The Best Games You've Never Played

[Deozaan]

OMG!  I want more Descent!  I loved that game!  I don't really like flight sims... but that's pretty much what descent is when you think about it...  Now I have to go find a copy of D3 again...

-wraith808 (February 28, 2008, 04:18 PM)

The difference between Descent and flight sims is that Flight sims require atmospheric reality, such as going a certain speed to maintain lift, going only forward (no reverse or vertical or sideways movement).

In Descent you're in space, you can go any direction at any time, at any speed.

Then they had to screw it up with Descent Freespace and go back to stupid atmospheric flight (minus the required speed to maintain lift) even though you're in space...

[iphigenie]

Descent is more a shooter than a flyer, but thats what makes it such a classic - simple gameplay, total freedom of movement and action. Descent 4 is still on my games wishlist even though it has been dead years. One can still hope!!!!

There are some great things around descent 1 and 2 due to the games' sources being released, so it can run under xp and vista etc. Also you can play descent 1 in the engine of descent 2 (graphics and AI)  I gathered some links under http://iphi.net/index.php/games/descent/, http://iphi.net/inde...php/games/Descent_2/ and http://iphi.net/inde...php/games/Descent_3/

Theres also a doom3 mod trying to build descent as a doom 3 mod - made me look at doom3 on ebay!

I recently found the descent soundtrack and it made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, like meeting an old friend

[f0dder]

Yeah it was a shame. I only played Red Faction 1 on PS2, so I think it was more a limit of the hardware. I heard Red Faction 3 is in production so maybe they'll improve that limit.

-Deozaan (February 28, 2008, 02:46 PM)

Dunno what the limit was exactly - probably to conserve memory, and there were probably some multiplayer considerations as well. I tried reversing the executable to remove the limit, but didn't feel like doing a superbig job of it, and I couldn't count (in-game...) the exact maximum number of deforms you could do, so I ended up giving up.

[iphigenie]

I'm pretty sure keeping the landscape deformations in sync between 12 people playing online is quite a challenge.

Red faction multiplayer is still going well after all these years, there's still servers and people. The same goes for descent 2!

[f0dder]

I'm pretty sure keeping the landscape deformations in sync between 12 people playing online is quite a challenge.

-iphigenie (February 29, 2008, 05:00 AM)

Dunno about that, really - iirc the game follows standard client/server architecture, so everything has to go through the server, and thus there aren't really any syncing problems that I can think of... at least not wrt. count of deformations.

[Deozaan]

I'm pretty sure keeping the landscape deformations in sync between 12 people playing online is quite a challenge.

Red faction multiplayer is still going well after all these years, there's still servers and people. The same goes for descent 2!

-iphigenie (February 29, 2008, 05:00 AM)

The PS2 version only had 2 player local multiplayer, as far as I can remember.

All this talk about Descent makes me want to play it again. Especially if it's been upgraded for Windows XP.

[iphigenie]

Save you the search/trip to my dusty site:

How to play on modern systems:

http://holbred.desce...descent-english.html (an overview)
http://holbred.desce...scent_2-english.html (an overview)
http://www.dxx-rebirth.de/
http://www.icculus.org/d2x/
http://holbred.desce...scent_3-english.html
http://www.descent3.com/9_faq.html
http://www.chmodoplusr.com/IntoCerberon/

online resources:

http://www.descentbb.net/
http://www.planetdescent.com/
http://www.prepare4d...ent.net/guidesforum/
http://www.stealthshangar.com/
http://www.planetdescent.com/
http://moon.descentforum.net/D3FAQ/
http://descent3.levels4you.com/

[wraith808]

All this talk about Descent makes me want to play it again. Especially if it's been upgraded for Windows XP.

-Deozaan (February 29, 2008, 11:19 AM)

Just picked it up on GoGamer for $5!  And I don't really consider it a shooter b/c of the freedom of motion and the fact that you *can* play it very effectively with a joystick or joypad- something you can't do with a shooter IMO.  There are new and different things you can do without gravity, but some of my favorite maneuvers in flight sims are still possible and do work!  Especially in those big chambered rooms...

Ref: http://www.gogamer.c...444710VVviewprod.htm

[Deozaan]

I dug out my Descent 3 CDs and I'm getting a Cyclic Redundancy error at the very end of the install process.

[jgpaiva]

I dug out my Descent 3 CDs and I'm getting a Cyclic Redundancy error at the very end of the install process.

-Deozaan (February 29, 2008, 05:17 PM)

Sorry, last time i had one of those, it meant the CD was gone for good

[f0dder]

I played Descent with my SpaceOrb360 - that freaking rocked!

Deozaan: ugh, original pressed copy of descent3 giving CRC errors? That's not supposed to happen, unless you've had them in very hot and/or humid weather, or lying directly in the sun! 

[Deozaan]

Deozaan: ugh, original pressed copy of descent3 giving CRC errors? That's not supposed to happen, unless you've had them in very hot and/or humid weather, or lying directly in the sun! 

-f0dder (February 29, 2008, 06:40 PM)

Actually they're disc images on a DVD. I went through my collection and ripped all my old CDs and put the images on a few DVDs. I figured it was better to have the Descent Collection on one disc than on 5.

I know it used to work because I installed off of the image before. The really bad thing is that within the past few months I actually deleted the DVD image off my computer because I figured I had it burned to DVD so I didn't need it.

[f0dder]

Ah, so CD image on a home-burnt DVD... home-burnt optical discs expire a darn lot faster than pre-pressed media >_<. It's a real big piece of crap... and one of the reasons I pity people who base backup strategies on hd or bluray... the safest you can do is harddrives that you don't pull online often.

[Lashiec]

Well, if you have the original copy, I don't see a problem. Or you can grab the game via BitTorrent, backup copies of works that you own are legal, after all