Age of Empires 2 – Regicide

So, I’ve been playing a lot of AoE (the original, not the HD version) lately and finding myself really loving it more and more. Either its me getting better at it or that I have learned more about it lately. Either way, its lots of fun, especially regicide.

We’ve been battling community made A.I.s like “The Horde” and “Barbarian”. We’ve tried a lot of different maps, game types and teams but I’ve always stayed with the Franks. They have the better paladins in the game and I love that playstyle. However the A.I.s are tough as shit. Damn. The most recent Regicide map we played though, we kicked ass.

• Click here if you wanna try your hand at an A.I yourself. There are a few to choose from. Good luck!

Blood, passionate sex and epic stories can all be found in Baldur’s Gate!

So, I am sitting here and thinking about playing Baldur’s Gate again, from start to finish, Baldur’s Gate 1 to Baldur’s Gate 2 and I am looking through some of the mods that I have loved in the past and realized that they haven’t gotten the love they deserve, at least not here.

One mod that made me think about this is Tales of the Deep Gardens, a beautiful, well written mod that leaves me wanting more.
“Tales of the Deep Gardens allows players to travel through a new land, deep under Faerun; a realm of mystery, dream, Colourful Essences and riddles. Talk to people who may not even see you, try to find the answers to obscure riddles, fight with Living Colours and gather 10 Colours to leave the Gardens. But remember, Dreamer, that this place is something more than just a chain of caves… It may be a dream you’ll not want to wake up from…”

Another mod, or well a lot of other mods that have made my gameplay so much more enjoyable, just because I am obsessed with romance, is all the male NPCs that are placed in the game and all the extended story with existing ones. Such as:

Kelsey (the oh so kind man that makes you feel so loved)
Xan (my one true love, the brooding sorcerer)
Kivan (the brooding, sexy ranger)
Haer’Dalis (the casual yet passioned lover)
Gavin (the good cleric)
Anomen (the righteous paladin)
Cernd (the shapeshifting druid)
Coran (the sensual thief)
Ajantis (the devoted paladin)
Edwin (the sinister wizard)
Solaufein (the stern dark elf)
among some more.

There are more for the male but that isn’t really surprising, is it? Are many interesting women to romance out there as well.

There are so many mods out there and I have sadly not tried them all. There are many more quest mods to explore, NPCs to get to know and lands to be found. If you want to see the many mods for yourself, here’s a >website< The site is in German, it is explorable with many links going to English sites that explains the mods further.

If you’ve played and modded Baldur’s Gate 1 and/or 2, what mods do you feel are essential for the game?

Elder scrolls: Oblivion (modded)

So, I just finished the main quest in Oblivion, and just as in Skyrim, I got really disappointed. It is short, boring and really not creative at all. I mean, does -every- town need to have one gate that they need me to close, really, everyone? Stupid Oblivion gates. I just sprinted through them anyhow, good thing my character is so fast.

Other than the fact that the main quest being so bad, the game is actually really pretty and an intriguing world to explore. Some mods here and there to boost it (I didn’t change the landscape nor the textures) it was really fun to explore, but oh my, the race hate against the Khajiit or furlicker as my character was generally called.

As you may have noticed, I play as a beautiful female Khajiit, with bow and speed. An archer is something that I always seem to choose in the Elder Scrolls games. It is the most fun way to play in my opinion, and the fact that I can see the creepy people first before they see me is a big bonus, and to be honest, I wouldn’t have been able to play any of the “beast” races if it weren’t for the character mod that I added. I generally think that they are really “ugly” and often just go with the elves, but this mod really made all the races way better looking. The mod is called: Oblivion Character Overhaul v2

I pushed as many quest mods into my game as I possibly could and I haven’t regretted any of them. Mods that are really worth mentioning are Malevolent and Chorrol Plateau, really well made mods that makes you want more weather it’s to build your own house or get possessed by an piece of armor. A standing ovations to all the people placing their voices in quests and making the epic quests as well. Good work and I am envious of your creativity.

Another mod that I wouldn’t have lived without, being the hoarder that I am, is my pack donkey mod. Pushing all my loot onto him was essential for all my dungeon/gate runs and just to make my hording pay off, I added another mod that let me own my own adventure store, complete with a shopkeeper and a guard. Thanks to that and my hording, I have never needed to think about septims again in the game. In my bank (that is a mod as well) I have collected over 250.000 septims by now.

I have to ask however, why aren’t any quests built around flowing meadows and kind places rather than always forcing me into scary dungeons or Ayleid ruins that makes all those scary sound (I added some extra sounds to my game as well) and that are almost only inhabited by the walking dead?

After 85+ hours, I have managed to finally get off my ass and finish the main quest just because the gates were starting to bug me to much. I also played through the Shivering Isles quest and hands down, that little expansion is way better than the entire main quest of Oblivion, isn’t that fun?

Some of the other mods I used was:
DarNified UI
Enhanced Camera
Martigen Monster Mod
Among many more.

I would recommend this game but … I’ll just say, play Morrowind instead, way better.

 

Nehrim – At Fate’s Edge (a total conversion on Oblivion)

So, I just finished Nehrim – At Fate’s Edge and I must say, it is the coolest type of “mod” that I’ve ever played. Everybody probably knows what type of game Oblivion is and how poorly executed it really is. But how many knows anything about Nehrim, the total conversion mod for Oblivion? This game was made with Oblivion as the foundation but with a completely new story and lore and it’s just mind blowing. It’s way longer than Oblivion in story, way better, richer in graphics and so full of things to do.

The game however is fully voiced in german, which was a bit jarring to me at first, but as the story progresses, it really starts to sound strangely natural and fits really well. Probably because the voicing was of really high quality (unlike most mods) and generally better sounding than even vanilla Oblivion.

The story takes off when you, as the main character, responds to a letter that invites you to a gathering of sorts but who would have known what that letter really would mean for your future. The game goes on with sending you on various missions and all the while you never get the feeling that you’re special. There are others like you that does the same thing. But towards the end, the game gives you some fun choices to feel a bit more powerful, even for just a slight while.

The game even introduces romance with the sweet and caring Kim, an aeterna that used to be a slave. He (he’s a she if you play as a male) is one of the sweetest characters I’ve ever seen in a role-playing game and I’m sad that the story wasn’t deeper for the two love birds.
My red headed half-aeterna made her way through the world with a bow and perfect sneak skills. In the end she almost one shot killed anything while stealthy with a 5x sneak bonus to her damage. Well towards the end of the main story anyhow. The game is sort of never ending and I’ve already spent over 65 hours in it.

A thing with this game that I thought I would complain a lot on was the fact that you get achievement for almost everything you do. From surviving lava to finishing a battle with just 1 hp left, from exploring sights to killing enemies and so on. But in the end it was fun to see what the achievements was about even though I would have wished that they were harder to get, to make me work for it.


Speaking of harder, that is something that this game pulled off really nicely, to be as hard as Morrowind is at the beginning to really make your work for it. The fact that you have to really fight at the beginning is something that I like, the only negative part with that is that towards the end, it might get too easy imo.
The game overall is truly mind blowing and the feeling of it being built on Oblivion disappears after a few minutes. The places that makes up this game is breathtaking and so varied. From snow to deserts, beaches to thick forests, and large cities to small camps. The lore is also really interesting and fun to explore.

(The arena was a fun place where I defeated a big monster.)

It’s also worth noting that while Oblivion with mods (and even vanilla Oblivion) always used to be kinda unstable for me, Nehrim worked much better with almost no crashes or anything, despite being much better looking and having much more items and such. So that was refreshing too.

The time it must have taken to complete this with just the will and freetime of the people that did it is awesome. The same people that did this perfect mod, also made the “Cube Experimental” mod for Fallout 3. I’m amazed that there is such people out there still, well done, this is epic. If you haven’t played this game already, I suggest that you do that.

– You can download it here.

(I even got my own castle, and a statue of me standing outside it.)
 

 

Game Dev Tycoon

Some spoilers.
So, the first thought that hit my head was “Oh, a tycoon game!” but how wrong I was.
This game feels just like a mobile game, in my opinion. It does not really contain anything, the graphics are really simple, the content is just kinda enough to make it feel like a demo of something that could have been so much more. I managed to develop one game that had an average score of 9 something and it was fun and all but… Then what? What is the more to do?

The game takes you through the 80s and onwards, with all the events that happened in real life and you can be part of it. You develop games, hire employees and makes a name for yourself. I upgraded my office twice during my years and thanks to mods I could even develop some things that wasn’t in the original. Sadly two of the mods conflicted and that’s where my save game got corrupted and I stopped playing. I wasn’t really sad about that.

The mods I added from the official forum were:
– UltimateLib
– Camelot Expansion Pack
– Tweakmod
– Expansion Pack Mod
– InfoStatsMod
– Cheat Mod
– More mods here

Listed hopes for 2014

So, saw some games that’s getting released and will keep me afloat through the year and thought I’d list them here. I am also waiting on a few mods that I will mention as well.

Mods:

Fallout 2 Restoration Project (final version)
The restoration project for Fallout 2 that fixes bugs, missing content and much more. I’ve just played Fallout 3 and New Vegas so far so this will be quite interesting to try out.
– Fallout 2 Restoration Project

Deus Ex: Revision
Fleshes out the levels of Deus Ex. A game that is truly awesome and well worth a playthrough.
– Deus Ex: Revision

Games:

Number 1 on my list have to be Pillars of Eternity. An old school game that caught my eyes directly, and I’ve posted about it before. (Here)
– Pillars of Eternity

Number 2 is Torment: Tides of Numenera. Said to follow the footsteps of Planescape: Torment. Can only hope it’s almost as epic. Also a title that I have mentioned a bit about before. Recently saw that it is tba 2015 rather than 2014 but will still be mentioned here.
– Torment: Tides of Numenera

Number 3 is Dragon Age: Inquisition, I’ve played both the first and second (sadly) and sure hope that it will be as good as the first one which I love so much.
– Dragon Age: Inquisition

Number 4 is The Witcher: The Hunt, an really epic story. I love the first and the second of these as well, I really hope that the third won’t let me down.
– The Witcher: The Hunt

Number 5 is Murdered: Soul Suspect. The concept sounds really awesome and sure hope that the game holds up. The story of the man in the trailer is what got my attention, I mean, fun ‘twist’ wouldn’t you say?
– Murdered: Soul Suspect

List continues on the next page ->

Pages: 1 2

Planescape: Torment Modded

Spoilers!

So, imagine that you would wake up one day, but instead of seeing anything familiar you are met with the smell of death, formaldehyde, and when you slowly open your eyes, the sight of a large mortuary. You can hear the dragging footsteps of lazy feet all around you. But they are slow, uneven and almost rhythmical, like they’re walking in a pattern. You slowly sit up, but your body seems sluggish and you can’t remember where you are, how you got there, why you are there or even, to your horrific realization, who you actually is.

Suddenly a hoovering skull is coming your way and you can’t shake the feeling that this skull might know you or… that you should know him.

And that’s how one of the best games in the world starts, and that’s not the strangest part, oh no.
Morte, the skull that you meet there in that Mortuary, tells you where you are and joins up with you. He helps you escape the dirty and filthy place, and as you venture through it, you soon realize that it’s taken care of by zombies and skeletons. Both old and fresh to broken and whole ones, each slower than the next.

This game has really good graphics, great illustrated pictures with description of all things you can meet, epic dialogue and texts overall. On top of it all, some the spells looks more like a Final Fantasy game than traditional D&D game. It is a real written masterpiece in the game world that hasn’t been seen since in my opinion. The game has a really nice story and some parts of it makes me shiver when I play it. I has played it once before but it was this time around that I actually understood all of it and got the real concept of the game, or at least I think did, in my opinion.

I played this game as a mage, a really intelligent, really weak (had 3 in strength), charismatic and wise mage that would save everyone that needed saving but still be able to strike a hard blow to those who are greedy, nasty or just evil without really thinking much about laws nor people around, well besides my companions. Especially Annah, my hot and confident tiefling. The characters in this game are so well written and the voice actors just nails every single character so well that it feels so real.

And thanks to my character being so intelligent and wise, I could get the most out of this game in story. I could ask deeper questions, I could solve things better and I could learn things, like languages. But in some cases when talking to certain characters that needs translating, it is better to let your companions translate. You might learn something new about them. But you should talk to them now and then anyhow, they can teach you things about them that you didn’t know and even about yourself.

Some more really memorable characters to mention, that is actually the rest of the followers you can find. Like the lovely Fall-From-Grace that is voiced by the all talented Jennifer Hale (so is the ghost Deionarra), Morte, who is voiced by Rob Paulsen, Ignus, who is voiced by Charles Adler, Dak’kon who is voiced by Mitch Pileggi (The man who plays Skinner in the X-Files series), Nordom who is voiced by Dan Castellaneta, (who is the voice of Homer Simpson) and some others. There are some really big names in there.

In my party I had my dear bad mouthed tiefling Anna, the healing succubus Fall-From-Grace, the always talking, insult tossing flying skull Morte, the Justice impersonated haunted armor Vhailor and my cute, fearful “cubed” warrior (Modron cube) Nordom and of course my own personal, ever so gleeful pet, my Lim-Lim. Who was with me to the almost very end only to die a tragic death. Also sadly I had to trade away the fearful human mage who’s always burning bright (literally), Ignus and the faithless Githzerai slave Dak’kon.

I used a few mods in this game, like the heavy fixpack by Qwinn that fixed a whole lot in the game and the ‘Unfinished Business’ mod that restores many things into the game that was left out by various reasons.

The mods can be found here:
– PS:T – Fixpack
– PS:T Unfinished Business
– PS:T Tweaks

And I followed this really handy installation guide:
– Torment Guide

All in all this game is a truly epic journey that everyone should play. The game gives you a lot of things to think about, like morals and the facts of life. One question in particular stands out and the game sort of revolves around it and the answer for it.
The question being, “What can change the nature of a man?”

Well, what’s your answer? Leave a comment.

The Sith Lords Restored Content Mod (TSLRCM)

So right now I’m playing KotOR 2, trying out the the “sith lords restored content mod”, or TSLRCM. So far I can’t point out anything new that is in it other than it’s longer and more full and fun right now.

When I finish this game through, I will check what was restored and put up a review of the game as well.
I know that I’ve said before that I would do a review of KotOR 1 as well and I will.

And here you have the download link for TSLRCM > Press here.

Star Wars: TSLRCM

I know that I haven’t been that active recently, I’ve been playing and working my ass of but …

Knights of the Old Republic is the game that I just finished and will write a post about that as soon as I am finished with Knights of the Old Republic 2 – The Sith Lords. Just the other day TSLRCM (The Sith Lords Restored Content Mod) came out and I’m dying to try it out. As I have played both games before, it will be a blast to play the second game again, to see all that new content.

I just have to say though, KotOR is truly epic for everyone, Star Wars fans and everyone else alike.

http://deadlystream.com/forum/forum/4-tslrcm/
– If you want to check the forum out about the mod.

http://deadlystream.com/forum/files/file/197-tsl-restored-content-mod/
– If you want to download the mod right away!

Baldur’s Gate 2, modded!

There might be some spoilers in here!

I recently finished Baldur’s Gate 2 for the third time and I love it, I have played it a couple of more times but never finished those playthroughs. I’ve tried the fighter, the thief, the sorceress and now, for the time being, I’m trying out the druid, though with cheats.

The game is one of my favorites, the story and characters are epic as well as the graphics.
Though I have not been playing the game vanilla. I’ve been playing the game, filled with mods of different kinds, especially BWP (Big World Project). I’m that kind of person who loves character interaction and dialogues, especially the romance ones.
Baldur’s Gate is filled with them, for all people, with the right mods (I can hardly stand Anomen but he’s sure fun to mess with when playing and evil character). My favorite characters throughout the game are: Xan, of course the gloomy, doomed elf we all love and Kivan, the mourning ranger.
The companions that follows you through the game are fun, vibrant and talkative so there is never a dull moment as you travel through the lands, day and night. With characters like Minsc, Imoen and Xan, there can’t be a boring moment.

Other characters that are easy to love are: Laran, the horny paladin (mod) that you meet at an tavern in Waukeen’s Promenade and Renal Bloodscalp, the thief master. Both whom I had sex with thanks to mods. (There are more sex for those who wants it, with others as well). Another one to love is Aidan, the ghost, but alas he is a mod as well, from the quest Fading Promises.

The storyline is really interesting and it keeps me interested all the way through with plots and twists. Being a bhaalspawn isn’t an easy task to deal with and the game sure cuts you no slack and the choices you can make only makes it even more fun.
It’s a long game as well, with many side quests as well as companion quests that just brings you all closer together on your quest to fighting ‘stinking’ evil,

The game story is interesting and never boring. It is a truly epic rpg in my taste. The fighting might be hard at first for people who haven’t tried D&D in games before and some might think it’s really good, the games is meant for tactical game play but scripts are awesome for those (like me) that mostly focus on the main character in battle.
It took a while for me to get the ways around battle and many trials and fails before I could truthfully understand and handle it.

All in all, I highly recommend that anyone should play this game, (as well as Baldur’s Gate 1) either with some mods or not. It is well worth it.

– Why Baldur’s Gate is the best game series of all time.