Revisiting the Classics

June has been a hectic month so far.  I started a new job and have been going through a few old classics from my back up archive.


Age of Empires 2
I dug out my back iso from AOE2 and played quite a bit.  AOE2 does not work well in Windows 7 (32 or 64 bit) but the expansion "The Conquerors" works very well and will allow you to access the original content and missions from its launcher.  I don't care much for the missions and usually just play random maps against computer opponents.

As posted on my Facebook page, AOE2 DOES work in Windows 7, but you must launch the game, the (ALT+TAB) back onto the Windows Desktop, (CTRL-ALT-DEL) into Task Manager, exit "explorer.exe," and then (ALT+TAB) back into the game.  If you don't do this, you will get some image distortions in-game.  The reason it does this is issues with DirectX 10/11 (actually 9 as well) and Aero - at least, this is the reason I have found given.

Freedom Fighter
This is one of my favorite games.  Its a tactical third person shooter from the makers of the Hitman Series which chronicles an alternate timeline in which the USSR did not collapse, but moved forward to attempt to take over the US.  The game has a system that allows you to recruit up to 10 NPCs to command.

This game was much better on the Gamecube, but I enjoyed the PC version.  The game looks dated on my dekstop, but run extremely well.  I only got tot he second level before calling it quits.


Age of Empires Online
I am a huge fan of Age of Empires, with the exception of AOE3, which I felt was awful - the interface was awful, the game looked awful, and I feel it really got away from the things that made AOE fun to focus more on areas of play more geared towards fans of Civilization and Sim City.  I'm not saying there's anything wrong with those games, but they aren't what I like.

Age of Empires goes back to its roots by basically rehashing all of the missions from AOE 1 and 2, but in a new "Online" Free to Play that allows you to play through Windows Games for Multiplayer and Co-op games.  Unfortunately, you have to be online to play the single player campaigns as well.  This does, however, give you the added bonus of being able to play from ANY computer.  But if you were stuck offline you're SOL.

Rune Online
My brother sent me a copy of Rune Classic from Steam.  The game is a Viking 3rd Person Hack and Slash based on the original Unreal Engine.  I played through a few of the missions in single player, but work really had most of my attention.  All it really did was make me want to dig out UT GOTY Ed.  Which I did. :)

Unreal Tournament '99
I wish I had my backup isos, but they somehow did not survive the trip from Sanderson to Amarillo.  I believe they are either on my other backup drive or one of the three drives on the desktop I'd left behind.  What did survive was a complete backup of my fresh Install of UT GOTY from the desktop I left in Sanderson. 

I had wiped the primary drive, installed Windows and Office, and then a few of the games I'd played.  I had done a full install of UT with all Expansions, patches, and several dozen (read about 100+) maps.  Once I had finished, the UT directory was right around 980MB and I did a backup.  This meant i could install all contents to pretty much any computer - great idea, right? 

Well, I had forgotten to install the voice packs, so in order to have my game colored with comments from Samuel L Jackson and Frank Booth's memorable "Heineken?  Fuck that shit!  Pabst Blue Ribbon" or "Daddy's back, where's my bourbon?"  I'd have to dig back through my UT files archive - on the same drive as the UT backup, but - meh...

Work and Gaming
Right now am still job hunting for an IT job, so gaming has to take a back seat to working at home right now.  The job I'm working right now is telemarketing/sales and while I am glad to at least have this job, I am not sure this is something I can see myself doing for very long.   I just have to hang in there until something else comes along, I suppose.