That was great fun, not one I’ve heard anyone else mention for a long time!
Project: First Person Shooter History
- Thread starter almoststew1990
- Start date
That was great fun, not one I’ve heard anyone else mention for a long time!
Soldato
I had Unreal around the time of release, when it had been reduced, but before UT was out.
I played the first few levels, then dropped to playing bots in the deathmatch mode, which was essentially what UT became. I thought the same as you - the game became a bit tedious.
Can I suggest FEAR for your ever growing list
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/F.E.A.R.
2005
thought it was earlier
I played the first few levels, then dropped to playing bots in the deathmatch mode, which was essentially what UT became. I thought the same as you - the game became a bit tedious.
Can I suggest FEAR for your ever growing list
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/F.E.A.R.
2005
thought it was earlier
I had Unreal around the time of release, when it had been reduced, but before UT was out.
I played the first few levels, then dropped to playing bots in the deathmatch mode, which was essentially what UT became. I thought the same as you - the game became a bit tedious.
Can I suggest FEAR for your ever growing list
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/F.E.A.R.
2005
I've been tempted by Fear before so it might go on the list before COD2. The original idea was that I'd play up to COD2 as that I as where I started playing fps games originally.
However FEAR looks like it will be a good trial by fire for the XP PC I'll be building. It's going to have an Athlon 64 3200+ (a later Venice chip) with something fairly era appropriate like a 7600GT.
Soldato
Yeah Unreal had some stand out levels for the time but the last half of the game is mostly a blur for me and I'm not even sure how I got to the end as I don't even remember half the levels nearer the end when looking at screenshots/gameplay videos. Don't think I could play it again right through today.
Here's a non gaming update!
I am preparing the XP PC. I decided to go for an AMD PC for a change as usually I use Pentium 4s where they are so readily available.
It's a Winfast 5100K8MA-RS Socket 939 motherboard (basically a Foxconn motherboard released for retail). It cost £18. I decided on this as it has PCI-E, whilst still being fairly retro, which means the fairly era appropriate 6/7000 series GPUs are dirt cheap instead of costing upwards of £75 for AGP variants. It came with an Athlon 664 3500+ 89watt Clawhammer CPU, one of the original Athlon 64 releases. It ran waaay to hot, idling at about 50c, with the fan flat out, and I tired reseating the cooler etc. I thought I'd side-grade to a later 90nm 67 watt 3200+, which will probably be just as fast (and fast enough anyway). This was £4 and it did the trick; It now idles at a much more pleasant 30c, and I can use Cool n Quiet effectively.
For graphics, I first got a Nvidia 6800 for about £6. It was covered in cigarette tar so I deep cleaned it. It then wouldn't show an image; considering I had washed it and scrubbed it under the tap, I definitely can't say for sure it was broken when I got it (although it definitely wasn't in usable condition!). I couldn't be arsed with returning it.
I then got this lovely looking X1950 Pro, for £9 delivered.
Unfortunately it's showing artifacts on the screen so I'll request a refund. It will be nice if I don't have to send it back as the cooler may well go onto other GPUs.
My hunt for a graphics card continues!
I am preparing the XP PC. I decided to go for an AMD PC for a change as usually I use Pentium 4s where they are so readily available.
It's a Winfast 5100K8MA-RS Socket 939 motherboard (basically a Foxconn motherboard released for retail). It cost £18. I decided on this as it has PCI-E, whilst still being fairly retro, which means the fairly era appropriate 6/7000 series GPUs are dirt cheap instead of costing upwards of £75 for AGP variants. It came with an Athlon 664 3500+ 89watt Clawhammer CPU, one of the original Athlon 64 releases. It ran waaay to hot, idling at about 50c, with the fan flat out, and I tired reseating the cooler etc. I thought I'd side-grade to a later 90nm 67 watt 3200+, which will probably be just as fast (and fast enough anyway). This was £4 and it did the trick; It now idles at a much more pleasant 30c, and I can use Cool n Quiet effectively.
For graphics, I first got a Nvidia 6800 for about £6. It was covered in cigarette tar so I deep cleaned it. It then wouldn't show an image; considering I had washed it and scrubbed it under the tap, I definitely can't say for sure it was broken when I got it (although it definitely wasn't in usable condition!). I couldn't be arsed with returning it.
I then got this lovely looking X1950 Pro, for £9 delivered.
Unfortunately it's showing artifacts on the screen so I'll request a refund. It will be nice if I don't have to send it back as the cooler may well go onto other GPUs.
My hunt for a graphics card continues!
Ah the 939 set up brings back fond memories of my very first build! They did do dual core in that era (and operton in the 939 board that were monsters for overclocking) which might help if you need more speed.
If you see an ATI x800 gto2, you could have a real overclocking legend
If you see an ATI x800 gto2, you could have a real overclocking legend
Has anyone mentioned the marathon series yet? I've not played them myself. They originated on the Mac I think, but I'm pretty sure I remember having a go on a demo of marathon 2 for PC. Notable as they are precursors to the halo series.
Strife might also be worth a look. Again I only ever played the demo but it's an early example of a shooter trying to blend in immersive sim elements.
Strife might also be worth a look. Again I only ever played the demo but it's an early example of a shooter trying to blend in immersive sim elements.
Soldato
- Joined
- 30 Sep 2005
- Posts
- 16,549
The best multiplayer FPS for me personally was the star trek voyager one. The people online were amazing!! Had so much fun playing that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGjo_E3Vzzc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGjo_E3Vzzc
Soldato
Man that wouldnt run properly on my PC back in the day. Gutted that I missed out on it looking back
Game 13 Complete!
Half-Life
"They've been expecting you, Gordon. In the test chamberrrrrrrrrr."
Getting it running
This game was an ISO from a disk I owned many, many years ago. Installs fine, doesn't need the disk to play.
Gameplay
The first game I've played with a big focus on world building and narrative and less of a focus on running and gunning. I came into this game with very high expectations, partly due to having played it before and partly due to its reputation. I am finding myself comparing it to newer games rather than the games in my list that I've played.
The game famously sets the scene for the story with the train ride during the opening credits. I remember being very impatient with this as an 10 year old but as an adult experiencing it for the first time in a long time, it's great scene setting. I should probably say this is the first game on my list I played before, around 2000 (not more than a few levels before I went back to racing games) but I did complete it on a netbook at uni too about 10 years ago.
This game is masterfully paced with the introduction touring the facility whilst allowing you to get to grips with the controls as well as discover the interactivity of the environment (who doesn't ruin that scientist's microwavable meal?). The pacing of discovering your first weapon and slowly finding out its uses forms a fantastic tutorial without being a tutorial.
I find the story itself not that involving. Whilst its designed to be provided organically through scientists telling you things, often they're too slow and I've run past to shoot the next thing. I think I was heading to the surface, then heading to a rocket site, then suddenly portals are a thing and I need to get the core and go to zen to kill (what I assume) is the bigass dude ordering all the aliens to go to earth through the portals Gordon opened up. Then there's G-Man who may or may not be involved in some ways that aren't clear. So whilst the game builds up a brilliant world of laboratories, vents and metro systems, I wasn't particularly engrossed in the story that goes with it.
The controls feel very tight in combat with jumping, shooting and cover all coming into play. The range of guns are good too, although not all seem to have much use - the MP5 is a bit too accurate for anything that isn't close range, and a double shotgun blast is better at close range. The weird bee-shooter I found fairly pointless with its (recharging) magazine capacity of 8 being too low to do any damage. I ended up using the pistols for long range shooting and the shotgun for close quarters combat.
The range of enemies are good too, with the irritating head crabs perhaps doing a little too much damage on medium (10 health). A few too many times a headcrab is hiding in a vent your crawling a long and jumps at you in the dark; it made me jump the first time but just being a guaranteed hit later on - a lot of quick loading was done!
Elsewhere the green electro-dudes are good to fight with a powerful attack, which needs charging, but quite weak to a few headshots with the starting pistol. The electro-dogs are similar in needing to charge and doing reasonable damage. Later on when every other enemy is a big-ass blue dude, who shoots half-homing bees which bizarrely seem to go through doors, I ended up in a "oh **** you" mood and grenade launchered them for an instant kill. Soliders are quite intelligent other than constantly talking so you can hear where they are, and the freakin' ninjas are even quite fun to shoot due to being a different challenge altogether and are used sparingly.
Then there are the boss fights. The three main ones, the three headed snake, is satisfying to kill using a prototype rocket engine or something, especially after it's been nibbling at your heels for quite a while running around its home. The Blue furbee thing that needs dispatching to unlock On A Rail likewise is good to lure into an electric generator before it explodes.
Outside of combat though, the controls are quite weak. The pain in the arse of navigating ladders needs no introduction, where it is anyone's guess where you're actually going to jump to, and the slidey nature of platforming makes it one of the weaker elements of the game. Especially when navigating mazes of conveyor belts, eufggh.
The big let down are the Zen levels and the final boss. The different areas you go to are quite illogical, whereas the main game has you running through rooms next to each other with purposes (electric rails need a generator switched on, etc), whereas Zen is just a bunch of open environments and caves that conveniently lead to a disappointing boss fight.
The final boss fight is the worst part of the game in my opinion. The portal the flying baby shoots at you are a pain in the arse, low gravity movement does not make use of all the movement techniques that you've perfected up to that point, and the slow flying you need to do to fly above the baby's face makes you an easy target for flying aliens. The final fight to open up the portal to zen should have been the games conclusion in my opinion, where you're running around, dodging, defending scientist dude, shooting new flying enemies using what you've practiced throughout the game.
Overall, it's got a great setting and a world that sucks you in, even if I wasn't quite sure what I was hoping to achieve. The combat is good, platforming not so much, and should have ended an hour earlier.
Graphics and Performance
Like unreal on which it's based, Half Life looks great. The world is much more believable than Unreal due to the textures and art style, and it being set on earth (I assume...?). Lighting looks great in vents, green goo emits a similar green lighting, sparks fly, explosions explode...
Performance was better than Unreal at 1024 * 768, and I think I used OpenGL. The brightness was not an issue unlike Unreal and the screenshots came out with proper brightness.
Sound
I did not have any music at all, I assume because I was playing without the CD! However, the world building was good enough without it. I've given the sound track a listen to and it does sound pretty good which is a shame.
The sound effects were good. High quality in terms of compression, Hz, bits per section or whatever and comparable to modern sound effects, with the exception of scientists voices them being poor. My Soundblaster AWE32 couldn't do EAX I don't think however, there was lovely echo going on regardless in vents and enclosed areas.
Was it fun?
It was fun and I had no trouble keeping motivation to complete it unlike previous games, but I am not sure it is "Best Game Evarrr" fun due to the story and platforming
Should you play it?
Definitely.
Screenshots
Half-Life
"They've been expecting you, Gordon. In the test chamberrrrrrrrrr."
Getting it running
This game was an ISO from a disk I owned many, many years ago. Installs fine, doesn't need the disk to play.
Gameplay
The first game I've played with a big focus on world building and narrative and less of a focus on running and gunning. I came into this game with very high expectations, partly due to having played it before and partly due to its reputation. I am finding myself comparing it to newer games rather than the games in my list that I've played.
The game famously sets the scene for the story with the train ride during the opening credits. I remember being very impatient with this as an 10 year old but as an adult experiencing it for the first time in a long time, it's great scene setting. I should probably say this is the first game on my list I played before, around 2000 (not more than a few levels before I went back to racing games) but I did complete it on a netbook at uni too about 10 years ago.
This game is masterfully paced with the introduction touring the facility whilst allowing you to get to grips with the controls as well as discover the interactivity of the environment (who doesn't ruin that scientist's microwavable meal?). The pacing of discovering your first weapon and slowly finding out its uses forms a fantastic tutorial without being a tutorial.
I find the story itself not that involving. Whilst its designed to be provided organically through scientists telling you things, often they're too slow and I've run past to shoot the next thing. I think I was heading to the surface, then heading to a rocket site, then suddenly portals are a thing and I need to get the core and go to zen to kill (what I assume) is the bigass dude ordering all the aliens to go to earth through the portals Gordon opened up. Then there's G-Man who may or may not be involved in some ways that aren't clear. So whilst the game builds up a brilliant world of laboratories, vents and metro systems, I wasn't particularly engrossed in the story that goes with it.
The controls feel very tight in combat with jumping, shooting and cover all coming into play. The range of guns are good too, although not all seem to have much use - the MP5 is a bit too accurate for anything that isn't close range, and a double shotgun blast is better at close range. The weird bee-shooter I found fairly pointless with its (recharging) magazine capacity of 8 being too low to do any damage. I ended up using the pistols for long range shooting and the shotgun for close quarters combat.
The range of enemies are good too, with the irritating head crabs perhaps doing a little too much damage on medium (10 health). A few too many times a headcrab is hiding in a vent your crawling a long and jumps at you in the dark; it made me jump the first time but just being a guaranteed hit later on - a lot of quick loading was done!
Elsewhere the green electro-dudes are good to fight with a powerful attack, which needs charging, but quite weak to a few headshots with the starting pistol. The electro-dogs are similar in needing to charge and doing reasonable damage. Later on when every other enemy is a big-ass blue dude, who shoots half-homing bees which bizarrely seem to go through doors, I ended up in a "oh **** you" mood and grenade launchered them for an instant kill. Soliders are quite intelligent other than constantly talking so you can hear where they are, and the freakin' ninjas are even quite fun to shoot due to being a different challenge altogether and are used sparingly.
Then there are the boss fights. The three main ones, the three headed snake, is satisfying to kill using a prototype rocket engine or something, especially after it's been nibbling at your heels for quite a while running around its home. The Blue furbee thing that needs dispatching to unlock On A Rail likewise is good to lure into an electric generator before it explodes.
Outside of combat though, the controls are quite weak. The pain in the arse of navigating ladders needs no introduction, where it is anyone's guess where you're actually going to jump to, and the slidey nature of platforming makes it one of the weaker elements of the game. Especially when navigating mazes of conveyor belts, eufggh.
The big let down are the Zen levels and the final boss. The different areas you go to are quite illogical, whereas the main game has you running through rooms next to each other with purposes (electric rails need a generator switched on, etc), whereas Zen is just a bunch of open environments and caves that conveniently lead to a disappointing boss fight.
The final boss fight is the worst part of the game in my opinion. The portal the flying baby shoots at you are a pain in the arse, low gravity movement does not make use of all the movement techniques that you've perfected up to that point, and the slow flying you need to do to fly above the baby's face makes you an easy target for flying aliens. The final fight to open up the portal to zen should have been the games conclusion in my opinion, where you're running around, dodging, defending scientist dude, shooting new flying enemies using what you've practiced throughout the game.
Overall, it's got a great setting and a world that sucks you in, even if I wasn't quite sure what I was hoping to achieve. The combat is good, platforming not so much, and should have ended an hour earlier.
Graphics and Performance
Like unreal on which it's based, Half Life looks great. The world is much more believable than Unreal due to the textures and art style, and it being set on earth (I assume...?). Lighting looks great in vents, green goo emits a similar green lighting, sparks fly, explosions explode...
Performance was better than Unreal at 1024 * 768, and I think I used OpenGL. The brightness was not an issue unlike Unreal and the screenshots came out with proper brightness.
Sound
I did not have any music at all, I assume because I was playing without the CD! However, the world building was good enough without it. I've given the sound track a listen to and it does sound pretty good which is a shame.
The sound effects were good. High quality in terms of compression, Hz, bits per section or whatever and comparable to modern sound effects, with the exception of scientists voices them being poor. My Soundblaster AWE32 couldn't do EAX I don't think however, there was lovely echo going on regardless in vents and enclosed areas.
Was it fun?
It was fun and I had no trouble keeping motivation to complete it unlike previous games, but I am not sure it is "Best Game Evarrr" fun due to the story and platforming
Should you play it?
Definitely.
Screenshots
Had very much the same experience with Half Life as a kid (played till the kill the massive thing with electric rails bit before more racing games), playing as an adult made me appreciate it in a very similar way!
Shame about the music not working though, that added a little bit as it only kicked in when you moved to a new chapter or got to a bigger/tense bit at the end. I don't I know anyone who appreciated Zen, even the Black Messa developers with the (really good) HD remake weren't that fussed about it.
Shame about the music not working though, that added a little bit as it only kicked in when you moved to a new chapter or got to a bigger/tense bit at the end. I don't I know anyone who appreciated Zen, even the Black Messa developers with the (really good) HD remake weren't that fussed about it.
The voice quality in the game is poor because there is a ton of it (which obviously takes up quite a bit of storage space) - especially for the time. Unlike a lot of games that might have say 8 different short sound files per character the game had dozens and dozens and a system that let you string phrases together to make arbitrary sentences for instance the "vox" section:
_comma.wav
_period.wav
a.wav
accelerating.wav
accelerator.wav
accepted.wav
access.wav
acknowledge.wav
acknowledged.wav
acquired.wav
acquisition.wav
across.wav
activate.wav
activated.wav
activity.wav
adios.wav
administration.wav
advanced.wav
after.wav
agent.wav
alarm.wav
alert.wav
alien.wav
aligned.wav
all.wav
alpha.wav
am.wav
amigo.wav
ammunition.wav
an.wav
and.wav
announcement.wav
anomalous.wav
antenna.wav
any.wav
apprehend.wav
approach.wav
are.wav
area.wav
arm.wav
armed.wav
armor.wav
armory.wav
arrest.wav
ass.wav
at.wav
atomic.wav
attention.wav
authorize.wav
authorized.wav
automatic.wav
away.wav
b.wav
back.wav
backman.wav
bad.wav
bag.wav
bailey.wav
barracks.wav
base.wav
bay.wav
be.wav
been.wav
before.wav
beyond.wav
biohazard.wav
biological.wav
birdwell.wav
bizwarn.wav
black.wav
blast.wav
blocked.wav
bloop.wav
blue.wav
bottom.wav
bravo.wav
breach.wav
breached.wav
break.wav
bridge.wav
bust.wav
but.wav
button.wav
buzwarn.wav
bypass.wav
c.wav
cable.wav
call.wav
called.wav
canal.wav
cap.wav
captain.wav
capture.wav
ceiling.wav
celsius.wav
center.wav
centi.wav
central.wav
chamber.wav
charlie.wav
check.wav
checkpoint.wav
chemical.wav
cleanup.wav
clear.wav
clearance.wav
close.wav
code.wav
coded.wav
collider.wav
command.wav
communication.wav
complex.wav
computer.wav
condition.wav
containment.wav
contamination.wav
control.wav
coolant.wav
coomer.wav
core.wav
correct.wav
corridor.wav
crew.wav
cross.wav
cryogenic.wav
d.wav
dadeda.wav
damage.wav
damaged.wav
danger.wav
day.wav
deactivated.wav
decompression.wav
decontamination.wav
deeoo.wav
defense.wav
degrees.wav
delta.wav
denied.wav
deploy.wav
deployed.wav
destroy.wav
destroyed.wav
detain.wav
detected.wav
detonation.wav
device.wav
did.wav
die.wav
dimensional.wav
dirt.wav
disengaged.wav
dish.wav
disposal.wav
distance.wav
distortion.wav
do.wav
doctor.wav
doop.wav
door.wav
down.wav
dual.wav
duct.wav
e.wav
east.wav
echo.wav
ed.wav
effect.wav
egress.wav
eight.wav
eighteen.wav
eighty.wav
electric.wav
electromagnetic.wav
elevator.wav
eleven.wav
eliminate.wav
emergency.wav
energy.wav
engage.wav
engaged.wav
engine.wav
enter.wav
entry.wav
environment.wav
error.wav
escape.wav
evacuate.wav
exchange.wav
exit.wav
expect.wav
experiment.wav
experimental.wav
explode.wav
explosion.wav
exposure.wav
exterminate.wav
extinguish.wav
extinguisher.wav
extreme.wav
f.wav
facility.wav
fahrenheit.wav
failed.wav
failure.wav farthest.wav
fast.wav
feet.wav
field.wav
fifteen.wav
fifth.wav
fifty.wav
final.wav
fine.wav
fire.wav
first.wav
five.wav
flooding.wav
floor.wav
fool.wav
for.wav
forbidden.wav
force.wav
forms.wav
found.wav
four.wav
fourteen.wav
fourth.wav
fourty.wav
foxtrot.wav
freeman.wav
freezer.wav
from.wav
front.wav
fuel.wav
g.wav
get.wav
go.wav
going.wav
good.wav
goodbye.wav
gordon.wav
got.wav
government.wav
granted.wav
great.wav
green.wav
grenade.wav
guard.wav
gulf.wav
gun.wav
guthrie.wav
handling.wav
hangar.wav
has.wav
have.wav
hazard.wav
head.wav
health.wav
heat.wav
helicopter.wav
helium.wav
hello.wav
help.wav
here.wav
hide.wav
high.wav
highest.wav
hit.wav
hole.wav
hostile.wav
hot.wav
hotel.wav
hour.wav
hours.wav
hundred.wav
hydro.wav
i.wav
idiot.wav
illegal.wav
immediate.wav
immediately.wav
in.wav
inches.wav
india.wav
ing.wav
inoperative.wav
inside.wav
inspection.wav
inspector.wav
interchange.wav
intruder.wav
invallid.wav
invasion.wav
is.wav
it.wav
johnson.wav
juliet.wav
key.wav
kill.wav
kilo.wav
kit.wav
lab.wav
lambda.wav
laser.wav
last.wav
launch.wav
leak.wav
leave.wav
left.wav
legal.wav
level.wav
lever.wav
lie.wav
lieutenant.wav
life.wav
light.wav
lima.wav
liquid.wav
loading.wav
locate.wav
located.wav
location.wav
lock.wav
locked.wav
locker.wav
lockout.wav
lower.wav
lowest.wav
magnetic.wav
main.wav
maintenance.wav
malfunction.wav
man.wav
mass.wav
materials.wav
maximum.wav
may.wav
medical.wav
men.wav
mercy.wav
mesa.wav
message.wav
meter.wav
micro.wav
middle.wav
mike.wav
miles.wav
military.wav
milli.wav
million.wav
minefield.wav
minimum.wav
minutes.wav
mister.wav
mode.wav
motor.wav
motorpool.wav
move.wav
must.wav
nearest.wav
nice.wav
nine.wav
nineteen.wav
ninety.wav
no.wav
nominal.wav
north.wav
not.wav
november.wav
now.wav
number.wav
objective.wav
observation.wav
of.wav
officer.wav
ok.wav
on.wav
one.wav
open.wav
operating.wav
operations.wav
operative.wav
option.wav
order.wav
organic.wav
oscar.wav
out.wav
outside.wav
over.wav
overload.wav
override.wav
pacify.wav
pain.wav
pal.wav
panel.wav
percent.wav
perimeter.wav
permitted.wav
personnel.wav
pipe.wav
plant.wav
platform.wav
please.wav
point.wav
portal.wav
power.wav
presence.wav
press.wav
primary.wav proceed.wav
processing.wav
progress.wav
proper.wav
propulsion.wav
prosecute.wav
protective.wav
push.wav
quantum.wav
quebec.wav
question.wav
questioning.wav
quick.wav
quit.wav
radiation.wav
radioactive.wav
rads.wav
rapid.wav
reach.wav
reached.wav
reactor.wav
red.wav
relay.wav
released.wav
remaining.wav
renegade.wav
repair.wav
report.wav
reports.wav
required.wav
research.wav
resevoir.wav
resistance.wav
right.wav
rocket.wav
roger.wav
romeo.wav
room.wav
round.wav
run.wav
safe.wav
safety.wav
sargeant.wav
satellite.wav
save.wav
science.wav
scream.wav
screen.wav
search.wav
second.wav
secondary.wav
seconds.wav
sector.wav
secure.wav
secured.wav
security.wav
select.wav
selected.wav
service.wav
seven.wav
seventeen.wav
seventy.wav
severe.wav
sewage.wav
sewer.wav
shield.wav
shipment.wav
shock.wav
shoot.wav
shower.wav
shut.wav
side.wav
sierra.wav
sight.wav
silo.wav
six.wav
sixteen.wav
sixty.wav
slime.wav
slow.wav
soldier.wav
some.wav
someone.wav
something.wav
son.wav
sorry.wav
south.wav
squad.wav
square.wav
stairway.wav
status.wav
sterile.wav
sterilization.wav
storage.wav
sub.wav
subsurface.wav
sudden.wav
suit.wav
superconducting.wav
supercooled.wav
supply.wav
surface.wav
surrender.wav
surround.wav
surrounded.wav
switch.wav
system.wav
systems.wav
tactical.wav
take.wav
talk.wav
tango.wav
tank.wav
target.wav
team.wav
temperature.wav
temporal.wav
ten.wav
terminal.wav
terminated.wav
termination.wav
test.wav
that.wav
the.wav
then.wav
there.wav
third.wav
thirteen.wav
thirty.wav
this.wav
those.wav
thousand.wav
threat.wav
three.wav
through.wav
time.wav
to.wav
top.wav
topside.wav
touch.wav
towards.wav
track.wav
train.wav
transportation.wav
truck.wav
tunnel.wav
turn.wav
turret.wav
twelve.wav
twenty.wav
two.wav
unauthorized.wav
under.wav
uniform.wav
unlocked.wav
until.wav
up.wav
upper.wav
uranium.wav
us.wav
usa.wav
use.wav
used.wav
user.wav
vacate.wav
valid.wav
vapor.wav
vent.wav
ventillation.wav
victor.wav
violated.wav
violation.wav
voltage.wav
vox_login.wav
walk.wav
wall.wav
want.wav
wanted.wav
warm.wav
warn.wav
warning.wav
waste.wav
water.wav
we.wav
weapon.wav
west.wav
whiskey.wav
white.wav
wilco.wav
will.wav
with.wav
without.wav
woop.wav
xeno.wav
yankee.wav
yards.wav
year.wav
yellow.wav
yes.wav
you.wav
your.wav
yourself.wav
zero.wav
zone.wav
zulu.wav
_period.wav
a.wav
accelerating.wav
accelerator.wav
accepted.wav
access.wav
acknowledge.wav
acknowledged.wav
acquired.wav
acquisition.wav
across.wav
activate.wav
activated.wav
activity.wav
adios.wav
administration.wav
advanced.wav
after.wav
agent.wav
alarm.wav
alert.wav
alien.wav
aligned.wav
all.wav
alpha.wav
am.wav
amigo.wav
ammunition.wav
an.wav
and.wav
announcement.wav
anomalous.wav
antenna.wav
any.wav
apprehend.wav
approach.wav
are.wav
area.wav
arm.wav
armed.wav
armor.wav
armory.wav
arrest.wav
ass.wav
at.wav
atomic.wav
attention.wav
authorize.wav
authorized.wav
automatic.wav
away.wav
b.wav
back.wav
backman.wav
bad.wav
bag.wav
bailey.wav
barracks.wav
base.wav
bay.wav
be.wav
been.wav
before.wav
beyond.wav
biohazard.wav
biological.wav
birdwell.wav
bizwarn.wav
black.wav
blast.wav
blocked.wav
bloop.wav
blue.wav
bottom.wav
bravo.wav
breach.wav
breached.wav
break.wav
bridge.wav
bust.wav
but.wav
button.wav
buzwarn.wav
bypass.wav
c.wav
cable.wav
call.wav
called.wav
canal.wav
cap.wav
captain.wav
capture.wav
ceiling.wav
celsius.wav
center.wav
centi.wav
central.wav
chamber.wav
charlie.wav
check.wav
checkpoint.wav
chemical.wav
cleanup.wav
clear.wav
clearance.wav
close.wav
code.wav
coded.wav
collider.wav
command.wav
communication.wav
complex.wav
computer.wav
condition.wav
containment.wav
contamination.wav
control.wav
coolant.wav
coomer.wav
core.wav
correct.wav
corridor.wav
crew.wav
cross.wav
cryogenic.wav
d.wav
dadeda.wav
damage.wav
damaged.wav
danger.wav
day.wav
deactivated.wav
decompression.wav
decontamination.wav
deeoo.wav
defense.wav
degrees.wav
delta.wav
denied.wav
deploy.wav
deployed.wav
destroy.wav
destroyed.wav
detain.wav
detected.wav
detonation.wav
device.wav
did.wav
die.wav
dimensional.wav
dirt.wav
disengaged.wav
dish.wav
disposal.wav
distance.wav
distortion.wav
do.wav
doctor.wav
doop.wav
door.wav
down.wav
dual.wav
duct.wav
e.wav
east.wav
echo.wav
ed.wav
effect.wav
egress.wav
eight.wav
eighteen.wav
eighty.wav
electric.wav
electromagnetic.wav
elevator.wav
eleven.wav
eliminate.wav
emergency.wav
energy.wav
engage.wav
engaged.wav
engine.wav
enter.wav
entry.wav
environment.wav
error.wav
escape.wav
evacuate.wav
exchange.wav
exit.wav
expect.wav
experiment.wav
experimental.wav
explode.wav
explosion.wav
exposure.wav
exterminate.wav
extinguish.wav
extinguisher.wav
extreme.wav
f.wav
facility.wav
fahrenheit.wav
failed.wav
failure.wav farthest.wav
fast.wav
feet.wav
field.wav
fifteen.wav
fifth.wav
fifty.wav
final.wav
fine.wav
fire.wav
first.wav
five.wav
flooding.wav
floor.wav
fool.wav
for.wav
forbidden.wav
force.wav
forms.wav
found.wav
four.wav
fourteen.wav
fourth.wav
fourty.wav
foxtrot.wav
freeman.wav
freezer.wav
from.wav
front.wav
fuel.wav
g.wav
get.wav
go.wav
going.wav
good.wav
goodbye.wav
gordon.wav
got.wav
government.wav
granted.wav
great.wav
green.wav
grenade.wav
guard.wav
gulf.wav
gun.wav
guthrie.wav
handling.wav
hangar.wav
has.wav
have.wav
hazard.wav
head.wav
health.wav
heat.wav
helicopter.wav
helium.wav
hello.wav
help.wav
here.wav
hide.wav
high.wav
highest.wav
hit.wav
hole.wav
hostile.wav
hot.wav
hotel.wav
hour.wav
hours.wav
hundred.wav
hydro.wav
i.wav
idiot.wav
illegal.wav
immediate.wav
immediately.wav
in.wav
inches.wav
india.wav
ing.wav
inoperative.wav
inside.wav
inspection.wav
inspector.wav
interchange.wav
intruder.wav
invallid.wav
invasion.wav
is.wav
it.wav
johnson.wav
juliet.wav
key.wav
kill.wav
kilo.wav
kit.wav
lab.wav
lambda.wav
laser.wav
last.wav
launch.wav
leak.wav
leave.wav
left.wav
legal.wav
level.wav
lever.wav
lie.wav
lieutenant.wav
life.wav
light.wav
lima.wav
liquid.wav
loading.wav
locate.wav
located.wav
location.wav
lock.wav
locked.wav
locker.wav
lockout.wav
lower.wav
lowest.wav
magnetic.wav
main.wav
maintenance.wav
malfunction.wav
man.wav
mass.wav
materials.wav
maximum.wav
may.wav
medical.wav
men.wav
mercy.wav
mesa.wav
message.wav
meter.wav
micro.wav
middle.wav
mike.wav
miles.wav
military.wav
milli.wav
million.wav
minefield.wav
minimum.wav
minutes.wav
mister.wav
mode.wav
motor.wav
motorpool.wav
move.wav
must.wav
nearest.wav
nice.wav
nine.wav
nineteen.wav
ninety.wav
no.wav
nominal.wav
north.wav
not.wav
november.wav
now.wav
number.wav
objective.wav
observation.wav
of.wav
officer.wav
ok.wav
on.wav
one.wav
open.wav
operating.wav
operations.wav
operative.wav
option.wav
order.wav
organic.wav
oscar.wav
out.wav
outside.wav
over.wav
overload.wav
override.wav
pacify.wav
pain.wav
pal.wav
panel.wav
percent.wav
perimeter.wav
permitted.wav
personnel.wav
pipe.wav
plant.wav
platform.wav
please.wav
point.wav
portal.wav
power.wav
presence.wav
press.wav
primary.wav proceed.wav
processing.wav
progress.wav
proper.wav
propulsion.wav
prosecute.wav
protective.wav
push.wav
quantum.wav
quebec.wav
question.wav
questioning.wav
quick.wav
quit.wav
radiation.wav
radioactive.wav
rads.wav
rapid.wav
reach.wav
reached.wav
reactor.wav
red.wav
relay.wav
released.wav
remaining.wav
renegade.wav
repair.wav
report.wav
reports.wav
required.wav
research.wav
resevoir.wav
resistance.wav
right.wav
rocket.wav
roger.wav
romeo.wav
room.wav
round.wav
run.wav
safe.wav
safety.wav
sargeant.wav
satellite.wav
save.wav
science.wav
scream.wav
screen.wav
search.wav
second.wav
secondary.wav
seconds.wav
sector.wav
secure.wav
secured.wav
security.wav
select.wav
selected.wav
service.wav
seven.wav
seventeen.wav
seventy.wav
severe.wav
sewage.wav
sewer.wav
shield.wav
shipment.wav
shock.wav
shoot.wav
shower.wav
shut.wav
side.wav
sierra.wav
sight.wav
silo.wav
six.wav
sixteen.wav
sixty.wav
slime.wav
slow.wav
soldier.wav
some.wav
someone.wav
something.wav
son.wav
sorry.wav
south.wav
squad.wav
square.wav
stairway.wav
status.wav
sterile.wav
sterilization.wav
storage.wav
sub.wav
subsurface.wav
sudden.wav
suit.wav
superconducting.wav
supercooled.wav
supply.wav
surface.wav
surrender.wav
surround.wav
surrounded.wav
switch.wav
system.wav
systems.wav
tactical.wav
take.wav
talk.wav
tango.wav
tank.wav
target.wav
team.wav
temperature.wav
temporal.wav
ten.wav
terminal.wav
terminated.wav
termination.wav
test.wav
that.wav
the.wav
then.wav
there.wav
third.wav
thirteen.wav
thirty.wav
this.wav
those.wav
thousand.wav
threat.wav
three.wav
through.wav
time.wav
to.wav
top.wav
topside.wav
touch.wav
towards.wav
track.wav
train.wav
transportation.wav
truck.wav
tunnel.wav
turn.wav
turret.wav
twelve.wav
twenty.wav
two.wav
unauthorized.wav
under.wav
uniform.wav
unlocked.wav
until.wav
up.wav
upper.wav
uranium.wav
us.wav
usa.wav
use.wav
used.wav
user.wav
vacate.wav
valid.wav
vapor.wav
vent.wav
ventillation.wav
victor.wav
violated.wav
violation.wav
voltage.wav
vox_login.wav
walk.wav
wall.wav
want.wav
wanted.wav
warm.wav
warn.wav
warning.wav
waste.wav
water.wav
we.wav
weapon.wav
west.wav
whiskey.wav
white.wav
wilco.wav
will.wav
with.wav
without.wav
woop.wav
xeno.wav
yankee.wav
yards.wav
year.wav
yellow.wav
yes.wav
you.wav
your.wav
yourself.wav
zero.wav
zone.wav
zulu.wav
Another great post - Inspired me to install my original disks.
1998 was a good year in gaming, although shamefully, I remember the reviews of the day and when the game moved to Zen - HL lost its momentum. I never completed, probably because in 98' I got Internet.
I am going to try and complete this time. To think this game spawned Counter Strike and Day of Defeat - the early versions for both mods - I still think are the best.
I too hated the head crabs - I recall the AI for the special forces was on another level at the time, also felt that a proper pistol (Colt Python or whatever it is) was epic!
1998 was a good year in gaming, although shamefully, I remember the reviews of the day and when the game moved to Zen - HL lost its momentum. I never completed, probably because in 98' I got Internet.
I am going to try and complete this time. To think this game spawned Counter Strike and Day of Defeat - the early versions for both mods - I still think are the best.
I too hated the head crabs - I recall the AI for the special forces was on another level at the time, also felt that a proper pistol (Colt Python or whatever it is) was epic!
"Game" 14 Complete!
Sin - Demo only
The Verdict
I'm not sure there is a huge amount to say about this on the basis it was a 30 minute demo! Some content has been cut from the demo too, in particular music I assume due to the lack of the CD and a few cutscenes too, judging you youtube lets play videos. Therefore I've kept this to a couple of paragraphs.
What content was there was quite fun, but nothing ground breaking. I quite liked the interactivity though, and the computer screens dotted around the map are almost picture - in - picture in that they actually show the same thing whether your standing near them or interacting with them. The demo level takes place in a bank and I took the time to find Blade's account number and PIN on the main terminal and went back to ATM to see if I could access his bank account - which I could! The code to the main bank vault was also displayed here, and I liked this natural and organic way of finding out information around the world.
The combat was only so-so. Having played the slow Half Life and the quick Quakes (including Q3 as I write this; I've been ill this weekend so a lot of time spent sat around not doing much!) Sin doesn't seem to have much special about its combat. You shoot duded with a pistol or MSG, and I would hope more guns unlock as you play. The guns have weak soundeffects and don't have any real weight to them (although yes these were the starting guns!)
The graphics were surprisingly good, much better than half-life's. There were very crisp textures, water effects and lighting. There were many API options, I was tempted to choose RIVA OpenGL considering I have an NVIDIA MX440 but just went with "default OpenGL".
I suppose the best way to judge a demo is... Did it make me want to browse eBay for the full game? Nah.
Sin - Demo only
The Verdict
I'm not sure there is a huge amount to say about this on the basis it was a 30 minute demo! Some content has been cut from the demo too, in particular music I assume due to the lack of the CD and a few cutscenes too, judging you youtube lets play videos. Therefore I've kept this to a couple of paragraphs.
What content was there was quite fun, but nothing ground breaking. I quite liked the interactivity though, and the computer screens dotted around the map are almost picture - in - picture in that they actually show the same thing whether your standing near them or interacting with them. The demo level takes place in a bank and I took the time to find Blade's account number and PIN on the main terminal and went back to ATM to see if I could access his bank account - which I could! The code to the main bank vault was also displayed here, and I liked this natural and organic way of finding out information around the world.
The combat was only so-so. Having played the slow Half Life and the quick Quakes (including Q3 as I write this; I've been ill this weekend so a lot of time spent sat around not doing much!) Sin doesn't seem to have much special about its combat. You shoot duded with a pistol or MSG, and I would hope more guns unlock as you play. The guns have weak soundeffects and don't have any real weight to them (although yes these were the starting guns!)
The graphics were surprisingly good, much better than half-life's. There were very crisp textures, water effects and lighting. There were many API options, I was tempted to choose RIVA OpenGL considering I have an NVIDIA MX440 but just went with "default OpenGL".
I suppose the best way to judge a demo is... Did it make me want to browse eBay for the full game? Nah.
Game 15 Complete... for now!
Quake 3
This is one of those games I've never actually owned but I've played and watched the Demo and benchmark hundreds of times! Is it actually any fun?
Getting it running
Like a lot of these games, I had no issues installing and playing using this original (perhaps patched?) disk. I could get used to this!
Gameplay
Well this is a contrast to Half-Life. Very fast paced action, jump pads, twitch mouse kills, no story (I think? Reading the manual doesn't count!).
I have only played the single player... so far. I think now might be a good time to retire the Windows 98 PC for the XP PC which can do USB wifi and has an ethernet port and see if there is a way to play online! Also I can play Morrowind
This is the best feeling game so far. Even with my Dell ball mouse I never felt I had been cheated a kill by the game. Running around the levels with my mechanical keyboard, all the controls fell immediately to hand, the auto-switching is great in that I turned it off but it switches when you're out of ammo (once you've let go of fire to give you a small penalty for not paying attention to your ammo counter). The mouse sensitivity was perfect for me by default. The game always did what I wanted it to do; it's basically the opposite of using ladders in Half-Life.
None of the games so far have given me the feeling of satisfaction that I got from jump padding between islands, in the air spinning around and getting a one hit kill with a rail gun at another dude who is also flying through the air on the otherside of the map. I played on the second of five difficulty levels after getting my arse handed to me on about the 3rd level on the medium medium difficulty. The railgun was my weapon of choice, which is unusual for me as I am more of a spray and pray in fast action games!
A few of the levels are a bit too large for the number of bots that were provided. I learned quickly to hang around the central "junctions" to not miss out of the fight altogether.
The tutorial is quite good by placing you in a small area with a voice over telling you what certain things do. That's all it needs to get you into a fight. The difficulty ramp is quite good in that Tier 6 and 7 provided quite closer matches.This is the first game I might play again on a harder difficulty (and with my laser mouse), although I might wait until I've played UT99 first.
Please bear in mind this review is coming from someone who generally isn't really into online shooters; I've played about 100 hours of BF1, as a medic 99% of the time, and that's about it! Compared to BF1 then, Q3 feels so much "purer" and skill based. Very little getting in the way with how good you are with a mouse (and your refresh rate I suppose!); no reviving, weird perks, OP snipers (perhaps the rail gun, I feel like it has a generous hit box or something...), loot crates, sprinting from one end of the map to the other, heros with unique abilities, micro-transactions... Just a range of pick ups in locked locations that allow you to plan your run around the map and cut off people who are probably going for the same thing!
I think the animations deserve a final mention - it was a joy to see (and kill) bots doing unique jumps like backflips off ledges, which looked incredibly smooth at 75fps.
After playing 26 matches the range of levels are great; whilst there were a few that quite convoluted routes, I learned my around most of them in the 10 minute matches.
Graphics and Performance
Playing at 1280*1024 on maximum settings, it looked great, much better than Half-Life and Sin. I can't remember too much about it as it's quite hard to admire scenery whilst dodging rockets. The textures in particular looked much sharper. The mirror you first spawn in front of in particular tanked my frame rate to 52 (how will I cope) which was slightly surprising for a 728MHz P3 and MX440 128bit!
Sound
The sound achieves its main job of telling you roughly where enemies are through pick up and gunfire sounds. I'm trying to remember if there was any music, and I really have no idea!
Was it fun?
It's been the most fun I've had with this PC. It's the sort of game that will make me struggle to go back and play Doom 2 but also BF1 and Destiny 2 which I'm currently playing through in a "eh
" kind of way.
Should you play it?
Let's be honest, you already have, but play it more!
My stats just before the final match.
Quake 3
This is one of those games I've never actually owned but I've played and watched the Demo and benchmark hundreds of times! Is it actually any fun?
Getting it running
Like a lot of these games, I had no issues installing and playing using this original (perhaps patched?) disk. I could get used to this!
Gameplay
Well this is a contrast to Half-Life. Very fast paced action, jump pads, twitch mouse kills, no story (I think? Reading the manual doesn't count!).
I have only played the single player... so far. I think now might be a good time to retire the Windows 98 PC for the XP PC which can do USB wifi and has an ethernet port and see if there is a way to play online! Also I can play Morrowind
This is the best feeling game so far. Even with my Dell ball mouse I never felt I had been cheated a kill by the game. Running around the levels with my mechanical keyboard, all the controls fell immediately to hand, the auto-switching is great in that I turned it off but it switches when you're out of ammo (once you've let go of fire to give you a small penalty for not paying attention to your ammo counter). The mouse sensitivity was perfect for me by default. The game always did what I wanted it to do; it's basically the opposite of using ladders in Half-Life.
None of the games so far have given me the feeling of satisfaction that I got from jump padding between islands, in the air spinning around and getting a one hit kill with a rail gun at another dude who is also flying through the air on the otherside of the map. I played on the second of five difficulty levels after getting my arse handed to me on about the 3rd level on the medium medium difficulty. The railgun was my weapon of choice, which is unusual for me as I am more of a spray and pray in fast action games!
A few of the levels are a bit too large for the number of bots that were provided. I learned quickly to hang around the central "junctions" to not miss out of the fight altogether.
The tutorial is quite good by placing you in a small area with a voice over telling you what certain things do. That's all it needs to get you into a fight. The difficulty ramp is quite good in that Tier 6 and 7 provided quite closer matches.This is the first game I might play again on a harder difficulty (and with my laser mouse), although I might wait until I've played UT99 first.
Please bear in mind this review is coming from someone who generally isn't really into online shooters; I've played about 100 hours of BF1, as a medic 99% of the time, and that's about it! Compared to BF1 then, Q3 feels so much "purer" and skill based. Very little getting in the way with how good you are with a mouse (and your refresh rate I suppose!); no reviving, weird perks, OP snipers (perhaps the rail gun, I feel like it has a generous hit box or something...), loot crates, sprinting from one end of the map to the other, heros with unique abilities, micro-transactions... Just a range of pick ups in locked locations that allow you to plan your run around the map and cut off people who are probably going for the same thing!
I think the animations deserve a final mention - it was a joy to see (and kill) bots doing unique jumps like backflips off ledges, which looked incredibly smooth at 75fps.
After playing 26 matches the range of levels are great; whilst there were a few that quite convoluted routes, I learned my around most of them in the 10 minute matches.
Graphics and Performance
Playing at 1280*1024 on maximum settings, it looked great, much better than Half-Life and Sin. I can't remember too much about it as it's quite hard to admire scenery whilst dodging rockets. The textures in particular looked much sharper. The mirror you first spawn in front of in particular tanked my frame rate to 52 (how will I cope) which was slightly surprising for a 728MHz P3 and MX440 128bit!
Sound
The sound achieves its main job of telling you roughly where enemies are through pick up and gunfire sounds. I'm trying to remember if there was any music, and I really have no idea!
Was it fun?
It's been the most fun I've had with this PC. It's the sort of game that will make me struggle to go back and play Doom 2 but also BF1 and Destiny 2 which I'm currently playing through in a "eh
Should you play it?
Let's be honest, you already have, but play it more!
My stats just before the final match.
I remember playing Q3 (more likely a demo, or did they do a Q3Test? Or was there a leaked build? I forget). My PC was woefully underpowered and only managed a single figure frame rate, but just enjoyed wandering around and marveling at the graphics. Curved surfaces! It's strange now thinking just how fast graphical fidelity was advancing back then.
Probably the Demo. Still readily available.
It turns out there was a leak https://www.theregister.co.uk/1999/03/01/quake_iii_arena_leaked/ but memory fails me as to whether that's what I played or not. Was worryingly obsessed with Q2 deathmatch at the time (to the point where I made a few levels) so not beyond the realms of possibility.
Soldato
I replayed Q3 a couple of years ago on the hardest difficulty. Found Hunter the most difficult, but the bots are relatively predictable once you know the maps and pattern.
Gameplay still holds up
Gameplay still holds up