What are you playing now?

[Tawmis]

Those games are always hard until you level up and get a good group of 6 characters. If you haven't already, go to the Inn or whatever it is where two companions are waiting for you. Then try to find Minsc. Branwen is probably the best cleric so grab her too. Then depending on whether you're good or evil, you'll need to decide which characters you want to travel with you. You'll definitely want the cleric and a mage and a thief to disarm traps and open locks. And if you're not evil, you should definitely bring along Minsc. And he'll give you a quest to rescue one of the best mages in the game. And you could always just cheat and spawn books to increase your attributes so you have max (24 or 25?) stats. Your constitution will be so high that you'll have natural regeneration. With a couple warriors, a thief, a cleric, and a magic user, you should be able to handle most enemies. My main party consisted of my paladin, Minsc, probably Imoen, Branwen, Dynaheir, and I can't remember who the sixth character was. If you're playing evil, you'll want to choose evil characters.

I did make it to the Inn. As a matter of fact, pick up the (evil) mage and the one traveling with him (just to have companions until I made it to the Inn)... but there was a guy outside the Inn who tries to kill me. He must have killed my companions (or me) about ten to twelve times, before I managed to beat him with no casualties. Picked up the two in the Inn and traveled on. Almost immediately met death in a Hobgoblin ambush. Took several times, beat the hobgoblins - and pressed on. Got to the city and dine the mining thing - and met a guy who had some bounty hunter after him. Bounty hunter showed up and said to hand him over; I refused (being the good guy that I am) - and the bounty hunter killed me in mere moments. Finally just avoided that all together (and by this time I am level 5 or 6?), and went down the path where two Ogres pretty much killed me in mere moments. Left, went around them (which is difficult because they're right there just as you enter that map on the road), leveled up some (to level 7?) - went back for the ogres, and met death.

I have never died so many times in an RPG - in my life.

And the kicker is I often forget to hit save, after exploring an entire map area, then die - and now have to go WAY back because I forgot to save; and rediscover the whole map area again, and hope I don't die.

[Qbix]

Age of Empires III.
So far I like 2 better, but it's good enough to play

[Maxor127]

I did make it to the Inn. As a matter of fact, pick up the (evil) mage and the one traveling with him (just to have companions until I made it to the Inn)... but there was a guy outside the Inn who tries to kill me. He must have killed my companions (or me) about ten to twelve times, before I managed to beat him with no casualties. Picked up the two in the Inn and traveled on. Almost immediately met death in a Hobgoblin ambush. Took several times, beat the hobgoblins - and pressed on. Got to the city and dine the mining thing - and met a guy who had some bounty hunter after him. Bounty hunter showed up and said to hand him over; I refused (being the good guy that I am) - and the bounty hunter killed me in mere moments. Finally just avoided that all together (and by this time I am level 5 or 6?), and went down the path where two Ogres pretty much killed me in mere moments. Left, went around them (which is difficult because they're right there just as you enter that map on the road), leveled up some (to level 7?) - went back for the ogres, and met death.

I have never died so many times in an RPG - in my life.

And the kicker is I often forget to hit save, after exploring an entire map area, then die - and now have to go WAY back because I forgot to save; and rediscover the whole map area again, and hope I don't die.

Another trick that you'll need to use from time to time is moving slowly into the fog of war so that you can lure enemies one by one to you instead of fighting them all at once. The game is very difficult until you get a cleric and mage in your party. Jaheira has some decent spells, too, if I remember correctly. But it's one of those old school games where it's possible to run into enemies who are too strong for you instead of games today where they level up with you. But it's more satisfying by the end of the game when you're pretty much a god. There's even a part where you run into Drizzt Do'Urden, a famous Forgotten Realms character, and you can choose to fight him and kill him and get his excellent weapons and armor.

[Tawmis]

Another trick that you'll need to use from time to time is moving slowly into the fog of war so that you can lure enemies one by one to you instead of fighting them all at once. The game is very difficult until you get a cleric and mage in your party. Jaheira has some decent spells, too, if I remember correctly. But it's one of those old school games where it's possible to run into enemies who are too strong for you instead of games today where they level up with you. But it's more satisfying by the end of the game when you're pretty much a god. There's even a part where you run into Drizzt Do'Urden, a famous Forgotten Realms character, and you can choose to fight him and kill him and get his excellent weapons and armor.

LOL! Well, I moved slowly through the map (fog of war) areas after a few beat downs. So that's part of what was discouraging to me... I'd move slowly, take my time, clear a map... and either die somewhere on that map, or move to the next section (I am one of those people that insists on having 100% of the map cleared out - it's the same with any game!)... and then, through my own stupidity of not doing the "Save Early, Save Often" - I would find death, and all of that work of uncovering the map is undone. So a lot of it is on me, for not saving the game. But also a lot of it has to do with dying so freaking easily. And as far as I can tell, there's no way to resurrect party members. Since their body seems to stay where they died. The RPG games I was accustomed to, you don't die so quickly. So easily. And when you did you could usually drag that person's body to a temple and pay (usually a costly amount) for a resurrection (or if you had a cleric/priest high enough, they could do it). And I grew up on RPG games - from Pool of Radiance, all the Wizardry games (some of my favorites), all the SSI games (along with Pool of Radiance, Beholder, Dragonlance), and of course, my favorites Realms of Arkania and many others in between. And I am telling you, I have never died as much as I have in BG.

(I know who Drizzt is too! Read a large portion of FORGOTTEN REALMS books!)

I started BG2, and saw it looked pretty much like BG1 (slightly prettier) and shook my head. I managed to get out of the prison; didn't die or anything; but was like, "This reminds me too much of BG1, which is too fresh in my mind for being extremely frustrating!"

[DeadPoolX]

And the kicker is I often forget to hit save, after exploring an entire map area, then die - and now have to go WAY back because I forgot to save; and rediscover the whole map area again, and hope I don't die.

How could you forget to save?

[Tawmis]

And the kicker is I often forget to hit save, after exploring an entire map area, then die - and now have to go WAY back because I forgot to save; and rediscover the whole map area again, and hope I don't die.

How could you forget to save?

Because I get to exploring; and I forget to save. Then there's some fights. I win. And I just keep exploring. The game - when I am not being insta-killed - seems like a fun game. It's easy to get wrapped up into it (except when I get insta-killed). So I often enjoy exploring (one of my favorite things about RPG games), and I just forget to save. Like I said, normally, never an issue. Most RPGs, I didn't die like this. And if I did, I would just need to get to a city to revive the person, if I had the money for it. This game doesn't seem to have that option. Dead is... well, dead. (I may be wrong; but if there's a way to raise a fallen companion, I have not seen it yet). And considering that some of the party members are also quest givers; when they die, I assume that "breaks" that quest from being completed.

[Maxor127]

I probably save once every few minutes with most RPGs unless I'm feeling fearless. Never know when you'll run into a tough fight or trigger a conversation you want to explore different options for. It becomes second nature hitting the quick save button.

[BBP]

I'm attempting to fire up Efteling Tycoon (a Tycoon game where you build using the attractions of the real-life Dutch theme park Efteling), which is three years old and won't run. Looked for aid on the Efteling forum I attended and didn't find any, but I did notice something else:
It's a Dutch game made by Americans. Dutch is a tricky language and it's not surprising there are a lot of typos... but it's highly embarrassing if, in a kiddie game, you spell "put" (well) with a k (turning it into slang for the female organ). Seen screenshots of it and can't wait to play it myself, although it's known as a very bad game.

[BBP]

Proof-playing a 7th Guest fan game that's still in infancy, but good fun. Unfortunately it has a maze that's 3d and the player is required to move through it by himself using the arrow keys. I played it a few hours ago, failed to finish and am still nauseous from it.

[BBP]

Managed to get Deathtrap Dungeon, a 1998 Tomb Raider clone with a highly enjoyable intro vid on my PC and am trying to move around in it. There's no PC walkthrough available on YT, and the PS version is very different. I'd make it, but I could only finish level 1 in God Mode.

[DeadPoolX]

Maia and I are playing Titan Quest Gold (which includes the original game and the Immortal Throne expansion) together in co-op mode, which spans the entire main campaign.

The closest way to describe TQ is to imagine Diablo II, but with much better graphics, a far more interesting world (that feels alive with all the people and animals) that's nowhere near as dreary and depressing, and based on different real-world mythologies (i.e. Greek, Egyptian, etc).

[MusicallyInspired]

Started on Serious Sam 3 a couple weeks ago. Haven't played in a while but I'll get to it. Fun game. Right now I've been more or less focusing on Star Trek Online.

[Oweida]

I'm on Metal Gear/Liquid Snake on MGS, Resident Evil 4(Gamecube), Donkey Kong 64 (Getting all gold bananas), Heavy Rain, and L.A. Noir

[Rath Darkblade]

Managed to get Deathtrap Dungeon, a 1998 Tomb Raider clone with a highly enjoyable intro vid on my PC and am trying to move around in it. There's no PC walkthrough available on YT, and the PS version is very different. I'd make it, but I could only finish level 1 in God Mode.

Never played that game, but I played the gamebook many, many times when I was a kid. Good memories.

[BBP]

Wow, that's really cool! I love that kind of book! Hope I can find it somewhere, it's no doubt less nauseating than the game.