A satirical look at the entire genre behind "The Bard's Tale" and other similar games and lore! Game will have you laughing out loud, often! This title is not to be confused with the "serious" game entitled "The Bard's Tale"--this is not that game, but you can enjoy this game on its own merit entirely! It really is very well done! It's also an authentic satire because it's a game developed by inXile, whose principal, Brian Fargo, brought us the real Bard's Tale, so long ago! And now inXile is also bringing us all of the "serious" Bard's Tale games remastered for the 21st century! This one needs to be in your collection alongside the others!
These games are very enjoyable now that the original DRM they shipped with has been stripped out (I had the originals, too, so I know what a pain they have been to configure and play on successive, better versions of Windows because of that awful original DRM scheme!) The 4k res is exactly what I thought it would be and on my Win10x64 system with an AMD Ryzen R5 1600 @ 3.8Ghz, and AMD 590 8GB, 16GB of DDR4 system ram @ 3200MHz, the game is as smooth as butter and plays very consistently--no problems with sound or frame-rate issues. Don't know why others report having problems, except to say that in the forum I read a post or two explaining that the GOG versions were newer than the Steam versions, apparently. @ $4.99 EA on sale, including the original versions as well, to be added at a later date at no charge, purchasing these games is a no-brainer.
Can't add much to the positive reviews I've read, except to say that the game runs fine on my Win10x64 system--nothing to be afraid of on that score! Hard to argue with the 75%-off sale price of $4.99! You need this in your games collection!
...will never swallow games like this! Ditto the positive comments already here, except to add that the "minimum and recommended" requirements for the game are obviously for the *originals* and date back to the original shipping dates. Obviously, the remakes run splendidly well under Win8/ and Win10x64, as well--and 3840x2160 is supported ROOB for these remakes! I am downloading now--these classics are a must-have for my collection--and I doubt there will ever be a better sale price! DRM-free, along with your own installable game copy (!), make GOG the only rational choice for these games. Better yet, when you buy these remakes, the *originals* will be added *free* to your GOG account at a later date. I owned the originals and got tired and bored with having to jump through DRM hoops just to install them, so I had actually uninstalled these games--until now! Carpe diem!...;)
I bought SF1 DOS when it shipped--how time flies when you are playing games!--in either '87-'88, can't recall any closer than that! Where the graphics were of course sparse at the time--utterly basic--my imagination kicked into overdrive and filled in all of the missing graphical information wonderfully...;) (Like what happens when you read a good book, etc.) To this day my wife remembers the *huge* difference in how I described the game to her when playing it originally--and in what she actually saw onscreen when I showed it to her. This game will take you places you've never been before--through nebulae, countless charted star systems, wormholes, and contact with alien life--some benign, some funny and quite stupid, and some as malevolent as you might imagine, etc. I still have the original SF1 star charts and wormhole locator printed and on my wall in my computer room today! The game has really never let go of me. The plot of the game is fantastic--it's a space exploration/detective game-save the galaxy- from a nefarious plot that would destroy it, game--as you move from star system to system uncovering clues. You go only where you want to go when you want to go--no linear path here! You never know what is lurking in the next star system, what native flora and fauna you may uncover. You mine metals and lifeforms for cash, then use that cash to upgrade your ship with engines, armor, and weaponry you may need when hostile lifeforms pull you out of stardrive and want to destroy your ship, etc.! As others have mentioned, the Amiga version of the games are far and away the better versions--mouse interface--proper save-game function via the mouse--ie, no more of the primitive DOS savegame hustle as if you were switching out floppies...;) But I bought the GOG version, too, as I played it first--before I bought Amigas and played the games there. Both SF1/2 *scream* to be remastered--can't believe it has yet to happen!
...including the expansions. Why some people are just out and out lying and saying, "You don't get the original game," or "They have taken the original game out of the store," etc., and are *down-voting the game itself* because of this misapprehension, is beyond me. Quote from the store page: "Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition includes the unaltered original version of Neverwinter Nights Diamond (The original version will be automatically added to your account.)" Now you get both games for $9.95 atm (current sale price! They gave me credit for having bought the Original beforehand)--then you can do yourself a favor and compare both versions. The same old characters come out of the woodwork to moan about Beamdog and Gog, again, but the fact is that the original game *and expansions* is still very much for sale--but you get the EE version *with* the original, now. For $10 on sale. Wow--that's just *awful* isn't it?..../sarcasm Complaints about this are ridiculous. They said *precisely* the same thing about the original Planescape: Torment. I bought the original version long ago--before work had even begun on the EE. Indeed, I owned the original disk-based version of the game. Then I bought the EE version during a similar sale--and--no kidding--hands down I preferred the EE and for me it wasn't even close.. I could easily see a lot of difference in the EE version compared with the original--and I like to play at very high resolutions--QHD then and now 4k UHD. Oh, the EE version is so much better at those resolutions...;) Not only does the EE version look noticeably better it plays better, too. Indeed the EE version of P:T plays much, much better than my fully-modded version of P:T ever did. I am not trying to sell anything to anybody--just presenting my opinions. I think it's a very good deal.
Save anywhere/anytime, minimap, full automap, support for 3840x2160, mouse support, built-in manual, and more--these remasters (Volume 1 now, the remaining two games later this year--but *included* in this purchase!--so, $5 ea is the tally) have it all--games are completely rebuilt around the Unity engine, with new sounds & all new graphics. Very, very nice. If you thought the Amiga upgrades to the original x86 releases were a terrific step up--you ain't seen nothin' yet..;) I got my GOG key today in the original BTIV Kickstarter so the Remastered originals don't cost me a dime--but trust me when I say that if I hadn't gone that route I'd have chunked down this change in a heartbeat. What a deal!
I bought this game when it was first released--for the Amiga, many years ago. I'll sum it up this way: it is first of all an animated cartoon, and it is a "twitch fest"--which is my favorite word for "joysticking & button pushing & reflexes." Lots of scenes depend upon you clicking the buttons fast enough and at the right split-second, correct number of times, etc. The "story" *cough* is clearly secondary to the arcade, twitch-fest, reflex-oriented button pusher nature of the game...;) Whew. If you like the type of game I have just described then you will love this game--don't let my two stars dissuade you in that case! It was very cool when released--just not my kind of game.
$20 is far too much for this extremely old, multiplayer-only software (Yep, no single-player game at all.) At the time it was new it reminded me of shooting fish in a barrel at the county fair...;) Quake II I thought was a far more interesting game to play because it actually had some semblance of a plot/story. But either game is ancient--as someone else mentioned, the original Unreal Tournament has aged much better, imo, costs less, and its athletes look like athletes (trim & fit) instead of big fat pigs...:D
