About Trev Expertise General game tips, and tech help. I am very good at tweaking, and trouble shooting Greatest Achievement: sneaking into the enemy base and blowing everything inside into little pieces
Expert: Trev Date: 1/7/2001 Subject: How can I choose games
Question Hi,
I have got a problem and I wanted u to help me.Your magazine is one of my favorites and I know that you and your group are really good at what they do.
let me give u a briedf introduction of myself:
My name is majid.I am from IRAN.I am 21 years old.I am studying computer science(Software engineering) in university(4th grade).I am also studying for Microsoft certficate of system engineering(MCSE).
I have been playing computer games since I was 8 years old.Back to old days with atari and games like river ride.Then to spectrum 48k and commodore 64k .I played games like battle valley,barbarian,usugi ,...
Then I got an AMIGA 500 and played really cool games like dune (1,2) ,operation stealth,innocent until caught,atlantis,eye of the beholder,syndicate,sim city,silk worm,full contact ,... .the best game I played on that computer was dune and dreamweb.specially dreamweb.
ok.I bought a pc about 2 or 3 years ago.now the major characteristcs of my pc is:
1.cpu celeron 300 (no cache)
2.96 mb sdram at 66 mhz
3.genius sound maker 16 bit
4.graphic card intel i740 8mb
I have played:1.half-life 2.swat 3 3.dungeon keeper 2 4.motoracer 2 5.NFS3 6.Soldier of fortune 7.Odium 8.I have bought deus-ex ,but haven't played it yet. 9.unreal 10.Age of empires
The best I have played till now is soldier of fortune and then half-life.
My favorite genres in gaming are:1.action 2.rpg and adventure 3.strategy
ok.Now I have these problems:
1.for an average,how many games in each genre is released every year (and needs to be played ,and it's worth the time)and also how many sequels are released every year?(e.g. half life opposing force ,half life counter strike ,diablo ,diablo 2,unreal ,unreal tournament)
If u can please tell me if it is different for different genres.U know,there is so much effort being put in to create a game .In my opinion it's like an art.It even managed to attract my family.
2.How many hours should u devote to finishing a game for an average difficulty game and average playing ability?
Please tell me if it is different for different genres.
3.What do u do so that u do not miss anything.I mean do u pick games or just somehow organize your time so that u can play almost any game that is released or almost any game in any genre?
4.If u pick games ,what method do u choose and think it's better.Do u read reviews or go to gaming rating sites in internet?
5.If u read reviews ,how many reviews do you read and where have the most credible reviews?(other than yours)
6.If u go to rating sites ,how many sites do u go to and how where have the most credible ratings?(other than yours)
7.With my current system,should I play a kind of genre ,for example rpg or strategy .I mean I am really missing a lot of fun because of my system.Can I play rpg's and strategy's and be sure that I experinced all(90 percent) of the game's fun.I played soldier of fortune and it really slowed down on some levels,like the submarine section.(The final level)
Should I upgrade my system first or can I play the lower-power consuming genres.
And my last question,is any of computer gaming world's free issues available on web?
So many thanks .Forgive me for my really long and headache-generating email.
Thank u so much guys.Keep up the good work.
thanks,MAJID.
email:majidokhovat@yahoo.com
Answer 1.for an average,how many games in each genre is released every year (and needs to be played ,and it's worth the time)and also how many sequels are released every year?(e.g. half life opposing force ,half life counter strike ,diablo ,diablo 2,unreal ,unreal tournament)
If u can please tell me if it is different for different genres.U know,there is so much effort being put in to create a game .In my opinion it's like an art.It even managed to attract my family.
There are probably 2 - 3 games per genre that must be played. Expansions packs usually come out for those two to three games. The sequels to Half-Life are all a joke. The only real one is Opposing Force. Those other releases are all ploys to make money.
2.How many hours should u devote to finishing a game for an average difficulty game and average playing ability?
Please tell me if it is different for different genres.
Finishing action games take 10-30 hours. RPG/Adventure are 20-100 (extreme cases) hours. Strategy games take 15-50 hours.
3.What do u do so that u do not miss anything.I mean do u pick games or just somehow organize your time so that u can play almost any game that is released or almost any game in any genre?
Well I only play games from the action genre mainly. I am also rather lax on buying games. I usually buy only two games or so a year. Basically I go for the must get games or a game that I really enjoy. I bought 3 games last year, Drakan, Soldier of Fortune and the X-Wing/Tie Fighter collecters edition. Basically play a lot of demos and watch for reviews of games you seem interested in.
4.If u pick games ,what method do u choose and think it's better.Do u read reviews or go to gaming rating sites in internet?
I usually go by the demo. If the demo is good, then I proceed to check some reviews and then make my purchase. If no demo is available, I read a lot more reviews.
5.If u read reviews ,how many reviews do you read and where have the most credible reviews?(other than yours)
IGN has good reviews. Gamespot grades rather tough, so I shy away from there reviews. I also like Firingsquad.com. I also read PC Gamer.
6.If u go to rating sites ,how many sites do u go to and how where have the most credible ratings?(other than yours)
I go to two or three sites. Firingsquad, IGN and daily radar.
7.With my current system,should I play a kind of genre ,for example rpg or strategy .I mean I am really missing a lot of fun because of my system.Can I play rpg's and strategy's and be sure that I experinced all(90 percent) of the game's fun.I played soldier of fortune and it really slowed down on some levels,like the submarine section.(The final level)
Should I upgrade my system first or can I play the lower-power consuming genres.
Upgrade your system to play the games you like. More ram will increase your performance a lot. Also I like the geForce 2 MX if you can find one.
And my last question,is any of computer gaming world's free issues available on web?
You can try their website, but much more information can be found on the internet than just CGW.
