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The Tactical Gaming Index - Descriptions, links, demos, and full free games
dslyecxi.com — Created by the author of "Tactical Gaming Done Right", this is a list of games, mods, and websites focused on tactical computer gaming. It highlights a number of games that have made an impact in the tactical genre, to include a few that are actually entirely free to play. It should serve as a solid reference for anyone interested in the genre.
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- Ignignokt01, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"Red Orchestra - WWII infantry & tanks. Fun for a few weeks if you play with the right people."
Wow, one of the only negative comments is given to one of the greatest WWII FPS' ever.
Other than that little disheartening comment, its a great list.- Dslyecxi, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2If you look at the rest of the site you'll notice a very positive review of Red Orchestra. It's not that the game is bad - it did many things very nicely - more that it grows stale faster than most comparable games. Thus, the remark. However, thanks to the low cost associated with it, that's more acceptable than if say you were spending a full 'normal' price on it.
- Wonotch, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3It's nice to see this on the front page given the sorry state of tactical FPS games on the PC right now.
I play a lot of FPS, and match competitively in Raven Shield (RvS), and its disappointing to say the least that in the 6 years RvS has been out, nothing better has come around and the majority of the tactical FPS community is still playing either this or Americas Army.
Developers need to kick it up a notch and remember what made this genre of games so great in the first place. They need to stop releasing sloppy rehashes of console games like Rainbow6 4 Lockdown, and start building PC games that are meant for PCs.
Make a decent Tactical FPS and the people will come. In droves. And they will remember a good game and be MUCH more likely to purchase your products in the future. If only marketing departments could see it this way and finally get off their one track minded high horses... - AquaFox, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The games here arn't really free most are demos and half-free. Some free games arn't free anymore.
- Dslyecxi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I never claimed that all the games are free. Four of them listed, however, are:
Aces High 2 (free download, free 8-player arena)
America's Army (completely free)
Hidden & Dangerous Deluxe (completely free)
True Combat Elite (completely free)
- Dslyecxi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I never claimed that all the games are free. Four of them listed, however, are:
- ninjoah, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1another good place to download tactical game demos would be
http://www.vgpro.com
or
http://www.fileshack.com - moosehenk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The games not listed there are not worth playing seen from a tactical aspect and the list definitely serves as a reference for everything the tactical gaming genre has to offer.
- TigersharkBAS, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Dude....I tried to post your first article here but it never made it. Good to see it got to the front page!!
Now when are you going to do that interview with me!- Dslyecxi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I'm trying to get the original article Dugg right now - if you want to lend a hand, you can find it here:
http://digg.com/gaming_news/Tactical_Gaming_Done_Right_The_Best_of_the_Genre
As to the interview, I sent you an e-mail about that. Reply anytime. =)
- Dslyecxi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I'm trying to get the original article Dugg right now - if you want to lend a hand, you can find it here:
- R0CKY, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"Ghost Recon - This would be included above if it weren't for the fact that the community is very, very small these days."
Ouch! Very very small? I don't really know much about the OFP community, but I know a fair bit about the Ghost Recon community, so let's try a quick comparison :o)
Right now on the OFP forums linked to in the report the online user list is 77 guests, 59 Public Members, on http://www.ghostrecon.net the online users list is 74 guests, 49 members, remarkable close eh? Our forums were rebuilt in 2003, so I don't have stats way back to 2001, but in the last 2 years the GhostRecon.net forums have achieved over 400,000 posts with over 12,000 registered members - and we're a fan site (and not the only one), not the official site - I don't know what their stats are like.
Another indicator might be the number of mods being made and downloaded, I couldn't see anything at the OFP site to give an indication but I do know that in the last 12 months, Ghost Recon (the original, not GRAW) has seen fans download well over half a million fan made mods, probably in the region of 3 terrabytes of mods. Not bad for a 4 year old game :o)
I don't know what sort of yardstick was used to make the "very very small" conclusion, I am sure in comparison to BF2 etc GR is small, but then for a 5 year old game to have the thriving community it does is really quite special, but then I would say that, being slightly biased :op
If you want to see very small, look at VBS. Very small yes, but an extremely dedicated tactical gamer user base that are tactical to an almost bizarre extreme (maybe that alone could have justified a mention in the list for VBS).
So I guess what I am trying to say is, great list, but it would have been good to see GOTY Ghost Recon up their beside OFP and Raven Shield :o) - Dslyecxi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1R0CKY,
I went mainly off of the server/playercount as seen through All Seeing Eye. GR at the time had ~20 servers, under 10 active players, and right now the numbers are similar. Maybe that's not the best way to do it. I'll think about grouping it back up with the rest of the full games if what you say is how it is. From my brief look, it seemed pretty dead. If it isn't, then it deserves to be with the rest of them.
As to VBS, it won't be included at all. WGL5 for OFP is superior to VBS in my opinion, and there's no way I'm going to list a several hundred dollar game as a tactical gaming option when the community is miniscule, the price of admission is prohibitive, and OFP mods already cover the same ground just as well if not better. It's even less likely considering that ArmA is just a stone's throw away these days.- Dslyecxi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I added Ghost Recon to the main section per R0CKY's comments.
- R0CKY, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Cool, thank you for making that adjustment :o)
As an aside, PC gamer gave us their encouragement recently too, publishing this letter I sent in, in response to a "Classic Game" feature they were running recently.
_______
Thousands of Ghost Recon fans stayed true to this classic game even though they were denied a GR2 sequel on the PC. The gameplay, the community and the mods are three reasons that, almost six years after the original release, Ghost Recon keeps fans coming back for more. That, and the fact that today's home computers can run the game with all options on high and on a widescreen monitor and it still looks absolutely superb!
________
Viva Ghost Recon! - Attila16, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yeah, i think Rocky is right, Ghost Recon original is definitely a classical game in the Tactical genre and had a huge community. That's also one of the first game where i saw soo many good mods, and basically anyone could do at least a missions in less then some Min's.
It's just sad that series ended up a xbox series forgetting a huge quantity of gamers that simply has no interest in limited by the console kind of game. And that lead us to GRAW PC that is more of less interesting and simply is not a good follow up to the original game...The Xbox 360 version of it seem more attractive to give you the idea.
It's an OK game... but... the AI doesn't live up to the expectations. The AI is simply no fun at all to fight...
So i guess we will see the Ghost Recon PC community slowly get smaller until only the hardcore ones remains.
- Bommando, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Thanks for mentioning Tactical Gamer :)
I am assuming you didn't list Battlefield 2 because you consider it too "arcade" for the purposes of the article. I have to say that played on a server with good admin coverage, BF2 can be a very tactical game. We run custom scripts that force people to join squads and have a good number of admins watching the games around the clock, so I believe there is a definite place for this game in the teamwork environment if played right.
I see you included Forgotten Hope 2, but missed an excellent (and completed) full-conversion mod for BF2 in Point of Existence 2.
Nice article, thanks for the write-up.- Dslyecxi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I included PRMM and FH2 from BF2, but I wasn't sure whether I should put PoE2 in there. I've never played it (whereas I've played PRMM and the original FH). If you can make a good case for it, I'll toss it up there.
I'm not too keen on adding the core BF2 game to the list for a variety of reasons, but I have no problem with putting BF2 mods up there.
- Dslyecxi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I included PRMM and FH2 from BF2, but I wasn't sure whether I should put PoE2 in there. I've never played it (whereas I've played PRMM and the original FH). If you can make a good case for it, I'll toss it up there.
- PGSkillabees, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1would like to add a thing to what rocky said...
today, THIS evening 17/09/2006
on UBI.com lobby.... 200 players...
GG Red Storm, GG Ghost Recon
PS with all my respects to the other games! - bobbilljoe, on 04/07/2008, -0/+1http://operationreality.org
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