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Author Archive for GamerDad
GamerDad’s Extreme Makeovers
Back to the world of GamerDad gaming. Just in case you’re unfamiliar with the term I shall offer a quick reminder: GamerDads are gamers who have succumbed to womenly wiles and become married with kids. This results in a reduction in both gaming time and games money and as a result purchases become less frequent but possibly of higher general quality (as you become a lot pickier!).
There’s lots of fun to be had trawling the bargain bucket, especially once you consider some of the community modifications which have been painstakingly developed while you’ve been busy changing nappies etc. Here’s a few examples of my recent faves:
Morrowind, aka Elder Scrolls 3 was an utterly massive (quite literally) game at the time. Those who’ve come to the party late with younger borther Oblivion (or even distant cousin Fallout 3) will notice many familiar traits. Same sort of open ended world as the other titles with a compelling plot and multiple side quests, guilds to join, etc. Even better when you consider the two expansions which came out after it - Pick up the whole lot in the “Game of the Year” Edition for under a tenner.
If you’re already familiar with this little beauty, you may be wondering why bother? Well, since the initial release there’s been a whole host of community created quests, graphics and even whole contintents added to the game. The game is slightly crunky looking compared to the more recent bretheren, but this can be dramatically improved thanks to the efforts of the gaming community - check out this article for a selection of some of the best mods to give the game a quick facelift.
If you’ve never played this before then take a punt - it’s easily worth a fiver (for the standalone version at the time of writing)!
Planescape: Torment - This was, in my opinion, the best of the Forgotten Realms games which were put out by Bioware and Black Isle. If you liked Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights or Icewind Dale you’d probably love this. It’s definitely a little less ‘dwarfy’ than the others - as an example: an amnesiac corpse and a chopsy floating skull as the first two party members! And probably a fair bit wordier than the others, so make sure you you’re wearing your reading specs.
Since its release over 10 years ago there’s been a whole slew of modifications which make the game run at higher resolutions (original max was 800×600), enhance the gaming experience using discarded and unfinished content hidden in the code and even remove hundreds of bugs. This page lists the three most useful mods. I’ve had a ball running this new and improved version at full 1280×1024 res with no crashes on Vista.
Hardwar was an elite-inspired game based on the planet Titan. You piloted a Moth hover-ship between craters playing off the various factions for quests and cash.
Sadly overlooked at the time, it can probably be found for free download if you look hard enough (now classed as abandonware in some places since the Software Refinery went under). Once again, there’s been a whole host of additional functionality added by fans including an entire graphical uplift and a persistent world server with multiplayer capabilities!
DOOM/Heretic Last but not least - Doom-Engine games. Many conversions of this have been made, from Java-powered browser versions to full 3d conversions. Check out this thread for a discussion of some of the more interesting ones. Heretic was my fave of the bunch back then. Loved those little imp dudes!
Hopefully this has given you an idea of the fun to be had from dusting off those old games and reliving past glories. If you don’t like what you see through your rose-tinted specs, then the odds are you can now swap them for a different pair.
Happy retrogaming!
Hello there,
This is the first of hopefully many sporadic outpourings of nonsense from a full time GamerDad.
As a GamerDad, I’m very enthusiastic about games and gaming in general, but ultimately have to work within limited time and cash budgets.
So, expect me to be discovering and enthusing about ‘new gems’ which may well be a couple of years old to most of you, but are new to me nonetheless. The best part of being a couple of years behind the curve is that I rarely pay much more than £15 per game and that my PC Hardware is now at a state where I can play them with almost everything turned up to 11.
So let’s start with a couple of fresh new discoveries… Minesweeper and Solitaire!
It’s ok, I’m not quite senile yet. There’s a madness to my methods! We’ve probably all played Minesweeper and Solitaire at some point, but I’m guessing that most of you used a mouse. Well, I’ve just found out that the Xbox 360 controller works with most of the freebie games which come with Vista (and presumably Windows 7).
Wozza mentions the 360 pad in a recent article about Fuel - why not check it out?
Better than that though, I’m using the pad to improve my enjoyment of a few cheapy classics I’ve picked up:
The main thing I wanted the pad for was the racing games. I’ve dug up Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box and Race Driver: GRID (under £30 for the pair too at the time!)
Wasn’t sure what to expect, but it’s pretty much like playing on the 360. Both games adjust automatically when they detect the presence of the controller and menus etc are updated with the A,B,X,Y buttons etc. PC Gaming has never been easier.
I also gave it a spin on a few other Games for Windows titles (I think 360 controller support is now mandatory for these games). I had a crack at Fallout 3, Bioshock and Oblivion.
Fallout 3 and Bioshock both spotted the pad and worked like a charm. I must admit I had a nightmare of a time trying to get my atrophied synapses to adjust to NOT using the keyboard/mouse combo which has served me well over the years but managed well enough with a little practice.
Oblivion support is a little trickier; this was to be expected I guess as it was an early title for the 360. It can be made to work if you have follow the instructions laid out on the official site. Still a great game anyway!
While I’m on the subject, if you’ve not played either of Oblivion or Bioshock they’re both about to appear in a bundle together on PC and 360.
