I'm a long time PC Gamer. While I cut my teeth on Colecovision and Atari, PC gaming still remains my favourite way to play.

Traditionally I've been mainly a FPS gamer, starting off on Wolfenstein 3D and moving on from there. Quake II multiplayer (and Action Quake 2) took up good amounts of my time in the late 90s. Even went to a couple competitions. Shit, has it been that long?

My library has gotten pretty big over the years: Doom (Ultimate, II and 3), Quake (original, II, III and 4), Unreal, System Shock 2 (one of my all-time favourites), Deus Ex (don't get the sequel, it sucks), Half-Life (original with expansions, 2 and both episodes), Team Fortress 2, FarCry, Crysis (which kinda sucked), S.T.A.L.K.E.R (one of the scariest games I've ever played), FEAR, Bioshock, No One Lives Forever 2 (fucking awesome, I hope a good sequel is eventually made), WoW with both expansions, Fallout 3, BF2, BF2142, RTCW, a bunch of Star Wars Games like Jedi Knight and X-Wing vs TIE Fighter... and that's just what I remember having and not merely what I have played =P I don't think I want to know how much I've spent on games over the years.

I'm an addict =)

I continue to build custom PCs for my gaming needs. My current system is a AMD 64 X2 4200 + 4GB DDR2 6400 + GeForce 8800GTS 640MB + RAID 0+1 array running Windows Vista (yes, all my games work, even the real old ones), soon to be Windows 7. I've calmed down on the upgrade front and mainly just build a new system instead when the time is right. In this case that might happen in the next year or so. Then again, I may just upgrade storage and video. Who knows?

This is a hobby I don't think I'll ever outgrow. It's cool how PC gaming has gone full circle and is getting back to it's indie roots (remember Apogee and Epic Megagames shareware?). Valve is helping this a ton with Steam, making easier for one-man operations to put out profitable games. I'm considering trying some game development of my own.

PC Gamer here too. I was playing Lord of the Rings online as well Knives. Played on Landroval for about a year, the RP there was the best I've seen in an MMO anywhere. I'm back to WoW for now though due to an old friend coming back. I found my break made that game incredibly fun to come back to.

I've always been a PC gamer. I owned a Nintendo 64 for Goldeneye, then later got into Mario Kart. And a Sega Genesis, Sonic was the bomb, but that's about it for consoles.

I play just about every type of game... well.. till MMO's came along now they eat my life. Oh god.. Old Republic.. my soul is lost 4ever....aaaaaaaah

Fanboy of: Half-Life series from the moment Half-Life: Day One got leaked to the net a few weeks before it hit retail. Total Annihilation (Oh the LAN matches we had.. ). Baldur's Gate series. System Shock / Bioshock. Etc, etc...

>> ^Drax:
Ha, same exact thing for me. I recently got back into D2 after discovering the multi-rez patch as well. Though I can't take it up to my monitor's native rez, my LCD scales low rez'es really well, so it's nice just having the right ratio for the rez.
Another old classic that can be played wide screen now is System Shock 2. There's some nice texture packs, game tweaks and sound mods for that one out.
Great games never die... unless they're from the 80's.


BLASPHEMY. Super Mario Bros is a GREAT game that will NEVER die.

Ha, same exact thing for me. I recently got back into D2 after discovering the multi-rez patch as well. Though I can't take it up to my monitor's native rez, my LCD scales low rez'es really well, so it's nice just having the right ratio for the rez.

Another old classic that can be played wide screen now is System Shock 2. There's some nice texture packs, game tweaks and sound mods for that one out.

Great games never die... unless they're from the 80's.

>> ^entr0py:
This video along with Johnny Lee's awesome Wii hacks make me think that hardware companies could easily come up with really amazing stuff if they wanted to. And what do we get? The xbox camera/mic and the ps3 wagglesticks.
Just curious, did any of you try virtual reality around 16 years ago when it was newish and being hyped in the media? It's an amazing experience, I still haven't seen anything that compares to it to this day.
The setup I tried had a full helmet with two stereoscopic screens which surrounds the field of view, has built in speakers, and blocks out external light and sound. As well as independent motion tracking of the head and hands. It ran a simple but intuitive FPS, which was also the first true 3D (no sprites) FPS I had ever seen. Compared to that I always have to laugh when people talk about today's games as being "immersive"


You might be talking about the Forte VFX1 Headset, which was by far the geekiest gadget since the Nintendo Power Glove. I played the original System Shock on it and it was great.

http://www.combatsim.com/archive/htm/htm_arc4/vfx1.htm

@ entr0py:

Different people experience feelings of immersion for different reasons, as far as games go. I get immersed in a game by storyline far more than graphics. I found System Shock 2 and Deus Ex to be two of the most immersive games I've played, and neither were visual powerhouses.

I think the reason classic VR products like that which you described were unsuccessful for many reasons:

- the graphics were rudimentary compared to traditional systems at the time
- input lag broke the immersiveness of the experience
- many people got headaches or were disoriented by them
- the hardware was cumbersome to wear
- people looked silly wearing the gear

Technology, though, has moved alot since then, and VR will prolly be revisited more and more. AR (augmented reality) may prove even more viable.

Amen, jwray. I don't mind some RPG elements thrown into a particular genre, but only when it creates a completely new type of game. System Shock 2 comes to mind. It took the FPS and turned it on its ear, adding inventory, stats that could be increased (which then added more gameplay, etc...). But it doesn't need to be in EVERY fucking game.

Ultimately, it's what Farhad mentioned that rings the most true for me. It's easy to implement and adds longevity to a title. By promoting such things as sunk cost fallacy, it makes sure the gamer continues to return for more.

im exited. im too scared to play system shock so i shall keep enjoying bioshock for now.

^I hate to say this but it probably isn't. You just missed the boat on it. You could go back and replay it, but then you'll be where I was when I watched Better Off Dead for the first time only 3 years ago. Yeah it was ok, but it certainly would have been better had I experienced it when it first came out.

One of the main things I picked up from playing Bioshock (and am replaying it now on my new system), is that System Shock 2 didn't coddle the player, whereas Bioshock does. A good example is that in SS2, you could install a telekinesis module but it's range wasn't very far (you had to upgrade it to get items that were out of your reach), and you had to spend a lot of upgrade chips to buy it. And I think you were stuck with it once you made the purchase (? it's been a while).

Bioshock just up and gives you the plasmid, it has an infinite range, and you can switch it out willy-nilly at a gene bank. Of course you can throw things with it now, which is a plus. SS2 didn't let you do that. SS2 was a little rougher around the edges, but it made it better.

The training level sucked a bit. But the game is still one of the best, most intense and atmospheric I've ever played. I rather they develop System Shock III than Bioshock 2.

WTB System Shock III without all the dumbing down kthxbai

Fixed and thanks.

In reply to this comment by jonny:
*dead

>> ^Drax:
System Shock 2 is too sacred to be touched by a review. If attempted it should be something like, "It gave me nightmares." [DONE]


Meh, SS2 wasn't really that good. Really crappy even if you compare it to SS1.

System Shock 2 is too sacred to be touched by a review. If attempted it should be something like, "It gave me nightmares." [DONE]

Nice! More retro reviews! System Shock 2 and Deus Ex, stat!