Video Games

[DarthTofu]

It strikes me that, since we have a thread for books and for creative writing, we should probably have a general thread for mind-rot, IE Video Games. Well, that and I just got Rome: Total War from my friend as well as The Battle for Middle Earth II as well as Rise of the Witch King expansion. I haven't played either yet, and kind of wanted a place to discuss them both when I do.

 

But this thread isn't strictly for those video games- feel free to discuss any other good ones you have on any console... Except the Wii. Yes, Rob, I just made that condition to tick you off. Feel free to break it.

[Darth_Rob]

But this thread isn't strictly for those video games- feel free to discuss any other good ones you have on any console... Except the Wii. Yes, Rob, I just made that condition to tick you off. Feel free to break it.

 

You son of a...

 

As a matter of fact, I am going to break it, seeing how I have been devoting 100% of my playing time to the Wii (my PS2 is collecting dust). I am on hour 46 of The Legend of Zelda. Though I must say that I was thinking about snagging the Battle for Middle-earth one of these days...

[JediHunter]

i learned the other night that i suck at Wii baseball.... on the WiiSports game... I hold the record in the homerun derby training (7 out of 10).. yet when i played my girlfriend's brother.. he got a homerun at the beginning... then i went scoreless in the bottom of the 1st.. then in the top of the second he got a homerun with bases loaded.. making it 5-0.. then in the bottom of the second I was scoreless again and then it said.. "Mercy Rule".. Thats the game! I didnt even get to play the 3rd inning... needless to say.. im never living it down..

[Darth_Rob]

The baseball game is probably the hardest of the 5 Wiisports. My friend and I have had so many scoreless games, and I generally get whupped by the AI when I play single player.

[Mad78]

Okay well i can put a few comments on games i played recently.

 

JAWS Unleashed: A game which i got my hands on for not much and that got bad reviews everywhere... It was great! Really fun and gory. Its also a good thing they gave up the horror side of the franchise and did it more a more dark humor style. The only down sides were the rather sloppy controls (though it may be less of a problem with a gamepad) and the overall easyness of the game.

 

Alien vs Predator II: Have yet finished this game and surely will never but its a very fun game and is very atmospheric.

 

Soon I am going to be trying Evil Genius (installing now) and Silent Hunter III. I'll tell you guys what i think once i have had the time to play them through.

 

Ah yes and i also tried Condemned: Criminal Origins. Fun but I ain't really into Survival-Horror games. But it is without doubt a very superior game.

[PHSYCOBOB]

I've been really enjoying Eve-Online, great graphics, lovely game mechanics, and a lot of open-ended playing. (there is no level cap to grind to)

 

Asside from that I went back and played Final Fantasy VII again, that game never gets old.

 

As far as newer consol games, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 is a challenging fighting game. Final Fantasy 12 I've barely scratched the surface of the story line.

[budious]

http://psxemulator.gazaxian.com/

 

PSX is an excellent emulator for original Playstation. Linux and Windows versions, now I can play Gran Turismo and Gran Turismo 2 on my PC with my Xbox 360 Controller

[Darth_Rob]

@Mad: I have Jaws for the PS2. I also found it to be rather fun and gory. I loved having to beach yourself on the land so you could snack on the people!

[JediHunter]

I wanna know what game that was that Def was showing screen caps from ... but aside from that.. i'm slowly playing Warcraft III: Frozen Throne .. its pretty fun..

[tacoJoemeru]

I wanna know what game that was that Def was showing screen caps from ...

 

Defcon, was the game I think...

[Defender_16]

DEFCON indeed.

 

http://www.everybody-dies.com/ Free Demo in downloads.

 

Can only play 2 player online with the Demo.

 

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/images/defcon-screenshot-2.jpg

 

They need to come out with a DEFCON Advanced or something that has some land units. Tank Divisions, mobile launchers etc.

 

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h293/Defender_16/1183075073129MissleLaunchers.jpg

[DarthTofu]

So far I've played one quick skirmish battle with LOTOR II: The Witch King, and the first level of the campaign. This is a very fun RTS, indeed! I'm enjoying the new hero units, and very much enjoying being able to build your own heros, though I kind of wish you could just make one super-dooper-bad-ass hero that was all but immortal, and just cost enough to make you go bankrupt.

 

So far the units I've messed around with are: Goblins and Dwarves from the demo in skirmish mode. They were a fair bit of fun, though the demo limited the maps you could use, and naval combat was almost nill on the ones I tried out.

 

Elves: These guys can kick so serious arse if you tell 'em to! With the one ring Galadial(No clue if that's anywhere near correct spelling) is powerful, though not nerely as powerful as I'd have expected- I'd thought there would be new abilities for her, but alas, none arose.

The units are still fun to use, though, and the computer's habit of sending enemy units at you in small numbers that can't do too much helps- set up two or four units of archers to catch enemies in a crossfire and then throw in a tower- you're golden for the choke points, and can level up as necessary.

 

The Witch King Faction: So far I've only used the limited play provided by the first level of the campaign for this fella, so I'll reserve judgement. What I've gotten from it so far with the limited use of units is a sense that this can be a very powerful faction if used properly. Snow trolls can mow down enemy defenses, and the rest can take severe punishment before you have to worry about them dying. Siege weapons appear to be very helpful (At least against infantry, cavalry, and siege units) and so this should be fun, especially now that I've finished with Empire at War for a while.

[Krytos]

AvP 2: Great game there Mad, real enjoyable first and second time round. I played it more recently, but it lost a lot of its charm as your memory kicks in about what happens.

But hey, it's still scary as hell creeping through an Alien hive at any time.

Much better than the first, good graphics (for its time) and a really good storyline. When it came out, it was one of my favourite games. The only thing it lacked was a co-op multiplayer game like the first AvP - that was fun, 2 - 4 blokes fighting off a constant onslaught of xenomorphs.

 

Warcraft 3 Frozen Throne: A nice RTS, well for the single player at least. Multi and skirmish I didn't like too much. Frozen throne takes a while to get started, I found, but was a pretty good game in the end.

 

Command and Conquer 3: Another good RTS. While I found that the single player, and even some of the over all game feel doesn't really yell command and conquer like the prior to, it is nice to see the EA haven't gone and killed off the original Command and Conquer. Great single player, skirmish and from what I've heard multiplayer (no time for that these days ). The AI is something else, best AI I've seen in an RTS of this style. Very adaptive, where you can play in easy and the AI will be challenging if you are. Basically the AI will change on how you play, you build up fast etc. the AI will do similar and attack more. If you're a slow player, or build up lots of defences the AI will react to that. I think it could be better - but I hardly ever here myself saying: "dumb AI" in this game.

Don't play brutal ... that's just insane.

 

FEAR: Bloody brilliant FPS! I'd overlooked the game after playing the demo and getting little to no-where in the first level. My brother played it and loved it, so I gave it a shot and it is really fantastic. Fight scenes are great: You can slow down time to do battle with brilliant AI controlled opponents (a lot of the time you need to slow down time to fight them, especially on hard or the level above that). Story is good too. My only complaints are some of the story didn't really resolve, you need a really powerful computer to play with high graphics and the game does take a while to get started story wise.

Nevertheless, one of the most addictive games I've played in a long time.

[Darth_Rob]

I played F.E.A.R. a few times online at a friends house. I got my ass kicked, since I dont generally play PC games, and was unfamiliar with the combination of keyboard and mouse. Needless to say, I got whupped by other players who kept doing some kind of flying kick that killed me in one hit...

[Krytos]

Oh yeah, I'd forgotten about the physical combat in the game. Quiet nifty, wack them with you can or you can do some nice kicks - side kick, round house or a bicycle kick.

Multiplayer, doesn't realy give the same experience as the single - in fact the producers of the game must agree as you can download the multiplayer only game for free from their website.

[Darth_Rob]

Yeah, thats how I played it. Never went out and played an officially purchased single player game.

[Mad78]

I tried Silent Hunter III today. Its a really fun game and is not overly complicated. Its worth a try if you are at all into naval simulations.

 

What kind of game is DEFCON?

[Darth_Rob]

Yeah, Im curious too. From the screenshots, it reminds me of that movie WarGames.

[Mad78]

I triede playing a bit of Red Faction 2 today. Was fun. Fiddling about with GeoMod is always fun.

[SOCL]

Playing it old school this summer: TIE Fighter.

[JediHunter]

Dude, Mad.. I love Red Faction! That game is so much fun multiplayer.. I used to make fake tunnels with mines for my friends to go down thinking it was an actual part of the map.. then give em the good old rail gun.. hehehe

[Darth_Rob]

I just finished Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess! It took me 49 hours and 37 minutes...

[DarthTofu]

Yeesh. You suck at Legend of Zelda games- they take me, like, 24 hours even most of the time.

 

*Someone whispers that you've only ever played one Legend of Zelda game, that it's on the Game Boy Advanced, and your first time through it took you about sixty hours total*

 

*Slaps someone whispering*

 

I've started the War of the Ring side of Battle for Middle Earth II, and I really like it. This isn't quite Rebellion, but it's similar to it, except that now battles are land-based rather than space-based (Because hobbits don't build starfighters, unfortunately).

 

You can use resources as necessary when fighting it out on the ground, but this ties back into your overall economy- thus structures that, while extremely useful, are also extremely costly, will sometimes have to be left out of the equation.

 

And your economy doesn't spike strictly from owning new territories- you have to buy into one of four different build options, one of which is your method of producing resources, one of which delivers siege units, and one of which builds infantry and cavalry units.

 

The array isn't as extensive as Rebellion's, and it's turn-based rather than being RTS when you're in tactical mode, turning into an RTS when you invade new territories/are invaded, somewhat like Empire at War, except that here, as I said, you can make the building take longer.

 

The addition of allies also gives it something that Rebellion didn't have. You can see how everyone on your side moves across the map- that way, if you see that, say, the dwarfs are invading a neighboring territory with a large army and leaving their own territory open to attack, you can bolster their defenses with your own units, or aid them in the offensive with your own army.

 

You can also flank enemies, bringing in two or more armies from different territories, or even the same territory, with the latter army coming in as a reinforcement army. Very, very cool game.

 

It isn't quite Rebellion II, but it has great potential for it if any modders feel up to the task...

[Lord_La_forge]

I've played that LOTR game, think it was okay, but I didn't see such potentials in it. I guess lot of games could be made better with modding. In fact, I believe, in the future highly modable games will be much more succesful than the others.

 

I have some old games installed too Like Xcom Gold edition or Line of Sight Vietnam.

If you played Transport Tycoon, you should google this: OPENTTD

That's one of the reasons I play Elder Scrolls: Oblivion these days (for a year now

 

I can only recommend this piece. I must say, I'm really don't like fantasy stuff, but this one caught my attention. Reasons:

 

Has a huge worldspace, and you can travel to anywhere. That means, if you see a mountain in the far, you can really go there if you want (remember the old days with 2d texture drop in the back? ) Explore the whole region, it's really there!

You don't have to follow the story line. You can do what ever you want. TOTAL FREEDOM. That is what I'm always searching in games. I want to decide what comes next. Here I don't need to go and fight evil, I just wake up in the morning, and go out collect some flowers from the fields.

Has a very good, modable base with lots of tools. That's why the game has lot of fans, and new mods are coming out every day.

 

For FPS I would recommend Rainbow Six: Vegas. (guess everybody knows the series)

 

And for RTS fans, I would say Faces of War or Company of Heroes. Both are very well made and have nothing to do with traditional Starcraft-like rts games.

 

For Rome: Total War fans, the Extended Greek Mod is highly recommended too.

[Darth_Rob]

Yeesh. You suck at Legend of Zelda games- they take me, like, 24 hours even most of the time.

 

Mind you, this is over a four-week period. Ive heard people claim to do it in four DAYS. Apparently, they wake up and just play for the whole day, stopping only to eat, drink, and perform other mandatory bodily functions.