Favourite computer games of all time.

Im with you RA- even right now a modern game can be anything from 5 to 25 gig in size, a next gen game will be even larger- how long is that going to take to download with a crappy internet connection?- and there a lot of potential customers out there in crappy internet spots- pretty much anyone who lives outside a city in the UK for example.
Not to talk about the potential fror losing data, save games and being drip fed a game in expensive chunks that you would before have got all at once for one price in a box and been able to own.
I dont trust that if I buy a game that only exists in an internet cloud that it will still be there fo me to play fondly in 10 years time- but I have games going back over all my old systems that I can do just that with.

Well, we'll just see when they actually announce the thing.
I honestly don't mind that much either way. I'd prefer to have it the way they currently do it, but unless Sony has something ridiculously better than the NeXtBox,(and I don't consider this ridiculously better, and Sony has not technically said they won't require always online) I'm not leaving the system.

Well, the employee that made those comments just left Microsoft *cough* got fired *cough*. Wonder what this does for the validity of that rumor.

DRM and always-online consoles stomping on a human face — forever

Orwell meets the internet!

I thought I would do some retro game reviews. Staring with the Amiga.
You can play Amiga games through an emulator, I recommend WinUAE, and there are many sites were you can download games as the vast majority have long since passed ito freeware domain.

The games I have choosen are all ones I think can still be played and ejoyed today for their core gameplay. Because if we are honest most old games require a large dose of nostalgia to see you through, and most have since been bettered on newer machines.
But there are still some gems among them that dont require those rose tinted specs to still enjoy.
If you want to try them out the emu and games are on my skydrive.

Archipelagos

A sort of mental cousin to another classic game The Sentinel, Archipelagos unsurprisingly sees you on a series of archipelago. On these islands are several small standing stones, and one central monolith.

The player, who floats disembodied over the islands can absorb the plants that grow and destroy or create land using the energy gained. With the aim being to destroy all the smaller stones in order to be able to, against the clock, topple the central one.


The snag being the smaller stones have to be physically attached by land to whichever archipelago the central stone is on.

To make things trickier than just absorbing plants to make land bridges there are hazards; a creeping red infection that poisons squares and spreads out from infected trees and can kill you and which if it covers all the land will be game over and whirlwinds that eat your created land and destroy your bridges.

One of my favourite things about this game, apart from the way it mixes gaming skills with brain skills, is the music. Its simple but very effective, being alien and spooky as you play and when you destroy all the smaller stones becoming a tense countdown score that will have the sweat on your forehead as you dash back against the clock to destroy the central stone.

Keeping your bearings therefore so you can plan your destruction of smaller stones to get back in time to the central stone is an essential strategy of the game, and gets quite complicated on later islands (of which there are 9999, and no that's not a typo).


If you like your games to be equal amount brain power and panic then I highly recommend it.





Barbarian- The
Ultimate Warrior.


With two competent players Barbarian can be the sword fighting equivalent of chess, or at least rock, paper, scissors.

In single player its a straight forward rescue the princess story from evil wizard Drax.

Taking place in single screens all you have to do is fight and defeat a series of increasingly difficult opponents against a variety of backdrops until a final showdown with Drax himself.

By the standards of fighting games that were to come soon after such as Street Fighter the controls seem basic. You can block high and low, you can attack high and low, you have a special move where you swish your sword back and forth in front of yourself, you can roll and try to knock your opponent over, or you can jump over a rolling opponent, and you have a high risk spinning back move that if executed with perfect timing
and positioning will result in an instant decapitation of your opponent (at which point a goblin comes on, drags the body off and kicks the head off screen)

A very skilled player can in fact complete the entire game using only the decapitation move, thus achieving a perfect score. The only way to get one.
And it will take skill, because whilst the array of moves is limited each move can be countered and if both players attempt the same move they cancel each other out and no-one scores a hit, thus two skilled players can have fights lasting ten minutes or more of careful tactical play.

Simple yet very compelling. Harder to recommend in single player except to get that perfect score, but if you can persuade a friend to learn to play (and with the limited moves getting the basics doesn’t take long, getting good does though) its got a charm and required concentration level later flasher fighters lacked.



Cannon Fodder


Cannon Fodder is to the Command and Conquer series what Rambo III is to the Deer Hunter. They are both about war but one of them takes it more seriously than the other.
Cannon Fodder's is a cartoon depiction of war.

It takes the familiar top down view of the C&C games, the same point and click control as C&C. But all that building stuff, allocating funds, troops?- forget it.

Cannon Fodder strips the genre of its usual resource management and puts you in charge of one platoon who you must lead to various objectives always mysteriously located at the other end of a map full of traps, bad guys up trees and enemy installations.

Its a point and click shooter where you have to be as fast on the trigger button as on the movement one.

And its bloody good fun if a bit frustrating at times, some levels rely a little too much on you walking into a trap a few times before you will figure out how best to beat it and progress, this wouldn’t be so bad but this is the days of the Amiga so you go back a fair bit and have to retread often tricky ground just to get back and die where you did before.
Fortunately using an Amiga emulator save state facility will negate this problem.



Cruise For a Corpse

A point and click adventure with an Agatha Christie flavour.

You play as a detective not unlike a certain Hercule Poirot who is invited as one of several guests onto a luxury yacht. Whereupon you are knocked unconscious and awake to find your host dead and the murderer is among the guests on the ship somewhere.

You wander the ship, talk to suspects, find clues and try to piece events together and work out who did it and why.

Each time you make a significant discovery the clock moves forward until eventually, ready or not you get to a classic Christie scene; all the suspects gathered to together whilst you give your evidence and in this case quite literally point the finger at who you think is guilty.

The games graphics and music simply drip 1940's period detail and atmosphere and the interwoven stories of those on-board, all of whom harbour secrets, personal and otherwise, is worthy of any genre detective story.

Where it can be frustrating is in finding the one thing you have to do, or ask that will progress the clock. And there are times when you will find yourself retreading ground asking everyone every unlikely combination in the hope one of them will be the right one.

But for its style, its ambition and its excellent story and atmosphere its well worth looking out.

Dungeon Master

One of the fathers of the first person RPG games and one of the tightest games written.

Dungeon Master sees you enter a dungeon, unsurprisingly, with four heroes selected from a Hall of Heroes (or you can make your own characters).

The game is basically a classic Dungeons and Dragons square paper dungeon crawler on a computer. Although viewed from a first person perspective the player moves a square at a time (but not turn based), moving rapidly a square at a time therefore gives the illusion of movement, and very effective it is too.

You face off against a classic array of monsters; mummies, screamers, eye of beholders, skeletons, undead knights, ghosts, and really annoying little spindly guys who run up to you, giggle, steal something from your inventory (often something you need) and then run away at high speed, and of course there is a dragon as well as an evil sorcerer to deal with at the dungeons very bottom depths.

But the genius of the game is not just in its enemies, use of sound (you will jump, and often, especially when an unseen mummy sneaks up behind you and goes 'whaaaa!') or level design but also in its game play.

You need to rest your party, they have to sleep, eat and drink. You will find yourself making dangerous excursions into areas you aren’t high enough level to survive long in just to get to one of the dungeons water fountains and refill your water pouches. It forces you into calculating risks.

And the game builds its elements well- you will learn early on the trick of retreating when things are going badly into a room and shutting the door on your enemies. Then you go down a level or two in the dungeon and get attacked by a angry pool of water, leg it to the safety of a room to recover, and it comes in under the door.

The game is always surprising you, mixing in puzzles and always keeping just one more trick in reserve to keep you on your toes.

It also has one of the best magic systems ever devised- you build a spell up using runes- but once you learn what each symbol means- ful- fire for example, you can start experimenting- so the first symbol is always power level- it plus ful gives you a light spell, but what rune do you add to get a fireball? It rewards trying things out.

You’ll need a good head for directions too- there are no maps here, but so well designed are the levels I can still remember my way around them more than 20 years later.

The graphics might have dated, the enemy animation might only be half a dozen frames, but its a stone wall classic of the RPG genre and a must play for any serious RPG fan.




Eliminator

A racing shooter, with obstacles and the ability to drive on the ceiling. What more could you want really.

As much a fiendish memory test as a reflex test Eliminator sees you racing along a road shooting bad aliens and avoiding barriers. You also get power ups which upgrade your weapons or recharge your shields- but you can only pick one or the other each time.

You can also flip onto the ceiling when there is also a road as a tactic to avoid obstacles or incoming fire.

Addictive, infuriating and devilishly good fun.




Goal!

The successor to his Kick Off games this was Dino Dini's crowning achievement. A football game that took real skill to master.

The innovations Dino's football games brought to the table included the top down view (previously football games were isometric), referees and linesman, physio's and stretchers and a proper reactionary crowd complete with digitised chants, and most importantly a ball with its own physics which didn't stick to the players foot, so if you where running with the ball and wanted to change direction, you had to change your players position relative to the ball, get it wrong and your player would go one way and the ball the other, get it right and it afforded you a control over the ball arguably still not bettered.

From the days before licensing was big business it featured every major league in the world, most of the major competitions of the day, including world cup, and all the player names as well as the ability to create your own leagues and cups.

The controls are simplicity themselves yet take practise to master. One button does everything, if you are in possession of the ball a tap will pass it on the ground in the direction you are facing, holding the button down for longer increases the strength of the pass and distance but will also be likely to lift it into the air. For a split second after you press the button you can apply 'after touch' to add swerve, try to loft it up or keep it down. Out of possession your one button does tackling duties, with holding the button down giving you a sliding challenge.

But it was in sheer game play that it won the day and two good players can play some of the most intense video game football action ever devised.

It Game From the
Desert

Basically a series of mmini-games tied together in an adventure format with a touch of early sandbox gaming and a huge dose of 1950's B Movie.

The story follows a geologist fresh from university in a small backwater US town in the desert. A desert used for testing the atom bomb. When a meteorite lands and cattle start turning up without heads and sightings of giant ants occur its up to the player to save the town from the killer mutant ants by gathering enough evidence to persuade the Mayor and the army to act before its too late.

To do this the player can travel about the map to the various points of interest, hire a plane to fly over the map in a top down view to scout out the ants, gas them or gather recordings as evidence. There are knife fights with the local gang of bequiffed rockers and a game of chicken on the roads with them, a drive in movie theatre, farms, mines and the local town to explore as well as romance in the form of town DJ Dusty.

There are face off with ants where you have to shoot their antenna off, strategy segments where you mobilise the army, and even a comic section where you try to escape hospital in a wheel chair (you never die in the game, you just wake up in hospital which costs you time).

The game is particularly noted for outstanding B-movie era invoking atmospherics and for being nigh on impossible to win.

It is possible its just the whole game is played on a strict time limit, and you need to be in key places on key days to complete the game- miss one or spend to much time in hospital and you don't stand a chance as events will overwhelm you as the ants make their final move and invade your town (if you haven't persuaded the Mayor and the local military to mobilise their forces by then you're screwed).
In 20 years of trying I have yet to complete it, not perhaps testimony to great game design, but there must be something to be said for the fact I keep going back to try.

It also has an equally good, if a little samey at times to the original, sequel - Ant-Heads!




Lotus Series

There are three Lotus racing games, for my money 2 being the best, especially in split screen two player mode. They are probably the pinnacle of the arcade racer on the Amiga, with a very solid feel to the graphics and a surprisingly effective illusion of speed and going up and down hills from little more than a stripy road and moving the horizon up and down- yet its still one of the view racers even to this day where my stomach seems to follow the ups and downs of the road.

With the pit top element added to two player races, and their cunning placement on courses making for some strategy devising, the game really comes into its own.




Millenium 2.2

A resource and management game with a bit of action thrown in. Its the tale of a doomed earth and puts you in control of a solitary moon base in a state of disrepair.

Your first task is to get your base up and running and then to begin to explore the solar system for possible colony settlements.

Its a straightforward resource management game, nothing not done since, but it has a good atmosphere to it and compelling game play.

It has an even better sequel Deutros which expands on all the basic elements in Millennium 2.2 but you really want to start at the beginning.




Moonstone

A tale of Knights, covered in blood.

A sort of board game in computer form for up to four players. Each player picks a knight, red, blue, yellow and purple to choose from and the map screen serves as the board.

Players take it in turns to move their knight and move to a location on the map and you enter what is typically a bloody combat screen where you must defeat your enemies to gain a reward to further your quest.

Mixing elements of board games, combat, strategy and adventure games its a surprisingly enjoyable mix.

Im just about to naff off to bed but, Id like some help please ? As ive said before, Im a bit of a duffus when it comes to PCs etc, but if anyone can shed light for me Id be very grateful !! Problem :-
My son plays C/O//D on xbox live, he's on it 24/7, Im with BT for internet, All i hear is him howling cos the game lags big time ! He comes out of his pit moaning that even when an "enemy" is directly in front of him, my son fires, but, the lag is so bad the bullet either doesnt reach said enemy or it just doesnt kill ?!! My son has stabbed someone, but to no effect ? All his friends are not suffering the same problem, which my son could take on board, so he's thinking now it could be xbox ? IDK ! Only once or twice has his friends complained of lag, they are not all on the same provider, some are with SKY or others. Im now getting sick of the sound of my own voice saying "I dont know!" as to why this is happening ! Thanks in advance guys ! Im knackered !

upgrade 2 bt infinity or buy a 30m Ethernet cable

My brother plays a lot of those sort of games on xbox live I shall ask him if there is any particualr problem with lag on COD servers.

I dont know what sort of area you are in, rural or urban Azriel so I dont know if youre getting your phone in the old fashioned way on a wire on through a fibre optic cable so hard to judge if its the connection.

I think with BT there should be an option on their webpage to test your line speed.

I like plusnet myself excellent speeds for my area, no poblem watching streaming HD at any time of day, and decent price, unlimited too, and not like SKY's unlimited which comes with a lot of caveats about fair use policy.

Get Google Fiber.

Is that a bran cereal?

It's Google's absurdly fast experimental Internet service. Unfortunately it's only available in a handful of cities where it's being tested.

Thankyou very much for your views ! Were I live is urban, but, Im directly under an area called "The downs", which is a high lying grass area which is also partially wooded. Theres golf courses up there & wildlife etc. We are on bog standard BT, but its meant to be unlimited ! Google fibre sounds promising ? Il check to see if UK are in on the plan ? Theres days when my son gives up totally on playing, as the service/lag is SO bad, Im hallf dreading him coming out of his tomb to moan yet again !! Thanks for your help,everyone !

Well, so MS officially announced the NeXtBox anouncement as being on May 21, looking forward to it!

Should be interesting if nothing else, I wonder how many fears they will allay about permenent connection and no used games market, or borrowing games from mates.

We will see, all sorts of rumors are still running wild...

Right now Sony got the march on them pretty much everything MS have been hinting they will do Sony have been promising they wont.

If MS insist on the rumoured stuff I would be tempted to give this round of the console wars to Sony there and then.

So I was out for nice walk in Skyrim and I was wanting to cros a river via a fallen tree.....



No one every just says, "sure, after you," in Skyrim.

^
I guess that new Star Trek game is broken. Developers are boosting metacritic scores and refusing review copies so consumers won't know the co-op is broken.

Also this made me laugh far more than it should have.

Oh Dear! The movie tie in standard continues as it has done since the days of Ocean, publishing shit tie-ins for the zx spectrum.
Some things will never change.

Star Trek's really changed though,

Looks like a half finished Mass Effect DLC with a fan made Star Trek mod over the top.