins and lives...it really enhances things and with enough recorded vids and clips, you can really have option trees a visoin i had years ago for option based movies and online graphic novels that I understand are now happening some top level sci fi authors like Greg Bear are now working with Game developers to do stories for games. finally. so the relationship thing about Dragon Age Origin may tempt me back into the game.

I'm currently playing Future Wars, a *wars clone (with *wars I mean the famicom/advance wars series). It seem to lack the personality of at least advance wars (never played Famicom/Super Famicom wars, as I don't speak Japanese), but the AI is a lot better. Hopefully the will be able to capitalize on the better AI later on, and not try to just copy Advance Wars all the way through (the thing about Advance wars was that all the levels were designed with the AI in mind, so just copying their general design just won't work).

I was by the way surprised to see that it was Radon Labs that made this game. That is the same company that made Drakensang. 

Whew, finally finished up Battle Squares in Icewind Dale 2. I literally had to buff my fighters up to their eyeballs to get through it, as you can see here:

That was truly unpleasant, but netted some neat items. I've just started Chapter 5, facing off against hordes of undead, so the Club of Disruption (On a hit, undead have to make a fortitude save or be destroyed) is a ton of fun to have there. Whack-a-zombie!

Originally Posted By Fnord (28 MAR 2012 7:07pm)

 

I was by the way surprised to see that it was Radon Labs that made this game. That is the same company that made Drakensang. 

I've heard they went down?   Is that true? 

Originally Posted By Traveller (30 MAR 2012 5:41am)

 

I've heard they went down?   Is that true? 

Yes, sadly it is. Or well, almost. The company was purchased and re-formed, and now they make browser games. Most of the people who made Drakensang have left. 

Testing Hard Reset, which came in a previous indie bundle (I really don't have to buy any games outside of indie bundles these days, it would seem), as I've heard that it is supposed to be quite good. I'm not a shooter fan, but this game is actually pretty good. It is a game that is not afraid to punish you for your mistakes, and I've already died a few times (I'm only 1h into the game). Gameplay reminds me a lot of a late 90's shooter, but with better graphics and sound. And a higher level of challenge. Enemies and environments could be a bit more varied though.

Also, I found a Tri-Optimum (of System Shock fame) logo on a console. I guess the makers of this game were big System Shock fans. 

Originally Posted By Fnord (30 MAR 2012 6:12am)

Originally Posted By Traveller (30 MAR 2012 5:41am)

 

I've heard they went down?   Is that true? 

Yes, sadly it is. Or well, almost. The company was purchased and re-formed, and now they make browser games. Most of the people who made Drakensang have left. 

 

Browser games!  Makes one wonder about the future of hard-chore gaming in general...  god, and they were so good with RPG building. 

Imagine if I had the bucks to buy both them and Bioware and put them to work on a project together!!  Their talents would compliment one another admirably!

Originally Posted By Traveller (31 MAR 2012 1:38am)

 

Browser games!  Makes one wonder about the future of hard-chore gaming in general...  god, and they were so good with RPG building. 

Imagine if I had the bucks to buy both them and Bioware and put them to work on a project together!!  Their talents would compliment one another admirably!

It looks like we will get another hardcore CRPG very soon. This time it is the Finns that are about to prove that they have what it takes to make great games (well, they obviously do. Frozenbyte is from Finland, and their games are great). Check it out. 

Which reminds me, I see Risen 2 is releasing very soon.  

Btw, also heard that Kingdoms of Amalur is so popular that it's sold out at some suppliers.  It was sold out at my local game store that I visited this afternoon.

Kingdoms of Amalur is a very fun rpg, IF you aren't expecting it to be something else. It knows what it wants to do, huuuuuuuge world to explore, fun action combat (Which is 10x more fun then Skyrim's imo) and a great character builder (the way you can mix/match character skills to basically make your own character is very nice, you aren't shoehorned into any one class or locked out of one (just limited by the total points you get).  As you lv up skills you unlock "destiny cards" (some of which can be found) which reward you for building your character how you are.

Just don't expect a super unique story or anything. It's a fun rpg when it comes to exploring, loot, combat, etc. It knows what it wants to be and doesn't try to be something it isn't.

The recent DLC, Legend of Dead Kel is 9.99 and it is actually worth it, it adds over 15% more tot he world map (which is a lot of new area's to explore) + it offers about 10 more hours of quests/story.

Not your usualy type of DLC that feels like they are nickel and diming you for something that was ripped from the game.

Risen 2 looks fun as well, I had the beta (from IGN prime) and while I didn't go too far into it I enjoyed it. It seems a looooot more piraty themed then the first Risen too.

Icewind Dale 2 has been fun enough, but it had been bugging me that there hadn't been too many titanic fights. Sherincal had been pretty tough, but that fight was a long time ago. And I really wondered where the dragons were. These older Bioware games always chuck some really nasty dragons at you, but I had only encountered a couple rather weak white dragons so far. Finally, I came across a real dragon, and a good fight as well. Rather pitiful XP for the size of the challenge, though. The game has been getting stingy with XP for beating enemies as the game goes on, not just for easy fights, but for fights I'd say are moderate difficulty or harder. I'd be interested to see the Challenge Rating tables for the game, I'm thinking someone goofed somewhere.

Has anyone played  Real Warfare: 1242  OR   it's sequel : Real Warfare 2: Northern Crusades?