Be Excellent To Each Other

I'm saving up money, so I can't spend more than £15 on a game, but it's payday and I really want a nice fun new game. Provisio, it must play on:

2.5 XP
7600GS
2 Gig Ram

And must not be one of these that I own already: All Orange Box stuff, CIV 4, Colonization 2, Spore (ugh), MTW:II, Il42, Silent Hunter III, San Andreas, LotR:O and Guild Wars.

I am however tempted by a strategy game. Something meaty and customisable maybe. I hear Galactic Civ 2 is good, for example. I'm also tempted by the nerdy war game Ageod's American Civil War, which is a tenner and is one of the hex games, but has good reviews. Or maybe an RPG.

But yeah, preferably nothing that would have me tinkering with settings for ten hours trying to get the graphics just right on my ageing rig. Any reply this aft before 5:00 would be welcome, as I can toddle off to Game and poke about there.

(If the game is certified awesome, I may stretch to £20.)

EDIT: Forgot to mention I also have Company of Heroes + Opposing Fronts, Dawn of War and Defcon. Tch.

How about a pretty great tower defense game?

Defence Grid: The Awakening is ace.

Edit: £12.99 on steam iirc.

That said, if you are on a budget, it's always worth waiting to see what the weekend special is on steam. I got all the Xcom games for £2.99, which was the price they were on steam.

The only Gal Civ II you'll see in shops is the original edition, which is a bit pooey as there are three expansions now that change just about everything. I've just checked and a Grand Master Everything pack of game + expansions is a budget-busting £30.75 on Stardock's download service. The RTS, Sins Of A Solar Empire, is only £20 though; I hear that's good.

woot my system soon..

Either Mount & Blade or Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of the Zehir. Both have that sort of sandbox trading thing like Pirates, and are very good and cheap. NWN2 can be a bit demanding though (no one knows for certain, it can work great on yours, the game is kind of temperamental)

Total Annihilation, if you find a copy. Not Kingdoms mind, it was crap.

Trials 2 second edition. You'll thank me. Google it.. It's totally DRM free and 120mb to download.

Then you can join the club of T2SE lovers.

Aye. If you don't want a strategy game, this and Audiosurf will keep you competing for quite some time.

I'll second Mount & Blade, although I've not played my copy for a bit as my PC was starting to struggle with it as it gets fancier. However, my PC is a lot slower than Pete's.

I have downloaded the demo, and just done the tutorial.. quite good fun

I like it too - the pleasure of charging on your horse, picking out some looter or bandit ( I only got the demo so I rarely saw anything nastier ) and despatching them at the gallop with a well timed axe swing is quite something.

It's also very satisfying to be bombing along on your horse in one direction then turning to shoot an enemy off his horse with a fluky well-aimed arrow.

I may have to check this Mount & Blade stuff out. Quite a few people I know keep bigging it up.

If you're looking for some quality civil war strategy, then Take Command: 2nd Manassas is one of the best. It's technically real-time, but plays at such a sedate pace it feels more like a TBS, full of lovely period detail like orders being carried by mounted courier before being executed. It's the very definition of 'not for everyone', so try the demo out first.

Mount & Blade is fantastic. It's best to think of it as a medieval combat sim, as anyone approaching it expecting a conventional RPG could be severly disappointed. It's lacking in any real story or progression aside from your own adventures on the battlefield, but that's not really the point. Again, there's a healty full-featured demo that'll let you play up to level 7.

Whelp, I bought Audiosurf!

It was £3.50 in Game. Before you all howl I realise that it is a mere $2.50 in Steam, but annoyingly Steam does not recognise my Maestro/Solo/Switch card, and so I can never buy anything off the blimming thing! (Which is monumentally irritating.) I'd get a credit card, but since I've never had one being a miserly spender I have to jump through hoops - ironically enough - and thus am knackered half the time with online shopping.

I'll check Steam tonight actually, and see if they're getting round to having a sensible debit card payment system. Gagh. (And no, I'm not going anywhere near Paypal.)

So! Audiosurf! Played the rickerty old demo ages ago a few times and thought it was quite neat. Any of you guys got it? Anyway I can see your scores easy peasy?

For Steam purchasing, why don't you use Paypal?

Oh, and World of Goo is awesome.

The greatest joy, however, is surviving a battle on foot. Bringing down a man's horse as he tries to charge you, then chasing after him as he tumbles down a hill so that you can bury a voulge in his head is exhilirating. Also, planting a javelin in someone's head just as they beging to swing a blow that would have killed you. Great stuff.

Add us to your friends list. You'll get a score list like in my screenshot in the AudioSurf Challenge thread. You've got until tomorrow afternoon if you'd like to submit a score for it. I'm not sure how you do it as we all have the Steam version, so it looks at our Steam Friends list. I assume you can merely add us using our Audiosurf accounts, though.

Get medieval total war, or medieval total war 2.

Anyone else honestly not sure if he's joking or not?

Actually it's £6 on Steam so you got yourself a bargain there.

In future, if you want something off Steam you're welcome to just bung the money in my bank account and I'll happily use my card to Gift it to you.

Intriguing! Ta for the offer.

I've added you to my friends list, btw, both in Steam and in game. At least, I hope you're simply Sheepeh in-game. Also got Plissken and Morte. Best go hunt down the Steam list and add more.

I am, so you should be seeing my scores now. We're currently scoring on the Portal Soundtrack, song 12 (Still Alive). It comes with the game, so you've got a copy. It just popped up you added me on Steam, but you're not showing in my list as on or offline and it won't add you from my end. Hopefully it'll sort itself. When it does I'll invite you to the BeeX Steam Group.

Ta, I've just accepted the invite.

The Still Alive song, do you have to install the game to grab that? I have a tiny hard drive so I'm avoiding reinstalling it all, can I just yank it off the Orange Box disc somehow or will it be hidden somewhere else I wonder?

It's included in Audiosurf. It's nothing to do with Portal or Orange Box apart from the fact it's the music from it. Unless that was a Steam only offer. You should have it to choose from when you pick a song.

Nope, its an option, it works...

Ooh! Yes, found it now! It's under Orange Box, natch.

An option which he specifically said he wasn't going to use in the post you were replying to

Unionman FeeX

"UseitboyuuuuhhhgawonuseituseitandrememberthedealthedealthedealyourememberwhenIsaidplaywithpaypalandloseyursoullllll!"

No. NO. NO! NO!!

Paypal is not that bad..... if you don't use it on ebay. On steam what is the worst that can happen?

Paypa are not to be trusted. The worst that could happen is they backcharge for some reason without your consent and your Steam account goes byebye.

I wouldn't.

I thought that only happened on ebay?

edit: Not to derail this further, i have started a papal thread

John Paul II FTW.

Na.... Stephen VI and his Cadaver Synod ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadaver_Synod )

I love this place.

Ha! Took me a while to spot that!