Arcanum. (with Drog’s patch)
Somehow I’ve never played it. As a 90s cRPG veteran it is interesting to go fresh into a cRPG and be smacked with a lot of confusion about mechanics and stats that I don’t have from games I’m used to playing. It took me a frustratingly long amount of time to figure out how to use the world map travel.
As seems to be a trend with Tim Cain games, the combat isn’t very good but the game is carried by the social detail, world, and variety in how to approach quests. I’m going for a social build with a lean towards magic in order to get the most out of social interactions.
curious if you are on !crpg@lemmy.world
I am now.
Arcanum, is it that one that starts with a blimp crash?
If so, what’s Drogs patch?
Looking for something along those lines…
Cheers
Yes it is. Drog’s patch is the universally recommended patch that fixes bugs and has a lot of optional changes like adding new playable races, removing annoying sound effects, and more evenly distributing party experience instead of a per-hit system.
Is Drog’s patch the Multiverse Edition? That’s what I played back in like January when I played Arcanum for the first time. Fixes a lot of things but still can’t polish the turd that is Arcanum combat sadly.
Thanks! I might have a go at it again then. Or if you have any better recommendations 😊!
Better recommendations for… what? For Arcanum or for RPGs in general? 😄Multiverse Edition was pretty good as far as Arcanum goes and I’m glad to have played it, but there are certainly better CRPGs out there.
I’d love a good old rpg 😊! Especially a non group one, or like a side kick or small group but when you start out with 7 it’s too much for me.
I will begin by pushing my personal agenda: Jade Empire is a super underrated older Bioware game and I think could fit your description. While you do amass a large set of followers over the course of the story, they mainly reside at camp. While out and adventuring you’re only ever bringing with you one at a time: exactly the sidekick you’re looking for!
If you want to stay isometric I hold Baldur’s Gate 2 very highly as far as retro RPGs go. You do have a party of six there however. You only have 3 companions for the first few hours though, so at least you get eased into it. And you could just choose to not have a full party if you want. Will make the game a bit harder, mind.
Fallout 1&2 are also retro RPGs and pretty much just better than Arcanum in every way. Not really a party focused experience, you can have companions but they’re more like the sidekicks you mentioned.
Neverwinter Nights 2 just recently got an enhanced edition and that’s also a smaller party experience. The main campaign is decent, but the expansion Mask of the Betrayer is often brought up as one of the best CRPG stories of all time and heralded for its stellar writing.
No, it’s from here:
Ah I see. It’s included in Multiverse (plus a lot more). I can recommend it if you’re ever doing a second playthrough, I thought it was pretty good!
Getting back into Schedule 1 after a few months, it’s still fun and decently chill to just be a drug dealer for wacky cartoon drug addicts.
I have almost all the properties - all I’m missing is the docks warehouse - I have all possible customers, I’m almost done taking out the rival drug cartel in the game, and I’m still only based out of the barn. I also finally got around to hiring my first few employees so I don’t have to constantly be mixing up new shit to sell or give to my dealers. I’m excited to see what else they add to the game (it’s still in EA).
After I’m done with that, I’ll probably jump back into Abiotic Factor and try to finish the story of that one.
Jump Space
Playing with a mate and it’s a lot of fun. It’s a new game so not quite “patient gamer” but it’s cheap enough that I’m fine with it and looking forward to updates.
Football Manager
It got a hold of me these past couple days. I wanted something chill to do while I drink my coffee but then time just flies by… and it’s suddenly 3 hours later :/
Football Manager
God, I don’t miss sinking time into this monstrosity. Biggest time drain in existence.
Finally playing through Cyberpunk 2077. It still has some bugs but nothing that prevents me from enjoying it. I picked up the game and dlc like 40% off recently.
Seems like it was worth waiting for, it’s actually really fun!
just kicked off borderlands 3 over the weekend (it was a freebie on epic a while back).
i can see where they were trying to take the series, but i think they need a “back-to-basics” moment; there were a few decisions that really detract from the ability to be immersed.
(ux)the skill tree system has changed in a way that makes upgrading confusing to the point that i dont even use my special ability (it spawns a mech)
(ui)there are multiple advertisements for DLC that are always on your minimap and block your view of POIs - they look like questgivers
(bug)sometimes fast travel works and sometimes it doesnt (and sometimes it does but doesnt let you travel unless you close and reopen the map)
these 3 issues make it really difficult to enjoy a gaming session without being reminded that i need to spend more money so this convoluted system wont be fixed.
3 days in and i give it a meh 5/10; it seems like the budget was too big.
For The King 2
It’s definitely got some issues, especially with camera angles, but my friends and I have been having a good time with it. The campaigns are shockingly short, but that makes it way more doable with friends. We all know coordinating time is difficult
Doom 3 on the Steam deck. 20 hours so over the average playtime but I keep getting lost 🧭
Great game. I’ve played it through several times and now am struggling to finish it on nightmare. It’s just so hard when you get down to like 2 health and have to creep around until you can find enough health to be bold again
😰 I’m just on normal difficulty and it’s hard enough!
I recently started playing Revenge of the Savage Planet. So far I really like it. I’ve never finished the first release Journey to the Savage Planet, but it was a nice game.
I’ve had Airship: Kingdoms Adrift for a while and gave it a go. It’s got neat broadside naval combat in the air and you can customize components in ports. There’s a small chance to capture enemy ships under certain conditions and make yourself a fleet or send trade convoys on their own from port to port.
It has a main mission though and kinda acts like a tutorial so, not sure how far along one has to follow it to unlock everything.
Butt the mission rewards are kind of silly. Gave me some warehouse plans to increase port storage, but no idea when I’ll get to use it or where, if at all.
Need resources probably, but i didn’t get that far and the costs are way above what i can poach.
Then gave me a piece of equipment too big for the ship I have, so again, useless at the moment.Anyway, feels off. Maybe I’ll get back at it, maybe not… Who knows.
I’m back in skyrim VR but i’m using VRocker that let’s me walk or run in place to move in game. It’s been pretty fun. :)
I just got back into modding Skyrim again. It’s my first time modding on Linux, it’s been far smoother than I was told it would be. I’m using ModOrganizer2, it’s been great for the most part. It’s a little iffy to start up, sometimes it forgets I’ve used it before and I need to reboot a couple times which is pretty annoying, but as long as I don’t fully close MO2 it works as expected.
I’m currently playing through Mass Effect Legendary Edition. I’m done with 1 and am now working through 2. Great games so far!
Enjoy! I’ve been wanting to get back into the ME series again, but the stupid EA launcher requirements have halted me. I know you can modify some files to get around it, and I did do that and it worked, but the next time I tried to open the game steam verified the files and corrected them. I haven’t gotten around to removing the launcher requirements again yet.
Does No Man’s Sky count? I just got it a few weeks ago on sale and have been having a blast!
I’ve seen it mentioned a lot on lemmy recently, I’m pleasantly surprised. I haven’t played it in a few years but really enjoyed my time with it. It had a really rough launch but even after they fixed it I felt it was quite under-appreciated. I’m glad it’s getting more attention now.
Halo 2: Anniversary
The further into the series I get, the less enjoyable my Heroic playthrough becomes. I’m currently doing the first halo mission as the Arbiter and the amount of shotgun-totting floodlings who can one-shot me while running and jumping around like they’re on speed is… tiring, to say the least. I actually ended up taking a break for a few days for the first time since I started playing MCC due to this very level. Hopefully I’ll be able to start fresh once I’m back.Other than that I still like the game - not as much as Reach but it’s fun for the most part. Gameplay has a nice mix of on-foot and vehicle combat, levels are pretty varied (both visually and in terms of design). New weapons are alright, can’t say I like them more than anything I used in other games.
I’m still not sure how I feel about the story, will have to wait until I’m done before I decide on that.I mentioned it before but boy do I appreciate the presentation when using remastered graphics. All the colour, details and updated art style make the locations look appropriately sci-fi, otherworldly (when needed) and just overall beautiful and pleasant to look at. It’s a fantastic upgrade, one that hits even harder if you play like me - constantly switching between the two versions.
I’ve got another small but annoying problem to mention this week: why does my flashlight turns off randomly? Sometimes it’s after a few seconds, other times when moving between the rooms. Either way, it’s making it pretty much useless. Why? What possible reason could you have for that? It’s not like I’m running out of battery or anything, just let me use it when I want to.
I’m waiting for Ruby’s Reblanced Halo 2. Based on the quality of the Halo: CE rebalance it will probably fix many of those issues. I hope, but maybe shouldn’t expect, that mod includes the proper shading. Part of the reason Halo 2 looks so strange is it was designed for a full dynamic shading system which was pulled late in development for XBox performance reasons. What’s left is baked shading and very limited and scaled back dynamic shading, but in a world and art style that was designed with full dynamic in mind.
I recently played though Halo 2 partially with another restored content/rebalance mod and it was alright, though it didn’t have the skill of the Ruby Rebalance in making new/restored content feel organic to the game.
I heard about the dynamic lighting situation but completely forgot about it until now, thanks for the reminder!
I didn’t dive into Halo modding yet so I wasn’t aware of rebalance patches, makes sense. This is my first playthrough of the series (sans 1 and Spartan Assault) so I wanted to play them vanilla anyway but I’ll keep that in mind if I ever decide to play them again.
If you’ve played Halo CE, playing the Ruby Rebalance is still worth it. You’ll probably appreciate it more with the vanilla experience fresh in mind.
The Halo: CE mod is very tastefully done and improves the game. There are a lot of invisible tweaks like making the assault rifle more accurate in short bursts and tweaking spawns (the Library level is much better) as well as visible changes like adding ODSTs where it makes sense, adding new enemy types, and a few new to CE campaign weapons like a usable energy sword.
The new enemy types include a lot of new flood forms which makes them less of a slog to play against. There’s elite zealot flood still carrying energy swords, which are terrifying.
I still have 2.5 games ahead of me so I probably won’t be doing a full playthrough of H1 but I might take a look. It does sound promising and a bit more involved than I expected to be honest. Thanks again for letting me know!
The improved graphics look great for H2A, especially cutscenes, but it always bummed me out that it also changes the soundtrack. The original OST is just worlds better, with works from known artists (Incubus, Hoobastank, Breaking Benjamin), and the new music is just much more generic and mid.
I think the new versions of atmospheric tracks are pretty decent alternatives. Better? I can’t say I compared them this way but I’d say… a bit different and fitting with the new visuals for the most part. Dunno about the licensed stuff as my only experience with classic releases was playing the first game a few years ago.
I did find a few spots over all the games I played so far where I felt like the music was lacking a bit but I’m not sure if that’s just a normal experience or something exclusive to MCC/updated versions of the games. It wasn’t something that affected my enjoyment too much so I just moved on and focused on the good.
Yeah, admittedly I did play the originals on release so nostalgia is certainly a factor for me. I did have the thought “maybe it’s a licensing issue?” Until I realized the tracks are still in the game, just only if you’re using classic visuals. I would have liked the ability to shift between classic/remastered visuals and audio separately (though I think with the remastered cutscenes at least, this wouldn’t have been an option)
May be worth noting that, for the licensed music, in the game it’s all instrumental versions, regardless of whether the track has lyrics or not. Searching for the tracks online will probably provide versions with lyrics where applicable.
Speaking of cut scenes, I was a bit bummed there was no option to switch art styles during those (the in-engine ones at least). It would be just as, if not more, interesting comparison (depending on how much they changed) so I was really curious about that but alas.
Yeah, I THINK the reason this was cut is because some of them are shot a little differently and actually have slightly different run times
I’d still like to have that option but it’s completely understandable.
I don’t think I had this issue with H1 (or at least not to such extent) so I didn’t even think of it until now but I finally realised why I’m leaning towards remastered soundtrack as much as I do - original is more muted/less audible for some reason. I’m not sure if it’s the compression of old audio files or something else but when switching between both versions, original just doesn’t pop up as much. I might have to play around with sound levels.
Thanks for making me think about it, it actually made me stop to figure it out.
Just picked up Ark Survival: Evolve and No Man’s Sky
Been playing a lot of survival craft games with my son in law lately which has been great fun
If you’re enjoying ARK, that’s the game palworld was inspired by, they’re extremely similar. Personally I found that palworld was much more respectful of my time, whereas ARK wanted me to play it like a full time job if I wanted to have any dinosaurs.
space engineers on pc, path of exile2 on ps5
