T w e n t y S i d e d
Not that anyone noticed, but Friday is when I usually post my “Free Game” links. I didn’t have time for that this week, so no free game. This weekend I plan to sink some time into UT3. And naps.
Spec Ops: The Line
A videogame that judges its audience, criticizes its genre, and hates its premise. How did this thing get made?
MMO Population Problems
Computers keep getting more powerful. So why do the population caps for massively multiplayer games stay about the same?
Ludonarrative Dissonance
What is this silly word, why did some people get so irritated by it, and why did it fall out of use?
The Death of Half-Life
Valve still hasn't admitted it, but the Half-Life franchise is dead. So what made these games so popular anyway?
Object-Disoriented Programming
C++ is a wonderful language for making horrible code.
That’s OK. I’m still working on X-Com. The turn-based combat leaves lots of opportunities for napping.
zzzzzzzzzzzz
Good luck running it. Im sittin here with a dual core, 2 gigs o the ram, and a nVidia 7900 512 cardx2 and i still need to turn it down to almost nothing and still get 25-30 fps
Much like the ad-supported Prince Of Persia, Ubisoft has put up an ad-supported free version of FarCry on Fileplanet, apparently.
There’s something free for you.
Speaking of free games, I tried downloading the original C&C, but it’s been moved to FilePlanet. You have to pay for a subscription to download it. Is there any other (legal) place to download it for free?
Jaguar: Fileshack has them…
http://fileshack.com/file.x/11068/Command+&+Conquer+Gold+-+Full+Game:+GDI+ISO
http://fileshack.com/file.x/11069/Command+&+Conquer+Gold+-+Full+Game:+Nod+ISO
Generally fewer hoops than Fileplanet.
@ jaguar
As far as I’m aware, fileplanet doesn’t require a paid subscription to download things, t just goes out of its way to make it seem like you do…
For fileplanet, you need to register, which just needs some personal info. The paid subscribers just get to use the speedy servers. The rest of us have to wait in line for the public servers.
There’s a regularity to the Free Game posts? You’re right, I hadn’t noticed.
mmmmm… naps… sitting in the sun with your eyes closed is nice too.
Ryan: Thanks for the links! Way fewer hoops.
Phlux,
If combat in X-Com is taking too long, you can speed up movement and shot animations. Just click on the question mark button on the battlescape interface.
Speaking of free games, was it ever actually established that these games really are free for anyone and not just a bonus for PC Gamer purchasers?
Dwarf Fortress is a nice free game (still in alpha, but very playable). The new version just came out, so I’m getting re-addicted. It’s kind of amazing since it’s a two-person development team, and only one of them programs. I figure you might like it, Shamus.
Even after all these years, I still suck at XCom. I get one, maybe two encounters before my team is utterly annihilated. Half the time, it only takes the first ship to wipe out my crew.
It’s like playing NetHack with eight @’s.
HeroForge,
Actually, that’s not just you. Combat in X-Com is extremely deadly – at least early on – and soldiers getting killed without even having a chance to react is par for the course. The game is just designed that way.
The trick is not to get attached to your early grunts (at least get them all power armor first) and to constantly purchase replacements.
Regarding XCom, there’s also the approach I took — Save compulsively and reload every time a turn (or a move, even) doesn’t work out the way you wanted it to. Even using this cheap strategy the game is really hard. I had to give up a few games where I hadn’t gotten the right things to research all the equipment I needed and ended up in situations where all of my guys were either completely outclassed in equipment, or getting mind controlled left and right, or where I wasn’t making enough money due to aliens taking over my early funders…
Also, Shamus, let me know if you want to try and get any games of UT3 going. The community support in the demo is pretty poor, so I’m not really sure how we can work that out though, besides just setting a time and place.
As far as the mind controlling goes, I have a simple strategy. Using the “save early and often” strategy, find out who your mentally inferior crew members are. You’ll know the guys after a few turns. Then, as soon as you know that the mission involves mind control, make them drop all of their weapons and kneel facing the front of the ship.
The rest of the crew completes the mission. If the weak minded ones are controlled or panicked, it doesn’t matter. If they run off and get killed, oh well. ;-)
Turgid: I was very close to recommending Dwarf Fortress myself, as I too have gotten re-hooked on it recently. Right before I posted, however, I realized that someone feeling burned out may not appreciate the learning wall–er, curve, that stood before them, especially since the wiki is in a much more rudimentary state since this last update. (Since so many things changed, the entire wiki was archived, and it is in the process of being rebuilt from scratch)
However Shamus, if you feel up to delving into a new game, I highly recommend Dwarf Fortress, it’s pretty amazing.
Dwarf Fortress site: http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/
Collection of many links from when the Dubious Quality guy was talking about the game last year:
http://www.playnoevil.com/serendipity/index.php?/archives/1080-Dwarf-Fortress-Game-of-the-Year-at-Dubious-Quality.html
Over 100 free open source games.
http://fossgamer.110mb.com/index.html