Silliness, but help a fellow out...

[cmorgan]

OK, so I'm now officially middle-aged, and can't afford to do the traditional male "mid-life crisis" things on my salary.

 

No sports car (besides, it kills the environment, even if it goes *vroom vroom* with elan and pannache), no second wife (the first one is a jewel beyond compare, and besides, she'd kill me instantly without a qualm or hesitation), no wild affair with a 21 year old co-ed (see point #2; besides, that only happens in Chevy Chase movies), and for darned sure no dropping the job in favor of a world tour of bars in search of the perfect scotch.

 

Hmmm.

 

Have to reconsider about that last one.

 

Well, assuming I can't get that scotch tour, what I can get is either a Build Your Own or a replacement for my ancient Alienware rig.

 

And one (1) count 'em O.N. E. single RP game. (I will have enough problems with time management going back through RTW using high resolutions, existing and planned modding projects, Tutu, BG2, and now when Domi finishes her IWD2 mod both IWD1 and IWD2 to complete the collection).

 

So for a person who enjoys storylines and NPC character interactions above all else, (assume no tech problems, as the minimum I am looking at is mid-summer purchase with either the GTX8800 756 or its competitor/replacement, a decent Raid0 setup with separate soundcard, and a modern processor) generally plays Paladins, and is looking for a good time, which should I go for (or is there a better alternative?)

 

By the way, don't bother recommending The Broken Hour Glass - that is an automatic install the moment I get it, and a pre-order as soon as they will take my money.But I don't think it will be available for a midsummer midlife midcrisis

[berelinde]

Well, Sig-O in similar circumstances bought a used Mitsubishi 3000, but as I would probably like your wife, I would not recommend that action. The thing has spent most of its time in the shop, and who needs that? Besides, at 5'8", my head scrapes the ceiling, so if you're taller than that, you're likely to suffer claustrophobia.

 

You won't like NWN unless you get on a good server. But you said you don't want to play multiplayer.

 

Maybe it would be helpful if people would detail what NWN and Oblivion have to recommend them?

[cirerrek]

a world tour of bars in search of the perfect scotch.

 

I can save you some trouble there.

 

Glenmorangie aged 12 years in a Burgandy Cask or if you like the really stout stuff (120 proof), a'bunadh.

 

The a'bundadh is a speyside but it isn't overly salty tasting.

 

As for videogames, well I can only comment on NWN2, not having played Oblivion (sometime I tell you about raging hate and anger related to a bug with Daggerfall).

 

NWN2 is passible. Definitely better than NWN1. I'd say give it a go at some point, but no hurry.

[Twani]

Obsidian, if you take it as what it is, is a fun game. But it's a fighting-rules-all game with very little character interaction; it's very free form. You can make a lot of choices you can't make in BG- screw the main plot, hanging around and doing quests for guilds and hunting or whatever, is the big example. But the NPCs (save for I'd say... one, although I liked the arena guy) have the personality of nothing. They all sound the same, look the same, mostly use the same lines... for someone looking for a character driven game, I wouldn't recommend it. Also, if you're generally playing as a good guy- you'll miss the best quests in the game, which might put a damper on it.

 

Neverwinter Nights 2 has it's strengths, but I would wait a bit longer for it. The core campaign is, on it's own, not worth paying the money for. So what will the modding community do? So far, only one mod has come out that the communties gotten excited about- I personally hated said mod, but tastes differ. (Remember that NWN/2 mods create their own core campaign, rather then adding on to what's already there.) For NWN1, I could write list after list of mods I would recommend someone play through... for NWN2, I would wait a bit. However, if you're looking for something closer to the BG experience, I would say NWN2 beats Oblivion by far.

 

(Oblivion is such a pretty game, tho. Pretty pretty.)

 

Honesty... I would be more apt to recommend KOTOR1 or 2, or PS:T, or Arcanum as something that's more NPC interaction yay then either games. (Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark is pretty good for that, too, but my love for Valen might be influencing me.) But this is just an unspellchecked rant.

[berelinde]

Oh, and for another nice scotch, consider Oban. Expen$ive, but worth it.

[BigRob]

I wuold pretty much agree with Twani.

 

Oblivion is a great game if you want freedom of movement. You can pretty much go anywhere and do anything you like, and there are some interestingly complex quests involved in it. As stated above, character development and interaction is minimal at best (and there is absolutely no party to be had).

 

 

I would certainly reccomend either KOTOR game over NWN2 if you've not played them before.

[NiGHTMARE]

For many people, Oblivion isn't worth playing unless you use certain mods; to put it bluntly, the gameplay sucks. Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul and Francesco's Leveled Creatures-Items both make numerous improvements to the gameplay, and add a considerable amount of extra content to boot. Traditionally you had to chose between these two mods as they were incompatible, but it's recently become possible to use both together. Martigen's Monster Mod is another good one.

[Gabrielle]

I wuold pretty much agree with Twani.

 

Oblivion is a great game if you want freedom of movement. You can pretty much go anywhere and do anything you like, and there are some interestingly complex quests involved in it. As stated above, character development and interaction is minimal at best (and there is absolutely no party to be had).

 

 

I would certainly reccomend either KOTOR game over NWN2 if you've not played them before.

I agree also, the Kotor games are very good.

[Grand_Dracolich]

Well, I haven't played either Oblivion or NWN2 (or even 1 for that matter). The other other CRPG I have is Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor. It's pretty good, but there's a reason I've only played through 1/5th of the game. There's no character development, only -maybe- 15 dialogues throughout the game, and the battles can get really frustrating.

 

But, hey, if you ever tired of CRPGs (yeah right, I still haven't) Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries is pretty darn fun , but probably not your cup of tea.

[Gabrielle]

You don't mean PoR 2 do you?

[Grand_Dracolich]

I think so. I mean the one that's for PC, not SNES.

[Gabrielle]

This? That game was buggy as can be to the point of being unplayable. Plus if it wasn't patch and you uninstalled it, it would delete your operating system . I rarely found anyone who actually liked PoR2. It looked promising until SSI was bought out and different game designers took over.

[cmorgan]

But, hey, if you ever tired of CRPGs (yeah right, I still haven't) Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries is pretty darn fun , but probably not your cup of tea.

 

Au contraire, my fine friend, the lynchpin of my gaming habit (and reason I can keep working on tedious recoding tasks) is JA2 (modded), Civilization III (modded), Alpha Centauri/Alien Crossfire (unmodded), Rome: Total War (unmodded, but looking), and Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries/Vengeance/ClanPack/InnerSphere/modded graphics). X2-The Threat is on the HD, too; I tried, but it hasn't been played in years.

 

When I want to go hack and slash, nothing beats a full 'mech assault!

 

 

I know better than to get involved in MMORGP or whatever, as PvP and Quake style gaming leaves me a littl cold (and my character dead); plus, it would again take up most of my time. I just like the CRPG character development alot. I keep seeing all this stuff about next generation gaming, and keep wondering if I am missing something not trying Oblivion or NWN2. Sounds like the Lucas Saga is the closest thing to real NPC interaction, then?

[Grand_Dracolich]

Ah, I never ran into that OS deleting bug, patched or not, for some reason. That would've been funny when I uninstalled it to make room on my hard drive before I got a 60 gig drive, if it cleaned out the rest of the drive, lol.

 

Well, I never really ran into any bugs, my only problem with it is the gameplay isn't linear enough, I have a walkthrough for it that's really complicated, especially since the game won't alt+tab.

 

I only suggested it since it's the only CRPG I have that CMorgan hasn't already put on his play list:

 

Tutu, BG2, and now when Domi finishes her IWD2 mod both IWD1 and IWD2 to complete the collection

[Azazello]

...Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor. It's pretty good...

You have got to be kidding.