What are the cool games today?

[GlassJaw]

For a FPS, it isn't new at all, but if you never played F.E.A.R. it's awesome (and play in the dark with the sound turned up a little if you can).

FEAR is good, although the level design gets a little tedious later in the game. Have to see how STALKER compares.

 

[Blastin]

Well, have you tried the Sims 2? It a lot of ways, it's like a role playing game, you are only limited by your imagination (and how many expansion packs you buy).


For strategy games, I would suggest:

UFO: Extra Terrestrials

http://www.ufo-extraterrestrials.com/

Basically a knock off of of the original X-com. Not original, but I think it does a great job of capturing the original magic. It's hard though, they basically eliminated most of the exploits from X-com, and upped the UFO numbers.

I was a hardcore X-Com fan.....how does this one compare? Hard I can live with (original x-com could be brutal) but how does it play?

 

[jonesy]

I was a hardcore X-Com fan.....how does this one compare? Hard I can live with (original x-com could be brutal) but how does it play?

I like Aftershock a lot more (which is also a UFO clone, and which I posted above).

 

[Blastin]

I like Aftershock a lot more (which is also a UFO clone, and which I posted above).

OK...both look interesting...and somewhat similar. I would appreciate it if you could explain why you like aftershock better. What does it do better?
Thanks

 

[jonesy]

OK...both look interesting...and somewhat similar. I would appreciate it if you could explain why you like aftershock better. What does it do better?
Thanks

Aftershock:
- Very hard missions at times. Which I like.
- Long, very long, which is not necessarily good because at some point it can start to get boring. Starts to repeat itself.
- Research and finance is a bit clinical, there's not much for you to do outside of combat. Which, as I said, starts to repeat itself.

Extraterrestrials:
- Buggy. Having enemies fire at you from a longer distance than you can isn't that bad. Having them fire at you through walls is. And then walking through those same walls to get to you only to get stuck in them, where of course they are invincible and the mission can't end.
- Only a few maps. And the ones there are aren't all that good.
- Soldiers can't die. Instead they get wounded. For long long periods of time. And you have to wait long to get new soldiers. So you might end up in a situation where everyone but one is in the sickbay.
- Horrible music. At least I hate it.

All in all, I still prefer the original. Its only problem is that it's hard to get to run on anything nowadays. :\

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

Just got Extraterrestrials and have barely started with it. I like it so far with my first/only real complaint being that the manual is ultra-thin and fails to explain many basics of gameplay, important for both entirely-new players as well as those migrating from X-Com who need to know what works differently and how.

All in all, I still prefer the original. Its only problem is that it's hard to get to run on anything nowadays. :\

Not the only problem, just the biggest. Another is that even once you get the hardware and OS to cooperate for you the original game still has crippling bugs, the biggest being the game-difficulty bug. That's the one that sets the game difficulty to easy after the first mission, no matter WHAT you selected initially. It effectively requires Scott Jones' Xcomutil to fix that and add some much-needed basic functionality.

It's been a couple years now since I last tried to run Xcom just because the technical hoops were too annoying to jump through to make it work - but it is a testimony to the genius of the original that ANYONE would still do so.

BTW, I note that there are mods available for Extraterrestrials but have not looked at them yet. Also, it is possible to port the music from the original X-Com to it with a few converted sound files- but again have not tried this yet.

Edit:
Just was going to mention that the only other games I've played for months now are Pirates! and City of Heroes (waiting for Spore).

 

[jonesy]

That's the one that sets the game difficulty to easy after the first mission, no matter WHAT you selected initially. It effectively requires Scott Jones' Xcomutil to fix that and add some much-needed basic functionality.

Thanks for reminding. I'd forgotten about that. Did remember there was something that had to be fixed, just not what. Although I have seen even the easy difficulty kicking beginner behind, so it's not that bad if you've never player it before.

 

[Nyaricus]

Man, If you're not playing Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction already, I don't know what to tell ya


Actually, I just started playing again last week and I gotta kickass Pally who's doing about 250-750 a hit at a lowly level 36

cheers,
--N

 

[Notsoluckycharm]

Takes 2 seconds to get xcom or any old game to work....

Ever hear of dosbox?
By the way I have all available for download... if you want it and dosbox ill upload to my ftp if there's demand.

I just beat level 6... games too easy if you know what to do xD.
Anyway, if you all want xcom and dosbox lemme know...

Ps: dosbox slows the game without slowing your cpu clock like most other programs. Works for anything you can load through dos.

*edit:******
Sounded like I was being an ass, wasn't intentional... just I'm on a 24 hour shift and a bit bitter cuz even in ny you can't order food at 3am... haha... c'est la vie.
Anyway, njoy.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

For a mmo I'd recommend LotROnline. Sure, you can say it's carebear as far as PvP goes, but the world content is less forgiving than WoW.

I don't think it addresses the issues he has with WoW.