I haven’t been up on the latest couple generations of PC games, having pretty much stopped playing in college. However, I just finished playing through Postal 2 and, despite the way it treats seemingly innocent people as enemies, actually enjoyed it. I’ve never been a big fan of first person shooters or other action/adventure games, because they usually seem to be set in a “battle-oriented” world, like a military setting, alien invasion, spy scenario, etc., which I find kind of repetitive. What I liked about Postal 2 was that you were just some schmoe going about his everyday life (even though, obviously, it got extremely unrealistic within that context.)
So, are there any other decent games out there that are set in a similar environment? Stuff like The Sims wouldn’t count; as the title says, I’m looking more for FPS/action/adventure-type games.
There are some military outposts, and the people you are up against are paramilitary (?) but it is set on a tropical island. I like the openness of it and different strategies you could employ to take out an encampment.
I’ve been loving Bully lately - I mean, it’s antisocial, but a lot of its humor comes from the “real world” setting. It’s in an exaggerated boarding school (and later on the nearby town) and it’s full of high school drama. Well, often violent high school drama. It’s fun and really funny sometimes.
Thanks for the Earthbound suggestion, Whiteknight; I should add RPGs to the list. In mentioning The Sims and its sequels I just wanted to avoid strategy/simulation games.
Snarky_Kong, I know what you’re saying, but I’m not necessarily looking for games that are “realistic,” just ones where the setting is everyday life. What I liked about Postal 2 is that you were just an average Joe walking around his home town and the surrounding areas, rather than some special ops guy trying to sneak into an enemy military base or something.
Zsofia, I googled Bully and it looks like the kind of thing I’m looking for. However, I don’t currently own any console systems so I’m looking mainly for PC games.
Hmm - well, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (man, what a pain-in-the-arse name) is set in Chernobyl and has done an eerily credible job with recreating the enviroment and atmosphere.
That said, it features mutant goldfish attacks so . . . real life, not so much.
From what I’ve played of it, almost all the settings are real world settings. Places like an office building or a warehouse. Nothing fancy. I think this is what makes it REAL spooky. Every place seems like a regular office. Somewhere you would go to work. I love it.
What? I’ve been playing this game since it was released and I’ve encountered no such thing. Where are they?
I can’t stand F.E.A.R. personally - I think it has extremely generic environments that all look the same (office buildings and underground corridors - wheee!!) and a bunch of generic “cloned supersoldiers” that all look the same, and on top of that, has the whole “evil little girl” cliche. I don’t think the setting is very close to real life either - it takes place in the context of a military assault team (F.E.A.R. stands for the desperate backronym “First Encounter Assault Recon” - never mind that assault and recon are polar opposites.) And again, it features cloned supersoldiers and an evil little girl.
This may sound like a harsh criticism so don’t take it personally - if you enjoyed the game, good for you. But I was bored to death. S.T.A.L.K.E.R., on the other hand, has been a blast. Open outdoor environments and Day/Night cycles in an FPS!
