Anthropoid
Posts: 3107
Joined: 2/22/2005
From: Secret Underground Lair
Status: offline
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Have not been able to play since last Thursday when I left town for a requisite family-visit trip back south . . . and I need to play a bit more, have only got through about three or four areas on the map . . . played one or two areas on easy, and then restarted on Merc difficulty and that is just about an ideal difficulty level . . . admit I did restart once, which is a very good sign: it ain't too easy, the AI can throw you for a loop.
In any event, I'm even starting to think that this might be the -best- game that I have ever played. I can tell it won't necessarily have the most ultimate degree of 'replayability' like say Civilization where the maps and combinations of game elements have an almost infinite number of permutations . . . but . . . in all honesty, those types of games are not actually as replayable as their infinite permutations suggest, and a game like this if modded for different contexts, could be just as 'infinite.'
A good computer game is based on the same sort of insight that a movie director has. Neither cinema, nor theatre, nor for that matter literature, nor computer games can in fact create a false reality or simulate all of the myriad elements involved in any of their chose topics or subjects of focus. The key is to combine the limited set of elements available, into a balanced effective experience for the user/viewer/participant. Many contemporary games are utter failures in executing this concept. Instead of approaching their topics from a balanced topical view that insures the subject matter really is properly approachable from the game's standpoint, many try to just 'do it all.' Include, more-more-more detail, or more-more extreme graphics or whatever.
Hired Guns does not suffer these mistakes. It is a masterfully crafted combination of elements and it is a breath of fresh air among computer games. One of the few games I've encountered in recent years that came close to this kind of accomplishment was Mount & Blade, but even that one is not quite so successful as Hired Guns.
If I had the time, I could go on and on about the game, and what is so great about it. In sum, if you are playing it already, you know what I'm talking about. If you have not bought it yet, you really should consider doing so. One word of warning: on my kick-arse new home machine, with ~3MB of RAM, an pretty advanced vid card, and an above average mobo and CPU, it runs like a top, only VERY slight slow downs when other processes inadvertently get going (like Outlook) with a distinct emphasis on _slight_. But my laptop, with fairly pedestrian innards simply cannot handle the game it seems. So you do need to have a pretty solid system. But if you do have such a system, this game is one of the best genre-expanding combinations of strategy and real-time-strategy/first-person-shooter that I have ever encountered.
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Astoundingly Good Game - 
) I'm looking forward to experiencing a few more of the great games out there that really need a strong/fast graphics rig. But for the time being--at least a couple weeks assuming an average of 3 to 4 hours of play per day--I think Hired Guns is going to have me. Once through on Merc with no mod, then maybe try it on advanced difficult or else with one of the mods . . . 
RE: Astoundingly Good Game - 
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