Trackmania may seem cool in theory, but when played online it is nothing but an excersise in frustration. All the player made tracks are nothing but poorly designed and executed mazes. I consider this a puzzle game more than any kind of arcade racer. The game might be some fun on a decent track, but the community that surrounds this title is terrible. You should never be forced to start a race over a check point because you failed to make a rediculous jumps. This isn't a racing title.

And pjw I don't hate you, but it wasn't anything like you described to me. 

Hmmn.
I've spent all of ten minutes playing the game online. Perhaps that's part of the reason for the differing experiences? I rarely play online anyway--most people are lame and annoying, unless it's a specific group or restricted community.

There are a lot of horrible, horrible player-made tracks out there--you are quite correct. It is not as technical to make levels for this game as it is for FPS games, thus lots of really abominable shite made by silly twats.

The majority of the fun for me has been searching out the really good tracks (Trackmania Exchange: http://www.tm-exchange.com/ ), and playing them, and making my own tracks for it--since it requires a wholly different kind of design skill to make a good track for this than it does to make a good FPS level.

It's good to know you don't hate me. :) 

http://kell.spawnpoint.org/screenshots/armagetron1.jpg
This is me, drawing level with another cycle.

http://kell.spawnpoint.org/screenshots/armagetron2.jpg
View from cockpit, glancing to my right as I overtake Photoshop.

http://kell.spawnpoint.org/screenshots/armagetron3.jpg
Gimp, about to meet a problem head-on.

http://kell.spawnpoint.org/screenshots/armagetron4.jpg
Taken a split second before things become terribly complicated...

http://kell.spawnpoint.org/screenshots/armagetron5.jpg
Photshop, turning away as I approach. Ph34r meh :P

http://kell.spawnpoint.org/screenshots/armagetron6.jpg
I rock.

Note that these shots were taken with the moviepack installed and some ( ahem ) custom textures :)


http://armagetron.sourceforge.net/ 

Since my hardware isn't up to Doom 3 or Half-Life 2, I have been replaying my older games.

Quake 2 and Mission Packs - Good brainless fun - relaxing even on Hard skill. I'm getting every secret. The gameplay is rudimentary, there are way too many weapons and switching is slow but the sound and atmosphere still work for me.

Half-Life - I recently replayed the whole single player campaign. I played on Normal since the hitscan stuff can get annoying. I found it fun and not too stressful. I was a lot better at taking out attack helicopters. Xen seemed less unbearable but still was too jump focused and the Scrotal Beast bug had me stuck wondering if me or the game screwed up.

Wheel of Time - I'm not quite half-way though but I'm enjoying the atmosphere of this game and by playing at a more relaxed pace, I'm maintaining better health and not wasting as many Ter Angreals. I'll replay tough areas enough times that I'm able to carry on without hanging onto life by my toenails. I'm using strategy better. This is a nice enough game but handling all those Ter Angreals in a swarm battle can be a real pain.

Right now, I'm looking for a more relaxed gaming experience. I put Painkiller on pause in the train station because I am at a point where after completing several arenas in this map, I'm in a darker area with lots of hitscam enemies in the rafters. I just became tired of the gameplay. I will eventually resume as I really like studying the excellent settings in PK. Except for Towne, the physics in many of the maps isn't interesting enough to elevate the singular gameplay model that this game has voluntarily restricted itself to. Too bad, but I still want Battle Out of Hell just to see the quality environmental modelling. Too bad that the Painkiller series didn't decide to compete with Undying or Blood 1 for immersion in the single player campaign.

After WoT, I'm considering Deus Ex, Unreal and RtCW. They're sitting on my rack as I type this. 

Played this recently now that I'm not running a SB Live soundcard on Win 98 anymore (actually, both are no longer in use).

Fun stuff. Humorous. Listening to the enemies lament the daily troubles of being a henchmen in an evil organization can be funny.

Sneaking is mostly done well, but it gets annoying in spots (doesn't it always?). The attack gameplay is a nice break from the typical stuff; you can actually choose whether to hide from an enemy, sneak up on him to cap him in the head, run in guns blazing, or just distract him and sneak past.

The game also seemed to have a good length to it; though that may be because I pretty much only played it in the evenings for a couple hours every other day. Nonetheless, the story lasted for the whole game, and I wasn't tired of either before it was over. That said, the sentimental aspect of the tortured soldier didn't fit well with the story.

Overall, a good game, and the finale worked pretty well as an apropos climax. 

much more than the second. The Japanese Swordlady did not fit in with the over the top personas of the other villians in the series. Like the tortured soldier, she was much too serious for the mood of the game.

Also, it was kind of odd that your character Ms. Archer would kill the swordlady's minions by the bucket full without any qualms, but hesitate to do her in as well.

There were some good moments though. The henchman conversations were still up to par ('I hate seeing another man being emasculated.'). As were the the mime troupe and wheely ride, the infinite patience of the Indian Guards you had to sneak around, and the piss in your pants tension of your first super soldier encounter while trying to undo a lock (great scripted timing there) as well.

Oh, yeah. I recall having an odd sense of Deja Vu when I was in the subbase, but I don't know why. I recall my brother saying the same. 

Some fine choices of older games there. Wheel Of Time is great IMO.

If you like 3rd person too, try to get hold of FAKK2 (exotic locations, cool monsters, nice styles, interesting 2 handed gameplay) and Blade Of Darkness (proper fantasy style, great lighting, very interesting (if challenging) combo based violence, lots of blood too). 

are both very good. I prefer NOLF2 because the environments are better executed and some of the annoying stuff removed but NOLF1 has cooler moments. Plus the conversations in NOLF 1 are funnier.

Scragbait,

yeah I love replaying older games (especially since my comp cant run anything new). Its surprising how much easier and less stressful some of them seem the second time around. 

Sorry for my lack of knowledge, but what is NOLF ?? 

No One Lives Forver

Sort of a satire on the James Bond spy series but also good FPS action games. 

Thanks !! I know the game, I see many TV advertising for it, but it's not called like this for the french version. 

Started playing through System Shock 2 again yesterday. The graphics look incredibly outdated, but... damn, what a game.

Whatever happened to titles like that? 

Highly recommended.

Tons of atmosphere and a very good story. This is not a game to rush. Read every PDA and think carefully about how to develop your character. While the pace of the game is slow and it is pretty hard, the depth of design and imagination pulled me through to the very end.

What happened to such titles? As game development evolves, so does the need for revenue to fund the massive costs to produce current games. Marketing and business planners approve design docs that will likely fulfil business objective.s Looking Glass, who went bankrupt, probably just wanted to create a really good game - and they did. 

always heard good stuff about it, never played it. Will try to track a copy down when I get back. 

Didn't id software redo this one with a Hell-ish theme and call it Doom 3 or something? 

Also, it was kind of odd that your character Ms. Archer would kill the swordlady's minions by the bucket full without any qualms, but hesitate to do her in as well.

Hey, you're the one who chose to kill the minions, not Ms. Archer. ;)

And yeah, I got a strong sense of deja vu from the underwater base, too. The only thing I could figure was that it must have been similar to the space station from NOLF1. 

For those who play System Shock 2, I suggest reading the monster spawn section in the readme.wri file to see if you wish to adjust some of the spawn controlling parameters. SS2 is not hugely generous with ammo and too many random respawns don't help your supply situation. Since I took my time playing through, I set the parameters to minimize respawns although they are not stopped completely. 

you called me out on that one. 'It was I, your Honor who slayed the beautiful minions of HARM!'

The Venture Brothers' villians remind me of HARM.

The only thing I could figure was that it must have been similar to the space station from NOLF1.

My other theory on that is that the art director or texture artist for that section may be someone that Quake series players may be familiar with, like an HFX/evillair. 

I still can't get SS2 running, goddamnit. I thought this Radeon 9800SE was going to do some magic (with DirectX 9.0b, I think) but no. Fooey. SS2 has to be the best damn FPRPG ever. Any ideas?

And ditto on the spawning business. Backtracking from the bridge train was horrible. Always spiders, midwives and an assassin, and me with a goddamn laser gun... 

The SE is a poorly reviewed and regarded card -- my friend made the mistake of getting one, and he can barely play Doom3. I know money is tight, but you should have like, sold some Bob Dobbs wares on Ebay or something.

Try and ditch the SE if you can, it's really not a good card. Go for a 9600-9800 PRO if you can, or a slightly older Geforce... 

For those interested -

GTR Site
http://www.simbin.com/games/gtr/

Blues News Discussion and Download Links
http://www.bluesnews.com/cgi-bin/board.pl?action=viewthread&threadid=54740 

playing riddick (odd game, far from d3 environment design wise)
and tried 'fall' (yeah fallout ripoff by germans in full 3d) 

level design reminded me often of quake2. 

true that 

btw everyone be sure to play BGE - prolly best fun I had since q1 become boring