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Online multiplayer suggestions

A

Accolade

Junior Member
Hi all,

Prior to year 2000 I was very into PC gaming... we're talking some classics: Civilization, Aces of the Pacific, Test Drive, etc.

Recently myself and two others have decided to start taking each other on in casual (but violent) gaming experiences (no RPG, strategy games, etc.)
But we're clueless as to what's good or will meet our needs, so I'm reaching out for some suggestions.

The following is a list of our requirements.

  • Online multiplayer capabilities (not LAN)
  • Not hardware intensive - our PCs aren't cut out for serious gaming
  • Shoot 'em ups (FPS, platform, flight simulator)
  • Bonus: the ability for us to chat via a mic
It doesn't matter if it's an older game. The only one we know of is Call of Duty, and I've also discovered what appears to be a fun little game called Airfix Dogfighter.
Before we go out and pick any games up, I thought I'd get suggestions from the experts.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!
 
Yeah, you're after Team Fortress 2, Counterstrike Source, maybe Left 4 Dead 1/2 if you want some co-op play.
 
TF2 will only work if you intend to play with others besides yourselves. If that is the case, I second TF2 and would also suggest Battlefield Bad Company 2. Those two games would keep you happy for a long time. TF2 has ingame voice chat (Steam games tend to), but BC2's ingame chat never seems to work, so I'd use ventrillo or similar.

TF2 is going to be releasing the engineer update, so it's possible next(?) weekend will be a free weekend - which would let you try before you buy.

If you're not intending to play with others Left 4 Dead 1 and 2 are probably the best experience you'll get (although more cooperative rather than competitive). Online versus mode against other players can be quite fun, but as with all games you'll be behind the curve because the maps will be new to you. Both games have ingame voice chat.

Borderlands is another decent co-op game (but needs some tweaking to remove some consolization, e.g. always open mic voice chat).

Good 3-player (i.e., smaller player count, non team-based) shooters are a bit harder to find lately, everything is geared toward squads/teams (where you need at least an even number of people) - for something like a FFA DM we've resorted to using the free FEAR multiplayer download and Quake 4(?) demo in the past. Modern Warfare 2 (and presumably CoD4) have a FFA mode that can work but the maps are optimized for more people. Unfortunately the maps with the new AvP are a bit big for 3, but it can work (harder on graphics though). Classic AvP been updated a bit (not graphically) and is available for cheaper on steam - and should be much easier on your systems.

A good dog-fighter is hard to find unless you want either a full-blown flight simulator (very realistic, e.g., IL-2 series) or a full-blown arcade experience (impossible to stall). Wings of Prey offers the best balance lately imo, but it might have too high of system requirements.

There is also Battlefield Heroes that is free to play that might work - I've never played it.
 
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Cheers for all the suggestion. TF2 looks great, but our goal for now isn't to play as a team, rather, to obliterate each other.
(we're a competitive bunch).

I'll definitely look into L4D as well though, as I'm sure there will be times when we may want to push aside our competitive nature and blame each other for our team's failures.
And seeing as it's free, I'll also look into Battlefield Heroes.

Unfortunate to hear there isn't a good selection of dogfighting games, does anyone have experience with this service? https://www.totalsims.com

Thanks again.
 
Another FPS suggestion would Urban Terror. It's a free online only FPS that uses the Quake 3 engine so shouldn't be too hard on your system. Last time I checked, there were still plenty of servers out there to play on (CTF, TS, and TDM at least).
 
Tristicus said:
L4D is fucking awesome. I blame people for failures all the time.
Click to expand...

it gets too easy...

even expert was easy if you had good team members.

If expert was too difficult, thats because your team members kept FFing you.

I know one thing... i dont think any other game got me nervous when a team mate started carrying a auto shottie.
 
aigomorla said:
it gets too easy...

even expert was easy if you had good team members.

If expert was too difficult, thats because your team members kept FFing you.

I know one thing... i dont think any other game got me nervous when a team mate started carrying a auto shottie.
Click to expand...

L4D2 is all about versus. Screw campaigns.
 
You have pretty good free FPSs in Quake Live, Urban Terror and FEAR Combat, each quite different from one another. All are worth a try.
Ones you might want to pay for are
- the legendary Painkiller (see gog.com)
- Counter-Strike and/or CS: Source (yes it's primarily a team game but there are more than enough deathmatch servers) and maybe
- Serious Sam HD.

On the platformer front, try some iteration of Worms, maybe Soldat, Liero etc. I haven't played "vs" platformers in a decade, just dropping the names I know.
 
Tristicus said:
Seriously. Versus is where it is at.
Click to expand...

Thirded :thumbsup:

OP play halo 1, its a blast on PC with some friends. Its old but they dont really make games like you are after anymore, you either have to play with a bunch of people on a server or theyre like l4d and have objectives, teamwork and such.
 
modestninja said:
Another FPS suggestion would Urban Terror. It's a free online only FPS that uses the Quake 3 engine so shouldn't be too hard on your system. Last time I checked, there were still plenty of servers out there to play on (CTF, TS, and TDM at least).
Click to expand...

Thanks for that suggestion, I've checked it out and it looks great.
What's the best way to go about it being a game between just our group?
Selecting an empty server?
Is it much trouble to host our own with a password?

Cheers!
 
Pia said:
You have pretty good free FPSs in Quake Live, Urban Terror and FEAR Combat, each quite different from one another. All are worth a try.
Ones you might want to pay for are
- the legendary Painkiller (see gog.com)
- Counter-Strike and/or CS: Source (yes it's primarily a team game but there are more than enough deathmatch servers) and maybe
- Serious Sam HD.

On the platformer front, try some iteration of Worms, maybe Soldat, Liero etc. I haven't played "vs" platformers in a decade, just dropping the names I know.
Click to expand...

Thanks.
Just tried Urban Terror, and will check out the other two you mentioned.

Worms, that was a classic. I had the original and Worms 2... brilliant video intros, soundtrack and voice effects.

I found a flash game called Raze, it's pretty simple and looks like it would make for a good multiplayer.
That's sort of what I had in mind, but once we get knee deep into FPS, I don't think we'll bother with platforms.

Thanks again for all the help and suggestions, much appreciated!
 
Another Quake 3 based free multiplayer, Wolfenstein Enemy Territory used to be a favorite of mine. Still has quite a bit of online support (lots of servers and mods). Doesn't support ingame voice, but you could set up a teamspeak or ventrilo server.
 
uli2000 said:
Another Quake 3 based free multiplayer, Wolfenstein Enemy Territory used to be a favorite of mine. Still has quite a bit of online support (lots of servers and mods). Doesn't support ingame voice, but you could set up a teamspeak or ventrilo server.
Click to expand...

Cheers.
This looked excellent, but unfortunately I cannot figure out how to play.

I tried a handful of servers, many of them blocked me because I don't have a CD key, and others I could get on but only as an observer.
Is there something I'm missing?
 
Altitude! It's cheap on Steam. There's only probably 200 of us that play regularly, and half of us are named Jesus, but it's a lot of fun and has low requirements. If you ever played the old Sopwith Camel game, it's like a modern, multiplayer version of that.
 
I second the original Unreal Tournament (1999) as well as UT 2004. The original UT was arguably the greatest online multiplayer FPS of all time and people still play it to this day. See if you can find the Unreal Anthology (which has both games); a few local Gamestops may still have it for $2. Amazon has two listings:

http://detonator.dynamitedata.com/c...n.com/UNREAL-ANTHOLOGY-PC-GAMES/dp/B0022NHOP2http://www.amazon.com/UNREAL-ANTHOLOGY-PC-GAMES/dp/B0022NHOP2

http://www.amazon.com/Unreal-Anthology-Pc/dp/B000GPVUUS

The problem with the UT games is that it might be hard to find populated servers without mods. Custom maps and mods will auto-download no problem, but it's harder to see what the original games were like before the mods. There are a few populated servers for UT99 that run Capture-the-Flag without mods. (Many hardcore enthusiasts are playing private 5v5 games called pickup games (pugs) which are arranged over IRC.)

UT 2004 is good for its Onslaught game and Invasion Monster Hunt RPG game. You can always play the later and you can almost always find a server with 20+ players for Onslaught during the North American evening.

Also, try this FREE melee-style FPS. I don't think it's very graphically or processor demanding. Savage 2 -- it's a whole lot of fun and it's FREE! You can find populated servers (20-30+ players) 24/7 and it's FREE.
 
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Why don't you give Combat Arms a shot? It's free as well, runs decently on most hardware configurations (inc laptops), and supports friend lists and clan matches.
 
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