Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => Gaming Discussion => Topic started by: tifi on May 01, 2007, 09:13:04 am
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Seeing as we have a thread for everything hyped up and mediocre, why not have one for the virtually unknown little gems we have squirreled away somewhere.
Starships Unlimited
www.apezone.com
A cute little 4x game which is kinda like 'Orion Junior'.
Pretty much standard stuff, colonise planets, research toys, build ships, etc... but I've found it to be rather addictive, and am currently playing 'Pirate' capturing my enemies ships for fun and profit. :p
Star Controll II aka. Ur-Quan Masters
www.toysforbob.com
http://sc2.sourceforge.net/
An old classic ressurected from the pit of death.
Very fun to play, especially if you have someone you can hotseat with - the melee game is a hoot! :lol:
The 'campaign' is pretty cool too, and should keep you occupied for a while.
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FS2 :nervous:
Also, Beyond Good & Evil, and Ico.
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I knew of an old RPG called "Exile." It was a trilogy. It takes place in medieval times, and an empire has control of the known world. The emperor decides to clense the population, so he sends all the freaks, miscreants, bums, and criminals to a network of tunnels incredibly deep underground via magic. The tunnel systems were built by several races that have never been seen on the surface.
It's quite a neat little trilogy. In the first two, your job is to save the land of Exile (the civilization built underground by the people sent there) and make it to the surface. In the third one, the Exiles have made a deal with the empire to let them back up, with limitations. But wierd things are happening on the surface, basically creatures start appearing at random and destroying stuff. Your job is to get to the bottom of it and save the world.
Check it out when you get a chance. http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/
All three are shareware.
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http://www.shrapnelgames.com/SPCamo/wSPMBT/1.htm
WinSPMBT.
Some of you may have heard of SPWAW. It's Steel Panthers I ported onto Windows. WinSPMBT is a similar concept, just for Steel Panthers II, and with many, many gamplay, graphics, AI, etc. enhancements. It's created by the Camo Workshop, two ex-British Army guys working out of their homes. Steel Panthers was an excellent game in the first place for its depth of strategy and gameplay. SPMBT doesn't dissapoint. I love it for the excellent mission/campaign creation tools like I love FRED2 Open. The multiplayer is excellent even though it's PBEM, and for people who love SPWAW they've released winSPWW2, same game engine, just WW2 timeframe.
Both games are essentially donateware. There is a "demo" for both, but it's almost full-featured, and what really keeps the Camo Workshop alive are the people who pay $40 for the "full version" which has a handful of add-ons. Anyone who liked any of the SP or Allied/Panzer/People's General series should give the demo a try. Now two guys working alone to create a great freeware game in a dead genre, you can't get more underappreciated than that...
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The Earth series (except Earth 2160, that one sucks :ick:), both good strategy games (if only the first would work on XP :(). :yes: Another one would be Chrome, a decent FPS.
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Can StarCon2 really be called underrated? Under exposed, yes, but underrated? As far as I can tell, anybody's who's played it has been very, very fond of it.
Even then, since UQM, well...I for one have been nothing short of amazed how many people know who fwiffo is.
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FS2 wasn't underrated at all. The reviews were very positive. It just didn't sell well.
Some such games that come to my mind are Unreal 2 and Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. They got pretty decent reviews, but I thought they were better than most of the reviews suggested. The latter in particular is one of the best games I've ever played.
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"Exile."
Hey, I didn't know there were SWS fans here. Awesome.
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There's a freeware version of Steel Panthers World at War available.
But what I really want is to find my friggin' Steel Panthers III disc again. I miss commanding my tank battalion.
O.R.B. impressed me deeply. It has the gameplay of Homeworld (the original) combined with a wonderful story. (For some reason it brings to mind the first Ground Control for me always, but I do not know why.) The ship designs ain't bad either. I'm still working on a couple of models inspired by the Alyssian Defender and Starchaser. Maulus ships might make a suitable starting point for primative, or heavily-Terran-influenced, Vasudan designs, but I'm not confidant in my ability to model a Vasudan ship.
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Speaking of Earth series, I'm pretty sure a little-known game called Warzone 2100 is in the same series. It seems to be a somewhat more primitive version of the same game engine, and I'm fairly sure it's the prequel to Earth 2150.
EDIT: I LOVED Exile. I spent two years trying to figure it out before I realized you NEEDED the hint booklet or guess the random letter/number combinations to some of the passwords within the next ten years. Silly me, I was trying sensible things.
For example, the first quest of Exile 2, slaying the Nephilim chieftain. I wouldn't be able to get the password to go in the back way, so I'd storm the front and die in 10 seconds lol.
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O.R.B. impressed me deeply.
w00t!
www.o-r-b.com
Decent modding and mission-design potential, also, just no community for it.
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Nesus : The Jupiter Incident
Also Sid Meiers Colonization (NOTE: not Civilisation)
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Speaking of Earth series, I'm pretty sure a little-known game called Warzone 2100 is in the same series. It seems to be a somewhat more primitive version of the same game engine, and I'm fairly sure it's the prequel to Earth 2150.
I have that fantastic game!!! :D I don't know if it's part of the Earth series, but it was fun!!! Especially now that its source code has been released and now also for WZ2100 is happening what is happening also for FS2!
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Speaking of Earth series, I'm pretty sure a little-known game called Warzone 2100 is in the same series. It seems to be a somewhat more primitive version of the same game engine, and I'm fairly sure it's the prequel to Earth 2150.
Warzone 2100 is not a part of the Earth series (the Earth series is Earth 2140, 2150 and 2160 plus all their expansions), its a different game. But it's also a good game, I've never seen a game with so many weapons to choose. :D
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OOOH sid meier games. Alpha Centauri was my favorite, followed by Civ 4. That one wasnt underrated, though, but AC was.
Also, anyone here heard of Escape Velocity?
EDIT: OOOH I forgot one. It was a game I got via a PC Gamer (I think) demo disk. It's called Battlezone. It's not the old atari game, but this awesome hybrid of RTS and FPS/Tank simulator. You can read up on it here. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battlezone_%28computer_game%29)
OOOH and another hybrid RTS/FPS/tank game that I loved was Uprising 2. Cant find any info on it though.
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OOOH sid meier games. Alpha Centauri was my favorite, followed by Civ 4. That one wasnt underrated, though, but AC was.
Alpha Centauri was never underrated. Look it up, it never got below an 80% review on any major site/mag. Plus, any Civ fan knows that it's easily the best pseudo-Civ out there.
Also, anyone here heard of Escape Velocity?
I think I remember that. Were you flying around in a spaceship shooting things on various planets and spacestations, including a big dagger or something?
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Silent Storm (http://www.mobygames.com/game/s2-silent-storm (http://www.mobygames.com/game/s2-silent-storm)). It's a 3D (with nifty physics!), squad based, turn based strategy game set during World War II. I consider it unique because it doesn't go down the trail nearly all other WWII games have; it dabbles in some alternate history.
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EDIT: OOOH I forgot one. It was a game I got via a PC Gamer (I think) demo disk. It's called Battlezone. It's not the old atari game, but this awesome hybrid of RTS and FPS/Tank simulator. You can read up on it here.
Battlezone wasn't underrated; it got excellent reviews. That was another brilliant game that didn't sell very well.
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I think that whole FPS/RTS genre is sorely untapped.
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EDIT: OOOH I forgot one. It was a game I got via a PC Gamer (I think) demo disk. It's called Battlezone. It's not the old atari game, but this awesome hybrid of RTS and FPS/Tank simulator. You can read up on it here.
Battlezone wasn't underrated; it got excellent reviews. That was another brilliant game that didn't sell very well.
Yeah. Battlezone 2 wasn't as good as BZ1 for some reason though.
And BZ1 was bloody ****ing hard on some levels. I barely beat the last level, was on the VERY last bar of health. Plays better with a mouse.
I think that whole FPS/RTS genre is sorely untapped.
What other game like that is in there? Would Republic Commando count as that?
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I just got back into BZ1 today. How do you make it worse with a mouse?
Oh, and I guess I'm sorta confusing underrated games with under-sold/marketed games. Silly me.
Well, yeah, Escape Velocity was a game, which in a lot of ways was just like a 2D version of Freelancer, with a totally different story (series of stories, actually). I loved it a lot better than I liked Freelancer, which is pretty much 2D in a 3D world anyway.
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I said it plays BETTER with a mouse. :wtf:
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Not sure about Republic Commando, but Savage comes to my mind.
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OUTCAST...Nuff said.
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heh, some memories in here.
anyone remember Ascendancy?
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There was this game where you were a space marine or something, and had to fight these insects, but the cool thing was that you had this nifty jetpack and different armor classes...it was 3rd person. Great game, just cant' remember the name of it for the life of me.
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Did it involve a lot of strange humor, alien with big heads, blue skinned space babes and a giant named Kabuto?
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lol yeah that was a wierd game. Fun, though. And it did kinda combine strategy/shooter. Except for the kabuto. With him, you just smash stuff and eat things.
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FreeSpace 2.
It was excellent but few even know about it. :(
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FreeSpace 2.
It was excellent but few even know about it. :(
Again, there's a difference between 'underrated' and not selling well. :rolleyes:
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How were D1 & DII rated? I think D3 wasn't all that bad, either... don't know why it flopped.
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They were all rated highly in general. The first two games sold pretty well too, from what I remember.
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Underrated, as in didn't do as well as they deserved games:
System Shock 2 (If it had done better, LGS would still be here!)
Project Eden (One of the last decent 4-player co-op FPs-style games. Actually its more like a 3D version of Lost Vikings set in the future...)
Armed and Dangerous (It's basically Giants: Citizen Kabuto, only sicker, funnier and harder! )
BattleZone (It's an RTS crossed with an FPS with vehicles!! So ahead of its time... Driving a hover-tank has never been so fun, and someone needs to port the RAVE GUN!! to FS2... Only thing that comes close is BZ2, but that's nowhere near as good, although the community fixes make the game a LOT better)
Tribes: Vengence (Actually, this sucked compared to Tribes 1 and 2, but the storyline was pretty epic)
Anachronox (Plays like Squaresoft RPG; Damned funny. IMHO the best game that Ion Storm made)
Planescape:Torment (Buggiest piece of crap I've ever played, but the game is just so damned epic... and deep...)
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I actually liked BZ2 better, despite its clunky graphics/physics engine. They cleaned up many of the interface issues in the first game and units generally seemed to be balanced out better.
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Tribes: Vengence (Actually, this sucked compared to Tribes 1 and 2, but the storyline was pretty epic)
Oh, Tribes:V! I really liked the singleplayer storyline :yes: :nod: although I think they could've gone further, the problem with the game was that it was too much focused on the multiplayer. :(
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Two come to mind right now.... Undying and Wheel of Time.
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the Journeyman Project series was always a favorite of mine. One of the old point and click adventure games with lots of puzzles and impressive graphics
Basically you played as Agent 5 of the Temporal Security Agency and had to make sure people didn't FUBAR the time line. The plots were usually deep, and had plenty of quirky humor.
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Wheel of Time and Battlezone were pretty good. BZ always annoyed me on the more difficult skill levels though. It was clearly a case of ramping up enemy hitpoints because the AI couldn't get tougher. I mean on the hardest setting unless you had a flash cannon it was impossible to kill more than one tank without an ammo reload.
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I could never get past the sixth U.S. mission, and I don't think I ever attempted to tackle the Soviet campaign.
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the Journeyman Project series was always a favorite of mine. One of the old point and click adventure games with lots of puzzles and impressive graphics
Basically you played as Agent 5 of the Temporal Security Agency and had to make sure people didn't FUBAR the time line. The plots were usually deep, and had plenty of quirky humor.
I have had the Mac version of that game (the first one) for a long time, but have never been able to play it. My ancient Mac is too old to run it at a reasonable speed and the Basilisk emulator also runs it too slowly. :(
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Also, anyone here heard of Escape Velocity?
Diehard EV: Nova fan speaking.
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Uprising?
I only played the demo version of the first game though. :(
Similar to Battlezone in concept (I never played BZ - my life around computers is lagging, i.e. I was still on a P1 playing DOS Crusader: No Regret, Win95 FS1 and DOS Descent II when people were already running 550mhz P2's and P3's).
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Uuu...EV NOVA is cool.. I made a mod for it..adn there's a whole lot of great mods for it... :yes:
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I have Uprising 2, great game :nod:, its the same style as BZ but a shame that it doesnt work on XP.
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Omega its at the home of the underdogs. really old but good for an intro to coding " A I" (ok its for kids but its really fun still :)
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Also, anyone here heard of Escape Velocity?
Diehard EV: Nova fan speaking.
Have you ever heard of the "Explosion ReVamp Plugin" or "Shields" (the newest one)? Those were both made by me. I had a lot more time on my hands then than I do now.
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How were D1 & DII rated? I think D3 wasn't all that bad, either... don't know why it flopped.
it sucked because thety took away the cold, gritty and evil look of the mines and actually made everything look cute, they replaced the industrial soundtrack with techno dance crap. the graphics werent up to par with other games at the time.the terrain engine sucked, the robots were too cute. the story was a little dumb. descent 2 was always much more fun. while descent 3 sits in a drawer somewhere while i have a d2xxl icon in the start menu root. descent 3 shoulda been like the doom 3 into cerberon mod. i find it ironic that theres a descent mod for doom. because the descent kids and the doom kids were at eachothers throats over whos game was better. i was one of the descent kids, but we were always out numberd. odd how things work out :D
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D1 & DII FTW, but I didn't think D3 sucked... I agree with all your points, but I don't dislike the changes enough to say the game sucked. I mean, it's still pretty good. ('Specially with the Pyromania mod ;7 )
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You know, there are some of us out there who actually greatly prefer D3's gameplay over that of D2, and definitely approve of its (admittedly not the greatest) attempt at having some sort of storyline to it. D2 matches never gave me the sense of grace and agility that playing a good round of CTF in D3 has.
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I agree, D3's multiplayer was outstanding. The variety in maps and game modes was unprecedented for that time, and the weapon balance was some of the best I've seen in any game. Although I do think that things generally looked too colorful and cartoony.
Overall, I probably had more fun with D2, but only because I spent years modding it.
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O really? Linkies?
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i still got some of my own descent 2 mods on my hd, not sure if any of them are anywhere near playable though.
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Oh, Pyromania was fun. At least they didn't forget the SP crowd. :D
Flak Omega!!!
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@Nuke, do you have a WebDAV client?
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O really? Linkies?
If you're referring to my levels and stuff, I doubt you would want to see them. I made most of them in fifth and sixth grade and the quality is, well, questionable. :D
I had rather more success with Red Alert actually, which I also spent a lot of time modding during the same period.
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Underrated eh?
C&C: Renegade. Good shoot em up, based on the Tiberium Sun Game.
Hidden and Dangerous. Another good shoot em up, more strategy is required alothough the graphics were mediocre.
Forsaken. Very Fun Multiplayer game set in the future were the earth has almost been destroyed, you fly futuristic space bikes.
Settlers 2. old building game, still entertaining.
Quarantine. very old driving game, set in the future in america in a place named Kemo City, where a cooperation has built a wall around the city to prevent a virus speading which this cooperation indroduced.
Ancient Conquest. there was no full version ever released, but it was a very fun and interesting game. very basic but the graphics are nice.
POD. A racing game, set on the planet IO after a drilling operation opened up a lifeform from the planets crust which spead. your objective is to race serveral others in custom made built scrap cars in a championship for the last shuttle off the planet.
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@Nuke, do you have a WebDAV client?
dont even know what that is. but if yore intrested in obtaining my d2 mods let me know. i have hxms with the bots in them as well the source cobs. they seem to run in d2xxl ok but im not too sure about vanilla d2.
Forsaken. Very Fun Multiplayer game set in the future were the earth has almost been destroyed, you fly futuristic space bikes.
i have to say that was the best descent clone ever. id even go as far as saying it was better than d3. it was certainly faster paced than descent 3 had been and had more accessable multiplayer than d2 (which required a lan or a 3rd party app like kali).
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@Nuke, do you have a WebDAV client?
dont even know what that is. but if yore intrested in obtaining my d2 mods let me know. i have hxms with the bots in them as well the source cobs. they seem to run in d2xxl ok but im not too sure about vanilla d2.
Yah, that would be what I was asking. :yes: http://in.solit.us is a pretty good host, especially if you can find a decent WebDAV client. (They do exist, but I forgot the one I had installed, right now I'm using NetDrive, it's fine as long as you use the command prompt to transfer files to the correct subdirectory in your account - don't use explorer, and don't transfer files to the root directory in your account, and it'll be alright. There are several others if you google them.)
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C&C: Renegade. Good shoot em up, based on the Tiberium Sun Game.
Actually, it was based on Tiberian Dawn. :)
Or was it Tiberium Dawn? Ah, forget it.
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Tiberian Dawn. :P
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Underrated games? How about these. Though they are a little "old school" I'm afraid. But what do you expect from an old grey haired wrinkly like me.
Starting with the Commodore 64 the first really underrated game I discovered was Mail Order Monsters. A game with a fantastic concept. You spent money buying cratures and outfitting them with special powers and weapons and then sent them into battle against creatures owned by your mates. Next game, same platform, Rocketball. A great computer implementation of Rollerball. Quite silly and a lot of fun. Last on the C64, PSI-5 Trading Company. A game which put you in command of a space freighter. Pretty convincingly too with some lovely cartoon style graphics representing your crew. The crew also responded in a very human way to stressful situations. Generally losing it, shouting at you, and one another. Good to watch.
Onto the Amiga now and we'll kick off with Lords of Chaos. The Amiga based sequel to Julian Gallop's Laser Squad. The only game where I've ever killed someone by setting fire to their house and blocking the house's exits with summoned elephants. Wildlife assisted arson if you will. I also once created an army of flying undead monkey swordsmen. Great game. Next on this short list is Warhead. A space combat/adventure simulator with newtonian physics. It worked really well. Much better than it did in Frontier: Elite 2. My last pick for the Amiga and this dull post nobody is interested in is K240. A real time strategy game where you would build mining colonies on moving asteroids, build ships, armies, cruise missiles, and blow the hell out of the opposition. The cruise missile aspect was great fun. It was entertaining to rain nuclear weapons on enemy colonies.
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flying undead monkey swordsmen = cool
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M.A.X. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.A.X.)
Years old RTS game with a few twists, and possibly the best (least retarded) AI for a long time.
I remember spending hour after hour playing with this and actually enjoying only just hold my own in the campaign.
Coolest Feature: You can customise your units in-game by conducting research or spending mined gold :yes:
Annoying Feature: It's damn hard :p