Addictive games

[Manic Moran]

Steel Beasts, Combat Mission.

 

TacOps (The Battlefront one, not the FPS)

 

Railroad Tycoon II.

 

Harpoon 4. Not strictly computer, but we're using it in a big email wargame.

 

NTM

[Jeff]

I hate to say it, but I find the mindless violence of the Wolfenstein/Doom/Quake games to be an excellent decompression device after a day at work. Nothing like a few levels of slaughter to take the edge off. Beats kicking the dog!

[Ivanjoe]

Day of Defeat. Half life mod.

Brilliant utter brilliant.

Only game i play online now.

WW2 based halflife mod.

Try it out. You will be hooked.

[Guest bojan]

Jeff, I made my personal record in Q2 multiplayer after passing organic chemistry exam...

[Lev]

Codename Eagle: nominally a first/third person shoot'em up set in a fictional twenties. But sod the single-player mode and bring on the multiplay.

It has tanks, jeeps, motorcycles, armoured cars, biplanes, bombers, Zeppelins, torpedoboats, destroyers, aircraft carriers, submarines and a host of other stuff and you can walk up to anything enter it and use it as a tool o' death. Very, very addictive

 

 

Check out the multiplayer demo, if you dare. http://www.codenameeagle.com/downloads.asp

[Manic Moran]

Looks a hell of a lot like a Leman Russ shooting up a Hellhound to me...

 

NTM

[Petteri Pöri]

Now that I finally got my PC updated to a 1400MHz AMD, perhaps I can throw in a few comments on this forum too.

 

At the moment, I'm totally hooked on Counterstrike. Any of our resident Swedes want to have their asses kicked on some Finnish or Swedish Counterstrike server?

 

-Petteri

[Oddball]

Nethack

 

Descendant of Rogue.

 

An ASCII game where you are a fantasy character wandering around a dungeon searching for the Amulet of Yendor.

 

No graphics to speak of, needs no computer horsepower, but you just keep going and going (and dying and dying...).

[Guest Mr_Myke]

Close Combat 2, followed closely by Close Combat 2, then by Close Combat 2.

 

This game MUST be played online (use MSN zone). Community there is now on small side, but close knit and active, as well as welcoming of new players. Squad level tactics from ww2 at their best. The solo game is fun, and necessary practice for online, but playing another human makes the game really live...and achieves the goal of constant change from battle to battle.

 

It's the classic "five minutes to learn, a lifetime to master". Well... at least a few months to master anyway.

 

Game can be had for about 10 bucks in many places.

 

By the way, anyone going to mention Panzer Elite here?

 

Come give it a try!

[Al]

So...Mr_Myke, ever play Close Combat 2? Seriously, who makes that game?

 

One I forgot to mention is the Panzer Campaign Series put out by HPS. The more I play it, the more I like it.

[Ivan Rajevic]

Originally posted by Al:

So...Mr_Myke, ever play Close Combat 2?   Seriously, who makes that game?

 

 

The Evil Empire... Microsoft

 

Actually, MS only published it. The real culprits are Atomic Games.

[Ivan Rajevic]

Panzer General.

 

This game started me on the vicious, downward spiralling path of wargaming. It got me interested in things like Close Combat, Combat Mission, Steel Panthers etc.

 

It was because of this game that I looked up and found the Heavy Metal site...

[Jimmeh]

Until I get past being a student and get more time and money, I'll stick with Hidden and Dangerous. There's just something cathartic about taking some poor German foot soldier out with a Panzerfaust!

[acilius]

I`d like to add War In Russia and the championship manager.

[Mk 1]

I was (as in "used to be") addicted to AirWarrior.

 

Anyone else here every play it?

 

One of the first interactive games, with about 12 years of history -- dated all the way back to Genie, then through Compuserve/AOL/Prodigy, then went on to the web (airwarrior.com).

 

You could choose from WWII Europe, WWII Pacific, WWI, or Korean theatres, and fly a great variety of planes in each. Fighters were the key, but bombers and transports were available. Bases were the basis of the game. You got bases, your opponents got bases, you want to take your opponents' bases, and vice-versa. Go in with your bombers and kill one of the bases. Go in with your transports and drop paratroopers (you could hear them yell as they jumped!) on the base to capture it. IF you succeed, in about 20 minutes the base comes back to life as yours. You can accelerate the process by flying in supplies with your transports. Once it is up, you can go to the base to pick up planes to fly against the next base.

 

You can quickly see the air-superiority battles that would rage whenever one side made a play for another's base.

 

Fighters included:

-Bf109's (E, F, G, or K), Fw190's (A-3, A-8, or D-9), Me-262 (rarely)

-P-38J, P-40E, P-47D, P-51D,

-F4F-4, F6F-3, F4U-1D

-Hurricane II, Spitfire (Mk V, or Mk IX)

-Zeke (A6M2, or A6M5), Oscar, George, Frank

-La-5FN, Yak-9D

 

Bombers included:

-B-25, A-26, B-17

-TBF

-Mosquito

-Ju-87, Ju88

-Val, Kate, Betty

-Il-2m3

 

and (drum role....) C-47 for the drunks!

 

Korea got a subset of the WWII birds, plus F-86 and Mig-15.

 

WWI had Fokker D-VII and Dr.1, Spad-XIII, Sopwith Camel, and Bristol 2-seater (designation escapes me at the moment).

 

Quite a blast. Take a gunner's seat in a B-17 piloted by someone half-way across the world. Get a carrier sunk out from under you while you're on the flight deck.

 

Watch the various nationals come on-line as the sun crosses their timezones -- those Messerschmitts are piloted by REAL Germans this time, but they'll be logged-off before the Kiwi's join the fight at 1:00am California time.

 

Chat with your own side while flying, or taunt your opponents on the open comm channel.

 

You could even pick up a tank (T-34), flak wagon (Wirblewind), jeep with .50 cal HMG, or supply truck, at one of your bases and try to fight your way on to the opponent's field. But watch out for the Sturmovici if you do.

 

So addictive that they would let you download the game for free, and even give you a free month of unlimited online play, to get you hooked for their $10/month service fee thereafter.

 

And BTW, I ran up over $120 in my first month playing on AOL (paying by the hour), before monthly unlimited play on their own web-based service was available.

 

And then, Electronic Arts bought them out. Now, it seems the whole thing has gone down the tubes. Jacked up the price, and most of the regulars left. Now I can't even find it anymore. A community of gamers that grew over a period of more than 10 years seems to have been lost.

 

Oh well.

 

-Mark 1

 

 

[Edited by Mk 1 (21 Nov 2001).]

[Selz]

I too was an Air Warrior junkie. Playe hardcore for about 3 years when it first came to AOL with unlimited time - then ran up a huge bill when they changed to hourly fees. Belonged to a squad (The specialists...Bz forever ) and everything. We would practice wingman techniques and the whole works. Even would pair up with regular wingies, it was a blast.

Followed it from AOL to gamestorm to get back to unlimited play with a monthly fee then lost interest about 2 years ago, something about getting out of college and having a job. Again life gets in the way. Didn't know EA bought them out. Sad to here AW disintegrated into nothing.

 

[Edited by Selz (21 Nov 2001).]

[Red Ant]

• Falcon 4.0
   
  
• TOAW II
   
  
• War Birds
   
  
• Harpoon
   
  
• Civilzation II
  

Falcon 4.0 wins hands down in my world. I've spent dozeens of nights flying my beloved Viper into harm's way.

[Red Ant]

Mk 1, did you try War Birds? What do you think of it? Looks like version 3 is gonna be just like Air Warrior, only better.

 

[Edited by Red Ant (24 Nov 2001).]

[Mekhazzio]

Every version of Warbirds was like Air Warrior but better AW's simulation has always been of lesser quality than its competitors (except perhaps Microsoft's Fighter Ace, which is just an arcade game)

 

Although version 3 of Warbirds is...not looking like much, so far. It has better graphics, but so far is just a really raw, buggy, feature-less version of WB2.x. But then, no matter what they say, WB3 is still in beta-testing, so maybe it won't suck so bad when it's in more of a finished state.

 

And if you thought Warbirds was addictive before...try it when it's free

[Mk 1]

Originally posted by Red Ant:

Mk 1, did you try War Birds?

 

I never tried War Birds. Might give it a go now, though.

 

However, I was a bit too addicted to AirWarrior, so I am somewhat hesitant to jump in to another interactive gaming community.

 

My brother is trying to drag me into WW2-Online. This is evidently where most of the AirWarrior refugees ended up. I went out and bought the game, only to discover that my machine didn't have the guts to run it.

 

So after several months of dilly-dallying, I just upgraded my machine over the turkey-day weekend. So I've got the system memory (256M) and graphics (32MB TNT2) to install and run it, but now I can't find the game!

 

Oh well, probably better for my long-term health and career if I don't. Keeping up with TankNet is already consuming too much of my time as it is...

 

-Mark 1

[Selz]

I think I would stay away from WWII - online. Have heard bad things, way to buggy, no where near advertised performance issues, server problems, bad flight performance, etc. Sounds like version 1.0 should have been .46 or something.

 

I have heard of a number of AW people going over to Aces High!