Gahgahgah Games...

When was the last time you really felt happy after buying a game?

Huh?

Come on try to remember! Meanwhile i can tell you that i'm happy because i've bought Sam&Max and i'm enjoying it! :O)

Funny dialogues, good logical riddles (a bit too easy till now), nice graphics, nice sounds, and now ladys and gentleman fasten your seatbelts *wroom* *wrooom* *wrooooom* a working point and click in 3D.

Okay it's an episode but hey it's one i enjoy and if you buy the whole season you also get the cd for shipping costs afterwards.

All in all it's not perfect but i feel beamed back to a time when i was really happy with adventures... *snief*

Forgive me for this subjective lines and now back to the game.... :O)

When I bought Dawn of War: Dark Crusade.

I think that the last game purchase that I was really happy with was Quest for Glory III and that was years ago. I've enjoyed various games since them, but none of them have even remotely given me the same completely satisfying game experience. I don't think any game has entertained and inspired me in the same way since the golden era of Lucasarts/Sierra graphic adventures.

My favourite game of recent years is probably Jade Empire, but that is due more to the mythology and visual style than to the gameplay experience.

When i bought F.E.A.R, HL2, Rise & Fall, Quake 4, AOE 3 and Pro Evo 6.

Rome Total War

I usually feel happy after buying a game. It's after I play it that I stop being happy ;)

Probably Dreamfall:The Longest Journey, or if not Indigo Prophecy. They're two of the very few games I've played through to completion recently. I played Tunguska: Secret Files through to completion too, but it's not as polished in the plot or dialog departments as the other two.

I bought Sam and Max yesterday, but I haven't had time to play it yet. Too busy trying to get my GUI and form editor improved. Plus I've only just reformatted and I want to get all my work-related software back in shape before I start loading games again.

Hear hear, Neuro!

Rome: Total War put a smile on my face for months. That was the last time, though.

I was heavily addicted to Oblivion just recently, but I can't say that I was
actually getting any joy from playing it. It's kind of odd.

Gabriel wrote:

I enjoyed Dreamfall too, but I felt really cheated by the ending. It just stopped without tying up any of the loose plot points. Very annoying.

That's a hard one. I'd have to say Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast. Couldn't wait to get home and play it. Probably played it for about 4 months before it petered out.

Yeah, Still Life ( another fantastic adventure I loved ) was a bit like that too. I'm torn. My natural instinct is - like you - to feel cheated, but I also kinda like a story that leaves you wondering once in a while. It's probably just a cheap excuse to make a sequel, but if it's done cleverly, I think you can do more without an ending than you do with one. ( I'm thinking of an episode of Without a Trace from Season 4 which did a similar thing. )

Dreamfall here as well - that was the computer equivalent of a great page turner. As for the ending, I chalked it up to being the middle section of a three parter, but Dreamfall's the one that's stood out recently.

Still Life - played it - apparently they had planned for the game to be much longer but funding issues meant they had to finish up development suddenly, with the story heavily truncated. Pity.

Oblivion - enjoyed it, but perhaps more intellectually than 'viscerally'. The excellent graphics was a big part of it.

As for Rome, after the graphics buzz wore off, I became frustrated - the insta-routs, the time limit on battles, suicidal generals, broken diplomacy, unagressive factions. In many ways, it was the modders and fans who saved that title. I have high hopes for Medieval2 though.

Gothic 3.

I'm trying to work with 8 youg lads screaming at each other in the living room playing Halo2 on xbox.

Unfortunately it's been 20 years since I went gaga over a video game, back when they rocked...

Naked War

I'm enjoying Final Fantasy 12...

@Gabriel
:O)

I've played quite some good games over the last couple of years but i honestly can't remember the need to tell someone how good it feels after starting up a game and playing for some minutes.

The office in the beginnig just feels so right! I enjoy it just to let Sam walk around from the left to the right and back, slap Max in the meantime and watch how the camera softly follows. Wonderful lovely details there and ahh it's like a time machine for me. It smells so much after LucasArts adventures that ahhh... :O)

One thing that bugs me is that it isn't crossplatform. I dunno which engine they have licenced but this is a game which you really can do easily in a price range of a game engine like unity. Can't say if it's doable in max3D ;O) Just a win version feels kind of wrong for such a type of a game as it doesn't rely on heavy optimized stuff.

Have i already said that the point and click works just fine?! *jumping* :O) I've never understood what's so hard about to do it right and which idiot brought up the keyboard steering or totally wacky point&click versions. And even the Options&Load&Save are done in a pleasant way.

If you're not easily into Purcells humour i advise you to play it with a companion like a good red wine next to you. ;O) I'm really looking forward for the next Episodes.

I also will look out for A Vampyre story as i love the background art (The Dig artists) a lot. What i dislike is the main character. It doesn't seem to fit into the scene from the graphics style and the size. Well, let's just wait and see.

It just would be marvellous if Ron Gilbert would get the Monkey Island rights from LucasArts so that he could make his 3a Version. And if not why not get something new done?!

Kick Mr. Cecil in the butt and let him play the first part of Broken Sword to see what makes out a fantastic adventure.

@skidracer
Hmmm 20 years is a very long time. What was your last game you really went into then?

Battlefield 2142

It alternately pissors me off completely and makes me hop up and down for joy. :)

I feel happy after all the games I buy cos I research them first. The last one was PLatypus that I bought not long ago cheap on Real Arcade. It's cool. Before that it was probably Bricks of Camelot which is great fun, or maybe it wsa Airstrike 2. anyway you can checkout my reviews of these games on Binary Joy (see link in sig).

Have you never bought a game which wasn't as good as you expected it to be? Beside of some "I must have this" attacks (Sam&Max ;O) i also like to read a review first about a game but i also had a few titles which weren't as good as i hoped they would be. Something like....*thinking*...Runaway, The longest Journey, Freelancer, Unreal II. Shame on me for buying them... :O)

The best is if you dare to buy a game without having read a review and it's great. Happend to me with The Dig, Ultima IX, Chip's Challenge, Gates of Zendocon to name a few.

Prince or Persia, Warrior Within- end of 2004.

The third installment just didn't do it for me.

No, wait! There's been ONE more- Oblivion. Even though i never played it through I did play it for as long as I played WW. :)

Naked War.
Without a doubt.

Shadow of The Colossus.

The most enthralling atmosphere I think I've ever experienced in a game. Definitely the game that has done the most with the least (well, in regards to telling a story and making you feel truly engrossed without actually having much of a story or doing anything overt to snag you. That comment was not referring to it's graphics or technology...which definitely do not fall into the "least" category ;).

Saw this can went and grabbed Sam N Max ($8) what a steal.

Awesome game too. manages to hold a lot of the charm of the first, I notice the differing voice actors though.

It did crash on me when I exited the convenience store though, I hope that wont be a regular occurance.

I haven't experienced a single crash till now.

Reminds me of that fat guy from Final Fantasy VII. Heidegger I think it was...

Another vote for Naked War.

Before that? Crikey, the only one that springs to mind is Mario Sunshine. I don't play many games these days. :/

Elite @ C64... sad, really.

Their new 'episode' format was a major turn-off for me. I definitely want to play it, but will wait until they are done with the whole set.

You know that you get the the CD for shipping costs afterwards if you have bought the whole season?

I played the demo of Sam N Max yesterday and really enjoyed it; a pleasant surprise because I loathed the Lucasarts game. I won't be buying it until the full season has been completed, though.

I absolutely adore their game engine! Now if only some enterprising young chap would develop something like that for Blitz3d. Oh, what lovely, lovely games I would make. *stares off into the middle distance dreamily*

I'm literaly chomping at the bit for A Vampyre Story. I am a huge fan and collector of Hammer Horror movies and other similar british horror movies of the same period by different studios, and every time I check out the game I can't help noticing new references to all the movies I know and love - and particularly to my favourite Hammer Dracula movies and to Roman Polanski's Dance of the Vampires. Wonderful!

The dialogues are really good when you're outside the office! :O) What was bad about the old one? The riddles weren't the best ones but the humour was really good.

I have thought about it and you could do this in unity quite well - more easier with future versiosn of it. ;O) Perfomance wise it wouldn't be a problem at all. Beside of the content the main work would be to write the scripting system and other routines but it's doable and would also be a crossplatform solution for win and osx.

If one would really wanna do this than you have to write the needed stuff, iron out the design and build up a team with those who can do the art (3d, 2d, sfx). Just a matter of will and time and content, content, content... :O)

As for AVS i liked the bakground art a lot but i disliked the main character as it was shown in the screenshots but this might change as well so no idea...

My last few games were Ghost Recon, Ravenshield, Joint Ops, Operation Flashpoint and Red Orchestra. And I felt happy after buying these titles. No dissapointment at all. i only buy games where i am absolutely sure (trying out demos intensively).

my best game was B3d . ;)

all "real Games " makes fun for 2-3 hours whats it .

Yes, but I'd much rather play it at my own pace than having to stop and wait for the next episode to be released. Especially if a game is captivating, the imposed 'breaks' can be disruptive and degrade the overall gaming experience.

Of course, the episodal approach can help the creators finance the product as it comes along, rather than having to finish the entire thing before seeing a penny. On the other hand, what if it doesn't perform as well as hoped and it gets axed after two episodes, in the middle of a story line?

Well, i don't think that it will get axed as i's quite good and therefore should also sell a bit. They also do get nice reviews in gamemags here. Secondly i think with the start of Episode 2 one Episode per month is really okay. I also can replay it with the maybe improved sounds once the CD version is out. Finally all could go wrong, it completely sucks after the first one and so on but that's life. It wasn't that i had to invest €1000 or so. It just was $40 including taxes and i was part of it! :O) A lot of people were always complaining about there are no good adventures anymore. Now there is one back i will try to support it!

Doesn't this one remind you of Indiana Jones?! :O)

I've got to pick this up. I *loved* the original.

Tuamel: yeah, in the old days I used to buy spec/C64 games without reading reviews and there were some lovely gems and some crap ones. I can't immediately think of a reviewed game that wasn't as good as the review said as most well-written reviews warn you if there is something you may not like. Actually I was disappointed with Quake4, I though I knew what to expect but it still let me down. Last game I bought WITHOUT reading a review, or playing a demo was The Phantom Menance, HAHA what a fool I was...

Hmm i haven't bought this many games for the C64 but those i did were all great. I remember the nice package for the Bard's Tale 3 (nice pictures inside) and i loved those LucasArts codewheels! :O)

http://www.mobygames.com/game/c64/bards-tale-iii-thief-of-fate/cover-art
http://www.djgallagher.com/games/pc/monkeyisland1/downloads.php

heh, I remember when screenshots on covers started appearing: "Hey, I can see what the game looks like before I buy it - cool!" :P

Final Fantasy XII here, years of freaking waiting, and it's everything I've wanted it to be, I don't find games often that live fully to my expectations.

except that often the screenshots were for the most superior computer they could find, not your one haha.

San Andreas. Dragon Quest was nice, but didn't make me 'wow'. Although it does have a lot of features I hope made it into FF12.

Kingdom Hearts 2 was my latest big let down.


That makes me feel happy. =] I get to wait until some time next year before I get to play it...

Hey, does it come with an online component like they were touting back in the pre-FF11 days? =]


I had an Amiga as my first computer, so I was safe in the knowledge that mine was where the superior shots had come from ;]

Nope, offline only, good thing too since all their "online" games use the PlayOnline Viewer, which is getting rarer by the day on PS2s in North America.
(since the only game that comes with a hard drive to install the viewer onto is FFXI ;/)

Regarding features in DQ8 you wanted in FFXII, what kind? I can't exactly draw any similarities the two games have at all here.
(as much as I hate to de-rail threads...)

I Daren't play FFXII as I know it'll eat up too many hours of my life. It's cool it's offline too.

I want to play FFXII now!!! Arhghhh *suffering*

Seriously, the wait for us to get it over here is ridiculous. Its going to be about 1 whole year since it was released in Japan.

PES 6 but before that its been a while.

EDIT : Off topic.

It is like FFXI in a way, you just run around and monsters will just be roaming about. Takes about....5 minutes for them to respawn upon killing I believe? Never timed it, I just slaughter a whole zone, move onto the next, and repeat.
(and yes, they also do respawn completely upon zoning)


FFXII takes that system and changes it a fair bit, it's now called "Gambit", which basically allows you to set AI instructions to CPU controller allys (even though you can manually control/maneuver them whenever you feel), for instance, one Gambit I currently have set-up on my dedicated healer is "Ally: HP < 70% - Cure", the catch is that all the options you can select have to be obtained first, and your characters have a very limiting 2 Gambit slots from the get-go, which you expand by spending points on them on the License Board (the games character development board).
(without Gambits turned on, your AI controller partners just follow you around doing nothing unless manually instructed to)

I'm only 9 hours into the game and have a fair bit of Gambit things collected, got my CPU to automatically heal when needed, target monsters only I target myself when required (otherwise I set them up to attack at will), heal specific status effects inflicted upon my pt, and etc....


Regarding KH2, I just skipped it completely (although I did pick it up for my sister), was bored as hell from the first ones button-mashing system, and didn't bother playing KH2 when I heard it also relied on said button-mashing to win.


And I think that's enough for my derailing, ;/

The last really good purchase was "Beyond Good & Evil".

Hardly any advertising on the game and it was in the Bargain Bin within only a few weeks. That would indicate it was garbage, but eerytime I saw it lying there it just attracted my attention for some reason.

So I decided to buy it and found myself very pleasantly surprised after having played it. It's a very good game. Fun gameplay, good solid story and lovely graphics.

If you've never played it, I suggest you go pick it up somewhere.

Jim T: Yeah I found a review on gamespot and got it cheap on ebay. Played it with my boy. The end implied a sequal but they'll probably never make it. Lots of innovation in that game...

.

Homeworld 2 A.K.A. Bullets Ion beams and Missiles GALORE!!!!