Hello all, my name is Maigrets and I'm a 56 year old female gamer from Australia and have been gaming since the old days of the Commodore 64 and Amiga. I'm also known for long posts that can turn into essays so I don't blame anyone for skipping over this one.
I'm a huge fan of games like the Gothic series (definitely NOT Arcania though), including Risen, and I even liked Two Worlds 1 after it was patched and will get Two Worlds 2 next year when it's released here.
Morrowind was my first real foray into rpg's and I played that for years on and off until Oblivion came along. Before that I mainly played first person shooters like Half Life 1&2, Dues Ex and the Resident Evil and Silent Hill games, but I also consider Thief 3, Vampire the Masquerade:Bloodlines and a few others to be in my top 10 list.
I've played Oblivion from the day it was released and even made some mods, (mainly creature companions and a couple of races), but I couldn't play it unmodded after the first play through. I only did the main quest once as I hated the Oblivion Gates for their boring, uninspired design and lack of variety. The same goes for most of the dungeons, except I do like the Ayleid Ruins.
The main really big issue I had with Oblivion is the obvious level scaling (thank you FCOM) which just ruins any semblance of character progression, but despite that and a few relatively minor complaints fixed by mods, it can be almost anything you want it to be I suppose. I've lost interest in it at the moment though since there's very little left in it for me.
I don't "role play' like many people do as I much prefer action rpg games. I have no interest in companions and romance or relationships in games, but give me a good quest mod with plenty of action and inspired writing and I'm there. Although, to contradict myself a little, I also don't like the fact that every little thing in a game like Oblivion, especially unmodded, wants to immediately have you for breakfast and will come from miles away to attack you. That's one of the many things games like Gothic do well. If you stay out of the beasts personal space they will leave you alone, except for boars which hate everyone.
I also play Fallout 3, but since New Vegas came along I'm probably going to uninstall it. New Vegas is everything Fallout 3 should have been and even though many people had issues with it and STEAM, I've had no problems at all, except something like three crashes over 60 or so hours and I haven't even finished it yet because DKS arrived. As far as Fallout 3 goes I've never ever finished the main quest because it was so uninteresting and unlike New Vegas, the game is more prone to crashes. Obviously, that's not everyone's experience, but I guess I'm just lucky with games and stability, in most cases.
I agree entirely with Divine Avenger's post in another thread when it comes to Dragon Age. I can't see what the attraction is. I have a friend who bought the game and I played it for about two hours and that was enough. The mechanics and game play left me cold. I don't understand why games still use turn based combat in this day and age when real time combat is more immersive and adds to the whole experience. I know people say it has a good story and music, but as I told my friend I would much rather read a good novel or listen to a CD to get the same effect without the frustration. Feel free to disagree though, but I'm glad I didn't buy it especially when it was first released at $110 Aust.
I made that mistake with Arcania hoping it wasn't as bad as it is and even after having read the scathing player reviews on it's forums. If that game hadn't been called Gothic 4 and left out the characters from previous games it could be OK as a straight action adventure, but even then it's only saving grace is the graphics and because my system isn't new I couldn't max them out anyway. Maybe I'll pick it up again one day when I've exhausted every other gaming option or if they patch it to add the missing content, which is unlikely. I've been told I'm too hard on that game as well, but the fact is it's not what it was advertised to be. I'll leave it at that.
Then along comes a jewel of a game like Divinity 2:DKS. I missed out on the original Ego Draconis here in Australia and I don't even remember seeing it for sale here though it may have been, so I was very happy to be able to buy DKS on DVD from EBGames. I got in on release day here (birthday present to myself) and I see they've reduced the price since then. Not that I care because although I only just finished the main game last night and barely started FOV, I feel I got my money's worth many times over.
This game has held my interest more than any other game I've ever played without playing something else in between sessions for a change of pace. I've been up all night, every night, except for one or two since I installed and many times saw the sun come up, wanting to continue playing. Even though many complain about the Gamebryo engine and it's foibles, I have had zero crashes or glitches and no bugs at all the whole time. I didn't need to change the 30 fps to a higher number since the game runs as smooth as silk as it is.
I 'm a gamer who has to find everything possible, do all quests and find all the secrets in a game and I think I succeeded pretty well in DKS, mostly without coming here and searching for help.
I can't say enough how good this game is and I recommend it to anyone who will listen. I'm going to repeat part of the text I wrote at a forum where I've added a heap of screen shots. I've added some extra points since I've played further now than when I posted there.
http://savageartistry.darkbb.com/ot...inity-ii-the-dragon-knight-saga-t234.htmThe things, in my opinion that make this an epic game:
1. The intelligent varied dialogue and often laugh out loud humour without being silly.
2. Logical puzzles that really make you think and stretch your imagination. Sometimes can be maddening when you can't find something, but that's the way I like it. It's a real achievement when you finally find that person or object you've scoured the landscape for, and it feels good to have solved it without in game hand holding.
3. Excellent voice acting. I'm positive I haven't played any game with better voices.
4. Beautiful music that I don't immediately want to turn off.
5. Fast and furious, yet fluid combat - dual wielding rocks!
6. Intuitive magic and leveling system.
7. Beautiful fantasy landscapes. Graphics are outstanding.
8. The writing in the books is very good and sometimes gives hints. I especially liked the one on how to avoid Trolls and the Hitchhiker's Guide was a nice surprise.
9. Great idea with the creature and being able to upgrade it. He/it saved me many times.
10. Very good story and meaningful quests. I was impressed with the ending of DKS and how it wasn't the same old fairy tale ending.
11. Love the variation of armour and weapons.
12. Consequences for your actions and different ways to solve quests. Even though the game is directing you to the same conclusion it doesn't feel linear because of this.
13. Extremely stable - never ever crashes or glitches. For me anyway. I see some have had problems and I can only go by my own experience.
14. Developers who care about their fan base. This I have never seen before and to such a degree. Kudos to the Larian team.
It's obvious Larian Studios put a LOT of love and dedication into this game and it shows. They are a small development team, but they do it right and are to be commended for their support and care for their customers.
Unlike the forums for other recent rpg releases where they are chock full of complaints, sometimes valid, others not, and vitriolic criticism, Larian Studios is a refreshing change indeed.
There are a few little things I would like to see done differently, but are mostly personal taste than issues so I don't want to give the impression they are complaints.
Some of the character faces are too similar, and maybe there could be more varied ages of the characters, but that's so minor, it's negligible. After awhile I hardly noticed it anymore since it was more obvious in Broken Valley.
While I like the platform jumping puzzles themselves, it can be very frustrating because of the tight camera angles and quicksave is a must. I agree with others who have said the auto save is annoying. Just when I'm about to cast a spell, especially entering the fortresses before I'm seen, the game stops to auto save in the middle of it which throws things off. Plus, the auto saves are so random throughout the rest of the game as to be of no real use.
I use quick and hard saves a LOT. I actually prefer not to have auto saves at all myself, or have them as an option that can be turned off, because some games are known to have issues with them causing corrupted saves. Oblivion being one of those.
I'm glad there weren't more flying fortresses as they could almost be like the Oblivion Gates and too much the same, but being able to complete them in dragon and human mode made them much more interesting. I know I could have not done them, but as I said I like to do it all.
When pressing "E" to open a container I would like to be able to use the same key to close it. If I don't want any of the contents or want to take one thing only it would be easier to just press "E" again rather than the cross at the top of the window. I learned the hard way not to pick up anything and everything before I got the Battle Tower despite that the loading screens say to grab everything possible. I would have liked to keep all of the books which I did read, but instead had to destroy many of them in the end. An option to drop items and to be able to pick them up again later would have been nice, if possible, or if not at least a small chest earlier in the game to store some things that could then be transferred to the Battle Tower storage. It seemed a little pointless having so much that could be collected in many cases. I'm a pack rat when it comes to keeping things.
I look forward to the upcoming patch to balance the weapons etc for my next play through which I already have planned out. At the moment almost nothing can hurt me and I've been using the same swords for ten levels without needing to upgrade them. Mind you they are heavily enchanted and charmed so part of that is my own doing.
The only other thing I can think of and I haven't seen anyone mention it, is in the graphic options all resolutions don't show in the list for me. I usually play all my games at 1680x1050, but the last option I have is 1280x1024. I disabled the "use same resolution as Desktop" but it made no difference. No other options show up for selection. I have my Desktop at 1280x1024 because otherwise everything is too small to read even with new glasses.
Anyway, that's neither here nor there really because the game looks stunning anyway.
My system is:
AMD Phenom X3 Triple Core 8450
DFI LANPARTY DK 790FX
Geil GX22GB6400DC 2GB
Asus EN9500GT
Windows XP Service Pack 3
and I have a 22" LG Wide Screen LCD monitor.
One last thing. I really hope games don't go completely digital and downloading is the only option as internet here is expensive and not really condusive to massive size downloading due to upload and download limits and poor speed. For me there's nothing like having the real thing on a DVD so you can see what you've paid for and actually hold it in your hands. Not to mention actual manuals, although a lot of them these days are pretty much pamphlets. Something I also miss is having a nice printed map included with the purchase like some games used to do.
Anyway, that was probably TL:DR, but now I'm off to play Flames of Vengeance and another long night and morning. Thank you again Larian for that addictive experience.
