Review you favourite game here

[metadigital]

My favourite, as disclosed in a recently derailed thread ( ), is the original Deus Ex.

 

First Point: no elves or orcs, and magic is limited to medpacks.

 

An interesting near-future intra-apocalyptic scenario, ripe with intrigue and -- eventually -- overwelming interlaced conspiracies. Although the narrative is quite linear (which was addressed in the sequel), the tactics used to complete each "level" or geographic section are quite flexible, and there are three different ways to complete the game. For example, for my last play-through I didn't kill any third-parties who had no idea they were being used by a secret agency, prefering to tranquilize them instead.

 

I especially like the technique -- used later to great effect in Max Payne 2, as well -- where the PC is introduced to a new area whilst the NPCs are friendly, and subsequently has to battle back through the area under fire.

 

Gameplay is simple, but not simplistic; guns and munitions help the PC adopt either a full-frontal "tank", or a subterfuge "thief" attitude, or some hybrid. Weapons can have improvements added like damage, accuracy, ammo capacity and range mods, and a silencer and scope. There is a basic "levelling up" feature, whereby completing plot advancements gains proportional points for use in any aspect of a dozen different skills. The skills are ranked from untrained to mastery in four levels, and effect aspects like toxic waste resistence and rifle or pistol accuracy & damage. There is also the opportunity to add bio-modification nanites of different and sometimes mutually exclusive powers; e.g. silent running or powerful leaping are two options for the leg biomod. There are four levels of biomod power, as well, which either increase the effects or reduce the power consumption. (Some biomods are passive, like the ocular headlamps.)

 

I also found the plot interesting, as I had read a lot about the various groups mentioned in the narrative before I had even heard of Deus Ex. Regardless, the plot is compelling and certainly contains all the necessary accoutrements for a rip-roaring tale. The pacing is sublime; the PC is only given powerful biomods later in the narrative, after experiencing how difficult a given task is without, and then again -- in a step-wise fashion -- with more dangerous enemies and scenarios to test the new biomods.

 

I can't recommend this game highly enough, the only negative point I can bring myself to mention is the very long and involved plot is a little too linear to replay continuously (just continually, with a short break :cool: ).

 

And it is also all true. Trust no-one. :ph34r:

[Baley]

Nice,I'll make a review of Blade Runner after I finish it....

 

All 6 endings that is,might take a while

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

Pokemon , it's become much more than a game now , it's a hobby.

 

While you may look at it and go it's kiddy,because of the pokemon theme it's more complex than many "adult" games could hope to be.

 

i also really enjoy the design , the freedom to explore and the fact that you are not pointed directly to things, which again is something more "mature" games could stand to take a lesson from.

 

The crowning glory is that even after you finish the 40 hour official game (talking about emerald) another even longer game opens up afterwards with totally different maps and pokemon as well as more hidden areas, trainer towers, elite challenges etc. It's something that again other games could learn from since even if you have an 80 hour game if you enjoy it , it still never seems like enough.

 

The basics of pokemon are much like a standard party RPG in many respects, only in pokemon you fight by proxy rather than yourself (which again means that if you want to use the same trainer in a new game you can do so only by removing the pokemon). Your only allowed to carry six at a time, and although you can have multiples of the same type many towers restrict you to one of each type. Even so your talking about 151-386 possible "NPC's" to build your party from.

 

Each Pokemon has a type, or two types. And each has four moves, each move also has a type.

Like a complex game of rock paper scissors, the types are strong against certain things and weak against others. For example a water pokemon is strong against fire, but weak against grass and electricity.

Combining a move type with a pokemon of the same type makes the move stronger. So a fire type using flame thrower would be stronger than a water type using a flame thrower. Although the shock value of non standard moves is a big part of multiplay.

 

Battles consist of two main types, catching wild pokemon (your party members) and battling other trainers. When catching, its' not simply enough to smash them with overleveled pokemon and strong moves, since if they faint you will never catch them, so the whole thing takes on more strategy, kind of like in FF where you could kill a boss easily, but because you want to steal his genji armour the risk factor goes up tenfold.

 

Trainer battles are more straightforward since you only need to win but trainers use different and more varied pokemon and unless you have an appropriate counter it's quite possible that one pokemon will wipe your entire squad out.

 

Then beyond that you can get into the complexities of the game. Hidden Machines ,which are required for travel but are not always effective battle moves, adding these to your squad in the wrong way will weaken them and make them much less able to battle. Or you can have HM specfic pokemon who you pile on as many HM's as you can but they dont make good cohesive fighters.

 

Then on top of those you have teaching machines, which allow a pokemon to learn moves that it couldnt normally learn. These moves give a versatility at the cost of less same type stronger moves.

 

In addition to a type, the pokemon also have abilities which can alter how they are used in battle and outside of battle. For example for arena play a Muk with sticky hold (stops you being stolen from) is more useful than a muck with odiferous (cuts down the encounter rate). There are a huge list of abilities and catching a pokemon with the right ability gives you an edge.

In addition pokemon also have personalities, this affects stat growth, meaning that sometimes you will have a fighting pokemon who's personality gives it a much lower str , but a much higher special defence (usually the bane of fighters) in turn it's upto you as a trainer to weigh up all these variables..

 

In thats not enough it gets even more complex. We then move onto IV's and EV's.

IV's are inhereted values, you may see them as the pokemons genes. This controls their potential growth and means that even two pokemon of the same type with the same personality can still have radical stats.

 

EV's are evolutionary values. This basically means that by fighting different types of pokemon the pokemon will improve in different areas. So if you want a strong attack pokemon, fighting Mightyenass works better than fighting Pikachu's.

 

And finally onto the last level of complexity. Breeding. Take two compatible Pokemon and leave them in daycare and you may get an egg. Simple enough really... However by cross breeding you can have pokemon with egg moves (inhereted moves) that a wild pokemon, or even a trained pokemon with all available teaching machines could never have. Your newly bred pokemon will also inherit genes from both parents, which means that with two strong parents you get a stronger offspring most of the time. Or you can breed out stat weaknesses by breeding two parents with opposite stats.

 

So all in all pokemon is great it's one of those nice games where no one is trying to kill you and everyone gets along (except for jerks like Gary , but then kicking his butt every time he crops up is satisfying)and you always get to give people a wry smile when they say it's for kids because they just dont get how deep the system goes.

[metadigital]

Because Pokemon appeared when I had left school completely, I had no exposure to it; I found your synopsis very interesting.

 

I see it is very game-theory-intensive, with the complexities of Mendell's laws thrown in (and genotype and phenotypes, too).

 

What sort of game engine is it? I was only aware of the cards and little game-and-watch-type (showing my age there) handheld computer devices. Is there a Pokemon game for the PC or a console?

 

Game Theory is very cool.

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

Because Pokemon appeared when I had left school completely, I had no exposure to it; I found your synopsis very interesting. 

 

I see it is very game-theory-intensive, with the complexities of Mendell's laws thrown in (and genotype and phenotypes, too).

 

What sort of game engine is it? I was only aware of the cards and little game-and-watch-type (showing my age there) handheld computer devices. Is there a Pokemon game for the PC or a console?

 

Game Theory is very cool. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Pokemon is on the GBA. There is a version (with another coming) on the GC but the GC version is more about battling with twovstwo pokemon rather than catching and breeding. The GC version is really multiplayer but with a pretty decent 20 ish hour adventure added. You can import your GBA pokemon to it for example otherwise the roster isnt very big.

[metadigital]

A PC emulation would be interesting ... I guess SPORE might be similar.

[Darque]

If you really wanted to play Pokemon, you could just play it on your PC...

[Diogo Ribeiro]

I'll be reviewing two games.

 

 

 

Fallout.

 

It rocks.

 

 

 

Planescape: Torment.

 

Also rocks.

[metadigital]

If you really wanted to play Pokemon, you could just play it on your PC... 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Please explain. (linky?)

[Darque]

Emulation

 

Surely you know about emulation :D

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Emulation

 

Surely you know about emulation :D

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

That great beast of wonder.

[metadigital]

Emulation

Surely you know about emulation :D

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

So there's a GBA emulator for the PC ?

[Baley]

Aye,sure there is: Emulation goodness

[metadigital]

I'll be reviewing two games.

Fallout.

It rocks.

Planescape: Torment.

Also rocks.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sccinct to the point of irrelevancy. Could you expand a little, on such a terse start?

[Darque]

Emulation

Surely you know about emulation :D

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

So there's a GBA emulator for the PC ?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Yup, has been for years.

 

www.zophar.net

 

If it's not there, it most likely doesn't exist.

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Strangely the only GBA emulator I ever used isn't listed at Zophar, yet most people I talked to recommended it.

[Llyranor]

"I wouldn't know about the BEST MMORPG because I refuse to pass that kind of judgment on something I've never played...

 

But I can, without a doubt, state which is the WORST MMORPG. Yes, worse than Star Wars Galaxies. In fact, this game is probably the worst game in the entire history of the world. It's worse than State of Emergency. It's worse than Deer Hunter 10.

 

FINAL FANTASY XI

 

Final Fantasy XI is one of the most party-based MMORPGs in the market right now. Oh wait, scratch that, FFXI is one of the most party-INHIBITIVE MMORPGs in the market right now. For a game that forces you to work with other people in order to do *any* sort of progression, it sure does do a great job of making you want to kill said other people, curl up into a little ball and live the rest of your life as a hermit, isolated from the outside world, severed of all contact from the bad nasty wicked men.

 

The game pigeonholes you into having at least one member of one single class, multiplied by four. You can predict at least half of the composition of 90% of all parties currently active in the game. WHM/BLM/RDM/PLD. This means that all of the other classes will probably spend a large majority (hours) of their game time doing nothing but sitting in town sending tells looking for groups. Hell, even the characters who are in the

[metadigital]

Not a big fan, then? "

[Diogo Ribeiro]

What

[Guest Fishboot]

There are obviously maybe ten other games I could put here as my "favorite of all time" but I'll pick one that, for the sake of variety, doesn't have some filial connection to Obsidian (the way a PS:T or Fallout would) but which a lot of people here probably played:

 

X-Com: UFO Defense

 

(Or UFO: Enemy Unknown)

 

Core gameplay wise, this is the archetypal turn-based squad tactics (TBST) game. At the time I originally played it was absolutely fiendishly difficult to finish even the simpler missions without serious attrition (I recently replayed it and unfortunately came up with a nearly infallible methodology, although in many places there's just nothing that will truly protect your precious little soldiers). But, big deal, the same thing was true in Laser Squad. The thing that made X-Com such a crazily good game was how well and unfailingly it would support player-imagined narratives.

 

I think anyone who played through the first three months of an X-Com game could easily imagine a gripping novel about it - political intrigue among the supporter nations, heartbreaking memoirs of your tiny handful of soldiers that survived your first few missions, or the "what would a future historian write?' concept. I could lucidly picture the cowardly leaders of some nation signing some article of surrender to the aliens after I failed to protect them from a terror attack. There was just something about the game that would grow imagined narratives like weeds. I know from talking to others about it that it wasn't just a case of me having had a perfect relationship with a game - just about everyone I know who played X-Com when it was fairly new had a similar experience. I have no idea how it happened - the game itself gives almost no sign of such considerations, having no cutscenes whatsoever and is mostly just a parade of menus outside of the tactical game. Pure gaming alchemy.

 

As an aside, the second X-Com game - a terrible, buggy, same-engine art swap of the first game (cough) - lost me with one single bit of silliness: I threw a grenade underwater and my entire suspension of belief instantly died. I never took X-Com 2 as anything more than a board game again. Alchemy again, except this time it was the alchemy of suck. It really hurts me to see the stuff the X-Com license has been put through.

[Yst]

It's funny.

 

I think I know pretty much everything there is to know about PS:T

 

And I've played it many times indeed.

 

But I don't even know where I'd begin, in reviewing it.

 

Years of exhaustive play and discussion of its various aspects have robbed me of the ability to stand back and look at it objectively.

 

I can critique certain aspects of it with a great deal of accuracy, but as far as the sum total of its parts goes, my impression of that was formed quite a while ago, and I'm not sure I can invent a new analysis at this point.

[Zagor]

Ok, here's my review of system shock 2, an alltime favourite of mine. Bear in mind that english is not my first language, so prepare for some bad grammar.

 

First of all, Ss2 is a sci-fi-horror first person shooter with rpg elements. Don't expect a real rpg with multiple-solution quest, or you will end up dissapointed.

 

It all takes place on the starship Von Braun, where you wake up from cryogenic sleep, only to find that the sciencewessel has turned into a complete disaster.

the other crewmembers have been taken over by some sort of parasite, which gradually mutate them into more and more gruesome creatures.

What's behind all this is up to you to find out.

Much of the plot is revealed through audiologs, and by radiotransmissions from Polito, one of the remaining officers of the wessel.

 

the audiolog system is the same as in the recent doom 3 game, but much more interesting here. I guess you could say this whole game is a bit like doom3, only much better in all aspects but the graphics.

 

It also has the rpg elements previously mentioned. In the beginning of the game, you get to choose a starting class. Marine, Navy guy or a psionic.

Marines are the tank-type of character, with good guns and melee skills. Navyguys are mostly into hacking and repairing. the psionic can use various mental skills , used both defensively and offensively.

During the game, you can upgrade and develop your character any way you want. Just because you'r a psionic, it doesn't meen you can't get a high maintenance skill (to repair weapons).

 

This game was released in 1999, and as a result, the graphics are naturally very primitive by todays standards. But it doesn't matter here, the atmosphere is so creepy, it makes the game the scariest ever in my opinion.

 

Even though it looks like a FPS, it plays alot like a survival horror game. You have to be careful, and take one step at a time. the ammunition's also very scarce, so if you run around with guns blazing, you will quickly run out of ammo.

And then you'r in real trouble, unless you'r a psionic...

 

Also worth mentioning is the remarkable sound. From the spooky voices of the mutants, to the voiceovers in the audiologs. This is the best sound in any game I've played to this day. I'm not kidding...

This game actually scares me for real, and I'm 27 years old.

 

the negative aspects of the game is the inventory, which covers much of the screen when opened, and also the fact that if you develop your character the wrong way, the game can become too difficult in the later stages.

 

the most sad fact about this game, is that it's not compatible with windows xp, so I can't play it any more. There are some patches to make it work, but it still hangs up for me. It may be a videocard issue perhaps. I can play for 2-3 seconds, and then it freezes.

 

 

And now the scores:

 

Graphics: 40% today, 80% back in 1999

 

Sound : 98%

 

Gameplay : 96%

 

Overall : 96%

 

By the way, there is a new game being developed called bioshock. It's made by the same people who did this Ss2, but it's not a real sequel. They don't own the rights to the Ss series, so they instead call bioshock a spiritual successor to Ss2

Read about it here

[metadigital]

Now System Shock 2 sounds like my kind of game. Excellent: I like a game where the atmosphere is more important than the graphics (good ol' Deus Ex was a y2k game.)

 

I haven't played SS2, so I will definitely be buying now.

 

 

This is a great idea! Any more reviews?

[Zagor]

Just make sure you can play it on your system first, so you don't get dissapointed. Then go out and buy it as soon as you can

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

Good game but had a seriously bad or flawed ending. Once you get to the organic part it goes downhill , but the ship was excellent.