The included Guild 2 vanilla version has starforce, while the platinum edition including the first two addons has not. While you already have guild 1 I would wait for better sales of Guild 2 Platinum and Renaissance.

Out of all the guild 2 games, Renaissance is the only one you should buy. It includes all of the features from the previous add-ons and should be more stable since it still receives support from developers.

Although I think you should try the original game first. It's a lot more polished and less tedious since you don't have to manage the location of your avatar.

The original game (and its addon) is awesome if you like the general style of gameplay: mainly economic simulation, with very diverse possibilities to hinder/damage your opponents, make sure you get that political position etc. Like a cannon tower on your castle (my favorite). Or a potion that makes two people hate each other. Maybe you even started out as a thief in the first place, then became a raider. Multiplayer sessions are hilarious, but ever since XP service pack 2, it never worked for me.

But all of that was just praise for the first game. I tried out the second game when it was released, and thought it was horrible. I don't know if the addons made it any better (the last one supposedly fixed the bugs, at least). I'd advise you to play the first game and buy something else instead, but maybe someone else will chime in and say that Renaissance is actually awesome ;-)

In the second one you can be a grave digger!

Living of the misery and death of other people.

Not many games let you play as a lawyer ;-P

Same is true for the first one...

That's all well and good but they're adding extra "challenge" if you will, the challenge of fighting with their controls. A carpenter can build a house with non-ideal tools, as well, but just because they can you don't see them showing up with a tool belt of auto mechanic tools.

Thanks for all the input, gang. I think I'll pass for now and try the original when I get time.

I love ME1 and 2 and I hate ME3. The 3rd part is rubbish in my opinion. Well, the majority of the game is good, but the ending ruins everything. I mean everything. It's so painful that after you finish the game you wish you have never been born at all.

Quote!

I've got 20 years of KB&M experience, I don't think that has anything to do with it. Some games are just best with a pad and thus I play them with a pad. I probably could play them with a mouse, but why?

I haven't gotten to the end yet (and I guess now I would see the extended cut anyway) but I can definitely say as a HUGE ME fan that 3 is the worst one. The combat might be a little better than ME2 but the story, structure, missions, environments and even music have taken a large backseat. It's pretty obvious multiplayer took something away from singleplayer, and that they lost staff to TOR. It's just not the same high quality... there are even bugs and issues I never saw in the first two.

Still, it's a great game worth playing. Just not as good as 1 and 2.

This is probably better put than my poor excuse at a metaphor. Your controls need to get the fuck out of the way and let you immerse yourself in the game. Gamepads are really good at doing this for some types of games. No one who's played a bunch of MechWarrior 4 thinks keyboard and mouse beats out a joystick, I don't know why the gamepad is such a contentious issue.
That sucks because from the multiplayer demo I played, the co-op was actually pretty fun.

I have to disagree, while ME three is gameplay wise rather ME 2.5 they did make a lot of noticeable small positive changes. Eg. no more weapon restrictions, minor Dialogue isn't handled through the "dialogue wheel" anymore, and some more I can't think of now (but noticed during playing).

The problem with the writing is that after billions of choices in ME 1 and 2 it was just impossible to achieve a coherent structure anymore. Which changed somewhat to an "episodic" fragmentation. But each episode is very well written considering this (Tuchanka especially stands out). I personally also like how the used the galactic readiness system to make your actions actually matter.

And drawing resources away for multiplayer? The multplayer is basically the SP gun fight gameplay with coop added. I've rather got the feeling that after many of the short uninspiring levels of ME 2 they thougt, "Why not slap a MP on this?"

Not a deal by any stretch of imagination but, DAMN !!!

That's not really my problem, it just doesn't seem as well written and interesting. There are moments, like the end of the Genophage thing, but for the most part I miss the epic sci-fi opera of the original or the intense personal stories of ME2. It seems like a mix of the two without the conviction.

It's mainly level design and the focus on waves in combat, it feels very much like playing offline multiplayer to me.