Semi-Old Games

[Sabretooth]

As many of you, my loyal fans, must know by now, I have a computer that was bought to celebrate the fall of Constantinople, and is hence rather outdated now. Due to... reasons, an upgrade is not in sight for atleast, say- three-quarters of a year, perhaps more.

While that means that I have been deprived of the latest in video games, I have taken the opportunity to play old games - not the ancient Mesopotamian or Aztec variety, mind you. I meant semi-old games. That should mean, in general, games that came out between about 2000-2005, and maybe before.

Note that while I don't mind pre-2000 games, I have yet to develop complete patience for their graphics to appreciate them. It would be nice if you mentioned them, still.

There are no holds on genre, anything will do. Platform can't be anything but PC, obviously. Would be nice if they weren't god-awful on system requirements. Here are the ones I've played, or have decided to play.

• XIII
• Sacrifice
• Rome: Total War
• Psychonauts
• The entire Half-Life series
• Neverwinter Nights (and disliked it)
• Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines (was fine, but a better system would have improved it)
• All Star Wars games, except Empire at War
• All Jedi Knight Games
• Deus Ex, and Invisible War
• Clive Barker's Undying
• Worms 3D and Worms 4: Mayhem
• SWAT 3
• All the Unreal Tournament games
• Call of Duty 1 & 2
• Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30
• Halo: Combat Evolved
• Civilization IV w/ all extensions
• Age of Empires II w/ extension, III w/ Asian Dynasties
• SWAT 4
  
  There must be more, obviously - updated as and how I remember
  

That was a general list, mind you. Not in any manner comprehensive. Now you shoot.

[Boba Rhett]

I'm not sure what you have or haven't played but here it goes.

Max Payne - Godfather of bullet-time and still, I feel, the best utilization of the effect.
Deus Ex - About to be free! Great GREAT RPG/FPS game.
Painkiller - Spiritual successor to Doom 2.
Clive Barkers Undying - Scariest game I've ever played. Released in 1999 though.
American McGee's Alice - Adventure to a twisted scary (moreso) wonderland Adventure/FPS.
No One Lives Forever 1 & 2 - Awesome 1960s Retro FPS.
Giants: Citizen Kabuto - Not sure how to describe this... It's made by Planet Moon and it's freaking hilarious.
Armed and Dangerous - Also made by Planet Moon. Not quite as great but worth a look.
Elder Scrolls: Morrowind - IMHO the best rpg evArs.
Age of Mythology: Age of Empires with two scoops of awesome.

[Q]

Baldur's Gate 1&2. Definitely in the running for best CRPGs ever. They're rather tedious at first, but once you get the hang of it you'll be hooked.

[Rabish Bini]

Warlords Battlecry II - Best game ever made, kicks every other games' @$$.

Metal Gear Solid: Integral - The PC versionm of the 2nd best game ever made.

[Sabretooth]

Originally Posted by Boba Rhett

Max Payne - Godfather of bullet-time and still, I feel, the best utilization of the effect.
Deus Ex - About to be free! Great GREAT RPG/FPS game.
Painkiller - Spiritual successor to Doom 2.
Clive Barkers Undying - Scariest game I've ever played. Released in 1999 though.
American McGee's Alice - Adventure to a twisted scary (moreso) wonderland Adventure/FPS.
No One Lives Forever 1 & 2 - Awesome 1960s Retro FPS.
Giants: Citizen Kabuto - Not sure how to describe this... It's made by Planet Moon and it's freaking hilarious.
Armed and Dangerous - Also made by Planet Moon. Not quite as great but worth a look.
Elder Scrolls: Morrowind - IMHO the best rpg evArs.
Age of Mythology: Age of Empires with two scoops of awesome.

MP - Yes, that's a good one.
DX - What, have you never read my zealous pro-Deus Ex posts?
Undying - Legendary. Played.
Alice - Ah yes, thanks for reminding me on that one. I played the demo and was so totally impressed.
NOLF and AaD - Need to check those out.]
Morrowind - Was thinking of it...
AoM - Sounds pretty awesome as well.

I think I'll be taking AoM and Alice after that...

[mur'phon]

Have the same problem with my laptop, so here are the games I still play regularly.

Freedom Force1&2: Most entertaining rpg gameplay evva.
Evil Genius: this game just screams sabrez
Dungeon Keeper 1&2: see above
Icewind dale 2: I hated nwn1('cept for the last expansion), playing this made me hate it even more.
Mech warrior mercenaries: Big droids, big gunz what more could you want?
Prince of persia3: Good game period.

[RedHawke]

Total Annihilation - (1997-ish One of the first truely 3d RTS games... well the units not really the maps... plus it has gatling artillery Nuff' said!)

[Sivy]

one of my favourite games of all time..

Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven

and i recently learnt that they are making a sequel for next-gen... yay!

[Bob Lion54]

The Longest Journey - Adventure game with some great puzzles and a great story populated with interesting, and often funny, characters.

Alpha Centauri- Sid Meier's classic game. One of my favourite games of all time. It's the classic Civilizations game set on an alien world after the fall of Earth.

Tachyon: The Fringe - Oh, how I miss Space Shooter games. Tachyon: The Fringe came out at the end of the genre's popularity, and thus fell under the radar. Great game, nonetheless, if you like the genre. Also, Bruce Campbell.

Originally Posted by Sabretooth

• Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines (was fine, but a better system would have improved it)

Vampire: The Masquerade: Redemption - It was released before Bloodlines and it shows, unfortunately. While the games are not really connected, if you like Bloodlines, you might like Redepmtion. The game play is not so good, but Troika used what they learned from Redemption to make Bloodlines. Where Redemption really shines is with it's story.

You play as Christof, a devout Christian Crusader injured in battle. He is left behind at a church in Prague to recover, only to find out that Prague is not such a Holy place. Vampires have made it home and it's your job to kill them... except they kill you... and turn you into a Vampire. Oh, and you fall in love with a Nun.

Anyway, you might like it if you liked Bloodlines. It should play better on your CPU than Bloodlines.

[ForeverNight]

Homeworld.

Half-Life 1.

You just can't go wrong with those games....

[Sabretooth]

Originally Posted by Bob Lion54

The Longest Journey - Adventure game with some great puzzles and a great story populated with interesting, and often funny, characters.

Aye, yes - that one should be good.

Originally Posted by BobLion

Tachyon: The Fringe - Oh, how I miss Space Shooter games. Tachyon: The Fringe came out at the end of the genre's popularity, and thus fell under the radar. Great game, nonetheless, if you like the genre. Also, Bruce Campbell.

Another demo I played. Don't remember any of it, but Bruce Campbell intrigues me. Bruce Campbell + Video Games? Such awesomeness.

Originally Posted by Bob

Vampire: The Masquerade: Redemption - It was released before Bloodlines and it shows, unfortunately. While the games are not really connected, if you like Bloodlines, you might like Redepmtion. The game play is not so good, but Troika used what they learned from Redemption to make Bloodlines. Where Redemption really shines is with it's story.

You play as Christof, a devout Christian Crusader injured in battle. He is left behind at a church in Prague to recover, only to find out that Prague is not such a Holy place. Vampires have made it home and it's your job to kill them... except they kill you... and turn you into a Vampire. Oh, and you fall in love with a Nun.

Anyway, you might like it if you liked Bloodlines. It should play better on your CPU than Bloodlines.

Played the demo on this one as well. Not too keen on this one, I'm afraid. I thought it was decent then, but not really totally impressive.

Current List:
1. XIII
2. Sacrifice
3. American McGee's Alice
4. Age of Mythology
5. Max Payne

That will actually be enough, but more recommendations are welcome.

[Darth333]

If you like stealth based games, the Thief series is a good one. (Thief 2 was the first game to scare me )

[jonathan7]

Originally Posted by Sabretooth

[*]All Star Wars games, except Empire at War

Whats wrong with EaW? I really liked it

For me....

Halflife 1 + 2
Max Payne
Star Wars - The Phantom Menace (its better than the film - it has a plot! )
Aliens vs Predator 2

[mimartin]

Originally Posted by Boba Rhett

Elder Scrolls: Morrowind - IMHO the best rpg evArs.

Well you cannot beat that recommendation, so I just ordered “The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind Game of the Year Edition” from Amazon.

[Achilles]

Originally Posted by mimartin

Well you cannot beat that recommendation, so I just ordered “The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind Game of the Year Edition” from Amazon.

Depending on what it is that you liked about Oblivion, you may find that you end up preferring Morrowind.

While Oblivion had a lot of immersion features that Morrowind lacked, I personally think that the Morrowind's story was far, far superior.

EDIT: Also, I didn't care much for either of the expansions aside from the added features that were applied to the regular game.

[jawathehutt]

The Red Factions, Deus Ex, Freedom force, Deus Ex, Swat 3, Deus Ex, Freedom Fighters, Deus Ex, Warcraft 3, Deus Ex and maybe Deus Ex.

[igyman]

Gee, you wouldn't happen to really REALLY like Deus Ex, would you?

Anyway, my recommendations:
If you like RTS games, you might want to try out one of the old Command & Conquer games - Tiberian Sun, or Red Alert 2. I'd personally recommend even Red Alert 1, but that's only if you don't mind the ancient graphics.

Otherwise, perhaps Desperados, or one of the Commandos games, if you like tactical games.

As for shooters, a GTA game, or one of the previous three Unreal Tournament games. Or if you like more stealthy games, you might want to play Hitman (especially Hitman 2 Silent Assassin).

And if you just want to vent some anger, then I recommend good ol' Mortal Kombat 4.

Well, that's enough from me. Hope it helps.

[Boba Rhett]

Only qualify GTA as a shooter if you really hate shooters and don't like yourself.

Red Faction is a cookie cutter FPS that strongly tauted their revolutionary Geomod technology as it's saving grace. Unfortunately, they implemented this tech so poorly as to render the game smotheringly boring most of the time. The first one is at least good for a quick run through though.

Hey yeah, what about the UT games? Those are a blast even with just bots. Stick with the Tournament games though. The single player adventures are very very dull.

Oh, Elite Force is worth a gander. It was made by the same crew who did JO and JA. I haven't played the second one but it looked entertaining.

[Darth InSidious]

Starfleet Command 3. Awesome game. I kinda miss some of the fun bits from I, II and Orion Pirates like the profusion of odd weapons, but nevertheless, it's a cool, if less balanced, game.

[jawathehutt]

Originally Posted by Boba Rhett

Red Faction is a cookie cutter FPS that strongly tauted their revolutionary Geomod technology as it's saving grace. Unfortunately, they implemented this tech so poorly as to render the game smotheringly boring most of the time. The first one is at least good for a quick run through though.

I could understand you saying that about Red Faction 2 which was just a cookie cutter FPS console port with far overhyped use of a more basic geomod than rf1, but I think that fact that Red Faction 1 still has a decent sized online community shows its more than just an ordinary game. Not to mention the implementation of some controversies(some science related controversies, workers rights, ect) and a solid mix of things you can do through out the game.

[Sabretooth]

Morrowind seems to be sliding into my list...

Won't be too interested in Thief, Commandos or Desperados. I have always been an Unreal Tournament fan and will continue to be one forever. I still play ONS-Torlan every night. Its like a drug.

I also remember SWAT 3 well - it used to be one of my most favourite games. Totally loved it - top-of-the-line quality game. The sequel didn't seem so cool, though - it was more like a geeky elder brother to the predecessor.

I'll have to look into Elite Force and Red Faction, never heard of those. And I need a really good FPS now.

[Boba Rhett]

Honestly, I'm probably just bitter about Red Faction still. They were really REALLY bragging geomod up as something special for months before it came out and I unfortunately had completely bought into it. My main problem is that they didn't do nearly enough with it. It was like they were clever enough to come up with the idea but not quite clever enough to piece together assorted kick ass scenarios that showed it off to its full potential.

[Corinthian]

Gentlemen, for shame. You have forgotten some of the timeless classics that defined the genres as they are today.

We shall begin with the RPG genre, as it is my favorite.

1: Fallout Series

2: Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura. (I'm sure you're all tired of hearing about it)

3: Baldur's Gate Series

4: The Exile/Avernum games. Graphics are mediocre. But they're cheap and incredibly fun, and the plot is quite impressive.

5: Geneforge Series: By the same developer, Spiderweb Software, as Exile. Again, quite fun and cheap.

Strategy Games:

1: StarCraft

2: WarCraft III

3: Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War

4: Company of Heroes (2006, actually, but still awesome.)

5: Homeworld II

Pure Action Games:

1: Freelancer. The story is mediocre and it's got flaws out the bunghole, but at the same time, the initial game is solid and respectable and there are mods to all getout.

2: FreeSpace

3: Jedi Knight. I've avoided mentioning Star Wars games because you've almost certainly heard of them already. This series, however, is a paragon.

4: Descent Series. Okay, it's old, but they're still quite fun.

5: MechWarrior series. These games were a godsend. Frankly, the only way they could be better is IF SOMEBODY WOULD MAKE MECHWARRIOR V.

[Boba Rhett]

Hey, I promise I would have mentioned plenty of those awesome games you've listed but he said he wanted them mostly post 2000.

[Rabish Bini]

Mechwarrior 4 Vengeance, or whatever it was called, is an awesome game, you might wanna look into it.

[igyman]

Originally Posted by Boba Rhett

Only qualify GTA as a shooter if you really hate shooters and don't like yourself.

Well, yeah it's not a pure shooter, more of a mixture of shooting/driving/beating people up/theft, but I still like it.

[Darth InSidious]

On the other hand, 'tis true that Freelancer is good fun.

[Sabretooth]

Rabish brings me good memories of the MechWarrior 4 demo. That one will definitely do with a spin.

@Corinthian:

- Yep, played the Fallout games through and through.
- Never heard of that, I'm afraid.
- The Baldur's Gate 2 engine has been having fatal prollems with my system, or I would be relishing Planescape at the moment.
- Never heard of those either. But an interesting plot piques my interest.

Don't remember ever playing the Descent or Freelancer games, those might be worth something. The Jedi Knight series is, of course, a classic that have played many times over.

[Ghost Down]

Here are some to check out:

- Black & White
- Beyond Good & Evil
- Freedom Fighters
- The Thing
- Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza
- Enclave

[HdVaderII]

Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II's graphics are pretty terrible now, but I enjoyed it. That might be too old though

[Meowster]

The Longest Journey - Adventure game with some great puzzles and a great story populated with interesting, and often funny, characters.

While I haven't beat it yet myself, I'm far enough along to say its a great game... not the best graphics compared to most nowaday's but meh.

And yeah, Age of Mythology is pretty good. You can buy the Gold version at Walmart for about ten dollars.

If you wanna crowd through the depths of games, you could always look for Final Fantasy 7, 8 for PC. Better graphics and such, if it suits your interists.

[Boba Rhett]

Attempting to play Black & White is the closest I've ever come to snapping a cd in twine and cursing the god who had wrought it.

[Serpentine Cougar]

I second Freespace and Warcraft III.

Maybe The Sims (original)?

The Myst games are also good.

If you get Morrowind, don't expect one of the best stories ever. Though it does the "big huge world" thing pretty well, if you're looking for a good story, look elsewhere.

[Boba Rhett]

I really enjoyed the Morrowind story. Granted,you have to read a LOT of the books to get the whole picture but that's part of the charm.

[Q]

Originally Posted by Sabretooth

- The Baldur's Gate 2 engine has been having fatal prollems with my system, or I would be relishing Planescape at the moment.

I've had some trouble with it myself, but I did get it working fine in the end. Describe your problem, and maybe we can help you.

There are also some absolutely kick-a$$ mods out there for BG/BG2 and PS:T.

[Sabretooth]

Originally Posted by Qliveur

I've had some trouble with it myself, but I did get it working fine in the end. Describe your problem, and maybe we can help you.

There are also some absolutely kick-a$$ mods out there for BG/BG2 and PS:T.

My, what fantastic coincidence this is.

The Sims used to be great, but it's really the sort of game that amuses you for a week and then you will either play it forever or never play it again. I'm in the latter crowd.

[Rabish Bini]

I never like Age of Mythology, Age of Empires II was the best one, but Warlords Battlecry II is still way better.

[ForeverNight]

Just thought of this: You might want to add Civilization III with Play the World and Conquests to it.

I personally prefer it to Civ4. It's combat system isn't as clean cut or simple as 4's, but the graphics are cleaner, and it doesn't take much to play it on a computer. So, add Civ3 to the list!

[Sabretooth]

Originally Posted by ForeverNight

Just thought of this: You might want to add Civilization III with Play the World and Conquests to it.

I personally prefer it to Civ4. It's combat system isn't as clean cut or simple as 4's, but the graphics are cleaner, and it doesn't take much to play it on a computer. So, add Civ3 to the list!

Could be interesting to try out, but I doubt if it will hold my interest long enough, since I am addicted to its sequel, a half hour of which is my daily requirement.

[Rev7]

I guess the Jedi Knight series is semi-old. I haven't actually played a game in that series in at least a year.

I know that there are others, none are just coming into my mind!