As hard as it is to say, WoW just isn't doing it for me anymore. I got my Hunter to 70, got my Flying Machine and started leveling my Warrior. I got him to 64 and just kind of went 'bleh.'
It was just the same quests, only harder.
So, I need a new game. I don't care if it's single-player or an MMO, but I gotta hankerin' for somethin' new.
I have been playing Painkiller: Overdose, but it doesn't quite grab me. I play through a level now and again, but I feel no overwhelming drive to complete it (unlike the original Painkiller that I played through 4 times).
I was also considering going back to City of Heroes/Villains, but you can't solo past a certain point and I always find that frustrating. Well, you can, but you can't complete the AV story arcs.
I have been considering Pirates of the Burning Sea, but while the combat sounds fun, the whole economic model doesn't seem particularly interesting. I'm also considering Tabula Rasa, but I've heard pro and con on that one.
So, tell what's good out there right now. I like FPSs (I've played CoD 4 through 3 times already) and RPGs, but will play most anything if it's interesting.
Are there any hidden gems out there? Any little games, even 'casual' ones, that deliver serious fun? Let me know.
Cheers,
-Jason
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35 comments:
Hey man, love your blog. I'm in the same boat. I personally despise all the tedious and derivative WoW-esque games out there. Best mmo, for my money, was Planetside. I like the way it depended more on your personal skill at the game rather than how long you'd spent "grinding" for xp (do strippers level really quickly?). If anyone can suggest a good persistent-universe fps mmo like that, i'd be very grateful.
A fun little game I came across here is one called Puzzle Quest. The basic engine is your typical 'match three' sort of deal, but what's cool about it is it's a semi-free form RPG. There's a bunch of quests, items to get, leveling up, skills you learn (or steal from defeated monsters!) and a pretty fun story line over all. Nice graphics as well. It's one of those 'try for an hour then buy for $20' sort of set ups, but I thought it was well worth it. It kept me entertained for about a week though I didn't really try to get the uber best gear or anything. And judging by the size of the map, it looks like there are plans to do an addtion later.
Just to let you know that it IS possible to solo COH & (especially) COV now. They downgraded all the AV's to Elite Bosses which a solo player CAN take out easily enough (depending on AT mind you).
I'd go take a look at the game - it has changed an AWFUL lot since the days when you had AV's at the end of every mission.
Been there, done that, I'm afraid. ... Well, not with WoW (MMOs don't really do it for me). For games, I really liked 'The Witcher', though as a female gamer I must say that ogling the main character might have been part of that. Oblivion was fun before the novelty wore off, and Morrowind is still neat. Portal is short, but taking the world by storm.
I have problems suggesting things because I'm in the same boat right now. I love my D&D sessions, and I'm hopelessly addicted to text-based role play. That's where you have a cast of characters and find people over the internet to write stories paragraph by paragraph, novel style. Find some good professional or near-pro writers and it can be a damn good time; I've been caught up in one since last September and 400k words later it still hasn't gotten old.
Kills productivity, though. My poor novel.
A game I've been enjoying lately is Audiosurf. You point it to a music track, it makes a track that you control a vehicle on, and you pick up colored blocks for points. It's actually really fun, is more in depth than I make it sound and the game play almost always goes right along with the music (a lot of metal music doesn't work as well as it should.)
As far as I know, it's only available through Valves Steam service, but it's only around $10. Well worth the money. The website for the game is http://www.audio-surf.com.
It's a few years old now, but I really enjoy Beyond Good & Evil. It's kinda short, which is too bad, but its very entertaining. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is a very cool game, long and involved with an expansion coming out soon. The Witcher is pretty cool, gets complicated after a few zones though.
If you're looking for an MMO though, I'd just wait for a couple to come out...Age of Conan, Warhammer Online, Chronicles of Spellborn are the few I'm looking forward to after quitting WoW.
Get AudioSurf. I have only played the demo(you only get 4 songs to play before it locks you out ;_;), but from what I have played I love it.
One of the best RPGs out at the moment is the Witcher. It is very immersive and all of you choices matter.(Geralt is a bit of a horndog though)
One of my favorite FPSs out there is STALKER: Shadows of Chernobyl. It is about a year old but it hold up pretty well. It is kind of like an RPG in the sense that you can equip armour, weapons and they degrade as you use them.
Another really great FPS is Deus Ex.It is one of the best mixes of FPS and RPG I have ever seen.It might have been made in 2000, but I think it is one of the best shooters EVAR!!!!(but whatever you do,DON'T buy Deus Ex:Invisible War. IT SUCKS!)
If RTS is more your style, then there two games you should not pass up. The first is World in Conflict. That is a really awsome RTS. It is so fast paced, and you don't need to worry about base building.
The Other one is Sins of a Solar Empire. This one is the complete opposite of WiC. It was made for those people who like to spend time building up their galatic empire, then going out and taking over the galaxy. BEWARE, one play map will take you hours to finish, abd you will love every minute of it.
well there you go. A bunch of really geat games out there. hope this helps.
An RPG I'm looking forward to is Fallout 3, due out later this year- probably fall. http://fallout.bethsoft.com/index.html.com
Spore is due out this year, as well as the Sim 3 if either of those strike your fancy.
http://www.spore.com/
http://thesims3.ea.com/
For games already out, I've been playing Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of Betrayal lately. (www.nwn2.com) Both the original NWN2 and the expansion pack have been a lot of fun so far.
If you haven't played Half-life 2 before, you definately should. It is the awesome. Probably my favorite FPS in a long time. http://orange.half-life2.com/
If you're a sci-fi fan and like 4x style space games, Sins of Solar Empire is a good time. Not as in depth as Homeworld and the plot is there, but very thin.
http://www.sinsofasolarempire.com/
2 other awesome games in the same genre are Galactic Civilizations 2 and Space Empires 5. Gal Civ 1 is awesome too. And to be honest the AI is better in Space Empires 4 than 5, but both games are supported by a large user modification community so thats not really a problem.
www.malfador.com
http://www.galciv2.com/
If you like strategy games, Medieval: Total War 2 is awesome.
http://www.totalwar.com/
And Advent Rising is a great single player, story driven FPS adventure.
http://www.adventtrilogy.com/
On the MMORPG front, I've always been more of an Evercrack 2 person than a WoW person. Pirates of the Burning Sea is a fun game. I've only played up to level 12 or so (decided to catch up on offline games and little annoyances such as work & school) but so far its pretty good. The economy is... different but it doesn't really bother me. Heck, CoH is awesome and doesn't even have a real economy. Actually, I have a trial code if you want it. Let me know and I'll email it to you.
Those are just the games I have installed at the moment. I'd recommend games like Prey, Crysis, Rogue Trooper, Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, Fable, Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, Sid Meier's Pirates!, and a million others are all great games.
try lineage2. its another mmorpg but its free if u download it.
I am and have been playing for a few years a game that was first programmed in the 90s and still has a nice international interest.
Steel Panthers: World At War
It's an older IGOUGO (turn based) game where you control squads of infantry and individual vehicles from WW2.
The game simulates battles from 1939 through 1949. You can control forces from most of the countries involved in conflicts then.
The main game is solo vs an AI, but it also has Play By Email (PBEM) function so you can play against opponents from around the world.
The game itself is a free download from www.matrixgames.com and the official support website and web-community is www.spwaw.com.
Maybe you won't agree with me, maybe a lot of people won't. But I play a game called Regnum Online. It's a free MMORPG for Linux and Windows.
The game is updating and expanding all the time, which is neat, and the developers really consider people's input.
Anyway, you can read about it here:
http://www.regnumonline.com.ar/index.php?l=1
Rappelz also looks like an interesting game - but it's Windows only and I'm using Linux, so I can't tell you more.
~kuro
If you want old, head back to Neverwinter Nights! Even after all these years, I'm still playing it. (I run a server named "The Dragon Coast" which has been going for over 3 years now.) But even I am getting tired of it and have been looking for something new.
Dragon Age will be coming out eventually (I think the estimated date is Dec 31st this year) and a lot of people are excited about it. I never got near WoW, and never will. I have enjoyed The Witcher a lot, so if you don't have that one, that's certainly one to try.
So if someone doesn't come out with a good game pretty soon, I'm just going to rebuilt my Persistent World from scratch again.
Try GunZ online or Soldier Front over at ijji.com, they're pretty good, both free and constantly are getting updated and upgraded...there's some p2p extras like weapons and stuff but other then that, quite fun...both are MMO
It depends on the sort of game you're looking for. Are you into adventure/RPG/FPS? There's so many games on the market right now that could cater to your interests.
Sticking with RPG/MMO-esque games, you could always check out Neverwinter Nights 2, with online co-op campaign, Hellgate: London (Diablo as a MMO I hear) or FFXI. I personally have burned myself out on WoW after playing for so long, and am absolutely bored playing it now. FFXI is entertaining me again for the moment, but I bounce around.
Stay away from Star Wars Galaxies and (imo) Guild Wars. Not terribly fun games.
I've been hooked 4½ years to the same RPG provider, two different RPG games.
http://www.skotos.net has a bunch of games, RPG and non, I think it's 13 now. 1st month is free so you can test them all out.
The RPG is text based with a map as graphics. Currently I'm on Ironclaw Online (http://ironclaw.skotos.net) which is based on the tabletop game, but adapted to online playing and text etc.
The setting is Renaissance Italian style, with 4 major noble houses holding the power and guilds and commoners rising due to the impact of economy upon the balance. The nobles just can't afford to tread on the commoners any longer.
The game is still in Beta and systems being built and things tested out. It's players who're staff too, and they're pretty happy to let players help out where they can and listen to ideas on how to improve the game and systems and so on.
Anyway, if you're into text based RPG, where it's more RPG than system, then it's worth checking out. Some of Skotos' other games are even more RPG and less system, while others are more system and less RPG.
*grins* Perhaps we'll meet IG.
Cheers!
In caseyou are "D&D positive", I'd welcome you to the realm of Avlis, ran on NWN1 currently (and in progress on NWN2). It is a unique setting, developed for years before being actually brought to the CoPaP NWN network. If you wish for an overviwe, best start here: http://wiki.avlis.org/
You'll find mature people here. Good luck! :-)
I recommend Hellgate: London! 6 different classes to play and they just added a huge expansion for subscribers, but it is free to play the basic game online. Try the demo!
I've been an addict to Guild Wars ever since it came out. I don't care what most wowtards say-it's actually a really good game (and I bet most of said wowtards haven't actually played the game, either). Theree's a lot of animosity between WoW and GW players, but I see no reason why. They're both good games for different reasons.
2moons is fun, though I've heard it's got a lot of bugs...but I've never experienced that issue whenever I played. It's not very customizable, though maybe that's normal for MMOs. The only ones I've played were GW which has average customization, and Horizons which had huge customization.
Too bad Horizons doesn't really exist anymore. It was pretty good.
I understand, I've been sick of WoW for awhile. Plus not having enough time for one sitting to play doesn't help matters. My favorite series of games of all time is the Heroes of Might and Magic series. A turn based, fantasy strategy game. Look around on Amazon for a complete package of III, IV, or V. You might even find a complete series version containing all of them.
Wow, I never expected this amount of responses! I'm actually going to start going through and checking all these out. If I get into any of the online games, I'll post my char name and anybody that wants to say 'hi' can.
Thanks for the responses!
What hasn't been mentioned here yet is Planeshift (http://www.planeshift.it).
It's a free MMORPG with focus on roleplaying (And I'm talking about roleplaying like "playing your role" and thinking about a nice character background). It's still alpha but the grapics is not too bad and there's a lot of things you can do. So if you don't want something like those usual "kill and slay"-mmorpgs, Planeshift might be just right for you.
Mount & Blade.
Try the shareware. First game I buy. And I've been pirating for 15 years.
Just single player.
Old shareware philosophy and the 2 programmers did an incredible job and ended up with an agreement to publish it!!
Huh, Planeshift sounds interesting, as does Mount and Blade.
I do admit a softspot for Indie publishers, so I'll definately have to give M&B a try.
Thanks :)
FPSs - Frontlines: Fuel of War is a current favourite of mine. In one or two ways, it even trumps CoD4 (don't hate me! I can't help the love I feel for miniature, remote-controlled tanks!).
An indie point-and-click series that I found simply awesome begins with the game '5 Days a Stranger.' Check it out.
Strategies, probably the Homeworld series are my favourite. Still hoping for HW3, actually lol.
Adventure... Advent Rising. Story was handled by one of my favourite sci-fi authors, Orson Scott Card. Unfortunately, the company went bust and the plans for the remaining two games have been scrapped.
There are a bunch of others, but I can't think of most of them, or they've been repeated elsewhere here. I only mentioned AR again 'cos it really is that good =]
SOTS
How long's it been since you've played City of Heroes? Aardy nailed it: it's absolutely easier to level, get around, play solo or on teams since they've done some work on it. Especially in the mid-40s, you don't have to collect a team for everything. Plus they've added "loot" for craftable enhancements, along with new (really nice) costume stuff. Plus if you had ONLY coh or cov instead of a combined account as of last November, your account is now (or should be) upgraded to a full both-sides use type (giving coh only the costume equipment, bases, etc etc that came with cov). It's worth going back to if anything just to see what's all new. There is whole new content in the Rikti War Zone (co-op hero/villain) and much, much more!
One game not mentioned here that i believe is worth a try is EVE ONLINE. 2 week free trials are every where. Its a MMORPG set in space of all things. Its SOO fracking pretty. its method of experience gain/use is unique as far as i know. And for some reason its all on one huge server. Its still a MORPG, so most gameplay elements that you know and love/hate are still there. But the unique setting makes it all feel fresh.
Mount & Blade rocks! I strongly encourage you to try it out.
I am sorry to announce that many of the new games can't compete with the old ones(didn't try all of the games listed here).
a few old games which count as very, very good to my mind:
Master of Magic- turn based, strategy game that takes you to the world of Arcanus and Mirror, one of the best games I know where you play a wizard.
Star construct I, II (III is crap as far as I remember): starcon I takes you to the first part of the story. The game is a nice combo of strategy and 2d shooter game(dunno how the style is called).
In II it's an RPG game, same combat mechanic. Very enjoyable. One of the few games I know of where Aliens are actually unique.
Betrayal at Krondor(Return to Krondor is a nice followup, Betrayal at Antara is crap): a game based on a novel by Raymond E. Feist(hope I spelled it correctly). I hadn't had the chance to read the book, but the characters are realistic.
All of the 3 you can find free online.
Another game which you might like is Master of Orion II(haven't tried the other 2 personally), a turn based strategy game.
Three games I found nice, but not as the ones above are MDK I and II and castles II.
some of the games you can find @ www.abandonia.com
Have fun burning days (or weeks) on these games.
Wow, more games to choose from :)
Frontlines of War will definately get checked out, as will 5 Days a Stranger and Advent Rising.
I tried Homeworld back when it came out and it just didn't click. Maybe I should go back and retry it.
I played CoV when it came out and got my Fire/Fire Brute to 28 (only died twice), before I got tired of the bosses. I would get a boss mission and then need to get two or three levels to actually beat him(her/it). I ended up with a bunch of boss fights in my quest queue and no real interest in street cleaning to get the levels. I do love CoH/CoV (44 MA/SR Scrapper in CoH - yes, I picked the worst power set), but I vastly prefer to solo and had the whole AV problem already mentioned.
A buddy of mine mentioned Eve Online. It sounds interesting. It's been a while since I've done the space-combat thing (probably back with Tie Fighter).
Hey Ariel :)
I played MoM and BaK hard back in the day (though I never really got the hang of BaK). Never played Star Construct II, I'll have to check it out.
Just want to add to Ariel's comment. Master of Orion 2 is an absolutely awesome game and you can probably find it for cheap. I've seen it in the $5 bin at Bestbuy and Target not too long ago.
And a word of caution; Master of Orion 3 is crap. Just plain smelly old crap. It took me about a month of endurance to learn to enjoy it... and then I got bored about 3 days after that.
I have 3 suggestions for games you can try. Depends on your taste of games of course.
Most people have either played a typical zomibie game where you kill a lot of zombies, or seen a mivie where zombies get killed or atleast they have heard of zombies.
In the game Rebel without a pulse you play as the zobie Stubbs, in the early 60's in an futuristic town. He's a zombie and as all zombies he needs brains. But unlike most of his zombie friends he can use different parts of himself as weapons. He can rip out his own liver (it looks like it) and throw and detonate it as a grenade! He can rip of his right arm and use it to posess people, his farts are strong enough to force soildiers out of tanks ( which you can take control of afterwards ^^ Wheee, zombie in a tank!). His last extraordinary ability is that he can rip his own head righto of his shoulders and send it away at the enemy like a bowling ball that explodes. And ofcourse anyone you kill as a zombie turns into a zombie.
My second suggestion is somewhat more of a kiddies game since there is no blood. Psychonauts. In this game you take control of a small boy named Razputin with psychic powers, who runs away from the circus that he lived and worked at with his familiy. He runs away to a psychih trainingcamp where he convinces the leaders to let him stay for a few days. Here he learns to use telekinesis on objects and people, see through peoples eyes, shoot laser from his forehead ( mor eor less) levitate, make a forcefield around himself and much more. Not all is well at the camp and children are going missing and returning without their brains. (Gah brain-story again!)
Bit if you like rpg, and rts (rolplaying-game, real-time-strayegy) than I suggest Spellforce. it is a bit old but it has a an alright story and a lot to build and fight. The reason I cant really say too much about it is because I havent played it through yet.
A small last thing to add is the game F.E.A.R. that is a combination of intense fps action and japanese horror movies with small ghost girls (atleast seemingly a ghost). Also the enemy knows how to work together ti drive you out of cover and they move as groups. ( Plus I think its cool to see a shotgun split the enemies into two, also decapitation by shotgun and running around with the head like a football is also entertaining).
There thats all I have to say. For now..
Never played Rebel Without a Pulse. I'll have to see if I can find a demo somewhere.
I have heard a lot of good things about Psychonauts. I'll probably give that one a try.
I want to say I've heard of Spellforce, but I'm not sure. I'll also take a look for a demo.
I've played through FEAR (and the expansion). It was a good game, but could have been great if they'd taken one step further. It needed more enemies, for one. I did get tired of fighting the same soldiers over and over. Great gunfights, though :)
A couple of games that are very good, and mostly unknown.
http://www.nicelycrafted.com/todc/index.html
Its a game that playes for a month at a time. its a RTS on a massive scale.
There are floating islands that you need to find, mine, and build your towns on and then build your (flying)warmachines.
And you plan a friendly visit to your neibours.
It also hosts games that are faster and take a weekend and some even shorter.
Its sounds like a long winded game, but its got tons and tons of features/content.
Ive played it for a very long time and im still enjoying it.
If you alway's dreamed of doing unspeakebly evil things and just playing the evil bastard.
Try Overlord its a very funny game where you controll your evil minions to do anything. =)
If you would rather do some fast action robotic FPS try :
http://www.exteel.com/us/
As for a good RTS try: world in conflict, personaly i found it one of the best rts games around,
Have fun.
Chipeloi
I know I'm a little late on this, and you've probably found another, but I like the Iron Realms games.
Aetolia
Achaea
Lusternia
Imperian
Just www. and .com those and you've got your web adresses. They're MUDs, but that doesn't make them any less enjoyable.
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