Looking for a particular kind of game ...

[frogbeastegg]

I’m in the mood for a particular type of game and can’t think of any which would fit. I want to play something which is all or most of the following:

1)Short. Something about 15 hours or less. I’m working on a few big games and don’t want to get involved with another behemoth.

2)Fun! Just … fun. Something with a bit of bounce, a bit of joy, a recognition that games are meant to entertain.

3)Shiny. A combination of solid production values, nice visuals and good audio. I’m perfectly happy playing rougher titles but once in a while it’s nice to play something that oozes expensive quality. I’ve been playing titles with various combinations of sub par voice acting, forgettable or nasty music, passable or outright ugly graphics, for so long I can’t remember the last “Oooh, shiny!” game I played.

4)Classy. A game with style, an idea, and the successful combination and execution thereof.

5)Singleplayer only. I don’t do racing games, or sports games. I don’t like FPS unless they are very special indeed, and feature a strong narrative. I should probably state in advance that I don’t like the Half Life series.

Games I have played which would fit into this type include Lego Star Wars: The Complete Trilogy, Bioshock, Dead Space, Metroid Prime 3, Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction, Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime, Locoroco.

Suggestions can be for any platform; I have a gaming spec PC, both current handhelds, and all consoles from this gen and last gen.

[Beskar]

I only played the Demo, but Trine looks like an interesting game. Admittedly, I am waiting for the price to drop, as I don't really price top price for games anymore (I wait till they are discounted). It's a platformer with style.

It uses an advances physics engine, and there are many ways to go to A to B, simply using your imagination. Here is a gameplay teaser - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXILzS03HCo

At 56 seconds, see how they used the magic to conjure that platform, then use the physics of the wheel to use it to ride up? They could obviously do something like conjure a block to climb up, but its just a testament to the many different ways you can do things throughout the game, in whatever style you can think of.

[econ21]

They are old, but two that come to mind are Max Payne 2 and Mafia (both were Throne Room recommendations to me, BTW, and not the kind of games I would normally play). I guess you may have played both, but if not...

Max Payne 2 is pretty short. 10-15 hours sounds about right. I found it fun - the "bullet type" shooter gameplay is entertaining, but it is the story-telling that makes it a joy. It is shiny, in the sense that everything seems very polished and well done. It has a lot of style - a film noir feel with interesting surreal touches ("Mirrors are more fun than TV"). It's single player only. The closest on your list to it would be Bioshock. Max Payne has no RPG elements (just a collection of weapons you accumulate) and perhaps has more modest ambitions, although I think it is a better game. I replayed it enough times to unlock the happy ending, which means finishing it about four times more than I play most games.

Mafia is longer than Max Payne 2 but still 15 hours sounds about right; it also has a "novel" like structure with a definite beginning, middle and end. I found it great fun - driving is not something I would think of doing in a game, but I enjoyed it due to the period cars; there are some shooter elements but far fewer than Max and more to my taste (more RPG like than shooter like, in that they have a role to play in the story rather than being the story). But like Max, the main fun to me is the story-telling and this is better than Max's, again because it is more RPG like - you feel you are the protagonist in Mafia, whereas in Max, you feel you are merely viewing him. Shiny ... well, that's harder to say, but yes, I think it is shiny. The voice acting is superb. The mission design is generally excellent, although in a couple of places it is awfully hard so you might have to load up a save to bypass (the car race specifically). Definitely classy - classy like a classic car, classy like the Godfather I and II movies.

Mafia is something I consider to be a great game, so I am not sure it is what you want as a filler. You might have to devote more time to mastering it, depending on your driving skills. Max is more filler material, although also a very good and memorable game.

[seireikhaan]

Hmm. I tend to play longer games, so I guess I've only got one suggestion, and you've probably played it already, but anyways- Prince of Persia: Sands of Time.

[Jolt]

Metal Gear Solid. :D

[Chimpyang]

I enjoyed boom blox for the Wii for a short while- why don't you get a lovefilm sub or something similar for the console games you reckon you'll play once - or to try new stuff out. I'm paying £14.68 a month for the films + games unlimited one with 2 discs out at a time - from which I reckon I've viewed/completed around £200's worth of DVD's and games in about a month.

[Veho Nex]

I only played the Demo, but Trine looks like an interesting game. Admittedly, I am waiting for the price to drop, as I don't really price top price for games anymore (I wait till they are discounted). It's a platformer with style.

It uses an advances physics engine, and there are many ways to go to A to B, simply using your imagination. Here is a gameplay teaser - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXILzS03HCo

At 56 seconds, see how they used the magic to conjure that platform, then use the physics of the wheel to use it to ride up? They could obviously do something like conjure a block to climb up, but its just a testament to the many different ways you can do things throughout the game, in whatever style you can think of.

Yeah for you, Frog, I definitely suggest Trine. I was surprised when I started playing it that I hadn't seen a review about it from you. It's some great 2/3d action, while it is admittedly short, maybe 3 or 4 hours. There is a time attack mode and supposedly co-op but I haven't figured out that one yet.

[johnhughthom]

I found Ghostbusters surprisingly enjoyable, if you weren't a fan of the movies it would be one to avoid, but it really is like an interactive Ghostbusters 3 movie. Listening to the other ghostbusters talk is the main fun of the game, but the actual gameplay is mildly diverting for a while. Definately a game you would only play once, but that one play through is fun.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Plants vs. Zombies

[frogbeastegg]

Thanks

Trine looks good. I'll try a demo of that and Mafia and see what I think.

I'd already played demos of Plants Versus Zombies and the original Max Payne. Neither game worked for me. PvZ was too repetitive and simple, although I loved the art style and humour. Max Payne had a control set up I just could not get along with.

I've played Sands of Time several times. Brilliant game.

I've played Metal Gears 1 and 2. 3 and 4 are on the pile waiting until I feel like playing filled with cutscenes about gibberish. :sigh: Like the gameplay, can't stand the plot or awful 'storytelling'.

Boom blox is fun. When the first game came out EA set up a stand near where I worked where you could try it out. I picked a copy up a bit later.

Thanks to platform exclusivity nonsense Ghostbusters is on restricted release in Europe, unlike other regions where it is freely available on all platforms. I'm not rewarding Sony for paying the publisher to block the xbox and PC out for several months.

Lovefilm wouldn't help me. I've got a to-play stack that's massive. Enough to keep in me games for a year if I played for a minimum of several hours every single day, and that's if you discount all of the ones which stand up to repeatedly play, like most PC strategy titles.

[Monk]

Prototype.

It's not a short game but it's one of those games like GTA4 where, if you get around 30% done, you can cause mayhem on your own indefinitely and forget about the plot. Only here you don't need cheats to wreck the town. Most important? It's fun. A lot of fun. Without a doubt some of the best super-hero based combat i've ever seen. Just be prepared to be a bit of an .

edit: MGS3 wasn't bad but it had a few strange moments. It was definitely better than 2 (then again it's not hard to be better than 2). I never played 4 since when it came time to buy a next-gen console I really only had money for one and I chose 360 for reasons that are obvious (Mass Effect). Though I heard it took the whole cut scene thing to new heights.

[Jolt]

Prototype also crossed my mind to recommend it but sound and story-telling are fails and the game can be seriously annoying. The intro is quite awesome, though. :D

[Fragony]

Why not something hair-raisingly terrifying? Forbidden Siren is most excellent, it's too good at scaring you I can't play it not even during the day. Geez almighty.



^- that is a bad situation to be in

[FactionHeir]

How about one of them better NWN2 modules?

[frogbeastegg]

Prototype. I'm waiting for it to hit the sub £20 mark - there's a bunch of things which sound good, and an equally sized list of things which could drive me into tooth-grinding frustration. Difficulty spikes. Badly designed boss battles. A myriad of little things which get in the way of you having fun. A main character and plot which sounds like it would make the writer in me vomit and vomit hard; from the disconnect between what the protagonist is saying and what he is doing I kind of wonder if the writers got confused and thought they were working on a different game.

Forbidden Siren ... IIRC that's the episodic horror game on the PSN? I shall look to see if there is a demo.

Neverwinter Nights 2 of any sort is off the cards. I got right near the end of the main campaign after months of off and on play, only to lose my savegames during a PC failure. The thought of the game makes me want to cry.

[Sheogorath]

Tropico 1 & 2, as well as Startopia, all fall into those categories, except maybe 'short', although the mission segments might be...I don't think I've ever seriously tried them. I like the sandbox modes.

In Tropico one you are the dictator (or elected president, whichever) of a small Caribbean island. You build industry and agriculture, tourism and so forth and try to avoid getting kicked out by a coup/revolution. This will probably eventually happen, but I've managed to hold out for quite a long time on the medium difficulties.

Tropico 2 puts you in control of a Caribbean island 400 years ago, as captain of a group of pirates. You raid, pillage, and do other assorted piratey things, all of which happen off screen. Your main concern is keeping your pirates happy in the times between sending them off on cruises. And keeping your captives JUST miserable enough to avoid a revolt.

Startopia is basically Tropico 1, but IN SPACE. It's quite a bit of fun and has a quirky sense of humor, which extends right down to the music. You keep people (all sorts of people. Space hippies to nine foot tall rock monsters) happy, and there's even a giant greenhouse on top of the station.

(I believe all of them are bargain-bin priced by now. If you go to whatever the English equivalent of Target is, you'll see them on the '$10' shelf. Maybe. They might be too old by now. I know Amazon has Tropico, though.)

[frogbeastegg]

Nice to see someone else who played Startopia. I adored it back when it was new; I upgraded my video card so I could get it to run smoothly and on full settings.

Tropico is on my list of games to pick up now that it's been re-released as a cheap downloadable 2 pack. I couldn't cope with playing it now; I have an 80 hour JRPG and the sprawling Sword of the Stars on the go. One more large game and I'll drown.

[Sheogorath]

Bah, you had to go and play it beforehand :P

AH, well...I might suggest the old Dungeon Keeper games? One and two are both good, although you might have trouble getting them to work on a modern computer.
A small-map DK2 game lasts only around 10 minutes or so. The campaign is longer, but eh.

[TinCow]

Evil Genius - A building sim, ala Simcity or ThemePark, but where you play a 007 style evil villain and build a lair. It's a flawed game but very fun for a good while and it's also very amusing. $10 from GOG.

Painkiller - Pure mindless FPS fun in the Serious Sam style. Makes no pretensions at storyline and such. Just boatloads of enemies, interesting level design, and fun weapons. $10 from GOG with expansion pack included.

[FesterShinetop]

How about Mirror's Edge? It looks nice, has good production values, not too long and you can get it pretty cheap nowadays.

[Reverend Joe]

Max Payne 2 is pretty short. 10-15 hours sounds about right. I found it fun - the "bullet type" shooter gameplay is entertaining, but it is the story-telling that makes it a joy. It is shiny, in the sense that everything seems very polished and well done. It has a lot of style - a film noir feel with interesting surreal touches ("Mirrors are more fun than TV"). It's single player only. The closest on your list to it would be Bioshock. Max Payne has no RPG elements (just a collection of weapons you accumulate) and perhaps has more modest ambitions, although I think it is a better game. I replayed it enough times to unlock the happy ending, which means finishing it about four times more than I play most games.

I know some will disagree with me, but I personally prefer the first Max Payne. Sure, yes, it is less advanced as a game, but the plotline is so much more enjoyable; it's got a real Film Noir feel to it. The second game just felt silly to me, more like a bad attempt at mixing Die Hard with the Film Noir genre; plus there's way too many plot elements that were unnecessarily recycled from the original, like the weird theme park in the second that is derived entirely from a random moment in the first when a bizarre, surrealistic show appears on a TV screen. I was also bothered by the lack of a distinct driving force in the plot; in the first, Max is trying to solve/avenge his wife's murder; in the second, I often found myself wondering, "What am I doing again, and why?" I guess if the first game hadn't existed, I really wouldn't have minded the plot of the second and instead just enjoyed the cool game, but the fact that the first contained such a good, coherent plot, and even if it got a bit silly at times (okay, Ragnarok, we get it already!) it was still way better than most video game plots, and it was actually entertaining to experience.

[Krusader]

Was to suggest Serious Sam games, but might not be your cup of tea. They HAD shiny graphics and I just loved mindless shooting at strange enemies, often hordes of them and in mostly open landscapes.

And Startopia...one of the saddest gaming moments, when I lost my CD

[Fragony]

Forbidden Siren ... IIRC that's the episodic horror game on the PSN? I shall look to see if there is a demo.

No demo, it's a budget release shouldn't hurt anyone's budget. If you buy it on disc you also get the making of, which is pretty cool. You will love it, ask yourself this, what could possibly be more creepy than a stealthy survival horror where you get to home in on your enemy's perspective? You are hiding in that locker, and than you 'see' it coming towards that locker........

and these sounds they make

[miotas]

Psychonauts is a brilliant platforming game that is genuinely fun and actually had me bursting out laughing fairly often. It's about an acrobat kid who runs away from the circus to go to psychic camp and ends up saving the world from a dentist who is trying to steal everone's brains. It gets a bit tedious towards the end but on the whole it is one of the best games I've ever played.

This is the review that got me to buy the game, but it's got some mild swearing in it. http://www.escapistmagazine.com/vide.../2-Psychonauts

[Jolt]

Was to suggest Serious Sam games, but might not be your cup of tea. They HAD shiny graphics and I just loved mindless shooting at strange enemies, often hordes of them and in mostly open landscapes.

One of the best Multiplayer FPS experiences I ever had. 8 guys playing through the campaign on the hardest level, seeing dozens and dozens and dozens of enemies running straight for you. :D

[Krusader]

One of the best Multiplayer FPS experiences I ever had. 8 guys playing through the campaign on the hardest level, seeing dozens and dozens and dozens of enemies running straight for you. :D

Agreed. 6-player Serious Sam 1 was one of the most fun I had.

On-topic:

What about the Sam & Max and/or Monkey Island episodic games Telltale makes? I tried demo of Episode 1 and the little I saw I really liked.

[rajpoot]

Simpsons Hit and Run. Didn't play it myself, but a friend of mine found it very entertaining. Kind of like GTA.

[frogbeastegg]

Ah - Mirror's Edge. Hadn't thought of that; I've got that on the to-play mountain. That may well do the trick - it's certainly shiny, short, focused solidly about its concept, and singleplayer. If I find it fun as well then it's a perfect match.

I also own Psychonauts. Considering who it's made by, I couldn't not own it. Pretty sure I'd like it, never got around to playing it. If Mirror's Edge doesn't suit me then I shall fall back to this. If both of those games stumble then it will be Trine (would like to see what happens with the rumoured PSN/xbox live arcade version before making a purchase), then a tie between Mafia and Siren.

Thanks, all

[Crandaeolon]

World of Goo might also fit the bill.

[Monk]

World of Goo might also fit the bill.

How in the world did I forget about that game? Best $10 i ever spent. There's even a demo. Looks like it's back up to $20 again, still worth every penny imho.