Who lives and who dies

Tareeq · Post by **Tareeq** » Sun Nov 21, 2004 9:11 pm

So for reasons unrelated to the bad memory stick Michael Dell sold me (for those of you who hang on my every post), I got a new computer and gave the old one to my brother. Today was the day to migrate old data like photos and documents, as well as to install games. It was fun to look through the old games and their manuals and whatnot.

I used to swap a lot of games on and off the hard drive, and considered every game that had been in rotation over the past two years. The best part was deciding which games make the cut to install on the new drive. The worst was looking at some games that didn't, wondering "Why did I spend good money on that?"

Who lived

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri/Alien Crossfire
Civilization III
Jagged Alliance Gold (what an awful name for a great game)
Neverwinter Nights
Dominions II
Kohan II (not really for its own merits, but I had to have a Kohan)
Heroes of Might & Magic III
Age of Wonders II: Shadow Magic
Unreal Tournament 2004 (the sole shooter)
Starcraft (the only RTS)

and a couple of newer games not really of interest here

Who died

Baldur's Gate II (I'll miss you)
Diablo II (I won't, really)
Rise of Nations
Warcraft III
Warhammer 40K (fun but ultimately the same old same old)
Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin
Dark Age of Camelot (I guess I really won't play it again)

Considered strongly, but ultimately filed away

Morrowind

Most eagerly aniticipated return to my hard drive

Pirates!

knob · Post by **knob** » Sun Nov 21, 2004 11:28 pm

It's my personal opinion that you should be shot for keeping NWN but getting rid of BG2.

CSL · Post by **CSL** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 1:36 am

You couldn't get CMBB on? What kind of a gamer are you? And where is Half-Life 2?

Your creditials as a gamer are suspect!

Odin · Post by **Odin** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 2:21 am

CSL wrote:Your creditials as a gamer are suspect!

Ooh, we get credentials now?

yossar · Post by **yossar** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 2:21 am

If it makes you feel any better, I don't think you should be shot or have your credentials removed.

dbt1949 · Post by **dbt1949** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 4:17 am

I have 60 games on my laptop alone. I'd be hard pressed to cut 4-5 off of that.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 9:10 am

I jsut re-did my PC and had the same discussion with myself. I took a good hard look at my previously installed games and made the cuts.

The tough calls are those games that just never "end" - the ones you can play for ever and ever with a different scenario each time (Age of Empires, Rise of Nations, Alpha Centauri, GalCiv, etc...)

I've found that those games not only take up hard drive space but they also keep me from getting to the other single-shot games on my PC.

I sometimes think I need to make a sandbox PC that's just full of games that never end.

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 10:22 am

Since you're all burning with curiosity, here's what I have on my 19-month-old machine:

Civ3 Conquests with Rise & Rule (currently playing)
X-Com UFO Defense (currently playing)
Galactic Civilizations (might get expansion)
Baldurs Gate II with expansion (haven't played expansion yet)
Tropico 2 (might return to)
Frontal Assault (stupid 5-minute game fix)

Hanging by a thread, unlikely to ever play:

Sim City 4 Deluxe (what a waste of money)
Children of the Nile beta version

SuperHiro · Post by **SuperHiro** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 12:08 pm

After some deep soul-searching, I finally took M:TW off my comp.

What's on right now:

1) Kohan II (Working my way through the sp campaign, will get into mp after that)
2) Warhammer: DOW (On the backburner but I'm ready to play multiplayer with my Washington State University color/badge/banner scheme)
3) Morrowind- Though I haven't played it in about a year
4) Neverwinter Nights- still hacking my way though the HoTU campaign with my elven paladin/Champion of Torm
5) Warcraft III - I still love this game.
6) Dominions II- haven't played in a long time, but I would so get into an mp game... as long as people are willing to play "once a week" turns. Since they don't, I'm stuck.
7) Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic- It's about to come off if I don't hear back from my PBEM people soon.
8) Unreal Tournament 2004- Does anyone know how to uninstall Red Orchestra and Alien Swarm?

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 12:41 pm

I tend to load games as required. I bought new components and reloaded my machine two weeks ago and have yet to put HoMMIII, my sacred game, back on as I haven't played it yet. I am sure I'll get to it eventually as my HoMMIII online gaming buddy now lives in my basement.

However, He has broken out his old Playstatin and it playing XCOM as it runs for shit on contemporary PCs.

Dirt · Post by **Dirt** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 1:03 pm

Valael wrote:It's my personal opinion that you should be shot for keeping NWN but getting rid of BG2.

Second.

Carpet_pissr · Post by **Carpet_pissr** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 1:22 pm

LordMortis wrote: and have yet to put HoMMIII, my sacred game

Are you an HOMM IV hater or you just never got around to buying that one? I've been playing that series since it started, and damn if every subsequent version is not as addictive as the first! Angels with flaming swords? GET OUTTA HEE!

HOMM is one of the best laptop games ever, in my opinion - that and Civ.

Tareeq · Post by **Tareeq** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 2:08 pm

Valael wrote:It's my personal opinion that you should be shot for keeping NWN but getting rid of BG2.

I've played it three times. There is nothing new to see here. The discs will always be with me though.

NWN on the other hand has new content.

IceBear · Post by **IceBear** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 2:16 pm

Tareeq wrote:
Valael wrote:It's my personal opinion that you should be shot for keeping NWN but getting rid of BG2.
I've played it three times. There is nothing new to see here. The discs will always be with me though.

NWN on the other hand has new content.

Exactly. It's not so much which one is the better game, it's the one that can provide CURRENT gaming hours. If you've played a game to death then you're probably not going to squeeze anymore gaming out of it. with the mods and persistent worlds for NWN there's always something more I can do with the game - especially when I sometimes like a quick and dirty CRPG session (can't really do that with a single player game like BG2, but with a good user mod in NWN you can).

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 2:44 pm

Are you an HOMM IV hater or you just never got around to buying that one? I've been playing that series since it started, and damn if every subsequent version is not as addictive as the first! Angels with flaming swords? GET OUTTA HEE!

HOMM is one of the best laptop games ever, in my opinion - that and Civ.

I am very sad to say I am a hater. I wanted to love the game, but the brain dead AI was just too much. There was no pleasure at all in it for me, then there were serveral easy to obtain broken features, like the Sanctuary spell. Oh well, all I really need is a good AI fix for III and I could play that game constantly....like I sometimes do anyway.

Dirt · Post by **Dirt** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 3:35 pm

'There's a time to live, there's a time to die. There's a time to meet your maker!'

Meghan · Post by **Meghan** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 3:56 pm

I'm facing the same dilemma as I move to a new laptop

Staying

Morrowind (trb &bm) - this will be here until Oblivion comes out
Guild Wars - plan to play
Sims 2 - still playing. Already budgeting for the expansions
Children of the Nile - currently playing
Diablo 2 - I have some group games I'm in, otherwise ...
Kohan Immortal Sovereign - I will finish this
King of Dragon Pass - Fear the Thunder Ducks!
Pirates! - waited ages for this

On hold

RCT 3 - crazy cool but I've got a full plate
Rise of Nations - not until I finish Kohan 1
Kohan 2 - ditto
Disciples 2

Back in the Toy Box

Geneforge 1 & 2
Warcraft 3 & Frozen Throne
ToEE
Heroes 3
Emperor Rise of the middle kingdom
Pharoah
Zeus/Poiseidon
Age of Emperors
Sacred

*sniff* I'll miss you guys!!

Carpet_pissr · Post by **Carpet_pissr** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 4:08 pm

Meghan:

You seem to be an Impressions fan...I loved Caesar III, and am looking for something to replace it.

I dl Children of the Nile demo but did not really get into it. From your experience, did you like Emperor, Pharoah or Zeus best? What do you recommend? Shoot me a pm if you don't mind as this is pretty far OT.

Thanks

disarm · Post by **disarm** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 8:45 pm

my current list is essentially everything that i've played since mid-december of last year. that's when i built my new PC, and having a 160GB has kept me from needing to uninstall anything so far. i just keep adding to the list...up to 18 games taking up 42.1GB right now...

Deus Ex - Invisible War
Divine Divinity
Doom 3
GTA III
GTA: Vice City
Halo
Half-Life 2
KotoR
Morrowind (w/ Tribunal and Bloodmoon)
Neverwinter Nights (+SoU and HotU)
Planescape: Torment
NFS: Porsche Unleashed
Prince of Persia: SoT
Splinter Cell
Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow
The Simpsons: Hit & Run
Unreal Tournament
Unreal Tournament 2004
Warcraft III

going through that list makes me realize just how many great games i've played in the last year. it's been a good time 8)

Thunderspark · Post by **Thunderspark** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 9:01 pm

I've really cleared out my hard drive in the past several months. Now all I have installed are:

Morrowind + Expansions
Sims 2

Meghan · Post by **Meghan** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 9:55 pm

Carpet_pissr, this is OT but short - I loved all of them and played them all obsessively.

Pharoah is my favorite and the most like Ceasar 3. Zeus is the easiest but sunny and bright. Emperor has some interesting touches (and eliminates most of the combat with bribes and spies.) Zeus and Emperor have a different interface and a different approach to the gods. Also, they don't require housing to be near the facilites like in Pharoah & C3. You can get the Great Empires 2 w/ C3, Pharoah, Cleo, Zeus & Poiseidon for about $20. Emperor is about $10.

I love Children too, although I've hit a bug with it. It's much different but also does a better job of capturing the gestalt of a city.

ok, that wasn't so short. That's what happens when I talk about games I love. cheers!

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 11:41 pm

Meghan wrote:Staying
King of Dragon Pass - Fear the Thunder Ducks!

After giving myself a headache with CS:Source this past weekend, I found myself enjoying King of Dragon Pass again myself. What a fun game!!

Giles Habibula · Post by **Giles Habibula** » Thu Nov 25, 2004 11:59 am

Smoove_B wrote:
I sometimes think I need to make a sandbox PC that's just full of games that never end.

Hmmmm...
I like it!

Kelric · Post by **Kelric** » Thu Nov 25, 2004 1:04 pm

My poor computer is so lonely. All it has is W40k: Dawn of War, Dungeon Keeper 2, OOTP6, Rome: Total War and Half-Life 2 (CS:S, TFC, etc.). Of course, I still have 20 gigs of space on that drive. Though with a 160 gig hard drive coming back at $30 after mail-in rebates from Best Buy, I might be getting two new drives this weekend.

Jolor · Post by **Jolor** » Thu Nov 25, 2004 8:40 pm

Some interesting decisions ... I (myself) just uninstalled CivIII as I found it too easy to fire it up when I wanted a TBS fix, thereby depriving myself of some Age of Wonders action. SMAC stays on, though. Not exactly a glut of SciFi TBS games pounding on my drive demanding attention at present.
I had a similar RTS classic decision recently but could not justify dropping Rise of Nations; there is just too much fun there yet to be had. So it stays.

Spike · Post by **Spike** » Fri Nov 26, 2004 4:26 am

Valael wrote:It's my personal opinion that you should be shot for keeping NWN but getting rid of BG2.

User-created adventures.

I stripped my PC down a bit recently, since I had a bunch of stuff on there I wasn't playing. Currently installed:

Battlefield 1942 and Road to Rome
Rome: Total War
Europa 1400: The Guild
Tropico
X-Com and Terror From The Deep
The Sims 2

Evil Genius is waiting for install.

I have a suspicion there's a couple more there, too, but I recently had to reformat my system partition and lost all my icons. So I'd actually have to go and look and figure out what they are. I'm just so lazy.

Edit: I just remembered Dominions 2 is still on there, too.

JayG · Post by **JayG** » Fri Nov 26, 2004 5:32 pm

Tareeq wrote:
Valael wrote:It's my personal opinion that you should be shot for keeping NWN but getting rid of BG2.
I've played it three times. There is nothing new to see here. The discs will always be with me though.

NWN on the other hand has new content.

I want a BG3. I cannot get into NWN. The interface is too chaotic.

CSL · Post by **CSL** » Fri Nov 26, 2004 6:50 pm

Harddrive Space is often an issue with me as I've only got a 40 GB HDD. However I've got these games currently on ze drive!

Need For Speed Underground 2
Half-Life 2
Sid Meier's Pirates!
Raven Shield
Rollercoaster Tycoon 3
Victoria
Hearts of Iron + C.O.R.E + The Great War (requires second installation)

Contemplating about adding in Railroad Tycoon 2 though.

Jolor · Post by **Jolor** » Sun Nov 28, 2004 10:54 pm

CSL - How do you like Victoria?

I picked this up very cheap but found it impossible to get into as it just drops you in without any hint/feedback as to what to do first.

IceBear · Post by **IceBear** » Mon Nov 29, 2004 10:28 am

JayG wrote:
Tareeq wrote:
Valael wrote:It's my personal opinion that you should be shot for keeping NWN but getting rid of BG2.
I've played it three times. There is nothing new to see here. The discs will always be with me though.

NWN on the other hand has new content.
I want a BG3. I cannot get into NWN. The interface is too chaotic.

I thought the interface was a lot smoother than BG, especially with the 36 assignable hotkeys and queueable actions. Spacebar still pauses like in BG if you need to plan out your actions.

PS I'd still like a BG3 too (even if I never finished BG2 - it was just too long for my current gaming environment). That's the main reason I like NWN - the user mods are just long enough for a dose of CRPG goodness whereas the full single player CRPGs are too long for me to finish. Vampire Bloodlines, for example, which I like a lot is suffering from it. It's been three days since I've had a chance to play it and when I go to play now I feel like I've lost my direction and sense of being in the game world.

JayG · Post by **JayG** » Mon Nov 29, 2004 10:42 am

That's never really been a problem for me. It's been 8 days since I've had a chance to play anything and that's quite normal for me. But I can still get back into games like Vampire and BG2 no problem. It's probably because I tend to stick to playing the same game, so it's quite easy for me to pick off where I left off. I don't tend to play many games, so I enjoy big RPGs that can last me months. I suppose it's like watching something like 24, where sometimes you have to wait about 3 weeks for the next episode.

I'm still looking forward to NWN2, as I'd like to see what the former Black Isle lads can make of the single player. As for multiplayer, I just got Everquest 2, so that's my multiplayer for the next few years.

IceBear · Post by **IceBear** » Mon Nov 29, 2004 10:57 am

JayG wrote:That's never really been a problem for me. It's been 8 days since I've had a chance to play anything and that's quite normal for me. But I can still get back into games like Vampire and BG2 no problem. It's probably because I tend to stick to playing the same game, so it's quite easy for me to pick off where I left off. I don't tend to play many games, so I enjoy big RPGs that can last me months. I suppose it's like watching something like 24, where sometimes you have to wait about 3 weeks for the next episode.

I'm still looking forward to NWN2, as I'd like to see what the former Black Isle lads can make of the single player. As for multiplayer, I just got Everquest 2, so that's my multiplayer for the next few years.

Yeah, it never used to be a problem for me until I got married and now life is just so hectic that I find it very hard to consistently get back into a long CRPG. I really wish I could, but I seem to lose focus now, perhaps because it's easier to play a quick session of a FPS or a RTS and it ends up distracting me. With BG2 I managed to get as far as Chapter 2 before I just gave up because of the loss of direction. Samething with the two Gothics - got a few hours in and then loss the direction. Bloodlines I suspect will be uninstalled this week for "later" (later being this mystical time when I'll be able to play and concentrate on it alone, which seems to be never now. *sigh*)

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Mon Nov 29, 2004 1:02 pm

IceBear wrote:Yeah, it never used to be a problem for me until I got married and now life is just so hectic that I find it very hard to consistently get back into a long CRPG.

I totally empathize. For me, the thing that allows me to finish games is having a routine. Sitting down for 8+ hour sesstions isn't an option anymore. At least, it's too infrequent to make a difference.

Instead, I treat computer RPG games like novels - and I chip away at them for at least an hour a day. Sometimes more, hardly less. I sit down at the PC after the wife goes to bed and give it my best try, each and every night - rather than sit in front of the TV or whatever else.

As long as your patient, sticking with RPGs works fine. Sure, it takes me a lot longer, but I get to it. It was this mentality that allowed me to finish Morrowind - 3 months of playing *every day*, if only for an hour. Sure, I had the guide helping me, but in the end, I enjoyed it all.

That's my tiP.

With respect to "Who lives and Who dies", like I said earlier, it's those "Sandbox" games that suck away my time. Having nearly infinite replay makes them so fun...yet at the end of the night, I've got nothing new to show. They're a good distraction when my PC gaming mind is bored, but in general I try to avoid them because they just take away time for other games.

IceBear · Post by **IceBear** » Mon Nov 29, 2004 1:10 pm

Yeah, that would work IF I didn't get so easily distracted by the new and shiny game of the week/month

I can only consistently count on 45 minutes of gaming a night, so one of two things happen:

1) I want to spend that time playing "the new hot game"
2) I end up feeling 45 minutes isn't enough time to really get into character and progress the story of the CRPG so I'll play some HL2 or Dawn of War for that time instead.

I know I can force myself to play a game but then it's not fun. I just have to accept it's an end of a era in my PC gaming life (though I always buy the new hot CRPG knowing I'll never finish it

)

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Mon Nov 29, 2004 2:04 pm

Hmmm...tell you what. You send me whatever RPG games you want to buy but know you won't play, and I'll do daily write-ups on what I did. I'll be your virtual gamer.

You can even tell me the kind of character you'd like to play and I'll be sure to follow that profession and/or personality type at each and every opportunity. Hell, I'll even take screenshots of important events.

IceBear · Post by **IceBear** » Mon Nov 29, 2004 2:16 pm

Smoove_B wrote:Hmmm...tell you what. You send me whatever RPG games you want to buy but know you won't play, and I'll do daily write-ups on what I did. I'll be your virtual gamer.

You can even tell me the kind of character you'd like to play and I'll be sure to follow that profession and/or personality type at each and every opportunity. Hell, I'll even take screenshots of important events.

Hehe - sounds like a plan

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Mon Nov 29, 2004 8:37 pm

I've got sort of the opposite problem - too many games installed, not enough time to play them.

Currently Playing

World of Warcraft
Front Office Football
Civ3:Rise & Rule Mod

Wasting hard drive space

Morrowind
Battlefield:1942
Battlefield:Vietnam (received in a trade and never played once)
Temple of Elemental Evil (about 2-3 hours from finishing)
Diablo 2

The trick when you have limited gaming time is to spend $50 on a MMORPG that will devour all of your free time!