36 replies to this topic

[drabyss78]

Hi,

Came across this video:



Thought it was pretty cool, until I realised that it was FPS after FPS after FPS.  That, to me was kind've limited and annoying, and I politely sent an email expressing this and some of the games I thought were a great Mac gaming experience.  My list is below.  What do you think of the list, and what would your list be?

Footnote, because of the circumstances, no FPSs are in my list.  My favorite of these would be Bioshock. Also, I realise some of the games are old, but they still play fine on my 10.6.8 iMac, and so are included.

My list (in no particular order):

-Torchlight
-Pyschonauts
-Batman Arkham Asylum
-The Baconing
-Toy Story 3
-Madballs in Babo
-Trine/Trine 2
-Mini Ninjas
-Insectoid
-Kung Fu Panda
-Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure
-Braid
-Scoregasm
-Jets n Guns
-American Mcgee's Alice
-Rayman 3
-Aquaria
-Samurai II
-Defense Grid
-Jammin Racer
-Creavures
-Nyxquest
-Dotbot

Thanks,

Jim

[Thain Esh Kelch]

Baldurs Gate 1 + 2
Marathon
Warcraft 2 + 3
Heroes Of Newerth
Half-Life 2
Civilization IV: Beyond The Sword
Diablo 1 + 2

And probably a few more..

Edit: Myth 1+ 2 of course.

[Janichsan]

I liked about this video that about half of the mentioned games aren't even really Mac games – but some handcrafted Cider "ports".

Anyway, my list would look something like this (in no particular order):
Bioshock
Borderlands
Marathon
Oni
Deus Ex
Civ IV Beyond the Sword
Batman Arkham Asylum
Age of Empires III – The Asian Dynasties
Spelunky
Falcon 4.0 Allied Force
Torchlight
Braid
World of Goo

EDIT: Added Deus Ex – how the hell could I forget that?

[EDIT: Added Marathon - how the hell could you forget that?? - tBC]

Edited by the Battle Cat, 06 January 2012 - 01:30 PM.
Fixed the post for that big dummy

[ozzy]

Haven't had a chance to watch the video, but my top-5 list is:

Marathon 2: Durandal
Myth II: Soulblighter
Deus Ex
Diablo II
Rise of Nations

Other also-rans, but not quite in the top-5:
Borderlands
Oni
Call of Duty
Civilization IV: BTS
Bioshock
Portal 2
Marathon and Marathon: Infinity
Myth
Diablo
Battlefield: 1942 Desert Combat (or whatever that mod was called)
Halo
Command & Conquer
Command & Conquer: Generals/Zero Hour
Carmageddon/Carmageddon 2

EDIT: Added Carmageddon/Carmageddon 2 - might've had more fun playing those games than anything else on my list outside of the top-5!

[Matt Diamond]

These are some good lists I'm seeing.

Off the top of my head:

Myth 2
Starcraft
Braid
Portal 1 & 2
Bioshock
Civ (not sure which one)
Oni
Descent 1 & 2
Deus Ex
The Last Express
Prince of Persia
Simcity 2000
Fools Errand
3 in Three
Planetfall
Monkey Island 1
Pit Droids
Tie Fighter
Myst

Multiplayer:
Descent 2
Myth 2
Unreal Tournament

Close But No Cigar:
Assassin's Creed II had awesome gameplay & scenery, but removed from the list because of the dumb keyboard & mouse issues, and the tedious workarounds they needed.
Baldur's Gate 1 a classic, but unplayable after a few years because it wasn't throttled for high clock speeds. I've just started Dragon Age and I'm enjoying it in a similar way. Might make my top list one day.

As soon as I post this I'll think of a bunch more, no doubt.

[Edit: added 3 LucasArts/LucasLearning games]
[EDIT: added (Bungie's famous trilogy).  Next stop, Matt's house to slap him around a little - tBC]
[Edit: removed (Bungie's famous trilogy), added Myst]
[EDIT: HA!  Now the (Bungie's famous trilogy) is listed THREE times in Matt's post! - tBC]
[EDIT: Removed the name of Bungie's famous trilogy from the post and all edit comments... This is what a war involving time travel must be like. - Matt]

Edited by Matt Diamond, 11 January 2012 - 07:54 AM.
A life of excess has addled this man's memory

[Janichsan]

Janichsan, on 06 January 2012 - 05:31 AM, said:

[EDIT: Added Marathon - how the hell could you forget that?? - tBC]

Good point. But let's be a bit more specific:

Janichsan, on 06 January 2012 - 05:31 AM, said:

...
Marathon 1+2+Infinity
...

[the Battle Cat]

Yeah, I guess I wasn't thinking, it seems to be going around   .  When I janked Matt's post I put "Marathon Trilogy".  My favorite of the 3 though has always been 2, the Blood Tides of Lh'owon.  This was once again confirmed when I played the new Aleph One releases.  To me, Infinity always sucked gorilla knuckles, but I loved the new engine and editors that came with it.

[Tacohead]

Off the top of my head:

Dragon Age: Origins
KotOR
Rome: TW
Limbo
Trine (haven't played 2 yet)
Prince of Persia
Dark Castle and Beyond Dark Castle
Ultima 3
Baldur's Gate 1 & 2
Fallout 1 & 2
Might & Magic 1
Might & Magic: World of Xeen
Neverwinter Nights (its two official expansions)
Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy
Diablo 1 & 2
Warcraft 1-3
Space Quest 1-3
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
The Secret of Monkey Island 1 & 2
Microleague Baseball 2
Clan Lord
Rise of the Dragon
Portal and Portal 2
Marathon 1 & 2
The Sims 3
Pirates

And I found this video which brought me back to some other blasts from the past.



-PN

[EDIT: No need to edit this thoughtful post]

Edited by the Battle Cat, 07 January 2012 - 02:43 PM.
To highlight the brilliance of Tacohead

[bismilah]

my quick selection



Action
Halo
Marathon Trilogy
Unreal Tournament (OS9, 2003 and 2004)


Freeware
Kill Dr Cote
Kung-Fu Killforce
Team Fortress 2
Urban Terror


Pinball
Fantastic Journey (OS9)
Monster Fair


Racing
Colin Mc Rae
Dirt 2


Simulation
Sim City 4 Deluxe
The Movies + Stunts & Effects


Sport
Tiger Woods 12


Strategy
Age of Mythology
Massive Assault


I also have a game list of "I-regret-to-have-bought-this" ..  

[EDIT: added "Marathon Trilogy" because I feel it has become expected of me - tBC]

Edited by the Battle Cat, 08 January 2012 - 12:10 PM.
Because I got the shotgun and you ain't

[WSTE_M]

Above all else:
Marathon trilogy
Myst series

A-10 Attack! (and Cuba)
F/A-18 Hornet 2.0 and Korea
Chuck Yeager's Air Combat

Wolfenstein 3D
Dark Forces
AmericanMcGee's Alice
Ghost Recon
Aliens Vs Predator 1 (does it work in Lion, anyone know?)
Portal
Unreal & Tournament (1)

SimCity 2000
Civilization 3
StarCraft and Broodwar
Warcraft 2

[EDIT: This boy has his head on straight, no need to de-spazeroid him - tBC]

Edited by the Battle Cat, 08 January 2012 - 01:28 PM.
Pin a Medal of Excellence to WSTE-M's chest skin

[Eric5h5]

The Marathon trilogy is the worst game series of all time.  ::waits to see if tBC's head explodes::

--Eric

[Matt Diamond]

My machine just couldn't handle the original Marathon. By the time I had something that could play it, I was addicted to Descent 1. So sorry, I can't speak firsthand to the Marathon Trilogy. I'm taking it off my list, and putting Myst on it. :-P

And yes, I did try to play it many years later, but I didn't take to the controls or the graphics- I'd been too spoiled by later games. Yes, I know this makes me a Bad Person.

[the Battle Cat]

Eric5h5, on 08 January 2012 - 02:08 PM, said:

The Marathon trilogy is the worst game series of all time.  ::waits to see if tBC's head explodes::

--Eric

Matt Diamond, on 08 January 2012 - 06:00 PM, said:

My machine just couldn't handle the original Marathon. By the time I had something that could play it, I was addicted to Descent 1. So sorry, I can't speak firsthand to the Marathon Trilogy. I'm taking it off my list, and putting Myst on it. :-P

And yes, I did try to play it many years later, but I didn't take to the controls or the graphics- I'd been too spoiled by later games. Yes, I know this makes me a Bad Person.

You two are BOTH very very bad people.

[Eric5h5]

Actually I was just trying to make your head explode.  Marathon 2 is one of only a handful of games that has true atmosphere; I played through it twice.  Although I must admit I don't want to marry it like you do.  Marathon Rubicon is the real Marathon 3.

--Eric

[Matt Diamond]

the Battle Cat, on 08 January 2012 - 09:19 PM, said:

You two are BOTH very very bad people.

I look at it this way. Many of the games on these "best game" lists don't actually play well to modern audiences. Graphics, controls, audio, gameplay mechanics, pacing- all have been refined. It's difficult to go back now and play some of them, and we find ourselves struggling to explain to our kids why they were so good. It's the same as movies. Heck, 100 years from now we'll need CG Historians to tell us why each one was notable.

I happened to miss out on Marathon, but it was just bad timing. I have no illusions that someone will pick another game from that era from my top list and take to it, either.

Edit: Now THAT would be an interesting list-- which of my favorite games is still as enjoyable today? Hm.

[Sargiel]

Rome: Total War (with Total Realism mod)

Baldur's Gate (I still play this constantly now - it's becoming a bit of a joke amongst my friends that I've always got some No-reload challange going and am still gaming like it's 1999!)

Dragon Age

Neverwinter Nights (for the amazing persistant world experience I had with the 1st game and expansions. I've now given up on my Mac version and installed Windows 7 to see if I can recreate the same kind of experience on my favourite hardcore RP/permadeath persistant world with NWN2).

Call of Duty 2

Civilization 4 (got a pbem game going between some friends now that the img one seems to have died a death).

Escape Velocity: Nova

Deus Ex (looking forward to add Deus Ex 3 to this list )

Vampire: Bloodlines (never ported to Mac but I loved this game to death - and it's now playable via crossover)

Quest for Glory Series

Might & Magic/Heroes of Might & Magic

EU3 plus expansions.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein (although I mostly played that free online multiplayer version endlessly )

Elite (the ultimate version of the game that was the RISC OS (Acorn) version - think I've still got it kicking around with all the cards for the ships, captains pad etc ).

Dune (the first and only RTS game I got really sucked into. Didn't love the constant changing of about 7 or so floppy discs though!)

Any further back than that and we'd be looking at Acorn games you lot would never have heard of so I'll stop now before I go off topic

[Eric5h5]

Matt Diamond, on 09 January 2012 - 06:28 AM, said:

I look at it this way. Many of the games on these "best game" lists don't actually play well to modern audiences. Graphics, controls, audio, gameplay mechanics, pacing- all have been refined.

I didn't actually play Marathon until quite a few years after it was released, and when I replayed Marathon 2 it was relatively recently using Aleph One.  I also played through Doom 2 again about that same time using the Doomsday Engine.  The fact that graphics have advanced since then didn't make them any less fun.  (Though the modernized engines allow for significantly higher resolutions--I don't think I could play Doom at 320x200 again.)  Some games purely are the product of their time, but not all.  Also, some of the "refinements" are actually more realistically called "dumbing down", and aren't really a positive thing.

--Eric

[Sneaky Snake]

My two most played Mac games by a huge margin are Halo UB, and Age of Empires II. Christ, it's scary to think how many hours I put into those two games. Probably at least a 1000 for the two of them combined.

I used to be heavily into Halo's multiplayer. Server "1EV". I signed on again a month or so ago, and it's still got some of the same chaps that I played with years ago. I respect that. That game was so freaking good. Musta beat the campaign in legendary about a dozen times, and then used to play multiplayer everyday after school for a few hours. probably have 500 hours at least in the multiplayer.

Age of Empires II was the first game I ever purchased with my own money. Me and my cousin played it hardcore. And whenever he was over (which was often) we'd have it setup to LAN for hours and hours. Those were the days. Us 2 taking on 6 enemies in hardest with their retarded AI that made it oh so easy lol. That's the main reason why I play Starcraft 2 so much now, Age of Empires got me hooked onto RTS games.

[the Battle Cat]

Matt Diamond, on 09 January 2012 - 06:28 AM, said:

I look at it this way...

Oh I'm sure Hitler had a way to justify and rationalize his poor behavior too.  It's people like you that make little orphans in rags cry.  

I came into it at just the right time.  I saw Wolfenstein at work one day and was blown away.  I got the game and played the snot out of it.  Doom came on the scene and I was awash in blood and gore.  JUST at the same time I got the brand new PowerPC 7100, Marathon came on the scene.  The graphics were much better than Doom, but the important thing was the gameplay was simply magnificent.  I remember wandering the halls of Couch Fishing with a half empty MA-75B and a sliver of health looking for a save term and a power up station.  There was this creepy music playing, "Landing", that sounded like brains sliding down the bulkhead.  (Not the midi music, I had the CD in the drive and was listening to the real thing) The hair on my neck was standing up and my senses were in overload.  Marathon 1 was filled with moments like that.  Marathon 2 was gobbled up in a pre-order and was to this day one of the best games I've ever played.  As I said earlier, Infinity sort of sucked but the engine improvements and editors made it a game that lasted well over a decade.

So just as the timing was bad for you, it was perfect for me.  I wouldn't be here on the forum if it wasn't for my devotion to Marathon.

[Eric5h5]

the Battle Cat, on 09 January 2012 - 09:44 AM, said:

I wouldn't be here on the forum if it wasn't for my devotion to Marathon.

Marathon has a LOT to answer for.  Someone go back in time and prevent it from being made, OK?

--Eric