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Old School Gameplay Collides With Modern Graphics
- Title: Quake IV
- Developer: Raven Software
- Publisher: Activision
- System: PC (360)
- Reviewer: Zonk
- Score: 7/10
Quake IV is the story of a marine participating in the invasion of the planet Stroggos. After the events of Quake and Quake II, humanity has had enough and is taking the fight to the dirty space aliens that wrecked up our planet. The single-player mission that explores this story is well presented. The developers seem determined to have Quake stand up to more modern gaming experiences, and there are some successes on that front. Quake IV's AI is nothing particularly intriguing for most of the game. While both your soldier buddies and alien opponents will occasionally take some cover, for the most part they have a saturation-with-plasma-fire approach to combat. Towards the end of your combat tour, though, highly intelligent Strogg become your opponents. They're highly aggressive, have the same weapons you do, and know enough to get behind a crate when a grenade lands in front of them. It would have been interesting to fight more of these baddies throughout the game, as for the most part the average Strogg is cannon fodder.
The story itself features elements you'd never expect from a Quake title. There's a little bit of mission variety, for one, with some fetch the hoozle missions, escort missions, and rail shooting mixed in with the usual run and gun. While they all devolve into 'shoot things and keep moving' it's obvious that Raven put some thought into providing a variety of experiences. At least one level actually takes you out of the fighting and attempts to flesh out your understanding of protagonist Michael Kane's world. You're given the chance to wander around part of a dropship, encountering fellow marines and overhearing numerous scripted conversations. While it can't hold a candle to City 17, the non-combat detail is a first for the series and once again shows Raven's commitment to modernity.
The problem, such as it is, comes in the fact that the minute-to-minute gameplay is virtually unchanged from the Quake II days. It looks better, to be sure, but you run down a hallway, some Strogg jump out, you shoot them. Repeat until level clear, then repeat until game finish. While I personally have no problem with that venerable and highly enjoyable sequence of events, be forewarned that if you play Quake IV you're just not going to encounter many of the aspects that are hallmarks of modern FPS titles.
As you'd expect from something built on the Doom engine, Quake IV looks terrific. One reason that the graphics stand out so much is that, unlike in Doom 3, you can actually see the environments, objects, and creatures around you. While there are some dark sequences several of your weapons have flashlights built into them, making the darkness more ambiance than gameplay element. Character appearance and animation is top notch, and the scare factor of critters leaping at you is heightened by the sometimes disturbing ways in which Stroggification has warped your opponent's appearance. Composed sound elements plays a subdued role, with minimal musical cues doing their best not to get in the way of the action. Sound effects are loud and for the most part satisfying. Weapons have weight, and cries of anger and pain definitely get across success or failure as you shoot at an enemy.
If the last game in the series is any indication, there are a lot of you out there that couldn't care less about the last few paragraphs I've written. The multiplayer aspect to id games is always top notch, and this one is no exception. Quake IV is Quake 3 redux, right down to the jump-pads and the announcer. Weapons have no reload time, and level design is focused on making sure there are plenty of fragging opportunities. As with previous titles in the series Deathmatch seems to be the design focus. 16-player maps seem to be the order of the day, with several even lifted directly from Quake 3. Gameplay is extremely fast, and the twitch-bunnies you'll face online make the AI in the single player campaign look like statues. In order to get the kind of response I wanted from my online experience, I had to turn down some of the settings I was using for the single player missions. With some of the more expensive shinies turned off, the game responded quickly and I had no problems staying in the fight.
Despite the game's adherence to elements from previous Quake games, Quake IV somehow fails to capture nostalgia and comes off feeling retread. The modern graphics simply highlight the sometimes simplistic level design, and while there are some physics elements used in the game for the most part the Doom engine feels more funhouse than realistic environment. Gameplay, too, feels very much like the same experience we had in 1999. Nostalgia is one thing, but the fact that the Quake world has nothing new to offer after a six year lapse is frustrating. The bottom line: if you've played previous iterations in the Quake series and enjoyed them, you'll like Quake IV. It's a solid, fast, frantic style of FPS that is becoming far less common nowadays. The frustrating mix of new and old may throw gamers who aren't fans of the franchise and accepting of gameplay from the previous decade.
- Title: Star Wars Battlefront II
- Developer: Pandemic Studios
- Publisher: Lucasarts
- System: PC (PS2, PSP, XBox)
- Reviewer: Zonk
- Score: 8/10
With the exception of the Super Star Wars series of titles back in the SNES days, Star Wars movie-specific game titles have almost universally disappointed. The blending of the mythology into a more cohesive whole makes for a much richer and ultimately more rewarding environment to set a game, and SWB II makes full use of all six movies. The single-player campaign starts you off in the final days of the Clone War, filling the boots of a Clone Trooper under the command of a Jedi Knight of the Republic. If you've played the previous title you'll have almost no trouble getting into the thick of it. Gameplay is essentially unchanged, preserving the wise decisions from the original title's designers. You'll have the option of choosing from among several unit types to spawn onto the battlefield. Each has a specific set of weapons to draw on, such as a heavy weapons trooper or a sniping unit. The average Battlefront mission tasks you with keeping control of several nodes scattered across the map. Nodes can be flipped from one side to the other by occupying the area around the node with troops. Most maps are won when all nodes have been converted to one side or the other. SWB II"s single-player campaign switches this up a little with non-node mission objectives. One level, for example, requires you to hold just one node for a specific length of time as a massive force of droids marches on your position. Another has you fighting off the monstrous Acklay creatures before they can kill too many of your troops. This variety adds a little more interest to what would otherwise be multiplayer games played between you and a bunch of AI.
The biggest change in Star Wars Battlefront II is the inclusion of space combat. While it's no Tie Fighter, space missions will please the dogfighter in every Star Wars fan. Most of them are fairly quick, with just one or two simple objectives (destroy these ships, keep this ship alive). Gameplay is fast and enjoyable, with a more straightforward version of the controls you might expect from other Star Wars titles. The straightforward design makes it easy to just hop in a craft and blow stuff up. Some single player missions have a little more to them, requiring you to fight in space and then land for another objective. Dropping the shield protecting a landing bay, piloting a troop transport inside, and then stealing data from the ship's computer is a highly satisfying experience. To provide the entire range of Star Wars gameplay, Jedi characters are also available. They're fast and powerful, and a side with one available to them has a great chance of prevailing. Control is similar to what you'd expect from Jedi Academy, and there are several force powers available to the Jedi that makes fighting one as a normal ground troop a short and stressful experience.
Visually SWB II is an obvious improvement over the previous title. There's a great deal of detail, and the overall presentation of the game has been refined. Both the visuals and soundscape do their best to adhere to the Star Wars universe, and succeed admirably. Ships explode, battle droids splinter, and gungans gargle with the sights and sounds you'd expect from a licensed title. As with all Star Wars games, the sound experience is particularly enjoyable. John Williams scores strain to be heard over the zip and pop of blaster fire or the scream of a passing Tie Fighter. While there aren't any appreciable physics elements, playing SWB II also probably won't strain your graphics card overmuch. The feel and look are dead on, dropping you into the mythos of the galaxy far, far away.
While the single player game is enjoyable, multiplayer is really this game's strong suit. Extremely large battles are possible, and every aspect of the single player campaign is available to multiplayer combatants. Maps are fairly roomy and are usually set in extremely evocative locales. While fighting on the snowy ground of Hoth was done to death five years ago, some of the new levels offer a distinctly different experience. Kashyyyk, Dagobah, and Coruscant are all battlefields in this (sometimes continuity breaking) free-for-all environment. Action isn't nearly as fast paced as Quake or Unreal Tournament, but that's okay. The joy to be had in popping off shots at a fleeing droid or charging Rebel soldier means that it's fun to savor the moment. The 'hold-the-node' gameplay is the default choice, but just like in the single player experience there are space battles and objective missions to be had as well. There was very little slowdown or technical problems related to the game during battle I participated in, and the necessarily aggressive tone that teams have to take to win matches ensures both offensive and defensive players will have a blast.
Given that it's only been a year since the last Battlefront title, it should come as no surprise that gameplay still feels fairly fresh. SWB II improves on already enjoyable gameplay by expanding the scope of the title. More Jedi, and space combat completes the full arc of what makes the Star Wars universe unique. While I don't expect that SMB II is going to be knocking Half-Life off of the top of the server population list anytime soon, it's a satisfying update to a title that scratches a dorky itch. Whether on foot or in space, Star Wars Battlefront II puts you in the moment like few other license titles can.
"With the exception of the Super Star Wars series of titles back in the SNES days, Star Wars movie-specific game titles have almost universally disappointed."
Bullshit. Games like X-Wing and Tie Fighter were very, very good games and well received. Also Dark Forces, Dark Forces 2, Jedi Knight, etc. All excellent games.
When I think oldschool I think of games like Kings Quest and Monkey Island or even further back to the old SSI and Avalon Hill wargames.
'Same speed C but faster'
I'm 26. I'm not even an old gamer. Some of you guys in your mid 30s, I bow to your TRUE old school heritage. What about me? Why the hell can't Nintendo crank out a 2D side scroller of Mario World for the cube? There's TONS of people like me with CASH now, that would be 50 bucks for a Super Mario World 2. I spent 20 weeks winning that game. I bet they would write one quicker! For that matter, why arent there Flash versions of new games in the older styles? Copyright be damned, those things float freely and uncredited. Why haven't I seen it yet? Nintendo CEO Mr. Miyagi could crank Mario World 2 out on the john some morning instead of reading the wall street journal. ARgh so frustrating. I have cash to spend on a near zero development cost product and it DOESNT EXIST. SOMEONE LISTEN TO THE RANDOM SLASHDOT MASSES WITH ALL CASH AND NO DRIVE
slashdot: where everyone yells sarcastic metaphors to themselves to understand the issue
Quake has always been successful even to technically superior games because it always had a high fun factor which many people considered higher than technically advanced games like Unreal. At the end of the day many people just wanted a fast on line game which doesn't require thought or much else other than killing.
Can I take a Jedi, lop Jar-Jar's filthy head clean off his shoulders, then have a Wookie come over and "mark his territory" on the still-warm corpse? Cause that would be, y'know, cool and stuff.
Here I thought Old School meant BattleZone, Joust, and PacMan.
--jeff++
ipv6 is my vpn
I still remember the first time I logged on to a TCP/IP Quake 1 server on my 33.6 modem. I knew it would be something special. I played Quake quite a bit, and always tried the new versions, but they never seemed to be as good as the original. Thinking back, it's seems amazing that I was able to have a quality online game experience over a dial-up connection with a game as intense as Quake. The new versions of Quake, they looked good, but none of them *felt* like Quake. The weapons weren't as devastating, the movement was all wrong, it just didn't feel right. I haven't tried Quake IV yet, but I'm expecting more of the same. Does anyone else feel the same way? Quake to me was one of the first games to have a real online presence, and I'll always remember it fondly. It was also a time where you could find servers not overrun with high school boys, since most of the good connections were only at universities back in those days.
I personally loved X-Wing from the Star Wars series, and others like Kings Quest and Space Quest. Even the text version of Jitch Hickers Guide to The Galaxy (ie. you typed what you wanted to do like "north", no ASCII art either :)
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"Dirty space aliens that wrecked up our planet"--cute.
Media that can be recorded and distributed can be recorded and distributed.
-kfg
The single player mode is pathetic. It's entirely linear: go fetch this guy, find this key, open this door, kill these baddies, yawn. I beat the first three levels with no sound (it doesn't seem to like ALSA very much) then turned it off out of sheer boredom. After the freedom given by games such as HL2 and Doom3 (which is actually pretty linear, but it doesn't *feel* linear), Q4 was a huge dissapointment.
there seems to be an inclination amongst a lot of people to say the ALL starwars games suck, or that ALL games based on movie licenses suck
the latter has slight validity, the former does not
Only there's no sex and the light is less than flattering to my buttocks.
There are plans for a new 2D side scrolling Mario for the DS (tentative title is "The New Super Mario Brothers").
That was the nice thing about Metroid Fusion a few years back -- new 2D goodness.
If they've fixed the AI, SWB2 might be worth checking out. If not, then there's really no compelling reason to grab it beyond the fact that it's Star Wars...
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
Thank you! I'm in my early 30s and I miss the good old fun games that I grew up with. I'm really growing tired of first person shooters and RPGs. Surely there has to be something else out there for people like me, but I sure can't find it.
Is stuff like Pac-man, Frogger, Pong... the first computer games that the masses actually played. Stuff like Zork and the Infocom games, that were the first interactive adventures. You know... OLD school, not "older than last year" school. :-)
Probably the best StarWars game to come out in the last few years.
Why is game AI in FPS's always defined as "they can hide behind boxes?" Does that define sophistication for us now? It has been around since at least Half Life. People still ooh and ahh about it though, and I can't understand that.
I think the real test for an AI would be to guess where you are going to go and try to cut you off, time where you are and toss grenades at you without looking, perform ambushes on the fly, and so on. However, most of this can be done with scripting and I think it is easier to do it that way. So much of AI is game theory - the computer being able to guess where you are and what you are doing without actually seeing you. This is make-work in an fps though because the computer already "knows" exactly where you are, if the programmers want to take advantage of it.
I don't know about the rest of you guys, but I feel like I've been playing against the exact same AI for the last 10 years. The only thing that's changed is more intricate scripting.
I submitted this story last night, and it didn't get posted.
I looked with hope at Halo 2 (first one was, sorry to say, dead boring, apart from the neat little plot twist with the Flood), hoping that the famous sequel would be a sequel.. but no, its another version, and unfinished at that. I loved that game, but they are all That Game now, and I have played a hellof a lot of Unreal and Quake. So much that I feel like I never need to play it again, until the genre decides to stretch a bit and offer something beyond Grr! Skullz! and Hot Babe with Howitzer!
I do see Zonk's point - of course there is a place for 'the twitch', and Nintendo does quite well in that area.
But I will wait until FPS games truly do something new. Apart from easy questions like, why can't I blow a hole through a wall? (Red Faction came close to this.) Where is the weather? Why is the AI so mind numbingly stupid?.... there are harder questions, like, is this a good idea to have a single point of view for the entire game no matter what? A counter-example of this would be something like Metal Gear Solid, which could switch between views depending on circumstance... Valve looked like they were onto something with HalfLife 2, but that sort of turned out like a really neat tech demo, with the physics... seems obvious to me that they are selling an 'engine' now, with a game as an afterthought. Kind of like id.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
Great developer - they have not (yet) sold thier souls to EA or other huge publishers
Quality staff as well and thier studio in SantaMonica is really nice...happy employees = good games/product
'Mouse-look'? In my day that's what we called it when you crawled around under the raised floor trying to find the rat which was gnawing on cables.
Hell, I remember using punch-cards to play Solitaire, and even that was considered to be 'newfangled' gaming by the old guys at work.
Kids today...yeesh!
Perhaps, the author is refering to Generation Y. Might give some insight as to Zonk's age aswell.
I made it all the way to the final stage and then gave up due to boredom. I still think Quake 4 is a much better game than Doom 3. But that's mostly because Doom 3 sucked so much. At least in Quake 4 you can see the pretty graphics but they forgot again to include a plot or any characters.
My friend and I tried playing the game. During the first few levels, there was a lot of static in the audio. We thought it was suppose to simulate battle conditions and bad communications. When we finally realized that it was bad static, I exited and restarted the game. The sound came back with constant, annoying tone.
Since that night, I've continued to play for a few more levels. But it's gotten so boring that Q4 turns itself off out of sheer boredom. The game keeps crashing once I enter a specific corridor. There's no explainable reason for the crash. No monsters coming, no switch to full motion video, no loud sounds. And no amount of tweaking game settings will let me get past this spot.
"For that matter, why arent there Flash versions of new games in the older styles?"
You mean like Alien Homonid? Or did you want a 2D game like Viewtiful Joe? The problem is that these are not sellers. People do not buy them.
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
I have not yet seen anyone report if the AI is better; That's also what I'm waiting to know before I buy this game. I didn't buy the first Battlefront and I'm loathe to buy this one unless I know the single player will be fun.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
There are lots of independent developers doing just this for PC games. I've recently released my first indie game, and lots of other people are doing great things. You really have the freedom to make games that are fun to play!
Moderators, please vote up the parent post. It is quite good!
My friends and I still play Quake 1 co-op. Well... sorta... the "goal" is just to see who can trigger the most level changes. Although we don't keep track... it's just plain fun. Every level ends with all players in the -20's. Sometimes you'll run as quick as you can through an area just to trigger the monsters AI to start. Other times you'll wait in anticipation for your "team mate" to come 'round the corner just so you can blow him to bits and keep on your way. Or hang out in a secluded spot, wait for them to kill a few monsters ahead and almost get to the gate and then kill 'em.
Good clean co-op fun. Nobody wins... nobody loses... everybody has a blast.
Quake was the first PC video game that made me want to play it all night long and disregard sleep. The only other game i remember being able to keep me awake through to the next morning was Lode Runner for the Apple IIc. Those are the only two games for which i have ever lost an entire night's worth of sleep. For Quake, i must have pulled one or two all nighters per week during my sophomore year (and a decent part of my junior year) of college. Coincidentally, i met tons of really cool people doing so (many with whom i am still very good friends). Sadly, i doubt i'll ever have such a good experience again, though HL, UT, and Halo came close. For that reason alone, i'd rather play Quake than any of its glamorous descendants - it's kind of like toasting to old friends.
I dunno, Return to Castle Wolfenstein multiplayer is still the best MP FPS I have ever played.
I've played this quite a bit and am always very satisfied to drop one of these stupid teddy bears to the ground.
zOMG, is this Battletoads? http://www.battlefront.com/products/les_grog/scree nshots/thumbs/030805-12.jpg
I don't care what anyone thinks..
I liked Jedi Arena for the Atari 2600!
Technoli
There are plenty of Mario clones/fangames out there on the net.
www.mfgg.net has a bunch and I'm sure there are plenty of other sites as well.
Heck, if you want to make your own, there is an open-source SMB3 engine out there as well.
Actually, there is a site completely dedicated to providing you with every old game from the NES, SNES, etc era: www.everyvideogame.com
They are using Java to bring you all those old classics you grew up loving: ExciteBike, Mike Tyson's Punch Out! Mario of all kinds...
There's TONS of people like me with CASH now, that would be 50 bucks for a Super Mario World 2.
I think you mean Super Mario World 3. But yeah, just imagine all the side scrolling goodness they could fit on a gamecube disk. It could have like 20 different endings or any number of non-3D graphical innovations.
"In the game of life, someone always has to lose. To me, if life were fair, that someone would always be Oklahoma." -DKR
Quake 1 had nothing to do with Earth's invasion of Stroggos... it basically had no storyline other than Shug-Niggurath being the boss at the end. All in all, good times in Q1 for sure! Slipgating to telefrag your friends! Quake 2 and Quake 4 are tied together plotwise.
KOTOR I is one of the greatest games I've seen for the last few years. I started to play it again after a while, mainly because of the atmosphere. While there's interesting things in KOTOR II, the atmosphere's not there, I got bored with the game.
Atmosphere is an important factor in Star Wars games. If it fails, the whole game is likely to fail.
Unfortunately, releasing new side scrollers for non-portable consoles is a step too far back for most gamers. But, there is a compromise that blends 2d action and gameplay with killer looks. Enter stage right, Crash Bandicoot. In my opinion CB epitomizes the genre of 2d scrollers, even though it was in 3d (sorta)... it's fast, easy to control, challenging, requires killer timing, and can be frustrating all at the same time. Create a half-dozen franchises in the style of Crash and that'll be a cash cow, if ever there was one.
Monitor bandwidth usage on IIS6 in real-time: http://www.waetech.com/services/iisbm/
If you have Steam, which is the Valve content distribution system that comes with Half Life 2 and other games you can download "Codename Gordon" which is a pretty decent 2-D Flash game. It is free if you own one of their other games. It is really not that great but is a good example of what has been done recently along those lines.
Why the hell can't Nintendo crank out a 2D side scroller of Mario World for the cube?
That was called "Super Smash Bros. Melee adventure mode". But what you're really looking for is a New Super Mario Bros. 2DSidescroller, right? The spot has details.
"Old School Gameplay Collides With Modern Graphics"
I was so hoping this was going to be a new uber graphics version of Nethack.
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
I guess he has never played zork on a mainframe :o)
Open Source Drum Kit, LPLC deve board - mjhdesigns.com
I'm not sure what the relevance is here.
Plays violent online games as: Nerfherder76
Quake 4 continues the story in Quake II, but Quake II didn't have anything to do with Quake (other than, of course, the title). The Stroggos first appear in Quake II. (And there are contestants in the Quake III Arena that are from the Stroggos War, but other than that the similarity ends.)
All your base are belong to us
that the author should consider Quake 4 to be oldschool gameplay.
I guess I'm showing my age by considering the definition of oldschool gaming to cover games like Pacman and Atari 'Star Raiders'.
I totally hear you. Sometimes you can find decent freeware versions of the old classics (check out freedroid if you are an old paradroid fan). Anyone know of a good, free remake of the great Giana sisters?
Even on the medium setting, the combine soldiers in HL2:LC seemed pretty damn smart, at least on the cliffs. Flanking manuvers, well placed 'nades, shooting the bridge in front of you down... Then again there was the old school pop-up shooting gallery in the church.:P
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
It's been years since Quake 3 and THIS is all they come up with? Is it just me or is it Doom 3 with different textures and weapons? I uninstalled it after the first 2 hours. Fear was a better game, but the plot was just as lame. Bla bla bla...Quake 2 was the best game of the series I think. Multiplayer "IS" the game, and should not be an afterthought to a lame series of single player missions. Not to mention you need a friggin Cray computer to host an 8 player server anymore! 8 players?!?! What the heck is that?!?! I played a ton of 32 player Quake2 games on then AVERAGE hardware, now thats where its at! 64 players was alittle too crazy, but atleast it was an option. Quake 1 was killer but the graphics in Quake2 combined with the oldschool feel of Quake1 was the best of both worlds. The graphics of Quake 4 are great, but they dont make the game. Go back to your roots game developers!!!! This is NOT what most gamers want. Give me "fun." Give us offhand-grapple, more fluid movement and more old school feel! I have been PC gaming for a little over 10 years, out of all the games, Quake2 is the definately the one game that I logged the most hours playing. The movement in Quake4 feels like you are walking in molasses! I'd take an engine-upgraded version of Quake2 anyday over whats out there now!!!
...to see the Zork series in a new, and better interface!
Seriously though, I have to admit that most games have lost my favor because they have simply become too detailed. For me, (and I admit I'm and old fart at 39) games are those things that are the most fun when they are limited in scope, provide diversion, entertainment, and overall, let me have fun in a short period of time. Challenges like Zork, and "classic" arcade games like Road Blasters, Tempest, and Centipede, really held my attention. Don't get me wrong, current games are certainly quite interesting, but to me, a "quest" or "campaign" or "mission" is not what I tend to look for.
There was a great show on G4TV (Icons, I think) a couple months back that detailied the history of arcade games, how they have evolved into what are now current console games, and how the arcade industry is struggling. It was interesting to see that when arcades bring back the "classic" games, revenue spikes.
But then again, retro isn't always the best thing. I'd like to see more innovation and new concepts and designs.
My mom always said, "Jim, you're 1 in a million." Given the current population, there are 7000 of me. God help us all!
Have you tried portable consoles? Such as the GameBoy Micro, it has a wide selection of oldies and new games in old-school style.
Or you can wait for the Revolution to come out with downloadable games.
I started with Quake IV. To see dark tunnels and creatures attacking me from nowhere was an instant disappointment. No progress here. The graphics are nice but nothing extraordinary either. At one point I tried to be smart. I tried to lure one of the creatures back to where my squad was hoping that they could take some of the heat. The creature totally ignored the squad firing uppon him and still only went after me. After this I stopped playing, sensing a waste of time.
It seems to me that Id-software has really lost it's innovative thrive. This company used to be the cutting edge in gaming. Yet another company thinking too much about making money while they should be thinking about making games!
Good god man...MOUSELOOK is old school? People are getting nostalgic over mouselook and PC-FPS's?
Oh lord....I've officially hit 'older then gaming dirt'.
Guess I better start playing Hearts and Mahjongg.
I think oldschool is more like "Look a Mouse"
Just as a bit of opinioneering, I have been kinda miffed lately at the lack of co-op modes in games that have multi-player capability. Call of Duty would have been great with co-op. BF2 has a hacky kind of co-op, but not really. What gives? Is it a question of the quality of the AI or what?
.. pa-ra-bo-la, pa-ra-bo-la, 2 pi R, 2 pi R, where's your latus rectum, where's your latus rectum, 2 pi R
If it's old school i wonder what has replaced it recently? because i'm pretty sure you cant look around just blinking your eyes at your screen in a fps game
Remember Castle Wolfenstein? Not the 3-D game, I mean the 2-D original game that the 3-D shooter was based on. Now that's a classic! I still have fond memories of pounding the option key on my atari 800 to launch grenades.
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"While I don't expect that SMB II is going to be knocking Half-Life off of the top of the server population list anytime soon, it's a satisfying update to a title that scratches a dorky itch."
Who says? Toad could kick Gordon's ass anyday!
Gotta love that NESter multiplayer!
The fact that you didn't even read what you replied to (hint: he said "MOVIE-SPECIFIC" star wars games), or the fact that you got modded insightful for being an idiot.
Shouldn't you be saving some whales, or fire bombing new housing projects that are infringing on endangered swallow nesting sites?
'Sets wayback machine' M.U.L.E. -c64 Reach For The Stars c-64 And really old Star Trek on the IBM 3636
Guns are for wimps... Use a crossbow.. this way you can pin them to their chair when you go postal.
Quake 4's multiplayer brings a breath of fresh air to a game I loved dearly -- Quake 3. Since the coming of age of games like Counterstrike, Day of Defeat, RTCW, Enemy Territory, UT2004, etc etc... it is a nice refresher to see a game that's FAST PACED again!
:)
Quake 3 is still, to today, the fastest multiplayer experience there is online. It's ALL twitch based and it's AWESOME. I am glad to see that Quake 4 instead of 'reinventing' the genre just updated it, and kept the greatest things I loved about Quake -- the multiplayer.
Granted, this is not good for everybody. Some people like killing stupid monsters with stupid AI, some people want revolutionary changes in every game released, some people want amazing, breathtaking graphics and physics. But for a lot of us, we want to get online and frag the fuck out of as many people as possible in a given amount of time, so that instead of spending money on therapy that we dearly need, we take our aggressions out on virtual players the world over.
Okay maybe I've said too much about my personal life... Let me go bang my head against a wall now
The price is always right if someone else is paying.
...compared to my life.
I have freaks! I did something right...
And I can afford them. Uh no, make that and additional 240 installs for video card.
Thank you for your support.
Sorry for the Troll, I just created this and it could use a bit of a push. Please check my sig.
Thanks,
And old time Slashdot'r
Gizmos Gagets For Ninjas
First of all I am for online games so what I write is biased. I am tired of fighting A.I. and just to run thru missions to usually get a totally uninteresting cutscene at the end summarising something you already knew when you got the game box in your hand. Most of the time the last few maps I either do not either bother or just fight thru it throwing up of boredom.
... (I clocked 1:30 of battlefield play yesterday before my wife requested lower audio volume, and lights in the room, which caused me to stop as my projector sucks in daylight-strong fluorescent lighting)
.... no KOTOR bored me to hell ...
However online play can be just as boring with some games, mor specifically game modes (or the lack of them).
FFA: free for all, can be fun for some time, but makes me bored after 20 mins, running on a map, shooting everyone is fun, but I want more.
TS: Team survival, can be real fun, when playing with normal people, with decent communication (such as a headset) but then again, make a 30 minute session with resplawns, and at the end you are just sick of it, and you hear the others on the mic saying the same...
When you play SS on Ghost recon 2 or Rainbow six (without repawn) it gives you an appreciation of your life, so game turns a bit more intelligent other than a brainless fragfest, with people ending up with 200kills in 20 minute rounds, while others have -22
Vehicles: yes, that can be fun. SW Battlefront, and FarCry can be really enjoyable, especially in multi-manned vehicles, or ones that fly.
There we come to star wars bf II, which packs all the good and the bad together :
nice graphics, and somewhat good space fights, some completely retarder annoying game modes (usually I just log-off when villans vs heros start)
Now the critics: CTF is really uniq in BF II, and for the good, however it would be really nice to have an actual FLAG , call it Sample or container or a chip, whatever.
Vehicles are really uniq (well it is star wars) and it is really fun to drive most of them...
The space fight is however lackluster a bit. I have the XBOX version so the visual quality is somewhat determined already.
However looking at the XBOX and the hardware I was running Xwing VS Tie Fighter on might suggest that the current version of flying should not be as simplystic as it is. The sense of speed or the lack of a cockpit is somewhat annoys me and I really wish that they made this part at least as good as the other game was 5+ years ago.
But because I am the kind of guy who always wanted a dogfight with as many people as the bandwidth allows, I play with it and try to ignore the step that happened to be a backward one.
What is really missing from the game is the "you can only die once" aspect that makes people actually use that mike and require a team effort in games like Rainbow Six or Ghost recon, and the "retreive the flag" type CTF which does the same in farcry....
It is however a very entertaining "everyone runs and flies in chaos" kind of games that is really fun for a few hours in a row
I cannot comment on quake, as I am not playing on the PC anymore at all (unless some rare occasion leads me o download a demo of something) and because I completely lost interest in the series a long time ago.
And yes I am in my thirties, yes my favourite was chuck yeager's air combat, and yes I played some rpgs and text-mode stuff, and no I never liked them
And no, Halo 2 sucks, because no one plays game modes that appeal to my taste and because there are 15 9-year-old kids are shouting into their headseds per game room at the same time "cool dude we are 3leeetz, we owned them, they are n0000bz" let's make 6 teams out of 10 people and shoot the shit out of each other on the smallest map ever...
Some games that REALLY need a remake with polish, expansion, and modernized graphics but much the same core gameplay ideas:
- UFO: Enemy Unknown / X-Com: UFO Defense / X-Com: Terror from the Deep (utterly, totally, completely awesome games begging for a version that doesn't need DOS, 320x200 graphics, and a few annoying bugs)
- Master of Orion II (MOO3 was barely even a game)
- System Shock II (already has updated graphics and co-op mod, but co-op is a tad flakey and it barely runs on modern OSes)
Maybe Star Control II as well, though it's been updated to run on modern systems and is free now ( http://sc2.sf.net/ ). Great single player campaign.
I'd say the Monkey Island games too, but really they just want an engine port to an OS from this century. I can't imagine how you could even fix up the graphics without ruining the game.
Then, of course, there are some that've got updated versions that don't suck (eg the Civ games).
So, let me echo the sentiments of the others here - "what do you mean, old school?". Hell, the ones I've listed are relatively modern too. I'll be there are a few folks out there begging for more Commander Keen games, and then there's the MAME crowd...
I still haven't found a more exciting online game than Quake2. I started playing it again, actually the Weapons of Destuction MOD, a few months back with some like minded folks, and damn, if that game doesn't get your heart racing. Yes, I had some of that feeling with Unreal Tournament, but not on CS, UT2004/5 or Quake3 even. I got somewhat hooked on RTCW, but still, it's not the same kinda crazy action, so I just don't play it anymore. Anyone intested in old school Q2 fun should check my server: http://q2.cryer.us/ for details on the new Quake2 server - get your client updated (recommended is r1q2's new reworking of the classic q2 binary) for updated graphics and networking. Graphics look better than ever, but more importantly the gameplay is the same as it ever was! I will buy Quake4 for Linux and give it a go, but like Doom3 I'm sure it'll looks nice, but I don't expect it (or anything else) to replace what Quake2 is for me.
fak3r.com
> Anyone know of a good, free remake of the great Giana sisters?
Are you aware great giana sisters was just a super mario brothers clone?
I am very interested in getting this game. I have a pretty high end (top 3% on Windows Game Advisor) PC and I have an Xbox. Which version is better?
Awww, someone pissed off that he couldn't get UT working with his ATI card?
... instead I'll play my older games until game programmers learn how to program again. It's absolutely insane that in order to get a new game to play these days, you have to have a $1000 PC with a $200 video card. That's simply bullshit. Back in the day (before the Net got big), games that one would buy in a store would play on most machines. These days, you gotta take out a second mortgage just to buy a machine just to play fucking GAMES on. These are just GAMES.
Look, even console games get better over time because the programmers get better. Newer PS2 games look better and feel better than older PS2 games. The developers learn to do more with the same resources. Game developers these days simply don't give a shit, apparently. Do they really think that every potential customer is a spoiled 12 year old? I have a feeling that if they got back to programming again, that there'd be a lot of people such as myself who have to work for our money who'd be a lot willing to buy games again. Until then, I'll be happy shopping in the bargain bin.
I don't respond to AC's.
Me: Where are you going?
Grunt L4096: I'm rushing directly into the enemy's line of fire, sir.
Me: Could you stay back here instead? I kind of want to win this time.
Grunt L4096: At once sir!
(Grunt L4096 rushes directly into enemy fire and is slaughtered)
Me: Hello?
Group of freshly-spawned grunts: What is it sir?
Me: Follow me.
Grunts: At once, sir!
Me: We're going to flank the enemy and then under sniper cover we will probe -
(Grunts all run directly into enemy fire and are immediately killed)
(Game ends in defeat)
Darth Vader: You disappoint me!
(Darth Vader throws himself into volcano)
(Enchantment with game ends)
Am I the only one that thinks Quake IV is a little faithless? Where are the freaky butchering plants and stuff? Replace every instance of "Strogg" with another wierd name and its pretty much a generic shoot-the-aliens game. There aren't any secrets (or even a super shotgun or more importantly a Quad), or challenging jumpy bits like there were in Q2. Piloting vehicles is more like playing Halo with the recharging shields, and the fellow squaddies to run over. If I had Quake 3 maybe I'd see more similarities (I avoided it because my 233MHz P1 and 16MB RAM couldn't cut it, plus I had a 28.8kb/s modem) but I still can't help looking at it as a shooter that happens to have the same name instead of Quake 4.
Actually, I wasn't... learned something new today already. So, who knows of a good free close of super Mario brothers?
...'oldschool' in the same sentence as a game that uses high resolution graphics.
Tried lolo. This java NES emulator runs worse on a 2.2ghz AMD processor w/ a gig of ram than ZSNES ran on my old 166mhz pentium.
No doubt there is some obscure settings I have to change somewhere to make it run smoothly. No doubt if it still doesn't work, then I "must be using a shitty JVM." No doubt after upgrading the JVM it will still be my fault somehow.
Please advise, Java programmers. I honestly want to believe that Java "can be faster than C++." Help me out here.
You're absolutely right that most Star Wars games tied to a specific chapter of the saga sucked big donkey. Tops on my list in terms of suckage are all the lame platformers released around the same time as each of the three prequels. Obi-Wan is in a class by itself for pure wretchedness.
However, Pod Racer was the one shining exception to this rule. (Naturally, the original vector-graphics Star Wars arcade game is also exempt. Duh.) It is arguably the best thing to come out of Episode 1, but only on Nintendo 64. I heard that the PC version was garbage, so maybe that's why you hated it.
It was, quite simply, the best pure racing game on N64. Mario Kart 64 was about powerups and kart kombat; Pod Racer was more akin to Wave Race 64 (also a very good racing game in its own right) in that it was much like a futuristic racing simulator. Also, despite visual similarities, it was a much more pure racing game than the cartoon-y look-a-like Quantum Red Shift now available on X-Box.
Some (then-)Groundbreaking features:
* Vehicle Upgrades. We take it for granted in modern racing games, but Pod Racer was one of the first games to have meaningful upgrades for your racing vehicle. More than just cosmetic changes, the upgrades you bought enhanced certain aspects of your vehicle's performance (braking, acceleration, top speed, etc.). There was also emphasis on keeping your parts in balance with each other. Putting top-notch acceleration and wimpy brakes was a disasterous combination, and would actually erode your brakes over a few races. Which leads to...
* Upgrade Deterioration. A few racers in the current generation are doing this, but Pod Racer did it (AFAIK) first, and arguably best. Using turbo boost or brakes excessively during a race would degrade the part's integrity, and would reduce its effectiveness for future races. Bumping into walls (or other racers) might damage your steering unit. Blowing up? Well, that's NOT good for the repair unit's longetivity. Of course, you could repair the parts, but only to a certain point. This led to a long-view of the game. Instead of racing through the course, consequences be damned, the objective became to come in first with a Pod that would be in good enough shape to run the next race.
* Decent AI, no Computer Assistance. You know how in Burnout you can never get more than about 2 seconds ahead of your nearest opponent, but they can freakin' LAP YOU??!! I understand Burnout is an action-driven arcade game, not a simulator, but Pod Racer wisely rewarded you for careful execution. The AI was good, but not perfect; it WAS possible to catch up to the leader on the later levels. This also made 2-player competition more fulfilling -- wins were wins.
* FAST. Like, STUPID fast. As you got up to higher levels and better upgrades, the thrill got pretty intense. The only thing that's come close in terms of raw thrill was Burnout 3, but as noted that's not a racing simulator. The N64 graphics add-on was almost required, or you couldn't see the obstacles in time.
In summary, high speeds + innovative levels + real sense of danger (don't crash! don't even kiss the wall!) == Good times. Do yourself a favor, and pick up a copy for $6 at Gamestop. If you still think it's crap, I'll buy you a stick of yours.
Cheers.
Let's see... Jedi Knight 1+2, Star Wars (vector arcade classic), Rogue Squadron 1+2+3, Dark Forces 1+2, Tie Fighter, X-Wing, X-Wing Vs Tie Fighter, Episode 1 Racer (not great, but ok), Knights of the Old Republic 1+2, Battlefront 1+2, Return of the Jedi... (notice the amounts of fine sequels)
And those were just the games I've tried. I'm sure there are more out of the huge list of Star Wars games that I haven't tried that are perfectly good games.
It's somehow en vogue to think the majority of Star Wars titles suck, even though the hit/miss ratio is pretty good - especially for a movie license.
Now bad movies based on good games on the other hand... don't get me started on thoes.
Against the grain
Yes
Old school is Larry Bird vs. Dr. J on an Apple][
:p
Or Kings Quest 1
Or Zork.
I'm only 28 but I played all of those. What's prior to that? Pong? Played that too.
I completely agree with you! I played Quake 1 and loved every minute of it, but Quake 2 had a much looser feel to it that gave me the feeling of true freedom when running around fragging everyone. The weapons felts great, the maps were awesome, and the fun factor was always there. Who can forget jumping off a box, while twising in the air, and fraggin' someone with the rail-gun? Unbelievably fun. I still remember the bouncing heads after the kills...
*sigh* That was back when people designed games for most computers rather than only the fastest most expensive computers with the most bling-bling video card...
... how most people's opinion is ignored by the people who actually design these games.
... expecting one very simple thing:
I've been playing FPS since wolfenstein (and I mean the first one) and in terms of gameplay there has been no improvement whatsoever. I have bought all versions of Quake and Doom since about 1998 (or whatever)
MAKE THE BAD GUY WALK AROUND THE CORNER INSTEAD OF SHOOTING AT THE WALL LIKE AN IDIOT.
(ie:
* Bad guy
-------------------- Wall / Fence or whatever
# Me.
)
I've seen the bad guy. I KNOW the bad guy has seen me (he shot at me when I went around the corner). Whay doesn't he follow me??????
Anyway... the graphics look really good in a screenshot. But I still play Quake I after all these years, 'cause it starts up in about 0.001 seconds whereas as for quake IV I have to wait for 1 minute on my Athlon 64 with 2 GB of memory.
Which cell block are you in?
I really, really want to play these games (and the others like them). I absolutely prefer PC 1st Person shooters over similar console games for the mouselook alone. But I just can't keep up with the hardware joneses any more. I had unacceptable framerates with Far Cry at average quality settings, for instance, on a P4E 3Ghz, 1GB ram, ATI AIW 9800, minimal processes running, and so on. I know that for the most part I will be sucking it up and moving to the new generation of consoles because I and my wallet are losing the PC arms race.
Bowing out,
Bob
- i fart in your general direction -
For the Monkey Island type games, are you looking for something like ScummVM?
~ roscivs
http://www2.ntcompatible.com/For_the_old_DOS_gamer s_OpenGL_ports_of_CLASSICS_t18800.html
:) ... apk
A good read for those of you wanting the "old school" games redone with modern OpenGL &/or DirectX 3D graphics displays added.
(Many of them! Ones like Wolf3D, Doom I & II, Quake I & II (redone even BETTER on the latter one), etc. (plus, others, not just ones from IDSoftware! (ALL are excellently done by 3rd party coders & pretty highly 'polished' by this point))
* Enjoy!
(What's listed in that thread are the original/true "blast-from-the-past" with the gameplay since they are the ORIGINAL game, but redone with modern display methods as mentioned above, no more grainy looking bitmaps & sprites blasted to the screen buffer anymore... OpenGL &/or DirectX 3D goodness!)
APK
P.S.=> Special thanks to folks from the shops like IDSoftware have to go out here - they open-sourced their code, & others took the ball & ran with it like NO tomorrow, truly great work!
Syndicate wars was the greatest game ever made. Too bad Bullfrog split up...
Nintendo's coming out with a new 2D Super Mario Bros. title for the DS, and I'm looking forward to playing all the old NES games on the Revolution (although those don't count as "new", obviously).
I yearn for you tragically. A. T. Tappman, Chaplain, U.S. Army.
older style would be: MOO1, or mario. I do agre to man games (FFX) focus to much on graphics(Quak 3,Doom,Halo etc.) and not enough on content (FF7 Dragon Warriors , FF1 Mario 1, MarioKart). Some did both! (Metriod. 1-prime)
Quake 2 beats Quake 3 by a lot in terms of gameplay speed, Though sometimes it all depends on the mod you're playing. There're mods for Quake 2 that make you die every second, and ones that make it somewhat like counter-strike or whatever. Still, the physics of Quake 2 make it a whole lot faster than Quake 3.
Am I the only person who liked Quake 3 much better than any previous version?
I mean, yeah, it had bright, futuristic visuals instead of dark gritty ones. We get it, id, you listen to Trent Reznor, wear all black and your geography teacher doesn't understand your tortured soul. And it had no story, but when dealing with id, that's a *bonus*. What it did have was fast-paced arena combat, that no one has quite duplicated since. Unreal Tournament is fantastic, but it's still not quite the same casual, bouncy slaughterfest that Quake 3 was. Quake 3 was like an abstraction of the FPS genre down to its Platonic ideal - no story, no atmosphere, just various weapons, interesting but unrealistically geometrical levels, and your frag count. It was a beautiful thing.
I yearn for you tragically. A. T. Tappman, Chaplain, U.S. Army.
Why the hell can't Nintendo crank out a 2D side scroller of Mario World for the cube? There's TONS of people like me with CASH now, that would be 50 bucks for a Super Mario World 2.
Absolutely!
Super Smash Brothers: Melee showed us this was well within their ability for the gamecube. Why did it take so long for Nintendo to figure out that a game like the upcoming New Super Mario Bros for the Nintendo DS would be popular? Instead, we got Super Mario Sunshine, which can't even compete with Mario 64 on the fun scale. (Well, except for the few bonus stages in the game, which could have made an excellent game by themselves.)
Nintendo, please give us the same gaming goodness you gave us when we were growing up! I just want to see a game where I can go back to smashing bricks, collecting coins and traditional powerups (mushrooms, fireflowers and stars) and pounce on enemies in large chains. Heck, even a 3D remake of Super Mario Bros 3 would be pretty awesome. The heck with these giant sprawlling lands, just give us a lot of items to interact with in close quarters.
8==8 Bones 8==8
There was something magical about the Quake multiplayer experience that, as you alluded to, wasn't quite preserved in subsequent Quake releases. Also, the general pace of the game wasn't as frenetic, which for me at least, probably made it more enjoyable.
I'll always remember one Sunday morning, playing on a server that ran a fun mod that, among other things made the double-barrel shotgun fire five rounds at once, so at close range it was a sure gib. I have a screenshot of my score that morning, when I got over 100 kills in just a few minutes. Wow that was fun.
And you had to love the old Quake gib sound effect too :-)
You kids and your side scrollers. Back in my day we had this tabletop with paddles...
Heh - except we're not in Santa Monica any more ;)
I like the cut of your jib, kid! Retro gaming is all the rave again, and my daughter (age 15, I'm 35) loves to hear me talk about the history of videogames (she's into videogames too). Truth is, those silky smooth sidescrollers on NES and SNES rocked supreme (and still do) and I feel fortunate to have seen the full lifespan of videogames thus far.
I'm not quite sure why your post made me feel so good, but it did. Thanks!
SEO Copywriter. Just Say ON
Hellz yeah.. I remember feeling like I was actually doing something when I played that game. Geeky as it is... When I needed to gear up and head into space - even just to ID some freighters that happened to wonder too close to my space port - disembarking from the launch bay felt like I was entering a huge unknown world where anything could happen. It was open space.. and there was no limit on where I could fly to. I had all the functions of my trusty fighter mapped on the keyboard and I was in my cockpit. Everything was bliss.. changing the firing rate/pattern of the guns, gearing up for hyperspace with the wings changing shape and such - it was totally immersive.
If there was a rehash of this game, made new with all the bells and whistles out there today. Where I could fly through space in a free and unbounded fashion, and interact at my own will with whatever I came across... and maybe say land on some moons or planets. I wouldn't ever need another game.
except it's version 2 of course.
----------------------------
Esobofh - Currently drinking fresh mango juice.
We setup one of the early (not the first, but early) quake servers back in the day, named the 'Thunderdome' in Australia. We were running an ISP 'down in the basement' (32 x 32kb modems and a T2 net cnxn! w00t!) and started the clan Bananas In Pyjamas (BiP) (hence Rastan[B2]). When alot of clans started out, it was all fearful, 'death and killing' type clan names... so we thought wtf, called ourselves Bananas In Pyjamas and painted our skins bright yellow, with blue and white pyjamas.
man good, good days... our own server, a fat net pipe for other servers (we didnt like dealing out punishment on our own server because it was just _unfair_) lots and lots of fun into the wee wee hours! Organised clan wars with TS (tormented souls), BW (black widows) - my mate ran the BW server stuff out of a uni server, and others... I remember when GameSpy first came out and it was a godsend!
Just when you think u _might_ be getting bored... all the variants came out - runes, ctf, new maps... Ahhh the days... I had alot of fun playing quake 1, qw, and ctf!
three words for anyone that needed something settled - 'D' 'M' 'FOUR'!
Anyone remember GibCon (aka BigCon) one of the first largish quake tourneys' held in sydney? Adam (Raver[B1]) and I drove down from the gold coast, they had a sooper duper, one of a kind, 1 Gb switch - which kept fkn falling over all the time, much to the hate of the crowd. But like any good LAN of the day, warez and porn passed around a plenty! (I remember being ousted kinda early and drinking some mix of scotch in a macas cup all night!)
I have photos from another tourney in Bris with Tank[ZX], seven[cant remember clan ???], and heaps of other old school quakers...
I miss those days, the game play was faaantastic...
From one older quake dude,
Rastan[B2] - Rastan rough on roughnecks!
P.S - the server didn't last that long because a few months later when our monthly bill went from $12K to $33K, the boss was like WTF, and we were like - 'geeez we don't know it must be a fault at their end!'. needless to say the 'fault' corrected itself after we sadly shutdown the server.
P.P.S - so old school, it took us 3 months to be convinced it was better than the mouse
If pointing and shooting using a mouse in fps on a pc is old-skool.
... k , last one was Unreal 2k3 ). I remember clearly using a mouse and keyboard for that...
I know I haven't played a lot of fps's the past 3 years (the last one was Max Payne 2... no wait that isn't a fps
anyone care to inform me what you guys have been shooting with at your pc while playing a fps the past 3 years ?
The Dutch will inherit the earth. If not, we'll settle for a bit of ocean. Beta delenda est!
Consoles cater more to pretty graphics, storytelling and the singleplayer game. The real evolution in games isnt just in graphics, but MULTIPLAYER games. When it comes to mulitplayer games, PC games are far superior..end of story.
Consoles are just beginning to enter the online arena, but they are limited by too many factors. With a console multiplayer game you cannot:
1. Community created content (MODS)
2. More than say 10 users on the server
3. Host your own game server
4. Provide the abundance of controls in game available with PC games.
5. Use the all mighty native Mouse and keyboard combo.
The best FPS mulitplayer games around are still some of the old school titles that have dated graphics.
1. Quake 1,2, 3 or 4 and MODS
2. HF / HF 2 and MODS
3. Tribes 1 and 2 and MODS
Graphics alone do not make for great gameplay.
FPSes are like Arnie/Sly Stallone movies. And how intelligent are the cannonfodder/meatshields in those situations?
It's not about having a battle of wits in field strategy, it's about chewing gum and kicking ass. Possibly having run out of gum a while earlier.
I agree with you wholeheartedly that the sort of game you describe would be incredibly interesting, challenging and fun to play. I think that level of thinking required would make it unpopular, a lot of people want to play something mindless and slaughterful. Like watching Commando or a Chuck Norris movie or something.
Ahh the memories... a couple of friends and I used to play Doom on our high school's LAN during geography and civics class :)
subject says it all
Battlefront is proficient as a movie tie in, but games like BF2 do it so, so, so much better. If you don't own one of the battlefield games, don't waste your money on this mediocre game, get BF2 instead.
I think 26 is old enough to be considered an old school gamer assuming you've been playing since you were 5. I'm 27 and I've been playing since 4 and will take great umbrage at any assertions that I'm not an old school gamer.