Getting my game on

[rowyn]

Lut and I were talking about getting a new computer game to play. We used to play computer games together a lot, but we haven't liked any of the same ones for the last several months, so we haven't been playing together.

The problem is, one or both of us (usually me) is burned out on most types of computer games. Here's what we don't want:

• First-person shooters (e.g., Doom, Tribes, Counterstrike)


• Competitive head-to-head games (Starcraft, Warcraft)


• Competitive team games (see above, only played in teams)


• Leveling MMOGs (EverQuest, City of Heroes, World of Warcraft)


• Puzzle-based MMOGs (Puzzle Pirates)

So ... what's left?

I'm vaguely considering "Guild Wars", which is something of a cross between two of the game types I'm burned out on -- "Competetitve team" and "Leveling MMOG". However, it at least has the virtue of no monthly fee. And, well, maybe this one will be different. I did enjoy EverQuest at one point in my life, after all.

The last game we both enjoyed and didn't burn out on was Magic: the Gathering Online. We played that until it went out of beta, at which point it became hideously, insanely expensive and we quit. It's a competitive game, either head-to-head or team, but for whatever reason we didn't have the same problems with it that we often have with competitve games. Or maybe we just didn't play it long enough for those to crop up. I rather wish there was an equivalent-style game to M:tG that wasn't hideously expensive, but unfortunately so far as I know, no such game exists. An online version of Jyhad only with a flat monthly fee instead of charges for packs of cards would be way cool.

Anyway -- any one have any suggestions?

Comments

[kirzen.livejournal.com]

This may sound semi-strange.

But try Diablo 2 with the Lords of Destruction expansion. But try to limit yourself to playing only by yourself or with good friends, the online Diablo community is a sinkhole of complete morons, cheaters, hackers and other neer do wells.

The game itself is very nice, if a little linerar, it can make for nice stress relief, but all that monster chopping does slowly build you up to higher and higher levels and earn you nice stuff. The levels come swiftly, and aren't nearly as important as in most RPGs.

Its also quite hard in the later difficulty levels. I would hazard it could take a month to play the game through if you actually tried to play the game from start to finish without just blasting through it and ignoring the interesting quests. (A month of pretty heavy gaming that is) and it works both on lan and online, and has no monthly fee.

Its old, but pretty good...

[kirzen.livejournal.com]

And with a single copy of the game, you and Lut could both play to your hearts content on Lan together. (Lan characters and online closed network characters are sorted serperately though)

[rowyn]

I've played D2. Lut liked it a lot, but it's a levelling game, and I don't care for those any more.

[ltwarhound.livejournal.com]

The biggest problem we had with D2, was the ease with which we dealt with everything.

What might be a challenge for a single person, turned out to be just too easy for the two of us sitting side by side, looking at each other's screen, talking rather than typing.

And she's since lost interest in leveling games, so even the recent patches won't help there.