What is your Game Of The Decade pick?

Tim O

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Dec 29, 2009, 9:42:00 PM12/29/09

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We're reaching a pretty big milestone in just a couple days. What are
your picks for the greatest PC games of the last 10 years?

There are probably at least 10 standout titles that could make this
list, so how about we allow 3 to keep it simple? If I were to venture
a guess for the newsgroup it'd be Deus Ex, which falls right in the
beginning of the qualifying time period. System Shock 2 also falls
right in the very beginning of this decade.

I mainly based my decisions on how much the game initially wowed me,
and how much time I spent playing. There are certain games that go on
whatever new machine I build, and this is them.
I had a little bit of trouble deciding the order, but I did something
for the #1 title that I never did before.

#3 Motocross Madness 2 (2000 Microsoft/Rainbow Studios). Probably my
least mainstream pick. The thing that gets this game on the list
(other than my fanatical love for dirt bikes) is that it was my first
internet game addiction. Sure, I had played Doom, Duke 3D and Quake
with friends via modem and later the internet, but the Microsoft
Gaming Zone and its lobby setup for MS titles was fantastic.
The fact that the typical Motocross Madness game could be played in
less than 15 minutes meant there was always time here-and-there to get
in a game or two without pissing away the whole night.
Unfortunately MS abandoned the Zone support for their CD based games a
few years back. At that time, Motocross Madness 2 was six or seven
years old and still had hundreds of people on playing. The sad thing
is that they didn't include any other form of hosting multiplayer
games, so when The Zone died, it took my favorite multiplayer game
with it.

#2 STALKER Shadow Of Chernobyl (GSC Gameworld/THQ). What an incredibly
atmospheric world. This game, for all its flaws, has probably given me
the best overall immersion and creeps of any game I have ever played.
The dreary world, wild mutated animals running loose, battles between
factions. I've watched with binoculars while a trio of bandits fought
for their lives against a pack of wild dogs. They were nowhere within
normal sight, not even close to being in my firing range, not anywhere
I was heading, but still in an absolute struggle for their virtual
lives. The best way I can describe it is that it feels like the game
world still goes on even when you're not playing. STALKER with the
2009 Complete mod is a permanent resident on my hard drive.

#1 Far Cry (Crytek/Ubisoft). Completely blown away... That is the only
way I can describe my feelings when I fired up the first demo of Far
Cry before the game came out. It was one island mission that I played
over and over. I experimented with roaming around. I soon found text
edit cheats that let you shut off the helicopters that would kill you
if you left the mission area. That was when I was finally able to swim
to the far off tiny island I'd been looking at through binoculars...
That was when I realized it was a fully rendered, actually island and
not some painted background. I found rusted out airplanes, bombed out
tanks, even a mysterious table and chairs floating 15 feet off the
ground. All this in an area we weren't meant to see in the demo.

My gaming life changed forever. Before the full version of Far Cry
came out, I spent like a grand upgrading my PC. At the time, I think
the hot price/performance card was the GeForce Ti4200. I dropped $300
bucks on that, and new motherboard and whatever was the best under
$500 processor for the time. I considered it a bargain when my Far Cry
frame rates doubled. Again, this game had plenty of flaws. Oddball
checkpoint saves, uneven (sometimes excruciating) difficulty, and
crummy tacked on multiplayer at a time when all games were starting to
be judged for both single and multi-player campaigns.

I cannot tally how many hours I just spent messing around in this
game. Trying the missions different ways, exploring, text edits to
enable/turn off different aspects of the world. Still one of the first
games I install every time I build a new PC. In fact, just a few weeks
ago I installed Windows 7 64 bit and I've been playing through again
with the old AMD 64 bit patch (it works on any 64 bit OS/CPU).
The game shows its age a bit. The monster models look dated, and the
vehicles look a bit simplistic, but the visuals are still strikingly
beautiful at times. This is the extreme opposite of STALKER. Much of
the game is spent in a lush, bright, beautiful world.

Far Cry actually changed my expectations for any game. I'm absolutely
taken with open worlds and don't have a lot of tolerance for story
driven linear games. Half Life 2, which will very possibly land on
someones top 3 list seemed drab to me in comparison to Far Cry. All
its backgrounds were just props that you couldn't get to. The mighty
Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare also fell to this expectation.
I will play a game with a good story, but if you spend the whole game
running down a 20 foot wide invisible path, I'll likely never revisit
it. HL2 and COD:MW are in my game collections, but neither is
installed on my current PC... Far Cry is.

OK, thats the how/why of my picks, looking forward to reading some
comments from others.

Tim

Cronos

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Dec 29, 2009, 10:08:20 PM12/29/09

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Can I play?

Ghost Recon Series (original)
Splinter Cell Series
Elder Scrolls series (Morrowind/Oblivion)

Trimble Bracegirdle

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Dec 29, 2009, 10:23:18 PM12/29/09

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1) FARCRY (first one)
2) MORROWIND
3) GOTHIC 3

Worst, most diaspointing big name major released DOOM III

(\__/)
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(")_(") signature to help him gain world domination.

rob

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Dec 30, 2009, 12:00:32 AM12/30/09

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I'm going to base this mostly on what has sucked most of my time so No 1 for
me is easy

IL2 Forgotten Battles and Expansions: Simply the best flight sim ever, with
Lowengins campaign mod to liven up what out of the box is a rather dull
single player experience it is sublime. You can fly not only for the major
powers on maps ranging from France to Hawaii but also take to the skies for
Finland and Rumania if the need takes you. And considering the final free
upgrade patch came out just a few months ago 5 1/2 years after the game was
released you cant fault the developers commitment to the title. Where it
really shines tho is in Multiplayer, there are a hundred plus servers still
out there catering for novices to aces not to mention hundreds of squadrons
teaming up for some online action. I have spent alot of my time on a
smallish New Zealand server and can say its by far the best online
experience I've ever had. Probably the only thing it would lose points for
now is that since it was hacked and mods made available it caused a lot of
confusion with different servers requiring different things to join.

Since Cronos cheated my No 2 is going to be the Total War series. I know
there are alot of things there that the purists whine about but I say they
can suck it. For sheer enjoyment on an ever increasing scale this series is
tops and unlike the Civ series the developers realised they were putting in
too much needless fluff and cleaned up TW:Empires nicely

No 3 isn't an easy choice but I'm going to go with Star Wars KOTOR: I first
got this on the X Box and was stunned, I sat up all night playing it, went
to work next day and fired it up again as soon as I got home. I dont think
I'd done that ever. Graphics, sound and UI were acceptable but no more,
where it really won (like most Bioware titles) is an excellent storyline
that compelled me to carry on to see what happens next. And for the record
I did not see the plot twist coming. Shame about its sequel......

Near miss awards would go to
X wing Alliance, released 1999
Crysis, I like it better than Farcry, even the end
Elder Scrolls Series, no reason, just the three I picked are better
Fallout Series, ditto
System Shock 2, probably because I never could get it to run on an XP system

Developer of the decade is a draw between Bioware and Bethesda, have either
of these two ever made a dud?

Biggest disapointments of the decade
Farcry 2, love it or hate it the title is nothing but a cheap marketing
trick
Bioshock, similar reason, trying to hype it as a spirital succesor to SS2
when it was anything but
Silent hunter 3 and 4. Great titles, shame you have to wait 1 or 2 years
for them to be patched and modded

Cronos

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Dec 30, 2009, 12:35:41 AM12/30/09

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rob wrote:

> Since Cronos cheated my No 2 is going to be the Total War series.

Let me guess, it was going to be Ghost Recon series?

Unknown

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Dec 30, 2009, 1:30:16 AM12/30/09

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I agree that Far Cry stood alone at the time it was published.
But all things considered, there wasn't much at the time that grabbed
me as being original - and Far Cry certainly was. Not just
graphically, where it wasn't all that original, but in introducing an
original character who successfully injected humor alongside total
likeability. Hard to gainsay that.

I think perhaps SS2 is the best computer game of all time [that I've
played and IMO and etc etc]. Contemporaries of SS2 were Deus Ex and
Thief 2.
Let's see now. Of the three:
I spent least time playing SS2.;
I spent most time playing Deus Ex (replays).
The SS2 and Thief2 engines seemed most similar in their
"pc-games/action" component, being equally cumbersome but in different
ways - whereas the Deus Ex engine fit me like a custom made glove.
Deus Ex has interesting RPG elements that broaden the storyline in
ways that hadn't been done so well before in a classic FPS GUI.
Deus Ex is my personal most replayed game of all time.
I have to mention Thief2 when mentioning these others, because Thief2
was that good, and along with replays of Thief1 I probably played as
much as Deus Ex, and I know I'll replay it once again.

The difference, and it's a big totally subjective one, is that SS2
excited me most. On first play.
Anyway, these games also stand at the terminus of the earlier decade.

Over this decade I think Oblivion and STALKER stand out as completing
the synthesis of RPG/FPS forms. But these are very different games
and I don't like comparing them as "better/worse".

In fact I think a "best of decade" ranking can't capture the diversity
that advances in hardware and software have unleashed on us in the
past decade, and continue to unleash on us. How does a person compare
STALKER with Bioshock, or Crysis?

All I can say is that it's been a total blast playing these games and
I want to say THANK YOU to all the developers - and that includes as
in "not the least" all the people who've made the incredible and
original mods that I've been downloading.

We all owe you.

Unknown

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Dec 30, 2009, 1:32:12 AM12/30/09

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On Wed, 30 Dec 2009 03:23:18 -0000, "Trimble Bracegirdle"
<no-...@never.spam> wrote:

>1) FARCRY (first one)
>2) MORROWIND
>3) GOTHIC 3
>
>Worst, most diaspointing big name major released DOOM III
>

It certainly did hit with a thud.

Nostromo

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Dec 30, 2009, 2:30:50 AM12/30/09

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Diablo 2, first, last & foremost, none comes even a distant 2nd. If there's
ever a game that steals as much of my life & time again, I'll probably be in
a retirement home :).
That's not to say that it's technically the best in any one dept - it was
just far greater than the sum of the parts & awesome *FUN*, something game
devs these days somehow just don't see that forest for the trees too often,
more's the pity.
Otherwise, by genre:

Action/fps: FarCry 1 or Crysis - on the fence.
Crpg: Fallout 2
Mmo: LOTRO

--
Nostromo

Nostromo

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Dec 30, 2009, 2:31:18 AM12/30/09

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Thus spake "Trimble Bracegirdle" <no-...@never.spam>, Wed, 30 Dec 2009
03:23:18 -0000, Anno Domini:

>1) FARCRY (first one)
>2) MORROWIND
>3) GOTHIC 3
>
>Worst, most diaspointing big name major released DOOM III

Picked that one like a broken nose Trim! ;)

--
Nostromo

Unknown

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Dec 30, 2009, 2:55:59 AM12/30/09

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I've never played Diablo2, and when I look it up I wonder whether you
consider this a "pc-action" game, or wtf?

Unknown

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Dec 30, 2009, 3:00:32 AM12/30/09

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On Tue, 29 Dec 2009 19:08:20 -0800, Cronos <cro...@sphere.invalid>
wrote:

A. It's meaningless without some explanation,.

Werner Spahl

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Dec 30, 2009, 5:02:35 AM12/30/09

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On Wed, 30 Dec 2009, gno...@al.ia wrote:

> I think perhaps SS2 is the best computer game of all time

Have you played SS1 or was this your first FPS/RPG?

> Contemporaries of SS2 were Deus Ex and Thief 2.

Have you played Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines?

Just curious because every time people mention that they like games like
SS2, DX and Thief, I miss the very similar Bloodlines in the list ;)...

--
Dr. Werner Spahl (sp...@cup.uni-muenchen.de) Freedom for
Wesp5 @ Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines Vorlonships

Tim O

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Dec 30, 2009, 6:05:37 AM12/30/09

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On Wed, 30 Dec 2009 06:30:16 GMT, "gno...@al.ia" <gnomon> wrote:

>In fact I think a "best of decade" ranking can't capture the diversity
>that advances in hardware and software have unleashed on us in the
>past decade, and continue to unleash on us. How does a person compare
>STALKER with Bioshock, or Crysis?

This might be easier for me to do... I'm an older and have been gaming
nearly forever. I grew up in the Golden Age of arcade games, and wound
up having a few of them here. Donkey Kong, Defender and Robotron get
played often and they're like 320x200 so I'm likely the furthest thing
from a graphics whore.

STALKER, Bioshock and Crysis to me are from the same era. Full 3D
polygon engines capable of running at widescreen resolutions.
How about Half Life and Crysis? Doom and Crysis? Wolfenstein 3D (which
ironically isn't!)?

That is where you have to seperate the gameplay elements and consider
how revolutionary the games were at their place in time. Someone born
in the very late 80's or early 90's might not even be able to do this
as they can't place the games relevance when new.

Nostromo

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Dec 30, 2009, 6:24:31 AM12/30/09

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Thus spake "gno...@al.ia" <gnomon>, Wed, 30 Dec 2009 07:55:59 GMT, Anno
Domini:

It's an action/rpg/roguelike/treasure-hunt isometric game. And it
(re)defined & defies it's own genre. Every attempt to clone it has fallen
flat on its face, for various reasons. It is simplicity & yet
tactical/strategic complexity at its best (skill build choices/limitations,
along with item combos & the randomisations were the crux of its beauty
imo). Playing it on hardcore closed BNet was the pi�ce de r�sistance - at
least 3 years of solid, exclusive solo & team gameplay, with more excitement
& adrenaline at times than any other game I've ever played (with more at
stake as well, at times months of effort down the drain in the blink of an
eye :). Nowadays, mods like MedianXL give it a new lease of life - I think
I'm into the 6th year of playing this both solo & coop with my wife, on &
off. I wonder if even D3 can measure up to it, given its inevitable
WoWification *sigh*.

--
Nostromo

rob

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Dec 30, 2009, 6:30:45 AM12/30/09

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"Cronos" wrote ...

>> Since Cronos cheated my No 2 is going to be the Total War series.
>
> Let me guess, it was going to be Ghost Recon series?

Nope, you decided it was ok to choose a series rather than a game. Fine by
me and a rather fitting end to the year of the sequel that 2009 was

Nostromo

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Dec 30, 2009, 6:46:30 AM12/30/09

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Thus spake Nostromo <nos...@forme.org>, Wed, 30 Dec 2009 18:30:50 +1100,
Anno Domini:

actually, to be fair, RTCW deserves an honourable mention, as it's probably
the fps I replayed the most (since Doom1/2), along with Wolf:ET being my
most played online shooter. In fact, given that it really should be here at
the top of my action/shooter list, so I'll retract the above 2 fps games &
replace it with the these 2 Wolfenstein sequels.
Also, MOH:AA/CoD1+2 & HL2 deserve a mention.

>Crpg: Fallout 2
BG1/2 are probably a very close 2nd which I've certainly played more of.
PST (I only got it & started play March 2000).
Gothic 3, warts & all (damn shame about the bugs & engine performance
issues).
The Witcher, if I ever get it running on Win7x64 & finish it.

>Mmo: LOTRO
CoX a close 2nd, even though I've played a lot more of it. Guild Wars is
right up there, though not a traditional mmo as such.

RTS: Rise of Nations (has to be as I've hardly played any this decade much)

Adventure: The Longest Journey (no brainer)

Hybrids/other: VTMB, Nexus - The Jupiter Incident, OpFlash:CWC, Undying.

--
Nostromo

Morgan

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Dec 30, 2009, 6:46:42 AM12/30/09

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Tim O wrote:
> We're reaching a pretty big milestone in just a couple days. What are
> your picks for the greatest PC games of the last 10 years?
>
> There are probably at least 10 standout titles that could make this
> list, so how about we allow 3 to keep it simple? If I were to venture
> a guess for the newsgroup it'd be Deus Ex, which falls right in the
> beginning of the qualifying time period. System Shock 2 also falls
> right in the very beginning of this decade.

Those were two I was thinking of but wasn't sure if they were last 90s
or early 2000. For me Deus Ex was the first (and probably still only)
FPS to make you feel that you had real choice in how to accomplish an
objective. System Shock 2 was just pure genius in creating atmosphere.
I really wish they'd re-release both System Shocks after a little
graphics tweaking. SS2 doesn't seem to like modern graphics cards.

Thief 2 would have to be on my list as well. For atmosphered, game-play
mechanics, level design and the fact that Garrett is the coolest game
character to date. In mt book no game has implement a stealth system
as well as the Thief trilogy.

Morrowind: Fantastic depth of game play and one of the few wow moment I
can remember in gaming when I first saw the water effects. Pity it had
such weak characters and story.

Battlefield 1942: Still the best multiplayer FPS in by book.

Star Wars galaxies before the "New Game Experience" or whatever they
called it. I broken game, it always felt a little like playing beta
code but there was something about it.

Max Payne 2: Fun, dark, weird.

Dark Messish: The best implementation of melee fighting in a first
person game. Interesting locations, a hot sounding woman's voice in
your head and the ability to shapshift into a daemon.

The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay: Came out around the
same time that everyone was raving about how great Doom 3 was. It
looked nicer, had better voice acting, varied game play. An overlooked
gem.

Mass Effect: Fantastic Story and voice acting, very cinematic. Also the
first game that forced me to make a moral choice that I genuinly found
hard to make.

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Dec 30, 2009, 11:03:51 AM12/30/09

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> The third just squeezes in because the expansion pack was released in 2000
> (and I wouldn't dream of playing without the expansion pack) :)

Ok, you mention a strategy game with an expansion that came out in 2000, so
then will I! And that game is Heroes of Might and Magic III (with the Wake
of the Gods modification). I have played this darn thing on more occasions
than I have any other game, apart from one ...

Counterstrike (went retail in 2000)

Ayatollah of rock 'n' roller

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Dec 30, 2009, 1:25:33 PM12/30/09

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"Ayatollah of rock 'n' roller" <thi...@lse.co.ck> wrote in message
news:IRK_m.5403$%f3....@newsfe03.ams2...

I forgot Deus Ex (2000)!

Jasper

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Dec 30, 2009, 3:28:57 PM12/30/09

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"Tim O" <timo56...@hotmail.com> schreef in bericht
news:23clj5t211b48b9jo...@4ax.com...

>
> We're reaching a pretty big milestone in just a couple days. What are
> your picks for the greatest PC games of the last 10 years?
>

Half Life 2, & Ep 1 & 2

Jonah Falcon

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Dec 30, 2009, 3:52:49 PM12/30/09

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My favorite game is a tie between KOTOR and Deus Ex.

Objectively:

http://www.gamestooge.com/2009/12/15/greatest-games-of-the-decade-part-i-41-50/

Sheldon England

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Dec 30, 2009, 4:34:53 PM12/30/09

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Tim O wrote:
> We're reaching a pretty big milestone in just a couple days. What are
> your picks for the greatest PC games of the last 10 years?

Wow! I was gonna post a best and worst of 2009 but picking a game of the
decade is a difficult choice. Ten years is a long time. Following on
your criteria of most-played, which suggests most enjoyed.

My game of the decade is:

Neverwinter Nights (and the Expansions and community created modules) --
I played the heck out if this game, trying every character class,
repeating the expansion games from different angles, experimenting with
the many, many user created adventure games.

1st Runner Up is:

Civilization II -- I didn't try the original release but was immediately
sucked into the second edition. This really was a "just one more turn"
time sink that just barely outpaced a similar time-sink that was called
Masters of Orion II. So many groggy mornings. Civilization III was sorta
okay and now I am getting sucked into IV.

2nd Runner Up is:

Crysis - I agree that Far Cry was the first action game I played that
wowed me but I had a new and improved system just in time for Crysis to
arrive. This remains my favourite kind of FPS ... sneaking, sniping,
scouting for best angles and opportunities.

Honourable Mentions:

The Total War Series - I still regret never playing Shogun TW as this is
my favourite historical setting. I only discovered the games with
Medieval and the Viking expansion, then Rome, then Medieval 2, and most
recently Empire.

The Silent Hunter Series - I have taken my boats out on sooo many
campaigns and missions. SH3 with GWX is just a thing of pure beauty and
elegance. I wanted to like SH4 as much but it just didn't seem as much
fun, even with the better graphics and the missions. Rarely do I not
fire this up on a weekly basis.

Lord of the Rings Online - Beautiful, engaging entertainment. I had not
played an MMO in a decade and never even tried WoW but this game sucked
me in immediately. I play *A LOT* of games and few of them can hold a
candle to the incredible graphics of Tolkien's setting that draws on the
movie visuals and sounds but holds more true to the written stories. I
am a total lightweight as a player in that I only have one character and
no crafts ... but many, many nights of laughter and fun and thrills have
resulted from LotRO.

Also on my list are: Fallout 3, Mass Effect, Far Cry, Dead Space,
Batman: Arkham Asylum, Company of Heroes, CivCity Rome, Rise of Nations,
Galactic Civilization II, Crysis Warhead, No One Lives Forever 2, Ghost
Recon (original and Gulf War/Jungle expansion), Call of Duty 4 and 5,
Rainbow 6 Vegas (1 & 2), The Witcher EE, Microsoft Flight Simulator X,
IL2, Rise of Flight, Freelancer, Dark Horizon, Pirates of the Caribbean,
Sid Meier's Pirates! Gold, Assassin's Creed, Dragon Age: Origins, and
probably more that I just don't remember.

Disappointments were: Far Cry 2, Master of Orion 3, Europa Universalis
Rome, Batman: Arkham Asylum (yeah, it's in both categories, so good and
so irritating), Tomb Raider Legend, Anniversary, Underworld (dunno why I
never learn), Prince of Persia, Mirror's Edge, Lord of the Rings
Conquest, Rogue Warrior, Red Faction Guerilla, Resident Evil 5. These
may have been fine games for others but they just didn't grab me or I am
too uncoordinated to enjoy them

I play too many computer games. :(

Best of the New Year to you all!

- Sheldon

Tim O

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Dec 30, 2009, 5:44:06 PM12/30/09

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On Wed, 30 Dec 2009 13:34:53 -0800, Sheldon England
<sheldon...@netscape.net> wrote:

>My game of the decade is:
>
>Neverwinter Nights (and the Expansions and community created modules) --
>I played the heck out if this game, trying every character class,
>repeating the expansion games from different angles, experimenting with
>the many, many user created adventure games.

I had a couple of buddies that were really into this a few years
back... I mean like 1000 hours on XFire into it. Definitely a solid
pick, and I kind of wish fantasy games appealed to me more.
They go naturally with huge open worlds and lots of characters.
Unfortunately, something about spells and magic just fails to grab me
every time.

>2nd Runner Up is:
>
>Crysis - I agree that Far Cry was the first action game I played that
>wowed me but I had a new and improved system just in time for Crysis to
>arrive. This remains my favourite kind of FPS ... sneaking, sniping,
>scouting for best angles and opportunities.

I'm very glad to see Crysis getting some love. Even though it didn't
make my top 3 critieria, mainly due to the way it fell apart in the
final act, I have played through it over and over. It is definitely
the spiritual successor to Far Cry if not the official one.

Thanks for adding lots of background info on why you made the picks. I
was hoping to go back and maybe find some games I missed, which is
starting to happen.

PW

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Dec 30, 2009, 10:51:35 PM12/30/09

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On Tue, 29 Dec 2009 21:42:00 -0500, Tim O <timo56...@hotmail.com>
wrote:

>
>We're reaching a pretty big milestone in just a couple days. What are

>your picks for the greatest PC games of the last 10 years?
>
>There are probably at least 10 standout titles that could make this
>list, so how about we allow 3 to keep it simple? If I were to venture
>a guess for the newsgroup it'd be Deus Ex, which falls right in the
>beginning of the qualifying time period. System Shock 2 also falls
>right in the very beginning of this decade.
>

>I mainly based my decisions on how much the game initially wowed me,
>and how much time I spent playing. There are certain games that go on
>whatever new machine I build, and this is them.
>I had a little bit of trouble deciding the order, but I did something
>for the #1 title that I never did before.
>
>#3 Motocross Madness 2 (2000 Microsoft/Rainbow Studios). Probably my
>least mainstream pick. The thing that gets this game on the list
>(other than my fanatical love for dirt bikes) is that it was my first
>internet game addiction. Sure, I had played Doom, Duke 3D and Quake
>with friends via modem and later the internet, but the Microsoft
>Gaming Zone and its lobby setup for MS titles was fantastic.
>The fact that the typical Motocross Madness game could be played in
>less than 15 minutes meant there was always time here-and-there to get
>in a game or two without pissing away the whole night.
>Unfortunately MS abandoned the Zone support for their CD based games a
>few years back. At that time, Motocross Madness 2 was six or seven
>years old and still had hundreds of people on playing. The sad thing
>is that they didn't include any other form of hosting multiplayer
>games, so when The Zone died, it took my favorite multiplayer game
>with it.
>
>#2 STALKER Shadow Of Chernobyl (GSC Gameworld/THQ). What an incredibly
>atmospheric world. This game, for all its flaws, has probably given me
>the best overall immersion and creeps of any game I have ever played.
>The dreary world, wild mutated animals running loose, battles between
>factions. I've watched with binoculars while a trio of bandits fought
>for their lives against a pack of wild dogs. They were nowhere within
>normal sight, not even close to being in my firing range, not anywhere
>I was heading, but still in an absolute struggle for their virtual
>lives. The best way I can describe it is that it feels like the game
>world still goes on even when you're not playing. STALKER with the
>2009 Complete mod is a permanent resident on my hard drive.
>
>#1 Far Cry (Crytek/Ubisoft). Completely blown away... That is the only
>way I can describe my feelings when I fired up the first demo of Far
>Cry before the game came out. It was one island mission that I played
>over and over. I experimented with roaming around. I soon found text
>edit cheats that let you shut off the helicopters that would kill you
>if you left the mission area. That was when I was finally able to swim
>to the far off tiny island I'd been looking at through binoculars...
>That was when I realized it was a fully rendered, actually island and
>not some painted background. I found rusted out airplanes, bombed out
>tanks, even a mysterious table and chairs floating 15 feet off the
>ground. All this in an area we weren't meant to see in the demo.
>
>My gaming life changed forever. Before the full version of Far Cry
>came out, I spent like a grand upgrading my PC. At the time, I think
>the hot price/performance card was the GeForce Ti4200. I dropped $300
>bucks on that, and new motherboard and whatever was the best under
>$500 processor for the time. I considered it a bargain when my Far Cry
>frame rates doubled. Again, this game had plenty of flaws. Oddball
>checkpoint saves, uneven (sometimes excruciating) difficulty, and
>crummy tacked on multiplayer at a time when all games were starting to
>be judged for both single and multi-player campaigns.
>
>I cannot tally how many hours I just spent messing around in this
>game. Trying the missions different ways, exploring, text edits to
>enable/turn off different aspects of the world. Still one of the first
>games I install every time I build a new PC. In fact, just a few weeks
>ago I installed Windows 7 64 bit and I've been playing through again
>with the old AMD 64 bit patch (it works on any 64 bit OS/CPU).
>The game shows its age a bit. The monster models look dated, and the
>vehicles look a bit simplistic, but the visuals are still strikingly
>beautiful at times. This is the extreme opposite of STALKER. Much of
>the game is spent in a lush, bright, beautiful world.
>
>Far Cry actually changed my expectations for any game. I'm absolutely
>taken with open worlds and don't have a lot of tolerance for story
>driven linear games. Half Life 2, which will very possibly land on
>someones top 3 list seemed drab to me in comparison to Far Cry. All
>its backgrounds were just props that you couldn't get to. The mighty
>Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare also fell to this expectation.
>I will play a game with a good story, but if you spend the whole game
>running down a 20 foot wide invisible path, I'll likely never revisit
>it. HL2 and COD:MW are in my game collections, but neither is
>installed on my current PC... Far Cry is.
>
>OK, thats the how/why of my picks, looking forward to reading some
>comments from others.
>
>Tim
>

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Dec 30, 2009, 11:26:40 PM12/30/09

to

Nostromo wrote:
> Diablo 2, first, last & foremost, none comes even a distant 2nd.

This relates to my post about why 10% of my game collection is shit.

Cronos

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Dec 30, 2009, 11:28:41 PM12/30/09

to

gno...@al.ia wrote:

> I've never played Diablo2, and when I look it up I wonder whether you
> consider this a "pc-action" game, or wtf?

You are not missing much. It is a highly overrated game and I will never
understand why all these young dweebs think it is so great. Probably
just because they are young dweebs is the only reason.

Gregory E. Garland

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Dec 31, 2009, 2:26:31 AM12/31/09

to

"PW" <emailad...@ifIremember.com> wrote in message
news:sr7oj5dforptuis5n...@4ax.com...

> Geesh! So far, no one has even mentioned Unreal Tournament (pick your
> version but the original - not sure when it came out - came out of no
> where)

So UT would actually install on someone's PC? I tried twice, even taking the
product back and getting a new disc; damn thing still never would install.

JAB

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Dec 31, 2009, 3:05:02 AM12/31/09

to

Well off the top of my head and in no particular order ...

FPS - STALKER: The most atmospheric game in a long time. Yes it had it
problems (respawing and weapon wear out) but overall it was a
beautifully crafted game which for me was the first big advance in FPS
since HL1. It had a real story line and also a game world in which you
feel a part of and not the main part of. It was always with a sense of
foreboding that you enteredg any building to see what lay within and at
last a FPS that actually required you to do more than just shot
everything in sight. I still remember the shock when entering the first
real fight charging in head long and and dying. Thinking that I'd just
been unlucky I did the same again and died again. Third time lucky and
using a bit of cover I got through. Another memorable moment was my
first head shot from long distance. As a runner up I'll have to mention
COD1.

Strategy - Close Combat 2 & 3: Boy did I spend a lot of time on these
two games. A lovely blend of wargame and RTS that is easy to play yet
has enough real tactics to excite my inner wargamer. Yes the space was
to enclosed for tank battles but you still had to use you head to play
correctly and the AI was god enough to be a challenge even when in
attack. As a runner up Combat Mission 2.

RPG - This was a hard choice with Baldurs Gate II, The Witcher, Dragon
Age Origins, Never Winter Nights and Fallout 3 all being good games but
I go for FO3 just because of the amount of time I spent on it it's not a
dwarves, orcs and elves setting. It also had some of the best quests
I've seen for a long time. I'll give Oblivion a special mention for the
biggest let down ... exactly where did they get the script writer for
this one?

Ayatollah of rock 'n' roller

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Dec 31, 2009, 5:15:17 AM12/31/09

to

> Geesh! So far, no one has even mentioned Unreal Tournament (pick your
> version but the original - not sure when it came out - came out of no
> where)

unread,

Dec 31, 2009, 6:04:20 AM12/31/09

to

You can buy it through Steam and it installs/runs fine that way. For
the next few days you can get all 5 Unreal games for �7.80 (or the
equivalent in your Country)... a saving of �36 on normal Steam price.
Not bad..

Cronos

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Dec 31, 2009, 6:50:27 AM12/31/09

to

Tim O wrote:

> Were you able to find the coin slot without asking for help?

Yes, old Englsh pennies back then and the coin slot was big and easy to
see so that even *I* could do it with no help. The games were very
rudimentary so even you could play them if you engaged 100% of your
brain cells all at once.

Christian Brandt

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Dec 31, 2009, 9:10:35 PM12/31/09

to

I vote for Teamfortress, simply because I have been playing it for the
whole decade (and nearly half of the last one).

-NetQuake Teamfortress in 1997 (I think I have been one of the first 20
players)

-Quakeworld Teamfortress from 1997 to 2000

-Quake 3 Fortress from 2000 to 2004

-Enemy Territory Fortress in 2005

-Teamfortress 2 since 2007

whenever the other fortresses didn't have players I also strayed into
Halflife Fortress Classic - but I think that version is by far the
worst, the ugliest and unbalanced one.

Is there any game that can beat fortress?

Christian Brandt

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Dec 31, 2009, 9:20:01 PM12/31/09

to Nostromo

Am 30.12.2009 08:31, schrieb Nostromo:

>> Worst, most diaspointing big name major released DOOM III
> Picked that one like a broken nose Trim! ;)

idsoftware has totally lost it.

They rested too long on old achievements and the world has overtaken
them. Will Rage fix it? I don't think so. Which is a pitty because the
always supported linux and released their engines open source.

Christian Brandt

Cronos

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Dec 31, 2009, 9:28:20 PM12/31/09

to

Christian Brandt wrote:

> They rested too long on old achievements and the world has overtaken
> them. Will Rage fix it? I don't think so.

Might be good for fans of i76 because it has vehicle with guns.

Nostromo

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Dec 31, 2009, 10:01:19 PM12/31/09

to

Thus spake Cronos <cro...@sphere.invalid>, Wed, 30 Dec 2009 20:28:41 -0800,
Anno Domini:

1/10. Don't try to troll while drunk kids. :-p

--
Nostromo

Nostromo

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Dec 31, 2009, 10:24:21 PM12/31/09

to

Thus spake Morgan <nos...@nospam.co.uk>, Wed, 30 Dec 2009 12:03:37 +0000,
Anno Domini:

>Nostromo wrote:
>
>> Action/fps: FarCry 1 or Crysis - on the fence.
>> Crpg: Fallout 2
>
>Wasn't Fallout 2 released about 98? Damn good game though, if we're

Yeah, you're right, though I'm not sure how soon after release I played it &
I can tell from my savegames I played a LOT of it from 2K onwards.

>allowing a couple of years leeway then i'm, adding Dungeon Keeper 2 to
>my list.

Could never get into DK1 or 2, for whatever reason. In fact, I can't think
of a god game I've ever liked, going back to Populous. I think the genre
just leaves me a bit meh & feeling not so much like a god, as a geek
manipulating numbers & stats. Fps & crpgs probably make me feel more like a
'god' through direct interaction, than games like B&W. Eh.

--
Nostromo

Nostromo

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Dec 31, 2009, 10:28:07 PM12/31/09

to

Thus spake Cronos <cro...@sphere.invalid>, Wed, 30 Dec 2009 20:26:40 -0800,
Anno Domini:

>Nostromo wrote:
>> Diablo 2, first, last & foremost, none comes even a distant 2nd.
>
>This relates to my post about why 10% of my game collection is shit.

And shit comes from arseholes, like most inflexible opinions. Just because
YOU don't get it, doesn't make everyone else wrong you know. Try pulling
your head out of your arsehole once in a while & seeing things from other
ppl's perspectives. You might be surprised just how much more than 10% of
the time you're wrong in life & didn't even realise it ;-p.

--
Nostromo

Nostromo

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Dec 31, 2009, 10:38:40 PM12/31/09

to

Thus spake Morgan <nos...@nospam.co.uk>, Wed, 30 Dec 2009 11:46:42 +0000,
Anno Domini:

>Tim O wrote:
>> We're reaching a pretty big milestone in just a couple days. What are
>> your picks for the greatest PC games of the last 10 years?
>>

>> There are probably at least 10 standout titles that could make this
>> list, so how about we allow 3 to keep it simple? If I were to venture
>> a guess for the newsgroup it'd be Deus Ex, which falls right in the
>> beginning of the qualifying time period. System Shock 2 also falls
>> right in the very beginning of this decade.
>

>Those were two I was thinking of but wasn't sure if they were last 90s
>or early 2000. For me Deus Ex was the first (and probably still only)
>FPS to make you feel that you had real choice in how to accomplish an
>objective. System Shock 2 was just pure genius in creating atmosphere.
> I really wish they'd re-release both System Shocks after a little
>graphics tweaking. SS2 doesn't seem to like modern graphics cards.
>
>Thief 2 would have to be on my list as well. For atmosphered, game-play
>mechanics, level design and the fact that Garrett is the coolest game
>character to date. In mt book no game has implement a stealth system
>as well as the Thief trilogy.
>
>Morrowind: Fantastic depth of game play and one of the few wow moment I
>can remember in gaming when I first saw the water effects. Pity it had
>such weak characters and story.
>
>Battlefield 1942: Still the best multiplayer FPS in by book.
>
>Star Wars galaxies before the "New Game Experience" or whatever they
>called it. I broken game, it always felt a little like playing beta
>code but there was something about it.
>
>Max Payne 2: Fun, dark, weird.

Even though our tastes differ on all of the above (for various reasons),
this last I might have to complete, as I left it with my save games about
1/2 way through.

>Dark Messish: The best implementation of melee fighting in a first
>person game. Interesting locations, a hot sounding woman's voice in
>your head and the ability to shapshift into a daemon.

Another I left 1/2 way, for whatever reasons at the time. Lucky I'm
religious about keeping savegames. :)

>The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay: Came out around the
>same time that everyone was raving about how great Doom 3 was. It
>looked nicer, had better voice acting, varied game play. An overlooked
>gem.

Hmmm...never tried this, though I'm reticent given its console roots (from
memory) & our wildly different tastes. It's probably bargain basement now so
I might keep an eye out. Is there an online d/l for cheap somewhere?

>Mass Effect: Fantastic Story and voice acting, very cinematic. Also the
>first game that forced me to make a moral choice that I genuinly found
>hard to make.

Still one I an yet to try, mainly because I have lost all faith in Bioware
as a fan-focused dev house, now they're into the big bucks & have been since
NWN1 probably. Oh well, if I see it cheap, I may pick it up on impulse.

Bioshock was certainly one of my most serendipitous bargain basement pickups
in 2009 which I'd ignored up to then, mainly due to the way-out-there
setting & Randian influences (she was clearly clinically insane, just like
Nietzsche :).

>Lastly for people from the RPG group: Grimoire

That's cruel & unusual, even for you ;-p.

>There will be ones that I've forgot about.

--
Nostromo

Nostromo

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Dec 31, 2009, 10:46:16 PM12/31/09

to

Thus spake Shawk <sh...@gmx.com.3guesses>, Wed, 30 Dec 2009 13:41:21 +0000,
Anno Domini:

>Tim O wrote:
>> We're reaching a pretty big milestone in just a couple days. What are
>> your picks for the greatest PC games of the last 10 years?
>
>

>There are so many good games that have come out in these last ten years
>- many of them genre-defining and the majority of them great fun that I
>am going to simply list the games that have been installed since they
>came out and will be on the hard-drive for the foreseeable future
>
>Stalker is number one of course. The atmosphere, the grittiness, the
>feeling of immersion, the feeling that I make a difference to things
>going on around me and its not all scripted. Even the respawning is
>handled well with bandits etc walking into the map from wherever they
>respawn (I have never seen a respawn in all the times I have played and
>that makes a big difference). Then there is the challenge, going up
>against people armed with shotguns with your piss-poor pistol near the
>start of the game was such a shock the first time but taught tactics
>that were vital throughout the rest. IMHO it has never been bettered.

Great game (for an indy title out of nowhere as you say), just not sure it's
#1. It does have a number of shortcomings I won't get into, that prevented
it from affecting me like, say, VTMB, did.

>Secondly a strange one for most folk I guess but as I've set my rules in
>the first sentence.... Dead Space. This game came from nowhere and
>would have passed me by but for Legions recommendation. This is the
>game that Doom 3 should have been. Where D3 succeeded (atmosphere,
>sound effects etc) Dead Space improves on it. Where D3 fails (fun
>gameplay, thrills, decent reason for playing the levels, good backstory
>etc) Dead Space succeeds. Its never going to win GOTY or many awards
>because there many better hyped games out the but this is a game that
>has given me more fun gameplay than any 3 of the hyped games together

Only played a couple hours, so I must get back to this gem some time.

>The third just squeezes in because the expansion pack was released in
>2000 (and I wouldn't dream of playing without the expansion pack) :)
>AOEII. This game meets my criteria of never being off the hard-drive
>since I bought it. Ten years is a long time for anyone to keep a game
>installed. And I don't really know why other than its bloody addictive.
> Maybe its something to do with the pacing? I don't normally play
>this type of game because I can find them tedious but AOEII doesn't give
>you time to be bored before throwing a concerted attack at you before
>your defences are quite ready. And it doesn't need micromanagement
>either, your armies being smart enough to target threats and protect
>their weakest assets. I love this game... and how disappouinted was I
>with AOEIII which threw everything good out for the sake of polished
>gfx????!

unread,

Jan 1, 2010, 12:00:38 AM1/1/10

to

Thus spake Shawk <sh...@gmx.com.3guesses>, Fri, 01 Jan 2010 04:43:14 +0000,
Anno Domini:

Kewl, tx Shawk.

--
Nostromo

Nostromo

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Jan 1, 2010, 12:06:53 AM1/1/10

to

Thus spake Christian Brandt <bra...@psi5.com>, Fri, 01 Jan 2010 03:10:35
+0100, Anno Domini:

Wolfenstein:Enemy Territory, for my tastes. Damn shame it hasn't spawned a
sequel, but for WWII online shooter you couldn't go past it, especially as
it's always been free. Teamplay was awesome & the classes just perfect imo.
Haven't tried ET:Quake Wars - I've always found the Quake sci-fi universe
just bleh, since QII/III. Can anyone attest if the gameplay is on par with
Wolf:ET or just a poor shadow in a sci-fi setting...?

--
Nostromo

Unknown

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Jan 1, 2010, 12:18:34 AM1/1/10

to

On Fri, 01 Jan 2010 14:38:40 +1100, Nostromo <nos...@forme.org> wrote:

>Thus spake Morgan <nos...@nospam.co.uk>, Wed, 30 Dec 2009 11:46:42 +0000,
>Anno Domini:
>

.....

>
>>The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay: Came out around the
>>same time that everyone was raving about how great Doom 3 was. It
>>looked nicer, had better voice acting, varied game play. An overlooked
>>gem.
>
>Hmmm...never tried this, though I'm reticent given its console roots (from
>memory) & our wildly different tastes. It's probably bargain basement now so
>I might keep an eye out. Is there an online d/l for cheap somewhere?
>

play it.

Unknown

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Jan 1, 2010, 1:07:03 AM1/1/10

to

On Wed, 30 Dec 2009 11:02:35 +0100, Werner Spahl
<sp...@cup.uni-muenchen.de> wrote:

>On Wed, 30 Dec 2009, gno...@al.ia wrote:
>
>> I think perhaps SS2 is the best computer game of all time
>
>Have you played SS1 or was this your first FPS/RPG?

I didn't play SS1 until well after SS2, so unfortunately I missed it.
When SS1 came out I was playing Doom, having played Wolf3d and every
clone I could find. I was online thru' one of those community BBS's
and had very limited bandwidth using Mosaic (yay!) and Agent (yay! and
yes, this group was active) when they came out, but I didn't hear the
buzz about SS1. Too bad. Then, I got obsessed with gfx and doom
modding and so on, so it somehow passed me by.

>
>> Contemporaries of SS2 were Deus Ex and Thief 2.
>
>Have you played Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines?

Another one I missed. Don't know quite why I missed it in this case
except "Vampire" usually leaves me cold.
>
>Just curious because every time people mention that they like games like
>SS2, DX and Thief, I miss the very similar Bloodlines in the list ;)...

I've tried to get into Bloodlines -- since it gets the periodical
update notices here and has an impressive fan base -- but it has yet
to grab me.

Yet it's still installed, along with The Path, Riddick, Oblivion, Dead
Space, DX2, and a weird game I worked on with some friends. Usually a
game lasts about 4-6 months max on my HD. I like to freshly reinstall
old games, when I decide to replay them - and I usually throw out my
old savegames.

I think I know what underlies your questions re. why these mainstream
McD's and Burger King and etc. get all the press and not these other
which are maybe more original, more daring and seminal. Advertising
$$$? Market access? Whenever one of the bright new development co's
comes out with a success, then gets bought out (for the name, the
franchise) by one of the ever bigger mega-conglomerate production
houses, I'm skeptical that they'll ever produce anything original
again. Artists produce their best work when they're hungry.

Ayatollah of rock 'n' roller

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Jan 1, 2010, 6:56:00 AM1/1/10

to

"Christian Brandt" <bra...@psi5.com> wrote in message
news:4B3D5BD1...@psi5.com...

> Am 30.12.2009 08:31, schrieb Nostromo:
>
>>> Worst, most diaspointing big name major released DOOM III
>> Picked that one like a broken nose Trim! ;)
>
> idsoftware has totally lost it.

They lost it along time ago:

Doom 3 was boring.
Quake 3 was laughable compared to Unreal Tournament and Half Life
deathmatch.
Quake 2 was fairly boring in single-player mode (but not multi).

Anssi Saari

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Jan 1, 2010, 8:31:46 AM1/1/10

to

"Ayatollah of rock 'n' roller" <thi...@lse.co.ck> writes:

> I forgot Deus Ex (2000)!

I actually thought it was a 90's game... Oh well, it makes things
easier. Here's my list, in roughly the order of preference. Since I'm
bad at sorting things, this is mostly my seat of the pants estimate on
how much time I've spend on the games.

1. Deus Ex - still going strong, started playing The Nameless Mod before
Christmas. Can't say I much like the idea of modeling a game world
after a web forum.

2. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - Continuation of an addiction, which
lead to playing the other six GTA games on different consoles and PC.

3. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City - Start of an addiction. Well, I was a
teenager in the 80s, so this pressed exactly the right nostalgic
buttons. I don't think much of

4. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic - Well, it's my favorite
fantasy world. I've read a lot of Star Wars books too. I even like
Clone Wars. Surprisingly, I don't like other SW games that much. I do
play X-Wing every now and again, but even the updated Windows version
is really starting to show its age.

5. Fallout 3 - It's kind of surprising that I like this game. I don't
really like RPGs or post-apocalyptic settings. Nor the
retro-futuristic tech. As an FPS it sucks too since you can barely hit
the side of a barn and combat is pretty much "walk to target, insert
gun in mouth, pull trigger". And yet somehow I have a huge interest
and fascination for the game. Maybe it's open world and the things you
can find? I dunno.

----

Kinda sad that only Deus Ex is a PC game, the other four are console
ports. Well, I guess Fallout 3 might be called multi-platform, but
with the PC-specific annoying bugs and console-style huge fonts by
default it might as well be called a 'slightly above bare minimum
effort' port. Slightly above bare minimum since they did eventually
fix some things, like the broken perks, but not the VATS delay for
example.

Morgan

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Jan 1, 2010, 9:03:27 AM1/1/10

to

>> The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay: Came out around the
>> same time that everyone was raving about how great Doom 3 was. It
>> looked nicer, had better voice acting, varied game play. An overlooked
>> gem.
>
> Hmmm...never tried this, though I'm reticent given its console roots (from
> memory) & our wildly different tastes. It's probably bargain basement now so
> I might keep an eye out. Is there an online d/l for cheap somewhere?

If one of the few console ports that feel like it was made for the PC.
From what I read the developers didn't just do a quick lazy port. they
added some improvements, tailored it to the PC and added the words
"Developers cut". It's had a recent makeover and been re-released but
I'm not sure what the new PC versions like. I played Dark Athena on the
360 and it's not as good as Butcher Bay.

>> Mass Effect: Fantastic Story and voice acting, very cinematic. Also the
>> first game that forced me to make a moral choice that I genuinly found
>> hard to make.
>
> Still one I an yet to try, mainly because I have lost all faith in Bioware
> as a fan-focused dev house, now they're into the big bucks & have been since
> NWN1 probably. Oh well, if I see it cheap, I may pick it up on impulse.

As I recall you like you RPGs stats heavy and ME isn't at all heavy on
stats. you can however push points into different weapons and skills
including things like charm and intimidate. the thing I love about it
is the story and feeling that you aren't just making the decisions about
your actions, you're also crafting a personality type. If you can live
with the simplified stats then I can't stress how highly I'd recommend it.

>> Lastly for people from the RPG group: Grimoire
>
> That's cruel & unusual, even for you ;-p.

You love it. :-)

Morgan

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Jan 1, 2010, 2:09:47 PM1/1/10

to

Cronos wrote:

> Werner Spahl wrote:
>
>> Just curious because every time people mention that they like games
>> like SS2, DX and Thief, I miss the very similar Bloodlines in the list
>> ;)...
>>
>

> We are only interested in serious contenders and not fanboi opinions.

What do you think the word fanboy means?

Rin Stowleigh

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Jan 2, 2010, 12:26:30 AM1/2/10

to

I sometimes forget how influential TeamFortress has been in the
multiplayer gaming community. I too harkened back to the original TF
for Quake1, then MegaTF (preferred MegaTF), and I was also an early
adopter. A lot of folks credit Wolfenstein3D for FPS shooter
pioneering, Doom for FPS online shooter pioneering, and Duke3D for
more widespread FPS online shooter pioneering, but what many don't
realize is that Quake1 in its early form appeared to be a disaster --
then later became more refined and was the online shooter to play,
then gave birth to modding which resulted inl TF and then MegaTF.
What did they bring? Class-based teamplay. Nowdays its tricky to
find a multiplayer FPS shooter that doesn't offer different classes,
but to the best of my knowledge, TF was the original. It was around
this same time that 3D accelerated video cards were just becoming
available, which marked another milestone in multiplayer gaming (and
of course, this game was one of the primary reasons folks rushed out
to by a voodoo card).

A decade later TF2 was another landmark game; the pixar-style
graphics were controversial, but for those who admire innovation, they
came as a pleasant surprise. As I played it, I thought to myself
jeez, they brought back the fun factor from the original, something I
thought was lacking from TFC (the HL2 version, which was reasonably
fun I thought but did not capture something about the original).

What I would really like to see next is a complete modernization of
the original TF/MegaTF. I know there is Fortress Forever, but it is
based on TFC which is *NOT* the original. I think there was a mod
someone was working on for Quake4 that was never completed. There was
some sort of eerie, surreal quality from the original that has been
missing in subsequent incarnations.. I love to see that re-done right.

Rin Stowleigh

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Jan 2, 2010, 1:42:18 AM1/2/10

to

Well, I've got a plastic bathroom trashcan over my head and catcher's
mitts on both hands ready to catch the rocks, but here I go.

I'm going to mention the most memorable ones, in a rough approximation
of the order they come to mind rather than how much I favor them. Just
a heads up, I tend to get WAY more value from a game out of the
multiplayer mode in terms of dollars paid vs. hours played, so the MP
games will always take precedence on my list.

******************************************
SHOOTERS (the one I spend the most time in):
******************************************

- Far Cry 2.... not for the single player as much as the multiplayer
teamplay that the uprising mode offered. Sadly, a lot of PC gamers
were not technically adept enough to get past things like punkbuster
issues.. Some of them never even figured out how to join specific
servers as opposed to the insta-matching feature.. and beyond that,
many stuck to simple teamdeathmatching which is run-n-gun and
non-cerebral to say the least (Uprising was the best and most tactical
mode). Enjoyed the single player too, although not sure I ever got
more than 30% in.. it does get a little repetitive but MP was stellar.

- Counterstrike : Source.. It doesnt really *quite* belong in this
list, because the original non-source engine mod came out in 1999, and
the Source version was the same game basically with a much better
engine. However, there is a good reason that an entire professional
gaming league was formed around this game, it could be intense yet
tactical and arcadish all the same time.

- Battlefield Vietnam.. Want to appeal to me? Gimme a Vietnam game
:) For all its flaws, playing in a VN war setting was cool as hell
and I enjoyed it.

- Battlefield 2.. Had some intense fun with this game and put lots of
time into it. The unlocks and global stats were fun too.

- Rainbow Six 3 : Ravenshield.. I always thought the engine was a bit
flawed because of some herky-jerkiness with horizontal movement, but
the game itself I had oodles of fun with. It's unforgiving, and often
the first one of you that sees each other gets the kill, but it seemed
to put a certain atmosphere around online shooters that remains in my
mind.

- Team Fortress 2... Massive fun factor and over the top innovation.
I only stuck with it for about 5-6 months but certainly got my moneys
worth and then some. The ongoing community is a testament to what a
nice game it is... even the beta was rock solid for me, I dont recall
seeing bugs, nothing but having fun playing. Nice work Valve.

- Urban Terror mod for Quake 3... Not sure many people knew about
this one but I had some good times... around 2001 timeframe I think?

- Max Payne 1 and 2... .with Max Payne 1, I was just blown away at the
atmospheric, cinematic experience it brought. Max Payne 2, a little
less so but it was a great game (one of the few games I had to cheat
to get through), and being rewarded with that awesome song at the end
was a nice touch :)

******
SHOOTER Honorable mentions :
******

... Call of Duty Series... although I'm not sure any one of
these games by themselves would be "decade" material, the sum of their
parts seems worthy. Actually COD1 was incredible for me, I couldnt
put the single player down and the online play was amazingly
solid/addictive. COD4:MW and COD6:MW2 appealed to my desire for
modern weapons and had a short but sweet single player. I had some
fun with COD5, but the co-op was most memorable.. I was already
completely burned out on WWII games by the time it came out.

.... Grand Theft Auto IV : Damn these games are well done..
another one that puts me in touch with my inner consoler, yet in the
GTA games I always seem to come to some mission that seems too hard to
get past, thus I never finish? I wasn't a big fan of San Andreas due
to all the "hood" crap but I liked the theme of this one and was
fortunate enough to have a PC up to the task of playing it smoothly.

... Batman : Arkham Asylum.. Not sure if I put it in the right
genre, maybe it should be under fantasy? I never thought I would buy
much less like a Batman game, but this was great, and I would consider
buying a sequel, but not being a comic superhero fan, I'd prefer to
see some other themes addressed with the same level of quality. This
put me in touch with my inner console gamer that I didnt know I had,
since I played it with a 360 controller yet enjoyed it... the
controller didnt seem to get in the way at all, in fact was a pleasure
to use in this game... just good game design all the way around.

... Halflife 2... The game itself was okay, I never finished it.
The game itself I found less compelling than HL1 (which I consider in
the previous decade), but the Source engine that came with it was a
marval and spawned many games and mods, so it does need to be on the
list, even if only for the reason of the Source engine?

******************************************
STRATEGY:
******************************************

First I was fairly disappointed in this genre... Being a big fan of
the original versions of: Civilization, Warcraft, AOE, Dune2, MULE,
Command and Conquer, Populous, etc.. There weren't too many games
here that really grabbed me. There were a couple of standouts I will
put as first two in the list. Everything else as I recall occurred in
the previous decade.

Red Alert 2... This is about the only one I recall bringing back the
old school fun I had with the games mentioned above. I think this is
the only multiplayer strategy game I had real fun with the entire
decade? I never tried RA3 because I didnt like what I read in the
reviews, and I think the entire RTS genre got too focused on 3D
graphics rather than gameplay, which really sort of betrayed the
genre. I miss the old Red Alert/C&C fun.

Plants and Zombies... AHH YEAH! Its a casual game and goes for five
or ten bucks depending on Steam sales, but it is such addictive, old
school fun. It is purely a defensive game, there is no offense
strategy involved, but goddamnit it, does what it does well. Perhaps
the simplicity of jumping in, yet the planning required in later
levels is what got me? I only got this game a couple of weeks ago,
but I was chagrined that I waited so long to get it and I probably
crave going back to it more than any other game I have right now.
You're nuts if you don't play it, especially considering the price;
its a classic, trust me.

Company of Heroes... it was good and I had some fun, maybe even got my
moneys worth but I didn't play it much, possibly because of no
building or harvesting?

******************************************
RPG/Fantasy:
******************************************

Oblivion.. It somehow removed a lot of the tedium I had experienced
in previous Bethesda games (Daggerfall, Morrowind etc) and inspired me
to finish the main quest at least. I dont think I picked it up after
that but I enjoyed the ride, a great deal.

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic.. Jeez I had fun with this one.. its
not really an RPG but it is fantasy so I put it here. Some games,
with a combination of satisfying combat, physics and atmosphere just
seem to pull me in and this was one of those games I refused to put
down till I finished. After that, I had a great deal of fun in
multiplayer! Hard to put my finger on why, but I guess it was the FPS
fantasy game I always wanted?

Torchlight.. A staggeringly simple hack-n-slash but very well done
and addictive. Sometimes simple is just better!

Witcher.. I found the quests interesting, if not a little laborious
at times. This is a problem I have often in RPG games. Although I
liked it, being able to bed women was an innovative bonus :) Not
looking for porn in a game but adult themes are something that should
be added more often to this type of game to help us older farts
relate.

(PENDING) Dragon Age : Origins .. just recently got it... I was
having fun until I got to the first ogre, and he has been so difficult
to get past that I may end up putting this one down, sadly enough. I
read something that indicates he is exceedingly tough so maybe I will
keep trying, but if I hit another obstacle like this it is getting
uninstalled.

unread,

Jan 2, 2010, 7:18:50 AM1/2/10

to

Nostromo wrote:

> And shit comes from arseholes, like most inflexible opinions. Just because
> YOU don't get it, doesn't make everyone else wrong you know. Try pulling
> your head out of your arsehole once in a while & seeing things from other
> ppl's perspectives. You might be surprised just how much more than 10% of
> the time you're wrong in life & didn't even realise it ;-p.
>

It is the moron masses and their popular tacky culture of anything that
needs a wake up call and not me. I am just a person with far more
discerning taste than some Aussie git that probably lives in some shack
in the outback next to a crock watering hole.

Cronos

unread,

Jan 2, 2010, 7:28:02 AM1/2/10

to

Anssi Saari wrote:
>As an FPS it sucks too since you can barely hit
> the side of a barn and combat is pretty much "walk to target, insert
> gun in mouth, pull trigger".

If it wasn't that way it would be a lousy RPG because as you gain
experience and perks then your abilities get better so you are not
supposed to be good at combat until you level up and get better weapons
etc. If it wasn't done that way then it would be just a FPS/adventure
hybrid. Personally, I like to use the V.A.T.S. for combat and would
prefer if it was the only way to do combat in Fallout3.

Cronos

unread,

Jan 2, 2010, 7:35:19 AM1/2/10

to

Nostromo wrote:

> Wolfenstein:Enemy Territory, for my tastes. Damn shame it hasn't spawned a
> sequel, but for WWII online shooter you couldn't go past it, especially as
> it's always been free.

Ugh, I enjoyed that for the first five minutes until I realized everyone
just runs around like chickens with their heads cut off lobbing grenades
so left and never bothered to try it again. Red Orchestra is much closer
to an authentic WWII MP experience than W:ET.

> Haven't tried ET:Quake Wars

I have it and it is one of the deepest MP shooters I have ever played.
Much better than W:ET and you actually are assigned missions to do for
the greater good of your side. Good MP game but steeper learning curve
than most/all.

Cronos

unread,

Jan 2, 2010, 7:37:06 AM1/2/10

to

Trimble Bracegirdle wrote:
> I've read through all the posts so far & note with sadness none of us
> has even mentioned the 1st SPLINTER CELL .

I did. I said SC series so that includes SC1. I left out the last SC too
because while it is ok it is not up to the standards of the other 3.

Cronos

unread,

Jan 2, 2010, 7:41:22 AM1/2/10

to

Rin Stowleigh wrote:
> Well, I've got a plastic bathroom trashcan over my head and catcher's
> mitts on both hands ready to catch the rocks, but here I go.

I counted 22 game picks and not just 3.

Nostromo

unread,

Jan 2, 2010, 8:06:50 AM1/2/10

to

Thus spake Cronos <cro...@sphere.invalid>, Sat, 02 Jan 2010 04:18:50 -0800,
Anno Domini:

LOL - you really need to watch some more modern Aussie cinema than Croc
Dundee! As for the rest...no comment, doesn't dignify a response it's so not
funny & another lame troll attempt :-p.

--
Nostromo

Shawk

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Jan 2, 2010, 8:05:18 AM1/2/10

to

I'm sorry but... what do you mean by that?

Tim O

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Jan 2, 2010, 8:14:17 AM1/2/10

to

On Sat, 02 Jan 2010 18:51:18 +1100, Nostromo <nos...@forme.org> wrote:

>Yeah, and here I thought Spalls' verboseness was a hard act to follow! <G>

That was the main reason I asked for 3 picks. Its very hard to do, but
in a good way. When you start picking 3 games in each genre over the
course of 10 years, you wind up with both too much info and games that
may have not really earned a place there. cough Plants vs. Zombies
cough.

Nostromo

unread,

Jan 2, 2010, 8:46:26 AM1/2/10

to

Thus spake Cronos <cro...@sphere.invalid>, Sat, 02 Jan 2010 04:35:19 -0800,
Anno Domini:

>Nostromo wrote:
>
>> Wolfenstein:Enemy Territory, for my tastes. Damn shame it hasn't spawned a
>> sequel, but for WWII online shooter you couldn't go past it, especially as
>> it's always been free.
>
>Ugh, I enjoyed that for the first five minutes until I realized everyone
>just runs around like chickens with their heads cut off lobbing grenades
>so left and never bothered to try it again. Red Orchestra is much closer
>to an authentic WWII MP experience than W:ET.

Sure, just like any public online fps shooter server. You must really be
psychic to deduce all there is to know about a game from playing it for 5
mins or about people on Usenet from reading their posts for about the same
length of time. I think I'll call you Punxsutawney from now on. Punxsy for
short. :)

>> Haven't tried ET:Quake Wars
>
>I have it and it is one of the deepest MP shooters I have ever played.
>Much better than W:ET and you actually are assigned missions to do for
>the greater good of your side. Good MP game but steeper learning curve
>than most/all.

Hmmm...I think I'll have a go at the latest demo, but I'm fully prepared to
be completely underwhelmed.

unread,

Jan 2, 2010, 10:23:57 AM1/2/10

to

Nostromo wrote:
>I think I'll call you Punxsutawney from now on. Punxsy for
> short. :)

Huh?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punxsutawney

> Hmmm...I think I'll have a go at the latest demo, but I'm fully prepared to
> be completely underwhelmed.
>

If you don't engage your brain and learn how to play it properly and
just expect to run around fragging anything that moves you won't enjoy
it. It has that too but a lot more also.

Morgan

unread,

Jan 2, 2010, 10:41:50 AM1/2/10

to

"Smart" people understand that text is a more limited method of
communication than speech. Text does not have the nuances that exist in
speech that allow us to convey context as well as the words. Emotions
are an all be it partial way to address this limitation. If you lack
the intellect required to understand this fundamental concept then
that's your shortcoming troll.

Now crawl back under your bridge.

unread,

Jan 2, 2010, 10:53:39 AM1/2/10

to

unread,

Jan 2, 2010, 8:37:15 PM1/2/10

to

Morgan wrote:

>
> "Smart" people understand that text is a more limited method of
> communication than speech. Text does not have the nuances that exist in
> speech that allow us to convey context as well as the words. Emotions
> are an all be it partial way to address this limitation. If you lack
> the intellect required to understand this fundamental concept then
> that's your shortcoming troll.

If I added emoticons then it wouldn't be a windup. When doing the windup
you want the victim to wonder if you are being serious or not. If I made
it obvious I was winding them up then it would not be a windup, duuuh.

Obviously your intellectualism needs some work.

Cronos

unread,

Jan 2, 2010, 8:38:47 PM1/2/10

to

Morgan wrote:

> Mrs Mangel did not live next to a croc watering hole. :-)
>
> Seriously every Australian based TV show I've seen is full of incredibly
> attractive women. NB Mrs Mangel wasn't one of them.
>
>
>

Never heard of her but if she takes it up the bum like Nos clams all Aus
women do then I would like to meet her.

Unknown

unread,

Jan 3, 2010, 12:07:27 AM1/3/10

to

On Sat, 02 Jan 2010 17:37:15 -0800, Cronos <cro...@sphere.invalid>
wrote:

You're approx. 14 yrs old, right?

Rin Stowleigh

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Jan 3, 2010, 12:40:51 AM1/3/10

to

On Sat, 02 Jan 2010 14:44:04 -0500, Tim O <timo56...@hotmail.com>
wrote:

>On Sat, 02 Jan 2010 12:28:08 -0500, Rin Stowleigh

Well you took this branch of the thread deeper than the rest, which is
really what you were after, no? Are you checkin me out or something
man? :)

Morgan

unread,

Jan 3, 2010, 2:14:27 AM1/3/10

to

LOL Showing your young age there kid. As for you wanting to do her up
the arse, hilarious.

Morgan

unread,

Jan 3, 2010, 2:16:06 AM1/3/10

to

"Smart" people also don't troll.

> Obviously your intellectualism needs some work.

Does it? Does it really?

Morgan

unread,

Jan 3, 2010, 2:28:02 AM1/3/10

to

Cronos wrote:
> Morgan wrote:
>
>> I would never label you a nasty troll. Pathetic troll possibly.
>> Irrespective, attempting to wind people up and tantamount to trolling
>> anyway. Bottom line, you're a troll, a self confessed troll. Trolls
>> are the retarded scum of Usenet.
>>
>
> IYO, and YO counts for shit.

Wrong troll.

> Doing the windup is a national past time
> for Brits

No it isn't and I doubt you're British. You sure as hell don't use
common English phrases. "Smart" (in the context you use it) and "Brit"
are not in common use in England, people from inside the UK will
generally refer to themselves as English, Scottish, Welsh or Irish.
Furthermore "winding people up" is what the less intelligent badly
behaved school kids do in England, not exactly a national pass time.

Morgan

unread,

Jan 3, 2010, 2:29:44 AM1/3/10

to

gno...@al.ia wrote:

>> Obviously your intellectualism needs some work.
>
> You're approx. 14 yrs old, right?

Nah, he'd have grown out of this phase by now if he was that old.

JAB

unread,

Jan 3, 2010, 4:10:59 AM1/3/10

to

On 03/01/2010 07:28, Morgan wrote:
> No it isn't and I doubt you're British. You sure as hell don't use
> common English phrases. "Smart" (in the context you use it) and "Brit"
> are not in common use in England, people from inside the UK will
> generally refer to themselves as English, Scottish, Welsh or Irish.
> Furthermore "winding people up" is what the less intelligent badly
> behaved school kids do in England, not exactly a national pass time.
>

The knob is as British as Mohamed Fayed and about as funny ... IIRC
correctly he tried to claim that someone wasn't British as they used
"ain't" which according to him is only used in the US.

Just don't bother replying to him ...

Morgan

unread,

Jan 3, 2010, 4:45:39 AM1/3/10

to

Oh Christ is he that twat? I thought he'd hit puberty and left.

JAB

unread,

Jan 3, 2010, 5:05:26 AM1/3/10

to

He's the same person who just changes his name every week or so and then
trots and the same boring rubbish again and again and again ... at least
SteamKiller had a sort of funny element to him. This guy's a bit like
piles ...