A change of pace

[Primarch]

Since setting up this forum I have seen people suggesting new games left right and centre. For a slight change of pace I would like to start a new thread dedicated to one aspect of our little hobby that hasnt really had much time devoted to it. Video games.

As for me, I love Medieval Total War 1 and 2. They are both really good games and have a mix of resource gathering and wargaming at their core. I've played both games through several times and 2 is a big improvement over the first game. I have also played Shogun, Rome and Empire Total War. Shogun was a good first attempt, Rome was buggy as hell and in Empire the creators messed up the game so much that it really put me off trying to play it.

Until some company puts out a decent version of Warhammer Fantasy as a PC game (so far all the WFB games have fallen so short of the mark IMHO) Medieval 2 is going to stay at the top of my wargaming pile. The game can be played as one of battles if you dont like the management side of it, as one of several mini campaigns, or as the grand campaign where your forces have to conquer Europe and parts of Africa and the Middle East.

If you havent played it, you should.

[me_in_japan]

im a big fan of medieval 1, bit never really got into either Rome or Medi2. I prefer the Risk style map of the first one.

I have to say I really enjoyed Dawn Of War, and all the various expansions for it. It captures the feel of all the armies quite nicely, and is a decently balanced game. Oddly, Ive never player Eldar in it - it's been Tau all the way since the start. I never get over how cool it is when you deploy your broadsides and they go all "deploying battlesuit" and kerchunk their feet into the ground, hunker down, and start whaling on the opposition with their railguns. They used the Forgeworld broadside model, too, which was a good move in my opinion.

Other games wot I enjoy periodically are:

Resident Evil (Biohazard to our Japanese friends). Shooting zombies. Ace set pieces. Bosses like you remember from games like R-type. Fun on a stick

Silent Hill: actually scares me sometimes. Gross, freaky and incredibly atmospheric. Makes you widdle yourself even when there are no bad guys anywhere near you. Extremely well designed game.

Doom 3 - Just the best first-person shooter out there. I know its probably dated by now, but I still pick it up and play through it from time to time because its so well done. I remember the first time the Pinky daemon comes at you. Your initial feelings of "wow! sweet - what a cool entrance for a bad guy!" rapidly change to "sh*t, its coming right at me." to "AAaaagh, I cant get out" to simply "aaaagh!" then you die and try again...

Half-Life 1, 2, and the various episodes - Superb story, great set pieces. The thinking man's FPS. Lovely graphics for the time, too.

Portal - if you havent played this, then play it. I cant describe it, here's a link to the trailer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TluRVBhmf8w

Mind-meltingly good. The latter levels are particularly good, but even the first time you get the portal gun is a "mwaheheheh" moment. Apparently theyre working on getting the portal gun into the new Half Life expansion. Should be good

[Colonel Voss]

There's a really good warhammer fanmade expansion for Medieval II. Just the dwarf stongholds killed my poor PC due to their vast size.

I really enjoyed the Medieval II as well as Shogun and Medieval I. Empire is ok, though not so much fun and Rome was decent enough for it's time (haven't touched it since Medieval II came out though). Beyond that I have Hearts of Iron II & III for the WWII war and FIFA manager 10 for my soccer addiction.

I'm also a MMORPG player, loved playing FFXI for years, though now I play Star Trek Online.

[The Other Dave]

Portal is awesome - apparently there's a Portal 2 in the works too. Woot! Nobody knew we needed the "first person puzzle shooter" genre until Portal created it.

Personally I've been playing the heck out of Mass Effect 2 for the past month or so. It's classic BioWare RPG goodness, if you're into that kind of thing. A fun sci-fi RPG coupled with really nice over-the-shoulder third-person cover-based shooter gameplay a la Gears of War. (If you haven't played Mass Effect 1, play that first - it's a few years old, but is also a good game and establishes the backstory of the universe and the Big Goddamn Hero, Commander Shepard.)

Aside from that, most of my computer gameplay is Dwarf Fortress, a completely insane quasi-roguelike where you control a band of dwarves, directing them how to best dig out a fortress in the side of a mountain, finding metal, forging lewt and selling it to gullible human, elf and dwarf traders, and protecting your own dwarves from the thousands of ways in which the game tries very hard to kill them - starvation, goblin sieges, dragons, vicious dwarf-eating carp, insanity, drowning, lava, cave-ins, frog-men, cougars, lack of alcohol, elephants, training accidents, undead camels, sadness leading to suicide by jumping into bottomless pits, overzealous punishment for minor crimes, etc. etc. etc. Good fun!

[Spevna]

Dungeon Keeper -
Build your own dungeon, kill any pesky adventurers that come snooping.

StrongHold -
Build your own castle/village and either be a benevolent ruler or a right git! Any game that lets you build gallows is alright in my book.

Rise of Nations -
Start with cavemen, end up with nukes.

Crash Bandicoot racing -
Best racing game ever.

Everybody's Golf -
Great with beer.

Xenon 2 -
Wicked space ship shooter.

Freedom Force -
Design your own superhero and beat up other superheroes.


All of them are pretty old but I come back to all of them without fail.

[me_in_japan]

oooooh - Dungeon Keeper! Crash Team Racing! XENON 2!!!! I had forgotton what real computer games were.

natsukashiiiiiiiii~~~