DarthHelmet86 wrote:It has its flaws but overall Blood Omen is a pretty fun game. Some of the later games in the series not so much.

I really enjoyed Soul Reaver: Legacy of Kain. I found that to be fun, atmospheric and with novel mechanisms for solving problems. It didn't quite deliver what it promised but, I played through and it had a great many memorable moments for me.

Hadean Lands - Solo Adventurer Pledge Certificate - http://store.steampowered.com/app/477260/

31,99€

This DLC pack contains a high-quality certificate saying that YOU, the player, solemnly promise to finish Hadean Lands without looking at any hints or walkthroughs on the Steam forums or anywhere else on the Internet.

That's all! You print out the certificate, sign it, and hang it on the wall. This is strictly on the honor system. The DLC does not change the behavior of the game at all.

I'm sure you have questions...

Actually no, no questions.

DarthHelmet86 wrote:It has its flaws but overall Blood Omen is a pretty fun game. Some of the later games in the series not so much.

I never got around to any of the others; in fact I didn't realise until yesterday there was a series. Sounds like I haven't missed much.

to be fair, there are some great moments in the series - i enjoyed them all

just finished deadlight: directors cut, never got round to it on 360 though played the demo

very much enjoyed it

Just bought the Bioshock trilogy on steam for 10,51 euros

aye, looking forward to the collection coming soon..love bioshock...

now, back to unravel...

Remaster I read. Probably not for 10.51 tho.

We've had quite active thread on Bioshock (iirc?) and since I consider System Shock 2 as one of the best games I've played ever (due to unforgettable feel) I was looking for more. Did not finish 2 and did not bother with Infinite. I guess I was naive when I thought the initial feel was replicable.

Got the demo for Monster Hunter Generations. Heavens, it looks fucking great!

I only got one game this Steam sale. Invisible Inc.. It is very good, though. Klei have a way of presenting all the information one could need in a very visually pleasing and clear manner.

unravel was bloody lovely - splendid little game...

not sure i can say the same for submerged, my current squeeze....

Pokemon Go is out in some places and more are coming live. Been playing it alongside the wife, a lot of fun on my walks and it was a nice calming thing when I went to the shops.

Sort of played around with Temple of Elemental Evil. I bought it to become more familiar with the 3.5 rules of D and D as I've started pen and paper role playing again. It's a warning from an earlier time of dreadful interfaces, baffling menus, and the Merciless God of Random Numbers.

On the other hand it is a very faithful adaptation of the D and D rules, it's an RPG made by RPG players for RPG players. It swings between awesome and terrible with the same frequency as David Bowie's back catalogue.

DarthHelmet86 wrote:Pokemon Go is out in some places and more are coming live. Been playing it alongside the wife, a lot of fun on my walks and it was a nice calming thing when I went to the shops.

I could be wrong, but from the trailer it seems to be infected with typical micro transaction bullshit.

Thomas Eshuis wrote:

DarthHelmet86 wrote:Pokemon Go is out in some places and more are coming live. Been playing it alongside the wife, a lot of fun on my walks and it was a nice calming thing when I went to the shops.

I could be wrong, but from the trailer it seems to be infected with typical micro transaction bullshit.

It has them for buying credits, that can than be used to buy items. So far I have gotten plenty of items from visiting Pokestops and levelling. I think I read you can also earn credits in game to buy those items. Microtransactions don't bother me, they help people who have the money but not the time to get further ahead faster. I have the time to wait it out as long as they don't make it too obnoxious.

Temple of Elemental Evil is both amazing and utter shite. And to me it comes from the same mistake all CRPGs make, they lack a DM. There is only the mechanical rules, the dice, the stats the rules as black and white law. To me the joy of tabletop RPGs is the freedom the players have. The rules help a DM guide the game, lets them know the best way to work out if something succeeds or fails and what happens to the players either way. In my games I am very in favour of players never saying things like "I roll my perception skill" or "I use my detect traps skill" instead I prefer "I don't trust this room, I give it a good lookig over" and "Hey guys I am sure this is trapped, I take some time to see if I can find it and disarm it". The DM then tells them what to roll or even just says what dice to roll and works it out never letting the player know exactly what happened rules wise.

But that is just me. ToEE does a good job of converting DnD to the computer in a mostly sane way. Trokia always made mistakes with their games, bugs, bad UI, something was always just not right. But the over all game was amazing and you could fall in love with it no matter how much work it was at times. Arcanum is a game I would love to see a sequel to its world is one of my all time favourites and shows what the team could do without preset lore guiding them.

DarthHelmet86 wrote:Temple of Elemental Evil is both amazing and utter shite. And to me it comes from the same mistake all CRPGs make, they lack a DM. There is only the mechanical rules, the dice, the stats the rules as black and white law. To me the joy of tabletop RPGs is the freedom the players have. The rules help a DM guide the game, lets them know the best way to work out if something succeeds or fails and what happens to the players either way. In my games I am very in favour of players never saying things like "I roll my perception skill" or "I use my detect traps skill" instead I prefer "I don't trust this room, I give it a good lookig over" and "Hey guys I am sure this is trapped, I take some time to see if I can find it and disarm it". The DM then tells them what to roll or even just says what dice to roll and works it out never letting the player know exactly what happened rules wise.

But that is just me. ToEE does a good job of converting DnD to the computer in a mostly sane way. Trokia always made mistakes with their games, bugs, bad UI, something was always just not right. But the over all game was amazing and you could fall in love with it no matter how much work it was at times. Arcanum is a game I would love to see a sequel to its world is one of my all time favourites and shows what the team could do without preset lore guiding them.

ToEE, until you understand where isn't coming from, is like a D and D session run by a sociopath. Once you do understand it, and having re-rolled all your characters until they are as close to 18 in the relevant stats as possible, it becomes a rule crazed DM who expects you to think tactically and cautiously at all times. It is not a learning curve, it is a learning cliff face and this was me coming to it with a fair understanding of the mechanics. I was reminded time and again of the first time I played Dark Souls. If ever a game defined "flawed masterpiece", this is it.

Agree totally what you said about pen and paper DMing, we're playing a homebrewed version of 3.5. It reminds me a lot of the Witcher universe in terms of setting; magic is frowned upon so can't really be used in front of many NPCs
and the cleric class is very rare, somewhat similar to saint hood, and no healing potions. Challenging but fun to play, it's a campaign the DM has run a few times before and has spent a lot of time building a refining.

Since you have played two out of three of Troikas RPGs and well two out of three of their total games you should think about grabbing their first game Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura. The team that made it game from Fallout 1/2 and it is a spiritual successor in many ways. But with a world of fantasy, magic and steampunk all melded together.

It has some problems for sure and their are some things that make the game a lot easier that some might think of as cheating to pick up early on. Well one thing...its a dog npc that will solve any and all unfair combat problems very easily. But the game is amazing in its freedom and world building.

I used to mod for ToEE. Loved that game. Circle of Eight was the modding community if I'm not mistaken. Well worth taking a look if they're still about.

IIRC you could get 18 in all stats if you used point buy first to max something out and then dragged and dropped it on the roll screen. Been years though so hazy on the details.

Arcanum was broken as shit but also a brilliant game.