Be Excellent To Each Other

It's not a matter of being a wimp, it's the fact that the two best bits of OpForce (the battle in the container yard that's on the opposite side of the infamous dam, and the bit going through the ruins with the Apache gunship circling overhead) both involved fighting alongside your squad.

Seriously, they had a big chance to do something different and potentially even more amazing with it, but didn't.

I last played it about six years ago, so you might be right. I enjoyed it at the time, however.

This is of course changing often, but usually it is something like this

10. Crazy Taxi (Arcade, 1998)
It might be swallow, but just the sime mechanics, the sounds, the sega-ness, the streetcars, keep returning me to it, when i see it in an arcade, and on my Dreamcast

9. NHL 2005 (GC) (or 2008,Funsquare, or 94 MD)
Icehockey is a sport of rough dudes, but with tradition (stanley cups since 1890). But it is one of the few sport that actually more more fun as a game, and the one series EA keeps producing quality, it always feels far more solid than the other EA series.

8. Osa Tatakae Ouendan! (DS, 2005)
The ultimate handheld game, scoring, music, strange stories.. it just keeps on giving, the best rhythm action game.

7. Robotron. (1982, Arcade, but usually played on 360, might be substituted by Geometry Wars)
It's Mayhem

6. Swiv (1990,Amiga)
For me still the textbook example of how a vertical Shmup should be done. And a good coop mode

5. Colonization (ami, 95)
Just to pick a civ type game, and you can be the dutch here, more focussed than Civ

4. Super Mario Kart (DS, 2005, or snes, 1992)
For me the ultimate console type game, multi player, racing, just having fun, but still capable of serious racing in the time trials

3. Wario Ware (GBA, 2002)
To quote someone, the most important game in the last decade; it brought back the core of gaming

2. Tempest 2000 (Jaguar, 1994)
It's acid, and a pure game as can be.

1. Sensible World of Soccer'96 (Amiga 1995)
The ultimate video game, a great 2 player game, excellent for my soccer madness with all its clubs, just enough depth in the single player, and now online against you guys

Honourable Mentions
-Guitar Hero 2.. only just got it, but wow, fun
-Advance Wars.. stragy done right
-Civ III
-Ikaruga, DoDonpachi, Raiden DX, but allowed only one vertical shmup
-Pikmin 2, Cannon fodder... action strategy
- Gravity Power...bingo!
- ISS'98 and some other interesting footys
- Super Mario Galaxy.. the first mario i really fell in love with

Hmm.. are the newer games better than the 2K series? I loved the EA's Mega Drive ice hockey games but went off them after that, whereas NHL2K7 on the 360 is really rather good - although I ignore all the tactics and special moves and just play it pretty much as I played NHL 94.

hated the 2k8 demo on xblive, whilst the NHL series innovated with good double stick (joypadstick that is, not ice hockey stick control), nhl 2005 still playes exactly like 94 and is more accessible.. at times i prefert that, but scoring in 2008 can be really satisfying, due to the feeling and control the right stick gives..)

I know, I know, I was just teasing. You're twice the FPSer that I am.

Still, I'm not sure just how much they could have done, especially given the short time-frame. I mean, at the same time as OpFor, there was a certain Daikatana released; that had even worse and more pointless 'team control' but with a much longer time-frame. In fact, other than the first Rainbow Six and Spec Ops (and possibly Spec Ops 2...) I can't think of anything like that which was out at the time. It was still quite a novel concept...

(aside: if anyone has to do a university thesis on AI, write about how Steve Polge's Reaperbot for Quake is the forefather of 'team play' in modern FPSes. Because it really bloody is, in some cases, rather literally *wink*)

...and of course, one that was entirely different from the single-player, OMFG-I'm-All-Alone play of HL1. So if they *had* gone all-out, I bet they'd have received quite the mauling.

Erm, so in conclusion: 'Whaddya expect, blood?' I don't think they could realistially have achieved any more in the time-frame - IMVHO

So who has won?

Who has won what?

THE BESTEST GAMES EVER!

Was I close?

No, sorry, the correct answers were:

1) Ocarina of Time
2) Elite
3) Super Mario Kart
4) Manic Miner
5) Grand Theft Auto 3
6) Super Mario World or Super Mario Bros 3
7) one of the Streetfighter series.
A Link To The Past
9) M.U.L.E.
10) Yar's Revenge by Howard Scott Warshaw who many best remember for the infamous E.T. but you may not know tha('Stop that right now' - Ed.)

8-bit list, eh?

1) Elite (NES)
2) Ghostbusters (C64)
3) Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES)
4) Kung Fu (NES)
5) Phantasy Star (Master System)
6) Werewolves Of London (C64)
7) Sonic The Hedgehog (Master System)
8) Castlevania (NES)
9) Out Run (PC Engine)
10) PC Kid (PC Engine)

I feel a little ashamed of myself that I didn't put more SMS or any BBC games in there, since they were the 8-bit machines I had at the time.

re: OpForce
It's not like it was too rushed - they did, after all, create a very large game with a lot of new content. They just didn't make the best use of it.

moip, while I did enjoy it (I remember it being one of my presents for a birthday/christmas that I spent lying sick on the floor of the bathroom very very ill, and then my Playstation's laser broke on boxing day) and having played it through twice I was, towards the end, wanting it to end. The excellent bits (where you lead your squad in battle) never seemed to last long enough, while you had incredibly wearing bits (the pitch-black sewer full of the stupidly powerful fat things that shot electricity, or the 'alien biospheres' bit where you try and find hidden doors) that lasted forever between them.

The whole thing is a sticky sore point for me as it feels like a missed opportunity. Rather than fulfill the promise of the concept and the manual ('be one of the military specialists sent to capture Gordon Freeman' - when for all intents and purposes you might as well just be Gordon Freeman again, exploring more of the complex) you just seemed to constantly be a victim of contrived circumstance. You get conveniently shot down and are unconscious for most of the HECU's mission in Black Mesa. When you do find your commanding officer as he orders the evacuation, for no apparent reason you have to take a long way around to the helipad and are trapped in a rubbish scripted sequence by the Gman (surely Shephard, given he's done all these assault courses, would just slide Indiana Jones-style under the closing door? Hell, you could practically crouch-walk under it!).

I'll try to stop grumbling now, but it's for many of these reasons that I prefered Blue Shift.

Ah, now, I have to agree with you there. It's a shame that it's rather short - but then that didn't stop Portal - because it's jolly good fun to play. I will now shut up before I start ranting about the Dreamcast version

Blue Shift also gets +10% for having only one tiny, extremely short Xen sequence, and for letting you 'be' Barney.

Blue Shift annoyed me by ending just as it started to get exciting. It was okay, but it felt like loads of build up and then "YOU WIN", which was a bit disappointing.

I think the reason colonisation draws me to play more than the civ games is that you feel more like you're creating and producing things. The goods you choose to produce matter - finding cotton fields isn't just an abstract "oh, more trade, I'll build there" and then forgetting about it - it's a genuinely exciting moment as you consider how to best farm the land, whether to sell as a cash crop or invest in weaving equipment to produce cloth, whether to sell high in Europe, swap with the Spanish for Horses, rip the indians off or give it to them as a gift to butter them up so they'll give you a better deal on their silver or go to war on the English for you. It just felt more involving somehow.

Top 10 8-bit games:

1. The Last Ninja (C64)
2. The Last Ninja 2 (C64)
3. The Last Ninja Remix (C64)
4. The Last Ninja 3 (C64)
5. The Last Ninja (Amstrad)
6. The Last Ninja Remix (ST/Apple)
7. The Last Ninja Remix (Amiga/Apple)
8. The Last Ninja 2 (NES)
9. The Last Ninja 2 (Spectrum)
10. The Last Ninja 3 (Amiga/Banana)

That is all.

Those aren't all 8-bit games.

Neither's your mum.

I never claimed she was though.

I think I've made my point though. *smug*


...and edited the post to reduce the retardedness

And with style too.

I would say she's worth no more than two bits, to be honest. And in new money, forgeddaboudid.

At least it had some sort of conclusion and a sense of closure, as opposed to the fucking disgrace that is Opposing Force's 'ending'.

"Hey guys, Half-Life's ending is really enigmatic. We need to answer even fewer question and leave the player even more dissatisfied!"

CUS: 'Two bits' is 25 cents.

I liked the Xen sequences.

Right, I'm not coming to Nottingham any more. You are clearly dangerously insane.

I agree with Perkies.

The Xen sequences were unutterably shit.

Yes.

Xen was the best part of the game, for me. I like space and Lovecraft 'n' shit, though.