Well it's that time again; middle of the university term, settled back into the swing of the uni life and been out and about socialising enough in the past few weeks that I can blag my way out of social events to stay in and game. So what games am I focusing on?

I started off with The Witcher, playing it casually while chatting to folks on Ventrillo and IRC and keeping up with the forums. I got to about mid-way through chapter two before the developers announced the enhanced edition of the game will be released some time in May. While great news that they've decided to go back and work the English game into what it's really meant to be, it's also slightly annoying. So I've stopped playing The Witcher for now. Despite some quite critical reviews I actually found the game entertaining for what it is; essentially a cross between Neverwinter Nights and Two World and I guess, going back a bit, Summoner, which I loved. If you're looking for a laid back RPG then you can't go amiss with The Witcher, just wait for the Enhanced Edition.

I was hoping to get my teeth into some games that I've always meant to play but have never gotten around to play such as Baldur's Gate and the Fallout games. Word from last month's PC Gamer in the UK said that Baldur's Gate 3 is definately in the works, and I would like to play both the previous games before starting the third in the series. I was a big fan of Icewind Dale too, which was my first PC D&D game.

But alas, the MMO rope caught me and I have been dragged into playing Eve Online. While I've been "playing" the game for the past 4 months I've really only been logging in to learn skills. For those not in the know, Eve Online has quite a different levelling dynamic to other MMO's; instead of grinding in order to level up you simply have skills that take x amount of time to learn. Learning skills gives you access to new ships, modules for your ships, research, industry, manufacturing, weaponary, etc. etc.. It greatly reduces that feeling that "everybody is the same as me" that I've gotten in games like WoW and EQ2. I'd recommend it to anyone.

I've played EVE online , At starters, Actually the first week of playing the game everything is very complicated. But then things slowly works out and it suddenly turns into a great game. EVE does require a lot of time and seriously , The universe in EVE is...HUGE...Seriously i believe it could take days to come to one place from another. There's an downloadable demo on their website , People who have a PC should try it out

Annoying how? Did you miss the part about the free download for people who've already got it?

I imagine it's annoying because once you know a major improvement is coming, there's no point in playing through the inferior version of the game. So now you have to wait for the update to get here before you finish your game.



As for Baldur's Gate 3... any news besides a general "we're making it" (surprise, surprise, it's a big enough name it would inevitably get a sequel)? Will they be sticking to the original 2d turn-based style? Updating for the new 3rd (will it be out before or after 4th) edition rules? Or will this be more like one of the "Baldur's Gate" games for the console I saw, where the only thing in common was the name?

Correct. I'm not one for replaying games immediately after completing it (although I did replay most of Crysis...) so now I have to wait until May to properly play the game.



Nope, it was an aside in a general blog in the magazine. Maybe there'll be more info in this months, which I am yet to read.

I played the Witcher. After chapter 2 you have to make some decisions which change the final chapters (4/5 and epilogue) quite a lot so you might find playing one game now and doing another a different way would work for you.

I didn't know there was life outside of The Elder Scrolls.



LOL

Sure there is. There are more games available than just TES!

Witchers a ace game, it provided my break between Elder Scrolls oblivion, You should really get back into it, what i love is for the whole of Vizima theres minimal combat, yet im still enraptured by it, even when i was playing for around 4 - 5 *SPOILER**SORT OF**LOL* trying to get all the evidence, i am currently on my second run with the game with the Scoa'tiel instead of Order, But Oblivion still holds a dear place in my heart

You've never played a Fallout game?! For shame!

I used to have a housemate who played Eve and he'd spend literally days on end sitting at his PC with a headset on, gradually disappearing amid a growing pile of cigarette packets and pizza boxes.
I was sitting in the living room one night and heard such a torrent of anguish and rage from his room that i rushed in, thinking he'd had a call that a loved one had died.

Apparently a " f***ing noob grunt " (actual quote) had lured him somewhere with an SOS and nuked his ship. He-he. I felt bad for him but it was funny.
The thing showed me though what a lot of real investment of time and patience goes into this game.
The really funny thing was that this guy spent all day at a PC at work running a web design company and would arrive home only to go straight online with Eve running a space mining co. Which was his idea of leisure time but which was blatantly more stressful than work.

I think the reality lines had become blurry.

Hi DarkOne,

I'm not sure which mode you were playing The Witcher in, but I'd definitely recommend using the mouse/keyboard set-up over the mouse only. I was pleasantly surprised to find the OTS third person view played MUCH cleaner than NWN2; Which I found extremely cumbersome to play in third person zoom. The single draw back is that there is no forward walk option using the w-a-s-d set-up. Even so, if you're playing the zoomed out top-down view, I'd say you were missing half of the game's charm. Also having played through it twice, once on normal, the second time on hard, I'd recommend going with the hard setting right off; Lest you should suffer the same disappointment I did when I realized there was little difference. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did when you decide to pick it up again

Cheers!

FritZ

I own The Witcher - Its a pretty good game but it has a lot of downfalls.
I have no regrets buying it though.
I'm 95% sure they will release the added content in the form of a patch (I think I read about it somewhere) so we don't have to buy the Enhanced edition.
I'm mainly waiting for the toolset to come out for it.

- H

Howie1123 I hope you're right...

I saw a promo video on YouTube by the developers, and they talked about adding a 'colored map, manual etc etc', and by the sounds of it, they are re-releasing the game as retail. Sounded like they added bunch of material goodies, unless it is all digital. *Shrug*

Anyway, a little unrelated I know. Sorry.

Cheers for the great site though DarkOne; this is the #1 place for Oblivion stuff in my book.

The Baldur´s Gate games are nice, there's a lot of extra community content avaiable too. Still, I like Planescape: Torment better. Has anyone here ever played it?

eh...I don't care for MMO games simply because too often, I need to hit the pause key to take of things every 5 minutes and I also don't like the idea of paying monthly subscription fees when I don't have much time to play. MMO games favor those that stay in it for long periods of time and very casual gamers such as myself would always be a bottom-feeder and worthless to real-time groups. hehehe.

Besides modding for Oblivion (yep, I rarely fire up Oblivion and when I do, it's to test a mod), I've been playing Medal of Honor 4: Modern Warfare and Conan for the XBOX 360.

It's been almost 2 years and I haven't seen another game I'd rather mod that suits my style other than Oblivion That in itself should speak a lot for Bethesda...or maybe that my genres of interest are limited.

LHammonds

BLASPHEMY! How could you, Lon?

I assume you mean Call of Duty 4, not Medal of Honor. The latest console MoD game is Medal of Honor: Airborne, and is the 7th console game (11th in the series), so I'm just making this clear, k?

@ JD_Hman
I hope I'm right too lol

Fallout : Great great series... except maybe tactics wasnt the best in the series. Cant wait to see the new one. Put Oblivion in Post Apoch era... nice...

BG : Another great series. Hundreds of hours worth of side stories, tons for each different class/race/sex.

EVE.... welcome to my addiction brother. Been playing since its launch way back in the day. Take some time and find me
(Mentro)

The Witcher - awesome piece of gameplay, and a charmingly flawed and rundown world to top it off.. my kinda place =P - I'd like to grab a hold of one of the witcher's books sometime; shows a lot of promise

Too bad it's not as re-playable as Oblivion... its only flaw, really... a modding comunity devoted to it the way people are devoted to Oblivion would do wonders

Fallout - only played F2 and it's worth every cent I've paid for it.... Be wary of Fallout 3, however.... from the sounds of it, seems like Beth won't do much to honor the franchise... other than 133t grafix and 1st view, that is ¬¬

BG - best --action-- RPG I ever played.... all the subplots, all the hidden content, all the character interactions (Jaheira vs. Edwin, anyone??) honor its namesake

EVE - always got me curious.. Alas, I flee at the prospect of having to pay monthly for playing.

But stinginess aside, it does seem like a good game... which is saying more than the VAST VAST VAST majority of MMOs out there... and not only the free ones, mind you... MMORPGs in particular ("MMORPGs" are not RPGs at all! If you're looking for a more rewarding roleplaying gaming experience, might as well play good ol' Final Fight!!! arrgh) -- But I'll leave the ranting out of this, for the topic's sake =)

Might I recommend Planescape: Torment while you're backtracking through digital gaming history? It uses the same Infinity Engine as Baldur's Gate, and its plot is like no other I've ever seen

Good stuff

I played Might and Magic, and Heroes of Might and Magic before playing Baldurs Gate. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Oblivion, with its goal oriented but non-linear playing experience is tops in my book, and I have not found a game that rivals it. I am disappointed that Bethesda has not started working on TES 5. I also played The Witcher, but did not get the enjoyment out of it that you have. I played it as a stop-gap while I relaxed Oblviion for a while. I think Unreal Tournament will be my next game session until someone releases another non-linear RPG like Oblivion.

I've gone thru the game a couple times now, then I saw that NOW! they come out with the version and fixes that should have been done in the first place. OH WELL!...Since I wnt to a lot of trouble to get the uncensored version, and have played it a few times I'll just wait a couple years then download it for free someplace. Anyway, it's off my comp right now so maybe by then I'll be ready to play it again.

also note to all the other people like me who got the witcher as well before the newer "enhanced" version appears and ENJOYED/finished it, the makers say the update patch will be on the site eventually allowing us registered users to get what the enchanced version has also which is great news!

Damn bit late for me too. Bought it and got very into it for 2 weeks doing all there was I could do except where I couldnt be bothered to go back and try the other choices to change my path. Liked it alot except that it wasnt really first person. It wasnt anything like as epic as is Oblivion but was most fun I had from a new game for ages. In the absence of a new oblivion or something in the same vein I am back to good old fashioned modding like crazy to keep it fresh. Also tried 2 worlds etc etc and found all other games way to linear. Is there anything else out there with the beauty and flexibility of Oblivion? Always keen to try something new just in case it turns out to be the next oblivion.

If you want a game that /really/ makes you feel unique, check out city of Heroes/Villains. No other MMO has the same level of customization, and it's actually fun to play. I know, an MMO that's fun. Frightening!

"Too bad it's not as re-playable as Oblivion... its only flaw, really... a modding comunity devoted to it the way people are devoted to Oblivion would do wonders"

Actually it is more replayable than Oblivion (since all of Oblivion's quests only have a single ending and you can't play through them differently no matter how many times you try, while the Witcher has a large number of choices and consequences (and significant consequences at that) which allows you to replay it.

I think people just need to realise the difference between non-linearity and sandbox gameplay. They are seperate things.

The Witcher is also going to get a modding tool by the way (the D'jinni). It might not be quite as moddable as Oblivion though (hard to create new landscapes).

i havent played very much of the witcher but its fun as far as ive gotten through it, but its good to hear that there's a new edition coming out and a modding tool too, that sould be cool. but i do have to say the game play was way different from any game ive played

i love this site and all the specials that are on it, thnx for those who prepared this site!!!!

wats a better alternative to blender which is easier for meshes help!

Cool. The witcher does sound good.

@Eve online, doesn't that mean that you're basically paying to level up. Hmm, the lack of grinding sounds like a relief, but they really have a monopoly where you must pay for a long time to get any good.

Sounds interesting whats a good game with a editor like oblivion i play alot of games

BG 3! Wow. I really loved the first two and assumed they were dead. Cool.

it is very good thanks

I started Witcher 3 times

After prologue finished )

Does anyone know if Bethesda is makind another Elder Scroll game like Elder Scrolls V? Oblivion is alredy a masterpiece!

I instaled some mods but there not working.

How do I get them to work?

Ive been playing elder scroll FCOM version now for a few weeks. Im going to run that straight into fallout 3 at the end of this month. Ive never played any of the fallout games. Yes I know, I as far as life outside TES I dont have the time to start another rpg. So I'll hop in at 3 and if I really like it I'll pick up the other 2.



I have to say, FCOM really puts a spin on this game like I never saw. I actually die now and wished I had modded this game from when I first got it.