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Older LAN gaming suggestions
Mr_Grinch
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Hoping to get some friends round one of the weekends for drinks and gaming. We usually go PS3/360 but for a change have decided to link up a few PCs and get our LAN gaming on. However rather than modern gaming we're thinking of taking it back a bit and trying some old classics from our teenage years. Any suggestions?
Preferably those that are easy-ish to get running on modern computers running Windows 7. Up to now we've thought of:
C&C
Dungeon Keeper
Fatal Racing (awesome, I love this game and never ever got chance to play it LAN'd)
Doom
Quake
Descent
Worms 2 (though not LAN'd, just keyboard sharing...so any games like that too)
Carmageddon (I always preferred 1 over 2)
We don't REALLY want a torrent of FPS games unless there's something unique or classic about them (so maybe Duke 3d too). More RTS/tactical games would be good, or any turn based games like Worms, fun driving games are welcome also. In fact, anything!
The above should give you the kind of era I'm aiming at but anything older, that's still possible to play networked, I'm down for.
::edit:: There'll be 3, maybe 4 of us.
Preferably those that are easy-ish to get running on modern computers running Windows 7. Up to now we've thought of:
C&C
Dungeon Keeper
Fatal Racing (awesome, I love this game and never ever got chance to play it LAN'd)
Doom
Quake
Descent
Worms 2 (though not LAN'd, just keyboard sharing...so any games like that too)
Carmageddon (I always preferred 1 over 2)
We don't REALLY want a torrent of FPS games unless there's something unique or classic about them (so maybe Duke 3d too). More RTS/tactical games would be good, or any turn based games like Worms, fun driving games are welcome also. In fact, anything!
The above should give you the kind of era I'm aiming at but anything older, that's still possible to play networked, I'm down for.
::edit:: There'll be 3, maybe 4 of us.
Mr_Grinch on
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Ironman Diablo is where once you enter the labyrinth, you cannot go back to town unless you die. If you die, you can restart in town, but the only NPC you can talk to is Pepin, and the only service you can get from him is his free healing.
You can't buy, sell, identify, recharge, or repair anything using the NPCs. You'll have to rely on the Warrior for repairs, the Mage for staff recharges, and scrolls for identifying items.
It's brutally hard, and it requires a lot of planning, item conservation, and teamwork, but it's pretty fun.
Or you could just play a regular game of Diablo. With 3-4 people it would be perfect.
I KISS YOU!
Shocklingly I've never played Diablo...
::edit:: Warcraft 3 now on the list of possibilities. Cheers!
PSN: SirGrinchX
Oculus Rift: Sir_Grinch
I almost want to start a thread like this myself, but for 'unusual' LAN games like AI War, NetStorm, Soldat, etc. My local gaming group's running out of ideas...
once you all get the hang of it, it will become a staple
SWAT 4 is super fun times, even in single player. It has a really unique scoring system for lethal vs. non-lethal resolutions. A nice break form the "lets kill everything FPS."
Although I thought SWAT 3 had better missions.
I'm pretty sure that it's more criminal it took that many posts to mention, criteria about FPS games be damned.
For RTS: Red Alert 2, Battle Realms: Winter of the Wolf, Warcraft 3 (though already recommended, I'll definitely second it).
I know, right?
Also you can play hotseat games of Heroes of Might and Magic 3. I can't remember if there's LAN support or not.
Constructively, but already in the OP, we used to LAN the shit out of Descent II and C&C.
Soldat been mentioned? http://www.soldat.pl/ (yes, it has, sorry)
Also, Freelancer for some pew pew spaceships.
The fact that you only needed 1 copy of the game for a 16-player LAN match made it awesome. That, Carmagaddeon (1), and Quake were regulars when I was in college and my friends and I took over one of the spare computer labs darn near every day.
Personally I think if you have just those you'll be set. Based on the list in the OP I don't think I really have much I'd add.
NwN 1 is a possible addition, but you'd have to get it updated + add in a good module as the default campaigns can be a bit lacking. Anyone who wants to go that route should try the Aielund campaign of modules. There are six in all, and they take you from level 1 to level 30+ if you play them all. Light on roleplay, heavy on the action, and tons of fun.
You can get raider retreat from here which is a free, standalone demo that includes full multiplayer.
Tall-Paul MIPsDroid
Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory was super fun times for LAN parties back when I was a teenager. Also, it's totally free.
I will also second Natural Selection. There's definitely a learning curve, but that was the first game to combine the Blizzard-esque RTS with squad-based multiplayer gameplay, and in my mind it's still by far the best, especially when you've got a LAN going. Really ahead of its time for a Halflife mod... kind of a shame that more modern games haven't explored that variety of gameplay hybrid.
Anyone want to beta read a paranormal mystery novella? Here's your chance.
stream
I can vouch for any of these games, my favorite of all being Age of Empires 2 - that game has always been awesome at any LAN I organize with friends.
The color problems are problematic tough, but you can fix them by closing explorer.exe when playing or using a windowed mod named VEG (google it). That mod also fixed a weird system freeze I (and only MY computer) was having randomly whenever I played AoE2 for a long time - which sucked for multiplayer games since we would have to restore to the last save after I rebooted my computer. It doesn't allow you to resize the window tough, you're limited to the 3 game resolutions.
I love this game so much I even made a patch for VEG so that you can choose the window size - as long as it's over 1024x768 (effectively making the game full screen if you choose your screen resolution). Age of Empires with no color problems at 1920x1080 is just awesome
Xfire: lordgravewish
Steam: LordGravewish
There's an Activision-made Battlezone install hosted somewhere that runs fantastically on Windows 7. I was able to play online with zero problems, though I'm at work and can't seem to find the link.
I think he might be mentioning the fact that the PA Forums were a House of Quake for a long while, but since there have been like three awesome UT multiplayer games released since the last good Quake Multiplayer game was released, it's sort of evened out.
That said, Quake Live is free, and it's an updated version of Quake III. There are a couple of subscription options, but the base game costs nothing and has a ton of maps.
While it's technically just a RTS engine, Spring is dominated by TA clones... I haven't played in a bit, so I don't know which mod is best, but you can easily do 6v6 games on massive maps that go on for hours if you like. It's an RTS with incredible depth, and it scales well on different hardware.
Edit: looks like it's still Balanced Annihilation.
PSN: SirGrinchX
Oculus Rift: Sir_Grinch
Par for the course for most LAN parties.
Along with one guy who plays singleplayer games the whole time, one guy who plays WoW the whole time, and one guy who downloads porn the whole time.
Then there's the guy who accidentally unplugs everyone, the guy who spills his soda all over everything, the guy who falls asleep after only two hours, the guy that didn't actually install any of the games you'll be playing so you'll have to wait while he does so, the guy who keeps trying to get everyone to play Ricochet, the guy who forgot to bring an ethernet cable, the guy who decides to reinstall his OS while he's there, the guy who farts all night, the guy who brought speakers instead of headphones, the guy who stops to text his girlfriend every five seconds, the guy who bogs up the network by transferring everyone's MP3 collection to his hard drive, the guy who shows up with his Pentium 4 E-Machine with integrated video, the guy who has fucked up anime porn as his desktop background, the guy who... etc etc.
Small LAN parties are usually the best LAN parties.
Whoever said One Must Fall must be commended, again for the hilarity of that game. It's a good game, of course, but the best part is that every battle starts with the announcer saying "Round One! Fight!" in a voice that absolutely comes off as saying "Round Woman! Fight!"
The Rainbow 6 Games all still play well on my PC, but I don't know about networking. I'm a fan of Ghost Recon, but that would take a big mental shift from Quake and the like.
X-Wing v. TIE fighter. You know why.
Age of Empires is a good RTS option, althoguh the king is still WC2 in my book.
I bring you the future... of cops...
Surprisingly awesome game.
That's an EA game? Sweet, means it might end up on GoG!
I only had the demo, but I do remember the skirmish mode being awesome - you capture towers and bunkers and things to build up cash to buy tanks, which then swarm their way over the map and towards your oppoenent's base. Only way to win was to push a tank through into his HQ.
http://www.battlezone1.net/
That the one?