Unsung & Under appreciated games

Laughing Mechanicus · Post by **Laughing Mechanicus** » 2005-06-14 02:59pm

The FPS thread reminded me a some old games that I always enjoyed and yet I felt never got the acclaim they deserved.

Codename Eagle, I mentioned this in the FPS thread. Made by the people who brought you BF1942 and BF2 it featured fairly good graphics for its time but more impressively lots of driveable and flyable vehicles that could be used in both singleplayer and multiplayer. After some patches it even had a giant flyable airship (which caused no end of lag in multiplayer). It also had rather wacky physics for some of the flying vehicles, which led to me and a friend trying to see what strange and wacky stunts we could pull off, such as swapping aircraft in mid-air or wing walking.

Another I was reminded of was Jeff Waynes the War of the Worlds game, it was a strategy game that pitted a (much better prepared) British empire against the Martian war machines in a style somewhat similar to the Total War series, where a campaign map was used for managing your territories and moving units but a full 3D battle map was used for fighting each battle. You could also play as the Martians, which rocked. As the game progressed the Martian red weed would steadily creep down from Scotland and would actually totally change the way maps looked, there were also day and night cycles in the battle map which made it difficult to fight if you were human (the Martian side if I recall had a night vision effect during the night).

Anybody else have similar experiences with games that they enjoyed but you get blank looks when you talk to people about them? (more so than normal, I mean)

CaptainChewbacca · Post by **CaptainChewbacca** » 2005-06-14 03:12pm

When I was a young'n one of my favorite games was Startropics for Nintendo. It had an original concept and was very fun to play the mix of puzzle-solving and monster killing. I never got the sequel, for fear of it sucking.

Also, I could never get enough of Bomberman or Bubble-Bobble.

Darth Garden Gnome · Post by **Darth Garden Gnome** » 2005-06-14 03:20pm

I very much enjoyed the Pandemonium series for the Playstation back in the day. It was just another side scrolling platformer, but the fun part was finding all the secrets, which were legion. In retrospect, the games probably sucked, but that was a while ago and I had a lot of fun playing them.

Dartzap · Post by **Dartzap** » 2005-06-14 03:35pm

A game i had the demo of, but never actually found anwhere: KKNG Cross Fire, looked like a damn good RTS for the PS1 (i guess it was for the PC as well)

Faram · Post by **Faram** » 2005-06-14 03:37pm

Silent Storm

Great squad based action, untill late in the game, Minimechas that doges sniperbullets disguted me SOO much!

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2005-06-14 03:38pm

Actraiser, for the super nintendo. One of the earliest god-sims around, and still fun to play from time to time.

Noble Ire · Post by **Noble Ire** » 2005-06-14 04:00pm

C&C: Tiberian Sun was a very good game IMO, better than the older versions. Although the story was full of more plot holes than the Matrix Revolutions.

Post by **Edi** » 2005-06-14 04:11pm

The Summoning. An early 1990s RPG where you are a hero sent to win through the maze of a sorcerer named Shadow Weaver in order to save the world. Had a great plot, nice graphics and a really delicious twist at the end.

The Dominions games (both of them) from Illwinter.

Age of Wonders (the original. not AoW2 or AoW:Shadow Magic).

Those are all truly good games.

Edi

Durandal · Post by **Durandal** » 2005-06-14 04:13pm

Marathon.

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2005-06-14 04:21pm

Dartzap wrote:A game i had the demo of, but never actually found anwhere: KKNG Cross Fire, looked like a damn good RTS for the PS1 (i guess it was for the PC as well)

Krush, Kill 'n' Destroy : Xtreme and Krush, Kill 'n' Destroy II :Krossfire for PC

Enjoy

Links removed

/Faram

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2005-06-14 04:22pm

Master of Magic and Spaceward Ho. Both of those games synthesized what was good about the genres they were in, and even made a few innovations of their own.

Warspite · Post by **Warspite** » 2005-06-14 04:25pm

Warzone 2100. Great RTS, one of the first to be in glorious 3D, and supported throughout 10 updates by the developers. What I loved about it was the customization of the units, from cyborgs to VTOLs, allowing to use numerous types of weapons.

Tachyon: the Fringe. An Elite-type space simulator with Bruce Campbell as the voice of the main character. It had great graphics, used the best controls from Tie Fighter and selected targeting on enemy capital ships, plus a good storyline which we could choose which faction to play for (only two, with other NPCs offering contracts), with different fighters and weapons for each.

Jane's USAF. Okay, so the flight models aren't that realistic, but I don't want to spend hours learning just how to take off! A fine simulator to waste a few hours, with several planes ranging from the Vietnam era to the USAF of the future. And it had lots of weapons to play with, always a plus! As usual, it received the whole Jane's treatment, which means great graphics and models, information by the ton, and excelent presentation.

The Grim Squeaker · Post by **The Grim Squeaker** » 2005-06-14 05:01pm

Tachyon: the fringe, starlancer, the last express, the Neverhood

,Tiberian sun, Simon the sorceror,Woodruff & the schnibble of azimuth,Gobliins 2, ground control.

edit: Fallout1+2, Freespace 2,Magic carpet 2, Tyrian, Raptor:call of the shadows.
(nearly forgot about them

)

A Big Flying Fish · Post by **A Big Flying Fish** » 2005-06-14 05:10pm

Shadow of the Horned Rat. I love this game, if for nothing else being one of only two Warhammer Fantasy games released. It's got hellblaster volley guns, orc wryms and scaven rat ogres. It's all good fun.
I also think Space Quest is a golden oldie. Cheesy humour a psychotic, invisible, murderous robot.

Manus Celer Dei · Post by **Manus Celer Dei** » 2005-06-14 05:58pm

Typing of the Dead. It's a rehash of House of the Dead II, only instead of shooting the zombies, you type the word on their chest. Bloody addictive, it was.

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2005-06-14 07:39pm

How about Bioforge? Anyone remember how much ass that game kicked?

tharkûn · Post by **tharkûn** » 2005-06-14 07:50pm

Europa Universalis II simply the best grand strategy game I've ever played but unfortunately not particularly popular in the States. Think minimalist Hearts of Iron (which was done with the same engine by the same company) set in 1419-1819.

Also I used to enjoy a nice turn based 4X strategy game called Malkari. Nobody has ever heard of that and I only played it multiplayer or after a friend tweaked the code.

Nephtys · Post by **Nephtys** » 2005-06-14 09:01pm

System Shock 1 & 2. Utterly brilliant games. SS1 was amazingly deep for the era it came out in, as a contemporary of Doom 2.

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2005-06-14 10:12pm

Nephtys wrote:System Shock 1 & 2. Utterly brilliant games. SS1 was amazingly deep for the era it came out in, as a contemporary of Doom 2.

Never played 1 but 2 kicked ass for its time, Also in the underappeciated games, Planescape Torment, a gem of an RPG with some of the best dialog options I ever seen in an RPG
"Reach out and Snap his neck"

Coalition · Post by **Coalition** » 2005-06-14 10:31pm

Serious Sam. Lots of shooty goodness, weird enemies, and plenty of terrain.

Silver Paladin · Post by **Silver Paladin** » 2005-06-15 12:40am

Kingdom Under Fire: Crusaders is a great game. Think of a Warcraft III (on a smaller scale) and Dynasty Warrior hybrid. You control your armies on a battle map in real time, and when they close with the enemy, you zoom into Dynasty Warrior beat'em up mode. It's for the X-Box.

SWAT4. I've always liked this series; it's just the perfect blend in between an action FPS and the intelligence of the R6 series, but made simple. No more pre-planning missions, you give all your orders in mission. Want your troops to break down the door, bang the room and clear? They'll do that by a simple right click menu. Want to call in Sniper support? They'll radio you when they have a suspect in sight; you make the call on whether to shoot or not. I could never get into the R6 series just because of how farking annoying the pre-planning was, and SWAT4 remedies this.

This game really isn't unknown, but it's just old and a lot of the new school gamers are missing out on a fantastic game. Betrayl At Krondor (it used to be d/l for free at www.sierra.com...not sure if you can still do it) is one of the best RPGs for a PC game ever. With a storyline written by Raymond E. Feist of the Midkemia series, it's a hoot and it's engine was YEARS ahead of it's time. A perfect blend of strategic action, puzzles (as long as you didn't use the Skin of the Dragon cheese to beat all the puzzles), riddles and it's STILL one of the most open ended RPGS to date. PLAY IT!

Pu-239 · Post by **Pu-239** » 2005-06-15 12:46am

Battlecruiser series (BCM free here: http://www.3000ad.com/downloads/bcm.shtml)

Alferd Packer · Post by **Alferd Packer** » 2005-06-15 12:54am

Age of Wonders 1 and 2. I liked both these games a lot, but I seem to be the only one.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2005-06-15 12:59am

The Longest Journey.

I haven't even beaten it yet, and already it's my favorite serious adventure game.

Darth Garden Gnome · Post by **Darth Garden Gnome** » 2005-06-15 01:04am

Coalition wrote:Serious Sam. Lots of shooty goodness, weird enemies, and plenty of terrain.

Amen and Halleluja. Serious Sam 2 was an absolute blast to play, in the amazon levels, just miles and miles of terrain to cover, mowing down enemies in every direction. The gun that shoots cannon balls: complete and total FUN. And finding the secrets--oh what joy!

"I hate crates."