Really need some new games.

I was very disappointed in this fall's bumper crop of new games, where a bunch of AAA titles turned out to be...well...C-. So I'm looking for something I might actually enjoy. I'm sure at least 50% to 75% of you will probably roll your eyes at what you perceive to be bad taste. That's probably fine.

So I'll list games I DO like, and then the games from this year that I didn't.

Liked:
Oblivion
Doom 3 / Quake 4 (yes, Doom 3 is a bad game, sue me)
Far Cry
Tomb Raider: Legend (don't knock it till you try it)
UT1999/UT2k4
Timeshift demo
Bioshock
F.E.A.R.
...and so long as I used a melee class, Hellgate London was tolerable.

Disliked:
Call of Duty 4 - Awesome demo actually, but I have a bit of an aversion to war movies/games.
Crysis - It's like Far Cry, except prettier, and unspeakably pandering and racist! (Seriously, there's gotta be someone else the use of North Korea as opposed to generic mercenaries bothers.) I actually straight up refuse to give them money for this out of principle.
Unreal Tournament 3 - Horrendously content light, fairly large step backward from UT2k4. I actually made the mistake of buying this.
Morrowind - I appreciated the handholding, clarity, and fast travel from Oblivion that are absent here. And the combat is awful.
Prey - Stand in the middle of a firefight. Leave your computer. Come back in an hour later. Hey, no game over!
Half-Life 2 series - It's more on principle, though I do think HL2 is really overrated. But I refuse to install Steam on my computer.

So yeah...I could really use something new to play. I know I must seem REALLY picky, but there's gotta be some gem out there that someone can clue me in on.

 

Tried the Witcher? There have been comparisons with Oblivion in that the world is quite large and lived in. It's not as freeform and is smaller than Oblivion but it might be worth a shot.

Most of your favourite games are on the FPS end, so I think you're out of luck for the time being as most of the blockbusters have already been released.

 

I like the witcher, but the combat is so confusing. But its still a pretty good game, people on ign claim it should have a 9.5 rating but I dont think so

If you liked Oblivion though try this game!

 

gears of war is fun.

 

North Koreans are just Stalinist communists with different skin. If you can't see past the race, you're more racist than the developers

And if the demo for CoD 4 was good, why not buy it? I don't think there's been a straight up first person war-themed shooter set in modern times for a while - most are squad based or strategy.

 

Have you tried Medal of Honor: Airborne? I thought the demo was fantastic, you should give it a try. Runs awesomely well on an 8800GTS.

 

I have a really strong personal aversion to war games/movies. I was watching "Stripes" last night and I could actually feel my blood turn cold in parts of it. It's a really nasty aversion.

And no, North Koreans are NOT Stalinist communists with different skin, and just lumping groups of people together like that makes it awful easy to just ignore any human qualities they might have. Do you even know anything about North Korea? But for crying out loud, they're using fairly realistic models in Crysis, and when they speak in English they speak in Engrish, screaming really generic crap like "Die Yankee dog!" and "Die American pig!" and "Death to America!" You want to tell me that's not horribly racist?

The fact of the matter is that choosing a real country for the enemies in Crysis was unnecessary and in exceedingly poor taste (not to mention that it will horribly date the game), and the American macho bullcrap that Crytek injected into the game is pandering at best.

I'm lucky it's not a terribly original game so it doesn't really hurt not to buy it.

 

I don't see it as any worse than including innocent German citizens as Nazis in WWII games, or Communist troopers invading the crap out of everywhere in World In Conflict. We're kinda low on dictatorships at the moment, NK just seems like a useful one to stereotype at the moment (nuclear weapons, people being forced into poverty, no entry to anyone etc.)...and any pro-American crap in Crysis is rendered moot by the fact that it's ridiculously cheesy

To say it's not original, though true, is missing the point. It's still damn revolutionary, and has so much potential with that delicious engine they've built. The maps can be freaking huge!




Personally, I dislike the story in CoD a lot more. Ugh, terrorists.

 

Except that it's realistic and reasonable to include Nazis in something about World War II.

Except that if your story is about "what if the cold war didn't end/ended in WW3", it's realistic and reasonable to include communist Soviets.

Using NK in Crysis was outright unnecessary. A fictionalized country or just another stupid band of mercenaries could've served just as well, because it's not like there's a whole lot of artistic merit in the story here. But including caricatures of North Koreans in a story with no basis in reality is distasteful and unnecessary. The pro-American crap is corny, and it's pandering.

As for terrorists...terrorists are the flavor of the day, and at least they don't have to come from anywhere in particular. Most people agree that the term "terrorist" doesn't exactly denote fluffy kittens and rainbows.

 

Being half Korean myself, I do find these types of things a bit offensive, but it's not going to deter me from enjoying the game. As people see my xbox live gamertag "mr korea" I probably receive the stereotypical "Engrish" accent coming from many of the people I play with, mocking me (they typically say "ahhhh misttaaa kowweeaaa, ching chang chong"... if i only received a dollar for everytime some idiot said this on xbox). It does get tiring, but I'm not one to really raise a big fuss about it. I definitely see both sides but props to you Pulp.

As for games you might enjoy, have you checked out any hitman games? You can get them at gogamer.com for like $10.

Also, world in conflict was enjoyable for me.
Other games I might recommend:

Civilization 4
Rainbow Six Vegas
Condemned: Criminal Origins
Bioshock
if you liked Doom 3, try out Quake 4

Cheers

 

Have you ever tried any RTS's?

Command and Conquer 3 and Supreme Commander were both great. The Grand theft auto series is also classic, but only if you're into that kind of stuff.

 

Anyway...

STALKER might be fun, if you like games that are rewarding simply because they offer so many things to do in a massively counter intuitive fashion.

I have a friend who plays as 'blackknight'. Only on XBox live could you get abused and shouted at as nig*erknight whilst playing a game...gotta love half of that userbase

 

So I picked up TimeShift for $29 and Rainbow Six: Vegas for $19, and they've been exactly what I wanted. Lots of action, not a whole lotta plot, good eye candy.

I really think TimeShift gets a bad rap. It's not GREAT, but it's elementally what a game is supposed to be: fun. The time manipulation gimmick is actually pretty enjoyable for running up to people, clocking them, taking their weapon, then unfreezing time and shooting them.

And Rainbow Six: Vegas is surprisingly easy to play. I never got into tactical shooters, but I read it was more action oriented and my sister's boyfriend seemed to really like it. While many decisions I've made haven't been "tactically sound" as my team likes to remind me, ultimately I just get to shoot people in the head, and isn't that what we all get into FPSs for?

 

Maybe you should try some MMO's. Those get addictive, and you can end up playing one for a year before you get bored of it.

The two most well-known would probably be EVE Online and World of Warcraft. I've been playing EVE for 3 months and I'm just loving it.

 

Some people need to lighten up. It's a game. Plain and simple. They can make Americans the bad guys for all I care. If it is fun to play but makes fun of my race, culture, country, whatever, I don't care. If I can't laugh at my own stereotypes who else can?

 

Half-Life is over rated...

 

Rainbow Six Vegas is a good good game, if you look past its difference from previous RS games. I do miss the days of Rogue Spear and Rainbow Six 3. As a fan of the original formula I would still play those over Vegas.

 

Do you really think HL2 is overrated !!! it's the one of the best pc games ever made if not the best..
Btw agree with you about crysis, but the same also goes for CoD4, tom clancy's series and all other games that portray communists as alien monsters!!!

 

if you even know of or played warhammer...Dawn of War is a great rts. online play is great too.

 

Reviews are really positive for the 2 expansions that came with it as well. It's worth the try even though I can't personally recommend it having never played it myself.

 

Half Life overrated??? Are you joking?
Doom 3, Quake 4 , Crysis,Halo,NFS Pro Street these are REAL overrated series/games
I hate Steam but HL 2 is the best pc game ever made...try it, you could find a world that is only on id software's dreams

All Warhammer series is amazing,it' made by the same programmers of Company Of Heroes (and it's far way better but it's just cause i love Warhammer 4k miniatures) be sure to get all the expansions

 

glad you liked rainbow six vegas

you should try out condemned: criminal origins. I think you can find this at ebgames/gamestop for under $20. Kind of short, but it's a one of a kind experience, very very scary.

you might like the ghost recon series if you enjoy rainbow six vegas, although i found ghost recon a bit more tedious with mechanics and not as well done as far as gameplay goes.

 

I've actually played and beaten Condemned: Criminal Origins. Great movie, middling game.

As for Half-Life 2, since everyone's so HORRIFIED I'd think it's overrated: I HAVE played it. I've BEATEN it. I enjoyed playing it for the most part, but the survival horror attitude it takes towards ammo, the mediocre graphics (Source engine scales well, but it's easy to see how), and the haphazardly told story...I'm sorry, I'm not impressed. I enjoyed playing through (most of) Doom 3 more than playing through Half-Life 2. And I enjoyed playing through Quake 4 WAY more than Half-Life 2; Quake 4 has an incredibly fun single player campaign.

I also have a really hard time calling Half-Life 2 the best PC game ever made. Ignoring the fact that it didn't actually break any ground, Bioshock came out this year, and for me, Bioshock trumps it in every category. Rapture is an incredibly unique world, the story is told VERY well and has a fantastic twist, the game is beautiful, and it's just FUN to play. I actually had a hard time playing it for more than an hour at a time because the suspense of worrying more splicers would wander into my area kept getting to me.

I do agree that Crysis and Halo are overrated, and I stand by my feelings towards Crysis. Very little offends me, but Crysis is disgustingly overtly racist. They speak Engrish for crying out loud.

 

If you ever played the original Wolf:ET and enjoyed it you should definitely try the Quake Wars:Enemy Territory demo. You can get it through Steam, or from any number of other sites on the net. This game is a severe time suck for me, way more than Oblivion, HL2, CoH...

On a server with good team match-ups this can be the most fun I've ever had in a game.

 

Hey, have ya tried out the battlefield series? bf2 / 2142 are pretty good games if you're into FPS and MMO. I mean, i don't think EA has perfected the series, but it is definitly something to look into if you haven't. I love 2142.

 

i don't see why HL2 needed to break any new ground. it was a solid follow-up to a very well made game. it did exactly what it set out to do. i don't see how it can be 'overrated.' if they wanted to create an entirely new experience then they wouldn't have called it Half Life 2.

 

Bioshock comparable to half life 2? Bioshock got repetitive very fast and overall that game was overrated. The shootign dynamics were terrible and it eventually became the same old use plasmid fire, use plasmid then fire. Yes the story was great but the game became real old real fast. Half Life 2 had surprises around the corner and became more and more challenging while Bioshock plateaued after a while.

Doom 3 was even worse but it became repetitive only with very little plot. As a fan of the original doom, this one was nowhere near as good as the original.

While HF2 is arguably not the best pc game ever it sure as hell is in the top 10 if not 5/.

 

You guys get offended really quick about Half-Life 2, I had no idea a video game was supposed to be some kind of sacred cow.

I played it. I didn't like it. I explained why. That's pretty much open-and-shut, so I don't know why you guys are trying to convince me the game is good when I've played it and didn't think it was that great.

 

All I can say is that your super picky about your Video games... Why not just not play any at all then? Would you be happy?

 

I agree with Crysis, I slapped my "yankee pig" head each time the Koreeans talked and shot them faster just so they`d shut up. It was damn short,damn boring and not impressive besides the graphics. But I love games with gameplay...so HL2 was far beyond great for me. Why? Because ever since the Black Mesa phenomenon, things started happening,a mild mannered doctor scientist starts killing stuff,while being watched by a misterious GMan and became a symbol.Then he gets the girl. Classic,real like ,easy and enjoyable. There`s nothing repetitive about half life in terms of story.It HAS a story,there will be a movie after it.Half Life is more than a game, it`s a sacred cow,yes. WHY? Because it gave birth to one of the best stories told in any game.

Games I`ve enjoyed,being FUN and having less dull action modes : MDK 2 (you heard right,had fun playing a game designed after a comic like), Max Payne 1$ 2(story baby) , Prince of Persia (story,oh yea), Legacy Of Kain(my absolute favourite series,the reason I took my Cambridge english classes - Soul reaver 1, 2, blood omen 1, 2, defiance.- helluva STORY ) .
I would go on with other action adventures, but for now these popped in my mind.
If you liked quake 4, then you might also like BlackSite Area 51. I went against the odds and got it (beware,it`s 11 gigs installed) and seem nice(it`s on UT3 engine,just as Bioshock and Unreal 3).
Have you played HEROES? I love that game...played 2,3,4,5 . I still play H3 on the net sometime or with my brother because it`s easy but requires strategy.
I`ve played and enjoyed NFS Porsche.WHY? because it`s more than just drive fast and brake faster. It`s a story of a brand, an evolution.
Speaking of evolution...DIABLO 2. And LOD. Can`t say how many mods i`ve played or how many characters I`ve developed...

If you want more, I`d be glad to sort my cd`s and start typing names and rate them

 

Company of Heroes is one everyone has to least try. Give the demo a spin.

I wasn't convincing you to get HF2 I was merely stating that in my opinion its not comparable to bioshock or doom. Regardless how was timeshift any good? That game is terrible. But whatever. WEll you ruled out 4 of the biggest titles for this season (HF, UT, Crysis, and cod) so its kinda hard to recommend games. You can buy TF2 and portal but its expensive seperate and really not worth it.

 

Everyone has been mentioning Dawn of War, and only The Forerunner mentioned Company of Heroes...

I personally believe that CoH is a better game, and it's definitely one of the all-time greats in terms of being an RTS. It's definitely worth your time to at least give the demo a spin.

Heck, a stand alone expansion just came out, adding two new factions and breathing some more life into it. LAN/Multiplayer with that game is totally fun .

 

Pulp, i think we have similar tastes in games. Although I did like half life 2, that may be where we differ.

Have you checked out John Woo's Stranglehold? I tried the demo and it seemed pretty fun, everything was destructible and the combinations to kill people never got old.

also try out:
MOH: Airborne
Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher's Bay
Prince of Persia (the whole series is good, imo)
Splinter Cell series (I like the older ones better than double agent)
GTA series

and that's all i've got... boy i've played a lot of games in the past 3-4 years.

 

I gave Opposing Fronts demo a try the other day, I got to say its not my kind of strategy. Cool concept and everything but I guess im more of a cnc/wc/sc/aoe kind of guy.

 

the witcher is awesome

 

Yeah I know what you mean link, its a hit or miss no in between. I might buy n review universe at war.

 

well I know not all are new but man I can play them over and over and over again.

Sacrifice
Icewind Dale series +expansions
Baldur's gate series +expansions
Neverwinternights +expansions
Neverwinternights 2 (waiting for my new lappy to play but I am sure to enjoy it)
Splintercell Series
Quake 3 - RA3 (just fun to dust off the copy and just have some good ol' fragging fun)
Painkiller games
CS:Source (I only play this when I am absolutley board. The community is what gets me...never really liked it.)

I dunno. I play a variety of games including the ones listed and others already posted. I haven't had a chance to play COD4 just yet but I am sure I will play it quite often. Other than this, there really isn't any new games that impress me or that I am looking forward to except Starcraft 2 and Assassins Creed. I tend not to follow the hype of new games until I actually get to play them. I hate having standards before I play a game but thats just me.

 

BioShock
Gears Of War
Halo 1+2

Just listing some 360 games that got ported

 

Jikeel there is a demo of COD4 you can try. Though after playing Assassin's creed for a few hours on the 360, I must say it gets really boring after a while. Very repetitive and overall the game was lackluster.

 

I actually have COD4 (my girlfriend loves me ) But my current laptop (no joke, 3dmark6 score.... 160 lol gotta love 3 yr old laptops.) cannot play it and I think I could squeeze by with my desktop specs but I don't want to ruin it by playing 8x6 with low everything. I want to install it on my beast when it comes and just take it all in

You didn't like assassins very well huh? I just thought it looked really good with the physics with people and all that. But I do hate repetition in some games....hmmm...I will have to get a demo of it or see it in action before I decide on that one then.

 

Well you'll be going from a score of 160 to 16,000 with your new laptop.

Yeah I read the reviews and since I was looking forward to the game decided to give it a spin. Overall just wasn't an immersive experience. The plot was kind of out there and some of the voice acting was terrible. Got pretty bored after a while and was relieved that the PC version didn't come out with the consoles. I was going to review the game and that would have been 50 bucks down the drain.

 

Thanks for the input. I will have to keep my eye on it then. I will just have to wait for a PC demo if they make one and try it out before I decide. I know there are threads for it but what are your opinions for UT3?

 

I appreciate the suggestions I've received in this thread. My current timekiller has actually turned out to be Rainbow Six: Vegas.

I've never been interested in the Tom Clancy games - I tend to like to keep my games simple - but I've been having a hell of a fun time with this. It plays like Far Cry on crack. Totally approved.

 

Think I might do reviews for UT3 and crysis in a week or so when the semester is over.