Tales of the Rampant Coyote
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Ye Olde Archives. Visit the new blog at http://www.rampantgames.com/blog/ - and use the following feed: http://rampantgames.com/blog/wp-rss2.php
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Games For Castaways
No, I'm not talking about Virtual Villagers - though it's a pretty awesome game about castaways. And I guess the Monkey Island games had you getting stranded on islands. But that's not what I'm talking about.
Let's say you were marooned on a desert island, but you somehow magically became stranded with an awesome computer and plenty of power to run it (maybe you are stranded on the island in the TV Show "Lost" or something). But NO INTERNET CONNECTION. (Suckage!)
Now, you get to choose THREE GAMES to take with you. These will be your entertainment to keep you sane for the indefinite period of time you are gonna be stranded on the island (we'll assume about 3 years), so you'll want games with replayability in spades.
Pick your games.
Me? Well, my top three would probably be:
#1 - Civilization
Any version, I assume, though I haven't played the latest. Still - a single game of Civilization can last many, many hours. And you can play through many sessions with MANY variations, difficulty levels, and different national abilities. This game was nicely methodical and turn-based, which would help keep my mind sharp in the otherwise mind-numbing, lonely day-to-day struggle for survival on my island.
#2 - Daggerfall
Yes, Daggerfall... Elder Scrolls 2. Simply because it's so much more friggin' huge than its sequels. Sure, the formulaic quests and random dungeons can wear on me during a single game. But compared to gathering coconuts, it shouldn't be too bad. A single game can last hundreds of hours... more if I keep exploring. There were rumors of all kinds of hidden, unique elements buried within the procedurally-generated Tamriel. Even a (gasp!) dragon! I never heard of it being found, which probably means it was a false rumor, but I could verify it by my thorough exploration of the world. And I could play through it as every character class - feats requiring hundreds of hours each - before experimenting with custom classes.
Yeah. Daggerfall would be a good option to take with me into my desert-island hell.
#3 - Falcon 4.0: Allied Force
I chose Allied Force because it includes a new compaign and more "stuff" than the original release. While it only offers a few starting conditions in two campaigns, the little virtual war quickly evolves into a unique situation with every game. Besides, this game's documentation is so hefty that I could chew through an entire week just studying up on all the functional systems of an F-16.
Also, the real-time action would be a nice counter-point to the turn-based gameplay of Civilization, or the somewhat less action-dependent Daggerfall. Now if only I could set up a wireless connection with the next island over to play the game AGAINST a fellow castaway in another bunker somewhere...
Runners Up
What I'd also have seriously considered taking with me on my date with destiny, but ultimately left to sink beneath the waves due to the arbitrary restriction of only bringing three with me...
Neverwinter Nights (Platinum Edition): This one might be a keeper if I was also allowed to bring the entire contents of Neverwinter Vault with me. Over 5,000 user-created modules would keep me pretty busy for a while.
Nethack (with a graphical front-end, like Falcon's Eye): Close, but I'd be cheating on this little excursion anyway and making sure my computer had programming languages installed. They aren't games! So I would just create my own version.
Unreal Tournament 2004: Three or four years stuck battling bots in this game, and I might FINALLY not suck at it. When I'm finally rescued, I might actually be able to play online without having my butt handed to me.
Master of Orion 2: A single game could last the whole time :) Seriously, if it weren't for Civilization covering the same general gameplay, this would be a top choice.
Age of Empires 2 (with the expansion): Perhaps the finest RTS of all time. With plenty of nations, randomly generated battlefields, and an almost obscene number of variations and difficulty levels, this one would keep me occupied for a while and feed my RTS hunger.
Okay, there's my shot at it. I'm sure you could do better. What games would you take with you?
Labels: Mainstream Games
- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 1:00 AM (Permalink)
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Sid Meier's Pirates Gold. Not the remake, I think.
Dwarf Fortress.
King of Dragon Pass.
Others which, in a different mood, I might well have chosen:
Master of Magic (MoO is great too, but I preferred MoM. To which, of course, they never made a sequel).
Civilization. No more need be said.
NWN - to see other's modules... and write my own. Three years isn't too much time to write a decent RPG.
Maybe Planescape: Torment. It's a great game that withstands replays at intervals, but a desert island puts replayability at a real premium. If one has to spend enough time surviving that game time is a rare break, it's a real possibility - otherwise, no.
Dwarf Fortress.
King of Dragon Pass.
Others which, in a different mood, I might well have chosen:
Master of Magic (MoO is great too, but I preferred MoM. To which, of course, they never made a sequel).
Civilization. No more need be said.
NWN - to see other's modules... and write my own. Three years isn't too much time to write a decent RPG.
Maybe Planescape: Torment. It's a great game that withstands replays at intervals, but a desert island puts replayability at a real premium. If one has to spend enough time surviving that game time is a rare break, it's a real possibility - otherwise, no.
# posted by 
: November 23, 2006 7:51 AM
: November 23, 2006 7:51 AM
Yay! Someone else who thinks that Age of Kings was the best RTS ever! Usually when I espouse that opinion to people, they say something like, "You never played Total Annihilation, did you?"
Well, I DID play Total Annihilation. I never could figure out what everybody saw in it. I much preferred Age of Kings.
Well, I DID play Total Annihilation. I never could figure out what everybody saw in it. I much preferred Age of Kings.
Total Annihilation is a close second in my mind. :) Age of Kings was just at once more finely balanced and offered more variety in play (though T.A., with the free online releases, had more units than about any other RTS game in existence). The AI in Total Annihilation sucked, too. Not nearly as interesting an opponent as Age of Kings. And since it's a game for a castaway... :)
HC: You know, I never played Master of Magic. Though it sounds like Stardock is making an indie game along those lines. It sounds like it'll be to MoM as Gal Civ was to MoO. Though it's even more interesting that they WERE offered the license for Master of Magic, and were gonna take it... until Atari got all weird on them with the license. I guess with was their "right of approval" over marketing that killed the deal.
For some reason, indies just don't seem to like having their success dependent upon someone else...
HC: You know, I never played Master of Magic. Though it sounds like Stardock is making an indie game along those lines. It sounds like it'll be to MoM as Gal Civ was to MoO. Though it's even more interesting that they WERE offered the license for Master of Magic, and were gonna take it... until Atari got all weird on them with the license. I guess with was their "right of approval" over marketing that killed the deal.
For some reason, indies just don't seem to like having their success dependent upon someone else...
I do think that any game that would last me those three years would have to have an editor (a la Adventure Construction Set). Would moddable titles like Doom count?
...I'd be cheating on this little excursion anyway and making sure my computer had programming languages installed. They aren't games! So I would just create my own version.
I would have said "Python," but you beat me to the punch. However, I've tried this "coding in isolation" thing, and it doesn't work. By the end of the week, you start talking to the carpet for company.
...I'd be cheating on this little excursion anyway and making sure my computer had programming languages installed. They aren't games! So I would just create my own version.
I would have said "Python," but you beat me to the punch. However, I've tried this "coding in isolation" thing, and it doesn't work. By the end of the week, you start talking to the carpet for company.
I dunno... haven't tried Sam & Max yet, but I would worry the humor would get pretty old pretty fast... ;)
Bah! Programmer types! We're incorrigable.
Though I'd be the same way. I wouldn't mind the above three games to give me something ELSE to play, though.
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Though I'd be the same way. I wouldn't mind the above three games to give me something ELSE to play, though.
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