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Best lan party games?
LoneIgadzra
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
My friends and I love to have LAN parties, but we always run into the same old problem: there only like two games we can ever play because other games last too long, are too tedious with new players, have too high system reqs for everybody's laptop, or are just not very fun in a party setting and suck all the energy from the room.
These two games are:
Myth 2
Nox
Sometimes we will also try to get an RTS going, like Starcraft, but SC is really unbalanced in favor of the couple of players who are experts, and if they don't play the casual players tend to keep games going for hours and everyone gets fed up with it. TA Spring is hilarious fun, but even worse in all those respects.
I would add Diablo 1 to the list since it is pretty hilarious, but it is also hilariously broken in as much as all the loot drops are de-synced if the game host doesn't enter a dungeon level first, and the more players the more gimped everyone is since the loot drops aren't increased. Diablo 2, I'm gonna be honest, is a terrible party game because it lacks any exciting moments that everyone can band together around and with enough players in the same area there becomes almost nothing for anyone to do.
I love infinity engine RPG's, but they don't work very well as multiplayer games, and Neverwinter Nights gets back to the old system reqs issue since its engine optimization/stability is pretty bad.
It seems I am the only person alive who finds Worms really boring (already spent my childhood playing Scorched Earth, been there done that), but I suppose that is another possibility.
So anyone have any suggestions?
These two games are:
Myth 2
Nox
Sometimes we will also try to get an RTS going, like Starcraft, but SC is really unbalanced in favor of the couple of players who are experts, and if they don't play the casual players tend to keep games going for hours and everyone gets fed up with it. TA Spring is hilarious fun, but even worse in all those respects.
I would add Diablo 1 to the list since it is pretty hilarious, but it is also hilariously broken in as much as all the loot drops are de-synced if the game host doesn't enter a dungeon level first, and the more players the more gimped everyone is since the loot drops aren't increased. Diablo 2, I'm gonna be honest, is a terrible party game because it lacks any exciting moments that everyone can band together around and with enough players in the same area there becomes almost nothing for anyone to do.
I love infinity engine RPG's, but they don't work very well as multiplayer games, and Neverwinter Nights gets back to the old system reqs issue since its engine optimization/stability is pretty bad.
It seems I am the only person alive who finds Worms really boring (already spent my childhood playing Scorched Earth, been there done that), but I suppose that is another possibility.
So anyone have any suggestions?
LoneIgadzra on
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Posts
UT2K4 (scales very well, unbeatable game play, the more people the better)
Age of Empires (2 or 3) - 2 is obviously ancient (but still classic) and has serious network issues, and 3 runs fairly well on most computers if you turn down settings.
Flatout 2 - also a little dated, but still very fun multi.
CS 1.6 or Source - Kind of a hassle if everyone doesn't own a copy through Steam.
TF2 - same problem as above, also depends on how many people you have.
It's tempting to go to older games if you're worried about system specs, but a lot of the older games tend to have some problems with networking, especially if people do have varied computer ages.
And for Starcraft, get a few Use Map Settings maps such as evolve wars, zergling blood, tower defense, or whatever they're playing on battlenet these days. Not only do they tend to be short, but they also level the playing field by virtue of being a lot simpler than the real game.
Unreal Tournament... Any version. Fun Fun games. If there's a large gulf of skill in DM, then switch to one of the other modes. I especially loved Assault or Onslaught.
Starcraft was a favourite for a while too as was CS and TF2.
The favorites were:
DotA - Warcraft 3 mod. We've been playing DotA together since college and this is easily our go-to favorite.
Quake Wars: Enemy Territory - One of my friends found a clearance store that was selling these on the cheap. He bought like 12 copies or something for like 4 dollars each and distributed them at the LAN party. None of us had really played it before so we were all on equal footing for skill and understanding.
Left4Dead - We had multiple 4player teams going at once.
Unreal Tournament 2004 - The Bombing Run mode actually caught on pretty big this year and we had a lot of fun with the team "sports" game. And Onslaught is always a classic.
Hitting alt-fire in the manta and flattening someone never gets old. Seriously.
HIT AND RUN
VEHICULAR MANSLAUGHTER
ROAD RAGE
Hasn't been updated since 2005, but if you have enough people in the same room, it is the best thing ever.
Warframe/Steam: NFyt
Demigod is based on DotA, and I would say DotA is better. It has more item depth, a whole lot more heroes to choose from, and its built on Warcraft 3 which is an older game so it will be much more likely to work on mid-range hardware. Demigod isn't that good. That's why its already dead in the water and its not even 6 months old yet.
MAP -THE EDGE
That's all you really need.
What else do you need?
Maybe some Myth mods/custom levels. Like, say, Dorfball or Leggo My Myth (yes, it's Myth with lego pieces/units) or WWII: Recon/Titans.
COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
No more than the hassle of everyone owning a copy for any other game, right?
Right?
Battle.net: Fireflash#1425
Steam Friend code: 45386507
Low system req's and a free demo up on Steam here that will work for LAN play:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/32210
Full disclosure: I made it
Assuming you have an internet connection ballsy enough to handle multiple people playing online at once.
But it's free, and it's Quake III, and the minimum specs are low.
so much fun
OH SHIT, DOUBLE ONOS IN BASE!
Do I remember correctly that you don't need a disk in to play QII lan so with one copy of the game you can play with as many people as you want? Some older games might be like that.
We used to play Duke Nukem 3d a fair bit.
Quake is always simple fun. I don't know if Deathmatch Classic is still around, that was even better and I think it was free.
QuakeLive is a pretty amazing thing.
I always thought the Team Fortress games were the best but you really need everyone to know what they're doing to get the most out of it. I always preferred co-op style things to straight DM so maybe that's why.
Edit- I was going to mention Natural Selection. When's the new one due? At least you'd all be on equal footing, starting from scratch. The old one was really brilliant in many ways.
This, only the stipulation should be that the first guy to puke has to buy everybody else pizza.
AvP2 is pretty great. So is Rune. For something a little higher spec, The Hidden is amazing for a small group. Dystopia is fantastic if you've got at least 10 people.
All right, people. It is not a gerbil. It is not a hamster. It is not a guinea pig. It is a death rabbit. Death. Rabbit. Say it with me, now.
Kind of cool, kind of boring. Not really worth the trouble of trying to get it going in and around all its hilarious catastrophic bugs.
Oh god how I wish we could play L4D...
Way ahead of you. Thing is, we've been playing Myth 2 every LAN party since, oh, 2002 or so. Suffice to say, the dead horse is no longer recognizable as such.
Dear god yes.
Had to check, at least.
...man, I miss playing it on the old bungie.net. What I wouldn't give for them to stop making Halo games, get the rights to Myth back, and make a new one. <_<
COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
My favorite Myth 2 mod is Blue & Gray btw. I never really got WW2 (apart from being super-good at RPG's) and most of the others are pretty boring, except for Special Forces, but the novelty on that wore off pretty quick. But B&G is quality and has a cool feel to it.
I didn't think Myth 3 was quite as terrible a multiplayer game as it might have been, but then it got fan-patched to be slower-paced, lower-performing, and less fun so riddle me that.
The Diablo issues with with 1.0.9, over IPX. We would constantly have items drops, then someone would click to pick them up and nothing would happen then eventually the item would disappear. Even happened sometimes when someone died and dropped all their shit. Can't remember if battle.net had the same issue.
I know all about those maps, the problem is the novelty wears off pretty fast and after that happens they just don't have much depth. They were more fun back when we were really into Starcraft.
I'm talking about Warcraft III with shit like DotA or Tower Defense.
If no one has any idea what DotA is, it's a great game for everyone to learn together.
There is always halo 1 and 2 for PC.
edit: oh, and I'm going to throw out Command & Conquer: Renegade out there, because that game deserves more attention.
Pokemon Safari - Sneasel, Pawniard, ????
Play Hardcore, ya pansy.
Yes, I'm fucking serious.
Yup. DotA is fun, but it lasts too long, and is frustrating until you start to understand how to build a character and not get way behind in the beginning.
My old roommate and I used to have 4-player Diablo LANs with friends, but we played a game we called IronMan Diablo.
IronMan Diablo is a little different from regular Diablo. Basically, you all create characters, join the game, and enter the dungeon. From that point on, you are no longer allowed to go back to town unless you die. If you die, you restart in town, get healing from Pepin, and then have to immediately rejoin your comrades (as in, no visiting Griswold or Adria).
I guarantee you that it will be either the most frustrating or the most rewarding game of Diablo that you will ever play.
we usually jus tplay warcraft3 mods, UT2004 and then that free2play racing game. Trackmania.
Give it a try. Gameplay seems simple at first, then as you get better at walljumping, powersliding, etc it gets pretty crazy.
Holy shit people still play UrT? Did it ever make it to Enemy Territory?