*Hopes Baldur's Gate copy is functional.*

The Baldur's Gate story is quite neat. I'm a do/explore everything type of player so I'm not sure how long the game takes if you actually make efforts to finish it without too much dawdling. The expansion, Tales of the Sword Coast, brings in a massive dungeon called Durlag's Tower that you get to explore once the game is finished. It's harsh from what I hear, and has features like a living chess board to get through.

It's a Forgotten Realms world game, so people familiar with the Forgotten Realms DnD setting (Neverwinter Nights is set there, along with Icewind Dale) will likely recognize some characters and places. They systems are different though since NWN uses 3e DnD rules (I think) and BG and IWD use the rules from ADnD (ie. THAC0). There are a few different details (like the lower the armour number, the better in ADnD) but I don't think it's that hard to follow.

I can't play BG anymore, I find, even though I finally have a copy that works. IWD either, really. They just feel so archaic and limiting. AD&D was so lacking in character options compared to 3.X. And IWD2's attempt to translate 3.0 to a video game was just a disaster. Luckily, they figured out what they were doing in NWN.

Also, whilst on the subject on DnD games, ever play Pool of Radiance (the newer version, I believe, though it's still really old now). Another 3.0 failure of a game, and extraordinarily hard on top of that. Which actually made it kind of fun....

Heard of it, never played.

I thougth NWN predated IWD2? I remember my brother playing it when I was still playing IWD, but then I hardly care about how old my game is. I was fine with the old ADnD classes, since I don't really play those games for character options.

I remember helping my stepbrother through the early stages of NWN because he had no clue what third edition was, and this "feat" business and such, so I was giving him a basic rundown as we went.

Could be. They were both 3.0, but NWN implemented the rules a lot better. Even still, NWN2 remains the definitive DnD experience for me. And probably my favorite Bioware game.

@Saiyouri: Awesome! ^^ I don't think you'd regret it.

@Quiet Man Cometh; Once I get some money I should see if I can get my hands ona copy! It sounds like a lot of fun. I've never played DnD or Forgotten Realms before though. o u o

It doesn't really matter so much, though ADnD stats are somewhat counter intuitive. Generally speaking, the lower the number, the better. Low armour, low THAC0 (your ability to hit something) etc. I never really did pay too much attention to statistics in that game and I was playing it before I was a regular in DnD.

Ah, well that's awesome then!
Although this THAC0 doesn't sound very nice. I think there was something like that in Morrowind? Like not all hits landed? I hated that. o u o

It's not really any different, functionally, than the system in KotOR, it's just flipped around so lower is better. Most RPGs have a percentage chance to miss with attacks. Granted, I don't like that sort of thing in action RPGs either, but Action RPGs these are not. Oldschool to the core.

Oh! Okay yeah I get it now. I do remember KotOR was like that, and it didn't bug me much.
I should really try this game out, it sounds like a lot of fun.
(But first I gotta finish up this Oblivion Playthrough I'm doing. o u o)

THAC0 is particular to ADnD and means "to hit armour class 0" and that opens up a whole new pile of explanation to define. It was a round-about way of calculating whether or not an attack hit, and was gotten rid of for later editions. It's affected by level, class, and weapons as well. The higher your level, the better you are, the better the weapons, the better you are. Mage THAC0 sucks, Fighter THAC0 good. THAC0 of course only applies really to physical attacks so a mage having sucky THAC0 doesn't matter as much unless they go after a bad guy with a dagger or something.

Ah okay! That doesn't sound all that bad, it actually sounds pretty sophisticated. xD Thanks for describing it for me by the way. ^^

You're welcome. Feel free to ask if you get the game and find things tripping you up.

Oh, and one other thing to know, if you do happen to want the expansion at any point, know that characters created with the original game won't work in the game once the expansion is added, at least as far as I know, though there may be an import technique that I missed. The expansion is really an add on (Tales of the Sword Coast it's called). You'd need to start a new game to play with the add on since it alters the map among other things.

Do keep in mind that Baldur's Gate and IWD are not friendly to 64-bit Windows at all. They're really difficult to get running properly.

Umm, not computer savvy enough to know what you mean. Processer speed?

No, I mean Windows Vista and Windows 7. I can't seem to get my BG game to run in W7 at all.