Unsung Games

[Ferral]

I've been going through some of my old games the past few weeks on the PS1 (PC wasn't working properly due to the motherboard going bang ! )and PC now that it is back up.

Got me thinking on some of the titles I have that deserved to do better than what they did and most are available on budget now.

Lets take a look !

Mafia (fave game of all time on PC) 10 square miles were created by the developers to bring prohibition to life. Starting off as a humble taxi driver and working your way up the ranks of the Mafia. Race in the game was so difficult the developers added an option to make it easier in the last patch that was released for it. There are some superb set pieces and you really got to feel for the characters as you got further into the game. Forget Rockstars Grand Theft Auto series. Mafia does it so much better even today in my eyes. Played through it a few times now and it gets better every time.

American McGees Alice, this was quite well received. Running on a modified Quake 3 engine you are plunged into the adult tale of Alices decline into madness after her house burnt down killing her parents. Wonderland is not the bright colorful place like in the cartoons. Very dark and sinister and hooks you after the first few levels. Some of the weapons are really cool, like the billy club. Not for playing croquet but for smacking the enemies with and the lethal deck of cards.

Clive Barkers Undying. Excellent haunted house story about a family practising the dark arts and going missing. Yeah it is a bit linear at times but gives you the chills whilst running through the deserted house. Magiks work well and some of the weapons, especially the scythe make it a bit different.

Dredd Vs Death, this title brought the 2000AD character to life. Not as big as a lot of the other shooters out there but a damned good blast regardless. It is quite simply a fun game. Mega City looks amazing right from the off. Only dowside is that instead of just having the criminals that you can arrest it declines into monsters and ends up a free for all fight for your life. Still worth playing though albeit a bit on the short side and you don't get to play any levels on the Lawmaster bike. Rogue Trooper has also just been released by Rebellion. Damned fine game even though it is quite samey, good no brainer blast at times but no bad thing.

Chronicles of Riddick. Got this on the PC and X Box, it hooks you from day one. Visuals are stunning as is the sound and great use of camera makes it so easy to play. Great insight into Riddicks universe with some uncanny plot twists. Controls can be a bit twitchy at times but it doesn't put you off playing.

Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine. Step aside Lara the origional adventurer is here. Lucasarts brought Indy to life in full 3D for the first time with this title. Looks and sounds are still decent even by todays standards. Shame they didn't get Harrison Ford to do the voice acting though. Another downside is that it won't run on Windows XP

Just a few there I have mentioned from my collection, pretty sure some of you will have games that you picked up just to play something and found it was a great game even though virtually never heard of after release.

Leave the floor open for everyone else !

[BeoWulf]

Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine. Step aside Lara the origional adventurer is here. Lucasarts brought Indy to life in full 3D for the first time with this title. Looks and sounds are still decent even by todays standards. Shame they didn't get Harrison Ford to do the voice acting though. Another downside is that it won't run on Windows XP

There are old dos emulators for such games, one of which is dosbox (if i remember correctly). Hope that works for you!.

My fave is cannon fodder for the good ol amiga, awesome theme tune.

[Ferral]

Infernal machine wasn't DOS based. It ran on Me and 98. It installs and starts fine on XP but when you open the inventory everything corrupts unfortunately making it unplayable. I even tried doing a Dual Boot with 98 to play this, Blood 2 and Heretic 2 but they don't recognise my hardware unfortunately so won't start. I even tried to run Blood 2 and Heretic 2 in software mode on 98 but it didn't work

Loved Cannon Fodder on the Amiga, like you said it has awesome title music "War has never been so much fun !"

[BeoWulf]

Aww, that sucks. And yeah they got into a lot of trouble over there box with the poppy. Red cross went mad at them calling for a boycott heh.

[dancingtornado]

Omg mafia was such a good game imo!. Still have the game in fact! I really need to play godfather to see how that compares.

[axis09]

sacrifice

[kalniel]

Beyond good and evil

[YorkieBen]

mafia is still awesome. Runs on widescreen properly as well, looks pretty nice still too!

[Lee H]

Alice is probably still one one of my favourite games of all time. What's even more suprising is the fact it's an EA game that is DAMN SUPERB and never crashes ( for me anyway ) and is unique and just not a quick update to an older version like FIFA : Road to worldcup - headbutt edition or all the other games EA seem to throw out now without any thought, imagination or even rudimentary game design for that matter.

Sacrifice was the game I got free with my Asus geforce 256 and I spent MONTHS trying to finish this. Did I do it? Did I heck like. It caused me so many late nights it was untrue. 3AM and I was still trying to get passed 1 particular section.

Beyond Good & Evil is also a brilliant game. I loved the fact you had to photograph insects etc while IN A FIGHT. There I'd be kung-fu'ing like no tomorrow, flip back and VOLIA.... switch to camera - take a piccy and then resume fighting. I might just have to reinstall this soon

Another game I love which does not get the credit it deserves is Warhammer 40000 and the new addon pack. RTS to the extreme, and the graphics and gameplay are superb. I've had many a nailbiting session with my friends at mine having a 4v4 LAN session with myself playing as the ever-so-lovely eldar and abusing all the others

[kalniel]

I think games that sell well (dawn of war) don't class as unsung

[Ferral]

I have started this thread to open a few eyes to games that may have passed other users by.

I had completely forgotten about Sacrifice myself and do have it boxed away somewhere ! There have been a few games mentioned that I will be looking into and trying to get hold of. I used to have Beyond Good & Evil but traded it in after completion (what a fool I am ! ) now I'm looking to get hold of it again !

[kalniel]

Freelancer's another one then, simple, actiony space fun, but set in a magnificent universe.

[axis09]

Alice is probably still one one of my favourite games of all time. What's even more suprising is the fact it's an EA game that is DAMN SUPERB and never crashes ( for me anyway ) and is unique and just not a quick update to an older version like FIFA : Road to worldcup - headbutt edition or all the other games EA seem to throw out now without any thought, imagination or even rudimentary game design for that matter.

Sacrifice was the game I got free with my Asus geforce 256 and I spent MONTHS trying to finish this. Did I do it? Did I heck like. It caused me so many late nights it was untrue. 3AM and I was still trying to get passed 1 particular section.

Beyond Good & Evil is also a brilliant game. I loved the fact you had to photograph insects etc while IN A FIGHT. There I'd be kung-fu'ing like no tomorrow, flip back and VOLIA.... switch to camera - take a piccy and then resume fighting. I might just have to reinstall this soon

Another game I love which does not get the credit it deserves is Warhammer 40000 and the new addon pack. RTS to the extreme, and the graphics and gameplay are superb. I've had many a nailbiting session with my friends at mine having a 4v4 LAN session with myself playing as the ever-so-lovely eldar and abusing all the others

i have played this game 3 times and find my skillz\ are just not up to the task of the last 2 or 3 levels, soooo difficult, one day i tell ,one day i will finish sacrifice

[luap.h]

Just recently finished Beyond Good and Evil - such a great game and now getting stuck into Psychonauts

Old favourites are Outcast, which was just an amazingly beautiful game and Hostile Waters:Anteus Rising. It had the guy from Dr Who doing the voice overs!!

[alterion]

monopoly tycoon? indeoendance war 2 edge of chaos? pod(if you have a win 95 machine around), and skies of arcadia come to mind

[Veles]

Hmm lemmie think, GalCiv II is a recent one, got lots of good reviews and stuff and has quite a fanbase but I supposeit's not really that unsung.

Vagrant Story is a great game for the PS1, heavily overshadowed by it's developers otehr titles you may have heard of .