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Post by paulofthewest on Apr 25, 2021 19:09:03 GMT -5
Oh, yeah, I really liked that era of PC Gamer. I had a lot of their mags. I'm sure a few games will be added to my list eventually, like Baldur's Gate or Planescape Torment. Just gotta devote time to it... Have you tried out all the mods for Freespace 2? There's even one that moves all the missions from the first game into the Freespace 2 engine. Somehow I missed your post, bleh! Anyways, no I haven't tried any mods yet. I know the community is huge, but I dropped out right when it was picking up. Do you have a favorite?
Baldur's Gate and Planescape Torment are excellent, but I think Ex 's tactic of playing 1 or 2 hours a day is a good way to go. The games can be rather long.
I have played the enhanced versions of BG, BGII, and dragonspear. I can vouch that the enhanced versions of BG I and BG II don't detract from the original and in fact enhance it with new classes, new characters, more (amusing) character interactions, and a nice face lift. I highly suggest that route. But uh, you would be pushing 200 hours for all three. I can imagine squeaking by with 100 hours for all three, but that would probably miss a lot of story/features. That said, you can skip dragonspear if you wish--it was is more of a fun fill in the gaps game, not fully needed. ON the other hand dragonspear is shorter.
I know Beamdog made an enhanced version of Planescape, but I haven't gotten around to it.
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Post by Sarge on Apr 25, 2021 19:20:32 GMT -5
I haven't dived into them myself, only installing them and briefly reading about them. Too many games, so little time!
I definitely understand how you have to pace yourself. I increasingly find myself putting in shorter sessions these days, although I've never been a marathon player anyway.
I've got Baldur's Gate installed via the Baldur's Gate Trilogy mod, which implements a lot of Beamdog's stuff and more - it's basically BG1 in the BG2 engine. I played it for about six hours and fell off the wagon. This happens to me more than I care to admit!
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Post by Ex on Apr 25, 2021 23:20:58 GMT -5
We all have different lives, with varying levels of social complexity and personal adult responsibilities. So I don't believe there's a golden ratio of daily video game playing that perfectly fits everybody's life (id est not 1 hour). However, I do think playing more than 3 hours a day consistently is just too much. I'd think the same about any inactive hobby, not just video gaming. I believe for a person to be more well-rounded mentally and culturally, they should have a variety of hobbies that they alternate between. Even alternate between within the same day. Unfortunately, modern games have become incredibly good at absorbing a person's free time, while drip feeding that player teensy "rewards" incessantly, to make the player feel like they are constantly accomplishing something. Achievements, Trophies, completed virtual to-do lists of inordinately mundane tasks. The pixel drenched operant conditioning chamber has been perfected, with a sprinkle of social media intertwined for that extra "this actually matters" feel. Well, it doesn't matter. Not like doing something tangibly beneficial in your physical reality matters, at least.
For me lately, video gaming 1-2 hours five or six days a week tends to be my sweet spot. Now that ratio changes occasionally, if I fall into a long RPG that I truly love. This is rare, but even then, I wouldn't be playing more than 3 hours per night, and likely not more than four days a week at that rate. I do tend to get burned out, even with games that I love. Maybe it's a side effect of having played so many games, that the sweet dopamine rush just isn't as strong as it used to be. Or maybe it's just a getting older thing in general. But don't let this sound like I don't still love gaming, because I absolutely do. In reasonable quantities. All that said, if someone is gaming more than 3 hours a day habitually, I don't think that rate is healthy. I personally have known, and still know, some people who game 4-8 hours a day, pretty much everyday. If you're playing at that heavy of a ratio, you're sacrificing something. That something is a real life.
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Post by paulofthewest on Apr 26, 2021 9:56:18 GMT -5
Sarge I have played around with BG trilogy. It is an excellent mod and definitely a step up from regular BG/BG:ToSC. I think Beamdog's version is a step up from the trilogy with the nice extras. In reality, I don't think you can go wrong with any of the options (including the original.) Ex I agree, after 3 hours things get bad. On top of that, one issue with BG (and other super long RPGs) is when it is hard to get back into it after a break. Especially if there is a lull in the game. BG's city part isn't the best, but it really picks up right afterwards with the final showdown. For me, I still love video games, just my obsession level had dropped. I can remember trying to manage time with studies and parents, "you need to go outside time" to get back to Diablo II or whatever it was at the time. Now, I'm the parent, so, uhhh lame!
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Post by Ex on Apr 26, 2021 10:11:51 GMT -5
one issue with BG (and other super long RPGs) is when it is hard to get back into it after a break This is one reason I've dropped quite a few RPGs in the past two years. I'll get a dozen hours into an RPG, then not play it for three or four days, and then it's like I have no desire to return to it. I suppose if the writing was better and I felt more engaged with the narrative, then my impetus to return would be stronger. But what I've come to accept is the vast majority of RPGs have paltry writing. And I'm talking about JRPGs and WRPGs there, amateur hour authors across the RPG spectrum. (There are of course occasional exceptions, I'm not saying the are NO RPGs with good writing.) So if the writing isn't great, then it's better if the RPG is sub-30 hours. After 30 hours I really get tired of an RPG unless it's doing something exceptional. That can be the world design or the gameplay mechanics, if the writing is bland. It was certainly easier to finish long RPGs consistently as a teenager with no full time job, house, yard, pets, kids, wife and so on to tend to. But also when I was a teenager, RPGs back then tended to be a lot shorter anyway. This is basically where I am now. I still obsessively collect video games (hoarding gene runs in my family), but after PS4 I'm done with that. I still love talking about games too, obviously. But my absolute max gaming time per week is 20 hours, though for a while now it's been averaging ~12.
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Post by anayo on May 2, 2021 8:14:30 GMT -5
Note to self: Play Thief.
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Post by Ex on May 2, 2021 12:27:18 GMT -5
I posted the original Dark Project version because it's the one I played in 1998. However at this point, the Gold version is preferable.
I have played thousands of video games, but the original Thief remains the greatest video game I've ever played.
It's even better than King's Field.
Yeah, recommended.
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Post by Xeogred on May 2, 2021 12:39:08 GMT -5
I played Thief for the first time in ~2014 or something myself and it still blew me away. They don't make em' like this anymore. Even with my strong bias for sci-fi, I sometimes wonder if I like Thief even more than Deus Ex and System Shock 2 in ways... but to be fair, they're all a bit different. All pure gold right there. Thief's atmosphere, is level 99.
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Post by Sarge on May 3, 2021 12:37:16 GMT -5
I liked that mage towers level a lot, which is apparently only in Thief Gold.
My biggest false impression of the game before I played it was that it was a more "grounded" game. You know, just being a thief. Nah, there's all sorts of magical and spooky stuff in here, and it definitely elevates the proceedings into a very interesting game. I think some segments can even edge in on "horror" games.
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Post by Xeogred on May 3, 2021 13:11:30 GMT -5
Yeah, the actual thievery of Thief was the secondary element to me. It was fun to thoroughly explore and 100% every map that I could. But the main thing about this series to me is just drowning in the dense atmosphere of The City. And Garret is one of the coolest anti-hero characters I've seen in gaming so far. He's no hero. Sure he gets involved in some critical stuff and changes history with his actions, but he's kind of just out for himself and not saving any world. There's not much else like The City. But the newer Dishonored games come close with its awesome world and settings to me. Like Deus Ex though, all of Thief is at night and I love that in game... or maybe there's just no sun at all in that world?
Now, I don't know if this is the right thread for such a question but I'll ask here for some that grew up with more PC games and paid attention to it all more than the norm, what's the consensus on the best 90's dungeon crawlers? I keep having Wizardry-esque stuff in the back of my mind. Maybe I should just finally try one of those. But I wonder if there's some top 3 that PC gaming experts would recommend. I'm talking like, the first person-esque ones where you have a party of characters.
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