Steam/PC Mega Thread 2023

[Mick]

The Gold Box Collection is currently on sale on Steam (albeit for 15%). 

Of these, the one's I have personal experience with and will vouch for would be the Forgotten Realms Collection Two and the Krynn Series.

 

Forgotten Realms Collection One is only the Eye of the Beholder trilogy, and having only played the first on one the SNES, I'm really not crazy about it. 

However, with Collection Two you get Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds, Hillsfar, Secret of the Silver Blades, Pools of Darkness, Gateway to the Savage Frontier, Treasures of the Savage Frontier, and Forgotten Realms Unlimited Adventures. Hillsfar is the odd man out (it's kind of a 'companion' mini-game to Pool of Radiance and Curse of the Azure Bonds). 

 

These are pretty much two series of games, and FRUA. FRUA itself is kind of a module builder for custom adventures. I'm not sure how much is available these days, but there used to be quite a few modules that were made based on old DnD modules (Journey to the Rock, etc). Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds, Secret of the Silver Blades and Pools of Darkness are all part of the same story; you can transfer characters between them, each one has a level cap (For example, in Pool of Radiance, Clerics and Mages can only get up to level 6 while Fighters and Thieves can reach level 7 or 8). Similiarly, Gateway to the Savage Frontier and Treasures of the Savage Frontier go together. 

 

The Krynn series plays the same way, except it takes place in Krynn, and I believe you do encounter some of the Heroes of the Lance and other characters. These games are a bit more involved with the characters, but are still pretty good. 

 

Essentially, you make a party of up to six characters (you can customize their stats too, so instead of rolling characters you could in theory import a character sheet, provided you still play first edition AD&D), create their c0ombat icon, and off you go. Is it worth the money? Yes, IMO. These were some of the first PC games my dad bought back in 1994, and even before then, I was somewhat familiar with Pool of Radiance since it was ported to the NES. I would lose myself in them, they can be challenging. 

 

So, just throwing that out there  . 

 

 

[Krabby]

8 hours ago, Mick said:

 

I remember going to our local KMart when I was around 10ish and they had this collection on sale and I loved it - I had no idea how to really play them well when I was that age but I just remember being wowed by all the options and the parts of the stories I could reach

[Mick]

1 hour ago, Krabby said:

I remember going to our local KMart when I was around 10ish and they had this collection on sale and I loved it - I had no idea how to really play them well when I was that age but I just remember being wowed by all the options and the parts of the stories I could reach

Well, the controls weren't exactly intuitive. Pool of Radiance came out in June of '88, before the mouse was a common thing, so it was all done by keyboard, and by today's standards the controls are not intuitive at all. As the games progressed through the releases, more support was enabled for not just mouse but also sound. Hell, Pool of Radiance itself was the first AD&D computer game. 

 

I'm not going to say they're perfect, they have their faults, but in spite of that, I love them. 

[apsham]

On 01/04/2022 at 11:52, Mick said:

Well, the controls weren't exactly intuitive. Pool of Radiance came out in June of '88, before the mouse was a common thing, so it was all done by keyboard, and by today's standards the controls are not intuitive at all. As the games progressed through the releases, more support was enabled for not just mouse but also sound. Hell, Pool of Radiance itself was the first AD&D computer game. 

 

I'm not going to say they're perfect, they have their faults, but in spite of that, I love them. 

All of the series that they put out in that set worth picking up? Cost isn't really an issue, and although it'd be nice that the neat launcher that they put out with this edition had everything connected to it - if there are some that are just impossible to work through, I'm not sure if I'd bother. A lot of different styles I'm seeing from screenshots - from first person dungeon crawling to stuff that looks like Ultima (which is a series that I grew up spending some time on, I didn't hear about the Gold Box stuff until it landed on GOG years back).

[Mick]

1 hour ago, apsham said:

All of the series that they put out in that set worth picking up? Cost isn't really an issue, and although it'd be nice that the neat launcher that they put out with this edition had everything connected to it - if there are some that are just impossible to work through, I'm not sure if I'd bother. A lot of different styles I'm seeing from screenshots - from first person dungeon crawling to stuff that looks like Ultima (which is a series that I grew up spending some time on, I didn't hear about the Gold Box stuff until it landed on GOG years back).

I can't speak for Eye of the Beholder, but most of the games I spoke about do have a mode called Area where you can see a map. There are points where it's first person. When I got them on GOG they came with the clue books, so if you get them on Steam and they don't, I can share them with you. 

 

If it were me buying it, I'd go with Collection Two and the Krynn Series. From a gameplay perspective, story and plot be driven, they're all essentially the same game series. Krynn does have it's differences; The addition of the Knight class (and the three orders from the Krynn world), no level restrictions, subraces (Hill Dwarves vs Mountain Dwarves, etc), different clerical deities that give bonuses, White, Red and Black Mages (you can only use the first two) based on alignment (no Evil characters in the party in Krynn) which have access to different spells and may get bonuses depending on the lunar phase their moon is in. 

 

[apsham]

31 minutes ago, Mick said:

I can't speak for Eye of the Beholder, but most of the games I spoke about do have a mode called Area where you can see a map. There are points where it's first person. When I got them on GOG they came with the clue books, so if you get them on Steam and they don't, I can share them with you. 

So as it turns out, they actually come with a really comprehensive launcher that houses all the games (even though they install as sets individually) and each entry has a direct link to the manual, cluebook, etc. and also pre-installed automapping additions and the like

[Mick]

Neat. Shame I can't pick it up on Steam since I have them on GOG. I just did a quick install of Pool of Radiance, nothing fancy, just a DOSBox launch. 

[Krabby]

Has anyone played Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIV (14)?

[Mick]

....I played I and II  

[Krabby]

Just now, Mick said:

....I played I and II  

Haha nice! I played 1 on emulator back in the day

 

[RPS]

22 minutes ago, Krabby said:

Has anyone played Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIV (14)?

Everyone reading this thread googling to see if this is a real game or is Krabby pranking us.

[Mick]

1 minute ago, Krabby said:

Haha nice! I played 1 on emulator back in the day

 

Cartridge. 

I mainly just looked at it confused as hell. My dad was the one that really played it. How I have no idea. 

(Original) Nobunaga's Ambition was the best though. 

[Krabby]

2 minutes ago, Mick said:

Cartridge. 

I mainly just looked at it confused as hell. My dad was the one that really played it. How I have no idea. 

(Original) Nobunaga's Ambition was the best though. 

It's tough to play tbh - mostly because of the UI - but it was fun. Haven't played a Nobunaga game yet but have wanted to. I have played RotK 7-11 extensively (still playing 11) but haven't tried any of the newer ones.

[GhostMachine]

On 15/04/2022 at 12:10, apsham said:

So as it turns out, they actually come with a really comprehensive launcher that houses all the games (even though they install as sets individually) and each entry has a direct link to the manual, cluebook, etc. and also pre-installed automapping additions and the like

I played a good chunk of those games (Pool of Radiance and Secret of the Silver Blades were my favorites), but sadly I found the Ravenloft games to be lacking.

 

[Mick]

 

Is that what they're calling it these days  . 

[OctoberRaven]

I think this is the most absurdly impractical way to fight ever. Yet I can make these but not have a gun in one arm and a shield in the other o.O

[Mick]

 

[Lint]

Anyone play the Steam versions of Chrono Trigger or Chrono Cross?  Never played them back in the day and was considering giving them a go

[JasonM]

2 hours ago, Lint said:

Anyone play the Steam versions of Chrono Trigger or Chrono Cross?  Never played them back in the day and was considering giving them a go

Like many of the previous Square Enix PC ports/remasters, they aren't very well received. Performance issues, some confusing art changes, basically a bit poor, but still playable with a little bit of work.

Trigger is (much) better than Cross in that regard. Emulating it might be the most optimal way to play either games, it'll run better, look better. But of course require some creative acquisition, so if you wish to avoid that, look around for a few guides for the PC Ports

[GhostMachine]

I received a $20 Steam card as a late birthday present. Since I don't trust my PC to run anything made in the last few years (it needs a better video card and processor; we bought it with that in mind, but haven't upgraded yet), I bided my time and bought Bioshock Infinite and the Season Pass bundle on sale.