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| Thread: Replayed Baldur's Gate |  This thread is pages long: 1 2 · NEXT» |
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Doomforge
Admirable
Undefeatable Hero
Retired Hero
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posted November 25, 2019 04:51 PM |
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Replayed Baldur's Gate
From scratch till finish. BG1EE -> SoD -> BG2EE (which includes ToB).
I am amazed how long this game is. I vaguely remembered that it's long, but.. wow. It's way longer than that.
It's not just long, it's also infuriating when it comes to the interface. If you don't mod it, prepare to waste a good several hours of life watching how your dudes walk (in a game that takes 100+ hours to complete). Save your sanity, install +150% walk speed mod (out of combat, it gets auto-disabled once combat starts). EE tries to make your life less miserable by adding bags of holding, introducing a fast pickup bar... and it's STILL annoying. How the heck did we not get insane 20 years ago!?
For all the flaws though, it's probably one of the very few games where you start as a random nobody fleeing from two dogs (muh 10 HP lvl1 char) but end up a figurative and literal GOD. And the insane amount of time you have to spend on this game makes it way more realistic and believable. When you recall your "starting times", first quests - while in ToB - you'll be amazed. It feels like forever ago. And it feels like you've participated in one incredible journey.
Would I recommend it? hell yes. Just do yourself a favor and mod it.
Recomended mods:
SCS - this reinstates the difficulty (some fights are particularly hard now!) and fixes some of the abusive spells and tactics. It's focused on making the AI better instead of giving it 9001 HP, +20 to saves and -20 to thac0. Highly customizable. Obviously I used maximum difficulty, but that's me.
Ascension - the way it was meant to end, a mod developed by one of the orginal devs that changed the final battle and some endings a bit. Recommended, and it works with SCS which has components dedicated solely to improving Ascension battles' difficulty.
ATweaks/EETweaks - to get rid of some stupidity of rules, quirky/buzzing animations of certain items, etc. Convenience that is much needed for this game, like the +150% walk speed mod, is also here IIRC.
Unfinished business 1/2 - all the stuff that was meant to make it to the final release, but was cut due to time restraints.
NPC project - banters are fun, and this adds the much needed banters to overly silent BG1 NPCs. With some pretty music too.
Imoen Romance - yeah, you probably are thinking "dafuk is this doing here, romancing your godly half-sister is gross" but hear me out on this: this is, if you look past the "incest" stuff, a beautiful and heartwarming story that melds seamlessly with the original game's content and comes with excellent music of its own. Definitively recommended. Sadly, doesn't work with Ascension yet (conflicts). But I'm on to that, pestering the last known modder 
EET - with the games being reworked on the BG2 engine, playing them as one game is no longer as relevant as it was pre-Enhanced Edition, where you could play BG1 without dealing with the horribly antiquated BG1 engine thanks to the BGT mod. Still, it does allow one seamless adventure, and a joint map where you can return to nearly any place you want, including going back to Friendly Arm Inn with your ToB team. Comes with a mighty convenient installer that will figure out the install order of all your mods for you. No more hassle.
if I were to rate this game, I'd be torn a bit. On one hand, it's an absolutely grand adventure, on a scale that's no longer possible to see in modern games. On the other, its interface aged poorly (not as poorly as NWN 1, though) and you will need a lot of patience. A lot. Of. Patience.
A really big lot.
6/10 BG1 - mostly for D&D fans, the slow pace bores most out of their minds, but if you like classic RPGs, you'll love it.
8/10 BG2+ToB (bundled together in EE, I'd rate ToB lower if it was a regular release since it's short, rushed and highly combat based - and it was meant to be a regular game, as long as the others - sadly it got scrapped  )
5/10 SoD - Beamdog's attempt at releasing new content decades after the games were released is a mixed bag. You get more BG, but the story is slightly silly, a bit out of place, and there's a lot of SJW stuff thrown in that just doesn't fit. Still enjoyable, but underwhelming.
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We reached to the stars and everything is now ours
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monere
Bad-mannered
Supreme Hero
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posted November 25, 2019 05:31 PM |
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wish I could play all these seemingly amazing RPGs (BG, Neverwinter Nights, etc.), but if I remember correctly they have parties and since I hate parties with passion... well, I guess I'll never get to enjoy them
Anyway, what I actually wanted to say was to now try Planeswalker Torment (I hope I got the name right). That's an RPG that I remember to have liked but never finished because it's been too hard for me at that time, and I didn't have the patience to play it, either. Pretty good game, though, you should give it a (re)try
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blob2
Undefeatable Hero
Blob-Ohmos the Second
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posted November 25, 2019 06:28 PM |
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The thing with nostalgia is that as long as it's in your head it feels godlike. In case of games you remember so fondly, when you get back to them after all those years you finally get how archaic they are, not only becasue of their age, but also because of the expieriences you had since then. I think retro/pixel art games thrive because they feel nostalgic, but still bring something new to the table.
There are only a handful of games which don't fail me when I get back to them periodically after all those years, for ex. HoM&M 3 of Warcraft 3 (I played it a while ago and it still feels slick).
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Doomforge
Admirable
Undefeatable Hero
Retired Hero
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posted November 25, 2019 06:48 PM |
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Ah, I mostly play retro games anyway, so nostalgia isn't much of a factor to me. Many RPGs of that age are simply known for awful interface and inwentory management.
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We reached to the stars and everything is now ours
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JoonasTo
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
What if Elvin was female?
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posted November 25, 2019 08:16 PM |
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So how many corrupted saves did you get 
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OhforfSake
Promising
Legendary Hero
Initiate
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posted November 25, 2019 08:36 PM |
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blob2 said:
The thing with nostalgia is that as long as it's in your head it feels godlike. In case of games you remember so fondly, when you get back to them after all those years you finally get how archaic they are, not only becasue of their age, but also because of the expieriences you had since then. I think retro/pixel art games thrive because they feel nostalgic, but still bring something new to the table.
There are only a handful of games which don't fail me when I get back to them periodically after all those years, for ex. HoM&M 3 of Warcraft 3 (I played it a while ago and it still feels slick).
I believe as a young kid when first introduced to something it is extremely easy to derive a meaning beyond what you are experiencing.
E.g. take the boulder dash clone Rockford, I had forgotten all about the game, but I stumbled upon the menu screen and remembered I had used my imagination to create my own lore regarding each image (set of levels), despite each image was the exact same game only with different sprites.
Similarly I fondly remember when I completed the Wolfenstein shareware edition I could see images representing other acts which I was not able to play because they required the full version. Of course these were again more of the exact same game, but I remember imagining fights at sea, traveling through time, conquering a castle, not to mentioning stopping a zombie invasion and boarding an alien ship to fight in space... All from some images, and I think the ability to use your fantasy when it comes to older games means a lot when it comes to how enjoyable they are. (Had I played the full game I would definitely had been very disappointed, btw.)
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Doomforge
Admirable
Undefeatable Hero
Retired Hero
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posted November 25, 2019 08:55 PM |
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JoonasTo said:
So how many corrupted saves did you get
one. Fortunately it was a quicksave.
OhforfSake said:
E.g. take the boulder dash clone Rockford, I had forgotten all about the game
Maybe that was for the best - that game felt like an amateurish copy. Just five levels, crappy art, crappy "physics", crappy everything.
If you compare Rockford to Supaplex... yeah. Lol. A game of roughly the same age, but one polished to the extreme, 111 levels of fantastic design, and the other... umm.
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We reached to the stars and everything is now ours
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Geny
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
What if Elvin was female?
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posted November 25, 2019 09:01 PM |
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OhforfSake said:
Similarly I fondly remember when I completed the Wolfenstein shareware edition I could see images representing other acts which I was not able to play because they required the full version. Of course these were again more of the exact same game, but I remember imagining fights at sea, traveling through time, conquering a castle, not to mentioning stopping a zombie invasion and boarding an alien ship to fight in space...
Huh... I'm pretty sure they ended up doing all of that eventually, except for fighting in space and maybe fighting at sea.
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Zenofex
Responsible
Legendary Hero
Kreegan-atheist
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posted November 25, 2019 10:17 PM |
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I've never finished the first Baldur's Gate. Some of the mechanics were deliberately made to be nerve-peeling (like the "weapons" which shatter after a few swings at the beginning), the difficulty could spike to the stratosphere just like that and you spend the next half a day retrying the same battle only to find out that it becomes reasonably tough if you backtrack 1-2 more hours to get THAT item from somewhere, the pathfinding made your party look like a bunch of drunken hens, the constant screaming of Khalid and Jaheira made me want to get them killed first so they could shut the f*** up... And I played the game at an age when I still had a lot of patience for such things.  I'm not intending to ever try to replay it - it has its clumsy charm, but nowadays when I play a game I'm looking only for fun, not struggle.
Baldur's Gate 2 is better all-around but has bland and predictable story, shallow and even annoying antagonist and even more walking around than its predecessor. ToB I've started but haven't finished and probably never will, unless I get very bored - lots of brawling, little substance from what I saw in 5-6 hours of gameplay.
In the D&D world the only game I'm unquestionably fan of is Planescape: Tornment. Mainly for the story and the way it is delivered, the actual gameplay is nothing special. I think I'll never replay that one because I suspect that the experience won't be as good the second time. 
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Blizzardboy
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
Nerf Herder
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posted November 26, 2019 01:12 AM |
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Come to think of it I don't think I ever finished BG1 either, lol. Oh well.
I prefer games with long storylines over the Obsidian model. The main quest for games like Skyrim or Fallout isn't very long but then on your mission you run into endless legions of helpless morons that want you to do menial tasks that aren't part of the plot.
I recently finished Jedi: Fallen Order and that is a game with high quality storytelling and adventure without the endless distractions.
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"Folks, I don't trust children. They're here to replace us."
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Doomforge
Admirable
Undefeatable Hero
Retired Hero
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posted November 26, 2019 10:56 AM |
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Zenofex: The story isn't anything special, it's just that the journey itself is. It's one of the most believable "from zero to hero" games.In many games, your character develops in a ridiculous speed that makes you wonder WTF, going from being a nobody to a god in just a day or so. In BG, due to ridiculous length of the game, the whole process feels natural and it does feel AMAZING to look back as a god to your puny days of being a level 1 adventurer. Wow, what a ride.
BB: I also dislike endless fetch quests in games. I think Witcher 3 got it right: each felt like a mini-adventure. As it should be.
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We reached to the stars and everything is now ours
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Geny
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
What if Elvin was female?
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posted November 26, 2019 12:25 PM |
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Wait, I just remembered: I fought in space as well. Only there were no aliens involved.
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JoonasTo
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
What if Elvin was female?
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posted November 26, 2019 12:31 PM |
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I really liked the Mass Effect approach(the first one.) You start from an already battle hardened veteran/hero/renegade and it feels like that too. Even if you get plenty more skills and gear along the way you never feel like you were a wimp. The intro(especially ruthless/loner one) does a great job of conveying that image. This is strengthened even further along the way with the weight your decisions carry and the authority you command. You never have to kill rats in a basement(or spiders in a well) rather disarm nukes in a mine, deter invasions on colonies and so on. If you wish to engage in meaningful little sidetours, you can, but you are never expected or forced to.
You are not a wishful, unexpected, timely farmer hero. You are well trained, talented and resourceful specialist.
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OhforfSake
Promising
Legendary Hero
Initiate
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posted November 26, 2019 01:19 PM |
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Doomforge said:
Maybe that was for the best - that game felt like
Well it shouldn't matter the game was crap, in a way I think that only strengthens my point about creating some deeper value that only exists through imagination... like when a kid sits on a bouncing ball and proudly proclaims he is the lady he saw in daddy's secret movie last night... 
Joke aside, I am actually not completely confident Rockford is that game, if there exist a similar game with a nearly identical menu screen, then I'd definitely like to know about it, as that may be the game in stead.
It is because my memory is fuzzy, at best I haven't played the game since I was 11, but at worst since I was 5, and the answer is most likely somewhere in-between. Other games are easier, because they were made after I was born, but those mid-late 80's games are probably were I have the most trouble finding stuff I used to know.
I also found other games I had forgotten all about, like Mice Men, Exile, etc. and since you are somewhat of an expert on old games, perhaps I could get you to HCM (or make it public if you want) a list of Dos and pre-Win 95 classics whenever you have the time and feel like taking on such a task? (Though I do kind of have a feeling that those game I reminisce are most likely not classics or even good). Also I'm really looking forward to hear more of the games you have been playing through!
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Living time backwards
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Doomforge
Admirable
Undefeatable Hero
Retired Hero
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posted November 26, 2019 01:33 PM |
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ah, no probs. You can send me your recommended. We can make a retro thread and compare our experiences. I have a proper 486DX waiting to be used, I only need me some proper IBM keyboard. Not so much the old mice, because unlike the old keyboards they SUCKED big time.
I'm not just into PC gaming, too. NES, SNES, Master System, Megadrive/Genesis, N64, Saturn, etc - you name it, I have it
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We reached to the stars and everything is now ours
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Blizzardboy
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
Nerf Herder
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posted November 26, 2019 01:57 PM |
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I remember Mass Effect handling quests pretty well. Its still annoying that people often want you to do something urgently but then there either isn't a timeline or a very long timeline before it expires. It ruins the immersion a little, especially Mass Effect 3 where there are robots in the middle of purging the galaxy.
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Elvin
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Endless Revival
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posted December 13, 2019 09:15 AM |
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Aand I forgot to reply here.
Doomforge, I salute you. Not even I would put myself though that, the whole saga is just too much.
I'm glad you introduced me to SCS and Imoen romance, it was fun to replay bg2 with new content and new challenges. Both solo and with two characters. I still dislike how much emphasis they put on high level arcane casters, precast buffs and shoehorned annoyances I did not ask for like beholders randomly snatching your Anduran shield. Whoever made this should suffer in the abyss for a decade or two. But overall however it was a good experience and it made battles significantly harder, I even had to revise my memorized spells every 1-2 encounters.
I had already played the enhanced version before and was not exactly impressed by beamdog's standards. I would honestly prefer an option to completely remove their content from the game. Dialogues are bad, motivations make no sense, unskippable cutscenes and some pretty bad writing. Dorn happily invites you to murder people in a wedding during daylight. At hello. Neera invites you to her camp even if you've never met her before and she even manages to get locked out of it. Hexxat.. ugh. Rassad.. meh. Only good thing about her is carrying a coffin that can serve as a bag of holding which is handy for solo. So yeah, remove away. They are just not up to original bg2 standards.
Baldur's gate is an epic series and I loved the journey. Now looking forward to Larian's bg3. I know it won't be anything like before but I have certain expectations from these guys.
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JoonasTo
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
What if Elvin was female?
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posted December 13, 2019 09:50 AM |
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I’m looking forward to the time I won’t have to play it xD
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Elvin
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Endless Revival
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posted December 13, 2019 09:55 AM |
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Still hung up on phys/magic armour huh
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JoonasTo
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
What if Elvin was female?
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posted December 13, 2019 10:37 AM |
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