When did you first play a Black Isle game and what was it?

qwalt

Just thought it would be interesting to see when people got into the game!


My first was baldurs gate 2. I was 10 years old. My step brother asked the employee for a game similar to Diablo 2 for a birthday present for me and he suggested bg2. I basically just played with a assassin with cheats to get max level cause I loved blowing people up with backstab. I don't think I actually beat the game without cheats until I was like 13 lol. Also I was obsessed with the shadow thieves and thieves guild. I would always change my character to the shadow thief model

ThacoBell

Baldur's Gate 1, I don't recall the year, but it was before Tales of the Sword Coast came out. That was my first computer game. I still remember my 10 DEX paladin.

CrevsDaak

I think I was 7 or 8, I had found the BG CDs in my house (though nobody plays it other than me ???), the game looked cool, the intro was suuuuper cool and I got to choose how my character looked like. The only (non-educational and worth mentioning) computer games I had played were Majesty (people might say it's a hard game, but if 8-years old me beat it almost entirely it makes me doubt it) and Diablo II (only got past the first Dungeon once, dunno why because the game is super simple). I think I only created Bards, Paladins and Druids, because I didn't know what the rest of the classes were. I thought Bards were Barbarian-like (I didn't know english back then) almighty warrior, no idea why. I thought Druids were like Wizards that brewed potions and summoned Demons, and I knew Paladins were holy warriors. I didn't even know how to save the game, so after I died I always started anew.

lunar

IWD2, had zero knowledge about d&d, made a party of me and my friends, played on very easy, and made it to the end abeit barely. I remember I learned how to write spells from scrolls at like chapter 2 or 3, accidentally. :P Up to that point my mages did not have new spells, and I had one necromancer and one drow illusionist. I thought I was smart so they could have all the spells together. My cleric which was a Silverstar of Selune, modelled after me, was the star of the show as he had new spells automaticaly...aah, good times.

Later, my friend recommended bg2 to me and lended his cds, since I had such a blast with iwd2, saying bg2 was even better.
He was right.
I became a fan for life.

Kurona

BG1+ToSC, in 2000 (I think). First playthrough was hard, full of fights with my sister to determine who would be playing at a given time. Eventually I bought BG2 at the neighboring game store (they still existed!) and played it while she was still on BG1 and we switched afterwards.

We were respectively 12 and 11 at the time, and our grandmother would impose a strict gaming limit, hence the fights.

WarChiefZeke

I played PS:T when I was 12 or so. Loved it. Found BG to be horrendous at the time. Now it's my favorite RPG bar none

DJKajuru

It was Planescape Torment, which got my interest because I had read a really nice review which stated how rich the game was. After that I bought BG2 and IWD s2

Stormvessel

Never could get into Torment. What can change the nature of a man? Too much reading, that's what.

namarie

Icewind Dale 1 when I was... I think 15? I was interested in D&D but couldn't find anyone to play it with so IWD1 was the closest thing I had to a table-top D&D game. Say what you will about IWD1, I actually liked the plot.

In a recent Pathfinder game that I joined I actually made a character named Elisia... And yes she was a Nymph, at some point, at least.

wubble

I started with BG1, I think I was around 3/4 in either 1999 or 2000. It's hard to remember from that age.

BelgarathMTH

I played BG1 when it first came out in 1998. I was 33. I was playing Might and Magic 6 at the same time. I had restartitis really, really, bad even then, and these were my first two crpg's. When I finally got to Sarevok later that year (or maybe I was into 1999 by then), I couldn't beat him, no matter what I tried. This was the first version of Sarevok, before Tales of the Sword Coast was a thing. (ToSC nerfed the Sarevok encounter somewhat.)

O_Bruce

Well, Baldur's Gate 1. Unfortunately, back then it was pirated verion of the game. But good that later I fixed that shameful mistake and bought myself an original.

Raduziel

Fallout 2. I was like 12, didn't get much of the jokes.

It's the best game ever until today.

redline

Credit where it's due: Bioware made Baldur's Gate, and Black Isle only published it, so I would not consider BG to be a "Black Isle game".

That being the case, IWD was my first, after loving BG and wanting to play everything that was even remotely related to it. Never really got into Fallout, unfortunately.

Raduziel

redline said:

Never really got into Fallout, unfortunately.

Unless you're performing some critical surgery, stop whatever you are doing and get into Fallout.

You can thank me later.

former_customer

First one was Baldur's Gate on 98. I think I got a Starcraft collection at the same time, and I never even opened the box. Went on to play BG2 and SoA and went back for IWD. A friend of mine who actually paid attention to gaming turned me on to Fallout a couple years later, and I played those as well. He then ordered me to play PST, which I did. And then I had to play IWD2 to check the adaptation of the 3rd Edition rules.

I'm not really big gamer, so Black Isle represents a pretty heavy percentage of my PC gaming.

Mathsorcerer

I bought both Fallout 2 and Baldur's Gate in February 2000. That was actually a good time--had a decent job which paid me significantly more than my monthly expenses, I had only recently gotten away from the ex, and the house got sold, putting thousands of dollars in my pocket.

semiticgoddess

I played Baldur's Gate 2 around the time I moved to Texas in 2000. I had no idea BG1 even existed until long after, and it was even longer after that when I actually tried BG1.

I was underwhelmed, even when using the superior BGTutu engine. Things are better now, though, thanks to EE. The game is much more convenient and much prettier now.

DJKajuru

Raduziel said:

redline said:

Never really got into Fallout, unfortunately.

Unless you're performing some critical surgery, stop whatever you are doing and get into Fallout.

You can thank me later.

My second and third rpg pc games ever played were fallout and torment - it got me thinking that all computer rpg's were that good!

Gallowglass

semiticgod said:

I played Baldur's Gate 2 ... I had no idea BG1 even existed ...

Duh .. the clue was in the name ...

TheArtisan

I'm pretty sure quite a few people didn't know Street Fighter I existed either... not that it's a bad thing...

Gallowglass

I now realise that I've joined the thread without actually answering the question!

I played IWD first. I can't remember precisely when, but it was still fairly recent at that time, although the HoW expansion was already out ... so it must have been around 15 years ago. I loved it, and that soon got me into BG, which I loved even more.

Ratatoskr

Definitely BG 1, back when it was 5 separate discs and there was no TotSC. My earliest game memories go something like this:

-Hero's Quest & QFG 2 (which my brother and I never beat because it would always crash in the final cutscene. But I have fond memories of using floppy discs to import my character)
-Might and Magic 6 (followed by 7 some years later)
-Baldur's Gate 1 (then TotSC, BG2 and TOB)
-The Secret of Monkey Island (only played at my cousins house and so never finished)
-Diablo 1 (which I would always restart as soon as I reached Hell and also never finished)

And that was it for years. I think I beat PST towards the end of high school, I've never played IWD and I still haven't gotten through the original Fallouts. I kind of suck at actually finishing PC games.

Arctodus

Early 2000's (can't remember the exact year, to be honest), I got BG1 during my college years. Least to say that my grades weren't so fantastic during that time ! Then got BG2 after, even though both games were already out. I'm happy I went BG1-->BG2 because it made me appreciate BG1 a lot better.

IWD2 followed after. I was so confused at first, because my only D&D experience was from the BG games. I remember being frustrated that my characters couldn't have 18's stats all over the board. I then created fighters with 18 dex while wearing plate mail. I only slowly realized that I was playing the game wrong...

Weirdly, I only got IWD1 something like last year, through the EE. Better late than never I guess...

darkmoon500

O_Bruce said:

Well, Baldur's Gate 1. Unfortunately, back then it was pirated verion of the game. But good that later I fixed that shameful mistake and bought myself an original.

Same here back in 99 or 2000 I believe when I started

Shikao

Baldur's Gate 1 borrowed from friend, 99 or 00
I wonder what kind of gamer I would be if he didn't recommend it...

karl_maulder

Fallout or BG (can't remember which game was release first), after i read about them in a PC Gamer review. I remember talking with the guy at the store selling it (BG), who was a Warhammer/D&D PnP veteran, who insisted that i should make a dual Fighter/Cleric 7/X, which was supposedly the best classcombo. Little did he or i know for that matter, that BG had a XP cap of 89000... or maybe he did know.