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Fun Stuff => CLIKC => Topic started by: Neskah on 20 Jan 2009, 03:13

Title: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: Neskah on 20 Jan 2009, 03:13
Not entirely new, but as I'm a girl, I've been given crappy suggestions. Don't get me wrong... I did finish that Pokemon game I was bought, but... thats cause i commute almost an hour each way on the train every day and finished every book i own.

I also tried FFXI, and while i enjoyed it to a degree, it took me two years to get to level 48, which should indicate my true level of enthusiasm. Waiting 4 hours for a party only to have it disband because of elitism and power struggles, is not my idea of fun. WoW, while colourful, had similar issues.

Retaining only a love of Mario Kart, Id pretty much given up on games... Until my BF gave me a copy of Half Life 2. Which I LOVED. Then he bought me a copy of L4D, which I can't get enough of.

This weekend I attended my first Lan and got to try my hand at COD4 and CS, and had a blast. (Seeing my BFs younger brother shoot him in the arse with a replica Sig Sauer air soft gun was also a laugh a minute).

So it seems I enjoy games where I can run around and shoot people.

Any suggestions?


Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: Surgoshan on 20 Jan 2009, 03:28
Get the Orange Box.  No lie, best money you'll ever spend.  It's got:

Half-Life 2
Half-Life 2: Episode 1
Half-Life 2: Episode 2
Team Fortress 2
Portal
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: David_Dovey on 20 Jan 2009, 03:31
Everybody, gamer or otherwise should play Portal, oh yes.
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: Trollstormur on 20 Jan 2009, 03:50
2nding the OJB

I didn't buy the OJB but I bought TF2 and it was the best damn money I've ever spent.
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: evernew on 20 Jan 2009, 03:55
I bought the Orange Box too. The only game I have tried so far is Peggle.
I fail at life.

If you like running around and shooting stuff but not waiting for people, I'd suggest the Call of Duty 4 singleplayer campaign. I've been playing it on and off and the story is well-told; you're in action as two different characters in two completely different storylines but you have a feeling that there is a connection really early on.

Also, try the Halo series. Instead of having 10 weapons like in Half-Life you have to choose which ones you carry and instead of left click = fire and right click = zoom / grenade / whatever you also have the choice of firing two weapons at the same time.
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: Trollstormur on 20 Jan 2009, 03:57
fallout's a classic and not too hard on the check book. plus, you don't have to feel bad about pirating it because the company that made it don't exist anymore.


also diablo.
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: clockworkjames on 20 Jan 2009, 09:58
Pick an FPS you and four friends like
Buy a vent channel
Join irc://irc.quakenet.org/ #5on5.css for CSS or #CoD4.wars for CoD4 etc.
play some mixxes
?????
PROFIT!
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: GreyGabe on 20 Jan 2009, 11:43
The Resident Evil series, especially number 4. Number 5 is coming soon and that will almost certainly be awesome. Fallout 3 is fun, too, though the post-nuclear war landscape may grate a bit after a while.
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: bicostp on 20 Jan 2009, 11:44
The Orange Box. Definitely.

- More Half-Life 2
- Portal.
- Team Fortress 2. (Probably one of the most balanced multiplayer games of its kind out there. I just wish it had an official team deathmatch type of game, sort of like Arena but you get to respawn, and the winning team is the one with more kills or points. Maybe with the Scout update...)

Best $40 I ever spent on PC games, and it's come down since then.
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: imapiratearg on 20 Jan 2009, 11:50
fallout's a classic and not too hard on the check book. plus, you don't have to feel bad about pirating it because the company that made it don't exist anymore.


also diablo.

Wait, what?  Bethesda went under?

Seconding Diablo, though.  Diablo II is one of my top three favorite games of all-time.
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: Scandanavian War Machine on 20 Jan 2009, 11:51
Fallout

not Fallout 3
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: 0bsessions on 20 Jan 2009, 11:58
Orange Box is pretty much going to be a unanimous selection. You simply can't go wrong with it if you dig shooters.

One important thing, though: what platforms do you have? That's pretty important for consideration. If you're running L4D on PC as it sounds, I'd assume you have a gaming capable PC, but it's not very clear what you can play on otherwise, considering Pokemon and Mario Kart are on multiple Nintendo platforms.
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: snalin on 20 Jan 2009, 12:24
You should try different kinds of games as well, just to see what works for you. I'd try real time strategy (age of empires 3) and turn based strategy (any civilization game). Or the combination you find in Medieval/Rome/Medieval2: Total war

If you want something not too complex but still hell of fun, try Mount&Blade (and that goes for the rest of you too!). It's a medieval battle/troop command/strategy/lots'a stuff game, really, really addictive.

Then you should try out Spiderweb Software's Avernum, since if you like them you'll like them a lot. Try nr. 1 first. You get a really big demo version (20+ hours if you explore a bit of the goodies).

I'd second Fallout. 1 and 2 are totally different games from 3, I prefered nr. 1 (come on, somebody could tell me that I needed to invest in the outdoors skill to not get totally FUCKING GANKED if I wanted to travel across the world map, god damn it!)

Then, of course, try Morrowind. Preferably before Oblivion, it's sequel. Morrowind has so many gems, and the whole experience is wastly much better than anything else Bethesda Softworks has done. It just has a kinda old fighting system.

If you like pure fighting, I'd go for Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. It has the best swashbucking battle system out there. Seriously. I have never played any game where the fighting part was as fun as in Dark Messiah.

Back to the oldies, Might and Magic 6 through 8. Brilliant RPGs, though old looking. The looks shouldn't matter because it's so much FUN.



These are my favourites. From what you say you like, I'd go for Dark Messiah and Fallout 3. Brilliant games both. Oh: before I forget, try Bioshock.
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: Alex C on 20 Jan 2009, 13:36
It's too bad you ask this now; apparently Gametap is no longer offering Fallout, Deus Ex, Psychonauts or Sid Meier's Pirates! for free after Thursday, or else I would have totally pointed you in Gametap's direction, provided that you care more about gameplay than graphics.
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: Surgoshan on 20 Jan 2009, 14:11
You can get Fallout, Fallout 2, and Fallout: Tactics on a single disc from amazon for $20.
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: Trollstormur on 20 Jan 2009, 14:34
(http://fc05.deviantart.com/fs27/f/2008/153/c/7/Girl_Gamers_by_FizTheAncient.png)


pic unrelated.
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: Alex C on 20 Jan 2009, 15:06
The joke here is that he's a mod



Oh god, please don't ban me.
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: JD on 20 Jan 2009, 15:51
I'd recommend mass effect, that game was such fun.
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: Reed on 20 Jan 2009, 18:27
If you are interested in Fallout, or other older games and you don't want to find them illegally try Good old Games (http://www.gog.com)
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: est on 20 Jan 2009, 19:08
If you played Pokemon a lot I am guessing you've got some kind of Nintendo handheld system, right?  You say you mostly enjoyed FFXI, so I'm gonna recommend you get either Final Fantasy Tactics Advance if it's a GBA and/or FFTA2: Grimoire of the Rift if you have a DS.  They are both pretty good and will eat up your commute time pretty well.

Also, is it's a DS then the relatively crap-looking but definitely fun Fountainhead-developed, id-produced turn-based fantasy fps/rpg Orcs and Goblins (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orcs_%26_Elves) might be good, too.
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: JD on 20 Jan 2009, 19:19
If you are too cheap to get the orange box here is some 2d versions of TF2 and portal

http://ganggarrison.com/ (http://ganggarrison.com/)

http://portal.wecreatestuff.com/portal.php (http://portal.wecreatestuff.com/portal.php)
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: PizzaSHARK on 21 Jan 2009, 04:44
Unreal Tournament 2004 is the best multiplayer shooter ever made.  Period.  It's perfectly balanced, a ton of fun, and the system requirements are low - my old system is close to five years old, and it can run it at high resolutions with everything maxed out and still maintain a clean, consistent 60 fps.  There aren't many quality servers out there these days, but it's amazingly fun at LAN parties and the bot AI's pretty decent at higher levels.  I'd recommend Bombing Run - think football with guns.  The bot AI for BR sucks, though, so if you're gonna do a botmatch, stick to CTF, Assault, or (Team) Deathmatch.

If you've got Half-Life 2, you probably have the Orange Box.  If you don't, get it.  Portal is innovative and fun, and Episode Two completely changes the way shooters are done; the voice acting is amazing, especially Merle Dandridge playing Alyx.  Robert Guillaume as Eli also does a great job.  Team Fortress 2 is an amazing, addictive shooter.  For best results, you need a team that works as a team; playing it with a bunch of people that're doing their own thing just sucks balls.

Battlefield 2142 is also an excellent shooter, and is a great choice if you happen to prefer some more strategy in your shooters.  Again, though, to get the most out of it, you need people that squad up and work together.

If you're wanting to give RPGs a shot, I'd suggest starting with Baldur's Gate (with Tales of the Sword Coast), Baldur's Gate II (with Throne of Bhaal), Fallout, Fallout 2, and especially Planescape: Torment.  All of them should be relatively easy to find for probably $5 apiece (most come in collections now, though.)  Torment may be hard to find; I guard my set of discs more than I'd guard pure gold.  All of those games represent the pinnacle of RPG gaming for their time, and completely blow JPRGs like the Final Fantasy series out of the water.

If you've got an SNES (or an emulator for one, like ZSNES), I'd recommend the Mega Man X games (X, X2, X3.)  If you've got a PSP, they're available on Mega Man Maverick Hunter X, which includes pretty much all of the MMX games, plus a bunch of extras like remixed soundtracks, and an animated movie thing.

Continuing with the SNES theme, you're committing a crime against gaming if you don't play Super Metroid, Super Mario World, and especially Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island.

If you're into RTSes, I'd suggest Starcraft (old but still as fun as always) and Warcraft III.  I've heard Red Alert 3's also pretty good.

I'd recommend you give World of Warcraft another shot if you've got a group of friends (at least five of you all together), because it's incredibly fun with a good group of people to play with.  It pretty well sucks if you don't.


Oh, yeah, survival horror games.  The remade Resident Evil for the GCN is pretty good.  Resident Evil 0 ain't bad.  Resident Evil 4 is very fun.  Silent Hill and Silent Hill 2 are good.
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: Nodaisho on 21 Jan 2009, 13:22
Try S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl. I really like it, it is like a mix between an RPG (big world, constant quest to find better stuff) and an FPS (because, well, you shoot them. In first person view.) SoC is the one to start with, not Clear Sky, Clear Sky is harder, I wouldn't have liked it if I hadn't played Shadow of Chernobyl first. Shadow of Chernobyl also has a lot more mods than clear sky. The game is somewhat buggy, but still enjoyable.
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: Melodic on 21 Jan 2009, 13:43
somewhat buggy

LOLOLOL
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: Catfish_Man on 21 Jan 2009, 15:40
Cave Story, Quest for Glory 4, Starcraft, Final Fantasy 6 & 7, Aquaria, EV Nova
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: Nodaisho on 21 Jan 2009, 16:39
I only crashed in Yantar, and that was the first version. The boxes dropping items through the ground was annoying, but never a game-breaker. The chatter in the bar can get annoying, but that isn't a bug.

I played through 1 and a half times (the half being my desktop with it on it blowing a mobo at some point after x16, still needs replacing), never had anything game-breaking happen, and I put maybe 60 hours in to the first playthrough. I honestly don't see what people are complaining about with glitches, other than the yantar crashing, which got patched (unfortunately, they also added those damn rats, ridiculous armor degradation, and got rid of the merc blockade in wild territory).
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: Evandavis on 21 Jan 2009, 16:44
OMG GRL THATT PLAYS VIDEEOGAMES!!1!  *shot in the head*
I would have probably suggest the Orange Box as well.  5 games in one can't go wrong.
Final Fantasy 7 & 8
Super Smash Bros. Brawl.  Simple but fun.
Resident Evil 4.  Thrilling and fun, but if it's on the Wii I would recommend playing on a Classic Controller.
Diablo 2
Golden Sun 1&2 - GBA.  Great RPG
Nintendogs
Forza 2 was fun for me, but it had a bit of a learning curve.  Very Realistic; you wouldn't really just hold the pedal down the whole race, would you?
Viva Piñata.  Played the demo, it was pretty fun.
Assassin's Creed is fun to kill people on.
Crackdown.  Also fun demo.

All I can think of for now.
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: Melodic on 21 Jan 2009, 18:18
OMG GRL THATT PLAYS VIDEEOGAMES!!1!  *shot in the head*

That is not how we do humor here.
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: Headwoünd on 22 Jan 2009, 11:30
apparently Gametap is no longer offering Fallout, Deus Ex, Psychonauts or Sid Meier's Pirates! for free after Thursday
Quote
no longer offering Psychonauts for free after Thursday
Quote
no Psychonauts after Thursday

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tim5nU3DwIE

This is an outrage!! D':


But yes, play Cave Story. it's free and it's made of ludicrous amounts of win.

Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: ackblom12 on 22 Jan 2009, 14:09
You can get Psychonauts for $10 from Steam or $15 if you want it on your X-Box via download. It's not exactly a huge loss unless you're just that damn cheap.

The other games are just as cheap.
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: Neskah on 22 Jan 2009, 18:56
Cheers.

Troll and Evan, your attempt to shame me has been noted and smiled at. I don't see a problem with declaring my gender, as I'm not trying to impress or pick up ppl.

Yes I have a Game capable PC. Each time I ask my BF to upgrade her, he ensures she's up to scratch for gaming with him. Also I Art digitally sometimes so I must needs teh good graphocs.

I don't have a Console or handheld anymore, my ex did and thats how I played Pokemon.

I do want the orange box, but the BFs already gifted me Half life 2 and EPS 1&2... so wondering if it's worth it or if I should just get TF and Portal seperately.

I'm not sure about the Morrowmind suggestion, I've tried Oblivion, based on the assumption that as I'd tolerated FFXi I'd enjoy another RPG, but I found I didn't have enough direction in Oblivion. There were missions but none were critical, so I could just muck around, which I did as there was no real drive to accomplish anything particular.

I Must state I absolutely HATE games that involve any sort of econimics. Spending my saturday fishing or chopping wood so I can earn enough Gold to by the next sword is NOT my idea of fun. Don't get me started on my puzzlement over the Sims phenomena.

Id forgotten about resident evil, that was a game on my 'To play list"

I do enjoy car games, so was thinking about trying my hand at one of the GTA's

I managed to get my hands on American McGees Alice and just loved it to bits and peices as it was wonderful combination of my love of the Alice world and all things Macabre. But I seem to have misplaced the 2nd disk and can't locate another copy.

Steam is great but I'm working int he NZ dollor here so I $50 online would be about $100 for me. I prefer having the boxes anyway.
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: Nodaisho on 22 Jan 2009, 19:53
By car game do you mean racing game? Because I don't think GTA really has much of that. Playing racing games on the pc sucks pretty bad unless you have a gamepad, anyway.

Download Gametap, definitely, you can try some games there, and then you know more of what you do and don't like, so we can give more suggestions. You can also see if you can find demos for others.

I don't think Troll and Evan were trying to shame you. Troll was being a dick in a manner that passes for humor here, and Evan was being a dick in a manner that passes for humor elsewhere.
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: Darke on 22 Jan 2009, 21:16
If you enjoy shooting stuff you really should buy Left 4 Dead. I just spent the past 3 hours alternating between mowing down zombie hordes amid alot of frantic swearing, and pouncing on pathetic humans from rooftops before tearing them limb from limb with my disgusting clawhands.

If you have three other people you can play games with (fairly) regularly, you should definitely give it a try. Singleplayer gets a bit tedious as the friendly AI are... capable at the very best.
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: Reed on 22 Jan 2009, 21:45
If you can get a hold of them, try No One Lifes Forever 1 & 2. They are both excellent, quirky games about a witty, British, female secret agent in the 60's.
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: Neskah on 22 Jan 2009, 22:26
I Already have Left 4 Dead and and it's currently my favourite game.

So much so that my latest series of paintings have been about Zombies. Not the L4D characters, my own spin, but friends I've played L4D with, when popping round for coffee, take one look at my Easel and say I've been playing L4D too much hehehehe.

Sounds interesting Dire, what sort of situations does she get into?

I do like amusing games as well. I have a weak spot in my heart for the Lego series (Star Wars and Indiana) despite the fact they're still riddled with bugs. They pay homage to some of my favourite movies and are just so cute.
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: Alex C on 22 Jan 2009, 22:33
The No One Lives Forever games are first person shooters, for the most part, but they're rather humorous ones with a fair bit of gadgetry and variety mixed into the gameplay for spice.
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: PizzaSHARK on 22 Jan 2009, 22:53
I only crashed in Yantar, and that was the first version. The boxes dropping items through the ground was annoying, but never a game-breaker. The chatter in the bar can get annoying, but that isn't a bug.

I played through 1 and a half times (the half being my desktop with it on it blowing a mobo at some point after x16, still needs replacing), never had anything game-breaking happen, and I put maybe 60 hours in to the first playthrough. I honestly don't see what people are complaining about with glitches, other than the yantar crashing, which got patched (unfortunately, they also added those damn rats, ridiculous armor degradation, and got rid of the merc blockade in wild territory).

Stalker is renowed for absolutely terrible coding.  It runs very poor, especially when compared to games that came out after it and that are more graphically intensive.  I can run Crysis at better settings and better framerates than Stalker; the X-Ray Engine (that's what Stalker uses) is just absolute shit.

The game itself is pretty fun.  I'll probably get around to finishing it sometime this weekend, since the internet company here probably won't get around to turning my access on at my new place until Monday or Tuesday.  I will say that the labs (dark, underground areas that are supposed to be scary) have so far been a huge letdown.  Once you get the M4A1 clone, the game stops being difficult... unless you run out of ammo (5.56mm NATO is so damn hard to find.)
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: Darke on 22 Jan 2009, 22:55
I Already have Left 4 Dead and and it's currently my favourite game.
Durr. I should learn to properly read threads before responding. I was just caught in that "Must tell everyone about a game I like!" mood and this looked like a terrific opportunity.
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: Melodic on 22 Jan 2009, 23:03
I only crashed in Yantar, and that was the first version. The boxes dropping items through the ground was annoying, but never a game-breaker. The chatter in the bar can get annoying, but that isn't a bug.

I played through 1 and a half times (the half being my desktop with it on it blowing a mobo at some point after x16, still needs replacing), never had anything game-breaking happen, and I put maybe 60 hours in to the first playthrough. I honestly don't see what people are complaining about with glitches, other than the yantar crashing, which got patched (unfortunately, they also added those damn rats, ridiculous armor degradation, and got rid of the merc blockade in wild territory).

Stalker is renowed for absolutely terrible coding.  It runs very poor, especially when compared to games that came out after it and that are more graphically intensive.  I can run Crysis at better settings and better framerates than Stalker; the X-Ray Engine (that's what Stalker uses) is just absolute shit.

The game itself is pretty fun.  I'll probably get around to finishing it sometime this weekend, since the internet company here probably won't get around to turning my access on at my new place until Monday or Tuesday.  I will say that the labs (dark, underground areas that are supposed to be scary) have so far been a huge letdown.  Once you get the M4A1 clone, the game stops being difficult... unless you run out of ammo (5.56mm NATO is so damn hard to find.)

No, the X-Ray engine is a marvel of Eastern coding, and does for lighting what Crysis did for rendering. It is poorly optimized, but the blame lies mainly with today's video cards than anything else, which have evolved to meet the current needs of huge render areas with tonnes of items on-screen. STALKER is at the forefront of a larger-scale movement towards developing lighting engines in support of video hardware.

The GAME, on the other hand, is in fact a shitty, stinking mess of simple bugs.
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: PizzaSHARK on 23 Jan 2009, 01:24
I always liked that they tell you fairly important things (like "put away your gun") in Russian, instead of the localized language (English in my case.)  I figured it out after a little bit, but it was kinda annoying spending a few minutes trying to figure out why the NPCs wouldn't talk to me.

If you say the X-Ray engine's good, I guess I'll take your word for it.  I'd still rather see games use Source or an Unreal engine than anything else, though.
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: Spluff on 23 Jan 2009, 01:29
Source and Unreal engine look nowhere near as good as the x-ray engine does. The x-ray engine is really only surpassed by the CryEngine.
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: Headwoünd on 23 Jan 2009, 03:04
You can get Psychonauts for $10 from Steam or $15 if you want it on your X-Box via download. It's not exactly a huge loss unless you're just that damn cheap.

Well waddaya know.. I almost would have QQ'ed about it not being available on Steam in Europe (not amused that I couldn't grab some of the previous weekend deals because of that). But I checked it again and now I seem able to buy it. Neat, I thank you good Sir.
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: Reed on 23 Jan 2009, 13:14
Sounds interesting Dire, what sort of situations does she get into?

I do like amusing games as well. I have a weak spot in my heart for the Lego series (Star Wars and Indiana) despite the fact they're still riddled with bugs. They pay homage to some of my favourite movies and are just so cute.

Yeah, I probably should have explained a little better. Like Alex said, they're both FPS's. The first one has a couple of stealth missions that I found a little annoying (a lot of wait for camera X to be pointed this way, while bad guy Y has his back to you, then run from door A to door B), but it was just two of the smaller levels and there really wasn't anything like it in the second game. As for the premise of the game just thing of what would happen if the James Bond movies of the 60's and 70's just didn't take themselves seriously at all. There are all kinds of different environments (Evil base underwater, evil base in space, Morocco, Siberia, Eastern Germany, Akron Ohio). The second one has some light RPG elements (you can collect intelligence, most of which is quite funny, to upgrade your aim, damage, health, etc).
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: Be My Head on 23 Jan 2009, 13:56
All the Lucasarts classic adventure games are great (YOU MUST PLAY THE FIRST 3 MONKEY ISLAND GAMES, THIS IS LIKE A LAW OR SOMETHING)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LucasArts_adventure_games

All of the Black Isle RPGs are great

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Isle_Studios

Get yourself a Nintendo 64 and Goldeneye and Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Then try Morrowind, as you'll have a taste for exploring now. (Note, Morrowind is FAR more addictive than Oblivion, plus the thousands of mods, you can spend hundreds of hours immersed.)

The Hitman series is great

So is the Splinter Cell series, particularly Splinter Cell 4: Chaos Theory.

Prince of Persia series is kickass, except for the newest one which sucks ass.

Get yourself a Sega Genesis and all the Sonic games, along with Ecco The Dolphin.

Also, get the first 3 Warcraft games for the PC.

Get Neverwinter Nights as well.

Edit: I forgot, Get fucking...

STAR WARS: KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC





NOW!


Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: Nodaisho on 23 Jan 2009, 15:09
Stalker is renowed for absolutely terrible coding.  It runs very poor, especially when compared to games that came out after it and that are more graphically intensive.  I can run Crysis at better settings and better framerates than Stalker; the X-Ray Engine (that's what Stalker uses) is just absolute shit.

The game itself is pretty fun.  I'll probably get around to finishing it sometime this weekend, since the internet company here probably won't get around to turning my access on at my new place until Monday or Tuesday.  I will say that the labs (dark, underground areas that are supposed to be scary) have so far been a huge letdown.  Once you get the M4A1 clone, the game stops being difficult... unless you run out of ammo (5.56mm NATO is so damn hard to find.)
I agree with it running poorly, though for some reason, it actually runs better on this laptop than source does. It does get a lot easier once you get the LR300, especially after you get a SUSAT (some mercs in wild territory have them), but I think that is more of a case of being able to hit what you are aiming at more reliably. I didn't ever find the game really difficult, but it didn't forgive me for being stupid tactics-wise. If you are looking for more NATO ammo, clean out the mercs in the Wild Territory for a while, you get a bunch of gear and a good amount of .45 and 5.56 ammo. At night, you can also find some good artifacts near the electric anomalies near the trains.

Melodic, there is no debating taste, even though I wish I could, because yours sucks.

Seconding the recommendation of Prince of Persia, those games are fun. You used to be able to get the Sands of Time for free, don't know if that is still true.
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: Reed on 23 Jan 2009, 15:17
STAR WARS: KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC

THIS!
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: bicostp on 23 Jan 2009, 15:30
I do want the orange box, but the BFs already gifted me Half life 2 and EPS 1&2... so wondering if it's worth it or if I should just get TF and Portal seperately.

Absolutely. The only other title in the Orange Box is Peggle Extreme, which is really more of a 10 level demo / waste of time. Plus, Valve gives it away free to anyone with Steam now.

TF2 and Portal should be about $30 USD total.

The only other thing I recommend, as far as Source engine games go, is Garry's Mod. It's well worth the $10, because it gives you complete control over the physics engine, and you can build contraptions out of anything in any of the Source games you currently have installed. (Including HL2 and its episodes.)

TrackMania United Forever is fun. The Nations Forever version is free (no time or feature limits either), so you've got nothing to lose if you want to give it a try. There's even a built-in track editor, and piles of free tracks available online. United Forever basically gives you more of the same but with new cars and environments.
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: Melodic on 23 Jan 2009, 15:51
Melodic, there is no debating taste, even though I wish I could, because yours sucks.

Excuse me?
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: Nodaisho on 23 Jan 2009, 15:57
About S.T.A.L.K.E.R.. I guess that came out more dickish than I meant it to, I was saying how much I disagreed with your assessment of the game. There are bugs, but they aren't enough to ruin the game (though if I made a mod, first thing I would do would be adding a way to noclip, so you can get the items that fall through the earth).
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: Spluff on 23 Jan 2009, 16:51
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is an amazing game, no doubt about it. It is buggy (GET OUT OF HERE STALKER), but it is definitely one of the most unique FPS experiences of the last 5 years. Especially with Oblivion Lost.
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: Melodic on 23 Jan 2009, 23:07
I didn't mean to imply that I thought STALKER was a bad game. On the contrary, I thought it was fantastic and modded for it over the past year or so. But I think the amount of gameplay and logic bugs in the game detracts from the overall experience, and that the concepts and technology behind STALKER, in the hands of a more dedicated developer with a better track record, would be a win-win situation.
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: Spluff on 24 Jan 2009, 00:22
To be fair, I don't think anybody could have actually made the original STALKER plans.
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: PizzaSHARK on 24 Jan 2009, 02:01
Source and Unreal engine look nowhere near as good as the x-ray engine does. The x-ray engine is really only surpassed by the CryEngine.

I'll take performance and modability (moddability, modifiability?) over looks any day of the week.  I don't think we're going to see Garry's Mod using a Crytek engine or the X-Ray engine, and the mod tournaments for UT2k3 and UT2k4 showed how good those engines were at doing different things.  Someone made a top-down alien shooter using the 2k4 engine... can't remember what it was called, but damn if it wasn't fun.

I'm most of the way through Stalker at maximum difficulty and it's still too easy.  You can't exactly Rambo large groups of enemies, but the AI is so freaking pathetic that you can just pile the corpses (which will fall through the floor and be beyond looting range, which can break some jobs and force a quickload) in a doorway.  I did the military base in Cordon that way.  Dropped down through the attic, grabbed the intel, and just crouched and gunned them down as they all ran into the doorway one at a time.  Headshot, dead, headshot, dead, headshot, dead... meh.

The labs have been hugely disappointing.  Snorks are more annoying than dangerous (though I like their design), and Psuedogiants have a way of announcing their presence before you're ever in danger of running into one.  Feeding them rockets is very easy.  The zombies are just like normal humans, except even stupider... if you can't kill them in one or two shots to the head, your aim is terrible.

Maybe the X-Ray engine isn't complete suck, but unless someone wants to optimize it so it doesn't run like shit (as compared to a Crytek engine, Unreal engine, or Source) and make some really good out of it... I'll just regard Stalker as a too-ambitious Deus Ex wannabe.

Also, KOTOR is seconded.  Every gamer must meet HK-44.
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: Spluff on 24 Jan 2009, 02:19
The X-Ray engine is well optimized, what are you talking about? You can scale the damn thing down to DX8 - as compared to the Cryengine 2 which is renowned for its high hardware requirements.

There is a large and thriving modding community for STALKER.

And the game is still much harder than pretty much every game that has come out recently, except for modes like 'veteran' in call of duty which are only hard because of their linear game design and infinite enemies. Those aren't good things.
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: PizzaSHARK on 24 Jan 2009, 03:17
I'm saying I can run games that ostensibly have higher recommended specs at better framerates and resolutions than I can Stalker.  Maybe it just doesn't like ATi cards?

And it's too easy.  You really, really have to work for it if you want to die in that game, even on maximum difficulty.  Maybe if the AI wasn't shit.
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: DonInKansas on 24 Jan 2009, 11:14

Get yourself a Nintendo 64 and Goldeneye if you wish to lose track of time for the next few weeks/months/years


Fixed.  Seriously, I swear my entire college floor flunked the semester Goldeneye came out.

Man I never had so much fun completely sucking at a game.
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: Melodic on 24 Jan 2009, 12:50
Of course STALKER doesn't like ATi cards -- or modern GPUs in general -- since the focus of the X-Ray engine is not the same focus as today's hardware. I'm confident that X-Ray is the first step towards a unified and supported lighting base for gaming.

As for difficulty -- go here (http://www.z4.invisionfree.com/stalkerre) and download Victim's Redux Extreme, which is the mod I worked on. You will shit your pants.
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: Spluff on 24 Jan 2009, 23:22
You really mangled that link, man.
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: Melodic on 25 Jan 2009, 11:19
Holy crap yes I did.
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: PizzaSHARK on 25 Jan 2009, 12:19
Of course STALKER doesn't like ATi cards -- or modern GPUs in general -- since the focus of the X-Ray engine is not the same focus as today's hardware. I'm confident that X-Ray is the first step towards a unified and supported lighting base for gaming.

As for difficulty -- go here (http://www.z4.invisionfree.com/stalkerre) and download Victim's Redux Extreme, which is the mod I worked on. You will shit your pants.

I'll give it a shot.  I don't see a readme on the forums anywhere... will I need to download and install it before I can find out what it actually does? :P
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: Melodic on 25 Jan 2009, 19:59
Yes. What are you a Communist.
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: Nodaisho on 25 Jan 2009, 20:05
Why else would he be playing a game made in russia?
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: Melodic on 25 Jan 2009, 20:09
(Ukraine)
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: PizzaSHARK on 26 Jan 2009, 23:11
Yes. What are you a Communist.

Nah.  I just usually prefer to have an idea of what I'll be getting before I spend the time getting it.  I've noticed a lot of mod projects seemingly forget their "about" page or to even tell people what their goal is.  Kinda hard to plug your project when you forget to tell people what it does.
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: Melodic on 27 Jan 2009, 01:03
I'm fairly certain the earlier releases had the readme description in the download page. I'm not a part of the project anymore (I gave up when 1.3 came out and borked everything up), but you should find a description in the earlier release threads.
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: PizzaSHARK on 27 Jan 2009, 22:27
I'll check them, then, as soon as we get power back... fscking ice storms...

Thanks.
Title: Re: Recommendations for New Gamer?
Post by: Nodaisho on 27 Jan 2009, 22:40
(Ukraine)
Dammit. I always forget that. I blame them using Russian in-game, and rubles as currency, rather than Ukrainian and hryven.