Topic: PC Gaming

[RossRoy]

So, how much Portal is too much Portal?

[Najemikon]

I want one! 

[RossRoy]

as seen on http://xkcd.com/

[Najemikon]

Love it! The only thing missing is a gun turret appearing and saying "Hello? Is anybody there?"

[RossRoy]

You know, I love Steam. I was against it at first, because I kept thinking "What am I supposed to do with my games once it goes under, if it ever does?"... but then, I wanted Portal, so I signed up and bought Portal.


But I also hate Steam. I just decided to buy The Longest Journey, which I played in the past but never finished, and lost the discs. But now, I have to wait for it to download! 

And the Steam servers can be so sloooooow when you badly want to play a game! 

I wish there was some way they could stream the game, much like they do for videos. Download the core files, and then download each "level" or whatever as I play the game.

[RossRoy]

Spore's been dated!

[RossRoy]

I don't know if you've heard of it, but I downloaded Audio-Surf yesterday (the demo). It's an odd little title, but a very interesting concept. It's a sort of puzzle-racer, where it analyses some music, creates a track out of it, and while the music plays, you have to pick up colored blocks to create groups of 3 or more same colored blocks. The more interesting part of it is: you can use your own music! Just give it any CD, MP3, M4A, FLAC or OGG files, and you can ride along!

I found it quite interesting, and at 9.95$ on Steam, it's really cheap! And for those who like that kind of stuff, comes with the Orange Box soundtrack! Yes, that includes the famous credit song of Portal "Still Alive"!

[Najemikon]

I did read about Audio Surf on Steam, but wasn't sure. Sounds interesting though and if it comes with Still Alive... bargain! 

[Jimmy]

I was to post a new topic about sport simulation games and since this one about PC gaming exist, I've decided to use it.

I don't have only dvd collecting and watching as a hobby, it's sure fun but thei're not too much interaction 

So my oldest hobby is sport simulation. I've start simulating sport when I was 12 years old with a baseball game that I've created myself (not a computer or video game). This was a simple baseball game that I was playing with paper and dices, not very realist for the stats but fun to play. After I've swich to video game (baseball, hockey and american football) and I remember all the fight with my brother because of the Atari game cheat : in the 2600 baseball (hit the ball with the joystick down always equal an homerun) or football (you can go back and reappear in front of the other player to block him) 

But what I've always like the most is the realistic stats simulation, so no EASports games for me. I've played Wayne Gretzky Hockey League Simulator on my old computer and Face Off Hockey too. Fast forward many years :

I've found a very good hockey simulator with Eastside Hockey Manager, it was very adictive and a free game.

All this to say that I like those games and they are the only one that I enjoy. It's great to manage a team into the future with the real players who perform like they do in real life. Those games are not for the graphic fans (play EASport for that) but for the players who like the stat and reality in the game.

On my computer I've those one :

NHL Eastside Hockey Manager 2007
Out of the Park Baseball 2007

And I've just pre-ordered my copy of Out of the Park Baseball 9 yesterday 

Am I the only fan of those kind of game here?

I hope that this post is not too long or boring 
 
Edit : Now I will return to the managing of my 1979 Montreal Expos 

[RossRoy]

Well I like sports game (or not, I like only hockey  ), but not the ones that are pure stats simulation and management. So I'm an EA Sports buff. Actually, I don't even play the dynasty modes (or whatever they are called) because I don't like looking at pages and pages of stats to decide who i should trade, keep, develop, draft, etc. I just want to play hockey!

But I found the most recent games to be lacking. I hate the fact I have to go through menus upon menus just to know how many goals my 1st center has scored. Past games used to mention is in the post-goal graphics (i.e. Goal by Tom Kostopoulos, his 34th of the season, unassisted). Modern games, it's just "Goal by Alex Kovalev" without any indications of how many goals he got this season. Meh.

But, I love the new control scheme on NHL'07, the skill stick is great!

[Jimmy]

Goal by Tom Kostopoulos, his 34th of the season, unassisted

Just an exemple I hope

I've played with the nhl hockey series, in fact I've passed many white nights playing it with my brother on the old Genesis game system. Always hate the serie on the computer : too much bugs and unrealistic. The first that I've tried on computer was nhl97 and I didn't play long (the game always crash after 5 or 6 games in the season mode  ). The next one was better if you played against another player (the computer always cheat) and if you ajust the goalie rating with an editor.

[RossRoy]

Goal by Tom Kostopoulos, his 34th of the season, unassisted

Just an exemple I hope

Of course!

I've played with the nhl hockey series, in fact I've passed many white nights playing it with my brother on the old Genesis game system. Always hate the serie on the computer : too much bugs and unrealistic. The first that I've tried on computer was nhl97 and I didn't play long (the game always crash after 5 or 6 games in the season mode  ). The next one was better if you played against another player (the computer always cheat) and if you ajust the goalie rating with an editor.

I've never played the NHL series on a PC. Always on a console. My favorite was, and still is, NHL'94 on the Genesis. Pure arcade hockey bliss! But I'm not sure I'd be ready to trade the skill stick feature from the Xbox360 version of NHL'07 to go back to the stats of NHL'94 

[Jimmy]

I like the arcade style one too (for hockey, not baseball since it's a stat game). One of the oldest that I remember playing is "Ice Hockey" by Activision on the old Atari 2600 (now I feel old  ) : 2 players on the ice (including the goalie). Remember "Blades of Steel" or "Ice Hockey" on the nes?

But for stats hockey nothing beats "NHL Eastside Hockey Manager 2007" : you could play with a lots of North American hockey league with the real rooster (even the LHJMQ) and the European leagues too (I've tried it, but the rules are to complicated to understand for a non North American). It's very sad that this series was ended with this game. It looks a lot like "Championship Manager" that our European member certainly know, since it's their favourite sport (Football or Soccer for us). I've tried only the demo of this last one : soccer is fun to play in real life, but it's really boring to watch  or simulate it 

[RossRoy]

This is not exactly «PC» gaming, but it is gaming, and the game should be out on the PC some time in the future.

So, anyone else is psyched about GTA IV? I don't know why this time I am, but I am really psyched about the game. I've sort of rediscovered GTA:San Andreas and played through it again recently, so I ended up preordering GTA-IV. But now, reading the reviews and the comments of those who got the game early, I'm getting more and more psyched about it! I can't wait!

The amount of details that seem to be in there! From what I hear (and read), you can just sit at the corner of a street and look at the people going about heir business, and this is already more fun than a lot of other games out there!

Anyway, if I'm lucky, my copy will ship soon (damn Futureshop, always respecting release date to the second), but I can't wait to lose countless hours of my life in this world!

For the curious types: I got the Xbox 360 version (exclusive content, and better online play, though I'll probably never play it online)

[Achim]

As I have said elsewhere, I am not a big gamer; all I ever really played on my PC was the Monkey Island series and Duke Nukem 3D.

I recently bought a few games so that that part of my PS3 gets some usage too.

I have previously heard about GTA and decided it may be something I may want to get. Then IGN rated it with a 10, which they supposedly haven't done since the late 90's! So, now I will buy it later today or tomorrow and give it a try during the upcoming long weekend (May 1 is Labor Day; almost everywhere excpet the US I think ) and I am probably taking Friday off). I just hope I am not too clumsy to handle the controls and will remember which button does what (I think it's clear that I am getting the PS3 version.)