I never did finish the last room of my DooM map, but the LAN party was wonderful, just the same. Unreal Tournament 3 was actually quite fun. The addition of the hoverboard that lets you move faster (at the expense of falling off if you take damage) was a really good addition. Also, you can grapple onto the back of another vehicle when you're on the board. It's hard not to kill the guy boarding if you're piloting the vehicle, but when it works, it's crazy fun. I had one run where I was hooked to a fast moving hovercraft, swerving and jumping for dear life as we zipped through boulders and along cliff side trails. It was awesome.
We also played a fair amount of the favorite from the last LAN party, Quake Enemy Territory. Unfortunately, the learning curve was in full effect and we lost more than a couple rounds to new players learning how their gear worked or learning the map. Of course it was still better than the Wolfenstein Enemy Territory we played. Trying new user created maps is always a mixed bag. The good part about the game is that the combination of laughing (everyone else) and complaining (me) seems to balance out somehow.
There was also some Flatout 2 and Trackmania United. I'm not a really big fan of either as defeat comes swiftly and arbitrarily in both. The tracks we played on Trackmania weren't as bad as some of the ones we used to play (where no one could finish the course without falling out in the five minutes allotted), so that was nice. But even these "easier" tracks require you to know how to race, which most of us don't. I know you want to go into straightaways going fast, and that's about it.
Rise of Nations was our only excursion into RTS. (Ooops. I forgot World In Conflict. But WIC isn't really much fun.) I got some much needed sleep through the first RoN game (2AM to 4AM this morning). But I played in the game this afternoon as Professor Hubert Farnsworth. I even built a super collider. No rancid meatballs for me. :) I need to practice that game so I can pull my weight better. I'd probably prefer Company of Heroes to be the LAN party RTS of choice for our group, but it's got a pretty nasty learning curve as well, especially for people who've been playing Age of Empires for years. Rise of Nations is similar enough that they don't have to work too hard.
You always have to work hard if you're fighting humans, but we prefer not to do that. For one thing, we always have folks coming and going, so we can never reliably field full teams. Plus some people (me) do not have the best brought out in them by competition. Heck, I even resent UT3's bots who taunt me every single time they kill me. Look. I'm owning you. Our team is owning your team. You killed me once and suddenly you're "the daddy"? The developer's coded you to be petty and retarded? Add more game modes next time instead. Domination was great. It rewarded sticking together and teamwork.
But wait, you say, Team Fortress 2 has teamwork in the name. Yes it does, but there are no bots and we usually don't have enough folks to even field one complete team, which means no TF2. The same goes for Call of Duty 4. So we don't play two of the best FPS games going simply for lack of bot support. Meanwhile, Serious Sam 2, which feels more like a grind than a game in single player, has been completely played through and thoroughly enjoyed multiple times specifically because it supports a pile of people in co-op. If only Republic Commando had supported co-op. If only!
Long story short, I need a new computer and need to learn the build order in Rise of Nations. The end.
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