Definitely the PoE games for me because I only have an interest in RPGs in fantasy settings with sword and board. I don't care for the game mechanics of ranged projectile or energy weapons, especially in first-person or non-isometric view, so post-apocalyptic and sci-fi settings typically just don't appeal to me.
Chalk one more down for Fallout. For me Fallout was ranked 1, over BG series even. It was the games that hooked me into RPGs and kept me hooked to this day. I always come back to FO2 every couple of years, though I play much, much more BG since the EEs came out. I'm a pretty casual player, very average in most ways, but I like to mess around in games like trying stupid things and see what happens. FO allows that, as said above, and sometimes even rewards it (like playing a stupid char, or just skip the normal route and find another one). FO has everything a good RPG should have, everything except one; good NPC handling. The NPCs are all interesting, with great backstories and all that, but the handling of them is kinda sucky. Especially FO1 where you sometimes have to spend more time trying to keep them alive, then having them aiding you in battle, heh.. but that's part of the charm, in a way. (the charm can be quickly lost when Sully burst spray and kills you and two more of your NPCs in one turn for the umpfteenth time though, hehe)
Some ppl hated on the tilesets, and though FO 1 and 2 are far from as beautiful as the BG games, they do the job well. The world they paint for us players is amazing, rich in context and full of just those things you expect. Except the aliens though, that was kinda a surprise hehe.. but moving into a lost cave and running through the nuclear waste to find a hidden vault with pre-war weapons is just awesome. Speaking of weapons, FO has it all. Everything from slug-throwers, to lasers and plasma guns, pistols, rifles, machine guns, exotic weaponry and let's not forget the vast array of melee and "unarmed" weaponry! My personal favorite is going unarmed and using the powerfist and smashing my way through the wasteland, but choosing a pistol cowboy shooting from the hip without aiming and pumping our 6 shots per turn is equally rewarding! ALL choices are viable, and the only real miss they did was the messed up ammonition that could, in theory, have added even more layers to the arsenal. Maybe that it is fixed in some unofficial patch though, I dunno.
Looking at the rulesets, I love the SPECIAL stat range. I also LOVE the idea of traits that give one boon and one malus. I think perhaps that INT and AGI are somewhat OP, almost making them essential for all characters, but it's ok. I know you can play using lower scores there, but I wouldn't want to. You can't just equip an item to buff you up, like in BG games for CHA, STR, DEX, but as long as you know some of these things and plan for it, it's all good. I also like the skillset, though some things can be meta'd a little bit too much using ie difficulty slider and skill-items (reading magazines for skill points). A couple of skills could have used more usage in-game, but for the most part all skills bring something valuable to the table. Hells, you can even talk your way through most of the game! Now THAT's a great way of using dialogue based options based on character skill!
FO missed the mark somewhat when it comes to economy. Once you start to find random bandits using CAVS and combat shotguns, you get filthy rich very quickly. The balance is a bit off, to the players favor, but it's ok.
FO have great dark humour mixed with some really stupid humour. It's the perfect blend. The world is at its core very "grimdark" but the humour added spice it up and gives me as a player some good laughs. Everything from the cows with two heads to climbing into a shtihole and blowing it up so it all spreads all over to meeting the bridge guard with the Monthy Python dialogue etc etc.
FO1 and FO2 is the series. FO NV was really good, for a FPS kind of experience, but FO3 and 4 was not up to par. I would go so far and say that FO4 killed the series for me, it was just plain bad. I've played Tactics and there's some nice things there, but I consider it the "IWD" of FO, the cousin that 's interesting to meet every now and then but not really a close member in the family.
I think I'm gonna stop writing here, 'cause this is kinda long now. But you asked for details, so here you have them. I could on equally long on why I love the ME series or the DA:O, but I chose to pick my top choice and focus on that.
If you read all the way down here you deserve a cookie!
I would have picked Gold Box games if they were on the list. I played a whole bunch of those. I missed the Buck Rogers one. And, and the first two Dragonlance games. I did play "Dark Queen of Krynn".
Witcher is probably the game series I've been the most caught up in in recent years. Especially Witcher 3, since it made away with so many negatives of the previous games and made it more freeform/open.
I have been playing Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen lately and while the game itself is so-and-so it really, really touched on something I didn't know I had been missing in other games - beasts that are actually bestial, and that it feels like an actual deed to slay. Climbing up on them to get within reach and such. I've always wanted to play Shadow of the Colossus for this kind of gameplay but since I'm not a console owner I've never gotten around to it, but it really makes you feel how shitty the "run up and stab the dragon/giant/whatever repeatedly in the ankles" is. So that's a part of a game that I would really want yo experience more of.
I also echo the parts about Fallout 1 and 2, and similarly New Vegas, above. But I can't vote it my favourite because of the other two games. To me, NV proved that the switch to third/first person action focused rpg did not have to be that bad, however. Bethesda is just not good at what they do.
Similarly, I really like DA:O, but really dislike DA2. I didn't even bother buying the third game because of how much DA2 let my expectations down. Had it been DA:O only; though, I think that is the one I would have chosen, above both Witcher and the original Fallout games. I could start counting the many things I think was badly done about it but in the end, that game really gripped me.
I’m gonna be that guy and go with Final Fantasy, even though that might be unpopular around these parts. The console that had the biggest impact on me as a youth was the SNES and that was a golden age of the jrpg genre. So this explain that.
It’s also because I’ve never even played most of these games on the list. I’ve never played any Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Witcher or Dragon Age games. I played a bunch of Diablo 2 back in the days, however, and still do once in a while. Haven’t played the first or the third though, so that’s why I went with the FF serie.
That’s because between 2003 and 2014 (my college years), I pretty much stopped playing games for some reason. I stopped playing after Neverwinter Nights, which I never really got hooked on. I’ve only got back into gaming with some SNES jrpgs when I was about to finish college which led me to the EEs Beamdog cooked for us. Since I loved playing BG back in the days, I gave it a go, and here I am. One could say that I’m pretty old school gaming wise. Even for Final Fantasy, I only played FF 1 through FF 9; never touched any one after that and never will. I have no interest in more modern FF games. I actually dislike their aesthetics for some reason.
And it’s not because I think ‘’games were better back in the days’’ because I don’t, it’s just that I don’t have a lot of time to give to gaming in my life (work, kids, wife, you know the drill), so I go with what I like.
Some people like spanish 17th century litterature; some other like middle ages philosophy; some love european 19th century music, and so on. When it comes to gaming, I like early the 1990 to early 2000s era. When I’m not playing Mario Kart and Donkey Kong on the SNES with my wife, I try to no-reload the BG saga. When I’m in the mood, I play a modded SNES jrpgs. And that’s good enough for me.
As for Bethesda they are good at what they do. That isn't RPGs it's sandboxes.
I disagree. I feel they are very bad at open world and nonlinear gameplay. Even more so given that it has been their main venue of games for like 30 years.
As for Bethesda they are good at what they do. That isn't RPGs it's sandboxes.
I disagree. I feel they are very bad at open world and nonlinear gameplay. Even more so given that it has been their main venue of games for like 30 years.
What do you mean by that? Also I didn't make a statement about gameplay, only about the sandboxes.
Well, to begin with, the reason I say open world gameplay is because as far as I define things, TES and Fallout has no sandbox gameplay. Sandboxes are stuff like Minecraft, Terraria, and the like, or even things like this new trend of survival games like Conan: The Newish Game and others that are probably more famous but I'm unaware of.
Beth games, to me, are open world games. But there's so sandbox part (as opposed to say Minecraft, which seems to be both open world and sandbox). You can't actually do anything sandboxy in them.
As to what I think they are bad at regarding this: Bethesda do not even attempt to provide non-linear writing and content. This is crucial when making a good open world game, especially an open world rpg. Bethesda still writes as if their game was a linear, on-rails sidescroller from the 90's. They don't actually integrate or make use of the openness of their world.
For a standard example I usually bring up: See the whodunit serial killer questions in Wimdhelm. When I played this as a sneakyguy character I, by just exploring the city, happened to break into the murderer's house, found a locked chest I wanted to investigate, pickpocketed the key of the owner, and opened the chest. Lo and behold, within it was the very-particular-murder-weapons I had been told people were getting killed with, as well as the second part of a diary containing the confession of the murderer.
Had it been a decent open-world game they would have accounted for the possibility of this happening, and made it possible for me to at this point go to the detective in charge of the case and say "Hey I found who the real murderer is, the other guy was set up, here is the evidence". But you can't do that. Because the linear writing has not reached the point where you are allowed to find out who the real murderer is yet. You have to wait until the second part of this quest is triggered until they let you do that, because that is the linear way they planned it.
And things like that is why they still suck at open world and nonlinear gameplay. They don't account for it. They don't acknowledge it. They lack the ability to handle it.
Final Fantasy for me just for the consistency in quality. I adore I through X and multiple entries are some of my favourite games of all time. X-2 was a bit of a let down and XII still has a lot going for it even though I take issue with some choices. Couldn’t complete it until the International version allowed you to speed up the grind. XIII and XV are mediocre alongside XI and XIV which I don’t really rate as highly because I’m not a big social gamer and playing them alone is sorta lame and boring grind although I did enjoy XIV quite a bit.
For the other series it would be a toss up between The Witcher and Fallout. The Witcher definetly close second I loved all 3 games and would love to see the first one revisited with the engine of The Wild Hunt, the story and personalities in 2 had me hooked and the sheer scope and freedom with locations drenched in atmosphere and above par writing is an obvious standout in the genre. My opinion of Fallout would probably change if I had played 2, I love the first one and New Vegas to death. Fallout 3 was a gem in its time but going back to it is very rough. I’m currently 30 hours in Fallout 4 and I’m not sure if I’m enjoying it or not. Very much gunplay/combat inspired and the shoddy character personalisation is putting a damper on my fun.
As for the other series too many misses with a few stand out titles. Mass Effect 1 was fantastic, 2 was cinematic/epic but kinda started streamlining things which made it feel more like Gears of War in space and 3 was mostly forgettable for me.
Dragon Age Origins was brilliant but 2 was just lackluster and I still have an 80 hour game incomplete of inquisition where I got sick of the lack of direction, boring side quests and combat lacking a lot of strategy.
Divinty never played and want to correct that.
Pillars of Eternity currently playing the first game so hard to rate completely but its a great damn game. Think I’m quite far I’m heading to Twin Elms and have really enjoyed it all. Well I kinda get annoyed with the backer characters. Feel like it would be nice if the towns were populated with interesting non important NPC’s to fill the lore and atmosphere rather than paragraphs of boring and unrelated short stories.
Morrowind only played Oblivion and Skyrim and well they are fun they’re a bit lackluster in story, combat and writing. Kinda like Fallout 3 the exploration is the only thing it’s got that I like.
Diablo played 2 and 3. Not bad games but Indon’t rate them as highly as critics do. Only played them solo so not sure if that usually changes peoples judgement (personally I feel even a bad game is great fun in coop)
I would have picked Gold Box games if they were on the list. I played a whole bunch of those. I missed the Buck Rogers one. And, and the first two Dragonlance games. I did play "Dark Queen of Krynn".
The dark queen was awesome! It was one of the first compete rpgs that I played (I think might and magic III was the first).
I would totally go for a Krynn series in the infinity engine.
The original KotOR, hands down. I've been a die hard star wars fan my whole life, and it captured the spirit of the original trilogy perfectly. The combat remains fun the characters lovable, and yeah, just everying is about perfect. And the plot twist, man just perfect.
Comments
Some ppl hated on the tilesets, and though FO 1 and 2 are far from as beautiful as the BG games, they do the job well. The world they paint for us players is amazing, rich in context and full of just those things you expect. Except the aliens though, that was kinda a surprise hehe.. but moving into a lost cave and running through the nuclear waste to find a hidden vault with pre-war weapons is just awesome. Speaking of weapons, FO has it all. Everything from slug-throwers, to lasers and plasma guns, pistols, rifles, machine guns, exotic weaponry and let's not forget the vast array of melee and "unarmed" weaponry! My personal favorite is going unarmed and using the powerfist and smashing my way through the wasteland, but choosing a pistol cowboy shooting from the hip without aiming and pumping our 6 shots per turn is equally rewarding! ALL choices are viable, and the only real miss they did was the messed up ammonition that could, in theory, have added even more layers to the arsenal. Maybe that it is fixed in some unofficial patch though, I dunno.
Looking at the rulesets, I love the SPECIAL stat range. I also LOVE the idea of traits that give one boon and one malus. I think perhaps that INT and AGI are somewhat OP, almost making them essential for all characters, but it's ok. I know you can play using lower scores there, but I wouldn't want to. You can't just equip an item to buff you up, like in BG games for CHA, STR, DEX, but as long as you know some of these things and plan for it, it's all good. I also like the skillset, though some things can be meta'd a little bit too much using ie difficulty slider and skill-items (reading magazines for skill points). A couple of skills could have used more usage in-game, but for the most part all skills bring something valuable to the table. Hells, you can even talk your way through most of the game! Now THAT's a great way of using dialogue based options based on character skill!
FO missed the mark somewhat when it comes to economy. Once you start to find random bandits using CAVS and combat shotguns, you get filthy rich very quickly. The balance is a bit off, to the players favor, but it's ok.
FO have great dark humour mixed with some really stupid humour. It's the perfect blend. The world is at its core very "grimdark" but the humour added spice it up and gives me as a player some good laughs. Everything from the cows with two heads to climbing into a shtihole and blowing it up so it all spreads all over to meeting the bridge guard with the Monthy Python dialogue etc etc.
FO1 and FO2 is the series. FO NV was really good, for a FPS kind of experience, but FO3 and 4 was not up to par. I would go so far and say that FO4 killed the series for me, it was just plain bad. I've played Tactics and there's some nice things there, but I consider it the "IWD" of FO, the cousin that 's interesting to meet every now and then but not really a close member in the family.
I think I'm gonna stop writing here, 'cause this is kinda long now. But you asked for details, so here you have them. I could on equally long on why I love the ME series or the DA:O, but I chose to pick my top choice and focus on that.
If you read all the way down here you deserve a cookie!
I have been playing Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen lately and while the game itself is so-and-so it really, really touched on something I didn't know I had been missing in other games - beasts that are actually bestial, and that it feels like an actual deed to slay. Climbing up on them to get within reach and such. I've always wanted to play Shadow of the Colossus for this kind of gameplay but since I'm not a console owner I've never gotten around to it, but it really makes you feel how shitty the "run up and stab the dragon/giant/whatever repeatedly in the ankles" is. So that's a part of a game that I would really want yo experience more of.
I also echo the parts about Fallout 1 and 2, and similarly New Vegas, above. But I can't vote it my favourite because of the other two games. To me, NV proved that the switch to third/first person action focused rpg did not have to be that bad, however. Bethesda is just not good at what they do.
Similarly, I really like DA:O, but really dislike DA2. I didn't even bother buying the third game because of how much DA2 let my expectations down. Had it been DA:O only; though, I think that is the one I would have chosen, above both Witcher and the original Fallout games. I could start counting the many things I think was badly done about it but in the end, that game really gripped me.
As for Bethesda they are good at what they do. That isn't RPGs it's sandboxes.
It’s also because I’ve never even played most of these games on the list. I’ve never played any Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Witcher or Dragon Age games. I played a bunch of Diablo 2 back in the days, however, and still do once in a while. Haven’t played the first or the third though, so that’s why I went with the FF serie.
That’s because between 2003 and 2014 (my college years), I pretty much stopped playing games for some reason. I stopped playing after Neverwinter Nights, which I never really got hooked on. I’ve only got back into gaming with some SNES jrpgs when I was about to finish college which led me to the EEs Beamdog cooked for us. Since I loved playing BG back in the days, I gave it a go, and here I am. One could say that I’m pretty old school gaming wise. Even for Final Fantasy, I only played FF 1 through FF 9; never touched any one after that and never will. I have no interest in more modern FF games. I actually dislike their aesthetics for some reason.
And it’s not because I think ‘’games were better back in the days’’ because I don’t, it’s just that I don’t have a lot of time to give to gaming in my life (work, kids, wife, you know the drill), so I go with what I like.
Some people like spanish 17th century litterature; some other like middle ages philosophy; some love european 19th century music, and so on. When it comes to gaming, I like early the 1990 to early 2000s era. When I’m not playing Mario Kart and Donkey Kong on the SNES with my wife, I try to no-reload the BG saga. When I’m in the mood, I play a modded SNES jrpgs. And that’s good enough for me.
Beth games, to me, are open world games. But there's so sandbox part (as opposed to say Minecraft, which seems to be both open world and sandbox). You can't actually do anything sandboxy in them.
As to what I think they are bad at regarding this: Bethesda do not even attempt to provide non-linear writing and content. This is crucial when making a good open world game, especially an open world rpg. Bethesda still writes as if their game was a linear, on-rails sidescroller from the 90's. They don't actually integrate or make use of the openness of their world.
For a standard example I usually bring up: See the whodunit serial killer questions in Wimdhelm. When I played this as a sneakyguy character I, by just exploring the city, happened to break into the murderer's house, found a locked chest I wanted to investigate, pickpocketed the key of the owner, and opened the chest. Lo and behold, within it was the very-particular-murder-weapons I had been told people were getting killed with, as well as the second part of a diary containing the confession of the murderer.
Had it been a decent open-world game they would have accounted for the possibility of this happening, and made it possible for me to at this point go to the detective in charge of the case and say "Hey I found who the real murderer is, the other guy was set up, here is the evidence". But you can't do that. Because the linear writing has not reached the point where you are allowed to find out who the real murderer is yet. You have to wait until the second part of this quest is triggered until they let you do that, because that is the linear way they planned it.
And things like that is why they still suck at open world and nonlinear gameplay. They don't account for it. They don't acknowledge it. They lack the ability to handle it.
For the other series it would be a toss up between The Witcher and Fallout. The Witcher definetly close second I loved all 3 games and would love to see the first one revisited with the engine of The Wild Hunt, the story and personalities in 2 had me hooked and the sheer scope and freedom with locations drenched in atmosphere and above par writing is an obvious standout in the genre.
My opinion of Fallout would probably change if I had played 2, I love the first one and New Vegas to death. Fallout 3 was a gem in its time but going back to it is very rough. I’m currently 30 hours in Fallout 4 and I’m not sure if I’m enjoying it or not. Very much gunplay/combat inspired and the shoddy character personalisation is putting a damper on my fun.
As for the other series too many misses with a few stand out titles. Mass Effect 1 was fantastic, 2 was cinematic/epic but kinda started streamlining things which made it feel more like Gears of War in space and 3 was mostly forgettable for me.
Dragon Age Origins was brilliant but 2 was just lackluster and I still have an 80 hour game incomplete of inquisition where I got sick of the lack of direction, boring side quests and combat lacking a lot of strategy.
Divinty never played and want to correct that.
Pillars of Eternity currently playing the first game so hard to rate completely but its a great damn game. Think I’m quite far I’m heading to Twin Elms and have really enjoyed it all. Well I kinda get annoyed with the backer characters. Feel like it would be nice if the towns were populated with interesting non important NPC’s to fill the lore and atmosphere rather than paragraphs of boring and unrelated short stories.
Morrowind only played Oblivion and Skyrim and well they are fun they’re a bit lackluster in story, combat and writing. Kinda like Fallout 3 the exploration is the only thing it’s got that I like.
Diablo played 2 and 3. Not bad games but Indon’t rate them as highly as critics do. Only played them solo so not sure if that usually changes peoples judgement (personally I feel even a bad game is great fun in coop)
I would totally go for a Krynn series in the infinity engine.