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CRPGAddict

octavius

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If he was wouldn't he be constantly whining about how those old CRPGs don't allow him to play strong LGMB people charac
Looking forward to the Addicts comments on the holy trinity - he is getting to that era.

He started the blog 2010. There was exponentially less RPGs in the early years. He has only recently reached 1991 and 1990 took about one-and-a-half years.

I think he will reach Fallout about 2022 and I think that may just be a bit too positive an estimation.

I estimate 1991, 1992, and 1993 all will take about the same time as 1990. But 1994-1996 will take relatively short time. So me may reach Fallout by 2022 if he keeps up his pace.

1997 will also be a short year for the Addict, judging by this list from the July 1997 issue of CGW:

wD2efv6.jpg
 

Electryon

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Let's hope he doesn't plan to visit every town in Daggerfall. That could take a while.

He's going to have to only do the main quests in Arena or Daggerfall, otherwise he could clearly play them in perpetuity. The real question is what he's going to do with massive games like Fate: Gates of Dawn and Wizardry VII. They could easily eat up half a year.

1997 will also be a short year for the Addict, judging by this list from the July 1997 issue of CGW:

That list has to be from 1995, but that makes no sense, because Diablo came out in 1996. But Stonekeep and Anvil of Dawn were in 1995. But if it is 1995 they missed Dungeon Master II, which seems at least as valid a release as Stonekeep (and I distinctly remember being mesmerized by the descriptions for both those games in my dad's Macintosh magazines he subscribed to, but I was unfortunately a LucasArts graphic adventure and RTS obsessive at the time, I could have wasted my youth so much better if I'd followed my gut). But yeah, the genre was clearly falling apart at the seems by that point. It's pretty clear that Diablo, Fallout and Baldur's Gate DID actually save the genre. It was definitely the golden age of real-time strategy games though, and strategy games in general, and the two genres overlap ALOT with the same audience.
 
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octavius

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It's not a complete list of 1997 RPGs, but rather a list of the games people were playing then.

Every second game in 1997 seems to have been Real Time Strategy.
 

Electryon

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Might and Magic VI remains the RPG with probably the purest sense of adventure and fantasy geekdom ever released. That type of cover art in 1997 must have seemed absolutely absurd and antiquated. Xeen had only taken place 3 or 4 years earlier but it might has well have been decades at that point. The genre was only alive AT ALL (not just computers) because of a great run on the SNES that rivals the best eras of PC gaming, but those were clearly almost all JRPGs (with some PC ports of M&M, Ultima and Wizardry that couldn't even be called a niche market).

It's probably an even more impressive effort than Baldur's Gate. For one thing, they didn't have the 2nd Edition rules to use as a baseline for everything, they didn't have the Realms lore to mine from. And then there is the fact that every single NPC and building in Mandate of Heaven is integral and useful in some way. There isn't a inch of the massive world that is superfluous, yet it also manages to be truly non-linear while at the same time being completely deliberate in all it does. The true 3D exploration let loose the shackles of the grid, you lost yourself in a rule world, not matter how old it may look now. MMO's couldn't have existed without aping alot of what M&M VI did. And those dungeons....just massive complexes that almost qualify as mini-games themselves. Sure it has issues. It's damn near mandatory to immediately get everyone the bow skill before you can even hope to start taking on enemies and it makes the game a quasi-first person shooter at times. But damn, it's an accomplishment, and looking at that ad you can see just how ballsy it was at the time to just go 1000% with the sword and sorcery nonsense we all love so much and just crank it to 11. It really should have made the Codex Top 10, come to think of it....#25 just doesn't cut it....
 
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pippin

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That type of cover art in 1997 must have seemed absolutely absurd and antiquated.

Fallout2.jpg

Sadly, by the time 7 and 8 came out, the "out of place" feeling you got from M&M was a bit too much and the series ended up going to shit for that reason. Reviews of the time mention the recycling of the engine as one of the major flaws.
 

Electryon

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It's interesting looking at these ads....really interesting. Especially since it's fairly clear that they are just pure marketing posture. The people who made Fallout were raised on faeries and spells.

The Might and Magic VI engine was milked to death (and only slightly tweaked for IX, tbh). Certainly by the end it was no longer anything to write home about, but there is always an audience for new adventures in a familiar engine that works (Icewind Dale 2 and the Savage Frontier Gold Box games come to mind). Doubtful you're gonna get anyone new, you might not even hold on to most of the people you originally had. But who wouldn't kill for a new Might and Magic game in the 6-8 engine right now??
 
Self-Ejected

Excidium II

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It's interesting looking at these ads....really interesting. Especially since it's fairly clear that they are just pure marketing posture. The people who made Fallout were raised on faeries and spells.
Which many people understandably were probably already p. sick of by 1997.
 

Eirinjas

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The Might and Magic VI engine was milked to death (and only slightly tweaked for IX, tbh).

Actually, M&M9 ran on the Lithtech engine. I think they would have done better if they had simply worked on improving the engine from M&M6. The opengl rendering in 7 & 8 was a mixed bag, at best. It smoothed out the pixels and allowed colored lighting effects, but the color palette was sacrificed for it. Just walk into any town and note how everyone wears the same colored clothing. I would have preferred higher resolution sprites over an entirely new engine.
 

TigerKnee

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The current game seems to be Disciples of Steel and currently he has a rather high impression of it, even putting it next to Uukrul as "unappreciated hidden gems"

If this keeps up, I might have to consider revisiting it - all I did was make characters, walk around for 5 minutes and get killed and then dropped it.
 

octavius

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All I did was create characters, walk around for 5 minutes raging at the large, empty cities and the whorendous shop UI where you have to check prices for items individually, and then dropped it.
But it looks like first impressions are not always right, so I will return to it once Addict finishes it without enconuntering som anti-piracy bullshit.
 

V_K

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all I did was make characters, walk around for 5 minutes and get killed and then dropped it.
I lasted a bit longer (I cheated with character creation and not even ashamed of it) - long enough to see how bland the quests are and how dungeons feature only long-winded battles against same-ish opponents. Dropped it after a couple of hours.
 

octavius

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all I did was make characters, walk around for 5 minutes and get killed and then dropped it.
I lasted a bit longer (I cheated with character creation and not even ashamed of it) - long enough to see how bland the quests are and how dungeons feature only long-winded battles against same-ish opponents. Dropped it after a couple of hours.

Well, you're a storyfag, so that is understandable. But from Addict's description it seems to be right up my alley.
It's obviously a combatfag game.
 

octavius

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True, it's amazing how many bad combat systems there are in CRPGs.
Makes me appreciate the abstract combat in turn based blobbers all the more.
 

V_K

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It just occured to me that the Addict has a rather high tolerance, if not fondness, to trash combats and grinding, so that might be the reason he liked DoS so much.
 

TigerKnee

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Maybe people would like combat more if CRPG developers didn't suck so bad at it.
True, it's amazing how many bad combat systems there are in CRPGs.
Makes me appreciate the abstract combat in turn based blobbers all the more.
I do notice a lot of RPG devs, old and new, are in complete love with their combat systems if you consider how often you're subjected to it, for worse or for worse (I never think "for better")

Like, I think of The Magic Candle, which is one of my favourite RPGs and what I like about it - the discovery of facts and using what you learn to power yourself on your quest, like finding the locations of trainers and spellbook makers, learning Dwarven so you can read the signs in certain dungeons. The resource management aspect where you're fighting against a time limit... etc.

Then I think about how many stupid Orcs you have to rip through on the overworld just to get to places... thank god for Teleport spells

It just occured to me that the Addict has a rather high tolerance, if not fondness, to trash combats and grinding, so that might be the reason he liked DoS so much.
Hmm, I don't think he was that much of a Bard's Tale fan.
 

CryptRat

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Coincidentally I'm also currently playing Disciples of Steel (judging by the map I'm probably further than halfway). It's indeed a combat/exploration game.
If you like open-world combat games, don't mind fighting a lot of orcs/bats and don't mind games which are probably too long for their own good, it's worth it.
In most dungeons there are some "handcrafted" (the opponents are the same, not their emplacement) fights that I have to avoid and come back later to finally win, that's the main interest of the game, taking notes and choose what to do next. The beginning of the game is great.
Enemies almost don't use skills at all, but anyway some (handcrafted or random) encounters are good, due to different enemies with different HPs/dodge/armor values.
The character sheet is good, but unfortunately I don't use many different spells.
So far there's 0 puzzles, only some keys and hidden doors and the texts are generally far from brilliant.
The different rulers look somewhat interesting. Regarding interactions with towns I'm limiting myself to quests, buying stuff, etc... but you can attack, steal, so there is probably more than what I do.

I can share my dosBox directory of the game if someone wants to play the game and has some problems, it works fine and each time a piracy code is required, I just have to press "Enter".
 
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Deuce Traveler

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Grab the Codex by the pussy Divinity: Original Sin Torment: Tides of Numenera Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pathfinder: Kingmaker Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture
True, it's amazing how many bad combat systems there are in CRPGs.
Makes me appreciate the abstract combat in turn based blobbers all the more.

Also, you probably appreciate the game since your character just got betrothed on the addict's website to a girl with unique wardrobe choices:

steel_562.png
 

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