Octopus Overlords

A friend of mine finished HL2 last night and then went to play Doom 3. He put D3 away after 1/2 an hour of playing for various reasons, one of them being the fact that he was spoiled by the Source engine and the ability to interact with the environment. Are there other non-Source games (obviously we know about all the Source games) that have this type of interaction? He's an FPS junkie. I'm also curious, what is the interaction level of Far Cry?

- shaggy

can't say much about other games but to your far cry question it does have some interactivity but not any where near as much as HL2. The best interactive part is the rag doll physics and the AI but if you have a highend and i do mean HIGHEND graphics card turn up the details and it is immersive to the extream. Can't count how many times i waisted ammo on birds that just poped up out of the grass while walking through the jungle in that game.

Arcanis wrote:can't say much about other games but to your far cry question it does have some interactivity but not any where near as much as HL2. The best interactive part is the rag doll physics and the AI but if you have a highend and i do mean HIGHEND graphics card turn up the details and it is immersive to the extream. Can't count how many times i waisted ammo on birds that just poped up out of the grass while walking through the jungle in that game.

Beefy not a problem for him. He just got one of these with the 256MB NVIDA GeForce Go 6800 Ultra in it.

- shaggy

Freedom Force. The ability to pick up and toss a car or knock down a building just might broaden his intrests from just FPS'.

It's a little on the older side, but Red Faction, and, I'm assuming, Red faction 2 had real time deformable terrain that could be used to tactical advantage (destroy the supports holding up a balcony, and the balcony caves in, or collapse a bridge to keep units from moving across it etc...) The physics weren't all that great though (At least in red faction. I gave up on it and never played RF2) but I suppose on the subject of environments you can interact with, it applies.

i'd recommend far cry. it's a nice long game for an fps and has some decent physics effects. not as high an interactivity with the environment as hl2, but nothing else does either. i started it up again last night and the gameplay is still strong. as a bonus, you can find it new for $20 at most stores.

X-Com had fully destructable environments.

ChrisGrenard wrote:X-Com had fully destructable environments.

HELL FRIKKAN YAH!

Caine wrote:i'd recommend far cry. it's a nice long game for an fps and has some decent physics effects. not as high an interactivity with the environment as hl2, but nothing else does either. i started it up again last night and the gameplay is still strong. as a bonus, you can find it new for $20 at most stores.

I actually own Far Cry due to the OOFE. I bought it at the same time as I bought Doom 3 because he bought Doom 3. Both were only $19.99 at MicroCenter. Haven't played Far Cry at all yet though. I finished HL2 last night. I've started Doom 3 but haven't gotten very far in it.

- shaggy

Try Soldiers: Heroes of WWII. (not the demo, the full game)

You can blow up anything, crush anything, and change anything. One of a kind game really.

Silent Storm. Blow pretty much anything up with explosives, chain reaction explosions, etc. Bullets make actual holes in buildings that you can actually see through into the building ... knock bricks one at a time out of a brick wall.

An excellent game. One of a kind game really.

Thief 3 was pretty good for this, and Max Payne 2 had some great physics. Not in the same leagues as Silent Storm, but decent for a FPS.

shaggydoug wrote:

Caine wrote:i'd recommend far cry. it's a nice long game for an fps and has some decent physics effects. not as high an interactivity with the environment as hl2, but nothing else does either. i started it up again last night and the gameplay is still strong. as a bonus, you can find it new for $20 at most stores.

I actually own Far Cry due to the OOFE. I bought it at the same time as I bought Doom 3 because he bought Doom 3. Both were only $19.99 at MicroCenter. Haven't played Far Cry at all yet though. I finished HL2 last night. I've started Doom 3 but haven't gotten very far in it.

- shaggy

Far Cry has some nice interaction, but the best is the "wide open" levels with the human opponents and their AI - where they hunt for you where they think you are because they don't automagically know where you are - just the last place they saw or heard you...so you can fake 'em out etc sometimes.

qp wrote: Far Cry has some nice interaction, but the best is the "wide open" levels with the human opponents and their AI - where they hunt for you where they think you are because they don't automagically know where you are - just the last place they saw or heard you...so you can fake 'em out etc sometimes.

Installed and played with this last night and got as far as the carrier. I'm having issues with performance in the game. Trying to resolve them. I think my friend will like the game because it has some Counter-strike elements to it. He did order it yesterday with the idea of "$20? Worth a shot."

Spoiler below....

The AI seems to lend itself to "rope-a-dope". In that first compound past the huts, I was able to lure everyone to the area under one of the guard towers. I was hanging out in the tower after taking the guy out. The baddies couldn't figure out where I was and I took them all out from above. I like how I was able to "solve the problem" and realize that there were probably other ways to do it. I also like how easy it is to die. Seems more realistic that way.

- shaggy

Silent Storm and the old Crusader series of games.