Want to play PC games with like minded friends? You've found the right place. A group of our readers have organised the PC Gamer game club on our forum . It works like a book club - the group decides to play a game, they all go off and play it for a week or two, and then they return to the thread to discuss it. We'll be featuring the best of these discussions here on the front page. Below the cut are some reader impressions of Deus Ex, which they played last week. This week, they're doing X-COM: UFO Defense - get involved via the PC Gamer forum .
Deus Ex was a great way to kick off the game club, and a lot of people were happy to recount their massive meandering paths through the game in the game club thread for week 1 . Many were shocked at how crazy developers were back in 2000.
SandroTheMaster:
"The original control schemes has some wildly crazy ideas, like using the right mouse button to interact and F12 to turn on the flash-light, while having no use whatsoever to the left control key, using x as the standard for crouch, and that's just crazy.
"I go through some fairly standard stealth action and notice enemies suffer from "metal-gearititis", that is, patrolling soldiers can't see anything more than 5 measly meters beyond their LoS. While a bit disappointing, it also means I'll have tons of chance to toy with the poor souls.
"My modus operandi, as chosen through skills, is a bit unorthodox. I'm a silent hacking ninja who bypass any kind of security with ease and... blows anyone who notices me with a rocket to the face. Also, they're useful for blowing up doors I don't feel like expending the lockpicks for.
"I don't care how much inventory that baby eats up, I'll keep it for life (or until the plasma cannon the Heavy Weapons entry so tantalizingly mentions...)."
Others were content to write about how badass they felt. Who needs wrist blades?
Mythic:
"I'm currently breaking out of the MJ12 facility in the story. All I've got is a handgun with two clips, a chocolate candy bar, 2 multitools, a lockpick, and a baton.
More than enough to turn this facility into a hellhole."
Spatula:
"I lured the two first guards at the statue of liberty to their deaths by shamelessly running behind the bot. The next one (I headed right) I killed by throwing an explosive crate at him. Hurt a bit, but I didn't loose any limbs this time.
"The next two, I distracted by throwing some smokes before walking up behind them and calmly executing them with my pistol."
greenbeermonkey:
"I went the other way and took the GEP gun for giggles and started mowing down everything in my path, that is until I ran out of ammo and then picked up the tnt box and 'threw' (aka dropped) it squarely at my feet, killing me instantly."
One or two forumites had hated the game as younger gamers, and playing it with the benefit of years of gaming under their belts transformed the experience for them entirely.
DarthNader:
"I had said in a previous thread that when I first played Deus Ex, I hated it. I really didn't understand the game and what it was asking me to do. I had to pick up people, sneak around instead of going in and shooting, I had to punch in codes and pick locks (where are my automatic colored keycards?!?!), my aim was all crazy, and there were things that could kill me in a few shots. It was too much for my tiny little mind at the time when it came out. It would take a few more years before I would return to it, and then fully appreciate the game (actually, it was Deus Ex 2 that really brought me back to the original game). Looking at it today, and I sometimes wonder what was wrong with me back then."
Cirius:
"I'll be honest. Deus Ex and I have never particularly seen eye to eye. It seems to take a personal dislike to me, and nothing made this clearer than my replay of mission one. Stealth was a bewildering concept to me back then, so I played Deus Ex as a shooter, and as a shooter, it fails miserably.
"Years later, an older, more experienced Cirius picks up Deus Ex, and enters the 'gaming zone'. That is, I made a cup of tea, grabbed some toast, and dived in. This time, the game made more sense. I was an agent, I wore sunglasses in the dark. Stealth should be my friend.
"I ghosted the level. No-one saw me, no-one. I wasn't even a myth passed down to their grandchildren years later about 'that time they almost killed JC Denton.' No, I was a sun-glass-wearing console-manipulating long-coated ninja. So I reach the top of ol' liberty herself. My mission is complete, and I've caused zero impact on my surroundings.
"The realization that my allies have stormed the statue and gunned down everyone and everything within it brings a cool shiver to my spine. The brutality of the move is a beautiful contrast to the past half hour I spent slipping past the guards.
"To be blunt, I snapped. The guard sent to relieve me at the top of the tower, the one who callously told me what had happened down below. Well, they're never going to find his body, never."
...and it's always nice to see this penny drop:
Tom:
"Holy shit, you can save your brother?
"I will never doubt Deus Ex again."
As I said up top, right now they game club are settling down for a week of X-COM: UFO Defense (which is still $3.74/£2.24 on steam ) and come next week, it looks like they'll be playing the original Fallout. Keep track of it all by joining the steam group .
Playing something? Want to get something off your chest about it? Head to our games forum and type your hands off - signing up will also let you comment on the site, and if you opt in to our special offers, we'll even wing beta keys at you.
