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Beer beer beer tiddly beer beer beer!

The Bard's Tale, the pinnacle of comedy among computer role playing games, bundled with the classic DOS-era dungeon crawlers: Bard's Tale 1,2,3, is available for Windows and Mac OS X on GOG.com, for only $9.99.

In a world, that's in a desperate need of a hero, one man chooses his own destiny. Yup, that sounds about the same as every other role playing game. Only this time, things go a little bit different. The Bard, a roguish vagabond who only cares for coin and cleavage, has no intention to perform acts of unmatchable heroism and prove that he's larger than life. Neither he has desire for fame and glory that would earn him a place in songs and sagas that would fuel the imagination of the generations to come. After all, he can always come up with songs and sagas praising him, while he enjoys a pint of beer and some female companionship at some cozy inn. Yup, whatever he does, he will be remembered as a great champion of the realm. What would you do in such unique position? Loot riches and woo maidens--it's the correct answer, my friend.

The Bard's Tale delivers solid cRPG gameplay, a vast fantasy realm to explore, tons of quests to perform, and hundreds of items to loot. By all means this is a fully-fledged role playing game, but that's not what it's famous for. Brilliant comedy is where this game truly shines among all other titles in this genre. With excellent writing and fantastic voicing done by Cary Elwes (of The Princess Bride fame) as the Bard, and a gaming voiceover veteran, Tony Jay as the Narrator. There's also an extra treat for the die-hard old-school computer RPG fans included with this release: the classic DOS-era hard-as-nails Bard's Tales 1, 2, and 3.

There are many cliche RPGs out there, but this is not one of them. As you embark on this adventure, you have no way to anticipate how will it end. One thing's certain though--there will be plenty of coin and cleavage coming your way if you get The Bard's Tale for only $9.99 on GOG.com!
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CJDJ: I'm debating getting this. I bought the Steam version a while ago, but I get a slow-motion bug on my Win7 Ultimate 64-bit system. I've tried all the fixes suggested by various websites when I originally conducted my search. I was given a free copy for being a Wasteland 2 Backer, but I gave it away not too long ago. With GOG's track record of games working no matter what, I'm on the fence about buying it.

Has anyone else had the Slow Motion bug with this game? If I buy it and run it, but I get the same issues, is there a way for me to re-gift it to someone else?
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crazy_dave: If you download and play the game, in general you won't be able to regift it or refund it. I think GOG has once in awhile made allowances for games with widespread problem across its whole user base, but I wouldn't expect one.
That's true. Being a GOG supporter I'll probably just end up buying it anyway. :) I have a backlog of games on here.
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Elmofongo: So how does the old games stack up against old Might and Magics and Ultimas?
Poorly. They were fun back in the days, but now the endless random encounters would drive me mad. The worst part is that in BT 1 and 2 the random encounters are checked in real time while the rest of the game is turn based. You can hardly get 10 seconds' peace without being attacked.

The old Might&Magic games have stood the test of time very well, IMO. MM2 is still one of my favourite CRPGs.
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Ghorpm: I certainly don't want to rain on your parade but look closer: Audio and text: English Text only: French, German, Polish, Russian, Korean. You have to forget about Szyc and Fronczewski...
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F4LL0UT: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Again, we're sorry. :-(
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Elmofongo: So how does the old games stack up against old Might and Magics and Ultimas?
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PetrusOctavianus: Poorly. They were fun back in the days, but now the endless random encounters would drive me mad. The worst part is that in BT 1 and 2 the random encounters are checked in real time while the rest of the game is turn based. You can hardly get 10 seconds' peace without being attacked.

The old Might&Magic games have stood the test of time very well, IMO. MM2 is still one of my favourite CRPGs.
Anything else like is the game too hard and are the stories any good?
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JMich: I think it had to do with VSync, try toggling it, though you'll probably need to do that through your video card's control panel.
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CJDJ: Tried that. :) No good.
Have you tried shutting off AERO if it is on? One way to do that is with the Compatability Setting check Turn Off Desktop Composition and Desktop Themes. Aero apparently has it's own setting for Virtual Sync used primarily for Videos, Movies and application 3D but having it on can have a negative effect on gaming.

edit: For what it's worth ... I downloaded the (new & improved) demo from Cnet and when I clicked the shortcut all I got was a Black Screen ... I had turned on AERO as I was having Tearing while watching movies on Netflix.
After I changed the Compatability settings to Run in XP sp3, Run as administrator, Disable desktop themes, Disable desktop composition then clicked the shortcut and the game started right up.
Post edited January 29, 2013 by Simbabluenobi
So this version has the DOS version? now would this be seperate, did they replace the apple 2e and apple 2 versions they used in the updated version on Steam or is this the same patched version as the one on Steam just with the Apple 2 version yanked out and replaced by the DOS versions?

because truthfully could careless about the apple 2 versions and honestly it would be stupid to have what two versions of the same games? granted depending on what version of Bard's Tale 3 was used it may have some really nasty bugs in it.

Edit: huh seems it's still may have the Apple 2 versions since one of the Screen shots was the Apple 2 version of BT3
Post edited January 29, 2013 by DCT
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PetrusOctavianus: Poorly. They were fun back in the days, but now the endless random encounters would drive me mad. The worst part is that in BT 1 and 2 the random encounters are checked in real time while the rest of the game is turn based. You can hardly get 10 seconds' peace without being attacked.

The old Might&Magic games have stood the test of time very well, IMO. MM2 is still one of my favourite CRPGs.
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Elmofongo: Anything else like is the game too hard and are the stories any good?
Stories are rather cliche: evil wizards has conquered the lands yada yada.
Difficulty is quite high. You need to grind quite a bit in order to beat the last levels of BT1.
BT2 has some dungeons that are brutal to map and some fiendishly difficult real time puzzles. Combat is too easy if you import characters from BT1, but balanced for new characters.
BT3 I hardly played since the Amiga version was buggy (lacked some features), but it does have a somewhat more interesting story.
Wishlisted.
Love this game! "Lord Bless Charlie Mopps the man who invented
Beer, Beer, Beer, tiddly beer, beer, beer!!!"
Ugh, this has to be one of the most disapointing game ever released. It is so far removed from the classic three, it left hardcore fans of the series wondering what happened. It might be worth $10 for the the trilogy.
Will be happy to buy this later. Nice release!
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DCT: So this version has the DOS version?
No, as stated earlier:

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Miaghstir: DOS-era references a timeframe, not a specific platform.
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G-Doc: That. When you see the description saying "a DOS-era game", you pretty much know what to expect. Apple II, on the other hand, might have proven to be far to exotic a concept to many of our customers.
Post edited January 29, 2013 by Miaghstir
Good to include the original Bard's Tale series, as the new one isn't worth a dime. Bard's Tale 2 was good going down those dungeons, wait...did I just fall down a pit? Where is my automap :)
Post edited January 29, 2013 by Hillsy_
I hated Bard's Tale (2, I think?) on Amiga, too unforgiving RPG for my taste. Medusa, you bitch!

But I'm interested to the new game in the bundle.

Apple II... I was always amazed back in the day how such a rudimentary computer could have so good games. Its audio and video capabilities always seemed so laughable, yet so many great games. It felt like opening a treasure box.

Apple II never was as popular here in Europe as it seemed to be in US.
Post edited January 29, 2013 by timppu
Very nice to see the Mac OS X release included here. Thank you GOG for that!

I think I read somewhere the new Bard's Tale game uses the same engine as was used in Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance game or at least similar and the game play is similar to that title, the combat, graphics, etc. It looks like good fun to me but then I am not comparing it to some old games and expecting it to be a new version of them.

I think this is a great release for GOG myself.