I saw that you got Giants but I'm bored and I might as well reply in case you decide you want another 5.99 $ game in a near future.
I'd recommend you Fallout, seeing as you liked Fallout 2, but the two games have their differences. Fallout is clearly the superior game but many people prefer the omnipresent adolescent humour as well as the numerous pop-culture references of the sequel, so it might surprise you that Fallout is light on these. The world is also more coherent in the original and there are no real "wouldn't be cool if" locations. The game still has its share of humourous dialogs and pop-culture references, they are just more subtle and perhaps more effective due to their low-profile.
The game also plays differently, making combat optional in many areas — combat in the Fallout games isn't bad but also not good, so it make sense that you can bypass most of it — while the sequel had many dungeons that you could solve only by killing everything in it, like the wanamingo mines of non-trivial size. Compare this to the radscorpion caves at the start of Fallout that you can solve by killing the monsters or by sealing them in with an explosion, and if you chose to fight the area is also much smaller. The time limit also won't allow you to hunt random encounters to level up, something that breaks Fallout 2 when you reach Vault City as you can then get an almost infinite supply of experience and good weapons, that can then be traded for money and equipment.
Speaking of the time limit, it's a very generous one and is only active for the first part of the game, the second one was sadly deactivated when the game was patched. Unless you waste your time, you probably won't reach the end of it, and even then it also helps to give some gravity to the water chip quest, unlike the generic "save our village from imminent destruction even though you got all the time in the world to do it" of the sequel or other games of the genre. Fallout's time limit may not be very elaborate, unlike the one from Mask of the Betrayer, but it still manages to be balanced, giving you a sense of urgency while not forcing you to speed through the game. It can even be extended during the game, and it is one reason why the second time limit was removed because extending the first limit, which you can disable when you complete the quest tied to it, reduces the second time limit. Cool design choice but people complained about it. Interesting to note that some events will happen in the world after a certain time has passed and it may give you a different kind of ending.
It's also a very short game, and a typical playthrough will last around a week-end or maybe more if it is the first one, but the game shines because of its replayability, giving you a different experience if you chose to play the game differently, starting by the kind of character you will make. You'll find choices and consequences, and while they aren't the best exemples of the genre, Fallout was one of the first game to really deal with them and they are well-done. Most quests can be solved in different ways and have different outcome that might give you a different ending. If you want a CRPG that will take long to complete, Fallout might not be good for you, but if you factor in the replaybility, something a good CRPG should always offer and that goes far beyond the token good/evil dichotomy of Bioware games, it suddenly becomes a lot more attractive. I completed it many times yet always come back to it, and sometimes manage to find something things I didn't before. Fallout 2 definitely builds upon the original's strenght, most of the time successfully, but also fails in others areas where Fallout shines.
Now I wonder if GOG will manage to distribute Arcanum one day. I still got my copy of the game but I'm sure people who never played it will be interested. It would be nice to be able to show the new generation that the genre has much more to offer than mediocrities like Oblivion or Fallout 3.
Else if you want my opinion on some other 5.99 $ games:
Arx Fatalis is neat, a bit rough around the edges but fairly interesting. Shortest way for me to describe it would be as a "medieval subterranean Deus Ex" even though they have their differences. Arx gives you a lot of opportunities for exploration and oozes atmosphere; the story relies on some tropes such as amnesia or the ancient evil awakening to take over the world, but manages to not be too annoying; most puzzles are easy to solve but I can think of a couple that were fairly annoying, one of them being a jumping puzzles; the devs did a very good job at making the world reactive and they planned that you might want to kill some important character or skip some part of the main quest, so the game would acknowledge this and give you some alternative way to continue, though that might mean that some parts would be harder but it's choices and consequences; finally the difficulty gets a sudden jump at some point in the game, which might make for a bad surprise. Not perfect but the good parts are really good.
Capitalism Plus: not for everyone but if you like economy and simulation, it is the reference of the genre. The concensus is that this version is better than the sequel.
Duke Nukem 3D: classic fps that aged well and still packs a lot of action. Even manages to make newer fps feel obsolete.
Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project: good platformer with lots of honest action gameplay, and the Duke touch of course.
Earthworm Jim 1+2: another platformers, completely crazy. A bit easy but nice to revisit, and they definitely have a lot of personality.
Ghost Master: got it during the last promo, because I was curious, and it turned out to be quite enjoyable and better than I expected. A light-hearted strategy game with lots of humour and a fairly unique premise. Starts easy but becomes challenging later.
Redneck Rampage: another crazy fps. Not as good as Duke 3D but definitely fun.
Sacrifice: brilliant mix of strategy and action. You'll be completely lost the first times you'll play it and it's part of the fun to discover this strange world and the unusual mechanics of the game. By the time you get better at it, you'll find out that the AI sucks but the game has still a lot to offer, from the non-linear campaign to the multiplayer if you want to play it. Special mention for the tutorial that does a good job to introduce you to the gameplay while being fun to follow.
Shogo: a fun fps, but it did not age well. It is a bit uneven and very short with not much of replay value, but it is original to control a big robot and fight in open cities, with cars replacing exploding barrels. I'd like to see a modern sequel, direct or spiritual to this game.
Simon the Sorcerer and Simon the Sorcerer 2: start with the first, obviously, that many consider the best of the serie, with the third being often qualified of abysmal. Good adventure games, if you like that kind of gameplay, with a lot of humour parodying fairytales.
Post edited July 05, 2009 by Gragt
