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Angelo review posted


Cal Jones

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This is great to hear, too; honestly it's something I'm vaguely proud of. I thought from the beginning that Angelo's build had the capacity to be vastly overpowered, and made some deliberate choices about his stats and the like.

 

Anyway, thanks--and also nice avatar, Mugen :D

 

Indeed you should be proud.

 

I've noticed that the Romance music is from Samurai Champloo, I guess it's not a mere conincidence. :)

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As promised, my review is up - I hope this is OK.

Any questions, let me know. ;)

Well, I don't have any questions, but I do want to say one thing: :D

I finally got around to reading your review, and I was impressed with its quality. It really shows that you are a former games journalist, it really seems that this kind of exercise comes naturally to you.

So congratulations on a job well done!!! :)

Oh, and the review would've made me want to play Angelo if I didn't already.... :p (kinda short on time these days, really wanna finish translating Xan... :D )

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Thanks Eleima, I'm glad you found it useful. I hope it'll get plenty of people downloading it anyway, it's a great mod. :)

I will probably be reviewing a few more when I get time (although I'm off on holiday at the end of next week). Maybe I'll get around to playing Xan - it's just I can't bring myself to play an elven protagnoist. :D I really need to take him on a BG runthrough first as I haven't, to date.

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Xan is a terrific mod, except for that irritating voice he's got...but I hear there's a way to restore the original voice from BG1, at least for his select/order lines...

 

I thought it was the opposite (allowing you to use Xan's BG2 voice in BG1).

 

Anyway, I found Xan incredibly annoying in BG1 (using BG1 NPC) but I like him much better in BG2. Maybe it's because he whines less, maybe it's because I like his BG2 personal quests (especially the Eldreth Veluuthra one), I don't know...

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Xan is a terrific mod, except for that irritating voice he's got...but I hear there's a way to restore the original voice from BG1, at least for his select/order lines...

 

I thought it was the opposite (allowing you to use Xan's BG2 voice in BG1).

Anyway, I found Xan incredibly annoying in BG1 (using BG1 NPC) but I like him much better in BG2. Maybe it's because he whines less, maybe it's because I like his BG2 personal quests (especially the Eldreth Veluuthra one), I don't know...

 

You can indeed use the mod's soundset in BG1. Just head over here to Xan's page and scroll to "A BG1 Soundset for Xan using the BG2 Xan voice actor (separate download) is also available."

 

However, I'm fairly certain that you can restore the original voice from BG2, it'd probably take a bit of tinkering in the override folder, but nothing as complicated as brain surgery.

Although... why would you do that?!? :) I really liked the voicing for the mod!

Of course, maybe it's because I played the mod before I played BG1.... ;)

 

Buuuutttt..... back to Angelo, and that awesome review!

No thanks necessary, Cal Jones, that was well-earned praise for you! :D

 

Edit: a silly typo...

Edited by Eleima
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I think SisterV is having a little joke with you there, Eleima, given that it was he who did Xan's voice. :)

I am aware of that, but I didn't want to appear over-enthusiastic in my praise, as I often come off as too cheery, gushing, fan girl... Blush.gif

Edited by Eleima
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Guest Shamino

I wonder if Sister Vigilante has seen the following brief comment on Angelo. It's posted over at GameSpot Forums:

 

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/baldursgate...273&page=22

 

"Angelo is so far the best of the npc mods that I've played through. Being male, never did the romance, and some of his little "sidequests" are dull as they just consist of mercs chasing you, though the difficulty isn't as bad as some of the other custom content usually featured in mods. His biggest sidequest was a bit...troublesome, difficult sorc, had to resort to cheesy trap tactics, most of the difficulty is from poor party placement though (you get ported in, and usually ended up unable to get my tanks up close to him) Might be the fact that he's not a romancable npc as those seem to be the ones that end up being terrible, had one or two chuckle worthy moments, couple of references to bg1 stuff so...check plus. A lil' overpowered but...you can usually make any mage like that, and his stats are okay."

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:) Hey, cool! Thanks for posting this!

 

I'm proud because the purpose of this thread seems to be taking a nail bat to every mod ever made. Even a few that are generally acclaimed get thrown in the sack (not that there's anything wrong with that per se).

 

I wonder if Sister Vigilante has seen the following brief comment on Angelo. It's posted over at GameSpot Forums:

 

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/baldursgate...273&page=22

 

"Angelo is so far the best of the npc mods that I've played through. Being male, never did the romance, and some of his little "sidequests" are dull as they just consist of mercs chasing you, though the difficulty isn't as bad as some of the other custom content usually featured in mods. His biggest sidequest was a bit...troublesome, difficult sorc, had to resort to cheesy trap tactics, most of the difficulty is from poor party placement though (you get ported in, and usually ended up unable to get my tanks up close to him) Might be the fact that he's not a romancable npc as those seem to be the ones that end up being terrible, had one or two chuckle worthy moments, couple of references to bg1 stuff so...check plus. A lil' overpowered but...you can usually make any mage like that, and his stats are okay."

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Actually, looking around: DarthMordechai, who started those Gamespot threads (and seems as if he would kill some mod authors if he could get his hands on them) said elsewhere something like "surprisingly Angelo isn't complete s**t." I probably shouldn't be as proud of this as I am...It's like in Ust'Natha where the Demon Lord is looking around, and you have the option to (say nothing), and then it leaves.

 

Xan also escaped relatively unscathed. Congratulations, Kulyok!

 

To be fair (since I've read those "review" threads that contain only positive reviews), some people there complain about all the Japanese kitsch in the mod, which honestly I am a bit ashamed of now that I've been to Japan and back and (mostly)* cured my fetish. Some people also dislike the default portrait.

 

Edit: *said the guy with the leaping schoolgirl in his avatar

Edited by Sister Vigilante
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I had Angelo in my (mostly neutral) party in SoA and he was a fine guy. Not annoying, more-or-less a typical mercenary who always knows who is his boss (/chief).

I feel, that many modders have problems to make a normal NPC mod. Often you get a NPC, that knows half of the secrets of the game-plot and your Charname is just serving in their story. Which is I think horrible, though I know, that this is just a problem of an author being in love with his/her mod (which must be therefore all-important).

However Angelo didn't have that problem. Instead of having his own "powerful" story, he was just part of the original plot of the Charname/Bhaalspawn.

I can't say, that he is the best NPC mod ever or something similar (though he is probably the best among BG2 npc mods which I know). I can't say that I will always play with him. But I will always have him in mind, when I will think of my future party.

 

Few problems:

 

Voice - I had both him and Xan in the party. Which is of course a little bit confusing. I think, that the voice suits Xan better (and the voice acting is better in Xan mod as well). And well... I still prefer original voices of BG1/2 npcs. Probably with the exception of Keto (her voice was well done).

 

Dialogue with Xan - I think it was about the moonblade and it was repeating over and over again (every 30 minutes or so). That was a little bit annoying.

 

BG1 character - Personality of BG2 Angelo doesn't fit his predecessor. In BG1 he was a real villain (he could even execute one of your NPCs). In BG2 he is following orders without his own evil intentions (though he is no saint of course).

Edited by Jab
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