Disobedience

@DarknessMyOldFriend: Well then, looks like I can´t go to bed yet :) Thanks! I urge you to try it, but beware, you have to be able to deal with not being told what to do at at every point in time :)

@DarknessMyOldFriend: Well then, looks like I can´t go to bed yet :) Thanks! I urge you to try it, but beware, you have to be able to deal with not being told what to do at at every point in time :)

Much has been said about Arcanum and everything I'm about to say has probably already been been said. I don't care. I want to put my two cents in and show my unabashed love for this game. Looking back I think this still has to be my favorite game of all time. There are a lot of old greats out there; Sierra's "quest" games, the original fallouts, starcontrol 2, the old dnd games and the list goes ad nauseum. Basically, you mention an old pc game craze, and I've probably played it/them to death. But nothing really hooked me the way Arcanum did.

First off; the manual. It's 190 fucking pages long(believe me, I've got it in my lap as I write)! It's full of mechanics, world info/lore and lots of funny little tidbits. When's the last time you played a game that made a manual worth shit (Since I am playing Dishonored right now, I have to say that that manual actually is kinda good)?

Secondly; the world. The idea of two opposing forces, namely tchnology and magick, was a pretty revolutionary idea in games at the time. A world filled with elves, dwarves, orcs, ogres, steam and spells felt so fucking awesome to me! I know they might seem dated, but most of the game is dated by now. Gameplaywise magick usually outgunned technology, but that again reinforced the notion that technology was still a young discipline. The world was MASSIVE by the days standards, and the people who think rpgs with huge worlds started with the elder scrolls and fallout 3 (all games I love by the way), might want to take a gander at this game. The lore was so rich you could take a bite out of it and it'd fill you like no mysterious wallchicken ever could. Looking back (and being a weirdo of occult and mystical persuasion) I also find it funny that a key figure in the Arcanum mythology is Nasrudin, originally an old and revered Sufi sage.

Third; gameplay. This game basically let you do anything within it´s mechanic parameters to anyone at anytime, be it combat, pickpocketing, lockpicking, talking and whatnot (much as fallout 3 would go on to do later). I also loved the turnbased combat (which like the early fallout games actually made your dexterity stat count for something by relating it to actions per turn). Early in the game this also meant that I would sometimes save between encounters and sometimes even between hits (unheard of in this day and age!), if my characters´s skills weren´t up to snuff. Early on I felt the interface to be kinda opaque, but sometimes a game´s flaws just makes it THAT more endearing, at least to me. Arcanum was filled to the brim with skills and dice rolls, but as an old table-top RPGer I loved it. Totally FUCKING LOVED IT.

Fourth; the mood and the music. Whenever I hear a violin and a cello play in that certain way, I still think of this game. At the time I had never heard anything like it, and even thought there are a lot of games soundtracks I like, there are few games that give me the goosebumps as this game did. But I guess the bottom line is this; the thing that attracts me to games an media in general (being a musician) is mood. The overall mood. I can´t describe it, but some games have it and some games don´t. To me, this game had it all. It just totally caught me in its net and hasn´t seen fit to release me yet.

Flaws? It had a ton! Innumerable bugs, a skill system whose dice rolls almost always fucked you over if your skills were under par, a goddamn useless motherfucker of a follower named Virgil whose main goal in life seemed to be to get himself and you killed until he learned how to heal (even after that he still seemed to try and get someone in your party killed), a completely overpowered first level spell "Harm" and the list goes on.

If you´ve read this far then thank you for indulging this slightly drunken old (29, but that´s like 130 in internet game years!) soul. Haters, let your hate rain down. If you like it, then let it be known. Critics, have at it! But if you have an experience of your own with this game, be good or bad, then I´d really love to hear it in all its gory details!

Love you all, good night

disobedience

Idaknow :) Just thought of it after listening to last week's bombcast. I hope it's still coming out and that it'll finally be the thing that makes me want own a kinect. From my limited impressions of other kinect games it may seem doubtful, but I am eternally hopeful :)

Arcanum even

Arcnum: of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, or anyone of the old Sierra "quest" games :)

I recently decided to go ahead and buy this game, but I've been waiting on a Steam sale before picking it up.  I hear the updated version is a pretty big improvement, which makes it all the more enticing.
 
@Jimbo said:

Console gamers would have rejected it out of hand in its original PC state. Polish and accessibility are desirable on PC, but necessities on console.

It's my understanding that that is the reason why Demon's Souls and Dark Souls were such failures.

Very good :)

STANKBEATER on the xbox

I was under the impression that Catwoman was incorporated into the main campaign? If so this is very odd.

It does make the choice simple for non-online gamers though, just buy the game used instead and save a few bucks.