Little PC game gems

joasoze

Join Date 02/2006

+39

Little PC game gems

I am at a constant lookout for good strategy games for PC. They are few and far between and my favorites are these:

CIV IV, Master of Orion II, MOM, Heroes of Might and Magic, Kings Bounty and such. Since I find so few games I like/want I have started looking a little among more indie games /small developers/older games for some respite while waiting for Elemental or other good games (Kings Bounty Armored Princess).

My findings so far:

Armageddon Empires. Bought this a year ago and played a few times. Its plays excactly like a boardgame. The game is ok, but the AI doesnt really challenge a lot. My rating 6/10

Bellatorus: A game where you play cards to produce resources and ultimately destroy the enemy tower. Played the demo a few times, but the game was reminding me to buy constantly while I tried the demo. On startup, on closing the game, on trynig to change a setting in the skirmish++ I had almost decieded to buy when the game told me I could not play the demo anymore and that I should buy the game. There must be a hidden counter on number of plays (I had only had the demo installed for two days). I uninstalled and will not buy. Treat me with a little more respect next time, and I will buy. My rating (of the game, not the annoyance of the demo) 7/10

Majesty Gold: Bought while waiting for Majesty II. Got crashes quite often and therefore didnt play it a lot. No rating

Majesty II: NO SKIRIMISH? No buy, No rating

Etherlords II: Just bought and have played only a little whild. Promising game.

Lux Delux: A risk simulator (with lots of other maps and stuff as well). Great little filler that I play if I have 10 free minutes with the computer. AI not half bad. My rating: 8/10

Hollywood Mogul 3: Tried demo. Very difficult interface and hard to get into. Could be a little gem here, but I eventually gave up.

Nils Bauers Empires & Dungeons: Tried the demo. Seems to me like most games will be the same. I coult be missing something here, but the demo bored me fast. My rating: 4/10

Gal CIV II: Bought and played, but didnt get hooked. My rating 6/10. Dont know why I didnt hook me. Will try again some time.

Sins of a Solar Empire: Bought and played, but didnt get hooked. No rating yet. Will try again.

Elemental Beta: Still testing

Battle for Wesnoth: FREE game. This one is quite challenging and good. I play it now and again. My rating 8/10

Anyone got any more suggestions for me to try?

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joasoze

Join Date 02/2006

+39

Quoting landisaurus,

reply 17

When I think of "PC gems" for some reason my mind jumps to games like Quest for Glory and Scotched earth. Games I played as a kid.

As monkey island has already been mentioned, and I'm not sure dungeon keeper is old enough to make the list, nor is Thief: The dark project. I nominate Scorched Earth.

Scorched Earth is a shooting game in the most classic sense of "shooting" right next to that gorrilla game where they throw bananas. In theory it has been passed up by other games like Worms.... actually thats the only one I can pull of the top of my head. But for whatever reason, most of the worms games after Worms 2, Armegedon, and World Party have lacked the charm. The newer games seem somehow, cheaper... and not just in weapon selection, though thats a factor. Even then, when I go back and play scorched earth (and get it to pace itself correctly by tweaking dos-box way down in CPU cycles) it STILL seems more solid of a game than the golden age of worms.

Not my cup of tea these ones. Have played Worms a few times.

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joasoze

Join Date 02/2006

+39

Quoting DraekAlmasy,

reply 18

I third the recommendation for Sword of the Stars. The non-warfare aspects of strategy are fairly dumbed down, and the tactical battles are more of an annoyance than a feature, at least for me (thankfully they can be skipped though), but there's *something* about the game that makes my imagination fly, imagining myself as the supreme commander of humanity leading them in a quest for the stars, rather than simply a guy sitting in front of his computer playing a videogame.

And I also second the recommendation for Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. So many years later, and it's *still* the best Civilization game ever made, and there's *still* features in it absent from the mainline series. Plus its the only one available for Linux, which is handy for my laptop

But have you tried Paradox's games besides the Majesty series? like the Europa Universalis series or its various spin-offs such as EU: Rome or Hearts of Iron, the strategic model of those games is, in my opinion, second to none which makes for a very interesting and deep gameplay. For instance, being forced to sign a truce with an inferior, weaker opponent because even *winning* would inflict a worse hit on your economic and diplomatic stability, possibly damaging your nation for decades, or watching the world fall in a handful of power blocks through military alliances and royal marriages until a seemingly small military action scalates into a large-scale war, its simply fantastic.

Two votes for Swords of the Stars. The next time I read about this game I might succumb and just buy it. I disagree about Alpha Centauri (its great though). CIV IV is the best ever Civ game.

I have played EU II quite a bit hand Hearts of Iron II a little. With HoI II I just didnt find much to do and never quite grasped the point of it. EU II had me hooked for a while.

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joasoze

Join Date 02/2006

+39

Quoting Luckmann,

reply 19

Didn't see Fall from Heaven 2.

If you haven't tried it. Do so.

I have played just one game of Fall from Heaven 2. I should give it more chances I know.

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joasoze

Join Date 02/2006

+39

To sum up all this before I get banned for spamming:

There are plenty of games that I havnt given enough chances!

I have just started playing Etherlords II and when that is finished I will come back and use this thread for chosing where to go next.

I hope that others have gotten some inspiration from this thread

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I have Space Rangers 2 on impulse. Played it for a while. OK, but not great.

Mount & Blade. Not my cup of tea I think

God, no. They actually *are* great.

If you don't like them problem is yours. It's all your fault. Shame upon thee!

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I'm going to second Dwarf Fortress here. If you follow some of the newbie tutorials that are available you'll actually get the hang of it pretty quick. It just takes a while to remember the intricacies of the interface, which is pretty bad. If you try it in I highly recommend getting a square tileset rather than sticking with the default rectangular graphics. The Mike Mayday tileset is probably the most commonly used one.

The best thing the tutorials do is provide a solid starting location. Deciding where to embark to is one of the most difficult decisions until you understand the world. Unfortunately, it's the first thing you have to do.

When I first played I just downloaded it and dove right in, which is not as bad as some people might lead you to believe. I quickly discovered the truth of the games motto: "Losing is fun!" I'd say it took me about a week to get comfortable with the game, and I still referenced the wiki frequently.

I just think it's an amazing and incredibly unique game. If you enjoy any kind of city or world building game and can tolerate the graphics I think you'll love it.

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YES:

demigod (obviously)

master of orion 1&2 (classic)

heroes of might and magic 1,2,3 (avoid 4 and 5)

disciples 2

sid meiers colonization (both the original and the remake in civ4 engine)

xcom apocalypse(addictive!)

scorched earth (played this for years with my friends in the early 90s)

if you like scorch you might enjoy 'slicks and slide' a nice little multiplayer rally game.

defense grid (big yes here. excellent game)

starcontrol 2 (classic)

alpha centauri (not for epileptics...the colour scheme and music gave me headaches)

M.A.X (mechanized assault and exploration) best game in both tbs/rts genres imo. from 1996 i think it was. Supreme commander is a cheap failed clone of this imo.)

patrician 3 (fantastic attention to detail. satisfying to create auto trade routes and make cities flourish)

kings bounty: the legend (although this gets tiring after a week of nonstop playing)

team fortress 2 (team shooter with different classes. very stylish and enjoyable)

cosmic supremacy (if you like master of orion, you will like this. free online tbs 4x game with a very little downloadable client (few mb). this will cause you to lose sleep)

section 8 and red faction:guerilla both seem like ok shooters.

NO:
galciv (just weak and lame)
europa universalis and Rise of Nations (gets very repetitive)
supreme commander (see above)
resident evil 5 (uber beautiful graphics. totally f***ed up controls and mouse movement)
Anno 1404 (extremely weak compared to patrician 3)

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Quoting inerz,

reply 32

YES:
xcom apocalypse(addictive!)

I loved that game. All the X-Com games really. For some reason a lot of the X-Com fan base had a problem with Apocalypse but I thought it was awesome. I especially liked being able to equip different vehicles to individual squad members.

Quoting TucoBenedicto,

reply 30

I have Space Rangers 2 on impulse. Played it for a while. OK, but not great.

If you don't like them problem is yours. It's all your fault. Shame upon thee!

Space Rangers 1 & 2 were great except for one minor flaw IMO. The RTS parts where you fought the Devastators on the planets. It was way too plain. If I remember correctly you could only make one unit to fight them with, some kind of walking mech. Aside from the lack of variety there though I remember it being pretty decent. The rest of the game at least had a lot of variety.

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Some Old Games:

Chaos Overlords if you can find it.

Lost Admiral

Grandest Fleet

Another Simtex game:

1830-Railroads--Robber-Barons

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lords of the realm 1&2 were uber games from 1994&96.

quite very old, but it had a nice little economy model + military + cool soundtrack.

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joasoze

Join Date 02/2006

+39

Quoting inerz,

reply 35

lords of the realm 1&2 were uber games from 1994&96.

quite very old, but it had a nice little economy model + military + cool soundtrack.

I played Lords of the Realm back in the days. Expect that it would be a disappointment to go back to these old games. The memories are fond, but I guess that the games might not have aged that well. This goes with other games from early 90ties as well. Still games like Master of Orion II and Battle Isle II and III are still very playable.

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A fairly new game, have you tried Hearts of Iron 3? It's pretty hardcore in the strategy aspect. Not my kind of game actually, but it might interest you.

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Quoting joasoze,

reply 22

Quoting SennKS, reply 9Have you played Homeworld? If you haven't, you probably should, being as you can get it off amazon.com for cheap and it's one of the greatest PC games ever made (in the opinion of this guy, it's THE best game ever made, but I'm a little biased).
Tried and didnt get hooked. Not sure if I gave Homeworld and Rise of Nations enough chance.

Dear god, Homeworld is an amazing game if you enjoy a fun game wrapped in an engaging story. I distinctly remember getting chills as the story un-folded. Stay far away from Homeworld 2 though...its an embarasment to the francise. However, Cataclysm was stunning. Much better in gameplay than Homeworld and still had a solid story.

Sins is a good game too but it doesn't take advantage of the story potential and make a single player game. I was incredibly disappointed about that. After watching the intro video to the game...everything was set up for an amazing story. I thought it was like a newer version of Homeworld...at least until I got the game and realized it didn't have a single player campaign.

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Quoting puffpuff,

reply 38

Well, SOASE is heavily based on both the RTS and empire building games, and the latter usually don't have a campaign mode, as the random map is supposed to make the player create a story. The only problem with SOASE is that there just isn't enough backstory...

Regardless, it's, in my opinion, the best PC game in a very long time. Just, single-player needs some imagination.

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joasoze

Join Date 02/2006

+39

Quoting zndkwin,

reply 37

A fairly new game, have you tried Hearts of Iron 3? It's pretty hardcore in the strategy aspect. Not my kind of game actually, but it might interest you.

I have played HoI II and it didnt really grip me. It was like watching the game play it self in a way... I dont know how to explain it, but I will not get HoI III.

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Quoting inerz,

reply 32

YES:

Supreme commander is a cheap failed clone of this imo.)

what nonsense. perhaps you've heard of a game called total annihilation?

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joasoze

Join Date 02/2006

+39

@Raistilin -Total Annihilation - BEST RTS EVAH..

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go play m.a.x and then tell me supcom isnt a ripoff of that... a bad one like i said

btw max was before TA.

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joasoze

Join Date 02/2006

+39

Quoting inerz,

reply 43

go play m.a.x and then tell me supcom isnt a ripoff of that... a bad one like i said

btw max was before TA.

I am sure you are a big m.a.x. fan but Supreme Commander is the spiritual successor of Total Annihilation. The devs have stated this many times. If we start to discuss which of the two games (TA and m.a.x.) that are the best then we will just end up agreeing to disagree I guess.

My side of the argument would be that TA has better reviews, a rabid fanbase and has been known to be one of the best RTS games ever made TA beats m.a.x. by about 5% at gamerankings.

Gamespy had their top 10 list of all time best RTS games in 2004 with TA as numero ono.

http://archive.gamespy.com/top10/february04/rts/index11.shtml

Still its all subjective.

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fair enough

i guess why i went all rabid over it, is when i first read about supcom, everything in it screamed max remake, which made me very happy. i then played the game and was very disappointed. my main prob was total lack of ingame feedback/info. which units do how much damage vs what other units etc. nothing like that. just your uberxyz1 vs uberxyz2 and theyre both pretty damn uber vs xyz3.

btw. max is quite buggy even after final patch and the ai could be better. its still by far the best tbs/rts ive ever played : )...well...possibly second only to moo2 which actually worked pretty well.

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Quoting inerz,

reply 43

go play m.a.x and then tell me supcom isnt a ripoff of that... a bad one like i said

btw max was before TA.

TA and supcom are one of the only games ever made (with cossacks i think) that simulate projectiles. TA was its very own beast and not a copy of anything. supcom was a sprititual successor to TA, not a ripoff of MAX which was a turn-based game ffs.

Quoting inerz,

reply 43

main prob was total lack of ingame feedback/info. which units do how much damage vs what other units etc. nothing like that. just your uberxyz1 vs uberxyz2 and theyre both pretty damn uber vs xyz3.

um, all units do the same damage regardless of what they're shooting at. you only need to watch a few replays to get an idea of what units work against what; its pretty damned obvious. FA is one of the most transparent RTS titles ever made. cant spoon feed everything to people you know! the whole awesomeness that is supcom is because there are far fewer hard and fast rules regarding unit interaction and balance.

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Quoting -RAISTLIN-,

reply 46

Sword of the Stars simulates projectiles. There's no roll-to-hit or anything; stuff is fired at the target with scatter determined by the weapon accuracy and any other modifiers (Fire Control section for instance).

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good to know! but can projectiles hit units you werent aiming for? i thought SotS was a turn-based game?

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Quoting -RAISTLIN-,

reply 48

good to know! but can projectiles hit units you werent aiming for? i thought SotS was a turn-based game?

SotS is kinda like the Total War series: turn-based strategy with real-time battles. I don't know whether they could hit other stuff though, I suppose the game allows for it but given how slow most ships are I'd say its unlikely.

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joasoze

Join Date 02/2006

+39

Quoting inerz,

reply 45

fair enough

i guess why i went all rabid over it, is when i first read about supcom, everything in it screamed max remake, which made me very happy. i then played the game and was very disappointed. my main prob was total lack of ingame feedback/info. which units do how much damage vs what other units etc. nothing like that. just your uberxyz1 vs uberxyz2 and theyre both pretty damn uber vs xyz3.

btw. max is quite buggy even after final patch and the ai could be better. its still by far the best tbs/rts ive ever played : )...well...possibly second only to moo2 which actually worked pretty well.

Hey, another MOO II fan. My top list of games are:

1. CIV IV
2. Total Annihilation / MOO II (shared second, cannot make up my mind)

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