UFO:Alien Invasion

Offtopic => Offtopic => Topic started by: Destructavator on October 10, 2009, 12:14:32 am

Title: After several *years*, finally purchased a couple of commercial games
Post by: Destructavator on October 10, 2009, 12:14:32 am
I've come to realize I've fallen behind in the gaming world, at least in the commercial area - The last time I've really sat down to play a commercial game for a while was way back, with Soldier of Fortune II, Deus Ex, Jedi Knight and Jedi Academy, and Max Payne I and II.

I finally broke down and decided to purchase a couple of games that I've heard about, just for the hey of it to see how games have evolved since then in the commercial area.

I didn't get real recent titles, I wanted some that have been around for a bit so the price would be much lower, and patches would be out so they wouldn't be so buggy, also so that I would know they would run on my hardware that doesn't have a upwards-of-half-a-thousand-dollar-or-other-absurd-price-monster-of-a-gaming video card.  (I actually have a hundred-dollar PCI express card, nothing real fancy though.)

From Amazon.com, I ended up grabbing Doom 3 and Far Cry.  I played Doom I and II back when they came out (actually, I had a friend who showed me Doom I back before it was officially released, in an early stage - don't ask me how he got the copy -  ;) - Loooooong story...), but never played the III, so I finally got that one.

Far Cry I know little about, picked it out almost at random, mostly because it sounded like it was good.

Just to check, for those who know - is the latest Doom 3 patch 1.3.1?

Title: Re: After several *years*, finally purchased a couple of commercial games
Post by: criusmac on October 10, 2009, 08:27:07 am
Some great games worth looking at are the common ones mentioned here:

Battle for Wesnoth
Runes of Magic (It's ok, and will at least show you somewhat what your hardware is able to do)
Atlantica Online

These I think are good games worth trying, and the price is right too.
Title: Re: After several *years*, finally purchased a couple of commercial games
Post by: Ain Soph Aur on October 10, 2009, 02:31:52 pm
i really loved to play farcry. so i think you will like it but doom 3.... wasnt what i expected
Title: Re: After several *years*, finally purchased a couple of commercial games
Post by: odie on October 13, 2009, 06:00:05 pm
Just to check, for those who know - is the latest Doom 3 patch 1.3.1?

Try this:
Patch for Doom 3 (http://doom3.filefront.com/file/DOOM_3_Update_for_Windows;42253)
Title: Re: After several *years*, finally purchased a couple of commercial games
Post by: vedrit on October 18, 2009, 07:41:31 am
I got Aion, and saving up for GW2
Title: Re: After several *years*, finally purchased a couple of commercial games
Post by: Destructavator on October 21, 2009, 10:26:50 am
To be honest I've never heard of some of the other games mentioned here.  I'm also really not into the online stuff, and especially not into the "massive multiplayer" type of thing - I typically prefer single player, I used to try online multiplayer games but had some bad experiences for a number of reasons and didn't enjoy it.

One problem is the way many online games implement multiplayer, the way they do it doesn't appeal to me at all.  I like to have a strong plot with more than one ending, characters that react and change, and set up so that how they are treated in one part of the game affects how things happen later on.  I've yet to see any cooperative-play multiplayer game that has a full plot like this.  Imagine if you could play Deus Ex again in the full plot of the single player game, but with another (real) person by your side throughout the entire story.  I think that's much better than just having a map and mindlessly running around trying to blast each other with no real point, no plot, no depth.  Add to that the fact that in my experience in online multiplayer, one also has to worry about people who cheat and hack the game left and right, especially after many of them didn't even really purchase or legally obtain the game in the first place!  Anytime you have multiple people involved who can come and go in anything, there's always "bad seeds" who 'eff it up for everyone else.

Title: Re: After several *years*, finally purchased a couple of commercial games
Post by: mutant on October 22, 2009, 09:48:13 am
Any of you ever tried any of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games? They focus on singleplayer and I love them.
The only flaw in them is that some people find that it can be hard to get running, due to bugs.
Luckily after patching Shadow of Chernobyl and Clear Sky I've never really had a problem.
The first 2 can also be pretty resource-intensive, haven't tried the 3rd yet as I do not speak Russian but I imagine it being the same.
Title: Re: After several *years*, finally purchased a couple of commercial games
Post by: xcom9 on November 01, 2009, 07:55:05 pm
Brigade E5, 7.62 High Calibre, the UFO series Aftermath, Aftershock, Afterlight, Silent Hunter IV and soon V.  All of the other games I find too boring, including Mass Effect.  But thats just my opinion.
Title: Re: After several *years*, finally purchased a couple of commercial games
Post by: Ain Soph Aur on November 02, 2009, 12:36:12 am
Any of you ever tried any of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games? They focus on singleplayer and I love them.
The only flaw in them is that some people find that it can be hard to get running, due to bugs.
Luckily after patching Shadow of Chernobyl and Clear Sky I've never really had a problem.
The first 2 can also be pretty resource-intensive, haven't tried the 3rd yet as I do not speak Russian but I imagine it being the same.

Playing STALKER was fun  :D But i only played the main game, not the extensions.
Title: Re: After several *years*, finally purchased a couple of commercial games
Post by: Destructavator on November 07, 2009, 01:52:55 am
I'll have to look up these mentioned titles - most of them I've never heard of.

Side note:  I just found out that DOOM 3 runs under Linux, without any need for emulators!  This is great because now I don't need MS Win-sh*t on my desktop that I use for gaming, I can just use Kubuntu mostly!

The only real reason I still use Windows at all is mostly because I'm a musician and many of my DAW plug-ins and tools for recording, mixing, and making music won't work under Linux.  (Yes, I know that some can be "fudged" to work in a shell or Wine, but not all of them, I've tried.)  If it wasn't for that, I'd probably have all my computers running (some version/distro of) Linux.
Title: Re: After several *years*, finally purchased a couple of commercial games
Post by: earthlyrays on December 09, 2009, 06:16:53 pm
I actually loved Far Cry it's an awesome game!  Far Cry 2 is great as well.  One game that you should definately check out is Dragon Age: Origins.  Its an amazing game with a great story and fun gameplay.
Title: Re: After several *years*, finally purchased a couple of commercial games
Post by: Sarin on December 10, 2009, 10:39:57 am
Talking about commerecial games...I recently got TES: Morrowind and it totally got me...if you like RPGs, you shouldn't miss it, and if you don't try it out anyway :D
Title: Re: After several *years*, finally purchased a couple of commercial games
Post by: theotherhiveking on December 10, 2009, 01:13:13 pm
Talking about commerecial games...I recently got TES: Morrowind and it totally got me...if you like RPGs, you shouldn't miss it, and if you don't try it out anyway :D
I played it for a while not on ago and the combat system totally turned me off, Click click click click click -> miss miss miss miss miss miss.
Also, you we're kind of restricted to the weapons you had trained at the very beginning, others would not hit, and without hitting they dont improve... If it had Oblivion combat it would have been awesome.
Title: Re: After several *years*, finally purchased a couple of commercial games
Post by: Sepelio on December 11, 2009, 12:25:24 am
You might want to try Bioshock its absolutely excellent.
Title: Re: After several *years*, finally purchased a couple of commercial games
Post by: Sarin on December 15, 2009, 10:23:13 pm
I played it for a while not on ago and the combat system totally turned me off, Click click click click click -> miss miss miss miss miss miss.
Also, you we're kind of restricted to the weapons you had trained at the very beginning, others would not hit, and without hitting they dont improve... If it had Oblivion combat it would have been awesome.

I found Morrowind's combat system quite okay. Not too complicated, but easy to get in. Of course you'll miss a lot at the beginning...you can't expect a beginner to swing it properly. Besides, you can pay trainers to get some skill with any weapon you want...

Anyway I more value Morrowind's open world and freedom, you can spend days exploring without having to touch main quest...
Title: Re: After several *years*, finally purchased a couple of commercial games
Post by: poppadrake on December 28, 2009, 07:50:16 pm
I found Morrowind's combat system quite okay. Not too complicated, but easy to get in. Of course you'll miss a lot at the beginning...you can't expect a beginner to swing it properly. Besides, you can pay trainers to get some skill with any weapon you want...

Anyway I more value Morrowind's open world and freedom, you can spend days exploring without having to touch main quest...

Morrowind was lots of fun!  I was really getting into it when my HP crashed for the umpteenth time and I got an iMac.
The Elders scrolls is a great series for scope of gameplay more than just hack-and-slash
Title: Re: After several *years*, finally purchased a couple of commercial games
Post by: freezerburn on January 21, 2010, 08:46:10 am
Beyond Good and Evil.  Made by Ubisoft, it's a *great* single-player platformer/adventure game.
Title: Re: After several *years*, finally purchased a couple of commercial games
Post by: Legendman3 on March 21, 2010, 01:14:39 am
You should deffintaly get steam then buy Half life and Half life 2 its episodes portal TF2 and then you have the greatest games ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But thats my opinion because these and halo have jump started the fps industry
Title: Re: After several *years*, finally purchased a couple of commercial games
Post by: Hertzila on March 21, 2010, 02:08:47 am
You should deffintaly get steam then buy Half life and Half life 2 its episodes portal TF2 and then you have the greatest games ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But thats my opinion because these and halo have jump started the fps industry

Not to derail the topic completely but I seriously hope by "jump started" you mean "jump restarted". Even if I think VALVe is the top FPS game developer today, they didn't really even restart it, just made a couple of the best gems of FPS genre. Halo might have restarted, if not actually started, the console FPS games but most of the resulting games are rather... crappy.

On topic: Are you familiar with the Deus Ex series, Destructavator? If not, I heavily recommend playing the first one, despite its age. The second (DX: Invisible War) was (a lot) worse than the first but not that bad of game nonetheless.
Title: Re: After several *years*, finally purchased a couple of commercial games
Post by: Legendman3 on March 21, 2010, 02:21:38 am
Um thats reply was my OPNION whatever is in it is what i think so buzz off my posts oh and i only heard of those series i still have the dooms and other old timing fps theyre good for replaying duke nukem makes me laugh  :)
Title: Re: After several *years*, finally purchased a couple of commercial games
Post by: Specialist290 on March 21, 2010, 11:13:13 am
Funny Deus Ex should be mentioned around here--I've been watching a Let's Play of the game on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/user/Kikoskia#g/c/441A8E80769A9A9B), and I'm half-tempted to buy it when I can muster up the cash.  Does it run on Vista / Windows 7?
Title: Re: After several *years*, finally purchased a couple of commercial games
Post by: Legendman3 on March 21, 2010, 12:06:41 pm
Ill give you a hint anygame made for windows 95 or atleast before windows 98 came out wont work for windows 7 games made for windows 98 and up work on it go look up when it was realesed and think if it will work because i dont want to look it up
Title: Re: After several *years*, finally purchased a couple of commercial games
Post by: DiDiT on March 21, 2010, 04:43:45 pm
Ill give you a hint anygame made for windows 95 or atleast before windows 98 came out wont work for windows 7 games made for windows 98 and up work on it go look up when it was realesed and think if it will work because i dont want to look it up

UNLESS you PATCH it or use windows built in COMPATIBILITY system.  ;)
Title: Re: After several *years*, finally purchased a couple of commercial games
Post by: Hertzila on March 21, 2010, 08:12:55 pm
Funny Deus Ex should be mentioned around here--I've been watching a Let's Play of the game on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/user/Kikoskia#g/c/441A8E80769A9A9B), and I'm half-tempted to buy it when I can muster up the cash.  Does it run on Vista / Windows 7?

Nigh-perfectly with the latest official patch. Only problem I've encountered has been buggy sounds (as in, they rattle frequently when sound gets to loud) and it seems that it happens only because I use a multicore processor. Switching the affinity manually to only one core or using RunFirst has pretty much fixed it. Also remember to install the older DirectX versions manually, for some reason MS doesn't pack them with modern Windows systems.


Also, if you do get it, I highly recommend installing Shifter (http://www.moddb.com/mods/shifter1) mod. While not essential, it fixes a few small (non-critical) bugs and IMO tunes the overall gameplay more enjoyable (not that it isn't enjoyable without it).
Title: Re: After several *years*, finally purchased a couple of commercial games
Post by: Destructavator on March 23, 2010, 06:28:55 am
Actually I bought a CD of Deus Ex when the first release version came out, right after getting hooked on the demo, and enjoyed it very much - one of my favorite games of all time.

Never tried the second, simply because I heard it was shit.

I did hear they're working on a third that supposedly is all-new and improved.

I also tried many of the MODs for Deus Ex - one recent one that *finally* got released is "The Nameless MOD" which is HUGE (over a gigabyte total IIRC) and has nearly half the game functions and code re-written.
Title: Re: After several *years*, finally purchased a couple of commercial games
Post by: Jeep-Eep on March 30, 2010, 06:40:04 pm
Half-life and most things Source. And Overlord! I'll play anything. Play X-com or UQM for a while, then go over to my new muscle machine and play some Stalker.
Title: Re: After several *years*, finally purchased a couple of commercial games
Post by: ORCUS on June 21, 2010, 02:33:06 am
I'm in the same situation than you buddy!

looks like there's more FPS / 3rd person shooters out there nowadays...
Title: Re: After several *years*, finally purchased a couple of commercial games
Post by: Hertzila on June 21, 2010, 04:03:19 am
looks like there's more FPS / 3rd person shooters out there nowadays...

As in, the two mixed together or simply that shooters seem to be overpowering other genres?

If former, I don't think there are many, apart from R6 Vegas and upcoming Deus Ex 3 (or DX: Human Revolution as it's officially).

If latter, [rant]I agree, there doesn't seem to be as much variety as there were in the Good Ol' Days™. I haven't seen a great turn-based strategy/tactic game developed for a long time (apart from SOTS [which is also a grand space 4X] and open-source projects like this) and the good old RTS is also taking damage (late C&C series); grand strategies (Paradox Interactive) are getting a bit more attention but the scope makes them a little hard to play as quickgames. Simulators seem to get either worse directly or by bad corporate choices (Silent Hunter) or completely disappear (flight sims, expecially modern combat ones).[/rant]
If you do know a good game to one(/some) of these, well, at least I haven't heard of any. Every even slightly more niche-like genre seems to be getting sidelined by the bigger companies in the neverending quest for the mystic Mass Appeal! Which is sad since in the long run it will have the horrible effect of making every game samey, if not practically the same game over and over again.
Title: Re: After several *years*, finally purchased a couple of commercial games
Post by: Ildamos on June 24, 2010, 02:29:39 pm
There's always the free Tribes 2 (http://imbacore.blogspot.com/2009/02/downloadable-free-pc-fps-multiplayer.html) (my review of the game), which is being hosted by the tribesnext.com (http://www.tribesnext.com/) (the official site) guys.

Heard a lot of people saying that the Tribes series began and ended with the first one but if you want gameplay that's not run-of-the-mill, try the first sequel. It doesn't cost a thing and while it may not be Starsiege: Tribes, it still is a Tribes game.

What caused the downfall of this franchise? Its developers didn't follow the

Quote
neverending quest for the mystic Mass Appeal!

Well Tribes 3 did, after a fashion, but the first two games were more oriented towards people who liked class-based MP play and gameplay that had a steeper learning curve than the usual FPS.