Christmas Gift List

[bothersome]

OK, so you all are getting all this new hardware and these nice new graphics cards and I'm sure you all put them to good use (I hope). A lot of games have come out all at once over the past few months. Some good ones we have probably missed buying...

I have only two games on my list at the moment, but am wanting to get a few more.

Call of Duty 2 - The demo was just too freakin' awesome
Battlefield 2 - Loved the First and BF:Vietnam and all the expansion packs.
Serious Sam 2 - Fun demo. Only $25 bucks. Can't beat it and I loved the first game.

So a few questions...

Age of Empires 3 - I loved the original 2 and wore the Age of Mythology Disk out. I tried the demo and enjoyed the game, but it just seemed a little "old"... have they fixed this in a patch? Anyone else feel the same way?

F.E.A.R - What's the test of time test say about this game?

Quake 4 - Is it any fun? Multiplayer any good? Should I just reinstall UT2004 and try some of the new toys built around it?

BF2 - Special Forces - Loved BF1942 and all the expansion packs... should I just buy without trying more than the BF2 demo? Have they finally nixed all the bugs?

Star Wars Battlefront II - Anyone try it?

Black & White II - I'm seeing mixed reviews and I have limited time for gaming... Enjoyed the first for a few weeks and my wife even like it (very surprising). Seems this one isn't that fun... Verdict?

GUN - Good idea.. well implemented?

Fable: The Lost Chapters - Liked the concept, but was upset this was only released on XBOX. Now it's out... what's it like?



Any others you can think of? P.S. I already own World of Warcrack and JustOneMoreF'InTurnIJustMissedTwoNightsOfSleepMyWi feLeftTwoWeeksAgoCan'tWon'tStopToBathe IV.

[Kurtis]

Age of Empires 3 - I lenjoyed the demo, though it did feel somewhat like just the same stuff with new graphics.

F.E.A.R - I played it for about a week here and there, didn't quite get to the end yet, but I still think it's a good game. Never tried multiplayer.

Quake 4 - I hated this game with a passion. It has extremely linear gameplay, and while the graphics are pretty good, they don't make the game. I played it for a few hours and it was painful. *Shoot enemy 30 times and reload then continue shooting enemy until it dies, door becomes unlocked, follow curved path around and a monster jumps out, kill it and proceed to next unlocked door...*

BF2 - Special Forces - this game was cool but the bugs totally killed it for me, I couldn't even play it online most times I tried. No clue if they fixed the bugs yet, but I doubt it.

Star Wars Battlefront II - no idea.

Black & White II - I don't think this one is less fun than the original, it's pretty much the same. What it sounds like is that the worst thing about the game is the absence of 'GOOD' impressive miracles, they're all evil ones, like volcanoes etc... I only played it for one night for like 3-4 hrs, but it was cool IMO.

GUN - *shrug*

Fable: The Lost Chapters - *shrug*

[bothersome]

hmmm... don't think I've gotten to the end of a FPS for a long time. I managed to complete COD, but still haven't completed HL2... lost cause methinks as I'm through my second run through since I wanted to start over with my currently upgraded machine... now, of course, I'll want to do that again...

[bothersome]

Actually bought BF2 & XP today... $55 shipped for both on ebay new. Not bad. Knew my wife would buy them both at retail so saved her the money... hehe...

[Kurtis]

btw bothersome, you're the winner of the grand prize, right?

you know you didn't have to buy windows XP right? it's fully loaded and ready to go for you, all you'll need is applications, games, etc... Windows XP Pro is provided for you, and get this, it's even a legit copy! :-P Hope you weren't buying XP for the system thinking that it didn't come with it.

[PsychoSnowMan]

Black and White 2 is quite fun. I thought it was a bit short, but if you're more of a RTS fan than I am you might have fun replaying it and trying out being both Good and Evil.

Quake 4. I played the demo, and I think they made a terrible choice for engines. I have Doom3, but never completed it because it wasn't very fun. I just dislike the engine, everything feels fakey.

BF2: Special Forces. I didn't buy it but I have BF2. I've heard it's nice though. Infantry maps in BF2 are my favorites, and SF seems to add alot more of these in so it should be lots of fun. If money isn't an issue it's probably worth it. But personally I'd rather save the cash and just play mods. Plus there are a few bugs in BF2 that have been in since the demo, like teamates sometimes showing up with red (enemy colored) names.

[bothersome]

Nah... sorry. Xpansion Pack (XP).

Yeah, this is my first legit copy of XP, 2000, 98, 95, etc... Am very grateful as I didn't know where my disk was and my current disk was failing... saved me having to do a reinstall on a newly purchased disk over Christmas.

BTW, shortly after I receive I will place my existing machine for sale on the boards here for a few days before posting on ebay for anyone who is interested as a thank you for hosting the contest... I had just upgraded a few months ago to a mediocre system. It's around $700 worth of parts fully assembled (hehe... new SATA hard drive ... install yourself (no license)).

The specs are:

Raidmax ATX-278 WSP Silver Steel Gaming Case
Corsair XMS Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit 1G (2x512) 184-pin DDR400
80G SATA
XFX GeForce 6600GT 128MB
AMD 3200+ Barton 400MHz FSB
Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe Motherboard
ThermalTake Silent Purepower 480W P/S