The Brad Hole

My list looks similar although I've beaten RtCW, MP, DE, and both Diablo and Diablo II (waaaay too much Diablo II). I also still have to beat Alice, Undying, Silver, EFMI, Sin, Super Wing Commander, Fallout I & II, Mechwarrior 2, WCIII frozen throne, Indiana Jones, both HP games, Raven Shield, SWGB, AoM, AvP2, Icewind Dale, B&W, RotK, BG, BG2:ToB, NWN... Don't get me started on the console games...

Tie Fighter is still my favorite "be the bad guy" game. I remember the feeling I had playing that game- like Darth Vader chocking the guy in Star Wars- BAD. If you beat the special objectives you advance in the Emperor's inner circle. Very cool at the time. From an obvious Star Wars geek: I strongly urge you to get around to playing it. Much better than X-Wing.

Don't even get me started on Deus Ex. Let's just say it's in my top 5 all-time. :-)

"... it's because I get distracted by something else that's shiny."

From the above, I am guessing that you may perhaps be a fan of RED DWARF (the cat)?

Games, for me flight sims are my passion. I finished Never Winter Nights, though they wizzed me off by charging we Mac users a high price and gave us half the application of that available to Windows users.

Fantastic art on the icons!!! I guess that I need to get up on the learning curve so that I can figure out how to use some of what appear to be broadly used icons like arrows, buttons, drives, etc.
I can change the folders and applications though.

trav

I'd say: Forget Tomb Raider completely. It's not a particularly good game (any of them).

Quake II is good, but only in multiplayer.

The rest? I'd say do yourself a favor and get into them, dude. You'll thank yourself. :)

Allow me to help you prioritize a little. Max Payne has good points but 10 years later you won't still be glad you played it. Same w/Diablo, though that at least can be finished fairly quickly and can be enjoyed in spurts. But Quake 2 & RTCW?

Given limited time, what you want are games that are either unique or are still better than the games that came after them. So start with Starcraft, Myth 2, Tie Fighter (must use a joystick!) and Deus Ex, in any order. Tomb Raider II is fun but don't feel you have to finish it. Of the Tony Hawks my son and I are especially fond of #2's levels but you'll need to use USB Overdrive or something like it to get the gamepad support under OS X.

I'm sure you aren't looking to add to your list, so I'll refrain from mentioning additional titles like Pit Droids, The Last Express, and Giants. :-)

I'll just add that playing games that came out 5 years ago is very pleasant, assuming they run at all. For example, Tie Fighter level load times are just about instantaneous.

>Quake II is good, but only in multiplayer.

Wow! I have to completely disagree. IMHO Quake2 has superb single player. Sure, it may not be deep and meaningful, but it has a lot more appeal to me than multiplayer - which is, as alas is most MP, far from deep and meaningful ;). I'd put Quake2 above Quake3 in my top list of games purely because of it's single-player missions. Great fun ;)
That said, maybe we should get brad into some Quake2 co-op play!

TIE Fighter sucked up SO much of my time in my Performa 6400 days. It still works on my iMac, in OS 9, and with USB joysticks if you have USB Overdrive. Just remember that the graphics and cut scenes were dated when they came out, in '97.

TA's skirmish mode is great, though I've never tried multiplayer with it. Much more realistic physics than any other RTS I've played, with no automatic hits, and few air only or ground only weapons. Starcraft is better looking, with a better story, with three factions, but TA has land, air, and water units, including underwater, plus long range artillery. Mmmm, Big Berthas...

Matt,

I did play Last Express for some time, although I admit I never completed it. (That's a list for another time.) Giants I did play, and probably belongs in the list since I only messed with it for 30 minutes - long enough to do some benchmarking. ;) Can't say I've tried Pit Droids. I did recently check out DroidWorks on the Mac, just so I could see the "Sith" engine that powers Jedi Knight in action.

"... it's because I get distracted by something else that's shiny."

That also explains my extremely long list of games that have have received a grand total of 10 minutes of attention.

RtCW was an exception though, theres something about the undead which makes a game compelling ;)

I can't believe that Total Annihilation is on your list... if I could only have ONE game, that'd be it. Hands down.

You know... I'm not the richest person on the planet, so when I buy a game, I usually do my homework - so I only buy games that I know I will like.

Now I know you probably get a hell of a deal off most of these games... but you don't have to rub it in! ;)

You're right Martin, I do cheat a bit. I get all the Aspyr games free as well as a lot of the games Westlake did when I was still there. This makes a big difference.

As for the rest, I tend to buy them as cheaply as I can. I don't typically buy games when they come out, I wait 6 months to a year on average. MacPlay makes this pretty easy, since they tend to blow out their stuff regularly. I have the biggest problem getting Feral games - they are difficult to find at less than full price, and even then, distribution is pretty spotty here. When Incredible Universe went out of business back in the 90s, they had a huge Mac game selection, and they blew pretty much all of their Mac games out at $10 or less. I cleaned up back then.

When I buy games, I can use them as a tax writeoff, so it's a bit easier to justify as well.