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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?
Do you consider that an "oldie" ? It almost even requires hardware acceleration :P :)
Half-Life, that's like... yesterday, not "good old times"
Damn, I thought you'd say "Wolfenstein" or, at least, maybe "Doom"...
By reading this signature you agree to not disagree with the post you just read.
This was one of the best Futuristic RPG's of it's time. (Fallout 1+2 were very well done also)
Any idea where to find a copy these days? Even better yet, a playable copy that doesn't come on 5.25" disks? I would think that if someone had the time, you could recreate the whole thing via a java applet, but I would love to get my hands on a version.
Those were the best games.
Yes! But emphasis on the "were."
I love anything by Square-Enix now.
That does not compute.
My first MUD-like game was Island of Kesmai. At the ridiculous per-hour charges of compuserve, this grew into an expensive habit. After I found Gamestorm's Legends of Kesmai, they had me hooked for $9.95 per month from the time I found it until the time they pulled the plug, after selling out to EA to give them the Aries engine. I never had, nor have since, found a community quite like Kesmai.
The truth about Scientology, Xenu, and you: Operation Clambake
YES! Mechwarrior 2 had awesome game play, and was one of my most favorite games ever even though the graphics were not that great. Then M$ took it over and dumbed it down for Mechwarrior 3. Sure it was prettier, but was no where near as fun. But I bought it and played it anyway. Then came Mechwarrior 4. Exact same thing. Dumbed down even further, and prettier graphics. No wonder the franchise died. Now to parallel: Tribes. This FPS had revolutionary open game play with a permanent jet pack and HUD scripting. No more running around in dark corridors. The freedom to fly! and emphasis on team play. I was instantly hooked. Then Tribes 2 came out. Again better graphics, but never quite felt the same due to several rules changes, but still playable thanks to Mods. Then the final nail: Tribes: Vengence. Vivendi killed this game almost before it was launched. Despite the big graphics upgrade, it was so dumbed down that they had just turned it into another Deathmatch game. I wanted to love it, but it just didn't hold me the same as the previous Tribes. Then with the patch fiasco's, they basically killed it too. I mourn the loss of my favorite games. Hopefully Volitant Assault being developed by former Mod developers will make it and be everything the next Tribes should have been.
Nevermore.
Sam and Max, Hit the Road
That was a game that was fun and hilarious.
And lets not forget Maniac Mansion 2: Day of the Tentacle
Both made by Lucas Arts
But the first one always; Leisure Suite Larry
And, oddly enough, both for the same reasons: planning. Falcon 3 had a mission planning mode where you would set waypoints, speeds, weapon loads, etc. for you and up to 8 of your wingmen. I would spend 2 hours setting up the mission, and 20 minutes or less flying it. I never could land on hi-fidelity mode. Crashed just about every time.
Same with SC2K, what I liked was getting the freeway onramps to look right. Or I'd spend $250K to deepen a river so I could get a suspension bridge on it. The reverse interest money cheat made sure I wasn't constrained by cost.
It wasn't really the way the games were meant to be played, but I loved them for it.
There are 01 kinds of cars in the world. The General Lee, and everything else.
(This is an exact repost of something I wrote back in January.)
When I found out the music in SC2 was MOD files, I found a ripper on my local BBS and promptly extracted the music. That was in June of 1994, and the files have followed me from drive to drive, filesystem to filesystem, with their timestamps intact. I still love listening to that music, having burned bits of it to CD for the car, and all of it still enjoying a place in my Winamp playlst.
Occasionally when a discussion of game storylines crops up, I'll pitch in a few kind paragraphs for Star Control 2. The conversation archives on The Pages of Now and Forever still relate the same compelling story, and I still remember my horror when I initially learned of the Kohr-Ah's plight. The most convincing villain is one you feel sympathy for, and they had that going, for sure.
A few weeks ago, I downloaded the most recent build of The Ur-Quan Masters. The first build I tried a year or so ago wouldn't start up, but this version ran flawlessly. The music was perfect, the graphics were just as I remembered them, and the interface took a little getting used to but then felt very comfortable.
So why did the game bore me? I played for probably half an hour, and couldn't seem to get interested. It's not that I knew the ending -- I played the game through 3 or 4 times back when it was new, and it didn't seem any less fun the second time around. I haven't been much for games in the last few years, and I'm still struggling to figure out why.
Still playing it.
If Chaos Theory has taught us anything, it's that we must kill all the butterflies.
Ultima Underworld was game that made me give up on the Amiga and get a PC. After seeing a friend play it I had to have it. Making long leaps in the darkness to barely visible platforms actually made my stomach flip over.