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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In double dragon you can do a lot of stuff. Punching, kicking, doing combos with the other player, picking up bottles (you mentioned knives already). And in the version I played (3?) you could also gain two other characters.
This is the game that gave me blisters on my fingers 😀
@Kinect games not playable until Nov. 4th
This is a dumb way to do handle the launch of the device … What can I say, Microsoft keeps true to itself 🙂
Derrick, you forget that during in prison you have food and shelter
@A post-pc era
He’s right about that, you need to see a plausible future that is better than the current status.
And here’s the thing: I can see entertainment encompassing mobile devices, but I don’t see myself coding on an iPad. Or a netbook. Maybe a laptop, surely a desktop. The PC is somewhat the most ergonomic choice when it comes to working in IT. So as long as somebody must develop apps, there will still be a requirement for PCs.
As for operating systems, the issue is who has the most apps. Windows was aimed from the start to the average dude, and it is also the oldest OS that had that in mind. Because of that, it has the most applications for the average dude.
@Sony’s PSP 2 will be more powerful than Xbox 360
Well, both PSP2 and XBox 360 are gaming machines. As for the most powerful, it all depends on the test, so I’m taking the news with a grain of salt.
@Some 3DS have been announced
Why are they doing old titles? Well, my guess is that they don’t have the development power required to make new ones.
Gaah! DD stands for Digital Distribution, not Digital Download. Or other stuff 😛
@QOTW: I think the PS3 is a failure. From all the indie gaming websites that I visit, none mentions PSN. Most, if not all, mention XBLA. So, from my point of view, PS3 failed. It failed to create a community around it, and therefore to create a market. And it is still freaking expensive.
In double dragon you can do a lot of stuff. Punching, kicking, doing combos with the other player, picking up bottles (you mentioned knives already). And in the version I played (3?) you could also gain two other characters.
This is the game that gave me blisters on my fingers 😀
@Kinect games not playable until Nov. 4th
This is a dumb way to do handle the launch of the device … What can I say, Microsoft keeps true to itself 🙂
Derrick, you forget that during in prison you have food and shelter
@A post-pc era
He’s right about that, you need to see a plausible future that is better than the current status.
And here’s the thing: I can see entertainment encompassing mobile devices, but I don’t see myself coding on an iPad. Or a netbook. Maybe a laptop, surely a desktop. The PC is somewhat the most ergonomic choice when it comes to working in IT. So as long as somebody must develop apps, there will still be a requirement for PCs.
As for operating systems, the issue is who has the most apps. Windows was aimed from the start to the average dude, and it is also the oldest OS that had that in mind. Because of that, it has the most applications for the average dude.
@Sony’s PSP 2 will be more powerful than Xbox 360
Well, both PSP2 and XBox 360 are gaming machines. As for the most powerful, it all depends on the test, so I’m taking the news with a grain of salt.
@Some 3DS have been announced
Why are they doing old titles? Well, my guess is that they don’t have the development power required to make new ones.
Gaah! DD stands for Digital Distribution, not Digital Download. Or other stuff 😛
@QOTW: I think the PS3 is a failure. From all the indie gaming websites that I visit, none mentions PSN. Most, if not all, mention XBLA. So, from my point of view, PS3 failed. It failed to create a community around it, and therefore to create a market. And it is still freaking expensive.
@QotW I can’t see them as failures. Sure there are plenty of things sony can learn from this generation and improve upon, but unless Sony decides after evaluating this generations sales figures that its going to pull out of the console/handheld business, I dont think it is a failure. That said, they (psp, ps3) seem far from a roaring success.
___
Also just sent in my questions for episode 200, if possible could I get some confirmation that they have been recieved incase I got the email adress wrong. Thanks. =D Got a few doozies in there that will hopefully will be a laugh.
@QotW I can’t see them as failures. Sure there are plenty of things sony can learn from this generation and improve upon, but unless Sony decides after evaluating this generations sales figures that its going to pull out of the console/handheld business, I dont think it is a failure. That said, they (psp, ps3) seem far from a roaring success.
___
Also just sent in my questions for episode 200, if possible could I get some confirmation that they have been recieved incase I got the email adress wrong. Thanks. =D Got a few doozies in there that will hopefully will be a laugh.