Slitherine

Bullfrog, the makers of Theme Park, Theme Hospital, Syndicate Wars, etc. I believe they are no longer making games either.

In re the upcoming Bard's Tale game, Duncan, from what I've seen it will bear no resemblence to the original. Apparently, the intent is to convert it to just another single-character 3D CRPG. None of which appeal to me, for the simple reason that I prefer party-oriented games.

-- Mal

another single-character 3D CRPG

It sounds like an action RPG

I prefer party-oriented games.

Well, I hated Icewind Dale II, but I really loved Temple of Elemental Evil by Troika. You should give a try, if you haven't. It has no story at all but it has some nice tactical turn based combat .

I'm one of the apparent minority who liked IWD and IWD II. Most of my r/l RPGs ended up becoming endless hack 'n slash sessions, so these CRPGs reminded me of that. I didn't pick up TEE because all the reviews I saw made it sound like a complete failure. Since they're giving it away now, I keep telling myself to get a copy.

What annoys me is that, of three upcoming box-office busting CRPG titles, every one of them hews to the single-character "3D" fad. Faith and Gomorrah!

-- Mal

You can buy "Temple of..." for 10 bucks in Amazon.com, maybe cheaper in bargain bins. That's cheap even here in Spain . The released patches are enough to keep the game stable and it has the greatest D&D combat. Not like Bioware games . I enjoyed the turn-based-real-timepausable-not-really-that-pausable combat in Baldur's Gate and in the first Icewind Dale (well, it's not Bioware, but it is the infinity engine after all), but Icewind Dale II was boring and Star Wars Knights of...was a disaster, IMHO (no arguing here, I'm a professional anti-Bioware activist so I don't pretend to be rational)


Which are this 3 upcoming CRPGs????


Bye

Dragon Age, Dungeon Lords, and Neverwinter Nights 2. I guess you can add Bard's Tale to that, too, making four altogether.

There's a certain amount of discussion about how many "hirelings" one might have in DA and NWN2, and how much control the player will have over them, but the devs are being rather coy about their intentions. None of these games is on the verge of going gold anytime soon, AFAIK.

-- Mal

Neverwinter Nights 2

Ouch!!! I forgot NWN... ...what a waste of time & money.


I guess I'll reinstall Baldur's Gate II this afternoon...I'm in a role-playing mood.


Enough bashing of Bioware. Next chapter: Blizzard.


Bye

If you're going the BG II route, get the mods! Especially the ones from Gibberlings Three/Pocket Plane Group! A whole new ball game.

-- Mal

I've not played a bad Bioware game. Although I did like IWD and IWDII as well, just for different reasons. Plus there are a ton of great user Modules out there - so are just wonderful.

From what I have heard DA will be party-based again.

KOTOR I really liked too, although it was a v different game to BG. I think DA is intended to hark back more to BG than the more recent titles.

But now WoW has absorbed my life anyway - good job nothing coming for a couple of years!!!

Pip

I've not played a bad Bioware game

So you've not played NWN????

Only joking . I heard the Expansion pack are really good.

KOTOR was terrible. The combat system was crap and some say too easy. I found the dialogue annoying: Bioware thinks tha bad guys do the same thing as the good guys, but asking money for it (oh, how BAD I am!!! I'm rescuing you from that slaver, but you HAVE to pay me). No option for playing like a BAD guy. Why on earth do I have to hide from the sith if I like them????)

About Blizzard, I must say that they have a great Marketing manager, the games are usually very well supported (patches and everything), but I found Warcraft series lifeless, specially III. Starcraft was waaaaaay better and it has some good gameplay and three really unique races. But I borrowed Warcraft III from a friend and it was like: "Oh, look, the same old clich?©, same things to do, oh, my hero has seen the power of the dark side, he is bad now!!!! It reminds me of something (Sarah Kerrigan anyone???)". For me, it's strategy for kids. I prefer other RTSs (Even Spellforce was better than Warcraft III).

WoW seems to me another eye-candy, but people are liking it. Anyway, I'm not into online gaming, I don't have internet access at home .

Keep struggling with Vampire: Bloodlines, BTW.

Well, I thought KOTOR was fab, albeit too short, perhaps it just depends on how cool you think being a jedi is... And it won a few BAFTAs for a start, so many people agree with me

WoW I think succeeds on its merits, the gfx are cool and pretty but most definitely not top of the line. But without being abel to be online it's fairly moot!

Cheers

Pip

WoW I think succeeds on its merits, the gfx are cool and pretty but most definitely not top of the line. But without being abel to be online it's fairly moot!

My main target-game was Warcraft 3, not WoW . I saw the graphics and all the kids in teh forums telling us how WoW roolz (well, in spanish...) and I thought: "Oh, Blizzard has done it again".

how cool you think being a jedi is...

I thought it was cool...until I became one and started kikcing everyone's ass ...good-looking sabler, though.

so many people agree with me

That's for sure, I'm (almost) alone in this post BG 2-Bioware crusade, but I still believe I will beat the infidels. Awards aren't everything: Grammy, Oscar...all crappy (specially grammies)


Bye.

Civ 3 and a bit of Battlefield every now and then... i wish I had more time,

Civ 3 and a bit of Battlefield every now and then... i wish I had more time,

Welcome, Ste, and don't worry about time, if you're using it for another hobby (not job, please). Civ III is nice, but I never got into it after playing Civ 2 that much.



Any Peter Molineux "The Movies" hope anyone?????

Cheers for the welcome

Have you ever played Civilization Test of Time? IMO perhaps the best of the civilization series. You could actualy invade the alien planet or even the aliens invade the Earth and have all kind of weird but cool units in the future. Behemoth was my favourite, a huge ship/tank. My best memories of the Civ series are with that game......OK, I will have to install it again, I just hope it runs on XP.

Test of Time was cool, but I often ask myself if it added enough to be worth a whole new release. I found Civ II more replayable than Civ III. Even though III added many features I had wanted when playing II, it also took away some of my favorites. My best Civ memories were with Civ II Scenarios, especially some of the user-made scenarios.

personally i liked Civ 2 the best

I saw Galactic Civilizations (without the X-pack) and Ground Control 2 in the bargain bin last week (6 ?‚¬ each). What can you tell me of these (specially GalCiv, I played the demo but couldn't make up my mind)???

Thank you in advance!!

Galciv (especialy with the xpack but even without it) is the best modern 4X in space at the moment. It is not perfect, but it is a very good game. Worth far more than 6 euros, get it if you like this kind of games. I do believe that Stars Supernova would be even better, but since that is never going to be released, I would get it if I were you. If you want to ask something about it, shoot.