should i buy arcanum?

[Slave_Master]

Interactive book? The dialogue for example was utter shit. Only one who has done shittier dialogue is 14 degrees with Fallout: Tactics. There were only a few choices, short ones, which also resembled each others a lot and gave the same response.

Wait: Are you talking about PS:T or Arcanum here?

Arcanum is no more non linear than Planescape Torment. List things and I'll give you something from PST.

Arcanum is a sizable world that you can run around and do shit in. Only linear thing about it was the order of the main story quests. In PS:T, it's a progression from the Hive, to the Clerk's Ward, to Ravel's Maze, to Curst, back to the Hive, and finally to the Fortress of Regrets. (Or whatever the hell it was called)

One could argue that in a world as vast as the Planescape setting, non-linearity is an impossibility. Tough shit, BIS is the one who decided to do a game in it.

[Kashluk]

Arcanum, of course. Which one has a barely visible dialogue box aligned center bottom of the screen?

--

And with linearity I was talking about other things than just the order of where you get to go. In Arcanum you have to unlock several areas by playing (linear) main quest. Same with PST. You unlock areas by playing more, but most of the places are still visitable. Not all though, but neither were all in Arcanum.

In Arcanum you have those Fallouty-ending slideshows. In PST you had 3 different endings and various choices along the main quest that affected the end game and the outcome of your character/quest.

[Slave_Master]

Arcanum, of course. Which one has a barely visible dialogue box aligned center bottom of the screen?

I agree that the format was not quite high quality, to say the least, but I enjoyed the dialogue itself.

And with linearity I was talking about other things than just the order of where you get to go. In Arcanum you have to unlock several areas by playing (linear) main quest. Same with PST. You unlock areas by playing more, but most of the places are still visitable. Not all though, but neither were all in Arcanum.

The unlockable areas in Arcanum were far vaster than a map here, a map or two there, though. Get across the bridge in Shrouded Hills, the main continent's open. Find the mountain pass,

In Arcanum you have those Fallouty-ending slideshows. In PST you had 3 different endings and various choices along the main quest that affected the end game and the outcome of your character/quest.

or get a ship to Caladon, and that whole area is open too.

In Arcanum you have those Fallouty-ending slideshows. In PST you had 3 different endings and various choices along the main quest that affected the end game and the outcome of your character/quest.

What choices along the main quest have any effect on the ending? And what are the three "different" endings? All I got were the two after defeating the end boss either through combat or dialogue. Even then, they weren't really different at all, anyway.

[Kashluk]

"A map here or a map there".. ? Well I guess because PST was also prettier than Arcanum, it took more space. Hey, it came on 4 CDs. That might explain the lack of "vast areas", which in Arcanum meant monotonic woods, desert, woods, desert, planes, woods, desert, woods...

---

Choices like which guild to join, which npcs to recruit/find and what quests to do to *which* side has effect on the outcome. And I mean more than just Morrowind-style statistics in your character creation screen.

It allows/disallows use of different skills, items and whole mini-stories. You'll find it a lot more different playing the game exactly the same way except joining Anarchists instead of Believers. Not to mention Dustmen.

And if you didn't find the endings much different from each other, I guess it doesn't matter how you end Arcanum either, because "they aren't much different from each other".

[Slave_Master]

"A map here or a map there".. ? Well I guess because PST was also prettier than Arcanum, it took more space. Hey, it came on 4 CDs

Two. And what I said is true. When you deal with Pharod, the Lower Ward and the Clerk's Ward are unlocked. When you deal with Ravel, the three or so maps that make up Curst are unlocked.

Choices like which guild to join, which npcs to recruit/find and what quests to do to *which* side has effect on the outcome. And I mean more than just Morrowind-style statistics in your character creation screen.

What effect on the outcome of the game? One could call it an effect that the different party members get different endings, provided you beat the end boss with dialogue, but the guilds ain't worth shit.

And if you didn't find the endings much different from each other, I guess it doesn't matter how you end Arcanum either, because "they aren't much different from each other".

Funny, I don't remember endings for each town based on the player's actions in them in PS:T.

[Kashluk]

"A map here or a map there".. ? Well I guess because PST was also prettier than Arcanum, it took more space. Hey, it came on 4 CDs

Two. And what I said is true. When you deal with Pharod, the Lower Ward and the Clerk's Ward are unlocked. When you deal with Ravel, the three or so maps that make up Curst are unlocked.

Just checked my original game package and PST sure has 4 CDs. Stop lying.

And if you didn't find the endings much different from each other, I guess it doesn't matter how you end Arcanum either, because "they aren't much different from each other".

Funny, I don't remember endings for each town based on the player's actions in them in PS:T.[/quote]

Funny, I just remember boring slideshows with exactly the same description for each town, which seemed pretty weird since towns that I had slain prospered and places I tried to help the best I can, vanished.

In PST on the other hand the ending "starts" when you get to the Fortress, because whatever happens to the NPCs and you is heavily dependant on your previous actions and you can't go back from this point.

EDIT: messed up ravel with lady's maze, sorry

[bloodbathmaster2]

I'd appreciate it if you two kept the unneccisary slandering of PST and Arcanum to a minimum. I mean, it's one thing to say a game had a linier storyline, but to say it was a "piece of shit" linier storyline is uncalled for.

In Arcanum you have to unlock several areas by playing (linear) main quest.

Actually, the one thing I found really fun was wandering around the world map to explore and discover new places.

[Raksha]

"A map here or a map there".. ? Well I guess because PST was also prettier than Arcanum, it took more space. Hey, it came on 4 CDs

Two. And what I said is true. When you deal with Pharod, the Lower Ward and the Clerk's Ward are unlocked. When you deal with Ravel, the three or so maps that make up Curst are unlocked.

Just checked my original game package and PST sure has 4 CDs. Stop lying.

It came on 4 CDs at first, and that's the version I have. The 4-CD version needs a patch to take care of a few bugs here and there. The game was then re-released on only 2 CDs. This version shall not be patched, since the bugs and glitches are fixed already, and the official patch for the 4-CD version would only mess things up for you.

You're both right, so stop arguing about it.

Edit:
The issue of which game is better is so subjective, it is pointless to discuss it the way you do. You can compare the games if you like, but to call one or the other a piece of shit is not exactly basis for comparison, unless you are prepared to elaborate at length on why you think it is so crappy.

[Phias]

I loved arcanum because of its great design and gameplay. It sure as hell beat every other RPG out that year IIRC. PS:T was a good game because of its settings and interesting dialogue/intriguing story.

They were both good games for different reasons. I did spend much more time playing Arcanum because of its non-linearity, however.