So, what are some good recent games?

[Methraton]

I will second NiteFox here, Deus Ex is an incredible game with lot of replay-value and you can even play online (never tried, but they made a patch that allowed it, I think it's more deathmatch than RPG when online)

Methraton

[roguebanshee]

... a single-player only game

... a patch fest (what number is GalCiv up to now 50?)

... a single race game

:P

[roguebanshee]

I think you're referring to Majesty. A slightly older game, for certain (not as old as Diablo, I don't think, but close), but not a bad one. Worth the $10 or $15 it would cost ya. ;)

Majesty is from 2000. Definately worth the money if you can find it, you'll most likely be able to find the bundle with both the original and the expansion (likely priced as a single budget game).

Majesty 2 confirmation :) :)

[Kevin]

Majesty is from 2000. Definately worth the money if you can find it, you'll most likely be able to find the bundle with both the original and the expansion (likely priced as a single budget game).

Majesty 2 confirmation :)  :)

Yeah, I got the bundle for $8.99 at Wal-Mart the other day (a couple of days before the original post actually). I have been having quite a bit of fun with it, well worth the $9.

[Moldran]

Hi

Some comments :)

Hitman2: Not a bad game, but it is quite short and has little replay value, IMO.


Freelancer: I don´t like it. Too little gameplay depth for my taste. Granted, the graphics are nice. But if you havn´t played it yet, I advise you to buy Freespace2 instead and spend the saved money on other games.
(If you like shooters overs simulations, Freelancer is probably a better choice than FS2)


Morrowind: Excellent game. The freedom you have as a player is amazing, the game world is extremely well designed. Clearly the best single player RGP ever, IMO. Great replay value. After finishing the main quest, you have usualy only seen about 10% of the world. You have lots of different characters to chose from and can design own ones. There are about a dozend different factions in the game you can join, each with their own quests, trainers, etc. Some of them are hidden. Exploring Morrowind´s world is really great fun.

The game has only three drawbacks:
- Relatively high hardware requirements (to fully enjoy the graphics, you need a machine with well over 1 GHz, and a decent graphics card. The game runs OK on slower machines, but you have to reduce the sight range, which reduces the fun, IMO)
- No MP modus (but the sheer size of the game world and the freedom of decision you have makes up for that)
- The "learning by doing" character development system sucks, IMO. Leaves much room for exploits (which you do not have to use, of course) and makes it quite hard to play an "allrounder". The game has some balance issues, but since it is SP only, this is not so much of a problem.

For anyone who likes RPGs, Morrowind is definately worth its money.

One thing that should be mentioned is that it might take relatively long until you have found out how some of the important things work. But IMO, this only adds to the fun :)


C&C Generals: Horrible game, IMO. Needs a high-end machine to run lag-free, many bugs, not much fun to play. I did not really like any of the C&C series after C&C1, but this one is really not worth its money, IMO. If you are looking for a good multiplayer RTS, buy Empire Earth, you should be able to get it for a reduced price by now.


Moldran

[WarLocke]

In response to Moldran:

Freelancer: I don´t like it. Too little gameplay depth for my taste. Granted, the graphics are nice. But if you havn´t played it yet, I advise you to buy Freespace2 instead and spend the saved money on other games.
(If you like shooters overs simulations, Freelancer is probably a better choice than FS2)

Yeah, I got the same impression after I spent a few hours with it. It's not quite the Privateer homage I was hoping for. Still, it's a damned gorgeous game, and the singleplayer storyline missions are fun. I doubt I'll try multi, though.

Besides, the store I bought it at will only swap a return for another of the same title if it has been opened. :angry:

Morrowind: Excellent game.

Ame to that. I haven't gotten too far in yet, since I've been starting characters like mad (I wanted to play a mage-type, but Destruction spells seem much weaker than melee); I've really only explored Seyda Neen and part of Balmora.

There are about a dozend different factions in the game you can join, each with their own quests, trainers, etc. Some of them are hidden.

Hrmm, let's see...

House Hlaalu
House Redoran
House Telvanni
Mage's Guild
Fighter's Guild
Thieve's Guild
Tribunal Temple
Imperial Cult
Imperial Legion
Morag Tong (?)
Commara Tong (?)

... And who ever said talking to Joe Commoner on the street was a waste of time? B)

I'm still not clear as to whether the different guilds are island-wide organisations, or if the Balmora Mage's Guild is seperate from Vivec's, or what.

- The "learning by doing" character development system sucks, IMO. Leaves much room for exploits (which you do not have to use, of course) and makes it quite hard to play an "allrounder". The game has some balance issues, but since it is SP only, this is not so much of a problem.

I like the concept, but yeah, the execution has some problems. Combat skills (and melee skills in particular) seem to raise about thrice as fast as everything else if you do more than a modicum of fighting, for example.

I also like the mix--match armor system; some ragtag combinations look surprisingly good.

- WL

[Roland]

MoO3 is a broken game not worth the money until it's fixed.

GalCiv, without the patches, is great right out of the box (which is more than can be said for MoO3). At least GalCiv is BEING patched; MoO3 originally was not going to be. :P

[Medicine Man]

Adding in my own 2 cents worth: Galactic Civilizations is every bit the spiritual successor of the Masters of Orion series. It has a straight forward game engine with good depth of gameplay. The AI for the computer players is pretty damned sharp as well. The developers boast that the game doesn't have to use resource cheats for the major AI nations.

If you like 4x games, it is worth looking at.

[Walkiry]

http://www.machall.com/morrowind/

:lol:

I'm still not clear as to whether the different guilds are island-wide organisations, or if the Balmora Mage's Guild is seperate from Vivec's, or what.

Island-wise. For example, if you join the Thieves guild in Balmora, after a few quests you'll be sent to the thieves guild in... some other town, can't remember :lol:, and after that and a few more quests you rise ranks and can go back to get quests in Balmora.

Also I recommend http://www.morrowindfiles.com for your modding pleasure. Running around with the Lilarcor (sp? the talking sword from Baldur's Gate) is nothing short of hillarious, or being able to dual-wield with my thief. One of the best things to get there is one of the "house mods", where a house for the player to use is added. There are several of these, some of them are excellent (with things like alchemy rooms, armouries and so on).

Finally, <shameless self plug>I made a perl/tk program to help with alchemy, to keep track of the ingredients you have and what potions can be made, available to anyone that wants it ;)</shameless self plug>

[edit] Grumble grumble, if you hit "Preview" the title of the post gets changed from whatever you typed to the plain Re:blahblahblah. And it can't be edited, bah. [/edit]

[Moldran]

Hrmm, let's see...

House Hlaalu
House Redoran
House Telvanni
Mage's Guild
Fighter's Guild
Thieve's Guild
Tribunal Temple
Imperial Cult
Imperial Legion
Morag Tong (?)
Commara Tong (?)

There are some more, depending on what exactly you count as a faction :)


!!! SEMI-SPOILERS BELOW !!!
Don´t read on if you´re very new to Morrowind and want to find out all by yourself.

I'm still not clear as to whether the different guilds are island-wide organisations, or if the Balmora Mage's Guild is seperate from Vivec's, or what.

They are island-wide organizations. If you join the Mage´s Guild in Balmora, you will be recognized as a member by every Mage´s Guild (pay reduced fees, use the equipment chest, be able to get jobs, etc). What exactly you can and cannot do at a certain faction´s house usualy depends on your rank in that faction. I think you can theoretically become the boss of each faction in the game...advancing in faction ranks can be quite beneficial - if you advance in a Great House high enough, you can get your own stronghold on Morrowind :)

As for the other factions:
There are The Blades, a sort of second Thieve´s Guild (not really a faction I think, more a row of Thieve´s Guild quests), some sort of very freaky Vampire thing, and possibly 2 or 3 others I forgot or havn´t met yet.

Moldran

[NiteFox]

http://www.machall.com/morrowind/

Simply one of the best things. Ever. A pity, then, that my 1997 POS computer will never be able to run Morrowind, as I will hereby be denied the chance to play Ian's Moogle model.

[Jedi Knight]

Last week I went at EB and I saw a game called Gothic, it was only $15 (can), so I decided to give it a try. Since then I've been playing like mad! This game has great graphics, good storyline and AI, lots of weapons to choose from and lots of interaction with NPCs. There are three "camps", and you'll eventually have to choose one of them. Life in camps is realistic - people work, eat, sleep, talk to each other etc. If you enter someone's hut, or draw your weapon in town, they get mad at you and will beat you up if you harass them.

It's probably been the best 15 bucks I've ever spent on a game. Of course there are flaws and some bugs - no game is perfect. But it's really fun, you can develop your character the way you want to (Warrior, ranger, mage). The greatest thing IMO is that you don't have to be a "pure" class - you can mix your abilities, like learning one-handed combat and still have powerful spells. You can also sneak, steal from people and rob their chests (as long as they don't see you). Overall, lots of fun for the low cost. :)

[WarLocke]

EDIT: Uh, I really need to learn not to leave a browser open with an active internet connection when my little cousin's over. <_<

EDIT 2: I think I've finally got "the" character I'm going to play through Morrowind set up, and I have a question about dungeons. I've found 6 or 7 dungeons near Seyda Neen, all within a level 1 character's walking distance (or in some cases, swimming distance). Is there any way to tell if a dungeon or area is plot-critical in some fashion, or if there's a quest related to it later? I'd hate to go dungeon-romping and find out later that I shouldn't have until I received quest X. :(

For clarification, these are the dungeons I've found (names only, shouldn't be too spoilerish?):

Abaesen-Pulu Egg Mine
Addamasartus
Akimaes Grotto
Assemanu
Nimawia Grotto
Samarys Ancestral Tomb
Thelas Ancestral Tomb

Some of the locals mentioned rumors of a "mentor's ring" in a tomb on the coast, so I'm tempted to go bashing to see what all the hoopla's about. But again, I'm afraid I'll bork future questlines or something...

- WL

[WarLocke]

OK, so my Dunmer ("Dark Elf") Sorceress made it to Balmora today. The first thing I did was to find Cauis Cosades and join the Blades. Then, after speaking to the other Blades in town for some advice (and free loot B) ), I headed across town to the Mage's Guild and joined. I've done Ajira's first two quests (err, "duties"), but her third takes me out to Pelagiad, which I've never been to, so I may be awhile finishing that. Besides Cauis' missions (which I haven't started yet, he said to work on my skills and equipment first), are there any other Balmora-based or -started quests? Should I just go house-to-house, barging in and interrogating everyone about the geography of Vvardenfell? :D

Also, I'm assuming you can only join the Temple or the Imperial Cult, and not both. What are the differences between the two? Frankly, besides one group worshipping four gods and the other nine, I'm not sensing much difference. Or I may just be missing it. Pros/cons to each faction?

Telvanni is the "mage" Great House, right? Guess my choice is easy, here.

The other factions shouldn't be a real big deal for Linel. She's a pure mage, so the Fighter's guild isn't in the cards unless she maxes out her spellcasting abilities or somesuch. The Tongs are out just because they're evil, and the Thieve's guild seems like too much law-breaking action...


Also, why can't you make spells that are as efficient as the default ones? I bought Balyna's Purification (cure poison), but I didn't want to use someone else's spell, so I made an identical (Cure Poison for 1 second on Self) version I named Detoxify, but it cost 12 magicka to cast, while Balyna's cost only 6!

I did the same for Soul Trap (Trap the Soul -- Soul Trap for 60 seconds on Touch), and it cost 6 magicka for both versions. Strange.

And Water Walk is insanely cool; I can stare down through the water at the little fishies who can't bite me anymore... :lol:

Hrmm, wish I could get a decent close-up frontal picture of Linel... She sure is purdy!

- WL

[Walkiry]

To be honest, I've never bothered with magic, a big sword (bigger than a house) has always solved all my problems, by cutting them into small pieces :lol:. Jokes aside, the game is biased towards melee, it's just that powerful.

Anyway, for the first question, so far all the quest-related dungeons I've found are well hidden somewhere in the wilderness. But don't worry, if you clear a dungeon that is part of a quest and obtain whatever you had to (or kill whoever you had to), once you actually arrive to the quest it'll get properly updated and credited in your journal.

Thieves' guild is actually a lot of fun ;) Oh, and since you're a magician, I recommend Alchemy, all you can. About the spells you make, it could be tied to your skill level? Dunno, try again when you go up a few levels ;) Balmora quests... if you don't like the Cammona Tong, there's a quest you'll like then. I got it triggered when talking to people in the Thieves guild, but I'm not entirely sure if it has to be triggered there. Try going to the fort next to Balmora (leave he town where the stilt rider is, turn left and walk for a bit).

You can take a picture, go to the morrowind.ini and change "Screen Shot Enable" to "= 1", press tab for free look and make a frontal pose for your character.

[Edit] Oh yeah, I forgot, those tombs can be really nasty places, so be careful until you level up a bit. It's worse for a melee char I guess, since the problem is immunity to normal weapons. [/edit]

[Moldran]

are there any other Balmora-based or -started quests? Should I just go house-to-house, barging in and interrogating everyone about the geography of Vvardenfell?&nbsp;

There are more Balmora-based quests, depending on what factions you join. There are also non-faction quests.

You can join more than 1 Guild, but only 1 Great House.

It might happen that a quest for a certain guild means causing harm to another guild. It might also happen that you become involved in an internal conflict in which you have to decide what side to fight for.
If you are expelled from a faction, you can rejoin them by talking to the right person and paying an amount of gold.

Some duties, not only ones for criminnal guilds, will be very hard to fullfill without breaking the law.
You can run from the guards and hide. In most bigger towns, there is a a person who can, for a price, remove a bounty you have on your head. Being a Thieve´s Guild member can be quite helpful for non-thieves also, even if only to get hold of informations. You can be a guild member without doing any duties. You just won´t advance in ranks.

Also, I'm assuming you can only join the Temple or the Imperial Cult, and not both. What are the differences between the two? Frankly, besides one group worshipping four gods and the other nine, I'm not sensing much difference. Or I may just be missing it. Pros/cons to each faction?

I never tried to join both, don´t know if it is possible. They basically provide the same services, but quests for members are different, of course. Naturally, the Imperial Cult is more outlander-friendly, I think. Can´t really answer your question, my character is not very religious, hehe.

Telvanni is the "mage" Great House, right? Guess my choice is easy, here.

Yup.

Hrmm, wish I could get a decent close-up frontal picture of Linel... She sure is purdy!

When you hold down TAB, you can move the camera around your character. I don´t know if you can take screenshots, but I would guess you can.

Also, why can't you make spells that are as efficient as the default ones? I bought Balyna's Purification (cure poison), but I didn't want to use someone else's spell, so I made an identical (Cure Poison for 1 second on Self) version I named Detoxify, but it cost 12 magicka to cast, while Balyna's cost only 6!

I am no expert for the magical arts, but I think the quality depends on your skill level. I don´t know the exact details, perhaps someone else can answer your question better.


Some general advice:
- Save early, save often, use more than 1 save slot.
- Listen to the local rumors. Some are useless for you, but some are not.
- In the beginning, concentrate on one faction. Do their quests. Check what skills you need to advance in ranks (in the character window, hold the mouse over the faction´s name), and train those. Once you have an experienced Mage, you can easily train him in 2 or 3 more skills you find important. The higher a skill is, the more money it costs to train it. Most trainers cannot train a skill higher than a certain lvl (75 ? Don´t remember). There are special experts that can train you up to 100, but they can be quite hard to find.
- Since you cannot add your own journal entries, making paper notes can really help. Murphy is also active in Morrowind. At some point early in the game, someone will tell you where the Alchemy expert lives when you ask for "a little advice", and by the time you need the expert, you will have forgotten and spend hours to find out who it is ;)
- If something is too hard for your char, come back later.
- Silt striders, Mage´s Guild teleporting and ships are very helpful to travel fast. OTOH, "adventure lies beyond the cities" ;)
- Take your time. Exploring Morrowind is fun.
- The Blades are the main quest. If you want to explore the world of Morrowind before "finishing" the game, do other things first. You can also play on after the main quest is finished, however.
- Be careful with killing people, especially people who hold important positions in Morrowind´s society. The player´s freedom in Morrowind is so great that the game does not hinder you to interrupt the main quest by killing a person that is important for the story. You will get a message that the main quest is broken, however. In such a case, you hopefully have a recent save game :)
- Invisibility deactivates as soon as you do any action (attack, open a door or a chest, etc). Chameleon does not, however. A high Chameleon % makes most critical situations in the game very easy.

Moldran

[Rhydderch Hael]

Freelancer sounds like it has the same sort of faults that the game previous to it in the series had, Starlancer. As a small scale snub-fighter sim, the game engine and graphics are great. However, the storyline was stale to the point of implausibility, the characters badly flat, and the banter between pilots was horribly trite and heavy-handed (never elevating above grade-school jibes). And when I say the missions were closed, I mean closed. Your backseater appears to do nothing else but push you through the mission script (activating the jump drive or ordering a landing if you decide not to) and haul your ass in for execution if you kill one of your own crates through friendly fire.

[Thecla]

I'd strongly recommend Knights of the Old Republic as just a great single player RPG.

[Obi2Kenobi]

And they've come out with a Gothic 2, as well. Much higher system requirements, but still seems like fun. Good to know that Gothic was, makes Gothic 2 promising. Maybe I'll get both ;). As soon as I get around to buying a hard drive... Although Morrowind sounds like fun, as well. Decisions, decisions, decisions...


/edit: I didn't mean to say that because the system requirements are higher, it is fun... (change of comma structure)

[DeeBye]

World of Warcraft