Tips for LAN party games

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nephros · Post by **nephros** » Wed Mar 10, 2004 6:44 pm

A couple of friends and I are planning a small LAN party (~7-10 ppl, about 10-12 hours, 30-40 beers).
But we are all not hardcore gamers, so we're a bit underinformed on what games are fun.

We all agree that we'd rather NOT play any first-person shooters (because of lack of fun resulting from lack of skill

), and no realtime strategy (because of lack of time).
update: people here say to still try fps, so we will

I was thinking along the lines of games that take about 10-20 minutes to learn and one to two hours of multiplayer fun.
They do not need to be the newest either.

Things I am considering are:
NWN - steep learning curve is a problem
quake2/3 - Deathmatch gets boring fast
{Armage|GL}tron - small, easy but probably not long-time fun
MechWarrior3/4 - Co-op Multiplayer sounds great, nice balance between tactics and fragging.
Dethkarts - greatest racing game ever, easy to learn, long term fun
Scorched3D - easy, eyecandy, linux propaganda
bomberman - fragging!!!
MAME - nostalgia
ut200X-demo - gentoo ppl say it's good, so we'll give it a try!

Ability to run them under Linux is a big bonus but not a must, and the weakest machine is a Duron 800 with a GeForce2.

I'd appreciate recommendations.

[EDIT:] typos. added some clarifications.
[EDIT2:] added some games

BWoso · Post by **BWoso** » Wed Mar 10, 2004 7:24 pm

UT2003 or UT2004 are fun games, but they might not be what you are looking for? You can emerge the demo of either of them

Code: Select all

# emerge ut2003-demo
#emerge ut2004-demo

link97381 · Post by **link97381** » Wed Mar 10, 2004 7:54 pm

Why don't you just double the amount of beer that way no matter what you do it will be fun ^_^

nephros · Post by **nephros** » Wed Mar 10, 2004 8:13 pm

BWoso wrote:UT2003 or UT2004 are fun games, but they might not be what you are looking for? You can emerge the demo of either of them
Code: Select all
# emerge ut2003-demo
#emerge ut2004-demo

Thanks, but don't you need a fair bit of practice for FPS games to be fun? Also, those games are very resource-hungry right?

link97381 wrote:Why don't you just double the amount of beer that way no matter what you do it will be fun ^_^

Good point.

I might do that and also dig out a PS1 and Super Bishi Bashi. Nice sig BTW.

supenguin · Post by **supenguin** » Wed Mar 10, 2004 8:30 pm

No first person shooters and no real time strategy? Well there goes 90% of todays games that you can play with multiple people! What does that leave you with? Let's see - fighting games? racing games?

amne · Post by **amne** » Wed Mar 10, 2004 8:37 pm

Maybe one of these bomberman-clones:

Code: Select all

esearch -S bomberman

Might be fun after some beer and the rules are pretty simple.

Imek · Post by **Imek** » Wed Mar 10, 2004 8:44 pm

Perhaps you should try UT2004 anyway.. I have a long history of new games going slow on my PCs, and UT2003/4 are some of the only games that work really well with no slowdown. For me, at least. With the vehicles, UT2004 is a hell of a lot of fun to play even if you're not great at fps sharpshooting. onslaught (with the vehicles) is a lot different to normal deathmatch/ctf play. At any rate, you should try the demo, the real thing comes out in about a week.

nephros · Post by **nephros** » Wed Mar 10, 2004 8:44 pm

supenguin wrote:No first person shooters and no real time strategy? Well there goes 90% of todays games that you can play with multiple people! What does that leave you with? Let's see - fighting games? racing games?

Yes, I know. That's why I'm asking.
That is the crux with people who grew up in the Amiga age and prefer gaming fun to eyecandy and frames/frags-per-second.

Wolven · Post by **Wolven** » Wed Mar 10, 2004 8:50 pm

It's hard not to come up with a FPS or RTS game, but I have a few suggestions.

Rune (3rd. Person view action game)
This game is cool in deathmatch. Swords/Axes/Hammers. Gladiator style.

Heretic II (3rd. Person view action game)
The DM in this game is a bit diffrent from Rune. The maps are bigger and it has a diffrent style of weapons. Bows/Staffs/Magic Spells

Motocross Madness 1/2 (Motorcycle Simulation/Aracde)
Diffrent gametypes to choose from. Stunts/Various Racing

supenguin · Post by **supenguin** » Wed Mar 10, 2004 8:56 pm

First off, I gotta second imek's suggestion to try UT2004. It runs OK on my Pentium III 866 with a GeForce 2 after I turn the detail all the way down. The onslaught game type is a blast! I think as long as you are all about the same skill level, it will be fun.

Diablo II could also be fun, but I think you may have to divide into two games given the number of people you have. You might also be hitting the time issue here too.

Another idea: emulators. Get some of your fav arcade games and some USB gamepads that work with Linux.

Rodent · Post by **Rodent** » Wed Mar 10, 2004 9:23 pm

I have run about 11 lans of that size over the last 2 years. But you seem to have scraped all the games I have run.

Strangely, the best games of the type you are asking about I have seen are custom maps for Warcraft 3. I said ok once thinking that people would stop playing the simple and stupid things pretty quickly but sure enough we didn't play anohter game that whole night.

watch the beer when playing fps's I have lost 3 keyboards that way...

cirofren · Post by **cirofren** » Wed Mar 10, 2004 10:18 pm

My friends and I aren't exactly hard core gamers, but we play comps and stuff. I can tell you, your options are limited if you're not playing RTS or FPS.
But if you really don't want to you might try:
NWN - As you said, it doesn't take long at all to learn if you've played DnD before.
Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic - Probably my favorite TBS, doesn't work with Wine though

. Personally I use VMWare as it has a low graphics requirement.
Um, I can't really think of any others that are really LAN games. There are plenty of awesome games that aren't FPS or RTS, but a lot of them just aren't fun with other people

If you're going to have FPS and RTS I'd suggest CoD or UT2004-demo. CoD runs no problems under wine (just wine, not winex) and UT2004 is native. For RTS you can't go past StarCraft or War3 (with broodwar and TFT), they really are top-notch.

DarrenM · Post by **DarrenM** » Wed Mar 10, 2004 11:06 pm

This list of multiplayer + network enabled games should keep you going for a while.

Use the advanced search if you want to narrow it down more.

MIT_Service · Post by **MIT_Service** » Thu Mar 11, 2004 9:34 am

I know it's a FPS game, but I just can't resist suggesting Enemy Territory.
It's completely free and is great fun.

imho the only problem with unskilled FPS players is if they mix with skilled ones.
If everybody has no clue the games can be great fun.

elboricua · Post by **elboricua** » Thu Mar 11, 2004 11:01 am

First person shooters don't have to be all deathmatch. I find the team play modes to be much more fun. You can split into two teams and play capture the flag, or install the UT2004 demo and have fun with Onslaught and Assault mode. You really have to play as a team to get things done. Play a few rounds then mix up the teams again.

nephros · Post by **nephros** » Thu Mar 11, 2004 11:58 am

Thanks a lot people!

I'm reconsidering my "anti-FPS" stance now

ut2004, ET and Star/WarCraft are on my list, and bomberman and MAME for when the beer resources dwindle.

And Scorched3D so I can start handing out the knoppix CDs .

cirofren · Post by **cirofren** » Thu Mar 11, 2004 12:16 pm

If they're using Windows I'd say let them. I'd imagine Knoppix would slow down gaming quite a bit.
Either way, be sure to get Onslaught going with UT2004, it's actually quite simple but allows for some really nice gameplay at all levels of skill.

tyreth · Post by **tyreth** » Thu Mar 11, 2004 12:23 pm

The real time strategy games are always good for lan's - warcraft series, in particular warcraft 3, is popular. command and conquer is also played a bit.

As for FPS games, if you are all bad at them, then it shouldn't matter, since the skill level will be roughly the same

I find FPS's are the most fun when they first come out and nobody knows them.

tubamann · Post by **tubamann** » Fri Mar 12, 2004 11:59 pm

I am just shocked! I scrolled down the relative long list, but did not see "Jump'n'bump" listed.

It is the easiest game to learn, and you just sit there for hours, laughing. Small cute bunnies jumping at each other. Alas, it is only 4-player, but any more would have ruined the game. So, take a look at that ingenious little game

nmcsween · Post by **nmcsween** » Sat Mar 13, 2004 10:42 am

If it's going to be 10-12 people ut2004 will get mighty boring fast since the maps are massive. I would have to put a vote down for starcraft and something close to a network bomberman also some oldschool diablo would be a hell of a lot of fun hacking away with 10-12 people in a dungeon. Diablo is my pick for a lan party.

charlieg · Post by **charlieg** » Sat Mar 13, 2004 12:31 pm

Three games you really should have on your shortlist:
BZFlag
Battle for Wesnoth
Freeciv

uglyb0b · Post by **uglyb0b** » Sat Mar 13, 2004 5:31 pm

The original ut and quake2/3 have kept me going for a long time. The UT's are nice because they have different game types that are lots of fun.

mallchin · Post by **mallchin** » Mon Apr 05, 2004 5:07 pm

nephros wrote:A couple of friends and I are planning a small LAN party (~7-10 ppl, about 10-12 hours, 30-40 beers).
But we are all not hardcore gamers, so we're a bit underinformed on what games are fun.

We all agree that we'd rather NOT play any first-person shooters (because of lack of fun resulting from lack of skill ), and no realtime strategy (because of lack of time).
update: people here say to still try fps, so we will

Hmmm... Connect 4 anyone?

NecroScumBag · Post by **NecroScumBag** » Mon Apr 05, 2004 7:50 pm

The only thing I see missing are the Stripers! But that only me! BEER - FOOD - and GAMES are very good! But you also need the honey to sweeten the day! LOL

PovMan · Post by **PovMan** » Mon Apr 05, 2004 10:31 pm

ut2004 is so much fun. play that...
if you have the full version there, i suggest tournament rounds of ctf-1v1-joust.

Tips for LAN party games

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