Since purchasing my new Radeon 9200 SE, I've been having some brainless distraction sessions from my normal dosage of RPG goodness with a batch of First Person Shooters.
The first I completed was the original Halflife, which I must say didn't appeal to me very much despite all of heaped praise its received, particularly through friends. The atmosphere was generally dull for me, but some of its scripted events were interesting, even if I didn't enjoy it that much. I was very glad to luck out in the final battle with Nihilanth. Some of the music was cool, but often it would start at the most ridiculous of moments. The most enjoyable parts for me were the surrealism of some of the later levels, which reminded me Ultima Underworld II's Ethereal Void. [img]smile.gif[/img]
Second, I tested my mettle in Unreal Tournament, a game which I have found to be very amusing and high on the 'fun' scale in the past, at LAN's with friends. So I decided to test out the single player campaign. I only played it on average though. [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img] as I'm genuinely crap usually at FPSs. [img]tongue.gif[/img]
The sniper rifle in UT is somewhat overpowered, but so hilariously fun to use, especially when you rack up 6-10 "HEAD SHOTs" in a row.
Xan provided me with a gut wrenchingly teeth grindingly, difficult challenge, but once I figured out how to dominate him by controlling the powerups, he eventually fell to my flak cannon. No longer would I hear the annoying "I am the Alpha and the Omega".
I finished off playing this game with a mod map deathmatch of the first level of Ultima Underworld, which was quite awesome! Kudos to the creator.
Lastly and most recently, I picked up Return To Castle Wolfenstein for a mere $8, which for me is a gorgeous and utterly mesmerising game in terms of its dark WW II Germanic aesthetics and supernatural gothicism. It was easily the most pleasurable of the three to play and ran much more smoothly this time compared to when I had it the first time on my 4 meg card! It challenged me the whole way, often had me stopping to admire scenery (to my peril!) and also had that nostlagia of the original to add to its arsenal of joy.
The final battle was dire! I just couldn't do it for so long. Tried various tactics but failed dismally, mostly falling prey to the vicious phantom skulls. However, I maanged to stumble upon a tactic which didn't require much shooting at all! (I'll share the method, if anyone wants to know...but I'd wager its well known.
I'm keen to hear some other stories and opinions on the game. Are there any mods/extra levels for it that people know about? I'm definetly keen to play some more Wolfenstein. [img]smile.gif[/img]
Not sure what I'll play next now....I need to get back to Fallout, although I might install Deus Ex or even start another game of Arx Fatalis, just to see the improvements the video card will make with that great game. (sigh)
Cheers,
Cerebrodragon