Video & PC Game Discussion

lol Oh bad fur day...

Guys ? How many times you played GTA - Vice City ?

And now, I'm playing Warcraft 2 - for tenth time ? About.

Playing lots of things in short bursts at the moment because it's summer and I'm too much of a lazy git to read the many things I should be reading.

Starcraft (just acquired the original) - approaching the end of the Zerg campaign. The storytelling is very nicely streamlined with the RTS mechanics and more importantly, the RTS mechanics square with the game universe. I think I've only really lost one mission so far, and I can see how if you're playing on non-wimpy difficulty they might be quite challenging but still interesting to play. You can see where it's impacted on and been developed in blizzards later RTS games. Not a big fan of the music but the game's a deserving classic in the genre.

The original Age of Empires. Ultimately a bit painful now I'm very used to the massively improved UI and  The Conquerors and am simultaneously good enough that any less-than-hard difficulty setting is terribly dull but anything more screws with my desire to build so many villagers I can afford a stupidly powerful army and then using the town centre instead of an army for early defence.

Still, I thought that some of the campaign levels were really interesting to play - the Babylonian one where you start as a single priest and have to convert your villagers, the first couple of Yamato island hopping levels are quite interesting and rather harder and a bit subtler than any of the you-start-with-an-army-but-can't-have-a-town levels I can think of in AOE 2, the emphasis of towers in the first Rome level is nice. I also found it strangely refreshing to (re)play a tutorial where you are introduced to things by stages - a lot RTS games tend to give you a unit and then show you a specific situation when it's really effective... AOE just gives you a few more units and lets you play around with them and what they can do. Anyway, it's a very good game, just not one I can really play now I'm so used to more recent RTSes with steamlined interfaces.

AOE II: The Conquerors (you may be sensing a theme). Hun campaign on hardest (well, hard, but hardest doesn't exist for it)... Interesting that particularly this campaign can be made massively easier or harder by the way you approach them. Very good campaign.

Deus Ex - a genuine combination of FPS and RPG elements, which gives you a lot of freedom, branching gameplay, fun things to do and a fairly interesting story. Superb stuff.

Marty McFly wrote: Guys ? How many times you played GTA - Vice City ?

A lot. And I mean a lot

Ninja Gaiden.
So hard I literally could not play it
Hopefully now I can manage at least a bit better

progkidjoel wrote: Deus Ex and Starcraft are both timeless masterpieces IMO - can't get enough of either of them.

I enjoy StarCraft more than I do Warcraft II (not played Warcraft III).  The campaign is great.  A good story and lots of deceipt and dark story too.  I do need to finish it though.

AoE is great too.  I have fond memories of playing the demo at College via Network with friends.  Mmm.  I've played the original full game now but only single player Campaigns.  I also still need to finish them.  I actually really like all the lore.  I can spend hours reading about the Hittites, Babylonians &c.

I do have AoE II but haven't tried it yet.

I also need to try Deus Ex.

The order of games I care about now.

1. Halo:Reach (will buy)
2. Fable 3 (will rent)
3. Deus Ex: Human Revolution (will probably rent, depends of strength of reviews if I'll buy)

I just finished Shadow of the Colossus for the fifth time, amazing game.

Soon I hope to play through Baldurs Gate 1 and 2, Icewind Dale 1 and 2, Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2.