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Fiendrew
Acolyte
USA
2 Posts |
 Posted - 08 Mar 2006 : 19:27:31
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While shopping at Wal-Mart recently, I came across "The Temple Of Elemental Evil" put out by Atari (for the PC) and I thought I couldn't go wrong paying under $10 for the game. Well, I WAS wrong ! After meticulously installing the game using all the recommended steps, and checking to make sure my new Pentium 4 computer had all the latest driver updates (nVidia, AC 97 Audio, motherboard and processor, etc.) and after installing all 3 official patches, the game fails to run at all, but will run on my neighbor's AMD-based system.
It would seem securom copy protection is at the heart of my dilemma. All my other CD-based games run fine using GameDrive 10 to use virtual CD players in place of the original CD's. But "TOEE" run as an image file results in an error message stating you MUST use the original CD, but that doesn't work at all, even if I try to run it on my Lite-On burner CD drive, rather than my Sony DVD player.
Since Atari won't give me a refund of the purchase price (guess they must think I'm a cheapskate) and their product support is woefully inadequate, and does nothing to resolve my problem, I'd give "TOEE" a negative 10 on a scale of 1 to 10, where a 1 means the product is a total dud, and 10 means it's the best thing that hit the market.
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Fiendrew |
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Drakul
Senior Scribe
USA
367 Posts |
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Arivia
Great Reader
Canada
2965 Posts |
Posted - 08 Mar 2006 : 20:26:49
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quote:
Originally posted by Drakul
Just cause it won't play on your comp, don't mean the game sux. If anything, its your comp thats the problem.
Here is a hint: Upgrade.
Nah. Nothing about that game was good; they couldn't even string together a consistent plotline. Remember that this is the game that shipped with such notes in the strategy guide as "At time of shipping, feature x was broken. [Troika?] has pledged to fix this in a future patch." |
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Alaundo
Head Moderator
United Kingdom
5695 Posts |
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Drakul
Senior Scribe
USA
367 Posts |
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Mace Hammerhand
Great Reader
Germany
2296 Posts |
Posted - 09 Mar 2006 : 21:14:23
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Nah, doesn't go beyond 10th level. BUT you gotta love the item creation feats...and the brothel, provided you got a patch that unlocked this 'broken' content.
To the OP, I truly feel sorry for you. You miss out on one heck of a game. Yeah, there is no storyline. But then again there never WAS a real storyline in the original module. It is an almost one to one conversion from the old Gygax/Mentzer(sp?) books and they even added some stuff to make things more interesting (at first anyway) PLUS they added the Answerer, gotta love that sword. Also there is the problem with Zuggtmoy that you can only defeat her with out of game knowledge at hand, but that is beside the point.
Temple was, so far, the BEST conversion of the 3.5 rules period. I hope someone got the engine stowed away and will use the bugger in future D&D games, hopefully sans bugs and with a storyline that is thicker than a hair... |
Mace's not so gentle gamer's journal My rants were harmless compared to this, beware! |
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Faraer
Great Reader
3308 Posts |
Posted - 09 Mar 2006 : 21:24:01
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I enjoyed the Temple game a lot and had few of the reputed problems with bugs (I rarely do, which leads me to think bug problems are generally overstated, naturally enough given that those who don't encounter them don't loudly say so).
The game's story is that your PCs discover the resurgent cult of Elemental Evil and delve the sealed Temple to destroy it. It's one that tens of thousands of AD&D players have enjoyed. Not all CRPGs need vastly complex prewritten storylines that you play through passively. |
Edited by - Faraer on 09 Mar 2006 21:24:42 |
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Drakul
Senior Scribe
USA
367 Posts |
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Winterfox
Senior Scribe
895 Posts |
Posted - 10 Mar 2006 : 14:12:17
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quote:
Originally posted by Faraer
Not all CRPGs need vastly complex prewritten storylines that you play through passively.
So it's better to have no plot at all, right? Riiiight. And I'm not sure why having a complex story means the player has to go through it "passively," unless you mean JRPGs like FF, in which case yes, it's just a string of watching cutscenes and cinematics.
There was another thread on ToEE in this forum, and I'll say what I said there again: normal software has bugs -- ToEE is a bug. It's hard to say what works right in the game when first shipped; most things don't work the way they're supposed to. (No item descriptions, certain options don't work, memory leak problems that cause massive lag later in the game.) Because of this, even as a mindless hack and slash, it fails utterly; you'd be better off playing Diablo 2 or Dungeon Siege 2 if you're looking for a hackfest. The best I can say about it is that it's an okay tactical simulation, not an RPG.
There's a reason Troika as a company went bye-bye rather quickly. |
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Faraer
Great Reader
3308 Posts |
Posted - 10 Mar 2006 : 17:06:10
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Taking part in a story written by a game's developers is a responsive and relatively passive experience compared to a story that consists of the free, active decisions and actions of the player. Same as in tabletop roleplaying campaigns (of which T1-4 is one of the most revered).
I specifically didn't say one approach was better than the other. |
Edited by - Faraer on 10 Mar 2006 18:04:57 |
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scererar
Master of Realmslore
USA
1618 Posts |
Posted - 10 Mar 2006 : 17:31:13
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| I pulled out this game, re installed it, added the 3 updates, and it works fine so far. I have to agree with most of the posters though, It is not that great of a game. The idea is cool, but I am partial to the setup of NWN, and I feel that this just did not pan out very well. |
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Winterfox
Senior Scribe
895 Posts |
Posted - 10 Mar 2006 : 18:21:16
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quote:
Originally posted by Faraer
Taking part in a story written by a game's developers is a responsive and relatively passive experience compared to a story that consists of the free, active decisions and actions of the player. Same as in tabletop roleplaying campaigns (of which T1-4 is one of the most revered).
And what "free, active decisions" can you make in TOEE apart from which order of monsters to kill?
If you really want to talk about that approach of gameplay, ToEE is still a piss-poor representation of the breed (if it can be considered a representation at all). Try Morrowind or Fallout. |
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Faraer
Great Reader
3308 Posts |
Posted - 10 Mar 2006 : 18:44:14
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| I'm not arguing that Temple is the best game: I just said that I enjoyed it, even without a complex prewritten storyline, and didn't find lots of bugs. |
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GungHo
Seeker
USA
68 Posts |
Posted - 10 Mar 2006 : 22:05:49
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I wrote it off initially due to losing my paladin's status because the rogue participated in a drinking game.
I went back to it, and think it's a decent interpretation of the original module and the new ruleset. That being said, there were a few things that needed polishing.
I didn't hit many bugs, myself, but I did hit some portions of the game where the performance went to doo-doo, and I was playing it on a mondo machine at the time.
Then I got into Neverwinter Nights and never thought about it again. |
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Mace Hammerhand
Great Reader
Germany
2296 Posts |
Posted - 11 Mar 2006 : 11:51:43
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In all honesty, NWN is somewhat boring, in terms of story and even the engine. Personally, I don't like the hack and slash approach of the combast system, Baldur's Gate (I & II) and ToEE were far better suited to my preferences. The feature to create your own modules and mods for NWN is probably the best thing about NWN, although I do not use it.
The tactical combat in ToEE was one of the most endearing features and it helped me learn a lot about 3.5 rules. Not only me but one of my players who had played Temple as well is already very familiar with the rules in general because of how the engine worked. |
Mace's not so gentle gamer's journal My rants were harmless compared to this, beware! |
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mdhprime
Acolyte
5 Posts |
Posted - 21 May 2006 : 17:42:11
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| After some technical problems which were fixed by applying the patches and using a workaround for looting (go to combat mode in order to loot bodies that you previously couldn't) I thought Temple of Elemental Evil was a great game. For those familiar with the original published adventure, the PC game version stayed surprisingly true to the original content. There was never much of a plot to the adventure, but it was a challenging dungeon crawl with a great interface (when it worked.) The only thing marring the PC version of the game was the myriad technical issues as well as the lack of official support (Troika, the developers, unfortunately went under.) |
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Mace Hammerhand
Great Reader
Germany
2296 Posts |
Posted - 21 May 2006 : 21:15:36
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| As I said before, in terms of 3.5 rules conversion TOEE is still the best out there. The combat made sense, as much as it can make sense at any rate, and the static initiative and whathaveyou...they implemented it all, and that is something no D&D game has done before...at least to my knowledge... |
Mace's not so gentle gamer's journal My rants were harmless compared to this, beware! |
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Rinonalyrna Fathomlin
Great Reader
USA
7106 Posts |
Posted - 19 Jun 2006 : 04:35:43
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| I didn't think ToEE was very good at all...and not just because of the bugs (Faraer, if you didn't get bugs, consider yourself lucky--I wasn't). Granted, it might have been a great pnp game, but what I saw in the game was badly written dialogs, laughable "romances" ("I only just met you, but will you marry me/my daughter/whomever?"), very lame fetch-and-carry quests, and very little in the way of an actual plot. |
"Instead of asking why we sleep, it might make sense to ask why we wake. Perchance we live to dream. From that perspective, the sea of troubles we navigate in the workaday world might be the price we pay for admission to another night in the world of dreams."
--Richard Greene (letter to Time) |
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hashimashadoo
Master of Realmslore
United Kingdom
1152 Posts |
Posted - 21 Jun 2006 : 21:53:35
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Temple of Elemental Evil had potential. COMPLETE 3.5 SRD rules, nifty graphics & if you read far enough into it the was a half-decent & complex storyline to it as well. Plus, the very first gay henchman!
On the other hand, it was FAR too buggy & you had to put effort into finding that damn storyline. The reason why it was so buggy was because Troika went out of business shortly after releasing the game. I also agree that the romances were totally lame. |
When life turns it's back on you...sneak attack for extra damage.
Head admin of the FR wiki:
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/ |
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GothicDan
Master of Realmslore
USA
1103 Posts |
Posted - 21 Jun 2006 : 23:27:32
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I bought the game when it came out, started playing it, and then one day, it just wouldn't load. At all. I even uninstalled the game and reinstalled it, and it refused to work.
So bugs abound. |
Planescape Fanatic
"Fiends and Undead are the peanut butter and jelly of evil." - Me
"That attitude should be stomped on, whenever and wherever it's encountered, because it makes people holding such views bad citizens, not just bad roleplayers (considering D&D was structured as a 'forced cooperation' game, and although successive editions are pointing it more and more towards a me-first, min-max game, the drift away from 'we all need each other to succeed' will at some point make it 'no longer' D&D)." - ED GREENWOOD |
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scererar
Master of Realmslore
USA
1618 Posts |
Posted - 22 Jun 2006 : 04:05:40
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| I too had issues. This was one chance to do it right. I feel that it was a complete failure. Additionally, I have tried playing it several times. It reminds me of the ruins of myth drannor, as a far as game play, but with worse graphics and functionality. |
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Silverblade The Enchanter
Seeker
United Kingdom
61 Posts |
Posted - 17 Aug 2010 : 08:14:01
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Troika made awesome games, but were forced out before finishing, sigh
so Arcanum, VtM: Bloodlines and TOEE need serious patching, hence the great fan patches :)
it is, IMHO, the best mechanics of D&D in any CRPG!
nothing like sneaking in your rogue/fighter into a room full of gnolls etc
the rogue/fighter has a holy +1 spiked chain and Combat Reflexes feat plus, Cleave...
ye gods, that is so SO fun! :p
party's wizard moves into sight of enemy
NPCs, especially bugbears, always bee line for casters (which makes sense)
which takes them by the stealthed fighter/rogue, who goes into quisinart mode as they provoke Attacks of Opportunity, lol!!!
ah, humour ;)
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www.silverblades-suitcase.com
Spelljammer & Dark Sun art, and much more! |
Edited by - Silverblade The Enchanter on 17 Aug 2010 08:14:50 |
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Atari's "The Temple Of Elemental Evil" Sucks
