Well, I say old...
So the fact that I'm practically destitute and completely unable to afford to upgrade from the ps2 has been sidesteped by the fact that my nephew, with whom I am living, has just been gifted a 2nd hand Xbox360. And he's spending most of the school holidays staying with various members of the family so it's MINE for the duration.
I'd have preferred it were a ps3 of course, because I am a right thinking person, but beggars can not, as they say, be choosers.
So anyway, what games do I really need to catch up on now that I'm on the current generation machine? So far my list is:
Call of Duty 4 onwards
Arkham Asylum
Splinter Cell 5
RDR (possibly, not a huge Rockstar fan but this is getting raves so...)
Any other outright classics I need to play? In the stealth action or fps genres mainly because I have Zero skills when it comes to Fighting or Driving games. Don't have the reflexes for them.
While I'm here, rather than revive an old thread about it - I picked up CoD4 as the first on my list. Am I alone in being massively dissapointed? What there is of it is fantastic but am I mad in thinking it was really fucking short? I'm utterly shit at these things and they normally take me forever to complete but this one was knocked off in a couple of days.
Gears of War 2.
Bayonetta (You're a mis-ter-eeee...)
Bioshock 1 + 2.
The Orange Box.
Mass Effect 2.
Fable 2.
Assassins Creeds 1+2
I feel that your capitalising of the word "old" in the title of this thread was uncalled for.
This is true. However, I was wary of falling fall of avid gamers for whom 6months ago is considered prehistoric and so felt obliged to offer some warning.
I was actually mocked in Game Station by a pair of kids because they heard me, when buying CoD4, turn down the offer of being put on the list for the new CoD (which I didn't even know was forthcoming, is it 7 or 8?) because I wanted to play the series in release order. They couldn't understand why anyone would possibly want to play a game that was *gasp* 3 years old.
Of course, I half wish the shop agreed with them. That way the older pre-owneds might be a bit cheaper.
The Gears of Wars and Halo 3 are X-box exclusive shooters that are must plays.
Bishock is a marmite shooter - and certainly no better than those three. It is more into showing off its fantastic design than actually being shooty-shooty bang-bang. The first three are more... exciting... in terms of set pieces and fire power and machismo.
BUT - Play Mass Effect 1, then Mass Effect 2, for some of the best story-led stuff you could hope for. Epic sci-fi. With foxy aliens who are up for it.
Trials HD
Shadow Complex
Rez HD
Halo, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo ODST
The Orange Box is fantastic value for money - will keep you going for ages!
Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts - you can pick it up for peanuts. Very underrated game - takes a good couple of hours to get into it, but once you're in, it's clever, creative and absorbing.
This far in and nobody's mentioned Fallout 3?
Fallout 3 isn't much good.
Wow, a lot here to be getting stuck into. Hadn't realised I'd missed so much. I'll probably stick Mass Effect games near the top of the list, as Dr X mentions their having particularly strong storylines. I do like my games to have a proper plot as well as playing well.
Now I'm off to Google Banjo Kazooie because frankly I've never heard of it and from the name alone it sounds insane.
Quote from: Paul faplad Finch on 14 August, 2010, 04:17:19 PM
Wow, a lot here to be getting stuck into. Hadn't realised I'd missed so much. I'll probably stick Mass Effect games near the top of the list, as Dr X mentions their having particularly strong storylines. I do like my games to have a proper plot as well as playing well.
Now I'm off to Google Banjo Kazooie because frankly I've never heard of it and from the name alone it sounds insane.
Yeah, I'd second Mass Effect. The combat in the first one is pretty clunky and visually its quite glitchy, but otherwise its brilliant. Its essential to play it before ME2 because you can carry over your character to 2, with the decisions you made in the 1st game affecting how the 2nd one plays out, and while ME1 is a brilliant game ME2 is hands down the best gaming I think I've ever had.
Quote from: Professah Byah on 14 August, 2010, 12:22:37 PM
Fallout 3 isn't much good.
wash your mouth out sir!
its feckin arsom bit daunting at first but stick at it and collect and sell everything you can carry
259 hours in on this 3rd playthrough enjoying the pootle around till new vegas comes along!!!
oh and red dead redemption
i prefer cod 4 to the new one anyways so dont let some snotty kids put you off i like the open ended free roaming stuff but i recently got singularity which was quite good despite being criminally under the radar
oblivion elder scrolls 4
Mass Effect 1 and especially 2 are stunning. Like others have said, 1 isnt as good but you will get so much more out of the 2nd if you play it first
Spent about 2 hours this afternoon getting the original Knights of the Old Republic working on Vista. Seems to be working ok now tho so looking forward to playing through this again in total "Evil Bastard" mode
Quote from: bluemeanie on 14 August, 2010, 06:52:33 PMSpent about 2 hours this afternoon getting the original Knights of the Old Republic working on Vista.
Ah, [spoiler]fuck [/spoiler]Vista. It is a thing of last resort.
Shop around and you can pick up an old Xbox for about 20-30 quid, with the games for less than a tenner if you'll trawl Amazon marketplace and the like. There's plenty of good gaming to be had on the last gen that would justify shelling out for a decade-old console, and I speak as someone who's still happily playing GTA: San Andreas.
Quote from: Professah Byah on 14 August, 2010, 07:40:43 PM
There's plenty of good gaming to be had on the last gen
I could quite happily have gone on with the ps2 for a good long while to come if it were not for the fact that I absolutely love the Splinter Cell games and it was killing me that there was a new one out that I had no chance of playing. This also applies to a slightly lesser extent to the CoD games.
As great as some of these others sound, and I'll deffo play them all now I can, none of them would have prompted any great desire to upgrade.
Castlevania: SOTN, the greatest 2d game ever, is on XBLA.
In a similar vein, I have just ordered a new PC. I haven't played a PC game in the last four years - I have played most big titles available on the XBox, including all of those listed above.
I aim to catch up, so what PC EXCLUSIVES have I missed since 2006?
The only ones I can think of are Neverwinter Nights 2, Dawn of War 2 and Red Alert 3. Are these worth getting? Have I missed any others?
Quote from: Paul faplad Finch on 14 August, 2010, 08:14:26 PM
Quote from: Professah Byah on 14 August, 2010, 07:40:43 PM
There's plenty of good gaming to be had on the last gen
I could quite happily have gone on with the ps2 for a good long while to come if it were not for the fact that I absolutely love the Splinter Cell games and it was killing me that there was a new one out that I had no chance of playing. This also applies to a slightly lesser extent to the CoD games.
As great as some of these others sound, and I'll deffo play them all now I can, none of them would have prompted any great desire to upgrade.
That makes the 360 a very right minded choice then as Conviction is a 360 game.
I'd also recommend much of the above, The Gears, Halo, Fable and Mass Effect games are excellent (Mass Effect 2 being my favourite this year). Left 4 dead is great fun, the Crackdown games are good. Banjo and VP from Rare are good too. Alan Wake was also a game I greatly enjoyed earlier this year.
There are stacks of Live Arcade titles as mentioned above.
and say that many of the multi format games are brilliant and Red Dead is a fantastic game.
Yeah Paul, Red Dead and GTA4 (seeing as you're enjoying San Andreas) are amazing.
Doc X, to my eternal shame I ditched PC gaming a while back but Crysis was absolutely wonderful - I WAS Mandroid!
I'm in a similar PC situation myself, have got by for years on a shitty laptop but its not up to needs anymore so have inherited a beast of a PC from my brother. He's rather splendidly pre-loaded it with some goodies off Steam(plus Machinarium and all the Monkey Island episodic stuff) so I'll be dipping into PC gaming soon, starting with Deus Ex I think.
QuoteNow I'm off to Google Banjo Kazooie because frankly I've never heard of it and from the name alone it sounds insane.
It's an adventure type game - the twist is that you have to build your own vehicles to progress. You get set a task (protect a statue from attacking enemy planes for example), then have to build a vehicle to perform the task. How you solve the problem is up to you. You could:
a) Build a fighter plane to attack the planes
b) Build a mobile anti-aircraft turret to shoot down the planes
c) Build an armoured helicopter with a cage on the bottom so you can land on the statue and protect it
d) A combination of all of the above!
As I said, it's a difficult game to get into - it takes a few solid hours of investment to get a grip on the rules and unlock some content - the front end and tutorials are very poorly done - when I played the demo for the first time I thought it was complete
rubbish, but once you get into the swing of tinkering with a design and experimenting with different approaches to get the best results it becomes compulsive and rewarding.
Winning tasks gives you more vehicle parts which you can use to win even more parts. Or you can just dick around and try to build your own Apache gunship or Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (complete with retractable wings!) - you can swap vehicle designs with your friends, too.
One of the most underrated and misunderstood games of recent times. As a creative adventure game it shits all over the vastly overrated
Little Big Planet.
Here's some of the vehicles others have made:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jYp3S98AmY&feature=related (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jYp3S98AmY&feature=related)
used xbox 360's are being sold in blockbuster from £50 for an arcade version in light of the "new" one being released.hope they are gonna lower their hard drive prices as i could do with another.
Quote from: mogzilla on 15 August, 2010, 06:54:47 PM
used xbox 360's are being sold in blockbuster from £50 for an arcade version in light of the "new" one being released.hope they are gonna lower their hard drive prices as i could do with another.
That sounds like a done deal and i mean to call into the local Blockbuster to find out more.Thanks for the tip.
Does anyone know what the difference is between all the different models like the arcade version ?
I am disinterested in online gaming so i dont want to buy the model that enables online gaming as all i do is play at home as a single player.
The arcade doesn't have a hard drive.
Quote from: Pete Wells on 15 August, 2010, 10:46:39 AM
Yeah Paul, Red Dead and GTA4 (seeing as you're enjoying San Andreas) are amazing.
Should point out that it was Byah who mentioned enjoying San Andreas, I just agreed in general terms that the old consoles are still good. (Or is Byah called Paul? If so, oops)
Personally, I actively dislike the GTA games. And pretty much anthing else with the Rockstar name attached. I can admire the scope of their worlds and the effort that goes into the background details (lots of good music I seem to recall, plus being able to play on the arcades was a nice touch in whichever that game was) but in terms of playability I find them really awkward and frustrating. A lot of that may be down to, in GTA's case at least, my inability to master driving games in general but I also found the on foot / shooting stuff difficult to work up any enthusiasm for. Maybe it's just me.
Thats kind of why I'm dithering over RDR. It's getting rave reviews but then so do most of their games. I'm not keen to get burned again.
Quote from: Paul faplad Finch on 15 August, 2010, 07:27:20 PM
Personally, I actively dislike the GTA games. And pretty much anthing else with the Rockstar name attached. I can admire the scope of their worlds and the effort that goes into the background details (lots of good music I seem to recall, plus being able to play on the arcades was a nice touch in whichever that game was) but in terms of playability I find them really awkward and frustrating.
Thats kind of why I'm dithering over RDR. It's getting rave reviews but then so do most of their games. I'm not keen to get burned again.
I'm with Faplad block. I gave up on every GTA after 2.
Great vision and cinematics. Broody atmosphere. Frustrating controls. Despair-inducing mission restarts. Tedium.
Quote from: Paul faplad Finch on 15 August, 2010, 07:27:20 PM
...my inability to master driving games in general but I also found the on foot / shooting stuff difficult to work up any enthusiasm for. Maybe it's just me.
I hate gangster movies, macho cliche, racing games and the speed-boy mentality, but GTA3 was the first PS2 killer app for me. Likewise, my brother couldn't comprehend the appeal of the series until GTA4, which I'm not terribly fond of - technically impressive, but it plays more like a GTA knock-off (particularly a Driver or a True Crime entry) than a GTA sequel, so you may agree with it more than what went before.
I'd say Ballad of Gay Tony did a pretty good impersonation of a PS2 GTA.
I thought GTA4 was a big improvement over the previous games - I liked that it was less OTT and manic, less 'gamey' slightly more mature in tone. It was more street level and gritty - no silly jetpacks or apache gunships. Gay Tony seemed like a step backwards.
Quoteno silly jetpacks or apache gunships. Gay Tony seemed like a step backwards.
You are a very odd person.
Quote from: radiator on 15 August, 2010, 10:00:02 PMIt was more street level and gritty
The jetpack was a bit outre, but the tone of GTA has always been immensely juvenile and that worked because it's a version of reality and not a recreation of it. With GTA4 it's taking itself too seriously, however if that kind of thing is your bag, you want to be checking out True Crime New York, Scarface: The World Is Yours and The Getaway: Black Monday, all of which GTA4 borrows heavily from, all of which are good games, but all of which I got bored playing because of the almost adolescent atmosphere of 'grittiness' - though obviously if you don't actually
mind that sort of thing (and plenty don't) you're in for a treat.
Red Dead Redemption is worth a punt. The setting and the various things you get up to differentiate it enough from GTA to avoid just being 'GTA in the wild west'.
Dead Rising is an Xbox 360 exclusive and well worth playing, but resign yourself to leveling up your character for a bit before it really opens up as a game. Also make sure you find the car and take a drive in the underground tunnels for maximum carnage.
Quote from: radiator on 15 August, 2010, 10:00:02 PM
I thought GTA4 was a big improvement over the previous games - I liked that it was less OTT and manic, less 'gamey' slightly more mature in tone. It was more street level and gritty - no silly jetpacks or apache gunships. Gay Tony seemed like a step backwards.
Exactly the reasons I couldn't get into 4*. The decision to make the lead a dour, gritty type and play the main storyline less for laughs was a bad one for me. Then again, my favourite entry in the series is Vice City.
Cheers, The Cosh (currently playing Killer7 on PS2, Assassin's Creed 2 on 360, Abe's Exxodus via Steam on PC and Freecell whenever I can)
* Also, I found the driving immeasurably harder than in previous games. Which was a big problem.
All of us should buy Dead Rising 2 'cos Capcom are hurting.
Quote from: Roger Godpleton on 15 August, 2010, 10:46:12 PM
All of us should buy Dead Rising 2 'cos Capcom are hurting.
We are all hurting financially unless you happen to be in the 2 percent or less of the population.
I am hurting so everyone give me 5 quid each.
Quote from: Roger Godpleton on 15 August, 2010, 10:46:12 PM
All of us should buy Dead Rising 2 'cos Capcom are hurting.
By that reckoning we should all be subscribing to APB.
http://kotaku.com/5612289/apb-developer-realtime-worlds-hit-with-major-layoffs (http://kotaku.com/5612289/apb-developer-realtime-worlds-hit-with-major-layoffs)
Didn't realise Capcom were in any trouble mind you.
Well I tried loading up Blade Runner the old Windows 95 RPG game.
No dice I'm afraid. I looked on several websites for installation advice but basically you'd have to build a new Dos box installer and even though I downloaded one I kept getting the SET EXEC not compatible with Vista type of thing.
Oh well I've got Crysis Warhead to cheer me up instead. Still I did feel a little dissapointed. No more running down neon lit alleyways only to discover I'd been there fifty times before. :(
Quote from: IAMTHESYSTEM on 16 August, 2010, 02:21:29 PM
Well I tried loading up Blade Runner the old Windows 95 RPG game.
No dice I'm afraid. I looked on several websites for installation advice but basically you'd have to build a new Dos box installer and even though I downloaded one I kept getting the SET EXEC not compatible with Vista type of thing.
Oh well I've got Crysis Warhead to cheer me up instead. Still I did feel a little dissapointed. No more running down neon lit alleyways only to discover I'd been there fifty times before. :(
Installed this on my last PC actually and it worked fine on Windows '98. Was loving it up to a point, the point where I had utterly no clue how to proceed at all, and then it was lost in the move onto the new PC. Seemed like an interesting game, but I only got a couple of hours in.
It was a great futuristic RPG game that carried along the same time line as the movie. Excellent graphics for the time if a little difficult to make out what was happening with the small figures. Good but an RPG of the old school.
Well Blade runner>sniff< is no more and I doubt even STEAM will pick it up as a download. Medal of Honour: The 10th anniversary edition however is only £10 on Amazon and I'm tempted to part with some cash to be come reacquainted with being massacred on the beaches of Normandy. :)
Quote from: Roger Godpleton on 15 August, 2010, 10:46:12 PM
All of us should buy Dead Rising 2 'cos Capcom are hurting.
Ive got this on pre order and after the amount of times the dates changed for its release it better be great.
and by great I mean they better have fixed the stupid survivors AI as thats all I had an issue with.
Quote from: IAMTHESYSTEM on 16 August, 2010, 02:21:29 PM
Well I tried loading up Blade Runner the old Windows 95 RPG game.
In the same vein, why can't I buy X-Wing/Tie Fighter through Steam? They have updates of all the X-Com games which must be of a similar vintage. Is this part of Lucas' strategy to deny that the past ever happened and everything will always have been the way it is now?
Quote from: bluemeanie on 14 August, 2010, 06:52:33 PM
Mass Effect 1 and especially 2 are stunning. Like others have said, 1 isnt as good but you will get so much more out of the 2nd if you play it first
Spent about 2 hours this afternoon getting the original Knights of the Old Republic working on Vista. Seems to be working ok now tho so looking forward to playing through this again in total "Evil Bastard" mode
This is being done at my flat. Not blown away by the supposed character led space operatics especially after the recent piss-take on GTA4 tv, of this genre [all American space policing]. I've only touched on the early encounters and maybe underestimating the ultimate goal.
Well, this thread has served one good purpose: it reminded me to get off my arse and buy Bioshock 2. Picked it up over the weekend and I'm enjoying being back in Rapture.
Of course, the discovery that Games For Windows Live gives you achievements on your XBox Live account means I'm going to have to go back and re-do the first one! Didn't have an XBox when I played the first Bioshock, so I wasn't arsed about the achievements. I wonder if just reinstalling and loading up an old save game will do the trick..?
Three pages in and no-one's mentioned Dead Space?It should be at the top of anyone's catching-up list. Didn't sleep too well whilst running screaming for my life playing the game, but that's a good thing in this case.
Good call. Must pick that up after I'm done with Bioshock 2.
Quote from: uncle fester on 18 August, 2010, 01:23:25 PM
Three pages in and no-one's mentioned Dead Space?It should be at the top of anyone's catching-up list. Didn't sleep too well whilst running screaming for my life playing the game, but that's a good thing in this case.
Aye, good shout, best survival of this generation (so far)!
When I saw old in the title, I was expecting talk of games pre-1998.
Then I was sad. :(
Beautiful Katamari
Borderlands
Mass Effect
Laser Squad on the Spectrum. End of discussion.
Quote from: Noisybast on 19 August, 2010, 07:54:20 PM
Laser Squad on the Spectrum. End of discussion.
Pfft, C64 version was better. Amiga not so good.
Balls it was. Spectrum version - original and best! :D
C64 has more colour and better sound.
I have to go out just now so I'll meet you half way and just say the Amstrad was pish and the BBC was for posh kids. :lol:
Chuckey Egg on the Dragon 32
Quote from: The Satanist on 20 August, 2010, 09:26:01 AM
Quote from: Noisybast on 19 August, 2010, 07:54:20 PM
Laser Squad on the Spectrum. End of discussion.
Pfft, C64 version was better. Amiga not so good.
I used to LOVE Laser squad (Thought the first mission in the house was the best. When playing it 2 player me and my mate used to race to blow up the bog first).
Personally Chaos on the Spectrum was the absolute dogs danglies...
Chaos was, as you rightly say, awesome.
Did you ever play Lord of Chaos?
Yup bought it on day of release. I remember it was at the time it was the most expensive game I'd bought at £9.99 from my local WHSmiths.
Game itself was OK. But in my eyes they'd tried to make it too fiddly and detailed. In my eyes one of the beauties of Chaos was it's simplicity. Starting with a black screen that would end up populated with bodies, Magic/Shadow Woods and Gooey Blobs everywhere.
Lords of Chaos took all that away by having a properly detailed map and hated the fact you had to collect ingredients for some of the spells to then put in a couldron. If there is ever an Xbox Indie or Arcade version of the original I'd dance a merry jig on my hands...
Quote from: Withnail's liver on 22 August, 2010, 04:25:05 PM
If there is ever an Xbox Indie or Arcade version of the original I'd dance a merry jig on my hands...
http://www.greatgamesexperiment.com/game/CHAOSRemake (http://www.greatgamesexperiment.com/game/CHAOSRemake)
I'm getting into Mass Effect now. It is good and expansive without getting too lost. Mass Effect 2 must be marvellous!