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What Game Do You Love?
It's that time of year again, when a person's fancy turns to new games. It's still nice to think of old flames, though, and eToyChest wonders about games you've loved. From the article: "In 1992 I was spending time getting my gaming legs on a then-aging 486 PC. It was loud, ugly, and far from state-of-the-art. But it could still run games off the shelf, and when a friend of mine brought over what he was calling the "best role-playing game he had played since Ultima V", I knew I had to check it out. What began that afternoon stands out as one of the most important events in my life as a game, for as I installed each of the two high density diskettes comprising Sir-Tech's Wizardry VII: Crusaders of the Dark Savant, I somehow knew that I was in for a treat. What followed were two years of swords, sorcery, and the slaying of many humanoid rats." So what game do you still remember fondly, even if you haven't played for quite a while?
Don't ever leave out Fallout, Fallout 2, and Arcanum. Definitely along the same vein.
I submitted this story last night, and it didn't get posted.
Hmm, I appear to be stuck on the "controls" perspective, but what the heck...
What I found quite annoying in Dune 2 was the inability to control more than ONE unit at a time.
Then came Warcraft 1 (another fine RTS game, but a different style... and then Warcraft2), which "extended" this to 4-unit selection (and 9-units selection, respectively).
After that, the Command&Conquer (1) appeared, where each type of unit had its specific uses (i.e. 100 infantry vs 20 tanks could be a viable strat either way), and you could select as many units as you wanted in a group. That was the point where I decided I love just about EVERYTHING that had to do with that type of selection and "unit design dogma" (so to say).
And then, I see StarCraft appearing, a HUGE success, played like mad by many (even today), and I still wonder "what the heck ?!?"... 12 units in a group, huge limitations on max number of units, and so on and so forth. How can THIS be the leading style in "interface" and "unit dogma", when the other is vastly superior ?
I am NOT talking about game story or individual unit abilities, I am talking about the fact you can either control 12 "marines" or 12 "battlecruisers" at the same time (and the battlecruisers even occupy less screen, as they can stack), but their firepower is several orders of magnitude apart...
Too bad Westwood funked up on the later installments of the C&C franchise, my heart still lies with the original one.
Oh well... that's why I never enjoyed much of the RTSs that appeared "recently".
OH, EXCEPT Total Annihilation.
Another GREAT game, same style as C&C (but more advanced), another "dead" franchise (TA2 sucked badly).
And another example of an "involution" in interfaces... Homeworld, and Homeworld 2.
Again, even story aside, I found Homeworld 1 much, MUCH more enjoyable than HW2. Actually, HW:Cataclysm could be one of my "top fav games of all times".
By reading this signature you agree to not disagree with the post you just read.
Star Control 2 is one heck of a game. Exquisite sense of humor, great story about galaxy-wide genocide, ancient technology, and what not. Part 3 sucked, though. The "Melee" part of the game is also fun. It is being resurrected for contemporary Windows and Linux systems at http://sc2.sourceforge.net/.
Rise of the Triad - best quirky mutliplayer experience
Duke Nukem 3D - best multiplayer FPS (out of the box)
Total Annihilation - best RTS. Ever. Well, until Supreme Commander comes out.
Full Throttle - The last great adventure game.
Half-Life - best single-player FPS.
Spider Solitaire - best waste of time.
Civilization II - best improvement upon a great game
Medieval: Total War - best Braveheart simulator.
X-Wing - Most entertaining space sim
Babylon 5: I've Found Her - most realistic space (combat) sim
X-COM: UFO Defense - most addictive game, best turn-based combat
Honorable mention: Civilization, Master of Orion, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake, Half-Life 2, Unreal, Far Cry, X-COM: Apocalypse, Lode Runner, M.U.L.E., Yar's Revenge, Adventure, TIE Fighter, Wing Commander series, Jane's flight sims, Falcon 3.0 and 4.0, Sid Meier's Pirates, Homeworld, Homeworld 2, a few dozen others I can't think of at the time.
120 characters for a sig? That's bloody useless.
Go here and head to the download section; the author of Tyrian released it as freeware a while ago.
The Realm 2 had a very good balance between the tech and the community sides of the game. Actually, the tech side was just a fun interlude to community events.
Then came The Realm 3, where the balance disapeared. The community side was forgotten, with Norseman putting the final nail on the coffin.
The Realm was a Sierra game. Sierra was never about bleding edge graphics, hence the "Sierra Classics" look and feel of the game. When the game shifted from that line, it became easy pray for the other software houses and their "bleding edge graphical" engines.
The Realm 1 was focused on the community aspect mostly. The Realm 3, on the tech side. The real golden era of The Realm was version 2. These days, The Realm (I refuse to call it Realm Online) is pretty much "kill & gather", filled with teenagers who can't even type.
morcego
Worms 2 & Armageddon: I'm suprised no-one has suggested this one already. I got into playing Worms 2 about 9 years ago, when I was in either 7th or 8th grade (I forget which), and bought Worms: Armageddon when I was in High School. They're absoutly wonderful games, and if it wasn't for pricks on WormNet (and no way to have admins ban the fuckers), I'd play Armageddon online more often.
NetHack: NetCrack more like. Killing Grid Bugs has never been more fun (unless you read that Scroll of Punishment. Oh, and I always avoid the Gnomish Mines, they still give me nightmares, damn gnomes).
Gabriel Knight 1 & 2: Two of the greatest adventure games ever. Period. (Alas, I have not found a copy of #3 yet.
Extreme Warfare Revenge: The greatest booking sim ever, and has none of the atrocious copy-protection crap that was put in Total Extreme Warfare.
Civilization Series + Alpha Centauri and Colonization: Must... play... just one more turn!
Starfleet Command: I was always a fan of Star Fleet Battles, and this game did not disappoint in the least.
Fallout 1 & 2: Two of the greatest PC RPGs ever.
Smackdown vs. Raw 2006: Possibly the best console wrestling game outside of...
Fire Pro Series: Which is the best console wrestling series. Ever.
And that's all I can think of for now. I'll probably come up with more later.Zagreus sits inside your head, Zagreus lives among the dead, Zagreus sees you in your bed and eats you in your sleep.
Bought it for my Amiga, along with the 512k expansion so I could play it. (Required 1 whole meg of ram!!!)
Stereo Sound, so you could tell which direction the monsters were coming from.
And killing monsters by luring them under a door and pressing the button. Whack whack whack whack die.
A couple of clones came out shortly after. Eye of the Beholder series (which was decent). And Black Crypt... an awesome (if short) Dungeon Master clone.
Years later, I found out Dungeon Master II was being released for the Sega Genesis CD-ROM with mouse. I bought the entire system specifically to play DM2. Unfortunately, DM2 was a piece of crap. Boy was I burned.