PC Game Fun Time

While we seem to be doing a little to much gushing over Stardock around here of late, I feel like this news is noteworthy.

Stardock has continued their tradition of releasing major free updates for already released games.  Their latest free “patch” for the Galactic Civilizations II trilogy (the original game and 2 expansion packs) would almost put some expansion packs to shame (I’m looking at you, Sims!)

This update adds a bunch of new features, including new more varied game setup options, improved graphics, a substantially revised espionage system and new diplomacy options.  It also adds some of the usual game balance improvements and bugfixes.

It would be nice if more developers would show this kind of continuing commitment to an already released game.  Stardock has publicly stated that there will be no more official expansion packs for Gal Civ II and there is no monthly fee for playing.  However, the decision to add these “content updates” still makes good business sense, as I’m certain each substantial update generates some additional sales for Stardock.

Maybe there is still hope that someday most developers will actually care about and even take pride in their games.

I fear that all the buzz over Far Cry 2 in recent days has crowded out other PC games that are no less worthy of mention, so allow me to take a step back and cover some of the PC games that I enjoyed immensely over the past two years or so. If you’re looking for a game to play that’s just as fun as what’s coming out now, but won’t run you the full $50 price tag, look no further than these games.

Team Fortress 2. Yeah, we’re still playing the ol’ Teef regularly in this household. Grokmoo wrote quite extensively about the parts of the game we enjoy, so I’ll just give the bottom line here: the game has been out for a little while yet still enjoys a thriving community. The nine classes seem deceptively simple (only three weapons each, one of which is a melee weapon), but each require completely different strategies, so that mastering even one takes awhile and mastering them all is quite the feat. Add to that the number of different gameplay modes and all the custom maps that are available, and it’s not an exaggeration to say that you can easily get hundreds of hours of playtime out of Team Fortress 2.

Crysis (and its expansion pack Warhead) offers one of the best single player FPS experiences in recent memory. The graphics are simply amazing and will definitely put your high-end video card through its paces. Frustrated by the slowness and general aimlessness of the story missions in Far Cry 2? Then Crysis is the cure. And despite it being over a year older, its engine is definitely better (probably because it wasn’t compromised by having to work on consoles). All it takes to realize the superiority of the engine is to level a copse of trees — full of enemies attempting to hide — with a mounted machine gun. There’s nothing else quite so satisfying as to take out not just all of your enemies, but also all of the trees.

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