Help me choose a holiday mistress!

[Carolus Rex]

I'm a married man and naturally I do not play as many games as I used to...

However, my wife left today and will be away for three and a half weeks... Needless to say I have a serious gaming itch that needs to be fixed; now I have the opportunity I've been waiting for...

I have a lot of good games to choose from... As time is short I need som advice on which baby to be seduced by... I'll list a few games from different categories... My biggest passion is TBS games, but I'm open to anything...

That being said, I think a shooter might be best as "the wife constraint" will bind soon enough and I'd hate to sneak in an hour here and an hour there of an addictive strategy game when she gets back...

Feel free to pick as many of the games below as you like, but I'd appreciate a minor motivation in each case.

Let's go... Here are the candidates...

- Starwars Battlefront

- The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay

- Planescape: Torment

- Fallout and Fallout II (I've peaked at the first one and it looked a little dated, but I'm open to try it...)

- Far Cry (forget Halo 2 and Half-Life 2; this game came in first when swedish gamers voted for the computer game of the year 2004, or was it 2005?)

- Europa Universalis and EU 2 (swedish historian Peter Englund said he hadn't had so much fun since the days of Civ 1... 'Nuff said! )

- Hearts of Iron

- System Shock 2 (I loved Deus Ex and this seems to be the other "must play" in that genre...)

- Morrowind (dabbled a little with this one and liked it...)

- Half-Life (a classic that I haven't touched yet...)

- Homeworld and Homeworld 2 (I've played Homeworld: Cataclysm and liked it a lot...)

- Mafia (my brother really enjoyed this one, although the early missions are a bit boring apparently...)

- Anno 1503 - The New World

- Patrician II and Patrician III (I've tried Patrician II and enjoyed it...)

- Thief: The Dark Project and Thief II: The Metal Age (heard great things about these...)

- Startopia

- StarCraft (as I said I've played Homeworld: Cataclysm, another RTS in space, which I liked a lot + a collegue wants to kick my butt in MP... Yeah, right! )

- The Operative: Noone Lives Forever and Noone Lives Forever 2 (heard great things about these and have played a bit of the first mission of the first game; great fun!)

- Master of Orion 2 (a great game that I've played now and then... I really enjoy it except for those damn spies! )

- Grim Fandango (great game, but I have difficulties finishing it...)

- Return to Castle Wolfenstein

- Alpha Centauri (tried it a little and liked it; I even have a french version of it?!)

- Deus Ex 2 (as stated I loved the first game, but I've heard here at Apolyton that the sequel does not live up to its predecessor... )

What say you, comrades?

BTW, Civ IV is not on the list as I intend to buy it later...

Carolus

[Chaunk]

Why is SMAC not on that list?

[Jon Miller]

see the second to the last

JM

[Traianvs]

What can I say... such a fine list. about any game in there will do perfectly!!

[Carolus Rex]

Originally posted by Chaunk

Why is SMAC not on that list?

What JM said (but perhaps I edited it in while you were posting?)... I take it that SMAC is your choice then?

Jon, a suggestion?

Traianvs, thanks! The pitiful thing is that it's only about one third (or half) of the games I have that I desperately want to play some day...

Carolus

[RGBVideo]

Whoa. Great list. The only mediocre games in there which I can think of are Return to Castle Wolfenstein, No one lives forever and Startopia (though I haven't played Anno1503 or Patricians).

My recommendation to you is Planescape: Torment, a game which I very much liked due to it's fantastical twists of plot. Check it out; if you haven't liked it after the first dungeon or so, it's not really a game for you. If you like it, just keep on playing until you drop, that game requires time to enjoy it.

[vmxa1]

Well I do need a shot of Moo2 soon. Three weeks you could get in a lot of them.

[Chaunk]

Originally posted by Carolus Rex
What JM said (but perhaps I edited it in while you were posting?)... I take it that SMAC is your choice then?
Carolus

Thats what you get for skim reading

Yep SMAC would be my choice. 7 years old and still in my opinion, and many other peoples', the best TBS out there. The depth of the game is awesome. So many options, and every choice matters. So many viable strategies, each one feeling different, each faction playing their own special way.

A game that will probably never be bettered.

Head over to the SMAC/X forums if you decide to play SMAC. Lots of good, helpful advice

[DrSpike]

Pick one of those at random.

[Jon Miller]

depends on what you are in the mood for

all the ones I have tried are great (and I have tried the majority?)

Jm

[Kataphraktoi]

- Far Cry (forget Halo 2 and Half-Life 2; this game came in first when swedish gamers voted for the computer game of the year 2004, or was it 2005?)

Screw that. Get UT 2000 still pwnzering the competition.

.

[snoopy369]

Morrowind

Thief and Thief 2

[Blake]

Oooh Startopia don't see that game mentioned often. I happened to really like it, it's one of the most unique games I've ever played. But sadly uniqueness usually counts more against than for a game.

SMAC is a good choice.

[Urban Ranger]

Re: Help me choose a holiday mistress!

Originally posted by Carolus Rex
BTW, Civ IV is not on the list as I intend to buy it later...

What's holding you back?

[paramir]

tough choice their all so good

oh wait, SMAC