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Posted: Fri Aug 27, 2004 6:16 pm
by Thon
ign has a review up as well. still sounds like a good game, but my $ is goin to Rome: TW which is released about a week later.

Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2004 4:20 am
by Kabakaba
This game is going on sale today anyone thinking of picking it up?

Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2004 8:28 pm
by Thon
rome total war comes out next week, and i need clothes :cry:

Posted: Wed Sep 15, 2004 5:52 am
by Treehorn
Picked it up last night. So far, it's really cool. The beginning areas are kind of restricted (there's only so much you can do in the first two stages of the game), but once you earn your Hero Seal, you are free to go pretty much wherever you like and do as you please.


The Game Stop where I got my copy sold out of their non-reserved copies within about 10 minutes of getting their shipment. Glad I put in my pre-order 3 hours before the shipment came in~

Posted: Wed Sep 15, 2004 5:58 am
by Lyion
The first two hours were great fun, with a very cool story arc. I haven't done much, but it seems very good.

I'll try and get a good 4 hours tonight and see how deep I can get.

Posted: Wed Sep 15, 2004 6:09 am
by Treehorn
Yeah, only managed about 5 hours last night myself, and about half of that was spent monkeying around in the first two areas. Playing through those areas again with new characters will be much, much faster though, but that's not to say that those areas aren't very well done.

There's just not a whole lot you can really in your home town and the first phase at the hero academy to earn good/evil points/ items/ etc. before you've exhausted what's available, and once you know what there is to be done, you'll breeze right through it on successive plays through.

Posted: Wed Sep 15, 2004 10:35 pm
by Treehorn
Today has been my day to learn~

Finally realized, like 1 hour ago (after about 12 hours of playing) that I can use my general xp to buy abilities too (had like 30k general xp to spend lol). Finally realized that when I came back to the guild to train after like 2 hours of grinding Will xp so that I could afford the healing spell (stupid npc's are always getting into trouble, and no other way to patch them up).

Then, after running around all day in the suit of bright will user's robes I picked up ( they were cheap as free -only cost me the 3g I spent buying chocolates to give the door in Rose Cottage as a gift to let me in-, and they're very nice for bumping up alignment), I finally decided to upgrade to something with a little better protection. Settled for bright chain, since plate is still so expensive, and now I'm broke.

Was hoping to buy a better weapon (been using a steel katana and oak bow forever it seems), but after upgrading my armor I'm all tapped out.
Been trying to use the obsidian greataxe I dug up, but it's painfully slow.

Trying to get a free weapon upgrade (the legendary cleaver that's behind the door in Greatwood Caves), busting my ass, trying to get my combat multiplier up high enough for that damn door to open up for me, but so far I'm not even getting close.

Anyone else manage it? According to the book (yeah, yeah), you need to have an active multiplier of 14 or greater when you speak to the door in order to get it open. I can manage 14 or so inside of the hobbe cave, but by the time I try running back out there it's back down to like 9 or 10. ><

Bah, screw it. I'm off to bed.

Posted: Thu Sep 16, 2004 5:09 am
by Lyion
I'm only about 4 hours in, but having fun.

I don't have the guide, so not sure of the tricks. I'm not a guide type of guy.

I was owned hard by some dirt throwing dude last night, and just called it, while doing the escort mission for the traders. I'll give him another whirl today,

Posted: Thu Sep 16, 2004 12:32 pm
by Treehorn
Know exactly what you mean, and, yeah, that earth troll freaking sucks.
I killed it toe-to-toe, but it was rough (using my old, tired steel katana). Ended up burning through a lot of my health potions, and probably one rez phial. I got pinned between the troll and the back wall, and he pummeled me mercilessly with those boulder. As soon as I'd begin to recover from the last round, and try moving out of there, he'd nail me again.

Think it might have taken longer to do, but a much safer approach would probably be to just range attack it to death while strafing around the boulders it sends your way. The guy I'm playing now is pretty well balanced for range and melee, but those trolls have a boatload of hp.

Posted: Thu Sep 16, 2004 4:00 pm
by Thon
picked the game up today. i thought escorting those merchents would just be across a zone or two, that took a while.

and my steel longsword was no match for the troll, or at least my body wasn't. barely escaped melee range and finished him with the bow. it's cake to dodge the boulders from a range

Posted: Thu Sep 16, 2004 6:15 pm
by Treehorn
Woot! Finally managed it, and I am now the proud wielder of the legendary cutlass: Bluetane. Good bye, slow-ass 120 damage greataxe, hello speedy 165 damage cutlass (and omg does it ever look sweet) . I guess it's safe for me to sell of my steel katana now. :rofl:

I think my problem was that, if you have accepted the mission to save the boy from the hobbes cave, but havn't rescued him yet, the area outside doesn't spawn any monsters. Need to be able to run into the cave, wrack up the best modifier you can, run out (which will cut that modifier in half) then kill the stuff outside, and try to get to 14 or greater, then speak to the door before it runs out. I actually managed it the slower, less efficient way, which is to run into GW Caves from GW Cullis, kill, pop out, pop back in, kill again, repeat.

It's kind of tricky (well, if you suck like I do~), but the reward is well worth it.

Doesn't look like there is another weapon as good as this one (certainly not for free, anyway) attainable until later when you get to the Temple of Avo (assuming all of your Strength abilities are maxxed when you get there, otherwise you won't be able to pull the legendary longsword: Harbinger from the stone there).


P.S.- having a spell like physical shield (or maybe slow time) really helps you maintain your multiplier.

Posted: Thu Sep 16, 2004 6:44 pm
by Thon
lol i just finished saving the boy from the hobbes cave, so would i be screwed on getting bluetane?

sounds like a good wep, but not worth my going through that crap again. obsidian greatsword is 143 dmg, not the greatest speed though

Posted: Thu Sep 16, 2004 7:43 pm
by Treehorn
No, once the boy is saved stuff will start spawning in GW Caves when you zone back in (after you've delivered the boy home to granny, anyway).

It's easy enough to do (in theory anyway; guess it depends on how good you are at the types of 3-d fighting games. I'm fair-to-middlin', I guess).

Zone into the hobbe cave, slaughter whatever's there for the best multiplier you can get (kill the first 3 or so there. all you need to get is like 8 or 10 or so, but more is ok. You just want to have enough to carry over like 4 or more points, since the most I was ever able to earn off of whatever spawned in GWC was like 11. You need 14 for the door to open), pop back into GW Cave (although it's really not a cave, misleading name I guess), and kill whatever is out there (will either be 4 hobbes or 1 troll. far as I can tell which one you get is random).
Shouldn't be too much work getting your multiplier up to 14.

The weapon is totally worth the effort (I just slaughtered 6 balverenes at once with it. it's $$$). It's a light weapon (fast, fast, fast), 165 damage (45 more than the great axe I was using), and it has a built in lightning enhancement.

Oh, and consider saving in GW Cullis before you begin, just outside the zone to GW Caves. That way, if you screw up, you can just re-load instead of wasting potions and stuff permanently.


Edit: I think I must have just maxxed out my goodness. As if the halo wasn't enough, now I'm surrounded by a flock of ethereal butterflies~

Posted: Fri Sep 17, 2004 5:18 pm
by Thon
getting that combat modifier that high aint fuckin easy, i'm gonna give it another go with the personal shield i guess

Posted: Fri Sep 17, 2004 6:02 pm
by Treehorn
Personal shield helps a ton. If your mana bar was anything like mine, I could take about 5 hits before it sucked my mana pool dry (can always pop another potion and refill. that's why it helps to save before you start working on it).

Also, working a whole swarm of hobbes (or anything, for that matter) with a 2-hander sucks. It takes all day to swing once, and they can nail you on the swing, breaking your modifier, etc.

How's your archery? My eventual success came once I got an ebony bow. I could take out any hobbe, aside from a liutenant, in 2 or 3 shots (took out the casters first, then the runt, then worked on the lt).
Just locked onto one, charged up, and strafed around avoiding hits.

I was trying the same thing with an oak crossbow before that, but the cocking animation really slowed me down and got me hit a lot. Not a problem with a bow.




I can't believe I'm already finished. Sort of disappointing when a game you eagerly anticipated for almost 2 years can have its play possiblities pretty much wrung dry in about 20 hours. I was really hoping I'd be able to squeeze 2 or 3 weeks of play out of it, but I just don't see it happening.

I should have waited to rent. :(

I am le sad.

Posted: Sat Sep 18, 2004 10:33 am
by Thon
ya i got it first try out with personal shield, pretty awesome wep. never really used archery, i might end up playing an archer in another game.

as for length, ya the main quest is short. but you can always give it another go as a different kind of char, evil/good, all out mage, i might give a thief a try in the future. i kinda wish it was more of a dynamic world with random quests coming in

Posted: Sat Sep 18, 2004 10:45 pm
by Treehorn
I'll probably give it another go at some point, but for now I've got stuff to catch up on.

I've done both endings for max good though. Second ending was kind of funny.

After the credits rolled, I played around with my Sword of Aeons a bit, led some innocent bystanders to be sacrificed in the Temple of Skorm, got Skorm's Bow (on the first try. I guess between my still being relatively good at the time, sister-slaying notwithstanding, and my offering up a nice, healthy mercenary, Skorm was well pleased.), and then I decided to max out my evil by slaughtering every man, woman, and child that I could find.

Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2004 8:31 am
by vonkaar
I just stopped playing after 13 hours straight. That's the first game since Cilization... the first one... on my 486... the first game that's done that to me.

So far, I'm loving this. I'll give it an early 9.5 on the vonkaar-cool-o-meter.

Posted: Mon Sep 20, 2004 1:49 pm
by Tikker
.

Posted: Mon Sep 20, 2004 2:17 pm
by kaharthemad
vonkaar wrote:
Thon wrote:i won't be pre-ordering it, moo3 taught me that

I cant believe EB gave me that game for free when I bought a new copy of MOO2 for 10 bucks. I hate them fuckers.

Posted: Mon Sep 20, 2004 5:10 pm
by vonkaar
Tikker wrote:so, you're almost done the game then vonk?


it was short, wuwu


Fuck, I hope not... the world looks so big... it better not end soon.

Posted: Mon Sep 20, 2004 7:05 pm
by Tikker
.

Posted: Thu Sep 23, 2004 9:43 am
by Tossica
I still haven't figured out WTF is going on. I have been giving shit to women trying to get laid but I guess you have to get married first. I bought a house and have been working on my pimp game. That's the whole point of the game right?

Posted: Thu Sep 23, 2004 10:29 am
by 10sun
I think someone slipped you a copy of the Sims.

-Adam

Posted: Thu Sep 23, 2004 10:32 am
by Tossica
This game is great. I walked around town and got everyone shitfaced on beer and then I hacked them all to pieces.