We have a lot in common in our preferences. For a long time I only would play cRPGs, and couldn't even get myself to branch out into ARPGs. I also am limited to liking only fantasy setting games. But then because of the lack of any good Western fantasy cRPGs to play, I tentatively tried out the DA and Witcher games and ended up loving them. I now even prefer the third person perspective to the top-down because I love being able to see my own character and all the details of their person including clothing and equipment. But, I do also love playing city/base/empire building games.
IwD is actually a very good game despite being a combat-oriented game. It actually has a pretty good story and fun quests. Unfortunately we don't have an EE for IwD2, but there is currently a modder project underway to "enhance" IwD2. I would also recommend taking a look at Black Geyser, which is launching on Steam and GoG as an Early Access game today!
I admittedly started with JRPGs rather than cRPGs, but I remember Baldur's Gate 1 being one of the first things I played upon the family getting a computer! It and Neverwinter Nights were a big part of my childhood, along with a year-long single playthrough of Morrowind (which branched me into TES universe, which then took me over to Fallout, but that's a different setting altogether). The unfortunate lack of good cRPGs during that time period meant I was more often than not playing RPGs on consoles - thus the interest in DA, TES:IV, Fable, and a fair few others. Upon getting a computer of my own near college, though, I started picking things up there again - and I'm glad I did, because the Witcher games are some of my favorites!
And yes, I've only played a bit of IWD thus far (not quite all that much time in my day to devote to games), but it does start out quite intriguing and I'm interested to see where it will go, even if I do miss the inter-party dynamics of 'companions' rather than player-made characters. I tried to remedy that by making characters based on stuff my friends would play.
I will be sure to look into that, though it might be a while before I can purchase it, if it interests me - just spent on WotR, after all, and that'll be taking up my weekend next week! :p
Originally Posted by mrfuji3
The great think about Kingmaker (and thus I assume will be true for WotR) is the extreme prevalence of tooltips. Most pathfinder-specific lore - locations, famous people, historical events, gods, etc - was highlighed when mentioned in dialogue. You could then mouse over these terms to get a description, ranging from a couple sentences to a few paragraphs. I was only barely familiar with the world of Golarion when I played Kingmaker; these mouse-overs gave me pretty much all the information and context I wanted and needed to understand the world and my place in it through the game's campaign.
Ohhh, I remember a few games have done that in the past and I honestly adored that method of feeding relevant background information to a player! Of course my other preference is in-game books to read, but a little database is just as good.
