"Good Old Games"

malkav11 · 2011-02-25T23:22:11.000Z

Incendiary Lemon:

Combat in Gothic was very tactical and it genuinely rewarded clever play. You did have to adjust to the unusual control scheme though.

Seriously. Oblivion’s combat tried to be more interesting than Morrowind’s, but still lacked anything resembling depth or tactical variety. Gothic combat has weird controls but is much more satisfying.

BrianRubin · 2011-02-26T01:39:42.000Z

Tony M:

I can’t imagine that the Postal games have aged gracefully, even if they were half worth playing when they new.

Okie, thanks!

Omniscia · 2011-02-26T08:13:33.000Z

Brian Rubin:

Guys, quick question. What are y’all’s opinions of the Postal games? I’ve always had a hankering to try 'em, but never did.

I never played the first one, but I did spend some time with the second one, and it left me with a profound feeling of disgust.

TimJames · 2011-02-27T20:18:43.000Z

To continue the Gothic discussion: G2 is extremely laggy for me in outdoor areas (huge fps dips). I did a search and it looks like it has problems with recent ATI cards/drivers. I’ll mess with it.

Vargr · 2011-03-01T03:48:02.000Z

Zork Nemesis: The Forbidden Lands is now up on GOG!

amandachen · 2011-03-01T03:53:30.000Z

Zork Nemesis has the most amazing music. Mark Morgan worked on it - he’s behind the music for the first two Fallouts and Planescape Torment. Loved the game. So tempted to buy it and see how it’s aged.

mrcjhicks · 2011-03-03T13:15:17.000Z

Looks like they’ve released Shadowgrounds:
http://www.gog.com/en/news/new_release_shadowgrounds/0

I actually quite enjoyed this game and its sequel. I believe this is the same developer as did Trine - so the quality is good. Different gameplay of course. Shadowgrounds falls into that batch of top-down alien shooters - like a more single-player/campaign-focused Alien Swarm.

Sells on Steam for the same price as GoG; Steam has a demo available.

TimJames · 2011-03-03T13:25:43.000Z

The first one (Shadowgrounds) got really bland toward the end. It’s worth playing the first few missions. You could also try skipping straight to the sequel.

peacedog · 2011-03-03T13:26:28.000Z

Setting aside the thematic controversy, Postal was an awesome 2d overhead shooter (think SmashTV, CrimsonLand, or the like. But it wasn’t arena based). For values of awesome that mean “not only completely generic, but somehow less interesting and involved than genre examples that came before it”, anyway.

BrianRubin · 2011-03-06T16:41:27.000Z

Welp, I got Praetorians, Imperial Glory and the Incoming bundle in this weekend’s sale because I wanted their soundtracks and because they were the only games I didn’t already own in the sale that I thought I’d actually play.

Disconnected · 2011-03-06T17:41:48.000Z

Tim James:

The first one (Shadowgrounds) got really bland toward the end. It’s worth playing the first few missions. You could also try skipping straight to the sequel.

In my opinion, the sequel isn’t nearly as good. But I don’t think blandness is a big problem for the original either. The last location kind of sucked because of the more puzzle’y level design, but other than that it was tonnes of fun. It’s one of my all-time favourites in the genre.

Eric_P · 2011-03-06T19:28:26.000Z

Tim James:

The first one (Shadowgrounds) got really bland toward the end. It’s worth playing the first few missions. You could also try skipping straight to the sequel.

I second this. I really like the series, but the second one is just so much better.

scharmers · 2011-03-07T11:48:05.000Z

Oddly enough, I enjoyed the first Shadowgrounds a little more; the first game was more complete thematically while the second game just felt like a bunch of maps and encounters tossed together.

peacedog · 2011-03-07T11:50:34.000Z

The different characters and the way you hop between them in the Shadowgrounds Sequel made the game feel disjointed to me. I preferred the original.

TimJames · 2011-03-07T11:54:45.000Z

To clarify: I didn’t play the sequel. But I was so sick of the first one by the end that I thought people might have more luck with the other one. I don’t plan to go back and find out. I’d rather play a regular arena shooter.

peacedog · 2011-03-07T11:58:41.000Z

Tim James:

To clarify: I didn’t play the sequel. But I was so sick of the first one by the end that I thought people might have more luck with the other one. I don’t plan to go back and find out. I’d rather play a regular arena shooter.

It’s the same game except:

You start out play as one of 3 (or was it four?) specific characters. Weapon types are on a per-character basis. In addition to weapon upgrades there are a few basic per-character upgrades as well. IIRC.
You eventually pick one to plow through the final few levels.
There are more “stop and defend against this horde” parts. In fact, there are lots of parts like that as I recall. IMO this was not an improvement.

The first game probably did overstay its welcome, I would agree. Though I am really fond of it; nobody makes overhead shooters like that outside of what’s-there-face that made the Alien Shooter and Zombie Shooter games. And while I got enjoyment from those they tended to get buggier and buggier and ZS rehashed bits from AS 2 quite noticeably.

Disconnected · 2011-03-07T12:28:11.000Z

I haven’t played ZS1, but I don’t remember any surprise bug attacks in the other three games. Greed: Black Border, though… Steer clear of that one. Instead of WASD movement & mouse facing/aiming, it’s got Diablo-like controls. Worse, it’s got a serious & seemingly unfixable input lag problem. So it’s plays kind of like a top-down shooter where all the floors have a kneed-deep layer of molasses, on top of a knee-deep layer of glue.

Catshade · 2011-03-10T04:16:41.000Z

New release:

Heroes of Might and Magic IV Complete
Might and Magic 7

Rob_Merritt · 2011-03-10T05:01:29.000Z

M&M7s graphics haven’t aged well.

BrianRubin · 2011-03-10T05:15:00.000Z

Oohhh, been hoping they’d get HOMMIV so I could complete my collection. Yayz!