This weekend = OPERATION: GET TO IT!

Charlatan · Post by **Charlatan** » Fri Oct 22, 2004 2:00 pm

Slambie I'll give you a dollar for your copy of Kohan III - you must have some deep inside connections to get that when Kohan II JUST came out.

rrmorton · Post by **rrmorton** » Fri Oct 22, 2004 5:23 pm

I NOW DECLARE OPERATION: GET TO IT ON!

Drop whatever it is you're doing and go load up a game you own but haven't ever played then report back with your progress!

Okay, now I'm off to the movies to see Sideways!

(I'll Get To It immediately upon returning home later this evening.)

rrmorton · Post by **rrmorton** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 3:07 am

Well, due to having spent most of the evening out with the Mrs, I only GOT TO IT with 2 games:

Dawn of War

I played the tutorial and the first mission. I really enjoy the fast-paced, gritty, hyper-violent gameplay. But so far the plot and characters don't seem worth a damn. Wow, what an intro movie. One of the best I've seen in eons.

Space Colony

Again, I played the tutorial and the first mission. Outpost+The Sims+Stronghold=Space Colony. It's cute and potentially addictive but I don't know if I'll ever bother playing it again. Fortunately, thanks to Operation: Get To It, I can no longer say I haven't played it.

2 down, roughly 20 to go.

Jeff V · Post by **Jeff V** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 10:17 am

Well, it's raining this morning, so I can't very well go bike riding.

Maybe I'll play HoI2 since I kind of have to write an article on it.

Captain Caveman · Post by **Captain Caveman** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 11:18 am

Great idea, Rob. I remember the days as a kid that I'd save my money just to buy the latest EPYX game for my C64. Then, I'd spend weeks playing the thing while simultaneously lusting for some other game that I could not yet afford. I almost wish I could go back to that kind of gaming monogomy, but alas, I, like you, have transformed into a gaming slut (although not quite at slambie's level-- she should start a freaking gamers brothel!). My list:

PC
Stronghold
Stronghold Crusader
AOW: Shadow Magic
Gothic II

XBOX
Deus EX: Invisible War
Thief 3
Riddick

Dramatist · Post by **Dramatist** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 11:25 am

I got to play about 4 hours of Sacred yesterday and this morning (I'm at work now). I made it to chapter II and my gladiator is now lvl 21. He's very tough and has little trouble killing the MoBs, but I'm having fun.

I did play Sacred before, but a different character and this is the new mostly bug-free version so it's kinda like a different game. I'm hoping to get some good hrs. in later today.

rrmorton · Post by **rrmorton** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 1:37 pm

You know, a lot of you guys have Gothic II on your never-played lists which is one of the very best games I've ever played. If Operation: Get To It gets even one person to give it a go and gets them hooked then I'll consider it a huge success.

Same goes for Freedom Force actually.

Okay, enough yammering for me... Time to GET BACK TO IT!

none · Post by **none** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 1:52 pm

wooboy, i've had just about all i can stomach of army men: toys in space. now onto some other game on my list:

call of duty (i'm actually on the first mission of the british campaign but still feel that i've neglected this game)
arx fatalis (untouched)
the simpsons: hit and run (played through homer missions)
kotor (i've created a character and played a few minutes)
silent storm (played tutorial)
mafia (untouched)
il-2: forgotten battles (played tutorial)
splinter cell (first mission)
beyond good & evil (took some pictures)
morrowind (never made it out of first town)

i've got the rest of today and tomorrow evening. i think i can make it.

rrmorton · Post by **rrmorton** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 1:58 pm

MAFIA UNTOUCHED?! OH MY GOD! Get To That, pronto! My favorite game of all time!

Boudreaux · Post by **Boudreaux** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 5:18 pm

GTI report - 4pm Saturday, 10/23

Played:
Doom 3 - acquired this in a trade awhile back and never got to it. Last night, I got to it. I mostly wanted to see what all the buzz was about graphics-wise, and if the let down was there gameplay-wise. It was great, and it was. The first 45 minutes were fantastic - really sucked me in, got the juices pumping. The next couple of hours was just...starting...to..grind....allloonnnggg....urggh. This is a game that needs (in my case) to be played at night so I'll try it again later to see how it goes.

Ratchet & Clank - Going Commando - WHEEE!! Just as fun as the first one, which was my favorite PS2 game last year after Sly Cooper. This one seems easier somehow, although at the moment it may just be the superior firepower. I've already filled up my inventory chart and I'm only on the fifth planet. I like the little mini-games again, and some of the improvements are nice. My favorite addition is how the game freezes when you switch weapons - THANK YOU THANK YOU. That was my biggest annoyance about the first one. At least I don't think it froze the game, I seem to remember that being really annoying.

Still to come:
Hitman 2
Undying
Hidden and Dangerous 2
Secret Weapons Over Normandy
Galactic Civilizations
Prince of Persia - Sands of Time

I ditched Far Cry because I actually have played a bit, but only a bit and long ago. I'll focus on the others first.

none · Post by **none** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 5:35 pm

oh crap, Boudreaux, you just reminded me that i've still got far cry to play through as well!

anyways, after reading Mr. Morton's light scolding, i did indeed install mafia and spent the next thirty or so minutes just trying to get away from the bad guys in the initial car chase. so far, i'd have to say that i'm really bad at this game. but at least i've given it a shot. next time, i'm gonna try playing with a gamepad.

i've also installed arx fatalis and played around a bit although it's a bit too dark of a game for me to play right now. for instance, i spent quite a while just trying to figure out how to open that first gate and when i finally did, it was after i'd cranked the gamma most of the way up and was able to see. i think i'll have to revisit this game later this evening as it looks pretty interesting.

finally, i just got past the pegasus bridge mission in call of duty and realized that tigers are sure hard to kill if you don't know to use that eighty-eight.

time for to eat now. back to the games later.

Captain Caveman · Post by **Captain Caveman** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 6:43 pm

I'm 2 hours into Gothic II, and I must be eating McDonalds, cause I'm lovin' it! I have to go out to dinner now, but when I get home, I've got a date with my new love.

So, sorry fellas, but I'm afraid Operation GTI might have to end here for me. Why should I continue sampling the rest of my backlog of games when I've already found such a sure thing? To do so would be like Hugh Grant diddling with some skank ho when he's got Elizabeth Hurley sitting around at home. I refuse to be that guy!

Meghan · Post by **Meghan** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 9:00 pm

Just for you Rob, I blew off my family tonight.

I hope you're happy. (I know I am

)

Charlatan · Post by **Charlatan** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 9:45 pm

11 hours into Sacred with my BattleMage - level 21 or 22.

He's grrrreat, a mix of fire and ice spells. He has a bad ass fireball, a very impressive fire swirly thing, and ice needles that must sting like the devil, cuz it kills lots of monsters.

I suffered through 2 CTDs (note to self: QUICKSAVE MORE OFTEN) and got wiped at the 2 GIGANTIC BLUE DRAGONS - wow are they impressive. I almost peed in my pants when I saw them. I'm having trouble getting back to them (those pesky ice elves) so I think I'm shelving this bad boy for now. This is about 10 hours more than I played the game before though, so I've definitely gotten more of my money's worth.

Oh, and do you need cash in this game? I have like half a million and nothing to spend it on! If only real life were like that!

I just realized I have Gothic II (actually given to my son but he hasn't touched it EITHER) and Arx Fatalis pretty much untouched. Thinking of firing up KOTOR though, in honor of it going on sale tomorrow at Circuit City or Best Buy (I forget which flier it was) or only $10.

rrmorton · Post by **rrmorton** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 10:28 pm

Meghan:

Glad to hear it, CC, and I wholeheartedly approve of you dropping out of O:GTI to spend more time with Gothic II. When I started exploring and adventuring in and around that first town of Khorinis I was hooked like Chris Farley on smacktwinkies.

So far today I Got To It with two games:

Tribes Vengeance

This one I played the first two levels and I'm very impressed. I've always enjoyed the Tribes games but I'm a single player man at heart so this new campaign is the cat's knees and the bee's pajamas. The jet pack is two tons of fun as is the spin fusor and plasma weapons. I also kind of liked the princess character and her ruffian captor. I'll be eager to get back to this once the Operation is over.

Unreal II

Trippiest logo & title animation ever. I played the tutorial, the Atlantis inspection tour, and the first large power generator level up to the point where you recover the "alien relic". (This is a really creative and clever plot device, this so-called "alien relic" and I wonder why more games don't use it. Really, it's just such a great concept that it seems like every single fucking game I've ever played should incorporate an "alien relic.") My initial impressions of this game are that I'm glad I spent $15 instead of $50 but that it's pretty fun. The graphics still look great a year later. And is it just me or is Unreal II hard as hell on Hard? A lot harder than most Hards. I have a bunch of other, better FPS games on my hard drive (and Half-life 2 coming soon) so I doubt I'll see this through but at least now I've played it!

none · Post by **none** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 12:10 am

ok, guys, i've totally flaked this evening. i was inexplicably drawn to loading up rome: total war to play "just a few turns". a few hours later and i've decidedly not gotten to it as much as i should have. and now it's past my bedtime as i've got to get up at 5 am. but there's always tomorrow evening.

Captain Caveman · Post by **Captain Caveman** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 12:30 am

3 more hours of Gothic II tonight. I spent nearly half an hour trying to kill a pack of 3 wolves just so I could skin 'em in order to get an apprenticeship in town. Even after finding a better weapon (yippee, I found a rusty sword!) and upgrading my armor, I still was getting my butt handed to me on a platter. I soon discovered the coward's way out by having them chase me to town, where the guards did my dirty work for me.

I'll get back to Operation STI (Stick To It) tomorrow.

rrmorton · Post by **rrmorton** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 1:54 am

Back with two more games I can X off my list:

Warlords Battlecry III

I was a big, big fan of #II which was my favorite RTS game until Rise of Nations came along. Tonight I sleptwalked through the tutorial and learned nothing new whatsoever. It wasn't until I loaded up the campaign that I started to see how they changed things up for this 3rd go 'round. It's an overhead map where you can move from region to region attacking, recruiting, exploring, etc. The graphics look pretty dated by now but the wealth of character options, the large number of races, and the finely-tuned gameplay are all still very compelling. I'd really like to spend some more time with the new campaign but I don't know if I'll ever find the time to bother. I just wish I'd waited to buy it for $10-15 instead of $40, especially since I didn't even get to it until now.

Kohan II

I played about 1/3 of the original Kohan but never got (received?) Ahriman's Gift. I played the two tutorial missions and just the first campaign mission. The new 3D graphics look superb and the gameplay shows a ton of potential if I can just figure out what the heck I'm doing. The tutorials weren't at all thorough and during the first mission the combat felt like utter chaos. Since you can't control your units like in most RTS games, I find it hard to get a feel for what you can control.

Freezer-TPF- · Post by **Freezer-TPF-** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 1:55 am

Well, my Operation:GTI got off to a very slow start as I got sucked into watching a lot of college football plus baseball today. However, I managed to unwrap and fire up the only Xbox game I have that I had not played (not counting the GT2002/JSRF freebie) -- Voodoo Vince.

I have to say that VV is a cute little game. The graphics are creative, the humor is a little cheesy, and the music is cool -- it has a New Orleans Jazz theme going on. I played the first handful of levels and it seems like a rather lite platformer so far, but I imagine the puzzles get a little more involved. On the concept (using your voodoo to hurt yourself, which hurts the bad guys) and art design alone, I'd say this is a nice little game, though probably rather easy for most gamers. It is certainly going to be worth the $10 I got it for on clearance at Toys R Us.

Tomorrow I am going to try to hit a few installed-yet-unplayed PC games, probably from the following pool = NOLF 2, Vietcong, Undying.

rrmorton · Post by **rrmorton** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 2:42 am

Just back from an intense 45 minutes with:

Call of Duty

I played the demo way back when it came out and loved it but never got to the full version for whatever reason. So tonight I played the boot camp tutorial and the first two levels of combat. Jeeze Louise, what an utterly nerve-wracking experience. I want to get through the whole game so I can pick up the expansion.

rrmorton · Post by **rrmorton** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 3:32 am

Lords of the Realm III

Last and quite possibly least for this evening, I just played the 5-mission tutorial for LR3 and wasn't terribly impressed. It has a surprisingly good intro movie and terrific art but whatever good gameplay concepts are there get mucked up by clunky control. I think this one is destined for the Used: Rarely column in my Add/Remove Programs list.

Now I have a date with destiny. Destiny is my bed.

TheMissingLink · Post by **TheMissingLink** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 4:22 am

I'm so bad. I took a mini-vacation from it all today and spent the day driving around Idaho. So, no gaming as been done.

And tomorrow. Football's on tomorrow. I'm so very very bad.

Boudreaux · Post by **Boudreaux** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 9:44 am

Last night before passing out I managed to get through:

FarCry - Not technically applicable, since I'd already played it, but I felt like killing things for a bit and I got sucked into it. I finished the last three levels on Terminator mode, and beat the game. I died 367 times.

Hitman 2 - Quite a bit better than the first, which I abandoned after the first mission due to the clunky controls. H2 is much improved in that area, although I still didn't get very far. There seems to be quite a bit of promise here, but I'm still fighting the game to do what I want. Tried sneaking up behind the flower guy in the first mission, knocked him out, and he wakes up 90 seconds later? What good is anesthetic if it lasts 90 seconds? There seems to be a lot of freedom in this game (yay), and yet it feels like an intricate puzzle that must be done exactly right (boo).

Undying - I don't know why I traded for this, other than I'd heard it was really good. I played it right after I finished FarCary and the dated graphics were a bit hard to overcome. That and the first 30 minutes of play seemed to be 28 minutes of cutscene. Seems interesting, I'll probably come back to it.

Prince of Persia - Sands of Time - Wow, what a really impressive game. I love figuring out the acrobatic puzzles of how to get through the areas. Combat can be fun but is a bit frustrating at times. I'm not fond of games that use 3-second animations for each attack, and this one unfortunately falls prey to that gimmick. Combat gets a bit repetitive as well, as it seems to be more "figure out the appropriate puzzle-like sequence of attacks that will kill this enemy". "Also, do it while there are 18 of them coming at you." Still, the combat isn't difficult or annoying enough to take the shine off, at least not yet.

I also tried Splinter Cell - Pandora Tomorrow on PS2 (borrowed form a friend) and decided after 10 minutes that I still prefer playing shooter games on the PC. I just can't get used to the controls, especially when very fine control is needed.

Jeff V · Post by **Jeff V** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 10:05 am

Well, I did spend a chunk of yesterday playing Hearts of Iron 2. Now I suppose I need to write something on it, but today is beautiful out (sunny, mid-60's); so I somehow have to reconcile bike riding with football.

I highly doubt I'll have time to touch another game this weekend.

Freezer-TPF- · Post by **Freezer-TPF-** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 8:19 pm

I tore myself away from football and quasi-productive work to try another unplayed game this afternoon - No One Lives Forever 2. I played the first few levels and it looks great so far. Compared with the first one, which I loved, it looks like they have made the stealth gameplay a bit more Thief-like. TONS of gadgets, and a lite skill system that gives you more incentive to explore and earn points. There is a lot of humor to be discovered from notes and guard conversations, but it seems that the number and length of cut scenes have been trimmed quite a bit. Very nice graphics, voices, and face animations. Anyway, probably all of y'all played this 2 years ago so I'll stop with the impressions.

I'll look forward to playing this more intently at some point.

I might try to check out one more tonight, but baseball and a few necessary tasks are calling me.

rrmorton · Post by **rrmorton** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 11:21 pm

So far today I found a bit of time to try:

Sacred

This seems like a fun mix of Diablo and Divine Divinity. I only played long enough to get to level 4 by accomplishing one secondary mission (rescuing a priestess from a robber's cave) before proceeding with the main quest. I hope I find time to play more of this down the line because it seems like a lot of fun. Unfortunately, from what I've read, it takes many, many hours to even put a dent in Sacred. I definitely prefer games that take 20 hours to finish, not 100.

Rome: Total War

Most of you know this already but wow, what a big, juicy, filet mignon of a game this is. I played for over an hour and I just scratched the surface of the tutorial. I played two battles and messed around on the campaign map for a while trying to get a handle on things. Gorgeous.

Okay, I have two more games to get to before Operation: Get To It comes to an end at bedtime.

rrmorton · Post by **rrmorton** » Mon Oct 25, 2004 1:59 am

Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark

Just spent the last hour+ creating a monk character. Didn't get to actually play (beyond watching the intro cutscene, killing a drow thief, and flirting with the inn-keeper's daughter) but at least now I got over the time-consuming character-creation hump. It was fun levelling him all the way up to 15 right out of the gate.

Thief - Deadly Shadows

I cheated a bit on this one, only playing ten minutes or so just so I could check it off my list. Looks like more of the same Thiefy goodness.

AND SO!

The weekend is over and I think I have to declare Operation: Get To It a personal triumph.

Check it out...

-Rome: Total War X
-Warhammer: Dawn of War X
-Unreal II X
-Call of Duty X
-Kohan II X
-Warlords Battlecry III X
-Thief 3: Deadly Shadows X
-Tribes Vengeance X
-Neverwinter Nights - Hordes of the Underdark X
-Lords of the Realm III X
-Sacred X
-Space Colony X

I made the decision to focus only on my PC games and I actually managed to play every title on my list. Pretty damn satisfying actually. I'm hoping slambie achieved the same goal with her list.

Coming soon... Operation: Get To It II - Xbox.

Dramatist · Post by **Dramatist** » Mon Oct 25, 2004 11:37 am

Looks like a nice weekend Rob.

Here's the little I played.

PC

Sacred Very fun, I spent most of my time on this one. Made some progress into Chapter III.

The Sims 2 Mostly I helped my daughters Sims when she needed it.

Gamecube

Donkey Konga This game is lots of fun for the whole family.

new game I got Saturday Midway Arcade Classics II So much retro arcade gaming goodness. Although I mostly played Rampage World tour with my 5 year old son. I will spend lots of time with this one. I still play Robotron 2084, Joust and Toobin' on Classics I.

rrmorton · Post by **rrmorton** » Tue Oct 26, 2004 5:25 pm

One thing I didn't realize until the Operation was complete is that now I'm addicted to about 6 games all at once. YIKES.

The Cream of the Crop:

Kohan II
Sacred
Tribes Vengeance
Call of Duty
Dawn of War
Rome Total War

Then along came GTA San Andreas. I love/hate this time of year.

is_dead · Post by **is_dead** » Tue Oct 26, 2004 6:05 pm

Can I play? The only game I own that hasn't been played is NOLF 2, and that was because I tried it and the sound didn't work, and then gave up after searching for 20 minutes.

NOLF 2
Also Internet Backgammon, haven't played that

So I'll have to go buy a game, maybe Rise of Nations gold ed?

slambie · Post by **slambie** » Tue Oct 26, 2004 9:04 pm

rrmorton wrote: I'm hoping slambie achieved the same goal with her list.

I did, but I created my own little version of "Get to it!" After seeing my horrific list of unplayed games all typed out, I decided to wrangle my gaming habit into submission. Since I can't possibly afford Smoove's hourly rate for professional consulting services, I pulled myself together and am paring the backlog down to no more than 25 games. I'm in the process of selling some, I'm trading some in, and what ever's left over will be donated to charity. My goal is confine myself to only the games I have every intension of playing.

We'll see how long it lasts.

rrmorton · Post by **rrmorton** » Tue Oct 26, 2004 9:53 pm

So at least some good came from all this.

is_dead, I'm afraid we already played... this thread was for last weekend. But feel free to make your own Operation or hold out for the Xbox sequel which I have planned for a weekend sometime in the not-too-distant future.

Freezer-TPF- · Post by **Freezer-TPF-** » Tue Oct 26, 2004 10:07 pm

I have one final game to add to my tally from Sunday night - Gothic.

At first, it looked rather ugly but then I was finally able to change the screen to a higher res successfully. I only had time to putz around for about an hour or so and was slowly warming up to the much maligned controls. I can see there is an intriguing game there (love the basic story setup), but I am also realizing that I'll probably not have time to play an in-depth RPG like this any time soon. I fear that as it becomes difficult to block out large chunks of gaming time, I am becoming a more shallow gamer.