Money to burn.. but on what?

[mediaboy]

Okay... I got bored of thrashing my way through the hordes of demons on DMC4 LDK mode and also a little tired of having money sitting around my computer and not having much to spend it on.

So I thought: Right then, let's go and find some games to burn up money on!


After trawling through the strategy/RPG sections of the game.co.uk website (as I was looking for some nice shiny strategy/RPG games ) I narrowed it down to a selection of six games...

Heroes of Might and Magic V: Tribes of the East
This is an expansion pack, for a game which I have and got off of a friend, because the orignal game had compat problems with his computer. He bought the expansion pack himself, and it apparently works fine and is enjoyable, so I have included it in this listing. £9.99

Two Worlds
Shiny new game, which attracted me for the end comment on one of the review I read which said "Oblivion on Steroids." However, I'm also aware that this game has had compat issues with Vista, and I don't want to have to spend hours or years of my time trying to get the thing to work. Can someone verify whether or not this game has that many problems? £14.99 for collectors edition. I cant find a normal edition for PC....

Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends
One of the Strategy games which looked vaguely alright... As far as I can work out, this isn't an expansion pack but rather a second standalone game. Graphically it's not too bad as compared to some of the other RTS games out there, but gameplay on it sounds good... Once again, I need an opinion on this as I don't have the foggiest how good the reviewers are... £4.99

NeverWinter Nights 2
Okay, let's be honest. I only included this in there because I heard just about every single person that posts in this section of the forum go on about it and how good NeverWinter Nights 1 was and how it's the best game out since computers started and.... You get the idea. However, putting away all of that, it still looks like an alright game. Although the pricetag of £14.99 does make me hesitate slightly

Maelstrom
Strategy. Space. Real Time. Enough said. £4.99

Universe At War
Same as Maelstrom, with slight differences in gameplay/graphics but pretty much the same I feel. I think that Universe at War is the better of the two games, but that's just an observation based of reviews. £4.99


Presming that the total price tag don't go above £20 (my current budget... unless I can bully my dad in to paying me BEFORE I do the work I've got next week, which would more than double the budget ) I'm willing to take suggestions.


Mostly, however, I'm looking for your opinions on the 6 games I listed. Have you got them? Have you got a definite proof of incompat with vista?

Please comment

[CaseyV9]

Ahh, Neverwinter Nights 2. I really enjoyed this.

It's relly enjoyable. I love the the way you make choices. This felt more closer to Baldur's Gate than NWN1 did. I mean this in the way you have a party with you. I loved the characters aswell.
Neeshka and Kelgar Iron Fist. My favorite party members, some funny moments.

The add on pack - Mask Of The Betrayer is worth buying with it. You have extra classes, new races and skills to play through the origonal quest with. Mask Of the Betrayer also feels more darker than the origianal quest. There are multiple endings aswell so the choices you make really makes an impact on the story.

Also there are 2 add-on packs on their way:

Mysteries Of Westgate

and

Storm Of Zehir

When these are out me don't know. But I know MOW has been delayed for ages.

Anyway, your post reminded me of NWN2. So now I'm going to find out when and how I can get hold of these lovely add on packs.

NWN2 is well worth your time if you like your RPG's. Should keep me going until Dragon Age comes out anyway.

[mediaboy]

Dragon Age? What's that?

[rufeo]

Second the vote on NWN2. played icewind dale 1&2, all of the baldur's gate games and also NWN1. whilst NWN2 doesn't seem as huge as the original or the baldur's gate epic, it is still a great game. The fact that your choices actually have an impact on how the game plays out is one of the stand out features imo.

Oblivion would be another good bet. It's huge and there's loads of expansion packs/mods for it. Although I do love the game, I'd have to say I prefer the style of the games mentioned above. Reason being that I feel more 'in control' of the game, rather than completing the masses of side quests and just jumping through hoops in the main quest.

Played Mass effect recently and it reminded me a lot of Knights of the old republic, which isn't bad thing! But I personally prefer a fantasy setting than sci-fi

[CaseyV9]

Dragon Age? What's that?

It's a Bioware RPG. I think it won't be out for ages yet. But from a video on PC Gamer's magaine disc It plays a lot like NWN in the fight department. You can pause it in mid fight an stack up commands and stuff.

Looks real good. Maybe there is something on Youtube or their main site. Haven't looked myself

[mediaboy]

Maybe should have mentioned that I've already got Oblivion+all expansions. Another game I "borrowed" off of friends because they just stopped playing them.

Mass Effect? Sounds good....

Also started looking at the Battle for MiddleEarth games... 1+2... which ones better gameplay wise? Or are both worse than the others I listed?

[shadowmaster]

Another vote for NW2, its a very good, not as good as the Baldurs Gate series but its definitely up there.

The other one is Mass Effect. Its like NW2 in the sense that you can make choices which impact the storyline, but its also a first person shooter so you get the best of both worlds.

I'm about to put it up for sale (£12), as I've just completed it and no longer need it. Its in very good nick, if you want it pm me, as otherwise I'll be putting it up sometime tonight.

[Mithrandir]

I've been playing World in Conflict lately
Really good game.

[chuckskull]

World in conflict is brilliant, should be able to get it pretty cheap now too, been out a while.

Sins of a solar empire might interest you too, another space based RTS, very good still going for £20-ish though. http://www.sinsofasolarempire.com

[Hicks12]

Another vote for NW2, its a very good, not as good as the Baldurs Gate series but its definitely up there.

The other one is Mass Effect. Its like NW2 in the sense that you can make choices which impact the storyline, but its also a first person shooter so you get the best of both worlds.

I'm about to put it up for sale (£12), as I've just completed it and no longer need it. Its in very good nick, if you want it pm me, as otherwise I'll be putting it up sometime tonight.

Yeh Mass effect is a great game , glad you enjoyed it.
Definitly recommend it and if you want to waste time then go buy spore, ive gone threw so many hours without noticing .

Diablo 2 is old/outdated but another great rpg, im getting titan quest in the post soon so will recommend it if i find its good.

[mediaboy]

Have TQ... completed it+Expansion (although I had to steal the expansion pack to complete it, as i wasn't paying good money for a game which would only last about 20-40 hours... as opposed to replayable games... TQ just isn't replayable for me really.)

Thanks for the offer shadow, but I think I'll pass this time, as I have plenty of games hanging around my head atm, and lots of friends telling to me to buy this that and the other. Mostly so that I can go and help them online, but y'know.. that's friends for you.

Getting back on topic, I think I'm tempted to go for:

Two Worlds
Universe at War

with a hint to my family that the others would make good bday presents (22 days to go) and that I'd REALLY love to get computer games and/or money this time round.

Christmas is only a few months away as well.


However, just before I go and buy anything...

Rumour has it that Two Worlds has compat issues. Is this true or false? I'm running on Vista Premium 32bit, with a TriCore 8450 Phenom, HD3650. Will it run on my system?


Hopefully yes, and then I'll place order tonight or tommorrow morning and have them by wednesday!

Maybe will spend next weeks money on Mass Effect+Dark Messiah (which I didn't list here as I might be able to "borrow" it off of a friend whose computer keeps on failing to play nice games that I don't mind having... It depends on whether or not he finds a fix for it I suppose) or some other games.

Christmas is coming up, and with it all the chaos and so on that goes with that time of year including the massive influx of work I get as churches suddenly need organists and they can't get any local person to play. And of course, the statutory "We Wish you a Merry Christmas" "Away in a Manager" and "While Shepherds Watch." But I'll not bore you with the universal complaints of organist.

SOMEONE ANSWER THE QUESTION!!! please?

thanks.

[finlay666]

RoL is ok, pretty repetitive though, but the diminishing returns is cool (in that each additional soldier costs more than the previous one etc)

[format]

The longest journey has a 91 rating on steam, very highly regarded.

[acrobat]

The Longest Journey is very love it or hate it. It has a LOT of dialogue that you have to read. If you like reading, it will totally absorb you in to it's great story and characters and stuff and it will probably be one of the best adventures you've played. If you don't like lots of reading though, you'll want to punch it after about 15 minutes.

Two Worlds is good, not amazing, but good. It's first person / third person, running around with a sword or with some spells, blasting and hacking stuff and doing quests for various people. Large world. Pretty. Great long distance views. Decent story. Typical RPG. Needs a high end PC to really look it's best though. Up there with Gothic 3 and Oblivion. Which one is better is down to personal taste because different people have different favourites, and they each have their own little pros and cons.

World In Conflict is great. I loved that game. The only problem is that I found it a bit shallow after I had played it for a couple of weeks, but I think that if I had the time to join a clan and stuff, it would probably be much better because a large part of the challenge and strategy is about team work.

If you like RTS's though, there are loads to choose from. There is a relatively new C&C game called Tiberium Wars which is pretty popular, and I think it has an expansion, and then there is a new C&C game due in a month or three. There is also Supreme Commander and the expansion/sequel to that. There is also Company of Heroes which is hugely popular.

Mass Effect was quite good but I didn't really like it and I'm not entirely sure why.

As for Dark Messiah, are you talking about the original, or Dark Messiah 2? I think the original is GREAT! But the sequel I never played because I heard it was pants.


When I think about them all, money is obviously important to you, so I think that NWN2 might be your best bet because of it's value for money. The NWN games are completely underestimated by people because although there is the campaign they give you with the game, you can just go online and download entire new campaigns made by other people, and I personally think most of them are actually better than the one that comes with the game! When you think about how much time you can spend playing all those various things, and how much replayablity they have if you like to try new classes and different parties and stuff, then I think that is probably the best value for money. The last time I played it, I found some page which listed loads of player made campaigns, and I sorted it by rating and just downloaded the one with the highest rating. And wow... it was really good.

[2Cold Scorpio]

The only game I have experience from your list is Rise of Nations. I didn't play the second one you speak of, but I thoroughly enjoyed the first RoN; I enjoyed it as much as Empire Earth (the original!) in fact.

Though I'd have to cast a vote to Mass Effect. Or Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic or Jade Empire (both also made by BioWare) if you haven't played them already.

[mediaboy]

Dark Messiah - Original... I wasn't aware of a sequel.

WiC - I've played it, and to be honest I didn't find it that good. You sort of get about two people how know what they're doing and 5 people that don't and then me, who is playing it because they wondered what it was and why it's supposed to be so good.

I didn't really like Tiberium Wars for some reason... it was a bit like most of the newer C&Cs... not so good. I have the older ones (RA, RA2, Tiberium Sun) and they run fine so y'know.. I'm set for C&C


Someone mentoined Two Worlds - were there any compat issues or not.. it's one of the things that I can't find a definite answer to anywhere.... and everyone seems to be ignoring the question -.-