Gotta chime in with Serious Sam. It’s the most Doom-like FPS game I have played since Doom.
I’m definitely getting Serious Sam and Red Faction (is it a Commie game?) now 
I find Deus Ex very entertaining because it’s not only brutally violent, but it lets you choose which path to choose and how to solve the missions. For instance, you soon have the option of executing a terrorist prisoner or saving him in order to join his cause.
Oh, and Tropico is a must have for any Pinko, it’s a god-game that puts you in charge of a small Caribbean Island that is strikingly similar to Cuba
— G. Raven
I have this wild west shoot 'em games called “Outlaws” by Lucas Arts that I love. It’s about 1998ish. Great music, several levels.
China Guy, see if you can find Descent 2, which often comes bundled with the original and a level editor. Sounds like Descent 3 might not work on your system. Descent is a good series, sort of like Doom but with robots instead of demons. If you’re a Star Trek or Star Wars fan, you might be interested in their first person shooters.
Quake I, II, and III, and Star Trek: Voyager Elite Force. You can probably get a warchest version of the Quake games (all three in one box).
Pah, you people ripping on text-based games … you have no idea what you’re missing. Drop by the annual Interactive Fiction Competition come October and try out some of the best modern IF.
Or drop by ftp.gmd.de and visit the /if-archive directory, and explore years of quality IF work (and a lot of crap, I admit.)
But if you admit you have no imagination and need pretty flashing lights and pictures and sound to enjoy yourself (joke! joke!), then I recommend Aliens vs Predator, if only because it’s not a traditional FPS (especially as the Alien) and it’s just damned fun.
Sorry about the hijack, but I just realized something, where the HELL do you shop for games?
I had some brought over from Malaysia for me the other day, but the legal computer markets around here SUCK. They just got DeusEx in the other day, months after I got it from abroad. Perhaps it’s because they need to translate the text and such.
They are dirt cheap, though.
— G. Raven
Whenever FPS games come up, I have to plug Thief and Thief 2–first person sneakers. Stealth, caution, sarcasm, and greed–great stuff. You don’t get to blow much stuff up–in the more challenging modes, you don’t even get to kill human enemies (though undead and giant spiders are still fair game)–but they provide hours of creepy entertainment. You can spend hours on each mission the first time you play it.
Come on, this is China, you buy legal software? Well, kidding aside, there’s lots of legal games that are maybe a year out of date. I’m a lot more out of date than that so it’s no big deal. Some are still in English, like Half-Life, and others have been translated into Chinese. These legal copies are maybe $8.
Not nearly as many pirate copies as before. Those only go for $1-2.
Ah, but if you download 'em for free, you don’t get the props and accessories to go with 'em. I mean, hell, I still have my Deadline detective pack somewhere in the closet, complete with autopsy report and samples of the pills found near the body. And my Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy isn’t complete without the Sirus Cybernetics brochure, the Joo Janta 2000 Panic-Free Sunglasses, and my own microscopic space fleet!
{b}That,** my friend, is how you identify yourself as a true Infocom junkie…
I would like to second SPOOFE’s recommendation of Diablo2. It is 3rd person instead of 1st person like Doom, and has a LOT more depth to it. But if you can stick it out long enough to reach the “Hell” difficulty setting and Act IV, you will be rewarded with a constant onslaught of monsters that is very reminiscent of Doom. Also, the mood, music and frequent ambushes will remind you of the Doom experience, and you will find yourself with sweaty palms in anticipation of battling certain bosses.
Well, maybe only if you are a total gaming geek like me.
Did a Google search and found an evaluation copy of Serious Sam. It’s pretty fun. Will probably pick up a legit copy when I’m in the States.
Thanks again for the suggestions.
No One Lives Forever is a pretty good game as well. While you’re sneaking around it is quite funny to hear the henchmen talking to one another about such topics as beer, good vs. evil, and forming their own German techno band.
Marc
And if you want that constant onslaught of enemies to be difficult, I recommend setting back the wayback machine, and get the original Diablo. Much more difficult. But if you like collecting gear, and constantly improving your character, DII is the way to go. DI utilizes actual strategy and tactics, whilst D2 lacks in that department.
Uh… just the opposite. In DI, you pointed, clicked, and hoped that you kill whatever you were aiming at. Repeat.
Many more abilities in D2 - which AREN’T dependent on buying a book - and much more versatility in the characters. Better control scheme. Better graphics and gameplay. Much more MEAT to the game. Hell, just the difference of being able to run is a big thing in a game like this. Ah… the memories of walking away from all the enemies that can kill me in Diablo I… reminds me of the one Simpsons quote: “He’s very slowly getting away!”
C’mon. D2 is a incredible test in who can click their mouse the fastest. Granted, D1 had a lot of this, but there is an incredible opportunity for using actual strategy in D1 compared to D2. Take for instance the example over in the D1 Strategy Forum at http://www.battle.net, where there are a handful of players who have beaten D1 (Hell difficulty) as Shiny No-MS Beyond Naked Mages. In other words, they don all the +light radius gear they can find, all the other mods they wear have to be cursed (can’t get those in D2), and they don’t use Mana Shield. No aspect of D2 presents that level of a challenge.
Yes, the graphics in D2 are much improved. However, I still prefer the darkness and moody music of the original. The screams and crying of the child in the cats still gives me the creeps. Just because a game LOOKS better doesn’t make it better. D1 has a much better story, much better music, and is much more difficult than D2. Just because D2 is longer doesn’t make up for its faults.
If there were to be implements of D2 to be put into D1 to improve it, I would have to agree that more versatile characters is key. However, check out this site for a list of D1 variants, and let me know if you still think D1 doesn’t have variability beyond buying books. In fact, check out The Diablo Strategy Forum, the regs there would best be able to present this argument. And if in 4 years, there’s still a dedicated group playing D2, hats off. But I will guarantee that in those 4 years, there will STILL be a group playing D1, and touting about their 3@30 they achieved using their rusty axe of trouble.
How many enemies do you run away from that can kill you in D2?
Munch, have you even played D2? After I bought D2, I still hadn’t finished D1. I went back only to beat Diablo, then let someone else have my D1. Want darkeness in D2? Try turning down the gamma correction! How does D1 have a better story line? D2 is almost the same story. D1 is more difficult? Yeah, as long as you’re not playing as a Rogue!
BTW: there are plenty of enemies in D2 that require me to run away. Especially in Act IV.
Jeff, yes I have played D2. And I’m not saying that D2 is a bad game. I’m just saying that D1 is a BETTER game. In fact, it appears that you are saying that D1 is more difficult, as its taken you much longer to beat it than D2 has.
Personally, I’ve just found that D1 presents you with more options strategy-wise. In Hell/Hell, its incredibly important where you make each move, where you position your enemies, what spells you’re using, etc. D2 has difficult areas, but nothing that brute force can’t pummel through. I suspect the expansion will build on that, making it an even better game. But D1 is a better package (especially when you consider the fact that D2 with the expansion is going to set you back at least $75).
The reason I had taken so long to finish D1 is I that I had stopped playing it after getting D2. I had wanted to finally beat Diablo before giving my D1 away, which is the only reason I went back to it. Once I finally got to the endgame, my Rogue didn’t have much of a problem with Diablo. With the scope of D2 being so much larger than the original, it stands to reason that D2 takes longer to finish.
I believe that the expansion does make D2 harder, as alluded to in threads in MPSIMS. I finally killed Diablo with a Paladin but took a long time to do so. Poor guy kept getting fried by that red lighting stuff. D1 had its own single-player expansion, which I ended up uninstalling. Couldn’t kill that damn Defiler no matter what my Rogue did!
Have you seen what games go for lately? $75 total for a base game plus optional expansion is unfortunately nothing new.
Go ahead and play D1, but I prefer D2’s higher replay value. So much so that I started a second Barbarian character and gave him proficiency in blunt weapons while my sword proficient Barbarian was still in Act III!
Jeff, if you’re going to argue replayability, I’m going to have to insist that you hit my links! 
There’s enough variants for D1 to last a lifetime. And the fact that there’s still a very strong D1 community 5 years after the game came out is further testimony. I can’t think of many pc games with that strong of a following.
And I remembered another aspect of D2 that could use some reworking. If in 3 years Blizzard goes under, what happens to your character? That’s right, its gone. Because its kept server-side, not on your computer. And have you ever tried to play D2 on a 56k? Good lord! The lag is ridiculous.
Munch - who wishes D1 had a hardcore option like D2.