Oblivion

[Alneyan]

Bah, don't worry. All I need is some knowledge of German, and I'll be happy afterwards.

It's the same Gold version we have here... well, except that it is perhaps half-translated, and it's hard as hell to find a box. All major Internet sites I've found only offer Gothic II and (if I'm lucky) the add-on separately, for a total sum of... between 75€ and 85€, shipping not included. A little bit under $100 I guess. Amazon can import Gothic II without the add-on from the UK for €25, or the Gold version from Germany for a mere €15... a bargain, if you are on speaking terms with Goethe.

Did I mention the publisher who was supposed to distribute Gothic II (the initial release, which we obtained a few months before the US if memory serves) has gone bankrupt a few months after the release? Of course, they didn't make much of a show of advertising the game either.

[Morkilus]

What about gogamer.com? It doesn't say this version is German, and it's twenty bucks.

http://www.gogamer.com/cgi-bin/GoGam.../View/001GOT2G

[Alneyan]

I was under the impression that Gogamer only shipped to the US, Alaska and Hawaii, along with US military bases abroad (looking at their Shipping options page). I know several other notable websites turned me down, including Amazon.com after several tries ("nope, product only ships to the US and Canada. Please look up your local Amazon website, and so on and so forth").

Not that international orders are an option for me these days, unless I *really* want it. No international debit card (either in my possession or in the hands of anyone I know) and shipping fees, that sort of thing. There still are a few import shops, though it has been dwindling of late. I miss my Amiga days (that was only ten years ago), where I had no trouble buying games imported straight from the UK.

Have I been digressing again?

[OG_Gleep]

Well if you consider Oblivon an Action RPG, from what I understand as Alneyan said, the two games are in the same style. Gothic II if I remember right was given good reviews across the board, as was the recent gold edition.

I personally don't see either game as an action rpg ala diablo, dungeon siege, or NWN. From my memory, a lot of Oldschool RPGs were solo romps, but ya I too miss the party based systems.

Alexti, ya thats what I thought you ment, but for the purpose of the discussion the goal was to categorize the RPGs in their respective genre as while each took different approaches to it, they all shared the same goal ...deliver a compelling single player adventure through the use of the normal RPG tools. Even then my groupings probably would have been different (Pools of Raidence reminded me of BG for instance).

NT - ya I was referring to the main campaign. We did load up some of the modules, and I tried a couple of them myself once some of the big ones came out. I dunno, I just never liked the system. Create a new character specifically for the purpose of playing for 4 hours? Didn't see all that appealing to me.

[NTJedi]

OG_Gleep said:
NT - ya I was referring to the main campaign. We did load up some of the modules, and I tried a couple of them myself once some of the big ones came out. I dunno, I just never liked the system. Create a new character specifically for the purpose of playing for 4 hours? Didn't see all that appealing to me.

Well if you felt your character was advancing too quickly some modules are available which slow down the speed. You could identify a slower speed and combine 3 or 4 modules using the same character.
Also you could always try playing a DM while you have friends/relatives explore a module you downloaded. I personally found this to be very fun... just remember with great power comes great responsibility.

[OG_Gleep]

Hehe its not that speed of which I am leveling. I don't know the length of gameplay per module varies greatly. If you could say, use the same character and the modules were just new chapter in that characters life, then it would be awesome. Theres only so many ways you can roll a warrior, and I'm not a big fan of replaying for the same general experience (same skills, same loot progression, same combat sytle etc.) under a new story.

But thats not to say Neverwinter Nights isn't a great game or engine. You can see the engine at work in multiple games and I enjoyed them all. But due to its, and games that used the engines success, I doubt they will make another BG style RPG anytime soon.

[PrinzMegaherz]

Alneyan said:
Bah, don't worry. All I need is some knowledge of German, and I'll be happy afterwards.

Interesting. I always thought that women need one man for money, one man to talk to and one man to have fun. I knew there was a fourth guy needed for speaking german.

Anyway, when I suggested to make a german translation of Dominions 3, everybody said "who would need that, everybody speaks english, it would not increase Illwinter's sales" and bla. Now you see how hard it can if there is an interesting game you would like to play in a language you do not understand. All games released in the german market have been translated, and while many people speak basic english, most won't understand the special terms used in Dom 3 regarding faith or mythology. I still think it would be a good idea to make the language at least moddable.

[NTJedi]

OG_Gleep said:
Theres only so many ways you can roll a warrior, and I'm not a big fan of replaying for the same general experience (same skills, same loot progression, same combat sytle etc.) under a new story.

Each class has its own skills so if you've played all the classes 3 times then you've done all you can.
'same loot progression'? ... now that's not entirely accurate. Some modules have the basic diablo setup, some have a setup where loot is earned in towns, some have a setup where loot is earned thru quests, some using stealing as an option and the list goes on. Just need to ask on the NWN forums for what loot system interests you.
'same combat style' well that sort of varies between the type of character you are playing. And some modules are setup where you can choose to join the forces of good or evil or neither.

OG_Gleep said:
I doubt they will make another BG style RPG anytime soon.

Unfortunately true... many developers/publishers believe the future is in having the most fancy graphics even at the cost of less game content and smaller battlefields. Too bad no BG style games exist with a random game generator.
I'm waiting to see when the first RPG will have a random game generator. Otherwise once you play a game two or three times you know all the places, monsters and events.

[OG_Gleep]

In D&D systems atleast, I tend to figure out what fits my playstyle first, re-rolling till I figure it out. So although there may be different ways to play a class, I'll find the one I like and go from there. I don't particularly enjoy "experiencing everything" a class has to offer. I also tend to play warrior classes in solo based games. And while there might be variations in playstyle between the Paladin types, Warrior types, and Berserker types, your still melee fighting. This is primarily why I enjoy party based systems. I get to try a little of everything while the game still holds my attention.

By loot progression I mean (and I'll use a generic example because I can't remember what the NWN loot table looked like) Level 1-3 Iron weapons/armor, Level 3 - 5 Steel weapons/armor, Level 5-7 Dwarven weapons/armor etc. etc. etc. Magical drops will vary, but the excitement of finding the "next more powerful item" is gone because you've already seen what that range of items can do.

More so then anything is what I mentioned with your character not carrying over from module to module limits my enjoyment of the module scene. The two factors listed above contribute a great deal to not wanting to roll another toon...but a large part is I get attatched to my character, and want to continue his adventures. Again thats just me.

[Alneyan]

Regarding NWN, I'm pretty sure you can carry your character from one module to another... unless playing in multiplayer with a character vault, where you may be restricted to characters in the vault (and not your local characters). It's up to the game host, though. Of course, there *is* a problem with the actual firepower of your character: most mods recommend a relatively narrow of levels, though there is nothing to prevent you from going against their wishes.

PrinzMegaherz, would it help you if I told you I was a guy? Your avatar is clearly more feminine, though.

Not all German games have been translated, actually. On the top of my head, I can name Anstoss (starting from the third game in the series) or Mad TV II, and I'm pretty sure a couple others have not been translated either. Of course, that's only a few games compared to all the games left untranslated from English... but a lot more than the games only available in, say, French (I can't think of a game released in the last ten years that has been written in French and not translated). I guess your situation is a little bit better in that aspect.

I've always felt that the problem with translations is very simply the difficulty in finding interest in said translation. The people on these boards pretty much all know enough English to understand Dominions; if they did not, they probably wouldn't be reading and writing posts here. Players who don't know much about English are unlikely to hear about Dominions in the first place, so they cannot voice their interest, and without any (apparent) interest, there isn't much point in a translation. Hmm, looks like a Gordian knot.