Good Games For Christmas? 613
Since nothing really interesting seems to be happening today (unless you count some lame overpriced scooter) I figured I'd throw this out. We've discussed christmas presents in general, but what about refining the subject to just video games? With Final Fantasy 10 not due out until the day after christmas, what new games are coming out? Please mention systems in your subject line. Personally I just finished Klonoa 2 and enjoyed it, I'm maybe half way through Grand Theft Auto 3 and am absolutely in love, and just picked up Metal Gear Solid 2 but have yet to break the celophane, but can't wait. On the PC side, The Sims Hot Date expansion pack is pretty smooth if your idea of fun is micromanaging an armada of virtual people. I hope a psychiatrist never analyzes my Sims style.
Civ III (Score:5, Informative)
Descent (Score:2, Informative)
Have you played Ico yet? (Score:3, Informative)
Also that scooter has two wheels, side-by-side, I've been wondering why it hasn't been posted on the front page yet.
PS2 / PC Games (Score:5, Informative)
- Grand Theft Auto 3 - Amazing
- Metal Gear Solid 2 - Has its ups and downs, but pretty cool
Reviews have been good on the following:PC Wise the only thing that I have played civilization 3, and its good, but might not be for everyone.
I'm also probably going to pick up the often discussed Return to Castle Wolfenstein.
In a related note, does anyone know of any good party style games for the PS2? I really enjoyed Smash Brothers on the N64, but don't want to pick up a new system just for the 1 game, so I was hoping that there was a similar, multiplayer, simple PS2 game out there my girlfriend might be able to play.
Thanks,
Captain_Frisk
ICO (PS2) (Score:1, Informative)
-Adam
For the pc... (Score:2, Informative)
For strategy-lovers, there's always Stronghold. [godgames.com]A realtively new game from firefly studios, stronghold mixes bits of the fighting from age of Empire with the resource management from the settlers and adds some spicy caste-building extras on top. It may not be everyones cup of tea, but I find it very enjoyable.
Tony Hawk 3 Internet Multiplayer (Score:1, Informative)
Tribes 2 for Team oriented Multiplayer FPS lovers (Score:2, Informative)
the games movement style (which consisted of me
coming to the understanding that it realisticly
expects you to apply thrust when you're airbourne
if you want to move horizontally), I've come to truly enjoy this game. It includes much variety as to the style of the players' weaponry and armor, and the vehicle operation gives it something above Quake 3:TA and UT (both of which I also think of highly). It's slow-paced comparitively, but it's a lot of fun, and it has tremendous replay value.
Other choices (Score:4, Informative)
For those of us who aren't into anime (FF 10) or first-person shooters... ;)
Kohan: Ahriman's Gift [kohan.net] , the most original and entertaining RTS this year.
Wizardry 8 [wizardy8.com] , if you like party-based, heavy-combat, first-person RPGs.
Stronghold [fireflyworlds.com] , a terrific "castle simulator" built by some of the folks who created the Caesar/Pharoah series.
Here's where I get burned in effigy (Score:2, Informative)
All I can say is - its getting better. No, its not 100% there, but it is getting better.
Grand Theft Auto 3 (Score:5, Informative)
Unfortunately it is only out for the PS2, but for those of you with a PS2 should seriously think about getting this game. The complexity and depth of this game is pretty amazing. And the graphics are a huge improvement from GTA1 and 2. That silly low-detail overhead view made playing the game too cumbersome. GTA3 got the graphics/interface right.
I have been playing it every spare second I have for the last month, and I am still only 36% through it according to the stats. And I believe that only relates to the missions. If you are bored with the missions you can always:
1) Try to get "stunt" bonuses by stealing fast cars, boats, or airplanes and driving them off ramps, bridges, buildings, etc.
2) Steal a taxi cab and play a little Crazy Taxi-esque game to earn a little side money
3) Steal a fire engine and go around the citty putting out fires for $$. I hear if you put out 10 in a row you get the flame thrower. (How does that work?)
4) Steal an ambulance and drive people to the hospital.
5) Steal a police car and go on "Vigilante Missions" where you track down criminals around the city and get cash for killing them.
Oh did I mention that this game is very non-PC and not recommended for people under 17? But man is it a lot of fun for those of us who are over 17.
Re:Civ 3 (Score:4, Informative)
The biggest problems were its instability (dunno why, perhaps it's not completely Civ3's fault, but Win ME kept on locking up all the time when running Civ 3), crappy gfx (I absolutely hate them compared to, say, Civ 2), non-usable UI (compared to what CivCTP or Civ 2 had... hey, let's make it more user-friendly by removing all "complexity", like menus...), and the fact that there didn't seem to be all that many interesting new features.
On plus side, it wasn't total rip-off (a la Settlers 3); sphere of influence (or whatever it was called) is a nice idea, movement restrictions are more varied (and interesting) now, diplomacy seems to have been improved, special resources are a nice addition... and perhaps there are more goodies if I do spend more time with it.
Hmmh. Perhaps I'll need to give Civ 3 a new chance during xmas break, after all. :-)
Re:Civ 3 (Score:3, Informative)
I'm not a Windows user, so I thought that was standard
Seriously, the UI really sucks, and the manual doesn't help much. I talked with a friend who have won two games (where does he get the time!) and he talked about saving the game and then retiring just so he could see what his score was. Then I mentioned the "h" button hidden on the unit display and he went gaga. Then he told me about the capital diplomacy menu having different options than the advisor diplomacy menu (which has different options than the "d" button diplomacy menu hidden on the unit display).
Just pretend Civ III is Myst III. There's a hidden control panel there somewhere, and you job is to find it.
Games I liked to play recently (Score:3, Informative)
- Chu Chu Rocket (Dreamcast)
- Advance Wars (GBA)
- Paper Mario (N64)
Golden Sun for GBA looks really good. RTCW and Max Payne were pretty fun for the PC, but I think I am personally a sucker for bad single-player FPS games.
Try The Longest Journey (Score:2, Informative)
Nice graphics, great speech, and a female lead who's not all about tight-fitting clothes and guns.
More info here [longestjourney.com]
Spy Hunter for PS2 (Score:3, Informative)
20 years ago, Spy Hunter was a sprite-based top-down scrolling shooter. Your little car sprite would shoot the other little car sprites, or drop oil slicks in front of them. Sometimes you would drive a little boat sprite. You drove on an endless scrolling road (or sometimes river). (With Shockwave, you can play a version of the original Spy Hunter here [shockwave.com].)
Now, on the PlayStation 2, Spy Hunter [midway.com] is a 3D game. The camera is just above and behind your car. There are 14 levels to play, with multiple objectives per level. It plays a lot like Hydro Thunder, but with weapons.
Drive into water, and the car morphs to a boat. Drive the boat up onto land it and morphs back to car. When the car takes too much damage, lots of parts explode off it and what's left morphs to an armored motorcycle! Even cooler, drive the motorcycle into the water and it morphs into an armored jet-ski! When you are driving the car/jetski, you don't have the full special abilities of the car, and you have reduced firepower, but you can play the level anyway; it's just tougher. Dock with the weapons van (or weapons boat) for a full repair of all damage and full ammo load.
If you like Hydro Thunder you should like this too. I haven't had it long, but I don't think I will get tired of it, just as I'm not tired of Hydro Thunder. The gameplay is somewhat repetitive: you drive around shooting bad guys, you try to find the ramps that let you make the jumps, etc. But the level design is fun, and I don't seem to get tired of locking guided missiles on enemies and blowing them away.
I have only two complaints about the game. 0) Most of the cinematic cutscenes are pretty boring (just a shot of your car making the getaway after finishing the level). 1) If you are a good player, it will probably take you 20 hours or less to finish all the levels. But as I said there is a lot of replay value even just playing the same levels over and over, plus it will take you many plays to find all the secrets and accomplish all the objectives. Once you have found all secrets and accomplished all objectives, that level unlocks for 2-player mode; in 2-player mode you both play, split-screen, at the same time. I haven't tried 2-player yet but it looks like a blast.
The music is great. The rocking "Spy Hunter" soundtrack the "Peter Gunn Theme" by Henry Mancini, but remixed and with variations. I like the soundtrack so much that if they sell a CD of just the music, I'll probably buy it.
GameSpot has a review [gamespot.com]. They like it but not quite as much as I like it.
Recommended.
steveha
Re:The Burning Question Everybody Wants to Know: (Score:3, Informative)
It's still pretty much G-rated. You can turn it up to PG-13 here [7deadlysims.com] and to the next level here [8thdeadlysim.com]. The second site is a pay site, but it's cheap -- $3.50 US for 30 days, which is more than enough time to suck down everything on the site.
Here are my recommendations... (Score:2, Informative)
You've already mentioned GTA 3 and Metal Gear Solid 2, which are absolute must-haves. Devil May Cry, Silent Hill 2, ICO, Tony Hawk 3, Spy Hunter, and Gran Turismo 3 are also worth picking up. As for party games, Frequency, WWF Smackdown: Know Your Role, and NBA Street are good candidates. Which reminds me, don't overlook the sports titles out there (I'm not a big sports nut but I do enjoy playing football games like Madden 2002 and NFL 2K2 as a change of pace every so often).
Gamecube:
Star Wars: Rogue Leader is a must-have. The second-to-last level, simply titled "Battle Above Endor," is breathtaking (my friends are always astonished at the sheer amount of chaos that occurs on that level). Wave Race: Blue Storm and Super Smash Brothers Melee are great party games. Luigi's Mansion is good, although people have complained that the completion time is rather short.
Xbox:
HALO and Dead or Alive 3 are must-haves and great party games. Oddworld: Abe's Odyssey is also worth picking up.
Dreamcast:
With the console's price slashed down to just $50.00, you can quickly stock up on a great collection of games. I was shocked that Space Channel 5 and Jet Grind Radio were less than $10.00 apiece at the local Best Buy last weekend.
PS One and Nintendo 64:
I've recently started picking up many games that I had previously overlooked which have now been heavily discounted (Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for instance). It might be worth filling some holes in your collection.
I wish this list were more complete but all of my games are at home and I'm at work.
Re:Dreamcast: Even cheaper shit. (Score:3, Informative)
Skies of Arcadia is indeed pretty col so far. Kind of ugly character designs, but that's life. Dead or alive has the best character designs -- my goodness, she really does kick high doesn't she?
garyr
Re:Racing games? (Score:3, Informative)
PS/PS2/DC/GCN/XBox - RedOctane Rental Programs (Score:3, Informative)
Check out www.redoctane.com - they have a rental program similar to NetFlix. For a monthly fee you get a certain number of games out at any one time, and when you return one they send you the next one on your list. They have a great selection (including some imports), but it's pretty common for games to be out of stock for a while. For example I put Sonic Adventure 2 in my queue when I joined in late September, and recieved it in early November. I still haven't gotten Parasite Eve though, which I also added when I joined and which it now finally says is in stock. I haven't gotten any GameCubes games yet, and don't really expect them for a while.
Still, it's been worth it. There are a lot of games that just don't take that long to finish. ICO, for example, was very fun first time through but I can't imagine wanting to play it again. It's also nice to not have to rely on reviews, but actually be able to easily check games out for yourself.
IBM-clones: RPGs - PS:T and BG2 (Score:3, Informative)
Not new, but still the very best of the best: Planescape: Torment [planescape-torment.com] and Baldur's Gate 2 [interplay.com].
Re:Civ 3 (Score:1, Informative)
The good:
- It remains true to the Civ Line
- Graphics are a bit improved
- It comes with an editor, so you can change the rules to how you want them.
- It's addictive and Fun!
The Bad:
- It is pretty buggy. (A patch is supposed to come out this week though)
- Nothing really groundbreaking
- The A.I. makes more sense than the A.I. in Civ2, but it still doesn't seem to make a lot of sense sometimes.
- No Multiplayer
My final thoughts: Its definately worth the $30 I paid for it, but I don't know if it would have been worth $50 (the limited edition definately isn't worth $60).
on a side note, I think I'm going to wait until after Christmas and see if I can snatch up a couple of these bugs (along with one of my buddies) on clearance or something and bring them in to work. Sounds like they have a lot of possibilities and they're not too expensive...
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/review/
Game List: (Oldies but goodies) (Score:2, Informative)
(Starting from oldest system first)
Sega Genesis:
Beyond Oasis (It's sequel is on the Sega Saturn in case anyone wants more Oasis action)
Snes:
Lufia Series
Breath of Fire Series
FF Series (Of course)
Secret of Mana
Secret of Evermore (not as good as mana but still fun)
Chrono Trigger (if you've been living in a cave and don't know this one)
Super Metroid (Amazing Game)
Playstation:
Resident Evil
Resident Evil 2
Resident Evil 3 Nemesis
(stay away from the ResEvil shooter)
Vandal Hearts (Turn based strategy sleeper)
FinalFantasy Tactics (Rereleased as greatest hit $19.99)
FF Series
Parasite Eve (Skip PE 2 or at least watch the opening movie which pretty much tells the whole story.)
Chrono Cross
Xenogears
Vagrant Story
Metal Gear Solid
Nintendo 64:
Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Zelda: Legend of Majora's Mask
Goldeneye: 007
Perfect Dark
Tactics Ogre
Dreamcast:
Jet Grind Radio
Tony Hawk 1&2
Skies of Arcadia (Do NOT miss this one)
Resident Evil CODE: Veronica
Playstation 2:
Grand Theft Auto 3
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3
Metal Gear Solid 2
Final Fantasy X (December release)
Devil May Cry
Game Boy Advance:
Castlevania
Advance Wars (If you can get only one game, get this one)
Tony Hawk 2 (Almost Identical to the Console version)
XBox:
Halo
Gamecube:
Super Smash Bros.
Pikmin? (Maybe. Read reviews before buying)
PC:
(Doing some more recent games)
No One Lives Forever
Serious Sam
Max Payne
Half-life (Cstrike & DOD & TFC)
Quake 3 (TeamArena & Rocket Arena)
Starcraft (Still going strong...)
Tribes 2 (Online only pretty much single player offers very few challenges)
Clive Barker's Undying (GREAT sleeper hit.)
American McGee's Alice
Black & White (some people like it, not my thing though)
Fifa 2k1, 2k2
NHL 2k1, 2k2
*Note* this is just going off of my memory, all of these games are AT LEAST worth renting / ROM'ing and I believe many of these will open new doors of imagination in your minds and hearts.
Have a great Christmas everybody!
PC Gamez & CTR (Score:1, Informative)
1. Go and get PC Gamer (or equivalent for consoles) and read their reviews before buying *anything*. (Or, read DailyRadar or other Gamez sites.) $40-$50 is a lot to waste on total crap games like Open Kart, and PC Gamer does not hesitate to blast them (Open Kart got 32% in the November issue). Also, "free" (OK, cheap at least) demo CDs. Always try before you buy, I find the CDs more convienient that downloading. (I do NOT work for PC Gamer, I have subscribed for about 3 yrs). With how bizeee my life has been lately, the demo CDs have almost been enough gaming goodness to keep me satisfied (almost). Better yet, give that gamer on your list a subscription. With demo CD, it's only $30/yr. (Tell them it's edyacashunal...)
2. I still play Total Annihilation. I have not found a RTS that can match it for playability, and it still looks decent even without using a 3D card. AOE kiss my hairy white %^$. Ground Control this! For breadth and depth of play, TA wins hands down. How many games give you robots, airplanes, vehicles, hovercraft, navies and nuclear weapons? Mourn the beloved Cavedog!
3. I still play Unreal Tournament. Tases great and is less filling. If you don't got it, get it. And yes, I think it's much better than Q3.
4. I haven't bought from them yet, but I will probably buy my next gamez from www.dragon.ca. Shipped from Canada with prices hard to beat. (I don't work for them either.)
5. On PS1, I just ADORED Crash Team Racing. Graphics are not so impressive, but this was an immensely fun adventure. You can probably get it cheap...try to find the secrets!
Re:Civ III (Score:5, Informative)
Wars: Wars are much more realistic in this go around. They are much more difficult. You have to use actual planning and strategy and concentrate on specific goals (like one city).
Strategic Resources: There add an entire new element to the game, and give much historically realistic reasons for wars. You might finally find yourself sympathizing with the Japenese in WWII when you're playing the game and another civilzation will just not trade you for an important strategic resource you need that is just outside your borders.
Culture: This one kicked my ass to there and back and is the biggest change you have to get used to in the game, but the culture in the game accurately reflects the influence it has in the real world. One only has to look at the pervasiveness of American "culture" today to see how it really has an influence on geopolitics.
In all, it is much more realistic and deep advancement on Civ II. Take a step back and come back to it with fresh eyes. The hype and the wait probably did the same thing to you as it did to me.
Half-Life! (Score:3, Informative)
It still rocks! No need to spend big bucks for the latest games. You should be able to pick up a bargain-priced copy of HL - if you're lucky with Opposing Force and maybe even Blue Shift. HL is still (IMO) the best single-player experience that ever happened.
Download the latest patch and you become part of the biggest online gaming community. Team Fortress Classic and Counter Strike are included in the patch, and are the most well known, but there are others. See Planet Half-Life [planethalflife.com] for more mods/skins/levels/cheese.
Another FPS which had a good immersive story line was Who Wants To Live Forever. More tongue-in-cheek than violent. Shouldn't be too expensive now either.
Other classics would be the original Command & Conquer and Red Alert. Tiberian Sun wasn't bad, but RA2 was pure cheese.
Also worth a mention: Total Annihilation (along with expansion packs Core Contingency and Battle Tactics), and Age of Empires II. I liked those.
The game I play the most: TFC (online of course). I'm looking forward to TFC2.
-- Steve
X-Plane (Score:2, Informative)
Since I didn't see any posts for flight simulators, why not try X-Plane [x-plane.com].
It uses OpenGL and runs on Windows, Mac, (OSX by Christmas) -- Linux port upcoming, and although I haven't tried, it supposedly can run with WINE.
There is also a great online community [x-plane.org] where one can get new planes, scenery, and utilities.
Oh and once you get it, feel free to land at my grandparent's airstrip - ID NA61. ;-)
Frequency (Score:2, Informative)
Ratings: GameSpot gives it a 8.7 [gamespot.com] and IGN gives it a 9 [ign.com].
Some games (Score:3, Informative)
Hmmmmmm.... Leather-clad Dominatrix Nazi Babes.... Can I freeze frame that bit...
Ahem. For the flight sim fan, Microsoft Flight Sim 2002 is a major improvement over the 2000 model. Better and more importantly faster graphics, autogen scenery, other planes, and ATC.
Free-scrolling virtual cockpit with working dials means you can take a good lookout as you'd do in a real plane. The program that shows Microsoft can do some things right!
Also on a flight sim vein, IL2 Sturmovik is a delightfully different combat flight sim. Unlike most WWII combat flight sims, IL2 concentrates on the air war over Russia, and the Russian IL2 ground attack fighter. Looks pretty good so far..