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Re: Similar games - Show your gaming knowledge and experienc

Postby DJ Speedstar » Sat Jul 12, 2014 8:37 pm

What about classic Doom (1 and 2)?
What games have similar technology of engine, atmosphere and are some kind of science fiction?
There were some of them, but most I have played were not very popular (no one wanted to talk much about them because doom was already the best gameplay?), so I dont remember the titles.
Heretic or Hexen are excluded by me, because they were more medieval fantasy like.
Someone may say Duke Nukem 3D, but in my opinion it had higher technology engine.
Wolfenstein 3D is too low and Quake is too high of course.
That should be simple for 3DSL memebers, if they really played these games (not judged by screenshots - that might be trappy).

As about Mafia and GTA 3, that was probably first good similar to it in games history.
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Re: Similar games - Show your gaming knowledge and experienc

Postby Scaryfun » Sat Jul 12, 2014 11:35 pm

Some sites have lists on a tab like http://www.giantbomb.com/wolfenstein-3d ... lar-games/
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Re: Similar games - Show your gaming knowledge and experienc

Postby DJ Speedstar » Sun Jul 13, 2014 4:30 pm

Yes, I checked out giantbomb on titles that I know very well.
I found it disorder.
Generally over 30 percent of games there are similar correctly, and most are added just because they are from the same genre, but in fact gameplay is really different.
So, you have to spend time and verify their long general list, to find good similarities.
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Re: Similar games - Show your gaming knowledge and experienc

Postby mr.editor » Sun Jul 13, 2014 5:21 pm

I'm starting to loose you, DJ Speedstar. :D
At first I understood you just wanted people to throw here some, with their grounded opinion, similar games. Now it starts to smell like you have some higher goal to achieve with this thread. :D If so, what is it?
It is also possible your English is not fully compatible with mine - and I fully admit my English is far from good - and I misunderstand core of your posts. :D

Speaking sites what suggest games - gamepressure.com may also work for someone (doesn't really for me).

To keep te game rolling, my next pair:
World War II: Prisoner of War / The Great Escape
(1st is released in summer 2002, 2nd in summer 2003, so the release window is a bit wider - BUT both were developed in South England, about just 130miles apart)
3rd person perspective games
with stealth
playing mainly as American pilot POW in WWII POW camps.
Both games' control schemes are a bit cumbersome
graphics are somewhat compareable
neither has multiplayer
both game's title logos have barb wire :)
both for PlayStation 2, Windows, Xbox
and for same target audience
ESRB rating T
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Re: Similar games - Show your gaming knowledge and experienc

Postby DJ Speedstar » Sun Jul 13, 2014 10:28 pm

English is not my native language, so I am sorry for possible misunderstandings.
Yes, there is some goal, and I am doing experiment now, to see how real gamers think about games similarity.
My opinion is that most similar games suggestions that exist on some game shops or gaming portals are too general (they are matched because they are the same genre or theme, and no one cares if gameplay is really similar).

For example, if someone really played Diablo and Baldurs Gate games, then he will take these games as serious joke when they are compared to be similar.
True or not?
Diablo gameplay: yes, fantasy, yes, isometric view, and now, go ahead, just go and kill, get items, and kill, kill, kill... holy molly, you need to buy new mouse.
Baldurs Gate gameplay: yes, fantasy, yes, isometric view (yes, screenshots look similar, thats right), and now its time to read many dialogues, make decisions, think a little how to solve some quests, manage your team, and combat enemies in party-based style, including tactical pause to give orders to each member (and a lot more to describe but this is not a review) - does it play like Diablo in any way?
Most Diablo fans dont like Baldurs Gate, because of too much reading, thinking, decisions and strategy tactics.
Most Baldurs Gate fans dont like Diablo, because of too much simplicity in style of click on enemy, click on another one, and whats next... another... click him.

Some years ago, I did similar experiment but with music songs.
The result was that music songs are too hard for average user to match.
I believe that games are much easier to compare, and they just require enough gaming experience.

Edit:
I am agree with all current comparisions that you all presented.
They are excellent similar games.
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Re: Similar games - Show your gaming knowledge and experienc

Postby mr.editor » Mon Jul 14, 2014 8:44 am

I totally agree with your note that games' suggestions in gaming portals are too general. But I think there is rarely a human hand directly choosing. I believe recommendations come automatically from computer, which compares some values in its database.
Eg.: Assassins Creed genre might be set as stealth action is XYZ site. Computer takes that into account when searching games to suggest. Next criteria may be popularity - let's say stealth games which got most clicks in last 3months. Maybe Thief 1 had a super sale weeks ago and a lot of new generation gamers researched it. As a result Assassins Creed is found similar to Thief 1. Difference is 9years, perspectives are different etc. I'm not saying that games do not share some features or AC player certainly can't like Thief - quite the opposite in fact - but for me those are not similar games.
Of course script which looks similarities can have many layers and values to look (metacritics ratings, ESRB ratings, age...), but at the end of the day I doubt it can replace the human experience.

Depending from perspective, similarity might be superficial, but still important from commercial point of view.
Eg:
The Da Vinci Code was released in May 2006 both as a movie and a game. It got some hype and made "Da Vinci" hot name to sell for a period of time.
Around the same time came The Secrets of Da Vinci: The Forbidden Manuscript got released (in some regions few weeks earlier, in some places weeks later). I can bet my old socks that this 1st person historical point and click adventure game (a lot different from third person perspective action adventure with direct control and set in modern day) got a bit better sales as in the air was the aura "something with Da Vinci is cool right now". Beside that both games have puzzles and dance around Da Vinci legacy, common features are hard to find (at least it seems to me, as I'm yet to play The Da Vinci Code).
Last edited by mr.editor on Mon Jul 14, 2014 4:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Similar games - Show your gaming knowledge and experienc

Postby DJ Speedstar » Mon Jul 14, 2014 9:07 am

Exactly.
Look at this:
http://www.similargames.org/games-like-diablo

Yea, really useful information, Diablo 2 and 3 is like Diablo 1!
The Elder Scrolls?
Baldurs Gate?
Dragon Age?
Icewind Dale?
Gothic?
Final Fantasy?
Guild Wars?
Neverwinter Nights?
ok, ok... stop it.

If you dont know, these games have a similarity meter.
It shows that these titles are similar in 80%!
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Re: Similar games - Show your gaming knowledge and experienc

Postby mr.editor » Mon Jul 14, 2014 4:21 pm

I don't know much about RPGs so I'm not one to talk about that. But I took a peek to this site (didn't know it before, thanks), and it is quite pathetic.
Games like Nibiru: Age of Secrets? World of Warplanes and The Saboteur!
Games like Safecracker: The Ultimate Puzzle Adventure: Sid Meiers Pirates! and World of Tanks!
Games like Belief & Betrayal: Dead Space 2 and Star Sky!
Come on guys, really?!

Anyway, my next pair:
Pilot Down: Behind Enemy Lines / Airborne Troops (aka Airborne Troops Countdown to D-Day)
3rd person perspective
Single player only
budget games
set in WWII,
in 1944.
After their planes are shot down
both Americans
are wrecking havoc
by sneaking and shooting nazis.
PS2 versions released in 2005 (about 9months apart) (Gamespot claims that Airborne Troops PC version was released in Europe in 2003, but I'm not sure - Gamepressure says it was Oct 2004. I think PC version was (re-?)released in 2005 as well by GMX Media as scene group Hoodlum's release is from Feb 2005).
Fun fact: developer's name - 1st game was developed by UK studio "Wide Games", 2nd by French studio "Widescreen Games". Both studios were founded in 1999.
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Re: Similar games - Show your gaming knowledge and experienc

Postby basetta » Tue Jul 15, 2014 12:08 am

The closest things I could think of for Doom scifi would be Hacx (d2 total conversion) or Marathon (that had dual wielding guns + team ai iirc)? I wouldn't know if they're similar at all, having not played either. Corridor 7 acts more like Blake Stone probably than Doom. Rebel Moon I think used 3d hardware so no. There's the Terminator series but I can't go anywhere with that. I'm out of ideas. :mrgreen:

Witchhaven reminds me of Heretic, but that's by looking at screenshots. I wonder if Strife would connect to something. Some many Doom-like stuff in fps concept only - it'd be like me comparing World of Goo to Lemmings, which counts to me as puzzle category and that's the end of practical similar.


You could also try looking at gamefaqs "related" suggestions - sometimes I find new stuff that way. Although I think I have a more liberal idea of similar.


ehh.. One more then since I haven't been doing much around here anymore.


Brain Dead 13 vs Dragon's Lair
- Hand-drawn animated cartoon (decent Don Bluth-like style)
- Choose from 4 directions or action key
- Nearly every scene can result in quick death
- Not much time to decide correct response, although you can mash buttons early
- Same rooms play in normal or mirror-flipped fashion
- Some rooms offer split path choices
- Gruesome animated deaths
- Talkie
- Swordplay
- Spooky castle
- Multi-plats, iOS higher def remake
- Kill, avoid monsters
- Final super boss battle


edit:
me wrote:Although I think I have a more liberal idea of similar.


I'll just give examples of what fits my idea of "if you like this, try looking at this also" mentality:
. Thousand Arms (ps1) - Lunar (ps1) [anime style, humour style, voice actor delivery]
. Legend of Zelda (nes) - Neutopia (pce) [familiar mechanics, theme]
. Secret of Mana (snes) - Secret of Evermore (snes) [same company, similar style]
. Ultima (c64) - Questron (c64) [general theme]
. Blackthorne (snes) - Flashback (snes) [gameplay mechanics]
. Metal Gear: Ghost Babel (gbc) - Perfect Dark Zero (gbc) [somewhat similar theme]
. Nosferatu (snes) - Castlevania (*) [theme vein]
. Darkstone (pc) - Diablo (pc) [gameplay mechanics]
. Gradius (nes) - R-Type (nes) [gameplay mechanics]
. Ys 3 (snes) - Sorcerian (pc) [gameplay mechanics, theme - although Sorcerian is party-based]
. Streets of Rage (md) - Final Fight (snes) [theme, gameplay mechanics]
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Re: Similar games - Show your gaming knowledge and experienc

Postby Scaryfun » Tue Jul 15, 2014 2:43 am

Here's another site like that I ran into - http://gameslikefinder.com/
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Re: Similar games - Show your gaming knowledge and experienc

Postby Supernova » Tue Jul 15, 2014 6:30 am

Split/Second & Blur - yes, they're like apple and orange (one is Michael Bay-esque racing game with fictional cars, the other is Mario Kart wannabe with licensed cars) but they suffered the same (tragic) fate back then:
-both were released at early-mid 2010 (?),
-developed by arcade racing veteran developers (Black Rock and Bizarre respectively); both were British devs
-both have rather awful PC ports (notoriously Blur doesn't let you customize keybinding and stuck with WASD control as KB/M default, and no post-release support nor DLCs for the PC version of S/S...at all)
-both games were highly hyped that year; comparable of Criterion's NFS:Hot Pursuit released late that year, met with good receptions all around but sadly didn't last long because of the decline of arcade-themed games (or if I might call it, more and more people began to deny arcade-themed games, due to surging popularity of ultra-realistic simulators like DCS, ArmA 2 and iRacing)
-The publisher, both are biggest, greediest among all (Di$ney and Kotick, errr Activision) eventually killed the respective developers due to the poor sales
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Re: Similar games - Show your gaming knowledge and experienc

Postby mr.editor » Tue Jul 15, 2014 7:53 am

Yep, Split/Second & Blur fit here perfectly. I add a bit: both released in May 2010, a week apart. Both gameplay aspect was to hurt other racers. Both had sequels planned. Both English studios closed in 1st half of 2011.

OT: I liked Split/Second very much! Blur didn't suit me.
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Re: Similar games - Show your gaming knowledge and experienc

Postby DJ Speedstar » Wed Jul 16, 2014 9:14 am

Ok guys, project of similar games database has been finished in most important parts.
I took some gaming veterans to the team (mainly from old Independent Software project - if anyone yet remember this old games search engine yet, not updated for a years now).
Thanks also to scaryfun for some data contribution.

Differences between SimilarType project basics and other websites that have similar games, are:
- data is not automatic, everything is contributed by users (with credits)
- games similarity ranking, which means that similar games are verified and sorted by user voting, so better similarities should go higher, and spam should go low
- progressive user ranking, which means that users with higher rank are taken more seriously by system in voting (games similarity ranking) and have more possibilities (fresh users cant submit data)
- short description of what is similar between titles

All above is finished and working correctly.
Low quality data should be less, with manual data, user ranking and games similarity ranking.
New user can only vote and it is take less seriously by system then users with higher rank (up to level 4).
If anyone here would like to join and contribute some data, then let me know and I will increase your user rank to be able to submit data into system.

We have currently about 400 titles in database and about 400 similarity connections (based on games that we really played, but always someone can have different opinion, so there is similarity ranking).
We have a plan to include movies and music, but we want to start with games first.
System is in basic phase as experiment (all mentioned above is finished and working correctly), but feel free to post any suggestions.

Some games may appear, because of real lack of similar games for some titles, so they are less stricted.
Popular gameplays (like PFS genre) are much more stricted.

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Re: Similar games - Show your gaming knowledge and experienc

Postby mr.editor » Fri Dec 05, 2014 1:42 pm

I feel like throwing another pair in the pot:

The Breakdown - A Snack-Sized Adventure Game (2003) / Breakdown* (2009)

short comedic free 3rd person point n click adventures
made mainly by one European developer (1st by Finn, 2nd in UK)
both heroes have to get a vehicle to move again
neither have voices
both games have 4 scenes (or "rooms", places)
and make references to other adventures by in-game posters.

And I enjoyed both of those. :)

* missing from AL database.
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Re: Similar games - Show your gaming knowledge and experienc

Postby mr.editor » Thu Jan 01, 2015 4:36 pm

My 1st completed game in new year - NAM / Napalm - makes me want to add one similar pair here:

ShellShock: Nam '67 / Conflict: Vietnam

- Vietnam War
- 3rd person shooters
- for Windows, PlayStation 2, Xbox
- released in 2004 (1 month apart - 3rd Sept vs. 3rd Oct)
- weren't last in respective game series
- both made in Western Europe (big sailing countries Netherlands vs. UK)
- both studios were formed in 2000

Of course there are differences as well (squad based vs. solo gameplay; only one has MP) but still - it's notable that there are only 2 Vietnam War 3rdPS action games and those game out so closely (in timeframe when Vietnam War shooters came out most often).
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