and here, some older

Stuff here used to be on my games page, but got taken off because I either a) don't play it much anymore, b) don't think it would be as fun to play today, given advances in gaming technology, or c) have been superceded by even more entertaining games (like Warcraft II -> Starcraft, for example).

Adventures

• Zork Grand Inquisitor (January - February 1998). I've been tremendously pleased with this title, which along with Jedi Knight (see below) made Christmas 1997 a time of happy happy joy joy. I was initially frustrated, because I was thinking of this as being a Myst-genre game, but I couldn't find any self-contained logic puzzles. Eventually it became clear to me that this was, in fact, a strange new animal: a real Infocom game in graphic clothing. The style of puzzles, the humor, the bizarre MIT references (as Jeliza pointed out, Kendall is the T stop for MIT), and the entertaining retro-textual death "scenes" all took me back to a place I haven't been for nearly a decade. Yay for Activision; they finally did it right, and it only took them ten years. [Frobuary 1998]
• Sanitarium (September 18 - 21, 1998). This game is very short (I think it took me about 15 hours), and has a few frustrating interface issues. But the story is excellent, the graphics are great, and the atmosphere is just right. Playing this feels like reading a good page turner; you don't want to put it down until you're done. [September 23, 1998]
• Curse of Monkey Island (Summer 98 - present). Jeliza and I have been playing this in an off-again, on-again sort of way. It's brilliant and funny, make no mistake -- we just haven't had the time to sit down and play through it over a several day period. We're about 2/3rds of the way through right now. And Grim Fandango is sitting in the box, waiting for us to finish... [November 23, 1998] Myst (1995-1996?). Love it or hate it, this was the epiphany-inducing game that showed me that it was possible to be the protagonist in a computer-mediated story and not feel completely directed in how I proceeded. Plus, the graphics were gorgeous. And, in the same vein... [April 1997]
• Riven (January 1998, in one obsessive ten hour session, followed two days later by another obsessive five hour session). If you liked Myst, I suspect you'll like this one. Most people's complaints about this one were that it was too short and that it wasn't as ground-breaking as Myst had been. In short, we all had high expectations for this, and Riven didn't totally live up to them. Nevertheless, Jeliza and I spent a thoroughly enjoyable 15 hours tromping through the world of Riven, oohing and ahhing over the gorgeous graphics, bending our brains around the puzzles (ok, we had to cheat on a few, but only when it was 11pm at night and we'd been bathed in phosphor glow for 10 hours straight. Dinner? What is this food thing?). Riven isn't ground breaking, but it is technically impressive and fun. It's Myst done four years later, in a world where Myst isn't paradigm-shattering anymore. [January 1998]
• Infocom (Activision owns the titles now, and may still be releasing them all on a CD called The Masterpieces of Infocom) (1984-present). OK, this was a company, not a game, but almost everything they produced was incredible. And really, really hard. They set the original standard for interactive fiction, but their games did leave me feeling like there was an order to how I had to do things. And that could be frustrating at times, since I could think of dozens of completely obvious solutions that just didn't work. ("I'm sorry, but I don't know what a warp johnson is.") [April 1997]
• Zork: Nemesis (sometime late 1996/early 1997). Strangely, I failed to put this game up here when I first created this page, probably because I'd already finished it by that point. Still, it's worth including, for a few reasons. First, it's a great Myst-style game. I enjoyed it thoroughly, and found all but two puzzles to be eminently sensible (those two seemed completely arbitrary and irritating to me, but online hints got me through them and back into enjoying the game). Second, despite criticisms to the contrary, it feels very at home in the Zork universe (especially when compared to Return to Zork, which was pretty much trash). The game is filled with plenty of in-jokes referring to previous games (especially in the museum in the monastery), and yet has a nice dark flavor of its own. Finally, I dug the 360° panoramas. [November 1997]
• Obsidian (April 1997-present). Obsidian was a good advancement on the Myst genre--it upped the bar on graphics and sound, and added nice touches like full motion video between each location, to deepen the sense of immersion. The first half of the game, especially, is quite excellent--the Kafkaesque bureaucracy nightmare was funny and frightening at the same time. The game tapered off after that (I still haven't gotten around to finishing it, although I still have every intention of doing so). This game started the avalanche of machine upgrades that eventually resulted in an almost complete replacement of the guts of my machine; it gobbled all of my system resources to throw around all of the multimedia that it had. [April 1998]

Explosions

• Half-Life (January 1999-present). Half-Life has decidedly crushed Jedi-Knight in the immersive experience category. I was doubtful until I played it, but this game has a great story, wonderful level design, and that elusive "just a little more" factor that keeps me coming back until the end. What makes this title stand out is the immersion; there aren't any cutscenes or long level loads (or even any real distinct "levels", per se), so you never get yanked out of the experience. The story unfolds while you play. Yadda yadda. It's great, go get it. [January 5, 1999]
• Thief: The Dark Project (January 1999-present). Playing the demo for this game was one of the most amazing gaming experiences of my life. As I write this, I'm playing Half-Life more than Thief, but in my heart of hearts I think Thief is the more stand-out game. Half-Life is an incredibly immersive shooter, but Thief is something new and different. Here is a first person game where you can actually take your time and plan; here is a first person game where you are rewarded for not mindlessly killing everyone you see. Here is a game where you listen first and leap later, and knock-out tap with the blackjack is preferable to a bloody swordfight. This is the game that most made me want to get a 3D audio card. [January 5, 1999]
• StarCraft (April 1998-present). You want a piece of me, boy? It's tempting to label StarCraft as Orcs in Space, but resist that temptation. It's true that there is more than a surface similarity with Blizzard's earlier (also excellent) title, WarCraft II, but this game improves on the previous one in host of small and large ways. The most impressive thing is the game balance between the three different races; multiplayer StarCraft is probably my favorite game of all time (go-go-gadget-house-LAN), and that's saying something. The depth of strategy here is really amazing. Also, the story is really excellent, and well woven into the missions. This may not be the most technically advanced RTS game out there, but it seems to be the most fun to play. [Updated November 1998]
• Descent: Freespace (Jun 1998-present). Until now, I'd never been able to stand playing a spaceship flying combat sim. Freespace sucked me in. Why? Well, it looks great (but so did Wing Commander: Prophecy). It's highly customizable. It's from the fine folks who made Descent. It's got some pretty kick-ass looking ships. But most importantly, it's got good mouse support, so playing it with my TrackMan Marble FX is an incredible joy. Trying to play with a mouse in any of the Wing Commander games was a clear recipe for nausea. If I have any complaint about this game, it's that the single player campaign is only 29 missions long. However, the inclusion of the full-fledged campaign and mission editor more than makes up for it. (Sadly, the Silent Threat expansion pack was buggy and short. The new ships included are way cool, though, so it was marginally worth $20.) [June 1998, ST comments November 1998]Rogue Squadron 3D (December 1998-present). This is not a flight sim. I say again: this is not a flight sim. What it is is a great arcade shooter where you fly Star Wars fighters around and blow things up in really satisfying ways. And it's damn fun. If arcade shooters aren't your bag, you'll find this boring and repetitive, but I find it to be a great to excuse to own a gamepad, and just thing to tide away the time until Episode I is released in May. And, hey, it's got Wedge. [January 5, 1998]
• Jedi Knight (January 1998-June 1998). JK, quite simply, rocks. Graphically, it looks less polished than, say, Quake (the edges feel rougher and more jagged), but the levels are huge and sprawling, and -- like Dark Forces -- it successfully leaves me feeling like I'm in the Star Wars universe. Playing this game felt like being in a movie, in a more real sense than any other game has given me so far. My only complaint is that, out of twenty-one levels, six are lightsaber duels, leaving only fifteen of the big and interesting levels that I found much more enjoyable. The add-on pack, Mysteries of the Sith, was competent, and certainly has meant more fun with a light-saber, but wasn't quite as satisfying. The level design wasn't quite as epic or inspiring, frankly (although it gets markedly better as you near the end, and some of the weapons -- like the sniper rifle -- are amazingly cool). MotS best shines for multi-player, because of the added force powers and weapons (and new multi-player maps). [January 1998, MotS added April 1998.]
• Die by the Sword (April 1998-June 1998). This game is insanely difficult for the same reason it's insanely satisfying. This is a game all about slamming an edged blade into a hunk of meat; it just happens that the meat is trying to do the same to you. Some very clever person figured out a way to model the motions of the human body realistically, and used this to build a sword-fighting game that gave you an extremely flexible range of motion. Add to this some nice, dramatic physics, and you get a game where you can bat kobolds across the room, fight while hanging upside down from a rope trap, and cleave the limbs for your foes (and watch them obstinately continue fighting ala the Monty Python Black Knight). It's way hard, but it's way fun. (Sadly, the expansion pack Limb from Limb was too hard, and generally uninspired. But it seems to be a rule that most expansion packs suck.) [April 1998; LFL comments November 1998]
• Wing Commander: Prophecy (Aug 1998). After getting my Gravis Xterminator, I went back to the Wing Commander series. Trying to play these games with a keyboard is like to try to do surgery with a sledgehammer, and trying to play them with a mouse is an invitation to throw up repeatedly.The Xterminator's proportional direction pad made these games much more enjoyable, and I've currently revisted WC:III, WC:IV and WC:P (the first two WC games are pretty wretched by today's standards). WC:III remains surprisingly playable to this day, but WC:P is just incredibly good looking, graphically. Freespace wins hands down on explosions, but Prophecy has some damn good looking effects, and the ships that break into three subships kick ass. And, let's face it, I'm a sucker for the FMV sequences. Prophecy has less replay value for me, but I picked it up new for $20. The sequel (Secret Ops) has been a little disappointing in comparision -- the missions are less interesting, and the story (as of episode 3) has been relatively absent. But it's well worth the price: free. [August 1998, Secret Ops comments September 1998]
• Battlezone (Jul 1998-Sep 1998). It's a first-person shooter. It's a real-time strategy game. It's a floor cleaner and a dessert topping. I'm still figuring this game out, but damn, it's fun. I can waffle back and forth between building my nice defensive structure, and taking a bunch of tanks with me on a quick offensive strike. And if I'm really feeling frisky, I can hop out of my tank and snipe somebody else's unit, so I can steal it for my very own. The story-line feels all Robotechy, too, which is all right with me. [July 1998]
• WarCraft II (1996-1998). Skobu. Huhuhu. Whatchu want me kill? These three simple phrases should make the charm and appeal of this lovely little game obvious. And if it's not, my Death Knights will roll over you, punk. This game is not only excessively cool because of the wonderful graphics and great gameplay, but because it's the first really cool multiplayer game we've found that works well over our serial connection. Once we figured out how to team up against the computer, we realized we'd found the magic formula for hours of fun. [April 1997]
• Doom (off and on from 1995-on). Nothing deep here. This game is just an incredibly satisfying slugfest. There is one more important feature--namely, that this game made me realize just how cool an immersive first-person environment could be. However, I quickly found another game that was even cooler: [April 1997]
• Descent (1995-1997). Now this was an excessively impressive experience. Enemies made out of polygons instead of bitmaps, and an environment that allowed me to fly around with six degrees of freedom. Unfortunately, I eventually got to a point where the enemies were just too powerful and the mazes just too twisty, so this game has ended up on the shelf. However, Descent III is on the way, and the demo looks great. [April 1998.]
• Mechwarrior II (1995-1997?). This game rocked my world. Ever since I was 10, I've thought that big robots with guns were the coolest thing since sliced bread. MWII took me back to the days of playing with mecha toys, except now I really could blow the shit out of things in a satisfying and realistic way. More important, I could get an external camera view of my mech pummeling other mechs. About the only thing that could be more satisfying is NetMech, which allows me to play against other humans. Unfortunately, it couldn't handle the serial connection between the two computers in our apartment. D'oh! (I'm currently playing Heavy Gear as a replacement for MWII, which is not quite as satisfying as I'd like. It's got a host of improvements over MWII, but not enough improvements to make it interesting when compared contemporary games.) [April 1997; Heavy Gear notes added April 1998]
• Quake (November 1997-present). I originally caved on putting Quake up here because I finally was able to play it at higher and cooler resolutions, like 640x480. I've since discovered the real reason to play Quake -- deathmatches. Single-player is fine, but the multi-player experience -- sneaking around, listening for the sounds of your opponent, blowing the shit out of him or her with rocket launchers -- that's entertainment. Quake provides all the fun of those childhood games of battletag with all of the twisted violence of virtual inanity. [November 1997]
• Unreal (August 1998-December 1998). Unreal certainly looks good. I'll fire it up from time to time just to look at the light coronas and the flame effects. However, I'm finding the game itself to be kind of boring and tedious. It promised to have an interesting story line, but it failed to deliver on that promise, and the weapons are pretty uninteresting. Maybe I'll fire it up again someday when I have a Voodoo 2 or a Riva TNT card. In the mean time, Half-Life is four times the game with graphics that are almost as nice. [January 1999]

Dress-up

• Might & Magic VI (May 1998 - December 1998). MM6, bizarrely enough, kicks ass. Kicks a lot of ass. It's eerily like playing one of those old RPGs like Wizardry I or The Bard's Tale, except updating for something that's close to the modern age. It's also been described as "what Daggerfall wanted to be," which isn't quite accurate, but isn't far off either. The engine isn't as fabulous graphically as one might like, the sound effects are marginal, and there's no way to move around in turn-based combat, but everything else is stellar. Plus, it's huge, in a good way -- the outdoor locations and the dungeons are all extremely well designed and still vast. Thirty hours of gameplay later, and I'm still only just starting to think about the fourth major map location. Update: I got about two-thirds of the way through the game, and finally got tired of slashing through dungeons filled with floating eyes. I may finish this game eventually, but right now, I've other things that are more fun. This is a damn shame, since I think this game's only serious flaw is the ultimately tedious length. A little tightening up would have made me happy. Still, I got well over a hundred hours of fun, so I'm happy with this purchase. [May 1998, update January 1999]
• Diablo (May 1997-present). Woof! This is essentially an adaption of classic games like Hack and Rogue, except in gorgeous, amazing SVGA, with beautifully animated monsters and wonderful creepy dungeons. When you throw in the multiplayer aspects, it starts to remind you of a hopped up Gauntlet as well. Now, sure, this ain't really an RPG, but it's a hell of a hack'n'slash-fest. For that matter, it lacks some of the incredible depth and variety of the games it imitates (Hack, that is, not Gauntlet). Still, it's replayable as all hell (no pun intended) -- I've been through three times already, and I'm still not bored with it. [May 1997]
• Daggerfall (November 1996-November 1997). I was initially skeptical of this game; the graphics are reminiscent of the (now-dusty) Doom, the NPC interaction is atrocious, and the un-patched version crashed every time I turned around. Not to mention the pains of playing with a minimal installation and a 2X-speed CD-ROM drive. Once I got into it, though (and once Bethesda got a few patches out the door), I've come to realize that this is one of the most engrossing open-ended RPGs I've encountered on the computer. Unfortunately, the dungeon crawling gets repetitious after a while, but I got well over a hundred hours of fun out of it. (I've since purchased Battlespire, which is supposed to have better graphics and a tighter plot; so far my impressions are that it's very hard, and it's not very rewarding. Maybe I'll get into it more later, but so far I'm unexcited about it.) [April 1998]
• The Ultimate Wizardry Archives (November 1998-present). This is a nostalgia trip for me, since Wizardry I was the first RPG I ever played, way back when on the Apple II. The games are still strangely compelling to this day; I've got my graph paper and pencil handy, and I'm busy mapping out the dungeon once again. This compilation from Interplay includes everything from I - VII, and I intend on playing through all of them. Right now I'm on level 3 of the dungeon in Wiz I. MATU! [November 23, 1998]

Delusions of Grandeur

• Dungeon Keeper (September 1997-present). This is some weird mix between SimDungeon and WarCraft II. In short, you're the evil master of a dungeon, which you build up and populate with monsters you lure with gold and keep with threats and cajoling. After you build up for a while, the bad guys... er, the good guys, that is, come in and start trying to stop your wicked ways. And you kick their asses. I dig it. (There's now a Direct3D patch, which dramatically improves the "possess monster" mode; bilinear filtering is your friend.) [January 1998; patch info April 1998]
• CivNet (December 1997-present). After four years, Jeliza has finally gotten me hooked on CivNet (i.e., the multiplayer-aware version of Civilization). Highly addicting, especially once you figure out how to keep your cities from dying off or going into revolt every other turn. [January 1998]