Poll: GOG's D&D sale. Which game is best?
- Thread starter 80Maxwell08
- Start date
For story, go for Planescape: Torment. Definitely one of the best CRPG's from Black Isle. Baldur's Gate is a little more traditional in storyline, but still excellent nonetheless. Icewind Dale is a straight up dungeon crawl set to D&D. Demon Stone is a hack and slash, fun but probably the game that shows it's age the most along with the Neverwinter games most likely though I own both. I can't really speak for the others however, I never even heard of Dragonshard before.
Excellent. Some things need to be played.80Maxwell08 said:
Max wisdom, aim for high int, go do a quest in Ragpicker's Square to become a mage as soon as possible. One of the game's few flaws is that you miss out on a LOT otherwise, so this is best for a first playthrough.
Read your inbox. I'm 100% serious. Though I got it wrong it needs your email so if you want it (DEAD SERIOUS STILL) then send that to me in a message. Don't want to be posting your email on forums. Once again 100% DEAD SERIOUS. Don't pass this up because you think I'm kidding.Kaleion said:Surely you jest. But you made me smile anyways so you get:80Maxwell08 said:[sub]What else?[/sub]
EDIT: I found out the discount still applies so if you want both I'll get them for you.
The Baldur's Gate series + mods is still part of my install process when I reload an OS or upgrade. I enjoy playing the game every now and then, and I don't feel like waiting to get it configured when I want to play.
Torment is also amazing, but it takes less time to configure the way I like it, so I just install when I feel like playing it.
Torment is also amazing, but it takes less time to configure the way I like it, so I just install when I feel like playing it.
*inner fanboy breaks loose* BG2 NOW..BUY IT NOW....*pulls it back and locks it in its closet* ahem...but ya BG2 is possibly the greatest RPG ever in my opinion. I played it recently with a friend through LAN and it was amazing.
Baldur's Gate 2 is in terms of overall experience the best of the lot by a decent margin with a strong narrative, memorable antagonist, compelling companions, beautiful 2D art, amazing soundtrack, active modding community, good voice work, and solid tactical combat.
Indeed I'd go so far as to say it's the best PC rpg out there right now, perhaps the best rpg overall. It simply does so very many things right and so little wrong.
THAT SAID I'd also argue that Planescape: Torment has the superior story, Neverwinter Nights the superior modding community, Icewind Dale 2 the best fight design, and Temple of Elemental Evil the best tactical combat system. Problem is they all also suffer from some other annoying flaws which hold them back from being as good as they might otherwise have been whereas Baldur's Gate 2 arguably does not.
All are worth owning however.
-Baldur's Gate (Be sure to download the mod which allows you to play it in 2's engine.)
-Baldur's Gate 2
-Icewind Dale (Kinda iffy actually, AMAZING soundtrack though plus I have fond memories of it)
-Icewind Dale 2
-Planescape: Torment
-Temple of Elemental Evil
-Neverwinter Nights
Other two games on sale are passes however.
Indeed I'd go so far as to say it's the best PC rpg out there right now, perhaps the best rpg overall. It simply does so very many things right and so little wrong.
THAT SAID I'd also argue that Planescape: Torment has the superior story, Neverwinter Nights the superior modding community, Icewind Dale 2 the best fight design, and Temple of Elemental Evil the best tactical combat system. Problem is they all also suffer from some other annoying flaws which hold them back from being as good as they might otherwise have been whereas Baldur's Gate 2 arguably does not.
All are worth owning however.
-Baldur's Gate (Be sure to download the mod which allows you to play it in 2's engine.)
-Baldur's Gate 2
-Icewind Dale (Kinda iffy actually, AMAZING soundtrack though plus I have fond memories of it)
-Icewind Dale 2
-Planescape: Torment
-Temple of Elemental Evil
-Neverwinter Nights
Other two games on sale are passes however.
Yeah, I'd say Baldur's Gate has the best overall experience, but the story in Planescape: Torment blows everything out of the water. Seriously some of the best writing I've seen in any game to date, plus it actually has themes that the game explores and fantastic characters. Dak'kon alone has one of my favorite quotes ever:
"When a mind does not know itself, it is flawed. When a mind is flawed, the man is flawed. When a man is flawed, that which he touches is flawed. It is said that what a flawed man sees, his hands make broken."
EDIT: Oh, and Neverwinter is amazing for the sheer amount of user-made mods. And these aren't just "mods" like other games where they just add items or tweaks to gameplay, these are the old D&D definition of mod, meaning module. They're full-fledged adventures and campaigns with their own stories. Some of them are absolutely amazing - check out the NWN Vault and get the top-rated ones. You will literally get hundreds of hours of gameplay well beyond the contents of the actual game made by BioWare, and a lot of it actually surpasses the work that BioWare did.
And really, the Hordes of the Underdark campaign was pretty good, too - well worth the price of admission alone.
"When a mind does not know itself, it is flawed. When a mind is flawed, the man is flawed. When a man is flawed, that which he touches is flawed. It is said that what a flawed man sees, his hands make broken."
EDIT: Oh, and Neverwinter is amazing for the sheer amount of user-made mods. And these aren't just "mods" like other games where they just add items or tweaks to gameplay, these are the old D&D definition of mod, meaning module. They're full-fledged adventures and campaigns with their own stories. Some of them are absolutely amazing - check out the NWN Vault and get the top-rated ones. You will literally get hundreds of hours of gameplay well beyond the contents of the actual game made by BioWare, and a lot of it actually surpasses the work that BioWare did.
And really, the Hordes of the Underdark campaign was pretty good, too - well worth the price of admission alone.
What? What about the Planescape setting makes you have intense hatred for it? I mean, I can understand dislike, but that much? Really?Swny Nerdgasm said:
Oh no, Planescape and the Baldur's Gate games are nothing like the Diablo games at all. You're confusing hack 'n slash/action-RPG to the old-school turn-based RPGs. The turn-based ones have you pausing, picking your moves, etc. Sort of like Dragon Age, but far more tactical and less action-y. So if that slower, tactical pace sounds like it'd be enjoyable for you then pick 'em up.Mr Thin said:
Plus with those games there's far, far less emphasis on loot. The Diablo-style hack 'n slash games revolve entirely around loot, hence the constant randomized drops. The old-school RPGs are much more traditional - enemy x will drop y, but you don't need to defeat them and there's certainly no grind to do so. You just play through the game, doing quests and whatnot. The natural progression of doing so will get you by completely fine.
Best game:80Maxwell08 said:
Planescape Torment. It is the best because the story is just so much better than anything else the gameworld has to offer. It is fantasy with a crapload of philosophy, and it has a FANTASTIC supporting cast.
Second best game:
Baldurs gate series. More "gamey" than Planescape, with a greater focus on combat Baldurs gate is a vast sprawling RPG, one of the best I've played. The story is huge, and good. Supporting cast is great, and its a blast to explore their characters.
Third best game:
Neverwinter Nights. With quite a varying quality to the maps/expansions...it still is a fantastic experience. And if you play it all the way to the end...ah...wonderful, especially the second expansion is great.
Fourth best game:
Icewind Dale: Decent story, but for me the game feel more dead since there are no NPCs in your party. You design your whole party from scratch, so there is less chatter.
Neverwinter Nights had a boring singleplayer campaign for one, even Hordes of the Underdark is merely alright. It also restricts the player to a single character and in terms of tactical combat was clearly inferior. Indeed it feels like Neverwinter Nights was designed from the ground up as a multiplayer game and as a platform for modders to create their own campaign, both of which is does admirably but which comes with some problems as well.Arnoxthe1 said:
As a singleplayer experience for example Neverwinter Nights is just not very good, especially when compared to the old Infinity Engine games like Planescape, Icewind Dale, and of course Baldur's Gate. Combat is unremarkable, the ability for strategic play and epic encounters severely limited by your solo character play and limited control over a single 'henchman' character plus again the default singleplayer is just plain boring with bland unmemorable characters, a trite plot, filler aplenty, and frankly nothing really worth giving a damn over.
Not to seem petty but it doesn't exactly look good either, I'd say Baldur's Gate's 2D isometric artwork has aged much more gracefully than NWN's rudimentary 3D visuals.
Still credit where credit is due, there are some AMAZING fan campaign out there for NWN. I was playing one just the other day actually and really enjoying myself, it's amazing what some people have created with this game. Still that's now, I remember being severely disappointed with the game when it came out and it wasn't until much later that I picked it up again to give it another try and began to enjoy it because of the massive community which had sprung up around it. And Baldur's Gate *also* boasts a huge fan community so even that isn't unique to NWN, though it's player-created campaign are some of which are better than many retail games in terms of narrative and story.
So there you go.