What games do I play ?

I play a lot of games, from various genres.  I consider myself a hardcore gamer, in the sense that I was skipping classes to finish Quake II, or watching my town grew in SimCity 2000.  But not anymore.  The first game I play was back in 1989, the bartender game called Tapper. I was in a computer class that time, when our teacher told us to prepare 5 disks for games. So I select Tapper, Buck Rogers, Decathlon (which was later banned from the club due to damaged keyboards) & I can't remember the other 2. I didn't have any PC at that time, so I play games only when I go to the club.  Then when I was at the MRSM Jasin 1992-93, I was again a committee member in a computer club, & spent all nite playing Prince of Persia.  The rest is history.

I play mainly sports games, FPS, driving sims, flight sims, RTS...hey, that's almost everything.. . Heheh..yeah, right.  Actually my true interest is with sports, driving & FPSes. The rest is just for some mood change. Right now I'm kinda hooked on Quake III, as I'm practicing for CPL Asia in June. But at the same time I'm playing NOLF & Deus Ex I bought last week.  For the list of my all - time favorite games, click here.

FPS. I started playing first - person shooters on my friend's laptop, he had Doom installed. That was back in 1993 I think, or 1994. Then, after I bought the SoundBlaster Live! Value soundcard I got the Half - Life demo disc.  I installed that thing, played all day & nite, missing classes, then I went to Imbi & bought the full version. But, what a shame.  I didn't manage to finish the game until Friday, February 1st 2001, after almost 3 years playing it.  But I was totally ...it was a total satisfaction after finally managing to get to the final level, & killing the end boss with the unlikeliest of all weapons - the tranquilizer gun. & the software rendering was top - notch. 

I didn't get to Quake II until around March 2000, because I always thought than my machine wasn't powerful enough to play it.  So after I got myself the TNT2 M64 card, I installed Quake II.  After about 3 months, I've finished 2 mission packs - The Reckoning & Zaero Fighter.  I can't find the 3rd expansion pack - The Ground Zero. & this June I'll be going to Singapore for the CPL - Asia. Heheh... .  Among the games of this genre that I've played are Half-Life, Quake II, QII The Reckoning, QII Zaero Fighter, Quake III Arena, QIII Team Arena, Unreal, Unreal Tournament, Star Trek Elite Force, Soldier of Fortune, Deus Ex, No One Lives Forever, and Thief : The Dark Project.

Sports.  The first game I installed on my first PC in 1997 was Actua Soccer 2.  Then I installed NBA Live 98, & I've been loyal to the NBA Live series until now.  I've once read a survey in PC Zone, with a question,"Have U ever upgraded your PC in order to make it compatible with a game U wanted ?"  & my answer is "Yes, & the game was NBA Live 99".  It's like a routine for me to play at least one game every day, & I ended up playing 2 - 3 games a day.  But for this genre I'm playing only soccer & basketball & from EA Sports only. Actua Soccer 2 (Gremlin Interactive)  & NBA Full Court Press (Microsoft) was the only time I've played sports games outside EA Sports title. The titles I've played include the NBA Live 98 - 2001, FIFA 99 - 2001, Actua Soccer 2, NBA Full Court Press. 

Driving.  This is the genre that made me famous during PC Fairs, after winning 2 consecutive PC Fair's PC Games Challenge last year (2000).  The first one was with NFS IV - High Stakes, & the 2nd one was NFS V - Porsche Unleashed.  I bought my MS Sidewinder Precision Racing Wheel after winning the first one.  I still have it, & playing Colin McRae Rally 2.0 was great with that wheel.  I bought that wheel after destroying 2 keyboards & a Genius G-08 GamePad playing NFS III - Hot Pursuit. & yeah, that wheel's still intact.  Again, I prefer something from EA,as the driving sims from EA always excel in physics modelling & realism. Titles include NFS II - V, Motoracer 1 & 2, Andretti Racing (I lost this game, misplaced...wished I still have it), Colin McRae 2.0, Rally Championship, ReVolt, Sega Rally 2 (I regret buying this title), Midtown Madness.  

Flight Sims. Yeah, I played some flight sims to.  Also some arcade action flight games. & my interest in World War II made me play MS Combat Flight Simulator, a very good WWII flight sim. & although I haven't got my hands on Combat Flight Sim II, I'ma do just that as soon as I can find some time.  I also played Rogue Squadron 3D, an arcade - type flight game. 

RTS.  I played SimCity 2000 when I was in UTM in 1993.  It was a great game, in the way U had to manage your city, made me feel like some sort of a town planner.  I'd play it for hours, left it on when I went to classes, then come back & continued building.  I played C&C : Red Alert after seeing that almost every cyber cafe I went had lots of kids playing this game on the network, back in 1998.  At first I thought it was a shooting game, a war shooting game.  So after I had it installed I was puzzled on how to play this game.  But I didn't play this thing for too long though, got bored.  Then I played Age Of Empires II, which had me hooked for hours.  It was a great game & I bought the expansion pack too, the Conquerors.  

How do I select a game ? 

How do U select a game to play ?  Based on personal favorites ? On series ?  Some of us play a game sequel just because he/she has played the earlier versions & want to continue playing the game until whenever.  Unfortunately, some sequels & add - on packs does not live up to the hype or isn't good enough to match the original version.

I choose games carefully, as I don't wanna waste my hard disk space for useless, unplayable games.  Unplayable due to the terrible interface, controls, or illogical AI and gameplay and games U get bored of right from the beginning.  So I ask my friends for opinion, post some discussion topic in the THC forum, & read gaming magz.  My gaming mag of choice is PC Gamer.  It's gives good reviews from very experienced people, & they're honest in the rating too. Sometimes I buy games just because some of the editors in PC Gamer said they're good.  For example, the Deus Ex. After I read the Game of The Year edition of  PC Gamer (March, 2001, & March every year), I went out & bought Deus Ex right away, & boy, I love that game !!!