I wandered into a video game shop the other day (remember those?) and was looking at some of the slightly old bargains for games with robust online multi-player options. Since I think it is going to take a little while longer until Mr. Alex creates the "One game to rule them all, and in the darkness bind them," here are some things that I thought look fun and would not break the bank or likely require complete hardware upgrades to get into. Some of them have been blogged about here on Astromen! way back in the archives and some of you may have copies already laying around. The only deficiency I found was something with a strong "sandbox" element; these games may be way too twitchy for us to ramble on about art, politics, and programming at the same time. Post your computer game crushes in the comments. . .
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II
That is one mouthful of a name. Really a super-geek title. I always was interested in Games Workshop hobbies but was overwhelmed by the high cost and outrageous time commitment just to get started, now for 10 bucks and a little bit of point and clicking, I could get blown away over and over again by people deeply steeped in the mythology and rule min-maxing of this complex squad combat war-game.
Borderlands
Chad-Roc seems to think this is awesome and who am I to second guess 87 bazillion tools of mayhem. . . maybe he would come out and play as well? All reviews say that multi-player is the best part of the game.
Dungeon Defender
Looks like a colorful update to the basic game premise of Guantlet, except with tower building and Bracers of Dexterity. Stresses teamwork to defend your dungeon, I imagine with us that hilarious failure would ensue. 6 bucks on Steam right now.
11 comments:
I'm a little grumpy about time sinks, today, because I spent Memorial Day weekend being a CAD mule. I will cheer up.
I'm currently stuck without a Windows drive, because the last couple of times I installed my OEM copy of Vista, it black screened on me. A new PC is in the not-too-distant future, but I am putting that off, because I am cheap.
So Borderlands 1 has a Platinum rating with Wine. Dungeon Defenders looks dodgy, and the Warhammer title is a no-go.
I'd be amicable to do a pick-up game of Trine 2, sometime, as well.
Somewhere at the bottom of my list of personal software projects is a collaboration server/client plug-in for Inkscape (working title: "Brain Trust"). Inkscape used to have a realtime collaboration mode called Inkboard, but it was taken out in 0.47 because of lack-of-love. My plug-in would not be realtime, due to the nature of Inkscape plug-ins, but would update on request.
Of course, we are Alex's #1 playtesters, as well.
This XCOM remake has a multiplayer mode. [Link.]
Freespace 2 has a multiplayer mode and a project that's reimplemented the engine. [Link for purchase.] [How-to for engine.]
I don't know if there are any worthwhile multiplayer games in it, but the Humble Indie Bundle 5 just dropped, and it has some major titles in it like Psychonauts and Amnesia. [Link.]]
Trine 2 looks fun, but I am confused by how to acquire the game and exactly what stage the Linux port is. The information on the website is bit murky.
I've had success buying a couple of games from Desura. Follow the "Get Desura" link in the upper-right corner to install the client. [Link.] I don't mind the cost, but I realized that $15 is a little steep for something that'd provide a session or two of play. In its defense Trine 1 was extremely well produced and animated.
There are some exciting things in the pipeline.
We should definitely play Starbound when it is ready.
Project Zomboid might have some seriously fun multiplayer, depending on how much emphasis is put on interacting with the other survivors. It's possible the other survivors may be more dangerous than the zombie horde. Who doesn't like a game that rewards you for hoarding whiskey and anti-depressants, anyways.
I pre-ordered Borderlands 2 today. Unfortunately its for the 360. I freaking love this franchise!
It does look very cool. 360 installs can't play with PC installs?
Starbound and Zomboid both look as if we could get a lot of entertainment out of, expecially since they are very open ended games that require a bit of creative thinking. Unfortunately both are still in very early phases of development, I do not even think there are alpha builds yet. The types of games I posted here were thought of as short term filler and also as an opportunity to try out some different genres involving expolosions and such.
After some brief research it would appear that it is not possible to link pc and 360 players on the same network.
Sorry about the delay, Jason.
Let me know if/when you want to play a pick-up game of Trine 2 or Borderlands some Sunday.
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