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Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Rictor on January 12, 2006, 08:25:11 pm

Title: Show those underplayed games some lovin'.
Post by: Rictor on January 12, 2006, 08:25:11 pm
(http://img82.imageshack.us/img82/561/mahgames1nv.jpg)

$35 for the lot. Got BG&E at EB, and the rest at some bookstore, where I didn't even go in to buy games but could resist. That, and I'm getting Halflife 2 (legit) tommorow, but it's full price. Good times.
Title: Re: Show those underplayed games some lovin'.
Post by: Ford Prefect on January 12, 2006, 08:33:15 pm
Is Tribes Vengeance any good? I used to play Tribes 2.
Title: Re: Show those underplayed games some lovin'.
Post by: Rictor on January 12, 2006, 08:39:23 pm
It's made by the same guys that did System Shock 2. So that should clear that up. As far as I know, it's good, both as singleplayer and multiplayer. It's just that it sold like crap and was not embraced by the Tribes community, so it sort of just...well I can't say it faded away because it never shone, but you get the idea. It was largely ignored. Try the demo(s).
Title: Re: Show those underplayed games some lovin'.
Post by: CP5670 on January 12, 2006, 10:02:55 pm
FYI for Deus Ex Invisible War you'll need to drop down the graphical settings a lot or have a monster system. Some areas will be choppy no matter what, but there are a couple of tweaks that improve performance a fair bit. It's not up to the standards of the first game, but is still one of the better games I've played in the last two years.
Title: Re: Show those underplayed games some lovin'.
Post by: Turnsky on January 12, 2006, 10:07:10 pm
FYI for Deus Ex Invisible War you'll need to drop down the graphical settings a lot or have a monster system. Some areas will be choppy no matter what, but there are a couple of tweaks that improve performance a fair bit. It's not up to the standards of the first game, but is still one of the better games I've played in the last two years.

yeah, no kidding, DX2 was a resource hog bar none, Doom 3 runs far better on a low end system in comparison.
Title: Re: Show those underplayed games some lovin'.
Post by: CP5670 on January 12, 2006, 10:19:04 pm
I think this was the first of the really badly optimized modern games, in the same line as some of the games we're getting now. Some parts of the Greasel Pit map for example crawl even on my SLI setup with the resolution and settings turned down. Although it seems to run better on ATI cards than equivalent Nvidia ones.
Title: Re: Show those underplayed games some lovin'.
Post by: redsniper on January 12, 2006, 10:19:29 pm
Ahhh... Beyond Good & Evil, short but very, very sweet. It needs a sequel just as badly as FS2 does.
Title: Re: Show those underplayed games some lovin'.
Post by: Nix on January 13, 2006, 09:35:32 am
DX:IW was a rushed embarassment. Underappreciated by the DX community for good reason.  The graphics were clearly under-par due to the fact that its essentially an xbox port. I have some high res graphics packs that will make it much more pretty.  Back on the ionstorm forums people were completing the game in about two hours, speed-run style that is.  Grab DX1 instead.  Its probably cheaper and is much more satisfying.

Tribes:V rocked.  That's a worthy piece of work. Irrational made a pretty decent story with a fun way to do stuff.  I never was a tribes player but I guess I missed out on a lot.

Title: Re: Show those underplayed games some lovin'.
Post by: Rictor on January 13, 2006, 10:48:02 am
Yeah, DX:IW was botched up pretty badly, according to the response of most people in the community. But having played through DX1 several times, and loving it (just like everyone else), it's worth it to get Invisible War for $10 and play through it, just to keep up on the story-line. Besides, Gamerankings.com give it an 83% average, which isn't that bad at all.
Title: Re: Show those underplayed games some lovin'.
Post by: CP5670 on January 13, 2006, 10:50:52 am
It's actually not a bad game at all, if you leave aside the horrible graphics engine. I think it still ranks among the top three games I've played during the last two years. It's just that in comparison to the first DX, it's a piece of crap.
Title: Re: Show those underplayed games some lovin'.
Post by: Janos on January 13, 2006, 11:08:09 am
Chip's Challenge and Jezzball.

Also, Rodent's Revenge.
Title: Re: Show those underplayed games some lovin'.
Post by: Nix on January 13, 2006, 04:57:25 pm
DX:IW for fans of the first game, yes, it's horrid utter crap.  The community has made better mods for DX1 (Zodiac shows off what Paul Denton would have done either just before or at the same time JC starts looking for the terrorist leader on Liberty Island) As a game by itself, it has standing power alone.  I couldnt help notice though such high ratings most game sites gave this game, and looking in utter amazement. At first, I liked it first playthrough.  Then after I figured out how to widen out the HUD and stuff, and apply the higher-quality graphics, I liked it a lot more, but comparing it to the first, it's a complete dissapointment.  Apparently they tweaked the engine so much that it couldnt render water or something, due to limitations of the xbox I think, and that's why you'll get to a certain part that's all frozen over instead of having water all around like in the first game.  There was a lot MORE they could have done with the game, and when the news broke that they axed the PC Code tree, a lot of hearts were broken over on the PC side, cause some of the early screenshots were very impressive.  (Anyone remember at least the ATM shot, and the honeycomb HUD?)  But HEY! for 10 bucks, it's worth a good playthrough. I'm bitter cause I spent 50 on it plus 12 for overnight shipping.  Yes, I played the demo before I bought it, and I was hyped up like hell cause of it.  After working through the whole thing it was another story though.. 

Oh yeah, if you play without JohnP's texture packs, look for ovbious blatant misspellings on very prominent places throughout the game.  WTF were they thinking...


An underplayed and underappreciated game I liked a couple years back was Chaser.  For a dumb, mindless FPS, it was fairly entertaining, but what was interesting about it, the engine was made by someone OTHER Than the big three (id, Epic, and Crytek)  It was made by Cauldron, little known here back in the states.  Another game I actually liked was one called Bandits, from the same developers that brought us the highly addictive Ballistics.  Third-person vehicular Mad-Max style game.  I got a kick outta that one.  But as for newer games, I really thoroughly enjoy SWAT4, made by good ol' Irrational, using the Vengeance Engine, but I guess that's a pretty popular game.  I cant think of any underappreciated games that are this new at the moment.. 
Title: Re: Show those underplayed games some lovin'.
Post by: Roanoke on January 13, 2006, 05:14:53 pm
It's actually not a bad game at all, if you leave aside the horrible graphics engine. I think it still ranks among the top three games I've played during the last two years. It's just that in comparison to the first DX, it's a piece of crap.

I hate games with mega-weak weapons. Even the lowliest scientist takes about 4 headshots before dropping.
Title: Re: Show those underplayed games some lovin'.
Post by: CP5670 on January 13, 2006, 05:41:20 pm
Quote
DX:IW for fans of the first game, yes, it's horrid utter crap.  The community has made better mods for DX1 (Zodiac shows off what Paul Denton would have done either just before or at the same time JC starts looking for the terrorist leader on Liberty Island) As a game by itself, it has standing power alone.  I couldnt help notice though such high ratings most game sites gave this game, and looking in utter amazement. At first, I liked it first playthrough.  Then after I figured out how to widen out the HUD and stuff, and apply the higher-quality graphics, I liked it a lot more, but comparing it to the first, it's a complete dissapointment.  Apparently they tweaked the engine so much that it couldnt render water or something, due to limitations of the xbox I think, and that's why you'll get to a certain part that's all frozen over instead of having water all around like in the first game.  There was a lot MORE they could have done with the game, and when the news broke that they axed the PC Code tree, a lot of hearts were broken over on the PC side, cause some of the early screenshots were very impressive.  (Anyone remember at least the ATM shot, and the honeycomb HUD?)  But HEY! for 10 bucks, it's worth a good playthrough. I'm bitter cause I spent 50 on it plus 12 for overnight shipping.  Yes, I played the demo before I bought it, and I was hyped up like hell cause of it.  After working through the whole thing it was another story though..

I got it for $15 shipped off ebay (pretty soon after it come out, actually), so it was pretty decent for that price. I was already expecting it to be a big letdown after playing the demo though, which showcased pretty much all of the problems/limitations of the full game. The general framework of the story actually had a lot of potential and I think it could have been even better than the first DX if they had put in anywhere near the level of small details that the first game's story had, which makes it all the worse that the game sucked so much.

The funny thing is despite all the corner-cutting they did on the PC version in favor of the xbox one, the xbox version runs just as badly. My brother rented it at one point and it drops into single digit framerates all the time. It's no wonder the game's price fell so quickly on both platforms. :p

By the way, in the first DX, I only just discovered the LAM climbing trick. I went up one of the towers in the Wan Chai map and ran into the Max Chen that they placed on the top, without any cheating. :D I've gotten as much fun out of this game from finding its glitches as playing the game normally, and I have played through it 12 or so times. :D That being said, DXIW had more than its fair share of fun glitches too (I once got all the civilians in Trier somehow afraid of a mouse that was running around, and of course there are all the usual Havok bugs).

Quote
Oh yeah, if you play without JohnP's texture packs, look for ovbious blatant misspellings on very prominent places throughout the game.  WTF were they thinking...

LOL I noticed that too. "Hanger" and "Maintinence"? :rolleyes:

Quote
I hate games with mega-weak weapons. Even the lowliest scientist takes about 4 headshots before dropping.

I generally don't mind that and think most modern games have gone too far in the other direction (we need more singleplayer combat like the first Unreal had), but it didn't fit in with this type of game.

One really stupid thing was how the sniper rifle became like 5x more powerful when you used the scope, even at point-blank range.
Title: Re: Show those underplayed games some lovin'.
Post by: Roanoke on January 14, 2006, 06:07:00 am
Quote

Quote
I hate games with mega-weak weapons. Even the lowliest scientist takes about 4 headshots before dropping.

I generally don't mind that and think most modern games have gone too far in the other direction (we need more singleplayer combat like the first Unreal had), but it didn't fit in with this type of game.

One really stupid thing was how the sniper rifle became like 5x more powerful when you used the scope, even at point-blank range.

I'm not a gun lovin' RedNeck or anything bit I don't care much for games that trivialise guns like that. I prefer the one-shot tension and really solid, meaty guns of games like Rainbow Six. Something like an AK47, which can be quite weedy in some games (especially Flashpoint) sounded well, almost violent, which I thought was pretty cool.
Title: Re: Show those underplayed games some lovin'.
Post by: Edward Bradshaw on January 14, 2006, 09:10:24 am
FYI for Deus Ex Invisible War you'll need to drop down the graphical settings a lot or have a monster system. Some areas will be choppy no matter what, but there are a couple of tweaks that improve performance a fair bit. It's not up to the standards of the first game, but is still one of the better games I've played in the last two years.

yeah, no kidding, DX2 was a resource hog bar none, Doom 3 runs far better on a low end system in comparison.

I cant even play it because you HAVE to have a card that supports pixel shaders
Title: Re: Show those underplayed games some lovin'.
Post by: pyro-manic on January 15, 2006, 03:46:45 pm
Beyond Good & Evil is the best game I've played for years. Up there with ICO, SS2 and FF7 and the like. :)
Title: Re: Show those underplayed games some lovin'.
Post by: Cobra on January 15, 2006, 04:13:38 pm
this is a good action/RPG game. :)

(http://img482.imageshack.us/img482/4337/jan15860ia.jpg)

the only trouble is that when you play it on a Windows XP the controls get choppy.

the good thing is, invincibility charms, light charms, fire spells, etc, getting a mace/halberd/morning star/long swords and slicing the undead into pieces. :D
Title: Re: Show those underplayed games some lovin'.
Post by: Falcon on January 15, 2006, 04:38:05 pm
SkiFree has to be one of my favorites.
Title: Re: Show those underplayed games some lovin'.
Post by: knn on January 15, 2006, 04:50:52 pm
this is a good action/RPG game. :)

(http://img482.imageshack.us/img482/4337/jan15860ia.jpg)

the only trouble is that when you play it on a Windows XP the controls get choppy.

Not really
I had to disassemble the executable and hack it only to start it under XP(and it's a legal copy). After that in DirectX mode everything was black except the characters. It worked in software mode, but I didn't find it that good, it became boring after a while. And to think that I installed Win98 only to run this game and BC3000AD :nervous:
Title: Re: Show those underplayed games some lovin'.
Post by: Charismatic on January 15, 2006, 04:55:05 pm
Ahhh... Beyond Good & Evil, short but very, very sweet. It needs a sequel just as badly as FS2 does.

Cept that FS2 needs one more..
Title: Re: Show those underplayed games some lovin'.
Post by: Kosh on January 15, 2006, 07:34:07 pm
It's actually not a bad game at all, if you leave aside the horrible graphics engine. I think it still ranks among the top three games I've played during the last two years. It's just that in comparison to the first DX, it's a piece of crap.

I hate games with mega-weak weapons. Even the lowliest scientist takes about 4 headshots before dropping.


It's because they turned off location damage. It didn't matter where you hit them, they still took the same amount of damage before going down. I guess it's because it's hard to aim correctly using the console controllers. :p
Title: Re: Show those underplayed games some lovin'.
Post by: phatosealpha on January 15, 2006, 09:28:13 pm
My personal experience with IW was underwhelming - you're completely overpowered for the entire game until the last stage, then you keep running out of ammo because melee is unusable (exploding enemies and all) and there just wasn't enough ammo, especially with the silly universal ammo and the low limit on what you could carry.

Picked up Silent Storm: Gold, which includes the sentinels expansion for $20.  Been a blast, though really, it's a shame in so many ways.  Lots of fun, and a very impressive engine, but both games suffer from pretty big flaws in game design.  Really wish they had completely omitted the PanzerKlines.  Too bad, because blowing a door to pieces and the guy behind it to pieces to never gets old.  The engine itself absolutely screams for a well done fallout style adventure - I had hopes for Hammer and Sickle, but given the reviews, it looks like they mussed that one up too.
Title: Re: Show those underplayed games some lovin'.
Post by: CP5670 on January 15, 2006, 11:52:03 pm
Quote
My personal experience with IW was underwhelming - you're completely overpowered for the entire game until the last stage, then you keep running out of ammo because melee is unusable (exploding enemies and all) and there just wasn't enough ammo, especially with the silly universal ammo and the low limit on what you could carry.

The universal ammo packs were stupid, but what really annoyed me was the fact that you could only carry eight of them. Some weapons ran through ammo so fast that you could go from being filled up with ammo to almost out of it after a medium-sized fight. The weapon balance in general was poor (which wasn't one of DX's strong points either, but DXIW was worse). The shotgun pretty much owned everything else in most situations, for both its heavy damage and its efficient ammo usage. I have to admit though, the hellfire boltcaster was quite cool. :D

Have any of you played Chronicles of Riddick? That game is supposed to very good and I am trying to decide whether to get a cheap copy off ebay.
Title: Re: Show those underplayed games some lovin'.
Post by: phatosealpha on January 16, 2006, 07:57:06 am
I have.  Riddick is actually a pretty good game.  Weapons tend to be a little innaccurate after the first shot, but the stealth elements are well done, firefights are pretty good, hand to hand is actually a good bit of fun. 
Title: Re: Show those underplayed games some lovin'.
Post by: CP5670 on January 16, 2006, 12:08:15 pm
Yeah I've heard that the melee combat is quite nice. It only costs about $15 shipped off ebay these days, so I'll probably pick it up soon.