Thanks for your impressions. I've played very few RPGs and most wee japanese ones, so I'm not very used to western titles. That means that I haven't played Baldur's Gate and I don't know much about D&D either.

And I think we all have had times when we've been distracted for one reason or another from a game we've been playing and never got back to it. Now that I think about it, this happened to me years ago when playing the first Dragon Age game. I can't play it right now (no optical drive on my PC), but I think I have it on the EA app. Maybe I should try this game instead...

*Edit* An update and a restert later and yes, I have the first Dragon Age in the EA app.

Yeah, this is more a case of because the looming tariffs rather than despite them. Sales in Q2 may fall off a cliff.

Ah, Dragon Age: Origins. Supposedly it's in the same vein as the Baldur's Gate games, but I think Pillars of Eternity feels more similar to the Baldur's Gate games than Dragon Age: Origins. That said, I suppose if you've played Dragon Age, you have some idea of what to expect from Pillars of Eternity. I haven't finished DA:O either, but that has more to do with the game feeling a bit tiring to play to me, with all the dungeons and whatnot (can't remember all the details anymore, but I think the dungeons weren't exactly all that fun in the game and wore me out). It's kind of funny that I think I originally pre-ordered the game, later bought the Ultimate Edition and sold my original copy, then got the game on GOG too, so I've bought it three times.

You bought a game you found tiring 3 times? Wow. The most times I've bought a game has been twice,, and for two different platforms.

Actually, scrap that. I now have Mass Effect three times. One for the 360, one for PC and, since the Winter Sale, I also have Mass Effect Legendaray Edition,which also has the game.

Pillars is very much CRPG made to feel like Baldur's Gate 1/2...I find it to be good, but not as good as those, especially BG2. Honestly, if you're not that much into CRPGs, I wouldn't recommend it right off the bat, leave it for bit later.

I haven't played DA:I, although I liked DA:O very much - DA:O is something I would recommend to newcomers to genre, being much easier to grasp, and overall easier game than PoE.

Thanks. I'll keep that in mind.

Thanks. I'll keep that in mind.

*Extra* I have Divinity Original Sin on Steam. If you've played it, how would you compare it to the other two for someone inexperienced?

D:OS is fine game, but I'm not a big fan of Larian's work, their games' structure, worldbuilding and overall writing. Though, I think they might be more friendly for those new to CRPGs.

Neverwinter Nights and Dragon Age: Origins are probably as good as it gets for me... I feel it's not as stringent as the old Baldurs Gate/Icewind Dale/Planescape Torment etc' from old, but you still need to think and strategize.
Dragon Age I felt really nailed the story and characterizations, which is what I look for in these games, not difficulty. - Morrigan and Alistair acted their roles, perfectly. - Don't recall a game making me laugh so much despite having a serious overtone.

But if you are new to the genre, you could do far worst than these two, the first Baldurs Gate is either a make-it or break-it for some people, it's stupidly unforgiving and can turn people off to the genre, I know I swore off CRPG until Neverwinter released in 2002 which I could never get enough of. (To be fair I am more of a RTS gamer!)

Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age: Inquisition and Dragon Age: Veilguard started to walk down the road of being "accessible" and streamlined all their systems to prioritize real-time combat and less on strategy and character placement, which is fine, some people find that super appealing... Inquisition is a great game and absolutely massive, but it's a different experience to Origins.

If you are going to jump into Dragon Age, definitely start with Origins and work through them consecutively... As the games all have character ties to each other, even if the stories themselves in the first 3 games can mostly stand on their own feet... Veilguard is probably the only proper sequel.

I do wish that Bioware would remaster more of it's old games like Origins, it wasn't a looker even on release, but it's definitely one of their best games, even with my rose tinted glasses.

Hows everyone's performance with Oblivion Remastered?

My Ryzen 5950 seems to be coping just fine, nowhere near using all of my Ram, still got 90GB+ free.
But the little RX6600 of mine is definitely in struggle land. - 1440P, Medium, no Ray Tracing and using XESS performance... Using VRR and going from 40-60fps.

Been doing some GPU window shopping... First game I have truly felt the need to upgrade for in years. - The 7800XT is good value right now at $749 or the 9070 at $1050 which offers up to 50% more performance...
I really don't want to pay $1,000 AUD for a GPU, rather spend less and upgrade more often when the need arises, miss the days when I could grab a high performing Radeon 6950 for $400 AUD...

Yeah. I have started being stingy on GPU's since COVID and the Crypto booms.

Uh, yeah. I liked the game otherwise and I still plan to finish it... some day. I don't usually buy the same game multiple times, but it happens, especially if I got a physical copy initially.