Games that you had a lot of fun with but are obscure?

[mangsy]

Anyone here ever play C-Dogs? Used to play the shit out of that in my A+ Certification class in high school. Extremely simple (but satisfying) 3rd person shooter on DOS. Hotseat multiplayer was so much fun.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

I don't know why but it makes me think of crabs.

There was an early, relatively difficult boss fight folowed by a section full of annoying enemy mud sandcrabs...horrible creatures, but you couldn't even avoid them because it was a corridor.

 

[poocolator]

Warhammer Chaos Gate

Turn-based delight.


Which reminds me of:
Soldiers at War

Lest I forget,
Medieval Lords

An obscure, fun town-building game.

 

[Quilty]

Medieval Lords looks cool. How good is the game, in your opinion?

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

Yeah, what's up with Medieval Lords?

 

[Zed]

Medieval Lords peaked my interest as well.
Added to gamestoplay.txt.

 

[Phelot]

OH GOD the mobygames page for that Medieval Lords looks awesome. I'm reading through some reviews here:

http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/medieval-lords-build-defend-expand/mobyrank

Got an average of 70... I can't believe I've never heard of this game since I'm always on the look out for medieval city sims. Apparently it's by the same peple that did Cities XL?

EDIT: Actually most of the reviews are in them darn forner languages so... I read one that didn't really say much.

 

[poocolator]

Medieval Lords was probably one of the better medieval city builders (in 3D) that I've played. Yeah, I was quite surprised it didn't end up as popular as it damn well should've been.

Hailing from the (French, I believe) developer Monte Cristo, I have to attribute it's relative unknown to poor marketing. Actually, looking it up a bit further, I've discovered that Monte Cristo also developed Cities XL. Cities XL is that online (pay-to-play) city builder which, without knowing details, I believe tanked recently for one reason or another. You can probably research it further if you're interested. In any case, it looks really good, I guess. On Simtropolis.com, because Cities XL is the hottest city builder to heat the mainstream market since SimCity 4, they mainly bitch about the fact that is was an online game, and its simplification from SimCity 4.

In any case, the game is not easy. You've got a lot of variables to keep track of, including food and sanity, to name two; sanity kept track of the measure of religious services provided to your plebs, FYI.
the terrain is variable, including mountains and seas. Roads are constructed free-form, so none of that grid-based construction. In a similar vein, farms are free-form, as well; you can see the farms from the screenshots, and how they appear variable in size. The buildings themselves also have a footprint free from a grid, so proper city design really depends on your skill at designing cities.
There is combat, and a campaign, but to be fair I mainly played sandbox mode, sans combat, so I can't speak much on that. Also, a map editor allows you to design maps to suit whatever fancies you've got.
In any case, the organic feel your towns have in growing from hamlets to considerable cities is there. Ultimately, the size of the towns are not limited and are determined by your skill at managing arable land and city design. It's a good game to check out.

It's a pretty tough game to find for purchase, or even to find for the purpose of not removing from an inventory; and whether you'll like it is dependent on your tastes. It suited my tastes well, as I'm into city-builders.
Read more about it, or ask specific questions. But I think it suffices to say that if you enjoyed Caesar 3 (or its derivatives) or Simcity 4, then you should probably give it a shot given that you've got the willpower to do so.

 

[Phelot]

From reviews, it sounds like the combat was pretty poor, but it also sounds like you can simply skip it by using sandbox mode?

Is it mostly like Ceasar 3 where houses "upgrade" depending on what services you provide for them?

Is it possible to build purely small scale towns and villages or is it like the older Sim City games were it was geared more for building up massive metropolises?

THANKS POOKY!

 

[poocolator]

From reviews, it sounds like the combat was pretty poor, but it also sounds like you can simply skip it by using sandbox mode?

Yeah, go ahead and play sandbox mode exclusively. That's what I did and enjoyed it nevertheless.
I played the campaign for the tutorial, and abandoned it afterwards. However, there is even a campaign map, that's of somewhat poor quality; but it's there regardless, if you wanted to give it a shot.

Is it mostly like Ceasar 3 where houses "upgrade" depending on what services you provide for them?

This is the case. The houses do upgrade according to which services are within their range. There are no pesky walkers, however. Each service building has a catchment area into which your houses should fall. That's when they will upgrade. Also, I believe (but don't remember exactly) that there isn't a toggle to prevent a house from upgrading till you want it to do so.

Is it possible to build purely small scale towns and villages or is it like the older Sim City games were it was geared more for building up massive metropolises?

Smaller cities are where the game shines. Say, cities with a few thousand people. However, with proper management and care, it is possible to build much larger cities. It really depends on land management and resource distribution... and your PC's hardware. But the game isn't very demanding in the first place.

THANKS POOKY!

 

[Sergiu64]

Hammer and Sickle

Night Watch

 

[Orgasm]

Demonworld 1 and 2, german tactical game, adaption from a boardgame, epic shit in hot seat.
Has a campaign, lesbian witches who scream "kill all humans" in a shrill voice, magic, pig people. All kinds of awesome.
I even wanted to do an LP but none would give a shit and I am way to lazy.

 

[CrimsonAngel]

Demonworld 1 and 2, german tactical game, adaption from a boardgame, epic shit in hot seat.
Has a campaign, lesbian witches who scream "kill all humans" in a shrill voice, magic, pig people. All kinds of awesome.
I even wanted to do an LP but none would give a shit and I am way to lazy.

now that you said it you have to do it.

 

[spectre]

This Demon World thing looks interesting, like a Dark Omen ripoff. How's the AI and UI, though, cause I read some mixed reviews of it.

Anyways, my list.
Abuse

A p. cool platformer/shooter with a nice gimmick - you control the guy with the arrow keys, but aim with the mouse.

One Must Fall 2097

Good fighting game. One of the best imo, or at least the one I sank the most time into.
Not sure if it counts as obscure, but it was always overshadowed by other blockbuster titles.
It has it all - freeform combos, secret moves, fatalities, rpg elements.
The game really shines in the Championship mode, where you get to buy new robots, robot upgrades and training courses for your character. It also unlockable powerups, hidden characters, etc. etc.
Only downside is the fugly robot design (although I've learned to love it) some characters are anime-ish (most notably the guy who gives a post-battle summary), but it's not that visible most of the time.

 

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

I remember playing some pretty obscure game Turn-Based Strategy game called Fallen Haven I got from a demo CD. I searched for it and I found a few mentions, managed to download and even got a link to it and the sequel I didn't know it had!

Anybody knows where I can get a no-cd crack for Fallen Haven 2?

 

[Licaon_Kter]

hey, that's just a picture from my mind while playing ADOM

 

[Quilty]

Dink Smallwood. It was shareware on a disk from a games magazine, and one of the first games I played. Brings a smile to my face every time I remember punching women with that little guy.

 

[No soup for you!]

I used to have a lot of fun with this silly dungeon crawler called "Dungeons of the Unforgiven." Fighting giant trash cans, dripping syringes, and all manner of nonsense.

I think I first got it on some shareware CD. Good times.

 

[felipepepe]

Monte Cristo also developed Cities XL. Cities XL is that online (pay-to-play) city builder which, without knowing details, I believe tanked recently for one reason or another. You can probably research it further if you're interested. In any case, it looks really good, I guess. On Simtropolis.com, because Cities XL is the hottest city builder to heat the mainstream market since SimCity 4, they mainly bitch about the fact that is was an online game, and its simplification from SimCity 4.

They made CitiesXL 2011 now, that's is offline and single-player. It's fucking great if you ask me, have some minor interface lags, but otherwise is the best game in the genre nowadays.

 

[poocolator]

Monte Cristo also developed Cities XL. Cities XL is that online (pay-to-play) city builder which, without knowing details, I believe tanked recently for one reason or another. You can probably research it further if you're interested. In any case, it looks really good, I guess. On Simtropolis.com, because Cities XL is the hottest city builder to heat the mainstream market since SimCity 4, they mainly bitch about the fact that is was an online game, and its simplification from SimCity 4.

They made CitiesXL 2011 now, that's is offline and single-player. It's fucking great if you ask me, have some minor interface lags, but otherwise is the best game in the genre nowadays.

So they decided to make it offline and playable? That's good news. Gotta give it another look.

 

[Phelot]

Anyways, my list.
Abuse

Hell yeah! Abuse was a very fun game and the map editor was pretty cool, too.

 

[spectre]

Monte Cristo also developed Cities XL. Cities XL is that online (pay-to-play) city builder which, without knowing details, I believe tanked recently for one reason or another. You can probably research it further if you're interested. In any case, it looks really good, I guess. On Simtropolis.com, because Cities XL is the hottest city builder to heat the mainstream market since SimCity 4, they mainly bitch about the fact that is was an online game, and its simplification from SimCity 4.

They made CitiesXL 2011 now, that's is offline and single-player. It's fucking great if you ask me, have some minor interface lags, but otherwise is the best game in the genre nowadays.

So they decided to make it offline and playable? That's good news. Gotta give it another look.

I stumbled upon Cities XL when I was looking for a playable city builder for myself. Lacks quite a few features from simcity and the economic system is a bitch (imo - if you want to see large cities develop, you are basically forced to build a number of specialized cities and trade resources between them), but it's a solid builder. Much better than all the others, but that's not saying much. The genre hasn't been in best shape for some time.

 

[GarfunkeL]

You might be interested in Jeff Lapkof's upcoming The Drift 1879 game then.

Whoa! Thanks for the tip, definitely interested!

 

[GarfunkeL]

Anyways, my list.
Abuse

Hell yeah! Abuse was a very fun game and the map editor was pretty cool, too.

Definitely this.

 

[Quilty]

Oh fuck yes Last Express

Is Startopia considered obscure? Because that was a thoroughly addictive little space station sim.