Are there any good games left? (Modest Tabula Rasa review) der=0><

[Johnny]

I'm in a bit of a rut. I posess all the money to buy every game I ever wanted and all of a sudden no games are fun anymore. Except world of warcraft wich is decent still.

Do you remember what it was like when you bought a new game and started playing it then all of a sudden it was 3 AM at night because you had been so drawn in to the game?

I recently bought age of conan which was crap.


I bought Tabula Rasa which was good at first because the start was singleplayer so when I blew up a spaceship with C4 then proceded to conquer and enemy fortress then it was okay because it was singleplayer and everyone gets to do it and it has no vallue once you get droped in the "real world"

Anyway. So they drop me in the real world. I shot some alien animals. Bludgeon some alien enemies and spend most of my time walking around in forests until I reach some far off settlement. I walk in and buy some ammunition which I realise is surprisingly expensive in this game that it made me thin twice about who deserved to be shot and who I could get away with just pistol whipping to death (all weapons have a mele attack)

(I don't remember what Tabula Rasa calls the game currency so lets just call them Piotes for now)

I also pick up four grenades that where stupid expensive at 75 piotes each while regular bullets where 2 piotes each but I figured I just had to try some grenades.

When i'm about to leave the outpost I spot some red ships coming down from the sky who then proceed to drop off alien enemies that start assaulting the base. I shoot some at them but my level 1 pistol did little to impress the level 14 enemies. I threw one grenade which killed a bunch of them but at 75 piotes each I would be better off just bribing the enemy the 75 piotes just to go away rather than wasting grenades.

So I hide my level 6 self behind some sand bags. Players came out of the outpost and returned fire and the thing turned into a hell of rockets and machinegun fire and bullets and those little shield drone *******s. Anyway I spend a good 10 minutes sitting behind a sandbag sucking my thumb while I slowly develope shellshock as enemies and players die around me. By then the battle is over and I crawl on all four into the safety of the outpost and cry in some NPC's shirt but then the outpost gets attacked *again* by an equal force. having enough of it I jump out the back and run for the hills while promising to tell the rest of humanity about the brave souls that gave their lives at this random outpost in the woods.

By that time I have to admit that the game had become slightly immersive but that soon drained out and I lost interest in the eternal grind.

Are there any good PC games left. Like... universe at war but longer or the C&C series but a new game or mayby... I don't know just some fun game.

[Ronnie Franchise]

I just started playing Civilization 4, and it's kicking my ***. If you enjoy turn-based strategy, then you'll love this game as it is layered and complex with many options for victory besides straight military conquest.

There's a pretty steep learning curve, though, so you'll most likely have to put in a few hours of game time before you get the hang of the basic elements needed for victory.

I thought Bio-Shock and Crysis to be a little over-rated, in my opinion. Graphics are awesome, of course, but the gameplay lacked in some ways. Just my opinion, of course.

[SaroDarksbane]

Tabula Rasa was interesting. I liked the invasions and things that would occur, and the combat was more interesting than most. The ammo was ridiculously expensive, though. This made machine guns worthless, because you couldn't afford to blow $100 per trigger pull when a shotgun was just as effective anyway.

[Johnny]

Bio-Shock

Hey now let's not say things we don't mean. Bio Shock did not just look nice but was a masterpeice in writing, amosphere and story. The 50's theme was beautiful!

ICrysis

That one was crap though

I have no idea about the civ games though. I like final fantasy tactics alot but last time I tried a civ game I just looked down on what looked like a honeycomb with papper armies and in contrast to games like Red Alert and Total Annihilation. I was not impressed.


PS

I'm watching you.

[Ronnie Franchise]

Hey now let's not say things we don't mean. Bio Shock did not just look nice but was a masterpeice in writing, amosphere and story. The 50's theme was beautiful!

Like I said, the graphics were awesome, but I wasn't too thrilled with the gameplay. I thought the weapons and plasmids were kinda weak and ammo was a little too scarce, forcing the player to constantly switch back and forth between the two. Not to mention all of the different ammo types you have to keep track of and switch between. These factors resulted in too much button-mashing for my taste.

Again, just my opinion.

[Johnny]

Let me guess. You played it on the X-box right?

[Ronnie Franchise]

No, on my PC.

[Johnny]

I'm surprised. Usualy it's the dirty console peasants who complain about games having too many features. The varied ammo system was very well designed and when used properly had good results.

For example if you keept the shotgun loaded with electric shells you could take down a big daddy in seconds. Or you loaded the pistol with anti personel bullets and you could beat splicers with one shot each. In very difficult situations you could load the machine gun with either ammo depending on the enemy to swiftly deal with either multiple big daddys or huge ammounts of splicers.

The reason there is such a modest ammount of ammunition is to encourage you to use your "spells" more. Spells I which I might add could one shot nearly any normal enemy in the game. If you insist on player purely with guns then simply buy ammo from the vending machines. My first playthrough was done using almost exclusivly weapons and barely any "spells"

[Ronnie Franchise]

Yeah, I can't even imagine trying to play that game on a console, it would be insane.

It seemed that ammo was at such a premium that I was mostly using whatever was at hand, not what I needed. Heh, maybe I just suck.

[Dondrei]

Devil's advocate, you don't have to play new games...