Interesting Games you've missed
Ever thought to yourself: "Damn this pesky soul... how can I get rid of it? I bet Panigg would get a kick out of it." If so... this is not a beta giveaway! But stay anyway.
This is about all those little pearls you've heard about but never played, because why play something good, when you can just play another round of Battlefield 3, right?
Lets start with two videos that will serve as a basis:
<a href="http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/games-you-might-not-have-tried-or-heard-of" target="_blank">http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/games...ied-or-heard-of</a>
<a href="http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/games-you-might-not-have-tried-2" target="_blank">http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/games...ot-have-tried-2</a>
Now on to some other games you've probably never tried. Try to limit yourself to games that you've actually played, unless you know of some game that is really worth a look.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVf2rMILU0M" target="_blank">Okami</a>
Amazing RPG with a "drawing" mechanic. I loved it.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=md_8uDtbffQ" target="_blank">Psychonauts</a>
Just playing through it... Nothing too special about the gameplay, still a solid 7,5/10 imho, but the story is just crazy good and it's really funny. :)
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wccV45fsoJI" target="_blank">Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes</a>
Addictive re-iteration of bejeweled. Really good fun. Couldn't stop playing it once I started.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_XP9OBWGKo" target="_blank">Magicka</a>
Explaining, describing or watching videos of it don't do it justice... but give it a look anyway. Amazing fun. If the multiplayer worked a little better, this could've been THE lan game of 2011.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4Kp8DhvIPI" target="_blank">Beyond Good and Evil</a>
A bit like psychonauts, except not as crazy. Still a really good game. Warning: You might get sound problems when playing on PC. Not sure if they fixed that yet.
So yeah... post more. Systems or release dates don't matter.
This is about all those little pearls you've heard about but never played, because why play something good, when you can just play another round of Battlefield 3, right?
Lets start with two videos that will serve as a basis:
<a href="http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/games-you-might-not-have-tried-or-heard-of" target="_blank">http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/games...ied-or-heard-of</a>
<a href="http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/games-you-might-not-have-tried-2" target="_blank">http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/games...ot-have-tried-2</a>
Now on to some other games you've probably never tried. Try to limit yourself to games that you've actually played, unless you know of some game that is really worth a look.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVf2rMILU0M" target="_blank">Okami</a>
Amazing RPG with a "drawing" mechanic. I loved it.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=md_8uDtbffQ" target="_blank">Psychonauts</a>
Just playing through it... Nothing too special about the gameplay, still a solid 7,5/10 imho, but the story is just crazy good and it's really funny. :)
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wccV45fsoJI" target="_blank">Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes</a>
Addictive re-iteration of bejeweled. Really good fun. Couldn't stop playing it once I started.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_XP9OBWGKo" target="_blank">Magicka</a>
Explaining, describing or watching videos of it don't do it justice... but give it a look anyway. Amazing fun. If the multiplayer worked a little better, this could've been THE lan game of 2011.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4Kp8DhvIPI" target="_blank">Beyond Good and Evil</a>
A bit like psychonauts, except not as crazy. Still a really good game. Warning: You might get sound problems when playing on PC. Not sure if they fixed that yet.
So yeah... post more. Systems or release dates don't matter.
Comments
<i>Mirror's Edge</i> is a great but short game. You can get it for a few bucks now because it has been undeservingly unsucessful. I always like to see when first-person games try to convey a sense of body-awareness.
<i>Shadow Of The Colossus</i> is probably something most dedicated gamers have heard of. Most critics consider it one of the best games ever made. Many years after its release the PS2 edition was still sold at full retail price. And now there is an awesome HD-remake for the PS3 where it finally runs fluently without crappy framerates. The game is basically just a series of boss-fights with no action inbetween. You travel to a distant deserted land to kill ancient magical beasts in order to save a girls life. You, the player, don't even know more about anything. - And pretty soon you are starting to wonder whether it is right what you are doing, possibly you are the bad guy. Because these creatures never did anything to you.
<i>Zeno Clash</i> is one of those awesome little secret treasures. And indie-game based on the source engine it is a Beat-um-up in the first-person perspective with the same sense of body-awareness like <i>Mirror's Edge</i>.
<i>Zeno Clash</i> is fun, but much shorter. It feels less complete as a game but on the other hand has a very unique style.
<i>Braid</i>, <i>World of Goo</i> and <i>Limbo</i> are less likely to have been missed, but all provide solid entertainment.
<i>Machinarium</i> and its sequels are also well worth checking out.
Oh, yes, <i>Machinarium</i>, great little game. It has got sequels? Wher? What? When?
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9r6J0b-2BI" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9r6J0b-2BI</a>
However, in the vein of interesting games you probably didn't play, <a href="http://wz2100.net/" target="_blank">Warzone 2100</a> us a rather cool RTS game, it features an interesting campaign mechanic which alleviates the tedium of building a whole base for every new mission, awesome state of the art late 90's rendered FMV cutscenes, and all of your units are built from scratch. It also has a quite in depth intelligence and artillery system, command hierarchies as key elements of gameplay, and is really just a very <i>different</i> RTS game.
It's also free because eidos kindly released the source code a while back, and has since been updated to run on most modern systems. Sadly they removed the 3dfx glide render mode, so if you happen to have a voodoo card lying around somewhere, you cannot enjoy the awesome smoothed sprite animations and additive rendering of 3dfx.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9r6J0b-2BI" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9r6J0b-2BI</a><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
That game looks amazing. :O
Darksiders!
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I don't have an iphone/pad, but I'd probably check out <i>Sword and Sorcery</i> if I did...
<a href="http://uk.wireless.ign.com/articles/115/1157373p1.html" target="_blank">http://uk.wireless.ign.com/articles/115/1157373p1.html</a>
Dark Souls is on the 360 as well btw. It doesn't look quite as good but if you're not used to Demon's Souls visuals (specifically the lighting) it looks fine.
However, in the vein of interesting games you probably didn't play, <a href="http://wz2100.net/" target="_blank">Warzone 2100</a> us a rather cool RTS game, it features an interesting campaign mechanic which alleviates the tedium of building a whole base for every new mission, awesome state of the art late 90's rendered FMV cutscenes, and all of your units are built from scratch. It also has a quite in depth intelligence and artillery system, command hierarchies as key elements of gameplay, and is really just a very <i>different</i> RTS game.
It's also free because eidos kindly released the source code a while back, and has since been updated to run on most modern systems. Sadly they removed the 3dfx glide render mode, so if you happen to have a voodoo card lying around somewhere, you cannot enjoy the awesome smoothed sprite animations and additive rendering of 3dfx.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I second this, this game was great fun to play. Also interesting what in the PS1 version you could take control of one of your units(and switch between them). When you had command modules attached to tanks you could form control groups that you only needed to select the commander to select. It was an interesting way to get around the difficulty of selecting multiple units for focus fire on PS1 controls. Also the fact that your units were persistent and gained ranks meant that units obsolete technologically could still be useful or even better than your newest units fresh off the line.
That and you can recycle units to refund part of their cost but more importantly: it takes their experience off and then adds it to the next produced unit.
So you can recycle a seasoned group and then update them with new bodies, but keep the experience.
Also notable in that the entire point of the first campaign is unlocking the ability to produce infantry.
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Really good. A bit frustrating at times but it still looks shiny and it's only 10 bucks on steam.
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Such a good presentation of the PC community and why it deserves Dark Souls. I won't be surprised if From Software decides to develop it. Be sure to like the video, so it gets more attention. It already has gathered up quite many hits.
Overall the game was great, although it felt way too short (which it was) and way too rushed (which it was). Not to spoil things too much, but it reminds me of Alpha Protocol, where you get immediately ###### over on your very first mission, with no time to actually even understand any of the character to even *care* that you're getting ###### over.
Then again... I absolutely love games with slow build-ups... one of the reasons I loved Half-Life was the drawn-out intro where everything is normal, up until everything goes ######-up.
<!--quoteo(post=1892928:date=Jan 7 2012, 02:15 AM:name=Tykjen)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Tykjen @ Jan 7 2012, 02:15 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1892928"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->This game is so good, but only for PS3.. or?
Such a good presentation of the PC community and why it deserves Dark Souls. I won't be surprised if From Software decides to develop it. Be sure to like the video, so it gets more attention. It already has gathered up quite many hits.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Can you sum that up for me? That guy has the second most irritating voice ever (just behind the ###### on FutureWeapons, just ahead of the ###### voiceover on US Mythbusters), and I'm not going to watch 10 minutes of every cutscene of the game to find out why a game I've never heard of actually matters. I skipped around and heard him apparently comparing it to XCOM and then watched some extremely generic "RPG" combat action happen.
It's just really hard but fair. If you pay attention you can make it on first try.
I honestly can't think of one time I thought 'Thank god this is a PC game, because IT'S SO ###### HARD,' and then reflecting on how awesome it was that I was reloading again.
Seriously, I wouldn't describe any of my top PC games with 'difficult' being the highlight of them. As far as RPGs go, Planescape: Torment and Baldur's Gate could easily be described as 'hard' but it was a much different kind of difficulty than what you see in a generic over-the-shoulder 'press x to stab enemies' game. There was a bit more to it than trying to hit the weak point of a boss for massive damage while dying instantly if you don't block in time, simply because the developers put some extra zeros on the end of his damage and health levels.
The last PC game I can remember where I died a lot and actually found it pretty challenging was Metro 2033... <b>on ranger hardcore mode</b>, which is, as I implied by the last sentence of the previous paragraph, sort of 'unfair' difficulty, since you literally find one bullet at a time and everything kills you super-fast. Be honest, how many of the 'greatest PC games of all times' have you seriously seen described in terms of difficulty? Half-Life? Deus Ex 1? System Shock 2 (given how exploitable the AI was it's impossible to really call this a hard game)? I wouldn't even say Tribes was terribly hard given how many different roles for as many different skillsets there were.
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->However, in the vein of interesting games you probably didn't play, Warzone 2100 us a rather cool RTS game, it features an interesting campaign mechanic which alleviates the tedium of building a whole base for every new mission, awesome state of the art late 90's rendered FMV cutscenes, and all of your units are built from scratch. It also has a quite in depth intelligence and artillery system, command hierarchies as key elements of gameplay, and is really just a very different RTS game.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
If you're in to that, check out Hostile Waters: Antaeus Rising (it's on GOG).
You said it yourself: Too short and too rushed. Other things I'd mention are the combat (feels forced, isn't fun) and the linear nature of the levels. I think the game would have worked better with a more open-world approach, like Asscreed but with more emphasis on climbey parkour stuff and less murdering. The basic mechanics feel solid, the game they were put into doesn't.
This. There is SO MUCH RIGHT in this game but also just too much wrong and there isn't ENOUGH of everything.
Still I enjoyed it a lot.
@Lolfighter: I haven't played the game myself yet, so I can't really tell you more about it, but afaik it's supposed to be really good and be difficult.
I dont know brill, not signlanguage, and I am way too far away to be able to spoonfeed you.
compared to console gaming which has the biggest focus, the PC deserves its share too and not just ports.
Uhm... what game would that be? Mirror's Edge?
<a href="http://www.joystiq.com/2012/01/08/dark-souls-admin-suggests-pc-could-happen-with-a-petition/" target="_blank">http://www.joystiq.com/2012/01/08/dark-sou...ith-a-petition/</a>
<a href="http://petitionbureau.org/DarkSoulsForPC" target="_blank">http://petitionbureau.org/DarkSoulsForPC</a>
<a href="http://www.joystiq.com/2012/01/08/dark-souls-admin-suggests-pc-could-happen-with-a-petition/" target="_blank">http://www.joystiq.com/2012/01/08/dark-sou...ith-a-petition/</a>
<a href="http://petitionbureau.org/DarkSoulsForPC" target="_blank">http://petitionbureau.org/DarkSoulsForPC</a><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
It was easy enough to sign so yea, signed. I just hope people don't feel clever and make up several thousand sign ups. They'll probably notice somehow.
Gunplay stunk, and even worse was where it became almost forced to have to handle the guns. Opening up the game so it was less puzzle-platform would have been far superior. I remember this one grand level near the end that took me forever to finish. And I know I'm supposed to feel badass I figured it out, but I was just frustrated trying to do each individual jump, not to mention stringing them together into a smooth run.
Although there was a particular part in a big server room that was pretty difficult to do without killing anyone.
I liked the challenge too mode but it was impossible to get anywhere in the ranking due to people basically long jump bunny hoping =/