Blasphemous question: what other games would you recommand?

[The Procrastinator]

Yes, you've read correctly. In the improbable event that one would feel the need to explore new horizons, what other games would you recommand? I'm a typical 33 years old old-school RPGamer, and I didn't really follow the RPG market for the last decade (serious). My sweetest memories are from Ultima 3-4-5, the old Wizardrys, Bard's Tale, and then forward to WIz7 and then pratically nothing until Wiz8. So, what did I miss, and what are the good recent ones?

[Ziggurat]

I'm looking as well. I look for a first-person CRPG with good stats and play. Any recommendations are appreciated.

Procrast: my Francais is rusty. Are you saying "why pay now if you can put it off until next week"? (or similar)

[ 07-21-2003, 08:54 PM: Message edited by: Ziggurat ]

[EEWorzelle]

Well... while love Wizardry 8 and it is the best...

I have been playing Might and Magic 7 again, off and on lately. It is a favorite. In fact Might and Magic 6-8 are all lots of fun, and have that first person, "you're in the game" perspective.

You have to actually hit enter to go into phased combat, but once you are it proceeds in a phased manner. In Might and Magic 7 and 8 you can move a little during combat. The three are considered a series with the same graphics engine, but there significant differences between the games. Might and Magic 6 is the biggest, and some say the best. My current favorite is 7. There is a Might and Magic 9, but it's a dog, IMO. I currently rate MM 6/7/8/9 with ratings of 9/9/8/2, respectively. Might and Magic 8 is fun, too, but they "caved" and went with a single starting character system (like the BG and related games). Then you have to find the rest in-game. Still, there are many more than just a few choices, you can get your party together pretty early, you can change who is in your party, and there's a new system of interesting characters, abilities and spells. Unfortunately, many of these and earlier magic spells were squished together and eliminated (including flying) in a reduced magic system in MM9, with only 8, overlapping, character types.

Comparing them to Wizardry 8, they have Flying (!) and Wizardry doesn't, but in almost every other respect Wizardry 8 is better, including graphics, game play, balance and replayability (due to balance, W8 gets easier but never easy). You might be able to buy all at once (MM 6-8) in a package. Just make sure you get a complete manual with character tables (for what they can specialize and become Grandmaster in). That's what tells you the characters you want to consider for your party. Frankly nothing else, IMO, comes closer to W8's quality than W7 (which you already played) and these games.

[ 07-21-2003, 09:30 PM: Message edited by: EEWorzelle ]

[Variol (Farseer) Elmwood]

I'm with EEW. on the Might and Magic series, excactly!
If you're into strategy I strongly recommend Disciples 2 and Heroes 1-4. I didn't go in for Balur's Gate, Diablo and Icewind Dale. The combat engine sucked. GPG's should be ture based. Pool of Radiance (Ruins of Myth Drannor) did a great job at the combat but failed in other areas.

[EEWorzelle]

Oh, and specifically concerning the Ultimas. They went downhill, IMO, after peaking with Ultima 5. The biggest and worst change was they went to a single size scale, so the game universe feels myopic. Remember how cool it was to go inside the big castle, that was just a dot in the big city, that was just a dot on the map! That ended with Ultima 5.

I find them tedious, slow and trite, compared with the quality of something like Wizardry. Still, after that giant step backward, they did improve. Ultima 9 was released way too soon, full of bugs and suffering badly from the same budget cuts that Wizardy developers were forced to suffer. Now that most of the bugs are fixed, however, Ultima 9 is a fun game. They improved a number of interface problems from the immediately previous games, and the game play is through lots of cool, high resolution, environments. If you are really nostalgic for Ultima in particular, I recommend 9, the last one.

[The Procrastinator]

Ziggurat:

The French sentence means: Why put off until tomorrow what you can do next week.

Others:

Looks like I'll give a try at Might and Magic 6-7-8!

Concerning Ultima, I agree with what has been said. I have the Ultima Collection CD (first eight), and I barely tried the last three.

Does anyone ever tried a game called Oubliette that actually was the inspiration for the very first Wizardry? It was incredibly tough, because it was an adaptation of an on-line mainframe game in the late 70s. (You had to do alone what teams of players were doing.) Can you believe it? there were massive multi-player RPGs even before the first Wizardry.

[ScottG]

Great RPG Games:

Morrowind is absolutely fantastic for its 1st person WORLD, like all games it has some serious problems. It becomes much easier as you progress. Unfortunetly it can take several hours to get into it - a quick way is to experience your first rush by develing into a bandit cave or a tomb. Archery in paticular is first-rate with this game. Additionally there are two expansions out now. 1st person only.

BG2 and TOB expansion are great for their story lines (unlike BG1). Good game play. Strictly 2d though (but it is very pretty). AD&D rules 2nd ed. are wonderfull. Party play or single play.

Planscape Torment: prob. the best story line of ANY rpg game. Can take several hours to get into. Strictly 2d though (but it is very pretty also). Best lines of ANY game like: upon ressurection main character groans, "feels like I've been strained through someones bowels." single play and party play.

Neverwinter Nights: quite attractive 3rd person perspective. Goodgame play but tilted toward powergaming. 3rd ed. AD&D rules are easier to understand but not as involving as 2nd ed. rules. Plot isn't bad (better than wiz 8 but not as good as those above). single play and double play.

None however are as challenging (difficulty-wise) as Wiz 8 because of the way Wiz 8 has creatures that "level-up" with you. Each game has a diff. flavor and I'd have a hard time picking one over another.

An excellent non-rpg that I'd recomend is Shogun Total War (but not the newer Medievil total war).

[ 07-23-2003, 10:11 PM: Message edited by: ScottG ]

[Kakero]

Originally posted by ScottG: Great RPG Games: Morrowind is absolutely fantastic for its 1st person WORLD, like all games it has some serious problems. It becomes much easier as you progress. Unfortunetly it can take several hours to get into it - a quick way is to experience your first rush by develing into a bandit cave or a tomb. Archery in paticular is first-rate with this game. Additionally there are two expansions out now. 1st person only.

Morrowind can be played into 3rd person too. just need to press Tab button to switch between the view.

I woulds also recommend Arx Fatalis, it's a good FPRPG. it remind me of Ultima Underworld or something like that.

[HolyWarrior]

I would also recommend Divine Divinity. Graphics are 2-D, but quite pretty. Music is excellent, and it has a great skills system to build up your character.

[yoodaa]

Avernum 3 (http://www.avernum.com) -- it's 2D with fantastic story. There's a demo at the site.

and as someone mentioned in the other thread, Betrayal at Krondor. Might be hard to find a retail version though.