DoPo said:
Also, somehow everybody (including me) forgot Yahtzee's games [http://www.fullyramblomatic.com/donate.htm].
Well..... His games have quite an amount of bad writing but his recent game "Poacher" is not quite as crap as the others. At least 2 plot holes and 1 of them comes from the fact that its a gameplay-story inconsistency (you know, the kind of thing that he himself says that he dislikes about most games he reviews)
I forgot that some older games become free after no one gives a fuck about them anymore and when the creators are mostly dead. So may as well just flat out tell you games that are almost free.
Lets hit the music!
- One Must Fall 2097 -
A Robot Fighting Game made in 1994. A game ahead of his time and the reason for why people claim the PC as the one true master race (Well, actually the 5 games i will list here + "IJI" are more than enough reason anyway). Let me quote a review that does a better job describing this gem.
"Instead of simply having stock characters with fixed stats and moves, you can choose a combination of pilots (for different stats) and robots (for different move sets). In addition to this, "Tournament Mode" allows you to build your own pilot and upgrade your robot further allowing customization. There are also a few secret moves and upgrades that can be obtained. The only fighting game that offers more gameplay-related character customization options is possibly the Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi series (which is not that bad but a bit eh).
Aside from character customization, the game also offers tons of gameplay settings that can be tweaked (most involving secret menus), including enabling "Hyper Mode" which adds new features that almost completely changes the gameplay balance. The only fighting came that might compare is the Super Smash Bros. series (and I should add One Must Fall, like SSB, also features stage gimmicks which can damage fighters, but the stages are much much smaller... well relative to the fighters anyway)"
- Tyrian -
Published in 1995 by Epic Megagames (when it was still good), Tyrian is an addictive Vertical Scrolling Shooter.
You are Trent Hawkins, a terraformation pilot currently assigned to the planet Tyrian, the only planet in the entire sector that contains samples of Gravitium, a material that causes huge chunks of its landmass to float in the air. While on the job, Trent's best friend, Buce Quesillac, a Hazudra, was shot in the back by a hoverdrone belonging to Microsol, the company in charge of the terraformation efforts on Tyrian. With his dying breath, Buce informs Trent that Microsol intends to use the Gravitium to take control of the sector, and that he's next on their hit list. With that, Trent begins a long, dangerous fight for his survival.
For a game of the genre, Tyrian actually has a surprising amount of story to it, primarily in the form of datacubes that can be collected from certain enemies and read between levels when you get the opportunity to upgrade your ship in the game's Story Mode. Tyrian also includes arcade mode for both one and two players on the same computer or over a local network.
With great graphics for its time, addictive gameplay, and catchy music (Well duh, it has the same composer as Unreal, Jazz Jackrabbit and Deus Ex. Also know as Alex FUCKING Branson) along with a wide variety of levels, weapons, enemies, and hidden secrets, Tyrian is a game with a lot of replay value. It is considered by many to be one of the best scrolling shooters ever made.
- Evolva -
Evolva is a third-person action game, released in 2000. The player leads a team of 4 "Genohunters" exploring a planet; each of the Genohunters can develop new abilities by incorporating and altering the DNA they've absorbed from the creatures they have killed. The Genohunters will change their physical appearance (change colors, develop spikes or horns) based on the DNA they've used to mutate themselves
The only time in the WORLD of gaming where killing things to make you strong to actually make sense instead of just being a human killing until you suddenly have the power to Gate of Babilon your way up without a reasonable explanation.
The assimilation theme is more or less a RPG element that allows DNA to act as experience and you can use that to evolve your hunters with new abilities. HOWEVER, the issue is that new samples of DNA normally require for something else in your arsenal to be lowered in level to balance it out, the skill that you lose/gets lowered is random but this could be solved if you keep absorving DNA without spending it, thus obtaining a mayor adventaje without drawbacks...........that would be nice if it wasnt that the game is Nintendo Hard as fuck. The Parasites apparently are simblings with the Zerg or something because the Zerg Rush your ass more quickly than you can say "You cheating whore!!"
But that is the thing of a RPG, isnt it? Choices. You need that skill to progress over that barrier but i may loose something else if i dont plan ahead.
The plot kinda sucks because it just a scientist that just HAPPENS to be there for this parasitic lifeform to land on a planet that he was studying, then he send the Hunters to keep the natives alive and assimilate the enemy to ensure that the genohunters have the skill to reach the nucleous of the invasion and destroy it.
- Dungeon Keeper -
Oh Peter Molineux. You used to be sane....and talented....but mostly insane enough to combine First Person Shooter + Real Time Strategy into one game.
Old and truly excellent pair of management games by Bullfrog Entertainment which put the player in the role of a fantasy Evil Overlord responsible for constructing a dungeon, recruiting an army of monsters and seeing off RPG style hero invasions.
Dungeon Keeper put RTS in a surprisingly small-scale setting ? the player runs a dungeon full of monsters, treasure and other goodies, and must defend it from incoming heroic adventurers. It was also one of the first games to include a "first person" mode, in which the Keeper could "possess" one of his creatures.
A third installment was planned but never produced. The series has quite a few Spiritual Successors in Evil Genius, Overlord, Star Topia, Dungeons, and (arguably) Dwarf Fortress and Badman. There is also a board game called Dungeon Lords that is a non-video game Spiritual Successor.There is also an MMORPG is being produced, to be released exclusively in China, Tawain, Hong Kong, and Macau. Western fans of the original games have responded to the news with a quick cycle through elation, confusion, anger, despair, and finally apathy. At this point very little is known about Dungeon Keeper Online, with some concept art being the only thing seen of it. Although a video showing what's apparently some gameplay has also been released here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ss3uV274moE&feature=related
The first game in the series has been made available for purchase at GOG.com as of June 2, 2011.
- Sacrifice -
Made by SHINY Entertainment (the people who gave us Earthworm Jim, Messiah and MDK)
Sacrifice is a unique breed of RTS games for PC, whereas instead of the isometric view from the above, it takes a 3rd person view behind the player avatar. Thus making it a fantasy third person RPG, RTS game.
This game is about battling wizards, each players gathers souls to summon creatures, and then duke it out with other wizards, also supplemented with various spells. Their goal, based on the name, is to find an enemy altar, desecrate it by performing a sacrificial ritual on that altar, and then kill the enemy wizard one last time to banish him.
The story of the game is about a wizard named Eldred (or whatever the player chooses to name him), assisted with his familiar Zyzyx, who meets a wise man named Mithras in the aftermath of a great war that has all but destroyed the world. Through a series of flashbacks narrated by Eldred, we learn the story of how he served the five Gods in the game: Persephone, James, Stratos, Pyro or Charnel, and how the intervention of his arch-nemesis, Omnicidal Maniac Marduk, led to the world's present state.
Did i mention that Mithras is voiced by Tony "THE MAN" Jay? and that Stratos is voiced by Tim "Sweet Transvestite" Curry?
Well ladies and mengelemen, this is my offering to the world