Topic: GOG.com Christmas Sale (Read 8005 times)

ackblom12 · « **on:** 15 Dec 2010, 08:23 »

For those of you it matters to, Good Ol' Games is having a Christmas sale up to the 30th. Looks like everything will be 30% - 50% off at some point during this time.

So yeah, go load up.

snalin · « **Reply #1 on:** 15 Dec 2010, 10:40 »

Anything I should really get? I've spent a lot of money on them recently - Might and Magic 1-6, world of xeen is so good (6 too, but I've played that like five times), prince of persia, which has the best platforming and kind of mehish combat, and beyond good and evil which I haven't started yet. Except from that and everything Bioware has ever made (since I have that), what is a must-have?

Scandanavian War Machine · « **Reply #2 on:** 15 Dec 2010, 10:48 »

i thought GOG went out of business or had to close for some reason?

most of the games on that list are either terrible, or I've never heard of them. Is there anything I should get? I've never played Planescape Torment, and I've heard good things, but I don't really know what it's all about or if it's even something i'd like.

Alex C · « **Reply #3 on:** 15 Dec 2010, 10:58 »

Snalin, clearly you've got a taste for CRPGs, so Arcanum is something you should consider giving a shot if you haven't already. It was a Troika game and as such it has flaws and ambition in roughly equal measure, but still interesting for all of that. It's pretty enjoyable if you're into old school stuff and don't have an aversion to digging up a fan patch or two.

KvP · « **Reply #4 on:** 15 Dec 2010, 11:03 »

PS:T is one of the better games ever made but it's easy to get hung up on the game's shortcomings.

As far as things worth having... Sanitarium is a good, surrealistic adventure game (with some bum VA, it must be said). Jagged Alliance 2 is probably the best Tactical Combat game ever made. Gorky 17 is like JA2 crossed with STALKER. I hear good things about Second Sight, as well.

Might as well stock up on the classic Apogee games, too - Raptor: Call of Shadows, the Blake Stone games, etc.

Alex C · « **Reply #5 on:** 15 Dec 2010, 11:07 »

JA2 is one of those games I love for a lot of reasons but at the same time it's a tricky one to recommend since for new players it mostly consists of carefully hiring mercenaries and being amused by their personalities for the brief period of time before they die horribly in night operations. It's sort of a distillation of a lot of game concepts many gamers would rather see killed with fire than continued.

snalin · « **Reply #6 on:** 15 Dec 2010, 11:19 »

I briefly tried the free Jagged Alliance 1 that's out on the site, but while I could see it's charm, the controls felt a bit too clunky to bother to get around. Is 2 much better in that regard? Is it also a game where it's pretty much impossible to play the way I do in tactical games - keep a lot of saves and go back whenever anyone dies? Or would that just get too frustrating?

I've been looking at arcanum a lot, and as far as I've heard, it's like fallout 1&2, only deeper, in a fantasy setting, and more bugged. How good is the fan patches - do they make it mearly playable or do they actually make it possible to have a game where you don't encounter bugs?

Alex C · « **Reply #7 on:** 15 Dec 2010, 11:51 »

I'm afraid JA2 is a lot easier to get along with if you can live with a few dead mercenaries being taken off the payroll.

As far as Arcanum goes, my understanding was that it was actually reasonably playable when it came out. There were bugs, but it's not like it was ever Temple Of Elemental Evil level bugged and the fan patched version I played back in around '08 or so didn't ever end up crashing on me. I can't really make any promises though, given that it's been 9 years since it released, which is both good and bad from a stability standpoint. One word of warning: Magic tends to kinda stomp on technology a bit without mods, but that's more of a balance issue than outright bug.

snalin · « **Reply #8 on:** 15 Dec 2010, 12:18 »

Quote from: Scandanavian War Machine on 15 Dec 2010, 10:48

i thought GOG went out of business or had to close for some reason?

Didn't see this the first time around. The closing down thing was just a PR stunt they pulled before taking the site out of beta - they've later apologized since they realized that it was kind of in bad taste, and gave everyone a free copy of the first Jagged Alliance to make amends.

KvP · « **Reply #9 on:** 15 Dec 2010, 12:29 »

Arcanum is more poorly balanced than any other Troika game, which is saying a lot. Their systems were very badly conceived and as such there are lots of character builds that you can make but only a few that actually work out. Daggers are the best weapon in the game because experience (not skill, experience) is doled out on a hit-by-hit basis and thus it behooves the player to pick weapons that do as little damage as possible.

There are also a number of quest bugs that make Fallout New Vegas look small-time. I remember in particular there was one quest where a party member says "Oh shit I have to go check something", leaves the party, and disappears forever. That was fun.

Alex C · « **Reply #10 on:** 15 Dec 2010, 12:32 »

I dunno if I'd say that. I mean, ToEE was based on D&D and then went ahead and made a number of things worse.

imagist42 · « **Reply #11 on:** 15 Dec 2010, 13:11 »

You can always pick up Myst and Riven. Both great games. I've been thinking of trying that Real Myst thing (where you have free motion and a first-person perspective) just for the heck of it, I mean, it's only $4.19. But I'm not sure I'd even find the time to invest in it. The Unreal Tournament releases they have on there are cool, too, at least if you have any sort of interest in FPS multiplayer. I also used to play the Freespace games when I was younger; they're pretty engaging space combat simulators with a decent storyline.

ackblom12 · « **Reply #12 on:** 15 Dec 2010, 15:42 »

I'll just list stuff I have bought and on my wishlist that I could see being good picks. Ones I've listed that are italicized are not on sale just yet. Ones that are bolded are personal favorites.

Point and Click Adventure:

Broken Sword 1, 2 & 3
Tex Murphy: The Pandora Directive
Gabriel Knight 1, 2 & 3
The Journeyman Project 2
The Longest Journey
Myst
Riven
Simon the Sorceror 1 & 2
Sanitarium
Syberia 1 & 2

RPG:

Arcanum
Baldur's Gate 1 & 2
Divine Divinity
Planescape: Torment
Neverwinter Nights
Icewind Dale 2
Gothic 2
Fallout 1 & 2

Strategy:

King's Bounty: The Legend
Settler's 2
Evil Genius
Disciples 2
Masters of Orion 1 & 2
Sacred
UFO: Afterlight
Caeser 3
Sacrifice
Total Annihilation
Jagged Alliance 2
Lords of Magic
Master of Magic

Action, Adventure etc.:

Beyond Good & Evil
Outcast
Giants: Citizen Kabuto
The Incredible Machine
Duke 3D
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Seven Kingdoms: Ancient Adversaries
Arx Fatalis
Oddworld: Abe's Odyssey
Psychonauts
Painkiller: Black Edition

I feel confident suggesting all of these games. Personal taste aside, some of them are obviously better than others but all of them are either great games or at the very least still good by todays standards and a great look at the history of the genre. I'm also almost certain I've missed a few.

I'm also uploading all 4 of the "mods" I'd use for Arcanum to mediaf!re, which are numbered in the order you would want to install them. First 2 are fan patches which fix a vast majority of the bugs in the game and the last 2 are improved resolution support and town map quality patches. I'll link it once it's done.

Here are the Arcanum files.

Code: [Select]

http://www.mediaf!re.com/?i44tqyy6giq4g8j

Scandanavian War Machine · « **Reply #13 on:** 16 Dec 2010, 10:16 »

So depending on how much I get paid next week, I might actually buy a couple of these games, despite the fact that I don't even own a computer.

The ones I was thinking about the most:

Planescape: Torment
Baldurs Gate Whatever (probably not)
Two Worlds
Myst
Riven
Beyond Good & Evil
Psychonauts
Jagged Alliance 2

I've never played any of these (besides a demo for Two Worlds on 360 and a little Myst when I was a kid) so it's all pretty much new to me.

If I pay for a game now, will I be able to download it later? I don't have a computer and I might not have access to one for little while but I'd like to take advantage of the sale, if possible.

imagist42 · « **Reply #14 on:** 16 Dec 2010, 12:03 »

Do you like RPGs? More specifically, action RPGs? If so, you will want Planescape and Baldur's Gate (I recommend both 1 & 2, but some people will argue only one or the other, in which case I kind of prefer the latter as a game but the former as a story). Also, I like you played "a little Myst" when I was a kid, and only recently played both Myst and Riven and loved them, so take that as you will.

With GOG you can download and redownload whenever you want. It's kind of like Steam, but without any sort of program to frame it all, just an account on their website. Also, you download the installation files, so if you wanted to, say, temporarily store them or back them up on some kind of portable memory/hard drive, that's an option.

Tom · « **Reply #15 on:** 16 Dec 2010, 12:11 »

Didn't GOG use to stock mac versions? If not, then who/where did I buy Fallout from?

Scandanavian War Machine · « **Reply #16 on:** 16 Dec 2010, 12:16 »

Quote from: imagist42 on 16 Dec 2010, 12:03

Do you like RPGs? More specifically, action RPGs? If so, you will want Planescape and Baldur's Gate (I recommend both 1 & 2, but some people will argue only one or the other, in which case I kind of prefer the latter as a game but the former as a story). Also, I like you played "a little Myst" when I was a kid, and only recently played both Myst and Riven and loved them, so take that as you will.

With GOG you can download and redownload whenever you want. It's kind of like Steam, but without any sort of program to frame it all, just an account on their website. Also, you download the installation files, so if you wanted to, say, temporarily store them or back them up on some kind of portable memory/hard drive, that's an option.

This was all very helpful, thank you!

Now I just have to wait to see how much my paycheck is gonna be.

Alex C · « **Reply #17 on:** 16 Dec 2010, 13:16 »

The PC Baldur's Gate games aren't really action rpgs though, fyi. They're really more like playing Dragon Age exclusively from the top down view. It's pseudo-real time with pausing for orders and damage/spell durations are sorted out in discrete intervals based on 2nd Edition D&D rules. Knowing how to use magic effectively can be the difference between the games being pretty damn easy and really frustrating for newbies.

Pro tips:
1. Bows are crazy good in BG1 and in early BG2 since mages don't have full access to their ridiculous immunity tricks yet and warriors aren't running around with a hojillion hitpoints and belts of giant strength.
2. (BG2 only) Breach: Never leave home without it.
3. Save or Screwed spells & support/counter magic>>>Damage spells unless you're running multiple magicians or abusing LoS to bombard people with AoE spells without letting them know where it's coming from.

ackblom12 · « **Reply #18 on:** 16 Dec 2010, 16:35 »

Also, I'd suggest a few fan fixes for BG as well. Personally I am quite the fan of BG Trilogy as well, which lets you put BG1 into the BG2 engine so it is a more seamless experience and much prettier for the first game.

As for Planescape, I have all the preferred fan fixes for it as well. I'll go ahead and upload both sets of files to mediafire and link them later tonight.

snalin · « **Reply #19 on:** 16 Dec 2010, 16:50 »

Both BG games are great, make sure you get them with expansions and that BG Triology set. The first one needs sorely to be upgraded to the second engine, simply because pathing was improved so much.

ackblom12 · « **Reply #20 on:** 16 Dec 2010, 16:59 »

Yeah, GOG doesn't actually sell them without the expansions which is pretty great. No accidental fuck ups on purchasing makes me happy.

Here are the fan fixes and widescreen mods for BG2 and Planescape.

BG2:

Code: [Select]

http://www.mediafire.com/?7pjzw4fw0wr1frs
Planescape:

Code: [Select]

http://www.mediafire.com/?t6gcd66ws37sq88
With the BG2 stuff, install both BG1 and 2 first. Install the Fixes and Widescreen patch 2nd and then run BG Trilogy. It can take it a little while to convert BG1 over but it's well worth it.

snalin · « **Reply #21 on:** 17 Dec 2010, 04:26 »

Downloading both. Probably not going to play BG again for at least a couple of years, but nice to have it here anyways. Planescape is close to the top of the list. Thanks!

Boro_Bandito · « **Reply #22 on:** 27 Mar 2011, 23:09 »

Okay so I haven't been to gog.com in a while, and I just went back to a bunch of pleasant surprises, game that I'd been hoping they'd add, and just find the need to share. Not only do they have the Zork Anthology on there but they've got Return to Zork, a game I used to play with my dad when I was a kid, and the first time I had ever experienced the fear of being eaten by a grue.

There's also Heroes of Might and Magic IV complete, which even though it isn't nearly as good as 3 was I grew to love it for the armies of dragon slaying, demon-summoning heroes I'd make. Also its the one I made the most custom maps for.

And Total Annihilation: Kingdoms! Like, I loved this literally just because of the beast tamer dudes that I remember thinking was just such a cool idea.

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Author Topic: GOG.com Christmas Sale (Read 8005 times)

ackblom12

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