5 games for the LAN Of Our Lives

How do you truly celebrate a significant birthday of a UCHG member? By creating a LAN party of some of the best multiplayer games of all time, that’s how. And how to best run a LAN party in the summer? The answer is simple: you run it outside.

There’s a backstory to this. Between 2000-2007, we as a group of friends and like-minded gamers were in some kind of education system, and it was around this time that we discovered the joys of the LAN party. For the uninitiated, a LAN is essentially achieved by carting gaming machines into one location: resulting in a funnier, more personal version of online gaming. What began in internet cafés soon ventured into our own homes, but lack of space and rising heat from early Windows XP-era desktops (not to mention our teenage male selves) drove us to seek an alternative location.

Garden games

A trip to Maplin and discovery of a 25m network cable produced an idea. After all, for years family members had been saying – “why don’t you stop sitting around indoors and go play outside?” – and, well, now was an opportunity to do just that.

The addition of a marquee provided essential protection from that old enemy sunlight, and we were good to go for many, many summers.

PC gaming, circa 2000-2005

This year, summer is not only a milestone for our valued member Ross, but marks the 10th anniversary of our very first outdoor LAN. As August 2015 comes to an end, we will be celebrating with a LAN reunion – we’ve of course been gaming together ever since, but this one is different.

Much has changed since the noughties – clunky CRT monitors now firmly a thing of the past – but will we be playing the latest installment of Call of Battlefield Honor Strike 4? Of course not. Across two days we’ll be digging out the games from the times we remember fondest – and here’s a brief rundown of what’ll be going down.

Counter Strike 1.6 (2000)

What hasn’t been said about this beloved ruiner of friendships and keyboards? In our minds, yes CS: Source is great (and we’ll certainly be returning to that too) – but nothing speaks of hilarious LAN moments more than those earlier pre-Steam Counter Strike versions. Truly legendary level design means de_dust, de_prodigy, cs_assault, cs_militia will never be forgotten. Mods that added bots and hilarious skins make this a LAN party classic.

1001 No.97: Serious Sam: The First Encounter (2001)

Who cares that it makes no sense? Seeing one of your friends fire a cannonball into a scorpion’s face, while another dressed as Santa Claus is thrown through the air by a bull, as a man with no head runs at you while going “aaaaahhhh” – there’s nothing else like it. Stupidly large numbers of enemies and a crazy sense of humour helped Serious Sam take the essence of Doom to another, and madder, level – and spawned many copycats that came after. 4 player coop through the whole campaign is a must.

Medal of Honor: Allied Assault (2002)

The movie Saving Private Ryan had a massive impact on us back when we were in school, and MOHAA basically let us play it. With Spielberg as one of the writers, and an actual D-Day level, it’s just as lasting in our minds as the movie. In the early 2000s we stumbled across a coop mod – and we were pleased to discover it is still very much alive and working well to this day. Hilarity will ensue.

1001 No.95: Garry’s Mod (2004)

Before Minecraft, there was Garry’s Mod: the ultimate in sandbox games. What started as a modification of Half Life 2 has effectively over time become a game in it’s own right. The ability to take the resources from various Valve related games (including Half Life and Counter Strike) means you can pretty much create what you like – as long as your imagination is large enough.

The UCHG did various silly things with it, including a deadly game of cricket with an electrified rolling mine for a ball (and a shotgun of justice for cheaters); and contests to make cars, boats, and flying machines. Brad even made some particularly deadly traps for zombies…

1001 No.96: Battlefield 2 (2005)

Despite all the variants of the franchise that followed, Battlefield 2 still holds a special place in our hearts. Some of the level design is pure genius, evidenced by the fact that all these years later people are still playing Strike at Karkand and Gulf of Oman.

And while Battlefield 3 and 4 may have improved the graphics by a good mile, there’s something about the purity of the gameplay that makes BF2 so good. No unlocks, no grinding through the experience points, no being held to ransom over the best kit – strip away all the layers that have since been added, and you’re left with something much simpler, but somehow stronger.

Once you’re down to a more basic level of gameplay, it becomes like a game of paintball – the only real winners will be those taking risks. If you’ve got the guts, hell yeah you can jump in a jeep and careen it through to a position deep in enemy territory. Take that point, and you might just turn the tide.

Here’s a taste of what we used to get up to, and what we’ll be getting back to.

Happy Birthday Ross; Happy Birthday LAN; and happy 10 years of playing outside with your mates. It’ll certainly be a LAN to remember. And this won’t be the last!