I fell in love with Outwars back when it was new, and dropped every other game I was playing at the time to focus on it. Fighting aliens while wearing Starship Troopers powered armor with limited flight and a great set of weapons- what's not to love? The mobility you have is just fantastic, and only gets better as your suit options improve. The story was also richer than most games of the era. Then I got to a level (either the last or second to last) that was a brilliant rework of a previous level (I'm not going to spoil it here), and my poor Voodoo graphics card just choked on it. As smooth as the game had been up until then, that level with its... creative geometry... was more than my system could render playably. That was 22 years ago, and after losing the install media I wasn't able to finish it even after building a beefier PC. But I never forgot about Outwars, and every couple years I'd check to see if GOG or one of the other services had it available. Heck, a couple months ago I spent an entire day going through boxes of CDs, in large part hoping to find my long lost copy of Outwars. And now it's here! Don't overlook this gem. There's a reason why I was still looking for this game after two decades. Time to suit up again. REMEMBER THE ULYSSES!
I can't heap enough praise on TRON 2.0. It's easily in the top 5 games I've ever played. I've bought it 4 different times on different platforms over the years (PPC Mac, Windows, Steam, GOG), and have played it on every main computer I've owned since 2003. It's that good. I loved TRON: Legacy, but *this* is the true sequel to the original. It's aesthetically true to the original, but still updated and with a much more in-depth exploration of the world. The plot is engaging, the characters are interesting, and the world is jaw-droppingly beautiful! The Light Cycle matches put even the original movie to shame. The graphics have aged well because, honestly, they're perfect. Other than increasing the resolution for newer displays (which you can do through the fan-made patches put out by LDSO), there's little that fancier graphics would do to improve the aesthetic of the game. This is just what the TRON world looks like! Each environment has its own feel and character, and nicely reflects what computer system you're in. Those who remember Palm Pilots will find that level particularly charming. The subroutine management system is original, sensible, and fun, and this is probably the only FPS in existence where the inventory system makes sense. All of your weapons are configurations of just a few "primatives", so the question of "Where is he keeping the rocket launcher and minigun?" doesn't break the immersion. The music also deserves kudos. It harkens back to the original soundtrack while still being fresh. It's also dynamically "composed" by the game on the fly, so it smoothly reflects what's happening from moment to moment. A wonderful touch. One more thing I want to mention. I'm an old school LAN party guy, and we've had an entire LAN party where the only thing we played was TRON 2.0, whether the various disc games or light cycles. It never got old, even for those who aren't major TRON geeks. Even 15 years later, this is a must-have, even at full price!
