What I played on my holidays...
Terry Pratchett
Well, you won't want to know about Max Payne 2, although some of the
sets are wonderful. There is not a hell of a lot of sneaking, it must be
said.
But out of Call of Duty I did get a certain among of sneaking fun. It's
hugely better than Medal of Honor. It's smoother, doesn't spam enemies,
you don't play the same character all the way through, and often play
with bots, on your side, who aren't too dumb. By far the best game is
on the Eastern front. Seen Enemy at the Gates? Now play it...in fine
detail, at times. You even start in the boat crossing the Volga, and
when you have to rush onto the battlefield, clutching only a clip of
ammo, a Private Vasilev is beside you. There's of crawling and
sniping in ruined factories and snow-covered freight yards, which are
wonderfully detailed. Mostly, moving slowly and looking carefully is
your friend.
Now to play through T2 again:-)
--
Terry Pratchett
Nightwalker
"Terry Pratchett" <tprat...@unseen.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:7o7$o67rN6...@unseen.demon.co.uk...
Welcome back, Terry! My husband just finished Max Payne 2 but it doesn't
look like my sort of game. I played most of the first one and got bored with
it. I'll remember Call of Duty, though. It sounds like it might be just the
thing to buy my husband for his birthday. Thanks for the recommendation!
I've been playing an older game called Blade of Darkness. Not at all Thiefy
but lots of fun! It's third person, kill the Orcs, goblins, etc. which is
not normally my style but I'm really enjoying it, for some strange reason.
Nightwalker
Mark Morrison
<tprat...@unseen.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>
>Well, you won't want to know about Max Payne 2, although some of the
>sets are wonderful. There is not a hell of a lot of sneaking, it must be
>said.
I loved MP2 - I was part way through when I had to reinstall Windows,
only to find the saves were kept in MY Documents, and not in the MAx
Payne folder...
>But out of Call of Duty I did get a certain among of sneaking fun. It's
>hugely better than Medal of Honor. It's smoother, doesn't spam enemies,
>you don't play the same character all the way through, and often play
>with bots, on your side, who aren't too dumb. By far the best game is
>on the Eastern front. Seen Enemy at the Gates? Now play it...in fine
>detail, at times. You even start in the boat crossing the Volga, and
>when you have to rush onto the battlefield, clutching only a clip of
>ammo, a Private Vasilev is beside you. There's of crawling and
>sniping in ruined factories and snow-covered freight yards, which are
>wonderfully detailed. Mostly, moving slowly and looking carefully is
>your friend.
>
>Now to play through T2 again:-)
Seen the vids for Thief 3 ? There's a really nice clip of Garrett
about to blackjacka guard. As he steps forward, he must step in front
of a fire and you see a huge shadow on the wall, with a blackjack
ready to fall...
--
Bunnies aren't just cute like everybody supposes !
They got them hoppy legs and twitchy little noses !
And what's with all the carrots ?
What do they need such good eyesight for anyway ?
Bunnies ! Bunnies ! It must be BUNNIES !
Greger Hoel
<tprat...@unseen.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>
>Well, you won't want to know about Max Payne 2, although some of the
>sets are wonderful. There is not a hell of a lot of sneaking, it must be
>said.
I haven't gotten around to play MP2 yet, but I loved the overall
visual appeal of MP1. Bullet time, the snow, the bleak houses. Very
nice atmosphere.
>But out of Call of Duty I did get a certain among of sneaking fun. It's
>hugely better than Medal of Honor. It's smoother, doesn't spam enemies,
>you don't play the same character all the way through, and often play
>with bots, on your side, who aren't too dumb. By far the best game is
>on the Eastern front. Seen Enemy at the Gates? Now play it...in fine
>detail, at times. You even start in the boat crossing the Volga, and
>when you have to rush onto the battlefield, clutching only a clip of
>ammo, a Private Vasilev is beside you. There's of crawling and
>sniping in ruined factories and snow-covered freight yards, which are
>wonderfully detailed. Mostly, moving slowly and looking carefully is
>your friend.
Does CoD have that annoying clipping that MoH:AA had? Where you can't
step off the road you're charged to clear, because of invisible
barriers?
Glad to hear they don't have respawning AIs though, that was
incredibly annying about MoH:AA
--
Greger
______________________________________________
What's up Chuck?
To email me, replace everything after @ with softhome.net
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Grumpy Willis
"Terry Pratchett" <tprat...@unseen.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:7o7$o67rN6...@unseen.demon.co.uk...
>
The Far Cry demo is causing a bit of a rumpus in various groups at the
moment, it has open ended gameplay, gorgeous scenery (your on an island in
the pacific, and doesn't it look like it too!) , you can make good progress
by sneaking through the undergrowth.. damn good fun it is.
You do need a powerfull pc to get the very best out of the graphics, but
then they are simply stunning.
I would suggest the everyone have at least a look at some screenshots of the
game.. bloody lovely they are!
Rich.
Gez
WWII solo or 4 man group "stealthy" action.
There's a bit of everything in this game (sometimes it's too
ambitious for it's own good, and there is the odd bug/hinderance)
But there's a magnificent War sim here, it's belly crawling through snow,
and rushing through jungle vegetation. There's uniforms to "borrow" and
infiltrate.
There's sniper action, tank driving, defending a desert village, sneaking
aboard
a ship.Sabotaging a submarine, and that's not even half of it. You can't
"ghost"
levels, it's more built around taking out the enemy without drawing too much
attention,
positioning your men then striking while the lead is hot!
I tell you when one of your men dives out of a bush and tickles a
sausage-nosher's
ribs with a Fairburn-Sykes, it's superb.
You can play 1st or 3rd person, characters slightly "improve" stats after
levels, and
you get full inventory management for your (or scavenged enemy) equipment.
It's quite a difficult game, but aquiring a disguise for one or more of your
men
really helps things.
8.5/10
Terry Pratchett
<mac...@comcast.net> writes
>
>
>What is it? "On the Eastern Front"? I haven't heard of that one.
>Hmmm... *runs off to google a bit*
:-) Sorry, that's not a separate game, that's just once of the sets of
missions in CoD.
--
Terry Pratchett
Terry Pratchett
<gre...@spamblock.com> writes
>
>Does CoD have that annoying clipping that MoH:AA had? Where you can't
>step off the road you're charged to clear, because of invisible
>barriers?
There are some barriers like that, but it's nothing like as bad --
mostly there are 'real barriers. In one section there are no such
barriers, just marked minefield. And you *will* treat on a mine!
>
>Glad to hear they don't have respawning AIs though, that was
>incredibly annying about MoH:AA
There is what appears to be respawning in a couple of places for a good
narrative reason , but it's time-limited.
I reloaded MoH after playing CoD and it seemed unreal and creaky by
comparison.
--
Terry Pratchett
Mika Latokartano
"Terry Pratchett" <tprat...@unseen.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:7o7$o67rN6...@unseen.demon.co.uk...
> Well, you won't want to know about Max Payne 2, although some of the
> sets are wonderful. There is not a hell of a lot of sneaking, it must be
> said.
Hi Terry, great to have you back with us!
What comes to Max Payne 2, I only tried the demo, which I guess at this
point is enough for me. I did enjoy the first one, though, mainly because
it was short enough that I had the patience to play a game through for a
change, and the bullet time was cool the first time round. Thief TDP/TMA
and the FMs being the exceptions, I tend to get bored or frustrated at many
games and never finish them because they often just get progressively too
damn difficult, but not significantly more interesting to motivate me
keeping going.
> But out of Call of Duty I did get a certain among of sneaking fun. It's
> hugely better than Medal of Honor. It's smoother, doesn't spam enemies,
> you don't play the same character all the way through, and often play
> with bots, on your side, who aren't too dumb.
Sounds good, thanks for the tip. Again, I've only tried the MOHAA demo, and
apart from that I've seriously gotten involved only with Operation
Flashpoint (haven't finished it, though), which had fantastic stealth
moments and great immersion. There was this one night-time solo
black-op-type-of-a-mission where you had to infiltrate an enemy base and
sabotage their ammo depot and airfield, which was one of the best and most
immersive and exciting gaming moments I've ever experienced. The mood was
fantastic, the difficulty was just suitable, there were several approaches
to the mission and it was scary as hell. Hmm... maybe I'll have to blow the
dust off my Operation Flashpoint CD ;)
I did play a few rounds of Worms 3D with my brother-in-law, and while it was
fun and much of what you'd expect from a Worms game, I think I prefer the 2D
versions over the 3D. The camera angles were awkward, and I missed digging
tunnels :) Not a bad game, though, just needs some polishing up. Some
games are simply not based on how good or modern they look, but have their
foundation in solid gameplay.
I read about a potentially interesting fan effort that aims to modernize the
old Ultima V, expand the storyline a bit and do all kinds of ambitious
things to the venerable classic. They're building it using the Dungeon
Siege engine, and they say they're just over 60% done. As with the FMs, the
mod will be freeware, but you need the original Dungeon Siege (never played
it) to play it. The project has a website at http://www.u5lazarus.com/ in
case you taffers want to take a look.
Recently I played the Deus Ex: Invisible War demo, and was quite
disappointed. It didn't do anything for me, and based on the demo I think
I'll wait for a few years before buying it -- which is exactly what I did
with Deus Ex. I bought it just before the holidays, and have been playing
it for a little while. It's promising, but I've had to adjust my
Thief-based preconceptions of the game and how it should be played as I've
progressed with it. The Deus Ex IW demo got me more than a bit worried
about the fate of Thief 3 a.k.a. Thief: Deadly Shadows (how silly a title is
that?), though. I hope they get it right, and don't dumb it down, but I'm
really worried.
> Now to play through T2 again:-)
I have a backlog of recent FM releases that I didn't get around to playing
during the holidays, which I'm looking forward to playing, but I've also had
this calling to play through T2 again. No matter how utterly fantastic many
of the FMs are, I always return to the original, every once in a while.
- Mika
miss calm
"Mika Latokartano" <mika.lat...@kolumbus.fi> wrote in message
news:bvrb50$b0c$1...@phys-news1.kolumbus.fi...
Mika could you suggest a good first person besides of course Thief or Quake
II. I have Deus ex?
>
Morpheus
> May I steer you in the direction of Hidden and Dangerous 2.
Indeed you may! :-) Damn I love the looks of that game...
But for the gamer out there with not quite the system specs to handle it
(ie: myself), may I point you in the direction of Hidden & Dangerous 1
Deluxe:
Oh yes, *praise* the folk at Gathering, for they made it freeware! And
merely 264 megs to download. ;-) [worth noting the deluxe version has
improved textures, patched to bug-free, and includes the expansion]
I'm told H&D2 builds upon everything the original title had in terms of
"sneaky-thrilling-covert-immersive" gameplay and then some... ;-)
<looks forward to it when he finally gets around to upgrading> :-)
};> M v3.2
* Never put off until tomorrow what you could avoid indefinitely.
Greger Hoel
<tprat...@unseen.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>There is what appears to be respawning in a couple of places for a good
>narrative reason , but it's time-limited.
If so, I have no problem with it. It's 'french mansion' conditions I
really don't ever wanna play through again.
>I reloaded MoH after playing CoD and it seemed unreal and creaky by
>comparison.
I've been thinking about replaying the first two missions from MoH,
they played great because of the very good AI scripting, something
they surely could've used to better effect later in the game. The CoD
SP demo seemed to have very good scripted AI too. Is AI scripting
widely used in the rest of the game as well?
mary clarke
"miss calm" <dufiz...@nospam.cat> wrote in message
news:bvrdaa$3oi$1...@news8.svr.pol.co.uk...
very absorbing and very funny as well. I love it and am playing it through
for a second time. There is a NOLF 2 which is good too, but not as funny
imo.
I'm currently playing XIII but although enjoying it seems to be a shoot em
up. Lovely graphics though - like a cartoon.
Mary
Gez
from ear to ear.
You have to get into a snowbound base, trekking through pine forest and/or
frozen swamp.
Enemy are everywhere. Rendevous with a contact. Get in the base. Take photos
of the research.
Destroy the base. Get out alive. Rescue a downed pilot and there's still
more! This is only the first mission.
It's not running around shooting though, it's crawling, timing sentry
patrols. It's picking off the guards one by one.
It's fantastic!
reborn rolla
"mary clarke" <mary.c...@btinternet.com> wrote in message
news:bvu7kd$9dm$1...@hercules.btinternet.com...
NOLF2 is pretty good. As for FPS games, I would recommend..
Return to Castle Wolfenstein
Jedi Knight 2 Jedi Outcast
Soldier of Fortune
Serious Sam the Second Encounter
Postal 2 (sick but fun)
Soldier of Fortune 2 is buggy but has to be the most graphic of all so far.
It added more body and head wounds to make it the grossest by far.
pplppp
> sets are wonderful. There is not a hell of a lot of sneaking, it must be
> said.
I played the demo it looks cool I hope T3 would have similar physics stuff
and in-game cinematics.. but of course, it's not the type of game for a
sneaky person, too much action
>
> But out of Call of Duty I did get a certain among of sneaking fun. It's
> hugely better than Medal of Honor. It's smoother, doesn't spam enemies,
> you don't play the same character all the way through, and often play
> with bots, on your side, who aren't too dumb.
I only played the MOHAA demo... which wasn't too impressive.. and in MP..
when it lags instead of getting a lag sign I am being pulled back.. like you
try to run forward and then you are pulled back a few steps... but I haven't
played CoD.. for SP I just finished No One Lives Forever 2.. the jokes are
not as humourous as those in NOLF1, but the graphics and gameplay are a lot
better and there's some element of sneaking although as sophisicated as
Thief.. I like the AI though.. for the most part guard are pretty smart..
and they can climb down laddars rather than standing on the top and yelling
at you, and they do all sort of sophisicated actions like sit down, lie
down, even pushing the chair back when the stand up... it'll be cool to see
similar stuff in T3!
for MP I am doing RTCW - Enemy Territory.. it's free (it was intended to be
an expansion to RTCW but somehow was released as a standalone free
goodie)... well.. unlike some FPS MP I played, it's actually possible to
sneak... well.. not like you can hide in shadows.. but since the games are
objective games.. you can hide behind a crate and go do the objective after
enemy run past, or wait for an unsuspecting enemy to open a locked door for
you... well it's quite fun... but I really look forward to T3 for some
professional sneaking experience
David Sadtwat
far.
> It added more body and head wounds to make it the grossest by far.
I thought SOF 1 and Kingpin were even more gory?
Terry Pratchett
<gre...@spamblock.com> writes
>I've been thinking about replaying the first two missions from MoH,
>they played great because of the very good AI scripting, something
>they surely could've used to better effect later in the game. The CoD
>SP demo seemed to have very good scripted AI too. Is AI scripting
>widely used in the rest of the game as well?
Seems so. I was playing for a while last night and was still
impressed.
--
Terry Pratchett
miss calm
"mary clarke" <mary.c...@btinternet.com> wrote in message
news:bvu7kd$9dm$1...@hercules.btinternet.com...
>
I'll try that Mary, thanks.
>
>
Loony
Thiefy
> but lots of fun! It's third person, kill the Orcs, goblins, etc. which is
> not normally my style but I'm really enjoying it, for some strange reason.
>
wondered how a Thief mod might do there... If not a mod then a game using
that engine... thought dated it's truly beautiful still.
I'd love to hear what character you chose and any other info you'd like to
share. I can point you toward some walk-throughs and add-on mods if you're
interested.
Good Luck
Loony
Morpheus
> I won't spoil too much but the first H+D2 mission will leave
> you grinning from ear to ear.
> It's not running around shooting though, it's crawling, timing
> sentry patrols. It's picking off the guards one by one.
> It's fantastic!
Sounds great! This is why I reckon fellow taffers would like it. :-)
(So long as they can get into the WW2-theme...)
};> M v3.2
I have this nagging fear that everyone is out to make me paranoid.
Nightwalker
"Loony" <lo...@nospam.loony.name> wrote in message
news:64XUb.45703$%72.1...@twister.nyroc.rr.com...
I've been playing as the Amazon and having a ball with it. It took awhile to
figure out how to use the special attacks and I was struggling a bit with it
before that point but it's a lot easier now. You're quite right that it's a
beautiful game. I'm quite impressed with the terrain and architecture as
well as the skins for the creatures you have to fight. They move quite
realistically and the first time I saw one down a healing potion after
taking some damage I was truly amazed!
I haven't gotten all the way through it yet. I think I'm probably about
half-way or a bit more. I've still got Thief things to work on so it cuts
down the time I have to play it but I hope to go through as at least one of
the other characters after I finish it with the Amazon. I'm told that it
plays quite differently because the attacks and weapons are so different for
each of them.
I've found a good walkthrough to use when I get stuck and I'd be glad to
hear more about the add-on mods for when I'm finished. Are they hard to use?
I've been spoiled by Darkloader and I'm not very good at messing around with
changing files unless the directions are quite specific. I'd be grateful for
any information about them and where to get them, for sure. So would my
daughter and her husband, who have also been playing it and enjoying it
immensely. :-)
I don't know how well a Thief-type mod would work because you don't seem to
be able to sneak up on the characters too effectively. You can get closer by
crouching but they always seem to alert before you get close enough to do
much damage with anything but a bow. It's kind of a nice change to just
whack critters for a change, anyway!
Nightwalker
--
**Remove "leavemealone from my email address to reply.**
Loony
to
> figure out how to use the special attacks and I was struggling a bit with
it
> before that point but it's a lot easier now. You're quite right that it's
a
> beautiful game. I'm quite impressed with the terrain and architecture as
> well as the skins for the creatures you have to fight. They move quite
> realistically and the first time I saw one down a healing potion after
> taking some damage I was truly amazed!
>
Amazing. A lot of my friends tried it and uninstalled it straight away
cause you can't 'strafe'. Instead you have an orbit mode you enter into and
strafing becomes circling the opponent... It's a little tricky to get used
to and it's not very effective against multiple enemies and it's terrible to
run from a fight when you're hurt and mashing keys, as I so often did... but
if you stick with it, the game is more than worth playing!
> I haven't gotten all the way through it yet. I think I'm probably about
> half-way or a bit more. I've still got Thief things to work on so it cuts
> down the time I have to play it but I hope to go through as at least one
of
> the other characters after I finish it with the Amazon. I'm told that it
> plays quite differently because the attacks and weapons are so different
for
> each of them.
>
The Amazon is my favorite. She's so fast and her huge weapons are so fun
it's hard to beat. The only problem with her is her best move is the
whirlwind... I ended up using that one move through most of the game. Some
of her power moves are impressive but the drain on your fatique is
tremendous.
The Knight is the most balanced. Medium Damage, Medium Speed, Probably the
Best combo moves.
The Dwarf is about the same speed as the knight. His weapons do more damage
but the combos are trickier to do.
The Barbarian is slow but really powerful... he's about as far away from the
Amazon as you can get... so if you're looking for a completely different
experience, I recommend him for the next time through.
> I've found a good walkthrough to use when I get stuck and I'd be glad to
> hear more about the add-on mods for when I'm finished. Are they hard to
use?
> I've been spoiled by Darkloader and I'm not very good at messing around
with
> changing files unless the directions are quite specific. I'd be grateful
for
> any information about them and where to get them, for sure. So would my
> daughter and her husband, who have also been playing it and enjoying it
> immensely. :-)
>
There's only two mods I use:
1) Bow Sight mod: This lines up your shot with the tip of your arrow and
makes aiming quite a bit easier. Speaking of bows, don't you love pulling
arrows out of the walls when you miss :) Just like Thief... only I tend to
miss more in this game.
2) Canabilism mod: It's a little gross but useful. If you carry a torch,
you can cook the severed limbs of your opponents to make slabs of cooked
meat, which you can eat to regain health.
There are a slew of other mods including new levels, new story-games, and
other things. The game is completely scripted in Python which is a free
programming language that's relatively easy to learn and use... which is why
I've thought about a Thief mod for it. But anyway, you have to download a
mod loader which believe it or not is even better than Darkloader. Install
the mod loader, then start the game and it will connect to a website... then
you can actually browse, download and activiate/deactivate which ever mods
you want. Quite easy. It's called BODLoader:
http://dahlby.net/games/blade/
> I don't know how well a Thief-type mod would work because you don't seem
to
> be able to sneak up on the characters too effectively. You can get closer
by
> crouching but they always seem to alert before you get close enough to do
> much damage with anything but a bow. It's kind of a nice change to just
> whack critters for a change, anyway!
>
Yeah, it would obviously depend on how the AI was coded whether sneaking,
shadows and sounds would be possible, but hell, if they can do it in Unreal
Tournament... :)
Anyway, sorry for obsessing, I'm glad everyone on your end is enjoying it!
Play on!
Loony