Gameplay – Readers Choice

Best moments:
The endless soap-opera of chasing after Dave Stafford’s “enhanced” gaebolg in Lorgaine beta testing.

The first zombie to walk around the corner in Alone in the Dark

“How do we get our car back?” in Sam & Max hit the road.

Walking around the corner in Severance and seeing the Egyptian-style fortress loom up in front of you.

Pretty much all of Laser Squad Nemesis because it’s more about the other player than the game.

Taking someone off their winning streak in Counterstrike.

Worst moments:
Savegame Private Ryan in the d-day sequence of Medal of Honour. The rest of the game was pretty good, but any game that teaches you the error of your ways by killing you and restarting is badly designed.

End of level 1 of Deus Ex. You have to walk in the dark for about two minutes with nothing to do. The player could get into a taxi.

Dragon’s lair. I put money into the slot. I never got it back.

Reminising about the Sharp MZ700. (pre-commodore)
What a machine…..

best moments..
Killing Diablo
using max payne’s ‘bullet time’ for the first time
killing lemmings :) why, because it was fun

worst moments..
finishing Captive, only to find a whole new set of planets, over and over and over again
re-doing the tutorial bit at the start of ‘Black & White’ and THEN finding out how to skip it.

Well i’m a wee bit younger than most of you guys on this board, but it all kicked off when I played Monty on the Run and Dizzy on the C64 back in the day (for me). Then Duck Hunt which I still get out every now and again, I honestly swear that that gun is the most accurate ever made!

Best Moments:

Taking out 2 tanks with a pistol in multiplayer Halo

Playing Mechwarrior 2 & Warcraft over Kali

Discovering Brighton & Hove in Ultimate Soccer Manager for the first time

Seeing Kano’s fatality in the arcade Mortal Kombat for the first time

Playing Quake online before all the broadband heads took it over with their superfast pings

Playing the 1st Resident Evil in the dark and having those bloody dogs jump through the window.

Worst Moments:

Having to review Jimmy White’s 2: Cueball for the PSOne. We got two copies in and used them as frisbees out the back, and also on that note having utter shyte coming in that I had to spend a couple of hours playing and then work out how to put my hatred into words

The morning after Havok’s party in London last year and having to wake up on a bus in the middle of London, clueless and hungover as to where we were.

Having to deal with Nintendo UK’s PR people who pretty much don’t consider Ireland a part of their ‘pan-european campaigns’ or even recognising our existance

Jamie

While single player games do have their moments, they can’t compete with the real time excitement of mp action games.

Like everyone, I’ve had many great ‘moments’ playing Quake3 but the best buzz of all comes from playing in a Clan.
I was leader of Clan RazoR for 2002 and my best gaming experience was our final match in the first Barrysworld RTCW league.
In the map “castle”, I thought all was lost when our opponents [oO] ecaped with the objective. We were waiting for the game to end but a teammate ‘Senator’ was camping at their base and managed to kill 3 of them, returning the objective. That moment won us the league and promoted us to Div#1 (the roars on Roger Wilco were crazy).

My worst moment was when I tk’d myself and 2 teammates in ‘Beach’ to lose us a clanbase match. (letting down the team really hurts)

> Having to review Jimmy White’s 2: Cueball for the PSOne. We got two copies in and used them as frisbees out the back, and also on that note having utter shyte coming in that I had to spend a couple of hours playing and then work out how to put my hatred into words

umm as I recall you got me to review that one….you only played it once and laughed at then realised that the mark I gave it was a fair mark….

Nic Ryan

Some of my Best Moments:

>Bombing and flying aimlessly for hours in Blue Max for the C64

>Realising the beauty of the connection between light and dark worlds in ‘A Link to the past’

>Playing the original Unreal Tournament demo for the first time – amazing.

>Playing TFC online – first game ever I spent about 12 hours straight before realising you could change class type. TFC is f**kin amazing ;) 56k forever!

>A 24 player LAN game of UT – QA versus Programmers went to sudden death. QA naturally won – one of the best lunch time game session ever.

>Tempest 2000 melting my brain.

Worse:
BLACK AND WHITE!!!!!!111!! is the suk

(Dusts off ye olde brain cells)

Seeing Parallax scrolling for the first time in the C64 game ‘Parallax’.

Listening to the Delta (C64) in game music over and over again.

Playing Doom2 solidly for 3 days when I got my first PC, with Orbitals ‘Snivilisation’ on loop for the entire time.

Playing Mechwarrior on the PC after having spent so long rolling dice for the the board game.

Playing the expansion to the first Conflict Freespace game, having all my support wiped out in 2 minutes but fighting for my life solidly for another 1.5 hours or so expecting to die any moment, but making it to the end…after 135 fighters and 2 capital ships bit the dust. I was numb.

Playing Total Annihilation and getting lost in it’s soundtrack.

Playing TFC online, beating a really pretentious premier league clan soundly when we were a division below then finally making it to premiere. Personal hornblowingwise, Getting killed while taking the flag out (Bridge in 2fort if you know it), no one from my team leaving the base, their 7 man team sitting on the flag, I killed them all ran for the flag expecting to be killed on the way back but look up to see them standing on the sniper balc not firing a shot until I capped. Woohoo me…….well it made my day anyway….

Morrowind…almost every moment of the first week I played it. Coming across that great forcefield, castles in the middle of nowehere etc. It’s still to my mind the most breathtaking game I ever played.

Originally posted by Ahriakin

Playing TFC online, beating a really pretentious premier league clan soundly when we were a division below then finally making it to premiere. Personal hornblowingwise, Getting killed while taking the flag out (Bridge in 2fort if you know it), no one from my team leaving the base, their 7 man team sitting on the flag, I killed them all ran for the flag expecting to be killed on the way back but look up to see them standing on the sniper balc not firing a shot until I capped. Woohoo me…….well it made my day anyway….

[/quote:5ff75ad23f]

aaah a fellow TFC’er, what league was it? – I used to play in the UK wireplay one

UKTFCL, Reaver [-RvR-] . I started the clan but haven’t played ‘pro’ now in a couple of years. I miss it though, fantastic online game and the Irish community was great for it.

Best moments:
Kickin’ ass in Kung fu Master in the arcades. The polish and pixel perfect dogfights in Armalyte on the old Commodore. Fighting impossibly huge baddies in Turrican on the C64 with the 360 degree beam and the gyroscope with NO slowdown. Finishing Mercenary and Mercenary : The Second City on the C64, this took AGES from what I can remember. Mastering powerslides in Mario Kart on the SNES, the most sublime 2 player racer ever. Playing an almost arcade perfect Street Fighter 2 on the SNES. Everything about GoldenEye on the N64 (including the RumblePak!) but especially beating the Facility on 00 Agent in 2 mins and 5 seconds and being gobsmacked at the amazing draw distance when you first cross the dam on the first level. Staying up all night playing Half-Life on PC and Resident Evil on PSone. Making an impossible recovery from a wall impact on a time trial in Gran Turismo, leading to a time that none of my mates could beat. Axelay and Super Aleste on the SNES and who remembers Smash TV and Super SWIV? Hearing the incredible music on Spiderman and the Xmen – Arcade’s Revenge on the SNES and Super Mario World on SNES and N64. Meeting Pyramid Head in Silent Hill 2 and dreading the thought of fighting him. 8 player capture the bag on 2 big ass TVs on Timesplitters 2 on PS2. The attention to detail in Metal Gear Solid 1 and 2, and oh the gadgets! Getting to the village in Platoon on the C64, and I have fond memories of the “Hollywood Pack”, Blockbusters and Bullseye all Christmas about 16 years ago. James Pond 3 on the Megadrive, and Virtua Racer with that super duper chip on board the cart. Stealing a jeep in Battlefield 1942 on the LAN and recklessly knocking down enemies and team mates alike. Mastering the hang glider in Pilotwings on the SNES. Finishing both episodes (after a 12 minute load) of Batman The Caped Crusader on C64. The insane multiplayer action of Unreal Tournament 2003 with Instagib and the speed turned up. All the Dizzys on the C64 and Ghosts and Goblins!!!! Zelda: A Link to the Past on the SNES and Ocarina of Time on N64. The mode 7 swirly tunnel in Castlevania IV on the SNES. Stealing cars in GTA, and robbing brassers to get your money back. Soaring over a jump in Wipeout 2097 on the PSOne with Prodigy’s “Firestarter” pounding in my ears, followed by bouts of Tekken 2. Boulderdash free on the cover of Zzap 64 back in the day, complete with level editor. Bombjack on C64 and the Metal Slug series on Mame. Pounding skulls in Golden Axe with the butt of a sword and the painfully accurate collision detection of Thrust.

Jesus, I could go on and on and sorry for the stream of consciousness style delivery, I started thinking about my fave games and the flood gates opened!!

As for the worst moments?? The repetitive gameplay and appalling driving sections of Enter the Matrix. The spectrum style graphics of Chase HQ on C64 (I was gutted!!) I agree with Shane on Dragon’s Lair. Fade to Black on the PS one was very disappointing too. Right back to work (it IS 1.22 in the morning after all!!!)

Best:
– playing ‘Manic Miner’ for the first time on a Spectrum (I think)…
– have to agree with Omen on the next one – the first time I got to dive through a doorway, cocking a pump-action shotgun, while in Bullet-Time in ‘Max Payne’…
– the opening sequence of Half-Life…
– staying up all night to play Half-Life…
– too many great moments to recount in Half-Life…
– completing Riven…
– experiencing the dynamic real-time lighting and material/cloth effects in Splinter Cell…
– booting up the Xbox for the first time… and landing on the actual Halo in ‘Halo’…
– beating back the Flood for the first time in Halo…
– first ever play of Age of Empires…
– many wasted hours playing Civilisation 3, SimCity, Caesar 3…
– getting into the zone and playing ‘PacMan’ on an Atari 2600 for the best part of 6 hours when I was 12, ignoring the summons to dinner, etc…

Worst:
– the pain in my right-hand for day afterwards after playing ‘PacMan’ on an Atari 2600 for the best part of 6 hours when I was 12…
– realising just how excessively bad Medal of Honour: Rising Sun actually is…

Originally posted by Pete and Virtua Racer with that super duper chip on board the cart.
[/quote:4ab68537b9]

I love that game – I remember playing it so much in Palmerstown’s XL Bowl, amazing – I want the arcade version to compliment my Megadrive version :)

(oh and to compliment my Virtua Fighter arcade cab too :D)

Likes: Any game with enough multiplayer strategy to allow people to outthink each other for victory.
Dislikes: Losing at said games…

best moments: (very different from everyone else’s, very much a solo player)

Almost all of grim fandango, especially the ending (a game with a good ending that isn’t a let down!), playing Planescape again and finding out a whole new level of depth and backstory – shame the ending is alawys the same. getting lost in Thief’s levels… not that big if you know where you’re going, but if you don’t it feels epic. More that doesn’t quite spring to mind.

Misses:

the loading times on Baldur’s Gate 1 and especially 2. soul destroying boredom that completely destroyed the atmosphere and continuity. Insane and inane puzzles with no clue path to set them up. Not that many really, since I tend to buy budget or games that are highly recomended, and normally both.

Any examples Dave?

Excellent thread.

First game : Pele Soccer on the Amiga 2600. Love at first site.

Completing Grand Turismo . Used to play with one of my mates from college while we cooked dinner etc and used to take it in shifts during the endurance races in our 4 wheel drived porche.
( We are perfectly matched in all games so they are always close fought encounters)

Championship Manager 97/98 first footy management game. 5 versions later and i am still hooked. Have had numerious 2 player games.. if you have played you’ll know what i mean.

ISS on the PS1 & PS2. In college amoung our friends we had 2 appartments, two consoles and i CD. Every evening the losers of the previous night would head to the others appartment to try and win back the CD in a knock out cup competition and take the CD back to their appartment. (thats of course if we were not sitting arounds drinking tins before heading out student style (the good ole days))

Baldurs Gate. Then Tales of the Swords Coast. Then Baldurs Gate 2 and that expansion.
Eventually becoming a god and slaying dragons, Balours, what ever with easy.. a game with so much depth allowing you to customise your characters so much (Kensai-mages anyone?) and if moving on to other planes etc. Drizzets cameo appearance…. that made the game really… oh and killing drizzet and getting his 2 simatars and his mitril mail.. and Boo & Minsc LOL ‘Go for the eyes boo….GO FOR THE EYES!!!!’

Playing my First LAN game of Half-Life…..
Being better than the then champion after a few hours… him then getting a laser mouse and wupping all of us ever since.
Cant wait till the next time we are all together and we get a game going.(Game is perfectly speced so that when we all meet with Laptops the game can still be played)

Shogun/Medival Total War
Pulling off some classic text book battle field manouvers and crushing the opposing forces. Having massive armies belonging to your allies line up beside you for battle when you though you had’nt got a chance.

Maybe for the next shindig a real LAN party

positive

– A stupid amount of time playing Transport Tycoon Deluxe, Civ, Sim City, Sim Tower etc
– Entering the lost city of Atlantics in Indiana Jones

negative

– Continually been reminded that I broke the Grim Fandango CD before I finished the game!

– getting used of playing Halo on PC, then playing it on an Xbox with a friend only to get whipped