Caltrops - Reviews





	[quote name="Mischief Maker"]I'm sick of waiting for/buying/being disappointed by new games. I can only set aside an hour or two a night these days, so there's just no way I can plow through the latest 20 hour epic anymore. Most of the games in my collection are 10 years old anyway. So I've decided this week to narrow the list down to 24 of my favorite PC games with the most replayability, and just stick with them, barring some amazing new game of X-Com-level awesomeness appearing. I'm shaky on a few of the items so gimme your feedback. <B>Severance: Blade of Darkness</B> Discovered this almost by accident on a Die By the Sword message board. It is not like Die by the Sword. It's a 3rd person swordfighting game using Mike Tyson/Godhand style stick and move fighting with canned combos executed with combinations of attack, jump, and WASD. It had a beautiful engine for its time with real time shadows, motion captured animation, and grisly deaths. <A HREF="http://www.hard-light.net/forums/" TARGET="new">Freespace 2: Source Code Project</A> What can I say? The apex of the space sim and my favorite game. v. 3.6.10 just came out. <B>Outrun 2006: Coast 2 Coast</B> Just plain fun. One of Sega's best games. <B>Serious Sam: The Second Encounter</B> This was a tough choice. Part 1 is better in that it almost never wastes your time with instadeath jumping puzzles or goofy bounce pad fights. On the other hand, part 2 gets most of its fucking around done after the first couple of levels, its locations are gorgeous, and the flamethower was an absolute must-have weapon against those skeleton hordes. Painkiller was better looking and the enemies had a lot of personality, but it only dribbled them out a few at a time and when I open up with a minigun, I want something for every bullet. <B>The I of the Dragon</B> Yes, the title is a play on words by non-english speakers. I picked this up for $10 off gamersgate and was expecting to be done with it at the end of the weekend. I'm still loving it today. On paper it's a very flawed and simple game, and it's clear the designers were planning some huge RTS extravaganza but were forced to roll the thing up into a simple RPG that's best summed up as "protect the city, destroy the enemy generators, mop up the monsters, and gain XP." Nonetheless it succeeds for me where more complex and balanced games like Diablo and Depths of Peril fails: it immerses me in another world. The three dragons available to play are gorgeously rendered, the levels are huge with rolling hills and mountains, and the music is fantastic. Not to mention that playing as an actual dragon, (and not one of those misshapen homing-laser-spitting Panzer Dragoon anime freaks) gives the game that sense of leisurely power that I haven't felt since the city portions of Actraiser. Lazily I look around in free look and find an enemy who I wish to destroy. Then I select either an appropriate spell to burn it from afar, or decide just to burn it to a cinder with my breath. I choose the breath weapon and my dragon spreads out its wings and leisurely dives toward the unfortunate, trees swaying beneath as it approaches the ground, before spewing a jet of beautifully rendered (for its time) flame. Then my dragon swoops over one of its fellows, snatches it and carries it into the air, then messily devours it as it screams and struggles. Ah, good times. The trick is to control the game with the mouse like an RTS/Diablo with altitude keys. Don't try the poorly-implemented direct controls with autoaim, that's what turned off most of the professional reviewers. <B>Space Rangers 2: Reloaded</B> I've since warmed to the game. It's worth noting that the reloaded expansion does not have any DRM in the retail box and doesn't require the original game to install. <B>Aliens vs Predator Gold</B> I don't think this game gets enough credit as one of the scariest games of all time. It doesn't turn the player into a retarded cripple to artificially amp up the tension. It doesn't fall into the trap of System Shock 2 and Undying by starting out with a few scary scenes, then turning the player into a super powerhouse who cakewalks through a finale bereft of scares. It gives you an assault rifle with a rocket launcher and lets you run as fast as Serious Sam, and pits you against an single enemy with no ranged attacks. Yet the whole game is sheer panic, thanks in part to the Aliens in Hard mode taking FULL advantage of their movement ability, thanks in part to their random placement in the level, and thanks in part to the evil corporation's cost-cutting measure of only lighting their facilities with flickering christmas-tree lights. Then you get to play as the fucking Alien and it's one of the most satisfying stealth games this side of Thief. The predator parts suck. I don't know why anyone thought the Alien and Predator franchises would go well together, their title movies couldn't be more different in tone. <B>Jagged Alliance 2</B> In the end <A HREF="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tgOZdJzH7I" TARGET="new">this video</A> made me pick JA2 over X-Com. The <A HREF="http://ja2v113.pbworks.com/" TARGET="new">1.13 mod</A> comes highly recommended. <A HREF="http://www.crayonphysics.com/" TARGEt="new">Crayon Physics</A> The epitome of the promise of Incredible Machines. Create insame Rube Goldberg contraptions to accomplish a simple task over and over again. Dress it up like unicorns and spaceships! Whee! Kicked Deadly Rooms of Death off the list because DROD is at its strongest when you're killing monsters, but then it has to throw in boring trapdoor-triggering or bomb-avoiding puzzles and drain all the fun out of the game. <B>Ground Control</B> Hey! The sequel to Myth we always wanted! Tactical action, guns that shoot further than 5 meters, projectiles that move like physical objects instead of abstract HP drains, and an armor system that makes facing and flanking of paramount importance. I only just discovered this and it kicked Sacrifice off the list. <B>Lords of Magic: Special Edition</B> In the end I prefer this over Heroes of Might and Magic 3 because it has more of an ongoing story feel than HOMM3's strategy game with a monstrous manual veneer. It really feels like a LOTR-level conflict with an evil power in a fantastic world brought to life with a great soundtrack. It has more flaws than HOMM, but its plusses outweigh the minuses. <A HREF="http://mantera.xorgate.com/" TARGET="new">Here's</A> a mod that patches up all the holes and balance issues of the final version of the game. <B>Majesty Gold</B> Succeeds everywhere Dungeon Keeper failed. I don't think I will ever get sick of this game. And the shmups: <A HREF="http://www004.upp.so-net.ne.jp/x_xgameroom/Works/works.html" TARGET="new">Blue Wish Resurrection plus</A> <A HREF="http://www.dwahan.net/Marsbound/cloudphobia/index_e.html" TARGET="new">Cloudphobia</A> <A HREF="http://www004.upp.so-net.ne.jp/x_xgameroom/Works/works.html" TARGET="new">Eden's Aegis</A> (still unfinished) Ether Vapor Hellsinker Imperishable Night Kamui <A HREF="http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~cs8k-cyu/windows/p47_e.html" TARGET="new">Parsec 47</A> <A HREF="http://temperancelance.orz.hm/" TARGET="new">Patriot Dark</A> (With the Soundtrack from Mechwarrior 2) Perfect Cherry Blossom PriZhm <A HREF="http://www.geocities.jp/sp1_ssr/s3.htm" TARGET="new">Solid State Survivor</A> (With the Soundtrack from Jets 'N Guns) Discuss/Ridicule.[/quote]