I posted this on our internal forums here at work but thought I'd ask here as well...
I'm finding myself more and more tired of shooter genre. I do have my favourites that I'll likely play for awhile, but I don't get excited over them that much.
What I am wondering, is if anyone can recommend a game or two along the lines of Sim City, Railroad Tycoon, Rollercoaster Tycoon, etc. etc.
One game I am looking forward to is Cities XL:
http://www.citiesxl.com/ (from the creators of City Life). And this is why:
The game’s online features and services will allow players to create interconnected cities on virtual and persistent planets. Mayors can share and trade with one another, specialize their economy and team up with befriended cities to create sprawling metropolises. Life on the planet will be punctuated by events and competitions - a concert held in one town may, for example, be attended by visitors from other areas who can also enjoy a walk around the city to admire the urban creations of multiple players. By combining a fantastic single-player game with the social and multiplayer aspects of an MMO, CITIES XL™ will shape the future of the genre by offering more variety, bigger cities and multiple gameplay layers.
Can anyone recommend games along this line? It doesn't have to be a city builder - but that type of game (btw, what is the genre these kinds of games fit in?).
Here's some already suggested to me:
Replies
Startopia (might be spelling that wrong)
And if you can find it, theres an olllllld LucasArts game called Afterlife, where you run Heaven and Hell.
Dang, I've played waaaay too many games....
You might also like Industry Giant. I haven't played it, but a friend of mine really liked it and he tends to have good taste when it comes to strategy and economic games.
http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/
If you want to know what you're getting into it, check out this SomethingAwful Let's Play that popularized it:
http://fromearth.net/LetsPlay/Boatmurdered/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ActRaiser
Its planetary management component can be either automated, or manual, like sim city with a point/purpose. Placing defenses, research instillations, etc. while the major portion of the game is galactic conquest/defense. So there is army building in addition to the city management.
Evil genius was good but I think the gameplay was too balanced...as you get better stuff the bad guys also get better and more numerous ...so the better stuff becomes obsolete almost immediately and all fun goes out the window fast.
Sins of a Solar Empire is a fantastic game that Ive played the crap out of.
Same with Afterlife, that game rocked my teenage ass.
I will check out the rest of the suggestions. Industry Giant sounds interesting.
Keep the suggestions coming!!
Ill just add my list of none shooters that i love (hate shooters anyway ;D)
DK 1-2
Fallout 1-2
BG1
Planescape Torment
Beneath a steel sky
KOTOR (probably mass effect aswell)
VTM: Bloodlines (with patches to fix unplayable bugfest)
Dawn of war
Psychonauts
and many more
but more on topic: (im slightly drunk and just noticed what you was really asking )
HOMEWORLD god damnit!
CIV?
Pizza tycoon
the original is what you want
behold the glory!
The overhype of Fable still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It wasn't a bad game, it just wasn't what I thought it was going to be. And the loading after every area was annoying.
If you want a good RPG to play, download the free version of Betrayal at Krondor (1993 RPG of the year, I believe). Great game, great story...but nothing like simcity.
I didn't enjoy Theme Park much, though Theme Hospital is good
Bullfrog games tend to have no throttling
I can't believe Transport Tycoon isn't mentioned yet. That one's relaxing and is focused on competitive transport of supplies. It also has fun multiplayer as well.
You can buy a copy of Transport Tycoon Deluxe then run it on the OpenTTD engine for full nativeness for your operating system.
I've been playing EVE:Online, which is like crack. There's a 21day trial on Steam.
i've always had a soft spot for a good rts.. 'rise of nations' was a favourite.
excellent book series as well btw... raymond feist iirc
sry i have no games cept ones allready mentioned
And if your Machine allows, Medieval 2 : Total War .
Seconded. Great combat system and complex build/upgrade/economic structure = awesome.
Thank you for stealing what was going to be my post. Now I didn't have to go through the trouble of typing it out! heh.
So yeah, Dungeon Keeper is an absolute must. I personally much prefer 1 (sorry daz ), and with only a few tweaks that runs great on xp, but dk2 really isn't bad either.
Startopia is great fun for a while, although I find I run out of enthousiasm for it after a few games. And Afterlife is AGES ago. I have some pretty vague memories of that, heh.
Other games you could consider are the Populous ones, and the Settlers games. I think the genre (as loosely defined as it is) is just a subsection of sim-games. or 'godgames'. I personally really love them as well. There's a populous coming out for the ds which is looking really good, might want to keep an eye on that one!
edit: Oh, I just remembered another one I couldn't think of before: the anno series of games. I've only played the first one, but I hear they're all pretty fun. Anno 1602, Anno 1503 and Anno 1701 are the titles for those. The developer (Sunflowers, a german dev) is apparantly now part of Ubisoft, as well.
edit AGAIN: From the wiki "in the USA, Canada and Australia released as 1602 A.D." and the same goes for the others I mentioned.
editeditedit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:City_building_games
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Economic_simulation_games
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_game
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:God_games
You know, in case the thirty suggested games in this thread weren't quite enough.
I read the news when it was first released and it was reported to be pretty buggy so I stayed away from it. Anyone know if its fine and fixed now? I'd love to give it a run through.
yeah, go play psychonauts if you haven't yet, it's quite charming... although it's not what you requested.
i enjoyed viva pinata, and of course, the katamari games are the shit. they're not quiiittee what you're looking for but they're getting close, i think. certainly viva pinata is.
i hear you tho. it would be nice to play games that have different modes of thinking. i was looking at a video for the old raiden games, and i realized that they're basically a tribalistic, trial-by-fire right of passage -- I've got to get through this, and overcome all of these brutal hardships-- these things coming to destroy me, I've got to destroy them. it's rare that you see something from a larger perspective -- perhaps -- I'm a part of this world and i grow and expand by exploring and accepting it into myself, rather than destroying it.....
No worries Pea. DK2 came *after* EA bought Bullfrog, DK1 was before. We did what we could, but it was bound to be an inferior product. EA weren't having any of that 'when it's done' nonsense :-)
Dungeon keeper is still awesome, if you like slapping and miss treating imps overlord on the 360 ain't too bad.
John_Warner...viva pinata? seriously? I played it for a while but just didnt see what was fun about it, my animals just made me annoyed by fighting with eachother and being killed by freaks that inhabit the lands. Then again I never really got what was so fun about "the sims" either.
Ive got Civ4 its pretty good if your in the mood for world domination hehe
ahahah
i remember that game. you made me remeber of megascore magazine. good old days
I would suggest to play Giants: Citizen kabuto, great gameplay, epic action, great characters, very fun (It's one of my fav games for PC). Beyond Good & Evil is nice too, with hours and hours of fun.
I enjoyed viva pinata for a while.. i liked building my garden and making it all pretty-like. I was a bit choked up later on when i 'ran out of space' however.. they only let you put in so much stuff. pissed me right off. it's sitting on my shelf at the moment... heh.
yeah the total war series is awesome, and theres another one coming out in a year or so called empires, where you can finally boat around in ships.
I've never played it, so I can't comment anymore on it but they had a lot of fun building random things with other folks in the game.
http://www.atitd.com/index.shtml
How about the monkey island series, maniac mansion, day of the tentacle, sam and max?
Grim fandango? (honestly not played, but have a copy I need to install)
And there is always the new sam and max series worth checking out on steam.