Mr_Putter

It's honestly pretty bad now. In fact, it hasn't been very good since they came back from being cancelled. They keep recycling jokes and stuff.

I finished Unreal last night. It was very, very disappointing. Here's my review. [hide]The story was basically nonexistant; despite this game having a fairly great plot, they did next to nothing with it. I felt myself more entertained with a side plot (you pick up PDA's of the others in your same situation) that involved the ship mates trying to track down one of their party members. I really feel if they had put a little more time into this aspect, I would be praising this game right now. The whole time I felt "Why am I doing this?". For those of you who don't know, the plot of this game is that you are a prisoner being transported through space when your ship crash lands. Pandemonium ensues, all the prisoners escape, and everyone aboard the ship tries to get off the planet to safety. On the planet there is one peaceful race fighting against a warrior race who has enslaved them. The peaceful race sees you as some kind of savior. Unfortunately, there is litle documentation on anything past this, in-game or in the manual. Apparently (I found this out in an online walkthrough (which I used frequently, more on this in a bit), saving the peaceful race means the enemies are easier, though nothing in the game really suggests this. As well, the lack of a minimap or quest log means it's nearly impossible to find your way around. A button in the residential area of a castle mysteriously opens the door to the secret base over in the mountain. This means the only way to play this game is to either remember every door that was shut initially (of which there are many) and go check to see if it's open, or just use a walkthrough (the sensible choice). On this note, I have no idea why this guy keeps doing what he's doing. What reasonable idea would he have that going into these bizarre castles, through these ridiculous tunnels is eventually going to lead to him being on a ship back home? It makes no sense whatsoever. I mean, in Half-Life, you are trying to get to the surface at first, and you actually work there, so you have a reasonable idea that there even is a surface and about how to get there. This game feels like a string of levels with no clear relationship between them or reason for continuing. The sparse PDA entries (none of which are voice acted) leave almost no hint as to how or why to proceed. This leaves the game feeling unprofessional, almost more like a really strong mod. The graphics are pretty nice, atleast for the time. It feels almost like a really long tech demo. Despite this, they aren't used to their full potential. You fight <10 different foes of which there is very little variation, and the majority of the levels are bland and poorly structured. The sound is average, as is the music. The gameplay is really the sole redeeming factor of this game. Props to Epic for making an essentially bug-free experience. The Unreal engine is honestly one of the best gameplay engines ever created. The jumping/moving/aiming mechanics are just perfect, IMO never topped before or since in an engine (they feel a bit smoother in UT, though). The graphic engine is as good as you need, especially for something like UT. Even the quality of gameplay does not matter, however, since the game is bogged down with repetitive combat situations. I would have even preferred something along the line of Serious Sam, with scores of weaker enemies and bunches of ammo. Atleast that would have lent itself to some more excitement. Unreal is a game that has not aged well. While the graphics still look fairly good even today, and the potential for good gameplay is essentially unmatched, the game feels dated in most every way. The story remains undeveloped, and the level design is confusing and inappropriate. What this leaves is an experience that is in no way cinematic. If you're looking for an exciting, older shooter, go play Half-Life. Again. [/hide] Next I had planned to play Portal and HL2: Ep2, but Orange Box seems to be sold out everywhere in my town :shock: :roll: . So I think it's down to Hitman: Agent 47 or Thief 2: The Metal Age. I should be done Freedom Force vs. The Third Reich by tommorow, then I'll post my thoughts.

This would have seemed like a dream come true when I was like 11, now it seems a bit too late. Still could be a lot of cheesy fun though.

yeah that's kinda what RTS's are about real time STRATEGY WC3 involves strategy and is therefore a strategy game. Just because AOK or a wealth of other games have deeper strategy elements doesn't mean they are better games.

^^^ You might be thinking of Just Cause. That's a sandbox game with a lot of jungle and some cities. I just finished Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. It started out really strong for the first 4 chapters or so. Then for much of the remainder of the game it was dungeon after dungeon, and spider pit after spider pit (I'm somewhat arachnophobic, it was incredibly hard to get through these), cave after cave. It just basically sucked all the life out of the game, plus they got really lazy...Traps just sitting around everywhere, metal [bleep]y things everywhere to use...It just seemed lazy. The combat ranges from quite fun to downright dry to overly difficult. There were some serious balancing issues. I started out playing entirely as a mage until I realised it really wasn't that viable in single player, same with archery really. You'll have a far easier time playing as a warrior. Also, the ghouls (of which there are many at some points), are way too fast, tough and strong. When there are 6 coming at you, they 2hit you and they are so fast you can't get an attack in you know you have an issue. The multiplayer is another story: mages are probably the most powerful, archers being not very good unless you are an incredible shot. Assassins suck, warriors are pretty good and priests are ok. Shame they couldn't have gotten more balance. Overall, a pretty good game. The multiplayer is kinda fun, the single player is very inconsistent but overall a decent experience. Luckily this game is gifted with a rather strong final 2 chapters: it gains lots of points from me for that, since most games seem to fizzle out by the end. This game definately deserved better reviews than it got, though this might be because of the 2 patches that have come since it's release. It's mostly bug-free now. Also, the story was pretty good. A little underdeveloped and unoriginal, but overall fairly satisfying. The graphics are actually quite nice IMO. I would give this game an 80% overall, brought up with it's last chapter. I'd say go ahead and buy it if it's your type of game and if you can find it cheap, but it isn't an essential experience.

Haven't they been out of style for several years now?

There are only slightly over 6.5 billion people on this planet.[1] [1]David, Leonard. "Planet's Population Hit 6.5 Billion Saturday", Live Science, February 24, 2006. Retrieved on 2007-12-21.

Me and my 2 brothers were all alike probably until the eldest (we're all 2 years apart) reached highschoolish. Now we're completely different, atleast in interests, though not as much in personality. I like classic soft rock, my one brother likes alternative rock/punk and the other likes more hardcore, less-mainstream punk. I like video games, one likes working out, and one likes sports. I watch a lot of older movies and more dramas, the other two watch more action movies. I kinda regret copying for so long. At one point our entire live basically revolved around the computer, now my oldest brother could be called a casual gamer at best, the middle one really likes games but plays a lot of WoW mostly, and I'm the one that basically is still completely addicted. Also, I kinda regret playing hockey for so long (I didn't want to deviate, though in hindsight I wish I would have learned to play an instrument or something). I think probably the closer together you are, the more likely you are to copy. Within 3-4 years you go through all the same things...When you're 5-10 years difference, what with the older out doing stuff more and partaking in different activities, plus moving out at some point I don't think there is as much copyage.

Supreme Commander Big and bold because this is the one you'll likely want. It has huge battles, is designed by the creator of TA, and is the spiritual successor to it. It's also got really good ratings and I've heard really good things from people who've played it. Personally I don't play many RTS games, but this is exactly what you seem to be looking for. Check it out on the website of your choice for some gameplay. It's also at a reduced price now :thumbsup: .

DOTA blows. It's not real Warcraft.

I'm not really excited as I didn't play the first one, but this means a lot to a lot of people I know. So it better be huge.

I've cheated. Never hugely or on something too important. Practically my whole class cheated in math. I can remember the weekly ritual of copying all the important formulas hidden on my calculator such that they could only be seen at a certain angle. By doing this I usually knew the answer afterwards, and just used it as a reminder. Now that I'm in university I'm not ever going to risk cheating. I mean, we occassionally have online quizzes which almost encourage cheating, but all the big tests I wouldn't even try. Plus I'm getting an arts degree, so unless I was able to hide a huge notebook it wouldn't do much good anyways. Also, I read a pretty neat article a while back that said something like 1/3 people getting an MBA had cheated on a major test. So it's not just punk kids.

It really is a fun game, but the story and graphics are pretty crap. The combat more than makes up for it though. I always say that if Oblivion had Dark Messiah's combat, it would be much, much more enjoyable. Kicking orcs from cliffs, sending them screaming down is quite beautiful. Nothing wrong with the graphics so far. Nothing special, but I don't notice them being bad. So far it's a lot of fun. I guess I really had no idea what sort of game it was going in (thought it was hack-and-slash FPS), but I put it on hard and it's almost more of a stealth-strategy FPS, which is really unique. It's basically impossible to face more than 1 guy head on, so you have to sneak around and devise a strategy (though admitedly so far, it's been just chuck barrel, dagger execute, hide, repeat. It's jam packed with wow moments, and I'm having a blast so far...It's taking me out of my gaming slump :). I hope it keeps this much fun up :).

Many of us are or will soon be on our Winter holidays, so we finally have time to catch up on some of the gaming we may have missed in the past few months/years. So post here what you are playing, are about to play, and most importantly, what you think of it. Myself, I have about 20 games from the past 10 years that I either own or need to buy and play. I'm hoping to cut this list almost in half in the next month. I started on Thursday with Beyond Good and Evil, and I'll keep it short (just like the game, which is only ~10 hours). It was a good game with good ideas, marred by some bad design decisions and serious bugs on the PC. I'd recommend playing it for a console over the PC any day, one of the few times I'd say this. It is worth a play because it can be found cheap, and I'd give it about an 82%. At the same time, I've been playing the original Unreal. It hasn't really held up over time like, say, Half-Life. It's fun action, fair graphics, the AI is very impressive and it's neat to see the roots of Unreal Tournament (including a primative bot-mode). However, it's basically just you moving from room to room, fighting some guys, figuring out a puzzle here and there, and moving on. I'd recommend it only to hardcore fans of Unreal Tournament who haven't had a chance to play it. I'll give a % score when I'm done. With BGE done, today I will start Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. Hope it's fun :).

Like jgrazotis said, San Andreas is an amazing game, far superior to III. If you don't like the whole 'gangsta' thing, Vice City is very good aswell, also much better than III.

I has good things to say - It is easily the best RTS/realtime tactics game ever made, and is essentially perfectly balanced. I don't care what anyone says, it puts Starcraft to shame. AOK is really good, but it's not very balanced and the teams aren't really unique. Plus its more about economy and overall strategy than the exciting combat.

I'm pretty much with LP, unless you can find someone something they've been dieing to get, esp. something they couldn't find. Giving someone something they could just as easily go buy doesn't seem like much of a point to me. What I want, though is: 1. Futureshop gift certificates (so I can buy games and maybe some CD's) ------->I got a lot of games/CD's I want, not sure what I'll buy. 2. I need some new fans, and a new heatsink/fan for my computer, which I will recieve money to buy myself because only I know what to look for. That's about it.

I'm planning to get through about 10 PC games, watch ~10-15 movies. Hang out w/ people maybe once or twice a week, maybe get some brewskies in my gullet. Will be a good time ;). I have 4 weeks off, btw, since I quit my job.

I think it's time you packed your bags and escaped to Mexico.

Sellouts.

Zaun too? Damn. Some of those were already pretty much known...Didn't Glaus get some evidence against him some months ago? Same w/ McGwire and Sosa? And some you just had to know. There's a big poster of Giambi in the weight room at my old high school, and you can just sorta tell. I'm not sure whether this is a good day for baseball or a bad day. I was watching the video conference with Bud Selig and he said they are trying to get screenings for HGH cause a lot of guys are switching over to that.

Without going into the specifics as I'd rather not, front half was below average, back half was slightly above average, all things considered. It was a year that mixed momentary happiness and relaxation with a greater proportion of bad events, and irritants. But I've had years where there is almost none of the former things, so this was OK. Here's hoping for a better 08 :).

That seems good. It was the absolute maximum sentence he could get based on the charges. And it's not like if he gets out when he's 83 he'll be able to do much. I'm assuming he will be segregated because of the nature of his crimes? If not, there's no way he'll make it to 83 anyway. He won't make it to 59.

I would really miss the internet, mostly because, like darkmage099 said, I find information very addicting. I take for granted the likes of wikipedia and google, and since my quest in life basically is seeking out interesting and practical information, no internet would make it much harder. I could probably deal without a forum like this (no offence), but I use forums all the time, as I'm sort of a DIY guy without any abilities :anxious: . I find it reassuring that if I mess something up, there's a forum somewhere that I can go and ask experts in the field what I should do. And it always works. I might be better off in some ways; I'd have more free time. But I'd probably waste it in some equally unproductive manner. :

Ok, I'm not an active Runescape player anymore, but I stumbled across this update. What does it mean? You can't trade outside 5% of the value? Who determines value? Do values go up? What will this mean for merchants? Is that effectively ruined? What does it mean for rares? What are their values and will they ever go up? I don't understand this, but from the looks of it, this is going to completely ruin an interesting economy.