Author Topic: Making a list and checking it twice: Christmas games for a 17-year-old  (Read 3558 times)

Offline Ghreyfain

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Okay, so I need to figure out what my little bro wants to get for christmas this year, but I figured I'd also get him a computer game.  My thoughts were along the lines of Halo 2 or Everquest 2, or something similar, but then I realised how old his computer is, so those'll do no good (not to mention that Halo 2 is Xbox only... damn consoles).

So anyways, for a decrepit rig with the following specs, what do you think would suit your typical 17-year-old male gamer?

Duron 800 mhz processor
256 MB of RAM
64 mb radeon 7500 video card

He likes your generic first person shooter, jiggly RPG (NWN, for instance), and I think he's fairly into MMORPGs, too.  Dark Age of Camelot, specifically.
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Offline Shadow Ishtar

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Re: Making a list and checking it twice: Christmas games for a 17-year-old
« Reply #1 on: November 12, 2004, 09:10:38 PM »
Does he have Morrowind or Quake III? My computer's pretty close to that, I'm pretty sure, and they work great. Morrowind and it's two exp. are $30 all together, and Quake III is probably twenty or thirty. Does that help?
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Offline Ghreyfain

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Re: Making a list and checking it twice: Christmas games for a 17-year-old
« Reply #2 on: November 12, 2004, 10:41:10 PM »
Yeah, he already has Morrowind and I think one of its expansions.  I'll look into Quake 3.  I'm also thinking maybe getting HotU for NWN and whichever Morrowind expansion he doesn't have would be good.
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Offline icelus

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Re: Making a list and checking it twice: Christmas games for a 17-year-old
« Reply #3 on: November 12, 2004, 11:15:03 PM »
I'm assuming he's already fallen to your Starcraft illness?  What about Warcraft 3?
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Offline Murdane

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Re: Making a list and checking it twice: Christmas games for a 17-year-old
« Reply #4 on: November 12, 2004, 11:25:28 PM »
HotU is well worth it.  The campaign and gameplay reminded me very much of the BG series.

Offline SimDing0™

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Re: Making a list and checking it twice: Christmas games for a 17-year-old
« Reply #5 on: November 13, 2004, 06:14:41 AM »
GTA3 and Vice City, while not FPSes, don't look to be far off the sort of gameplay he likes. They'll also run fine on that system.

The only worthwhile FPS that springs instantly to mind which will run decently on that system is Return to Castle Wolfenstein, unless you want to go for even lower-end games like Quake III or Unreal Tournament. Incidentally, I do think I managed to run UT2003/4 on a Geforce 2 at one point but I wouldn't chance it.

Offline melora

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Re: Making a list and checking it twice: Christmas games for a 17-year-old
« Reply #6 on: November 13, 2004, 07:23:26 AM »
GTA and Vice City are awesome according to my son (26).  we call him the "human strategy guide".  i will ask him for other suggestions.
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Offline Slumlord

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Re: Making a list and checking it twice: Christmas games for a 17-year-old
« Reply #7 on: November 13, 2004, 09:22:28 AM »
Or for FPS mindless fun with TONS of fighting, explosions, humongous bosses, and weapons up the yin-yang all for a drop in the bucket there is Serious Sam: The First Encounter or Serious Sam Gold Edition.  And with all that crap going on the game runs incredibly smooth on older computers.  It's actually kind of fun when a herd of mutated oxen knocks you fifty feet into the air and you come down opening up on them with your gattling gun.  My specs are only slightly higher then what was posted. 
« Last Edit: November 13, 2004, 09:25:10 AM by Slumlord »
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Offline SimDing0™

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Re: Making a list and checking it twice: Christmas games for a 17-year-old
« Reply #8 on: November 13, 2004, 10:54:06 AM »
Ah yes, how could I forget Serious Sam? Second Encounter especially comes highly recommended, and will run on an abacus.

Offline discharger12

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Re: Making a list and checking it twice: Christmas games for a 17-year-old
« Reply #9 on: November 13, 2004, 06:11:19 PM »
Buy Elevator Shooter. It's the best. You sit in an elevator and go up and down, while shooting the bad guys.

Offline Ghreyfain

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Re: Making a list and checking it twice: Christmas games for a 17-year-old
« Reply #10 on: November 13, 2004, 06:13:28 PM »
Ah, yeah, Vice City would be good.  He's got GTA3, War3, and I don't think he was ever really into Starcraft.

This should be a fairly good list of things to choose from:

HotU
Bloodmoon (the werewolf expansion for Morrowind)
Vice City
Serious Sam (Second Encounter?  Is that an expansion or a sequel or what?)

Edit: And I shall take special care not to buy Elevator Shooter.
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Offline discharger12

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Re: Making a list and checking it twice: Christmas games for a 17-year-old
« Reply #11 on: November 13, 2004, 06:18:14 PM »
Edit: And I shall take special care to buy Elevator Shooter.

Hurrah!

Also try San Andreas, and Half-Life 2 when it comes out.

I just beat Halo 2, and the ending leaves an opening for Halo 3, so not sure what your brother likes.

Offline Ghreyfain

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Offline discharger12

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Re: Making a list and checking it twice: Christmas games for a 17-year-old
« Reply #13 on: November 13, 2004, 06:24:08 PM »
When I said 'not sure what your brother likes' I meant about Halo 2. Does he care if games leave something open like that?

Offline Slumlord

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Re: Making a list and checking it twice: Christmas games for a 17-year-old
« Reply #14 on: November 13, 2004, 06:32:00 PM »
Quote
Serious Sam (Second Encounter?  Is that an expansion or a sequel or what?)

Sequel.  Serious Sam Gold Edition has both 1 & 2.  Oh yeah, don't forget the patches.
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Offline Ghreyfain

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Re: Making a list and checking it twice: Christmas games for a 17-year-old
« Reply #15 on: November 13, 2004, 10:09:25 PM »
When I said 'not sure what your brother likes' I meant about Halo 2. Does he care if games leave something open like that?
My thoughts were along the lines of Halo 2 or Everquest 2, or something similar, but then I realised how old his computer is, so those'll do no good (not to mention that Halo 2 is Xbox only... damn consoles).



Also try San Andreas...
So anyways, for a decrepit rig with the following specs...
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Offline discharger12

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Re: Making a list and checking it twice: Christmas games for a 17-year-old
« Reply #16 on: November 13, 2004, 10:17:51 PM »
Your trying to belittle me.

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Re: Making a list and checking it twice: Christmas games for a 17-year-old
« Reply #17 on: November 13, 2004, 11:49:09 PM »
Try? Nay, it has been done.

Offline Neffra

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Re: Making a list and checking it twice: Christmas games for a 17-year-old
« Reply #18 on: November 13, 2004, 11:53:11 PM »
Your trying to belittle me.
Restating what he'd said previously isn't belittling you Echani. Its... restating that the PC his brother has is incapable of running certain high end games and that he doesn't have an XBox to run Halo 2. :/
« Last Edit: November 14, 2004, 03:42:13 PM by Neffra »

Offline discharger12

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Re: Making a list and checking it twice: Christmas games for a 17-year-old
« Reply #19 on: November 14, 2004, 01:10:03 PM »
Your trying to belittle me.
Restating what he'd said previously isn't belittling you Echani. Its... restating that the PC his brother has is incapable of running certain games high end games and that he doesn't have an XBox to run Halo 2. :/

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Offline Ghreyfain

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Re: Making a list and checking it twice: Christmas games for a 17-year-old
« Reply #20 on: November 14, 2004, 03:08:19 PM »
I'd like to believe that.  I really would.
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Offline bryad

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Re: Making a list and checking it twice: Christmas games for a 17-year-old
« Reply #21 on: November 17, 2004, 11:27:01 PM »
Hey, now that it came out like yesterday, hl2 would work, i think. My friend has 1000mhz with a simiiliar or worse radeon, and it runs great on his. Costs bout 50 bucks, and comes with Counter Strike source,  the only problem is if it doesnt work he cant give it to anyone  else cause you have to have net connection to run SINGLE player, and it registers your CD key permanantly, for piracy reasons, they even went so far as to put the disks into PAPER CASINGS! BASTARDS!!!!

Offline neriana

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Re: Making a list and checking it twice: Christmas games for a 17-year-old
« Reply #22 on: November 18, 2004, 01:06:48 AM »
The HL2 system requirements are amazingly low.

1.2 GHz Processor
256MB RAM
DirectX 7 (!) capable graphics card
Windows 2000/XP/ME/98
Mouse
Keyboard
Internet Connection

I guess that's what happens when something's in development for 6 years. But somehow I doubt that it will really run nicely on that configuration. Certainly all the graphics would need to be turned all the way down, and as for multiplayer, forget it.

What about the older games, Ghrey? Does he have the first Half-Life?
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Offline Pirengle

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Re: Making a list and checking it twice: Christmas games for a 17-year-old
« Reply #23 on: November 18, 2004, 01:13:36 AM »
System Shock 1 and 2. Kinda like a FPS RPG.
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