Baldur’s Gate isn’t too old, it was released in November of 1998, but that’s still a bit dated now. The gaming industry isn’t friendly to the years, often working in what seems to be accelerated “dog years” in terms of technological advancements. It figured this was worth covering because it’s one of the best selling and considered a top tier single-player RPG by most accounts.
It was also developed by BioWare, who, at the time, only had one other game under their belt from two years before called Shattered Steel.
The story begins just after a devastating event in the Forgotten Realms D&D campaign called the “Time of Troubles.” This was a great twist in the standard D&D campaign, it caused all curative magic (clerics) to lose their ability to heal unless near their deity, magic didn’t function correctly (I believe this is where the Wild Mage came from) and was unpredictable and gods walked the earth as mortals which caused magic to, in effect, die while the gods were away. Since the storyline starts slightly after this event, the game contains healing and magic but the storyline is impacted by prior events of course, people have trust issues.
The game was made great because it held “mostly true” to the 2nd Edition D&D roots so the learning curve for D&D player’s wasn’t so rough; some things were adjusted to handle the real-time effect of a video game RPG. You could party with up to six Non-Player-Characters (NPC’s) whom would swap in and out of your active party over time as part of the storyline (something also implemented by the US release of Final Fantasy 2).
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We purchased Rock Band 2 and the Drum Kit on the week of launch, having played on the drums for about a month we’ve already broke them. This time, however, it’s not the foot pedal, but the blue and yellow drum heads, now having smashed little holes in the center.
@Videogame violence
Oh, we’re covering *this* topic …
Thing is:
– can you live without resorting to acts of violence? And yes, intimidating people is an act of violence.
– what is (in real life) justified violence and what is not?
Now try to answer that in the context of video games, where all depictions of violence are projected onto computer generated avatars.
Do the same rules apply? No. So how do we know what’s exaggerated and what’s not?
Dunno. I’m not that impressed by violence in games, and if a game has only that to offer (meaning no story, no gameplay) then I won’t be bothered to buy that game. Not on account of over the top violence, but on account of the game just being plain bad.
With one exception: Serious Sam. But then again, the core gameplay of Serious Sam is not in how neat you can use the chainsaw to cut through your enemies, it’s actually about managing/dodging large numbers of enemies.
Paul, loved your point of view. Indeed, ultra-violence seems to have a stronger influence on young people. Who shouldn’t be playing that game to begin with.
Jonah, being desensitized to violence, that’s also true. Still, you don’t need head ripping to achieve that. Good enough depictions of realistic violence will do that. COD4 will do that. STALKER will do that.
@ “play to win” premium game portals
This is just plain market segmentation. It’s ok with me. Will that split the community? Maybe, but if it racks in more money then guess what: it’s ok.
And something tells me that all premium people can also play using a free account, if they feel generous enough to let go of their ‘unfair’ advantages. It’s a choice being offered to the community.
And any consequences will be also suffered by the publishers: when a franchise dies, it dies.
@Videogame violence: I seriously don’t know what to say about this topic. I do sometimes feel that I am desensitized to violence, but in reality I was never a violent person or had any reaction to it. But at the same time I sometimes do feel the satisfaction of slashing through a wave of enemies, but that could also be attributed to the feeling of victory rather than ecstacy in violence. Bulletstorm was very enjoyable to me, but at the same time I think it was all attributed to its fast-pace nature that it had.
So speaking from my experience, maybe we could tone down the violence in certain games, but as one of you said, it’s always about the gameplay for me.
@Premium game portals: I’ll try to keep this concise so that I won’t go on an all-out rant about DLC and money-grubbing.
The only time I will ever find this service acceptable is in free-to-play games, and even then it’s a bit of an iffy subject. So you pay 60 dollars to buy a supposed finished product and then you find out that you need to pay a subscription fee to get all the content at the time of release? That’s just bullshit to me. I already oppose of paid DLC (apart from the very rare times when it is actually a good value for money for content that was made after release), I don’t want you to add sub-par missions or new weapons after release and then asking me to buy them from you. I want to buy a full game and that’s it. For me, this whole premium business just adds insult to injury.
Oh, and there was a point when I got confused if I was listening to a video game podcast or a card game podcast.
@Robot chicken TF2 hat: Well, seeing as all hats are cosmetic, I don’t care for Robot Chicken and I think it looks pretty stupid, no I am not interested in it.
@GamingFlashback: I loved the 7-Up dot game on the Sega Genesis. Reminded me of the Ren and Stimpy game. Not sure how it would be now, but I remember renting it more than a couple times. As for Wally Bear, he reminds me of the Charmin bears: creepy.
That’s all for today. 😀
Hello guys this is the first time I have written in. I just started listening to podcasts and found yours first. I listened to about twenty of the last episodes. You guys make me laugh and at the same time bring all of the items I want to hear about.
@ultra violence in games- I tend to agree with Paul on this subject. Games are an outlet to do things you are not allowed to do in real life. I believe that parents are supposed to determine what children play. The ratings are there for a reason. I am not saying that games should be violent just to be violent but still. If the game is violent then PARENTS NEED TO KEEP IT AWAY FROM THE CHILD.
@premium game DLC- as an adult who is a gamer this upsets me. I have a full time Job my wife works part time job. I have a daughter and between her and bills I cannot afford more money on top of what I payed for the game. It puts me in a bad place when because I cannot pay money on top of the game I get penalized because I have other responsibilities. To buy a game is a big thing for me I take my time and research before I buy. So I get this game that is supposed to be great and then I hear oh by the way spend thirty and you get more. While I know some people do not have to worry about money I do and it is disheartening to get stuck because I can not afford more.
Well guys have a good week keep up the great podcasts.
hai guize!
i’m finally free from my obligations… for now ¬¬
so… this week i “watched” 2 VGRT podcasts and i’d like to answer the QOTW of the past week if allowed. can i? GREAT!
!QOTW: my main ritual is to get a hot coffee and smoke a cigarrete before the game, it takes around 10 min to finish the smoking, so i call my friends to form a squad before the game starts (BF3) and when the map is loading, i have enough time to get another cup of coffee.
Like now, just before i start writing this reply :3
@ultra violence:
unfortunatelly, violence for the sake of violence sells, it will always sell because appeal to the most primitive part of the animal inside of us! like porn!
i agree with paul too, even disliking this genre… you do in VG’s what you cannot do in real life, even if it is just shooting a cop in da face or hit a hooker with a bat multiple times, or even in sim games, you build your dream house, have your dream furniture, dream job, dream family… it all can be fit in gaming world.
@Elite/Premium pay2win:
i am a premium BF3 user for the following reasons: 1) ALL DLC INCLUDED = saving money =D
2) that new orange knife that looks like a boxcutter – nope, this knife sux, i want my old lame, non crayon-like knife back
being serious now: if a “premium” service does not lead to real disavantages on non-premium gameplay is is legit for IMO. services like queue priority is retarded, DICE and/or EA screwed the non premium users on porpous (? – grammar might be wrong on that word). But as far as i see that is the only true disavantage. the 2 weeks early access to maps might lead to a disavantage, but is a knoledge one, i mean, non-premium users might get roflstomped in the first 2 days, but they will figure the maps later, and get in the same lvl of map awareness in no time!
i liked the round table format! do it more often, like once a month :3
bai guize!