• Free Game: Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory

    From Spalls Hurgenson@21:1/5 to All on Fri Oct 21 09:21:56 2022
    Sometimes GOG reminds me of a little sister. Big brother Epic keeps
    doing its thing - giving away free games once a week - and every now
    and then GOG has to do the same. Except its efforts - while not
    unappreciated - are always less spectacular, and maybe a little bit embarrassing.

    Case in point, this give-away. This time they're offering
    "Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory" (https://www.gog.com/en/game/wolfenstein_enemy_territory ), which is a
    great game and it's nice to see it being made available... except it's
    not much of a give-away because it's /always/ been a free game. From
    Day One it was offered gratis. It's been free on Steam for ages. So
    for GOG to plaster it on their front page as some awesomely generous
    charity is... well, it's sort of sad.

    It's a good game, though. I don't know how active it is - it's a multiplayer-only game so user count is important - but its worth
    taking a look. It was an influential game that helped push multiplayer
    beyond simple deathmatch towards more involved game-types, after all,
    and its DNA is in pretty much every online-FPS since. I'm happy to add
    it (again) to my library.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From yerr@21:1/5 to Spalls Hurgenson on Fri Oct 21 16:10:26 2022
    I used to play WolfET a bunch back during its heyday in the 00s.
    What ruined the game, or rather made it worse, were the players
    themselves in how they modded the game to include useless things. Often
    servers had their own mods to add some personality, which was fine, but
    others took it even further and even modded the menu in the game and
    even sometimes interfered with the server browser itself.
    I typically filtered servers to exclude these kinds of minds as best I
    could.

    My favorite mod was ETpro.

    An excellent game but today most servers, at leats when I tried it a few
    years ago, had bots not many real players.

    On Fri, 21 Oct 2022 09:21:56 -0400, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

    Sometimes GOG reminds me of a little sister. Big brother Epic keeps
    doing its thing - giving away free games once a week - and every now
    and then GOG has to do the same. Except its efforts - while not
    unappreciated - are always less spectacular, and maybe a little bit embarrassing.

    Case in point, this give-away. This time they're offering
    "Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory" (https://www.gog.com/en/game/wolfenstein_enemy_territory ), which is a
    great game and it's nice to see it being made available... except it's
    not much of a give-away because it's /always/ been a free game. From
    Day One it was offered gratis. It's been free on Steam for ages. So
    for GOG to plaster it on their front page as some awesomely generous
    charity is... well, it's sort of sad.

    It's a good game, though. I don't know how active it is - it's a multiplayer-only game so user count is important - but its worth
    taking a look. It was an influential game that helped push multiplayer
    beyond simple deathmatch towards more involved game-types, after all,
    and its DNA is in pretty much every online-FPS since. I'm happy to add
    it (again) to my library.





    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Ant@21:1/5 to Spalls Hurgenson on Fri Oct 21 19:05:55 2022
    It's also free to play on Steam. I used to play it a lot when it was new!


    Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:
    Sometimes GOG reminds me of a little sister. Big brother Epic keeps
    doing its thing - giving away free games once a week - and every now
    and then GOG has to do the same. Except its efforts - while not
    unappreciated - are always less spectacular, and maybe a little bit embarrassing.

    Case in point, this give-away. This time they're offering
    "Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory" (https://www.gog.com/en/game/wolfenstein_enemy_territory ), which is a
    great game and it's nice to see it being made available... except it's
    not much of a give-away because it's /always/ been a free game. From
    Day One it was offered gratis. It's been free on Steam for ages. So
    for GOG to plaster it on their front page as some awesomely generous
    charity is... well, it's sort of sad.

    It's a good game, though. I don't know how active it is - it's a multiplayer-only game so user count is important - but its worth
    taking a look. It was an influential game that helped push multiplayer
    beyond simple deathmatch towards more involved game-types, after all,
    and its DNA is in pretty much every online-FPS since. I'm happy to add
    it (again) to my library.





    --
    "I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart." --Psalm 40:8. Another death again. :~(
    Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
    /\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://aqfl.net & http://antfarm.home.dhs.org.
    / /\ /\ \ Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail.
    | |o o| |
    \ _ /
    ( )

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Spalls Hurgenson@21:1/5 to yerr on Sat Oct 22 10:24:37 2022
    On 21 Oct 2022 16:10:26 +0100, "yerr" <me@wherever.com> wrote:

    I used to play WolfET a bunch back during its heyday in the 00s.
    What ruined the game, or rather made it worse, were the players
    themselves in how they modded the game to include useless things. Often >servers had their own mods to add some personality, which was fine, but >others took it even further and even modded the menu in the game and
    even sometimes interfered with the server browser itself.
    I typically filtered servers to exclude these kinds of minds as best I
    could.

    My favorite mod was ETpro.

    An excellent game but today most servers, at leats when I tried it a few >years ago, had bots not many real players.

    A shame, but not unexpected.

    I wasn't as dedicated to ET as you. By 2003, I was already starting to
    bow out of online shooters; the genre was just getting too repetitive
    and online battles for the sake of battling online was quickly losing
    its appeal (Hurrah, our team won the match. Ooh, the excitement.). I
    really appreciated how W:ET was trying to add more impact and meaning
    to the hobby with its more mission-based design and character classes,
    but it really wasn't enough to keep me at it for very long. I liked it
    more as a technical/design achievement than as a game.

    Certainly I didn't hang around long enough to see mods take over.

    So my praise of it remains somewhat distant and while I think it
    deserves to be in people's library because of its historical import
    (it's worth looking at it), I'm not sure it's a game worth /playing/
    anymore. All of its worthwhile evolutions have been adopted by modern
    online shooters, and its aging graphics and gameplay (not to mention,
    you know, the lack of playerbase) will probably annoy more than they
    please.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From yerr@21:1/5 to Spalls Hurgenson on Mon Oct 24 14:28:41 2022
    On Sat, 22 Oct 2022 10:24:37 -0400, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

    On 21 Oct 2022 16:10:26 +0100, "yerr" <me@wherever.com> wrote:

    I used to play WolfET a bunch back during its heyday in the 00s.
    What ruined the game, or rather made it worse, were the players
    themselves in how they modded the game to include useless things. Often >servers had their own mods to add some personality, which was fine, but >others took it even further and even modded the menu in the game and
    even sometimes interfered with the server browser itself.
    I typically filtered servers to exclude these kinds of minds as best I >could.

    My favorite mod was ETpro.

    An excellent game but today most servers, at leats when I tried it a few >years ago, had bots not many real players.

    A shame, but not unexpected.

    I wasn't as dedicated to ET as you. By 2003, I was already starting to
    bow out of online shooters; the genre was just getting too repetitive
    and online battles for the sake of battling online was quickly losing
    its appeal (Hurrah, our team won the match. Ooh, the excitement.). I
    really appreciated how W:ET was trying to add more impact and meaning
    to the hobby with its more mission-based design and character classes,
    but it really wasn't enough to keep me at it for very long. I liked it
    more as a technical/design achievement than as a game.

    Certainly I didn't hang around long enough to see mods take over.

    So my praise of it remains somewhat distant and while I think it
    deserves to be in people's library because of its historical import
    (it's worth looking at it), I'm not sure it's a game worth /playing/
    anymore. All of its worthwhile evolutions have been adopted by modern
    online shooters, and its aging graphics and gameplay (not to mention,
    you know, the lack of playerbase) will probably annoy more than they
    please.



    I'd still highly recommend giving WolfET a try, preferably on
    etlegacy.com engine which makes the game run better on modern machines,
    as well as bug fixes. It's free, doesn't hurt to try :>

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Justisaur@21:1/5 to Spalls Hurgenson on Mon Oct 24 09:36:17 2022
    On Saturday, October 22, 2022 at 7:24:57 AM UTC-7, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
    On 21 Oct 2022 16:10:26 +0100, "yerr" <m...@wherever.com> wrote:

    I used to play WolfET a bunch back during its heyday in the 00s.
    What ruined the game, or rather made it worse, were the players
    themselves in how they modded the game to include useless things. Often >servers had their own mods to add some personality, which was fine, but >others took it even further and even modded the menu in the game and
    even sometimes interfered with the server browser itself.
    I typically filtered servers to exclude these kinds of minds as best I >could.

    My favorite mod was ETpro.

    An excellent game but today most servers, at leats when I tried it a few >years ago, had bots not many real players.
    A shame, but not unexpected.

    I wasn't as dedicated to ET as you. By 2003, I was already starting to
    bow out of online shooters; the genre was just getting too repetitive
    and online battles for the sake of battling online was quickly losing
    its appeal (Hurrah, our team won the match. Ooh, the excitement.). I
    really appreciated how W:ET was trying to add more impact and meaning
    to the hobby with its more mission-based design and character classes,
    but it really wasn't enough to keep me at it for very long. I liked it
    more as a technical/design achievement than as a game.

    Certainly I didn't hang around long enough to see mods take over.

    So my praise of it remains somewhat distant and while I think it
    deserves to be in people's library because of its historical import
    (it's worth looking at it), I'm not sure it's a game worth /playing/
    anymore. All of its worthwhile evolutions have been adopted by modern
    online shooters, and its aging graphics and gameplay (not to mention,
    you know, the lack of playerbase) will probably annoy more than they
    please.

    The only online PVP FPS I ever played with any longevity was Counterstrike, which was fun for a bit, but after about 6 months of off and on, and mostly because a friend played it, it waned and I've no desire for PVP FPS ever
    again.

    - Justisaur

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From JAB@21:1/5 to Justisaur on Tue Oct 25 08:58:54 2022
    On 24/10/2022 17:36, Justisaur wrote:
    On Saturday, October 22, 2022 at 7:24:57 AM UTC-7, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
    On 21 Oct 2022 16:10:26 +0100, "yerr" <m...@wherever.com> wrote:

    I used to play WolfET a bunch back during its heyday in the 00s.
    What ruined the game, or rather made it worse, were the players
    themselves in how they modded the game to include useless things. Often
    servers had their own mods to add some personality, which was fine, but
    others took it even further and even modded the menu in the game and
    even sometimes interfered with the server browser itself.
    I typically filtered servers to exclude these kinds of minds as best I
    could.

    My favorite mod was ETpro.

    An excellent game but today most servers, at leats when I tried it a few >>> years ago, had bots not many real players.
    A shame, but not unexpected.

    I wasn't as dedicated to ET as you. By 2003, I was already starting to
    bow out of online shooters; the genre was just getting too repetitive
    and online battles for the sake of battling online was quickly losing
    its appeal (Hurrah, our team won the match. Ooh, the excitement.). I
    really appreciated how W:ET was trying to add more impact and meaning
    to the hobby with its more mission-based design and character classes,
    but it really wasn't enough to keep me at it for very long. I liked it
    more as a technical/design achievement than as a game.

    Certainly I didn't hang around long enough to see mods take over.

    So my praise of it remains somewhat distant and while I think it
    deserves to be in people's library because of its historical import
    (it's worth looking at it), I'm not sure it's a game worth /playing/
    anymore. All of its worthwhile evolutions have been adopted by modern
    online shooters, and its aging graphics and gameplay (not to mention,
    you know, the lack of playerbase) will probably annoy more than they
    please.

    The only online PVP FPS I ever played with any longevity was Counterstrike, which was fun for a bit, but after about 6 months of off and on, and mostly because a friend played it, it waned and I've no desire for PVP FPS ever again.


    I did try CS:Source but rapidly gave up as basically I just died all the
    time and very, very quickly. Oh how much fun I having with yet another
    player bouncing around the corner and head shotting me.

    Ones that I played far more were Medal of Honour, Call of Duty and my
    favourite of all, Team Fortress 2. They just seemed far more laid back
    and relaxed that CS:S. I did try and get into Day of Defeat:Source but
    although I could see there was a good game there it was just one of
    those ones that I think you need to put the effort in to get the reward.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Spalls Hurgenson@21:1/5 to JAB on Tue Oct 25 09:49:10 2022
    On Tue, 25 Oct 2022 08:58:54 +0100, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:
    On 24/10/2022 17:36, Justisaur wrote:


    The only online PVP FPS I ever played with any longevity was Counterstrike, >> which was fun for a bit, but after about 6 months of off and on, and mostly >> because a friend played it, it waned and I've no desire for PVP FPS ever
    again.


    I did try CS:Source but rapidly gave up as basically I just died all the
    time and very, very quickly. Oh how much fun I having with yet another
    player bouncing around the corner and head shotting me.

    Ones that I played far more were Medal of Honour, Call of Duty and my >favourite of all, Team Fortress 2. They just seemed far more laid back
    and relaxed that CS:S. I did try and get into Day of Defeat:Source but >although I could see there was a good game there it was just one of
    those ones that I think you need to put the effort in to get the reward.

    If there's one genre that you need to get day-1, it's online shooters.
    Wait too long and it's going to fill up with either die-hards (who
    know every twist of the map and all the best stratagems) or cheaters.
    Six months into any online-shooters game and all the casuals who are
    just playing the game for simple fun are gone, and trying to learn and
    explore your new game becomes a frustrating experience as you get shot
    through the head by somebody across the map.

    I gotta admit, I never saw the appeal of Counterstrike... or at least,
    never understood why it was so much more appealing than any of its near-identical contemporanies. Certainly I cannot imagine trying to
    break into it today.

    I did enjoy "Day of Defeat", even if it did sometimes feel like an
    also-ran for "W:ET". It was a bit heavier on bunny-hopping tactics
    than I'd have liked, but on the whole it was a satisfying mixture of
    realism and gamifie mechanics.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)