View Full Version : Your top 5 pc games ... EVER
Playing a golden "oldie" at the moment (#3), and this is my list:
1. Rome: Total War
2. Silent Hunter 3
3. Soldiers: Heroes of World War 2
4. rFactor
5. Monkey Island series (except the silly 3D one)
We have probably done this before, but what the heck.:)
1 : Medieval 2 Total War
2 : Battlestation Midway ( Pacific Comming soon... )
3 : Silent Hunter 4
4 : Lock On modern air combat
5 : Armed Assault
Task Force
01-12-09, 07:50 PM
1 (ill have to think)
2 SH3
3 Il2 (at times, it could be #2)
4 SH4
5 ?
Blacklight
01-12-09, 09:01 PM
This is a tough one and the order could change by the hour but as it stands...
1. City of Heroes
2. Ultima Online
3. Silent Hunter III
4. Dangerous Waters (3+4 tend to intechange depending on mood)
5. Half Life or Neverwinter Nights goes here depending on mood.
A Very Super Market
01-12-09, 09:23 PM
My favs are the same as Stabiz's, apart from no.4. I'd say Team Fortress 2 instead
Falkirion
01-12-09, 09:24 PM
I can't pick my top 5. 5 in no particular order.
SH4, Red Alert 2, Jedi Outcast, X-wing Alliance and Call of Duty series.
SUBMAN1
01-12-09, 10:09 PM
1. Thief, the Dark Shadows - Best game ever bar none. Not any one thing that could be pinned down as why. Atmosphere, the audio, the sense of dread, the patience to complete your task. Of course I played on the hardest level where you were not allowed to kill anyone.
2. Falcon 4 AF - Bar none, the best Flight simulator. Now you know what it is to fly and fight in an F-16.
3. Daggerfall - Still the best out of all of the Arena series, and much more massive than Oblivion or Morrowind, and so much more you could do too. Not to say Oblivion or Morrowind are bad, quite the contrary, just not as good would be a better way to put it.
4. Operation Flashpoint - The hours sucked up by this game.... If I could only get them back... :D Jaded me for FPS type games forever.
5. Starflight - Need I say more?
Not in any order and prolly cant remember half of games that should be on the list:
- Broken Sword 1 & 2
- Close Combat series
- IL2
- Day of Defeat for Half life 1 (this is the #1 on the list)
- Fahrenheit
CaptHawkeye
01-12-09, 10:41 PM
Operation Flashpoint
IL-2 Sturmovik
Lock On
World in Conflict
Operation Flashpoint
Syxx_Killer
01-12-09, 10:52 PM
5. Red Alert 3 (Still in its infancy but can become something great.)
4. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (with expansions) I loved Oblivion but Morrowind sucked me into the game a lot more.
3. Company of Heroes (An odd selection for me since I never really got into it. That doesn't mean it isn't great. I enjoy it a lot when I play it.)
2. Silent Hunter IV
1. John Deere American Farmer (haha Just kidding! :lol:)
1. Red Alert 2 (with Yuri's Revenge expansion)
HunterICX
01-13-09, 04:29 AM
My Top 5:
1: Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness and Beyond the dark Portal(expansion)
I spend my youth playing this game
2: The IL-2 franchise
Been playing it since the release
3: Panzer General
Also a game I played silly back in the old Pentium I and Win95 days
4: Silent Hunter III
Has been the best introduction to the Sub naval warfare in World War 2 for me
5: Close Combat 4 & 5
Favorite tactical RTS game
HunterICX
SHIII
IL2
Armed Assault
Medieval II
at the moment there is no 5 perhaps Arma 2 or Empire total war :hmm:
TorpedoMo
01-13-09, 07:33 AM
My favorites:
1. Mafia
2. SilentHunter II+III
3. IL2
4. Operation Flashpoint
5. NASCAR Racing 2003
and some good more....
5. X3 Reunion
4. EU Games( HOI2, EUIII, etc)
3. Eve online
2. Europa Barbarorum
1. Dwarf Fortress
Operation Flashpoint for it's great long term motivation due to modding and mission editing capabilities
Combat Mission (is kind of the bigger-scale counterpart for Ofp for me)
Falcon 4 for it's dynamic campaign (actually I hardly play this game but it is good anyway
The rest I don't know there are other good games which I'm tinking of but I cannot put them into an order now, among them are: Silent Hunter III, Airborne Assault, Fallout, Day of Defeat (I'm still playing the beta versions with Bots from time to time, unfortunately there aren't any servers for those old versions anymore), Dangerous Waters, Hearts of Iron, Total War (mainly Medieval:TW) and so on and so forth :D
ajrimmer42
01-13-09, 12:17 PM
Man this is hard... :hmm:
1. has to be the Half Life series (I'm including 1, 2 and the episodes in that). The characters are brilliantly fleshed out and believable, it's just so well made.
2. Tomb Raider 1. Such a scary game (well, when you're 7 anyway). Absolute classic.
3. World In Conflict. Despite not being as tactical or long as CoH, it had one of the best storylines I've ever seen in a game, if not the best, and certainly the most thought provoking.
4. Call of Duty 2. By far the best of the series imo (although I haven't played the first much). I still go back to that game even after completing it many a time.
5. Flight Simulator 2004. I've pumped sooo many flying hours into that game, it had to be on this list somewhere!
Some that just missed out, or are on different platforms but are worth a mention:
Bioshock
Fallout 3
Uncharted Drakes Fortune
Overboard!
Spyro 1, 2 and 3
Total War (probs Medieval 2 but they are all brilliant)
Ballance
Deus Ex
F.E.A.R
The Lost Crown
oooo that is a tuff one :hmm:
1. Zelda - Wind waker.
2. Banjo kazooie
3. Project gotham racing 4
4. Resident evil remake (gamecube)
5. mario kart double dash
I dont spend much time now playing games but in my opinion my best gaming days were on the N64 and gamecube :up:
Oh and crash bandicoot and spyro as well :)
I'll purposefully avoid the obvious Silent Hunter 3/4 mention as it almost goes without saying...
Since it's so hard to narrow down, here's 5 of my many all time favorites that I didn't see anyone else mention.
MechWarrior 4
Jedi Knight Academy (but I haven't played Force Unleashed yet)
Fable (that reminds me, I need to pickup Fable2!)
Railroad Tycoon
Roller Coaster TycoonThanks for the thread and all who posted, since I was just lamenting over the lack of new games.
Now I have a list to take with me to hunt the jewel-case-bargain-shelves at Target!
Wolfehunter
01-13-09, 02:19 PM
1) Fallout series original only.
2) Mech Commander series
3) X3 Reunion
4) S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
5) Silent Hunter 3
stew278
01-13-09, 02:41 PM
1. IL-2 Sturmovik
2. Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe
3. Aces of the Pacific
4. Wing Commander Privateer
5. Fallout
1. Aces of the deep2. SH III3. Operation Flashpoint4. IL-2 + all expansions5. Pacific Storm (just to damed buggy)
SHIII
IL2
Armed Assault
Medieval II
at the moment there is no 5 perhaps Arma 2 or Empire total war :hmm:
Empire Total war comming soon :D
Arma 2 too, bautifull graphics...
And Il2- Sturmovik is my 6th best game
CaptainHaplo
01-13-09, 08:15 PM
Can't do it. Can't pick just 5. There are so many great games that I have loved in my life.
If I had to say - right now.....
#1 Thief series - culminating in T3 - but all of em were great and scared the bejezzus outta me.
#2 Rome - Total War - I have MTW and MTW2 with expansion but somehow, Rome just is more... polished and sucks me in more. I started out with Shogun TW and then the Mongol Invasion - great game that was! I am looking forward to Empire!
#3 Warhammer40k DOW - both Dark Crusade and Soulstorm have eaten innumerable hours of my time. The first DoW was good - the Winter Assault expansion however was a serious flop. But DC and then Soulstorm really were a big leap. Another series that I look forward to the next one - Dawn of War 2
#4 Star Wars - Empire at War - This was what every Star Wars fan that owned Rebellion has wanted for many a year. Don't sleep on this one - I fully expect that there will be another run with this - and if so - it could improve even more. Larger planets, randomized surfaces for battle - explorable random universes, etc. The engine could be the foundation for an elite type (talk about classics!) RTS 4x galaxy game
#5 Klingon Academy - I so wish they would do for Star Trek what they did for Star Wars with EaW. Would need more of a focus on space - like Rebellion did - but it has SO much potential!
#6 All the rest. Starshatter TGS, Spaceforce:RU, Company of Heroes with Opposing Fronts, Pacific Storm Allies, Galactic Civilizations (I gotta get the last expansions still) , Imperium Galactica 2, Seadogs, Sins of a Solar Empire, Supreme Commander, the Brothers in Arms series, Nascar Racing 4, Blazing Angels 2 - the list goes on and on.
Ultimately - the one thing that drew me to the classics such as Silent Service and SS2, as well as SH3 and 4 - was the sense of freedom. I remember the old Lightspeed and Hyperspeed games, Elite Plus, Freelancer, Privateer, Wing Commander (Armada anyone???) and on and on and on. The freedom was what I loved, and still do. I don't need a storyline, but I do like a good one. I also enjoy the ability to create my own. Thats one reason I wish there really was a true, modern sequel to Elite. I know there have been many attempts, but they never really pulled it off. Often the games got too bogged down with complexity and lost the flavor. Some of the modern privateer remakes suffer from this. Though bless those guys for trying! If Spaceforce RU had playable capital ships, a randomizable universe (that would need to be MUCH larger) and the ability to build an empire - it would be the ultimate Elite remake.
I also miss the really good 4x games. Master of Magic, Masters of Orion 1 & 2 (3 blew really bad) were great games. I understand MoM may be getting an update - and its about time! Galactic Civilizations comes close to Moo2 - though graphically it suffers. But I don't mind - and support Stardock with my greenery because they care about gameplay (though impulse I killed asap). They also did good with Sins - though its a bit more on the simplistic conflict (hardcore) side.
1-Operation FlashPoint 2-Unreal Tournament the first one 3-Blade of Darkness 4-DeusEx 5-SH3
kiwi_2005
01-13-09, 09:02 PM
Fallout 3
World of Warcraft
Aliens v predator 1
Lock On
Half life 2
Captain Vlad
01-15-09, 12:47 AM
Only five is tough, and I cannot bring myself to rank them.
Starflight
Sandbox games today wish they were this free form
X-COM
One of two games I can remember that honestly scared me, and brilliantly executed.
Fallout 1 or 2.
Play one for five minutes and you'll know why. Two was draggy at the start, but once it got going...man...3 is awesome, but I haven't spent enough time with it to determine whether it's hall of fame yet.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
I haven't played the fourth yet, but the options in this game were staggering. Wherever you looked there was something new to try or do. Finishing the game, you were just getting started.
Quest for Glory series
Sentimental favorite.
So many honorable mentions...
X-COM
One of two games I can remember that honestly scared me, and brilliantly executed.
Funny you should mention it... it did have that sorta creepy feeling to it. You really did feel afraid for your squad going to those first few crash sites. I recall in the early days we'd lose 2 or 3 men on every mission.
Remember that alien tech rocket launcher that could shoot an exploding football, follow waypoints around corners, and blow the crap out of everything... ahhh good times.
It was so far ahead of anything that had been done... and it came outta MicroProse; I bought it thinking it was a spaceflight sim!
THE_MASK
01-15-09, 04:27 AM
1/. Silent Hunter 4 + mods
2/. Rome Total War + rome total realism platinum mod .
3/. Trainz Railroad simulator 2008 + Razorback Railway routes and scenarios .
4/. ?????????
5/. ?????????
SmokinTep
01-15-09, 07:45 AM
1. Il2
2. Rtw
3. Miitw
4. Shiii
5. Far Cry
Captain Vlad
01-15-09, 05:17 PM
Funny you should mention it... it did have that sorta creepy feeling to it. You really did feel afraid for your squad going to those first few crash sites. I recall in the early days we'd lose 2 or 3 men on every mission.
Those first few missions...whatever they turn out to be...are always real nail-biters even when I play it now. Unarmored, with so-so weapons, and the foreknowledge that the little alien bastards will be firing at you from windows, behind bushes, etc...yeah.
First time I played it, though, was tense. Before you had some idea of what to expect it was 10 times worse.
Remember that alien tech rocket launcher that could shoot an exploding football, follow waypoints around corners, and blow the crap out of everything... ahhh good times.
I loved that thing. One of my favorite 'bring 'em back alive' techniques involved using it to blast a hole in the top of a Martian battleship right where the little 'command room' was. Usually, there'd be the alien commander and some other more valuable prisoners in there...I'd blow the top open, and put stun bombs down on them and take the battleship from the top down.
It was so far ahead of anything that had been done... and it came outta MicroProse; I bought it thinking it was a spaceflight sim!
I went into it with what I thought was full knowledge cuz I'd played the 'single terror mission' demo. I wore out that little disk, but it was weeks before I could buy the game as no one locally stocked it!
It turned out that the (excellent) combat was only part of the equation of course.:D
Falkirion
01-15-09, 05:38 PM
Aaron dont go into Force Unleashed expecting too much, the games too short for its own good
Aaron dont go into Force Unleashed expecting too much, the games too short for its own good
Awww... that's a shame. :nope:
Lagger123987
01-15-09, 10:22 PM
For me,
1.SH3-4, I consider it one game.
2.COD4-WAW, same as above
3.Medal of Honor Airborne
4.Wings over(Vietnam, Europe, and Israel), same as 1 and 2.
5.Il-2 1946
Robsoie
01-15-09, 10:43 PM
1 - Operation Flashpoint
Bought this in 2001, always playing it and can't see myself stopping one day, even when more modern versions exist, the good old OFP remains my favorite.
The mission editor that is totally beginner friendly is powerfull enough to allow more advancer mission makers to create wonders, actually learning the OFP specific scripting language for it is easier than one could think.
Along the billions of addons and mods, this mission editor is the primary reason i never ceased to play with OFP.
Check the OFP boards (http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard311/ikonboard.cgi?act=SC;c=10) there are always mods and addons being develiopped even now.
2 - Ghost Recon, the 1st one
With expansions this is the masterpiece of tactical combat, basically everything i feel not good in OFP, Ghost Recon does it nearly perfect. I am always playing it regularly with again the tons of mods it never gets old for me.
I have long dreamed of a game with the epic scale of OFP and the map details , advanced ballistics, replay functions, very immersive firefights and AI that actually goes for cover and use suppression fire of Ghost Recon.
Unfortunately it seems i will wait a very long time.
But Ghost Recon is fortunately there, and it is there to stay on my hardrive, be sure to check GhostRecon net (http://www.ghostrecon.net/) for mods and everything.
3 - Unreal Tournament the first one
The first arena based games i ever played, i bought it in 2000, additional content, maps, mods, campaigns by billions, Unreal Tournament kept me occupied for years with its excellent AI.
The favorite of mine was a total conversion of Unreal Tournament named Infiltration (http://infiltration.sentrystudios.net/) that basically included everything a realistic commercial combat simulation should have but does not, it was realism to its finest, and is always unmatched regarding this even by today supposed realistic combat sim.
If i remember well, the lead coder of Infiltration is currently working on the "Ground Branch (http://www.blackfootstudios.com/forums/index.php?showforum=13)" game
4 - Thief 2
I liked Thief 1, but most missions were not that fun or immersive to me, with some few exceptions tough (the cathedral mission, wow), when i discovered Thief 2 i was amazed and liked it from A to Y , i just didn't liked the last mission as the ambiance was very weak with all those robot factory i couldn't care about.
The vast interest of Thief 2 (and Thief 1) is not on the stealing things, but on the stealth system, my personnal challenge was to never be seen, i never caring on getting all the loots, i just enjoyed trying to "ghost" each levels.
There are a lot of fan created mission that are of very high quality that continue to be released, sometime even more interesting than the original campaign.
Be sure to check the unofficial expansion pack "Thief 2X (http://www.thief2x.com/default2.asp) " created by very talented people, voices, sounds, map design, features etc .. everything is better than the default campaign.
5 - winSP : MBT
I have always been fan of wargaming, but unfrotunately most of them were limited to a specific situation or specific time.
With this free game made upon the Steel Panther 2 engine, it changed everything for me, an insane amount of country equipment, tanks, planes, troops trying to catter for realism, all of this accodring to the year you select, as the game has hugely comprehensive datas from the second half of 20th century to today when creating your army.
Very fun in PBEM, it remains interesting even in solo with campaigns, hundred of standalone missions, editor, random battles etc... This game is a wargamer heaven , it does everything i hoped.
Can't believe even today that it is free, link to their website (http://www.shrapnelgames.com/Camo_Workshop/MBT/MBT_page.html) if you are interested in downloading it.
But be sure if you can afford to get the CD version, this one is not free, but you could get more features (don't worry the free version has already an insane amount of them) and nice touches.
I was sad in the past, as it was a DOS game that always froze on my computer randomly at some turns, so i was overjoyed to see that this window version was made, it was finally a very stable game for my computer.
Special mentions because i can't do only a top 5
------------------------------------------------
-- Delta Force 1 and 2
These are the 2 games that forced me , usual offliner, to play online, because the concept was so awesome in its time, and the AI so ridiculous that i needed to see what it was online.
As the public novalogic servers for both games while powerfull were all ruinied by rampant and obvious cheating without novalogic doing anything, it was fun only online when playing on community servers. There it was extremely fun i even joined a combat squad on those 2 games in which we had battles with other squads.
It was the game that pushed me into OFP, as everything i found could be better and more realistic, OFP delivered.
-- Red Storm Rising
A perfect example of a masterpiece of modern submarine sim, may not be as realistic and deep as Dangerous Waters or Sub Command , but it has this much more interesting dynamic campaign that is a pleasure to play.
It may be 20 years old, but i play it from time to time in DOSBox and always enjoy the hunter/hunted games when you are trying to escape torpedoes while trying to get a good firing solution yourself while navigating as stealthly as you can.
-- Silent Hunter and Aces of the Deep
Can't separate them, as they allowed me to play Axis or Allies subs, allowing for more variation in situation.
Even if not as pretty of their modern versions and even if i have to use DOSBox nowadays, i continue to enjoy them regularly. How sub gaming was done right.
Oh the memory of nights spent at hunting cargo ships...
-- 688 Hunter Killer
For me it was a shock when i discovered this, i always wanted to play a simulation taking place on modern subs after playing so much those Silent Hunter an Aces of the deep. As Red Storm Rising while more interesting on a single player point of view, was very limited in the simulation itself.
688 was nearly all i asked, and it had a mission editor. Really too bad it never had a true dynamic campaign and neither of both modern sequels featured any :/
Jduging how much fun i had with subsims that featured one, i can only dream of how great sonalyst product would have been with dynamic campaigns.
-- Swat 3
The demo of the game has been the demo that stayed for the longer time on my hardrive. I just couldn't stop playing it.
When the game became available in my country i bought it immediately and never regretted the decision, a formidable tactical combat game with a huge amount of mission, with a very lot fo replayability.
Free upgrades featuring a bazillon of new content were made for original customers to get on par with each re-release of Swat3 (Elite Edition, then GOTY) .
Even today i have fun playing along the excellent AI, on those very well thought map allowing for very different approaches.
It had one of the best online system, with excellent chat rooms to join a running game or discuss things, certainly the most excellent coop game ever made.
Don't know if there is always an online activity anymore as Sierra has closed several of their old game online support.
-- Master of Orion 1 & 2
4X done right. Plain and simple.
These 2 games i play regularly thanks again to DOSBox, while the 1st game has simple graphics, its gameplay mechanics are different enough from its sequel and always interesting to keep me playing it.
The 2nd opus had a more involving research system, less automated that allowed for more variation of your game style, along the very good race customisation system.
Both masterpieces of the 4X genre.
-- Alpha Centauri and expansion
My favorite Civ-like game witout any contest even now.
The futuristic setup was original and very interesting as the background of the game was very well developped (there were novels wrote of it too). It place you after the usual end of a civ-like, when you launch your own spaceship.
The AI was not very great at tactics, but the diplomacy system was so great that it made the AI "alive", you didn't have to force yourself in roleplaying your enemies reactions, because it was done in a very well thought way.
One of the few civ-like in which big weapons were really devastating and not just adding "pollution".
Fantastic game.
-- Age of Wonders Shadow Magic / Heroes of Might and Magic 3 / Disciples 2 Dark Prophecy
Those 3 are based on the same HOMM well known heroic fantasy game concept, you lead a kingdrom, explore and expand , while your enemy do the same same, sometime there are quests to do , object to get, heroes to level up, troops to hire etc..
Those 3 games are always on my harddrive and i replay them from time to time when i miss them.
Extreme replayability, very interesting gameplay the 3 games despite having similarities have a gameplay different enough to all be worth of playing, they do not feel as duplicate at all.
Fun, interesting and challenging, those games are the finest of their genre.
EDIT : how could i forgot :
-- Orbiter
Free software, but the most realistic space simulation i ever saw.
I just discovered it a year ago, but since then i spent lot of my nights taking off from KCS in Cape Canaveral, flying around with various kind of ships, going in Orbit, catching a space station and docking to it, then trying to re-entry and land safely in Cape.
When i saw the difficulty of this that sounded so simple in theory but thanks to the realism of the simulation was complex, i had a more profound respect to every of the people that do this for real.
Difficult at first, but don't despair in front of the apparent complexity, once reading some of the very very good tutorials you can get the hang of it and quickly enough do those impossible flights and be the astronaut you always dreamed about when you were a kid.
My first travel to the Moon was really memorable. but my first successfull space station ISS catching and docking gave me a feeling of achievement i never ever felt in any kind of games on my PC.
Recently after finally figuring out some addon MFD, i managed to reach Mars (thanks to the time acceleration as the thing in real time would have took really very long :D )
You can get Orbiter on its main website (http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/), check Orbit Hangar (http://www.orbithangar.com/) for thousand of addons and explore the Orbiter forum (http://www.orbiter-forum.com/) for tutorial and help.
I can't thank enough Dr Martin Schweiger, Orbiter author, that basically allowed me to be the nearest i will ever be to achieve this old childhood dream of going to space.
Orbiter is nearly the real deal.
An interesting post... :up:
I'll have to look into those freeware items you mentioned.
A previous poster also mentioned rFactor which looks quite interesting (and I'd never heard of it). Although rFactor isn't free it also looks like a hidden gem!
A previous poster also mentioned rFactor which looks quite interesting (and I'd never heard of it). Although rFactor isn't free it also looks like a hidden gem!
Well, it may be hidden in the way that its not widely available in shops, like GTR 2, Race, etc. rFactor is made by ISI, who made the gmotor2 graphics/physics engine that the Simbin titles use. The difference is that rFactor comes with next to no content at all, its more like a simracing sdk. Its wide open for modders, and that is also why the rFactor community has the best modders in simracing (IMO). Just have a look at rfactorcentral.com, and especially the Hall of Fame. A must have for simracers!
A previous poster also mentioned rFactor which looks quite interesting (and I'd never heard of it). Although rFactor isn't free it also looks like a hidden gem!
Well, it may be hidden in the way that its not widely available in shops, like GTR 2, Race, etc. rFactor is made by ISI, who made the gmotor2 graphics/physics engine that the Simbin titles use. The difference is that rFactor comes with next to no content at all, its more like a simracing sdk. Its wide open for modders, and that is also why the rFactor community has the best modders in simracing (IMO). Just have a look at rfactorcentral.com, and especially the Hall of Fame. A must have for simracers!
Hey on Amazon they have rFactor listed for US $29.99 along with a note that says "usually ships within 2 to 3 weeks"
What's up with that? I'm use to seeing the item will ship in 2 to 3 days, not weeks! ...should I be looking elsewhere to make a purchase?
I'll check the rfactorcentral.com site when I get home later tonight (it's firewalled here at the office.)
I bought it here (direct download + unlock):
http://rfactor.net/
Smaragdadler
01-17-09, 03:16 AM
no particular order
Wizardry Series
Thief Series
Combat Mission Series
Bubble Bobble
Counter Strike Source (against bots) + Red Orchestra (online)
1:Championship Manager/Football Manager series.
Haven't bought this seasons version yet but i've lost more time to this game than any other. Cannot really give a specific version as my favourite so they all count as one.
2: Planescape Torment.
Adventures in Sigil. Planescape was always the most interesting D+D setting. Great writing and a lot of fun.
3: Falcon 4.
Press lots of buttons, wonder at the sheer mindbending complexity, marvel at the fact that most real fighter pilots aren't even more nuts than they are already; seriously - I can barely figure out whats going on and I'm sitting in my house with the game paused....but that feeling of acheivement when you pull something off - like taking out a runway with Durandals while under fire - is something else.
4: Hearts of Iron Doomsday.
Love this game so much. it's just ace.
5: Combat Mission: Shock Force.
I love the CM1 games and could easily have said one of them (probably CMBB.) but there is something about SF that just blows me away. The Marines module took it to a new level and I cannot wait for the Brits module to come out too. Maybe we'll have CM:Normandy by the end of the year...
Hmm...no sub games on the list. I could probably have said Aces of the Deep and SH3 as well but there you go. I also have a slew of sims just outside the top five as well. Had we been talking about top five games on any format the list would have probably have been somewhat different.
Captain Vlad
01-17-09, 03:01 PM
I bought it here (direct download + unlock):
http://rfactor.net/
Hey Stabiz, the day of non-DL limited internet may not be too far away from me. You've about convinced me to give this one, and all the mods for it, a try.
You wont regret it.:D There are some great mods coming out soonish, VLN 2005 (150+ cars, all that competed at that Nordschleife series in 2005), ALMS - American Le Mans Series, an update with new cars for the mighty Historic Gt & Touring Cars mod, Touring Car Legends (80`s and 90`s touring cars), the next installment of Le Mans, Super GT, Grand Am, F1 2008, etc, etc, the list is endless.
Captain Vlad
01-17-09, 03:23 PM
I found a 60's-era F1 mod that piqued my interest and the ChampCar mod that I've heard lots of people raving about is a draw too. So far my main regret since becoming a race fan is that I totally missed the Champcar thing...
I watched the entire 1995 Cart season a few weeks ago, it was some of the best races I have ever seen.
Captain Vlad
01-17-09, 10:24 PM
Where'd you get a hold of that?:D
LiveGoat
01-17-09, 10:46 PM
Order depends on my mood:
1. SH3/GWX/assorted small mods- No need to explain
2. The Elder Scrolls series, minus Arena (too primitive) because, depending on my mood at the time it's either one of 3. But Subman is right, if you need to choose just one it's gotta be Daggerfall.
3. Anything D&D that uses the Infinity engine (Baldur's gate 1,2, Icewind Dale 1,2, Planescape: Torment) Any one of those.
4. Fallout 1
5. X-Wing Alliance/Darksaber's craftpack or Red Baron 3D.
Geez, only five?
johnhealon
01-18-09, 12:46 AM
1. (pre-cu/cu) Star Wars Galaxies
2. Mirror's Edge
3. Silent Hunter III
4. Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic
5. Hearts of Iron II: Doomsday (C.O.R.E 2 mod)
Takeda Shingen
01-18-09, 09:27 AM
Let's see. My list would be:
1. The Sims 2
2. Tomb Raider
3. Wheel of Fortune
4. Tetris
5. Super Mario Brothers 3
Kidding. Here's the real list. No particular order:
1. Janes 688(i)
2. Sub Command (with SCX)
3. Silent Hunter IV
4. Flight Simulator 2004
5. Medieval II Total War
efraimkarsh
01-18-09, 09:58 AM
1) Combat Mission BB (Barbarossa to Berlin: best game ever) & Combat Mission AK (Africa Korps, almost as good)
3) WINSPMBT (Camo Workshop, free) and WinSPWW2 (Camo Workshop, free)
4) SH3
5) Age of Mythology
I am new to the forum, I was just perusing, but got intrigued by this thread, since so few among you have chosen two of the games that I consider decisive: Combat mission (both CMBB, better, and CMAK, almost as good) and Steel panthers (in its free sequel that can be downloaded for free at Camo Workshop (http://linetap.com/www/drg/SPCamo.htm). So I decided to chime in. I realize that we are in a "naval games" subforum, but still...
Good games should be played for YEARS, not months and not weeks, and both Combat Mission and Steel panther (sequel) games offer this possibility in spades.
The combat mission series is imho, simply put, the best PC game for strategy and tactic bar none. I have spent more hours on this tactical and strategical simulation marvel than on any other game. The quick game generator with everything at random is a real joy in order to learn how to master equipment (or nationalities) you would never have chosen otherwise (you can of course pick and choose if you so prefer, but you'll learn less).
The older Steel panthers series have the fantastic possibility of allowing you to put whomever you want against whomever you want in any year of choice: playing -say- Danemark against South Corea in 1957 with borrowed russian tanks is quite a bliss :-)
So my advice is; do yourself a favour and try them out if you never did. Combat mission can be found for cheap on any second hand software shop, and has a tactical and strategical incredible depth, that you'll discover pretty soon; the camos steel panthers sequel can be downloaded for free and are a real joy (try a desert israel campaign in the fifties for instance).
I might also add, for those of you that care, that all the games above can be perfectly played in Linux (through wine, SH3 needs some finetuning, though, see http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=5618&iTestingId=7196).
Cheers!
TheBrauerHour
01-18-09, 10:44 PM
5. WingCommander (God I loved this game)
http://www.mobygames.com/game/wing-commander/screenshots
4. Call of Duty 2 (Playing on servers modded for realism was fun)
3. Silent Hunter III with GWX (Intense)
2. Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe (The one that started it all for me)
http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/secret-weapons-of-the-luftwaffe/screenshots
1. World War II: Online (Still going strong after 7 years, I truly love this game)
http://www.battlegroundeurope.com/
Smaragdadler
01-18-09, 11:48 PM
...
Good games should be played for YEARS, not months and not weeks, and both Combat Mission and Steel panther (sequel) games offer this possibility in spades.
The combat mission series is imho, simply put, the best PC game for strategy and tactic bar none. I have spent more hours on this tactical and strategical simulation marvel than on any other game. The quick game generator with everything at random is a real joy in order to learn how to master equipment (or nationalities) you would never have chosen otherwise (you can of course pick and choose if you so prefer, but you'll learn less).
...
:up:
Indeed. Combat Missions Games are the ones I too have played the most. (maybe rougelikes comes next). I have played it since the Riesberg-demo of beta-CMBO. You know about Combat Mission Shock Force? It had a rough start, but now I like it most from all CM-games.
SPWAW (Matrix), WinSPWW2 and WinSPMBT are of course also a permanent install on my HD.
NEON DEON
01-19-09, 01:55 AM
1) Civilization I, II, III, & IV
2) Daggerfall
3) SH III, & IV
4) TF-1942
5) Morrowind
I am new to the forum, I was just perusing, but got intrigued by this thread, since so few among you have chosen two of the games that I consider decisive: Combat mission (both CMBB, better, and CMAK, almost as good)...
There are a lot of major CM fans on this board - for sure. If I didn't have CM:SF i would have put BB on my list for sure. I've still played very few games that are of that quality. For me CM:SF just eclipses it because several of the engine enhancements really took the game to a whole new level and I actually find the setting to be challenging in a way I never thought it would be. Playing a MOUT mission on a really dense urban map with IED's and RPG teams just adds a new layer to it. I've found myself, at times, having to completely break some of the bad habits I had in the earlier games, and a fully tooled up Marine squad on the rampage is an awesome thing to behold. :D
mr chris
01-19-09, 02:28 PM
1: Football Manager Series (Formerly Championship Manager)
2: Silent Hunter 3
3: Total war Series
4: Company Of Heroes
5: Commandos 1/2
papa_smurf
01-19-09, 03:39 PM
In no particular order:
5 - Theme Hospital
4 - Civ 4
3 - Total Annihilation
2 - SH3
1 - Medieval 2: Total War
ajrimmer42
01-20-09, 10:35 AM
5 - Theme Hospital
Ah man, Theme Hospital was awesome, I remember playing it with me ol' pentium 166. Great days... lol
johnnydrake
01-20-09, 11:05 AM
1. SH3
2.BOBII
3.Rome TOTAL WAR
4. IL-2 Forgotten Battles
5, Red Baron 3D (FULL CANVAS JACKET)
5. Half Life or Neverwinter Nights goes here depending on mood.
Curse you for mentioning Neverwinter Nights!
I reinstalled it this past weekend and was up past 4am last night running around docks with a Rogue and a Barbarian hunting for Blood Pirates. :nope:
Stormin Norman
01-20-09, 07:00 PM
1. IL-2 Sturmovik
2. Lockon
3. SH4
4. War Diary
5. Age of Empires
LiveGoat
01-21-09, 01:55 AM
NWN is indeed a lovely game. In many ways it's a kindred spirit to SH3 in that The NWN community is still going strong even when NWN2 is out. Plus the mods and the Community Expansion pack have made it outstanding.
5. Half Life or Neverwinter Nights goes here depending on mood.
Curse you for mentioning Neverwinter Nights!
I reinstalled it this past weekend and was up past 4am last night running around docks with a Rogue and a Barbarian hunting for Blood Pirates. :nope:
NWN is indeed a lovely game. In many ways it's a kindred spirit to SH3 in that The NWN community is still going strong even when NWN2 is out. Plus the mods and the Community Expansion pack have made it outstanding.
Actually... I guess it is NWN2 that I'm playing now. :yep:
antikristuseke
01-21-09, 03:10 PM
Allso fidling about with NWN2 atm.
surf_ten
02-03-09, 09:44 AM
Here are my games that ate up alot of my time and made the most profound impression on me. The type of games that after years you will still get an itch to replay them in a vain attempt to recaputure the initiate rush you felt when you started playing them.
1) Baldur's gate 1 & 2 and related expansions - CRPG are my favorite genre and this remains as my favorite series I have played.
2) Master's of orion - This was one of my first 4-X games I played. Even though the sequel had more cool things the original made more of an impression on me.
3) Wing Commander III - Heart of the Tiger. Too think that space combat sim genre is totally dead now.
4) Civilization II - My Second 4-X and this game was highly additive for me. I played III and Alpha centauri but those games didn't hold my interest as long as Civ II did.
5) World of warcraft - Hate to admit this one, but this was my first MMORPG and it literally stole about two years of my life. Most addictive game I have ever experienced. I think the action/reward model would have made Ivan Pavlov proud.
If it were a top 10 I would have put the following next.
6) Harpoon - I would sit for hours on end watching the time compression tick off waiting to find and destroy that last Kilo sub to achieve total victory. Yes, I'm quite aware I have no life.
7) Aces of the Deep/Silent hunter 1, III, and IV. Basically I have always loved submarines and these games all feed my virtual passion to sneak around searching for unsuspecting prey. These games all have the same great mechanics that keep me coming back for more.
8) The Total war series, great marriage of real time tactical and turn strategic combat.
9) Deus Ex - Sure it had simple AI FPS opponents, but the storyline, characters, and atmoshpere is what made this game rock.
10) Red Baron - The first flight sim that had a career.
Robsoie
02-03-09, 12:10 PM
About Baldur's Gate/Icewind Dale/Neverwinter
Baldur's Gate 1&2 had a really great storyline and tons of nice side-quest
Icewind Dale 1&2 had a good story and way better tactical combats and progression than Baldur, but it was a very lot more linear unfortunately as there was a lot less side quests
Both games series are unfortunately not very replayable once you complete them fully with all side quests, as you have no real influence on the story.
You could always restart with totally different characters or party to see how the dialogues/combat may change, or using higher difficulty level (like the totally insane Heart of Fury difficulty in Icewind), but basically there is no more real surprise.
On the same engine, Planescape Torment had a complex story that was a bit more replayable as according to your choices, it could lead to different ending, but again once you played it all over there is very few that attracted you into replaying it again and again.
I guess the problem comes that Baldur, Planescape and Icewind are not very moddable, you can't create whole new adventures, whole new maps, complete new series of quests etc...
But for you first run at those games, they are really awesome and you enjoy every minutes of them.
Now Neverwinter Nights, that's a completely different thing.
what i didn't liked was that you sadly don't manage a party, you are just alone and can get some hired henchmen, and your influence on the story is null.
But worse, the story for me was not really good with lot of uninteresting development that you can't prevent due to the extreme linearity.
Playing the long 1st chapter of the original campaign is just plain boring, fortunately it gets a lot better in chapter 2 ... if you can endure the very boring chapter 1 enough to complete it.
The expansions are a bit better but overall it remains a very lot less interesting than Baldur/Icewind/Planescape as a story.
But Neverwinter is way way superior to Baldur/Icewind/Planescape on the replayability factor, because unlike the other, Neverwinter is totally moddable, you can create whole new universes, whole new stories, whole new quests, have additional user made content, and even maintain "gaming worlds" on multiplayer servers that can be used like real "paper rpg" with a dungeon master and his players.
There is then a very lot user made campaign modules and other nice additions available for download that can keep you busy for dozen of years with some having very interesting story and complexity.
Neverwinter for the default content is far inferior and less interesting than Baldur/Icewind/Planescape, but in term of modding and so replay value potential, it is superior without contest.
How much i wish Baldur/Icewind/Planescape were moddable to the extent of Neverwinter.
Seeadler
02-03-09, 12:19 PM
1. Deux Ex
2. Mafia
3. The Darkening
4. Apache Longbow 2
5. LOTRO
Sailor Steve
02-03-09, 12:34 PM
Games for me are like music - there is no "best", there is only what I like and what I don't. So, my top five are:
1) Silent Hunter III
2) Sid Meyer's Pirates!
3) Silent Hunter
4) Aces Of The Deep
5) Tomb Raider
SH4 isn't on there simply because I can't play it on my PC. Also loved European Air War, with reservations. Want to play Over Flanders Fields, but can't afford to by any new games right now and it needs CFS3 to run.
Actually SHIII and Pirates are all I play right now, except for a remake of an oldie called Wizball.
surf_ten
02-03-09, 01:08 PM
Hey Robsoie , I played several mods for Baluder's gate that added content to the game. One was called the big picture mod which combined several smaller mods together. But your right Baldur's gate was not intented for user made modules like NWN.
I played NWN and NWN2 and a few user made modules. I felt the combat was somewhat lacking in the NWN compared to Baldur's gate. I guess that is why NWN didn't hold my interest that long despite having a huge amount of user made content.
ajrimmer42
02-03-09, 01:31 PM
Another few to add to my list:
Mirror's Edge - I wasn't sure about this after hearing mediocre reviews, but man it's awesome, imo it's one of them games where you really shouldn't listen to reviews.
ArmA Armed Assault + Queen's Gambit - It took me a while to get into ArmA, but I found it to be very immersive once I had. Just a shame it's so unstable, it uses more resources than any other game I've played. But what's with the fugly reload anims and incredibly annoying engine sounds? :doh:
Portal - Need I say more? Except that the cake is, of course, a lie.
CapitanPiluso
02-03-09, 02:45 PM
My top 5
1-Dangerous Waters
2-SH3
3-Harpoon 3
4-Halo 2
5-Half Life 2
Also Lock On and Doom 3 :yep:
1.- Aces of the Deep
2.- IL2 Sturmovik
3.- European Air War
4.- Medal of Honor
5.- GTR
mcarlsonus
02-03-09, 03:08 PM
1. Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe (with all the expansion aircraft) - LucasArts
2. SH3 (I have SH4 and the UBoat expansion, but I definitely prefer 3!)
3. Silent Service - Microprose (this was a REAL crowd pleaser! Everytime I had a party, people'd be vying for a seat at the computer!)
4. a couple of Star Wars things also done by LucasArts many, many years ago
5. ???
Castout
02-03-09, 04:03 PM
1. Medieval 2 Total War
2. Silent Hunter 3 (with mods)
3. Dangerous Waters (with mods)
4. Falcon 4.0 with Open Falcon
5. Steel Beasts Pro PE
Combat mission series are also worth mentioning as well as IL-2 Forgotten Battle + Ace expansion pack and Pacific fighters.
Zayphod
02-06-09, 02:58 PM
In order of how much I enjoyed them:
Morrowind *
Gothic (the first one)
Star Trek Bridge Commander
Freelancer
The DigMorrowind was the first and only game I ever did a narration on. Played the thing three times, and the third game took 2 years and 9 months to finish because of the storyline.
BTW, Bridge Commander caused me to generate a ton of screen shots, but I have to say that by the end of the game, I wanted to KILL the first officer.
CaptainHaplo
02-06-09, 06:39 PM
Zayphod - bridge commander?
Ever try Klingon Academy? Now that was a GAME - and a heck of a storyline too! Loved the fact that the actors did the actual vids for the game too!
Now thats a game I would love to see redone - and with real moddability added!
A group of friends and myself even based a "Galactic war" game off KA - though it struggled (or maybe we did) - it was a blast. A strategic ability too would be fantastic.
GlobalExplorer
02-07-09, 06:23 AM
1. Shogun Total War
2. Ageods American Civil War
3. Panzer General
4. Grand Prix Legends
5. Silent Hunter III
Close Combat 2 was a close call.
OneToughHerring
02-07-09, 09:20 AM
My list is based on my recollection of how good these games felt the first time around I played them. If I re-played them today the effect probably wouldn't be that great.
1) Steel Panthers. Played this with a bunch of buddies while enjoying some beers, very good fun although the hot seat - game option was a bit flawed (you could sort of see the other players troops).
2) Deus Ex. Very nice game but it probably wouldn't feel like that today.
3) Silent Hunter 3. A great game that has been given a long life by the user created goodies. :salute:
4) Rome Total War + Barbarian Invasion. Same as SH3, lots of good user created content for these.
5) Fallout 1+2.
Zayphod
02-10-09, 11:49 AM
Zayphod - bridge commander?
Ever try Klingon Academy? Now that was a GAME - and a heck of a storyline too! Loved the fact that the actors did the actual vids for the game too!
Now thats a game I would love to see redone - and with real moddability added!
A group of friends and myself even based a "Galactic war" game off KA - though it struggled (or maybe we did) - it was a blast. A strategic ability too would be fantastic.
No, never tried KA, but it sounds interesting.
You don't have to eat the food, do you? Gagh always gives me a tummy ache, especially the live ones. :o
1. medal of honor allied assault
2. Janes WWII fighters
3. Silent Hunter 3
4. Call of Duty
5. IL2
CaptainHaplo
02-10-09, 06:28 PM
No Zayphod, you don't have to eat the Gagh, but its not bad once you get used to it. If you can get your hands on it - try it. I seem to recall there is a website where you can download the entire install package legally for free nowadays - but not sure. I could be wrong.
rubenandthejets
02-11-09, 06:28 AM
1:Aces of the Deep "Now at requested heading, sir"
2: Aces of the Pacific-just make sure you crack up your Wildcat a couple of weeks before Miday so you dont get tranfered to a torpedo bomber for the actual battle.
3: Red Baron-Hmm, think I'll paint my wings purple and the fuselage red....
4: Anything in the Total War series-esp. Rome with XGM-love those phalanxes! Quart Hadasht RULES!
5: Wolfenstein -my first FPS!
I really loved the later GTA series (Vice City, San Andreas) but I hit a brick wall in SA (flying is for the birds). The "sandpit" action was great, but then you were slotted into a mission that HAD to be done a certain way or you had to do it again, and again, and again....
AVGWarhawk
02-11-09, 12:29 PM
Interesting thread:
IL2
CFS2
SH4
Janes WWII air combat(very first sim I purchased)
Call of Duty series/Medal of Honor series
Honorable mention: B-17 Flying Fortress. Mechwarrior 3
Seems to be a common theme here:hmmm:
Contact
02-17-09, 04:53 PM
1. Silent Hunter 3 + GWX 3 (Neverending joy)
2. Fahrenheit aka Indigo Prophecy (completed)
3. The Moment of Silence (completed)
4. Syberia 1&2 (completed)
5. Next Life (completed)
6. Secret Files: Tunguska (Completed)
:salute:
1.- Steel Panthers (and all its variants and succesors)
2.- Pirates!
3.- Rome Total War
4.- Civilization II
5.-Silent Hunter 1
TheSatyr
03-03-09, 03:15 PM
1)Freelancer
2)Rome:Total War
3)Star Wars:Knights of the Old Republic
4)Sims 2 (Hate to admit it though)
5)WoW (Another one I hate to admit to)
I kind of have a wide taste in pc games.
Arclight
03-03-09, 10:24 PM
No particular order;
Tomb Raider 1 & anniversary (hmmm, nostalgia)
Fallout 3
Morrowind
Rome TW
Operation Flashpoint
Heck, I could go on and on...
Max2147
03-04-09, 10:26 PM
My list isn't necessarially the best games ever, but the ones that have given me the most fun.
Counting down...
5. IL-2 Forgotten Battles/Pacific Fighters: WWII combat flight sims are my first love, and this one beats them all by a mile. The original Il-2 raised the bar by a mile in terms of graphics and realism, and Forgotten Battles just made it better. Add in the AEP and PF expansions, and you have the biggest and best combat flight sim ever made.
4. Rome: Total War: I didn't start playing it until recently, but I was instantly hooked. It's just so good in so many ways. Medieval 2 may be the better game, but Rome was just more fun. I had high hopes for Empire until I found that my computer probably can't run it.
3. Fleet Command: It's really the only game of its type that I've come across - a pure real-time, realistic modern combat strategy game. No resource gathering, no grand strategy, just fight the godd*mn battles. The incredible NWP project took it from a good game to a great game.
2. NHL 2004: The best hockey game ever made for the PC. It's sort of sad in a way, since NHL 2004 is old and was outdated in some ways even when it was new (the GUI looks like it's from the mid 90's). But no other hockey game since then has gotten the fundemental gameplay so right. Even after playing it for 5 years the AI still gives me a great game without making me feel like it's cheating. Every game is different - just like real hockey.
1. Sports Car GT: Nobody's ever heard of it, but this game was as fun as it gets. It was the little game that could. It started as project by a then-unknown studio called ISI. It bounced around between three publishers while it was in development, and the series it was meant to simulate went broke before the game came out. After all the delays the game was cobbled together and released as a low-budget game by EA. Nobody really paid any attention to it. It was a hodgepodge of random cars and tracks with outdated graphics and no clear market. It wasn't realistic enough to be a pure simulation, but it was too realistic to drive off the pure arcade crowd.
And it was absolutely brilliant. It was easy enough to sit down and drive a race without any preparation, but challenging enough to keep you interested. The AI was superb for its day - the AI cars felt like humans, since they could beat you but also make mistakes.
But the best part about SCGT was the mods. Anybody with a modicum of computer savvy and Notepad could edit the game. The SCGT community was small, but the modders were talented and prolific. They made hundreds of tracks and thousands of cars. If you could dream it, they probaby made it: 1000 mph dragsters, RV's, boats, blimps, F1 cars, anything. One SCGT mod ended up morphing (via a VERY long process) into a full retail game (the GTR series).
ISI didn't intend for SCGT to be modded, but they realized that it had turned their little unwanted game into a legend. When EA chose ISI to make their F1 games, ISI made sure to make the games mod-friendly. When ISI went independent again, they made rFactor, the ultimate mod-friendly racing sim. A lot of us like to think of it as Sports Car GT 2.
Hey, nice read about ISI, Max, I didnt know that.:up: The first screens from rFactor 2 have arrived, by the way. (virtualr.net)
Max2147
03-04-09, 11:09 PM
Hey, nice read about ISI, Max, I didnt know that.:up: The first screens from rFactor 2 have arrived, by the way. (virtualr.net)
Wow, hadn't even heard about an rF2! I've been sort of out of the sim racing loop since I didn't bring my racing wheel to school with me.
The history of ISI is pretty fascinating stuff, and I probably don't even know half of it. Intermixed with that is the history of Simbin and the GTR franchise, which is even crazier.
kiwi_2005
03-04-09, 11:36 PM
5)WoW (Another one I hate to admit to)
Haha Never hate to admit to, accept your weakness, your downfall your "I have no life" & playing WoW 24/7:rock: :DL
Hey, nice read about ISI, Max, I didnt know that.:up: The first screens from rFactor 2 have arrived, by the way. (virtualr.net) Wow, hadn't even heard about an rF2! I've been sort of out of the sim racing loop since I didn't bring my racing wheel to school with me.
The history of ISI is pretty fascinating stuff, and I probably don't even know half of it. Intermixed with that is the history of Simbin and the GTR franchise, which is even crazier.
Yeah, I know the later stuff. Btw, to make it even more confusing, Simbin - who published the original GTR series, recently threatened to sue Blimey! - who made the games, because Blimey!(who by the way changed their name to Slightly Mad Studios:o) took ... well all the credit for those games in a online cv. Oh, and Simbin made the recent GTR Evolultion.
1)Freelancer
The size of the maps in Freelancer is just fascinating. Cruising across one of those mammoth sectors using those jump-highway gates and watching as the planets get closer was simply brilliant.
Haven't played any other space sim to date that gives you a better feeling of free space travel. In comparison, everything else feels like a bunch of square rooms linked by N,S,E,W jumpgate load screens. In Freelancer you can fly between planets without using those acceleration highways but it must take days.
There are wormholes to take you to new maps, but once you get to the new map, it's those intermediate jump-routes that really sets this game apart. I'd love to see em expand on it one day.
Max2147
03-05-09, 03:09 PM
Btw, to make it even more confusing, Simbin - who published the original GTR series, recently threatened to sue Blimey! - who made the games, because Blimey!(who by the way changed their name to Slightly Mad Studios:o) took ... well all the credit for those games in a online cv. Oh, and Simbin made the recent GTR Evolultion.
How appropriate, since the original Simbin (the guys now in charge of Slightly Mad) got started by stealing somebody else's work.
Max2147
03-09-09, 12:25 PM
How so?
What eventually became GTR pre-dates Simbin by quite a bit.
It actually started in SCGT. An Italian guy made a FIA GT carset for SCGT. He was really good, and it was one of the best ever made for that game.
The carset came out shortly before the release of EA's F1 2001. That game was a huge jump forward for EA's F1 games. The previous two games had been built on the outdated SCGT engine, but F1 2001 was completely new. It also had a driveable Safety Car as an Easter egg, which showed it could handle closed-roof, closed-wheel cars, complete with a 3D cockpit. Finally, some SCGT modders dug through the F1 2001 file structure and found that ISI had deliberately made it mod friendly. Some SCGT modders decided to switch to the much more capable (but much more complex) new game. One of them was the Italian who made the FIA GT mod.
There were some initial attempts to simply convert the SCGT mods to F1 2001, but the new game was such a huge leap forwards that the SCGT stuff looked awful and completely out of place. So the Italian guy completley re-built his mod with new car models. He had a time-comsuming job in real life, so he didn't have time to build the drivng model for his mod. That had been a simple afterthought in SCGT, but in F1 2001 the physics could make or break the mod, and it was very tough to get right. So he found somebody else to make the physics model.
When the FIA GT Mod came out for F1 2001 it was revolutionary. There had been a couple sportscars released for the game, and one attempt at a single make mod, but it was all very primitive. The FIA GT Mod changed everything. It had multiple cars, real teams and drivers, completely new physics, and a fancy installer. It showed people what was possible with this new game.
Around the same time, there was a shakeup going on in the online community. Before F1 2001, the community for EA's F1 games was mostly based at a site called High Gear. The SCGT community hung out at a site called Speedsims, while the Grand Prix Legends gang was over at Race Sim Central. When F1 2001 came out, the RSC folks ignored it, the Speedsims folks either migrated to High Gear or stuck with SCGT, and High Gear fell into chaos. The guys who was running the forum at the time was a lazy *****, and when people asked for a dedicated editing section of the forum, he refused. So the guys on the cutting edge of the mod community (including the guy making the FIA GT Mod) fled to a small site that had been mostly ignored up to that point, run by a guy named Ian Bell. It was called Simbin.
After the FIA GT Mod came out, the guy who made it left the community for a while to concentrate on his real life work. Meanwhile, over at Simbin some people started complaining about the physics of the FIA GT Mod. The guy who made the physics (who was still around) stubbornly refused to admit that there was anything wrong with them, and things got pretty heated. In the end I think he either got kicked off the site or left on his own accord. Anyways, some of the other guys at Simbin wrote up some new physics for the FIA GT Mod.
Now, if they had just released their work as an addon for the pre-existing mod, that would have been fine. But instead, without asking anybody for permission, they took the existing FIA GT Mod, re-packaged it, put their new physics in, and re-released it as their own work (the FIA GT Mod Version 2). The people who they stole from weren't around to complain, so they got away with it.
Eventually, the team that had mad Version 2 came together and called themselves the SimBin Development Team (SBDT). They released a Version 3 of the FIA GT Mod, and when F1 2002 came out they started work on an FIA GT Mod for that game, called GTR 2002. Somewhere in there the Italian who made the original FIA GT mod came back on the scene, and joined the SBDT. He re-made all the car models, and GTR 2002 was a huge hit.
However, after GTR 2002 came out, the Italian guy and the SBDT had a huge falling out. At the time it wasn't clear exactly what it was about (each side bashed each other in the vaguest of terms), but it later became clear that it was related to SBDT going commercial. In that chaos it became obvious that he still wasn't happy about the Simbin guys ripping off his original mod, and he had never been quite happy within the team. It was hard to blame him, since he started the whole thing, but within the SBDT he was treated like a minor player. Once money got thrown into that mix, things fell apart.
The rest is pretty well-known. SBDT got financial backing from a Swedish racer in the FIA GT (Henrick Roos) and went commercial, building games on ISI's game engines. The Italian fellow went and worked with another mod team for a while, and has occasionally popped up on the rFactor scene.
The whole Simbin drama was pretty fascinating to watch. It was hard to believe back in the days when it was a dinky little message board that Simbin would end up becoming one of the biggest names in the racing sim industry.
Onkel Neal
03-13-09, 11:00 AM
1. Age of Empires II
2. Battlefield 1942
3. Silent Hunter III
4. Command Aces of the Deep
5. Sub Command
Lionclaw
04-05-09, 08:17 AM
1. Medieval: Total War + Viking Invasion
2. Civilization II
3. Operation Flashpoint + Resistance
4. IL-2 Sturmovik 1946
5. Starcraft
For X-Com fans there's a open source variant called "UFO: Alien Invasion".
I remember watching when someone played X-Com but I was quite young at the time. I only remember that I thought the UFO's and aliens were frightening.
Although I did play it a little at the time but my English was quite poor at the time.
Here's a link: http://ufoai.sourceforge.net/ (http://ufoai.sourceforge.net/?page=Home)
nikimcbee
04-05-09, 12:50 PM
1. Sid Meyer's Gettysburg:yeah:
2. SH1 CE
3.Red Baron 3D
4. Panzer General
5. Call of Duty1 for multiplayer
honorable mention:
When the game didn't crash:stare:, Civil War Generals 2. I loved this game because you could play the entire CW as either side and they had a plethora of campaigns you could do. And it was entirely dynamic! I just wished they did a better job of patching it.
Captain Vlad
04-05-09, 04:58 PM
Here's a link: http://ufoai.sourceforge.net/ (http://ufoai.sourceforge.net/?page=Home)
No fully destructible environments? No saving from within a mission?
Meh. You're supposed to add to a remake, not take away.:DL Loved it on X-COM when you took fire from an unknown source within a building that leveling the building was an option.
I do like the lights on the world map, though.
rubenandthejets
04-06-09, 06:22 AM
@max2147
Do you get into the Total War mods?
God I love modders! They took the silliness out of Rome: Total War and made it an amazing game. No more New Kingdom Egyptians with kopesh fighting my phalanxes.
And the pike and musket period, for some reason skipped between Med and Empire, superbly modded in an English Civil War "For King or Country"
Vanilla? BAH!
antikristuseke
04-06-09, 07:25 AM
No fully destructible environments? No saving from within a mission?
Meh. You're supposed to add to a remake, not take away.:DL Loved it on X-COM when you took fire from an unknown source within a building that leveling the building was an option.
I do like the lights on the world map, though.
You bastards do realize that you jsut made me look up the original floppy disk with that game on it only to find that they no longer function?
That being said, this game is still as good and as dificult as it was when I last played it years ago, I allmost feel sorry for the poor rookies who get used to draw fire in orer to get the enemies position, so sad. Their life expectance is bellow 20 turns in combat :)
Hmm.. I think it's time to reinstall Jagged Alliance 2. :hmmm:
The size of the maps in Freelancer is just fascinating. Cruising across one of those mammoth sectors using those jump-highway gates and watching as the planets get closer was simply brilliant.
Haven't played any other space sim to date that gives you a better feeling of free space travel. In comparison, everything else feels like a bunch of square rooms linked by N,S,E,W jumpgate load screens. In Freelancer you can fly between planets without using those acceleration highways but it must take days.
There are wormholes to take you to new maps, but once you get to the new map, it's those intermediate jump-routes that really sets this game apart. I'd love to see em expand on it one day.
Ah, what a great game. Didnt like the SP that much, but where it shines is the MP area. Especially the modded servers. I used to play on Aurora that used mod to add tons of new weapons, ships and planets. New ships from shows like Babylon 5 (this was the main area of the mod, almost all of the ships of the most important races were included, Shadows, Narns, Earth Alliance, the old ones etc. etc.). The server also was very heavily influenced by clans, every clan had it's sector where they were free to tax anyone who traveled there. Also, the clans were on two sides, the good guys and the pirates, so quite alot of alliances etc. were formed on the server. Very well organised server and quite possible one of my best online experiences there. :yeah:
kiwi_2005
04-06-09, 01:55 PM
The size of the maps in Freelancer is just fascinating. Cruising across one of those mammoth sectors using those jump-highway gates and watching as the planets get closer was simply brilliant.
Haven't played any other space sim to date that gives you a better feeling of free space travel. In comparison, everything else feels like a bunch of square rooms linked by N,S,E,W jumpgate load screens. In Freelancer you can fly between planets without using those acceleration highways but it must take days.
There are wormholes to take you to new maps, but once you get to the new map, it's those intermediate jump-routes that really sets this game apart. I'd love to see em expand on it one day.
Yes what dowly said try MP its a blast. Another game you might like thats similar to Freelancer is the rpg spacesim 'Starwolves' the first one. Starwolves 2 is buggy ive been told so i got hold of Starwolves and am having a blast great game except one major gripe i have with it is the Russian to english voice conversion. The english speaking is terrible :damn: Its more like grunt sounds than english! :har: Still overcome that you will with the gameplay if you like rpg type space sims.
Capt.Warner
05-07-09, 11:26 PM
1.Silent Hunter 3
2.Fallout 3
3.Men of War
4.Oblivion
5.Silent Hunter 4
Lzs von swe
05-11-09, 03:42 AM
Only 5:hmmm:
WARCRAFT 2 with expansion.
STARCRAFT with expansion.
Colin McRae series, if I have to chose it would be CMR4.
SHIII with GWX Gold:yeah:
OFP with all expansions, so many hours, so many sleepless nights...
...
MS FSX did not make it onto the list, nor did... oh well, only 5...
danlisa
05-11-09, 04:55 AM
In this order:
1) Final Fantasy 7
2) Metal Gear Solid (All of them including crappy 8 bit original)
3) X3 + Expansions
4) SH3 + GWX
5) SimCity 3 (Rush Hour etc)
TBH, anything that takes along time to complete and has unique re-playability will make it to my list. These farking 8-10 hrs to complete games these days are naf and starting to P me off.
TheSatyr
05-19-09, 07:23 PM
In no particular order:
Neverwinter Nights
Knights of the Old Republic
(I don't like what Obsidian did with those two franchises. NWN2 WAS better in alot of ways but I never finished it due to what I considered to be some rather ridiculous puzzles they threw into the game. KOTOR2 was obviously incomplete when it was released.).
Freelancer
Shogun:Total War
Combat Mission:Barborrosa to Berlin
TheSatyr
05-31-09, 10:13 PM
Ack...posted two different lists...forgot I already done one...I'm old...mind is deteriorating rapidly...lmao
karamazovnew
06-06-09, 10:41 AM
I'll have to put all my top 5 on the same spot, simply because they were the so different and yet, the best:
Tycoon Transport Deluxe: need I say more? :rock:
Flight Unlimited2: I have no clue how much I played that sim. San Francisco was like my virtual home. I knew every bit of that map and every dial on every plane. + You could land on 30m wide skyscrapers. And i DID. :smug:
Morrowind: Best story about gods, ever to be put into a game. Oh and the player was a god, so...:sunny:
Silent Hunter 3: In my current mod configuration, ofc. Simply for that thrill you get when the framerate drops and a convoy is close. You know ships will get sunk that day. You never know if you'll be among them. :arrgh!:
Final Fantasy 9: For being more japanese than Final Fantasy 7. And for showing how cute things can become serious and depressing. /%insert proper smiley here%/
SUBMAN1
06-06-09, 10:58 AM
This is not a fair list for us older gamers. We have all been exposed to 5 x to 10 x the games the younger gamers have. So we should get to pick 10. :O:
We are also jaded from this fact. This means our opinion should count more too since we can back it up with video game wisdom for playing everything under the sun!
-S
Sounds fair to me! :woot:
d@rk51d3
06-06-09, 07:17 PM
In this order:
1) Final Fantasy 7
2) Metal Gear Solid (All of them including crappy 8 bit original)
3) X3 + Expansions
4) SH3 + GWX
5) SimCity 3 (Rush Hour etc)
TBH, anything that takes along time to complete and has unique re-playability will make it to my list. These farking 8-10 hrs to complete games these days are naf and starting to P me off.
And FF7 now available on PSN, for just $15.00.
I know what I'll be doing this weekend.:D
The twists in the story were just fantastic.
MGS coming soon too, I believe.:yeah:
danlisa
06-09-09, 05:45 AM
And FF7 now available on PSN, for just $15.00.
I know what I'll be doing this weekend.:D
The twists in the story were just fantastic.
MGS coming soon too, I believe.:yeah:
Hehe! I already had it on my PSP. *cough* MGS too.:D Currently replaying FF7, just left Midgar @ Lvl 30. LOL
These 2 titles will easily make up for the pap PS1 games they have re-released so far.
Are you guys down there getting Vidzone on Thursday? Looks to be an excellent free application with just over 4000 tunes for release day.
MGS should be June 18th.
Someone explain me what was so great about FF7?? I mean, it was great, but not THAT great. :hmmm:
Or maybe it was the Popeye type models that kinda drove me away from it after first playtrough... to FF8. :O:
Arclight
06-09-09, 03:17 PM
Blasphemy!
Better question is what isn't great about FF7. :roll:
(geek alert)
With most games when a character dies, you just kinda go "serves you right", not what I thought when Sephiroth "dispatched" Aeris. Few games moved me as much as FF7. Still the best game ever, as far as I'm concerned. :yep:
Blasphemy!
Better question is what isn't great about FF7. :roll:
(geek alert)
With most games when a character dies, you just kinda go "serves you right", not what I thought when Sephiroth "dispatched" Aeris. Few games moved me as much as FF7. Still the best game ever, as far as I'm concerned. :yep:
Hehe, I kinda knew I'd get something like this as a response. :O:
PS. FF8 is better than FF7. End of story. :D
danlisa
06-09-09, 03:35 PM
FF8 is better than FF7. End of story. :D
Don't make me climb in there and smack you.:stare:
Next you'll try to tell me that MGS1 was not the best MGS ever.
Edit - Nothing wrong with this for a PS1 game that's really old. (PS. My PSP is not CFW right?!?!)
http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s64/danlisa_photo/snap000.jpg http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s64/danlisa_photo/snap005.jpg
http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s64/danlisa_photo/snap007.jpg
Arclight
06-09-09, 04:08 PM
FF7 is better because you're fighting Shinra; Sticking it to the man! :arrgh!:
Seriously though, FF7 was my introduction to the series. Wasted hundreds of hours on that game. Not a kid anymore and don't have that kind of time to waste anymore either, it will always hold that magical spot for me.
Raptor1
06-09-09, 04:12 PM
Gah, I wish I could run FF7 on this Vista comp properly...
Highbury
06-09-09, 07:56 PM
1.) EA Sports NHL series (may not be my favorite per se, but has most hours played 1000x over).
2.) IL-2 (first and PB/AEP/PB etc etc to 1946)
3.) rFactor
4.) SHIII
5.) Rome: Total War
:D
d@rk51d3
06-10-09, 02:19 AM
PS. FF8 is better than FF7. End of story. :D
Yeah, a better coaster to put your drinks on.
Arclight
06-17-09, 06:07 AM
Remembering Final Fantasy VIII (http://kotaku.com/5292917/remembering-final-fantasy-viii)
full article (http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/70336-remembering-the-orphan-final-fantasy-viii/)
I remember awaiting it's release. I even bought a second copy of FFVII because it included a disc with a trailer for VIII. It blew me away, I can still pretty much dream the whole thing. That was 10 years ago, but I remember it more vividly than what happened yesterday.
I still have to say VII is better, but VIII is close behind.
karamazovnew
06-27-09, 10:27 AM
Haha, FF fans really tend to overtake any forum. I've seen a thred on a forum about lung cancer that had a "Which FF is best" fight in it :har:.
FF7 was my introduction to the series and at that moment it was the best game I had ever played. But after playing FF1-FF6 (skipping FF3 which had not been translated at that time) I felt that FF9 was the true best Final Fantasy because it somehow took everything I loved about the first 6 and merged them in one amazing pack.
FF7 is not a Final Fantasy at all, it feels too different. It's amazing, but it's not a FF. The new ones however are so far from the old feeling that they should give them a new name. It's as if Ubisoft did "Prince of Persia 5: Assassin's Creed", or "Thief 4: Splinter Cell".
Ok, I call FF and raise with Chrono Trigger. Now, that kicks FF's arse anyday. It was abit on the short side, but the story and the atmosphere were just awesome. :yeah:
1. Combat Mission x 1 series
2. TOAW series
3. IL-2 series
4. SH series
5. Jane's Flight Sim series
This is difficult,i've been gaming since 1985....
1)Command & Conquer Red alert
2)Total annihilation/core contingency
3)Battlefield 2
4)Operation flashpoint
5)Company of heroes
These are the games i played the most,but i'd rather make a top 10,so many good games i played over the years,and crappy ones too..
seaniam81
08-25-09, 10:33 AM
1. Flightsim 9/X
2. Silent Hunter Series 1/3/4
3. Fallout series
4. B-17 Flying Fortress and the mighty 8th
5. Falcon4AF
1) Deus Ex
2) Silent Hunter III
3) Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
4) Fallout 2
5) Clive Barker's Undying
1. X-COM enemy unknown (also known as ufo defense I think)
2. Wing commander 1,2
3. M1A2 tank platoon (the first title from 87 I think)
4. operation flashpoint.
5. commandos (1,2)
Shearwater
09-13-09, 03:45 PM
1. Half Life (1)
2. Command & Conquer (1)
3. Civilization
4. TIE Fighter
5. FS2004
OT: Shearwater rules, Shearwater.:)
I cant give you my top 5 games, only my top 10 Franchises. (im a sucka for sequels)
Command & Conquer: (mostly Red Alert)
Silent Hunter (3 and above)
Silent Hill
Half Life
Deux Ex
Operation Flashpoint / ArmA
GTA
Hitman
Flatout
UT
:)
In random order
Old games,
1: Defender of the crown
2: Elite
3: Half-Life
4: Silent Service
5: B-17 Flying Fortress
Newer games,
1: FS 2004
2: Silent Hunter 3
3: Mass Effect
4: Eve ( not playing anymore but I think it's the best MMO around )
5: Fear
KeptinCranky
09-14-09, 06:11 AM
List below mostly based on time spent playing them, some of these are real old.
1 Morrowind.
2 Silent hunter 3
3 Railroad tycoon I
4 Civilization 1 to 4
5 Diablo I
Did someone just now mention defender of the crown? :yeah:
That certainly deserves honorable mention for me too :know:
Torvald Von Mansee
09-14-09, 08:35 AM
In no particular order:
Team Fortress 2 ("Spy sappin' mah sentry!!!")
EverQuest (WoW is better, but EQ had the novelty effect going for it)
Zork
the Flight Simulator series
SH3
Robsoie
09-21-09, 08:18 PM
-- Orbiter
Free software, but the most realistic space simulation i ever saw.
I just discovered it a year ago, but since then i spent lot of my nights taking off from KCS in Cape Canaveral, flying around with various kind of ships, going in Orbit, catching a space station and docking to it, then trying to re-entry and land safely in Cape.
When i saw the difficulty of this that sounded so simple in theory but thanks to the realism of the simulation was complex, i had a more profound respect to every of the people that do this for real.
Difficult at first, but don't despair in front of the apparent complexity, once reading some of the very very good tutorials you can get the hang of it and quickly enough do those impossible flights and be the astronaut you always dreamed about when you were a kid.
My first travel to the Moon was really memorable. but my first successfull space station ISS catching and docking gave me a feeling of achievement i never ever felt in any kind of games on my PC.
Recently after finally figuring out some addon MFD, i managed to reach Mars (thanks to the time acceleration as the thing in real time would have took really very long :D )
You can get Orbiter on its main website (http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/), check Orbit Hangar (http://www.orbithangar.com/) for thousand of addons and explore the Orbiter forum (http://www.orbiter-forum.com/) for tutorial and help.
I can't thank enough Dr Martin Schweiger, Orbiter author, that basically allowed me to be the nearest i will ever be to achieve this old childhood dream of going to space.
Orbiter is nearly the real deal.
As i mentionned Orbiter in the 2nd page of this thread, in november it will be the 9th anniversary of this fabulous free simulator.
And talking about anniversary, the one that started my addiction to space : this month it is the 25th anniversary of Elite from Braben and Bell , that appeared on BBC micro in 1984.
here is Braben company Elite website :
http://elite.frontier.co.uk/
and here is Bell personnal website :
http://www.iancgbell.clara.net/
Can't believe it is already 25 years, though i played it only 2 years later when it was finally converted for my old amstrad.
The 2 sequels from Braben (with a bit of Bell for the 2nd game and without Bell for the 3rd game) were using some very good newtonian physics (and awfull combat) that i played way too much time, i guess it is what lead me to great joy when discovering Orbiter.
As i saw it mentionned elsewhere, there is a free remake of this first Elite named Oolite that features lot of community expansions and addons : http://www.oolite.org/
I just tried it briefly, it is rather faithfull and looks a very lot much better than the original, i have not yet tested the expansion, but reading a bit, there seems to be some very interesting things.
mathewhayden
09-22-09, 06:26 AM
Hello..
First of all I would like to say that I like different types of games very much. I always play PC games as well as mobile games. My most favorite top 5 PC games are Diablo 2, Commandos series, City of Heroes, Sudoku and Solitaire. I like these games very much because these games are really very interesting and fun to play. Thank you very much friends for your different types of opinions.
I don't I have a top 5 but here are my favorites
SH3-4 :rock:
Hearts of Iron 2 Doomsday and armageddon :rock:
the Total war series:rock:
Call of duty 1-2-4:rock:
Castout
10-02-09, 07:33 AM
I think I posted here before but what the hell:D
Without specific order
1. Empire Total War
2. Silent Hunter III with GWX supermod
3. Medieval 2 Total War
4. Dangerous Waters with DWX supermod
5. IL-2 Sturmovik
Shaffer4
10-15-09, 05:48 PM
The Interstate series (;'76, Nitro, and '82)
Operation Flashpoint / Arma
IL2 Series
Silent Hunter series (3&4)
Combat Mission series
THE_MASK
10-16-09, 05:55 AM
Kings Quest 1,2,3,4,5.
http://www.agdinteractive.com/games/kq1/about/about.html
1. Civilization 1+2(+3)
2. Sub Command (Stock!)
3. Panzer General 2 (Stock & mild MODS)
4. Call of Duty 2
5. Wonderboy (bah)
...
10. Dangerous Waters (Stock!)
mookiemookie
11-05-09, 02:53 PM
Deus Ex - what a FPS/RPG hybrid should be. The standard I judge all games by. Nothing else has ever come close
SH3 - of course
Morrowind - In my mind, the best RPG ever. Oblivion paled in comparison.
Neverwinter Nights - it could be the DnD nerd in me talking, but it was outstanding. The moddability of this game is what really made it shine.
Doom/Doom2 - The granddaddy of FPSes.
Biggles
11-05-09, 06:25 PM
Dunno top 5 but Total Annihilation gotta be up there somewhere.
I have to be one of the few who didnt like Total Annihilation. :hmmm: I mean, it wasnt total crap, but it wasnt anything special.
onelifecrisis
11-21-09, 03:19 AM
Someone ought to keep a running total! ;)
My top five (and the dates I first played them):
Frontier: Elite II (1993)
Doom (1994)
Diablo (1997)
System Shock 2 (2000)
SWAT 4 (2005)
joeljansson
11-21-09, 07:22 AM
cod 4-5-6 il 2 sturmovik 1946. and i dont know
Undefined
11-30-09, 02:49 PM
1. Final Fantasy VII
2. Fahrenheit
3. Neverwinter Nights
4. IL2 Sturmovik
5. Silent Hunter 3
HundertzehnGustav
12-14-09, 10:14 AM
CFS3
Il-2 series
SHIII
GTA
Need for speed
Archangel
12-14-09, 11:27 AM
A bit difficult to chose 5, but it would be:
- Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear
- Operation Flashpoint: Cold war crisis
- Hidden and Dangerous II / Hidden and Dangerous I - If I take the time when it was released into consideration it will be the first one since I found it very original, if it is by gameplay I would chose the second.
- Mafia I
- Rome: Total war
Including consoles then I have to mention Metal Gear Solid (ps1) as well.
The list is being challenged by SHV and Mafia II in the near future I guess, but I doubt it will ever touch Rogue Spear, I played it as a clanplayer for over 2 1/2 years and I will always I guess have a more emotional connection to it then other games. It was also my first online game, and had an equally nice SP as MP experience for me.
vBulletin® v3.8.11, Copyright ©2000-2025, vBulletin Solutions Inc.