PC games from Circuit City - opinions which I should keep?

Ubichu

CAGiversary!
During Circuit City's B1G1F sale, I picked up a bunch of PC games as blind buys because they were cheap and I was pairing some with more expensive games I wanted. I looked up and read several reviews from sites linked off Gamerankings.com, and I'm thinking maybe I should return some of them (unopened) based on the poor reviews assuming they'll give me half my money back on the B1G1F deal.

As a quick background, I like FPS, action, platformers, and puzzle-solving games (Unreal Tournament series, Quake series, Doom 3, Max Payne, Gods, old Sierra adventure games, consoles: Klonoa, Syphon Filter, MediEvil, Jak & Daxter, Tak, Crash Bandicoot series). I do not like any sort of strategy, turn-based, or overly involved games (Command & Conquer, Diablo, Myth).

Below I've made a summary of my impression from reading the reviews. If anyone could offer opinions which games I should definitely keep or return, I'd appreciate it. I realize there are several games with mixed opinions. My main goal is to identify the best and worst ones. A few mediocre ones won't hurt me.

* Bionicle - poor reviews (52%)
* Enter the Matrix - OK but not particularly good
* Evil Dead: Regeneration - not very good, but still fun
* Gun - a mediocre FPS with repetitive missions
* Half-Life Anthology - is there any value to keeping this since I bought Half Life 2 (GOTY Edition) which includes the full Half-Life ("Source") game?
* Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - OK
* Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - too short and too easy on the PC
* Incredibles, The - you spend more time watching than doing (i.e. press the right button and watch something happen)
* Indigo Prophecy - good adventure game
* Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault Director's Edition - decent
* Onimusha 3: Demon Siege - the PC version is a poor port of the PS2 version
* Punisher, The - a poor Max Payne clone
* Shrek Super Slam (Activision) - too boring and repetitive for adults
* Silent Hill 4: The Room (Konami) - good but hard to play without a PC gamepad
* Spider-Man 2 - bad reviews, say the PC version is watered-down with bad gameplay compared to the PS2
* Suffering, The: Ties That Bind - drab graphics/textures, repetitive, game bugs (not as good as first game)
* Thief: Deadly Shadows - good reviews
* Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 - OK golf game
* X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse - positive reviews
* X-Men: The Official Game - poor gameplay

I've never played any Star Wars games. The reviews said that these were decent games, but had less than stellar graphics or poor collision detection or generally seemed "unpolished". Which of these is the best to start with to see if I might like the others?
* Star Wars II: Battlefront
* Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy
* Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic
* Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords

3 for $10 - if I return one, I'll probably have to return all 3:
* Catwoman - good graphics but poor gameplay (need a PC gamepad)
* Ultimate Ride Disney Imagineering - entertaining
* World Championship Tennis - no reviews... ranking is 20%

Thanks! I hope nobody minds me posting these questions in this forum.
 
All of these are good-great games:
Gun (good not great, is a TPS not a FPS)
Half-Life Anthology (needed for Opposing Force and all HL Mods)
Indigo Prophecy (pretty fun, but crappy ending and not replayable)
Punisher, The (excellent game, not a clone of Max Payne (I love Max Payne though))
X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse (fun but repetitive game)

Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy (pretty good, not as good as predecessor)
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic (one of the best RPGs)
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords (another one of the best RPGs)

EDIT: On a side note, there are demos for many of those so you can try them yourself.
 
Your impressions are, for the most part, correct.

I highly suggest you keep your Star Wars games because they are definetly the best Star Wars games of recent times. The weakest of the titles is Battlefront II so you can return that one.

From the first list, I would keep:
Gun - Although it might be better on a console
Half-Life Anthology - Never hurts to have an extra copy of HL for an extra computer at a lan
Indigo Prophecy - One of the best games of 2005
Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault - You can't go wrong with a Medal of Honor game on the PC
Thief: Deadly Shadows - Good 'ol Thief

[quote name='the_deej']i dont wanna talk to you ever again if u got all those from the cc glitch[/quote]
These are all $20 and under so it was perfectly fine. :roll:
 
Punisher isn't that bad, there's an "uncensor" mod for the PC so you get to see all the violent executions.
 
[quote name='Scorch']Punisher isn't that bad, there's an "uncensor" mod for the PC so you get to see all the violent executions.[/QUOTE]

Pretty sure it is already uncensored because I don't think I did anything after installing and all the special interrogation kills showed everything.

I enjoyed it enough to complete it.
 
[quote name='Flying PJ']

These are all $20 and under so it was perfectly fine. :roll:[/QUOTE]


"I picked up a bunch of PC games as blind buys because they were cheap and I was pairing some with more expensive games I wanted" ?
 
[quote name='the_deej']i dont wanna talk to you ever again if u got all those from the cc glitch[/QUOTE]

wait til he ebays the 0.01 ones for 19.99 or better :p
 
Damn... I was hoping you had gotten Microsoft Combat Simulator 3, I would've bought that off of you cheap. It's getting to be a pain in the ass trying to find that game sub-$15, as it's a 2+ year old game that's still retailing way too damn high.
 
[quote name='Skylander7']Damn... I was hoping you had gotten Microsoft Combat Simulator 3, I would've bought that off of you cheap. It's getting to be a pain in the ass trying to find that game sub-$15, as it's a 2+ year old game that's still retailing way too damn high.[/QUOTE]


DAMN and that game was at my CC on Saturday and I was thinking...wasn't there a CAGer who wanted this game?
 
I picked up Neighbors From Hell On Vacation with the buy one get one free. It comes with both the second game (on vacation) as well as the entire first game. I know you don't have it on your list , but if you enjoy puzzle solving, I definitely recommend going back and getting it. I picked it up with Half Life 2: Ep One
 
[quote name='Flying PJ']Your impressions are, for the most part, correct.

I highly suggest you keep your Star Wars games because they are definetly the best Star Wars games of recent times. The weakest of the titles is Battlefront II so you can return that one.

From the first list, I would keep:
Gun - Although it might be better on a console
Half-Life Anthology - Never hurts to have an extra copy of HL for an extra computer at a lan
Indigo Prophecy - One of the best games of 2005
Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault - You can't go wrong with a Medal of Honor game on the PC
Thief: Deadly Shadows - Good 'ol Thief


These are all $20 and under so it was perfectly fine. :roll:[/QUOTE]

Absolutely correct. Although battlefront and knights of the old republic 2 are debatable as good. I think they ware worth the 10 bucks you paid for em thou. So in retrospect exactly what Flying PJ said.
 
Thanks, everyone, for the opinions. They helped me decide on some good titles to keep. Nobody has said which ones are bad, so this is the list of my likely returns. If anyone thinks any of these is worth keeping, please tell me:

Bionicle, Catwoman, Enter the Matrix, Evil Dead: Regeneration, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, The Incredibles, Onimusha 3: Demon Siege, Shrek Super Slam, Spider-Man 2, Star Wars II: Battlefront, Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, Ultimate Ride, World Championship Tennis, X-Men: The Official Game.

One I'm still debating is Silent Hill 4: The Room. Has anyone tried to play it using a PC keyboard or do I really need a PC gamepad?
 
[quote name='Ubichu']Bionicle, Catwoman, Enter the Matrix, Evil Dead: Regeneration, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, The Incredibles, Onimusha 3: Demon Siege, Shrek Super Slam, Spider-Man 2, Star Wars II: Battlefront, Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, Ultimate Ride, World Championship Tennis, X-Men: The Official Game/quote]

I would say Jedi Academy is worth keeping. It's a great action game.



[quote name='the_deej']"I picked up a bunch of PC games as blind buys because they were cheap and I was pairing some with more expensive games I wanted" ?[/quote]

Ah, sorry man. I was tired when I posted and I guess I forgot about the op's first paragraph. :whistle2:#
 
I tried to play Silent Hill 4 on my PC and found it extremely annoying to play with keyboard and mouse. To be fair, though, I really didn't give it a chance. I stopped playing it after about 5 minutes out of frustration. I just decided I'd rather either get a game pad later or buy the xbox version.

Also, Enter the Matrix is utter shit. Oh, Shiny, how far you have fallen!

[quote name='Ubichu']

Bionicle, Catwoman, Enter the Matrix, Evil Dead: Regeneration, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, The Incredibles, Onimusha 3: Demon Siege, Shrek Super Slam, Spider-Man 2, Star Wars II: Battlefront, Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, Ultimate Ride, World Championship Tennis, X-Men: The Official Game.

One I'm still debating is Silent Hill 4: The Room. Has anyone tried to play it using a PC keyboard or do I really need a PC gamepad?

[/quote]
 
[quote name='BKPartisan']I tried to play Silent Hill 4 on my PC and found it extremely annoying to play with keyboard and mouse. To be fair, though, I really didn't give it a chance. I stopped playing it after about 5 minutes out of frustration. I just decided I'd rather either get a game pad later or buy the xbox version.

Also, Enter the Matrix is utter shit. Oh, Shiny, how far you have fallen![/QUOTE]

agreed

gave sh4 like 20 minutes before i gave up

yea you best to get yourself a game pad...i'd get the logitech rumblepad 2 (cordless or otherwise) as it acts like a PS2 controller :)

yep ETM , i gave that 10 minutes before I gave it up.
 
[quote name='ITDEFX']agreed

gave sh4 like 20 minutes before i gave up

yea you best to get yourself a game pad...i'd get the logitech rumblepad 2 (cordless or otherwise) as it acts like a PS2 controller :)

yep ETM , i gave that 10 minutes before I gave it up.[/quote]
Thanks, everyone, for the recommendations.

That Logitech pad is about $30 which feels a bit expensive to me (especially considering my last Gaming Edge PS2 controller was $2.98). I read that Radio Shack had some PS2 controller to USB adapters for $5 or $7, but RS told me they were $11.99. Does the PS2 to USB adapter allow all PS1 and PS2 game controllers to work with a PC, or do I need the $30 Logitech pad? I wonder if a PC USB gamepad would work with the PS2?

I haven't shopped around on the Internet for any of these items. Any suggestions of online stores with cheap PS2-USB adapter cables or PC gamepads? Otherwise I'll just start with pricegrabber and hope I find something cheaper. As you can tell, I don't know anything about PC gamepads.
 
[quote name='Ubichu']Thanks, everyone, for the recommendations.

That Logitech pad is about $30 which feels a bit expensive to me (especially considering my last Gaming Edge PS2 controller was $2.98). I read that Radio Shack had some PS2 controller to USB adapters for $5 or $7, but RS told me they were $11.99. Does the PS2 to USB adapter allow all PS1 and PS2 game controllers to work with a PC, or do I need the $30 Logitech pad? I wonder if a PC USB gamepad would work with the PS2?

I haven't shopped around on the Internet for any of these items. Any suggestions of online stores with cheap PS2-USB adapter cables or PC gamepads? Otherwise I'll just start with pricegrabber and hope I find something cheaper. As you can tell, I don't know anything about PC gamepads.[/QUOTE]


dude, if i were you I'd spend the money on that game pad. Its well worth it. It has a bit of configuration bugs with some older games but with the newer games, it rocks.
 
I got the Logitech gamepad without the vibration feature (which I heard most PC games don't support) locally for $16 + $6 for a 2 year warranty after hearing that the Logitech analog sticks wear out fast. I haven't had a chance to try it yet. I could've gotten the Rumblepad version for $7 more but saw no point.
 
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