What game are you playing?

[jowcol]

BTW- I had mentioned how the game Postal 2 allowed you to urinate on Gary Coleman.  (Or at least to try...)  Given his recent passing, I just wanted to point out that Mr. Coleman was an active supporter of Postal 2, and the Running with Scissors Website has posted its condolences for its loss.

It makes me wonder if they'll need to get Danny Bonaduce for Postal 3....

[greg]

I'd like to see Jim Carrey in there. He'd be the crazy guy running around in the street with a green mask on.

[Scarpia]

I was at a party and saw a Wii game where you ride a Segway and try to pop balloons being held by some sort of weasel.

[lisa needs braces]

I recently stored my PS3 and games at a relative's house for personal reasons so no PS3 for me for a while. I do however still have my non-PCI Express six year old PC that doesn't have a graphics card!

About six months ago I played the original Half Life after hearing people go on and on about it for years (I was never a PC gamer.) I gave it a chance and loved it and I played both expansion packs (which were nearly as good). I can't play Half Life 2 because my system can't handle it so I'm looking for older games. I recently bought this on Steam:



I'm playing it on medium difficulty and I find it to be pretty hard. One thing -- it's pretty jarring going back to a game that has this sort of graphics after growing accustomed to PS3 graphics. I often wonder: is an older game that's held to be "great" really great or does that estimation merely stem from the nostalgia of the people who played it? 

[greg]

Another Half Life fan- excellent! 

[Renfield]

No, Deus Ex really is really great. It's veritably titanic, one of the greatest achievements of the PC as a gaming platform so far, in terms of gameplay innovation still unmatched on any platform. But you need to explore it quite a bit to notice.

Plainly put, this is a game three people can play, compare notes, and wonder if they were playing the same game at all. Its structural depth and multiple-approach design are far beyond anything Fallout 3, or the recent Alpha Protocol has to offer.


I know I sound like James here, but DE really is the Bach of modern PC gaming, if any game is.

Everyone is still catching up to what it was, despite graphics having gotten a lot prettier in the interim!


Edit: And it kills Half Life dead.

Sorry. I see why people admire it, but I got bored at the half-way () mark back in the day, and I don't feel it's aged well, either.

[lisa needs braces]

Wow! I'll definitely continue to play it.

Edit: Another game I recently bought is the original Starcraft. Windows XP keeps giving trouble though. Also: I can't believe I paid $20 for a game that's 12 years old. 

[Renfield]

Wow! I'll definitely continue to play it.

Edit: Another game I recently bought is the original Starcraft. Windows XP keeps giving trouble though. Also: I can't believe I paid $20 for a game that's 12 years old. 

Starcraft is timeless. It doesn't matter when you buy it, it simply 'is'.


I still remember reading all the lore in that large manual it came with, and thinking how great 'modern' games were becoming. But all the reverence aside, the solidity of gameplay that Starcraft afforded us back in '98 really is another of those singular cultural artefacts of PC gaming.

That said, Starcraft II should one-up it. I wish my PC wasn't dead.


Edit: The way this is going, you're going to mention Diablo II next, and I'll have to deliver a third such eulogy!

[greg]

Has anyone ever played Beyond Good and Evil?
I couldn't really explain any aspect of it that was significant, but it was just an all-around wonderful playing experience. Just a well-rounded game, I guess.

[Renfield]

Has anyone ever played Beyond Good and Evil?
I couldn't really explain any aspect of it that was significant, but it was just an all-around wonderful playing experience. Just a well-rounded game, I guess.

It's supposed to be one of those brilliant games that failed to sell, and most people don't know about, like Tim Schäfer's Psychonauts.

Certainly, the majority of game critics I respect (and who are serious journalists) rate it highly. But I haven't played it myself. I guess I wasn't in the mood for something like that when it came out: Max Payne 2 had just come out back then, if I recall correctly.


On a tangent, there's a game, Max Payne 2. Not brilliant in the gameplay innovation, and/or social statement, and/or psychological exploration sense that some of these games I'm discussing were, but it was beautifully made, genuinely 'noir', and deeply touching - for me, at least.

[Lethevich]

Has anyone ever played Beyond Good and Evil?
I couldn't really explain any aspect of it that was significant, but it was just an all-around wonderful playing experience. Just a well-rounded game, I guess.

I liked BGAE and it was very well-made, but I can't really get into the family-friendly genre/gameworld it's part of. It beats any comparable game in the style dead, though.

[greg]

Yeah, there are several games that "nobody plays" that are thought to be brilliant- besides Psychonauts and Beyond Good and Evil, Okami and Ico could be included on the list (I've never played them, though they seem pretty cool).

I'm also wondering what might be some good PC games out there... I'm not interested in MMORPG, RTS, sports, or racing right now. Maybe some FPS, RPG, or action games. Just curious...

[Lethevich]

There may be some minor problems running a few of these, as they're all old games, but they are some of the best I have played:

System Shock 2, Thief 1 & 2 (both sneaker-shooter/horror hybrids - really nice gameworlds and very well-made). Deus Ex has already been mentioned, but it's essential. DE2 is also very good, worse in many ways but still excellent and less ugly.
No One Lives Forever (a very underrated sneaker/action franchise set in an Austin Powers style universe).
Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 (these can be quite hard, but are the most atmospheric Forgotten Realms PC RPGs I have played. There are non-game breaking cheats you can use if you find them difficult such as extra gold, because it's worth playing them through just for the stories).
Fallout 1 & 2, Planescale Torment (great plots, unique gameworlds). If you like these, try Arcanum - it's more flawed than these three, but along the same lines and has a strong fanbase which have probably made fixes for its biggest issues.
If you are okay with puzzle games, try Grim Fandango and The Longest Journey. I dislike these type of games (I'm an idiot who finds them very difficult ), but these two won me over due to their great style and setting.

[Renfield]

There may be some minor problems running a few of these, as they're all old games, but they are some of the best I have played:

System Shock 2, Thief 1 & 2 (both sneaker-shooter/horror hybrids - really nice gameworlds and very well-made). Deus Ex has already been mentioned, but it's essential. DE2 is also very good, worse in many ways but still excellent and less ugly.
No One Lives Forever (a very underrated sneaker/action franchise set in an Austin Powers style universe).
Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 (these can be quite hard, but are the most atmospheric Forgotten Realms PC RPGs I have played. There are non-game breaking cheats you can use if you find them difficult such as extra gold, because it's worth playing them through just for the stories).
Fallout 1 & 2, Planescale Torment (great plots, unique gameworlds). If you like these, try Arcanum - it's more flawed than these three, but along the same lines and has a strong fanbase which have probably made fixes for its biggest issues.
If you are okay with puzzle games, try Grim Fandango and The Longest Journey. I dislike these type of games (I'm an idiot who finds them very difficult ), but these two won me over due to their great style and setting.

Yes, yes, yes, [...] yes!

Every one of them a classic, except perhaps Invisible War (DE2); and I'm glad to meet another one of the 100 people in the world who liked Arcanum. And the sequel to No One Lives Forever was also memorable, if suffering a little from kitchen-sink-sequel syndrome.


Incidentally, Planescape: Torment is my favourite RPG ever made, and my game equivalent of that Karajan/VPO Bruckner 7th.

Edit: It's also the game that convinced me beyond all doubt that games can be art, in the philosophical/aesthetic sense.

[greg]

Well, sounds like I'll have to look up that Planescape Torment! 

[The Six]

Dragon Quest IX is coming for DS in English soon. This should be as big as any FF game but the series has never quite caught on outside Japan. I haven't gotten far in it but if you like class/job systems, and lots of postgame content, you want this game.

[lisa needs braces]

I recently splurged on games for the PS3. I bought the system in early February and bought along with it "Modern Warfare 2" and "Metal Gear Solid 4." I'm midway through the latter and the substance of the former is the multilayer, which I've enjoyed. I also at the time picked up "Resistance: Fall of Man" for cheap, and I just managed to beat it today. So, there was actually a substantial backlog of games I missed out on which I bought last week (mostly used):

BioShock
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: Game of the Year Edition
Fallout 3
God of War: Collection
Katamari Forever
Killzone 2
LittleBigPlanet: Game of the Year Edition
Super Street Fighter IV
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

And from the PS Network:

PixelJunk Monsters
PixelJunk Shooter
Super Stardust HD
Flower

Any thoughts on any of these games?

[Josquin des Prez]

I'm playing it on medium difficulty and I find it to be pretty hard. One thing -- it's pretty jarring going back to a game that has this sort of graphics after growing accustomed to PS3 graphics. I often wonder: is an older game that's held to be "great" really great or does that estimation merely stem from the nostalgia of the people who played it?

You are playing Deus Ex, which is a great game. You can figure it out on your own. When the demo of the game first came out i finished it seven times, thanks to all the different approaches and techniques the gameplay afforded in order to defeat all the challenges. I got more entertainment from one level of this game then an entire linear, modern shooter.

[Josquin des Prez]

No One Lives Forever (a very underrated sneaker/action franchise set in an Austin Powers style universe).

NOLF was a buckload funnier then Austin Powers. The farcical conversations between the guards, fake accents and all were just hilarious. I spent just twice as long finishing each scenario just by listening to those.

IMHO, the most underrated shooter of all is Jedi Knight. I don't usually like Star Wars but this game had some of the best level design i ever saw in a shooter, or any game period.

Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 (these can be quite hard, but are the most atmospheric Forgotten Realms PC RPGs I have played. There are non-game breaking cheats you can use if you find them difficult such as extra gold, because it's worth playing them through just for the stories).

I don't know, the writing was pretty bad on both games. I far prefer the original Fallout games and Torment in terms of story and writing. Baldur's Gate just felt like i was reading some third rate fantasy novel. Baldur's Gate 2 had some intense gameplay sections though. Mage battles in particular were awesome, easly the most entertaining part of the game.

[Josquin des Prez]

1) BioShock

Poor man's version of System Shock. Similar in principle, but very dumped down If you take it as a straight shooter its actually not that bad though. Nice atmosphere.

2) The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: Game of the Year Edition

Poor man's Morrowind, which in itself was a poor man's Daggerfall. Inherited all the problems of Morrowind (bland writing, no notable characters, dead world), while taking away the things that made that game enjoyable (a large world filled with various areas each with its own unique aesthetic and atmosphere). The only good portion of the game was the thief path, which was suprisingly well written and designed compared to the rest of the game.

3) Fallout 3

Poor man's Fallout. Oblivion with guns. Terrible writing and story, combat system is cluncky and inefficient. More entertaining then your average modern shooter,  but that's about it.