Classic titles you enjoyed before.
Classic titles you enjoyed before.
What games do you miss? And why? For me, it is Earth and Beyond. Yes, I know there's an emulator for it. The problem is that it flipped from open to closed source a few (well, nearly 10 now) years back and the 'devs' decided to 'balance' the game. Their balance is arbitrary, silly, and is NOT what the game was during its peak/fun period. But instead of bitching about the state of the best impersonation of a game, instead I will talk about what I loved in the game. I loved being in space. EVE: Online (specifically wormhole space) has far, far more beautiful backdrops than E&B ever did, but E&B was my first space game. And i loved that. I loved being a PW, pushing one button and turning my ship into a giant ball of (localized) death to anything around me. Against high level mobs it was just one more weapon slot worth of DPS, but against low level stuff you were farming for drops/mats/rep/etc, it was a godsend. While doing shield inversion (see above) I could push a second button (later on in the game, when the Westwood devs decided to throw game balance a bit out the window) and drain the shields of all enemies nearby, restoring my own back to full, even if I was out/almost out. I could mine on my JE/PS and just spend hours in a field of rocks without seeing another person. Or I could group up with a TT or some other char with a larger cargo hold and offload my stuff for them to sell/hold for me. This was back in the days when I was a broke kid (<18) and having more than one account wasn't an option. I miss the peace of mining. No other game made mining interesting like E&B did. EVE: Online mining isn't fun, it's boring. And at any time you can get ganked/klilled, and that's no fun. Elite: Dangerous mining is fun in VR for maybe 10 minutes, then it gets tedious. Fly to rock, launch prospector probe, shoot with lasers, deploy collector limpets, wait, move to next rock, repeat. (Or, if you try to use the 'new' mining mechanics, spending 20+ minutes flying from rock to rock looking for the *one* that has LTD/void opals inside. What made E&B mining special/fun was the pop rocks, where you'd have to survive a massive explosion, kill a high level mob, get a debuff, etc. But when you did, suddenly the field would start spawning the 'good' ores that everyone wanted to build high-end components. So you started to look for poprocks instead of avoid them. But also, the buffs. Yes, mining the high level ores took a toll on your reactor, but you had (if you were a JE anyway) enough buffs that you could easily keep mining essentially uninterrupted even if you were constantly sucking down lvl 9 ores. I loved the zany characters. Westwood had a way with character design and story telling that was just hilarious. The ships looked different, had fun animations that evolved over time, etc. You could get a shield that literally put a giant 3D heart around your ship for valentines day that could be used any day of the year and was actually a pretty decent shield. I loved how simple the game was. Simple can mean boring, but then the game becomes more about automation or macroing than anything else. "Gasp! Macros bad!" Back in the day, Earth and Beyond needed to be an MMORPG for many reasons, but you could re-create E&B as an offline game with an Elite: Dangerous style background simulation / EVE: Online style economy and keep the game interesting for the player. If you loved mining, then there would always be a market for the ores needed to build and repair ships. Just like any real-world economy, you could amass wealth through mining, but you could also spend it on 'good' causes, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, ferrying refugees, etc. If you liked combat, there would be an endless supply of NPCs to kill, and a market for their squishy bits (Tengu become ammo/weapons/devices/reactors/etc). Finally, yes, E&B really is better with other players. Walking into a station and seeing all the people stacked into F7, Antares, or FPO. Getting engines/shield/etc made at N7 by a TT or a reactor from a JE. Just...it was more fun being able to interact with others; right up until combat got involved. That game needed instancing BAD. There was no reason to *have* to compete with other players to do endgame content. And all the endgame content really was boiled down to having the resists to survive getting alpha-struck, then having enough TT players to keep your shields and hull alive while you nuked everything down. Like, even endgame combat was dead simple. But that simplicity is what made it fun; it was a game you could play to relax. You didn't have to be 'leet' or 'good'. You just had to chill and push a few buttons. I miss chill games that had great art and ideas. The last space game I really loved was Far Beyond: A Space Odyssey. It's a VR only game. But I loved that the mechanics in it were simple, yet not all of them were obvious. I felt like I was figuring more stuff out on my second/third/fourth playthroughs. I got better at the game through trial and error. I was able to play solo, and there was no leaderboard or competition with others. I was competing with myself, and that's something I need in a world where everyone is always trying to one-up everyone else. I just need to feel like I'm good at something, not be reminded that there's always someone better. I found great peace in sending a probe out, mining a planet, repairing my equipment, then doing it all over again. What games do you miss, and why?
The initial Guild Wars era is still going on, though it looks quite different now. Most people are just looking at it with a hopeful view, but the crafting system for building was exceptional and didn’t appear again in the sequel.
Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, Black & White (versions 1 and 2), and Fable III were my starting points into the Warcraft universe (which I thoroughly enjoyed until Cataclysm occurred). I always found custom maps to be entertaining. I didn’t venture into the DOTA scene much, mainly because I struggled with it. Blizzard eventually moved the game forward with Warcraft III: Reforged. I haven’t played the updated version, but I’ve heard mixed reviews. Black & White remains the standout god game I’ve ever played. Manage the terrain, collect resources, construct a civilization, train your avatar, choose your path—be kind or cause chaos—all with simple controls. Made by Lionhead Studios, which appears to have shut down. I doubt there are any legal digital versions left, and even transferring it from a disc to Windows 10 comes with its own issues. Fable III offers a charming medieval fantasy RPG without the creepy arachnids (my phobia kicks in). I wouldn’t label it completely positive (some elements feel off), but certain story moments are genuinely touching. Also from Lionhead Studios. I thought the game was gone (definitely not on Steam), yet it seems Microsoft still offers digital copies on Amazon. Only the original release remains, though the DLCs are no longer available. Fascinating.
Yep. I owned Command & Conquer for the N64 back in 2015 (still got it) just to relive that mission where, as NOD, you could construct a light obelisk on the corner of the base. It was the first time GDI sent mammoth tanks at you, and those tanks stayed in range long enough to be effective. Medium tanks also got two-shot protection. That level appears in the Remaster, but I haven’t spent the $20 to confirm. War3:FT – Custom Hero Line Wars was my favorite. I really enjoyed that during college. Cleave with vampirism was a blast. Warcraft 3: Reforged is a mess of bad design choices. They kept everyone upgraded or downgraded, which is pretty much the worst consumer experience I’ve seen. Fable 3 – I had a friend who was terrified of spiders. When Skyrim launched, he installed a mod swapping spiders for bears. It also changed the audio, replacing the original sounds with bear noises. He found it creepier than the real spiders but still kept it because he thought it was scarier. He just laughed at it.