I can't wait to get hold of LNoE now.  It won't be for a couple of weeks yet but it sounds like it'll be worth the wait!

This is a fantastic list, thanks again to all who contributed.  When it stops receiving replies I'm going to print it out and refer to it often.

In the meantime, though, I think the first game we're almost certainly going to go for is Last Night on Earth.  It seems to tick all the boxes, and - not to put too fine a point on it - it's ZOMBIES!

Bioshock (Played through the first couple scenes, got scared and cried like a little girl)

Lol!  I'm glad I'm not the only wimp around here.  I'm still trying to finish FEAR after playing it for two months.  I won't play it at night time, but I rarely have a chance to game during the day.

Guys, thanks very much for all the suggestions, I really appreciate it.  Until now I've been poking around on boardgamegeek.com but getting completely overwhelmed by the sheer volume of content.  These suggestions are really going to come in handy.  I'm going to spend the afternoon researching this list - but more suggestions are always welcome of course!

Sorry for the long story

Don't dare apologise for posting that, it was a great read!  I've never been able to fly multiplayer because my gaming times are just too sporadic - sounds like I'm really missing out, too.

I finally bought Falcon:AF and really enjoyed but the killer for flight sims is the time required to play.

Yeah, especially if you're really hardcore and never use time acceleration.  Oh, and you do ramp starts!

OK, I've played board games before - but we're talking Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit etc.

What I'm looking for is a game my girlfriend and I can play in an evening.  To that end, we're looking for about an hour and a half to two hours of play per game.  Deeper than Cluedo!  But not incredibly deep so that it would take all night.  We've played a fair amount of Warhammer 40K so complex rules are not a problem, but WH40K can take way more than two hours to play.

Genre isn't really an issue as long as the game is good.  Something maybe specifically designed for two people is probably best, but we're open to more than two players for when friends visit.

Thanks muchly for any advice!

LOMAC was okay.. but canned missions killed it.

...Which is why I never bothered with it, having played Allied Force first.  AF has really spoiled me and I doubt I could go back to scripted missions at all in a flight sim now.

Speaking of AF and the future of flight sims, did Lead Pursuit ever announce what their next game is going to be?

You can't go wrong with either Space Rangers 2 or Disciples 2.  Both superb games.

Still an interesting game and a worthy download but if you're choosing one to play Oblivion would win (excluding price)

Ha!  I'd take M&B over Oblivion any day.

(Having said that, I'd take Pacman over Oblivion) 

Mine used to be almost nonexistent, but now I've got a new decent gaming rig, extra cash to spend, several years worth of games that I alway wanted and can now get cheaply online and not enough time to play them all.

Exactly the same here.  I built a new PC a couple of months ago and I must have bought at least a dozen games for it, most of which have barely been touched.  My mood keeps changing.  I'll find myself in the mood for a strategy game, so I'll order two or three of the buggers.  By the time they arrive, I'm suddenly in the mood for a shooter, so again I'll order at least two.  And so on.

The first game I bought this year was X3:Reunion and now I've finally started playing it.  So my backlog will remain the same length for a long time.

It is amazing how many people are now suggesting how much they are/have been willing to do, but when I posted a message in meta just looking for anyone who wanted to lend a admin hand at working server maint for OO I didn't get a single response.

To be fair, Rip, I doubt any of us really thought we could be of any help to you - you're obviously an expert in your field and you run everything out of that big ole datacentre.  What has happened to your servers lately was probably beyond anyone's imagination.  I could've put in my offer of hosting backups earlier, sure, but I honestly didn't think there was a need for it.  Simple as that.

I remember that post in meta, and as I recall you were looking for someone fairly skilled.  I dunno how many OOers could have fit the bill, but I sure as hell couldn't even though Linux is my OS of choice.  I wanted to step up but I knew I'd be wasting your time.  I suspect there were quite a few others in the same boat, who also kept quiet for the same reasons.

Erm...believe it or not, this post was made with the intention of making you somehow feel better.

would love so!

my mail is razgon(insert @ here)stofanet.dk

thanks

YGM.

What kind of mental illness could make a person do that?  Maybe I'm naive, but I don't see how a person could do that just because they're evil.  It has to be some horribly twisted brain chemistry that made him do that. Right?  Right???

That was my first thought (hope?) too.  But then I realised he had been keeping the whole thing hidden from the rest of his family - for years.  I'm no psychologist, but that suggests to me that the whole thing was cold and calculated.

I really, really wanted to like Gothic 3 but some horrible execution prevents me.  Like combat against animals that knock you down and then pretty much tear into you before you can even stand up.  And the insanely long "quick" save/load times.  Doesn't that bother anyone else?

Yeah, looks like it.  I can't remember where I got it from though.  I'll email it to you if you want it.

Some say Teamspeak is the best, others say Ventrilo.  I've used both a fair bit and frankly, can't see any difference between the two.  Teamspeak has a nicer interface I suppose.  As Beer Goggles said, it simply depends on what your friends are using.

NM...after looking at their site its $25 for this beta or $39 when finished. So this is basically a demo. Pass.

So...you don't play demos?

The mounted combat in this game is spectacular.  I've never seen a game even come close to it.  Ordering my allies into battle and then circling the enemies on my horse, picking them off with a bow, is some of the best fun I've ever had in a game.  Not to mention charging in with the lance.

I really should play the latest version.

My home desktop.

You really should try the demo of Sins of a Solar Empire to see if your laptop will handle it.  It's really very simple to play, even if the AI can be difficult to beat for your first few games.  The pace is very sedate for an RTS too, so you get plenty of time to make your decisions.

Of the two you're considering though, I would also say Civ 4.  It isn't really any less complex than GalCiv 2, but as JS said, the real-world familiarity will ease you in better.

Can't you just ask them politely to move on?

All are welcome, children. All are welcome... in the light.

Ever since the dawn of DVD I have been waiting with mounting impatience for Poltergeist to be released in the UK.  Even though Poltergeist 2 and 3 have been available for years.  My recent annual search on Amazon finally revealed the first film (25th anniversary edition) and it was swiftly ordered and should arrive today.

AT LAST!

*SF is ok too

In that case, check out Blindsight by Peter Watts.  (WARNING: That page contains the full text so it takes a while to load - however it also contains links to PDF and other versions)

It's completely free but so good I'm going to buy it anyway.  Think Arthur C Clarke but slightly more action-oriented.  It's about a first contact scenario and it's just mind-bending.  The story is fantastic.  The reason I mention Clarke is because it's ultra-realistic in a similar way to which he wrote - the aliens are really alien.

The only caveat is Watts has a slightly arrogant writing style, and assumes a lot of scientific knowledge on the part of the reader.  But it's a very small price to pay for one of the best books I've read in a long time.  And since it costs nothing, you have nothing to lose, so give it a try!

FedEx recently bought the courier company that we used to use here in the UK.  Believe it or not, the service has actually improved somewhat since the switchover.

Some people have an irrational hatred of installers like Steam and Stardock Central.  I don't think Huw was giving you the finger.

Exactly.  No offense intended.

Both download links apparently point to the same source.  Either way, it's not responding for me either.  The server's probably getting hammered.  I'm going to try again in a few hours.

Cool, I'll give this a shot.  My girlfriend will love it too.  Thanks very much for the heads-up!

I just use Stardock Central to patch it up.  Can't you do that?  Or is it a case of you won't?

Cradle of Filth's Thornography has been my main workout music:

Bloody hell, are they still cranking them out?  I used to love CoF, back in the day.  I thought the quality of their albums took a nosedive after their masterpiece Cruelty and the Beast though, and stopped listening.

I've been listening to 10,000 Days by Tool at least a couple of times a week ever since it was released.  Big Tool fan.

Lately I've mainly been streaming from smoothlounge.com and somafm.com without paying any particular attention to specific artists, but I've just discovered The Future Sound of London.  Their remix album, Teachings from the Electronic Brain, is absolutely stunning.  There's a song on it called My Kingdom which is quite reminiscent of Coil, and since Coil are unlikely to ever release another album I was very pleased!

Sounds like next time we go down we will have a big fight over who's backup gets used.

Heh.  Well, it wouldn't hurt to use more than one.  Geo-redundancy and all that.  My storage is courtesy of arse ink dot net so I can configure a proper sub account with full file permission controls etc.  I only use it to store a photo album and some docs, and the smallest plan is more than I need for that.  I can't say I won't need the space any time in the future, but until I do it may as well be put to good use.

Last time we tar balled it I think it was about 500MB.

Is that all?  Well, if for whatever reason QP's hosting falls through, I will gladly host it for a while.  I currently have just over 2GB of storage with no transfer limits that I'm not using.  As long as I don't need the space, it's yours.

I love my pee see.  I don't like my Wii.

It's pool for real men.

Seriously, leaving PC games aside for the moment, snooker is bloody difficult to play.  I used to play pool all the time in my student days and naturally thought I was pretty good at it.  Then I tried playing snooker.  The tables are huge, you just don't appreciate it until you stand next to one.  I went from being able to pot balls with relative ease and actually positioning the cue ball where I wanted it after each shot in pool, to not even being able to hit my target ball in snooker.

Then you watch the pros on TV who can bounce the cue ball off five cushions, barely clip the target ball and have the cue ball land on a cushion exactly where they wanted it, and feel tiny.

I'm glad to see the new patch seems to have improved the AI somewhat.  I'm currently playing a 4-way FFA on the fantastic Twin Empires stock map and it's not as easy as it used to be.  I subjugated one empire fairly quickly but the other two have obviously been keeping busy building their defences.  No matter where I send my main task force, I just cannot punch a hole through their front lines....yet, anyway.  I'm loving that it's a challenge now and can't wait to get back on it tonight.

Every now and again a game comes along that just ticks all the boxes, regardless of genre, because it's just so well-made.  Sins is one of those.  I haven't played anything else for weeks now.

Hullo!