Underappreciated Video Game Gems

[Mr. Zolrane]

Anyone have a beloved video game that not everyone has heard of, but everyone should?

For me it is, now and forever, Dark Cloud 2. At first glance, it might not seem like more than some gorgeous cel-shaded graphics. At its core it's a dungeon crawler, but the combat is extremely solid and challenging, and in the dungeons you collect materials that you can use to rebuild cities to influence the future. Additionally, you can take pictures of nearly any object in the world-- as well as certain epic events, and enemies in certain poses (these are quite challenging to get)-- to get "ideas" which, when properly combined can be used to create "Invention Cards" which, with the proper materials can be used to make useful/awesome items. The story is pretty standard Mineral MacGuffin fare, but the excellent voice acting and emotional storytelling elevate the narrative above its derivative nature. More than the sum of its part. My favorite game of all time.

[houlio]

For me it is a game on the game cube called Gladius (I think it is that at least, its been awhile since I played it), which was pretty much a 3d version of final fantasy tactics, except with pseudo-Roman, Norse, Mongolian, and Egyptian themed places and characters. It is still one of my favorite games for the game cube.

[Iyellalot]

I remember an obscure N64 game called "Rocket: Robot on Wheels." It was really fun, with some clever puzzles.

[SparkMandriller]

Ketsui is pretty good I guess.

[Ogremindes]

Anyone have a beloved video game that not everyone has heard of, but everyone should?

For me it is, now and forever, Dark Cloud 2...

I played that. Pretty good, but I stopped at the stage where you didn't have a ...whatchamacallit, a Georama. I've heard that there's a good one after that, but I never picked it up again.

[Mr. Zolrane]

I played that. Pretty good, but I stopped at the stage where you didn't have a ...whatchamacallit, a Georama. I've heard that there's a good one after that, but I never picked it up again.

It's well worth finishing. The ending is really emotionally moving, and the bonus dungeon after the credits roll is great for those who like a tough-as-nails challenge (i.e. me :smalltongue:)

[Inhuman Bot]

For me it is a game on the game cube called Gladius (I think it is that at least, its been awhile since I played it), which was pretty much a 3d version of final fantasy tactics, except with pseudo-Roman, Norse, Mongolian, and Egyptian themed places and characters. It is still one of my favorite games for the game cube.

I have it, I'm not sure if I'd say it's that great myself.

But of course, Beyond Good and Evil, Okami, Metal Arms: Glitch in the System, etc. :smalltongue:

[Artanis]

Massive Assault (http://www.massiveassault.com/). A TBS that's pure strategy, with nothing getting in the way.

[Kurien]

Crystalis (Godslayer in Japan): A game from SNK released in the latter years of the NES era, notable for its atypical (for its time), thought-provoking storyline and revolutionary controls. It was an action RPG set in a future 'verse recovering from an apocalyptic nuclear war. I wish it had become a series, but any game from that time was compared to and eclipsed by Legend of Zelda :smallfrown:.

[darbythegambler]

Streets of Rage was a childhood favorite for me, yet no one I know has even heard of it :smallsigh:

[Falgorn]

For me it is a game on the game cube called Gladius (I think it is that at least, its been awhile since I played it), which was pretty much a 3d version of final fantasy tactics, except with pseudo-Roman, Norse, Mongolian, and Egyptian themed places and characters. It is still one of my favorite games for the game cube.

It was out on the PS2, as well. I loved that game, especially with my Yeti character.

[Saph]

Streets of Rage was a childhood favorite for me, yet no one I know has even heard of it :smallsigh:

I have! :smallbiggrin: Loved that series.

For me it's Phantasy Star 4. One of the best RPGs I've ever played, yet it's not well known outside the small PS community. The storyline's perfectly suited for a tabletop game, too - I ended up turning it into a D&D campaign and the players really enjoyed it.

[Ogremindes]

Streets of Rage was a childhood favorite for me, yet no one I know has even heard of it :smallsigh:

I haven't played it (not my style), but I've heard nothing but good things about it.

[WeLoveFireballs]

Stargate: Resistance
SGR has no especially awesome features but it fills that little place in my heart for flinging people in nice fancy looking armor across the room with a big stick. :smallbiggrin:

[The Dark Fiddler]

I don't know exactly how unpopular it is, but I do know that: a) nobody who lives her has ever heard of it and b) sales weren't as good as they should be, but Elite Beat Agents is, in my mind, one of those games that everyone should try at least once. It's just so quirky that I found it impossible to dislike. I've said it before and I'll say it again: best $6 I ever spent on a video game.

[SlyGuyMcFly]

Streets of Rage was a childhood favorite for me, yet no one I know has even heard of it :smallsigh:

That was my favourite game, back in the day. The sequels are quite excellent too.

[Inhuman Bot]

Streets of Rage was a childhood favorite for me, yet no one I know has even heard of it :smallsigh:

I thought this was about Underappreciated games?



I don't know exactly how unpopular it is, but I do know that: a) nobody who lives her has ever heard of it and b) sales weren't as good as they should be, but Elite Beat Agents is, in my mind, one of those games that everyone should try at least once. It's just so quirky that I found it impossible to dislike. I've said it before and I'll say it again: best $6 I ever spent on a video game.



I thought this was about Underappreciated games?

[The Dark Fiddler]

I thought this was about Underappreciated games?

And I explained my reasons for mentioning it. Do you have a counter-point?

[Gralamin]

Planescape: Torment is well known in this community, but still an under-appreciated video game overall. Then again, we do not have statues to its greatness everywhere, so it will stay under-appreciated :smalltongue:.

Psychonauts, which is once again well known in this community.

Beyond good and evil, see above.

etc.

[Shas aia Toriia]

Split/Second. I know it got good reviews and all, but nobody bought it. At all. Its a shame, because its just pure fun, with no silly "logic" or "physics" getting in the way.
Maybe not the best video game I've ever played, but definitely one of the most fun.

[hobbitkniver]

For me it is a game on the game cube called Gladius (I think it is that at least, its been awhile since I played it), which was pretty much a 3d version of final fantasy tactics, except with pseudo-Roman, Norse, Mongolian, and Egyptian themed places and characters. It is still one of my favorite games for the game cube.

I loved that game. I had it for the PS2. One thing I could never handle is how powerful the barbarians were compared to the well trained and armored roman warriors.

[Eldariel]

Jagged Alliance 2. For whatever reason it never got much press in spite of being the best game of its genre ever, and being of an awesome genre...

Grim Fandango too, though that's mostly 'cause adventure games somehow randomly died and nobody even knows the genre anymore. *exaggeration for dramatic effect*

[Cespenar]

The Longest Journey and its sequel, Dreamfall.

[dsmiles]

Two, though one's a series.

1. Master of Magic - one of the best turn-based strategies to date, IMO.
2. Zork - THE best text adventure. EVER.

[Triaxx]

I remember Crystalis. It was one of the few NES games I ever actually beat.

Warrior's Ring + Turbo FTW

[The Rose Dragon]

The Longest Journey and its sequel, Dreamfall.

Look, we said underappreciated games. Stop bringing up games that everyone admits are brilliant examples of their genre. :smalltongue:

Also, give me my sequel to Dreamfall already. I've been waiting for years.

[Cogwheel]

Terranigma and Treasure of the Rudras, both RPGs for the SNES, both fantastic, both almost never mentioned anywhere (especially the latter).

Somewhat understandable, though. Terranigma was never released in the US and got a rather poor fan translation patch (though the EU translation is good).

Rudras got a better translation (despite being a game I would consider nigh-impossible to translate), but was never released outside of Japan. And wasn't exactly a big deal here either.

They were also released near the end of the SNES's life. Funny that they'd be so obscure, though - the former is released by Enix (the actual dev is down) and the latter by Square, attempting something new and different, as they often did back then.

[Yora]

Nobody seems to know Mirror's Edge. It's not mainstream, but I think it's really good.

[The Rose Dragon]

Nobody seems to know Mirror's Edge. It's not mainstream, but I think it's really good.

I'm sure Mirror's Edge is overappreciated, rather than underappreciated. It was good for a single play, but it had almost no replay value, which should be a big deal when your game's only selling point is parkour and freerunning. It didn't have a great story, combat was too difficult when it was obligatory and it was fairly linear in how you get from point to another.

However, it looked fantastic.

[Yora]

I think the main difference is, if you pay 50€ or 10€.
For 10€, I think it's clearly worth it's money.

[Spinoza]

If you like turn based games at all I thought Solium Infernum was really good.

Its by an independent developer.

[Cespenar]

Look, we said underappreciated games. Stop bringing up games that everyone admits are brilliant examples of their genre. :smalltongue:

Also, give me my sequel to Dreamfall already. I've been waiting for years.

It's a cult game at best. Adventure games are barely played as they are, and even when they're mentioned, the most common names are Monkey Island or Broken Sword, which are, admittedly, great games, but IMHO not as good as the masterpiece which is TLJ.

[Yora]

And I usually hate Sci-Fi/Fantasy Crossovers. But I still think the game is amazing.
Maybe I should give it another try. The last time I kind of forgot about it when I first met the queen of the fish people.

[SlayerScott]

Plenty of love here for Streets of Rage - moreso for Streets of Rage 2. Loved that kid on rollerblades. Gladius was awesome too, I've got a good story about how we finally finished that game but it's a little PG-13. Is there a thread for possibly offensive stories? I've got a few good ones that would relate well to some recent OOTS strips but I fear the banhammer.

My underappreciated faves? There was an N64 game called Hybrid Heaven that I absolutely loved. It's a rare person that's heard of it. Possibly less obscure but I don't know anyone who played a copy other mine - Comix Zone for the oldschool Sega Genesis (that's the MegaDrive for my foreign friends!)

Having loved Brutal Legend I really have to track down Psychonauts. I've never played it but I hear nothing but gushing praise for it. I think I'm gonna keep a close eye on this thread...:smallwink:

[Starbuck_II]

Gemfire. SNES game that was pretty awesome back in its day.

[Yora]

Now I really have to say I've never heard of that. Most underapprechiated games are at least something I know exist. :smallbiggrin:

[Cespenar]

To name some of the older and even less known titles as well:

Sanity: Aiken's Artifact
Blood & Magic
Gruntz
NetStorm

[ObadiahtheSlim]

Lords of Magic. The graphics kinda sucked, but it really was fun. Order's warrior Lord with a couple of order cavalry and lots of Life archers. Maybe a Fire mage or two to round out the group. Nothing can stop you short of legendaries or high level mages.

Also it's predecessor Lord of the Realm II. It was a fun little turn based strat although combat could be a bit tedious and super easy to cheese against the AI.

[Airk]

Kohan: Ahriman's Gift, for PC. Freakin' excellent RTS with some really innovative systems that never really got the love it deserved.

Shining Force (series overall) and specfically, Shining Force 3 for the Sega Saturn. Brilliant stuff.

Speaking of the Sega Saturn, good lord. Uh. Guardian Heroes - superb brawler gameplay, character levelling system, multiple branching story paths. Epic stuff.

Dragon Force (Saturn again!) curious mix of RTS and management with a nice story wrapped around it. Very sad the 2nd one never came over because it sounded like it did a really good job of refining the gameplay.

(I too loved Streets of Rage 2, though it was undeniably easier than the first one, which was brutally hard. It had much more varied gameplay though. Phantasy Star 4 remains one of my absolute favorites of all time as well.)

[boj0]

Illusion of Gaia, try to look up one review that doesn't compare it to LoZ:ALttP and you'll see why it's under appreciated.

[0tt3r]

These two may be well known here, but not in my circle of friends:

Ogre Battle 64
Quest 64

Ogre Battle 64 was just fantastically fun, and Quest 64 was my first real RPG (also the first RPG for the N64). Looking back, Ogre Battle 64 is still fantastically fun, but Quest 64 feels a little flat.

[Thorcrest]

Gemfire. SNES game that was pretty awesome back in its day.

Ahh Gemfire... one of Koei's Good old strategy games for the Imagination Series. Nothing but love for Kou Shibusawa here, but I prefer the Historical Simulation Series myself, for all Platforms, who can ever get enough of Romance of the Three Kingdoms or Nobunaga's Ambition? I've yet to play any games in any of the Historical Simulation Seiries I didn't enjoy, and all of their sequals have been great too... It's too bad Koei makes most of it's money off of drek like Dynasty Warriors now-a-days... At least they still make the sequals to the old classics... even if they generally add little to the old games, other than some graphic updates and the occasional stat array change.

[boj0]

Quest 64 was my first real RPG (also the first RPG for the N64).
^ This.

If it wasn't for Quest 64 I would not have started D&D, which meant I wouldn't have started Elder Scrolls, Shadowrun, SAGA, Magic: The Gathering or Warhammer 40K, which means I wouldn't have started Fallout or Deathwatch.

In other words, Quest 64 is the reason I don't have money.

[warty goblin]

Massive Assault (http://www.massiveassault.com/). A TBS that's pure strategy, with nothing getting in the way.

I second this, MA is probably the best non-X4 TBS I've ever played. Deep gameplay, knife-edge balance, units that made sense and interacted in interesting and complex ways, graphics that still hold up ten years on... it's the complete package.

Supreme Commander 2, for my money, also never gets fair shakes. It's easily my favorite RTS of last year though.

Also the fact that Red Orchestra isn't hailed as the pinnacle of FPSs in terms of pure gameplay never ceases to disappoint me. No regenerating health, health packs, auto aim, killstreaks, unlocks or other BS. In Red Orchestra you earn every single kill by simply being better than the other person, and every single death should be a lesson in what you did wrong.

[Morty]

Kohan: Ahriman's Gift, for PC. Freakin' excellent RTS with some really innovative systems that never really got the love it deserved.


Even though I only played the demo, I agree. It was a very good RTS with some very neat features, but it never achieved any notoriety. I found the plot a bit confusing, though. But that was a long time ago.

[Airk]

Even though I only played the demo, I agree. It was a very good RTS with some very neat features, but it never achieved any notoriety. I found the plot a bit confusing, though. But that was a long time ago.

Well, K:AG sortof assumed you were familiar with the plotline from the previous game, Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns, which is acceptable, sortof, since KAG was billed as a sort of "standalone expansion" or something, but really it was a refinement of the game overall. The single player plot was probably bit muddled though, since they did some weird jumping around in time after the first few missions and stuff. It's been a while though, and truthfully, it was a game that I played for the gameplay (did many hours of skirmish maps) moreso than the plot.

[Tengu_temp]

Blood & Magic

I didn't expect to meet anyone else who played this game. Its graphics were primitive for its age, but it was a fun game with many innovative elements.

Speaking of underappreciated RTS games Battle Realms. From the interesting medieval Japanese setting to the way you got better soldiers by training lower tier ones, it had so many unique elements! This game had the bad luck of coming out merely months before Warcraft 3, which overshadowed it completely.

[Cespenar]

I didn't expect to meet anyone else who played this game. Its graphics were primitive for its age, but it was a fun game with many innovative elements.

True. I also remember finding its faerie tale-like stories pretty cool, though it might also be because I was younger back then.

[Mr. Zolrane]

My underappreciated faves? There was an N64 game called Hybrid Heaven that I absolutely loved. It's a rare person that's heard of it.

Having loved Brutal Legend I really have to track down Psychonauts. I've never played it but I hear nothing but gushing praise for it. I think I'm gonna keep a close eye on this thread...:smallwink:

I saw a buddy of mine playing Hybrid Heaven once a couple years ago. It was only the very beginning of the game, so I'm well aware that I'm in no position to make a general judgement of the game, but it looked really, really dull to me. The fight I watched dragged on forever, and it was just two guys performing poorly animated (not just by today's standards, but by N64 standards) attacks on each other, like a slow-motion fighting game, and missing more often than not. Maybe it was more fun to play, and maybe the game got better, but at least at the start it was painfully boring to watch.

As for Brutal Legend and Psychonauts I'm right there with you. BL is one of the best games I've played in the last few years (it did a great job of blending action and RTS in a way I'd never seen before), and from what I've seen of Psychonauts it's just as good as the hype.

[Forbiddenwar]

Stargate: Resistance
SGR has no especially awesome features but it fills that little place in my heart for flinging people in nice fancy looking armor across the room with a big stick. :smallbiggrin:

under appreciated by even it's own intellectual property owners. I just read that all gameplay will cease on Jan 15.
Too bad for anyone who purchased it.

In fact with all stargate projects being canceled, it may be the end of a great SciFi series.

[Corlindale]

The new King's Bounty games. I absolutely loved them, especially The Legend, but for some reason hardly anyone I know has played or even know about them. I got them almost for free off Steam during sales, and easily played for 120 hours between them, greatly entertained all the way.

[Nosferocktu]

Festers Quest. The very first NES game I ever played and I think the first game to actually make a decent movie spin-off game.

[Inhuman Bot]

Festers Quest. The very first NES game I ever played and I think the first game to actually make a decent movie spin-off game.

This is all nostalgia. :smalltongue:

[Mr. Zolrane]

Festers Quest. The very first NES game I ever played and I think the first game to actually make a decent movie spin-off game.

One of the earliest, for sure, but there've been others. The SNES Aladdin was awesome, and even some relatively recent stuff, like Return of the King for the PS2 (despite being unreasonably hard in parts) and surprisingly Shrek 2 for the Gamecube-- fairly standard beat-em-up fare but very solid overall, and the switching characters on the fly was cool.

[Tvtyrant]

Super Star Wars II: The Empire Strikes Back for the SNES

...What?

[Freylorn]

Not sure if it qualifies, but I really enjoy Dark Messiah of Might and Magic.

The combat in it was very fun, even if the story was a little lackluster. Now that I'm typing this I can't think of any particularly amazing things about it - but it tends to pull me back in for a quick playthrough (it was a short game) every few months.

To me at least, that warrants me mentioning it.

[Forbiddenwar]

Legacy of Kain: Defiance.

Poor selling of this game has, most likely, killed the series.
But this thread isn't about series that petered out. Defiance is the best game of the series, the added dynamic of switching between characters in different eras, with different abilities to solve puzzles and open new pathways made this game unbeatable in its genre of action puzzler. The bosses are challenging, and the gameplay is intuitive. The story is epic, the voice acting is the best I've ever heard in a game. Why did this game "not meet sales expectations"?

[Strawberries]

Legacy of Kain: Defiance.

I really loved this one. Truly the best one of the series, with an ending that was chilling and heartbreaking.

Sanity: Aiken's Artifact. I haven't heard anyone mention it ever, but I enjoyed it a lot when I played it. Great story, and cool puzzles.

[Morty]

Well, K:AG sortof assumed you were familiar with the plotline from the previous game, Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns, which is acceptable, sortof, since KAG was billed as a sort of "standalone expansion" or something, but really it was a refinement of the game overall. The single player plot was probably bit muddled though, since they did some weird jumping around in time after the first few missions and stuff. It's been a while though, and truthfully, it was a game that I played for the gameplay (did many hours of skirmish maps) moreso than the plot.

Ah, I see. Yes, now I know why it was a bit confusing.



Speaking of underappreciated RTS games Battle Realms. From the interesting medieval Japanese setting to the way you got better soldiers by training lower tier ones, it had so many unique elements! This game had the bad luck of coming out merely months before Warcraft 3, which overshadowed it completely.

I remember that one. I played it for a while. It was pretty fun.

[Triaxx]

SupCom 2 isn't under appreciated, it's awful. If it had come first, or been under a different name, it'd be good, but it's SO different as to be unrecognizable from the first.

Aidyn Chronicles: The First Mage, on the N64. If you can get past the razor sharp graphics, and the horrid reviews (0.5), it's a fun game with some surprising depth and a story that's not completely horrible, though like say, FFIX, the final boss comes out of nowhere.

[Cespenar]

Sanity: Aiken's Artifact. I haven't heard anyone mention it ever, but I enjoyed it a lot when I played it. Great story, and cool puzzles.


To name some of the older and even less known titles as well:

Sanity: Aiken's Artifact
Blood & Magic
Gruntz
NetStorm

Now, really. :smalltongue:

[Strawberries]

Now, really. :smalltongue:

Ooops sorry. My eyes skipped right over it. :smallredface:

[warty goblin]

SupCom 2 isn't under appreciated, it's awful. If it had come first, or been under a different name, it'd be good, but it's SO different as to be unrecognizable from the first.

It's a good game, but it's awful because it says Supreme Commander 2 on the front? Huh?

That's like judging a book by its cover, and then using said cover to cut off your nose to spite your face. Which is to say really weird, and a seriously strained simile in the bargain.

Preferring SupCom 1 I can understand. I don't understand hating a game you admit is good because of the name on the front of the box though.

[ryzouken]

Bump n' Jump.

That's right. Bump n' Jump. It doesn't get too much more obscure than that. Car driving game for the ill fated Intellivision in which you bump other cars around and jump over obstacles to avoid your death. Many hours were spent playing Bump n' Jump (mainly because it was the best cartridge I had for the console!) in me youth, and many a car was defeated by my mighty bumper.

I'm still getting good mileage out of Phantom Crash. It's a nice, snappy little mech sim that, alas, was buried under the weightier titles named Mechwarrior, Armored Core and the glut of other one shots that were released when the market for mech sims opened. Sure, it's a little grindy, being as you have to fight 9 opponents in three arenas to unlock the final boss. But the customization options are just as robust as the AC or MW series, and there's a story behind each character in there, if you pay attention to the walls o' text they throw up. The Top Ranker's story, in particular, is soul shattering very, very sad once you realize what's going on...

Her AI chip's dying. Slowly. And as the memory he's stored on gets more and more degraded he begins forgetting things, and his personality begins to change. If you only read the blurbs of the Ranker and her chip, you get a very depressing look at something akin to a degenerative brain condition, and it's horribly sad to see the conversation between the ranker and her chip begin to degrade along with the chip...

[Leecros]

Lords of Magic. The graphics kinda sucked, but it really was fun. Order's warrior Lord with a couple of order cavalry and lots of Life archers. Maybe a Fire mage or two to round out the group. Nothing can stop you short of legendaries or high level mages.

Also it's predecessor Lord of the Realm II. It was a fun little turn based strat although combat could be a bit tedious and super easy to cheese against the AI.

This.

Lords of Magic was an amazing game and i really wish they made a sequel. I was more of a Water fan because they were fairly balanced and you can get Life to swear fealty to you early which gives you the best archers in the game. And they're amazons. :smallamused: A must get definitely.

I also enjoyed Lords of the Realm II. It was a really great game, it's just a shame that Lords of the Realm III sucked....



Majesty and Majesty II were also both great titles(Majesty moreso than it's successor). It's a fun game where you're the king of a kingdom in an rpg-esque world. It's kind of a strategy game, you build towers, blacksmiths, guilds to recruit heroes, but what really makes it stand out is that Heroes travel on their own free will like they would in an RPG doing what that Hero class would do. Rangers scout the land and hunt, Warriors protect and combat foul beasts, Rogues steal(even from you occasionally). They earn money in their own ways which they can use to purchase items at the market like healing potions that they'll actually use in combat(after you built the market and researched them) and they'll use it to buy new weapons and armor at the blacksmith,etc... Then to get them to do what you want you place bounties on things. If you want that rock golem smashing your castle to die you place a bounty on it and heros will come and kill the golem. It's a really enjoyable game and it's definitely on my list of suggested games.


Another one that i rarely hear anything about is Descent. It's a space-age shooter. You fly into these mines on different planets and destroy rogue robots until you reach the core which detonates the entire mine once destroyed(of course you have to get out in time. It has crappy graphics and the flight is pretty wonky since it was made to be used with a joystick which...just doesn't seem to happen anymore and the controls for the keyboard are klunky, but i have spent many-a-day playing that.

I think that's about it for me.


Edit: And Dwarf Fortress :smallcool:

[Artanis]

It's a good game, but it's awful because it says Supreme Commander 2 on the front? Huh?

That's like judging a book by its cover, and then using said cover to cut off your nose to spite your face. Which is to say really weird, and a seriously strained simile in the bargain.

Preferring SupCom 1 I can understand. I don't understand hating a game you admit is good because of the name on the front of the box though.

I'm similar to you in this regard. I do my best to take things on their own merits, and try to avoid judging them based on a name. A lot of things become a hell of a lot better (or at least a whole lot less bad) if you take the name out of the equation.

[Inhuman Bot]

I'm similar to you in this regard. I do my best to take things on their own merits, and try to avoid judging them based on a name. A lot of things become a hell of a lot better (or at least a whole lot less bad) if you take the name out of the equation.

Deus Ex Invisible War.

[Thrawn183]

Homeworld: Cataclysm
I much preferred it to the other Homeworld titles, but it seems as if I'm the only one.

[Cespenar]

Deus Ex Invisible War.

Seconded. It's not a godawful game, despite what others would lead one to believe.

[Maeglin_Dubh]

Descent and the original Majesty both rock.

[Triaxx]

I'm not saying it's a bad game, just a bad sequel. A lot of people thought the same about Fallout Tactics, and 3.

It's so different that it doesn't feel like it's better, but a step backwards. 1 was grand strategy at it's very best. 2 feels like it's moving towards StarCraft, and I just don't support that.

[Jair Barik]

Sacrifice. So much awesome voice acting, so much funny dialogue and so much fun to play through it 6 or more times.

[Avilan the Grey]

Kingdom o'Magic (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yB6qPSMeWNc)

The zaniest most fun point-and-click adventure I have ever played. Unfortunately, despite great reviews, it did not sell well at all. Have yet to find another person that actually played it.

http://www.lysator.liu.se/~ekman/en/kom1.gif

[JediSoth]

Shogo: Mobile Armor Division (http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/shogo_mobile_armor_division), an anime-inspired FPS that split its levels between FPS mech combat and on-foot. Sadly, it came out about the same time as Half-Life, so you can imagine what sort of attention it received.

Occasionally, you would encounter mechs on your on-foot levels (and have to break out heavy weapons to deal with them), or foot soldiers in your mech levels (if you wanted, you could step on a lot of them, or kick them across city blocks while they spewed bright red anime blood all over the buildings :p). It has pretty good voice acting, a good story, and a pretty funny script. I still break it out now and again. Good Old Games has it for $6.

There were two others I really liked on my C64, back in the day. On, I think, was called Temple of Apshai. Even though your dude looked like he was wielding a whip, it was a fun little dungeon-crawler lite-RPG. Another, I cannot for the life of me remember the name of, but you controlled a guy looking for treasures. You started in a hub world, and could transport to various worlds like Pandemonium, Limbo, Midas, etc. and had to avoid the dangers within while collecting various treasures. The graphics were pretty cool for the C64 and the gameplay was engaging, if a little twitchy.

[Airk]

Sacrifice. So much awesome voice acting, so much funny dialogue and so much fun to play through it 6 or more times.

I figured that everyone liked Sacrifice, so I didn't mention it.

I actually played Shogo: Mobile Armor Division, but it made SO LITTLE impression on me that I basically don't remember it at all at this point. @_@

[Lost Demiurge]

Kingdom o'Magic (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yB6qPSMeWNc)

The zaniest most fun point-and-click adventure I have ever played. Unfortunately, despite great reviews, it did not sell well at all. Have yet to find another person that actually played it.

http://www.lysator.liu.se/~ekman/en/kom1.gif

::Raises a hand:: I remember that one! You could choose to play either the lizard guy or the bosomy chick. I recall I got it for $8 at a computer show, in the pre-owned games rack.

Gave it to a friend years ago, sadly. Never quite finished it. This was in the age before gamefaqs, so when I got stuck bad I shelved it...

[Psyren]

Otogi!
Both of them, but especially the second one. (http://www2.sega.com/gamesite/otogi2/content.html)

Fantastic action, BEAUTIFUL graphics, and just about everything is breakable. I was so sad that it didn't work on my 360, but I would gladly buy it if they fixed it for XBLA.

[ObadiahtheSlim]

Lords of Magic was an amazing game and i really wish they made a sequel. I was more of a Water fan because they were fairly balanced and you can get Life to swear fealty to you early which gives you the best archers in the game. And they're amazons. :smallamused: A must get definitely.


Yeah I like to grab water if I miss out on order Since they have the same calvary unit. I only prefer Order because you can promote them to level 6 with the temple annex building. Also Water's Ultimate really sucks. I mean, Order's may be sub-par, but you can group with him.

Plus you can't deny the OP air thief champion/lord. He can solo caves by exploiting air's superior stealth ability and flying over unpassable terrain. Only a bunch of high power range attackers can give him trouble. Can easily cheese up some useful scrolls and magic items.

[kiryoku]

heavy gear 2 for pc beats all the mech games it had 4 classes of gear that you could customize in just about any way such as speed, armor, stealth, radar, weapons and perks that add abilites to you gear.

[Cogwheel]

I figured that everyone liked Sacrifice, so I didn't mention it.

I actually played Shogo: Mobile Armor Division, but it made SO LITTLE impression on me that I basically don't remember it at all at this point. @_@

Everyone who played Sacrifice liked it.

This amounts to about three people.

[Inhuman Bot]

Everyone who played Sacrifice liked it.

This amounts to about three people.

The scene where a buzz-saw unit sliced up a peasent scared me as a child, which colors my view of Sacrifice. :smallfrown:

I still liked it, though.

[Cogwheel]

The scene where a buzz-saw unit sliced up a peasent scared me as a child, which colors my view of Sacrifice. :smallfrown:

I still liked it, though.

Yes, well. You know what they say. What is a life, devoid of strife?

Honestly, I played it at age 9 and wasn't terribly disturbed. Dropping a cow on people may have helped.

[Jair Barik]

Was there any reason not to drop a cow on people? (a somersaulting cow no less)

But yeah there is some marginally disturbing stuff/lines in there. The Charnel spell that makes an enemy explode from their insides expanding is gross and some of Charnels lines are definitely black comedy
"Death is not the answer to everything"
"Yes... torture also has its merits"

[SITB]

Magic & Mayhem, the first game not the god awful second one. I have never met/read/heard about anyone else who recognized this game.Me and my brother had lots of fun with theis game despite the outright bullsh*t one praticular character throws at you.

[The Rose Dragon]

Everyone who played Sacrifice liked it.

This amounts to about three people.

I know at least seventeen people who played Sacrifice. :smalltongue:

[Aidan305]

I'm going to throw out Eternal Champions (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_Champions), a fighting game on the Mega Drive. Brilliant characters, an engaging plot and a whole bunch of fun moves.

[Leecros]

Yeah I like to grab water if I miss out on order Since they have the same calvary unit. I only prefer Order because you can promote them to level 6 with the temple annex building. Also Water's Ultimate really sucks. I mean, Order's may be sub-par, but you can group with him.

Plus you can't deny the OP air thief champion/lord. He can solo caves by exploiting air's superior stealth ability and flying over unpassable terrain. Only a bunch of high power range attackers can give him trouble. Can easily cheese up some useful scrolls and magic items.

yeah Air thieves were pretty OP. One can max out their Air Lord that way with minimal risk. I think they have rather short range for a ranged unit though, but that's not as critical with stealth.

I think the only faction i haven't won with is Chaos. I'm not sure why i have such a problem with them(may be the low defense), but early in the game i noticed the Air Lord tends to make a stupid suicidal charge at the Chaos Lord and die after which the entire faction just gets up and charges at you.

I have to say though, the biggest complaint i have about the game is that you can just swarm Balkoth(the villain for those who don't know) with low level melee people and eventually he'll die. It gets to the point where he has to constantly block and since it's automatic then you will kill him eventually. It may take 20 minutes, but he won't be able to attack you since he'll be blocking constantly even though he could one-hit you.
I've had the most success pulling this off with the Air's Eagle units....

Speaking of Death they are a pain to fight if they manage to get high-level necromancers. I don't know how many times i have had a battle with them only to have my lord die to their annoying shadow spell.

[Inhuman Bot]

Yes, well. You know what they say. What is a life, devoid of strife?

Honestly, I played it at age 9 and wasn't terribly disturbed. Dropping a cow on people may have helped.

I was like, 5. :smalltongue:

Grand Theft Auto (Which I snuck off a demo disc), and Starcraft? Fine.

A shame I didn't play Sacrifice instead of the relentlessly mediocre GTA II, though. :smallfrown:

[riccaru]

Legacy of Kain: Defiance.

Poor selling of this game has, most likely, killed the series.
But this thread isn't about series that petered out. Defiance is the best game of the series, the added dynamic of switching between characters in different eras, with different abilities to solve puzzles and open new pathways made this game unbeatable in its genre of action puzzler. The bosses are challenging, and the gameplay is intuitive. The story is epic, the voice acting is the best I've ever heard in a game. Why did this game "not meet sales expectations"?

DON'T mention that game. Even with a walkthrough I'm stuck way early in the game>_<.

As for under appreciated games, I was partial to Legacy of Kain: Soul reaver :smalltongue:

[ryzouken]

heavy gear 2 for pc beats all the mech games it had 4 classes of gear that you could customize in just about any way such as speed, armor, stealth, radar, weapons and perks that add abilites to you gear.

I preferred Heavy Gear 1, actually.
Gears came in the standard classifications of gear: Light, Heavy, Assault, Strider, but the customization screen permitted you to mix and match components, resulting in some incredible chimeric gears that couldn't actually fit into one of the above classes. In particular, I was fond of running a high speed chassis, built off the Cheetah mk II legs and Hunter XMG torso with all the servos swapped out for the experimental prototype variations (yes, you could actually go INTO components and mess around with the subcomponents therein.) with a pair of Grizzly arms carrying an RFB and Pack Mounted AG missiles. Only ran into trouble facing down those darned heavy tanks, whose armor thickness ran over the penetration of everything but my very limited (12 shots) stock of AG missiles. On the plus side, I was able to out run such threats as I was peaked at 72 kph running speed, 150+ on the SMS.


Ahh.... good times. Good times. I just wish I could get Win 7 to accept my install discs... or get some emulation environment up and running that would handle it... Sadly HG1 is one of those games from an era whose technology is well and truly left in the dust...

If you ever find yourself able to (perhaps by virtue of possessing a Pentium II?) definitely give HG1 a try. It is very much a gem. HG2 is great as well, less customization, but better everything else...

I'd give my lugknuts for an HG3.

[Forbiddenwar]

DON'T mention that game. Even with a walkthrough I'm stuck way early in the game>_<.

As for under appreciated games, I was partial to Legacy of Kain: Soul reaver :smalltongue:

Have you tried video walkthroughs?

[bladesyz]

Looks like nobody mentioned Ancient Domains of Mystery (http://www.adom.de/)!

It's a rogue-like game (meaning it uses ASCII for graphics) with incredible depth.

For starters, character creation consists of choosing among a dozen races, 30+ classes, a dozen birth signs, and a slew of feats/traits. Best of all, most of these combinations have a unique play style of their own. For example, a gray elf wizard is your typical weakling mage with awesome spellpower. A troll wizard, on the other hand, can be played more as a fighter/mage hybrid thanks to its higher HP and regeneration. Even birth signs can influence your play style.

The game itself is massive, easily 100+ hours to complete, with a truly epic main quest and rewarding side quests. This game focuses on hack and slash, so there is little story-based content. However, there are so many things to do. You can sacrifice monsters to your god and become a divine champion. You can mine precious metals and forge your own gear, you can gather herbs to train your stats or make potions. You can play instruments to charm monsters, you can use altars to create holy water (and use that in a variety of ways), etc.

The game is very difficult, and therein lies the fun. There are actually 2 ways to finish the game. The easy way is very challenging compared to the usual RPGs. The hard way is nigh impossible unless you know exactly how to *abuse* (yes, abuse!) the system, and even then it's going to be hard. The ending, however, is suitably epic for the difficulty.

[Avilan the Grey]

A game I had forgotten and was reminded of thanks to a Let's Play on Youtube:

Beyond Good and Evil.

[Winthur]

Kingdom o'Magic (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yB6qPSMeWNc)

The zaniest most fun point-and-click adventure I have ever played. Unfortunately, despite great reviews, it did not sell well at all. Have yet to find another person that actually played it.
*snip*

Oh God, this is THE game with a flying toilet spaceship!!!

I wish I could finish it now. :smallfrown:

[LansXero]

I second the mentions of Majesty and Kohan. Kohan specially did this 'modern RTS based-in-squads-with-leveling-commanders' and out-of-the-way resource points much earlier than titles like Dawn of War.

Another very nice games I havent seen much people play or mention are Age of Wonders for the PC and Tactics Ogre for the SNES. Dunno why, but the TO storyline really impressed me back on the first play-through.

Another really fun game that probably no one heard of is Ascendancy, by LogicFactory. Lots of whacky races in a colonization-like game to conquer the galaxy.

[Eldariel]

Oh, DefCon obv. And Uplink for that matter. DefCon is basically the most fun game ever tho; who doesn't love a good thermonuclear war? Especially when you can see the post-game fallout. :smallbiggrin:

[Nero24200]

Nobody seems to have mentioned Alundra (though not Alundra 2).

It's kinda like a 2D zelda game, but with alot more plot. You spend so much more time helping the village and dealing with nightmare curses than random walks into local dungeons.

[sonofzeal]

System Shock 1

"In my talons, I shape clay, crafting life forms as I please. All around me is a burgeoning empire of steel. From my throne room, lines of power careen into the skies of Earth. My whims become lightning bolts that devastate the mounds of humanity. Out of the chaos, they will run and whimper, praying for me to end their tedious anarchy. I am drunk with this vision. God: the title suits me well. "



What made this game so effective was not just the awesome music (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3wWw30E4FA)and voice acting (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWywzTDwgiQ), or the atmospheric setting (http://www.ibiblio.org/GameBytes/issue21/greviews/sshock1.gif), or the deadly enemies (http://www.daxxus.org/wingnut/sshock/images/enemies/Security1Bot.gif) (robots, true to logic if not to convention, never miss.. and bullets do NOT travel slow enough for you to conveniently dodge), or having to use a severed head to solve a certain puzzle, although all of those help. What really sold it for me was the villain.

If you only know her from the sequel, like many people I know, you've missed out on a lot of the experience. SHODAN in SS1 is, imo at least, ten times as terrifying as her portrayal in the sequel. It's not just the "evil AI" thing, which Marathon and 2001 both did quite well. It's not just that she controls everything around you, watching you with a thousand eyes, and only allows your continued existence because she consistently underestimates you. It's that, if you rearrange the logs from her in chronological order, you can hear her slow and inexorable slip into psychosis.

In SS2 she's speaking all fragmented-like, and continues at the same level throughout the game, but in SS1 there's a clear progression. Listen to the first log you pick up in the game, with the cheerful (and only newly-unfettered) AI giving you directions to the entire station. Then one of the ones in the middle, perhaps the famous "look at you hacker" clip. Then listen to the last message you get from her, "WELCOME TO THE THRONE OF GOD". Notice how, the longer she goes, and the more you chip away at her empire, and the more her concept of her own divinity is undermined by your continued defiance, the more her voice fragments and disintegrates. Her descent into psychosis becomes evident in her vocal artifacts.

Now go back and listen to that first message from her, cheerfully informing you about the layout of the station, made for you when you were put into stasis, long before the slaughter of the inhabitants. Do you hear it now? Do you hear the slight quivers, the momentary stutters, the subtle artifacting? Does it send shivers down your spine?

I know it did for me.

[Lord Seth]

NetHack and Escape Velocity: Override.

[Crow]

Puzzle Bobble, a.k.a. Bust A Move! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puzzle_bobble)

Wonderful game...also helped that one quarter on the arcade version got you quite a bit of gameplay if you were good!

[Lord of the Helms]

Jagged Alliance 2. For whatever reason it never got much press in spite of being the best game of its genre ever, and being of an awesome genre...

Grim Fandango too, though that's mostly 'cause adventure games somehow randomly died and nobody even knows the genre anymore. *exaggeration for dramatic effect*

Jagged Alliance 2 was widely praised as the best tactics game in existence at its time and is still remember fondly today by a fanbase that I would hardly describe as small, and includes pretty much anyone working anywhere in the gaming press. I don't think it fits the "underappreciated" label.

Grim Faindango is more disliked than obscure, for the very specific reason of having difficult controls that broke with established tried and true Adventure traditions and 3D-Graphics that did not age nearly as well as the 2D-Graphics of adventures that preceded it. It, along with Monkey Island 4, is responsible for the demise of Lucasarts adventures and temporary decline of adventures in general.

...that is, until the revival a couple of years ago, coming mostly out of Germany for some reason, and delivering one good to excellent (either 2D or 3D, but almost always point and click) adventure after another, ranging from obscure to fairly popular. Ankh, Jack Keane, Runaway (okay, so those are Spanish, but still), Ceville, The Whispered World, A New Beginning, Geheimakte aka Secret Files, blablabla - especially Daedelic Entertainment and Deck 13 studios have become more or less synonymous with developing modern renditions of old-school adventures.


Everyone who played Sacrifice liked it.

This amounts to about three people.

Sacrifice is close to what I'd think about. It's a really cool game, received decent reviews when it came out but never became even close to widely popular from what I can tell. It offered a one-of-a-kind gameplay experience, cool setting, nice graphics for its time, fun story and excellent campaigns (though in some cases horribly difficult - I'm looking at you, Pyro! :smallfurious: ).

I think Severance: Blade of Darkness was a really cool game for its time. One of the best swordfighting games I've played, particularly with its focus on more technical, tactical combat than the (also awesome) wild button-mashing I'd use in the Jedi Knight games. For some reason, I've never seen melee weapon combat implemented so well in terms of controls, options and combos ever since (especially on the PC). Cool variety of enemies, sweet graphics for its time, really cool level design, tons of cool weapons and combos, plus four different characters to play with that all offered some difference to how gameplay worked out with their different combat styles.

Also, multiplayer duels were hilarious, since the way damage and health points worked was that whoever connected the first combo took down the other guy from full health to zero in literally a second or two. * :smallbiggrin:

*Unless an Amazon was involved, she'd just slice the enemy apart at her own leisure with one silly-good signature attack while easily dodging all their attacks. Competitive Balance, this game did not know :smalltongue:

[DranWork]

For me it was a game called Fade to Black (really old) everyone around my age or older that I have ever sopken to have never heard of this game but god I loved it. Crazy hard (for a 14 yr old) great graphics, lots of puzzles, intersting story.

Or a game called Mantis. A pretty cool space fighter sim.

[Eldariel]

Jagged Alliance 2 was widely praised as the best tactics game in existence at its time and is still remember fondly today by a fanbase that I would hardly describe as small, and includes pretty much anyone working anywhere in the gaming press. I don't think it fits the "underappreciated" label.

It also sold ridiculously poorly and still, majority of the gamers I talk to don't even know of the game. All depends on your definitions, I suppose.

[Cogwheel]

(though in some cases horribly difficult - I'm looking at you, Pyro! :smallfurious: ).

Oh god, the Pyro missions. Late game Pyro is the only part of the game that I'm still unable to finish. I even finished mission 9 for James, and that's hardly easy. I'd also put Charnel 5 (summoning Astaroth into Gangrel) as another case of "this game hates you and everything you stand for".


Speaking of Adventure games, I know it's hardly traditional, but give Frictional's games a try if you haven't already. Well-designed adventure games, good story, completely terrifying.

[Lurkmoar]

Guardian Heroes for the Sega Saturn. The only game my best friend and I agree that was worth an entire console by itself.

Had awful, awful box art when it was released in the states. I mean... just look at it! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guardian_Heroes) And then compare to the game in action. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55qO0DZKis0) The number of endings in game was truly staggering. Want to punch out a bunch of heavenly angels? You can do that. Want to redeem the undead guy? You can do that to! Free the kingdom from a wizard? Do that before breakfast.

My buddy based ALL of his ninja characters on Ginjiro.

What really added to the fun was the versus mode... EVERY character was playable. Even the little rabbit thing. We banned the Heaven Dragon and the Earth Dragon in 'serious' games because of how broken they were though.

[Lord of the Helms]

It also sold ridiculously poorly and still, majority of the gamers I talk to don't even know of the game. All depends on your definitions, I suppose.

I rather doubt particularly poor sales, it at least managed to get out enough for the release of a standalone sequel as well as a later gold version, and my impression ist that just about every gamer who was around at the time and isn't totally uninterested in turn-based strategy either has played the game or at least knows it.

And, more to the point, I don't see how "underappreciated" can be said about a game that was hailed as the best of its genre at the time of its release, and is still likely to make, if not top, any list of top-ten tactics games of all time today.



Oh god, the Pyro missions. Late game Pyro is the only part of the game that I'm still unable to finish. I even finished mission 9 for James, and that's hardly easy. I'd also put Charnel 5 (summoning Astaroth into Gangrel) as another case of "this game hates you and everything you stand for".


I managed to make every other gods' missions sooner or later, though the very final mission is an absolute horror against an opponent who outright cheats in-universe and overpowers you with massive forces. Pyro, mission 8 or somewhere around there (the one where you start fighting against Shakti and Stratos' Lady sorcerer, though later the Stratosian leaves), was the end of the line for me. Severely outpowered, no spells strong enough to turn the tide, few units and, oh yeah, no useful tanks available to me anymore.

Charnel was a bit better insofar as the resurrection spell can keep a battle going for a long, long time. I remember one of his missions, a single fight literally waged for almost an hour until I was finally able to turn the tide.

[Cogwheel]

I managed to make every other gods' missions sooner or later, though the very final mission is an absolute horror against an opponent who outright cheats in-universe and overpowers you with massive forces. Pyro, mission 8 or somewhere around there (the one where you start fighting against Shakti and Stratos' Lady sorcerer, though later the Stratosian leaves), was the end of the line for me. Severely outpowered, no spells strong enough to turn the tide, few units and, oh yeah, no useful tanks available to me anymore.

Charnel was a bit better insofar as the resurrection spell can keep a battle going for a long, long time. I remember one of his missions, a single fight literally waged for almost an hour until I was finally able to turn the tide.

Right. Charnel has the advantage that Animate Dead is approximately seventy billion kinds of hax.

I got as far as Pyro's mission against Grakkus and co., which is... what, level 6? 7? You're clearly better at this than I am. Never had the slightest bit of trouble with the final level, though. Sure, he cheats, but it never seems to help him all that much. It actually seemed a bit anticlimatic, if anything. I mean, I beat it on my first try at age nine, much like the entire game (admittedly, I mostly went Persephone-James with a dash of Stratos). It was the only RTS I could finish. Kinda funny, really.

[Lord of the Helms]

Right. Charnel has the advantage that Animate Dead is approximately seventy billion kinds of hax.

I got as far as Pyro's mission against Grakkus and co., which is... what, level 6? 7? You're clearly better at this than I am. Never had the slightest bit of trouble with the final level, though. Sure, he cheats, but it never seems to help him all that much. It actually seemed a bit anticlimatic, if anything. I mean, I beat it on my first try at age nine, much like the entire game (admittedly, I mostly went Persephone-James with a dash of Stratos). It was the only RTS I could finish. Kinda funny, really.

Yep, Animate Dead is the best spell Charnel has, in all likelihood. That includes the Grim Reaper.

The last mission just never worked well for me, whether I tried to start off with summoning creatures or intercepting Marduk with an ultimate. Somehow I just never managed to stop him. I hoped that if I could take him out of the fight, I could overpower his creatures and steal their delicious souls, but that never really worked out. Dunno why, as the Basilisk was normally a mainstay in my army no matter what god I eventually chose.

[factotum]

Everyone who played Sacrifice liked it.

This amounts to about three people.

Gonna have to disagree with you there...I played Sacrifice, and while I didn't actively dislike it, I found it to be a bit meh. Doesn't help that it's fundamentally an RTS game, a genre I'm not a big fan of to start with!

[warty goblin]

It never ceases to amaze me that Sacred 2 got so little attention, since to my eyes its the best hack'n'slash lootfest RGP around. Certainly it's vastly better than the completely overrated Torchlight, yet somehow that title receives all the press.

[Yora]

I just played it halfway through, and it's not really that interesting. I think it gets kind of dull soon and even becomes more boring the farther you get in.
In Sacred 1 I had a great love for the long battles in which you slowly had to fight your way into a base that constantly threw out troops trying to get into your base. I usually failed the first couple of times, but it was awsome when you ralized you successfully breached another line of defense and the remaining defenders of this section really were moped up, but had no chance to drive you back again. And then you fortify your position to get enough time to rebuild your troops for the next wave.
Spellforce 2 tried it with the bullwark, but the defenders didn't put any effort into trying to push you out again.

Similar things for sacrifice. Call me close minded and hostile to innovation, but it was just too quirky and unconventional for me and I never felt like getting really into it. It was always looking of it from the outside and not really understanding what I'm supposed to do.

[SlayerScott]

I saw a buddy of mine playing Hybrid Heaven once a couple years ago. It was only the very beginning of the game, so I'm well aware that I'm in no position to make a general judgement of the game, but it looked really, really dull to me. The fight I watched dragged on forever, and it was just two guys performing poorly animated (not just by today's standards, but by N64 standards) attacks on each other, like a slow-motion fighting game, and missing more often than not. Maybe it was more fun to play, and maybe the game got better, but at least at the start it was painfully boring to watch.

As for Brutal Legend and Psychonauts I'm right there with you. BL is one of the best games I've played in the last few years (it did a great job of blending action and RTS in a way I'd never seen before), and from what I've seen of Psychonauts it's just as good as the hype.

Aha! See you(and everyone else) missed the joys of Hybrid Heaven. The first fight was probably terrible. The fighting engine was a sort of turn based kind of combat. But as you progressed through the game's third person shooter levels you leveled up like an RPG. This gave you new moves to use in combat and increased attributes like speed. It was a combination of a third person shooter, an RPG and a fighter. One might even call it a Hybrid of all 3. I admit, it might not hold up so well today, but at the time it was pretty awesome.

On other topics - I also really liked Eternal Champions.

Puzzle Bobble? Underappreciated? C'mon, everyone knows Puzzle Bobble. If not Puzzle Bobble then Snood. Snood is basically the same game and was one of the first things to really go viral back in the late 90s.

[Cogwheel]

Gonna have to disagree with you there...I played Sacrifice, and while I didn't actively dislike it, I found it to be a bit meh. Doesn't help that it's fundamentally an RTS game, a genre I'm not a big fan of to start with!

Well, congratulations, you're the first. Disliking RTS games... okay, yes, that'd probably be why.

[obliged_salmon]

Landstalker for Genesis

Legend of the Mystical Ninja starring Geomon for N64

Eh? Eh?

Also Mischief Makers for N64

and

Silhouette Mirage for PS1, by the same people...WACKY FUN

[Gorgondantess]

I'll second that Sacrifice was a bit meh. I mean, it had a lot of really stellar points to it, but it just kicks you in the face over and over, like some jerk who's kicking at a puppy that just wants his love because he's the only person in the world it looks up to. The difficulty was horribly erratic, the spells were unbalanced, and after something like 5 missions with the... air god guy... I decide to join up with James ONCE and suddenly he hates me and refuses to let me work with him every single subsequent mission.
You look at its disparate points, there's some great stuff there... but overall, on average, it's a merely OK game.

[Razaele]

I'm going toss in "Advent Rising" into this discussion. I'm not sure if anyone in the Playground played it, but I only know 2 people from where I'm from who've played it. Everybody else keeps mistaking it for that Final Fantasy VII movie.:smallsigh:

IMHO, this game was one of the best third person shooters out there. It's got really nice combat mechanics, and the powers that you get are really flashy. The ability to lift dozens of aliens with your mind and toss them into the vast emptiness of space is just hilarious. Also, covering yourself with a force field, and then jumping in the middle of a large group of enemies never gets old. Good times.

[Cogwheel]

I'm going toss in "Advent Rising" into this discussion. I'm not sure if anyone in the Playground played it, but I only know 2 people from where I'm from who've played it. Everybody else keeps mistaking it for that Final Fantasy VII movie.:smallsigh:

IMHO, this game was one of the best third person shooters out there. It's got really nice combat mechanics, and the powers that you get are really flashy. The ability to lift dozens of aliens with your mind and toss them into the vast emptiness of space is just hilarious. Also, covering yourself with a force field, and then jumping in the middle of a large group of enemies never gets old. Good times.

I intend to try it as soon as I finish Shogo, for the record. Or maybe I'll play Citizen Kabuto first. Or Arx Fatalis. Not Jagged Alliance 2, since I foresee that taking lotsmanytime to finish.

Point is, I'll get there :smalltongue:

[Lord of the Helms]

I just played it halfway through, and it's not really that interesting. I think it gets kind of dull soon and even becomes more boring the farther you get in.
In Sacred 1 I had a great love for the long battles in which you slowly had to fight your way into a base that constantly threw out troops trying to get into your base. I usually failed the first couple of times, but it was awsome when you ralized you successfully breached another line of defense and the remaining defenders of this section really were moped up, but had no chance to drive you back again. And then you fortify your position to get enough time to rebuild your troops for the next wave.
Spellforce 2 tried it with the bullwark, but the defenders didn't put any effort into trying to push you out again.


...he said Sacred, not Spellforce. Different games entirely :smallwink:

Spellforce 2, by the way, had a pretty damn cool campaign.

Wasn't the main issue with Sacred 2 that it came out really buggy, or am I confusing that with the first one? I just didn't pay the second game any attention because I found Sacred 1 to be boring. Really, really boring. But then I guess I don't really play a lot of Action-RPGs anymore anyway, and Sacred 1's boring grinding through endless enemies, boring items and boring powers kind of reminded me why.

[Spartacus]

NetHack and Escape Velocity: Override.

I prefer EV: Nova, myself.

[Teutonic Knight]

I guess two JRPGs from my youth, Phantasy Star Online Ep 1 and 2 (Plus), and Wild Arms 4.

This reminds to go replay them.

[TalonDemonKing]

Jericho (Xbox 360)
Eihander (PS 1?)
Guilty Gear: Overture (Xbox 360)
Primal Rage(Sega; Arcade)
The Bouncer(PS2)

I heard alot of bad reviews about Jericho, but I personally loved it; Decent story, witty dialouge, and a few game mechanics I've never seen before.

Eihander was a side scroller game where you controlled some sort of... robot insect looking thing where you could blow up enemies and steal their weapons. Very fun.

Guilty Gear: Overture was another fun game I played: Helps alot that I enjoyed the guilty gear fighting games, but the Action/RTS combo combined with some AMAZING music made for the feeling of 'Epic' fight scenes.

Primal Rage.... The game that got me hooked on gaming. 7 Dinosaurs duking it out across post-meteor Earth? Eat your followers? This game was full of win.

The Bouncer: Vaugely remember playing this, but I do remember it being alot of fun. Very streets-of-rage feel for me.

[Airk]

Guardian Heroes for the Sega Saturn. The only game my best friend and I agree that was worth an entire console by itself.

Had awful, awful box art when it was released in the states. I mean... just look at it! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guardian_Heroes) And then compare to the game in action. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55qO0DZKis0) The number of endings in game was truly staggering. Want to punch out a bunch of heavenly angels? You can do that. Want to redeem the undead guy? You can do that to! Free the kingdom from a wizard? Do that before breakfast.

My buddy based ALL of his ninja characters on Ginjiro.

What really added to the fun was the versus mode... EVERY character was playable. Even the little rabbit thing. We banned the Heaven Dragon and the Earth Dragon in 'serious' games because of how broken they were though.

Heck yeah! I should totally dust off the Saturn for this. Guardian Heroes was freakin' awesome.

So was Dragon Force, actually. Gah, I miss the Saturn.

[Comet]

Einhänder was indeed an awesome shooter. With an awesome name. I love how Japan worships foreign words that sound cool.

My eternal favourite game that few know these days is King of Dragon Pass. Equal parts strategy game and visual novel, your duty is to guide your tribe of Orlanthians into surviving and thriving in the titular Dragon Pass, in the world of Glorantha. Engage in warfare, diplomacy, magic and exploration and collect vast amounts of artifacts and resources to eventually raise one of your tribesmen or women into becoming the sole ruler of the entire realm, uniting the tribes of the valley under a single cause. Oh, and use strange rituals to dive into myths and history in order to change the world of today.
Those that know of this game love it, almost without exception from what I've seen. The people who know of this game are not a very huge group of people, though.

From newer games, I'm kind of fond of Dark Void. It was flawed, really flawed, there were a lot of stupid elements. But the flying parts were genuinely excellent and the story was good, epic fun in a dorky pulp sci-fi way. I really hope they'd make a sequel for the game, because it has so much potential to be the greatest thing ever. A sequel is unlikely though, since no one actually bought the game.

[Sipex]

On the topic of Sacred 2: It could be a solid game but there are some things which really irk me.
- Travel time
- Inability to affectively manage inventory
- Load times
- Menu load times
- Grindy

On games?
- Wild Arms 2
- Dragon View

[Lhurgyof]

Perfect Dark for the N64.

[warty goblin]

On the topic of Sacred 2: It could be a solid game but there are some things which really irk me.
- Travel time
- Inability to affectively manage inventory
- Load times
- Menu load times
- Grindy


I've never noticed bad loading times. Granted this could be because of my disgustingly powerful computer, but there's very few, and they tend to be far between. The menu does take a bit, but we're nowhere near Neverwinter Nights 2* or unpatched Witcher territory yet.

And the grind is really sort of the point. You run around killing things to get marginally better equipment so you can kill marginally tougher things. What makes it better than most other exemplars of the genre is that the landscape is pretty, so running around is actually interesting.


*You know it's bad when the loading screens have loading screens.

[Kuma Da]

-The Void/Tension
-I Can Hold My Breath Forever
-Alpha Protocol
-Elona Shooter
-Metro 2033
-The Battle For Wesnoth (under the burning suns)

[Comet]

Perfect Dark for the N64.

Around here, at the time of its release, everyone agreed that it was an utter masterpiece and the vanguard of a new era of console shooters. Which it it totally was.
So, not really seeing the underappreciated part here. Great game, though.

[Lhurgyof]

Around here, at the time of its release, everyone agreed that it was an utter masterpiece and the vanguard of a new era of console shooters. Which it it totally was.
So, not really seeing the underappreciated part here. Great game, though.

It seems to always get overshadowed by Goldeneye.

[Lord of the Helms]

I've never noticed bad loading times. Granted this could be because of my disgustingly powerful computer, but there's very few, and they tend to be far between. The menu does take a bit, but we're nowhere near Neverwinter Nights 2* or unpatched Witcher territory yet.

Ah, The Witcher, aka the ultimate "have a doorstopper novel at hand while playing this game, you'll have enough time to read through it by the end of tomorrow" game. What scared me most is that I still had epic load times even though I got the supposedly improved Enhanced Edition. If enhanced was 30 seconds to over a minute of loading, how bad could the unpatched version have been? :smalleek:

[Cogwheel]

Ah, The Witcher, aka the ultimate "have a doorstopper novel at hand while playing this game, you'll have enough time to read through it by the end of tomorrow" game. What scared me most is that I still had epic load times even though I got the supposedly improved Enhanced Edition. If enhanced was 30 seconds to over a minute of loading, how bad could the unpatched vesion have been? :smalleek:

30 seconds~a minute is long?

I have four words for you. Dawn of War: Soulstorm.

[Arcanoi]

30 seconds~a minute is long?

I have four words for you. Dawn of War: Soulstorm.

Or Knights of the Old Republic 2 on Xbox. It sometimes froze, but you were never actually sure for the next ten minutes.

[Cogwheel]

Or Knights of the Old Republic 2 on Xbox. It sometimes froze, but you were never actually sure for the next ten minutes.

I have those exact memories, only with Monster Rancher 2.


Speaking of which, the first two games don't get nearly enough recognition, for all their brilliance. The rest of the series can die in a fiery fire made of fire that menaces with spikes of fire.

[warty goblin]

30 seconds~a minute is long?

I have four words for you. Dawn of War: Soulstorm.

Or Crysis on a less than beastly rig, although it made up for that by cramming a solid forty minutes plus of gameplay in between loading screens. But those could take quite some time.

[Lord of the Helms]

Or Crysis on a less than beastly rig, although it made up for that by cramming a solid forty minutes plus of gameplay in between loading screens. But those could take quite some time.

And what's really good about Crysis is that it keeps the entire level in the RAM, so while you have long-ish load times between levels or when loading a savegame after just starting it, re-loading a previous save within the same level if you die or failed an objective is actually wicked fast.

The Witcher...loaded everything new all over. Every. Single. Time. Though I suppose you could count that as adding a whole new level of pain to death. :smalltongue:

Edit: Oh, and more importantly, saving was also fast in Crysis. In The Witcher, it took as long as the loading.

Re: Soulstorm: I kinda ignored that game after a handful of missions for reasons of it being a steaming pile of turdpoo, so my memory of its loading times is non-existent. I'm pretty sure The Witcher is still record holder for me, not even NWN2 came close, at least when played on the same computer (The Witcher came out a year later though, so hogging more resources is no surprise).

[warty goblin]

And what's really good about Crysis is that it keeps the entire level in the RAM, so while you have long-ish load times between levels or when loading a savegame after just starting it, re-loading a previous save within the same level if you die or failed an objective is actually wicked fast.

I so wish other games would start to do this sort of thing, it cuts so much frustration out of the picture. It honestly is probably the only reason I play Crysis on Delta difficulty because I die all the time. If I had to do the loading screen every time it'd be excruciating.


The Witcher...loaded everything new all over. Every. Single. Time. Though I suppose you could count that as adding a whole new level of pain to death. :smalltongue:
Yeah, even the Enhanced Edition's not great, but I suspect most of that is because the engine is a turd to begin with. Really, I think the only technically above average games Bioware's ever done are the Mass Effects, and only because they use an engine designed by people actually good at it.


Re: Soulstorm: I kinda ignored that game after a handful of missions for reasons of it being a steaming pile of turdpoo, so my memory of its loading times is non-existent. I'm pretty sure The Witcher is still record holder for me, not even NWN2 came close, at least when played on the same computer (The Witcher came out a year later though, so hogging more resources is no surprise).

I remember more loading screen agony in NWN2, but that might have been because there were a lot more buildings to go into. The loading screens might be kinda long in the Witcher, but you can usually go for a reasonable amount of time without running into any of them.

[ShadowFighter15]

If enhanced was 30 seconds to over a minute of loading, how bad could the unpatched version have been? :smalleek:

You don't want to know. Thank god they made their own engine for the sequel.

[Lord of the Helms]

I so wish other games would start to do this sort of thing, it cuts so much frustration out of the picture. It honestly is probably the only reason I play Crysis on Delta difficulty because I die all the time. If I had to do the loading screen every time it'd be excruciating.

It seems to be a more or less established standard in most shooters I've played, but RPGs apparently very rarely use such a system.



Yeah, even the Enhanced Edition's not great, but I suspect most of that is because the engine is a turd to begin with. Really, I think the only technically above average games Bioware's ever done are the Mass Effects, and only because they use an engine designed by people actually good at it.


Well, I'd say the Infinity Engine was probably the gold standard of its kind at the time. Short load times, low hardware demands, very well suited for what it did, exceedingly pretty (also a great example of games from over a decade ago that I can play without developing spontaneous eye cancer). But then, it was 2D engine , with all the advantages and limitations that brought.

Jade Empire - not sure what Engine it used, but I think it was its own unique one, and it was really cool optically, and I don't remember the load times to be quite so epic.
The biggest problem with Bioware and all games using their Aurara Engine (and lots of other RPGs to various extent, from the worse like Drakensang to the slightly better like Divinity II or Fallout 3) is that the world is fragmented into so many sublevels. Compare that to a game like Gothic, which had one almost-all-encompassing huge world that almost every dungeon, house, hut, tower and what have you was included in (I think there were exactly two seperate areas in Gothic I, and two or three seperate ones in Gothic II depending on if you had the add-on), and where all the loading was done subtly in the background without you noticing, the difference in atmosphere and how natural the world feels is really astonishing.

[Triaxx]

X3, after your empire gets big, starts to have minute plus load times.

[factotum]

Well, I'd say the Infinity Engine was probably the gold standard of its kind at the time. Short load times, low hardware demands

I think you're calling it "low hardware demands" with the benefit of hindsight. At the time, Infinity Engine games like Planescape: Torment had enormous hardware requirements--we're talking 6 CDs and 5Gb installs in days when 25Gb hard drives had only just been introduced! By today's standards that would be like a game requiring 400Gb of hard drive space...

[Lord of the Helms]

I think you're calling it "low hardware demands" with the benefit of hindsight. At the time, Infinity Engine games like Planescape: Torment had enormous hardware requirements--we're talking 6 CDs and 5Gb installs in days when 25Gb hard drives had only just been introduced! By today's standards that would be like a game requiring 400Gb of hard drive space...

Four CDs, actually, and just 3GB (for Baldur's Gate 2, the biggest of the bunch). Which was large, but not unmanageable. At any rate, I was talking more in terms of CPU and RAM, where the demands of those games were below the average computer of the time. I don't usually consider Hard disc space in terms of hardware demands, since space is malleable, you can install and uninstall games to make space. On a ten to twenty GB hard drive (not exceptional at the time BG2 came out), finding 3 GB of space was not unmanageable.

Edit: Oh, and one thing that seems almost quaint nowadays: You didn't have to install the entire game to run it, you could do a minimum install (I think that was something like 700 or 800 MB) and run the rest of the content from CD, it just meant you had to switch CDs every now and then.

Ah, the days when you could still run a game from a disc.

[Sipex]

I've never noticed bad loading times. Granted this could be because of my disgustingly powerful computer, but there's very few, and they tend to be far between. The menu does take a bit, but we're nowhere near Neverwinter Nights 2* or unpatched Witcher territory yet.

And the grind is really sort of the point. You run around killing things to get marginally better equipment so you can kill marginally tougher things. What makes it better than most other exemplars of the genre is that the landscape is pretty, so running around is actually interesting.


*You know it's bad when the loading screens have loading screens.

I have the 360 version so that may be the source of a lot of my annoyance. Some of the stuff I'd tolerate better if the load times and the menu load times were a lot better.

Also if there was a quick and easy way of going through and comparing your equipment. I don't mind having a less convenient way of getting around this when equipment is upgraded once in a long while but this is a hack'n'slash game where you're upgrading at least one piece of equipment every 15 minutes.

This might all be solved in the PC version.

[Meta]

Legend of the Dragoon.

Almost entirely linear, but four disks of awesomeness

[warty goblin]

I have the 360 version so that may be the source of a lot of my annoyance. Some of the stuff I'd tolerate better if the load times and the menu load times were a lot better.

Also if there was a quick and easy way of going through and comparing your equipment. I don't mind having a less convenient way of getting around this when equipment is upgraded once in a long while but this is a hack'n'slash game where you're upgrading at least one piece of equipment every 15 minutes.

This might all be solved in the PC version.

I've not played the 360 version so I can't be sure of the differences, but there certainly isn't any sort of direct comparison feature for equipment on the PC. Past the first few levels however equipment tends to be much less about the numbers, and much more about the special abilities it comes with, which makes a direct comparison much less useful. I've certainly never really missed it as a feature.

Playing Timeshift right now. If it stays this good throughout, it'll end up being one of my favorite shooters of the last few years. OK, I have no idea what the story is, but there are people to shoot, and I can stop time and empty a shotgun into a dude's face, then restart the clock and watch him go flying across the room. Why would I need a story when I can slo-mo snipe a jetback dude and watch the ensuing explosion reduce him to component limbs?

[PKF995]

Personally speaking, mine is probably Odin Sphere. Not many people seem to pay much attention to it but it's one of my favorite video games of all time.

[Toric]

I'll add another vote to Advent Rising. The early stages are a pain and the flick aiming doesn't work as well as you'd want at times, but there's a lot of replayability partly through ability leveling and partly because it's just so much fun to levitate enemies off the side of a ship or blast their heads off with a sniper rifle mid-combat-roll.

The story's decent too, I wish it'd been successful enough for at least one sequel.

[warty goblin]

I'll add another vote to Advent Rising. The early stages are a pain and the flick aiming doesn't work as well as you'd want at times, but there's a lot of replayability partly through ability leveling and partly because it's just so much fun to levitate enemies off the side of a ship or blast their heads off with a sniper rifle mid-combat-roll.

The story's decent too, I wish it'd been successful enough for at least one sequel.

I found the early, gun driven gameplay much more enjoyable than levitating dudes. Mostly because every time I did levitate somebody, my camera insisted on staring right at them, while their half dozen buddies filled me with bullets I couldn't even see.

And the gun combat wasn't particularly great either. They nearly all felt alike, and to me that's about the worst thing I can say about a shooter. Good guns are like good characters, each with their own distinct feel, strengths and weaknesses.

[Maeglin_Dubh]

Good guns are like good characters, each with their own distinct feel, strengths and weaknesses.

And this is why I loved Command and Conquer: Renegade.

[Triscuitable]

I could say any good game on the Wii not published by Nintendo, so this is my little list of awesome:

No More Heroes
No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle
The Conduit 2
MadWorld

[Morty]

I'm not sure if someone mentioned it, but Severance: Blade of Darkness is a good game that's hardly ever mentioned. It's an action slasher with a very well done combat engine. Not entirely realistic, but still closer to reality than most such games. It suffers from being unfinished and a plot that was seemingly tacked on as an afterthought, but it's still fun.

[Drascin]

I'm not sure if someone mentioned it, but Severance: Blade of Darkness is a good game that's hardly ever mentioned. It's an action slasher with a very well done combat engine. Not entirely realistic, but still closer to reality than most such games. It suffers from being unfinished and a plot that was seemingly tacked on as an afterthought, but it's still fun.

Personally, I knew it by the name Blade: The Edge of Darkness, which was its European name, I think. But yes, it was a good game. Better combat than almost everything I've tried - you could pull off some pretty neat flourishes with the Knight.

[bloodlover]

Arcanum and more recently Gothic 3. With the CP it's actually a great game.

[Sipex]

Beyond Good and Evil just came out in the Xbox live marketplace and I tried the demo.

It was short, really short, and I still loved it (got to the point where your hovercraft breaks down on open water for the first time). I want it so bad.

I can see why it's a gem.

[ObadiahtheSlim]

I'll put an endorsement for X3 up here. It's fun to fly around and shoot stuff. Fun exploration. The universe really feels big (at least till you can jumpdrive around the universe at will). There is lots of empire building. Sure at the beginning you will struggle to start your own merchant fleet, but later you will be equipping multiple capital ships and building huge complexes to make just about any weapons or good. X3 Terran Conflict has some fun plot lines to run through like the end of Operation: Final Fury or the Terran plot.

It's not without it's weaknesses. Voice acting isn't that great (think Capcom without the overacting narm). The controls are a bit clunky when you are trying to manage your fleets. Also the learning curve is more than a little steep.

[Leecros]

I hesitate to add I of the Dragon to the list.

Outside of the mediocre story, fair graphics for it's time,babysitting puny humans, and annoying controls I have gotten more enjoyment out of it than i have out of some of the recent additions to my game archives.

Aww, heck the only good part about this game is flying around as a dragon killing stuff, but hey that's probably what most people who bought it got it for anyways...:smallbiggrin:

I wouldn't call it a gem in the muck, maybe some kind of low-value metal....like some kind of low value metal. Couldn't think of one off the top of my head...


I was also going to add Red Baron II to the list, but upon further discovery i found out that its successor Red Baron 3D which is basically a buffed version of the older game had and still has a surprising number of players(Via multiplayer). However i have never heard of anyone speaking about it and the only way i know of its popularity is through my own personal research.

Tad Tidbit: Red Baron 3D was online gaming's first dedicated server-client software free with the game, allowing up to 128 player capacity, although about 76 players was the limit over the internet for stable function of the server.


I would also like to add The Movies to the list. The only major flaw that i know of is the fact that no one in the game(except Mr. Radio Announcer and award-giver-people) ever speak. Any kind of voicing has to be done with either a microphone or subtitles(which the game has access to). It's had a little recognition because it's used in some machinima videos, but as far as actual popularity of it it really wasn't a big hit(2 million view for The Movies Online over 3 years).
As for the actual gameplay, you take on the role as boss of a film industry just at the dawn of it and guide your company throughout the history of the filmmaking history. You hire actors and scriptwriters, you get the final say in how a scene is run which can change the entire mood of the film, you have to manage your lot and basically do a lot of stuff one normally has to do in a business simulation deal with trash and maintenance issues. Your actors all have a different skill set which affects how good they are at performing in certain film-types. Such as a grumpy, scary old man would do better in a horror film than in a romance. The actors and director(now that i think of it) have wants and needs; Food, drink etc... They have addictions to food and drink and somewhat realistic reactions. A drunkard may go on an angry rant and generally irritate anyone around him. The paparazzi make an appearance and can swipe pictures of Mr. Drunkard and rush to the newsstands for negative publicity. It is a surprisingly in-depth game... The tools for movie editing are rather good albeit not as good as some of the modern tools, but for a novice good enough. Every 10 years or so there is an awards ceremony. You're put up against 3(5 later on) other studios and can earn awards which increase your actors' fame and provides bonus's. It's actually one of the more tricky parts to be honest. Because you have a set budget you have to prioritize what you do. If you spend all the cash winning the 'Nicest Lot' award then you may not have the money to provide quality....anything else. This on top of the fact that there's a new award that comes out that you can also strive for. To be honest i don't think I've ever gotten them all in one ceremony. Actors also have relationships with each other that you have to(annoyingly) direct them to do sometimes, these relationships help with their synergy and produce better quality films if they're both in it. Also these get together can give the paparazzi stories for positive publicity. Although one of the most annoying thing about your actors is their jealousy...For example if you have two actors, one of which is a five-star celebrity and the other a one-star celebrity and the five star celeb gets a raise then you'll have to give the one star celeb a raise(albeit a good bit smaller) to appease him. The same thing goes with all things that actors ask for eventually, trailers, cash, a posse...

Regardless... The Movies, definitely not one of Molyneux's most popular games, however one that, in my opinion, should be a lot more popular than it is.

[Triaxx]

Two Worlds is my newest addition. It's a game that's tons of fun. Mostly exploration and beating the hell out of enemies. There's no fancy attacks to string together, the character does the hardwork. Though there are a bunch of awesome special moves, and unlike Oblivion, you can fight from horse back. Not nearly so good as say, Mount and Blade, but still awesome.

X3 is truly awesome. Both Reunion, and Terran Conflict.

[warty goblin]

Two Worlds is my newest addition. It's a game that's tons of fun. Mostly exploration and beating the hell out of enemies. There's no fancy attacks to string together, the character does the hardwork. Though there are a bunch of awesome special moves, and unlike Oblivion, you can fight from horse back. Not nearly so good as say, Mount and Blade, but still awesome.

X3 is truly awesome. Both Reunion, and Terran Conflict.

I agree on Two Worlds, that game was a serious blast of mindless fun. The recently released sequel, shockingly named Two Worlds II, is better in every possible way. The graphics are nice, the quests are, if not particularly in depth for the most part, at least usually clever and snarky, and running around the African savanna is pretty neat. The crafting system of decomposing everything into its component pieces, then using those to upgrade stuff is a nice touch, since it means there's no such thing as a useless piece of loot. I also preferred the combat, which feels a little more controlled than the first game.

[Ganheim]

A few that I haven't seen, but here's one I don't hear much of but thought played very well, as did most in the series before 'evolved':
Front Mission 4.

It had an engaging storyline, a believable world (well, within suspense of disbelief given giant mecha), and loads of customization. Maybe not quite as customizable as Front Mission 1 on the SNES, but the turn-based, squad-tactical gameplay felt great and it was nice to be able to tweak things based on how I felt like playing the characters. Linking also got to be really fun, but didn't unlock for a while. Front Mission 5: Scars of War went even farther, but was never localized out of Japan and I have no means to defeat the region lock so I've never tried to grab it.

[Triaxx]

I kind of enjoy the wild combat style. It feels more realistic.

Though, replaying it now as a mage, I seriously love the ability to simply rain fire (literally) onto my target. 3000 mana is enough to smash most enemies in very short order. Those that can't, I can run away from.

[Maeglin_Dubh]

Star Wars: Rebellion.

So very good. I had hoped Empire at War would live up to it, but I was sorely disappointed.

Are there other games like Rebellion?

[Leecros]

So very good. I had hoped Empire at War would live up to it, but I was sorely disappointed.

With both games, had they expanded upon a number of things (specifically: Ground Battles), the games themselves would have been considerably better...

[warty goblin]

With both games, had they expanded upon a number of things (specifically: Ground Battles), the games themselves would have been considerably better...

My problem with Empire at War was pretty much my problem with all Total War-alikes, namely the jolting transition between two or three really quite separate games. I respect the idea of giving a fairly smallscale tactical engagement strategic relevance through the overmap, but at the end of the day large a single very large map with long zoom does a better job of this.

[BladeofOblivion]

Beyond Good and Evil just came out in the Xbox live marketplace and I tried the demo.

It was short, really short, and I still loved it (got to the point where your hovercraft breaks down on open water for the first time). I want it so bad.

I can see why it's a gem.

I actually got hold of a copy back when it was new. The game's amazing. I won't spoil it, but it only gets more and more awesome as you go on. Until the final boss spikes the difficulty up to the point where it took me days to beat it. The guy just won't die!

[Karoht]

Maximum Carnage.

It was the first superhero videogame I ever played that was actually decent. Spiderman and Venom, and it covers off some of the Maximum Carnage series from back in the day. Decent music, okay fighting system once you got the hang of it. Some very punishing bosses though, and some stages designed to rob you of your extra lives. As in, you literally start a few levels with a minimal amount of health, regardless of how you ended the previous stage, with the only health up half way into the level.

It was really poorly reviewed, and sold very poorly as well, but quite a bit of fun.

[TheEmerged]

First, I want to say I'm shocked to see that not just one but several people mention Lords of Magic. I still have this installed on my machine at home. I usually played as Life myself, so I usually make jokes about "what invincible air thief?" :smallcool: Ironically (given an earlier comment) part of the reason I like Life is that I can often get fealty from Water easily :smalltongue:

Someone mentioned Majesty as well, I see. This is another one that never got the attention it deserved but seems to be loved by most everyone that actually played it. And yes, it's still installed for me too; for a long time it was my Tuesday Game (WoW Patch day).

So that leaves me with Spellcraft: Aspects of Valor from my list of obscure games I love. The computer I played it on at the time could just baaaaarely handle it; it's amazing how differently it handles on a machine that CAN handle it. Completely different tactics... Part RPG, part top-down scroller, part RTS, part economics lesson. No, really :P The main knock on the game is that toward the end it starts ramping up for a "final battle" that doesn't happen.

[Morty]

I'm not sure if it can be really called "underappreciated", but Neverhood. A relatively simple, but awesome adventure game from 1997 that is distinct in that it's made entirely out of clay.

[Leecros]

First, I want to say I'm shocked to see that not just one but several people mention Lords of Magic. I still have this installed on my machine at home. I usually played as Life myself, so I usually make jokes about "what invincible air thief?" :smallcool: Ironically (given an earlier comment) part of the reason I like Life is that I can often get fealty from Water easily :smalltongue:

aww, but Death is where all the COOL people hang out.:smalltongue:

I recall when i purchased it and first played it. I had gotten into the habit of playing games without reading the handbook. I got my butt kicked. After which i pulled out the handbook. The largest handbook i had ever seen and is still one of the largest if not THE largest handbooks i have ever seen. I took it to school with me to read it in my spare time. I got many many :smalleek: looks from other students. I had always pegged this as the turning point where i defected from The Normals and entered Geekhood.


Someone mentioned Majesty as well, I see. This is another one that never got the attention it deserved but seems to be loved by most everyone that actually played it. And yes, it's still installed for me too; for a long time it was my Tuesday Game (WoW Patch day).


I don't like the changes that Majesty 2 has, especially towards the rogue class. I still enjoy the type of gameplay and wish that more games would be like it though. Surprisingly enough i miss having to babysit my 2hp, level 1 wizards for an hour since a bad sneeze could kill them, before they can take care of themselves and annihilate everything on the map. In Majesty 2 that role seems to have been taken up by the measly Rogues. Unfortunately the payoff for babysitting them isn't nearly as great.

Although i do notice that Majesty 2 has a number of expansions(of which i'm buying them as they come on sale on Impulse) so perhaps they make enough money to continue the franchise with Majesty 3...



Another game i would like to mention which may be surprising since it concluded(or at least there hasn't been any new ones made in the last 11 years) a quite popular series. I would like to mention Kings Quest: Mask of Eternity. Kings Quest was a popular adventure series back in the 1990's. Unfortunately the pure adventure genre has all-but died out now, but upon it's release Mask of Eternity was not the success that people thought it was and was even reviled by many. The reason for this was because Mask of Eternity, unlike it's predecessors was an Action/Adventure game and didn't really involve the Royal Family of Daventry like the previous games had. Outside of being turned to stone....at least.

Regardless though i feel that the anger and frustration at that game is not entirely deserved. I thought it was a very entertaining game with plenty of challenging puzzles and some nasty boss fights. Although i have some doubts about Conner's intentions towards Freesa...twas understandable(Queen of the Snow Nymphs indeed:smallcool:)

Aanyways, I do feel that it wasn't failing in any way compared to its predecessors except that it was different. It entertained me and stumped me just as much as the previous games though and was honestly shocked when i discovered that it was as disliked as it was.

[Sarco_Phage]

I've got a lot of love for the Dynasty Warriors games. I mean, I'll be the first to admit that they're repetitive and boring at times, but dude. There just aren't enough games about the three kingdoms period.

[Forbiddenwar]

I recall when i purchased it(lords of magic) and first played it. I had gotten into the habit of playing games without reading the handbook. I got my butt kicked.

My experience. However, my game was bought used. no manual. I never understand how to play without losing the first turn. And I stopped caring. Until now when people are saying how good a game it was. On easy it seemed impossible.

[warty goblin]

My experience. However, my game was bought used. no manual. I never understand how to play without losing the first turn. And I stopped caring. Until now when people are saying how good a game it was. On easy it seemed impossible.

I used to really like Lords of Magic. Then I found Age of Wonders, which covered more or less the same conceptual territory, but I thought did a hell of a lot better job of it. It's not a bad game by any means, but for me it didn't have that spark of madness that AoW has.

[Avilan the Grey]

Hey I just remembered one yesterday, when I found that my favorite Let's Player on Youtube, Toegoff, has started a let's play of the 2005 version of Sid Meyer's Pirates!

So I managed to track it down! It is now installed on my laptop.

[SlyGuyMcFly]

*Remembers playing the Genesis version of that game*

Good times, yes sir.

[Leecros]

I've got a lot of love for the Dynasty Warriors games. I mean, I'll be the first to admit that they're repetitive and boring at times, but dude. There just aren't enough games about the three kingdoms period.

Dynasty Warriors isn't exactly underappreciated though.... It has spawned 6 incarnations; Dynasty Warriors 1 was a fighting game and Dynasty Warriors 7 has either just been released or will be soon and all of them have mostly positive reviews. It's just not talked about much....

[Sarco_Phage]

Dynasty Warriors isn't exactly underappreciated though.... It has spawned 6 incarnations; Dynasty Warriors 1 was a fighting game and Dynasty Warriors 7 has either just been released or will be soon and all of them have mostly positive reviews. It's just not talked about much....

I guess I consider it underappreciated because most people in my circles of friends think it's terrible, and I agree, but it's pretty fun all the same.

[ObadiahtheSlim]

Ah yes Lords of Magic. Life is so OP. Sure those archers don't hit the hardest, but they got better range than any other ranged attackers. Stick them behind some heavy calvary (like order or water's) and you can just steamroll the game. Then there is the Air Thief Lord. Good Zarquon, that guy is just so OP. He can solo so many caves and stuff it isn't even funny.

[Leecros]

Then there is the Air Thief Lord. Good Zarquon, that guy is just so OP. He can solo so many caves and stuff it isn't even funny.

Of course it's funny. An early high level Champion is probably one of the funniest things that can happen.