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[Dragonmaw]

Starcraft! There's an old debug CD Key that was never taken out of the retail product that lets you do full installs. Can't play online, but perfect for LAN parties.

[supershigi]

I always loved playing big LAN games of Starcraft and DoTA (a Warcraft 3 mod).  Battlefield 1942 is also really fun with big groups because you can drive each other around in tanks, and take turns flying the plane/using the plane's gun.  Once the night starts winding down and people want something quieter, you can always gather around an Eyemaze puzzle game like Dwarf Complete.

[DarknessKight]

I remember having a big LAN party at my dad's work a long time ago. Dunno what game it was with but it was a great fun.

[The Monster King]

it was a good lan party even though people were idiots and barely played any of the aforementioned indies

i have still enjoyed checking out the suggestions

we played a lot of mount & blade though!!

[JamesGecko]

If you want to completely destroy a LAN party, Galcon's flash version is excellent. I made the mistake of announcing it as the "installation game" that people would play while waiting for everyone to get Unreal Tournament installed. About half of the attendees formed a large group of mutinous gamers and split off from the main party, ultimately just playing Galcon all evening.

I'll just recommend Subvein again. It's fresh and very cool, I like to think of it as a mixture of Soldat and GTA 2.. with leveling up and special powers. Best top-down multiplayer shooter.

This man speaks truth.

[KM]

This is sad, but the biggest/closest thing to a lan party I've ever been too is 4 people playing the N64, usually Turok 2, Golden Eye, Mario Party, Mario Golf etc.

I blame living most of my life in towns of < 1000 people.

[Brother Android]

It's way overshadowed by Starcraft, I suppose, but my only LAN experiences (and good ones they were) are with Total Annihilation.

Also, I guess I've done Jedi Knight before, if that's your thing; I think it's fun.

[The Monster King]

i dont enjoy galcon so i wouldnt recommend it for a LAN

me and like 2 other guys played subvein a bit, it would probably have been really cool if we had been more

some of us played starcraft 2 ( i was new to it so i sucked hard and swallowed ) and league of legends (which is like dota but better yeah i said it) but since those games have restrictive player caps of 8 and 10 we tried to play bigger-number games

we had a good 20 mins of super cock blockers too

i wish we'd play savage 2 again but half the people there dont like it (it plays like WoW I guess except it's a RTS for one of the players and he gives orders to the other players and they dont listen to 'em so he sighs and gives them a magic buff for their silly fight)

the popular games were Mount&Blade, CoD4 (we tried modern warfare 2 but the weird 3rd party server thing was buggy and didnt work very well) and Civ4 with its great, unfinished games

[kyn]

I had a LAN party with Alien Swarm a few weeks ago and it was pretty wizard
It's one of those games that really only works with human players, the offline version feels really dull for some reason.

[Dragonmaw]

It's way overshadowed by Starcraft, I suppose, but my only LAN experiences (and good ones they were) are with Total Annihilation.

Total Annihilation (and spiritual sequel Supreme Commander) are fantastic LAN games, assuming it's a long party.

Other good ones of similar length: Civilization IV, Sins of a Solar Empire

[KM]

I had a LAN party with Alien Swarm a few weeks ago and it was pretty wizard
It's one of those games that really only works with human players, the offline version feels really dull for some reason.

It's like playing Left 4 Dead 1 or 2 on solo, boggles my mind how that is any fun...

[Zest]

My LAN party experiences have all sucked. :< When there weren't assholes who made fun of me for bringing a Gamecube, the console areas were hogged by dedicated Halo machines with the same sixteen people clutching their controllers like madmen, there'd be about a hundred or so gaming on huge machines I could never dream of owning, and then there'd be the people who came to the LAN party to play WoW... by themselves. I know that there are awesome LAN parties out there, I just haven't found them yet.

I've always found Rock Band to be a good hit, though.

[KM]

That sounds like a really big LAN party. 

[kyn]

I've been to one of those LAN parties with 1500+ people a few years ago, and I swear to god, the more people there is the harder it is to find anyone to play with. I just stick with my close personal friends now.

[Dragonmaw]

LAN parties are generally most fun with a group of between 4-32 people

larger than 32 and it becomes seriously difficult to organize people to play together. it's already difficult at LAN parties with more than 8 people.

[KM]

LAN parties are generally most fun with a group of between 4-32 people

larger than 32 and it becomes seriously difficult to organize people to play together. it's already difficult at LAN parties with more than 8 people.

I'll have to side with this comment. A small bunch of people you know will probably always be better than a large group of no one you know.

[Zest]

Absolutely true. I just learned this the hard way.

[KM]

I think the added presence of people and the atmosphere really adds to the game. If you've got a really cheesy, not fun to play alone kind of game, you can a lot more enjoyment out of it if you're laughing your ass off along with friends.

I really miss that since I've become an adult and moved to a community with people both not interested in games, or believe they are too old for games.

[Brother Android]

I think the added presence of people and the atmosphere really adds to the game. If you've got a really cheesy, not fun to play alone kind of game, you can a lot more enjoyment out of it if you're laughing your ass off along with friends.

Definitely. I usually only play video games in a social context anymore, actually. More because I don't have much time for games than anything else, I guess.

[KM]

I still enjoy a good game witha great story. Probably always will. But I have dumped 800+ hours into TF2 when all the people I chatted with were always on the servers. Best FPS chat program ever. :D