Can you elaborate a bit more on your experience with Drakensang?

It is a title I have been eyeing up for quite some time, and may be "next" on my list.

Is the story good? It looks VERY much like DAO/NWN, is that the case? I understand that it is based off a PnP game system much like D&D, are there many similar parrellels between the systems?

Sorry for the pesky questions, just really interested in this title.....

After reading about Pirates! on the CRPG Addict blog, I decided to buy a copy.

I got the recent version, and it's been the best fiver I've spent in months!

Thought I'd made a poor choice at first, and should have gone for an older version, but despite it lacking a couple of features from the prior versions, it's still an amazingly fun experience.

Currently trying to claim the entirety of the Caribbean for England!

It's very much like NWN. The first Drakensang is light on story and heavy on exploring a huge open world Gothic - Style but encounters play out like a Baldur's Gate or Farewell to Dragons using the space bar to pause and plan.

I just played the German demo for the second Drakensang last night and it is MUCH more heavier on story and the story looks really good. The German voice acting sounded very well done, not sure what English voice acting will be like (also note that the story was good enough to look good even though I don't know German. lol).

Both games are simply awesome, although, with the first, what I liked about the game is what many others didn't - the fact that the protagonist and story isn't as fleshed-out and spoon-fed like Square Enix games.
This is one of the first games that I bought when I started buying PC games.

Singularity is a fantastic game. I still can't believe it's flown under the radar.

Two Worlds 2 has been pretty damn good if I might say so.

The arcade game Rolling Thunder was so great on the Namco collection I've been playing that I ended up getting MAME and modding it to record high scores so that I can play it on my PC. Very cool, very fun, also pretty hard (don't see myself beating it anytime soon), and the gameplay is really just perfect.

Drakensang is lots of fun to play through. If you enjoy the stop / start RP games such as NWN or BG1 / 2 then you will be right at home here.

The story in the game isn't the strongest point but there is enough going on in the game world (side quests etc) to keep your interest in the world around you.

The world is well represented with plenty of pleasing details and locations to explore. Graphically the game looks great and plays well.

Drakensang is based on the pen and paper RP game 'Das Schwarze Auge' or The Dark Eye. This system was also used in the Realms of Arkania series of game which is available from this site. So if you have played and enjoyed those games then you know what to expect.

The only downside that I can see is that you can't create your own character, so your "limited" by the pre-made ones available to you. Although having said this you can mould any of the characters to your liking via the comprehensive stat system which at first can be a bit intimidating but it's well worth persisting with.

In addition to the above there is good selection of charaters to play, all of which look good and play slightly differently so there is plenty of re-playability.

The game setting is a little generic so expect the occasional Tolkien-esque moments but overall all the characters are nicely fleshed out and they have done a good job giving the various characters personality.

I bought the game from Gamers Gate when it was on special so it's well worth picking up.

Hope the info is useful, happy questing :)

Thanks

ReZ

Finished Singularity which I mentioned I was playing earlier.

Really enjoyed it. Let's get the negatives out the way first:

Due to being about time it's confusing and poorly plotted at times. The gameplay is repetitive at times. It's disappointing to solve a puzzle that's unique in its gameplay, to later be presented with the same puzzle later on. It slowed me down in some levels because I was looking for a new way to progress, not expecting the solution was identical to another level's. Also, with a game about the past impacting the future, it would have been interesting to see major things happening after each time leap. There is a better FPS about time travel with better plot, more exciting mechanics, non-linear and more outcomes to be made, certainly.

Otherwise, Singularity is a fun, polished game. It inevitably draws comparisons to Half Life 2 (visual style, experience) and Bioshock (combat gameplay and audio) but these aren't bad things. Considering I haven't had a Half Life 2 Episode fix for ages, Singularity filled it nicely - the gaming experience is very similar and has some definite nods. It also provided some cool experiences I hadn't had before and a voice acting turn by Nolan North. One of the things I liked were where "ghosts" played out the memories of a place - they did some nice things with these, although not enough of them were story significant. One of these such moments is so well done and poignant though it made me think twice about things I was doing. There's another sequence that has an emotional impact and makes me really want to see more FPS with emotion-inducing gameplay.

Yeah surprised people didn't rate Singularity a bit higher :)

Can't wait to play Two Worlds 2, looks great, although maybe should complete the first one :D

Well it took me a while but I gave Fallout New Vegas more of a chance and pushed forward to the point where you actually get to Vegas itself... And I absolutely love it. Wow, it's like two different games - at the start it might as well be Fallout 3 Orange as opposed to the already existing Fallout 3 Grey. You just need to get to where the factions and the political manoeuvring come into play, and that's after you meet Mr House, or Act 2 as the official guide has it. I think it's gone from being a disappointing experience to one of my favourite games of all time, certainly in my top 3 on the Xbox 360.

Final Fantasy - playing it on my iPhone, and I'm really enjoying it (only slight niggle is that some of the combat is a bit tedious due to having to first tap attack and then move my finger to tap the enemy, rather than just mashing a button as one would with a controller). I expected the gameplay to be a somewhat stale and outdated, but I find it wholly enjoyable.

Final Fantasy XIII - it's not a fantastic game by any stretch, but it got so much flak when it was released that I expected a really poor game. Instead I got a decent game - and it's supposed to get better after 20 hours, which conveniently is around where I'm at.

Well it gets more "open" after a point, not really better. You stop tiptoeing around giant strands of spaghetti and get to an actually open area, but it's not open in true sandbox sense (or even like a traditional JRPG world map) it's just like this game's version of the Calm Lands from FFX. For me it was more like 30 hours than 20 hours - it's basically after what I seem to remember being an airship level, at least something flying through the sky. So if you're at that point, or if that sounds like something you're about to do, you're getting close.

Civilization IV

Don't kill me.

I've never played a real turn based game before, apart from demos and not so turn based ones like Neverwinter Nights or Baldu's gate (where pausing is crucial). I wanted to dab my toes on the genre, got me a couple of games like it (HoMM3 and King Quest, the legend) but hadn't installed any until now.

I don't know how to explain it. I'm not exactly having fun as in "YeAAH! This is AWESOME!" but the game definitely has it's charm. There's so many things to keep your head ticking and I'm just playing it on settler difficulty, to get a hang of all the concepts and how to combine them together. I haven't even gone to war yet, but this fricking time sink where nothing really happens that just keeps adding points here and there somehow has managed to grab my attention. I'm sure it'll get even better when I go to war, but I'm saving that for later.

This is the kind of game that happens to be "controversial" when judging if I should have bought it or not. I read reviews and asked opinions and everyone went "Yeah! get it!". Then I'd watch gameplay videos and be totally put off, because this is the sort of game that's terrible to watch, so my expectations weren't exactly high. Bought the complete version on a Steam offer and it has paid itself already (and I'm just on vainilla. I got three more expansions to go).

Monday Night Combat. Thought it was going to be cheap as shit, but it turned out to be well worth the money.

Two worlds 2 (again) i couldnt get it to run at first due to an overheating gpu and thanks to phc that is no longer an issue, i got to new ashos last night and they certainly cranked it up a notch. This island is smaller though which worries me

Hello,

I play Dungeon Lords now . When I bought my first copy of Dungeon Lords years ago it was an unplayable mess. Now with patch 1.4 its quite fun. It's a complex 3D Hack'n'slay with content. Your character progression is quite unique for Rpgs. For every level you get xp based on your class and intelligence value. An intelligent elven mage would get more xp then an stupid demigod (monster-humanbreed). But every xp you get from killing things or doing quests you can spent between levelups in everything you want. So a skilled melee fighter with magic skills is possible or rogue with healing skills. Oh and it has a multiplayer mode. Its quite addictive for such an old game.

Pros:

- Unique Character developement.

- There are 12 characteristics like strength, intelligence, speed, dexterity, valour etc.

- 7 races Humans, Dwarfes, Elves, Urgoth(big clumsy semi-human beasts), Wylans (doglike semi-humans beasts), Zauren lizardlike semi-humans, Thralls little gnomelike creatures.

- 4 Beginner classes Fighter, Cleric, Mage, Rogue

- 15 specialized classes like ninja, samurai, nekromancer, celestial cleric, druid, warlord etc.

-Many spells! 4 Spellschool. Arcane, Celestial, Hell(Alchemy-like) and Runemagic. All spellschools are different from each other. So Hellmagic needs ingredients. More powerfull spells need more expensive ingredients. Runemagic uses Runestones you have to find or buy. Arkane magic is casted buy prefabricated scrolls and Celestial is the power of the gods. Day and night circle has consequences for this magic school.

- Active blocking system. Ranged combat. Spells. Not so boring combat. There are some tough enemies that need special tactis to fight them. Your weapons range actually matters. A long poleaxe hurts more enemies in a swirlattack then a short dagger.

- There is a lockpicking minigame for the many chests to be found in the game world.

-7 big dungeons as playfield.

- A huge world to explore.

-Nicley drawn creatures.

-Difficult in the beginning, sometimes a little bit overwhelming. Later on the monster spawns get really huge. You feel like Teh real heroe. My last fight was against 20 vampire bats. At this stage the game becomes a little chaotic.

Cons:

-No big world map only a small minimap. So orientation is very oldschool. You get a paper map with the game and you have orientate yourself according to landmarks like in rl.

- Old grafics.

- Empty towns and buildings. They forgot to place inventory inside most buildings. The game feels a little bit unfinished here and there.

- Some places seem impossible. Save early, save often.

-I do not know where you could buy it.

My conlusion so far is ...

In direct comparison to oblivion and fallout 3 Dungeon Lord performs surprisingly good. Its the complexest actionrpg i know so fare.



Have a nice game

Your little big space marine