htpc games

[reven]

what are your fav games to play on your htpc?
im trying to find some good console type games i can play using a gamepad and my htpc. also curious to what you guys like?

my favs
- Need for Speed Underground 1
- Lesiure Suit Larry 8
- Quest for Glory V (oldie but goodie)
- Prince of Persia 2 (came with my gfx card, really cool game)
- Need for Speed Underground 2 Demo

[cwills]

The #1 reason for making my HTPC, games! If you are looking for console games, you should download some emulators, lots of goodies there. They can all be played with a gamepad. I'm using Logitech Wingman Cordless pads. They are very programmable and have a nice feel to them. Here is what I play:

First Person Shooters:
Wolfenstein 3D
Wolfenstein 3D - Spear of Destiny
Ultimate Doom
Final Doom - TNT
Final Doom - Plutonia
Doom II
Quake
Quake II
Quake II - Ground Zero
Quake II - The Reckoning
Quake III Arena
Quake III Team Arena
Return To Castle Wolfenstein
Doom 3
Duke Nukem Atomic Edition
Half-Life
Half-Life - Opposing Forces
Half-Life - Blue Shift
Half-Life 2
Far Cry
Star Trek Voyager Elite Force
Star Trek Voyager Elite Force II
Jedi Knight II
Jedi Knight III
Star Wars Battlefront
Unreal
Unreal - Return to Na Pali
Unreal II
Unreal Tournament
UT2003
UT2004
Painkiller
Painkiller - Battle Out of H e l l
Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay

Flight Sims:
Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator 3
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004
X-Wing
Tie Fighter
X-Wing Vs. Tie Fighter
X-Wing Alliance

Vehicle Sims:
Sub Culture
Deep Fighter
Stunt GP
Viper Racing
NFSU
NFSU2

Emulators
Arcade M.A.M.E - 3797 Games
Atari 2600 - 1665 Games
Nintendo NES - 6066 Games
Super Nintendo - 988 Games
Nintendo 64 - 536 Games
Gameboy - 1156 Games
Gameboy Color - 517 Games
Gameboy Advance - 805 Games
Sega Master System - 705 Games
Sega Genesis - 1266 Games
Turbo Grafx 16 - 459 Games

Others
Hyperblade
Madden NFL 2005
Postal
Sim City 3000 Unlimited
Worms Armageddon
Worms World Party
Worms 3D - bleh

Of course, I don't really have any emulators or roms, because that would be wrong, cough cough. Viper Racing is a great racing game, you can usually get on Ebay or Half.com for under $3. It's old, but just requires a little patching for XP, and your good to go. The older FPS games like Doom are great again with modern OpenGL or DirectX engines like jdoom. Just within the last year a patch came out where I could play the DirectX versions of X-Wing & Tie Fighter in XP. That combined with FSAA and Anisotrophic filtering, even at 640X480 it looks great, much better than the 320X240 DOS versions I remember playing back in the early 90's. If you're looking for some good FPS, Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay is great. I played the Xbox version when it came out, and then got the PC version for the extra features & such. I personally think it's a better game than Halo & Halo 2, but will never live up to them in reviews because of lack of multiplayer mode. Doom 3 is fun, but repetitive. In a dark room with the 5.1 cranked up, this game can scare the sh*t out of you. Painkiller is a graphically awesome game that requires zero brainpower, a real fragfest. Far Cry is gorgeous, with a good storyline, and I'm currently playing Half Life 2 and just cannot get into it. The original was great at the time because they did things no-one else has done. If Half Life 2 would have came out when it should have, it would have been better. Now, it looks dated. For the graphics it has, it runs like crap on a modern system IMO, and if it wasn't for the steam crack I found, it wouldn't be on my system. I mean a single player game that "requires" internet access just to play it, come on. My next game will definately be Star Wars Republic Commando.

[reven]

whats the best flight sim you got? not m$ flight sim, like ones where you go shooting up other planes. also can you use a gamepad with worms3d? im not really into FPS, the only one ive ever really liked was SOF2, plus with gamepad they are really hard to play.

my gamepad

[cwills]

reven, I don't play true flight sims that much. With my flightstick I mainly play the SW X-Wing & Tie Fighter games. The MS Combat Flight Sim 3 is a WWII game where you shoot other planes. I haven't played any modern sims lately such as Jetfighter or a Janes game.

I've got the older 2D Worms games along with Worms3D setup with the joypads also, you just have to map keystrokes to the buttons/sticks for the movement. Once you memorize them, it's fine. The Worms games are on console systems too, so they can be played with a controller fine. I always like Worms Armageddon the best, hopefully this new Worms3D game coming out is better than the current one, maybe I'm just used to playing it 2D.

I agree with you on the FPS and gamepads. I never would have played one except for Halo coming out on Xbox. Thankfully, Lik-Sang came out with a ps/2 mouse/kb adapter to use with the Xbox now, so I don't have to deal with the gamepads anymore.

Your controller looks nice, the button layout is almost exactly the same as with the logitech cordless. I'm sure it comes with programming software you could use to map to keystrokes. My favorite gamepad is the Belkin Nostromo N45, but they haven't come out with a cordless version, so I switched when I built my HTPC. That thing was unbelievably programmable.

[capone]

Just finished Knights of the Old Republic II....very good, but it had a feel like some little things weren't done.

Freedom Force II is just as good as original.