A Tale of Two RPGs

Fable II
The pending See the Future DLC for Fable II got me thinking back to my Fable II save.

See, I finished the main game, but purposely left some quests and the Knothole Island DLC unplayed/unfinished because I wanted to be able to have a pretty beefy experience (like Pam Anderson w/ Tommy Lee) with Fable II this spring/summer.

I played through Fable II so fast, I almost cheated myself out of a better experience. I rarely do that, as longtime readers know. I usually drag out my play experience like a narcoleptic fuck-buddy, and thus have either nice, lengthy experiences, or somewhat disjointed experiences. Depends on the type of game, I guess.

Anyway, I finally broke down and bought Fairfax Castle. My family (in-game) has been bugging me endlessly to move outta the home we've had for ages (we've been living in the house next to the Cow and Corset in Bowerstone), and I figured, "fuck it, let's move into the castle." So, I bought the castle for 1,000,000 space bucks, and then was kinda pissed when I couldn't move my family in right away. Turns out there's actually a quest ya gotta complete.

I won't give away any spoilers, but the quest is pretty cool, and I'm hoping I can finally move my family in soon. Can't wait 'til the new DLC's out, so I can really jump back into this game. It's actually better than I remember.



Baldur's Gate
I started a new game in Baldur's Gate last night. Yes, I am still determined to play and enjoy the old-school Bioware/Black Isle stuff, and Baldur's Gate seems like a great entry point. I really enjoyed my prior attempt at playing it, until I was eaten by a bear. Then, my new hot, sexy laptop showed up, and I decided I hadn't made it that far anyway, and...yeah.

So, there I was last night, starting a new game, and really enjoying it. I played the intro sequences, then stopped right before the end of the intro area. It was 2AM, and I had class/work the next morning, as well as a 3-year old who was sure to be up by 8AM.

It's interesting that one who has really enjoyed recent Bioware games can look back at this game and see that what's good about Bioware's games has been persistent since their first RPG.

I'm really looking forward to losing myself, utterly, in this world, and then spring-boarding into the sequel, as well as the related games, like Planescape: Torment, the Icewind Dale series, and the Neverwinter Nights series.

Speaking of which, Neverwinter Nights 2 got some new content recently. I had no idea that they finally released the LOOONG-finished Mysteries of Westgate, but I saw the favorable 1UP review, and jumped all over it. It's only $10, so that's a plus, and is downloadable @ Atari's site (and is SecuROM-free, as far as I can tell.)

I haven't done much in NWN2, since it runs like shit on almost any machine, and last night, was finally victorious in my battle against the fucking SecuROM that's attached to Storm of Zehir, a game that I legitimately own. Twice.



Weekend
This weekend is shaping up nicely. Tonight, the Lady and I will be watching Doubt, which I'm looking forward to, then kinda chillin'. I'll probably be doing some late-night gaming after she goes to bed, probably something RPG-ish.

Tomorrow, it's just the boy and me, and I'm thinking it might be high-time for him and me to get back to our online FPS griefing. He's 3, and says some of the craziest stuff I've ever heard, and has a great sense of humor.

What I do is put the headset on him while I play, and then tell him what to say. It tends to yield fairly hilarious results.

I would like to get back to playing Quake Wars more competitively again, since I can finally play without being chained to a desktop computer. That game is THE best online shooter I've ever played. If you can get a couple friends with ya who have at least a rough understanding of the classes in the game, you can have the best time you've ever had in an online shooter. I love class-based online shooters, and this is the best implementation I've ever seen of the concept.

I don't imagine I'll be letting the boy wear the headset while playing that one. There's a need for communication and all.

Saturday night, after the Lady is back from work, she, the boy, and I will be heading to Tony's for some Rock Band 2 and whatever else. I don't imagine it'll be a super-late night, but we'll see.

Sunday will be nothin' but yard work and school work. Next week is the last week of regular class, and the following week is finals. It'll be tough, since I'm both an employee and a student @ UMSL, but after 5/13, it's smooth sailing for me for about a month.

Awesome.

What do you all got going on this weekend? Any wild summer plans? Anyone care to join me in my Bioware/Black Isle exporation (most of those games support online co-op)?

I'll be back with a post Monday, though I might sneak something in this weekend. We'll see.

-Blaine

Here's your end-of-week video dump:






this is where the Lost embedded video would go, but I can't embed it