Help me decide what to play next

[Mazuuurk]

So; I've just finished Divinity: Original Sin now, and thoroughly enjoyed that. Got me in the mood for some more fairly classic RPGs, but I'm not sure what to play so need some advice.

On top of my wishlist are Witcher 3 and Dragon Age: Inquisition, but I'm holding off on those two until I get a better PC. The one I have now is like 6 or 7 years old and holds up well for playing stuff like Divinity and Starcraft, but nothing super fancy. The flashiest game I've played on it was probably Skyrim just when that came out (which I suppose is years ago now).


So right now I'm torn between doing:

1. Mass Effect 1
(havent played any of those, always thought they seemed a little too FPS-y, and also and I like Swords & Magic and that stuff)

Pro:
Supposedly epic
Has 2 sequels I think my PC can handle
Cheap on Steam

Cons (?):
The setting doesnt appeal to me
Seems a little monotonous (?)
Seems a little dull in its environment designs

or

2. Pillars of Eternity
At some point I do want to play this. But I'm a little scared it'll be disappointing now that I just played Divinity which I reckon is a little prettier and (I think) has more clever battles.

Pro:
Cant go wrong with Classic RPG
The Settings appeals to me a lot

Cons (?):
Kinda pricey for a Kickstarter oldschool game (like 40 euro)
Not sure if it has voice acting, and largely conversational games like that can get a bit dull if you have to just read every single thing


SO: anyone who's played either of these games (or both!) and can share their experiences?

If someone has another suggestion of a cool RPG that isn't too flashy and has a compelling enough story then please hit me.

[Yevrah]

I've tried two or three times to get into Mass Effect and never really managed it. Tis a shame.

[Shindig]

I still have Mass Effect as my favourite of the series. I don't even think it's that long, although I did all the side stuff.

[Dark Soldier]

Sack Mass Effect off and get the incredible ME2 lad. Do it for your own sanity.

[Gray Fox]

Mass Effect 2 was very good. 3 is good too but that'll depend on how you find the ending. The first can get a little tedious but you could do with reading up on the story and stuff if you'd prefer to save that time.

[Mike]

Play Mass Effect. The first is good, bits aren't brill, the second is outstanding, like genuinely brilliant, the third is good too,

[Pleb]

Get the new Deus Ex game.

[Mazuuurk]

Sack Mass Effect off and get the incredible ME2 lad. Do it for your own sanity.

Mass Effect 2 was very good. 3 is good too but that'll depend on how you find the ending. The first can get a little tedious but you could do with reading up on the story and stuff if you'd prefer to save that time.

Hmm ok. It just seems to me like I should play the first game before the second, you know? Is the story not important enough in the First one that the second one could just be started from scratch?

And can you fairly easily just blast through the main story and not fuss too much about side-quests and stuff, for instance?

Get the new Deus Ex game.

That's a shooter though isn't it? I'm not too keen on those generally.

[Ian]

Took me three attempts to get into Mass Effect but once it gets going I was hooked. Also, fuck the Mako.

And don't think of PoE as just a Kickstarter game, Maz. It's still Obsidian behind it and it's ace. I really need to get back to it.

[Mazuuurk]

Well PoE seems like it's so far up my alley it might just tickle my arsehole in all the right ways.

The only thing is I read a review saying it's a little too dated in it's design, which - looking at videos - I can kind of agree with. And having just come from the - in my opinion - very pretty Divinity: OS, I kind of don't want to be disappointed.

But then again, same kind of seems to be the case with ME1, it seems extremely monotone in it's environment design and that usually bores me a lot - perhaps more than it even should. I want to alternate between your typical lava caves, undead dungeons, icy landscapes with ice monsters, thick forests with nasty spiders, etc etc.

[Disco]

If you liked Divinity then you'll like Pillars.

[Mazuuurk]

I'm leaning more towards Pillars of Eternity here now. At some point I feel like I have to play through ME 1,2 & 3 as well though.


Is Pillars riddled with a lot of (read: too much) dialogue reading?
Do they have Voice acting?

[Ian]

There is voice acting (not for every single character but I think all the main ones get it) but not for all dialogue. And there is a LOT of dialogue if you choose to go through it all as I do so you may want to read-and-skip some anyway.

Whether it's too much I don't know, I'm a sucker for those big sprawling conversations explaining all the lore and such.

[Mazuuurk]

I used to be a lot as well. I mean Planescape: Torment is one of my favourite games of all time.

But recently when I tried replaying that I did find myself slightly missing doing battles, it seemed it was a little too much reading and a little too little battling, so to speak. Although I still probably would take that over Diablo, for instance.

[Mazuuurk]

Read a bit about the levelling and XP in PoE and that was disappointing. Why are Game Devs so hell bent on things being "challenging" and to "prevent grinding"?

I just like walking around killing shit for a few hours so that I can breeze through the rest of the game at a slightly-higher-than-intended level and feel real powerful when threatening (and finishing off) cocky NPC's in conversations. Is that too much to ask?

A level cap of 12 suggests that the Character Ability development isn't that interesting, since there won't be so many character points to allocate, etc.

[P_3]

If you fancy something a bit different to Divinity, I'd recommend something like Kingdoms of Amalur. It has good combat, lush visuals and quite a lot of variety in character building. Another decent RPG I've played is Dragon's Dogma.

[Mazuuurk]

Ah, good shout. Kingdom of Amalur Reckoning was one I thought of playing ages ago but never got around to - 'cause I read somewhere that the story was kind of shit - is that true?

[Shindig]

Tempted to buy the Megaman collection for £6.50 or whatever it is on PSN.

[Mazuuurk]

Actually after reading up on Amalur it does seem like a great fun game, but also I read that it's full of bugs that can make the game like unplayable after 40-50 hours if you're unlucky, and that there's no fixing them anymore. Might stay clear after all.

It shouldn't be this hard to choose a fucking game to play.

[Disco]

On the subject of rpg's I really feel like I should get around to playing both Bsldurs Gate games. How easy is the first one to pick up for someone with no D&D experience?

[Mazuuurk]

I actually never played the first one, but the second one is very easy - just read a short guide on character creation before you start so you have an idea what you want to play as, and maybe get an idea of the companions you will want to have, which will be dependent on what alignment you wish to do (good / evil).

[Disco]

I was under the impression you could play through both with the same character/save which sounds quite good.

[Mazuuurk]

Yeah you can.

[Mazuuurk]

Found that there is a Level Cap increase mod for Pillars of Eternity, so probably gonna go with that now.

[Mazuuurk]

Hey, anyone played Neverwinter Nights 2 fairly recently? Know if it'll hold up today? After all it's 8 years old now.

[Disco]

Messed about with the character creator last night and Shaman looks like a laugh, does whatever alignment you choose block you off from hiring people or doing quests or anything?

[Mazuuurk]

To some extent it could, yeah. That'll usually go either way, though.
Not sure, can't remember but some Companions might not join you or stuff like that.

[phonics]

By the way, if you ever bought Titan Quest they've released an Anniversary Edition with about a bajillion updates and modern resolution support.

[Mazuuurk]

As for me, I went with Pillars of Eternity in the end.

It does really feel quite dated. The artwork is pretty, but the environments just look very dead when they are generally not animated, and I agree with what I read when it comes to the graphics: I don't see how they couldn't have made a bit of an update to it.

The story seems interesting so far, the setting is cool (sort of weird medieval-steampunky).

I'm playing as a Cipher which seems like a fairly cool class.


I managed to find a Mod that gives me Exp for killing monsters (which you don't otherwise) and that increases the Level cap, apparently.

[Mazuuurk]

Fairly into this now. Managed to get my keep and while it seems kinda pointless, it does make me quite giddy upgrading and restoring it.

I've found most of the Companions as well, and I'm struggling to figure out how to compose my party. The game is kind of weird in that almost everyone are sort of quite average characters and seem to have fairly allround specs.

There's only one fighter, and I'm playing as a Cipher / Ranger kind of guy, which seems quite fun, but it turns out you pick up another one like that so it would have probably been more ideal to try to be a more tanky kind of Class, like maybe a Barbarian.
@Ian - what did you play as, and what Party did you use?

[Ian]

I need to go back to mine because I decided to try and do that massive dungeon before doing anything else and hated myself for it.

I went Godlike Druid. I'm looking at the companions on the wiki and I the only ones I recognise are Durance, Eder, Kana Rua, Aloth and Pallegina, which would make a full party. I don't think I recognise any of the others and yet I'm pretty sure I only take one of Eder and Pallegina with me at a time so I'm not sure what I'm missing.

[Mazuuurk]

Hiravian (..ious?) - Druid, Grieving Mother - Cipher and Sagani - Ranger.

Only ones I haven't found yet are Pellagina and Grieving Mother (well I found her but haven't gone to her yet).

I'm at level 7 now, have just gotten to Defiance Bay and done a few quests in there. Game is really picking up now. The only thing that can be a bit bothersome is the pacing between dialogue and battle - but that's an old cRPG problem really.

The conversations with Durance - I want to thoroughly read them and enjoy them, but they are a little cumbersome. Like 4 pages of reading at the time.


Battle-wise my main struggle seems to be that I kind find another good Tank next to Edér. He holds up well but Kana Rua who I use next to him tends to just die super quickly, and I still don't quite get how to use his chants so as soon as I find the Paladin I'll probably use her instead.

[Spammer]

Right then. I'm hijacking this thread.

For the last 5 years I've only ever played FIFA and custom levels of the old DOOM games. I don't really give a shit about storyline or anything like that - I just want a game I can jump into for 20 minutes without having to remember anything from last time I played. Both games are pretty mindless, and both are good ways of pissing away some time. Many games I find nowadays take too much effort.

Anyway, I reckon there's probably some other games out there that'd suit me. Can anyone recommend any?

[Mazuuurk]

Don't really play any games like that, sounds like the opposite of what I enjoy, but it kind of sounds like you should look for simple Mobile Games like these Tower Defense games or Candy Crush or something?

Apart from that I can't think of anything that'll be even fairly easy to get in to for 20 minute bursts now and then. Maybe Street Fighter or Racing games? Never played much of any of those kinds of games - they seem more fun to play multiplayer.

Counter Strike...?

[elth]

You could always try the new Doom game.

[Mazuuurk]

Ugh, I wanna get this White March 1&2 expansions, but they cost more than the actual game itself!

[Spammer]

Been watching South Park for the first time in years. Gonna get the Stick of Truth from CEX tomorrow.

[Disco]

I've reached a complete dead end where I don't fancy playing anything at all, there's loads of stuff I could make a start on or continue (hi there CK2) but none of it is grabbing me.

So much so I've resorted to firing up Zsnes and playing some Mario. Mainlined a full 96 level playthrough of Super Mario World followed by going all the way through SMB3, the original Mario Bros, and all but the last stage of Lost Levels (which is an utter bitch from start to finish). I've never played more than a level or two of the ginger stepchild that is SMB2 so I may have a look at that while I wait for motivation to play something else.

[Raoul Duke]

I don't mind stages like this. I'm kinda in one now, whilst we're at the arse-end of release cycles. Give it a month or so and all my regular staples (FIFA/FM etc.) will be out.

Dishonoured and Watch Dogs are on my radar, plus I've still got Uncharted and MGS that I haven't bought yet. Got to get them out the way before Skyrim.

[Mazuuurk]

Seeing as I always tend to play games about 4-8 years after they are released, I never have that problem

[phonics]

I couldn't even get into DOOM. There's not been a game since MGS5 where I've felt that impulse to play. I just boot up Hearthstone and watch another episode of Narcos instead.

[Mazuuurk]

I'm pretty Immersed in PoE now. Once you get over the initial shock of how much reading it is, you remember how great that sort of storytelling actually is.

Bought The White March and so far it seems good. The Amanua is kinda shit tho.