got video games?

[kodalai]

So, this past semester (year, really) I haven't been playing much in the way of video games. Why is this? Mostly, because I don't have the time. Even if I have the time, on any given day, to procrastinate by surfing or even playing Snood or something, I don't really have the time to start anything. Not a new series, not a new video game, not a new hobby.

This upcoming summer, hopefully, that should change. I'll finally have time to write, and do stuff, and play video games... and thanks to a $1000 windfall that fell in my lap, I actually have the funds to buy not only a few games but also a console to play them on. Only now I discover that, having been out of the video game loop for so long, I have absolutely no idea what's good.

So... this goes out as a call for video game recs. Help me out here! What's good? What's fun? Not just console games, but computer games too, lemme know what's smoking!

A few things to keep in mind in this list:
1) I have a mac. I love my mac, but the fact remains that unless a computer game is mac-platform-supported, I can't play it.
2) I am not terribly fond of role-playing or epic games. They're just not my thing. I like simulation games, fighting games, shooting games, puzzle games, and racing games. Part of it's just a lack of exposure to any really decent role-playing games, but most of it's just that the few I have played, I didn't get nearly enough fun or satisfaction out of it to be worth the hundreds of hours of gameplay I had to put into it.

So... aside from that, bring it on!

Just to give you an example, here are a few of the games that I have and have always loved.
Simulation games: Civilization II, SimCity, SimEarth, Caeser III, The Sims. What can I say? I love playing God. What girl doesn't?
Fighting games: Soul Calibur (and SCII,) Diablo II, Myth II (IMO, the best game ever)
Shooting games: Unreal Tournament. Unfortunately, UT's latest incarnation is too complicated for me to play without hours and hours of investment.
Puzzle games: I'm talking things like Solitaire, Snood, Columns, Tetris. NOT Myst or its sequels, which I consider games for people with no lives.
Racing games: ReVolt pwned my high school years, what can I say? Alas, Sega Dreamcast, they stopped supporting you too soon. ;_;

Comments

[bobcatmoran.livejournal.com]

*waves* Don't ask me how exactly I got here. I was bored and followed many, many links.
You're something like a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend. ^_^

Anyway, Ambrosia Software (http://www.ambrosiasw.com) has a brilliant collection of horribly addicting, high-quality shareware games, all for Macs.

[kodalai.livejournal.com]

Cool! I'll check that out. :)

[who-shot-kr.livejournal.com]

By epic games, do you mean action-adventure?

And it looks like you may have shot down most if not all of the recs I can give you. The first half of mine would be RPGs, and it looks like you already know of the others (Soul Calibur and the Sims).

[kodalai.livejournal.com]

Well, you can go ahead and rec the RPGs anyway. :) I'll consider them... just not as enthusiastically.

[zalia.livejournal.com]

NOT Myst or its sequels, which I consider games for people with no lives.

Hey! I have two of those games thankyou very much! (Admittedly, I could never be bothered to actually work them out... just walked though them with the guide book ^^;) Then again... I never claimed to have a life.

Someone mentioned Ambrosia Software... they did a game called Bubble Trouble which is quite fun... me and my sister racked up a lot of gameplay on that one. It's horibly addicting.

Hmmm... I actually have a few games for Mac I could possibly copy for you if you want. There's one called 'Short Circuit' which is short but very addicting. Lots of coloured/patterened blocks to get rid of by creating a circuit betwen matching ones... timer... you get the idea.

Eh... Puyo Puyo? Like Tetris but with teeny little coloured blobs (In know it's had various console releaeses but I have a little version for my Mac.)

Prima Materia... brick bounces with insane backgrounds and things to make it more interesting.

Eh... if I still have it, there's a game called Harry The Handsome Executive (and I think I also have the registration code). It's strange... you play a guy who scoots around an office in a wheelie chair fighting evil robots with a staple gun ^^;

[kodalai.livejournal.com]

These sound like fun. :) Except for the Harry one, which just sounds weird. @_@

[zalia.livejournal.com]

Heh, Harry is very weird. But fun, once you get past the occasionally bloody annoying control system (although blowing up the mail trucks with rubber pants is kinda' fun ^^;)

I'll see if I can burn you a copy of some of them then ^^ I'll put on Solitaire till dawn too. about 40 different games of solitaire that are kinda' addictive.