Games

Posted on 2003/05/24 13:19:55 (May 2003) by john.

Why can't I find any...?

This morning I felt like I was in need of a bit of entertainment/distraction to take my weary mind off all the heavy technical issues I have to deal with on a daily basis. I've had this PC at home for a while now (maybe 18 months), and it has a relatively fast CPU and a decent graphics card etc, but I've never really seriously thought about trying to play any games with it. It's so far been just a development and internet machine really. I thought it might be time to give some games a try. So, off I went, nice fast connection at the ready, into the big blue yonder that is the internet to try and find a game I could get into.

Could I find any? Could I bollocks. Everything I looked at was either not worth playing, not going to work on my machine, not actually downloadable, or not free. I found the process of looking very awkward as well, and Google seems to have let me down a bit here.

When I used to have an Amiga years ago, the sorts of games I typically enjoyed were broadly of the roleplaying-ish variety (Dungeon Master, Hired Guns etc) and platform games. I seem to have lost interest in platform games - whenever I've tried playing them in the last couple of years my attention has dwained very quickly. So in my search this morning I concentrated on trying to find some kind of roleplaying game, but to no avail. I also considered maybe some kind of online game (MORPG or whatver they're called) might be fun, but I couldn't seem to get anywhere with this.

Does anyone have any suggestions for something I can play, preferably for free, and perhaps with an online thingy, that I might enjoy?

If you just want free games, there are plenty, but they're the arcadey type that you don't mention liking.

I don't think there are any online RPGs that are free - hosting costs, don't you know. I think there are a few open source ones where people run their own servers.

Oh - there's Allegiance, which was once published by Microsoft but is now being given away for free. It's a space shooter game but has lots of online interaction.

Diablo II has to be bought to start with, but after that it's free to play online.

Posted by Mark at 2003/05/24 18:18:15.

I have plenty of games that you can play online... and that you can have a backup of.

Also, go to http://www.orisinal.com/ try the piggy game. CUTE!

Posted by tom at 2003/05/24 19:05:54.

I love CivIII and Play the World. Its not free, but keeps me amused for hours. Failing that write one. You knocked up a great JPG-y app that satisfied your needs.

Good on John, you're my A.

Posted by dsp at 2003/05/24 19:48:51.

Mark's right regarding having to pay for most online rpgs. Certainly all the mmorpgs anyway. As for what I recommend, well, I may get blasted for this, but I've been playing MUDS since about '94. One in particular called Avalon (www.avalon-rpg.com). It is text-based so it normally puts most people off straight away. And it has a monthly subscription fee, but in terms of roleplaying, I've never found anything that can match it on the PC.

Posted by Omar at 2003/05/24 23:24:31.

Shut up about your new fangled gump and play Bloodwych. Look! You can actually touch each individual pixel...

Posted by Rusty at 2003/05/27 24:16:52.

Someone did tell me there was an attempted free online RPG called Ragnarok Online..

Posted by Mark at 2003/05/27 18:26:33.

Yay Bloodwytch!

ahem.

You could try downloading an amiga emulator and some games for it (however the legality of 'abandonware' ROMs varies)

Failing that you may have to part with some money... but before you buy a game check out the reviews and ask if any of your friends have played it...

Of course, those are the legal options....

Posted by Byrn at 2003/06/07 24:28:15.

if u want a decent rpg try runescape its just been updated and it looks pretty cool now. its good game it does take a while to get ya character up from a noob and it does help to have high level friends. the site is www.runescape.com
give it a go cant hurt to try efion

Posted by efion at 2004/04/08 16:55:11.

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