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Which Game...?


Thimblerig

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I'm thinking of buying a new computer game soon, as a treat and a reward for hard work and all that, but the question is, which?

 

If you're interested in weighing in, read on...

 

 

As far as system capabilities go, I can juuuuuust about run NWN2 if I turn the graphics to the lowest setting.

 

Flavourwise, I like:

 

Three-dimensional characters and relationships with same

Strong story

A game world where I can wander around and chat to the townsfolk (and they have something to say, instead of repeating the same phrase over and over)

Choices in how the story goes (good, evil, diplomatic...)

I can quite happily do without fancy graphics

Good voice-acting is wonderful when I can get it

Female characters are a plus

So is a bit of humour

 

Things I'm rather less fond of:

 

Railroads

Themes of sexual violence

Excessive gore

NPCs I don't like but can't get rid of (I quit NWN2 because I couldn't scrape Bishop out of my party and cut-scenes, and I never got the conversational option, "I will fry your testicles with garlic if you don't shut your nasty mouth." *shrug* I really didn't like that guy.)

 

Games I've played and really liked:

Baldur's Gate

Planescape: Torment

NWN: Hordes of the Underdark

Thief 2

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Hm... Dragon Age one, perhaps? (Dragon Age II is a very good game, in my opinion, but it is *very* railroady.) The only thing it doesn't have is really good conversations with townsfolk: most townsfolk you can't talk to unless you have a reason to. It also allows you to drive away all the NPC's but two that are basically plot critical, if you so choose, and it has a relatively decent modding scene. Avoid the City Elf background (which does have some themes of sexual violence), and it should meet your criteria. I'm not sure if it would run on your computer, though.

 

Mass Effect lacks interesting dialog with townsfolk, but is also fairly non-liner till the end. You're stuck with your companions, though, love them or hate them, and the games get more and more shooter like as the series goes on.

 

Fallout 1 and 2 and Arcanum: of Steamworks and Magical... something or other... are both games of the Baldur's Gate II generation, should run on any machine, and basically meet your criteria save for they basically have no voice work. The conversations are about as indepth as Baldur's Gate II, for the most part, and there tends to be a lot of options for how you deal with various problems (talk it out, shoot it out, or tech it out, usually). They might be the best choices, if your system is really struggling.

 

Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2 once again saddle you with NPCs you can't get rid of (though in KOTOR2, there's actually a reason for it), but are pretty good games.

 

Mask of the Betrayer for NWN2 probably meets your criteria: once again, you're stuck with NPCs, but none of the NPC's are as ridiculously offensive as say, Bishop can be, and the game has a much stronger story then the original campaign. It's meant as a squeal to NWN2's original campaign, though, so if you couldn't finish that, it might not make all that much sense.

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KotOR, KotOR2, NWN2 MotB.

 

Also try Fallout 1&2, it's an RPG classic. No party members, however, just some pack mules with a gun that you have no control over in combat. And almost no VO.

 

If you're into Bioware-styled games, there's also Jade Empire, although I can't comment on it as it's still in my to-play list.

 

If your PC struggles with NWN2 on lowest settings, I think you can forget about DA/ME.

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Yeeeah - when it mentions things like: AMD GPU Radeon 9550 - I have no frame of reference for that and, must admit, don't want to spend however many man-hours required to work out what that means for my personal resources. I'm looking for a game, not a research project. "More/Less resources required than NWN2" works reasonably well as a benchmark, though. But thanks.

 

Hmm, or I've heard good things about Knights of the Old Republic (the old one, I mean). Eh, I don't have to make the decision until BG1 RE comes out. (No starting new games until the tinkering is done!)

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Yeeeah - when it mentions things like: AMD GPU Radeon 9550 - I have no frame of reference for that and, must admit, don't want to spend however many man-hours required to work out what that means for my personal resources. I'm looking for a game, not a research project. "More/Less resources required than NWN2" works reasonably well as a benchmark, though. But thanks.
Well, if you click on the link in the "AMD GPU Radeon 9550", you'll come to a description of what that entails, things to look out is the Memory Bandwidth and Memory size. The bigger those figures are, the better of course it is for the graphical fidelity on your computer.
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Games I've played and really liked:

(...)

Thief 2

 

Have you played the original Thief? It's one of my favorites, highly influential, and so much better than the sequel. Best level design I have seen (though that probably doesn't say much). Also, Eric Brosius hit the milestone in making of ambients and sound effects, as well as produced some great musical pieces. You're gonna love that thick sound of a huge horn from down below snaking through corridors. And the atmosphere. Oh, the atmosphere of this game! There's an awesome plot twist, much in the vein of the Looking Glass Studios (System Shock 2, but I wouldn't recommend that, now, would I?). You're gonna feel so much more thrust into the dark world of the City and it's miraculous surroundings, and that much more lost within all it's cabal. The Mechanists aren't there, yet -- but the Hammerites will give you shivers. Much as most of the supernatural occurences that are far more prevalent than in the sequel.

 

Right, and no more annoying preachers as villains trying hard to record their sissy voices in a wanna-be-sinister way. No, ma'am, you're in for some real grotesque, here.

 

As usual, GOG sells this cheap and updated to GOLD version which, surprise, is one of the best post-release pack of fixes to date. More importantly, a mysterious modder by the name of Le Corbeu released an updated version of the game engine: "New Dark," as we've come to call it. And it ships with GOG version, too!

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Yeeeah - when it mentions things like: AMD GPU Radeon 9550 - I have no frame of reference for that and, must admit, don't want to spend however many man-hours required to work out what that means for my personal resources. I'm looking for a game, not a research project. "More/Less resources required than NWN2" works reasonably well as a benchmark, though. But thanks.

I believe I had an old computer that could run Jade Empire even though NWN2 ran at an unplayable frame rate. I remember thinking that NWN2 felt very unoptimized since many comparable-looking games performed much better.

 

I enjoyed Jade Empire but I enjoyed KotOR much more. Who doesn't like Star Wars (done right)?

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Jade Empire and this:

And if not, then Knights of the Old Republic, and KotOR2: The Sith Lords, with this.

Well, KOTOR 1 as well. I ran both on an early 2000 XP machine. In fact, for KOTORs you need XP, or you have to go through a huge hassle with installation. I've never figured it out, or I would be running it on this laptop. NOW.

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