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 Posted: Fri, 22nd Jul 2016 09:18 Post subject: Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura |
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| Posted: Fri, 22nd Jul 2016 09:30 Post subject: |
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Sublime game with a fantastic soundtrack, some neat mods for it available too (it's just too bad rroyo's WIP mod never got completely finished).
Really liked the IP, too - it's too bad it now lies dead in Activision's vaults. Probably for the better though, these old resurrected IPs rarely fare well as zombified console games for modern zombie audiences.
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| Posted: Fri, 22nd Jul 2016 09:34 Post subject: |
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i wasted so much time on this game,did at least 7 playtroughs and i am sure that i still don´t know everything/saw everything. why can´t games nowadays be like this 
| paxsali wrote: |
Now, I don't know what hardware costs in Poland, I guess it's cheaper because everything is stolen from Germany and resold... |
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| Posted: Fri, 22nd Jul 2016 09:35 Post subject: |
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I never really liked Arcanum even though I loved Fallout 1 and 2 which I guess are the most similar to it. Temple of Elemental Evil was my favorite Troika game with VTM coming in close second.
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| Posted: Fri, 22nd Jul 2016 09:48 Post subject: |
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what i disliked about the game was the combat system.while beeing close to F1&F2,it was a bit wonky and going in with the "RealTime" mode was suicide in 99% of battles. aside from that,no complains. dat spell/skill system 
| paxsali wrote: |
Now, I don't know what hardware costs in Poland, I guess it's cheaper because everything is stolen from Germany and resold... |
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proekaan
VIP Member
Posts: 3650
Location: Finland
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| Posted: Fri, 22nd Jul 2016 11:59 Post subject: |
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certainly offtopic but
| proekaan wrote: | I guess next up is Torment.  |
i´m stuck on VTM2:Bloodlines myself atm
| paxsali wrote: |
Now, I don't know what hardware costs in Poland, I guess it's cheaper because everything is stolen from Germany and resold... |
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| Posted: Fri, 22nd Jul 2016 13:16 Post subject: |
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Arcanum was an extremely rough diamond. I think the biggest issue was the combat system and their desire to support both real time and turn based.
If they'd stuck with one, I think the game would have been a lot better.
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| Posted: Fri, 22nd Jul 2016 13:48 Post subject: |
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I still haven't played it, but it's on my backlog as it seems like any respectable RPG connoisseur needs to play it.
Soon™
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| Posted: Fri, 22nd Jul 2016 15:22 Post subject: |
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| Steelone wrote: | Arcanum was an extremely rough diamond. I think the biggest issue was the combat system and their desire to support both real time and turn based.
If they'd stuck with one, I think the game would have been a lot better. |
Yeah and the brown and gray color pallette it really turned me off, i just couldn't stand it.
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ixigia
[Moderator] Consigliere
Posts: 65078
Location: Italy
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| Posted: Sat, 23rd Jul 2016 00:22 Post subject: |
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Arcanum 
It easily belongs to the grand council of the RPG masters, with one of the most interesting gameworld and soundtrack (as a whole package), without forgetting the insane amount of customization options and many different ways to complete your objectives. (also, dem Tarant and Caladon).
The combat definitely isn't as good as the rest and it feels rough around the edges, but damn, that's also the beauty of it.
| inz wrote: | Sublime game with a fantastic soundtrack, some neat mods for it available too (it's just too bad rroyo's WIP mod never got completely finished).
Really liked the IP, too - it's too bad it now lies dead in Activision's vaults. Probably for the better though, these old resurrected IPs rarely fare well as zombified console games for modern zombie audiences. |
Indeed, maybe it's really for the best. Obsidian with the recent Boyarsky addition might actually try to do something about it..all they need now is to bring back Jason Anderson and the old Troika team is almost restored. 
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| Posted: Sat, 23rd Jul 2016 01:23 Post subject: |
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Obsidian need to create a new Vampire game and squeeze sweet eurodollars from everyone. From old scool PC master race RPG lovers to retarded Twilight faggotrons.
Make it rain in a kickstarter and create a story-driven experience through a 3rd person action RPG.
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| Posted: Sat, 23rd Jul 2016 01:37 Post subject: |
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| VGAdeadcafe wrote: | Obsidian need to create a new Vampire game and squeeze sweet eurodollars from everyone. From old scool PC master race RPG lovers to retarded Twilight faggotrons.
Make it rain in a kickstarter and create a story-driven experience through a 3rd person action RPG. |
They actually planned on making one years ago but the negotiations with White Wolf didn't go anywhere.
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| Posted: Sat, 23rd Jul 2016 01:46 Post subject: |
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And that's partially why White Wolf ain't a problem anymore, ain't it? 
| sin317 wrote: |
typical jew comment
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MannyK
Posts: 1405
Location: Brazil
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| Posted: Sat, 23rd Jul 2016 01:53 Post subject: |
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This game was fuckin awesome
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prudislav
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Posts: 29148
Location: The land of beer and porn
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| Posted: Mon, 29th Aug 2016 19:26 Post subject: |
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| Posted: Mon, 29th Aug 2016 20:34 Post subject: |
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Now we just need the first Torment.
-=the wandering pillow stuffer=-
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LuckyStrike
Posts: 1753
Location: Somewhere in the Portuguese Colonial Empire
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| Posted: Mon, 29th Aug 2016 22:43 Post subject: |
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Enjoyed them both (and still have the cds) when they got out. Lucky me.
| Epsilon wrote: | | Meanwhile the people of that generation will call those guys relics, and not move with the times when everything is auto fucking. |
| EyePatchLives wrote: | | Press X to tame beasts. YOU ARE DA BEASTMASTER!!! |
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| Posted: Tue, 30th Aug 2016 03:13 Post subject: |
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| Posted: Wed, 31st Aug 2016 14:04 Post subject: |
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anyone have the steam version, overlay working?
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| Posted: Wed, 31st Aug 2016 14:06 Post subject: |
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It's a DirectDraw game, it cannot be done.
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| Posted: Tue, 6th Sep 2016 23:53 Post subject: |
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Well, I am finally in the "proud finisher of Arcanum" club. 
Out of the 5 very fine games I've played over the vacation, this was by far the best, and easily reached the top shelf in my imaginary game collection display case. Without doubt, the best point and click RPG I've ever played so far.
I rolled a mage; an Elf female, necromancer/conveyer with high charisma. Was challenging at times, but by end game, as a lvl 35 of max 50, I had 10 upgrade points left as I had nothing else I needed combat wise, and kept saving points for some cool skill check based quest before I beat the boss. My playthrough on hard was about 2 weeks long.
What a 2 weeks it was though. The game is basically the fallout 1/2 formula taken to the extremes of what could be done at the time with the tech. Deliciously deep, varied and complex character creation and skill variety, an unmatched reactivity of the whole world. heavily padded lore and it's connection with the skills. There's just so much to do, and everything is multiple path/solution, character development driven goodness.
It was amazing walking into a town, changing from combat gear into a dress and casting a beauty spell on myself so every npc would provide all the info they had and best prices. I sold my body to rich, fat men for money and favors, and got into places an ugly man never would in this game. After a while though, as my magical affinity grew, some people in the tech oriented cities would deny me services. And the attention to details was astounding. human settlements would always have locked doors at night, while dwarfs always kept door unlocked. elves had no doors. ton of little details like that.
I heard people bash the real time combat, but my playstyle depended on it. I would spawn 3 low level minions, and then play a mini RTS/cannon fodder type of gameplay, to pick of mobs and then raise the higher level enemies to wreck the whole dungeon. Companions were mostly used as healers or mules, because it just wasn't worth dealing with healing and repair costs of the whole group when compared to necro minions.
The game is so good, that I immediately started on a second playthrough. this time I rolled a half-ling thief/technologist/gunslinger, with a "raised by trolls" trait. basically, I am stronger than other halflings, but my beauty and charisma are troll like.
Right from the first scene, the whole game was completely different. I decided against taking on companions, and was so incompetent at combat, I had to sneak through to the first town.
when I got there, everyone was rude to me and didn't wanna tell me much, merchants charged me insane prices, and I couldn't even afford enough bullets for a single quest. I had to rummage through trash and buy junk, to build a few guns and sell them for profit. I also sold old shoes I found in trash bins. I finally had enough to buy some weapons to help the bandits for a free pass over their bridge. I barely made it to the first big town, using my half ling speed to run away from all random encounters.
and the same thing continued. i kept looting trash cans and building items for tiny profit, doing non combat quests in every town, and even by lvl 5, I still haven't killed anyone yet in this playthrough which really feels like a completely different genre in the same game, when compared to my mage playthrough.
I do have to say, that GOG is a bit shit when it comes to win10. pretty much everything works, but almost always does it require doing the homework yourself. the game ran like crap after a gog install and their sticky essential mods guide. slowdowns, scrolling at snail speed, insane load times. I had to dig around for a custom ddraw.dll being developed even now in late 2016.
https://github.com/narzoul/DDrawCompat
the same ddraw fixes infinity engine gog games as well, which also come with outdated renderers for win10 so that was a few birds with one stone at least. even with it though, a 5-6 man party in combat would lag immensely in 3d. software rendering, on the other hand was fast in combat, but in town exploring streaming would be very frequent and load times would increase. i basically have 2 shortcuts on the desktop using 3d in towns and software in dungeons when I needed smooth frames for combat.
All that aside, I am now left wondering what a watered down, 2016 era game will be able to offer me now that I've experienced this game. Hope I won't be stuck only with pixelated old RPG's now.
let's see if DX: mankind divided can cure at least a bit of that cynicism. 
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couleur
[Moderator] Janitor
Posts: 14330
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| Posted: Wed, 7th Sep 2016 00:05 Post subject: |
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great review! Looks like I'm going to up this game in my list of soon to play games.
"Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed nonage. Nonage is the inability to use one's own understanding without another's guidance. This nonage is self-imposed if its cause lies not in lack of understanding but in indecision and lack of courage to use one's own mind without another's guidance. Dare to know! (Sapere aude.) "Have the courage to use your own understanding," is therefore the motto of the enlightenment."
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tonizito
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Location: Portugal, the shithole of Europe.
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| Posted: Wed, 7th Sep 2016 00:11 Post subject: |
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| Drowning_witch wrote: | | I do have to say, that GOG is a bit shit when it comes to win10 |
Yes yes, it's gog that's shit 
Great review though. Some day I'll play it, some day...
| boundle (thoughts on cracking AITD) wrote: | | i guess thouth if without a legit key the installation was rolling back we are all fucking then |
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proekaan
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Posts: 3650
Location: Finland
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| Posted: Wed, 7th Sep 2016 00:31 Post subject: |
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ixigia
[Moderator] Consigliere
Posts: 65078
Location: Italy
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| Posted: Wed, 7th Sep 2016 04:16 Post subject: |
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 <- clickable
The chemistry achieved at Troika back in the day was something truly magical, it still boggles my mind. Tim Cain always says that Arcanum is the game that he's most proud of, since they were only a small team of three people and practically there were no boundaries when it came to implementing unique ideas, designs, rulesets, and writing was completely free from constraints as well.
Today sadly this could not happen, and even if these guys are still around they work in big companies where they're never given complete freedom (for one reason or another), but well, we can consider ourselves lucky that masterpieces like Arcanum and Bloodlines do exist.  |
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