You know what i miss from being younger?
Being able to go into a shop that sold computer games, having a look around, finding a game that id never heard of before. Looking at the screenshots on the back, thinking it looked cool. Reading the features, thinking it sound cool. Deciding to buy it with saved up money. Getting it home playing it, and discovering it was amazing and playing it for months straight.
That doesnt happen anymore. Getting older and wiser has its disadvantages, its harder for good stuff to sneak up on you.
I think the last game that got me that way was Deadlock 2, it was awesome. It also had a race called the Tarth!
What was the last game that got you this way?
Darksiders. I rarely take a chance on an untrusted source these days, because you're more likely to be burnt than otherwise, however I was pleasently surprised. I found the combat more fun than the original God of War, while still just as repetative, and the addition of decent puzzles worked well. The Art style and characters made the game feel like its own. It gets canned a bit as being a GoW clone, but frankly it's got more personality and more brains.
Escape Velocity on the Mac, 10 years ago. A classic 2D space RPG. People bought Macs (of all things) just to play it. I spent 1000+ hours on that game (including plugins) over 5 years, as well as the 2 sequels.
The Age of Empires series got me as well. Put at least 300 hours into the series.
The impulse purchases that I have been the most happy with would have to be a tie. Corncob 3D and Simcity 2000. For those of you who missed Corncob 3D, it was truly strange flight sim that had you piloting bi-planes in a fight against invading aliens. It had solid and smooth moving graphics for 1992 game allowing you to fly in all three dimentions, but was devilishly hard. I don't know if it was sold in stores, I mail-ordered it after trying the shareware.
I actually found Sins in a store without prior knowlege making this the last one for me.Europa universalis might have been the last one before that.
Jagged Alliance:Deadly Games.
It looked awesome, plus a new character was a crazy-psycho disgrunted Postal Worker. it was the second game I ever bought for the PC (the first being Lords of the Ring: Part 1..it was bad) and I played for months, if nto years. I still recall a few parts of it with my brother (we both played the game and we kinda loved the whole Jagged Alliance Serie)
But recently?...hard to say really...everything is the same, just with a diffrent coat of paint.
Demigod
Morrowind for me.
Never heard of the Elder Scrolls but I picked it up because the screen shots looked epic. Spent many hours tramping around in that game never to complete it.
As far as buying from an actual store, it was April 2007 and the game was Galactic Civilizations II, Gold Edition. I checked it out and liked what I saw, but I didn't actually buy it. I was going to wait. My wife saw that I liked it and bought it for me.
I bought 3 more boxed copies of GalCiv2 after that. At least one went oversees. Maybe 2.
Since then, everything has been downloads. Most recently, Demigod and Sins of a Solar Empire, both which I got last weekend. (Better late than never?)
Nox!
Yeah... I had read one review of it. Both me and my bro were thinking games we'd like to play if we had a new computer, Morrowind was on both lists.
Then one day, some months after getting that said new computer, i noticed Morrowind in some shop just for 7.80 euros (normal price 16 euros, still cheap, a re-release). Bought it, best thing i've ever done.
Later i did buy GOTY edition to get both expansions but i probably wouldn't have done that if hadn't bought the original when i did.
Hmm, i've completed it just once... otherwise i spend my time browsing, choosing and installing mods and quickly testing them, never really getting to play it again.
Ahh but latest? I did buy BFBC2 (for 360) pretty impulsively but i don't play it much really. My luck applies here too: I either get OP team or a team full of morons, ratio being 1:9 (same with Halos, MW2, any game you mention, even if i don't play it)
I would have to say it was ARENA. From the elder scroll storyline.
I was always a D&D lover and that game came close.
After that I just got to old and never really had time to have fun playing any game for a long time just like when i was a kid. Hell I've been playing zelda for the WII for the past 2 years and it's still not finished. Having three kids is a real killer
Left 4 Dead
I did hear about it before release but it was days before and I remember thinking what an amazing concept! Then bought the game and got in on the early demo of the first 2 levels of the campaign and played them 2 levels over and over relentlessly till the full game was released. I still play a full versus campaign of Left 4 Dead 2 at least 2 or 3 times a week.
Sins of a Solar Empire was probably the last game I bought in store with very little prior knowledge that didn't end in disappointment.
I've been burned enough times throughout the years that I very rarely jump into a purchase without at least some advance knowledge of what the community and user reviewers (professional reviews are mostly a load of bribed crap these days) generally thought of the game. Not to mention digital downloads mean there's even less excuse for not researching a game before buying it.
Actually, come to think of it, this is how I got Supreme Commander.
Friend and I moved somewhere, didnt have internetz till the next day so we wanted to find a game to LAN. Went somewhere, saw SupCom and thought...wait a minute. I remember reading about this in PC Gamer like a year ago, it's supposed to be like Total Annihilation!
Sure enough, got addicted and FA is still the best game in existence in my mind.
I saw Sins and bought it, with no prior knowledge. It's still my favorite game. (For console, Mass Effect)
-Twilight Storm
Star Trek Armada II
Every once in a while I play it. I even learned to do some hacks which make playing it even more interesting sometimes.
Heroes of Might and Magic IV. I missed it out after III as I heard bad things about it and skipped to V. Saw it cheap and bought it and I have to say the people who criticised it need a good talking to. It has far more RPG and strategic options than any of the others but the fanboy purists drowned out the more objective of us with their tremulous, whiney voices.
I believe it was a certain game called 'Galactic Civilizations 2' by some random American company, can't remember what they were called...
Baldur's Gate series: a friend had been telling me about it for months. I finally bought the first game, loved it, and then bought the second came (BG2). Loved it even more.
Master of Magic.
Had to chose between it and some other fantasy based game which I cannot recall the name of.
I think I chose correctly.
Kings Bounty The Legend - its a super game!!
Zomg, i just realised i bought GC2 pretty much the same way. I gave the demo a try, then on my birthday, uh, a few years ago almost exactly, i bought it while in some shop. Again, one game i don't really play much. Building a good looking ship takes time (and then there's this deal with stupid weapon techs...)
I haven't played it that much yet (it was released less than a week ago), but Lead & Gold would fit. I saw a couple people on forums talking about buying Lead and Gold and thought "WTF? I understand gold, but why the hell are they buying lead as well?". A bit later I finally realized what they had meant saw screenshots, noticed its price and voila! new item on my CC bill. Pity I haven't had much time to explore it, too busy with classes yet but what little I've played of it has been great
Here on Impulse however it'd be Scavenger, a few months ago. It's kind of like Moon Lander made into a shmup, and believe it or not it's awesome first time I played it I couldn't stop until I was at lvl 40, and even then only to buy the studio's other two games ArkLight (Arkanoid made into a shmup!) and DarkSide (Asteroids made into... even more of a shmup!) before resuming my obsession.
The last game would be Sins of a Solar Empire. I saw it for $20, and immediately bought it. Best twenty spent on a game. Incedentially, it was the last PC game I've bought.
I'll have to go with GalCiv2 also. I had picked it up and put it back down on a couple of occasions(instead buying CivIV and SM's Pirates those times). Finally I held on to it when I picked it up and that was the start of 2+ years of playing almost daily. I still keep it at the ready in case the mood strikes.
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