Baldur's Gate Art Day

[The Wooster]

Baldur's Gate Art Day

It's a grand old game.

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[Eric the Orange]

What exactly do you mean by depth in RPGs. Like complexity of gameplay?

 

[ThunderCavalier]

But I like Fallout despite its subpar action and sometimes cosmetic and forced depth...

 

[RJ 17]

Lol, Sharon got her arm lopped off. That'll teach the ***** to go messing with a Death Knight.

 

[Bostur]

Maybe BG is lousy to make fun of because it doesn't pretend to be anything else than what it is. It lacks hype, pretentiousness, 4th wall-breaking jokes and irony. It simply is. Just like a chair, not much joke material in a chair.

I think Torment or Fallout would make for better jokes. There's plenty to make fun of there.

On a positive note, the rise of kickstarter and the long-overdue acceptance of non-photo realistic 3D graphics means we might just see a resurgence in RPGs that sacrifice impressive presentation for actual depth. I'm not talking about Bethesda's efforts, which are more or less sub-par action games which try to compensate for their lack of substance with sheer size; A pool that's 8 miles wide and 3 inches deep is a shitty pool. Instead, I'm hoping to see games which take which take the spirit and mechanics of games like Baldur's Gate and its ilk and run with them

Hear, hear!

 

[Thaluikhain]

Aw, no Scary Penny? Would have thought she'd work well there.

 

[WanderingFool]

Lol, Sharon got her arm lopped off.

I think that may be saying something[footnote]If the characters are not complete satirical representations of their RL counterparts...[/footnote].

 

[Fappy]

Wall o' text puts down TES!


Cool picture.

 

[Ryan Hughes]

Planescape told a better story (one that still stands as the best narrative in gaming)

Still obvious that Grey has never played Suikoden II or III.

 

[Krantos]

Wall o' text puts down TES!


Cool picture.

^^This

I still think the biggest problem TES faces is that it's kind of in a genre of it's own. It's less concerned with telling you a story and more intended to let you tell your own story. It wants you to be less concerned about stats and leveling and more with just doing what feels natural. It want's you to use Swords because you want to, not because you want to level your One Handed. It wants you complete that quest because your character would, not because you want the loot/xp.

It wants the experience to be important. Not the XP.

Is the Combat "meh"? Yeah.

Are the animations wooden? Of course.

Is the story sloppily told and disjointed? Yes.

Are the characters flat and generally unsympathetic? Definitely.

The thing is though, there are plenty of other games that do those things better. TES is not trying to be those things.

What it does well, though (provide a wide open world to do whatever you want in), it does better than anyone else out there.

 

[mrhateful]

Yeah the more i think about it the harder it is to find something to poke fun at Baldurs Gate, however I do think there are somethings that could be made fun of.

Personally the Baldurs gate 2 is my favorite game of all time so I sometimes hold Baldurs Gate 1 on too high a pedestal. But reading that text reminded me the game actually wasn't as great.

 

[Renegade-pizza]

What exactly do you mean by depth in RPGs. Like complexity of gameplay?

Complexity != Depth. Sorry, computer science student.

I'd watch Extra Credit's episode on it, but simply, it means that a game has more 'meat'. Complex characters and story. Interesting mechanics. Minecraft is engaging and deep as a black-hole, but is (relatively) simple.

 

[shrekfan246]

What exactly do you mean by depth in RPGs. Like complexity of gameplay?

Complexity != Depth. Sorry, computer science student.

I'd watch Extra Credit's episode on it, but simply, it means that a game has more 'meat'. Complex characters and story. Interesting mechanics. Minecraft is engaging and deep as a black-hole, but is (relatively) simple.

Unfortunately, a lot of people seem to believe that which you stated as untrue.

Hell, if that were the case then Deadpool would be one of the deepest games I've ever played, because it was practically tripping over different controls and keybindings for everything. There were two different keys for two different types of teleport.

Anyway, I guess I don't hold such a sterling impression of Baldur's Gate because I didn't grow up with it (or at least play it a decade ago), and by the time I finally tried getting into it it seemed so dated, slow, convoluted, and horrible to control that I couldn't even get out of the first room without being pissed off at the UI and the randomness of the AD&D combat rules. Same goes for Baldur's Gate 2. Spoiled or not by more modern games, they just haven't aged well at all.

 

[Something Amyss]

On a positive note, the rise of kickstarter and the long-overdue acceptance of non-photo realistic 3D graphics means we might just see a resurgence in RPGs that sacrifice impressive presentation for actual depth.

When even a lot of retro titles required me to upgrade my graphics card, I wouldn't count on it.

 

[PunkRex]

What exactly do you mean by depth in RPGs. Like complexity of gameplay?

Dude/Dudette, you're about to be bombarded with Extra Credits 'Depth vs Complexity' vid, BRACE, BRACE, BRACE!

 

[The Lugz]

Hey, it's charles.. i remember him.

whatever happened to that lovable fluff ball of fun?

 

[Jumwa]

The thing is though, there are plenty of other games that do those things better. TES is not trying to be those things.

What it does well, though (provide a wide open world to do whatever you want in), it does better than anyone else out there.

Well said.

Bethesda's one of "gamers" favourite punching bags though, and acknowledging such a position -- that a game can appeal to certain people/tastes but not all -- seems beyond understanding.

 

[Double A]

I actually never played any Bioware games until Mass Effect, which I'm rather fond of. I got all the classic D&D PC games (and The Temple of Elemental Evil for some reason) on Gamersgate, and I couldn't really get into BG. I got the mod that ports BG's story int BG2's engie and that's much more fun, but I didn't get much further than I had with my first character. I also started an Icewind Dale 2 MP game with a couple friends but they sort of lost interest (but more likely just motivation to play games that weren't made by Paradox). I think I actually had more fun with IWD2, though that could just be due to better early game balance and my familiarity with 3e - I have no fucking idea what is up with 2e.

Anyway, Eryn Do'Urden made me laugh as much as the other comics, so congratulations, you actually did your job!