Console virgin seeks advice

[Turin]

It looks like I may be buying a used Xbox sometime in the near future and I'm looking some advice for the casual gamer on older console system games. For a variety of reasons, I've never owned a console in my life, although I've played on a few when I was a kid (the old Atari 2600 and later the Nintendo) and a couple games on the Xbox more recently (although not the Xbox 360).

Just to preempt any advice on gaming on my computer instead of getting a console, my home machine is an ancient piece-of-shit P3 that I use for writing and email and a little bit of old-school gaming, and that's about it. I'm planning on switching this older machine over to Linux so I can learn that OS, but I'm not really interested in trying to get a bunch of old DOS games working in that environment. The only worthy computer I have is the high-end laptop I'll be getting from my office soon to replace my desktop workstation, but for obvious reasons I'm not going to be gaming on that machine.

All that said, I'm a very casual gamer. I have very little time for gaming, so I'm not looking to make a ridiculous investment like dropping $600 or whatever it is on one of the new consoles. So I'd like to try to get some advice from the collected experience of the board on a handful of games I might want to try out. The below includes a lot of opinion on my personal gaming experiences in the past... I'm not really interested in debating anyone on their particular definition of what a fun game is. Some general things I'm looking for / not looking for include:

• I like games where I get to blow stuff up and kill stuff, so a lot of the racing or twitch games (like Mario Brothers) are out. Same for Tetris and the like. I'm looking for something I can blow off a little steam with, not get more stressed out over.
• Generally I don't give a shit about the bazillion-pixel rendering pissing contest... if a game plays like donkey balls it doesn't matter how good it looks, I'm not interested. Fighting games where you have to mash on twenty buttons in a particular order to do your Super-Duper-Fighting-Move otherwise you just sit there like a dumb shit... suck.
• I have very mixed feelings about First-Person-Shooters. I enjoyed the old Marathon series of games, but whenever I've tried games like Halo I've found them frustratingly difficult. I recently played a game called MechAssault on a buddy's Xbox, which I understand is an older game and maybe isn't technically a FPS, but I enjoyed playing it... the pace wasn't insane, the interface was good, and the graphics and sound were pretty cool. I also played a StarWars game called Battlefront (or maybe BF2?), which I found fun but only when I played head-to-head with a friend.
• I used to play a game called Mechcommander for the PC, which I thought was a lot of fun, mostly because it had lots of blowing stuff up, with the top-down "command level" interface of an RTS that avoids the need for teenager-on-Ritalin reflexes. But it also avoided all the boring crap of building a bunch of factories to pump out more guys in time to avoid the onrushing hordes of idiots, which it seems a lot of RTS games are filled with these days.
• If I'm going to be doing a lot of building, I'd rather it be turn-based. I've played Masters of Orion 2 and found it entertaining (if a little primitive). I liked the different levels of management found in that game, where I could set half my empire to construct a list of buildings, send a fleet to dispatch an enemy scouting party and let the captains handle it themselves, and then head on over to Rigel IV and give direct turn-by-turn tactical orders to my captains in a more difficult battle. The graphics and sound on this game blew chunks, but it worked in a game-play sense.
• I don't mind CRPG's, although they tend to get really involved and take more time that I'm willing to spend. I used to play a lot of D&D and so I enjoy the genre, but games like the old PC game Pools of Radiance: Return to Myth Drannor that are just an endless stream of pointless battles are not really any fun.
• One of the things I've found makes a good game is one where I can just pick it up and play without a huge investment of time. The sort of thing where I can play an hour to unwind and decompress after a long work day or to blow off an hour on a Sunday morning while I'm waiting for the coffee to kick in. A game where I can beat it and not feel like it's just time to throw away the game is good too... that's one of the things I really liked about Mechcommander is I could play it a lot without it getting old on me.

So does anyone have any advice on some specific games I might want to try and pick up? Looking at reviews sites has helped me very little, as these always seem to be geared towards "serious" gamers. I know there are a bunch of these sorts of gamers on the board, so this might be a bit of a challenge to come up with the sort of games that appeal to my particular needs. What do you think? Thanks in advance.

[Bounty]

If you like action games, try looking at the Video Game Critic's site. His tastes seem to fit yours. Here are his Xbox reviews.

EDIT: specific titles - Metal Arms, Freedom Fighters, the EA Bond titles if you don't mind being treated like an idiot, Crimson Skies. Check your local bargain bin, they should go for about a tenner these days.

[Xisiqomelir]

Buy a PS2 and GTA4, Gradius 5, Devil May Cry 3 and Resident Evil 4.

[Ghost Rider]

Building stuff, is a rarity and left better to PCs.

FPS, once again...much more variety on PCs, and when PORTED to game systems, are usually shadows of their former selves. And no mods.

Action games, iffy...but here's where a console is usually more prolific.

I reccomend the Used X-Box, the GTA collection...and have hours of fun.

[Tanasinn]

MechAssault on a buddy's Xbox, which I understand is an older game and maybe isn't technically a FPS

More of a bastardization of an old series than an old game, really. If you liked it, they made a sequel.

[Jade Falcon]

Another one that isn't bad on the X-Box is The Warriors, taken from the 70's film of the same name.

[Invictus ChiKen]

Crimson Skies is rather nice... Basicly an FPS with airplanes. Rare was it that I had to deal with a puzzle mission. Just fly an shoot!

Jade Empire is a nice RPG the fights are intense especally when you crank up the difficulty.

Also if you like Grand Theft Auto the games are all no XBox. Plus try out Scarface: World is Yours and Godfather

[Mr Bean]

There is one game you people have forgot, and I'm ashamed you all have.

Get a used Xbox and get....
Mercenaries

"Playground of Destruction"

Here's the short and sweet on this game. It features you, as one of three bad arse Mercs who's been sent to DMZ and later North Korea after the current North Korea leader is murdered and his crazy/kooky son takes over and starts trying to sell Nukes to terrorists. Well China, the UN and everyone else steps in and bitch slaps this country, the whole government goes into hiding and the North Korea Army switchs to an armed mob.

Your called in as a Merc to help catch the "Deck of 52" (Based off what we had in Iraq III), each of the suits in the game is focused on a different part of the North Korea government. The first one is businessmen and mafia types, the second is the Chemical weapons experts, the third is his Nuclear experts, and the last are the generals and army officers.

You can either kill or capture the cards as you wish, capture yield the full bounty, death yields half bounty.

And other than that, it's North Korea in total chaos and you free to go where you will, and do as you like. There are four factions in the game, the UN, the Chinese, the South Koreans and the Russian Mafia. There's also the North Korea forces which you can't befriend.

The idea, or the objective is to capture the cards, but if you want ala GTA to run around blowing up tanks and shooting down planes feel free. And FYI everything in the game except Bridges and trees are destructable. Want to blow up that building? Lace it with C4, OR! Call in gunship support!, Or a Chineese artillery barrage, or hell call in a Carpet bombing run.

And let me tell you, Carpet bombing is a thing of beauty.

[Invictus ChiKen]

FUCK! I forgot all about that one!!!

I hang my head in shame

Plus on the XBox there is a Han Solo code...

[Dartzap]

Stubbs the Zombie! Destroy All Humans!

Both are great games, with a very daft sense of humour.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Destroy All Humans! is essentially an Invader Zim game. Never completed it, but that was down to my memory card killing all my saves and I've yet to try the '60s era sequel. The hilarity in the game is high though if you love '50s pulp sci-fi and B-movies.

[Stark]

Mercenaries is terrible. Nothing destroys immersion more than blowing up a whole base then driving away and having the Norks *give up* and *turn back* because they're *over it*. Drive right past faction patrols and get nothing more than a few random bullets! The game is also very easy. Even GTA cops are more dangerous and persistent! Also, GTA4 looks like absolute ass these days and I'm not sure a new player could get past it's primitive ugliness.

Destroy all Humans is neat, but I'm not sure it's got the lastability to keep entertaining him. I got most of the way through it (and totally sick of it) in a few afternoons.

I'm glad the OP dislikes so many games, though. It makes me feel better.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Uh, GTA4? Perhaps I'm missing something, but given GTA4 is being released on PS3, I highly doubt anyone here has played it unless they have a DeLorean or Police Box around.

[Stark]

Oh, I thought they meant GTA:SA. Which I threw back on a week or so ago and was stunned by the untextured low-poly badness.

[Arthur_Tuxedo]

GTA:SA's graphics certainly look last-gen, and the fact that its graphics engine is just a tweaked version of the one that powered GTA3 in 2001 is apparent, but it doesn't really offend my senses, and the weather effects are quite nice.

[Turin]

If you like action games, try looking at the Video Game Critic's site. His tastes seem to fit yours. Here are his Xbox reviews.

EDIT: specific titles - Metal Arms, Freedom Fighters, the EA Bond titles if you don't mind being treated like an idiot, Crimson Skies. Check your local bargain bin, they should go for about a tenner these days.

That's a great review site, thanks Bounty. He's got a weird predilection for 2D fighters, but other than that I think our tastes match nicely.

Mercenaries is terrible. Nothing destroys immersion more than blowing up a whole base then driving away and having the Norks *give up* and *turn back* because they're *over it*. Drive right past faction patrols and get nothing more than a few random bullets! The game is also very easy.

Interesting... other reviews have been more positive on this game. As an aside, has anyone noticed that GameSpot doesn't seem to give any bad reviews?

Destroy All Humans! is essentially an Invader Zim game. Never completed it, but that was down to my memory card killing all my saves and I've yet to try the '60s era sequel. The hilarity in the game is high though if you love '50s pulp sci-fi and B-movies.

Destroy all Humans is neat, but I'm not sure it's got the lastability to keep entertaining him. I got most of the way through it (and totally sick of it) in a few afternoons.

Every review I've read of it pretty much says the same thing, which is a shame because it sounds like some silly fun. If I can find it really cheap I might just pick it up anyway.

I'm glad the OP dislikes so many games, though. It makes me feel better.

Anything I can do to warm your black little heart, Stark.

Thanks for the advice, everyone. I've got a nice little list to take a look at and see what I can find.

[Bounty]

As an aside, has anyone noticed that GameSpot doesn't seem to give any bad reviews?

They do, but you'd have to sink pretty low to get a failing grade. Sort the reviews by low-high score, some of the sub-20% ones are hilarious.

[Xisiqomelir]

Uh, GTA4?

Typo

[Lusankya]

If you like killing stuff, Dynasty Warriors 5 is fun (earlier versions are fine too, but I like the controls in 5 better). There's not so much of the blowing up, but it's good for just killing stuff. Unfortunately for you, if you want any of the expansion type stuff for it, you need a PS2 or a 360, but they're not that great anyway. The controls are easy to pick up, since everyone's combos use the same buttons (on the PS, you push square a few times and then triangle - it's not hard), and the biggest problem I've found with them is that the square button on my controller seems to be wearing out remarkably quickly.

I recommend playing as Sima Yi. He's totally awesome, and he shoots purple laser beams at people, which are a hell of a lot cooler than Zhuge Liang's pissy little green ones.

I find Samurai Warriors 2 even better (same game, different hat and a fake moustache, basically), but that's only PS2 and 360. I may be a bit sick of it at the moment, but that's mainly due to playing 100 hours with the same character over a period of about a week. Don't get Samurai Warriors 1, though, because of the horrible castle levels. Whoever thought that giving you levels where you were stuck in a burning castle and had to kill whoever was up the top to finish the level ought to be sho- ... er... I mean, banned from coming up with ideas ever again.


ROAR!!!!! says GOJIRA!!!!!

[Edward Yee]

Don't get Samurai Warriors 1, though, because of the horrible castle levels. Whoever thought that giving you levels where you were stuck in a burning castle and had to kill whoever was up the top to finish the level ought to be sho- ... er... I mean, banned from coming up with ideas ever again.

This reminds me that one of the things that shouldn't have been historically accurate was Azuchi Castle having a full six floors -- at least they left out the basement. The design for Azuchi's exterior (seen in "Siege" variations -- which were really nothing more than combined Field/Castle stages with a save option between the portions, as opposed to SW2's true integration of the two) was nice, but if they'd gone towards historical "accuracy" (to the blueprints/ideas of what the keep'd have looked like), it would have been fucking boss.

Other critiques would be both over-the-top character design (Nobunaga the fucking vampire?!) and a beyond-anachronistic focus on Nobunaga -- both fixed in SW2. At least the 1st had a rather obvious male love triangle.

[Lisa]

Been playing army men, sarge's war or something like that, I love it. it reminds me of a PG version of duke nukem 3d

[Stark]

Dynasty Warriors 5 is a mixed bag for me. Obviously the controls are the best (particularly the new abilities), but I'm not a fan of the maps, character designs or music. For me, Dynasty Warriors will always need metal, not some faux-Chinese rubbish. I haven't played Samurai Warriors, because I finally got jack of Koei's 'never implement any features anyone wants but keep re-releasing the same game anyway' schtick.

[NeoGoomba]

I haven't played Samurai Warriors, because I finally got jack of Koei's 'never implement any features anyone wants but keep re-releasing the same game anyway' schtick.

You mean my last 3 Romance of the Three Kingdoms games are *gasp* THE SAME!?! But the new one has magic........supposedly.....somewhere....somehow...

[Death from the Sea]

I am not trying to shit on your parade, but just be aware that there are no more new games coming out for the XBOX. So you should probably make a list of current games that you think you would like and make sure that there are enough for you to play to make the investment worth it.

[Edward Yee]

I haven't played Samurai Warriors, because I finally got jack of Koei's 'never implement any features anyone wants but keep re-releasing the same game anyway' schtick.

Personally I skipped DW5, after seeing not enough actual change in DW4XL and DW4 Empires to justify continuation along that franchise. However, I think Samurai Warriors 2 broke this trend (though I haven't playtested Empires) gameplay-wise, while I think that the first game did that already in the story/character department. SW2 then shifted the timeline emphasis and redid characters accordingly, a shift I never saw in the Dynasty Warriors series.

(Admittedly I'm biased here by SW2 finally using a Nobunaga character design that for once doesn't even hint 'demon,' unlike SW1 and Onimusha, and abilities I find slightly wankish fun.)

EDIT: The only issue gameplay-wise would be the money glitch. Oh, and fucking Sugoroku.