The most captivating part of any Elder Scrolls game, the world, is totally absent in Morrowind. Npc's, assets, dialogue and even geography are all copy/pasted. I gave up after 30hrs at Vivec city once I realized there was no point in talking to every NPC, for an incredibly small fraction of them actually give quests and all of them have the same dialogue responses. This game is just a walking simulator in a copy/pasted open world map. Compared to other hand drawn RPG's like Gothic, I can't recommend anyone purchase this game. Played the unmodded version on my MBP using wineskin and had no performance issues, but the excruciatingly slow iv drip of an introduction only sets you up for far too much walking, that even the non-existent dialogue and RNG gameplay can't relent. This is a walking simulator disguised as an rpg.
There is not much I can say that other people have not already mentioned. Yes, this is a Star Wars themed fps set during the clone wars. No, it is not a revolutionary fps and plays quite typical to corridor shooters of the past, but with an emphasis on teamwork. The A.I is not smart and always requires further placement behind cover. As opposed to Brothers in Arms, whose A.I was quite intelligent, Republic Commando felt more like a chore having to babysit your clone troopers. Very little in the form of self preservation on account of the bad A.I, you are constantly telling them what to do and where to go. Headshots and grenades are a must on higher difficulty, but a lot of gunfights devolve to spray and pray tactics because the npc's take an incredible amount of ammo to kill, an upwards of 12 to 15 rounds sometimes. Ammo caches are placed sparingly around the maps, so expect to be pulling out your weak pistol to dispatch enemies every so often. There is a big difference between frustrating gameplay and challenging gameplay, unfortunately this game falls more towards the former. However, I quite enjoyed the graphical fidelity and detailed textures/ character models. No performance issues or crashing on my MBP utilizing Wine. If you must, grab it while its on sale.
I dont have the most recent system, an intel hd4000 mid 2012 mbp utilizing a virtual machine (Wine), but I can run Saints Row 3 on medium settings with little to no hitch in performance, also purchased on gog. Saints Row 2 was released back in 2008 and we still have the same terrible console port which struggles on any modern or mid range system released years after the fact. GTA IV, which was also a terrible port and utilizes countless assets, performs better on my outdated mbp, now that's just sad. Considering this game is graphically ugly and doesn't use a lot of assets, I'm kind of lost on how it still performs poorly. Is it really necessary to make an ugly game even worse by lowering the graphics and resolution to the lowest denominator and still not getting the input and performance over 10fps? If you have a beast of a system you might have a shot, but in the state this game was released back in 2008 and even today on gog, it is unplayable. The most recent game in my catalogue, Shadow of Mordor, even performs over 25 fps.
I was nine when this game originally released and I remember playing this along with thief 2. So i didn't hesitate to opt in when Gog was offering it up without asking for a dime. Having installed it through a clean wine prefix on my 08mbp, I can say this game runs very well playing with all three characters. Sure the difficulty and lack of multiple saves can be unforgiving, but whats the fun in breezing through a game as quick as you can? There is a lot of variety with the campaigns as well, be it impaling space marines heads with predators crossbow or blasting xenomorphs with the assault rifle. Now i can finally play the marine campaign without shi**ing my pants in fear.
Far Cry 2 released amidst stiff competition. It boasted TWO large open world maps. Features such as dynamic lighting, dynamic weather, destructible environments, destructible flora, a dynamic fire system and sophisticated a.i. Far Cry 2 is an ambitious title that also receives a lot of flak for its malaria crutch and repetitive mission structure of receive dossier, drive to location and kill or destroy said target. However, these complaints are unwarranted as the objective of all fps is usually to eliminate targets in the first person, and Far Cry 2 allows you a bevy of satisfying ways to do so. Blow em sky high with an RPG, rain fire from above with a sniper rifle, go stealthy with the dart rifle from afar or sneak up on em with your silenced Makarov. Yes, the weapons you choose, time of day and harshness of weather do also effect how the a.i reacts, and the a.i is smart. They suppress you, snipe at you from eagles nests, flank you, avoid brushfires and grenades. The weather and lighting effects displayed across the savannah can be downright beautiful at times, with the magnificent grass density and draw distance. This game really drives on the atmosphere and that's why it is my favorite of them all. I have a soft spot for Far Cry 2, the first person immersion of unjamming a gun, or bandaging yourself up or manually looking at a map just drives on the connection from player to virtual npc in my opinion. I could care less about the respawning npc's and guard posts because I know to avoid certain ones or approach certain ones containing ammo or meds. If i had only one complaint though, it would be the weapons merchant missions. The game is a lot more forgiving if you acquire all the good weapons as early on as possible and I like how they reconsidered this in the third game. With all that said, I think Far Cry 2 is a masterpiece and one of my favorite fps of 2008 and of all time. It still holds up very well and I would suggest anyone fond of fps to give it a try
