Favourite computer games of all time. [2]

Recoveryanonymous wrote:

bungobaggins wrote:Ooooo they have X-Wing v. Tie Fighter. I loved that game as a kid. Of course they don't have it for mac!

Gotta get that Windows 10  

Yeah, yeah, yeah. If my tax return is big enough this year, I might consider putting some aside specifically for a new computer.

I finally made the plunge and bought Minecraft, after having years of seeing friends with it and also all the merch at the store. So far I'm just messing around in creative mode, because it's the virtual lego aspect of it that always intrigued me most. I figured I'd start by trying to build a mansion for myself, so I flew around in my new world for a bit looking for a good spot. So far I've cleared out the area, dug a three block deep pit (roughly 50 by 20 blocks wide), laid a stone foundation, and begun building walls and floors. The house is going to have three floors, plus a basement and a small attic. I'll probably try playing the actual game eventually, especially if I can set up a server for online multi-player and play with my brother, but so far the building stuff alone has been a lot of fun.

Buy some bloody lego!


{{{kids these days!}}}

if you like doing construction, check out the tank game Bolo. You actually play on a map instead of the immersive reality stuff an old guy like me can't get into. You play others online or in your local area network. The most addictive game I know, but since almost nobody plays it anymore I'm off the hook.

Elite Dangerous 1.1 is in beta- Ive been having a go- the main addition game wise is community goals- the example here being helping to construct a new space station.
There is a list of tweaks and fixes as long as your arm too, but visually the most notable inclusion, and a welcome one, is the city lights being visible on the dark side of inhabited planets. Its amazing how a such a small addition can add to the feeling of being in an inhabited universe.

Reasons I am loving Elite Dangerous.

Few games make me just stop every so often because the view is taking my breath away- ED does this to me all the time.

Here's an example-

This is me on route to a rather lovely earth like world but with a ring system- how cool would that be to have in the sky, lucky bastards-



Getting closer to the planet, I am now between the rings and the planet-



And closer-



Then I decided to go and explore the rings, heres the same planet as seen from inside the rings-



So I arsed about a bit, got in some fights and spend quite a bit of time out here. But then when I was about to head back I noticed I was now on the dark side of the planet. The system is binary, two suns, one a white hot thing the other a more mellow yellow type sun. And everything is moving in real time in proper orbits.
And thats when I saw this- an effect caused by being in the right place at just the right time as the two suns both illuminate the far side causing this lighting effect halo around the planet. And thats when I just had to stop and just take in the view and go wow (and a still doesnt do justice to how it shimmers and shines as the asteroids spin lazily by)



Another thing I like is the detail of information. I mentioned it was a binary system and heres me at one of its two suns, note my ship display (bottom left) gives no details on it but just says 'unknown'-



And here is the info on that star I got by scanning it-



You sometimes get this data free if its a well know system, but many systems are unexplored or you have to buy system data, or you can go do a Star Trek and explore, fit your ship with some scanning equipment and scan planets and stuff to get this information, and you can sell the information to systems who don't have charts for these regions of space.

As you may be aware I am a huge fan of Silent Hill2 - still in my view the finest example of the survivor horror genre ever written. Still nothing touches it for depth, subtly and sheer unrelenting creeping psychological despair.

Its an unrelentingly grime game however- from its environments to its characters. Except once.
Because do the right things in a certain order and you get what is probably the best alternative ending to a game ever, the true secret behind Silent Hill-

More Silent Hill 2!

Well a film made from the game- and even then its still a million times better use of our time than watching the official Silent Hill films (especially the second one ).
Obviously watching it doesn't compare to the experience of playing it but if you are never likely to play it its well worth the watch- still the greatest survival horror game ever made, genuinely creepy and disturbing and a great psychological examination. You may need a bath or shower afterwards mind you just to feel clean again, and ideally a shower for your mind too as its goes to some pretty dark places.



If you want some clues as to what to look out for in terms of questions to ask as you watch which might lead you to some answer here's some (people are still debating the meaning of all the symbolism in this game) but Zero Punctuations review of the game includes a wonderful line that gets to the crux of the matter- "its just you, James and a big cold haunted town. And after a while you start to wonder which of the three is James' worst enemy."

So things to ponder as you watch (in spoilers just in case you don't want any pointers) -

Spoiler:

Pettytyrant101 wrote:As you may be aware I am a huge fan of Silent Hill2 - still in my view the finest example of the survivor horror genre ever written. Still nothing touches it for depth, subtly and sheer unrelenting creeping psychological despair.

Its an unrelentingly grime game however- from its environments to its characters. Except once.
Because do the right things in a certain order and you get what is probably the best alternative ending to a game ever, the true secret behind Silent Hill-

This game has the class to get away with a goofy ending like that too. It's some much needed relief to all the tension.

Yeah its a great game, a true classic of the genre.

They did a remastered HD version which is, well awful, don't touch it with a barge pole- you can look it up on youtube to find a ton of videos explaining the many,many reasons why the HD version sucks.

The good news is you can get the pc version running on modern pc's and a handy fan made patch which allows you to display it in full HD and in widescreen (unlike the remastered version which is only 720) and avoid all the many problems with the re-released version.







Its amazing how well it still holds up graphically considering its now 14 years old.

Enderal- not so much a Skyrim mod as a whole new game totally separate from Skyrim but using the Skyrim creation kit to make it. Looks excellent and apparently its about the same size as Skyrim-

I'm always amazed at what modders can create

playing a game called Dying Light on the PS4 holy crap!!!! Amazing game.

By a strange coincidence I was playing that yesterday at a friends house. It was a huge amount of fun- his only complaints were once you got the hang of it it was too easy (you apparently have to play it right through before you can unlock a higher difficulty level which sesms weird) and that the plot was an awful save the damsal in distress type affair, and the main villain a walking bag of cliches.
But luckily it was saved by the gameplay being just an absolute ton of fun.

It also look stunning (I was playing the pc version).

I like that Chris- makes me feel both nostalgic, and bloody old


Good news for all you console and mac owners out there- Elite Dangerous is heading your way!!!

Lasers! In space!
It must be a good game.

Its a lot more than shooting stuff, but I suspect to appeal to the console market shooting things is what they are emphasising (if you wanted to you could play the entire game and never fire a weapon, just trading the markets, or running dodgy goods under the legal radar, mining asteroid fields and refining the ore for sale, be an intergalactic taxi driver or courier, or just head out into the galaxy armed with only a lot of expensive scanning equipment and chart space and sell the information when yo get back (if you get back!).

Ive been playing the latest version of the upcomng release and they have added a vanity camera!!

By nice new shiny Cobra Mark III sitting in dock-







Taking her out for her maiden flight-

let me know when they invent holodecks.  sorry don't mind me, just on my way out....... do you need anything from the shops?........bye

Tracks from the upcoming Skyrim mod, Beyond Skyrim

Taking my new cobra mark III out for a weapons test and maiden flight system check.

First exit the station-



I have to get a bit of distance between me an the station to exit its no-fire zone, otherwise I will get a big fine and possibly the feds on my case



Engines roaring, shields active, and guns firing- I'm ablaze with energy and lit up like a xmas tree. I'm using most of my ships power here and all the vents have opened to try to reduce heat. No hiding like this, I'll show up on other ships sensors very strongly indeed-



Laser Test first-





And now my rail gun-



And that's it- test over my new ship is flight and fight worthy. All I have to do now is go somewhere likely, say a nav point where ships are jumping in or an asteroid field, planetary rings maybe, with a lot of mining activity and pirates and hunt down some bounties!

If you happen to have an old copy of Oblivion kicking about you could do worse than to download this and fire it up, from the peple currently making the huge fan mod Enderal (there is a vid for it somewhere up page) comes Nehrim, it sin German but you can download the english subtitles for it.
Its a complete world overhaul, with a world the same rough size as Obilivions but with much more hand crafted stuff in it, all new setting, characters, races and leveling system. Looks pretty good still too.

I like this version of the Skyrim theme- nice locations to shoot their vid too-

so I just got a new monitor. A mammoth of a thing. I'm gonna see how Skyrim looks in this resolution.