General minor advice for Fallout

Learn to take advantage of Action Points properly. Make your character agile (say, a minimum of 8 AG). Have at least one combat skill tagged of either Small Guns, Unarmed, or Melee. Initiate combat by getting close to a rat, but not too close. He will creep up on you, but will be unable to attack because of lack of APs. Punch/kick/smash/shoot the rat once, then retreat with your remaining APs. The rat will catch up to you, but once again it will lack APs to actually do anything else. Punch/kick/smash/shoot again, retreat, repeat. You will have cleared the cave with no HP loss, and simultaneously learned a valuable lesson how not to tackle everything head on, but keep your distance and deal with one enemy at a time. If you do not learn this early on, you will get your ass handed to you by deathclaws, super mutants, or both later in the game.

I'm really sorry you didn't like Nox, different games for different people, I guess.

Still, I find your "there are so many other, better ones" statement to be mildly offensive, especially since Nox was the game that brought me over to GOG. There may be different games, suited for different players, but they aren't necessarily better, there aren't many games like Nox around. I also don't think it's fair to compare Baldur's Gate or Planescape: Torment with Nox, those are "pure" RPGs, whereas Nox plays more like a true hack-n-slash with some RPG elements. If you get into Nox expecting a bona fide RPG experience, you're going to be extremely disappointed.

I'm really fed up of this elitism between gamer factions, we're probably the most stupid people when it comes to being over-protective of the things we like, and I got ridiculed and cast aside by "true hardcore" nerds that never let me play Baldur's Gate, Torment or Icewind Dale because I was "that guy who played Nox and console games", and therefore "not one of them" and not "entitled to play their games". It's as if people who like food would get mad at each other because some like to eat from plates while others prefer bowls.


[EDIT] For what it's worth, you don't have to grind levels in Nox. The game is well tuned and adjusted so the player is pretty much at the right level, at the right time (unless they avoid fighting altogether). In fact, since mobs don't respawn, there isn't much grinding to be done.

Welcome to the forums, grimgroove. I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest one of my personal faves: Arcanum. It's similar to Fallout, but a lot more fantasy and a bit less sci-fi.

As with Fallout, you can develop your character however you choose, and pretty much explore the world at your own discretion. You want to fight, and let your follower(s) heal you? Or would you rather hang back, and let them do the bulk of the fighting? You can learn magic, build steampunk gadgetry, sneak and skulk about like a master thief in training, do evil or be good, choose to charm people or try to intimidate them.

If you do decide to try this (it's on GOG) I'd recommend that for your first playthrough, you start with some melee skill and a decent weapon; after that, you can branch out however you wish, knowing that you'll always at least have that to fall back on. And yes: use the built-in quicksave as you go, but also create restore points with full named saves, just in case.

i am not comparing them to be equal, i compare them being different much like sierra vs lucasarts in the old days both had adventure games but different in it's kind. same as they are both rpg's but a different kind.

i was keeping in mind if you come from an adventure game history like the op does, i suggest he wants more of a story aspect too which goes against the hack and slash type you name Nox is. Planescape surely has a good story.
Can't remember much about Baldur's Gate as that's been over 15 years since i played it and still need to replay it again.

maybe they are better is a wrong choice of words, maybe it's more i liked them better.
i truely believe to ieach it's own, that's why almost never bother in topics like what game is better, which game should i try or trust much solidly on reviews.

and one day i might surely give nox another try, but right now i have enough other stuff on my list.

Maybe I misread the OP, but I would hate PST, Arcanum or BG to be my first RPG experience :)

You didn't misread the OP, and I think you're right, people just tend to recommend those because they're considered some of the best, and the ones that seem to be on any RPG fan best-of list.

The thing is I come from a point and click adventure background, like the OP, and from my experience those are NOT good titles to start with. They're too complex and can become boring very quickly to someone who grew up on adventure games.

If the OP could get a hold of a working PAL SNES, then I'd undoubtedly suggest Terranigma, that would be my best RPG suggestion to someone coming from an adventure background. Or even the gorgeous Ys 6 (The Ark Of Napishtim) and Ys: The Oath In Felghana -- which is available for purchase on Steam. Nothing too overly complex, with boring turn-based fighting or the strategic "real time" of the D&D Infinity Engine titles and derivatives. That will just scare an adventure fan away from RPGs.

[EDIT] Actually, how about Anachronox? It's by Ion Storm, the same devs as Deus Ex, which the OP says it's their favorite game of all time. It has turn-based fighting, but I found it to be easy to get into, and a bit more dynamic than your run-of-the-mill typical JRPG formula (which is just downright boring). It plays a lot like an adventure game, you talk to people and solve puzzles but you also do quests and fight enemies like in an RPG. The writing is awesome and very funny, it will certainly click with an adventure fan's taste. It gives you some degree of freedom within its linear nature, so it eases you into RPGs, instead of just throwing you the usual "roll dice and create character and go into this world to explore", which can be a bit baffling at first, for newcomers.

Yeah, the more I think of it, the more I think the OP should start with Anachronox.

So you want to learn to play RPGs, eh? All right, I have got a suggestion: Go and play Morrowind/Skyrim, depending on wheter you want an oldschool or new... eh, school experience. Just go get either of them, pretty much any store will have copies of one or the other (probably both). Skyrim does require Steam tho.

At any rate, why would I suggest that? Well, I'd suggest that because The Elder Scrolls games are all about player choice. As such, you can't make a wrong decision - if you want to play a wimpy mage, you can go ahead and play a wimpy mage, and you'll most likely succeed at doing so after some time of experimenting with the gameplay. For crying out loud, you can even play herbalist and don't need to kill anything at your travels. The game's mechanics are created with the absolute amount of freedom in mind. The only thing to keep in mind is: Try to imagine you're there. Don't go around and snatch every item. Don't cheat the system by repeatedly saving and loading the game. Don't think about how are you supposed to play efficiently. When you're thrown into the massive world that TES games present you with, look around you and ask: "What would I do if I were there?" And go do that. Immerse yourself in the world. For every session of a TES game, live in the game's world, and live the life of the character you have chose to play. And if you manage to do that, you'll grasp what the very essence of playing a good RPG game is. Most of your questions will kind of answer themselves actually. As to the questions at hand, well...

1) Depends heavily on the game. TES games are fantastic at this - while the character and gameplay choices you make are not reversible, it's pretty damn difficult to create an unviable character. In other games tho, especially those which try to keep an eye on everything you do ... You will inevitably run into dead ends, let's put it that way. Generally tho, the better the RPG, the less important is what you pick to play as and what you want to do.

2) It's not that dire, really. Basically, when you find a new item that you think might be useful, you compare it to the one you currently have and potentially swap. That's it. No need to remember everything, altho some players enjoy doing that.

3) You load the game. Really, there's no bloody difference.

Since money is an issue you might want to try the Ultima 'Worlds' games that are free here on GOG.
Spiderweb Software has very long demos of Avernum, Avadon, etc. on their site, these are what I played
to 'break in' to RPG's. (Already recommended in a previous post)
Driftmoon is a blast! A fun, funny adventure with tasty bits of RPG. :-)

Try browsing GOG's RPGs like this:
http://www.gog.com/games/rpg##search=adventure&sort=rating
Gives a list of RPG's that are tagged 'adventure'.

Edit: Added URL.

If you want something that isn't that hard to get into, maybe try Jade Empire.
Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines would be another, but it's not on GOG.

I can't see why PS:T would be boring for adventure gamers. While it does have some annoying combat, it's still predominantly an adventure game, in which you converse with people and solve riddles to advance the story. I would say that because it's so story heavy it's a lot better than most RPG's for an adventure gamer.

Anachronox is a brilliant game, but for a beginner? I dunno, I haven't played it since release, so maybe I'm mis-remembering, good excuse to fire it up again though :)

On another note, I think theres a new Ys game out on Vita, darned if I can remember where I read about it (Game magazine?) but iirc it got 8/10 so its worth checking out if you're a fan, I have no Vita so I cant get it.

I think Anachronox is the right choice for a beginner coming from point and click adventures, especially if they also love Deus Ex. It provides a good mix of adventure and RPG, thus making the transition easier.

As for that Ys title, I'm Vita-less as well, so... :P no can do.

I love Deus Ex. I actually already have Anachronox sitting on my shelf so I'll try that next, but first I want to try and finish Nox. Thanks to the person suggesting me to try it out with the Wizard class as well for a completely different experience, will definitely do that.

I liked the discussion about Planescape Torment. Apparently it's the bestselling and highest rated game on GOG, and I admit I was tempted to buy that one, until Nox came on sale last week. I'm interested into hearing why groze (I think?), an adventure-fan like myself, would not recommend it for me?

Thank you all for your helpful insights.

There's a bunch of Ys games on Steam these days too...

Actually have you considered the Quest for Glory Series? The games are adventure-rpg hybrids. Considering you said you liked adventures, it might be a great starting point for getting familiar with rpgs, without getting too overwehlmed. There are 3 classes to choose from ( fighter, thief or mage). Either class is fine for playing, no need to worry about having choosen a too difficult class later on. The skills and inventory are very manageable imho and while you can die, you usually have somewhat of a safezone in towns, so if you safe before leaving town you should be ok for the most part. Also, it's a very good series that even many of us rpg veterans hold quite dear and still enjoy playing ;)

While it is recommended to play the series in order, there is a remake of QfG2 from AGDinteractive, which is free. You could try it out to see if it's your kind of game before getting the series here, if you're uncertain:
http://www.agdinteractive.com/games/qfg2/homepage/homepage.html