Game Recommendations

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I got back yesterday to find out that we've (finally) upgraded our PC.

Any recommendations on must-play games? The most "recent" games I played were KotOR2 and Rome:Total War on the lowest possible specs.

The new PC is pretty state of the art (I think?) so I'll just name the video card because that may be the only thing that limits my options?

It says it's a Nvidia GeForce 9500 GT.

Any recommendations? I've heard a lot about Dragon Age: Orgins, Risen and Mass Effect 2. Can I play any/all of these?

 

Unfortunately the 9500 GT ranks pretty low in the hierarchy, so there won't be much you can do with it. I think it meets the minimum requirements of the games you listed, but don't expect to run them at anything but low settings. That said, you could go back and play KotOR2 and Tome:TW and enjoy them at max settings

Seriously, if the rest of the system is reasonably powerful (you'd have to tell us at least what CPU you have and how much RAM) then it may be worth it to spend another $150 or so on a more powerful card that will run these games on mostly high settings (if not max). Otherwise, for any post-2006 game you'll probably have to do some internet searching and see how much other people have been able to get out of the card.

 

Mass Effect 1 and 2 are fun; I would play 1 before 2.
Dragon Age: Origins is excellent.
Borderlands is good.

They should probably all run on your computer.

 

Drakensang was quite ok too. Fallout 3 might be to your liking as well. I also recomend the same ones Ragusa did.

 

Oh yes, I forgot that. Drakensang was quite nice. There is iirc a sequel out for it, which I haven't played yet.

 

I'm afraid Ziad is quite right about the card. The 9600 would be a better choice for games.

Anyway regarding recommendations I'd like to suggest Dragon Age as well. It's a very addictive game that may bring you back some memories of playing BG (although some may disagree with me) it's story driven which is good and it's rather fun although at times it feels a bit "smallish" I don't know how to phrase this but although the world is not that small, the way levels are designed make it feel somewhat limited in scope. That to me would be the only drawback of this game. Did I mention how good the story was?

I'd second Rawgrim's suggestion of playing Fallout 3 if you're capable of not becoming blue in the face because of the way Bethesda has turned a fantastic game like Fallout into Oblivion with guns. There are many things that I don't like in Fallout 3 (and 2 for that matter) but I think the dev get criticized for the wrong reasons. In any case, it's got the Fallout humour and it's a rather good game if you like exploration à la Oblivion. The level scaling is certainly not as bad as Oblivion and the speech system is more like the original Fallouts (no speech wheel minigame like in Oblivion). It's a bit silly that armours don't discriminate between damage types like in Fallout 1 and 2 and the creation system is geared towards casual gamers and the Oblivion tradition of having a character who can excel at everything whereas Fallout was all about picking a specialization and sticking to it. There are many many mods that make the game much better so that it can be a rather enjoyable experience.

Another game that hasn't been mentioned in this thread yet is The Witcher. It's a very nice adventure game with RPG elements. The story is really good and since you can only play one character, the Witcher Geralt of Rivia it allows the game to get into details regarding the character's background. It's a bit linear but there are many choices to be made along the way so it has enough elements that keep you interested. I can't bear myself to call it a CRPG but as far as adventure games with RPG elements go it's a very enjoyable game.

 

The Witcher is the best of the lot, and Oblivion is close behind, despite its much talked about faults. The Witcher was for me, far more addictive than the mediocre Dragon Age, which was, IMHO, pretty boring. DA is nothing more than a glorified NWN in my opinion (I liked NWN 2 better than DA). So if you liked any of the NWN games, you may like DA. But it's not a bad game. The level scaling in DA is as bad as it is in Oblivion.

What's great about Oblivion is all the cool mods you can aquire, at no cost, that not only fix the scaling problems, but add new content, quests, items and NPCs.

 

I haven't played NWN2 but I don't see so many similarities between NWN1 and DAO. NWN1 had a really poor campaign and NPCs were really bland.

Furthermore, I'd dispute that statement that level scaling in DAO is as bas as Oblivion's. First, Oblivion has certainly the worst level scaling ever. When you level up regular enemies get high level gear like Daedric armours and stuff it really doesn't make much sense. There is nothing like this in DAO. Second, in Oblivion you could rush through the main quest and complete the first gate with a level 3 character which made the whole Oblivion thing ridiculous. In DAO due to the way levels are designed you'll have to go through a certain number of encounters before being able to face a "boss" or complete a major part of the main quest. It certainly makes more sense.

Moreover I understand that some may dislike DAO but I'd like to point out that anyone who has ever fought a Revenant (black vials) with low level parties and higher level parties would have to recognize that despite level scaling it's easier at higher levels (which is entirely different from the way Oblivion works). The same goes for some fixed encounters in game.

IMO it's rather unfair to liken level scaling in DAO to level scaling Oblivion. Another example of what I mean is that no matter what your character has done he or she will still be a wimp compared to guards. It's actually very funny to run into guards and get a walloping when you are officially the champion of the Arena.

I'm not a big fan of Oblivion (the speech wheel is just plain bad, the fact that once you get enough levels you can do everything, that you can complete all guild quests, all this annoys me to no end) although I liked Shivering Isles. I do agree that mods make the game much better (the same goes for Fallout 3). IMO Dragon Age doesn't need mods as badly as Oblivion. Truth be told DAO has certainly more in common with KotoR than NWN and if you don't like the way it works or its story then there's not much to be said for DAO whereas Oblivion and Fallout 3 can still be fun even if you think the story is crap (and in both cases it's quite true) because as far as Oblivion (or Fallout 3) is concerned the most important part of the game has nothing to do with the story itself.

 

Well, that's what I mean about DA: You can get less fight from some of the boss fights, than a few Hoods in a back alley, which makes no sense, and is just plain silly. Or a random group of lowly bandits will put up more fight than a pack of the much dreaded warriors of the Blight.

I never played KotOR so I can't say.

Yes, both of these aspects are much better in DA, but the basic gamplay was pretty much the same. The Dalish forest espeically reminded me of NWN, even complete with werewolves, but the story was more interesting in NWN in that instance. The Dalish forest and the Great forest (or whatever it was), seemed, in some ways, almost the same to me (and just as tiresome).

Of course, the advantage of Oblivion is obvious: It is a seamless world, which you can move across, in first person aspect if you choose, since there are no different world screens to enter in and out of (which is far more primative than in Oblivion), and you can go in any direction and enter ALMOST into any location. You may not like the guild quests in TES, but in my opinion they are way better than the Fed Ex quests in DA. "Oh, you had your magic acron stolen, big tree? Let me go find it for you." This is typical Bioware tedium. Unfortunately, I'm coming off far more harsh than I mean to, since DA is really not that bad a game. I would still recommend it, but Oblivion is better (or the TES games), at least in my opinion.

 

Now what you refer to actually has very little to do with level scaling. You mean that fighting groups is more difficult than fighting bosses... That has nothing to do with level scaling per se. I mean no offence by that but it's just probably due to the fact that you didn't use crowd control spells effectively or failed to manage your tanks.

Regarding this point I didn't think about it. That being said if you find such areas "tiresome" then it's only to be expected that sooner or later you're going to be dissatisfied with DAO.

Please keep spoilers to a minimum, this is after all a thread for game recommendations.

I didn't say the guild quests in Oblivion were bad, I was just annoyed by the fact that you could complete all quests in one run. I never liked the fact that any character could be able to do anything, learn any skills, cast any spells... I've always felt that was a huge drawback for Oblivion (or Fallout 3 for that matter).

Regarding "typical Bioware tedium" (that phrasing speaks volumes regarding your own preferences but that's fine by me), I have to say that IMO there is much more than meet the eye in DAO. The big world in Oblivion may conceal the lack of depth of the game whereas the more you dig in DAO the more stuff you unearth. After a few playthroughs I can say that little things do matter in DAO but once again if you didn't like the story, the NPCs and couln't enjoy the game system then you're better off playing some other game.

 

That is why all the mods are very cool to have for Oblivion, since they help with the lack of depth in the original game.

I thought the NPCs were fine, in fact one of the best parts of the game. I also thought the story was OK, and not bad. It was the repetition.

Well, you can believe that if you want, but some of the boss fights were in groups. Also, as I commented, a pack of Blight warriors could be a quite easy, but bandits could be tougher, so I'm not sure if it had anything to do with "crowd control." But feel free to blame me, because I don't agree with you on some points - It's only my opinion. These kinds of disagreements tend to be mostly subjective.

 

If you enjoyed Rome: Total War, then I'd definitely recommend getting Medieval 2: Total War. It's pretty old already, but should be available if you look around, and is definitely worth it. Should run on your PC handily, though I don't know off-hand how your 9500GT compares to my 7600GT. The numbers would suggest that your card is faster than mine, but that's not always how it works for videocards. Empire: Total War is newer, but I've heard that it's quite buggy and generally not as good as M2:TW.

DA:O runs well enough on my 3 years old machine (Athlon64 X2 4200+, 2GB RAM, 7600 GT), so I suppose it will well enough on yours as well, though we'll need more detailed specs than what you've given so far to be sure. DA:O has many good points, but I still consider it deeply flawed. I've written down what I think about it in more detail in another thread.

I'll also recommend the Witcher (and I do call it a CRPG ), which I found more enjoyable than DA:O for the more enjoyable combat and some truly great moments when you have to make a plot decision.

I'll just chip in here to say that you're wrong in saying that there is nothing like that in DA:O. We don't really know what kind of gear opponents are wearing at various levels, due to a different level of detail than Oblivion has, but you must have noticed that, as you progress, enemies start dropping higher level gear and even the random loot you find in random boxes or barrels starts giving higher level gear. It's definitely not as in-your-face as in Oblivion, nor as immersion breaking, but it is definitely there.

Mods for Oblivion are not just cool to have, they're necessary to make the game enjoyable.

 

I only surmised that your perception of the difficulty of back alleys fights could have to do with some issue regarding crowd control. I was just stating my opinion that level scaling has very little to do with mob fights and the difficulty of fighting larger groups. Re-reading your post it seems to me that you imply that Bandits are tougher than Darkspawns. I actually can't see a way to either substantiate that claim or prove it wrong. I agree with your point on subjectivity as it's all a matter of opinions and playing styles (it's certainly easier for instance to cut Darkspawns from the herd so to speak). I didn't mean to offend you.

I've never disputed the fact that there is level scaling in DAO, merely the point that it is as bad as level scaling in Oblivion.

Mods definitely make the game better. As far as being necessary, it's quite hard to go back to an unmodded game after having played a modded game (and that doesn't apply to Oblivion alone but to most games for that matter).

 

You didn't offend me, Cara. I just didn't agree on that point.

 

Thanks for the recommendations guys. I'm definitely on the lookout now for Dragon Age, Oblivion, The Witcher and Mass Effect. Probably Medieval 2 as well.

My brother was near the game store and he said they didn't have anything in stock right now but Mass Effect 2.

Bit of a bummer that my video card isn't exactly hardcore. Not knowing anything about videocards, I thought it sounded high-tech, lol.

The rest of my computer specs are: Windows Xp Service Pack 2 on Intel Core Quad CPU Q8400 @ 2.67GHz and 3.25G Ram with several drive partitions with tons of space.

 

I'd suggest going for the older and cheaper games first. There is nothing wrong with saving money and a game like Oblivion which has been released for a long time now can keep you busy for a very long time.

Besides, you have many many mods for Oblivion (ask Chandos, he knows ) and you can get the Goty edition at a very reasonable price.

If you get the Witcher, get the enhanced edition (I think you can upgrade the regular game but if you don't have it yet you should look for the latest version of the game) as it solves many issues that people experienced when it was first released.

Whatever you do don't get a used copy of Dragon Age Origins because you won't be able to take advantage of DLCs since you'd need to register the game to get them.

 

Then I misunderstood when you said "There is nothing like this in DAO". I thought you meant that as to say that there were no leveled drops, but I guess you actually meant that it was nowhere near as bad as in Oblivion. And I agree with that completely.

Sounds like a fairly budget computer from maybe half a year back? Bit of an odd collection, I'd say. And where did you find 3.25 GB RAM? I guess you actually have 4 GB RAM, but only the 32-bit XP version, which is limited to addressing memory up to 4 GB in total, i.e. including memory from your graphics card, for example. Which means that you probably have a 9500GT with 512 MB, not one with 1 GB. And for a budget PC I find the Core2Quad Q8400 a bit too expensive, when in that segment AMD CPUs have a much better value for money.

But anyway, I rant.

I agree with Caradhras that going for older titles is far more money efficient than picking up some of the newer titles.

If you're from North America, the latest greatest version of the Witcher is called The Director's Cut, if I recall a news posting here on SP correctly. Not that it matters so much, if you patch the game with the latest patch it should add all the goodies to the game that you'd get from the Enhanced Edition or whatever they call it. Even if that doesn't interest you, I'd still install the latest patch, because it allows you to play without the disk in the drive.

If you go looking for M2:TW, be sure to pick up the Gold edition, which includes the expansion pack Kingdoms. And be sure to patch too; there's some nasty bugs in the earlier versions.

 

Replace the videocard in time. For around 90 euro's far superior cards can be found. As for games, if you like a litte mindless hack and slash Sacred2 is around.

 

hmm okay. maybe i scare up some cash to replace the video card. but if i do that, the rest of the system is good enough to run newer games on higher than lowest settings, right?

also, what are some video card recommendations?

 

I think the rest of the system is more than good enough. I don't agree with henkie about it being a budget PC - the Q8400 may have been relatively cheap even on launch, but none of the quad-core CPUs are really budget and it will be more than enough to run everything that's available now (and most probably for the next 2 years at the very least).

As for the graphic card, depends on your budget and whether you prefer an Nvidia or ATI card. If you want to pay less than $100 then the choice is pretty clear: get an Nivida 9800 GT or an 8800 GT (they're both pretty much exactly the same card with different names). If you're willing to pay $150 (the sweet spot of performance/price at the moment) then the ATI HD 5770 is the choice. If for some reason you're an ATI hater you could go for the Nvidia GTX 260, which has very similar performance to the HD 5770 but is more expensive.

So it gets down to price: 8800/9800 GT at $100, HD 5770 at $150. Or if you have money to burn then you could go for the GTX 295 at $500