What's the best new game?

[NiGHTMARE]

There seems to be a load of new, good quality games coming out lately, so I'm curious to what people think of them. Games I'm thinking of here are ones like Freedom Force, Elder Scrolls 3, Warcraft 3, Neverwinter Nights, etc.

Here's what I think of Freedom Force (it's not out in the UK yet, but I got it imported, so there =p ). For those of you who don't know, FF is a 3D action RPG based on 60's style superheroes and supervillains.

It's done as a kind of cross between an actual tribute to 60's comics and a spoof of them, and there's even the odd B movie type element (giant Ants for example) for good measure.


I'll start off with the bad points:

- the engine is a little outdated graphically, although not that much.

- some of the characters' voices (especially that f**king nerdy sounding narrator) can get rather annoying at times. Luckily you can skip cutscenes.

- missions occassionaly get slightly repetitive (exactly how many times is that damned park going to show up?), although if you just save and quit, you'll almost certainly get the urge to come back later.

- a few of the heroes are completely useless, and by this I'm specifically thinking of Sea Urchin. Urgh.

- the few non-fighting elements in the game are extremely simplistic, e.g. the dialog generally consists one or two liners from someone, the few puzzles there are tend to be really easy, etc.

- the game is somewhat linear. Personally I'd have liked to be able to chose what mission you're going to do next rather be forced to do a specific one. I suppose some replay value lies in chosing different heroes for different missions, but not much.


And now the good points:

- even though all of the heroes and villains were made up, it still manages to capture the essence of 60's comic books perfectly. In fact, much fun can be had in trying to spot the "influences" for all the heroes and villains. I'm pretty sure every single one of them is secretly based on an actual Marvel or DC character. For example, the main hero character, Liberty Man, is blatantly supposed to be Captain America :)

- the dialogue may be cheesy, but that seems to be the point. In fact, some of it's so cheesy it'll make you laugh out loud ;)

- the levels always ends through your choice, meaning that if you want to, you can complete sub-quests after you've completed the main objective.

- the music, which is always either funky 60's grooves or sweeping orchestral stuff is really good and almost always appropriate to the level you're in.

- some of the superhero's are damned cool, and very fun to play :) Many of their special powers are extremely satisfying to use, especially as they gradually level up and become even more powerful.

- great modding potential. If you wanted to, you could relatively easily add actual DC/Marvel characters to the game.

[fodders]

The creating your own hero option and adding super powers is great

[Kid Airbag]

Best + New Game in the same sentence? That has to be an oxymoron.

My vote goes to Season Ticket Baseball 2003.

[Erik]

I'm looking forward to Starwars Galaxies. Damn I hope they implement all the cool stuff they promised.

[maga]

i'm looking forward for motocross madness 2 to hit the shelves..

[NiGHTMARE]

Heh, I'm asking about games that are already out (recently) and that you've played, not ones you're looking forward to :)

[IMJack]

I bought Dungeon Seige a few weeks ago, and haven't done more than read the manual thus far. My job's been taking up all my time.

[læmænt]

nethack!!!

[GS-1719]

Got Grand Prix 4 a few days ago. Bad idea with my exams still going on.

[NiGHTMARE]

IMJack: play it ASAP, it's an extremely cool game. BTW, 'i' before 'e', except after 'c' ;)

Lament: so nethack came out recently, did it? Whatever you say :)

[NeFaRiuS]

At the moment, I think Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind is the best game, it offers o much depth and freedom, it's incredible. I'm even running 3 games almost simultaneously at the moment (as a Figher, A Mage and an assassin).

[Sharessa]

GTA3 is the greatest console game ever, and I'm glad it came out on PC.

Now if only my video card was good enough to run it well...

[999cop]

Need For Speed 2 !

[IMJack]

the_Danarchist said:

GTA3 is the greatest console game ever, and I'm glad it came out on PC.

Now if only my video card was good enough to run it well...

I cannot fucking wait for GTA: Vice City. Even though it'll be another year before it hits the PC, and my roommate with the PS2 is leaving.

[spank]

maga: Unless you made a typo, it's been out for ages, dude. The title (music) track even is Incubus' New Skin.

999cop: I think you mean Need For Speed 6: Hot Pursuit 2. What a dumb fucking title for a game.

IMHO, Need For Speed (the original, on the 3DO if you want) is, along with Gran Turismo, one of the finest racing games EVER.

[999cop]

haha, yep, correct me there. I've never tried Gran Turismo but I heard it's also another great one. In Hot Pursuit mode, I just love to go against the cops, heh.

[Smokebox]

the_Danarchist said:

GTA3 is the greatest console game ever, and I'm glad it came out on PC.

Dan, YOU are my new best friend. I love that fucking game!

[Doom II Guy]

Grand Theft Auto 3 = pure brilliance. It's my favorite game of all time. Could you imagine if we could edit PS2 games like we do for Doom? Man that would rock.

[IMJack]

Doom II Guy said:

Grand Theft Auto 3 = pure brilliance. It's my favorite game of all time. Could you imagine if we could edit PS2 games like we do for Doom? Man that would rock.

There are some people working there asses off trying to modify the game files for GTA3 PC. Rockstar (developer/publisher) just released a patch that gets rid of all data integrity checks, which should make modding posible.


[insert cheesy 80s equivalent of "ph33r" here]

[Little Faith]

Heroes of Might and Magic IV

[pritch]

Grand Prix 4 is going to own. It's certainly gonna own F1 2002.

[GS-1719]

Grand Prix 4 easily owns F1 2002 in every way possible.

[Sharessa]

Heh...I've been playing GTA3 for like a week and a half at my house and I just got to the last mission in portland, and I got a little farther in 3 days at my dad's house...that just shows you how slow my computer runs it because of the video card.

[Psyonisis]

They should make a MMORPG version of GTA3.

[IMJack]

Psyonisis said:

They should make a MMORPG version of GTA3.

They almost did. If you fish around in the GTA3 install direcotry, you'll find a near-completed 'Net multiplayer client. But they chickened out at the last second, so we'll have to bide our time for the 16-player free-for-all mode.

[Sharessa]

Psyonisis said:

They should make a MMORPG version of GTA3.

LOL

Train...Army...5 Tanks!

[Zaldron]

Morrowind.

The amount of work put into the game's artistic style just boggles my mind.

[dsm]

RtCW is my favorite "new game".
It has its flaws, but I find that I just return to playing that game over and over again.
It's that fun.

[Melee]

Pong.

[SteelPH]

Warcraft III, need I say more?