Dark Forces / Jedi Knight bundle came to Steam.

StingingVelvet · Post by **StingingVelvet** » 29 Sep 2009, 07:54

The consoley interface and graphics and HUD are minor annoyances, but what really kills it for me is the lack of the skill system. 90% of the awesomeness of Deus Ex revolves around the skill system. Without it, it's not much more than a mediocre stealthy shooter.

It's a shooter with RPG elements, to be sure, much more so than Deus Ex was.

I like shooters with RPG elements though, so go me.

It reminds me of Bioshock vs. System Shock... Bioshock was less RPG, but it was a stunning game none-the-less, provided you liked shooters in the first place.

YouTube · Post by **ViciousXUSMC** » 29 Sep 2009, 08:52

Bioshock was one of the popular shooters that I could never get into I tried maybe 3 or 4 times to play it and quit a few levels in.

Great graphics and good atmosphere but something about it just didnt hook me. I guess I didnt like the setting/environment/enemies or something.

FramerateUK · Post by **FramerateUK** » 29 Sep 2009, 11:08

This is a well random question...

Set your minds back to when Intel just released the P166 and the P200 MMX processors...

They were working hard to push the MMX extensions, and had a few games taking advantage of them. The main one was POD, which to this day, I still love! The other though, as far as I remember was a Star Wars FPS game, I thought it was part of the Dark Forces series, but apparently it wasn't.

Can anyone remember what it was? Or if I'm completely off the ball and it wasn't Star Wars, what was it? It didn't look particularly good as far as I recall, it looked more like Doom than Quake, but I can't remember what it was!

StingingVelvet · Post by **StingingVelvet** » 29 Sep 2009, 11:17

The only Star Wars FPS game not in the Jedi Knight series that I know of is Shadows of the Empire, which was a horrible, horrible title.

FramerateUK · Post by **FramerateUK** » 29 Sep 2009, 11:19

The only Star Wars FPS game not in the Jedi Knight series that I know of is Shadows of the Empire, which was a horrible, horrible title.

I really liked that game... the opening sequence with the battle of Hoth was really cool!

I keep thinking the game is Dark Forces, though obviously that was much older. I wonder if Intel did an MMX enhanced version?

Post by **Paradigm Shifter** » 29 Sep 2009, 12:06

Aside from the horrible interface, utter gutting of skills/augs/inventory systems that made DX1 such a rewarding experience even when playing through for the tenth time, low-quality graphics (I seriously though DX1 looked better if you turned the res up and enabled TruForm) terrible (and frequent) load times... what killed DX2 for me was how 'on rails' I always felt with it. I never felt I had a choice in what I was doing. And the plot, if you'd played through the Machiavellian brilliance that was DX1, could be seen coming a mile off. I was actually glad when I finished that game, because I wanted to see the ending, but it was a real struggle to care about any of the characters in the game at all.

Bioshock was similar... too 'on rails'. No choices.

...

Shadows of the Empire was a Glide title when 3dfx were struggling to get games to support it. It required a 3D accelerator. No software rendering at all. I found it late, as games go, so couldn't ever find more than the demo. I wanted to play the full game, but could never find it.

...

I know P.O.D was an MMX enhanced game (it was bundled with most new MMX-capable PCs at the time in the UK) but I can't recall a Star Wars MMX launch title... :?

FramerateUK · Post by **FramerateUK** » 29 Sep 2009, 22:37

Shadows of the Empire was a Glide title when 3dfx were struggling to get games to support it. It required a 3D accelerator. No software rendering at all. I found it late, as games go, so couldn't ever find more than the demo. I wanted to play the full game, but could never find it.

Graphically it was really stunning at the time. I had a P120, 16 megs of RAM, and a 4mb 3DFX Voodoo and it ran very well.

The vehicle levels were great, but the 3rd person levels left a bit to be desired... and unfortunately there were a lot of them!

Still, I enjoyed it!

And I've found out what game I meant! It was Rebel Moon Rising (you can see why I thought it was Star Wars!) and there's some info on it here: http://www.mobygames.com/game/rebel-moon-rising

I think I'll give it a shot when I have some time!

Post by **Paradigm Shifter** » 30 Sep 2009, 10:06

That sounds like Red Faction, before Red Faction, if you know what I mean. ;)

Cool... wouldn't mind giving that a shot myself... never knew it existed.

FramerateUK · Post by **FramerateUK** » 30 Sep 2009, 11:20

That sounds like Red Faction, before Red Faction, if you know what I mean. ;)

Cool... wouldn't mind giving that a shot myself... never knew it existed.

I have a sad obsession with games from that era...

I got my first PC in 1996, so the games from that period are still my favorite. The likes of Screamer 2/Rally, Hi-Octane, POD, Wipeout 2097, Sub Culture (BRILLIANT GAME!).

I sadly sold a bunch of them when I thought I didn't want them anymore, but I ended up buying a few back lol.

I've got an old 19" CRT that I keep meaning to bring back from my parent's house just to connect up to my old machine to get the games looking a bit better.

StingingVelvet · Post by **StingingVelvet** » 30 Sep 2009, 13:42

I sadly sold a bunch of them when I thought I didn't want them anymore, but I ended up buying a few back lol.

I sold my entire collection in 2004 when I was "done with gaming"... got back into it a year or so later and have been buying back ever since.

Soooooo stupid.

I actually like Steam in a way because it prevents me from being that stupid again.

FramerateUK · Post by **FramerateUK** » 30 Sep 2009, 14:35

I actually like Steam in a way because it prevents me from being that stupid again.

I quite like that too.

My 360 died a while back, I bought a new one and managed to just recover my whole account, and I was given a list of all the stuff I'd downloaded, and could re-download it whenever I wanted- that was very handy!

Post by **The_cranky_hermit** » 30 Sep 2009, 16:27

Shadows of the Empire was a Glide title when 3dfx were struggling to get games to support it. It required a 3D accelerator. No software rendering at all. I found it late, as games go, so couldn't ever find more than the demo. I wanted to play the full game, but could never find it.

I had that one on N64. I rather liked it, though everyone else seemed to agree that only the first level was any good (The Battle of Hoth) and the rest was mindless FPS action that wasn't up to Quake's standards.

It also had a "cinematic" camera feature that pulled the camera out so that it showed the action at all kinds of crazy angles, sort of like a cross between Resident Evil and God of War. It looked really cool. And it made it pretty much impossible to actually play the game.

Post by **Paradigm Shifter** » 30 Sep 2009, 18:04

I never sell my games anyway. :oops: I've still got Desert Strike PCCD somewhere if I look. :oops:

FramerateUK · Post by **FramerateUK** » 30 Sep 2009, 18:12

I never sell my games anyway. :oops: I've still got Desert Strike PCCD somewhere if I look. :oops:

I don't anymore, unless they're games I never bothered playing to begin with (such as a bunch of rubbish console games I'm selling on ebay at the moment!)

Nice!

I've got an Amiga version of that :)

Post by **Paradigm Shifter** » 01 Oct 2009, 10:53

'Twas the first game I ever bought. It was £9.

Wow... haven't games gotten pricy? ;)

Post by **The_cranky_hermit** » 01 Oct 2009, 16:26

I remember when Ultima VII cost $80 - and that was just for the first part. The second part was sold separately, and both parts had an expansion pack, also sold separately.

StingingVelvet · Post by **StingingVelvet** » 01 Oct 2009, 16:49

A lot of cartridge games on consoles were $70-80 as well, and a lot of FMV games like Under a Killing Moon were more expensive.

Games are actually cheaper now than they were, and mostly fall in price quicker. One of the few benefits of being more mainstream.

FramerateUK · Post by **FramerateUK** » 01 Oct 2009, 17:06

That's true actually. I just sold a bunch of N64 games on ebay, and the South Park game had a price tag of £64.99 on it! I certainly didn't pay that price, but it shows how expensive games were.

In retrospect though, the N64 did have some of the most expensive games ever on it because of the ridiculous decision to use cartridges.

StingingVelvet · Post by **StingingVelvet** » 01 Oct 2009, 17:41

In retrospect though, the N64 did have some of the most expensive games ever on it because of the ridiculous decision to use cartridges.

Nintendo thought it could do no wrong, if they kept carts the industry would accept it, as they were the industry leader. Sony did the same thing with the $600 PS3 and Blu-Ray... once these companies rule the roost for any amount of time, they act like they no longer need to follow industry trends or use previous strategies, they can just do whatever they want and consumers will follow.

Can't wait to see what BS Microsoft try in the future that gets people away from them.

yogibbear · Post by **yogibbear** » 01 Oct 2009, 18:31

[quote]Can't wait to see what BS Microsoft try in the future that gets people away from them.

Well considering the 360 is still considered "successful" despite the huge no. of rrods...

They'd have to do something tragic... like console DRM, charge for internet, charge for free mods, and charge developers for releasing patches via their services...

Oh wait....

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