They are still my goto games, just so time consuming so great for COVID lockdowns.
Yes really had fun with Colonization but once you get the hang of it you can win ‘too easily’ so not one for restarting over and over again.
1 Like
My gaming started off with Commodore 64. Great Giana Sisters, Boulder Dash, International Karate, Stunt car racer, Spy vs Spy. All great games. I had hundreds of games on 5” floppy disks and all the kids at school use to copy each other’s games.
Then I got my first PC. An old Olivetti. I would play the old shareware games. Wolfenstien and Duke Nukem, Sensible soccer, Cannon fodder. Back in the day when you would buy computer magazines and they would have a floppy disk attached to them. Shareware games were more than a demo typically like 3/4 a game.
I must have been about 10 when I paid a lot for first proper games. It was Sid Meier collection (Civ 1, Civ 2, Colonization, and Pirates). That was a brilliant pack and it had me hooked. I spent hours playing these games. I then started playing similar games. Transport Tycoon, Sim City, ThemePark and then Championship Manager.
The other games I loved was Doom. I got suspended from school for putting Doom on the school Network. As everyone was have big network battles. That upgraded to Rise of the Triads, Unreal and Half life.
By the time I was at Uni I was playing Championship manager again as my main focus. Thinking back it was a terrible game to play with my mates. The 4 of us would drink, eat sweets, and play CM together. I then got a Nintendo 64 and we had Golden eye and MarioKart battles. Brilliant.
After Uni I went back to Civ3 and Civ4. As I could no longer have multiplayer games. These remained my staple for 10 years really.
Then I had kids. This allowed me to go back to gaming. As I had laptops I went more the console route. Wii games (MarioKart, SuperSmash Bro, Soul Caliber, Resident Evil). Since then I tend to have limited time, and the time I do have I play games with my kids. I wanted pick up and play games. Family friendly consoles (WiiU/Nintendo Switch). Splatoon, Nintendoland, MaroKart, Rocket League. When I get 5 minutes to myself I might play Bioshock or Paladins.
Thinking back its amazing how far games have come in a short period of time. My golden era though was the Sid Meier days.
2 Likes
The Wolfenstein?
Do I miss that, was it the best game ever?
Your the 1st to mention it let alone know what I was talking about when I went on about it.
That was on those 486 and 486 DX rigs not bad.
There were also some good American football games which started off well, then all you could find was Madden and they sort of became duff rather than better.
I recognise most of the game you mentionned.
On console I think my best memory was Kingdom Hearts on PS2 (still got it) however it really was with the kids it was best. Getting pestered to finish a level for them so they could continue.
Online there was a Wolfenstien shoot em up that I think was my 1st online experience it was fairly good. It wasn’t until ‘Dofus’ that I really got hooked on online games (again with the kids) them their friends and I formed pretty powerful teams and ran amok with others who joined. Then it got silly with too many casts that had stupid powers I didn’t get to understand as I gave up.
Yes I’m a simulation freak and Sid Meier took that to another level. I also like car games, Need for speed, got into GTA and liked the racing best online.
Now I feel the games concentrate too much on graphics than the essentials (for me) still there must be good games out there I just can not run them on my dinosaure, having a slow caonnection doesn’t help either but that I can not see the point of upgrading till I get a new computer or a PS5 (still on the PS3 LOL). Most of all I miss playing online with the kids but they have gone way past me now…
Commodore Amiga was my first computer. I think it’s still in the loft somewhere.
1 Like
Wow what a throw back… I was more into The Chaos Engine, Zool, Jungle Strike… Then I got a master system, then SNES etc.
Then I pretty much mirror you, got a PC and played Duke Nukem and Cannon Fodder, and then into the “sim” games. I played so much railroad tycoon also.
Its spooky that you got suspended from putting Doom onto your network, we did the same (without being suspended) with Quake 2 at college… That and disabling neopets as that’s what half the girls spent all lunch playing!
I then diverged into Mohaa, cod and playing those semi-pro and then onto World of Warcraft which I played at the top level (for my sins, I played far too much).
Then I got a gf, kids and now it’s Overwatch and Total War Games (which I’ve played religiously since the original Shogun).
There’s a mod called respec that can resolve that issue.
1 Like
My first computer was an Amstrad 464, most memorable games were Bards Tale 3, Barbarian, Emlyn Hughes international Soccer, some cheap clone of Elite, Soccer Boss, Football Director and a detective game where you got to interview suspects who would visibly wilt if you asked the right questions.
I moved onto PS1 (Warhammer: Shadow of the Horned Rat, X-com and Panzer General) and SNES (Kevin Keegan’s Super Soccer (?) and Shadowrun).
Late 90’s I had a laptop that I used for one of the football manager games, Baldurs Gate, Total War: Shogun, Capitalism +, One of the Civilization games and Alpha Centauri, Grim Fandango and Theme Hospital. I’m sure I played a couple of City management/builder games similar to the Caesar/Anno Series but I can’t remember what they were called.
Late 00’s I got an Xbox 360 from a flat mate who was moving back to NZ. Fell in love with Borderlands, Fallout 3 & New Vegas, Titanfall and Skyrim.
Over the last decade I switched back to a gaming laptop. Playing many of the older titles alongside TWW2 etc.
I’m looking forward to the new switch that is rumoured to be coming out over the next year, as I think that will be good to play with my daughter. Will also need to update my laptop to something newer for games being released.
2 Likes
continuing to play wow. While the new expansion is better than BFA , the grind is still there. There’s only so many alts that you can build before the grind comes tearing you down. And the one raid that is there is pretty easy. Tanking needs to be more rewarding , Healing needs to be less of a chore and there needs to be something for dps guys to be other than ranged.
1 Like
3 Likes
Interesting list of Bethesda titles on the gamepass. Didnt see FO3 on there, was that by another company?
1 Like
4 Likes
This is interesting. Apparently Fallout NV removed some of the NPCs to improve the running speed of the game. There are mods available which add these back in!
IK, three forward somersaults and reverse head punch, worked every time 
1 Like
Ah, Wolfenstein. Ran on a 386 SX back in the day. Those days when 4MB of ram was £100… I remember upgrading from a 486 DX 66Mhz to a 100Mhz processor. I thought I was god!
Played Quakeworld for years online in open GL format. Happy days.
Have you played BL2 and 3? They are amazing, BL2 probably just the better of the 3.
Interesting though what would your top 10 be (no order as thats impossible…)
Borderlands 2 (PC)
World of Warcraft (PC)
Command & Conquer: Red Alert (PC)
Golden Eye (N64)
Cannon Fodder (Amiga)
Medal of honour allied assault (PC)
Call of Duty : Original (PC)
Total War : Rome (PC)
Colonisation (PC)
Championship Manager 01/02 (PC)
1 Like
Yes, we’ve talked about the Borderlands games in the TIA games thread. I have all of them but unfortunately have been unable to finish 3 because my laptop isn’t powerful enough. I do like 2 & 3 but 1 remains by and far my favourite. Partly because of memories of when I first played it. Partly because I prefer the music and feel of the weapons in 1 over the second game. Also, I prefer the texture of the graphics. I liked how using a weapon type gave you damage bonuses the more you used it. The character customisation and menus are obviously much better in the subsequent games though.
My top 10 would probably be something like
Borderlands 1
Total War Warhammer 1&2 (I prefer Mortal Empires to Vortex…if I have to choose then it is 1)
Titanfall 1.
Destiny 2 (I played some of one but not enough).
Fallout New Vegas
Skyrim
Championship Manager 00/01 (I think it was this version I played)
Battlefield Heroes (online multiplayer game )
Capitalism+
Baldurs Gate.
I’m sure there is probably some city sim or stratgey game that i’ve forgotten that would make this list…
1 Like
Mind if I join in, lads?
Fallout 2
The Witcher 3
StarCraft
BioShock
Borderlands 2
Diablo
Disco Elysium
Batman: Arkham City
Mass Effect 2
The Room series
In no particular order, of course. Maybe The Witcher 3 is the best I’ve ever played but all of them elicited quite a few emotions from me - Fallout 2 probably more than any other.
3 Likes
I totally forgot about this game. I loved it, apart from one of my favourite characters dying…can’t believe I didn’t put it on my list.
I only ever got to play the demo on my 360, but I thought it was brilliant. It felt like you were really part of an army, rather than some super soldier. didn’t appear to be trying too hard to be clever with the storyline.
The original Medal of Honour was awesome too…the opening scenes with the beach landing like something out of Saving Private Ryan. I’m not sure I’ve played a game that atmospheric.
1 Like