What games are you NOT playing?

[sparhawk]

Seems the games, on my todo list are piling up at the moment. There are only a few games to begin with, that look to be worth checking out. Most stuff looks like crap anyway, but occissianly there is a game that I get intersted in. So I wanted to play Call Of Juarez, Stalker, Heroes of Might And Magic 5, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, Oblivion, Gothic 3 and now there is coming Bioshock, Assasins Creed and maybe a few others which also look interesting.

 

The only game on that list, that I at least started to play was Oblivion. Didn't really like it though, after the escape was done, so I could scrap it, but the other games are still waiting. I installed Stalker, but didn't play much with it. TDM always gets in the way a lot, so I'm left wondering, if I get to play these games when they are so ancient that nobody will care about them anymore, and they look outdated like hell. Well, the beneift is that by this time the games run rather smooth. I tried Gothic 1 and was so turned off by that crap copyprotection that I didn't look at it again. After Gothic 2 was released I didn't even look at it, because I heard the same about it's copyprotection, so I waited until it hit the bargain bin. Then I gave G1 another try, and it was a much better experience because most wrinkles were ironed out, and the machine was much better then the intended one. Seems that a lot of games suffer this problem.

 

When I was younger I was much keener on trying new games. I wonder if it is just that I get older and more picky, or that games become more boring most of the time. Maybe a little bit of both, because graphics alone doesn't cut it, and it's rare now that I find a game really gripping. Maybe that's what it means becoming old. Thinking of the good old times, and playing ancient games like Thief for ever, thinking how bad the new games nowadays are and how much better they were when we were young ...

[demagogue]

Games still on my list to get / play ... Anachronix, Stalker, Oblivion, Call of Cthulhu, Arx Fatalis, Blade Runner, Darwinia, one of the Need for Speed's. I still have yet to play DX2 and Thief 3 ... I'll get to them someday for the record, but don't feel any rush.

 

Upcoming ... Bioshock, Assassin's Creed, Mozart, The Crossing, GTA IV (for New York), maybe Spore (depending on how bling-y it turns out looking; too much and it's no sale, or at least a begrudging discount-price only sale).

 

............

 

When I was younger there were some games that the previews would make me honestly riveted. I recall that happening for some C64 games, esp "cinematic" ones, Project Firestart ... some RPGs like Ultima and Bard's Tale 2 ... some interactive fiction ... The Pawn, Guild of Thieves. I haven't felt that way in forever.

 

One thing I remember about the old games I liked, very often they'd come with these 200+ page manuals (!) or novellas to give the game a back-story, and little nick-nacks in the box that were part of the game's world, and they'd build these stories around the game that was more than the game itself. I loved that.

 

Today's games are just too much bling in too tight and clean a package, too much of a blockbuster mindset ... or they're indie and deliberately low-key. It seems gone are the days when games really tried to sell you the story behind the game as part of it, still very ambitious but not nearly as "clean", more messy and alive. Today, it's either ambitious but too clean, or more alive but too unambitious.

 

BTW, by "clean" / "messy" I'm not talking about the look, e.g., how bloody or grungy or realistic it is. I mean, too self- consciously presentable to the audience as a packaged product or commodity bought to be consumed. I hate anything smacking of "bling" or a wink at the audience, or a world too self-contained like a product you buy to use up and throw out, just to get the next product.

To take an upcoming game at its best ... Irrational was claiming that Bioshock was going to be a world that didn't care about the player. Looking at the videos ... I mean, I can see it's making an effort, but the vibe I'm getting is still rubbing me the wrong way on the whole ... the neon colors, even in its freedom the sandbox is still a little too orchestrated-looking. Maybe I'll feel different playing it.

Edited August 5, 2007 by demagogue

[Vadrosaul]

I found Call of Juarez to be the gritty western style I was expecting from the previews and demo. The lead role has the best voice-acting work I’ve seen in ages. You have to be a fan of the genre, or at least tolerate it, because it isn’t a Western that diverges from the formulaic style of the genre. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. was Oblivion with guns, though smaller and with a grungy late Soviet-era feel to it, intentionally lacking emotion and filling the world with drabness & depression.

 

The only coming games I’m looking forward to are Bioshock & Assassins Creed. The former mainly because of who is developing it, and the promised similarities with its “spiritual successor”. Still Ken Levine keeps reiterating how Bioshock is a shooter first and foremost, which sounds like a subtle way of saying it can be good but not break the formulaic mold of that genre. From the preview videos and screencaps the atmosphere appears like a poorly blended mishmash of a dark horror game & a comical 1950’s Pleasantville parody with a violent edge, like the developers couldn’t decide on one or the other.

 

Assassin's Creed I’m purely interested in for the stealth elements in a medieval setting; that interest obviously stemming from Thief. The producers promise a free-roaming city element that I thought we should have received in TDS, so even though there is forced combat, I'm keeping an eye on the title.

[Crispy]

I still want to finish Thief Gold (yeah, I know, I'm working on TDM and I haven't finished playing one of the major inspirations - heresy!) and System Shock 2. And Prey, which I picked up a couple of months ago to check out the portal stuff, subsequently discovering that it's actually a pretty good game, for a shooter.

 

I'll also be checking out Bioshock and Spore at some point, naturally.

[Nyarlathotep]

I've got Dawn of War: Dark Crusade sitting right next to me, unopened. It's sad, really, how many games I so desperately wanted to get, but wound up never playing, or only playing part way through (like the Thief series).

[Springheel]

I still play Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic online, but other than that, I really only have time for a couple games a year. There are tonnes of games that I think I'd like to try, but I never really get around to most of them.

[Komag]

I'm playing Gothic 3 right now - great experience, cool exploration, possibly the most beautiful game world ever (maybe better than Oblivion, depending on personal taste). But it's a real killer on system requirements. I have 1.5gig ram and GeForce 6800 GT, and it runs only okay on medium settings.

[sparhawk]

Games still on my list to get / play ... Anachronix, Stalker, Oblivion, Call of Cthulhu, Arx Fatalis, Blade Runner, Darwinia, one of the Need for Speed's. I still have yet to play DX2 and Thief 3 ... I'll get to them someday for the record, but don't feel any rush.

 

If you plan to play NFS then either play Hot Pursuit 2 (which I liked the most) or Most Wanted. Hot Pursuit 2 is a bit older, but it has very nice graphics and no unneccessary background story. So if it is pure driging you want, then HP2 is really great. Only drawback is that there is no police mode for multiplayer, because this is the most fun IMO. Most Wanted is also nice, but it has backgroundstory. Nevertheless, it's pretty cool, to drive through the city and harrass the police. I tried Underground and I didn't really like it. The cars were also a bit strange to drive. From the driving physics HP2 was so far the best, but I haven't tried Carbon yet.

 

Upcoming ... Bioshock, Assassin's Creed, Mozart, The Crossing, GTA IV (for New York), maybe Spore (depending on how bling-y it turns out looking; too much and it's no sale, or at least a begrudging discount-price only sale).

 

Yeah, Mozart also looks interesting, and then there is something with London that I also forgot (forgot the right name, but it is some kind of fantasy/mystery shooter or something like that).

 

 

One thing I remember about the old games I liked, very often they'd come with these 200+ page manuals (!) or novellas to give the game a back-story, and little nick-nacks in the box that were part of the game's world, and they'd build these stories around the game that was more than the game itself. I loved that.

 

Yes. That's why I usually want to have the original as well. But with the DVD boxes which are very limited, you usually only get the disc and not much else. I always thought that it is quite a pleasure to look at the boxes and manuals.

[sparhawk]

I still want to finish Thief Gold (yeah, I know, I'm working on TDM and I haven't finished playing one of the major inspirations - heresy!) and System Shock 2. And Prey, which I picked up a couple of months ago to check out the portal stuff, subsequently discovering that it's actually a pretty good game, for a shooter.

 

I also played Prey last year, and I liked it a lot. Pretty short, but the graphics was really nice and also the story kept you hooked. Contrary to Quake 4, which was a bit better then Doom 3, but somehow it doesn't catch me. I like it when I play it, but when I stop, I soon forget it and have no real motivation to continue. Quite different to Quake 2 where I couldn't stop playing from the start.

[sparhawk]

I'm playing Gothic 3 right now - great experience, cool exploration, possibly the most beautiful game world ever (maybe better than Oblivion, depending on personal taste). But it's a real killer on system requirements. I have 1.5gig ram and GeForce 6800 GT, and it runs only okay on medium settings.

 

UGH! I have a P4 2.0GHz and 1GB RAM with Radeon 9800XT so it seems I should wait until I get a better system. Anyway, I still have to beat Gothic 2 as well. I liked Gothic 1 quite a lot. They did really a very good job to make the world feel alive, and it also had a pretty good AI, so it was really one of the best games I played. I seem to play the latest Gothic game whenever the newest arrives though. With the demands on the hardware, this is probably the most sensible thing anyway.

[Komag]

actually, "latest" means the same as "newest", but I know what you mean. Or else it was a typo and you just meant "last".

 

Do you have Gothic 2 Gold, that comes with the Night of the Raven expansion? It's very nice, adds a large new area, and integrates very well into the existing world so it doesn't just feel tacked on the side.

 

I think I've played Gothic four times and Gothic 2 three times, but now I'm not sure.

[Maximius]

Im considering buying Nexus:The Jupiter Incident from STEAM, its only 10$ and the graphics are really sweet. I love immersing myself in grand space battle type games as some of you know. homeworld etc. Its supposedly really high maintenance in terms of technology trees and can drag on a bit according to some of the reviews I read, but for that price I'll get some kind of fun out of it. Has anyone played this?

 

Call of Juarez looks incredible. Im a big Western movie fan but all the Western games I've seen have always seemed too flawed to make it worthwhile. C of J looks really well done, its on the list for sure. I downloaded the "fire" sample video, pretty wicked stuff.

 

Im thinking about Call of Cthulu but I've read enough negative stuff to put it on the "wait till its almost free" list right now.

[sparhawk]

actually, "latest" means the same as "newest", but I know what you mean. Or else it was a typo and you just meant "last".

 

Oh, I meant the earlier versions until the newest ones.

 

Do you have Gothic 2 Gold, that comes with the Night of the Raven expansion? It's very nice, adds a large new area, and integrates very well into the existing world so it doesn't just feel tacked on the side.

 

Nope. I just have G2 original, without the add-on. I think. Not sure, I have to check the disc, but I think it was plain G2.

 

I think I've played Gothic four times and Gothic 2 three times, but now I'm not sure.

 

I guess I should get starting on it.

[sparhawk]

Im thinking about Call of Cthulu but I've read enough negative stuff to put it on the "wait till its almost free" list right now.

 

The atmosphere in CoC is really great! I played it only until I reached that city. Up until there it is more an adventure, but I read that it becomes more of a shooter from there on. Not sure, but it's definitely worth checking out.

[demagogue]

I prefer adventures, actually, which is why I mentioned it.

They haven't really been a big genre since the old Sierra games like 15 years ago, unfortunately.

Edited August 5, 2007 by demagogue

[Vadrosaul]

I have both good things and bad to say about this game, so I want to make sure you get the right idea: I recommend Call of Cthulhu, Dark Corners of the Earth, but some of that feeling is due to my Lovecraft bias. In spite of the bad things, I liked it, and wished I could simply play it straight through with out pause for rest or real life. It has a great mix of challenging puzzles and action sequences, and there were times when I was so scared I had to remind myself it was just a game. The story is great, world interaction is pretty good, and the lack of any heads-up display adds a new element of realism. The fact that you can only save when near certain "magic" symbols (or when the game autosaves at a key point) was a mixed bag. It made the stakes higher, and the victories sweeter, but sometimes it got really tedious revisiting the same part of a particular sequence because you kept flubbing on the last villain.

 

The sound effects and music were awesome, graphics gritty even if underwhelming. Environmentals such as rain and fog were also pretty well done, and the levels were intricate and intriguing.

 

Also intriguing was the less abstract way in which damage and healing are handled (you may find yourself having to treat a broken arm or leg with a splint, for example, and if you leave a major wound untended for too long, you might bleed to death).

 

Be prepared for some very frustrating (sometimes idiotic) drawbacks. Also, be warned: the weapon and combat engine is rather poor compared to the rest of the game. Bullets sometimes pass through things they should hit, hits don't always do the damage you expect, and all the terrestrial guns are about the same in terms of range vs accuracy/damage. It's not horrible, per say, but you shouldn't buy this game if your main interest lies in the shooting aspect; UT or Quake would probably serve you better there.

 

For these reasons, the game only got four stars (out of five). It's a totally awesome puzzle game with a great horror element, but it looks like the programmers might have slacked off a bit in some areas (a few never even got paid by the now defunct Headfirst Studios).

[Domarius]

Darwinia

This is a great little game, you can get it off Steam fairly cheaply, and its very smoothly excecuted. Got an "80's computer generated" look to it, which is really pretty sometimes.

 

The gameplay is such that you have an unlimited amount of resources, but you have a cap on how many of something you can create. So if it gets destroyed you can make more. So you end up trying to manage some sort of production line.

 

ALso this is not an RTS like others how it's 2 equally balanced teams against the other. It's an RTS for you, but the enemy is a swarm of wierd viruses infecting the place, and trying to plough through them and dis-infect the system is very challenging, dangerous, and a lot of fun.

[Maximius]

I have both good things and bad to say about this game, so I want to make sure you get the right idea: I recommend Call of Cthulhu, Dark Corners of the Earth, but some of that feeling is due to my Lovecraft bias.

 

 

Thanks for the breakdown, I will give it a shot now, I love Lovecraft too and I was heartbroken at some of the things I've heard. If another devotee of his liked it, sign me up.

[sparhawk]

I also liked Lovecraft, and I liked this game very much. In fact I was quite looking forard to it, BECAUSE of the Chtuhulu connection.

[SneaksieDave]

I'm playing Gothic 3 right now - great experience, cool exploration, possibly the most beautiful game world ever (maybe better than Oblivion, depending on personal taste). But it's a real killer on system requirements. I have 1.5gig ram and GeForce 6800 GT, and it runs only okay on medium settings.

Everything I've heard about the game has been negative, oh so horribly negative. Admittedly, the main place I hear it discussed is Blue's News. Reviews are bad too. You say it's that good, though? Bugs fixed, AI problems addressed, no more crashes? I haven't played G2 yet, but would be interested to know if G3 actually is good afterall.

[jdude]

I really wanna work on the darkmod but I haven't been able to for the last 2 weeks because of school! ARGG! I have my last final tomorrow though then I get a three week break! It's literally eating away at me I wanna map sooo BAD!@$ BLA!!H!H!!

[demagogue]

Yeah, what are the reviews like for this Darkmod game I keep hearing about around here?

[Komag]

Everything I've heard about the game has been negative, oh so horribly negative. Admittedly, the main place I hear it discussed is Blue's News. Reviews are bad too. You say it's that good, though? Bugs fixed, AI problems addressed, no more crashes? I haven't played G2 yet, but would be interested to know if G3 actually is good afterall.

 

There have been a couple patches, I believe I downloaded and intalled patch 1.12, but I can't remember for sure.

 

There are some bugs, but so far nothing bad. The AI seem stupider and easier to outsmart/exploit than in Gothic 1/2, but I'm playing on medium and maybe they're smarter on hard (though maybe they just hit harder, etc, but are no smarter).

 

I have never had a crash yet, after dozens of hours of play. Perhaps if there were crash problems those were pre-patches.

 

There are other minor issues for me, but I can't really think of them right now. The save and load times are quite long for me (about 15 to 20 seconds to save, about 40 seconds to a minute to load), but this "bug" forces me to try to play more "realistically", living with consequences and forcing myself to become much less of a quicksave addict.

 

There are some ini tweaks you will definitely want to do to make it work better (there is one setting I remember that was missing a "0" so that it was like 100,000 instead of the proper 1,000,000). There are a lot of other ini tweaks to set things like grass draw distance, etc.

 

The graphics are absolutely amazing, maybe the best I've ever played, but again it's surely a matter of taste. I'm quite impressed with the lighting though, the whole landscape casts proper shadows that properly adjust all day and night long (sunlight/moonlight).

 

They've made some good improvements in the interface over Gothic 1/2, the menus are much easier to manage (I think), frobbing stuff to pick things up is a smoother process, the frob bias settings seem pretty good and helpful, etc. You don't have to cook your raw meat peices one at a time for instance, you can cook and then select "38" or whatever to just cook them all at once. Lots of other little improvements like that.

 

I like the RPG elements a lot, some great things to choose from as you get learning points to spend.

 

I am having a great time playing.

[SneaksieDave]

Interesting. I wonder why it was ripped so hard, but then again the source of the complaints wasn't exactly an RPG crowd. I guess I should at least try the demo. Thanks.

[oDDity]

I'm playing Gothic 3 right now - great experience, cool exploration, possibly the most beautiful game world ever (maybe better than Oblivion, depending on personal taste). But it's a real killer on system requirements. I have 1.5gig ram and GeForce 6800 GT, and it runs only okay on medium settings.

 

Are you having a laugh? Gothic 3 look like shit compared to Oblivion. Try playing Lotro if you want to see a beautiful gameworld (if you have the hardware to run it at 1920x1200 on full settings)

THE Shire is particularly great. Best Environments I've seen in a game to date.

 

Yeah, I finally relented and started playing an MMO again after a 6 year break since Everquest. Playing on a European RP server though, so it's not populated by kiddies, noobs or idiots.

Now I'm addicted of course, just as I knew would happen...