Need game recommendations!

[Rhythmdvl]

Hello hello all. I've asked a couple of questions ( motherboard (http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/004482.html) and sound (http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/005367.html) )about getting a new computer, and I'd really like to thank all those that responded for you advice. The links and recommendations were priceless. (For the record, I went with the Asus P3B-F and the Live! Value sound card).

My birthday is this Sunday, and I'd like to ask my sweet lady fair for a computer game, but don't know much about what is out there. I've only played a small handful of games (Doom, Duke Nuke 'EM, Age of Empires and my current fascination, Half-Life) and want something that will take advantage of my new system. Something with great graphics, sound and strategy and story / plot. What are the Dopers playing when they are not out Doping? (On the computer, that is!) :)

Thanks!

PS I'm putting this here in GQ, 'cause it is a question. However, it also strikes me as MPSIMSish. Feel free to move it about wherever you feel it belongs. My apologies if I seem to be cluttering up the boards.


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Once in a while you can get shown the light
in the strangest of places
if you look at it right…

[Johnny Angel]

Planescape: Torment

It won't necessarily show off your hardware, but in my opinion, it's the best CRPG ever written, and after Fallout and Fallout 2, that's quite a statement.

Midtown Madness

I'm not into driving games, but this one is a heap of fun. All the maps are of the streets of Chicago, and the graphics are pretty impressive.

[manhattan]

PS I'm putting this here in GQ, 'cause it is a question. However, it also strikes me as MPSIMSish. Feel free to move it about wherever you feel it belongs. My apologies if I seem to be cluttering up the boards.It’s a close call. I’ll leave it here for now, in part because I don’t have the time to move it. Let the GQ gamers answer for now, and later Nickrz or I will move it and let the MSPIMers have a go.

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Livin' on Tums, vitamin E and Rogaine

[John Corrado]

Check out www.gamespot.com (http://www.gamespot.com) for good reviews of games.

As for specific suggestions; take a look at reviews for Age of Empires II. I'm not sure how much better/ more graphical it is when compared to Age of Empires I (I'm playing II, but never picked up number I).

My suggestion? Drop by a local software store/ mega chain, and take a look at the titles being offered. Write down a list of ten or twenty that catch your eye, then hit the review sites (like the one above; check out Yahoo for other good review sites) to weed out those games that either A) really suck or B) might be good, but don't sound like what you want.

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JMCJ

This is not a sig.

[Harmonious Discord]

Dungeon Keeper 2
http://www.dungeonkeeper.com/

Why don't you try out some of the software demos from the game companies. Just download if the descriptions sound good and play them.

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I'm only your wildest fear, from the corners of your darkest thoughts.

[Nightingale]

You might try Baldur's Gate and it's expansion, Tales of the Sword Coast. This is another one that won't showcase your graphics, but it's a great RPG.

[Arnold Winkelried]

I'm personally not one for shoot'em up games.

For puzzle-solving, have you played Riven?

Also Sim City 3000 is pretty cool, if you like building cities and tormenting virtual people. If you don't adore me like a god, I'll throw a tornado in your face! Hahahahah.

[Patty O'Furniture]

Incest: a game for the whole family.

[Chief Crunch]

Get Unreal. You can find it for ten or twenty bucks now and it's one hell of a ride.

Incest? Does that use the Quake 2 engine?

[Hunsecker]

Well, in the first person shooter vein, I've been pretty well addicted to Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear for a while. Not much story sadly, but you get to lead a buncha AIs or folks on the net shootin' terrorists, and the graphics are nice.

You may want to pick up the Half Life expansion pack, Opposing Force too.

Also, for puzzle-solving/adventure games, you might be able to get Grim Fandango cheap now, its about a year old. This game has the coolest style of any I've played. Half Mexican Day of the Dead, half Film Noir.

[chief]

here are a few of my favorites:

Return to Krondor
Grim Fandango
Monkey Island 3
Quest for Glory V
Baldur's Gate
Starcraft
Warcraft 2
Diablo
Thief: The Dark Project


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Chief's Domain - http://www.seas.ucla.edu/~ravi

[Abner Normal]

Do I sense a violent tendency in the crowd? Why no sports? No sims?

I don't play games very much. I'm too busy raising my post count.

:)

[WhiteNight]

Quake3, if you liked the Quake games in multiplayer, this is a given. Everything the first ones had, but moreso. Will really show off a good system.

Cons: The CD Key anti-piracy system it uses bugs me, you have to 'ask' for permission to play. If there's a problem with the key server, you've bought yourself a coaster until they fix it.

For driving games, ReVolt. It's a fairly good driving sim, except with RC cars and wild and crazy tracks. The simulation is excellent, the tires all act independantly, so if you have oil under on tire, the car drives as if that wheel alone is oiled. If the car is only partly on the ground, it acts in a way that seems appropriate. As such, it doesn't feel 'wrong' like some driving games do. And, best of all, it's multiplayer. Up to eight (at least, maybe 12) players can play a few different types of games. The cars are VERY good, individual feel and great personality (the two secret cars need to be seen to be believed, a UFO (no wheels) and a Panda (yes, the 'bear') on wheels.

Cons: You have to play the game and win to open tracks, instead of just playing what you like. Some tracks are nearly impossible to win on. (Good skill range though.) (And you can unlock tracks with the cheat code, if desired.)

Age of Empires II is a pretty good game. Similar concept to the first. It's got ten or fifteen cultures, all with special abilities and discounts on technology. The cultures are nowhere near as different as the Starcraft races, but they do have a different feeling. (Britons get elite longbow troops, Vikings get ships, etc. Each culture has one distinct unit and discounts or off-limits areas to further distinguish them.) It has many handy features, like being able to auto-find idle workers, so they don't stand around after finishing a job. Also, they can hide in buildings during attacks, not only for safety, but also to give those buildings an attack (one arrow per peasant... not much, but useful.)

Cons: AI... RTS games have never had a good AI and AoE2 doesn't distinguish itself in either direction.

I'll second the suggestion of Sim City 3k... It's not too much different from the idea of the previous ones but it is stable (unlike 2k) and doesn't have horrendous 'issues' (again like 2k). It's what Sim City 2k should have been. A fun game, and addictive.

Ultima Online... I don't like this sort of game, but friends of mine love it. Prepare for a time sucker though. Also Everquest and Asherton's Call are very similar.

Cons: Buggy, laggy, expensive (monthly fees), and filled with cheaters/lamers.

Unreal Tournament is similar to Q3, but without the key server nonsense. Cheaper too. Not quite as pretty, and the levels don't feel quite as smooth. Better bots though, more fun if you don't have great net access.

That's about all I've played in the last while.

Sports sims bore me (well, sports bore me) and most driving games are often crappy (same few tracks, with no variation (all scenery is flat, the track is essentially featureless)) counting on a license (Daytona, etc) to sell the game. RTS games are good, if you get Starcraft, AoE2, Total Annihilation, or another good one, otherwise they'll be buggy and unbalanced. Strategy games... well, if you like chess, get Chess Master (whatever number it's at now) etc. Shootemups... Q3 and UT dominate this area, with Half Life: Team Fortress Classic and Tribes pulling ahead if you like team games.

Hope that helps.

[rowrrbazzle]

Drakan. I second the recommendations to try the demos for this and any other games that look interesting.

I also second Grim Fandango - kind of a bizarre adventure game noir with touches of humor.

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But where were the Spiders?

[MrSleep]

I'd second the suggestiong of Planescape: Torment, it's an incredible game. The best CRPG ever made (imho). Grim Fandango was also fantastic, great characters and humor. Two other great games released somewhat recently:

1. Rollercoaster Tycoon -- Build an amusement park and design your own rides. The best game I played last year. I spent endless hours trying to get my parks to be the best they could be. It's also pretty cheap, you can pick it up for $20-$30 at Best Buy.

2. Jagged Alliance 2 -- Lead your mercenary forces in an attempt to overthrow a corrupt Central American government! It's a squad level strategy game in the spirit of X-Com.

None of the above will show your system, unfortunately, if you want to show off more than have fun try Quake III, Unreal Tournement, Homeworld or Urban Chaos.

Whatever you do, don't buy Everquest or you'll lose your friends, family and sanity. It's digital crack. I'm going through withdrawls right now and haven't touched it for two months.

Oh, and the site that I think does the best game reviews, by a long shot, is Games Domain Review -- http://www.gamesdomain.com/gdreview/ -- They actually, get this, review games without wanna-be-gansta' talk and stupid "jokes."

[Trout Mask Replica]

What I've been playing lately:

Unreal Tournament: Lots of fun. Some really intelligent bots and hundreds of user-made maps available. The downside is that Direct3D and OpenGL support can be pretty dicey.

Aliens vs. Predator: Scary as hell if you play as the marine. You only get 3 chances to save per level though, and they can be pretty tough, even on the easiest difficulty level.

The Wheel of Time: Based on the Robert Jordan books. Gorgeous and atmospheric, and has some good voice acting, but a real system hog. It's based on the Unreal engine, so Direct3D and OpenGL may be problematic.

Alpha Centauri: Turn-based strategy game from the same people who did Civ/Civ II. Lots of fun. There's an expansion pack available that adds new factions, units, and technology.

--
TMR

[JSexton]

OK. This game won't show off your system. In fact, you could play it on an 8086 4.77 with CGA. Despite that, it's one of the deepest, toughest, and most interesting games ever written. Nethack. Yeah, I know. Version 3.3.0 just got released, and boy, even though I've played it for ten+ years, there was still mega-replayability. Download it at www.nethack.de. (http://www.nethack.de.) You woun't be disappointed, assuming you can still use your imagination.

Justin

[Harmonious Discord]

Grim Fandango is the last great adventure game I've played since the Zork Grand Inquisitor. Zork was always my favorite adventure series.

Yes, I played trough Myst and Riven too. You need to play them if you like adventures. People compare their games to Myst or Doom for a reason, they are great, even if people got sick of them over time. Too much of one thing produces distain for that thing.

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I'm only your wildest fear, from the corners of your darkest thoughts.

[hardcore]

If you like turn-based games, I highly recommend Heroes of Might & Magic 3 with the expansion pack. This game should be regulated by the FDA because it is as addictive as CRACK!!!

[AKAmame]

Myst was beautiful, but the puzzles weren't up to the hype.

Nethack - there's a great game if you like dungeon crawls. Priced right too - if you don't count the amount of your time it can take up. No set puzzles, but working out new ways to use things is like a self-set puzzle.

Darkstone is a good dungeon crawl - nice 3D/scrolling graphics - some varibility in the game depending in part on the characters you pick, I think. Means you can play it several times and still get new scenarios. No real puzzles tho.


Grim Fandango's pretty good - agree with whoever said it was a bit film noir-ish, nice graphics, adequate puzzles, enough humour.

But IMHO, best games for puzzles and pretty good for graphics too are the Tex Murphy ones - detective stories, more action and puzzles than blood and flying body pieces.

But when it comes to blood and bits, I really liked Heretic - you can, very occasionally, turn your enemy into a chicken. If you're not careful, you can be pecked to death before you remember to look down. But if you do remember to deal with the chicken, instead of gobbets there are feathers and giblets - less conscience taxing for a pacifist!

And an all time favourite - Revenge of the Purple Tentacle! No violence and v funny. However I suspect serious gamers would regard it as juvenile.

[BoBettie]

On the not shoot 'em up theme, I love:

Monopoly Casino
Star Wars Monopoly
Q-Bert

I know they aren't the most facinating, but they're great for killing time, and quite addicting :)
Zette

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Love is like popsicles...you get too much you get too high.

Not enough and you're gonna die...
Click here for some GOOD news for a change (http://www.binghamtonpress.com/binghamtonnews/local/Sanews5.html) Zettecity (http://www.angelfire.com/ny3/zettecity/index.html)

[GasDr]

The GAME OF THE YEAR according to Computer Gaming World is Unreal Tournament. I haven't played it but it does sound great with good multiplayer capability over the net. I have played Half Life Game of the Year Edition which is one of the best games I've played. It too has multiplayer gaming over the net. One of my favorites was Heroes of Might and Magic II there is a III out now which I assume is even better.

[Konrad]

I would recommend Close Combat 3. It's simulator of small-scale (50 to 100 men) battles that took place during World War 2. It's very realistic and completely different from most war games. It's more of a simulation than a game. Very, very addictive.

[Mister Armageddon]

Originally posted by AKAmame:
And an all time favourite - Revenge of the Purple Tentacle! No violence and v funny. However I suspect serious gamers would regard it as juvenile.

Are you sure you don't mean Day Of The Tentacle? If so, I agree that that game is hilarious. Another good recommendation in that area would be Sam & Max Hit The Road, but both of those may be hard to find.

And as for current games, I'm addicted to The Sims at the moment. It's not the game I'd buy if I wanted to show off my system, but who cares if it does or not? It's a great game, and that's all that matters. Highly recommended for anyone into god games.

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Mr. Armageddon
"Just when you thought you had all the answers, I went and changed the questions!"--Roddy Piper

[HeadlessCow]

If you really want to show off your system try Hidden and Dangerous by Talonsoft (http://www.talonsoft.com/). It's an awesome WW2 Real time sim. It's jumpy at times on my P3-450 so you can be certain it's stretching your system to the limit. It looks really nice graphically as well.

[TBone2]

Flight sims are a particular love of mine. If you have a decent joystick, check out "European Air War" from Microprose. You can fly any of 20 different fighters or fighter-bombers for the USAAF, the RAF, or the Luftwaffe. Excellent graphics and Dolby surround sound are treats!

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I don't know why fortune smiles on some and lets the rest go free...

T

[Clueless]

<font size=7>THE SIMS!!</font>

[Garfield226]

Starseige: Tribes
RollerCoaster Tycoon

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Well, either you're closing your eyes to a situation you do not wish to acknowledge or you are not aware of the power of the presence of a pool table in your community. Ya' got trouble my friends! -
Prof. Harold Hill
Gary Conservatory
Gold Medal Class
'05

[Louie]

Nothing beats Tetris. :D

[occ]

A few people have mentioned Lucasarts' graphic adventures (Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle, Grim Fandango, others). While these aren't the games to get if you want a system tester, they ARE some of the greatest games ever made. For over 10 years, Lucasarts has been making adventure games, and most are great. I recommend The Secret of Monkey Island (All 3 in the series), both Maniac Mansions, Sam & Max Hit the Road, and Grim Fandango (although I'm sure I'm forgetting some). You can buy them all, even the older ones, on lucasarts.com)

For newer games, both Quake3 and Unreal Tournament are great (they play fairly differently, though, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.). Half-Life is a given (if you play online, be sure to get Counter-Strike (www.counter-strike.net). The Sims is great if you are into sim-type games. If you play multiplayer games, Starsiege: Tribes is awesome, although its well over a year old now.

[MadPoet]

My top choices by genre:
RPG: Planescape Torment
FPS: Unreal Tournament
Online FPS: Quake 3
FPRPG: System Shock 2
RTS: Starcraft
ISS: Dungeon Keeper 2
GRS: Mechwarrior 3
MMORPG: Everquest (Nice knowing you)

Other Must Plays are Baldur's Gate, Half Life, and Homeworld (So I hear).
I'm not qualified to comment on sports games or military sims.

(Role Playing Game, First Person Shooter, First Person Role Playing Game, Real Time Strategy, Imp Slapping Simulation, Giant Robot Simulation, Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game)

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http://www.madpoet.com
Clerks - Just because they serve you doesn't mean they like you.

[hansel]

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned Homeworld. It's fantastic, and unlike anything else I've ever seen. It's a real-time strategy game, like Starcraft, but it's a space battle in 3D. You'll be awed by what it looks like on a good system.

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Never attribute to an -ism anything more easily explained by common, human stupidity.

[AuraSeer]

Ah, at last a subject I know something about!

If you like Half-Life, I suggest you take a look at System Shock 2, which is a combination horror/sci-fi game. It's primarily a first-person shooter, but it has a lot of RPG elements, and your character's abilities increase as you advance through the plot. From what I've seen of Half-Life, the two games' play control and pacing are almost identical.

I'll also add my voice to the recommendations for Unreal Tournament and Dungeon Keeper 2.
DK2 is a unique sort of real-time strategy game. The graphics are great, the sound work is outstanding, and the single-player campaign is challenging but finishable.

UT is a fairly straightforward first-person shooter, but it is the best that genre has produced in quite a while. It will definitely push your graphics hardware to its limits; for audio, it supports full 3d surround sound if you have the setup. Admittedly, it doesn't have much plot beyond "kill your enemies and capture the objective", but it's still extremely fun.
(If it means anything to you, I work at a video game company, and my co-workers and I have played multiplayer UT every day for the past couple of weeks.)

[AuraSeer]

Oh, I forgot the obligatory plug for my company's major game. If you like fantasy RPGs, and would like to play with several thousand people at a time, buy a copy of EverQuest. Just be warned: the game is very addictive, and many people spend far too much time on it.

[Chief Crunch]

Be warned also that you need a credit card and ten bucks a month to play Everquest. It's kind of stupid, paying $45 for a game you'll have to pay $10 every month to play. My cousin has a copy of it lying on his shelf collecting dust because he doesn't have a credit card.

[AKAmame]

To Mr Armageddon: Thankee sir. Explains why I can never find the blighted thing in the shops, now doesn't it?

(subvocal - how many people have I recommended the wrong damn game to?)