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Aelhyn
Eager Tradesman
Joined: 05 Sep 2001
Posts: 48
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Hi, new here. Since there are a lot of rpgs coming out in the next couple of years, I don't really know which ones could be good or not. I have a (rather long) list of rpgs I'm currently anticipating. Are any of them not worth my time? And are there any more I should pay attention to?
The list... in no particular order:
1)Morrowind (the freedom looks interesting, but won't it be buggy?)
2)Pool of Radiance (and RPG-lite, apparently, though I'm really looking forward to long epic turn-based battles)
3)Wizardry VIII (the character interaction looks appealing, but I've never played the series - is it good?)
4)Neverwinter Night (it has potential, but is the online community ready?)
5)Gothic (the demo ROCKS, though it's kind of a resource hog - how long is this game btw?)
6)Divine Divinity (man, the gameworld seems so huge and detailed)
7)Dungeon Siege (well, looks like fun, though not a hardcore RPG)
:cool:Might & Magic IX (cool screenshots, but, what's the series about?)
9)Arx Fatalis (the spiritual successot to Ultima Underworld, which I've never played - can anyone comment on those games? also, the magic system is appealing)
10)Knights of the Old Republic ( Star Wars, and Bioware? any thoughts?)
11)Lunar Silver Star Story Complete (a console rpg being ported to the pc... does anyone even know of this? despite not getting much attention, the game looks really, well, cute  )
12)Grandia II (another console port, and the battle system seems like loads of fun - despite console rpgs not being very hardcore, they can be rather entertaining)
13)Arcanum (yes, it's out, but I didn't get it yet. Should I?)
My fingers hurt |
Wed Sep 05, 2001 11:38 pm |
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Gorath
Mostly Harmless
Joined: 03 Sep 2001
Posts: 6327
Location: NRW, Germany |
Wow, what a long list
I can only give a few comments...
3. Wizardry 6 and 7 were arguably the best RPGs of there time. Graphics & FX allways sub-par, but very intense gameplay. Talking about difficulty...let me put it this way..., if you want to impress someone on this board, tell him you finished Bane of the Cosmic Forge & Crusaders of the Dark Savant without cheating. Extreme 
Many people here are waiting for Wizardry 8.
5. My first turn on Gothic took me 45 hours plus reloads. Of course I overlooked a lot. Second turn appr. 30 hours.
I don´t think it´s a resource hog. TB 850, GF2 MX and 512MB RAM, @1024 all max., no problemo. RAM is vital because the _complete_ world is kept in memory.
Infos on half the other games can be found in the forums.
Gorath |
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Thu Sep 06, 2001 12:49 am |
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Ryder
Eager Tradesman
Joined: 11 Jul 2001
Posts: 33
Location: Australia |
quote:
On 2001-09-05 18:38, Aelhyn wrote:
1)Morrowind (the freedom looks interesting, but won't it be buggy?)
Going on previous titles it will be bug city. I'm sure they would be aware of this and will be making doubly sure that there arent any probs. Should be a good game.
quote:
2)Pool of Radiance (and RPG-lite, apparently, though I'm really looking forward to long epic turn-based battles)
Yes, this game should be sweet and it will be the first one out on your list
quote:
4)Neverwinter Night (it has potential, but is the online community ready?)
Potential??? This game will be it and a bit.
quote:
8)Might & Magic IX (cool screenshots, but, what's the series about?)
There is a huge story behind the M&M series and I tried to find it but to no avial. There is over 10 games involved after all.
[ This Message was edited by: Ryder on 2001-09-05 20:57 ] |
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Thu Sep 06, 2001 1:53 am |
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Mollusken
Eager Tradesman
Joined: 04 Sep 2001
Posts: 35
Location: Norway |
Guess you can consider Heroes of Might & Magic 4 a sort of a RPG. Warcraft 3 to. |
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Thu Sep 06, 2001 6:14 am |
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Rendelius
Critical Error
Joined: 06 Jul 2001
Posts: 16
Location: Austria |
My 2c
1-9 are games I am really looking forward to. I think they will keep me entertained for a very long time.
Arcanum - should you get it? Well, people are different, but I eally enjoy what I have seen so far. Although the graphics (and most of all the animations) aren't world class, the sheer size of the game is. If you are into epic games where you can leave the main storyline and play your own game for a while, Arcanum will be for you. I think it will pale in regard to the new releases, but for now Arcanum will keep you busy.
I never regretted having bought it so far.
_________________
Rendelius
former Senior Editor RPGDot
now at http://www.theastronomers.com |
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Thu Sep 06, 2001 7:21 am |
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Michael C
Black Dragon
Joined: 09 Jul 2001
Posts: 1595
Location: Aarhus, Denmark |
Rendelius: Are there as many bugs in Arcanum, as the rumour says.
Have you alredy installed the new patch?
I'm asking because Arcanum just has arrived in Denmark, but I still haven't bought it yet. But I quite sure I'm going to! |
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Thu Sep 06, 2001 11:24 am |
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Maggot
Magister of the Light
Joined: 17 Jul 2001
Posts: 392
Location: Reykjavik, Iceland |
Arcanum still hasn't arrived in the third world country that is Iceland! I don't know if I've already whined about this, but I'll do it again anyway! They're going by the old release date of November 2, here! I'll probably be disinterested by then.  |
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Thu Sep 06, 2001 12:14 pm |
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Guest
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Interesting list, I had never heard of Divine Divinity before.
I like first person games more, though. Off that list I am now most interested in ARX.
Also, I am really looking forward to Outcast 2 and Thief 3 - even though they aren't really RPGs. But they should have the immersiveness and intelligent adventure that I most look in games. (They won't be out in quite a while, though.)
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Thu Sep 06, 2001 12:54 pm |
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Aelhyn
Eager Tradesman
Joined: 05 Sep 2001
Posts: 48
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I think I'll add Armalion to the list. Looks pretty sweet , even though it's a RPG/RTS hybrid. |
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Sat Sep 08, 2001 12:27 pm |
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Ryder
Eager Tradesman
Joined: 11 Jul 2001
Posts: 33
Location: Australia |
I found the story to the History of M&M and here it is
From http://www.angelfire.com/ca2/cooljerk/cooljerk.html
The missing link is that HoMM I doesn't have a very detailed back-story. But, if you read the letters in the correspondence that appears in the back of the manual, and construct a fuller history of 1-5, you'll notice a connection. Also, there is a MAJOR link between MM III and MM VII.
Here's the whole thing:
Corak is either an Ancient, or a constructed servant of the Ancients. We really don't know who or what the ancients are yet, but judging by the GOOD ending to MM VII, we are on the threshold of finding out.
Now, the Ancients used to spend a lot of time "seeding" the galaxy with microcosms - small biospheres supporting life. In fact, in the first 5 MM's, all the planets are flat, and in fact are strategically placed life support systems. We don't know why they did this.
About 900 years ago (if my memory of MMVII serves me) the ancients got in a horrible war with a race called the Kreegan. A large part of the galaxy was cut off from the direct influence of the Ancients, and fell into barbarism and witchcraft. In fact, these isolated worlds are precisely the worlds in which the MM games occur.
Many of these worlds had "guardians", appointed agents of the Ancients who were sent to guide the microcosmic little flat planets to their appointed place in the galaxy.
Now then… as the story begins, Sheltem, the Guardian of Terra has gone funny in the head. As we eventually find out from logs in the shuttles in MM V, Terra was a large, hospitable planet, which the Ancients were intending to seed with numerous of these microcosms. Apparently, the Ancients weren't too happy with the way he was running things (he became a bit of tyrant it seems), so they dispatched agent Corak to check things out. Corak placed Sheltem in stasis and was bringing him home to check his programming.
Somehow, Sheltem escapes and goes on a rampage. Corak begins his long quest to track him down and neutralize him. As the story opens in MM I, Sheltem goes to ground on one of these microcosms named Vehicular Astropod Research Nacelle. He deposes the good King Alamar and masquerades in his place. Our party of adventurers discovers him and sets everything to rights. Sheltem flees to Central Research Observational Nacelle via a gateway which we will see more of in MMVII. It should be noted that there is a location in MM I called Castle White Wolf. The Lord of this Castle is named IRONFIST, and one of his quests is to find LORD KILBURN. Remember those names for about 6 paragraphs.
In MMII, Sheltem winds up on CRON and starts to drive it off course and hurl it into it's sun. With a little help from Corak in stasis, our heroes manage to thwart this scheme as well. However, Sheltem escapes as we are busy decrypting a quote that will give us the password to the device and stop CRON from committing sun-icide.
Next, in MMIII, Sheltem arrives back on Terra which is where the whole mess started. Again, our trusty adventurers find out what's going on behind the scenes and drive Sheltem off. Three space shuttles depart Terra. One containing Sheltem, another containing Corak in pursuit, and another containing our party of adventurers. Something happens on this journey. Sheltem lands safely on Xylonite Experimental Environment Nacelle. Corak lands much less safely on XEEN, and our adventurers are thrown off course, supposedly never to be seen again… at least, not until MM VII.
MM IV (Clouds of XEEN) opens on XEEN, and our new party of adventurers defeats an evil undead lord calling himself simply, "Lord Xeen". As we defeat Lord Xeen, we see a vision of Sheltem proclaiming, "You may have defeated my lieutenant, but the Darkside of Xeen will always be mine. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!"
MM V opens. Sheltem is up to his old tricks, masquerading as Alamar again and driving planets off course to fly into their suns. The dragon pharaoh summons our party and they perform many tasks to set things to right. Eventually, they discover Corak's shuttle, and the stage is set for the final showdown of Corak and Sheltem. You seek out a "soul box", a device which can contain Corak's essence so that you can smuggle him into Castle Alamar without Sheltem being aware. Once you arrive, you release Corak, and he finally has a chance to confront Sheltem face to face. It is obvious that Sheltem has grown very strong "in the ways of the force" and is going to win this battle… but Corak grabs Sheltem and initiates his own self-destruct mechanism, destroying them both. So ends the first story arc in the Might and Magic pantheon.
(The extended 'World of Xeen' ending doesn't figure into the grand scheme too much, so I won't comment on it here.)
Next up would be HoMMI. Per the letters, someone apparently named Morglin Ironfist was involved in a power struggle on his home planet and his lineage was usurped by his cousin. Morglin failed to make a successful coup and therefore ran for his life with a small retinue that was loyal to his line. There are a number of hints dropped that this may be the Lord Ironfist from Castle White Wolf on Varn, or perhaps one of his descendants. Note also, that MM VI has one subplot featuring a Lord Kilburn, also named in MM I. And MMI begins in the town of 'Sorpigal', and MMVI begins in 'New Sorpgial'. Anyway- while on the lam, Morglin Ironfist accidentally trips through a magical portal to another world, Enroth, and sets up his reign there.
HoMM II is the next scene in the story, the succession wars. Morglin's sons, Archibald and Roland have a little tiff over who is going to inherit the throne. It's all family squabbles, nothing hugely important to the overall story. At the end, Roland wins and Archibald is turned to stone and imprisoned in the library of Castle Ironfist.
MM VI picks up again with the big picture, and makes it much bigger. The Kreegan, after 900 years of fighting the Ancients in other parts of the galaxy are finally making a push towards this region. They land in Enroth and in Erathia and start a reign of terror. MMVI takes place in Enroth. Roland is defeated in the opening battles and is captured, not to be seen again in Enroth for a LONG TIME. His wife, Catherine of Erathia has heard of her father's death and has departed for home and doesn't hear of this issue for some time.
Their son, little Nicolai, is left in charge. Our heroic adventurers are guided by the chief regent on a series of quests to figure out what is going on. Eventually we discover that the evil cult of the temple of Baa are in league with the demonic kreegans and many other adventures are had… Eventually, the oracle of Enroth is able to tell us how to defeat the Kreegan. We need to free the stoned Archibald! He has a magic item we need to teleport the Kreegan's nest into the void as we destroy it - in order to avoid destroying the planet as well. We succeed in defeating the kreegan.
HoMM III follows up from MMVI and largely takes place at the same time. The Kreegan and warlocks have overrun Erathia and made quite a mess of things. Catherine arrives for her father's funeral and discovers that the land has a bit of trouble. She takes up the banner of Erathia and begins a successful campaign to push them back. The warlocks make a pact with the Necromancers to ressurect Catherine's father as a lich and lead the war against Erathia. It's a bloody mess, but eventually Catherine wins the day, lays her father to eternal rest, pushes the Warlocks back to Nighon, and forces the remaining Kreegans to hole up in Eoful.
In all the turmoil, the re-awakened Archibald sneaks into Deyja, the land of Necromancers just north of Erathia, and begins rebuilding his influence in the world.
MM VII opens with the strongest link between the original five games. The shuttle carrying the 8 member party from MM III - which missed XEEN completely - finally crashlands off the coast of Antigarich (the continent which contains Erathia, Eoful, Avlee, Nighon, Bracada, and Tatalia.) At this time, they have a split. 4 of them decide to seek out the wizards of this world and offer them their technology and see if they can rebuild a gate to the ancients. The other 4 seek out Archibald and the Necromancers and seek to build the Forge- a machine which can grant them extremely powerful weapons to dominate this world. Which group will succeed depends entirely on your party's actions. Assuming that you choose the "good" path, which is fairly important for the overall story line… You will finally wipe out the Kreegans, free Roland and indirectly defeat the Necromancer's guild. You will also succeed in building a gate which takes you to an interstellar waypoint, where you meet someone named "Corak", though not the same "Corak" of MM's I-V. Corak gives you some information about the Kreegans and the Ancients, and answers the question, "Where can we go from here" with, "Anywhere you want to!"
MMVIII opens. Apparently, we were a little too slow to defeat the Kreegan menace. Someone among the ancients seems to have a "Scorched Earth" policy. That is- do NOT let the kreegans have a planet under any circumstances. If the locals can't defeat the Kreegans, destroy the planet. The planeswalker, Escaton, who appears to be another automaton like the original Corak, is dispatched to destroy our planet. He appears in the third continent on this world, Jadame, and opens portals to the 4 elemental planes. Once their energies leak into the world, and meet at a certain magical crystal… POP goes the world. Our heroes are tasked with the monumental project of building an alliance among the races of Jadame and closing the planes. Along the way, we discover that the order was given before we finally defeated the last of the Kreegan in MMVII, but that Escaton is unable to avert his programming and stop the process. Roland and Catherine make an important cameo appearance as they stop in Jadame on their journey from Erathia back to Enroth.
At the end of MMVIII, The Ironfist Dynasty is back on track and the Kreegan (and all of their side effects) are finally beaten down.
Also, we have the Gateway from MMVII opened for the first time in many centuries.
My guess is that MM IX will draw us directly into the Kreegan/Ancient war.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Ralf
NOTE: (6/9/01) My thanks to the many fans who have been trying to amend this original attempt at making a coherent history out of all the games. This was written long before HoMM3's two expansion packs were released. HoMM3: The Shadow of Death is believed to be a prequel to MM7. As DumB points out: "I only complain because Ralf is incorrect about defeating *all* the Kreegan in MM7... this actually happens in the main storyline of H3:AB(a new general is chosen after Xenofex dies whose goal is basically to destroy the world in fire using armageddon's blade and since devils are immune to fire...) Anyway, I only mention Shadow of Death because it's what lays the framework for RoE and MM7(Sandro [re]organizes the necromancers for the arrival of Archibald- in Ralf's version, it almost sounds like Archi usurped power in Deyja, when actually it was more mutual). One last thing, we do know now that H4 and MM9(most likely) will take place in a devasted "Erathia", so you might want to note that..."
Thanks DumB, it has been noted. CJ
Yet another note submitted on 6/15/01: "In your section of the Might and Magic History section, it is not stated clearly what Heroes of Might and Magic 3: The Shadow of Death is all about. The Shadow of Death is really the prequel to the origional Heroes of Might and Magic 3: The Restoration of Erathia. It tells the story of how Catherine's father, King Gryphenheart was killed. Basically, Sandro, a necromancer tricks four heroes (Gem, Gelu, Yog, and Crag Hack) into giving him artifacts which he was able to build two very powerfull artifacts from. After defeting his old warlock master, he made an ally, Finneas Vilmar, and eventually made Finneas king of Deja, the necromancer country in the continent of Antagarich, which was west of Enroth. They began to take over lands of Antagarich. Gem, Gelu, Yog, and Crag Hack eventually built a magic sword called the Angelic Alliance and defeated Sandro. But the story does not end there. Sandro still won't give it a rest. He comes up with a new plan. He convinces Lord Haart to poison King Gryphenheart, Catherine's father, who is the king of Erathia. With the king gone, Sandro continues his plan to conquer all of Erathia. After helping out the Kreegan race, the countries of Eofall and Nighon joined Sandro's cause. In the end, Finneas Vilmar (still the king of Deja), plays a trick on Sandro, which eventually gets Sandro thrown in prison, so Finneas can take all the credit for Sandro's idea. This is where the game ends, and this is where HoMaM3: The Restoration of Erathia Starts, with the countries of Deja, Nighon, and Eofall invading Erathia."
Thanks Jayman your note should add a bit of clarity to all this. CJ
This note was submitted on 8/24/01 by Liam: "Crag Hack was one of the travellers in MMVII, yet he has been in every HoMM Game. I have just realized The shadow of death contradicts MMVII as far as I am concerned because I have no clue how long MMI-V took place before 6.
Lord Kilburn served Morglin and Roland Ironfist before he was killed by the Kreegan near Blackshire.
Kastore, another member of the 8 adventurers, also appeared in HoMM1.
HoMM4 is to take place in a new contienent Axeroth or somthing rather. In the begining of the game, erathia is destroyed. I don't know anymore.
MMIX: Falls in with HoMM 4. You begin shipwrecked on an island and it leads to some unite the clans stuff. It will use the roster party system from MM8 which is kinda unsettling to me."
Thank Liam, it will be interesting to see what develops when HoMM4 and MMIX are finally released. CJ
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Fri Sep 14, 2001 1:52 am |
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Aelhyn
Eager Tradesman
Joined: 05 Sep 2001
Posts: 48
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Whoa, sounds like you should have played the whole series to fully understand the plot! Do you think I'll be able to start the series at M&M9?
Same goes for Wizardry. Am I going to miss much if I start at W8? |
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Fri Sep 14, 2001 11:22 am |
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Guest
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People above have commented on how incredible the M&M and Wizardry series were...truly two of the best RPG's ever. No one has talked about ultima underworld, so I'll just say that both those games were every bit as good as M&M, tho unfortunatly not as long or as broad in scope (more linear, as people say these days). If Arx is close to being as good I'll be all over it. |
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Fri Sep 14, 2001 1:25 pm |
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Ðrâktøn
Village Dweller
Joined: 17 Jul 2001
Posts: 12
Location: Monterrey, Mexico |
My wish list is almost identical: Arx, Morrowind, Dungeon Siege, M&M IX, Pool of Radiance, Gothic, Wizardry 8, Divine Divinity. I'd place at the top those which are played from a first person perspective. I just ordered Arcanum. Hope is good. Good RPG's are very far apart. As a matter of fact, I always buy any RPG that comes out. I have bought every single RPG since the day I played Ultima Underworld for the first time.
Ð.
_________________
He who hesitates, is lost.
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Better cheat than quit  |
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Sat Sep 15, 2001 2:00 am |
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Ryder
Eager Tradesman
Joined: 11 Jul 2001
Posts: 33
Location: Australia |
quote:
On 2001-09-14 06:22, Aelhyn wrote:
Do you think I'll be able to start the series at M&M9?
You gotta start somewhere Aelhyn so you might as well wait until MM9. |
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Sat Sep 15, 2001 2:35 pm |
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Mollusken
Eager Tradesman
Joined: 04 Sep 2001
Posts: 35
Location: Norway |
The story in MM9 might be connected to the story in MM8, so who knows if it is wise to start there. The stories in 6 and 7 were somewhat connected, but 8 was totally different from them. The chance is the game experience will become better if you play the earlier games. |
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Sun Sep 16, 2001 6:10 pm |
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