New games to play?

[Armin]

I third that! B)

KOTOR is perhaps the best story-based RPG after Planescape:Torment.

A lot of replay value, and some of the most ingenious NPC dialogue ever.
Only Neverwinter Nights has lasted longer for me recently.

Another alternative on one condition is Battle for Middle Earth. That condition being you being a fan of LOTR books and especially the movies. As a real-time strategy game, there are certainly better ones, more balanced ones, ones with better tech trees and more variation and abilities of units.

But NOTHING beats riding 6 battalions of Rohirrim along the archer-filled walls of Minas Tirith, trampling dozens of orcs underfoot, with the sound of the hooves booming from subwoofer and original LOTR movie soundtrack from speakers...

Tolkien heaven! :rolleyes:

[Jarulf]

I third that!  B)

KOTOR is perhaps the best story-based RPG after Planescape:Torment.

A lot of replay value, and some of the most ingenious NPC dialogue ever.
Only Neverwinter Nights has lasted longer for me recently.


Tolkien heaven!  :rolleyes:
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Hmm, I have a friend who tried out NWN but didn't think it was near as good or fun as the BG series.

KOTOR might be a good alternative. In part I am reluctant to go for a game that takes forever to finnish though, even if that is really what I love, in part due to not having the time. Will check it out for sure though.

[Jarulf]

I don't see Xcom on your game list.  It's one of my must-have picks.  The Xcom series is mainly a squad level turn based tactical sim where you take the role of the earth's defenders from an alien menace.  EDIT: misplaced word
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Ohh, I played the first one and loved it. Didn't really like it as much the second time arround a few years later though and the follow ups was never that fun for some reason. I think the game was, for me, of the type you play once thorugh but won't have replay value, the plot being known and so on the second time, and you know what to come and so on.

[Drasca]

Oh I know!
Fallout 1/2 and
Arcanum
Morrowind!!!

Really great RPGs, on the order of Planescape:Torment, BG, and the like. I also loved KOTOR, and await KOTOR 2 for PC--although I am hearing some big negatives on the sequel :unsure:

You might enjoy Descent I-III, old games but still fun.

Star Fleet Command I-III (and Orion Pirates) is are actually decent games, haven't seen really good commercial ST games since Star Trek 25th Anniversery Edition and Star Judgement Rites. SFC is a naval tactical game, I & II moreso than III (although ship customization is just rocking).

If you liked MoM, you'll probably like Age of Wonders

Grah. So many old games. Spellforce is the only new game I've recommended so far!

[Wyrm]

KOTOR might be a good alternative. In part I am reluctant to go for a game that takes forever to finnish though, even if that is really what I love, in part due to not having the time. Will check it out for sure though.
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KotOR doesn't take long to complete at all. Probably 20-30 hours on your first play through, and that's if you do all the sidequests and talk to a lot of NPCs.

[Nystul]

Hmm, I have a friend who tried out NWN but didn't think it was near as good or fun as the BG series.
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You've probably heard this before, but Neverwinter Nights is a very different game from Baldur's Gate (or any other computer game), and it's not fair to compare them directly. With Baldur's Gate, you get a great single player game with limited multiplayer support. With Neverwinter Nights, you get a single player game, multiplayer support, a toolset to make your own levels/campaigns, access to thousands of level/campaigns that other players such as yourself have made, and the tools to DM such a game.

But since you are mainly just looking for a good single player game, it may not be the best choice.

[Baajikiil]

Ohh, I played the first one and loved it. Didn't really like it as much the second time arround a few years later though and the follow ups was never that fun for some reason. I think the game was, for me, of the type you play once thorugh but won't have replay value, the plot being known and so on the second time, and you know what to come and so on.
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Ah, I figured you must have played at least one of them, considering the other microprose titles that you liked. I find that the real fun of the series is playing in impossible mode, and struggling to survive. It can be *very* difficult on impossible; at least one alien base shows up every 20 days or so, there are significantly more and better equipped aliens at every encounter, and countries are much more likely to join with the aliens.


Did you try MOO2? It's not as good as MOO, but it is still a good game IMHO. MOO3 on the other hand looked like it had tons of great ideas(during development), but they were not implemented well. I won't get it until I see it at $5-10, maybe not even then.

[Armin]

Hmm, I have a friend who tried out NWN but didn't think it was near as good or fun as the BG series.
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Aa already stated, NWN is an entirely different game from BG2. Taken alone I, too, prefer the BG epicness, the grand scope and party control. The 3 campaigns in the official content are mediocre to pretty good, but what makes this game the best value for money ever is the unlimited amount of new modules to play.

The quality of some fan-made mods is pretty damn amazing (many are better than the bioware content!) and the variety available almost endless.

There's humor, epic stories, hack&slash, naughty little tales, puzzle-heavy adventures and philosophical voyages on par almost with PST.

Also, you have about 1 hour time to play? Take a small module. Want something long? There are custom campaigns with 50+ hours of gameplay.

And if you REALLY want to invest time, you can make your own mods (not a chance I could ever try :D )

[Jarulf]

Did you try MOO2?  It's not as good as MOO, but it is still a good game IMHO.  MOO3 on the other hand looked like it had tons of great ideas(during development), but they were not implemented well.  I won't get it until I see it at $5-10, maybe not even then.
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Yup, actually played MOO2 first. I think the first one was a bit better though.

In most cases were I have listed a game in a serie and liked it, I have played most if not all the other games too (well not in the Might and Magic) or at least tried them.

[whyBish]

Try Trevor Chans Capitalism 2

Should pick it up for sub $2

Is like Sim City, but you build up a business. You can farm/mine various products manufacture them into other things, and then retail them to consumers. Has a stock exchange etc. for corporate takeovers, and it provides more interest than you would expect from a 'dry' subject.

Main downside is that it contains no scenario editor, and expansion pack/ sequel has been ruled out.

[kandrathe]

Some replies.

I won't go for WoW, mainly because I feel the monthly fee is not for me. I can go a month without being able to play, or play very little and also I feel that I get far more for buying a new game every other month than paying to play a game I allredy have for two month- But that is me, otherwise I would have had it allready.

As for what type of games I playke. Here is a list of some of my absolute favorites (in no particular order except perhaps time).

Really good (good=playing a lot for a long time)
Lords of Midnight
Civilization
Panzer General (including PG 2)
Diablo
Duke Nukem (mostly with friends at University)
Delta Force
Sim City (all versions)

Others I liked a lot (for style, play, enjoyment or whatever, mostly recent since I forget older ones)
Baldurs Gate 2
Planescape Torment
Master of Orion
Raise of Nations (liked the concept,I play RTS mostly solo)
Rollercoaster Tycoon
Beneath a Steel Sky (actually solved it all myself with no guide help, a rare for me)
Might and Magic VII
Master of Magic

Hmm, I will probably remember more later. That is a hint at least.
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Interesting. Most of those are on my favorites list. I also still play Starcraft and just installed Warhammer 40K tonight. HL2, Far Cry, UT2004 are also hellafun for a small crowd of friends. The single player portion on them is good once thru, with the exception of HL2 which is very replayable.

[Baajikiil]

I was thinking about geting some new game(s) the other day, but could not realy think of a single game that I had heared or seen that I thought was a "must". Of course, I have not seen or heared about many, but in general, I have a feeling there are much less interesting games out there these days, most of them are all similar as well.

So, do you fellow lurkers have any ideas, hints or sugestions for games that would be fun and interesting to get? It doesn't have to be the very latest games, a bit older ones are also OK (for really old games I do have quite a good feeling of what exist that could be of interest for me, so keep it somewhat current, like last two years or something).

Thanks in advance for any input.
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I just thought of another suggestion, though it is a bit dated as well:

Mechcommander Gold

Mechcommander is a RTS, but more focus on the strategy. You choose a team of mechs +pilots to bring to a mission, then guide then through a map in real time while trying to accomplish your objectives. Each mission has a limit to the total tonnage of mechs you can bring, and it's quite fun customizing your forces between deployments. Mechs can be used in their default weapons configurations, or you can change their payload completely.

The thing I really like about the game is the spectacular mission design. Nearly every mission has several ways to go about meeting the objectives. There is almost always a way to use terrain to your advantage, instead of simply a contest of firepower. Deciding to bring mechs with jump jets at the cost of weapons/armor almost always pays off by allowing strategic positioning. Using long range missiles against close in firepower(or vice versa) can spell the difference between an easy fight, or a struggle for victory.

Mechcommander gold includes an expansion campaign, and adds a few new commands to the original campaign(including a hard mode). Mechcommander 2 on the other hand does not exhibit any such quality in mission design, and is not worth the bother IMO. Well, unless you want to try custom campaigns by fans;Mechcommander 2 has tons of fan written campaigns available for dowload.

[kandrathe]

Since this thread has been resuscitated from the brink I will add another;

I just picked up Roller Coaster Tycoon 3, which is a blast. I cannot get out of the sandbox mode, building what would be in reality near lethal (red out) coasters that pull 6 to 8 G's. If you ever loved playing Sim City, this is 10 times more fun.

There are something like 18 initial scenarios, of which 8 seem to be unlocked at the start. The scenarios are fun and progress thru three levels within the same game. That is, you have an initial set of objectives, after attaining them you are given a more difficult intermediate set of objectives, and then again once meeting those, you are given the difficult to attain set of objectives.

[Chile]

I haven't had much time to look at the most current RPGish games out there because I've been in the Guild Wars Alpha. But, the same company that is developing KotOR 2 is also making NWN2. The company, Obsidian Entertainment, is staffed mostly by former Black Isle programmers and artists, and have a long history of working with Bioware.

Well down the road, I see a game from Flagship Studios that might be interesting. Although I've only seen concept art from their company,any company founded by so many talented people from the Blizzard North group has a great foundation on which to build an RPG-light game.

cheers!
Chile(US)

[Alrin]

You are forgetting a few (of my own personal favorites)

Ascendancy - Space sim/turn based strategy. Played it to death.

Thief 1 - The first proper "sneak 'em up". Is that even a proper term? Outstanding game and definately a pulse-raiser for those moments when you almost almost get caught by patrolling guards and you snatch their purse as they shuffle past you in the dark corner of the mansion you just broke into. I could go on and on for a while, but this was a definite keeper. Super game.

Thief 2 - More sneakery (I'm making up words as I go along) Another classic that will stay on my shelves for a long long time.

Grand Theft Auto III & Grand Theft Auto: Vice City - Two solid choices for free-roaming gameplay where you can just muck around a whole lot in.

I would stay away from Thief 3 for a bit. It fell short of its promises by using a rather limited engine. Deus Ex: Invisible War anyone? Loading times everywhere and a stupid level-size limitation because it was shifted over to be supported on Xbox. Thus they shrunk the levels and adding alot of zone-transition loading-while-you-wait areas. Annoying.

Deus Ex 1 !!! - Shooter, Sneaker, whatever you want it to be. Multiple solutions to solving each level. Praised by many as one, if not the best game ever. Can be argued, but definately a contender.

I'll stop babbling for a while, but those are a few good choices.

ps: Also Civilization III & Play The World & Conquests are good. (Civ3 + 2 expansions)

[Icebird]

I'll throw in a recommendation for Prince of Persia: Sands of Time.

It's essentially a 3-d platformer game. Half of its a puzzle game (working out which of the price's various acrobatic moves to use to get to where you want to go) and half a combat game. (The fighting is pretty easy once you master a couple of the moves).

The game is relatively short, and you'll probably only play it through a once or twice, but its unlike just about anything else out there right now, and you should be able to pick it up cheaply.

It does offer a fantastic environment in the Palace, and a fairly unique Arabia fairytale atmosphere.

A sequel, Price of Persia:Warrior Within, was released at Christmas which addressed some of the criticisms of the first game (too short, combat too easy). The game is significantly darker in tone however, and I haven't made up my mind whether I like it as well. World of Warcraft has distracted me from playing it much.

Chris

[Rhydderch Hael]

Hmmm...well, Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines just came out a short while ago ...[right][snapback]63621[/snapback][/right]

When I first played the game, the choppy animation and a crash-on-feeding bug was troublesome— then I learned that somewhere along the line my virtual memory settings were placed on Manual, and my swap file was only half what I needed to play the game. Fixing the virtual memory smoothed out things considerably, but I still have that crash bug (which I suspect is a driver issue, the trouble being all my attempts to actually update my drivers have inexplicably failed).

Right now the game's been patched to 1.2 to fix some gameplay issues, and I started anew. Right now I'm stringing along a male Tremere and a female Malkavian— both shootists. I'll probably mix it up with a Gangrel strong in physical melee work, and finally a Nosferatu with emphasis on stealth before I finally get bored with playing the same story again.

The trick is, while each game runs through the same storyline and quests, your clan aspect does alter just how each situation can be dealt with. You will be able to talk your way out of some potential bloodbaths if that's the best sort of tactic accorded to your clan. Then again, certain clans will be able to master certain fights better than most.

The game is aware of certain synergies in quest completion as well. For example, there is an early-game mission whose true nature does not exactly tally with what you've been told. Executing the mission is pretty straightforward, but you'll have the power to reveal the hidden motivations behind that quest. And the payoff to that can turn out to be an important revelation (that is, if you're a Tremere and rather uninitiated with the full backstory of your clan).

To uncover the truth, you have to have a keen sense of inspection or perception in order to detect the lie, and then have a strong enough skill in persuasion to ply the truth out of the other person. This nuance was something I did not see the first time I played through the quest, because I didn't know that increasing certain feats (like Inspection or Haggle) brought up new dialog options that alter the course of the conversation.


Clan is everything. Playing the game contrary to the nature of the vampire clan you choose at the start can detract from the experience. It is a role-playing game, after all. A Nosferatu can't think like a Toreador and get through the game in any good time. A Ventrue isn't going to go anywhere fast with the Prince if he thinks like a Gangrel or Brujah; and a Tremere is up the creek if he ignores the demands of his clan (to a true Tremere, the needs of the clan come first before any political sect, and excommunication would hurt in this case).

[Mephista]

You didn't mention Starcraft! Although I'm biased because I recently got into playing it for the first time. Never had played an RTS before, and I quickly developed an addiction to it!

Guild wars. Very pleasing!

HL2, also very nice.

[Archon_Wing]

You didn't mention Starcraft!  Although I'm biased because I recently got into playing it for the first time.  Never had played an RTS before, and I quickly developed an addiction to it! 

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Yep, don't have that many games that are still having patches released after so long. Another patch was just announced. :)