Marathon runs

Ah, glad to see I am not alone in my little "RTS problem" perhaps we could start
an equivalent of the AA around here. Let me start: My name is JonNik and my "worst"
marathon was 7 hours straight of Warcraft 3 (Unprecedented for me, not topped these
last 12 years)...

....

Well Ok that doesn't count for much... but I did loose a night's sleep...
 
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I do it from time to time when something really gets me hooked. The worst was probably the launch of WoW: The Burning Crusade, where I took a week off from work to get to level 70 as soon as possible. Ended up being server first 70 Paladin, though a Rogue was server first 70 overall. I played in "intervals", where I slept a few hours (set the alarm clock to ring 2-4 hours after going to bed), then played 12+ hours. Rince and repeat untill 70.

I have never done anything similar before or after, and I don't intend to either. It's exhausting, and a health risk.
 
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The longest session without sleep was way back in the day, playing Drakkhen with my brother and a mutual friend of ours.

We started on a friday, and we played without pause - except bathroom and to get the occasional cup of coffee - until sunday late at night. No sleep and no food (except sugar in the coffee).

Around 50-60 hours straight.

I had a WEIRD day at school the following monday, and when I got home - my brother was still playing and I crashed and slept for ~16 hours :)
 
In total Warhammer fervor right now since i'm reading Wh40k books, so I reinstalled Dawn of War and all expansions, and also broke Mark of Chaos out of the plastic for the first time. I have Friday and Monday off coming up.

I think a proper marathon is in order!
 
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If you try it and like the game you should grab the expansion to Mark of Chaos. It adds a third campaign with orcs/goblins and dark elves.
 
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Ive heard the game is quite buggy. One bad omen right off the bat is that the game tries to install every time I put the play disk in, and I have to quit the install then click on the icon to play. That's amateur fly-by-night QA fail crap right there, I'm hoping not indicative of the rest of the experience

Havent played yet, spent yesterday evening just getting everything installed and updated. Took MOK to the latest patch, still getting that install attempt tho
 
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Galactrix tries to do the same thing (install every time). I wonder if that's some failure in the DRM, rather than within the game itself. It seems strange for different games from different companies to have the same disease.
 
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JonNik said:
Ah, glad to see I am not alone in my little "RTS problem" perhaps we could start
an equivalent of the AA around here. Let me start: My name is JonNik and my "worst"
marathon was 7 hours straight of Warcraft 3 (Unprecedented for me, not topped these
last 12 years)..
Click to expand...


Meh...that's nothing :). I had many sessions of Warcraft 2 that were longer than that.... and don't even get me started about Starcraft.
 
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xSamhainx said:
Ive heard the game is quite buggy. One bad omen right off the bat is that the game tries to install every time I put the play disk in, and I have to quit the install then click on the icon to play. That's amateur fly-by-night QA fail crap right there, I'm hoping not indicative of the rest of the experience

Havent played yet, spent yesterday evening just getting everything installed and updated. Took MOK to the latest patch, still getting that install attempt tho
Click to expand...


That happened to me as well, but the game was perfect. Not one crash or even buggy behavior. Definatly a "marathon run" kind of game.

Although two things were annoying. Long loading times and no kind of tatical pause. They have a pause button, but it just pauses the whole game. You can't que up any orders for your troops.

Even with that said, I passed the game twice. Normally I only have the patience to pass a great game once. Twice is almost impossible for me.:smug:
 
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JDR13 said:
Meh...that's nothing :). I had many sessions of Warcraft 2 that were longer than that.... and don't even get me started about Starcraft.
Click to expand...

Heh, I am undergoing my Starcraft ailment right now (I missed it back in the day
curiously, or perhaps it was pure survival instinct). But a 3-4 hour session in weekends
is the most I'll go these days.

Hmm makes me wonder what, this game, would have done to me back in my serious
gaming days :uneasy:
 
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Heh, didn't expect to start a firestorm of memories. :p

I've never been a huge RTS fan. I beat WC2 long ago, lost the disk though. Lost WC1 as well. I do love Medieval: Total War. My laptop is less than fond of it, which is why I only rarely play it, but I still love it. Bought it for $2 at a flea market.

I really need a better laptop. While I love this thing, it's not got a decent graphics chip, and only 2gb of Ram. So a lot of games just run sluggish. Then again, Team Fortress 2 runs fine, though Steam complained about my chip at first. Maybe I just need to double my RAM.
 
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I'm not a huge RTS fan either, but I've always enjoyed Blizzard's games, and I'm eagerly awaiting Starcraft 2.

Wasn't a big fan of WC3 though, I just didn't get the same feeling from it that I got from the first two WC games.
 
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Indeed. It seems that the third games rarely hold the same level of excitement as prior ones do.

I can't think of very many #3's in any series that I like. Might and Magic III, of course. Technically, if you count Wizardry 6-8 as a seperate series, then Wiz8. Sonic 3 & Knuckles, and I hold a fondness for Mega Man 3 for being the first game I ever beat. But I don't consider it the best of the series, or even as good as 2, 7, 9, or even 4.

So 3 games is it.
 
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You forgot HoMM3, which was the best of the 5 editions.
 
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Actually, I much preferred HOMM2 over 3. In fact, I put 3 behind the original as well, and the PS2 version, only beating out 4, 5, and the myriad chronicles versions.

I never understood exactly why I do though. But I just do not like it as much as HOMM2.
 
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azraelck said:
Actually, I much preferred HOMM2 over 3. In fact, I put 3 behind the original as well, and the PS2 version, only beating out 4, 5, and the myriad chronicles versions.

I never understood exactly why I do though. But I just do not like it as much as HOMM2.
Click to expand...

I felt the same way, actually.

I think, for me, it was because I'd played HoMM2 to death when HoMM3 was released, so I was tired of the series - and I didn't like the more serious tone. I really enjoyed the innocent charm the first two HoMM games had, and the pre-rendered 3D art they went with for HoMM3 lost a lot of that in the process.

When I look at the games today, I think HoMM3 is superior in most ways - but HoMM2 has that special place in my heart :)
 
I bought the HoMM Compendium a while back, as well as HoMM 3&4 Complete. Someday I should actually get around to playing them.....
 
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JDR - You should. They are really good games. HOMM2, as said, is my favorite, but up to 3 is good for some long fun.

I agree about the art. That was the worst thing the 3 had vs 1 and 2. Early 3D just kinda sucked. I generally don't care about the level of graphics in a game, but I have more trouble playing many early 3D games than I do some CGA games!

Then again, I might change my view of 3 if I replayed it. When I bought it, I was burned out on a lot of very bad games, and had about quit the hobby entirely. I only got back into it because my brother owed me money, and payed me in a Dreamcast.
 
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azraelck said:
I only got back into it because my brother owed me money, and payed me in a Dreamcast.
Click to expand...


Ahh the good old Sega Dreamcast, that system had one of the shortest life cycles ever for a console. I bought one just so I could play Resident Evil: Code Veronica, and it was worth every penny imo.

If I ever get around to playing HoMM, should I even bother playing the first one?
 
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When I bought HoMM2, the original was included. I installed it for a while, but never felt much motivation to play it. I actually played thru both stories on HoMM2, while I mostly played scenerios in HoMM3. I'd probably skip 1 and go with 2 then 3 (even though I think 3 is better, you'll enjoy 2 far more if you don't "know about" some of the improvements in 3 when you play it).
 
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