FallenOut
Novice
- Joined
- Jun 23, 2011
- Messages
- 13
Hey everyone, I'm new here on the forum. In a nutshell I used to play games quite a bit when I was in high school but I don't really have the time so much anymore. I'm also fairly picky with the games I play and the vast majority I've ever tried I didn't really like but every once in a while I find a real gem. Anyway, I really like how people here aren't necessarily into games with fancy graphics but more the feel or strategy. I've played games of various genres and liked a few and hated many in all of them.
First a bit about the games I've played previously for those of you who care and are trying to figure out if I'm a consolefag or not. If you don't care just skip to the Jagged Alliance bit.
Anyway some games I've played over the years:
Fighters Anthology - a fairly old flight simulator I was into as a kid, my first game and had a lot of fun with it. I really liked the complexity of it though I'm sure they've gotten more complex since then.
Quake 1 - self explanatory
688I Hunter Killer - Submarine simulator that I quite liked but never quite finished
Diablo II - I'll admit I played it quite a bit for a while although I found it more addictive than good. Overall I think it's probably the most overrated game I'm aware of and I'm really not sure I get what the fuss is about. The gameplay is pretty mindless and monotonous.
Caesar II - Fun city builder but pretty easy once you design a good block. From then on it's copy/paste. Overall, definitely too easy.
Caesar III - Much more challenging than II and much more fun. I was a bit of a perfectionist with my cities and set very high requirements for myself for each city which went far beyond those required for each scenario. Because of that I only made it through half of the game even though I was actually quite good at it and understood the mechanics
Max Payne 1 & 2: Now it seems single player shooters aren't really popular but I quite liked both of these. I liked the atmosphere, voice acting and the whole comic book animation thing was pretty cool.
Starcraft - played it quite a bit with friends but overall I found it required way too much "practice" to get good at it. I like a challenge but I'm not willing to practice quite as much to get good as this game requires.
Age of Empires II - Liked it better than starcraft because it's more focused on the economy. Actual units are relatively weak and to win you really need to have a stronger economy than your opponent to sustain an attack. Probably one of my favourites over the years.
Age of Empires III - Tried it, hated it.
Quest for Glory 5 - I know this is blasphemy on these forums but I quite liked this one. I really liked the atmosphere, puzzles and humour. I've never played the other parts unfortunately but I hear they're even better.
Civilization 4 - Started playing it pretty recently. Honestly, my feelings about it are quite mixed. I like the complexity and the eye candy is a nice bonus I suppose. Having said that, I feel that most of the challenge is at the beginning and once that part is over I get quite bored waiting for the game to end. I find that it takes just way too long to finish one bloody game. I have no problem with a long game as long as I feel I'm facing new challenges but in this case I often feel like I won very early and then I'm just waiting for the victory screen for the next 3 hours.
Fallout 1 & 2 - Loved both of them. Atmosphere, quests, story everything is just bloody perfect.
Fallout 3 - Tried it, hated it. I got bored before I even broke out of the vault and uninstalled it.
JAGGED ALLIANCE?
Anyway now I'm in a situation where I'm not willing to put in quite so much time into games as I was in high school. Otherwise I'm sure I would love a grand strategy game. Sometimes I crave games like AOEII and Caesar III but to get into any RTS would require practice which is out of the question while the complex city builders also have a very steep learning curve. So basically I'm looking for a game that isn't mindless but is reasonably easy to get into without having to spend hours daily to really get into it. Jagged Allliance 2 seems a lot like Fallout and funnily enough I spent some time looking for games similar to it and came up empty and then I saw JA2 on your top 10 strategy list. It seems to be just what I'm looking for.
The big question (finally) is which version should I go with? Gold? 1.13mod? Play the original patched then get the gold version? Which would be the best experience for a newb?
First a bit about the games I've played previously for those of you who care and are trying to figure out if I'm a consolefag or not. If you don't care just skip to the Jagged Alliance bit.
Anyway some games I've played over the years:
Fighters Anthology - a fairly old flight simulator I was into as a kid, my first game and had a lot of fun with it. I really liked the complexity of it though I'm sure they've gotten more complex since then.
Quake 1 - self explanatory
688I Hunter Killer - Submarine simulator that I quite liked but never quite finished
Diablo II - I'll admit I played it quite a bit for a while although I found it more addictive than good. Overall I think it's probably the most overrated game I'm aware of and I'm really not sure I get what the fuss is about. The gameplay is pretty mindless and monotonous.
Caesar II - Fun city builder but pretty easy once you design a good block. From then on it's copy/paste. Overall, definitely too easy.
Caesar III - Much more challenging than II and much more fun. I was a bit of a perfectionist with my cities and set very high requirements for myself for each city which went far beyond those required for each scenario. Because of that I only made it through half of the game even though I was actually quite good at it and understood the mechanics
Max Payne 1 & 2: Now it seems single player shooters aren't really popular but I quite liked both of these. I liked the atmosphere, voice acting and the whole comic book animation thing was pretty cool.
Starcraft - played it quite a bit with friends but overall I found it required way too much "practice" to get good at it. I like a challenge but I'm not willing to practice quite as much to get good as this game requires.
Age of Empires II - Liked it better than starcraft because it's more focused on the economy. Actual units are relatively weak and to win you really need to have a stronger economy than your opponent to sustain an attack. Probably one of my favourites over the years.
Age of Empires III - Tried it, hated it.
Quest for Glory 5 - I know this is blasphemy on these forums but I quite liked this one. I really liked the atmosphere, puzzles and humour. I've never played the other parts unfortunately but I hear they're even better.
Civilization 4 - Started playing it pretty recently. Honestly, my feelings about it are quite mixed. I like the complexity and the eye candy is a nice bonus I suppose. Having said that, I feel that most of the challenge is at the beginning and once that part is over I get quite bored waiting for the game to end. I find that it takes just way too long to finish one bloody game. I have no problem with a long game as long as I feel I'm facing new challenges but in this case I often feel like I won very early and then I'm just waiting for the victory screen for the next 3 hours.
Fallout 1 & 2 - Loved both of them. Atmosphere, quests, story everything is just bloody perfect.
Fallout 3 - Tried it, hated it. I got bored before I even broke out of the vault and uninstalled it.
JAGGED ALLIANCE?
Anyway now I'm in a situation where I'm not willing to put in quite so much time into games as I was in high school. Otherwise I'm sure I would love a grand strategy game. Sometimes I crave games like AOEII and Caesar III but to get into any RTS would require practice which is out of the question while the complex city builders also have a very steep learning curve. So basically I'm looking for a game that isn't mindless but is reasonably easy to get into without having to spend hours daily to really get into it. Jagged Allliance 2 seems a lot like Fallout and funnily enough I spent some time looking for games similar to it and came up empty and then I saw JA2 on your top 10 strategy list. It seems to be just what I'm looking for.
The big question (finally) is which version should I go with? Gold? 1.13mod? Play the original patched then get the gold version? Which would be the best experience for a newb?