I went old-school CRPG and have been playing the enhanced versions of Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale. Way improved graphics and love the way they implemented the old-school D&D ruleset.

What's CRPG? I played Baldur's Gate a long time ago.

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Originally posted by Legal Beagle:
I went old-school CRPG and have been playing the enhanced versions of Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale. Way improved graphics and love the way they implemented the old-school D&D ruleset.

Excellent choice. Icewind Dale 1 and Baldur's Gate 2 are my two favorite CRPGs of all time. I've probably played through each at least a dozen times over the past two decades. (Maybe more like two dozen with Icewind Dale, since it's shorter, and you can create an entire custom party for a noticeably different playthrough each time.)

All of the Infinity Engine games are worth playing, in fact.

BG1 is good, and was the first of all of them, but isn't quite as good as BG2. IWD2 is okay, but a noticeable step down from IWD1, plus it uses a somewhat clunky implementation of the D&D 3E ruleset, as opposed to all the other BG/IWD games that use a more well-done implementation of the AD&D 2E rules.

I also thought Planescape Torment was excellent, but a pretty big departure from all the other Infinity Engine games... more story, less action, and a very different take on the traditional fantasy setting and default AD&D 2E rules. It's a love-it-or-hate-it kinda thing; lots of people whole like the BG/IWD series don't like PS:T.

All the Enhanced Editions of these Infinity Engine games are very well done. Beamdog has done EEs of all of them, with the exception of Icewind Dale 2, whose source material had been lost by the studio. Beamdog also made a whole new semi-sequel expansion to BG1 called Siege of Dragonspear, which is kinda like Baldur's Gate 1.5.

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Originally posted by xantom:
What's CRPG?

Computer Role Playing Game.

Has anyone played Baldur's Gate 3, cuz it's been out for a little while. I admit to never playing the first two, although I did play Neverwinter Nights a ton.

BG3 has only been out in Playtest/Early Access, which started October 2020. It's still in development; this is basically just a public beta test of the first chapter of the game.

Final release isn't slated until Late 2021/Early 2022.

I haven't tried the playtest content, and don't really plan on doing so. I'll wait for the actual release.

Black Mesa
Overload

Close to throwing in the towel for World of Tanks and World of Warships. Been on both since their respective betas, but the trend of recent changes (CV rework, e.g.) and upcoming changes (HE rework, Crew 2.0, submarines) is looking ominously bad.

Factor in the annoyances of playing with the mostly-scrub level of talent...ouch.

So, off to find some games where we can set up servers to minimize effects of bad design/goofy options and also not have to play with bot-level colleagues/opponents.

Group of friends played Atlas for a while, but the model there was broken unless you played on official/public servers. Before that, tried Ark (dinosaurs) and Conan Exiles (no dinosaurs).

My group is thinking about Valheim next. Getting good word of mouth, and not crazy expensive.

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My group is thinking about Valheim next. Getting good word of mouth, and not crazy expensive.

It looks good. I saw the launch video and put it on my Steam wishlist. It’s also gotten my attention in that nearly every time I launch Steam, someone on my friends list is playing it, sometimes upwards of three or four at a time. Never seen that before.

Hell Let Loose - Great game - game play is close to squad.

Dota2 - shit community, fun w/ friends

about it lately.

Divinity 2 is great (whomever mentioned BG3 upcoming)

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Computer Role Playing Game.

I've played computer games since the 80's. How have I never heard that before

Just got the Waffle$0ck in WOT

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Originally posted by heatinajeep:
Hell Let Loose - Great game - game play is close to squad.

I picked it up on sale last year and had a hard time getting into it. I think it's one of those games where you absolutely need to have a group of guys you play well with to enjoy any amount of success. Every time I've loaded it up and get into a server, I think to myself "oh yeah, that's why you never play this." It's a damned meat grinder. I spend more time looking at the spawn map and running to objectives than anything else. Many lives, I never fire a round. Forty five minutes of that, and I quit before the map has ended most times and I don't get any XP for my troubles.

It's not like this type of game is totally new to me either, I was big time into Red Orchestra for a while, and a lot of the games that followed in its wake like RO2, Darkest Hour, Day of Infamy, etc. I guess I just need a couple teammates to help keep from totally getting my ass kicked until I get a decent feel for everything.

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Originally posted by Orguss:
Has anyone played Baldur's Gate 3, cuz it's been out for a little while. I admit to never playing the first two, although I did play Neverwinter Nights a ton.

Yes. The early release/beta test is the first chapter of the game. It's about 20 hours of content, which is more than you get out of a lot of 60 dollar games.

Unlike NWN, it's turn based instead of pause based. If you played either Divinity game, it's on the same engine, same style, but DnD rules and MUCH better looking. More realistic/gritty style instead of slightly cartoony like Divinity.

I can't recommend it enough if you have the patience to play through the first chapter then wait for another year for the rest of the game

It's fully 4 player co-op. Asymmetrical too, all 4 players can be doing different things and exploring different areas if they want... of course that violated DnD rule #1 - Never split the party.

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Originally posted by P220 Smudge:

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My group is thinking about Valheim next. Getting good word of mouth, and not crazy expensive.

It looks good. I saw the launch video and put it on my Steam wishlist. It’s also gotten my attention in that nearly every time I launch Steam, someone on my friends list is playing it, sometimes upwards of three or four at a time. Never seen that before.

Went ahead and bought Valheim tonight. Messed around for an hour or so, and I already like it. Graphics are lo-fi, but the game is beautiful. I think I’m going to get some decent mileage out of this one.

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Originally posted by xantom:
Just got the Waffle$0ck in WOT

Waffenträger auf Pz. IV?

Yes sir! I got the UDES15/16 shortly after as well.

Anyone recommendations for Cyberpunk 2077? Sounded like it was pretty broken at launch and for a bit after.

I am waiting to buy Cyberpunk for a while, there seems to be a lot of improvements still to be made.

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Originally posted by xantom:
Anyone recommendations for Cyberpunk 2077? Sounded like it was pretty broken at launch and for a bit after.

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Originally posted by daikyu:
I am waiting to buy Cyberpunk for a while, there seems to be a lot of improvements still to be made.

Those improvements were made with the patch that released in the beginning of April. I'm having a blast playing it now. On my previous two play attempts, it was nothing but bugs and/or exploits (which I admit to taking advantage of) that made the game much less enjoyable/challenging.

Worth $60 or wait?

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Originally posted by P220 Smudge:

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Originally posted by P220 Smudge:

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My group is thinking about Valheim next. Getting good word of mouth, and not crazy expensive.

It looks good. I saw the launch video and put it on my Steam wishlist. It’s also gotten my attention in that nearly every time I launch Steam, someone on my friends list is playing it, sometimes upwards of three or four at a time. Never seen that before.

Went ahead and bought Valheim tonight. Messed around for an hour or so, and I already like it. Graphics are lo-fi, but the game is beautiful. I think I’m going to get some decent mileage out of this one.

Any of you guys playing valheim that made it to the bronze age. I got super annoyed with how little I could carry for smelting and the cart sucks on the terrain. I started a 2nd world and named it "backpack". So when I'm mining I can just log out and store metals in chests in my backpack world. Then log back into my main world and mine away. Rinse and repeat. It's a bit of an exploit.

But the nearest x2 dark forest biomes are quite the strech from my main base. And the terrain is all over the place & usually breaks my cart or flips it. So I don't really feel bad doing it. I'm about to start prepping to take on the 2nd boss. Usually only play a few hours on the weekend. This game is gorgeous. The developers nailed the lighting. Lot to in this game for the $20 or whatever it is.