RPG Fans, I Need Your Advice!

Bluesfusion inspired me to start this thread with his "best game under 20 bucks" thread. I want some "new" games that don't cost 40-50 bucks. I've always been a big fan of RPGs, but I haven't played them all by a long shot. I'm dead tired, but off the top of my head I can recall playing the entire Wizardry series, the entire Bard's Tale series, and most of the Ultima series. I know I've played more than that, I'm just delirious right now. :p

I've heard people mention Baldur's Gate 2 as a good game to play. Would anyone recommend my getting BG1 and 2 and playing 1 first? Is there a BG3? What other RPGs are worth playing? (BTW, this would be only for the PC. No console games.)

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Originally posted by BlueOval
Bluesfusion inspired me to start this thread with his "best game under 20 bucks" thread. I want some "new" games that don't cost 40-50 bucks. I've always been a big fan of RPGs, but I haven't played them all by a long shot. I'm dead tired, but off the top of my head I can recall playing the entire Wizardry series, the entire Bard's Tale series, and most of the Ultima series. I know I've played more than that, I'm just delirious right now. :p

I've heard people mention Baldur's Gate 2 as a good game to play. Would anyone recommend my getting BG1 and 2 and playing 1 first? Is there a BG3? What other RPGs are worth playing? (BTW, this would be only for the PC. No console games.)

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I guess you could could consider Neverwinters Night to be BG3, but IMO it isn't as good as Baldur's Gate II, that one was the best of the series. BG1 was a good game, just smaller than BG2, and a good one to start with to get a feel for the BG gameplay. Also some of the NPC's from BG1 carry over into BG2 as party members. The story is a sort of continuation of the first one. Both BG1 and BG2 have small expansions.

Black Isle studios also puts out Icewind Dale I and II. Using the same game play and D & D rules. They're a little less cerebral and more killin' oriented (which is why I like them better). You would probably have to pay full retail for IWD II because it hasn't been out that long. I'm playing it now and some of the battles are incredibly hard. It's the first one of any of the series that I've had to lower the difficulty from max in spots.

Most recent RPG under or around 20 is Divine Divinity. Stupid name, great game. Check out the DEMO Big Download though, sorry :/
Then Theres Baldurs Gate, an amazing game. Only played the first one, liked it alot, but hard as hell. Could never get far into, samething for IceWind Dale. :/
Check out Summoner, its a little different, but i like it. I might get the full thing one day, seeing as its cheap. Its kind of like Diablo, but not, defiently check outTHE DEMO before buying. :)
Then Theres the Dungeon Siege. Lots of fun, kind of like Diablo, check out THE DEMO
Then (and Wurm will back me up on this one) Theres Fallout 1 and 2. Can get both for like 10 bucks. Its a post apacolyptic rpg, thats excellently done. Defiently one of my favorites. Sorry, no demo, but trust me, this one is excellent. Really Old, but awesome.
Also old, but yet a classic is Planescape Torment. Never played, i have it, but never played it. Can't give a recommondation on it, and can't find a demo right now, sorry. :(

Hope that helps you out. :)

I thought this was done before, a while back though. Heres what i posted on that old thread. (some overlap, but oh well)

lets see, you got your Arx Fatalis
your Dungeon Siege
your Neverwinter Nights
your Gothic II (German Demo Only)
your Freedom Force
your Gothic I
your Summoner
and one of my favs - Divine Divinity

BGII is my favorite PC-RPG

Vote definitely goes to Baldur's Gate 2 and both Fallouts! And if you'd consider it an RPG, Freedom Force is fricken great, but its more like Commandos in a comic book setting with RPG elements.

Something someone hasnt said yet: Anachronox

Oh, and there is a demo for Fallout 1 - HERE

I second Baldur's Gate 2 that was a great game. There are also some other games that are great. I still play Morrowind quite often... the mods are what makes this game great. Gothic 2 will be out in Engish very soon here.

I didnt really like neverwinter nights or dungeon siege. The graphics were great, but the story (or lack thereof) didnt pull me in at all. If you want a good story then get Baldur's Gate. If you want a lot of freedom in a game with some eye cany get Morrowind, if you have a decent rig.

Another great game is Planescape Torment. This one is like playing an interective novel with the same interface as Baldur's Gate. Sweet game.

Also if you havent played System Shock 2....you are missing out. Deus Ex is the same kind of game here. They are FPS with some rpg elements.

I can't mention this enough, Planescape:Torment is just plain one of the best RPGs ever. :)
And unless you like extremely linear games steer clear of the Icewind Dale games. :)
Also, as a kind of turnbased strategy+rpg you have Heroes of Might and Magic 3 (and various expansion packs).

Fallout or Planescape Torment. They are probably the best RPG's I have ever played. And of course if you consider it an RPG, System shock 2.

There have been some good suggestions so far in the above posts. Just ignore any comments on Diablo, Summoner and similar games since those are not RPG at all (though some uneducated gamers call them that).

NeverWinter Nights and the Baldur's Gate series are probably your best choices, but if you want true RPG gameplay go for Fallout 1 and 2.

Have fun! ;)

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Originally posted by SE_Saga
There have been some good suggestions so far in the above posts. Just ignore any comments on Diablo, Summoner and similar games since those are not RPG at all (though some uneducated gamers call them that).

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uneducated gamers?! :mad:
dude, rpg = role playing game, and yes, these games are role playing games. They might be a little more action oriented, but still, they're rpgs. Seriously man, i swear sometimes.

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Originally posted by sublim21
I thought this was done before, a while back though. Heres what i posted on that old thread. (some overlap, but oh well)

lets see, you got your Arx Fatalis
your Dungeon Siege
your Neverwinter Nights
your Gothic II (German Demo Only)
your Freedom Force
your Gothic I
your Summoner
and one of my favs - Divine Divinity

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Yeah, I asked about rpg demos a while back. I still haven't got into any of them. Maybe rpg's just aren't for me.:(

Sublim21, read this:

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TRUE RPG's were born out of Strategy/Wargames. They're an "evolution" of the Strategy genre, where the focus becomes the human element of each "unit" instead of simply its battle prowess. Turning that into a hack n slash (or any Action variant) and you literally change the genre outright. As I said, Action/RPG is an oxymoron, to say the least.

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Now stop being so... uneducated. :D

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Originally posted by SE_Saga

Now stop being so... uneducated. :D

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They're considered RPGs in the video game industry, whoever said that quote is highly uneducated.
Oh yeah, and you shouldnt quote someone without saying who said it.

I have never sunk my teeth into a good rpg... don't know though since I have played through lots. One of the best rpgs I have come around are:

(Disclaimer: This post might anger some gamers... I'm sorry to ruin this thread in the eyes of some and this is only my opinion. With that said I proudly present...)

Fallout I
Fallout II

:D :D :D :D

most rpg's are just hack and slash, hack/slash, hack/slash, hack/slash, hack/slash, and so on (Diablo, Dungeon siege, NWN, Morrowind, and others). The 2 fallout games above are ingenious in the way that there is some hacking and slashing but with so many different tools, such as sledge, powerfist, sniper-rifle, chaingun, gauss gun, and my favorite the VINDICATOR. these weapons are easily acquired because in the fallout series if a guy wields a rifle that is what you find on his corpse, in games like D2 a skeleton could wield a buckler but not drop one(seriously what the heck is that all about) As a plus the game has, what seems like endless, side-quests that are optional and can change the end of the game/narration.

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They're considered RPGs in the video game industry

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True, due to marketing strategies that blind the idiotic masses. Yet, anyone who'd take the time to learn how the RPG genre was born, would know better.

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whoever said that quote is highly uneducated.

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Coming from someone who has no clue of the subject at hand, that opinion means nothing. And if it was meant simply as an insult, then it was weak and pathetic, since it only proves that you can't even backup a point rationally.

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Oh yeah, and you shouldnt quote someone without saying who said it.

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Let's just say I didn't want to go throught the trouble to type it all again. Sue me.

Thanks all for your replies. I did not mean to start an argument. :( I've got Dungeon Siege - wanted to play it really badly after playing the demo, but found it unfulfilling. It was great for the few days I played it through, but re-playability and trying to play it online just sucks. I've also got Heroes III - this from a friend of mine. While it's interesting to play, I don't consider it an RPG at all.

I've played the Freedom Force demo. Didn't care to get the game. I'll look into getting Planescape Torment and Morrowind maybe. Is Morrowind an online game only? Is that the one that sucks your RAM?

I'm d/l'ing the NWN demo now. Over 312 MBs in a zip file! Sheesh. And I'll look into getting the BG series. Oh, and to sublim21, your link to Divine Divinity works ok, but when I try to d/l the demo I get a meesage saying the file is not there. :confused:

No Morrowind is a single player rpg. It looks alot like an FPS, but it has quite a bit of freedom. You can do things at your own pace and you can do whatever you want. I recommend it because of the freedom you get, and the mods the comunity has put out make this game even better. You do need a pretty decent system to run this game well though. I think that your video card makes the biggest difference on this one.

I felt the same way as you did about Dungeon Siege. It was a great looking game, but it just wasnt fun after a while. NWN was the same for me...the story was lame and the online play was fun but was kind of sporadic and inconsistent.

Baldur's Gate and Planescape still have the best story line of any RPG I have played, but they tend to be a little linear.

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Originally posted by SE_Saga


Let's just say I didn't want to go throught the trouble to type it all again. Sue me.

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THEN DON'T QUOTE THEM! God, you can't summarize, or put your interpretation and pass it off as someone elses quote. I think its because your quote is from someone who doesn't have prestige in the gaming industry. So get your quote together, or leave it alone. Furthermore, every major gaming guru, will concede that those games are RPGs. They may be more action oriented, but they're still RPGs.
Uneducated my ***. :mad: :mad:
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/summoner/index.html
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/diablo/index.html

At the very least, quote a part of what he said, and then state who said it, and where. Come on man, don't go calling someone uneducated, if you don't know how to quote someone. :mad:

However, i don't care if they are or aren't rpgs. Alot of people recognize them as RPGS. They're fun games, and he might be interested in it.
There simply was no reason to call me Uneducated, and to attack me.

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Originally posted by SE_Saga

Coming from someone who has no clue of the subject at hand, that opinion means nothing. And if it was meant simply as an insult, then it was weak and pathetic, since it only proves that you can't even backup a point rationally.

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This coming from the person who cant understand that while they arent "traditional" RPGs, they are still considered RPGs

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Let's just say I didn't want to go throught the trouble to type it all again. Sue me.

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I didnt say anything about typing it all again, you just need to tell us who said it, and where you got it. Just putting something in a quote box and saying its a quote doesnt necissarily mean its a quote. For example:

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Diablo has set a new standard in RPGs, and in order for any newcomers to the scene to be able to compete, they will have to adhere to these new conventions or suffer a certain failure.

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Originally posted by BlueOval
Thanks all for your replies. I did not mean to start an argument. :(

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You didn't start anything, don't worry. I just rambled into a sidenote and people who are little short on the brain cells went a little wild. Nothing of this was started by you.

The problem is that RPG's became very popular back in the nineties as they started to cause a big impact in the computer/console format. Companies who wanted a "piece of the pie" started to advertise their games as RPG or "half-RPG" just for the sake of appealing to a bigger crowd.

Most gamers nowadays believe that RPG's are this "diverse" genre that spans in many directions simply because they've been fed by the media who also took the advertising as "fact".

The result is what you see today - a butchered genre that's beyond recognition to any true roleplayer.

Sometimes I don't bother with it. Sometimes I do. Sometimes people listen and think about it. Sometimes they seem to be unable to do either. But as the saying goes "talk sense to a fool and he'll call you foolish", so this will be my last post on this subject.

Just want to finish with a few notes:

1 - Sublim21, I didn't "attack you". I called your opinion uneducated. I made it general because there are others who share your opinion. You took it as a personal attack because you wanted it to take it that way.

2 - Also, giving GameSpot as an example is a poor choice. Read my third paragraph in this post. People who work for the media are ordinary players like you and me, with the difference they have access to more games and get payed for it.

3 - Kamakazie, I'm sorry if you can't read. I could spell it out for you but I'm afraid you wouldn't understand anyway. So here's a challenge for you: read my last message again and try to figure out who's the author of my quote. Trust me, the answer is there. Actually, I think Sublim21 didn't understand either, so you can do a little team work there.

Anyway, knock yourselves out.

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Originally posted by SE_Saga
Kamakazie, I'm sorry if you can't read. I could spell it out for you but I'm afraid you wouldn't understand anyway. So here's a challenge for you: read my last message again and try to figure out who's the author of my quote. Trust me, the answer is there. Actually, I think Sublim21 didn't understand either, so you can do a little team work there.

Anyway, knock yourselves out.

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Okay, maybe you can quit being a pompous asshole for one minute and admit that you're wrong when you so clearly are.
I also think that you need to accept the fact that there are different kinds of RPGs, not just one set type. There are action RPGs, traditional RPGs, and console RPGs.

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Originally posted by SE_Saga


You didn't start anything, don't worry. I just rambled into a sidenote and people who are little short on the brain cells went a little wild. Nothing of this was started by you.

The problem is that RPG's became very popular back in the nineties as they started to cause a big impact in the computer/console format. Companies who wanted a "piece of the pie" started to advertise their games as RPG or "half-RPG" just for the sake of appealing to a bigger crowd.

Most gamers nowadays believe that RPG's are this "diverse" genre that spans in many directions simply because they've been fed by the media who also took the advertising as "fact".

The result is what you see today - a butchered genre that's beyond recognition to any true roleplayer.

Sometimes I don't bother with it. Sometimes I do. Sometimes people listen and think about it. Sometimes they seem to be unable to do either. But as the saying goes "talk sense to a fool and he'll call you foolish", so this will be my last post on this subject.

Just want to finish with a few notes:

1 - Sublim21, I didn't "attack you". I called your opinion uneducated. I made it general because there are others who share your opinion. You took it as a personal attack because you wanted it to take it that way.

2 - Also, giving GameSpot as an example is a poor choice. Read my third paragraph in this post. People who work for the media are ordinary players like you and me, with the difference they have access to more games and get payed for it.

3 - Kamakazie, I'm sorry if you can't read. I could spell it out for you but I'm afraid you wouldn't understand anyway. So here's a challenge for you: read my last message again and try to figure out who's the author of my quote. Trust me, the answer is there. Actually, I think Sublim21 didn't understand either, so you can do a little team work there.

Anyway, knock yourselves out.

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Alright man, you called me uneducated, if as you say, it wasn't personal, then what you said here surely is. Short on brain cells? You still haven't said who made that quote, or quoted it correctly or done nothing but flame. Not only did you flame in this thread but in another thread.
Furthermore, a majority of the gaming population state that these games are rpgs, then they're rpgs. Rpg stands for Role Playing Games, and technically every game is an rpg. However, the term RPG as previously in the other thread, has come to mean games where characters level up. Sure some are more core rpgs, and some are action oriented, but still, a majority of the gaming population recognizes all of them as rpgs.

Also, Like it or not, gamespot is recognized as a important figure in the gaming industry. As discussed in last weeks, Gamespotting, the gaming industry really doesn't have a centralized authority like movies. So its kind of up in the air, and any decisions, is based primarily upon popular opinion of the community, which states these games are rpgs.

Now, i never had the intention of fighting with you, i replied to this thread to help a guy out. You may not consider them rpgs, but alot do. And alot of people who like rpgs, or games in general, thorougly enjoy Diablo, so i suggested it.
There was no reason to make a flaming remark towards me, or towards people with similiar views.
Im not asking for an apology, just recognize that there are different opinions, and you shouldn't flame like a child. Rather, discuss your point of view calmy, and coherently. "Uneducate", "short on brain cells" does not do this, and only undermines your argument.

That gamespotting article can be found here.
The other article being discussed can be foundhere.
And one more thing, thanks for number 3 in your last post. Its not our job to decipher your message or to guess where your quotes come from. Hand in an english paper with that kind of logic and you'll be laughed at.

Lol, dont bother with saga guys. Games are made for fun. ANyone who is that serious about games who dosent not work for the gaming industry has gotta have no life.

EDIT: I read his posts again. So Saga, you are the One True RolePlayer (TM) eh? :D