Bought this game back in 2001...never finished it but just fired it up after many moons of it sitting in the collection. What a great game!! Games like Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout 3 and NV...as GREAT as those games are and I enjoyed them to death...there is something about 2D charm that just feels "right"! Am I imagining this or dating myself lol..too nostalgic perhaps? Regardless.....something just clicks with these old gems (Arcanum, Fallout 1 and 2 ,Balders Gate series and others ...gotta lovem)!!
Anyone else feel this way?
havin so much fun with Arcanum I just felt like I had to post my good fortune!

Maybe the old isometric view does have something going for it. In terms of modern graphics, Titan Quest looked nice in isometric.
Honestly, what first won me over was the primer in the manual. The effects of a magical artifact on simple machines like inclined planes and pendulums.

I'm relatively new to PC gaming. As a console gamer I can't play fast paced games like shooters on the PC for toffee (yet) but it's brilliant to see all these fantastic RPGs. Games like Arcanum and Fallout are now some of my all time favourites; personally I've developed a real love of the 2D isometric view. Always preferred it to later 3D-esque games; for example, always preferred the look of the older Command and Conquer games to the new ones.

Would much rather play a game like Arcanum than a game like Skyrim.

I'll be honest, I think Skyrim is massively overrated. Terrible combat, boring magic, lack of variety on a lot of areas, mundane quests and plot, bad balancing, poor difficulty, lack of customisation, glitches galore, bad perk system... I could go on. It seems to me that Bethesda are only good at making games large. Even Fallout 3 for instance, I like the game, but it simply isn't very good under close examination. At least, I believe this is the case for their current generation of RPGs; I hear Morrowind is much lauded but I have yet to try it, and will only do so when I am capable of it. Hell, half tempted to get an old xbox and try to tame its monster controller just to have a fair crack at it.

But don't let me put you off. Plenty of people love Skyrim, and maybe I'm just particularly harsh. Plus, I have it on the PS3, I imagine the mods available on the PC would make it a far better game.

I will say I thought Dragon Age was absolutely lovely. They stole a few of my own favorite ideas, not unsurprising consider the fondness both Dragon Age's writers and I share for reconstruction.
Mass Effect was good, and good enough for me to play it a few times to get my silly uber-character built and play through once in that well-earned godmode.* It struck me as a good compromise of multiple genres, RPGs among them.



* Singularity as the sole biotic power of an Infiltrator, granting a modicum of useful biotics and a full suite of useful tech skills. The sole user of human-designed top-of-the-line medium armors, as all other humans either top out at light or heavy. And the sniper-zooka, a sniper rifle with explosive ammunition, shoots through walls and around corners purely by virtue of blast radius.
Besides, making a katamari of all the furniture and enemies in the room, shooting them with the sniperzooka so they fly apart, then watching them reform to shoot them once more before the power ends is awesome.

Dragon Age is possibly my favourite modern RPG, I really loved it. Spent around 130 hours on it overall, over three playthroughs. Mass Effect I did not play, not owning a 360 or wishing to try it on the PC, but I thoroughly enjoyed Mass Effect 2. I found Dragon Age 2 to be horribly disappointing though; the story was decent, but it was so horribly repetitive. If I ever come within ten miles of Kirkwall again I think I might break down.

If you are going to get Morrowind definitely get it for PC. It is old enough now that it shows (and not in a good way I think) and it is really helped by the multitude of mods that are available on the PC. The game play is the say in both versions but, especially at this stage in the game's life, it is much better to get it for PC because you can make it look about 5 years newer, can get rid of all of the remaining bugs, add new items, people, quests, locations, etc in, and generally just make it a better game (in a very loving way).

My problem is I am simply not a PC gamer. I realise how significantly user mods can improve the game but I lack the simple proficiency with a keyboard and mouse. I'd likely spend a couple of minutes blundering into walls before being killed by a rat or something else embarassing. I could try hooking my PS3 controller up though. Works well with emulations but haven't tried it with a 'proper' PC game yet.

Hmm... I guess that would be a problem. I bet there is xbox controller support (or at least easily configured) for Morrowind. And I feel like you should look around to see if you can use a PS3 controller as well (check the Hardware forums here:http://forums.bethsoft.com/forum/9-morrowind-hardware-and-software-issues/ )

I firmly believe you'll get a lot more out of the game if you can get it for PC and work around the control issue. But even if you get it for Xbox it is a fantastic game and hopefully the story and interesting characters and huge world suck you in.

With any luck I'd be able to use a controller so I won't need to buy an xbox. Appreciate the link, thank you.

I agree. I just played through it myself, and it's definitely one of the best games I have ever played... it's hovering around the top 5. I even deemed it worthy of my first post on the GOG forums, right here.

I loved Fallout 1 and 2, and it just seemed like Arcanum took a lot of the ideas from those games even further, and placed them in a wonderfully realised world, with a great story to boot. And the main theme... my god that's a great song.

The only thing missing, in my opinion, was direct control over your followers (like in the Baldur's Gate games, for instance). It would have allowed for more sophisticated battle tactics, and more of a taste of both magic and technology on the same play through. Incredible game regardless though.

You'll find there are other problems as well, such as some matters of game balance.
It doesn't change the fact that Arcanum is, despite its shortcomings, an amazing game with an enthralling setting and wonderful storyline.

Hmm. For me, these isometric RPGs are a mixed bag. I loved Fallout 1 and 2 and Arcanum, but I just can't make myself enjoy Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale etc. because the combat system feels rather awkward to me. I also do enjoy modern RPGs like the newer Elder Scrolls and Fallouts, in my opinion people who bash new RPGs are wearing thick rose-coloured glasses (I think that's how the expression goes :) Not to turn this into a debate, but the graphics and vast gameplay options of some new RPGs would have been awe-inspiring to gamers in the 90s.

Personally I just hold games accountable for the faults, and modern RPGs just tend to have more of them. My comments on Skyrim in this thread being a prime example. That's not to say that it's a universal truth, with Dragon Age: Origins and even the Soul games being fine examples of good quality modern RPGs. Graphics are no replacement for substance though, and I have to disagree with you in that most modern RPGs don't have many gameplay options, or if they do, it's not balanced properly. I like to think I'm immune to the 'nostalgia effect' here as I didn't play these while I was young and am only now able to try them; e.g. I only played Fallout after finishing Fallout: New Vegas.

As for the titles you mentioned, I just finished Icewind Dale myself, and I do see where you're coming from. I did enjoy it, but it took me a while to get used to the combat. I couldn't decide what to play next (having bought most of the titles in GOG's D&D game sale) and I hate the fact that they (ID, BG; 1+2) all look so similar.