Coming back to RPG games.

[DPB]

I've always wanted to play Ultima 7 and have actually tried a few times but that strange viewpoint just distracts me so much. It's disorienting.

Is it just me?

No, I've never liked it either. Warriors of the Eternal Sun on the Mega Drive had the same weird perspective and I found it offputting back then too, although I didn't try Ultima VII until a few years ago.

 

[DArtagnan]

I've tried getting into U7 quite a few times, and while I like almost everything about it - I can't get past how bad the combat system is.

 

[Ergonpandilus]

Yes U7 feels dated today and UI is clunky, but back then it was revolutionary party RPG which has really started the party rpgs as we know them. Other remarkable feature was interactive environment; you can basically touch, move and interact with all objects. It is the peak of Ultima series in many ways, the RPG series which started it all!

I hope a total remake will appears one day so new comers will be able to play the game which was a major milestone for crpgs and which many players still use for comparison and state as a best RPG.

Yet still it is definetily not for newcomers, but if you can get pass the UI one day, I can promise a great adventure waits. Much like with Gothic 1&2.

 

[Corwin]

I keep telling the great people over at U6P that U7 should be next on the list, but the problem is really how dated the DS engine is becoming. Unless you've played the beta 3 of U6P, you won't believe what has been accomplished with the engine, but it's been extended as far as it can go. To do a decent remake of U7 would require a new engine and would take years!!

 

[Dasale]

So I checked Exult for U7, ha well last release is two years old and recent snapshot is tagged as "untested and use at your own risk", as usual but I'm not used to throw myself in the mouth of a wolf.

 

[Dasale]

I hope a total remake will appears one day so new comers will be able to play the game which was a major milestone for crpgs and which many players still use for comparison and state as a best RPG.

For me the problem here is that the PC scene destroyed the possibility of any great remake. When I look at my DS and see all those great remake… For sure a professional team can destroy a remake but they can also achieve it much better than non professional for such big project as U7. Ok ok I have to try DS U5. Anyway even if this one is great, when we get 1 great PC remake DS get 10 and more.

 

[JDR13]

For me the problem here is that the PC scene destroyed the possibility of any great remake. When I look at my DS and see all those great remake… For sure a professional team can destroy a remake but they can also achieve it much better than non professional for such big project as U7. Ok ok I have to try DS U5. Anyway even if this one is great, when we get 1 great PC remake DS get 10 and more.

You're talking about completely different types of games though. Most PC gamers don't care about JRPGs, and those are the only remakes on the DS.

 

[ToddMcF2002]

I love ToEE but its getting harder to install and get running these days. The last time I tried I installed all the Co8 stuff which is a pain and I still couldn't get it working correctly. The best "out of the box" stable and noob friendly recommendation would be Drakensang and then Dragon Age. If you get addicted to the genre backtrack to ToEE for that diamond in the ruff experience. BTW Drakensang has a demo so check it out for yourself. That colorful opinion earlier was way off base.

 

[xSamhainx]

My first install the other night of toee on win 7 64 bit didnt work out, patched to third official patch. I uninstalled, patched only to second official patch, and got the nocd patch, and ran it on vista sp2 compatibility mode and it works great

 

[ToddMcF2002]

That's good news. What a PITA though. I'll be on Win7 in a few months and I'll try ToEE again along with POR2 which also cannot get working. For the OP though, I'd try something more mainstream first.

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

Sorry that I'm dropping in so late, but if you want the party members not to be too greedy when it comes to terms of each one taking his or her own loot (this is by the way the ONLY game so far I know where party members take their own loot !), then you should try the "humble NPCs" mod or how the name was from the CO8 forums.

German players might take a look at the translation package named ULP from there (although a few there might not know its name).

Third, WinXP users should install the last patch. If I remember, there are only 3 patches for the game, and the last one is only because of something tht only Winxp users encounter. When the game was released, this (the group of the winxp users) still wasn't the majority, then.

Germans could also try to track own the variant that came with the magazine called "PC Games", I think: Because the whole game is there on one disc (no disc fiddling anymore), and it *might* be alread patched. Unfortunately I haven't got it, I missed it when it came out, then.

 

[Dasale]

You're talking about completely different types of games though. Most PC gamers don't care about JRPGs, and those are the only remakes on the DS.

Paranoiac answer, ok I appreciate the DS but in no way I care promote it or JRPG, I was only whining that old PC RPG didn't get too nice remake. The only one I noticed is King's Bounty The Legend and it's one of the best game I ever played.

 

[xSamhainx]

yeah, i spoke too soon on ToEE on win7x64 - or maybe it's just the fact that I opened my mouth at all karmically doomed me. It worked great at first.

I had enough Toee meltdowns on it this weekend to finally call it quits. Seems to run good on XP - so far (crosses fingers, toes, and all opposable digits otherwise, knocks on wood, tosses salt over shoulder, etc)

 

[GothicGothicness]

Yes U7 feels dated today and UI is clunky

I have to say I strongly disagree, except for graphics all modern RPG's appear really outdated compare to U7, you could touch modify or move anything, you could collect crates from all over the world to build stairs to get to a special place, every NPC had detailed schedules like eating, walking around and even opening windows! The world is completely open and you can go anywhere you want, without any load times you can buy ships houses, ride horse and carriage with your party, rob the museum, your companions can become pissed of if you steal things, you need to eat and drink and feed them….. The plots and quest and story are much more advanced than any modern RPG offers.

 

[cutterjohn]

Downloading Neverwinter Nights 2 Gold.
Could not find Wizardry 8
available as a download.
Should keep me busy for a bit.

Thanks for the help.
Keeping lists saved "just in case" I get sucked back into rpgs.

You'll probably have to buy Wizardry 8 from an auction site, e.g. ebay, or some game trading site. It was a limited release at one store only IIRC, but it is a VERY good Wizardry unlike what happened with Might and Magic and Ultima series.

Ultima VII played with exult would probably run fine under Windows 7, and if you preferred dosbox should work under Windows 7, but I'd check first. (Only up to Vista 32b here so far.)

Arcanum is a decent party based CRPG, again not sure about Windows 7 joy. gog.com has it for $9.99.

They also have a couple of older decent party based CRPGs, Realms of Arkania series 1-3 which are DOS based -> dosbox again but gog.com bundles dosbox with their game downloads as in they install with a menu item and pre-setup that just runs. Might and Magic 1-6 collection is also available, again dosbox IIRC, but I think that VI MAY have been a Windows app, but again not sure of Windows 7 joy.

Drakensang was pretty good to me. The best CRPG in a while. It's based on The Dark Eye PnP ruleset(popular in Germany, apparently Das Schwarze Auge or something).

Neverwinter Nights 2. Main campaign is kind of meh, Mask of the Betrayer expansion is better, not sure of Storm over Zehir or that other one. AD&D v4 ruleset based(some people don't like AD&D).

There's also the older original Neverwinter Nights(Bioware), again main campaign is meh, expansions and DLC are better but at present can only get the compilation with the original campaign, two expansions, and forst 3(IIRC) DLCs. Again not sure of Windows 7 joy.

Avernum, yeah, they're there, but be prepared for VERY BASIC graphics, meh RP mechanics and other RPG baggage.

Don't forget the two Eschalon games from basilisk games. Can't remember if they're party based though, but the graphics are a bit better than Avernum's and so are the mechanics.

Wizards and Warriors from David Bradley who worked on several Wizardry games, V-VII IIRC, so similar mechanics but you have to do some work to get it running on recent Windows versions, having to convert some graphics/media files to something that current windows support, so not at all sure how it will work, if at all, with Windows 7. Haven't tried it in Vista yet, but that might not mean anything.

Now that I'm really thinking of it, most of the recent RPGs have all been first person one character/open world game, one char ARPGs, or a combo of the two.

You MIGHT like Demise: Rise of the Ku'Tan, decklinsdemise.com, but ATM I don't recall if it runs under Windows 7 and ONLY the Artifact Entertainment CD installs and runs under Vista, which is still available from Decklin. Ascension patch/expansion should be available later this year which WILL run under Vista + 7(32b), but take this with a grain of salt a it's been "on-the-way" for a year or so now. Anyways, this is a PURE dungeon crawler, not much of a story, but in SP you can have up to 4 characters plus companions presented in a 1st person 3D view. Graphics are BASIC(originally a c. 2000 game which started life in 1997). It's precursor, Mordor: Depth of Dejenol was, apparently, based on an online game for the Plato platform called Avatar. Demise added more dungeon levels, and multiplayer(one char), extra "quests"(mostly fedex or kill foozle), expansion, Ascension, adds more. Has a bunch of different player races/alignments with various guild(class) restrictions and each character can belong to multiple guilds but it comes with an xp penalty(more xp req to level) plus races also give an xp penalty.

That's about it for me, as I'm sure more of the other old ones won't run well at all on Windows 7 and/or likely won't make a good impression.

You might want to try spacesims to, like X3: Terran Conflict, or X3: Reunion or maybe even pseudo RPG/tactical space games like the Star Wolves series. gog.com has the first Star Wolves, gamersgate might have others and/or maybe downloadable from 1c Company store. Might also consider strategy RPGs like Spellforce(again not sure of Windows 7) and King's Bounty, Heroes of Might and Magic and the like... 4X games are loads of fun too, e.g. Civilization, Space Empires, etc.