Any good games out there?

[WarLocke]

Two more:

While digging through my Old Games Bag©, I found my copy of Darkstone. This was a wonderfully underappreciated Diablo clone. It was released before D2, and it shows. The graphics are completely polygonal, so they're fairly ugly by today's standards, but you can pan and tilt the camera to your liking. You can also spelunk with two characters -- you actively control one, while the other follows you around and attacks nearby enemies. You can switch between the characters at will, which is good because sometimes the AI can be pretty dumb. It's wonderfully engrossing for those times when you just want to kill things instead of thinking.

Also, my cousin bought the new Hulk game the other day. Since her computer is on the fritz (some weird DirectX corruption, I think) she brought it over to my place to test-run it. It is a pretty darn cool console-style beat-em-up. I say console style because the control layout is very simple: 4 buttons for movement, and keys for Jump, Punch, Action/Grab, "Gamma", and Targeting. It's obvious that the game was designed to "fit" on a console controller. Most of the game-time I've seen consists of you playing the Hulk, who gets to run around and decimate army troopers, pick up and throw cars at Gamma Dogs©, and generally bust things up, but there are a few "levels" where you play as Banner, and must (so far) sneak into different facilities. These levels aren't nearly as deep as Thief II or even Deus Ex, but they're a nice change from the smash-em-up Hulk pace. Banner levels also have puzzle-type influences, as computer hacking involves you manipulating letter sequences under a timer. I didn't find them all that hard, but it may be frustrating for younger gamers or those who don't have very fast reflexes. I wouldn't rate th Hulk up there with the best games, but it sure is fun beating the crap out of little tan-uniformed guys. B)