The Gamer's Quarter

[Cycle]

Yeah, I found the phonebook too, but it's not much use!
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[dhex]

i only ever played the terminator rampage game.

hard as balls.
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[Shapermc]

Hey, so Far Cry is now on Steam. I think I'm going to get it... *sigh*
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“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

[dhex]

enjoy the first half and the quips. then, uh, well, it gets rough.
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[ryan]

Far Cry was, and should still be, free. All you have to do is sit through an ad before you play. I think it's only about 15 seconds long. I tried it out back when it was first released as ad supported, but wasn't too into it and deleted it shortly thereafter.


Yeah, here you go: http://www.fileplanet.com/180410/180000/fileinfo/Far-Cry-Full-Game-%5BFree-Game---Ad-Supported%5D

"Step into the role of John Carver as he escapes a brutal kidnapping and finds himself on a tropical island full of mercenaries. Rely on firepower, strategy, and stealth as you assault each open-ended area on your own terms! This free game is supported by in-game advertising.

All downloaded files which have not been activated are going to be made inactive through the ubi.com login. Previously, the ubi.com login would require a US country in order to install the game. Ubisoft will make the ubi.com login reject all entries into country. They hope to relaunch the program once we can add IP-blocking into our login process."

Unless the Steam version is the free one, then, erm, nevermind.
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Come to me, Mordel. We shall depart.

[Winged Assassins (1984)]

So I totally installed the Kingpin demo because you just don't see it in bargain bins these days, not that I'd buy it it is hella bland. It's like a walk-in rap album, every fifth word of dialogue is a "fuck" word. In the demo you get a shareware-sized chunk of game where you have to escape the part of the city by killing rubes and swearing at their dismembered corpses. You probably have to find some junk but most importantly you have to swear and kill parts right of the bodies of the rubes. So yeah it's a brutal game but no Soldier Of Fortune, I said brutal not excessive. You can shotgun limbs off but you can't crouch over bodies and repeatedly knife them and cause them to spasm about like you are totally making it with them if you are looking at the right angle. They do use the same engine so all the characters have a case of the shivers which I didn't notice from SoF. Does this make Xatrix worse developers than Raven? They did do Redneck Rampage. So these wobbling characters look like they need a sweater or two. Poor things, they'll catch their death in this world of brutal gang violence. No wonder their only life purpose is swears I'd be fucking miserable too.

I said it was hella bland even though it has things like basic squad management and weapon modification. It's a shame, I'm really digging the whole look of the world, it looks like the 20s but there's modern day swearing, it's weird as hell and ugly as sin because of the engine. I want more of it, a new game, an alternate game, just something that will let me live out my swearing fantasies in a modern day 1920s gangsta wonderland. But there is just something about it that is just bland. It's not the visuals. Okay, it is the visuals to an extent, it's Quake 2 engine, blurry textures all over the shop, but it still manages to beat down the majority of crimelife games. That's a new term there, feel free to use it The Gamers Quarter gets full use of the license attached to that word. It's just boring to play after the first half hour, maybe even less. Shoot a few rubes, mod your guns, hire some meatbags, feel absolutely nothing for the characters, hear the word "fuck" for the one hundredth time, repeat. I shouldn't have a problem with it since I play repetitive shit all the time but here it gets to me. It could have been an amazing game but it fell damn short, damn damn short.

Going back to Soldier of Fortune the demo is much better than the full version because it's only a subway level and a train level. What more could you want from a first person shooter? The train level from Blood (the standard for first person shooter train stages) was the best part of the game or at least the shareware episode. SoF just went and put all this filler in the final product which detracted from the enjoyment of the train stage. Oh yeah, Duke Nukem 3D did a subway better but you couldn't shoot some guy's brain out through his face.

Blood was not full of filler it had a carnival stage and even a hospital full of zombies and an evil castle laboratory. It kicked ass!
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[Cycle]

I've actually been meaning to play Kingpin again too, ever since I saw that bit on RPS. I haven't gotten around to it yet (the full version is 500 megs which I don't have to spare). I only played the demo but it was on a shitty computer where everything was too dark. I remember enjoying the setting and lite adventure elements. I'd still like to give it a shot even though I'm pretty sure Rero is spot on with his post. SoF DID get boring after the first two levels, which were great. Needed more straight out urban levels. Yet another game that suffered from severe shark jumping. The end was like, fighting some superhuman in a mechsuit in his castle, right? I can't remember. I don't even know why I finished that game. Oh right, because I didn't have anything else.

I liked the carnival level the best in Blood. Well, when I last played it in high school. Back then I always loved theme park levels because I loved theme parks. Hell, I still love them so it would probably still be my favourite level. I always try to play Blood again but die a million times before the fifth level I really haven't played it since high school.

Train levels have been done so many times in FPS games. WE SHOULD COMPILE A LIST AND RATE THEM.
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[bleak]

Man I liked Kingpin. I forget why exactly, though. I bought it on release. I think it's got some unique charm to its terrible rendering engine, though. And Cycle is right, the light adventure elements do add fun times to the game. I'm not entirely convinced that you're SUPPOSED to empathize with the characters in the game, considering that they're all scum, but in light of that the voice acting seems parrable, in that hilarious sort of way.
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[Winged Assassins (1984)]

The best thing about Kingpin is the flamethrower. I managed to expand my enjoyment of the game by spawning it in from the beginning of the demo and barbecuing everything I came across. There really should be a marshmallows item so you can chase around people on fire in order to cook your own health-ups. Kingpin also has some of the best sparks I've ever seen in a game.
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[bleak]

Oh man, I actually gathered enough money to buy myself a flamethrower in the singleplayer campaign. Yeah it's awesome.
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[Harveyjames]

Kingpin is weird because they're gangsters but they live in a world with no cops, and there's no reference to drugs at any point in the game.

I really liked the setting of 'Radio City'! Kingpin had some nice art direction.

[Shapermc]

[Dracko]

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/?p=1784
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

[Cycle]

So this review made me want to play Tribes: Vengence again. Actually, the review is pretty awful and would have convinced not to play it, if I hadn't heard from a number of other people that the Tribes 3 single-player was actually quite good. I bought it ages ago but it didn't run well on my old computer. Unfortunately, it doesn't run at all on this one. I get some crazy ass runtime error. I think it's a problem with the Unreal 2 engine, not Tribes. So there goes that idea. Bit dissapointing.

So I played a bit of Blood instead. The first episode was TOP-NOTCH, imaginative and well designed levels and damn, this game has one of the best weapon selections. The gore is perfect, everything explodes and splatters just right, Cabel's deadpan one-liners are a good source of amusement, and it pulls off the horror comedy angle really well.

The second episode wasn't as good... levels weren't as interesting and I found myself getting pretty bored by the end of it, good thing they're only 8 levels each. Here's hoping the third episode picks up.
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[Winged Assassins (1984)]

The thing that really gets on my tits about Blood are those frickin' severed hands and also the spiders to an extent. But you don't have to hammer the 'use' key with the spiders, to get them off you.

Episode 3 is really cool. Or was it episode 4, which one has the city stages? That's where the game starts to pick up again. It probably was episode 4 where they were, right after the zombie Frankenstein castle lab on the top of a cliff. Or maybe it was episode 3 and they came before the dam stage that led into a volcano for the episode 3 boss fight. Oh damn it all I can't remember for the life of me, it could easily be either one. Episode 3 did have a fun boss fight if you like running backwards in a Serious Sam fashion and the cinema at the end with the explosives was hilarious.

I'll have to hit up Google to see if the site for that Quake engine Blood deathmatch mod is still alive.
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[Dracko]

Blood is abandonware now, right?
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

[Cycle]

That's the word on the street!
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[parkbench]

Blood looks gross. I'm squeamish. Should I still play it?
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ich bin aber eine mensch maschine

[sediment]

Blood is ultraviolent in a couple of unusually tame ways.

It's very fun, especially if you always dreamed of using unconventional weapons to kill evil in a FPS.

It's dated in a way that, if you're squeamish regarding violence in modern games, its engine limitations may not gross you out while playing.
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[Cycle]

Yeah, the violence is ultra but it's very cartoony.

Rero thanks for the protip, I had no idea how to get rid of those hands!

The third episode does indeed pick up, the first two levels are quite large city levels, full of explosions, air raids and civilians to slaughter. The third is a short sewer level and the fourth, which I'm up to now, is set in a hospital which looks like it will be fun.
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[dessgeega]

playing through marathon infinity with my xbox usb pad. i'm using xpadder to recreate the control scheme of xbox durandal, and it works surprisingly well. i'm toward the end of RAGE.

i might play blood now that it's abandonware (supposedly!). i've seen some footage here and there and it sounds like the happening place to be.
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[Cycle]

Finished Blood! Just to clarify, Episode 2 wasn't bad, but I felt they didn't take their theme (running around the countryside and in old buildings killimg zombies) far enough. Episode 3 was an improvement, but didn't feel as tight as episode 1.

Episode 4, however, is awesome and a half. Possibly even two whole awesomes! I'm not sure if I like this more than Episode 1. It gets pretty epic. The Friday the 13th level was quite entertaining for me since that series has a special place in my heart and this episode also has the best secret level. So yeah! Fun game, but episode 2 and 3 probably could have been condensed into one. I still have the expansion backs but I'm nto sure if I'll play them. I think I've had my fill.

Does anyone have a working copy of Dark Forces? I've tried downloading it from a few places, but none of them are pre-cracked and I can't get the damn crack to work correctly in DOSbox. I've only played the demo and would liek to play the full game, after people mentioned it a few times in that thread at SB about some mac fps game,
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[Worm]

Kingpin is just fucking FANTASTIC. I don't even know how else to describe it, it's an artistic achievement. "FUCKIN SCORPS, STOLE THE FUCKING BATTERY!". I don't know on what level you're calling it bland, it made for a pretty exciting and enjoyable game when I was playing it when it came out before my mom took it away. The combat is fun, the cursing is fun, the story is fun, the way you can curse at someone happily, neutrally, or angrily is fun. Everything about the fucking game is fun and dynamic. I don't see how anyone could dislike it.

I could swear there is a lot of work in getting it to run in XP, but there are probably modified full versions up on the net now.
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Exit stage left, exit stage right, there is no place to run, all the fuses in the exit signs have been BURNT OUT

[dhex]

cycle i have an original copy of dark forces around here somewhere. i'll let you know if it pops up later today when i'm cleaning.
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[ryan]

[silentmatt]

I have it running perfectly... on a Mac. Using Boxer (a GUI for DosBOX).

All you need to do is put all of the Dark Forces installation files in a directory (e.g. \Dark\) and also include a bin/cue image of the CD in the same directory (e.g. 'Dark Forces.bin' and Dark Forces.cue'). When you double click on DARK.EXE, Boxer launches and auto-mounts both \Dark\ as C: and "Dark Forces.cue" as D: - which passes the verification process.

So long as the Boxer/DosBOX configuration file (found at ~\Library\Preferences\Boxer\DosBOX Preferences.conf) is properly configured (the default one needs a few tweaks here and there) - it should run, easy as pie.

I imagine the process will be different on Windows (whereby you'll probably have to use batch files to force DosBOX to mount the cd image before launching the game - since the automount is a function of the Boxer GUI - not DosBOX itself). It still should be feasible, though!

edit: While on the topic - it is still a pretty fantastic game. I had to configure the controls a bunch to make them even somewhat comfortable (not being able to mouse look is still fairly awkward and I haven't tackled how to remap the "center view" button) but, while I am only a couple missions in, I am really enjoying it!
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PSN: Twitch_City ||| Wii: 8083 5371 5767 6700
"Jadis, si je me souviens bien, ma vie était un festin où s'ouvraient tous les coeurs, où tous les vins coulaient."

[dark steve]

Whoa. Boxer can do that?
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[silentmatt]

Yeah - it is a fantastic feature. If Boxer finds any kind of disk image file in the game folder, it automatically assumes it needs to be mounted. This will work with iso files, bin/cues, and even folders in the directory that have extensions such as .cdrom, .floppy and .harddisk. Plus, it will also detect and mount actual CD-ROMs that you might have.

Boxer is pretty much one of the best applications.

edit: Another great feature is that it can "package" games for you, e.g. instead of having a directory filled with folders and tons of files (as most DOS games don't really install tidily), if you rename the folder to have the extension .boxer, you have a single clickable file, instead of a folder with a mess of files to sort through. Double click on it, and Boxer will ask which .exe you want to run and if it is the .exe that should always be run when opening the package. Ridiculously convenient.
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PSN: Twitch_City ||| Wii: 8083 5371 5767 6700
"Jadis, si je me souviens bien, ma vie était un festin où s'ouvraient tous les coeurs, où tous les vins coulaient."

[ApM]

[Cycle]

Boxer is only a mac application it seems Really, all I need is a pre-cracked copy of the game. I should be fine after that, but for some reason none of the copies floating around the internet are cracked, and I can't get the blasted thing to work myself. Oh well... wait, is it PPC only? Maybe I can run it on a mac emulator... nope, oh well. Guess I'll only ever play the demo

I started playing the Blood expansion pack (the one made by Monolith, I thought I had the other one but I don't but it's not made by monolith anyway so it probably sucks?) and it's pretty swell so far! If I replay Blood again anytime soon, I'll probably skip episodes 2 and 3 and just play these 3, I think I'd get sick of it if I tried to go through all of them again (really I think it was one episode too long), but 1 and 4 are just a total blast to play, and 5 looks like it's going to be the same. All the things I mentioned earlier, about what the game gets right, still stands true. It's such a satisfyingly violent game.

Hey Cossix, what do you think of Monolith!

I might go back to play Duke 3D, this time with a more critical eye. I've always considered it one of the finest FPS titles ever crafted, and I want to know if it's just the nostalga and strippers talking. The problem with going back and taking a more critical look at games like this is because I've played them so many times that it's hard for me to approach it from an obejective point of view.

Whatever, I'm pretty sure the game was just awesome.
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[Cossix]

[Cycle]

I remember hearing that the NOLF games weren't finanicial successes for them, which may have contributed to it. I think they're still making interesting games, atleast more interesting the majority of generic FPS titles being thrown out these days, but they're certainly not as daring as they used to be. They HAVE had a few bombs so I can understand that. They've probably been close to shutting down a few times.

They've released a couple interesting non-fps titles too! Claw, a fun platformer in the vein of Jazz Jackrabbit 2, Get Medieval, a over-head gauntlet style game that was also pretty fun, Gruntz, a puzzle/strategy game, plus that other over-head shooter starring ICED TEA. But yeah, their FPS titles have all been pretty great too. Well, not all of them have been great, but they've atleast been interesting!

[extrabastardformula]

They used to license out their engine like a mofo. It was kind of embarassing the games that didn't want to pay for the Quake engine having the Lithtech engine instead. A lot of them were really bad, but I was pretty enthusiastic about some of them. Now their engine is expensive.sadness
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[Winged Assassins (1984)]

Monolith need to release the Lithtech 1.0 source so someone can fix Shogo to run on XP without having to dick about with patches. Maybe they can magically make Blood 2 a better game along the way as well.
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[dessgeega]

[Cycle]

Yeah, try playing on one of the two easiest difficulties (I played on the second easiest) and it won't be such an issue anymore. It's what I did, anyway. It's way too brutal on normal and higher.
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[Winged Assassins (1984)]

You don't really need to play the game at a setting higher than difficulty two anyway unless you play co-op or can complete DooM II on "Nightmare". It's the best setting for the game, the enemies are slower but can still kill you with comparative ease, there are less of them around but that doesn't mean you'll be bored just that you won't feel overwhelmed. You won't need to conserve ammo so you can screw around with aerosol or the voodoo doll or just go mad with the Tesla Cannon which is the best weapon in the game as it kills everything except Phantasms (which is why the shotgun has an alternative fire mode) in less than two seconds and it's rapid fire so bosses aren't a problem at all until you run out of ammo but by then you can just finish them off with explosives.
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[Cycle]

Haha yeah, the Telsa Cannon is way over-powered, it's pretty much God mode right there. I tried to avoid using it. Though that's mainly because the other weapons were just so much more fun.
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[dessgeega]

alright, this game is a lot more reasonable on the lower difficulty levels.

i really like what this game is doing. every map (at least in the first episode) has a very clear little story it's telling. yes, the carnival, obviously, but even the morgue has a great sense of purpose to it. there's a reason for this place to be where it is, the way it is. there's so much neat stuff going on in these places, stuff that always fits the mood of the places themselves. i particularly like the way the gargoyle is introduced. and i appreciate all the little details: lightswitches that you can actually flip to switch the light on or off. anything you see you can usually interact with in the way you'd expect.

and the weapons are great. i'm thinking of the flare gun and dynamite in particular. hell, the dynamite almost is the game.

i'm probably not going to play the rest of the episodes, because xpadder runs a little jerky in dosbox for me and i've gotten the impression they don't do anything interesting enough to warrant the likely frustration they'll cause me. i really like what episode one is doing, though.
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[Cycle]

Yeah, I episodes 2 and 3 just felt like a string of random FPS levels and lacked the visual narratives episode one levels have going. Well, they have them, but they are much weaker. If you crave a little more after episode one, I really recommend trying episode 4. It's just as good as episode one plus it will let you see the enemies and weapons not in the first episode. It's not that harder, too (especially once you get the Telsa Cannon which can always be pulled out when in a tight spot. Also there are a million cheats to use for when it really gets frustrating.).

Episode 5 features little mini-Cabels running about attacking you whenever you see a mirror, yet another great Evil Dead trilogy reference. And I thought Duke was the king of Evil Dead references! Would those of you who've played this say that Blood is the Evil Dead 2 of FPS games? It's probably the closest, even without the references.
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[Harveyjames]

[Winged Assassins (1984)]

You know when you were a kid and you saw all the grownups doing grownup stuff and you couldn't wait until you were old enough to do it as well?

Duke Nukem 3D was that child and he kind of went berserk and does everything at once because he's not familiar with the term moderation yet.

EDIT: Duke Nukem created that universe because his ego ordered him to.
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[dhex]

duke is/was overrated.

any love for outlaws up in this shit? i loved outlaws.
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[Harveyjames]

I only played the demo but yeah it was great. It had the Sniper scope before Goldeneye!

[kirkjerk]

[ApM]

Hells yes Outlaws! I don't have anything intelligent to say about it since the last time I played it was probably over a year ago, but yes: love for Outlaws up in this shit. Probably the only FPS I ever really loved, in fact.

[Cycle]

[Harveyjames]

The other thing I was going to say about Duke is that form seems to win out over function for a lot of the levels- that is, they're too concerned with looking like a courthouse or a adult movie theatre and not concerned enough with being a fun videogame level. Rooms in Doom are made to be blasted through on your way to the next one, but Duke's focus on realism often just results in a bunch of little rooms you're meant to spend time looking at, and a fragmented playing experience. Is this a game about shooting shit where you can drink from the toilet and get 10 health, or is it a game about drinking from the toilet and getting 10 health where you can shoot shit?

[Cycle]

Yeah, I've thought about that too, it was the basis of an article I'll never write. I think they did a pretty good job of balancing good game design with "real" locations, though.
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[Cycle]

Anyway, FEAR has gotten much better, and it's actually a pretty good game. Most of the areas you fight are really well-designed, with plenty of cover and flanking opportunities, and the slow-mo allows you to address situations carefull even during an intense fire-fight and the melee stuff is just a lot of fun. FLY KICK TO THE FACE.

The rest of the game isn't that great, I liked the story at first because I had no idea what was going on and it was so fucking weird and there was this great David Lynch atmosphere over everything, but now a story is starting to develop and it's all stupid and pulpy. And I've found other people now, I liked it when it was just you and empty buildings with blood every where and these soldiers who were killing you for no apparent reason and guarding this guy eating people, BUT OH WELL. Also this game needs sub-titles. This isn't very scary so far, I wish there were more CREEPY moments. I don't think they did enough with the freaky shit so far, especially how they always warn you with the hud going crazy, I hope they play with this later on. I really enjoy the long segments where nothing happens and it's just spooky, but really it's like a ghost house so far. Here's hoping they KNOCK IT UP A NOTCH later on. And I also hope they mix the combat up a bit otherwise it might get repetitive.
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