29 réponses à ce sujet

[Hew]

I suppose it was inevitable that someone start this thread... so I figure I'll be the one to do it. Basically, I want to hear the Baldur's Gate Community weigh in with their initial impressions of the game. DA:O is supposed to be the "spiritual" successor to BG, so who better to debate its merits than the BG experts?
So I guess I'll start...

As of right now, I am disappointed with Dragon Age. Maybe my opinion will change as I play it more, but first impressions count for so much in human experience. I loved Baldur's Gate (1&2) from the introduction text (Nietzsche - so perfect and timeless, gives me shivers just thinking about it). I still love it after the playing it through countless times. So I guess I'll just itemize my complaints since I can't think of a better way to begin.

[1] Buggy launch -- This can usually be forgiven. But it was extremely frustrating trying to figure out how to get access to the content that I paid for. Where is the transparency? Video games cost > $50, so someone please throw be a freaking bone. When I go to a restaurant and spend more than fifty bucks, I get waited on. I don't have to cook my food myself. That is the whole damn point.

[2] Lack of customization -- Some people will argue, and not without merit, that there is more visual customization for the PC than in BG. I just want to play the game. I don't give a crap about what my character's jaw shape is. I don't feel that is even a worthwhile option. Game developers take note, nobody cares about this option. Give me some nice art, and I'm happy. No matter how you distort the face given in the game, you still started from the same damn face. Totally annoying. I want preset, and different. Baldur's Gate had different. 

[3] Character voices -- OK, you don't hear your character talk much in the game, but all of these options suck. Worse than BG. And the voices in BG were bad (even though they had a certain charm).

[4] class differentiation -- Where are the options? I'm sick of mage/rogue/warrior. At least BG2 had tons of subsets of each of these, all of which played very different in the game. So much differently that there is a new thread every week on the BG forums to beat the game with X class (and people STILL debate the best way to do so). Dragon Age has three classes. The "customization" options for each class (skill choice, etc) don't really make that much difference outside of spell choices for a mage. And even those are quite limited (how many spells are in BG? LOL Dragon Age, try again). The class "specializations" are a joke. An OK idea to be required to find the means to unlock them in game. But why such boring specializations? If I have to work for it, make me feel like what I get is worth the effort. This is not a job -- I don't want grind for the sake of trying to keep the player playing. 

[5] Dialog / Writing -- Some of the voice acting is really good. Some of it is really bad. I'm OK with that. But for the LOVE OF EVERYTHING HOLY LET ME SKIP TALKING TO THE MERCHANTS. DAMN. Please. Or at least don't make me listen to them talk over and over again. BG solves this: click, press (1) --> in merchant. Easy. The writing in BG is better, period. BG is more involved, mysterious, engaging, and entertaining. I feel like DA:O has been done before. Over and Over again. (LOTR, Wheel of Time, to name two)

[6] Camera -- The "spiritual" successor to BG does not allow me to have a BG-like camera view. Do NOT tell me that the tactical view offered by completely zooming out is like BG. It is not. I cannot scroll across the map. The camera is too close to the action. Etc.

[7] Openness / Linearity -- Where is the feeling of freedom that we get in BG? The wonder of "where the hell do I go next?" Why are the maps so small? Why can I not wander into the woods? Why do we have to be insulted with arrows pointing exactly where we need to go next? Did BioWare really try to compare this to BG? Are they serious?

[8] Origin Stories -- In the title. Probably the most-talked about topic pre-launch. And they don't matter. Each origin lasts about and hour, and has so little bearing on the game so as to not matter. I think its a great idea to have different classes start in different places. In fact, I've wondered why it hasn't been done before. But to put so much emphasis on it? Not impressed.

But all of this really leads to the last, main gripe. All of the above pales in comparison.

[9] The WoW-ization of Single-player games -- Crafting. The skill bar. Picking bloody flowers. The type/method of leveling, chosing "talents," using skills. The grind required to get "achievements." The camera and player controls. The general "feel" of combat. 

And where is MULTIPLAYER? The maximization of the toolset practically demands it. Oh well. 

I guess most people won't read all that I wrote. I suppose it conveys a false sense of my DA:O feelings. There are things that I really like about the game. The cut scenes are extremely well done, and the polish is good. The codex bit is nice, although it can feel a bit overwhelming. The graphics are pleasant, but not notable. The toolset is bloody amazing. That cannot be denied.

Anyway enough of my rant, let's all just go play BG and be happy.

Modifié par Hew, 07 novembre 2009 - 04:47 .

[BackwardCompatibility]

I'd like to reply by sharing where my own point of view stands. I was eager to write something close to the form of a review, and now that I got a similar chance, I won't let it slip. From what I read, you do not like dragon age as much as baldur's gate, and I would give you that it's not as great as baldur's gate 2 was (I can't speak so much about the first). However...

[1] On my account, everything went smoothly. I would have rather prefered everything to be on the same disk, having no registration to activate nor have to remove the game sealer sticker who's annoying to remove with your nails, but meh, I don't really mind.

[2] For a completely rebuilt combat and skills system, I must say that I'm impressed with what the team came up with. Now is there less customization? I would say yes. But is the system simple enough yet filled up with options for later optimisation. Yes! And I believe that's what really outstands from the content in baldur's gate. I remember spending a lot of time only to make the best possible characters back it the old days. Sometimes it wasn't even worth it how much the build would be bad! But now, whatever the class you pick, only your choices along the game makes the biggest difference.

[3] I want to slip a bit of the subject to talk about NPC voices. It's simple: they are marvelous. So many different tones, attitudes, with fading when you leave or come closer. That, added to body language, works like magic.

[4] I love the simplicity of the class differenciation. In baldur's gate, you had to choose among the long bow, the short bow or the crossbow to be a fullfilled archer. Now, you only have to pick the archery skills. How about in NWN, where you would be as good at any ranged weapon? Well, you wouldn't feel as specialised, since every bonuses would apply to any weapon, and rather than choosing a bow, you would end up always fighting in close combat since it's more practical.

Thus, what are the class differenciations? For a fighter, either if you go two-hand, dual-wield, archery or shield. For the mage, either if you go sorceror, priest, nullifier?, or necromancer. And again, because of the simplicity, plus the fact that it doesn't follow any clear path you could like to break, dragon age's class beat dnd's.

[5] I do not agree that the writing is bad overall, although I would like to split my opinion in two: the choices you have are great, and the feeling that you speak to different individuals each time is there, but I find the main plot rather boring, and playing someone so manipulative as a dwarf commoner, I don't find any interest in following the grey warden when all I asked for was to find a way to get out of orzammar. ''Who cares about the darkspawn now that I'm out of my hole?''

[6] (Playing on PC) I agree, but I love the blend in between BG and NWN camera and controls. It just feels so perfect... although it ain't.

[7] I'm not sure weither I should agree with you or disagree. I believe that at some point, everything you put in a game must have a function, as when you write a book, or else why do you have to care about it if it doesn't help to enhance a feeling or serve a purpose? I liked the multitude of choices, and I feel that too in DA:O, although not exacly the same way; quite a bit less. It may be because of the initial situation, which I already mentioned my disapointment about it. Some options, like stealing merchants, has removed. However, I feel like we are still a bit too free too. Why isn't there a function of time when someone is poisoned? Why looting noble's chests and possessions doesn't draw attention when they are right next to us?

[8] I was impressed, but disapointed, me too. It's been a stab in the heart when I realised I was already a grey warden, although the feeling of incarnating someone so unique was there from the beginning. Not a bad start, now, isn't it?

[9] I'm fine with that, although as for combat, I would have liked no regeneration that quick. Wounds are in my opinion too easy to remove.

[10] Plot -- Now, since they said they will make another of the serie, my only and biggest hope is that they start over with the main plot. It's horrible. It's disgusting. They've had great side ideas. Surprisingly durable quests, but I can't stand the main plot. The plot! The essence of the game! Are you taking us for kids? This game is clearly not meant for a young and ignorant public, so I will never understand how the creators could start their brainstorming with that simple minded plot: evil invades the continent and you must purge it. I must admit I fell in love with all of the rest, though: the maturity of the speeches, fights, subjects, quests, approval/disapproval... a lot of it.

Maybe dragon age isn't THAT good afterall. Many of the details you pointed out are quite noticeable, and not all are random details. But that game is so special, and has evolved so much since it's last predecessor, that I can't deny I love that game. Whatever I say, I promise I will go through this game with the six possible origins.

Modifié par BackwardCompatibility, 07 novembre 2009 - 07:46 .

[Chamucks Deluxe]

These are great opinions, but, there just that. Opinions. Mine does not reflect yours so please Mr. OP don't represent my opinions unless you know them. Hell thats what I pay crack head parliment members for.

[Reared Logarithm]

On skipping convos with merchants: that's what the Escape button's for.

[Wissenschaft]

I have to say vastly prefer Dragon age to BG2. And I loved BG2 and was still playing it up every so often until now. I'll be playing DA from now on. Such a vast world and the game is oh so difficult.

Dragon age just has a more epic feel to the story, like something out of LOTR. 

Modifié par Wissenschaft, 07 novembre 2009 - 07:55 .

[Duck and Cover]

BG2 and 1 (though I played 2 first) still has a place in my heart. But technological limitations at the time restricted making a game of this scope. Or perhaps they didn't seem important at the time. I love the influence system. They had this in kotor2. So in a way this game reminds me more of the kotor games and nwn than bg2. So I don't know if you can say it is a spiritual successor. The battles are more tactical like that game, but other than that the similarities end.



I'm still early on of course, we'll see how epic it feels at the end.

[Spaghetti_Ninja]

I haven't finished it yet but so far I'd have to say Dragon Age beats BG2 on almost every level.

[Wade Iceblade]

I'm considering DA:O to be more like NWN on steroids. The game might be a successor to BG2 in spirit, but that's about it.

Then again you have to understand that remaking something as glorious as BG2 these days must be immensly hard. Graphics and animation are much much higher quality and need more time to produce and take lots of space. DA:O is what, 15GB in size. Think how much space would it take if you'd make a game as large as BG2 with this quality ?



Replacing character portraits with art and giving a more free camera would do wonders, but tbh I don't think it's possible to reach the quality of BG2. Like yahtzee said, "if you're gonna make something incredibly good, make sure it's the last thing you do in your life since you'll be spending the rest of your life struggling under the weight of high expectations".



I still like the game very much, not as good as BG2, but definately better than 90% of the RPG's that have come out in recent years.

[mrmoneda]

Hew wrote...

Anyway enough of my rant, let's all just go play BG and be happy.

I actually installed BGII a week or so before DA came out and started a new game. An hour into it I stopped and haven't thought about it again 'til I read your... opinion, most of which, to be honest, sounded trite and ignorant. My launch wasn't buggy at all. I enjoy customizing my character (Baldur's Gate had different? Different what?). I also think the voice work for this game is pretty damn well done.

Over the past ~9 years I can say I have made many, many great gaming memories thanks to BG, but I can't say I'd like to still be playing it. It's too familiar. There is no "there" there.

I'll stick with the new ****.

This didn't really need to be in the spoiler forum either.

Modifié par mrmoneda, 07 novembre 2009 - 01:25 .

[Seagloom]

Edit: This is a very lengthy post. For those who want to cling to their sanity here is the short version: I disagree with most of the OP's opinions, partly agree with others, and overall feel a lot of his views are subjective but written as if they're objective.

I'll address each of your points from my perspective...

[1] It's true, the launch was buggy. It took me over an hour to finish installing everything. The Stone Prisoner in particular didn't take until I logged out within the game then logged back in. Still, BG, particularly BG2 was far from bug free at launch. There were no DLC related bugs since that didn't exist back then, but the actual *game* was laden with them. So much so two major fan patches were released for BG2 long after BioWare put out their final patch.

[2] Baldur's Gate did not have different. All the paper dolls and avatars were identical to other counterparts in their class. Also, your thoughts here are entirely subjective. Some of us like face generation. I suck at it compared to others in the community and I *still* enjoy it and seeing what others can pull off. About the only thing I miss from BG here is an option for custom 2D portraits. I'm a big fan of traditional art.

[3] I would say the voice over for the main character is on par with Baldur's Gate. Nothing to write home about; with a few horrible choices. There is not a game I've played with a selection of player voices that don't sound goofy or melodramatic in some fashion.

[4] This I sort of agree with. BG2 had tons of classes that all played differently, albeit with much more limited options compared to a DA class. Unless you played a spellcaster or bard, options in BG1 and BG2 were limited to what gear you would equip and which weapon to fight an enemy with. Sometimes tactical positioning was involved if you played a thief or archer. On the whole, I'd have to say DA has more you can do with every character in the party, but both games suffer from rigid character roles despite the varied number of classes in BG2.

Also, that there were more mage spells in BG2 than DA isn't that important. I'm a regular mage player, and I can state from first hand experience that most of those BG magics were worthless. Every spell level had something I always used and tons of stuff I rarely, if ever did. How often do you think spells like Farsight or Spell Shield were used by most players? Generally there were a handful of spells every level that were clearly awesome compared to everything else, and most players went with those. Skull Trap vs Fireball, Abi Dalzim's Horrid Wilting vs Incendiary Cloud, Protection from Magic Weapons vs any of the Mantles, Magic Missile vs almost every 1st level spell, ect. There was also a lot of redundancy in the spell selection.

In DA most of the spells are useful. Not all maybe, but most.

[5] Some of the voice acting in BG was pretty bad too. It's just harder to keep track of it because fewer dialogues were fully voiced. Also, if you dislike merchant dialogue so much press ESC to skip straight to your text options. Then ask to shop and press ESC again to cut off their blather.

As for writing? I'm sorry but no. BG was a great game for its time, but pretty much every BioWare game since except for NWN's original campaign has had deeper role-playing opportunities. Almost all dialogues in BG that weren't from a friendly NPC ended in a fight. There were no meaningful conversation checks like in KotOR, JE, ME, or DA. Most quests had exactly two real solutions: one good, one evil. Some didn't even have two. I can only remember one quest offhand with several options of completion: tracking down Adalon's eggs in Ust Natha. The main plot started off more original than DA, but quickly became the stereotypical tale of an archmage wanting to become a god. That has been done to death. Irenicus? Meet Raistlin please.

Sure the circumstances varied here and there, but the plot of saving a loved one and stopping a power hungry sorcerer bent on godhood is hardly new and exciting. That said, I loved BG2 to pieces. I just don't think its plot was its strongest point.

BG1 had a slightly more mysterious plot; with an antagonist you knew little about and an unfolding conspiracy by an organization trying to increase its wealth. But it also had several clichés. The most notable of which were losing your father figure early on, finding out his killer was the true villain and plotted to become a god, and to cap it off, that said killer is your half-brother. The plot of BG1 was pretty original and lower scale up until the player discovers the Iron Throne's schemes weren't as important as they thought.

It's as bad as the JRPG cliché of killing who you think is the final boss only to discover at the 11th hour that it's someone else with far worse and more grandiose intentions.

[6] On this we agree. The camera isn't quite the same as BG's isometric view, and in my opinion, somewhat unintuitive at times. It works, but can feel clunky.

[7] On this point, I sort of agree. Baldur's Gate 1 had much more open exploration. BioWare hasn't done a game quite like that since, and no I don't count Mass Effect's horrible planetside missions. BG2 however wasn't much more open than Dragon Age Origins. In DA you do eventually reach a point where you can choose where to go and when, and there are plenty of side quests. Not all of them are lengthy and involved, but then neither were many quests in BG1 or 2. I can't make a fair comparison here, not having finished DA yet, but so far it feels like BG2 did, minus the insane front loading of quests early in chapter two.

[8] They do matter. They're just not the best thing ever. What origin stories do is help personalize your gaming experience a bit. In my case, instead of starting off as mage with the exact same beginnings as everyone else, I get a unique experience that sprinkles dialogue options throughout my game and makes me feel a bit more involved in at least one later quest. Is it as great as BioWare hyped it to be? No. But we lose nothing by having origins included. Also, Baldur's Gate had nothing equivalent to this, so it can't even be compared properly.

[9] The skill bar is not unique to MMOs. Neverwinter Nights had one and BioWare made that too. I think a skill bar is something we'll see in any game with the sheer variety of combat options DA has. Baldur's Gate didn't have a skill bar, because there were no skills. The bar at the bottom of the interface and spell and special ability sub menus looked awfully similar to a skill bar though. Sort of like a primitive, non-customizable version of them. Besides, with all the combat options how else would you propose handling the interface? If BG had more to do for warriors than click attack, use an item, or activate a special ability, it would've handled it the same way as mage spells, which is similar enough, but lacking customization.

Crafting is also not specifically an MMO thing. WoW is not the only game with crafting in it. Neverwinter Nights had crafting too. Grafting effects to weapons and armor was also done in KotOR and Mass Effect. Maybe this isn't exactly like Baldur's Gate, but it hardly constitutes an MMO comparison.

What does feel MMO-like is how talents, spells, and party roles function. The BG series wasn't MMO style in how combat abilities worked mainly because it used D&D rules, but the party role aspect is identical unless you're an experienced player that knows every trick there is to win with a small party or solo.

Achievements are entirely optional. Me? I just play and don't care if what I do earns an achievement or not. You don't gain anything from earning them other than bragging rights 99.9% of other players won't give two figs about.

The loss of multiplayer is a loss of a feature BG had. However, how does the toolset and how it relates to multiplayer correlate with BG? BG had no toolset. It may win out in that you could play through various mods with friends through its multiplayer mode, but DA has an arguably equal, perhaps even greater advantage in that has a toolset to work with, meaning we may see more fan content in the long run and probably more completed projects.

---------

Bottom line: this is all opinion on your part, as it is on mine. I can't agree with some of what you wrote. Perhaps after I finish DA I'll still feel BG2 was the overall better game, but if that's the case it will come down to something beyond mechanics and superficial reading of the writing. That intangible that makes one game more fun than another. Because on a strictly technical and role-playing level, I don't think BG2 stands up to DA. Just like some of DA's aspects will probably seem outdated several years from now; when the next big RPG comes out. Although to read some people tell it, it already is old school.

Modifié par Seagloom, 07 novembre 2009 - 03:37 .

[Kafpo]

I haven't played it enough to form a definite opinion. You do, however, point out some things I dislike as well.



[6] Camera



Simply put: I hate it. It is fixed on the characters and the zoom is less than helpful - When the party is scattered, it is incredibly annoying.



[9] The WoW-ization



I could not agree more.



I do love the voice acting and the graphics.



At this point, it feels more like a spiritual successor to NWN rather than to BG.

[Madlax27]

Once you see how much your entire decisions impact the ending you will love this game far more than BG.



Even small side quests effect the ending. It is truly that epic.

[sypherin]

BG and DA basically share common grounds when it comes to the style of storytelling (immersive) and interaction between party members (witty)

I don't have the patience to write long lists of the gripes I have with DA in comparison to BG (not that there are much!) but I will mention a few that come to mind..

- The fact that there are not as many options as the BG series when it comes to party members. I remember there were dozens! There should have been at least 1 more of each class in DA.

- The steal feat and its 10 sec recharge (groan)

- No combat log! Are there even dice throws? Well I guess we will never know.

- No wizard eye. That used to be my uber favorite spy spell.

Nothing too game-breaking for me anyway but little BG bits that I miss. Ah, nostalgia..

[Madlax27]

Steal feat I used all game seems to be more like the FF series of Steal.



Max rank lets you use it in combat (thus the small cooldown). Kinda turned my character into Locke from FF3/6 in that I would steal as often as possible from monsters (because you get items they would not normally have dropped).

[MrGOH]

2-What? the character creator was massively popular. People absolutely care and many think there isn't enough customization in DA:O.



3 - What? Some of the voices are largely the same, down to the actor, as those in BG2. And I though nobody cared about customization.



4. In BG you only had three classes - warrior, mage and thief. Then you had all sorts of other classes based on that basic division, each one representing a restriction on the basic class. In DA:O, you don't pick your restrictions up-front, but as you play.



5. Actually, some of the dialogue is bad - better than 99% of games out there (and a good many movies), but some of it is awkward. The terrific voice acting covers up some of that and brings out what good writing there is.



6. Camera works just fine for me; what's the point of scrolling around the map if it's covered by the fog of war anyway? Since click to move isn't necessary in DA:O (thank god), you can just drive your party to where you wish to go.



7. This I agree with, though I understand Bioware's design choice. I'd rather have them focus on delivering a great story and combat than making big spaces and mediocre content to fill them, a la Oblivion and BG1. Heck, the amount of exploration in DA:O is about the same as that in BG2.



8 - my Dwarven noble origin kept coming up again and again and greatly affected how I RPed.







9 - I am not an MMO player, but this doesn't bother me at all. The crafting isn't that great in DA:O, but its existence does not fill me with rage. The skill bar just makes sense. That people don't like it is extremely puzzling because what sort of alternative do they imagine? Clunky menus a la ToEE? Going into the inventory every time you want to use a skill or item? It's a nonsense criticism.



Achievements in DA:O neither require grinding, nor do they affect your game, so if you don't want them, don't worry about them.

[Crizzan]

Having played RPG games a long time (even before computers), I can relate to many of the issues fraised here. However, I remember Pool of Radiance, Eye of the Beholder, and other early games as well as the Baldur Gate series, NWN (I + II), Morrowind, Oblivion, Drakken, etc.



Frankly, not every game is for everyone. Period.



You can nitpick any game to death. Enjoy what the game has to offer, do your best with a character of your choice, and have a bit of fun with it. Or put it away and play something else.



What I do not like is the lack of multiclass options. I cannot play my silver-tongued con artist thief with the open lock and remove traps spells. Sigh. So I created a Dwarf Commoner Thief, gave him some fighting skill, Lots of cunning, and open locks skill. (Not a high enough level yet to add trap making skills, but never found that very useful. I'll probably add it in DA:O because it affects Find Traps.)



Since I like outcast types, I'll probably play an elf next, perhaps a mage. I haven't been much into fighters or rangers because, frankly, the ability to plow through hordes of enemies generally makes an RPG too easy.



If anyone is really seeking ideas on making a good RPG game, try creating one where a thief plays through a different route than a fighter. Where the fighter has to face hordes of enemies trying to tear him apart, the thief has to puzzle his way through and defeat other bad guys until both arrive at the same ultimate boss. Do the same for mages. If you really want it to be different, make ways for people to choose to become evil as well with a different outcome. Then, to top it off, make it multiplayer with no single player knowing much about what is going on beyond what they learn from other players and NPCs -- That way, good characters can end up doing bad things in the name of righteousness, bad characters can end up doing good things in the name of greed, and anyone can end up at odds with anyone else either because they discover they've been duped or because they don't. Oh, yeah, and sprinkle about side quests that are unrelated that lead to obvious NPC bosses so some PCs can think they've rooted out the evil only to discover that the evil is still there until they face and destroy some PC that is really behind the trouble... But there will always be another one, because some PCs just choose to be bad, or the good PCs create a tyranny of Utopia....



Just some thoughts. Good gaming.

[FFTARoxorz05]

As someone who claims Baldurs Gate 2: Shadows of Amn to be his favorite game, I'll say that DAO does feel like Baldur's Gate 3. Its kind of random that you only get 4 party members, but mages have proven to be ridiculously broken so I guess that's why.  Fireball with a cooldown instead of only getting it X times is rather silly.

Also. as a disclaimer I am a WoW player, so I don't mind getting stuff from it in every rpg I play.  I don't need it as I'm not playing WoW until DAO is beat a few times (plus if you play WoW you know theres literally nothing to do until 3.3 comes out), but if I were to pick improvements to rpgs, I'd start with what WoW has done for single player.

Modifié par FFTARoxorz05, 07 novembre 2009 - 06:40 .

[Mess41]

I really enjoy the game just like any other Bioware game, but it's nowhere near BG2.

[Sidney]

I'm not sure at this point I don't like DAO better. Why?



1. Better game system. AD&D sucks at combat and magic and that is really all the game rules manage. The cool down > memorization. The warrior powers are actually useful. Rogues still suck but they always will.



2. Better allies. I just think the intra-party banter is so much better and, frankly, I think person for person the DAO types are more interesting.



3. Better world. The world of BG2 never made any sense in terms of politics, religion or frankly much of anything. DOA is much more full realized on all those fronts and those touches matter in the game and aren't just window dressing.



As someone on the 360 the overhead view on BG2 was easier to use.

[JabberJaww]

The BG purists will always dislike this game more



Its like Star Trek, theres the original series crowd, and the Next Generation crowd.



For me, Kotor blows most RPG's out of the water. DA:O ranks up there.



Its all personal choice....

[LaztRezort]

OK, I'm somewhat bored, so I'll play: IMO, the BG has just two things going for it that DA:O doesn't:



1. At the time, BG broke new ground for CRPGs - nothing like it had been seen before.

2. It is colored by the inevitable rosiness of nostalgia.

I agree with Sidney's points above, particularly #1 and #3. Also, I would say that comparing DA:O to BG2 is somewhat unfair (we'll have to wait for DA2 for that)

[Sidney]

LaztRezort wrote...

1. At the time, BG broke new ground for CRPGs - nothing like it had been seen before.
2. It is colored by the inevitable rosiness of nostalgia.

I think both of these very much color our judgement. BG2 was a revelation and now, a decade later, we've forgotten all the bad things and are just left with happy memories.

[Naked Fury]

Reared Logarithm wrote...

On skipping convos with merchants: that's what the Escape button's for.

But some merchants have a dialogue after you ask to see their inventory, others do not. That's the problem.

If you habitually press escape after asking (like me) and the merchant has no "post-ask" dialogue, then you lose the inventory screen and have to ask again. I find this pretty annoying. Not a big deal, but a misfeature nonetheless.

[RockGnasher]

I dislike the religious references in the game. So far it's all been monotheistic. gag me witha spoon. I guess it adds to the dark ages chill of it.



I dunno...I'd almost prefer to play WoW but I do not have internet at home. Plus my gf refuses to play WoW for fear of becoming a hopeless addict like her ex.



Dnd is broken now with 4th edition. WoC had to try to make a buck by progressing the system.



I just wish DA:O was not about darkspawn and was just a bunch of side quests. I did not like the NWN thing with saving the city nor the special son bhall garbage. Why whouuld these characters be so special? Special people are necessarily decended from kings or gods or whatever, enough with the megalomaniacal stories. I want to be in a game world where there are characters more powerful than I am and lots of unrelated things to do. I don't really like the idea of a central quest because the contrivance factor saps the life out of it to hockey sticks.

[blazin130791]

baldurs gate you start off getting your ass whooped by wolves and by the end of TOB you are a god, in the story and in what you can kill.