Oh my goodness. Thank you for pointing out the different VA. I knew something felt off, moreso than the new character models.

Also, I can’t help but feel like the updated Frank wandered out of the basement tier of fighters from a Street Fighter title. I feel like he should be chubbier and ruddier. I can’t speak for the direction they took the character in later installments but he always felt like kind of a goober schmuck whose “instincts” finally paid off. I like that characterization, especially in light of the game’s satire of clueless Americans.

I’ll keep an eye on this one. I never did get that achievement for killing the 53,000 zombies in a playthrough…

For sure. My impression is that to focus on character work in the same way as BG3 (i.e. voice acting, mocap, cinematics, etc) would have been an impossibility for the studio that made Solasta. I would guess they did not have the financial support to make that happen.

Personally, I think of it as being of a piece with the old Infinity Engine games. There was the Baldurs Gate series, which, in classic CRPG fashion, was all about player choice and character. But, side by side with those games, you had the Icewind Dale series, which was almost completely devoid of the story focus of the BG games and entirely focused on dungeon crawling and seeing how far the ruleset can be pushed.

Fair. I felt I should jump in and provide some more context than the other poster for exactly that reason. The worst thing a movie can be to me is dull, and those sequels qualify, in my opinion.

Only do so if you have high tolerance for bad filmmaking. I’ve seen the live action sequels, and they are BAD. The second film feels like an unrelated script that got attached to the IP for name recognition. As I recall, it’s dull, poorly acted, ugly, and cheap. The third film does lean into the IP, complete with satirical propaganda gags and, yes, mech suits make an appearance. However, my recollection of the rest of the movie is that it is dull, poorly acted, ugly, and cheap, but less so than the second.

If you enjoy Sci Fi Channel original movies from the early 00s, these movies are birds of a feather with those.

Allow me to introduce you to Solasta: Crown of the Magister. It was the OTHER CRPG releases based on the DnD 5e system. Much smaller budget and team, but a pretty faithful recreation.

Including the fact that the game opens in a tavern with your party throwing back beer one of them might refer to as a donkey piss (depending on which personality archetype you selected for them) while they wait for their quest sponsor to show up and tell them what’s going on. In the meantime, each character introduces themselves to the others by discussing the adventure they had on the way to the present location (as an excuse to run through some tutorials). Doesn’t get much more classic DnD start than that.

Grim Dawn is the most fun I’ve had with an ARPG in years. The class system is very interesting and, as far as I know, unique to this game. Rather than just being a barbarian or necromancer or whatever other typical ARPG class you can think of, your class is determined by selecting any 2 archetypes. For instance, maybe you like being a pet class like necromancer, but you want to have a slightly more active play style than just watching your skellingtons paint the map red. So, you mix in the Nightblade (melee rogue) class at level 10. Your new, combined class is called a Reaper, and you have access to both skill trees, free to mix and match as you wish. Very interesting playstyles can emerge from creative pairings.

I am a casual player so I can’t offer any perspective on the endgame or anything like that, but if you’re looking for something to scratch the Diablo 2 itch with a fun twist on classes,you cant go wrong with Grim Dawn.

You may be interested to know that there is an open source engine port of HoMM2 that released within the past year I think. I know many people are big on HoMM3 and lots of nodding work has been done on that game to keep it fresh and playable, but 2 was my entry to the franchise, so the FHeroes2 team deserves my endless thanks and admiration.

Microtransactions, if you’re curious.

Really? Fascinating. I know of Impressions from their work in the city building genre. I hesitate to even guess how many hours I’ve put into Caesar 3 over the years. Seems they branched out far more than I anticipated.

Every few months I get the itch to dive into an MMO. I drift around among many of the free to play offerings depending on what sort of world I want to inhabit. As is tradition for me this time of year, I’ve been rewatching the LOTR trilogy, and thus I’ve decided to hop back into Lord of the Rings Online.

I haven’t played in years, but dusted off my level 10 champion and set about getting reacquainted with things. Thus far I’m having a really good time. There’s something quaintly nostalgic about this kind of tab target MMO. The whole thing is very cozy to me. Maybe that’s just my love of the setting and the opening areas being consciously pastoral, but I find it very easy to just zone out and churn through content in this game.

I don’t know how long I’ll stick with it, as MMOs tend to demand more investment than I’m willing to give single games, but as of right now I’m having a wonderful time.

Thanks for the read. I have fond memories of playing the Sid Meier civil war games that I think came out a few years after this series. However, from your description and my memories, the games seem to share a lot of DNA. I also recall the Ultimate General Civil War game from a few years back. The mention of unit customization down to what equipment they field and who their commanders are reminds me of similar features in that game. Thanks for the write up! I love reading about this era of PC gaming.

Right? Like, if I want to be as charitable as I’m capable of being, I could understand that sentiment if you are talking about your own official forums on your website. Like, sure, if you own the content and the forum, you have the power to determine what is and isn’t acceptable on your platforms. It’s a stupid determination, mind you, but it’s within your power. However the impression I gather from the article is that they’re referring to the Steam forums, which is absolutely asinine to me.

Heyyy time to see if the benefit of 10 years helps me complete Uplink.

Jorphdan (the ph is silent) has dozens of videos exploring the lore of the Dungeons and Dragons multiverse. Those worlds have been the setting for enough videogames that I think it applies.

You might also check out Eckhart’s Ladder. He focuses primarily on Star Wars but with some digressions into Halo and other science fiction universes.

One of my personal favorite gaming essayists is Grim Beard, though his particular style may or may not gel with you. His videos are generally about a single game and often encompass a game’s conception, development, gameplay, reception, and legacy. It’s not exactly a lore channel, per se, but I feel like it might be in the ballpark of what you’re looking for.