GOG.com What's good on there?

UCRC wrote:
wanderingtaoist wrote:

(I like giving money to my Polish neighbors)

I think you all do. Ever since you have got into Euro zone, everytime when someone from my family goes shopping most of my local supermarket's customers are Slovaks (My home city is Nowy Sącz, some 40 km north of border)

Us down in Bratislava visit Hungary and even Austria with the same goal, but yes, you're basically right, there is quite a saving to be made when shopping in the non-euro neighboring countries. Especially after Hungarian forint went down the drain Hungary for us is like Mexico for Americans. But I digress, sorry for offtopic.

Oh, they just launched Chessmaster 9000. If you want to learn chess, this is one of the best ways to go. Really great training and tutorial system, lots of options and great choice of AI + the possibility to roll up your own custom opponent. There are also the options to choose your fancy 3D chess sets, but I never cared, as I always used the traditional top-down symbolic view. Makes the thinking easier.

UCRC wrote:
wanderingtaoist wrote:

(I like giving money to my Polish neighbors)

I think you all do. Ever since you have got into Euro zone, everytime when someone from my family goes shopping most of my local supermarket's customers are Slovaks (My home city is Nowy Sącz, some 40 km north of border)

mrwynd wrote:

Sacrifice is a great choice for action/strategy

Does it look bearable after 10 years? I still have it somewhere and would like to give it a shot.

Yes, the graphics are still pretty good and the voice acting is very well done. One note: the game goes from easy to hard pretty quickly. I had to play the first few levels over again before I was able to take on the higher levels. Also multiplayer is so much fun, been a loooong time since I've done that. Stealing souls never gets old.

*Legion* wrote:

For what GameTap charges now, it hardly makes sense anymore. For slightly more than a month of GameTap, you can buy two GoG games outright.

I understand his point, though. I've already bought several games off GoG that, upon downloading and playing around for 10 minutes, I realize it's too ancient to actually enjoy other than remembering how impressed the opening cinematic was to me back then.

However, I still favour GoG for older titles because of how they tweak it and put it all into a convienient installer, where on Gametap they kind of just throw them out there (and Steam and Impulse, for the most part). I'ld rather pay a little extra and know that I have to put absolutely no effort in to get it working flawlessly on my Vista 64 machine.

mrwynd wrote:
UCRC wrote:
wanderingtaoist wrote:

(I like giving money to my Polish neighbors)

I think you all do. Ever since you have got into Euro zone, everytime when someone from my family goes shopping most of my local supermarket's customers are Slovaks (My home city is Nowy Sącz, some 40 km north of border)

mrwynd wrote:

Sacrifice is a great choice for action/strategy

Does it look bearable after 10 years? I still have it somewhere and would like to give it a shot.

Yes, the graphics are still pretty good and the voice acting is very well done. One note: the game goes from easy to hard pretty quickly. I had to play the first few levels over again before I was able to take on the higher levels. Also multiplayer is so much fun, been a loooong time since I've done that. Stealing souls never gets old.

Another vote for Sacrifice. Exceptional game, really amazing replayability in single player, and good fun multiplayer (good luck finding a group to play it, sadly, due to its age).

LtWarhound wrote:

Another vote for Sacrifice. Exceptional game, really amazing replayability in single player, and good fun multiplayer (good luck finding a group to play it, sadly, due to its age).

Thanks, I'll give it a shot.

MDK would be my first pick. Second is another for Giants: Citizen Kabuto.

Both are mostly action games with lots of humor and creative stuff you don't usually see. MDK is on the short side, while Giants: Citizen Kabuto is a bit longer.

I think the Giant's patches I installed were (not sure of the order): Patch 1.4, Geforce 3 patch, graphics revision mod v1.01, Giants Hook, Blood Red.

Any love for Ghost Master? I'm curious as it's one of those games I had never heard of, but people really seemed to like it.

Does anyone have an opinion of ObsCure? The game critics seem a bit divided. I think it looks kinda cool and thought about giving it a shot.

I've been waiting for Balls of Steel to hit GoG, I'll be picking up Duke Manhattan Project soon. I need more pinball fix!

garion333 wrote:

Any love for Ghost Master? I'm curious as it's one of those games I had never heard of, but people really seemed to like it.

I bought it over Christmas on Steam for about $5. Gave it a fair shake, about 2 hours investment. The concept is solid but the gameplay is neither fun nor funny, and I thought I was pretty forgiving considering the bargain price.

Heroes of Might and Magic now of GOG for $5.99. regular price is $9.99.

If you want my opinion, wait for HOMM2 or 3, but there is nothing wrong with this game. I just prefer those two.

Edit: Thanks for the heads up Running Man.

Freespace 2 a million times over.

There hasn't been a space fighter sim since that has come close to touching this game. I'd put this game right up there with Tie Fighter as best space fighter sim of all time.

On top of it being cheap once you own the game you can download the Freespace Open Source Project and get a graphics update that will make the game as pretty as it is deadly.

Seriously...if you enjoy space fighter sims Freespace 2 is a MUST.

What does anyone think of Gorky 17 (which is apparently also known as Odi-Um)? It looks interesting but the reviews are all over the place.

So, I saw a recommendation for Jagged Alliance 2...is it worth playing the first one? If so, is there any story arc?

tanstaafl wrote:

What does anyone think of Gorky 17 (which is apparently also known as Odi-Um)? It looks interesting but the reviews are all over the place.

It's a pretty unique game. It's a survival horror RPG with X-Com style tactical combat. It's a very unforgiving game difficulty wise, decisions you make early on in terms of what items/weapons you use can really bone you later in the game.

It's a tough recommendation, certain types of gamers will absolutely relish a game like this, others would get frustrated quickly and quit.

There is a demo that can give you an idea of what it is at least.

Sinatar wrote:
tanstaafl wrote:

What does anyone think of Gorky 17 (which is apparently also known as Odi-Um)? It looks interesting but the reviews are all over the place.

It's a pretty unique game. It's a survival horror RPG with X-Com style tactical combat. It's a very unforgiving game difficulty wise, decisions you make early on in terms of what items/weapons you use can really bone you later in the game.

It's a tough recommendation, certain types of gamers will absolutely relish a game like this, others would get frustrated quickly and quit.

There is a demo that can give you an idea of what it is at least.

I'll support the notion that it's difficult and counter-intuitive and you have to work out a lot by yourself, as the UI is not very straightforward as well. It has its atmosphere though. By all means try out the demo first, as there were some technical issues with the game as well.

austicious wrote:

So, I saw a recommendation for Jagged Alliance 2...is it worth playing the first one? If so, is there any story arc?

I never even saw the original Jagged Alliance and I really enjoyed JA2. The storyline takes a back seat in this, it's more about hiring mercs and making them powerful. If one dies, you hire another, etc.

Sinatar wrote:

It's a survival horror RPG with X-Com style tactical combat.

-ears perk up-

Are the battles randomly populated like X-Com, or do you progress through a linear set of scenarios that's the same every time you play?

OzymandiasAV wrote:
Sinatar wrote:

It's a survival horror RPG with X-Com style tactical combat.

-ears perk up-

Are the battles randomly populated like X-Com, or do you progress through a linear set of scenarios that's the same every time you play?

Quite linear, methinks. Although, it was all these years ago... I can't be sure.

OzymandiasAV wrote:
Sinatar wrote:

It's a survival horror RPG with X-Com style tactical combat.

-ears perk up-

Are the battles randomly populated like X-Com, or do you progress through a linear set of scenarios that's the same every time you play?

Completely linear.

Has anyone tried MegaRace 3? I have the first two on GoG and I am tempted to buy the 3rd one but I haven't heard anything about it.

any recommendations?

Warlords Battlecry 3...haven't played it yet, but the other ones were very good and this has good reviews.

I find it really disappointing that gog is getting rid of two games that even though I had bought and you can't buy from them anymore after the certain date, I will be unable to download.

Dear GOG.com Customer,

Thank you for purchasing TOCA Race Driver 3 and/or Colin McRae Rally 2005 from GOG.com.

As we announced on GOG.com, TOCA Race Driver 3 and Colin McRae Rally 2005 had to be removed from our games catalogue as per our licensing agreement with Codemasters. Due to some expiring licenses within the games, Codemasters is obliged to withdraw copies of TOCA Race Driver 3 and Colin McRae Rally 2005 from all sales outlets within a certain time period, which includes GOG.com and its servers.

This means that the games won't be available to re-download from your GOG.com account as of August 29th 2009 (TOCA Race Driver 3) and October 29th 2009 (Colin McRae Rally 2005). We know it would be ideal for these games to be available for re-download forever and we're working on this, however we kindly ask you to download the games and back them up on CDs, DVDs or flash drives.

Sorry for any inconvenience this causes.
GOG.com Team

That's too bad, but it sounds like a bit out of their hands.

Duffman wrote:

That's too bad, but it sounds like a bit out of their hands.

If it's not mentioned on the product page, they should mention these limitations. It's implied that you'll always be able to download them.

Age of Wonders is now available, and AOW II and AOW II: Shadow Magic are incoming!

I've seen Shadow Magic priced at $100+ on eBay.

Also coming soon: Shadow Watch, an underrated gem that was very difficult to get working with current systems. I used to have a Windows 95 partition on my drive just to play this game.

ExitPursuedByBear wrote:

Also coming soon: Shadow Watch, an underrated gem that was very difficult to get working with current systems. I used to have a Windows 95 partition on my drive just to play this game.

I was part of a closed Beta for that game before it came out. I tried it once, not knowing what to expect, and could not bring myself to test it any further.

A personal favourite of mine:
Shogo: MAD

Graphics don't hold up but I still find the game really fun to play.

kyrieee wrote:

A personal favourite of mine:
Shogo: MAD

Graphics don't hold up but I still find the game really fun to play.

Agreed.

I still haven't had time for it, but FreeSpace 2 is an amazing experience thus far. Less descriptive, but still good games:

Descent 3
Far Cry
IL-2 (best experienced with Trak-IR and flight stick)
Outcast (haven't played it, but people constantly reference it)

I'm also tempted to go back to the journyman project 2, but I fear it won't hold up at all.

garion333 wrote:

I can't believe no one has mentioned Giants: Citizen Kabuto.

I heard that it only holds up in multiplayer. The single-player left me with much to be desired even for a game of its time. The AI was cheep and the British potty humor was only "pretty good".