Games you miss

[asquirrel]

What games do you miss? And why?

 

For me, it is Earth and Beyond. Yes, I know there's an emulator for it. The problem is that it flipped from open to closed source a few (well, nearly 10 now) years back and the 'devs' decided to 'balance' the game. Their balance is arbitrary, silly, and is NOT what the game was during its peak/fun period. But instead of bitching about the state of the best impersonation of a game, instead I will talk about what I loved in the game.

 

• I loved being in space. EVE: Online (specifically wormhole space) has far, far more beautiful backdrops than E&B ever did, but E&B was my first space game. And i loved that.
• I loved being a PW, pushing one button and turning my ship into a giant ball of (localized) death to anything around me. Against high level mobs it was just one more weapon slot worth of DPS, but against low level stuff you were farming for drops/mats/rep/etc, it was a godsend.
• While doing shield inversion (see above) I could push a second button (later on in the game, when the Westwood devs decided to throw game balance a bit out the window) and drain the shields of all enemies nearby, restoring my own back to full, even if I was out/almost out.
• I could mine on my JE/PS and just spend hours in a field of rocks without seeing another person. Or I could group up with a TT or some other char with a larger cargo hold and offload my stuff for them to sell/hold for me. This was back in the days when I was a broke kid (<18) and having more than one account wasn't an option.
• I miss the peace of mining. No other game made mining interesting like E&B did.
  • EVE: Online mining isn't fun, it's boring. And at any time you can get ganked/klilled, and that's no fun.
  • Elite: Dangerous mining is fun in VR for maybe 10 minutes, then it gets tedious. Fly to rock, launch prospector probe, shoot with lasers, deploy collector limpets, wait, move to next rock, repeat. (Or, if you try to use the 'new' mining mechanics, spending 20+ minutes flying from rock to rock looking for the *one* that has LTD/void opals inside.
  • What made E&B mining special/fun was the pop rocks, where you'd have to survive a massive explosion, kill a high level mob, get a debuff, etc. But when you did, suddenly the field would start spawning the 'good' ores that everyone wanted to build high-end components. So you started to look for poprocks instead of avoid them. But also, the buffs. Yes, mining the high level ores took a toll on your reactor, but you had (if you were a JE anyway) enough buffs that you could easily keep mining essentially uninterrupted even if you were constantly sucking down lvl 9 ores.
• I loved the zany characters. Westwood had a way with character design and story telling that was just hilarious. The ships looked different, had fun animations that evolved over time, etc. You could get a shield that literally put a giant 3D heart around your ship for valentines day that could be used any day of the year and was actually a pretty decent shield.
• I loved how simple the game was. Simple can mean boring, but then the game becomes more about automation or macroing than anything else. "Gasp! Macros bad!" Back in the day, Earth and Beyond needed to be an MMORPG for many reasons, but you could re-create E&B as an offline game with an Elite: Dangerous style background simulation / EVE: Online style economy and keep the game interesting for the player.
  • If you loved mining, then there would always be a market for the ores needed to build and repair ships.
  • Just like any real-world economy, you could amass wealth through mining, but you could also spend it on 'good' causes, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, ferrying refugees, etc.
  • If you liked combat, there would be an endless supply of NPCs to kill, and a market for their squishy bits (Tengu become ammo/weapons/devices/reactors/etc).
• Finally, yes, E&B really is better with other players. Walking into a station and seeing all the people stacked into F7, Antares, or FPO. Getting engines/shield/etc made at N7 by a TT or a reactor from a JE. Just...it was more fun being able to interact with others; right up until combat got involved. That game needed instancing BAD. There was no reason to *have* to compete with other players to do endgame content. And all the endgame content really was boiled down to having the resists to survive getting alpha-struck, then having enough TT players to keep your shields and hull alive while you nuked everything down. Like, even endgame combat was dead simple. But that simplicity is what made it fun; it was a game you could play to relax. You didn't have to be 'leet' or 'good'. You just had to chill and push a few buttons. I miss chill games that had great art and ideas.

The last space game I really loved was Far Beyond: A Space Odyssey. It's a VR only game. But I loved that the mechanics in it were simple, yet not all of them were obvious. I felt like I was figuring more stuff out on my second/third/fourth playthroughs. I got better at the game through trial and error. I was able to play solo, and there was no leaderboard or competition with others. I was competing with myself, and that's something I need in a world where everyone is always trying to one-up everyone else. I just need to feel like I'm good at something, not be reminded that there's always someone better. I found great peace in sending a probe out, mining a planet, repairing my equipment, then doing it all over again.

 

What games do you miss, and why?

[eeeee1]

tropix...

[bmx6454]

forza 4 since it was the last forza to have the track fuijimi kaido, and multiplayer has been dead for a long time on it.

[BobVonBob]

The first Guild Wars, yes it's still around but it's not the same as when there was an actual population. Probably mostly rose tinted glasses at this point, but the build crafting in that game was top notch and wasn't replicated by the sequel.

[Eschew]

2 hours ago, asquirrel said:

What games do you miss, and why?

Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, Black & White (1 and 2), and Fable III.

• Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne: The main campaigns served as my primer into Warcraft lore (which I loved dearly until Cataclysm happened), and custom maps were always fun. I remember playing some brilliant RPG custom maps. Never got into the DOTA scene, mostly because I sucked at it.  Blizzard phased the game out with Warcraft III: Reforged. I haven't played the rehash, but I've heard not-good things about it.
• Black & White: The most memorable god game I've ever played. Control the landscape, gather resources, build a civilization, train your creature-avatar, be benevolent, wreak havoc -- all with the flick of your hand, or er, your mouse. Developed by Lionhead Studios, which was apparently closed by Microsoft. I don't believe (legal) digital copies of the game exist, and even installing the game from a physical disc to a Windows 10 machine has it's own host of problems.
• Fable III: Pleasant medieval-fantasy RPG without any arachnid-like mobs (I'm extremely arachnophobic). I hesitate to call it wholesome (there's some mildly messed up content), but some parts of the story are certainly heartwarming. Also developed by Lionhead Studios. Hm... I was under the impression the game wasn't available anymore (definitely not on Steam), but it seems like Microsoft still sells some digital copies on Amazon. Only the base game, though, the DLCs aren't available anymore. Interesting.

[asquirrel]

1 hour ago, bmx6454 said:

forza 4 since it was the last forza to have the track fuijimi kaido, and multiplayer has been dead for a long time on it.

Yea. I got Command & Conquer for the N64 (in 2015; because I still have my N64) just so I could replay that one mission where, as NOD, you can build an obelisk of light on this one corner of the base (iirc it's the first mission where GDI deploys mammoth tanks against you) and have that single defense protect your base completely, since mammoths move so slow they don't pass out of its firing range before dying, and medium tanks get two-shot as well. Apparently that level is in the Remaster, but I haven't' dropped the $20 to find out.

20 minutes ago, Eschew said:

Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, Black & White (1 and 2), and Fable III.

• Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne: The main campaigns served as my primer into Warcraft lore (which I loved dearly until Cataclysm happened), and custom maps were always fun. I remember playing some brilliant RPG custom maps. Never got into the DOTA scene, mostly because I sucked at it.  Blizzard phased the game out with Warcraft III: Reforged. I haven't played the rehash, but I've heard not-good things about it.
• Black & White: The most memorable god game I've ever played. Control the landscape, gather resources, build a civilization, train your creature-avatar, be benevolent, wreak havoc -- all with the flick of your hand, or er, your mouse. Developed by Lionhead Studios, which was apparently closed by Microsoft. I don't believe (legal) digital copies of the game exist, and even installing the game from a physical disc to a Windows 10 machine has it's own host of problems.
• Fable III: Pleasant medieval-fantasy RPG without any arachnid-like mobs (I'm extremely arachnophobic). I hesitate to call it wholesome (there's some mildly messed up content), but some parts of the story are certainly heartwarming. Also developed by Lionhead Studios. Hm... I was under the impression the game wasn't available anymore (definitely not on Steam), but it seems like Microsoft still sells some digital copies on Amazon. Only the base game, though, the DLCs aren't available anymore. Interesting.

War3:FT -- Custom Hero Line Wars was my jam. I played the shit out of that during college. Cleave with vampirism was so fun. Warcraft 3: Reforged is a steaming pile of shit. They force-upgraded (downgraded, actually) everyone to it. It's one of the most anti-consumer things I've ever seen done.

 

Fable 3 -- I had a buddy who was scared of spiders too. When Skyrim came out he downloaded a mod that replaced the spiders with bears. But it also replaced the sounds. So you'd have these broken bear models silently descending from the ceiling. He said it was more terrifying than the original spiders, but it didn't scare him the same way, so he kept it. I just loled.

[PurplDrank]

1 hour ago, asquirrel said:

Yea. I got Command & Conquer for the N64 (in 2015; because I still have my N64) just so I could replay that one mission where, as NOD, you can build an obelisk of light on this one corner of the base (iirc it's the first mission where GDI deploys mammoth tanks against you) and have that single defense protect your base completely, since mammoths move so slow they don't pass out of its firing range before dying, and medium tanks get two-shot as well. Apparently that level is in the Remaster, but I haven't' dropped the $20 to find out.

War3:FT -- Custom Hero Line Wars was my jam. I played the shit out of that during college. Cleave with vampirism was so fun. Warcraft 3: Reforged is a steaming pile of shit. They force-upgraded (downgraded, actually) everyone to it. It's one of the most anti-consumer things I've ever seen done.

 

Fable 3 -- I had a buddy who was scared of spiders too. When Skyrim came out he downloaded a mod that replaced the spiders with bears. But it also replaced the sounds. So you'd have these broken bear models silently descending from the ceiling. He said it was more terrifying than the original spiders, but it didn't scare him the same way, so he kept it. I just loled.

I second the warcraft 3 reforged comment. It was trash, i actually refunded it. Tons of missing features for a big price. 

[MadAnt250]

3 hours ago, bmx6454 said:

forza 4 since it was the last forza to have the track fuijimi kaido, and multiplayer has been dead for a long time on it.

Forza Motorsport 4 sure was the best Forza Motorsport.

[gloop]

Never played it, but Star Wars: 1313 looked sick. F*ck Disney for cancelling it.