Been pondering possible alternatives for when we're not in the mood for Left 4 Dead 2.

Granted that this is a rare occurrence but I'd like to shove these cheap and fun titles into your faces for a moment for consideration.

Gears of War (1 - sadly Gears 2 is not on the PC)

Pro's:
+ Good old fashioned 4v4 slaughters. Multiple modes include Capture the Flag, Team Deathmatch etc.
+ It's cheap.
+ It's gore-tastic.
+ Guns with chainsaws on the end!
Con's:
- It's not Gears 2.
- A few complaints about bugs.

Burnout Paradise (It's not Burnout 3 but it's the next best thing.)

Pro's:
+ Glorious visuals.
+ Lots of events, challenges and things to keep you busy.
+ It's cheap.
+ Crashing is ENCOURAGED. Go on Aga!
+ Plenty of DLC (free and paid) to expand the games replay value.
+ No load screens after the first menu's.
+ Pretty good soundtrack.
Con's:
- Dull on your own with AI that abuse the laws of physics.
- It's an EA game so who knows what forms you'll have to fill in to get online.

So there's my suggestions, feel free to add to them.
GRiD falls into the "too realistic to be fun" category for me whilst Trackmania goes in the opposite direction and I find a lack of realism makes the final product rather dull. Burnout Paradise manages to walk the fine between these two... but that's just my opinion.

Good thoughts Pete, but truthfully I'm not huge into Burnout Paradise.

I have it on the 360 and it's just a missed opportunity. It's so fast that everything's just a blur and even though you're racing around a city, it's just so samey.
Maybe the PC version is different from the 360 one, but I doubt it.

So, how about then some of the Flatout series of games. I'm a big fan of #1 and #2 although I believe there's a third out since (Flatout Carnage I think it was called).

A year or so back a few of us got it running via Himachi as there was no online play, performed fairly well although we should check if the third one has online built in. Up for giving it a try if anyone wants.

Yeah Burnout Paradise is a bit poor on the 360 but I always assumed it was more fun with a party going.

Was Flatout the one where there were crazy events where you had to do stuff like fling the driver through the windscreen into a giant Bullseye?

(Gaz + I played it on the PS2 and it was bizarre fun.)

EDIT: Found a YouTube video and it DOES appear to be of the series Gaz + I played.


I identified that song in the opening 4 seconds... and died a little inside.