I just bought some games on the cheap

[DeeBye]

I was in a store and saw some PC games marked 75% off, so I bought a few of them. I paid about $12.50 each for Doom 3, The Godfather, and Heroes V (plus a few $5 Bob the Builder PC games for my son). I almost picked up Black and White 2, but I had reservations after playing the original. I haven't played any of them yet, although I did install Doom 3 already just to see how pretty it really is.

Are these games decent? I haven't opened The Godfather or Heroes V yet. I heard that The Godfather is best played with a gamepad which I don't own, and Heroes V is made by Ubisoft and I want no part of their Starforce copy-protection scheme. I'm considering just reselling them on eBay or something. The Godfather doesn't look like it's worth much more than I bought it for, but Heroes V is still going for $45 on amazon.com.

Oops, I forgot that I also picked up Tomb Raider: Legend. Is this also something I'll want a gamepad for?

[Zippyy]

Heroes V is made by Ubisoft and I want no part of their Starforce copy-protection scheme.

Starforce neither belongs to Ubisoft nor do they use it any longer. Ubisoft has promised never to use Starforce again, so try not to hold a grudge. Heroes V is a fantastic game if you like hardcore strategy. You should definitely give it a whirl if that sounds like something you'd like.

I haven't played Godfather, so I can't comment on it, but Doom 3 was, at the very least, worth the money I spent on it. It failed to capture the feeling of the original Doom (at least for me), the gameplay was shallow, and the multiplayer very uninspiring. Still, I had fun playing it, though I can't discern why. ;-)

Edit: Should clarify that Heroes V does NOT have Starforce (although the demo did, go figure).

[DeeBye]

Starforce neither belongs to Ubisoft nor do they use it any longer

Cool. I know that Ubisoft doesn't own Starforce, but I didn't realize that they ditched it.

[Zippyy]

Cool. I know that Ubisoft doesn't own Starforce, but I didn't realize that they ditched it.

It's fairly recent. They swore off it after the community backlash when they "protected" the Heroes V Demo (slash beta) with Starforce. Hope you enjoy the game if you decide to give it a shot!

[kandrathe]

I was in a store and saw some PC games marked 75% off, so I bought a few of them. I paid about $12.50 each for Doom 3, The Godfather, and Heroes V (plus a few $5 Bob the Builder PC games for my son). I almost picked up Black and White 2, but I had reservations after playing the original. I haven't played any of them yet, although I did install Doom 3 already just to see how pretty it really is.

Are these games decent? I haven't opened The Godfather or Heroes V yet. I heard that The Godfather is best played with a gamepad which I don't own, and Heroes V is made by Ubisoft and I want no part of their Starforce copy-protection scheme. I'm considering just reselling them on eBay or something. The Godfather doesn't look like it's worth much more than I bought it for, but Heroes V is still going for $45 on amazon.com.

Oops, I forgot that I also picked up Tomb Raider: Legend. Is this also something I'll want a gamepad for?

I've heard that Godfather is pretty decent, if it's the game my friend told me about. You need to work your way up the family tree by making good crime lord decisions, and whacking any wise guys who gets in yer way.

[NiteFox]

I've heard that Godfather is pretty decent, if it's the game my friend told me about. You need to work your way up the family tree by making good crime lord decisions, and whacking any wise guys who gets in yer way.

I've played The Godfather. It's all right for about as long as it takes to realise that I've got GTA:VC in the drawer behind me and that there's not really a lot to do in The Godfather aside from endless repitation of the same routine.

Of the games that Deebye mentioned (and that I have experience of, never been a M&M fan), Tomb Raider Legend is the absolute stand-out best, even if it's short. Doom 3's a good second, and B&W2 was a collosal disappointment (though the expansion pack is better, if not exactly worth the price).

A joypad is getting to be an absolute necessity to PC gaming now. Dee, do yourself a favour and get a good pad (And then buy and play Psychonauts, only 20USD from Steam, though you can probably pick up a hard copy in the bargain bins.). I suggest that you pick up the wired controller for the XBox 360: It works perfectly well in Windows XP, though the default drivers suck; instead, use these XBox Controller Drivers.

It's actually a good pad.

[roguebanshee]

Doom 3 is a decent tech demo, but as a game it's very bland (and pointlessly dark) once you start shooting stuff. I never really liked the HoMM series so I won't be able to give an unbiased view of that.

If you get a gamepad then you should also get LEGO Star Wars I & II, unless you have them already. Of course, if you get two gamepads you'll be able to play both games with your son (EU versions are rated 3 years and up).

[DeeBye]

Doom 3 is a decent tech demo, but as a game it's very bland (and pointlessly dark) once you start shooting stuff.

I haven't yet touched any of the other games other than Doom 3. I usually hate first person shooters, but I'm enjoying Doom 3. I think I'm about 3/4ths of the way through. The graphics and visual effects are really sucking me in. My favourite weapon is the shotgun, because allowing enemies to get up close and in my face makes for a nasty shotgun blast, and gives me a great view of them.

I agree on the overly dark assessment, but I sought out a flashlight mod to add the ability to use the flashlight and a weapon at the same time. The blandness of the gameplay suits me just fine, because one of the reasons I usually hate FPSes is due to overly complex key-hunting puzzles. Doom 3 is straightforward and linear. The storyline is just enough to keep me interested.

I went back to the store I bought this current batch of games and saw Painkiller on sale for $5, so I picked that one up too. This is also a FPS, but the graphics look pretty.

edit: This screenshot of Doom 3 makes me giggle.

[Munkay]

edit: This screenshot of Doom 3 makes me giggle.

Why you gotta go there DeeBye? The man may be undead, but geeze do you have to shoot him there?

:P

Cheers,

Munk

[Luminon]

I haven't yet touched any of the other games other than Doom 3. I usually hate first person shooters, but I'm enjoying Doom 3. I think I'm about 3/4ths of the way through. The graphics and visual effects are really sucking me in. My favourite weapon is the shotgun, because allowing enemies to get up close and in my face makes for a nasty shotgun blast, and gives me a great view of them.

I agree on the overly dark assessment, but I sought out a flashlight mod to add the ability to use the flashlight and a weapon at the same time. The blandness of the gameplay suits me just fine, because one of the reasons I usually hate FPSes is due to overly complex key-hunting puzzles. Doom 3 is straightforward and linear. The storyline is just enough to keep me interested.

I went back to the store I bought this current batch of games and saw Painkiller on sale for $5, so I picked that one up too. This is also a FPS, but the graphics look pretty.

edit: This screenshot of Doom 3 makes me giggle.

Doom 3 is nice and atmospheric but Painkiller... now there's a great shooter. Sadly the greater part of the game doesn't live up to the beginning, but it's definately worth a playthrough as well.

[Taem]

Doom 3 is a decent tech demo, but as a game it's very bland (and pointlessly dark) once you start shooting stuff. I never really liked the HoMM series so I won't be able to give an unbiased view of that.

I don't know about you, but with my computer I have all the settings on full and have never had any lag problems and the game is simply beautiful. I use the parallax.pk4, plasmaradar.pk4, and doom_enahanced_pk4 modifiers - I got them all from Planet Doom . Parallax really adds some amazing graphical neatness to your game threw 3D texturizing and smoothing out some edges; Plasmaradar adds an ALIENS type-radar to your plasma gun that detects moving objects; and Doom_Enhanced adds all types of funness... lights on the ends of some of your guns with varrying sizes and brightness depending on which gun you use - some guns when fired let off a lot of light instead, extra gore, glibness (bodies stay on the floor), and a few of the guns have modified skins, reload rates, damage ratios but the game is still equaly balanced IMO, and way better sound effects for weapons. Unfortunatly, I couldn't get Doom_Enhanced to work with Ressurrection of Evil because some of the skinning effects clash, but oh well.

I think Doom 3 is one of the funnest games I have ever played SP, however MP is not very fun at all IMO! After I put the kids to bed, I usually start up a game around 10-11-PM, turn off ALL the lights in the house, put on the headphones, and get into the game. The first couple times threw, the game had me on the edge of my seat every night! Now it's just so-so, but the game itself is still great for what it was, despite how I feel about it NOW, which I think your not giving it credit for Roguebanshee. The only thing I wish they could change other than some of the scripted monsters is adding in some randomness to monster spawning and level generation. That would make the replayability near endless for me!