*Not* Oblivion, but similar?

[shadow_archmagi]

So, suddenly, I get an urge to play Oblivion. Except I, you know, I've already played Oblivion to the point where all the little things bug me; like how they hired only 14 voice actors and how magic is all- sorry. This is not a rant thread, so I won't rant. Have also played morrowind. Have experimented with mods for both, and still overly bothered.

So what other games are similar in setting and tone, but not made by bethseda?

I've already played Baldur's Gates, the Fallouts likewise, Diablos as well, Mount And Blade is also in the past...

EDIT: KOTOR is also out. And it's sequel.

[Dark Faun]

I heard Two Worlds was pretty good, though I never managed to make it work on my computer. It might not be the same tone (no catmen or lizardfolks), but the gameplay is supposed to be similar.

[Comet]

Morrowind and the various Gothic games come to mind.

[shadow_archmagi]

Morrowind and the various Gothic games come to mind.

Gothic? What's a Gothic?

Two Worlds?

I realize I could google them or something, but somehow a random stranger's opinion means more to me than all the qualified reviewers in the world.

[Fri]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_(video_game)

I heard some people said that two world is poor man's oblivion, though I've never played it myself.

[Miss Nobody]

The Gothic series is good. Well, at least the first two games and Night of the Raven.

[shadow_archmagi]

I can't wait until 50 years from now, when Dwarf Fortress is done. That would totally eat all my RPGing time.

[Ziren]

The Gothic series is good. Well, at least the first two games and Night of the Raven.

Indeed, although the controls are a bit... odd. Especially since the manual only gives the keys, not the key combinations (there's also no in-game tutorial).

[Optimystik]

Morrowind and the various Gothic games come to mind.


Have also played morrowind.
...
So what other games are similar in setting and tone, but not made by bethseda?

Reading is tech...

OP: Try The Witcher (Bioware if that matters to you.)

[Eldan]

The alternative, of course, is modding the hell out of oblivion. It's what I did. Until the game is barely the same.

[Ikialev]

Two World is a Oblivion clone. Aand it's better than original. A bit. It's from poland, you know that we make good stuff

[Maxymiuk]

Two World is a Oblivion clone. Aand it's better than original. A bit. It's from poland, you know that we make good stuff

And has the most hilariously, awesomely, hammy dialogue I have ever heard in a video game. It even tops DoW at certain points.

[shadow_archmagi]

Reading is tech...


I edited once I noticed morrowind being suggested. Not his bad.


The Witcher? Hmmm. *reads up on it*

Yahtzee says "You probably shouldn't play the witcher unless you're incredibly boring and it's been decades since your last sexual encounter in which case STOP READING MY REVIEWS DAD"

Now to research Two Worlds.

[Copper8642]

Excuse me for what might be a question with an obvious answer, but what do you mean "When Dwarf Fortress is done?"

[Ikialev]

To hell with what Yahtzee says, he gets payed for talking crap on games.

[Optimystik]

Yahtzee says "You probably shouldn't play the witcher unless you're incredibly boring and it's been decades since your last sexual encounter in which case STOP READING MY REVIEWS DAD"

Now to research Two Worlds.

Yahtzee is entertaining, but taking everything he says seriously can cause you to miss out on some truly good games. His preferred style is to blast anything not made by Valve or Tim Schaefer.

Note that he also canned Oblivion, a game you seem to have liked judging by your request.

[Zeful]

Excuse me for what might be a question with an obvious answer, but what do you mean "When Dwarf Fortress is done?"

If you look at the site there are a list of things that Toady is still working on.

Dwarf Fortress is actually going through a pre-alpha testing phase, technically.

As for games. Jade Empire is a good way to waste a couple of days on a game.

[shadow_archmagi]

Excuse me for what might be a question with an obvious answer, but what do you mean "When Dwarf Fortress is done?"

Well, this spoiler is going to assume you have never heard anything about Dwarf Fortress before ever.



Dwarf Fortress is currently a sort of RTS where you build a fortress, using dwarves. It's already hailed as an incredibly complex and detailed game.

Units have thoughts and personalities and preferances; http://dwarf.lendemaindeveille.com/index.php/File:Focusgroup_16.PNG is an example of a particularly thoughtful and attribute-covered dwarf. It's somewhere on the level of The Sims, but the thing is, The Sims doesn't let you build a fortress with archer garrisons and magma traps.

Magma traps. That's a big part of the dev's philosophy right there. In any other RTS, there'd be a button that says "MAGMA TRAP" and it'd cost 500 gold and 12 lumber and 196 Widgets and that'd be the end of it. In Dwarf Fortress, you order your various workshops to craft the various components of a pump (corkscrew, mechanism, tubes, etc), have your builders construct a building to hold the magma in, your masons build floodgates, and your mechanics rig the floodgates to levers. Then you build a windmill to power the pump, and now you can, at will, have the magma start to flow, and hopefully, if you designed it all correctly, it'll flow where you want.

Other game designers, I guess, settle on things the player should be able to do and then code buttons for them. Tarn Adams codes physics and tools so that the player can do whatever. There's also an adventurer mode where you take more direct control over just one guy.

The current edition of Dwarf Fortress is an incredible game that lots of people play and admire.



The Devlog shows all sorts of amazing plans. Just breeze through the website and skim over the powergoals and bloats. Basically, the end goal is to make a full fledged fantasy world simulator; something where anything you could concieve fantasy characters doing is doable, and where if you just let the game run by itself, it would, in somewhat poor grammar, write whole fantasy novels for you.




EDIT: On the subject of Two Worlds, can I be a bandit, and rob caravans? With my bow?

[Querzis]

The Witcher? Hmmm. *reads up on it*

Yahtzee says "You probably shouldn't play the witcher unless you're incredibly boring and it's been decades since your last sexual encounter in which case STOP READING MY REVIEWS DAD"

You're not really supposed to take what that guy say seriously. The Witcher is by far the best computer RPG I ever played. The only problem with it is that everyone look like robots during the dialogue but otherwise its just plain awesome. I also have Oblivion and The Witcher is a lot better, especially the plot.

[Seonor]

I also suggest Gothic. You will need a few minutes until you are used to the controls but it is a very good game. Start with the first one.

Here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=119593) someone started a Let's Play.

[Morty]

Yahtzee says "You probably shouldn't play the witcher unless you're incredibly boring and it's been decades since your last sexual encounter in which case STOP READING MY REVIEWS DAD"

Well yeah, but listening to this guy seems like a bad idea. Witcher is great both as a fighting game and as an RPG.
I can also recommend Gothic like the people before me. Parts I & II that is, because the third one is a waste of time and money. I'm not too fond of the Gothic II expansion either, but it's a matter of taste, I suppose. Two World is, from what I've heard, a rather boring clone of The Elder Scrolls Series.

[Optimystik]

Well yeah, but listening to this guy seems like a bad idea.

Listening to him is a great idea. Taking him seriously is the bad idea.

The OP's logic for using him as gospel for the Witcher and ignoring his Oblivion review is quite questionable to me.

[warty goblin]

I would also recommend the Witcher (Enhanced Edition obviously), with one slight caveat. The boss fights are absolutely horrible. Mostly the way they fence you into a very small area with no warning after a very long cutscene. Geralt is deadliest when he has space to move and time to prepare- he's like Batman except an estimated 300% more badass. Being thrown against the toughest enemies in the game with neither of these things is an exercise in frustration to say the least. Expect to reload at least once, and almost certainly more often than that.

Fortunately the boss fights are rather few and far between, which leaves plenty of room for running around and talking to people, which is where the game really shines in my opinion. For a game with as much choice as it has, the Witcher doesn't have an up front morality system that I can see, and the dialog is seldom as cut and dried as 'be nice or be mean.' It really is very refreshing.

Also it uses about sixteen billion hotkeys, for which, in this age of context sensitive actions, I love it.

[Bouregard]

Indeed, although the controls are a bit... odd. Especially since the manual only gives the keys, not the key combinations (there's also no in-game tutorial).

Its kind of idiotproof as soon as you learn the basics. Needed keys are

[Tab] Inventory

arrowkeys --> movement

[Space] Draw Weapon/sheath weapon, whatever was last drawn


[Alt]+forward ---> Jump forward

[STRG]+forward --> Use

(when weapon drawn)

[Strg] + arrowkeys --> attacks. You can do combinationattacks. They're not stronger but usually faster.

[Strg]+backward --> blocking


Everthing else is standart RPG control (ESC=Menu J=journal N=charackterscreen)

For Gothic I and II a mouse is not used. You can look around with it, sometimes it helps to focus a object you want to use... but its not that you really need a mouse at any time. For beginners its good to just focus on the keyboard.

[Rutskarn]

I'm not actually sure why Yahtzee gets press as never liking games. He's admitted to enjoying quite a few titles; it's his nature to emphasize the bad aspects, but he does talk about what parts work well.

If you want a good review of The Witcher, read Shamus's in-depth series here. (http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=1788)

[Oregano]

If you want a more actiony, platformer style you might enjoy Dark Messiah. It's linear and more of an action game than an RPG. It wasn't a great game but it was fun for one playthrough.

[Cheesegear]

Yahtzee's status as a 'Professional Troll' is well-documented. Taking him seriously is a bad idea. Having played a lot - if not most - of the games that he's ever reviewed, I can only say that almost nothing has been as bad as he's said it's been. Mostly because Yahtzee over-exaggerates.

Witcher is definitely not as bad as he says. There are bad points of course, but...They aren't game breakers.

(He also says Oblivion and Fallout 3 are terrible games...)

[Rustic Dude]

Two Worlds is very enjoyable. I found it much better than Oblivion. Lacks the races variety but armors are pretty well designed, dialogue is BETTER, much better(that's easy, heh), aand....You can crash your horse onto a tree.

(Also, it's not a cakewalk like Oblivion)

[HCL]

gothic, daggerfall

[deuxhero]

(He also says Oblivion and Fallout 3 are terrible games...)

And that may or may not be true along with the rest of your post..


Anyways, all Daggerfall costs is the time you spend figuring out dosbox, try it.

[shadow_archmagi]

So, yeah. I did look at reviews BESIDES yahtzee, but on the whole it doesn't look like what I'm interested in; I'd rather not play as a strange lecherous old man.


Looking into acquiring a friend's copy of the Argentinian version of Two Worlds so I can see if that's fun.

[Heroic]

Although what might be said against it, think you would like the Witcher: Enhanced Edition.
In this edition the developers seriously fixed some of the game's biggest bugs, like the alchemy system, inventory and the huuge loading times.

Check the review for both the Witcher and its enchanced Edition at IGN to understand what I'm talking about.

[The_JJ]

Mount and Blade. No magic, more in-depthy combat system (Directional blocking! Speed Bonuses!) and a little troop to follow you around.

And an extensive free demo to see if you like it.

[Myatar_Panwar]

The Witcher is nothing like Oblivion. Aside from it being an RPG, there are little to no similarities.

Also, this is the first time I have ever seen someone state something positive about Two Worlds.

edit: M&B is also nothing like Oblivion. But yes, great game.

[Rutskarn]

(He also says Oblivion and Fallout 3 are terrible games...)

No he didn't. He said Oblivion suffered from immersion problems and Fallout 3 was a decent game.

[Green-Shirt Q]

Yahtzee's status as a 'Professional Troll' is well-documented. Taking him seriously is a bad idea. Having played a lot - if not most - of the games that he's ever reviewed, I can only say that almost nothing has been as bad as he's said it's been. Mostly because Yahtzee over-exaggerates.

Witcher is definitely not as bad as he says. There are bad points of course, but...They aren't game breakers.

(He also says Oblivion and Fallout 3 are terrible games...)

Yathzee has been prone to over exaggeration. That cannot be said enough. I have found that a lot of his views of the game's problems are usually not noticable to anybody not looking for these problems and are easily ignorable.

He has been right a bunch of times, though. I personally have grown to trust him, and have at times taken him seriously even when I know I really shouldn't. :smallfrown:

Also, I do believe his review of Fallout 3 was positive. He didn't hate it, at least not that I recall. I may be misremembering, but I beleive his review was full of problems, but he liked it anyway. He does this with a lot of games, such as No More Heroes, which he himself said that, despite the fact his entire review was filled with nothing but hateful complaining, he thought the game was really fun. No More Heroes now stands as one of my favourite games.

[Rutskarn]

Yahtzee started his review with, "Yeah, pretty good, I guess."

[warty goblin]

For something sort of like Oblivion, you could always try on of the X games. They're sci-fi, not fantasy, and more economics focused, but are certainly plenty big. I'm playing X3 Terran Conflict right now, and it's pretty fun, aside from the gawdawful save system.

[Wizibirb]

why has no one recommended Bioshock yet? o.O

[Lord Magtok]

why has no one recommended Bioshock yet? o.O

While they're both awesome, Bioshock is a totally different setting and uses different gameplay mechanics and such. You can't use fancy tubes to throw your own corpses at enemies until they die in Oblivion.

[Stormthorn]

Two World is a Oblivion clone. Aand it's better than original. A bit. It's from poland, you know that we make good stuff


Better? The game magazine i subscribed to reviewed Two Worlds at a very low 4/10 compared to Oblivions 9.5/10

Actualy, the highest review i found of Two Worlds was like a 7. Of course, i cant check everywhere.

[warty goblin]

I played a bit of the Two Worlds demo. Was not impressed, and did not feel I would go out of my way to buy the game. More accurately I was negatively impressed- as in I would go out of my way not to buy the game.

The voice acting was terrible. That's not a deal breaker for me, but it bears noting anyways. The uncordinated flagelation that the game tried to pass off as combat however...that was more problematic. Don't get me wrong, Oblivion's combat was a bit clunky, but at least I felt more or less in control of it. Two Worlds' however was another matter entirely, with animations feeling out of step with my input, and a camera that no matter how I moved it around never really let me see whether or not I was making contact with my enemies. Ranged combat was little better. The bit where I couldn't move more than a hundred feet or so without being accosted by bloodlust crazed wildlife meant that combat wasn't only an annoyance, but a constant annoyance.

Also the graphics were eye-meltingly hideous. Not in that 'old game but looked good for the time' way you see in, well, old games, or the 'we're a small dev team doing the best we can with the limited tech we can afford way' so popular among small and destitute developers, but rather in the 'absolutely no sense of design' way common among those with no taste.

Now granted that was the demo. Maybe they fixed some of this in the full game, but I rather doubt they got a whole new art style when the game went gold.

A title I would negatively recommend. Play only under coersion.

[Morty]

(He also says Oblivion and Fallout 3 are terrible games...)

Now, I can't say anything about Fallout 3, but I could agree about him when it comes to Oblivion. It really isn't a good game.

[Eldan]

Oblivion is amazing simply for the sheer amount of modage it has gathered. Vanilla Oblivion is pretty boring, especially when compared to the fantastic morrowind. But now that I have gathered.. *goes to check the mod manager* 215 mods... :smalltongue: I mean, the entire world map is changed, I've added about twice the amount of quests, changed the combat system, the graphics, the interface, the magic system and pretty much everything else, but it's a pretty good game now.

[shadow_archmagi]

Oblivion is amazing simply for the sheer amount of modage it has gathered. Vanilla Oblivion is pretty boring, especially when compared to the fantastic morrowind. But now that I have gathered.. *goes to check the mod manager* 215 mods... :smalltongue: I mean, the entire world map is changed, I've added about twice the amount of quests, changed the combat system, the graphics, the interface, the magic system and pretty much everything else, but it's a pretty good game now.

So... Oblivion is fun once you change or remove every single aspect, feature, or system contained within?

I know the feeling though. You play it at first you're like "Well this is all good but I think magic needs to be revamped" and then you think "the economy is pretty shallow" and then you think "fist-fighting needs work" and then you get to "this level scaling system is nonsensical" and then "I need to replace all the armor, weaponry, quests, and voice actors" and then "this game needs different graphics" and that's why I almost started modding it. Then I had a different idea.

I bought a game that already wasn't Oblivion, right out of the box, and called it a day.

[Eldan]

Yeah... I like Oblivion for providing the basic framework for modding the hell out of it. Not that I ever made a mod of my own. It's the same with NWN1, I still have it around for the Planescape mods.

[Kylearan]

Well... If you like old games and can actually find a copy, Ultima VII is (for me) probably the best computer RPG out there. It has a similarly open world, non-linear story, and IMHO much more interesting characters.