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How ‘Baldur’s Gate’ Saved the Computer RPG

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Re: How ‘Baldur’s Gate’ Saved the Computer RPG

#131

Post by godshatter »

sreque wrote: post #123
muro wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Daggerfall was a buggy mess or randomly generated, yet still always the same dungeons. No reason whatsoever to walk in the always-same, never ending landscape. The plot was good, the scale huge. Morrowind fixed all of that - much smaller scale, less generated stuff, excellent plot, few (er) bugs - it was actually possible to finish the game. Landscape with purpose, it was actually interesting to walk and explore.

Admittedly, I've only played Skyrim and a bit of ESO, but I've gotten the impression from Bethesda that their RPGs are always buggy, but, at least with Skryim, the game was so good I was more than willing to forgive them for it. Skyrim remains my favorite single player RPG to date. To respond to the OP, I consider the baldur's gate series to be more of a trend-setter than the other games he listed.

I remember reading somewhere that the developers of Skyrim will leave non game-breaking bugs in the code if they are funny ones that don't break quests. Things like mammoths floating in the air in certain cases, for example.

Re: How ‘Baldur’s Gate’ Saved the Computer RPG

#132

Post by PavlovsCat »

the_af wrote: post #108
PavlovsCat wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read 4 pages of comments on GOG and found not one that matches your description, at all. On page 2 I saw this: > After seeing how the devs treat customers I'd highly recommend a pass on this and the expansions. There are legitimate issues with the game, but anyone pointing out issues with multiplayer, buggy UI tweaks, game crashing, characters and saved games being corrupted are being called transphobes and having…

Well, I haven't re-read the thread now, so maybe it has changed (and maybe some of the flamebait was indeed deleted). Last I checked there were tons of reviews complaining about "politics" and "SJWs". If I remember correctly, there was a concerted effort to bring the review ratings down because of this.

I now actually scanned it all, reading all 1-2 star reviews, though I may have overlooked something, I only found these two:

> they went beyond and started to brake things in attempt to make the game "more socialistic"

which I find hilarious :D But this isn't hilarious at all:

> Amber Scott should be fired for shoveling her cultural marxist bullshit into this game. There's nothing good about this game

but it's literally the only grain of genuine toxicity I found. Maybe I overlooked something, but if GOG deletes reviews that would be an entirely other can of worms. Most 1 star reviews are stuff like

> I get a non specific error code with instruction to contact beamdog support. I haven't heard back.

I found this though, when looking for "gog deleted baldurs gate reviews" (which I assume they didn't do because I think the "gamergate crowd" would be all over that)

https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/50341/negative-reviews...

> Hi everyone. I usually spend most of my time lurking here, but I'd like to ask a favour. It appears that having a transgendered cleric and a joke line by Minsc has greatly offended the sensibilities of some people. This has spurred these people into action, causing them to decide this is the worst game of all time and give it a zero review score on Steam, GoG and meta critic.

Note how they're not offering actual evidence, either. That this turned them from lurking to posting is all the "evidence" anyone needs. Just painting people with a broad brush in their absence. Not that I have a problem believing that there was a lot of hate, I haven't looked at Steam or Metacritic at all, but I just went through all of GoG, pretty much nada. So it might also be the attempt to engineer a narrative based on a few grains of truth, instead just owning a shoddy product, a la Ghostbusters, and then people develop false memories based on that narrative?

Re: How ‘Baldur’s Gate’ Saved the Computer RPG

#133

Post by byproxy »

ArrayList wrote: post #79

Anyone remember Neverwinter Nights? That was my "thing". Also, Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete was a high point in my childhood.

I played the hell out of NWN when it came out. I still think the engine holds up, too. The content creation tools they gave you with the game were phenomenal. Probably my favorite game.

Re: How ‘Baldur’s Gate’ Saved the Computer RPG

#134

Post by richardknop »

Al-Khwarizmi wrote: post #98

OK, so in 1995 there were few computer RPGs. True. In fact I distinctly remember myself at that time, as a huge CRPG fan, thinking that they were bad times for PC RPGs, and hoping for better times. But 1996 was the year of The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, one of the best RPGs of all time (IMO, way better than Baldur's) that would later continue into a saga that is still top notch today. In 1997, Fallout came out. I'…

Fallout 1 and 2 were a huge success. I remember me and my childhood friends spending so much time during lunch breaks and after high school talking about fallout and our game states and comparing things we did right or wrong. I thin the huge influence of the Fallout series is not fully understood and appreciated. They really influenced the RPG genre in a big way. Fallout is the number one RPG universe for me even though I have played all the other RPGs at that golden RPG era. Baldur’s Gate, Diablo, Icewind Dales, Arcana, Might and Magic. All huge titles but Fallout series will always have a special place in my heart and I will be excited about every new Fallout game for eternity.

Re: How ‘Baldur’s Gate’ Saved the Computer RPG

#135

Post by yawz »

I've never been a hard-core gamer, but I've always loved RPGs. I think I'm showing my age by not liking the more recents games and having nostalgic feelings towards that era's games. Baldur's Gate is one of the last games that I've truly enjoyed playing. I haven't tried BG 2, though. Maybe this is a sign, and it can be my present to myself for this holiday season :).

Re: How ‘Baldur’s Gate’ Saved the Computer RPG

#136

Post by the_af »

PavlovsCat wrote: post #132
the_af wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I haven't re-read the thread now, so maybe it has changed (and maybe some of the flamebait was indeed deleted). Last I checked there were tons of reviews complaining about "politics" and "SJWs". If I remember correctly, there was a concerted effort to bring the review ratings down because of this.

I now actually scanned it all, reading all 1-2 star reviews, though I may have overlooked something, I only found these two: > they went beyond and started to brake things in attempt to make the game "more socialistic" which I find hilarious :D But this isn't hilarious at all: > Amber Scott should be fired for shoveling her cultural marxist bullshit into this game. There's nothing good about this game but it's litera…

I'm pretty sure they must have deleted them, because I remember reading pages upon pages of reviews complaining about the game's "agenda". Note I wasn't even aware of this so-called controversy so this is how I found out about it: plenty of 1 and 2 stars reviews on GOG complaining about it..

If they are gone now, it can only be because GOG did some cleaning up. I can't fault them.

Re: How ‘Baldur’s Gate’ Saved the Computer RPG

#137

Post by _asummers »

sreque wrote: post #123
muro wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Daggerfall was a buggy mess or randomly generated, yet still always the same dungeons. No reason whatsoever to walk in the always-same, never ending landscape. The plot was good, the scale huge. Morrowind fixed all of that - much smaller scale, less generated stuff, excellent plot, few (er) bugs - it was actually possible to finish the game. Landscape with purpose, it was actually interesting to walk and explore.

Admittedly, I've only played Skyrim and a bit of ESO, but I've gotten the impression from Bethesda that their RPGs are always buggy, but, at least with Skryim, the game was so good I was more than willing to forgive them for it. Skyrim remains my favorite single player RPG to date. To respond to the OP, I consider the baldur's gate series to be more of a trend-setter than the other games he listed.

Give Witcher 3 a shot if you haven't. I much prefer it to Skyrim, and felt much more attachment to the world and characters.

Re: How ‘Baldur’s Gate’ Saved the Computer RPG

#138

Post by anoplus »

Game experience is so much more than cutting edge graphics. From the many games I played in high-school, this one remembered as particularly charming (literally). I listened to the soundtrack on youtube recently. Beautiful. Maybe a good game for retirement as-well.

EDIT: I wonder if I am the only one noticed the Beholders' cave shape is a perfect Nazi swastika

Re: How ‘Baldur’s Gate’ Saved the Computer RPG

#139

Post by jstarfish »

doitLP wrote: post #109
fuball63 wrote: post #84

Baldur's Gate was really difficult as a kid. Without fully understanding how the stat system worked or the pause/play combat, my siblings and I really struggled with it. What we would do to overcome the difficulty was ramp our characters level when starting the game. In Candlekeep Inn, we would buy as many darts as we could afford, and throw them at the sorcerer in the lobby. Before he could retaliate, we would run u…

You mean your foster father Gorian? For shame!

He was going to die as soon as you leave the village anyway, might as well steal Sarevok's kill and get the XP ;)

Re: How ‘Baldur’s Gate’ Saved the Computer RPG

#140

Post by thom »

Al-Khwarizmi wrote: post #98

OK, so in 1995 there were few computer RPGs. True. In fact I distinctly remember myself at that time, as a huge CRPG fan, thinking that they were bad times for PC RPGs, and hoping for better times. But 1996 was the year of The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, one of the best RPGs of all time (IMO, way better than Baldur's) that would later continue into a saga that is still top notch today. In 1997, Fallout came out. I'…

Pretty sure Daggerfall sold quicker than Baldur's Gate at launch, but hit production bottlenecks as they didn't anticipate the success. That just seems like more evidence that the market was underserved at the time.
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