Good old game to give to a friend?

Korlash

Hey dudes,

I was thinking I'd buy a game from www.gog.com just as a small present for a friend who's living in my home province. The guy doesn't really buy recent games but he still enjoys playing old games. He seems to enjoy turn-based strategy games and the old "cerebral" games.

As far as I know, he owns:

Baldur's Gate
Planescape
Heroes of Might and Magic III
Pretty sure he's got the "Gothic" or "Gothica" games or whatever they're called
Sacrifice
Age of Wonders (bought from GoG actually)
Alpha Centauri

And I'm not sure what else he has. So I guess this is a risky endeavour, but I'm going to gamble. Any suggestions as to what could be interesting to buy for him?

Maybe I could buy him the Witcher, but I'm not sure he could play it. His computer had trouble with Borderlands.

EDIT: Actually, I have devised a (clever!) ploy. I will send him a shortlist of cool games "I'd like to buy from GoG" and ask him if he knows them and if he heard anything about them. Clearly my treachery knows no bound.

EDIT2: Steam, Impulse and Origin are out. The guy really doesn't like DRM.

TychoCelchuuu

Avadon: The Black Fortress is $2.50 on Steam right now and a great option if Steam is on the table.

admanb

Master of Magic is a pretty classic turn-based strategy game, as is Alpha Centauri.

looking through the list now... goddamn there is so much good stuff -- Dungeon Keeper, Combat Mission, Jagged Alliance, Master of Orion, and Panzer General are all great games.

Korlash

Oh, he does own Alpha Centauri, but I'll look at Master of Magic and the other games you suggested.

I should add that the man hates all DRM, no matter how unrestrictive it may be. Steam, impulse and origin are pretty much out.

TychoCelchuuu

Oh, I just noticed that Arcanum isn't on your list. Give him Arcanum. There's also a minuscule chance he hasn't played Fallout + Fallout 2, so both of those would work also. Arx Fatalis is a slightly less traditional but still awesome choice. If you want to go really old, you could get Darklands, Realms of Arkania, or Betrayal at Krondor.

Djeet

I like a lot of he games he likes. Look at:
Neverwinter nights
Arcanum
Ultima 7

Bobble

You'll have to pardon my ignorance, as it might not even be on GoG, but rarely do I see any thread about awesome old games go by without Baldur's Gate II being mentioned.

naporeon

It's totally unlike the games you mention, but my all-time favorite game is available on GOG...

zepherin

Master of Orion 2.

MentalExercise

I've gotta give a second to Jagged Alliance given the list of games he owns. It's an absolutely excellent mix of problem solving, turn-based strategy, and puzzle elements.

I have very similar taste in games and some of the most fun I've ever had was with Jagged Alliance.

Joe Camacho MKII

Fallout and Fallout 2, but if he plays old games, he has to have played them, then again, maybe he owns them on disc or something.

Siska

Spellforce 1(and 2)- Might be my favorite game of all time. NOT turn based, but the game play is by no means so fast you have a hard time keeping up. It's like a cross between Diablo 2 and Warcraft 3. A strategy/RPG mix. You build outposts and armies as well as collect loot and level your hero.

Disciples-fantasy strategy game similar to Heroes of Might&Magic.

Not turn based, but I had a blast playing Evolva 10 years, or so, ago. It's kind of like a shooter. You run around as a party of 4 creatures on some weird alien world. Kill monsters then eat the chunks to absorb their DNA. Use the DNA to enhance your abilities, like strength, armor and jumping or to learn new attacks like spikes or spitting fire.


Not on GOG but if you are willing to look elsewhere, I strongly recommend Wizardry 8. 3D, turn based, first person RPG. One of my other old time favorites.

corky842

The Temple of Elemental Evil is a good one. Probably the most faithful translation of D&D 3.5 edition to the computer.
King's Bounty is like Heroes of Might and Magic.
Jagged Alliance 2
Space Rangers 2

Eat it You Nasty Pig.

there's also fallout tactics, which is more of a strategy game. It's pretty fun, if easy.

depending on what you mean by 'cerebral' games, there's always the shooter trifecta from that era: deus ex, system shock 2 and the first half life. all have held up pretty well from a gameplay standpoint and are intelligent games, as least as far as FPSes go

they did make a HoMM 4, which might be up his alley if he liked the third one (and 5, although 5 wasn't that good really and featured ugly 3d rather than pretty sprites.)

if he somehow does not own baldur's gate 2, well. you know what to do

Korlash

I'm afraid he's a HoMM 3 purist.

Thanks alot everybody for the suggestions. I'll get him a few games and hopefully he doesn't own all of them.

Mulletude

admanb wrote:

Master of Magic is a pretty classic turn-based strategy game, as is Alpha Centauri.

looking through the list now... goddamn there is so much good stuff -- Dungeon Keeper, Combat Mission, Jagged Alliance, Master of Orion, and Panzer General are all great games.

Combat Mission a million times YES. And Dungeon Keeper is one of my all time favorite games.

To OP, Combat Mission is a war game. But not like traditional turn based. Both sides issue orders and than you watch the action unfold for a full minute. they call it we-go or something. Easy to play and very difficult to master. I can't help but spread the word on that one. And there are sequals in Operation Barbarossa and Afrika Corps

seabass

Since he liked BG1, you might consider BG2, or anything else on the infinity engine (Icewind Dale series, Temple of Elemental Evil).
If he's in to steampunk at all, Arcanum is, in my opinion, freaking amazing. Having said that, tube will probably show up to tell you how unapproachable it is.

Korlash

I ended up giving him Ultima 7, Jagged Alliance, Arcanum (oh no, I will make Tube angry!) and The Witcher. He had none of these and he seems happy about his gift, so that worked well. Thanks.