1861

I have to admit that as terrifically underwhelmed as I was with vanilla TQ, I have been equally impressed by the expansion. The little things they fixed, tweaked, added or just flat out improved really add up, IMO.

1862

so no kick ass hawt deals like the CC deal to get the expansion + game on the cheap?

1863

Besides Overlord runs Hydra is one of the few things that forces me to totally swap out my inventory. All the armor get’s swapped both rings and the necklace all to nearly perfectly tweak resitstances at the loss of about 300dps 900 armor and 1200 hits. And then it requires the banner up for even more damage reduction and smashing the heal potion every time it’s available. I’m always up for a co-op run at him or anything else just name a day and time and I’ll try and make sure to pop in.

1864

Thanks, but I finally got him. What turned the trick for me was a scroll that summoned a corpulent djinn. His extra offense + protection spell combined with my buffs, Colossus form, Ancestral Spirits, banner, etc. to win the day. Of course, my total number of deaths is now so embarassing I’ll never show it to anyone :-).

And he dropped nothing worthwhile :-(.

1865

Meanwhile back on Epic, I found another mini-boss that was almost as annoying as the Manticore. The only way I could beat the Ancient Demon Bull in China was by retreating on the rope bridge where he wouldn’t follow. One charge means instadeath. I even lost one tombstone when I died twice in a row. :(

Typhon was actually easier on Epic than on Normal. No new attacks, and he didn’t get stronger by as much as my character did. Same for the Telkines, they’re fairly trivial on Epic. If this continues Hades should be a pushover…

The boss balancing in TQ is really, really weird.

1866

I think the problem I had was with gear. I transferred the blue weapon and shield plus a few green armor pieces from my abandoned Conqueror to the new one, and with getting new skills like Shield Charge, I’m standing much better hand to hand with bosses and completely owning trash and sending them flying. You can walk into a full camp with impunity and kill everything. Still chugging potions at bosses but much more improved and can only improve with new skills in the defense tree. Also with maxed out Onslaught and Weapon Handling.

1867

I picked up a Gold Edition which has both games that sold for roughly the price of a single new game here (around 46 USD).

1868

Having been to Dubai I just have to ask if they are the legit versions =D

1869

Heh. Yeah they’re legit. All my games are :P . You only get fake PC games from shady dealers that don’t have proper shops!

EDIT: Could be a region only thing though. It had special Gold Edition packaging so it wasn’t a promotion by the store. And it’s the UK version.

EDIT: Here it is in an ebay auction.
http://cgi.ebay.com/PC-CD-TITAN-QUEST-GOLD-Edition-inc-Immortal-Throne_W0QQitemZ110109656349QQihZ001QQcategoryZ11047QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD2VQQcmdZViewItem

1870

Some random complaints…

  1. On the island of the Rhodes in the new act, between the cave to Crab Village and the way to Medea’s Grove, there’s a locked gate. It says “Overlord’s Gate – Locked by Guardian”. Except there is no guardian and no overlord, and I can’t find a way to unlock this gate. Remains of an unfinished quest that someone forgot to remove before the expansion shipped?

  2. Greater and divine artifacts are astoundingly useless. I’ve got a whole trunk of these scrolls but I’m not making any of them because they’re so weak compared to “lesser” artifacts. I’m a bit shocked at the poor balancing here. Does anyone find greater and divine artifacts useful at all?

  3. Jeff Green said in his GFW review that he was no longer swimming in money because the expansion gave him new ways to spend it. Well, I don’t see it. I have about 40 million rupees (or whatever) at this point, and I don’t see anything to spend it on. Even though removing a relic from a weapon is expensive you just don’t do it very often.

1871

For the gate… the turtle knows!

1872

As above, except I’ll add it’s not an unfinished quest and you’ll know how to get in when/if you get the “key”.

  1. Greater and divine artifacts are astoundingly useless. I’ve got a whole trunk of these scrolls but I’m not making any of them because they’re so weak compared to “lesser” artifacts. I’m a bit shocked at the poor balancing here. Does anyone find greater and divine artifacts useful at all?

Yeah, my favorite artifact so far is the “Shroud of Eternal Night”, the Lesser Artifact. It’s the only one I’ve used so far. Then again, I haven’t made any Greater or Divine ones yet because…I can’t. Okay…I’m going over here now. —>

  1. Jeff Green said in his GFW review that he was no longer swimming in money because the expansion gave him new ways to spend it. Well, I don’t see it. I have about 40 million rupees (or whatever) at this point, and I don’t see anything to spend it on. Even though removing a relic from a weapon is expensive you just don’t do it very often.

Yeah, I have a little more money ending with IT than I did ending with TQ alone, so I’m spending more money (since you’d think I’d have a lot more if I played a whole new act), but I’m hardly not swimming in money. Quite comfortable, in fact; I think I’ll get myself a palace. I hear Hades has moved on.

1873

Oh, so this is the entrance to the fabled secret turtle area… thanks!

1874

BTW, what exactly is the new content added in Immortal Throne? I never played the vanilla game. Is it just some epic/legendary stuff that you do after you get to 30 and finish the normal difficulty content?

1875

The new stuff is the entire Act IV, the artifacts, the Dream mastery, the caravan, the enchanter, new items/creatures/bonuses, scrolls are entirely new, tombstones left where you died so you can get some xp back, new pet options (aggressive, normal, defensive), inventory sort button, attribute undo, additional quick slots, pick-up of only those items you want (instead of accidentally picking up useless/broken items), new audio/visual effects, the slow xp bar so you can see how much xp your earned, an in-game real-time clock, and a few multiplayer enhancements.

Whew. There are other things, I’m sure, but those are the ones I remember. Does your manual list the new things in IT? If so, that’d be a place to check.

1876

Numeric HP/Energy display, much more informative minimap icons, equip with right click, disable screenshake, gamma correction, artifacts etc.

These might seem like small things, but they are very welcome. I <3 UI improvements.

1877

The UI still does not scale is that correct?

1878

Hey, I did say artifacts (#2 in my list)!

As for UI scaling, they made no changes to the overall UI, so whatever functionality was there in the original TQ is there in IT. Are you looking for a larger UI or smaller? I play at 1920x1200 and it’s perfect from what I can see.

1879

Just had a blast going through the tomb of the Sphinx for one of the quest items from Memphis. Being able to tank all 4 guardians before the quest item was a genuine “FUCK YEA!” moment. It also helps that I’ve been getting more set piece drops - got the Obsidian chestplate and then from the loot after the guardians picked up the Ramses Greaves from one of the coffers.

Loving the game and its overall style, though the performance chugs sometimes (even after turning off shadows, though my system is a bit old). How did the original game not end up in some official GotY nominations?

1880

I think it goes back to the whole debate over originality (I mentioned this previously in this massive thread). TQ falls into the category of a “Diablo-clone” and that seems to immediately make people downgrade it a notch or two if it doesn’t impress in ways beyond the cloned stuff. Since loot finding and leveling are what the game is all about, it’s really hard to surpass the Diablos or come across as offering something new. If you consider other games that were GotY quality, you’ll see that they (usually) have some measure of innovation in gameplay, story, or whatnot.

Now, that’s not my opinion of TQ, it’s just a reason why I think it generated reviews that weren’t all universal praise. That and its lack of some key multiplayer support.