Topic: What are you playing? (games)

[chrisfranklin]

I was just throwing that control contact cleanup advice out there.  But personally I haven't played with an Intellivision in probably 25 years.  It was good for its day, at least the MLB Baseball, NFL Football titles.  Astrosmash was also decent -- it was a juiced up Space Invaders that played ok.  Only problem with the sports games is that you needed a second person to play -- you couldn't just play the computer.  

[TrailsLessTaken]

I just downloaded Brothers in Arms 2 for the iphone/ipod and it has surprisingly good graphics to it, so far i have been impressed with it except for it seeming to freeze up every once in a while

Edit:
Actually I just restarted it and that got rid of the freezing and clipping

[Sine Deviance]

I never did play the original Unreal Tournament.  I played "Unreal Tournament 2004" quite a bit in 2004. I was looking forward to the follow up, but Unreal 2004 was it for '05 and '06 until '07s, Unreal 3.  Still had my previous system then which I don't think was up to the task for Unreal 3.

Give UT classic a spin sometime. The Game of the Year edition is very easy and cheap to acquire (or free, if you look hard enough) and there's no CD-key so you can LAN party with just one copy. UT2004 is a great game, don't get me wrong. But UT classic is, and always will be, the king. It's probably the best competitive shooter of all time (thus far.) It's also far more balanced than UT2004; it's much more dependent on skill rather than luck and weird double-jump prowess, which is why I like it. Every single weapon in the UT classic lineup is a brutal killer if used properly, unlike UT2004's lineup (the AVRiL, minigun, shieldgun, and assrifles are majorly weak and unbalanced, or have serious noobgun status.) And that's not to mention that the simplicity of the engine means that the maps are all built with BSP so there's no static meshes to get in your way. You should definitely play with us sometime. Contact me on Facebook and I'll help you get a copy and get set up with the latest patch and etc. http://www.facebook.com/sinedeviance

On the subject of UT3 ... even I can't run UT3. It requires quite a high-spec rig to run playable. Basically, it's like this -- if you can run UT3 and Gears of War on high settings, you can run Crysis on high settings. Unreal Engine 3 is a beautiful engine, though.

Before your time, but you didn't mention consoles like Atari 2600, 5200, and Mattel's Intellivision.  The 5200 had lousy joysticks but made a passing attempt at fielding Atari's late 70s/80s arcade games for home use.  Intellivision's controls didn't even have joysticks but it did have good sports games for the day.  2600 was good for Breakout, Space Invaders, Pitfall and a few others. 

Then what about the Vectrex? There you were talking Asteroids that looked like arcade Asteroids, Battlezone that looks like arcade Battlezone.  That was kind of a high-end piece of gear for the day. 

Well, I did have an Atari 2600 and an Intellivision, though I had them after NES. Then again you have to keep in mind that I was born the same year NES came out My favorite Intellivision games were probably Astrosmash and Blockade Runner; I remember those two being the ones I played the most. I can't even remember what games we had for the 2600, I just remember that we had one. We did not have a 5200 or a Vectrex, but one of my friends had them. I did have some of the more rare consoles, such as the Sega 32X and Sega CD, TurboGrafx 16, Panasonic 3D0, Jaguar, and the Neo Geo. It was amazing what you could pick up at garage sales for next to nothing during the PlayStation era. The 3D0 is a perfect example; it retailed for close to $700 at launch in 1993, we picked one up for $50 in 1997 because the platform was dead by then. That system also had some excellent games; Return Fire, Dragon's Lair, and Off-World Interceptor are good examples.

EDIT: Also wanted to add something. Way back in maybe 1993, when I was about 8, we got a ZX Spectrum for $25 at a garage sale. That was my first computer. There was this B-52 Bomber sim game that came on a 5.25" floppy that I used to play on it. It was all vector-based but it was quite realistic. Does anyone have any clue what this game could have been called? I've been looking for it for ages but the search always turns up nil. I'd like to play it on an emulator someday.

[chrisfranklin]

Give UT classic a spin sometime. The Game of the Year edition is very easy and cheap to acquire (or free, if you look hard enough) and there's no CD-key so you can LAN party with just one copy. UT2004 is a great game, don't get me wrong. But UT classic is, and always will be, the king. It's probably the best competitive shooter of all time (thus far.) It's also far more balanced than UT2004; it's much more dependent on skill rather than luck and weird double-jump prowess, which is why I like it. Every single weapon in the UT classic lineup is a brutal killer if used properly, unlike UT2004's lineup (the AVRiL, minigun, shieldgun, and assrifles are majorly weak and unbalanced, or have serious noobgun status.) And that's not to mention that the simplicity of the engine means that the maps are all built with BSP so there's no static meshes to get in your way. You should definitely play with us sometime. Contact me on Facebook and I'll help you get a copy and get set up with the latest patch and etc. http://www.facebook.com/sinedeviance

On the subject of UT3 ... even I can't run UT3. It requires quite a high-spec rig to run playable. Basically, it's like this -- if you can run UT3 and Gears of War on high settings, you can run Crysis on high settings. Unreal Engine 3 is a beautiful engine, though.

Well, I did have an Atari 2600 and an Intellivision, though I had them after NES. Then again you have to keep in mind that I was born the same year NES came out My favorite Intellivision games were probably Astrosmash and Blockade Runner; I remember those two being the ones I played the most. I can't even remember what games we had for the 2600, I just remember that we had one. We did not have a 5200 or a Vectrex, but one of my friends had them. I did have some of the more rare consoles, such as the Sega 32X and Sega CD, TurboGrafx 16, Panasonic 3D0, Jaguar, and the Neo Geo. It was amazing what you could pick up at garage sales for next to nothing during the PlayStation era. The 3D0 is a perfect example; it retailed for close to $700 at launch in 1993, we picked one up for $50 in 1997 because the platform was dead by then. That system also had some excellent games; Return Fire, Dragon's Lair, and Off-World Interceptor are good examples.

EDIT: Also wanted to add something. Way back in maybe 1993, when I was about 8, we got a ZX Spectrum for $25 at a garage sale. That was my first computer. There was this B-52 Bomber sim game that came on a 5.25" floppy that I used to play on it. It was all vector-based but it was quite realistic. Does anyone have any clue what this game could have been called? I've been looking for it for ages but the search always turns up nil. I'd like to play it on an emulator someday.

I might check out your original UT sometime.  I've been playing way to much BC2 and that game has been just pissing the hell out of me in multiplayer.  Its not the people playing -- unless you find out they've been kicked later for using Aimbots.

[chrisfranklin]

I know a lot of you other PC gamers here may not be in to this, but it'd be cool if we had a 4banger group playing BC2 multi-player.   Or I might join a BC2 clan or something and let you guys know which one if you are ever interested in maybe joining. 

For me it's been like a 1 in 50 chance I actually get with a random squad in Rush, Conquest, Deathmatch  that isn't "every butt-head for himself." 

[chardrc]

i tend to try to find a good clan server then favorite it... i have been playing in the MIA clan servers lately (my brother is a member so if thee are arsses on the server i yell at him and he gets an admin too kick them  ) i would join the clan but i don't have the time...a 4bangerjp group game would be sweet.

and they tend to have enough clan members consistently on to keep team work going..

[Jeffy]

I've started playing Dirt again.


I'd be up for some PC multi-player.  How about L4D1 or L4D2? Dirt?

[chardrc]

i don't have dirt. but id be up for L4D1 or 2... or any other valve game for that mater.

[chrisfranklin]

i tend to try to find a good clan server then favorite it... i have been playing in the MIA clan servers lately (my brother is a member so if thee are arsses on the server i yell at him and he gets an admin too kick them  ) i would join the clan but i don't have the time...a 4bangerjp group game would be sweet.

and they tend to have enough clan members consistently on to keep team work going..

If the clans I check out are saying, "yeah you gotta be playing with us these dates/times every week, I'm probably not going to be able to join.  I don't really know anything about how Clans typically work.  I thought it'd just be a better way to play a decent multiplayer rounds when you have the time. 

I don't know the gameplay in Left For Dead.  I'd probably be interested in playing that one multiplayer too, though.

[Jeffy]

I have to figure out how to set up the VOIP for Steam.  It's a PITA setting it up.  Anyone use Teamspeak?  We need to setup a time and day to play.

[chardrc]

i don't have teamspeak.. usually in valve games you can just press c or v or something... i should realy invest in a real mic before too long as mine sucks. (vus the reason i don't have team speak)

ya i can't keep up with the playing requirements for clans so i just play on their public server and don't join...

[chrisfranklin]

Dirt looks cool.  Is the multi-player mode half-way decent?

[Jeffy]

Dirt looks cool.  Is the multi-player mode half-way decent?

Actually, I haven't played it in multi.  I think the best way to play that would be to use Hamachi to set up a LAN game rather then do a public game.

[chrisfranklin]

I didn't know about Hamachi.  It sounds like a good way to enable consistent performing multi-player game-play. 

I may get some kind of mic/headset deal. 

So, I guess you sign up with Steam and then buy/download the games they have that you'd be interested in playing -- say Left for Dead, Dirt and so on? 

[Sine Deviance]

I didn't know about Hamachi.  It sounds like a good way to enable consistent performing multi-player game-play. 

I may get some kind of mic/headset deal. 

So, I guess you sign up with Steam and then buy/download the games they have that you'd be interested in playing -- say Left for Dead, Dirt and so on? 

That is pretty much how it works, but be careful with Steam, it has some evil drawbacks. For starters, make sure that if you're gonna lose your internet for a while that you turn Steam's offline mode on. Otherwise you will not be able to play any of the games you bought without connecting your system to the internets first. The other drawbacks are Steam's draconian DRM (which prevents patching/modding in most of the non-Valve games on Steam) and the fact that you don't get a physical copy of the game you just bought. They can also permanently disable your Steam account if you do something the admins don't like (i.e. cheating, laming, etc.) which means that you may have just lost $300 worth of games if you have a large Steam collection. It happened to my best friend once, someone hijacked his Steam ID and used an aimbot online in HL2, so his Steam account got deactivated and he lost everything. When he called Steam to fix it they said that there was nothing they could do and everything was non-refundable and non-transferable. I'm not saying this will happen to you; I'm just saying be careful.

I only use Steam to play the HL2 episodic content. I have physical copies of all the other Valve games I play. Those come with real DVD's with real CD-keys and are not tied to Steam. And it is beautiful.