i bought ubersoldier [the first one] from amazon [$3! free shipping too] and i got it last saturday.

so i installed it on my desktop [win7.64bit] and everything seemed to go ok until i was asked to restart. so i did and then i got a windows system restore screen. which was very strange.

so once i did get to windows, the ubersoldier folder was empty!

so i installed the game on my netbook [winxp] and again, no issues. restarted and nothing bad happened, but this time i cant activate. i'm asked to put the disc on the drive and activate it online, and after 2 or 3 minutes i get a error screen.

i can input a key, but there is no serial key on the manual [the screen says it should be on one of the discs, but nothing].

so i did some deep cleaning on my desktop and my notebook [from any left other drm junk] and now i'm going to download it from whatever site i can if it on.

apart from bioshock, this is the worst problem i had with drm. not even games for windows gave me any issues. the bioshock problem was similar, couldn't activate it or verify on the first try, but the second time it worked.

i'm not mad i lost $3, btu i'm kinda annoyed now i have to get it the illegal way to play it. all for a cheap game that might end up being crappy & buggy. :) 

that this is why we should have drm free games! seriously, online activations are the most evil shit ever created by publishers. 

Bought the two Crusader titles during the sales on gog.com! I already own them with the collection big box, but this way was less hassle to install them again. And they're fun games aside from the clunky controls.

Also grabbed Descent 1 & 2 from there, first time giving those a spin. Literally. Can get disorientating since I'm not used to that amount of movement. I did get annoyed with Descent 2 though once booting it up, with it's obnoxiously loud metal track suddenly being pierced through my ears while I was on my headset at the time... can't even turn the volume for it down in the settings :/ 

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/12/10/on-the-importance-of-s-t-a-l-k-e-r/

I agree with this so much. I had only discovered STALKER semi-recently, but it is one of the best games I ever played, and it tops all FPS I ever played, too.

I especially agree about the cultural observations. Crappy games get made mainly because their designers have no cultural background to draw from, and this is part of the reason why STALKER was so good. It drew from a strong background. 

yeah, GoG is pretty awesome because they provide all the stuff like dosbox or whatever haxoring is needed to run the game right from the download.

also, i'll probably remember "get out of here, stalker" until the day i die. :P
it's really really unfortunate stalker had some many technical issues at launch as well as being constantly pushed back on it's release date.
otoh, i'd say this is a good example of game, who's dev team overreached, and managed to make something truly interesting out of it despite the problems. 

There are (community) patches which make all three games run pretty much bug-free, even Clear Sky. 

I'm pretty sure you can turn down the volume in the settings. Did you try the faithful new Engine d2x-rebirth? 

I actually tried those engines recently and they work like a charm. The music volume wouldn't decrease at all when running through dosbox (gog's setup) but the music is different here compared to what I hear when using the port, perhaps MIDI, which is much nicer. I'm guessing the gog setup uses CD audio? From what I've heard, I honestly don't like it, too obnoxiously loud and heavy for my tastes. 

for descent 2, it's preferable as there are only 4 midi songs for the whole game (not counting intro and credits). :(
shame too, cause the midi music is really good. 

Since you are on a mission to play mediocre or underrated shooters, have you tried Damnation? Its another game that looked interesting in previews, but got completely trashed by the reviews and gamer public. 

Ok here's a review of White Gold: War in Paradise (aka Xenus II), which is an open-world action/rpg.

http://www.etherealhell.com/etherealhell/reviews/2011/xenus_white_gold.php

It was pretty good for the first 10 hours, but I got bored after that. 5.5/10. Probably worth playing for those into RPGs.

Lightmill: Yep I know the one you mean. It actually looked pretty good in youtube videos. I haven't played it... i'm still working on 2008 games and it's released in 2009. But I'm definitely gonna play it next year sometime. 

Reviews by the big websites are completely pointless. The major part of their income is ad revenue, so if a game doesn't have adverts with them, then its not in their interest to give it a favourable review.

Peer reviews (like Kona's) are great, and moreover trusted by everyone. It's why viral marketing keeps on coming back - nobody trusts the standard channels.

Just reading Masters of Doom, and how shareware came about. Basically faith was placed in the end users, whereas today the only thing a publisher wants to put into an end user is some kind of money tap. 

I have a copy of The Ball that I can gift on steam, does anyone want it, or maybe even have something to trade for it? 

Review for Tom Clancy's Rainbow Shit: Vegas 2

http://www.etherealhell.com/etherealhell/reviews/2011/rainbow6vegas2.php

6.5/10. Score says it all, it's an average looking game with identical gameplay to the first. 

Picked up many, many games over the steam sale peroid:

1) Hard Reset. It's a old skool fps design with modern graphics. Looks amazing and runs at a very high framerate even on my nvidia 460 on high details. Very fun gameplay but didn't really like the enemy designs. Also the weapon special effects make it very hard to see what is actually happening most of the time. Damage feedback was also quite weak, if something scratches you for 1hp damage you feel like you've taken a nuke to the face :) Finding secrets gives you more currency to spend on weapon and armour upgrades. Worth picking up if its on sale again imo, but dont pay more than �10 for it.

2) Renegade Ops. This is amazing! Hilarious cheesey characters and cutscenes, looks sexy as hell (same engine as Just Cause 2 iirc) and controls and responsive. Be warned that it plays best on a 360 pad, I've not tried it with kb/mouse. Really fun twinstick shooter gameplay, many explosions! Supports coop also, cant recommend this enough.

3) Portal 2. Excellent, just finished the coop with a friend and it was even better than the single player campaign. Recommended!

4) Metro 2033, can't remember if I already made a post about this, but its fantastic. Similar to Stalker in some respects (mainly atmosphere and visuals) but has much more focused linear fps gameplay. Collecting high quality bullets acts as currency to buy better guns, or you can shoot the hq ammo for more damage. Has some annoying sections (mainly stealth bits) but worth sticking with it for the most part. Atmosphere is top notch! 

http://www.etherealhell.com/etherealhell/reviews/2011/precursors.php

The Precursors review. Sci-fi RPG/FPS from 2009. Not as good as White Gold and just ends suddenly.
5/10

I ended up finishing White Gold though, and put the score up to 6.5/10. Quite a cool game.

I'm playing History Channel's Civil War now. It sucks. 

Well that sucked arse. Review of The History Channel: Civil War - Secret Missions

http://www.etherealhell.com/etherealhell/reviews/2011/civil_war_secret_missions.php

4/10. 

Enjoyed that one. Nice cyberpunk theme, cool weapons, fast gameplay. But it was a little too short imo. It's good to see that old school shooters still exist in 2011. 

In between coding, odd games of Civ 5 and getting nicely drunk I'm currently undertaking a masochistic session of playing any old shooter I can get my hands on. Feel like writing some stuff on all of them but not sure if I can be arsed.

Played so far (in no particular order):
> The classic Raven games (apart from heretic 2)
> Kingpin
> Star Trek: Elite Force
> Blood
> Redneck Rampage
> Strife
> Exumed (or Powerslave, lawl) for about three minutes, it's controls are crippled, all you need to know.

Still to play:
> Chasm
> Blood 2
> No One Lives for Ever 1 and 2
> Witchhaven (possibly, not sure if I'll bother)

currently playing:
After an afternoon of fiddling to get the damn thing to not crash with every level load...... Daikatana :p

Please point out any games I haven't mentioned apart from the obvious shit like Wolf or Duke. Although I have played the Duke Carribean add on... ooh yeah. 

Apparently I forgot Forever is one word... oh well *hic* 

You can also go for AvP Classic, Clive Barker's Undying, RtCW, Serious Sam, Shogo: MAD, SoF I/II and The Wheel of Time. 

wheel of time is a great game, though i reached a later level that had no "ammo" and i was stuck without any way to defeat the enemies. the game has [or had, its been too long since i played it] amazing levels. funky scenery and the maps are just fun as hell too. i never cared for the books it was based on, but i loved the game back then.

chasm</bold> is a game i only bought because the demo [first level of the game] had this room at the very start with an open window, and a piece of paper on a table was moving because of the wind! i played a few levels and its a weird mix of wolf3d [how the engine is, in a way. more like rott i guess] and quake [art style]. dont know what else to say about it. these dudes made cryostasis, which i really like.

witchaven games are weird. i played the first one and i got stuck on map 11 or map 12 i think. you sometimes get spells to open locked doors, and i used them all and i couldnt find a key to open a certain door to progress. but its not a horrible game, its just boring. the movement, jumping, fighting is weird. but i remember not being able to play more than one level a day or so. the game itself is too boring if you play it for to long, but fun enough if you go at it in small chunks. its been too long since i played this one, so it might just be a horrible game. my brother has both games and he says the second one is better, but i never played it.

techwar is another capstone game, and while i never played it, my brother showed me the game a bunch of times and it looked crappy. but some maps had interesting details. it look stupid enough to play it through until it either crashed or it becomes boring.

i remember having lots of fun with a game called Last Rites. the gameplay was very doomy. was about some special forces dudes going into a city and killing zombies and stuff. i think the game came out in 1998? i dont have it anymore, but i once tried downloading it and i lost the link, but its out there and if i remember right, its not that bad. its bad, but fun. or maybe just plain bad.

http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/last-rites

dark forces was fun too. never played the sequels, or have any interest in them [or even star wars], but the first one had some interesting levels. though a lot of times i would be running through the maps finding what to do next.

another lucasart game is outlaws. fun game, but if you play it too much it gets boring. nice cutscenes though :)

there's also a game called Erradicator, that was first and third person. i believe you could change the view to whatever you want, but i might be wrong. i only played the demo back in 1997, and don't remember much other than it had slopes. and it looked funky.

and cybermage! but i never played it. always wanted to try it. looks like a funky 90's fps with a cyberpunk setting. and maybe some rpg stuff? looks like a straight action game in youtube videos.

cyclones is a raven game. i have it. never finished it, but it has funky stuff like using keypads with menus to open doors and stuff... i think, its been too long. but i remember the aiming being weird. like you can move the cursor independent from the character's movement. or something weird like that.

and if you want to play wolf3d, i say go with spear of destiny. better levels and more insane that the first.

that's all i can think of right now. 

seeing how using bold came out wrong, i think that tells me its time to sleep :D 

i love strife even now. it's great with zdoom so you can get mouse look and higher res. 

if you can, then play the coop campaigns of NOLF. best coop experience ever.