Game To Play During Lunch?

Menace writes "Every work day myself and a few other co-workers get 1 hour for lunch. We typically end up with about 20-30 minutes for some form of entertainment during our lunch hour. We are looking for some more multiplayer PC games that can give us a fun and thorough gaming experience in a 20-30 minute sitting. We currently play a few games such as Tetrinet and Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne. Please keep in mind the systems we are able to play these on aren't geared for gaming and can hardly run WC3. What games do you play during your lunch hour, or can suggest that meet the specified criteria?"

Comments

Old games

[tzanger]

I'm talking about Duke Nuk'em, Worms, Worms2, even the venerable Scorched Earth... surely they still work? They were a blast. :-)

Card Games

[xyu]

We usually play some Texas Hold'em or Euchre depending on the number of people around.

Competitive Nethack...

[rekenner]

... First one to ascend gets a free lunch!

Star Craft

[MichaelMarch]

In 20 - 30 minutes you can play a round or two either in single player mode, multi-player mode or even online. It's a quick game and every time you play it's different. I have a 3Ghz machine with a gig of ram, and I still play StarCraft from time to time. A game I use to play on my 133Mhz!

Soldat

[mpr]

http://www.soldat.prv.pl/

Good fun, low system reqs and highly networkable 2D shooter!

From the site:

Soldat is a unique side-view multiplayer action game. It takes the best from games like Liero, Worms, Quake and Counter-Strike and gives you fast action gameplay with tons of blood and flesh. Soldiers fight against each other on 2D battle arenas using a deadly military arsenal. This is what multiplayer was invented for.

Most important features:

* Game environment based on real physics rules
* Over 18 weapons available:
- guns like MP5, Ak-74, M79, M249 Minimi, Barret M82A1, XM214 Minigun
* Multiplayer network game over the Internet or LAN
* Intelligent bots
* 6 game modes:
- Deathmatch
- Pointmatch
- Teammatch
- Rambomatch
- Capture the Flag
- Infiltration
* 35 different maps
* Editors: Soldat Map Maker and Interface Maker
* Lobby server and dedicated server for Windows and Linux

Re:Go for a walk.

[ogonek]

Q:

We are looking for some more multiplayer PC games that can give us a fun and thorough gaming experience in a 20-30 minute sitting.

A:

Go for a walk

So, this "Go for a walk" multiplayer PC game, where can I get it? I've never heard of it before.

Arcade Classics

[Eil]

I used to be a gaming fiend during my teenage years, but now I can't sit down an play more than about a 2 hours a week without feeling like I'm wasting an enormous amount of time. To make matters worse, RPGs used to be my favorite genre and 2 hours/week isn't enough to keep me interested in the plot or characters, so I end up never finishing games anymore.

Then I got into arcade (MAME) emulation. Arcade games are pefect for me now, because I can sit down, load up a game, and start having fun immediately rather than having to first take the time to get into the story or learn how the game works, etc. Most are geared specifically toward multiplayer fun. They're also easier to quit playing once your alloted time is up.

Two that I highly recommend are Puzzle Bobble (Usually called Bust a Move over here) and Super Puzzle Fighter.

Re:Arcade Classics

[herc_mk2]

One of the problems w/ MAME in particular (though not it's exclusively limited to MAME) is copyright issues. The OP didn't mention how things are in his office, but most corporate environments are pretty picky about what you put on *their* machines and networks, especially with respect to licensing issues.

In other words, whether it's Half-Life or a ROM for "Crazy Climber," you had better make sure that you either have the appropriate number of licenses, or proof that the game allows unlimited distribution. Otherwise your IS department will (rightfully) come down on you. Some companies even have a "grounds for immediate termination" clause in there -- you might want to check.

(I don't want to start a flamewar about when something crosses from abandonware to public domain. Your IS department will likely look at it from the most conservative approach, namely, "can we potentially be sued by the license holder if this is on one of our assets." Plus, they're worried about viruses, and so forth, which can have a much bigger impact in the coroporate world than on your home LAN.)

Soldat

[neostorm]

Good, good fun. Very fast paced.

http://www.soldat.prv.pl/

Non-computer games?

[spectral]

I know you mentioned computer games, but I'm a huge fan of pulling out a deck of Fluxx or Set whenever I have some free time and a friend or two nearby. Rather addicting games. There are implementations of Set multiplayer online.. some are better than others. It's been a while since I played online though, so I don't even have the URLs to the one I really liked anymore.

Buy a deck of playing cards.

[embo]

Seriously. And I'm not talking about Magic or anything like that. I'm talking about Hearts, Spades, Euchre, Pinochle, Whist, Pitch, etc. There are countless games you can play with a $1.00 deck of cards.

I used to work at a place where we did this every day, and the human contact and team building aspects of playing cards were much more enjoyable than any computer game.

Any time we got bored with what we were playing, we'd switch games, or add in a house rule. Plus it lent itself well to activities outside of the workplace. Things like parties at someone's house where we'd all be playing cards. Gatherings to watch a football game, etc. Even better, it's easy to always have a deck of cards in your car, or carry one to a bar with you, so you can always break out a game of something.

And if this isn't enough to sway you, real, live, actual, breathing WOMEN play cards. No, seriously. You might have never met a woman before, but I have, and trust me, they would much rather play cards over a beer than have you say, "Wanna play Warcraft with us?".

Buy a deck. Buy 12. Learn a new game. Have fun. Get laid.

Well, at least have fun.

Re:Buy a deck of playing cards.

[dubl-u]

There are countless games you can play with a $1.00 deck of cards.

Dude, this is Slashdot.

So A, we're only willing to use cards on a computer screen. And so we can all play, we'd need to make it networked and each play from our own computers. And because that would feel kinda lonely, we'd need to add headsets and VOIP so we can mock our fellow players.

And B, if we were to deign to use physical playing cards, we wouldn't actually buy them. Instead, we'd register a SourceForge project to host open-source artwork that we would in theory use to print them ourselves on a printer at work. Except that we'd only finish the number cards and three of the face cards before we ran out of steam and just started hoping somebody would send us a patch for the rest.

Other than that, it's a good idea.

Get PSPs

[AvantLegion]

Sounds like a perfect time to pull out some PSPs and play games together on an ad-hoc wireless connection.

One thing nobody talks about that is solid gold for gaming on small amounts of time is the PSP's sleep feature. You can put it to "sleep" anytime, and come back later and resume play. Say goodbye to boot-up times - it sleeps and wakes up in less than a second.

"But what about the battery?", you ask. I've put games to sleep on the PSP, come back over 24 hours later, and woken them up - and not even a bar of power has disappeared from the power meter. In sleep mode, the PSP uses very very little power. I don't even turn the thing off anymore, except if I'm going to switch games. I just put it into sleep, and wake it up when I have a few minutes to play. Being able to just pick up where you left off, and not have to spend 2 minutes going through the boot-up and splash screen and menu process, is pure gold. You don't realize how wonderful and welcome this is until you make use of it.