Need some honest advice regarding which game to buy

By redwingdw28 Posted May 7, 2008 12:22:49

As mentioned I LOVE my PC games, I actually have £25 Im willing to spend. Thats about $49.

Thus far looking at some of the crap thats out there atm, the only game that I think may have some milage is the latest gciv 2 expansion. Im just wandering what your views are on this game and my following comments?

Although I have went off MMOS I still look through them, I have played probably every major MMO but pirates of the burning sea and FF10 online. Heres the thing I was THINKING about POTBS when I looked at the gamespot review. However Im a little more shrude these days and sometimes think some of the mainstream reviewers arent spending enough hours on the game before reviewing so I dug through google results for user blogs. The thing is the user blogs painted the kind of picture of PoTBs which seems much of what I dislike about MMOS, its really hard to differantiate between players who havent given the game a chance to players who are fanboys hence why I am asking for opinions from this community as I have a pretty good idea that all ages use these forums.

I have many of the games seen as succesful , I will list some but have many more

Supreme commander

Gciv 2 gold

anno1701

dues ex 1 and 2

baldurs gate

freelancer

spaceforce 2 rougue crapverse

eve online

wow

eq 2

matrix online

city of heroes

DDO

avp 2

call of duty 4

FF7

company of heroes (First 1 only)

medevial 2 total war

civ 4 + all expansions

enemy territory quake wars

Space rangers 2 (Actually liked this , I am looking for something unique in my game that incorporates open endedness as opposed to cheap tricks, like the space theme but for the most part I find a good portion of space games badly done and its ruining the genre)

Half life 2+ team fortress 2

Bioshock

witcher

nwn 1 and 2

morrowind elder scrolls and all expansions (rate this better content wise than oblivion, alot better)

oblivion (decent game but not enough content by a long shot)

Age of empires III gold

C&C Generals

I actually have more games than the above but just cant remember them all. Okay other games I have been considering:

The latest space empires game

sword of stars+expansion

lotr battle for middle earth 2 + rise of the witch king expansion(Where this is concermed there is no digital download of the first one only the expansion and I am looking for digital download games only , if someone knows where I can buy both as digi dpwnload give me a shout, ea store only has 1)

To be honest nothing thus far has really stuck out at me, so I would appreciate any suggestions? Kinda looking for open endedness couples with replay value, uniquenes and a great story.

Im stumped atm, dont know what to get.

Thanks for reading

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If you already have DL/DA from GalCiv II, pull the trigger and order the digital download of Twilight. It won't cost you all your pounds, so you'll even save some money. Its a fairly large expansion, meaning plenty of new things to try out, hence good replayability.

Yeah looking at whats out there at the momment that does seem like my best option. The thing is I dont know how many others are like this but everytime I take the plunge to buy a game I usually spend hours just trying to find user opinions on stuff as through some bad experiances by listening to gamespot well I have found just ordinary user reviews to be the best gauge by far.

IN regards to the gciv expansion the message Im getting is:

Its a great game with lots of milage
It has some annoying bugs that are getting fixed but people with good systems are hardly having any problems(I have decent system)
The campaign editor is good but from what Ive read from users its not what some modders expected.

Has really positive feedback overall for it being so new and I cant find any other game that I dont have eith anything but abysmal reviews so I think I am going to buy the latest expansion, thanks for your reply

DON'T get PotBS. I played it in Beta and I thought it was pretty good then, but once you get past level 21 it is ALL grinding for money to replace ships that you lost while having fun for like 20 min.

Don't get me wrong, the ship combat was fun, but all of the missions are pretty much clones of 4 basic types and the swashbuckling is poor at best. You also spend at least half of your time traveling on sea which is very boring as there is no autopilot or anything to get you where you need to go.

WoW became a grind after level 60 or 70 when the expansion came out. This game becomes a grind DURING the leveling process...

A good game idea, but I was not impressed, as I usually am not with anything that SOE has a part in.

Thanks for letting me know about PotBS , I am inclined to believe you because of the blogs I have read + you seem to have the exact same view about the wow expansion as one of my good friends. I have got a tendancy to put too much faith in companies where MMOS are concerned so I definatly wont be buying POTBS now. (You have saved me money, cheers for that!)

Looks like its the gciv 2 expansion I will be buying, Im still looking but theres a 90% I will be buying gciv 2 expansion now, thanks!

Since you have a few RPGs on your list, one glaring omission (at least to me since I'm a fan) is Gothic 2 (with the Night of the Raven expansion pack), which is a first person perspective RPG like Morrowind and Oblivion. The game is more story driven than Morrowind/Oblivion, but since you also liked the D&D games (Baldur's gate, NWN) I'm guessing you're not adverse to a prominent storyline. I see that you want both openendedness, which Gothic 2 sadly does not have.

Personally I like Gothic 2 the best of all the first person RPGs I've tried. Morrowind and Oblivion have large worlds with lots of different items and stuff, but the atmosphere and general feel of Gothic 2 is much better if you ask me.

There's also Gothic 3, which is pretty good too (it still retains the same advantages over the TES games), but it was quite buggy at release. Hopefully the latest patches has fixed it up a bit. I haven't replayed it yet, I'm waiting for the expansion that's on it's way. Gothic 3 also has several different endings, and you have to make a decision about which side you're going to fight for early on.

I also noticed that you didn't mention Baldur's Gate 2, but I'm going to assume you didn't miss that treasure trove of gaming goodness

As you are in the UK, I can recommend Metaboli
This is a Games on Demand service with over 250 games constantly available for about £13 a month. Have a look through - browsing what games are available is free.

It's a great way of experimenting with new genres if you are in the mood for a change and unsure what you want.

I've been using it for over a year now (don't worry StarDock, I have GC2 DL & DA and Sin too).

Have you thought about playing some of the back catalogue. There isn't that much new stuff out there so it's a good time to revisit some older games. You mentioned you have more games on your list but you might be missing:

Warhammer 40k - Dawn of War & various expansion packs. You should be able to pick them up in a bundle and would have a lot of game play there.

Psychonauts - A bit different but brilliant and only $20 on Steam.

Prey - A decent shooter and pretty cheap at the moment.

I don't buy a lot of games, just because I don't have that much time to play, so I'm pretty picky. IMO, GC2:TA is definitely going to give you the best value.

Now that the tech trees are different, you really have to play each race differently, so there's even more replay value than in GC2:DA.

I wouldn't be concerned about any bugs in the release; you can count on SD to issue timely patches, and it isn't uncommon for a new feature or two to also be included.

With that list of games owned, look at it from the opposite angle, with whats left, what IS better than GalCiv. In terms of dedication of the dev team - its almost a labour of love, not a game - I would find it hard to believe they could be bettered in that respect.

As always its a personal preference on features and characteristics that decide short lists. I am certain though, if you end up with GalCiv on that list after such an initial culling, you'll find it very hard not to take it on sheer value alone.

Its a game built to last the end user for years to come, its not a game decided by short term revenue hits - a hugely refreshing and satisfying characteristic. The latter is almost unique in the current grubby world of "cash at the expense of any principle" that drives the old mainstream gaming industry.

I use the word "old" deliberately, because I genuinely believe Stardock will end up being acknowledged for changing the way things are done in the gaming world. Buy a piece of History - the very game that began that process - what better reason do you need

Regards
Zy

open endedness couples with replay value, uniqueness and a great story.

Why don't you just ask for world peace while you're at it?

Seriously though, check out Homeworld (RTS), it is a classic.
If you want a game with personality, see if you can hunt down a copy of Startopia (Sim?).
Both are old, but I haven't found any new game that can measure up to them in their genres.

I'm sorry, what is POTBS? I'm looking through game lists and seem to be missing anything with that acronym.

Thanks

Most likely Pirates of the Burning Sea (a MMORPG).

BFME 2 is graphically OK and fun to play, but multi player is horrendously buggy. Expect loads of crashes and player drops if you plan to LAN it or play online. Also, I was disappointed with the detail when zoomed all the way in, but that's not too huge a deal. I'm just spoiled by the stellar graphics in Relic RTS games and keep expecting everyone else to be as good. Besides, BFME2 has plenty of other graphical effects that are very nice. As for the important part, BFME gameplay isn't half bad. the story is OK, haven't played the expansion storyline though. All in all, I would only recommend it if you're a fan of lotr or fantasy war in general, or like the idea of customizable heroes in an RTS.

Sword of the Stars is fun and challenging, though I haven't got the expansion so I can't tell you about that. It's got a load of scenarios and whatnot, and the randomized tech tree makes things interesting, but has its ups and downs. The one thing that bothers me is that the races are all more or less identical in technology (though the random tech tree ensures that players won't be identical) and differ only in ship stats and costs.

SetarcosNous gives a good recommendation with Homeworld. If you haven't played Homeworld and Homeworld 2, you should find them well worth it. In fact you should be able to afford both with some cash left over if you shop around. Maybe pick up the original Ground Control (free to download, or you can buy it as a direct download packaged with the sequel) as well. The Homeworld series are just the sort of thing to restore your hope for space games, even if they're not new, and Ground Control is just something unique and different that nobody as an excuse not to try now that its free.

GC2:TA would be my first recommendation.

But I was very impressed with The Witcher, I really enjoyed it, but don't buy it just yet as they are releasing a version 2, within the next month or two, that addresses a lot of the originally issues and adds a few more quests and areas (even adding more face models which was my biggest bugbear of the game). Highly recommended.

TF2 itself is only $25 here. I'd just go with that and something else like CSS off steam.

oooow nice reponses

had a laugh at some of the comments as well hehe

lol I am still looking about, you know its not that I dont doubt its great, its just the thought that well knowing me I will probably play the latest expansion first and I dunno I would rather do them in order. My logic is because before I knew about the space rangers series well I bought sr2 , really enjoyed it, so I bought sr1, now if anyones played those games graphically there isnt much of a differance, both good games but I think I would have got more milage playing sr1 then 2. (Its all about finding the most optimum way of feeding my habit lol)

I can see some of you recomending older games, its funny because I have a good rig and the way games are heading i.e 4 hour wanders well , I have been playing alot of older stuff of late (So to those of you who have semi old rigs , well as it stands dont feel bad like your missing out, graphics are overated - seriously)

I notice that the latest expansion has immense universes? that sounds good I must admit. Thats my mind made up now as of reading Im going to purchase , doing right now but I will definatly check out those other games. (was also looking at savage 2)

Gciv 2 TOA seems like the safest bet at this time. Just to mention to the person who asked what PoTbS is, yeah its an MMO and it stands for pirates of the burning sea, but considering the reviews it gets it seems overpriced to me.

Why don't you just ask for world peace while you're at it?

haha!

, yeah you can say that again! I think Im dreaming to be expecting a game executed well enough to be seen like that by modern standards.

Anyway cheers Im always looking for games that have slipped through the net

so I will definatly check out everything mentioned but thats me downloading the gciv 2 expansion now.

Thanks for all the comments, not often you get that kind of feedback and trust me when Im spending cash on games regular stuff like that is really needed!

edit-----------------------------
Well thats me commited it now and it seems to be downloading an installing okay, fingers crossed

Its going to be dam tempting and hard to stick to my initial plan of going through the gciv 2 parts in order from oldest to newest

Don't rely solely on Gamespot or a few reviewers when looking for new games.

The place to go is:Metacritic. It's reviews from many critics and also User's rating score (for what it's worth).

This is the first place I go to look for a new game.

Ahh I think I have seen that linked on steam games as well , thats good to know thats one of the more reliable ones, by the way the gamespot reviews i.e the corporate ones not the user ones I have lost much faith in. I actually put a review up for space force rogue universe, I was 100% honest as an avid gamer, I never used any bad language or flame bait but merely stated what I thought of the game and listed the good and myriage of bad points as well as explaining the reasoning behind each and they removed my post and warned me, ever since that I just look at the user reviews there and I dont go on the site if I can help it. Ive been using that gametrailers site to check out footage and such of late and will start using that metacritic more

Thanks!

Homeworld, Homeworld 2, and Homeworld: Cataclysm are all still good games if you're willing to deal with (very) slightly out-of-date graphics in exchange for one of the best RTS storytelling experiences I've seen to date. And Cataclysm, despite being the red-headed stepchild of the series, is actually quite good and part of its design team actually went on to join Ironclad, I believe. And Relic is Relic, so the Homeworld games have quite a pedigree.

I might be the "joy buster" here, but honestly, if you look through the list of games you can get now and none of them make you go "oooh! i gotta get that!" then you shouldn't buy anything.

Having said that, you could try going through bargain bins (not necessarily literally) to look for missed gems - you know, the ones you didn't get for one reason or another when they came out, but always wanted to try. They won't always turn out to be as good as you thought but chances are you'll also spend less money on them. That is unless of course you've already gotten all of them, or you can't stand outdated graphics.

I liked knights of the old republic so Ill recommend that if you are into RPGS

If your at all interested in FPS, even on the fence, HL2 is a game you absolutely must have

Valve works magic, I tell you

Granted, the magic's not always on time....

Oh yeah, if you're at all into FPS games, buy the Orange Box! It's literally the best $50 I ever spent, and I already had Half Life 2 and Ep. 1. If you don't have those already...I mean, those plus Portal? You can't go wrong.

I would buy Medevial 2, I own and it is one of the best games I have ever bought, and the expansoin would be rated to the Twilight of Arnor expansion.

I always ignore reviews by IGN, Gamespot or Gamespy. They're dodgy, and you can count on them humping the leg of certain developers regardless of the quality (or lack thereof) of the game in question.

I honestly can't recommend any games that have come out in the past few years. The only one that I've played right through recently was Titan Quest, and I didn't really think much of it. A slick timewaster, but balanced for OCD morons. I've tried GalCiv and Sins, but they just didn't grab me.

At the moment I'm working my way through a backlog of European games that didn't get a lot of fanfare and had mixed reviews. I can certainly recommend the Gothic series (vastly better and more innovative than anything Bethesda can or will ever make) and Divine Divinity (in spite of one of the dumbest names ever). Space Rangers 2 is fun and very addictive. Chosen: Well of Souls is actually not bad once you get past the vertical learning curve and make the correct mandatory skill and playstyle choices in the beginning. Sacred wasn't bad for a Diablo 2 style action game (ie better than Diablo 2, but still not terribly compelling).

If you haven't played the original Fallout, then now would be a good time to play it. If you wait for Bethesda to release their over-hyped, dumbed-down console version then you'll probably be emotionally scarred for life.

If you like old style 'blob on legs' 1st person party rpgs then try to get hold of Wizardry 8. It was ridiculous when it was released, but there's a mod available now that tones down the combat to 'mostly survivable'.