Which Game...?

[Kulyok]

Oooh, you decided to have the baby? (I mean, aborting was the easiest, and happy marriage had the least amount of drama).

[SapphireIce101]

Oh, I see. Cool.

 

Ah, Diriel, why must you have the prettiest of colored eyes.

 

I can never pick the abortion option. Kind of goes against my morals I guess.

[Thimblerig]

My PC is still in the freakout stage, unsure what to do, and mightily pissed with Diriel. Gosh, Jaemal is being awfully understanding about it all... And still, the option to flirt with Diriel is open. What happens next...? (Time to bash some more yuan-ti.)

[SapphireIce101]

I think Diriel is one of those elves. You know, the ones that don't care if you sleep around as long as you totally pick them in the end.

[Domi]

I am glad you seem to be enjoying all the drama of the inverted stereotypes (or stereotypes that got inverted so often that the stereotype feels fresh.... yeah, I know, ironic). FWIW, Jaemal and Salomeya were the official romances; interestingly, from the second couple, Rizdaer did much better than Peony. I should have worked on Prachi's, but it stalled on me a big time. Now that I think about it, I was fixated on Jaemal, him being a long-time character and all that. Funnily, I guess, he was like Riggs in the core concept.

[Thimblerig]

Yep - certainly enjoying them. It's very soap-opera-ish right now - does Jaemal know about Charname's probable love child with the terrorist? Would he care? Since right now he's having conniptions even thinking about hugging her, what does that mean for their long-term relationship?

 

Meanwhile, Prachi seems to be developing an awkward kind of not-quite-friendship with Rizdaer which I like a lot and hope doesn't have any unexpected downturns... Jaemal's a great guy, but I think Rizdaer will always be my favourite, so it would be good if he could find someone who makes him happy. (He reminds me of a cat I lived with once - a villainous little thug, but I helped him when he needed help badly and after that no creature could be more loving or more loyal. Hard not to respond to that, and I think of Rizdaer as that kind of a person.)

 

And I just got stuck at the creepy kid with all the snakes and can't get to the dialogue option where you point out he's creepy and there's the next plot relevant fight, gorammit. I shall go back to the frustrating and intransigent bit of code I was working on. (Curse you, DisplayStringHead, why don't you work the way you're supposed to? Why won't you work?!)

[Thimblerig]

And finished. (Was getting a bit of ending fatigue, there. Also, boss fights that spam lots of mooks and most of your damage bounces off irk me. And damn you, IWD2, for making me care about what Isair and Madae could have been, and not giving me a chance to bring them back to what their foster mother would have wanted. Way too late for that...)

 

There was a Bad End where Charname got hit with a Destruction spell or something weird and rendered unrevivable in the last fight, then Diriel got hit with Dominate and I couldn't make him move as the fortress was tumbling around my party's ears so I figured most of them died trying to haul his skinny elven arse out of there. Taking his allies with him is how Diriel would have wanted to go, I think.

 

With respect, Domi, I am setting aside your epilogues for [deep breath]

 

- Prachi decides that at least part of her life's mission is tidying up the horrible organisation and sloppy standards of the Black Raven Monastery before journeying on. A great trial on her perambulations is the taste she acquired there for yeti butter tea, which is difficult to find in the lowlands

 

- Rizdaer somehow always seems to be going Prachi's way - purely out of his own self interest, of course. Decades later there's an upright old lady with grey stubble on her scalp calmly sipping tea in a riotous tavern while in the shadows a 'half-drow' is grizzling to anyone who will listen that the quest they're about to embark on is stupid and annoying and will get them all killed. He's loaded down with metal, but wearing a Black Raven sash around his loins, I'm sure he worked something out there...

 

- Salomeya dived into the theatre with plays both sharp and witty, in which Charname and Jaemal frequently appeared (under thinly disguised names) as capering fools, and in later years were developed into stock-clowns-who-set-themselves-on-fire, a popular archetype for the next century of drama. Salomeya never quite made it back to Waterdeep, but her Luskan playhouse prospered - especially since people that gave bad reviews tended to end up floating in the harbour... Salomeya ended up running much of the Luskan underworld, and in her grand old age tried to take over Icewind Dale herself, but was foiled at the last minute by a band of pesky young adventurers.

 

- Jaemal did indeed go back to Mulhorand to kick shins, and Charname followed him. There were a lot of fireballs tossed around. She couldn't quite bring herself to terminate the pregnancy (the dialogues were unclear as to whether Diriel actually gave her the herbs) so Diriel followed them to keep an eye on his progeny and brought his own particular druidic spin to unfolding events. Something something more fireballs mixed with entangling vines and Mold Touch... something underground court of the dead... something something mystical tree baby... several hectic years later there's an oasis in the desert growing around a lake with a bottom of glass, which is fruitful and tender all year round and a sanctuary for a growing number of escaped slaves. (Plus, there's a small interlude where Diriel has to stay in a seraglio, gift-wrapped in silk gauze, but escapes with his dignity intact "You are very handsome, Diriel" "I know")

 

And that ends my adventures with the Dale for the foreseeable future. Not bad.

[Kulyok]

No love for the critics?

 

But handsome Diriel triumphs all! (blahblahfangirl )

[Thimblerig]

Handsome Diriel triumphs all. (I don't think Salomeya likes critics, no...)

[Domi]

Aww, did I just got modded? Lol, sweet. Glad you've enjoyed it.

[Thimblerig]

Um, if it pleases then sure. Yes, I did enjoy it - thanks for making the mod.

[Thimblerig]

Have been having another go at Thief Gold. I have a better arrangement of hotkeys now, and am not sucking at this 3-d business quite so much - this is a really great game! No walkthrough is alike, because most of the levels have multiple ways of getting through them. (Which can be frustrating when I get stuck, but, eh. No complaining about the awesome.)

 

Have been hired to rob the Haunted Cathedral. Navigate through a ruined district of unstable ground, zombies, poisonous gas lizards and other... not nice... things: check. Find the cathedral with the note on the door saying that it's been sealed for the good of everybody and just - just go away now, we're not kidding: check. Peer in the window where a very creepy thing asks me to rescue it, and all I have to do is these very simple things, it won't be any trouble, it promises... Sure, why not.

 

Garrett doesn't seem to have much self-preservation instinct. Also, he claims that he needs to pay the rent, but what with the cash I'm bringing in and the limited amount of gear I actually use, I suspect that he's actually spending most of it on impressing Basso's Sister and other girls with, er, lovely personalities. (And we must not forget Victoria.)

[Thimblerig]

...

 

So impressing Victoria... did not work out so well.

 

(There goes my perfect no-kill run, alas. I had some issues to work through.)

 

The way the stealth mechanic was worked into the final boss fight was fun:

 

 

The bad guy was doing a ritual, you had to switch out a special artifact with a dummy while he wasn't looking and then, to prove you hadn't just dashed in and grabbed it with an unseemly clatter, you had to watch him finish the ritual (to make sure). Lounging in the shadows snacking on fruit while Constantine magicked himself to death was... quietly hilarious.

 

 

On to Thief 2. I know I've played this game before but there's a great deal I just don't remember. Basso is back! A little more talkative this time around. Come to think of it, maybe Garrett is frittering away his money on a covert Widows-and-Orphans fund. Sort of, sneaking into needy people's houses and filling up their money socks. And stealing their food while he was there (it's a thing). Yep, I'm going to go with that head!canon - Garrett the Apple and Luck Fairy. It will salve my conscience the next time I drive some poor merchant out of business.

[Tash]

So, you liked Thief? You're that much cooler now ^^.

 

I think some of the choices in this game, especially when it comes to level design, the use of lights and ambiance, are essential, influential, as well as unsurpassed even to this day.

 

I highly recommend you check out one or two podcasts done with some of the original designers; Eric Brosius's podcast (nr 7) is quite interesting, as he was an ex-musician at the time, debutant in game design and relatevily new to his field. If you want to eavesdrop for a little bit, here are the original podcasts: http://gambit.mit.edu/updates/audio/looking_glass_studios_podcast/

 

As for the other games, we now have both KOTOR games and Jade Empire available cheap at GOG.com. I've played JE recently, and while it has some gameplay issues, it's still the same posse of BioWare writers and designers, so they'll definitely keep you gripped and entertained.

 

EDIT: I've just realized that Eric's podcast is a little on the slow and long side, so if you wanna skip ahead to Thief and System Shock 2, start around 18:00. See why there's no music volume slider in the game?