The "What are you playing?" topic. [Archive] - Page 6

Xiahou

04-15-2009, 04:38

I finished Diablo Sunday night. I didn't really enjoy it much at all as it is quite dated. Way too much clicking. For some odd reason, I find myself a bit anxious to start Diablo II. It seems to be a huge leap forward in the interface & features departments. Oblivion on the Xbox has been on hold for two plus weeks as my son won't let me get near his Xbox - which has led me to start thinking about getting Morrowind on the PC.Why not Oblivion on the PC? To me, Oblivion (and Morrowind) is fairly unappealing in their retail form. With the right mods, they're both pretty good games though. Trouble is that there are no mods on the console versions....

Just bought Madworld today on the Wii and wow... my heart is pumping and I was laughing the entire time... Did you finish MadWorld? I've been playing that on and off for a few days now and I really do like it. That sort of originality doesn't come along every day. :yes:

I recently found WiiMusic for a $20 discount, so I decided to give it a whirl- and since then, it's been taking up a big chunk of my gaming time. I'm pretty horrible at it, but the act of trying to arrange songs in different styles and playing them so that it all comes together as something that doesn't make my ears bleed, has been quite engrossing. :2thumbsup:

CountArach

04-15-2009, 05:55

Did you finish MadWorld? I've been playing that on and off for a few days now and I really do like it. That sort of originality doesn't come along every day. :yes:
I'm determined to finish FEAR 2 first before I go any further with Madworld. I love the gameplay though. So simple, so brutal and so hilarious :laugh4:

frogbeastegg

04-15-2009, 13:34

I finished Diablo Sunday night. I didn't really enjoy it much at all as it is quite dated. Way too much clicking. For some odd reason, I find myself a bit anxious to start Diablo II. It seems to be a huge leap forward in the interface & features departments.
Give it a try. I played Diablo II first and I found I couldn't get on with the original when I tried it. It felt very primitive and limiting.

Alternately, try Titan Quest. It's the same idea but with an ancient Greek setting, more character options and modern graphics/interface. Get the gold edition so you also get the expansion pack; it's very cheap these days.

Gregoshi

04-15-2009, 13:42

Why not Oblivion on the PC? To me, Oblivion (and Morrowind) is fairly unappealing in their retail form. With the right mods, they're both pretty good games though. Trouble is that there are no mods on the console versions....
Well, I've logged at least 130 hours on Oblivion Xbox and don't relish the thought of starting over again. Also, several people here have put in good words on Morrowind, therefore I can get an Oblivion type experience on the PC without re-hashing stuff I've already done. If I go the PC route, I guess I'll look into the mod that are out there.

Gregoshi

04-15-2009, 13:48

Give it a try. I played Diablo II first and I found I couldn't get on with the original when I tried it. It felt very primitive and limiting.

Alternately, try Titan Quest. It's the same idea but with an ancient Greek setting, more character options and modern graphics/interface. Get the gold edition so you also get the expansion pack; it's very cheap these days.
Thanks for the recommendation froggy. :frog:I'll look into Titan Quest. The price certainly sounds right. The only reason I have and am playing Diablo/Diablo II is that I picked up the warchest for $12US on the second to last day of Circuit City's liquidation sale.

Crandaeolon

04-15-2009, 18:47

I'm currently wondering if Demigod is worth getting.

Me too. The couple of reviews that are out already are pretty gushy. Anybody tried this yet?

frogbeastegg

04-15-2009, 19:18

Thanks for the recommendation froggy. :frog:I'll look into Titan Quest. The price certainly sounds right. The only reason I have and am playing Diablo/Diablo II is that I picked up the warchest for $12US on the second to last day of Circuit City's liquidation sale.
I thought of another one for you. Sacred: Gold. Note, not Sacred 2 or Sacred in a non-gold flavour. The sequel was very buggy at release, and still sounds as if it has a way to go. The expansions and additional content in Sacred Gold boost the game up from the unremarkable experience it was at release, and turn it into something which gets a lot of love around the internet.

When the slow drip, drip, drip of positive comments wore me down I got a copy from good old games (http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/sacred_gold). Very cheap, fully patched and up to date in the initial download, no DRM, no additional interfaces like steam or impulse; just a game ready to go. You can probably buy the gold edition on a disc from somewhere if you don't like downloads.

Gregoshi

04-15-2009, 19:45

Thanks again froggy. I'll put it on my list, but no more recommendations please. My brain will lockup due to too many choices and I won't buy anything. :laugh4: (you should see me walk into a video rental store and try to select a movie - brain lock!!).

CountArach

04-16-2009, 09:35

Just finished FEAR 2 this afternoon and I found the ending a little abrupt, but I felt that it was still one of the best plot-lines of any game I have played in a long time.

Monk

04-16-2009, 10:54

Gears 2 horde mode:

Beat my previous best with a group last night and took it to 22 rounds before we got overwhelmed. There were some tight spots, including one section where it was me all alone hiding behind a Boomshield against twenty locust. All i can say is thank COG for the Gorgon pistol (semi-auto burst pistol) :2thumbsup:

I've also been playing a lot of Left 4 Dead versus, more than usual trying to get ready for the DLC. Can't wait to play Dead Air in Versus mode.

frogbeastegg

04-16-2009, 14:11

I gave Gears of War a second go. This time I got further than the first effort. Sad to say that the game wins special status with me: it's the only game I've played on my xbox and completely dislike. It's my 39th game.

Ugly colours, ugly character design, ugly sound effects and music, cumbersome controls, whimpy weapons with downright nasty sound effects, boring level design, a story and set of characters which set a new low for a genre already famous for being bad in those regards. It's packed full of idiotic AI team members who hamper you by getting killed, forcing you to battle hordes alone or get killed reviving them. On hardcore the enemies are bullet sponges and each kill takes a drearily long time. Above all and most damningly, the combat is plodding, dull, fiddly and boring.

There's nothing about it I like or find redeeming. Considering I can play games with plenty of flaws and still enjoy them, that's almost unheard of. I got it in a bundle deal with the sequel last year. The sequel will never get within 6 feet of my console's disc drive.

Next up? I don't know. I hated Gears so much it's kind of put me off games. Anything I play will be better; I want something so good it will obliterate the foul taste left by Gears.

tibilicus

04-16-2009, 14:23

Gregoshi

04-16-2009, 18:10

Next up? I don't know. I hated Gears so much it's kind of put me off games. Anything I play will be better; I want something so good it will obliterate the foul taste left by Gears.
I have to try to return a favour froggy. Music Match (http://www.reflexive.com/index.php?PAGE=WebGamePlay&WGID=94) showed up once again on my radar this week. An elegantly simple game with an absolutely beautiful and soothing piano piece to drive the game. If this doesn't do it, maybe it will remind you of another game that will. A frog without a game just doesn't seem right. :bow:

frogbeastegg

04-16-2009, 18:38

I have to try to return a favour froggy. Music Match (http://www.reflexive.com/index.php?PAGE=WebGamePlay&WGID=94) showed up once again on my radar this week. An elegantly simple game with an absolutely beautiful and soothing piano piece to drive the game. If this doesn't do it, maybe it will remind you of another game that will. A frog without a game just doesn't seem right. :bow:
It's like catching the sparks created by fireworks. Nice little game. Thanks.

I got 788,651 on my first go.

Husar

04-16-2009, 18:38

Next up? I don't know. I hated Gears so much it's kind of put me off games. Anything I play will be better; I want something so good it will obliterate the foul taste left by Gears.

Have you played Drakensang (http://www.play.com/Games/PC/4-/8705964/-/Product.html?searchstring=Drakensang&searchsource=0) yet?
I mean I don't seem to be the only one who liked it (though I started a second game before finishing the first, I just don't like really hard end-game battles with nothing really new to discover anymore but sadly too many good RPGs seem to have them) so you may like it as well.

frogbeastegg

04-16-2009, 18:59

Have you played Drakensang (http://www.play.com/Games/PC/4-/8705964/-/Product.html?searchstring=Drakensang&searchsource=0) yet?
I mean I don't seem to be the only one who liked it (though I started a second game before finishing the first, I just don't like really hard end-game battles with nothing really new to discover anymore but sadly too many good RPGs seem to have them) so you may like it as well.
You're far from alone in liking it. It's being talked about on other forums I read, and nearly everyone has good to say of it. I was waiting for the UK retail release quite eagerly; I had it pre-ordered the day play.com dropped the price to £17.99. Before I can play it I need to complete NWN2 plus expansions; one sprawling PC RPG at a time, anything else is overload.

I tend to have a PC game and a console game on the go at the same time. The PC game is invariably massive and quite demanding, while the console game provides a foil to that with something that's lighter. I've got a stack of console games to choose from and none really appeal to my current, except for Disgaea 3 and Lost Odyssey. Talk about inviting disaster! Big, huge ultra-long JRPGs do not pair nicely with big, huge and ultra-long PC RPGs!

FactionHeir

04-16-2009, 21:16

*points at post on the previous page*

caravel

04-17-2009, 10:28

http://www.openttd.org/en/

Husar

04-17-2009, 11:55

Haha, not bad, I might try that sometime.

frogbeastegg

04-17-2009, 12:23

I ended up starting Ninja Gaiden II. Balletic skill-based swordfighting at 60FPS, limbs and blood everywhere and most of it (amazingly) not mine. I like. :7ninja:

Monk

04-17-2009, 21:08

Back to basics:

Mass Effect was the first game I ever got for 360 and its one I keep coming back to. Taking a break from trying to compile a research paper that sounds readable and played a bit again.

I'm reminded with how boring the mission on Eden Prime was. But still, even after all this time when Seran turns to the camera, his jaw rolling as he grinds out the word "Nihlis.." and begins to slither toward your mission back up.. it just gives me chills. Never ceases!

Though I have to express my utter frustration at the voice actor who played Male Shepard. God, could this guy be anymore monotone? I've gotten more entertaining dialogue from lectures about USB ports (and I'm not joking. I really have gotten more entertaining speech from lectures about USB ports.) He speaks with the same sense of urgency about finding the Usari Consort that he does when he discovers there's a thresher maw standing two feet away. I think i've only completed the game with a Male Shepard once. ONCE. :skull:

Alexander the Pretty Good

04-17-2009, 21:27

I just played the Dawn of War 2 demo through steam. It's a delightfully meaty demo, well worth a look. I think I'll buy the full one when it's significantly cheaper (or after they release an expansion pack for three).

seireikhaan

04-18-2009, 04:29

I've gotten re-hooked back on Mount and Blade, with the Eagle and Radiant Cross mod. Truly amazing work, the mod beautifully integrates musket warfare into the game while still retaining a lot of balance. The huge variety of troops is quite nice. Ironically, however, the Khergits have still retained their power despite getting almost no additions themselves- their pure archery actually makes them even more fun to play with now that muskets litter the fields. Finding the Elephant gun as an easter egg item after defeating a roving band of cossacks was entertaining.

edyzmedieval

04-18-2009, 20:25

I'm a bit of a conservative when it comes to games, I play what's tried and tested and not very diverse. Still playing Day of Defeat:Source, Red Orchestra but also Medieval: Total War.

Lately I added Call of Duty 4 to my chest, pretty good, although it gets boring and repetitive.

Warluster

04-19-2009, 01:11

Lately I added Call of Duty 4 to my chest, pretty good, although it gets boring and repetitive.

I love singeplayer, and MP is alright but the amount of hackers and sore losers turned me off it. I find America's Army has got the same modern warfare, plus better ideas such as squads, leaders and pre-chosen classes.

Just bought Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts. Great game (Especially love the things the British say) except the SP campaign, for the Germans, seems a constant recycle of defend against great horde of attackers, then advance and fight back. Gets boring, and skirmish is more entertaining.

Also deciding whether to buy Empire: Total War or Dawn of War 2. Any recommendations between the two? Leaning towards ETW because of its time era but DoW2 looks really fun from its descriptions around this thread and forum.

Decker

04-19-2009, 06:28

I love singeplayer, and MP is alright but the amount of hackers and sore losers turned me off it. I find America's Army has got the same modern warfare, plus better ideas such as squads, leaders and pre-chosen classes.

Just bought Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts. Great game (Especially love the things the British say) except the SP campaign, for the Germans, seems a constant recycle of defend against great horde of attackers, then advance and fight back. Gets boring, and skirmish is more entertaining.

Also deciding whether to buy Empire: Total War or Dawn of War 2. Any recommendations between the two? Leaning towards ETW because of its time era but DoW2 looks really fun from its descriptions around this thread and forum.

That's been around since the first Call of Duty game. People just couldn't wrap their heads around the fact that someone was kicking their tailpipes... That's why imho, WaW has all those extra perks in MP.

And between ETW and DoW II... I'd go with ETW or the first DoW game, especially the Soulstorm stand-alone add-on which has really good reviews from what I've been hearing. But between DoW II or ETW, I'd go with ETW.

naut

04-19-2009, 08:49

naut

04-19-2009, 17:04

Just picked up Heart of Winter and Icewind Dale II earlier today, always wanted them since I first played Icewind Dale and Baldur's Gate. I always thought Icewind Dale was too short and linear.

frogbeastegg

04-26-2009, 20:27

:stands on a mound of slain enemies, brandishes a katana and screams in triumph: Ninja Gaiden II, completed! On acolyte level, this game's 'easy' mode but still a sight more difficult than the hard mode on most games.

I'm rather proud of this. Not greatly so, just proud enough to have a warm little glow. This isn't the sort of game I play much, and I don't have super fast reactions or button bashing skills. I'm not a fan of games which are made with the intention of the player dying many, many times before the end; it gets boring. Ninja Gaiden is notorious for its difficulty and for the demands it places on the player. Most people don't get half way through acolyte before giving up.

With the exception of a few :daisy: spots the game was highly enjoyable. Skill based combat that rewards care, attention and a willingness to learn. There's still loads for me to learn. Loads. I need to learn those many things and practice them until they become unthinking reflex if I'm to tackle the higher levels. Still, there's the rare moment where it all pulls together and I get a hint of what I'd fight like if I had mastered those skills. It's an elaborate, lethal ballet of evading at the last possible frame of animation, triggering the right move at exactly the right split second, and mowing a path of destruction through a mob without getting a scratch. Then the moment passes and the ballet reverts to a melee.

There are some cheap enemies. There are some badly designed fights. These hold the game back from the highs it should have reached. During the final boss gauntlet the game glitched on me and I was forced to reset the console, losing all of my progress. Sometimes the controls don't seem as responsive as they should be.

I've started a dragon sword weapon master run now, and I'll do some more weapon master runs once I finish that. Eventually I'll move to warrior level. Once warrior and all 8 weapon master runs are done I'll try mentor level. In the vanishingly small chance I survive that, I'll try master ninja.

Returning to level 1 and fighting with nothing but the dragon sword has been incredible. It's shown me how much I have learned. Fights where I nearly died on the first run I pass with mere scratches - or untouched - the second time.

I of the Storm

04-30-2009, 12:04

Returning to level 1 and fighting with nothing but the dragon sword has been incredible. It's shown me how much I have learned. Fights where I nearly died on the first run I pass with mere scratches - or untouched - the second time.

Ah, the joys of the learning curve... :laugh4:

Monk

04-30-2009, 18:40

Gears 2 Horde mode update: 39 waves survived!

I have to admit that for as shallow an experience gears 2 offers in its story, its actual gameplay is quite addicting when combined with a "Last Stand/Survival" mode, which is exactly what Horde is. I can only hope Epic keeps the mode when 3 comes out. If so I will buy it on the spot. The mode is that fun imo.

I've become quite adept with the Longshot Sniper rifle and the Hamerburst assault rifle. After using the Lancer for so long, focusing purely on precision fire weapons is an amazing change of pace. The Hamerburst especially really takes some getting used to with its kick back, and the hours of frustration learning to pull off headshots with the Longshot are finally coming to fruition. As for the actual "player vs player" of gears 2 online, I'm slowly getting into that as well. I really enjoy Annex (take and hold), mainly because its one of the few game modes where you can respawn. Though it still can't hold a candle to Horde! :2thumbsup:

frogbeastegg

05-01-2009, 18:29

Ah, the joys of the learning curve... :laugh4:
Learning cliff. :remembers how much is left to master: Learning mountain.

Based on various message board posts, the tiny percentage of players who complete the game on all 4 difficulties die around 1,000 times and take between 80 and 100 hours total. You can expect to die upwards of 500 times alone on master ninja mode. :sweatdrop: Finishing master ninja still isn't the end; the combat system is deep enough that there will still be plenty for you to work on.

Game's certainly value for money provided you can take the heat.

I had chance to play Rise of the Arognauts. As I have been waiting for the game to go down to an acceptable price since before Christmas I didn't dither about. I'm several hours in, on the second island. So far it lives up to its reputation: a rough around the edges 'poor man's Mass Effect' with oodles of slightly warped Greek mythology. If you like talk-heavy RPGs, or if you like Greek myths and don't have an apoplexy when the traditonal story is altered, you will like the game. If neither of those apply, stay far away. I like both, and that's why I was waiting.

Fragony

05-02-2009, 07:40

Having a blast with the Red Faction demo, excellent. Destroy everything

Monk

05-03-2009, 14:53

frogbeastegg

05-03-2009, 15:16

Was raging really hard over the weekend when I learned that microsoft points are hoplessly gouged by retail stores like Best Buy and Wal-Mart by upwards of 30%. I checked their prices on Live only to find you can get 5000 points for a little over 60 USD. Good thing i didn't buy any of those shamelessly overpriced pre-paid cards.
Really? That's shocking! When looking at MS points for the UK market, buying the cards is the only way to get a good deal. The RRP for the cards keeps the individual point->pound value identical to the online store, and the cards turn up discounted in a lot of places. Play.com have them on 2 for £30 at the moment, meaning a £6 saving compared to buying directly from MS. I never buy my points online, and I never play the RRP of £17.99 for 2100 points.

I have to say I am really enjoying Jade Empire. The combat system is really fluid, and despite the serious damage enemies do with a single swing, I am enjoying myself quite a bit. I haven't gotten deep enough to see the plot, tonight though!
Don't hold your breath for Jade Empire's plot and characters. The lower your expectations of it the better chance you might like it. I found it to be the ultimate Bioware-by-numbers, to the point where I guessed everything that would happen within the first hour. I didn't like the combat much either, or the deja vu quest design. This game is the reason why I left Mass Effect sat on my shelf for months; I was afraid it would be as bad and then I'd have to scrub Bioware off my list of good developers.

If you like the combat then that's a good sign. Just keep those plot expectations low and you should be pleasantly surprised. I had high hopes for another KOTOR style hit and that was fatal to it.

Monk

05-03-2009, 15:36

Don't hold your breath for Jade Empire's plot and characters. The lower your expectations of it the better chance you might like it. I found it to be the ultimate Bioware-by-numbers, to the point where I guessed everything that would happen within the first hour. I didn't like the combat much either, or the deja vu quest design. This game is the reason why I left Mass Effect sat on my shelf for months; I was afraid it would be as bad and then I'd have to scrub Bioware off my list of good developers.

If you like the combat then that's a good sign. Just keep those plot expectations low and you should be pleasantly surprised. I had high hopes for another KOTOR style hit and that was fatal to it.

Ugh. Froggy, why must you be the screen door on my submarine?

I was happily diving into something not Gears of war for the first time in a while and you come by and just crush my dreams so thoroughly. If this were Fallout 3, you'd have the Dream Crusher perk. :laugh4:

If you like the combat then that's a good sign. Just keep those plot expectations low and you should be pleasantly surprised. I had high hopes for another KOTOR style hit and that was fatal to it.

In all seriousness, thanks for the heads up. I too was thinking "Bioware did KOTOR, this must be great!" when I made the purchase off Live last night. Your post brings me back down to earth a little in that I won't be expecting much, only to be entertained. :smash:

I only got to play around with the combat a little but I liked it, I thought it worked well with the 360 controller. It does take some getting used to though.

Tratorix

05-04-2009, 01:56

I've been playing Sword of the Stars a lot recently. Really fun turn based strategy with total war style battles. It's basically a somewhat less deep Gal Civ 2 with tactical real time battles. The game has 4 playable races( with a new race added in each of the 2 expansions) all with different engines, meaning no two races really play the same in the way they expand. The tech tree is also slightly random, meaning you have chances of getting different weapons and upgrades each game. Hopefully it should get me through sending my 360 in for repairs.

Monk

05-04-2009, 17:32

Jade Empire:

Oh boy. Where to start. Well i got to really dive in last night, with froggy's words still ringing in my ear but I was feeling optimistic. The combat, while equating to a button mashing fest was engaging enough in the manuvering it challenges you to do that it had my interest. Yet for all the fun I have in combat I am continually surprised with how the game treats me. I am actually convinced this game doesn't like me, that Jade Empire is anti-social and does not want to be played.

I have reason to believe this for the symple fact that, while the combat is very satisfying, it becomes mind-numbing and easily exploited. As soon as I discovered that my first support character, if set to the right 'stance' would continually regenerate my Chi, i set her to regenerate my energy while i tossed fireballs at the enemy's face. Suddenly the only challenge that came from the combat was negating by the fact I had a walking chi factory behind me, enabling me to spam heal on myself every 5 seconds.

The camera has really earned my ire. I'm trying hard not to compare this game with KOTOR but in this aspect I have to. In Kotor the Camera is behind and a little above, in fact, in MOST good third person games that's the case. Behind and above. In Jade Empire you're just behind, with no control over the camera in how low or high you can tilt it. Sure, you can move it from left to right, but you're still stuck at a frustratingly low level! It's like someone paid me to run behind the protaganist, 5 feet behind. Mercilessly focused on their rear despite all obstacles.

The dialogue really.. really makes me hate this game. I know the genre lends itself to it, and honestly I don't mind reading a novel in game form (I rank Mass Effect on my list of "best games evar!" to attest to that) but not when the subject matter is so, soul crushingly, boring. This is the biggest drawback for me. The plot and the surrounding dialogue. In the words of the Nostalgia Critic, all it is is just fighting and explaining.

How do we stop the antagonists?

Oh let me explain.

Where do we go next?

LET ME EXPLAIN!

It's just... ugh. I hate it so much, I can't stand it. I think I was around the Pirate cove when a character repeated himself 3 times in the course of one line of questioning that I just threw my hands up and exclaimed 'Done.' and shut off the console. This is my biggest peeve in writing, and anyone who is a regular in the Mead Hall will tell you I often tell writers to show, not tell. Well jade empire is just one big tell fest and I can't subject myself to that.

My last arrow of hatred that I intend to burry deep into the back of Jade Empire is actually one that made me laugh. There's a part after the first dramatic plot device that mades you get on a flying machine and take off for parts unknown... and then the game turns into R-Type. I'm not kidding. You go into a mini-game that is an exact clone of 1942/R-type genre. it would be so laughable if it wasn't right in the middle of a serious RPG! Here I am, trying desperately to like my characters and suddenly I'm playing R-type. What. The? (if you don't know what R-type is, google it. Its a great game, its just a mini-game clone of it doesnt belong here..)

I only spent about $13 USD.. so I guess i got my monies worth, but I am actually glad I never bought this thing when it came out.

johnhughthom

05-04-2009, 17:57

I think Jade Empire is the only Bioware game that felt like a chore getting to the end. I didn't find anything particularly bad about it, but then there wasn't anything good either. That mini game was very strange indeed, though I don't remember finding the camera annoying and I get very frustrated with bad camera controls.

Crandaeolon

05-04-2009, 20:50

JE appears to be a kind of love it/hate it game. I rather liked it; at least it attempted something new with the combat system and itemisation. (BTW, Fights will get harder as the game progresses and as you meet non-human opponents. Also, for FPS/action RPG veterans the normal setting is too easy.)

Regarding items, the "less is more" -system was IMO a step in the right direction. Extreme example would be NWN2: Inventory Management Hell - a far too sizable chunk of your time goes into selling stuff and crafting. Kotors were rather clunky in that department as well, and Mass Effect was actually a step backwards.

AggonyDuck

05-04-2009, 23:58

I found JE to be a good game. It isn't the best Bioware game, but I certainly enjoyed it enough to play through it twice. It had a couple of great characters, the plot was excellent and the battles against stronger unique opponents were good fun.

naut

05-05-2009, 08:32

Icewind Dale II, much improved compared to the original. The music is epic.

Andres

05-05-2009, 15:46

GTA IV (PC version) and absolutely loving it :2thumbsup:

Then again, I'm a bit of a GTA fanboy ~:pimp:

Crandaeolon

05-05-2009, 16:02

I'm going through a space strategy phase again, tried playing GalCiv2 and even bought the expansions for it, but the lack of space battles is just too much of a hurdle for me so I quit after the first couple of fleet battles.

In my desperation I'm giving Sword of the Stars another go, this time I got both expansions as well. Unfortunately, my pet peeve is still there - the interface is just horrid. It's incoherent, counter-intuitive and sluggish. It presents information poorly. In addition to this quadruple whammy, the devs in their "great" wisdom still insist on keeping interface elements (such as being able to give commands in the sensor view) under the tech tree! What idiocy.

Now that that is out of the way, I can gripe about pacing. Short little incremental turns in a multiplayer-oriented game? No... just no. Have a look at Dominions (3), that game has far superior pacing for multiplayer. Granted, Dom 3 is primarily a PBEM game, but it really wouldn't hurt if SotS took a few pages from its book and compressed the turn structure more.

Fortunately, there's good stuff too. The empire building aspect is nice and streamlined, and the addition of trade routes and their policing gives something to do with worlds that aren't close to the frontier. Combat, apart from interface deficiencies, feels now sufficiently deep with the new weapons and gadgets.

It's a shame that a game with such a messianic formula has so many flaws. This time though, I'm going to stick with it and really give it a chance.

Monk

05-05-2009, 18:02

GTA IV (PC version) and absolutely loving it :2thumbsup:

Then again, I'm a bit of a GTA fanboy ~:pimp:

NIKO MY COUSIN!

I just finished GTA4: Lost and the Damned to wash the taste of Jade Empire out of my mouth and I have to say i loved it. If you have a 360, i highly recommend it. It took me 7 hours powering through the missions with no intention but to end the plot as fast as possible to finish. Though if I did all the races and gang wars I could have easily gotten 10+ hours from this.

Johnny is an interesting protagonist and the story weaves into the main story of Niko very well. A great buy for any DLC

frogbeastegg

05-06-2009, 16:39

Ugh. Froggy, why must you be the screen door on my submarine?

I was happily diving into something not Gears of war for the first time in a while and you come by and just crush my dreams so thoroughly. If this were Fallout 3, you'd have the Dream Crusher perk. :laugh4:
:froggy gains 250XP:

:froggy gains a level! froggy is now level 72!:

Sad to hear you didn't like the game. I hoped lowered expectations would be enough to smooth out the wrinkles; it's amazing what you can forgive in a game if you don't expect the heavens from it.

I shall never forget that terrible, terrible moment within the first hour when I stared at my TV and realised I knew exactly what would happen with the plot. Each time I met a new companion I recognised them as another Bioware character reborn into a new model, name and voice actor. Then I made the same combat discovery as you, except I spammed sword attacks instead of fireballs. I slogged on for as long as I could, only to give up close to the end. I've tried to play Jade Empire twice, once on release and once years later. Never finished it, never will.

I finished Rise of the Argonauts. What a game! So many things it did right. What a shame! A handful of things it got wrong. I would still recommend it to the right kind of player, provided it can be found for half price or less. Are you the right kind of player? Answer the following:

Do you think a game which is 70% dialogue and 30% combat is boring? If yes, leave now and don't look back.

Rise dumps the traditional good/evil choice in favour of courage, compassion, wisdom and wit and the result is head and shoulders above the black and white, often childish selections in other games. There's a lot more nuance in dialogue with these 4 choices, a lot more. Another game might give you the task of finding information about a criminal gang and offer you the choice of threatening the old lady into giving you information, or paying her for it. Rise will allow you to appeal to her sense of justice to bring down the criminals, to offer words of understanding for her plight and promise to see to her safety, to give a courageous speech about not giving in to fear of the criminal overlords, or to trick her by pretending you are one of the criminals.

All of the talk, talk, talk goes on to offer set pieces which aren't on offer in other RPGs. For one boss fight I joined a formal debate on the merits of the golden fleece, weighing my opponent’s words with care and choosing the right aspects to counter them to the satisfaction of the audience. The answers were seldom clear; it was anything but a simple job of choosing the obviously correct answer as it would be in most games. I helped write a poem to remember Jason's murdered wife. I matched wits with Pan. I spoke eulogies for the fallen.

Rise is a well-written game, a game where words and stories were at the heart of the design document. Each of your companions is fleshed out and are something more than the stereotypes that people most RPG parties. They are familiar figures from Greek myth, and thus believably flawed in nature, and at the same time they are new, the creation of the game's designers, and so they offer surprises even if you are familiar with the mythology. Pan, in particular, stands out as one of the most intriguing companions I have ever adventured with. Hercules? He's not the standard big 'n strong dumb ox version. He's big and strong - and debates philosophy, questions his own self-worth, and reminds you of the costs of your quest. Achilles? Yup, he's vain as can be. Also a faintly damaged personality, dominated by the prophecy and hype surrounding him. And so on.

The voice acting for all of the principles is good to great. Jason in particular sounds as I'd always imagined him. The lesser voices are ... er, varied. As for the music, wow! This is the first game in a long time where I want to get the soundtrack. The score is by the composer who did the film 300.

There's no XP to gain. Instead you earn deeds, each one recording a specific act of heroism. There's a massive variety of them, from killing 5 enemies to listening to all of a child's song. You dedicate each deed to a god, and that wins you their favour. Earn enough favour and you can buy a god power. You also earn favour by selecting a god's particular aspect during dialogue, for example wisdom gains you points with Athena. This allows you to tailor Jason to your style.

The game doesn't have a journal. No. Your actions are recorded in the very heavens themselves! Constellations of stars, with each star being a specific part of your quest. Complete all of the optional quests on one island and you complete the relevant constellation, and another for the main quest on that island, and others for combat and for the 4 gods.

Greek mythology allows for some cool moments. An entire town turned to stone in the midst of an attack was my favourite. Bittersweet; in order to save the town you are forced to cause the death of many of the inhabitants. The survivors are left to wander the ruin of their home, shell-shocked by the discovery that centuries have passed.

That's the good, a very focused good which makes up around 70% of the game. Now for the bad.

Combat. Most of it occurs at the end of the game, and that's why I hated the final 2 areas. It's spongy, clumsy and not fun at all, and it suited me very well indeed that much of the game featured little combat. Then the final areas are little but combat, and combat against the same couple of enemy types in cramped arenas. Yuck!

Lack of polish. The game has rough sections, and it has bugs. The controls can be clumsy. Jason occasionally can't fit through gaps which are wider than he is. Kills and combat feats don't always register.

The final 2 areas. They take everything good about the game and toss it out of the window. Fortunately they only make up around 10% of the total experience.

Spasmodic difficulty. I played on the hardest level. Most of the time it was easy. Then suddenly the very enemy type I had slaughtered loads of would start doing a move which would leave me at death’s door from full health. Certain boss fights were stupidly hard compared to everything else.

I’m going to play it again, try to get the things I missed on the first play through and try out some of the different dialogue responses.

Now that Broken Steel for Fallout 3 is out I'm going to play through that and The Pitt.

Fragony

05-18-2009, 11:06

Dead Space. Asteroids, worst idea in an otherwise good game ever, whoever thought this was a good idea should be fired on the spot.

frogbeastegg

05-20-2009, 16:43

I have picked Ninja Gaiden 2 back up after a few weeks of not bothering. I got bored midway through my dragon sword run - it was too easy. I'm going to drag myself through the last few levels and then start my warrior run.

Neverwinter Nights 2 is ... er ... well, look, I started playing Fallout 1 instead. Just for a bit. Change of PC gaming scenery; I've been working through NWN2 for a couple of months now and, good as it is, I need a break.

I'm using the Good Old Games version of Fallout instead of the White Label disc based version I used the first time I attempted to play the game. It's much better! It runs at a smoother frame rate, has no lagtime on the cursor, is stable, and I haven't seen any trace of the numerous technical problems which gradually destroyed my first go at the game. There's also background music, which I swear there wasn't before. The game is so much better when the graphics don't vanish and get replaced with a completely black screen every few minutes. It's impossible to play properly when you spend more time scrubbing the cursor all over the screen to bring the visuals back than doing anything else.

Dead Space. Asteroids, worst idea in an otherwise good game ever, whoever thought this was a good idea should be fired on the spot.
My new game+ save is sat there on level 4, right next to the cannon. I left it there promising myself that I'd play the asteriod section tomorrow. That was 7 months ago. I'd really like to play Dead Space again; that one section was so bad it's unlikely that I will.

CountArach

05-22-2009, 09:07

Playing PBEM games of Campaign Waterloo (http://www.hpssims.com/Pages/products/NapBat/waterloo/waterloo.html) and Campaign Jena-Auerstaedt (http://www.hpssims.com/Pages/products/NapBat/JA/JA.html)

Crazed Rabbit

05-25-2009, 04:53

Started playing the Dominions 3 demo sometime around 8pm. Finished when the demo ended and I saw that it was 1:41am. :dizzy2:

CR

Fragony

05-25-2009, 09:06

My new game+ save is sat there on level 4, right next to the cannon. I left it there promising myself that I'd play the asteriod section tomorrow. That was 7 months ago. I'd really like to play Dead Space again; that one section was so bad it's unlikely that I will.

The truly bad news is that there are TWO asteroid sequences. They are actually pretty easy, shoot at the centre and ignore the rest and you should make it. But bad bad call. Game gets really good, make yourself a cup of tea, relax, and do it.

frogbeastegg

05-25-2009, 18:30

The truly bad news is that there are TWO asteroid sequences. They are actually pretty easy, shoot at the centre and ignore the rest and you should make it. But bad bad call. Game gets really good, make yourself a cup of tea, relax, and do it.
Yes. The secondshooting section is so much easier that it's not funny; it's like they accidentally put them in the game in the wrong order. The asteriod section runs on a semi random script; some attempts at it are easier than others due to the mix of rocks it sends.

I finished the game when it was first released and enjoyed it tremendously. It's my favourite out of last year's Christmas rush; I had more fun with it than with the more popular games like Fallout 3, and others I had been looking forward to, like Prince of Persia, turned out to be less than good. Dead Space came out of nowhere in a genre I don't usually like, and won my love.

I returned to Blue Dragon. It's the first game I got on my xbox 360; I got right near the end and then shiny new games came along and distracted me. I'm polishing off the optional bosses and dungeons, completing my item and monster records, and levelling my characters up to the max. Then I shall complete the plotline. The game got a lot of bad reviews when it first came out and it has a terrible demo, but it's loved by most of those who gave it a chance. It's an old school JRPG with a few innovations which liven the experience up and reduce the tedium often found in the genre. Shame the plot and characters are childish drivel. Maromaro needs to die. That or stop blasting my ears with his shrill, loud voice. Preferably die. Then he'll be quiet forever and ever and I'll never be subjected to him again.

It's a better game than the better rated Eternal Sonata. That game looked pretty, and was as boring as could be.

Monk

05-30-2009, 20:08

Just when it seemed like I couldn't get any more shallow, I've managed to drain a little more out of the pool. I've wanted to play Devil May Cry 4 ever since i finished 3 on the ps2 years back. Dante seems as insanely over the top in his one liners as before and the combat looks as monotonous as ever, but still, I want to give it a spin for some mindless hack and slash. Along with DMC4, CoD: WaW is also on the way, set to arrive sometime next week. getting tired of gears 2 multiplay so i ordered World at War while I wait for Modern combat 2. More on these two games next time. :book:

In the meantime, and with news of both Assassin's Creed 2 and ME2 coming in droves I've loaded up both originals and have been putting them through the paces as a bit of a refresher course. It's been a while since i had enough patience to get beyond eden Prime in Mass effect, but continuing my level 41 biotic shepard seems to have been the missing peice. I'd forgotten how fun Adepts were to play, there's really nothing like juggling geth troops with a biotic heavy party :laugh4:

In other news, Guitar Hero: Metallica has broken my Guitar hero controller. I was playing Battery and suddenly midway through the solo the strum bar completely stopped responding. Checked the batteries, tried strumming up, no go. It just refuses to work which makes me really sad. So now I have a $50 paper weight in the shape of a guitar..

Tried to play through GTA4: The lost and the damned again but I just can't bring myself to replay it. While Johnny is a decent protagonist, he doesn't really have the staying power that Niko does. Not to mention the climax of the story is even more unrealistic than the idea of an underground mutant race of super soldiers bent on human annihilation (the plotline of gears 2, and that's pretty bad..). It was a huge spirit breaker to see Rockstar cop-out with such a cliche and unsatisfying ending. Oh well. Maybe their next DLC will be better.

johnhughthom

05-31-2009, 15:41

Just about to dive into Freedom Force. I've been interested in trying it for years, just never got around to it. It's £4.49 for both FF games on Steam and I didn't even have to get out of my chair. Had to give it a go, would be rude not to.

Monk

06-04-2009, 10:47

Call of Duty: World at War.

(sigh) I really wasn't looking forward to playing this game's single-player. In fact I dare say i bought it for one (AND ONLY ONE) reason, which was the multiplayer. But before I can unlock the Nazi Zombie mini-game I have to finish the game (you win this round Treyarch..) What can i say though? After Modern Combat two years ago, the fps community got knocked on its back end as the CoD franchise, which had been faltering after two lack-luster titles, completely reinvented itself with perhaps my favorite shooter of the modern era of gaming. It introduced an innovative Multiplayer model with super weapons and unlockables, gadgets, levels and challenges. In a word, it was fun. How would Activision follow that? They got Treyarch to release a copy+paste WW2 Shooter. Innovative. :shame:

I'll just get the pink five-hundred pound hippo out of the way first, this game just isn't fun. You play each mission on a rail, shooting your way through terrible AI and doing your best not to notice that you could be playing something else. Really, I just wanted to get to the end of this game to play the Nazi-Zombie mini-game, and i think the game figured that out when i popped it in because it just was not fun. The AI was horrid, the hit detection (at times) seemed to go completely hay-wire and not register headshots, and to top it off the pacing is, in a word, schizophrenic.

To give you an idea what I mean about the pacing, you'll play two American missions, then you go play two soviet missions and so on. By the time you adjust to being in one theatre you're violently ripped into the other. I know what they were trying to do, they were trying to emulate Modern Warfare, the huge difference is that in Modern Warfare the two campaigns were tied together by a main narrative. In WaW the two campaigns are as different as you can imagine and the sudden changes from one theatre of operation to the other completely disjointed what little attachment I had with my not-faceless comrades.

The plot is the typical WW2 shooter where your comrades, with the exception of four (two for each campaign.) are a complete faceless affair. Call of Duty helped set itself apart with amazing visuals and some overall decent characterization, but unfortunately Treyarch has not followed Infinity Ward's example and made even your CO (voiced by Kiefer Sutherland of all people!) a complete dull affair. How in the world did they make Kiefer Sutherland dull?! The game is a shameless "war is great, no wait it's bad... did i mention it's kinda great" flipflop featuring psychotic comrades who will murder their enemy in wanton hatred. After finishing the single-player, the Live! community looked like atea-party in comparison.

The last blow to my sanity comes in that, while the multiplayer is generally really fun many of the maps just feel too large. Playing yesterday morning before class I spent an agonizing 30 seconds running aimlessly around a map looking for something to shoot before getting snipped. That said, the Multiplayer is pretty fun, my main complaint is that since it's WW2 us gadget freaks who loved all the unlockables in Modern Combat will be sorely disappointed. Your potential arsenal isn't anything to laugh at, but lots of the weapons feel the same. All of the single-shot rifles feel the same as the next, for instance

My recommendation? If you're deadset on another shooter for your 360/Ps3/Wii, then WaW will offer up some impressive visuals and a very fun Multiplayer mode (not to mention Nazi Zombies when you finish the campaign). If you have to own this, then plow through the campaign once and never look back. Maybe i'll even see you on the battlefield. Dismissed! :army:

Devil May Cry 4 next post.

frogbeastegg

06-04-2009, 12:05

That's Blue Dragon completed. I'm tempted to write that was the worst RPG ending I've seen but the I remembered Eternal Sonata and it has to be a draw between the two. Long, nonsensical, and packed full of attempted twists which made no sense at all. My brain hurts. The final verdict: nice gameplay, nice graphics, childish characters, story which starts out infantile and ends up wacko.

I am now beginning Operation Overload(TM), in which I shall play through short game after short game in a bid to make my to-play pile lower. Short game is defined as one generally acknowledged as having a total playtime of 10 hours or less for a single SP run through. First up is Heavenly Sword, which is supposedly around 6 hours long.

Devil May Cry 4 next post.
I'll be interested in what you think of that one. I did like the first in the series, and picked up a cheap copy of this one a while ago.

seireikhaan

06-08-2009, 05:30

Civ IV: BTS, with a friend of mine. Fairly epic campaign, me as the Khmer and him as Persia. Scores have been fluctuating all over the board over the course of the game; I've been as high a second, and as low as third to last, while he's gone from first to last to 3rd best. I've been stalled by knock out, drag down wars with the Russians and Ottomans, both on my western border, which thus far have been mostly inconclusive; I've razed a couple insignificant minor Russian cities before getting whacked by the Ottomans, who took my second best city. The Ottomans tried to advance further into my territory, but I managed to lure their army across a vast plain, only to batter the army with bombers and eradicating it as it tried to pull a hasty retreat back to friendly territory. Finally got my city back, though its a bit of a shell. Now at a standstill, since we're duking it out for air superiority and I can't take on their mech infantry on an offensive.

Fragony

06-08-2009, 07:00

Siren: Blood Curse. Dear god this is scary

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/Fragony/siren-blood-curse-20080516031101922.jpg

leave me alone!! bad zombie!

Monk

06-08-2009, 07:17

Devil May Cry 4.

How many games can you make before the udder falls off the cash-cow? Well it's more than four because DMC4 actually manages to improve upon the formulea shown in 3. Now, while I talk about this game I am gonna try to keep comparisons to 3 in short supply since it's been so long since i played it. But While it builds upon the successful recipe of the DMC series, 4 falls prey to the same pitfalls that has plagued the series since the very first.

Let's get the bad out of the way first, the camera. It's just horrid. Anyone who has ever played a Devil May Cry game will immediately know what I'm talking about when I say sometimes the camera is great, and other times it's terrible. You'll frequently find yourself fighting enemies off screen, frantically trying to pan the camera to keep an eye on them while you deliver combos to their comrades. Its tough, especially with how stiff camera controls are. It takes a lot of getting used to, and sitting at mission number 19/22 right now, I can say I still get frustrated from time to time from the camera.

And now for the good, oh jeeze is there a lot to talk about here. I knew going into the game that Dante was not the main protaganist, indeed it's some guy named Nero. You'll find out who he is along the way, but the biggest difference between him and Dante is his devil bringer (demon arm) that he can use to execute special moves against bosses and cannon fodder enemies alike. THIS is without a doubt, the greatest feature in the ENTIRE game. Seeing Nero latch onto the boss and pull himself up to deliver a devastating combo of scripted blows upon them never gets old. I actually felt bored when the game made me switch to Dante. The Devil Bringer is that fun.

Speaking of boss battles the ones featured in this series are a great addition to the past cast of bad guys. They are fun, challenging and require a different touch for each. One in particular demands that you are in his face 100% of the fight, while another demands you to hop around like a mad-person. They are amazing fun, on par or better than what I remember from 3, the only downside is.. well, I'll just get the minor spoiler out of the way.

You'll fight each boss twice.

It's a lame twist that capcom uses to extend the length of the game, and one I could have done without. But even so I really enjoy this game, really enjoy it. Aside from having the difficulty curve slap the taste out of my mouth around mission 8, the game has been relatively easy. The only thing that really challenges you consistently is the defense based enemy spam.

This is a game that knows what it wants to be, which after playing World at War is a welcomed addition. It doesn't try to be anything more than a faithful sequel to its franchise, and thanks to that DMC4 is a great addition for any game library. I'd highly recommend a play through.

Mass Effect: Bring down the Sky

The DLC for Mass Effect. Okay, I knew that this was a short mission going in and would only equal to around the playtime of some time on Feros. I won't ruin the plot for you, but you can google it to see what happens if you want. I will just say this. Holy crap is this a good DLC. The Batarian models look like Bioware spent some extra time in development on them because they look amazing crisp, and the moral choices you're going to be forced to make are in line with the rest of the game. I won't dare spoil it for you, but you're gonna have to make a tough choice at the end.

The DLC is about 2 hours worth of content, depending on if you do the extra side missions and if you die or not. As a level 54 adept I powered through it relatively easy, and the reward at the end was of no use to Shepard. Though one of my squad-mates benefited greatly from it. What really surprised me about it was the size of the fire-fights, you're going to be going toe to toe with some significant forces, especially toward the end of the mission.

All in all? A great buy and addition to the ME universe. The ending makes me think Bioware may include a tie in with Me2, but thats just personal speculation. I'd highly suggest buying it on the Live! marketplace, but if you're at the level cap you might find it a bit easy to breeze through.

frogbeastegg

06-08-2009, 11:26

Heavenly Sword is one of those games which would be more enjoyable to watch someone else play. Visually it's stunning; very cinematic, with strong dramatic direction and loads of attention to detail. The characters are all motion captured including facial movements, so the expressions are the best I've seen in any game. The voice acting is strong, the cutscenes are bitesized and always worth watching, the music is lovely. It even has a good story, particularly the ending. I can't think of another game which has dared to do what Heavenly Sword does.

Your character dies. The punch is not pulled in any way: she's dead and won't be back.

So why would it be more fun to watch than to play? Because the combat is dull, and that's all there is to the game. Hammering random buttons brought greater success than attempting to fight 'properly', and at no point did I feel fully in control of what Nariko was doing. The enemies take too many hits to be fun. The counter attack mechanic is a nice idea which doesn't quite work; basically you need to be in the matching stance as the enemy attacking, so fast stance blocks fast attacks and strong blocks strong. I found it very common for one enemy is attacking with a fast attack and one with a strong attack at the same time, meaning I was stuck getting hit by one of them regardless because the dodge move isn't reliable. Also, enemies come in great big mobs so it's very difficult to watch for individual attacks to counter. When compared to a game like Ninja Gaiden 2, the combat is simply not good enough.

I had intended to tackle Little Big Planet next. Unfortunately I have a craving to do something about the stack of RPGs awaiting some love on my xbox, especially as Sacred 2 and Star Ocean 4 have just out, and Tales of Vesperia will be out in a few weeks. With Lost Odyssey, Last Remnant, Infinite Undiscovery and Too Human still to play I'm in danger of getting overwhelmed.

I'm going to start Infinite Undiscovery, on the basis that it's shorter than Lost Odyssey and doesn't have turn based combat. I don't think I can survive a third traditional JRPG right now - Blue Dragon was of that style, and I have started dawdling through the PSN version of Final Fantasy VII on my PSP.

Crazed Rabbit

06-08-2009, 23:57

Hooahguy

06-09-2009, 04:13

id thought id review Crysis Warhead/Wars again.

ive had it for about... almost half a year. what can i say, it keeps on giving. but after a while of beating the campaign in different ways, the campaign (Warhead) gets dull. like it has for me.
the game says that you can go in gung-ho or you can go in stealthily. but i found that worthless. new KPA soldiers do not spawn if you do not go with a silencer, as in Rainbow 6 Vegas, unless its scripted in, which i found disappointing. its a lot easier to just go in and kill them all with bursts from a SMG. the tactical function of a rifle is pointless. while its cool and after you shoot them with a dart you can sneak up and kill them with a silencer, theres no mission where you have to go and sneak up anywhere.
i found that disappointing.
as for the aliens, its always fun to fight them off by yourself, especially when you are running low on ammo and you decided to punch the bad guys with strength mode on instead of with guns. makes it a little harder, but not much.
the campaign, when played against the KPA, is pretty easy. the only hard part would be the part where you have to travel a long distance in an armored truck, while being attacked by everything the KPA can throw at you. and when you are on the ground fighting the KPA, its easy, even if you set handicaps for yourself, like pistol only.

but the campaign isnt the jewl of the game.
the multiplayer (Wars) is, provided you have a good rig and a good connection.
games usually are one sided, and often you will find the teams at 10-3, or a similar ratio. crytek neglected to add in an auto-balancer, which is bad.
they also neglected to make the anti-cheat system mandatory in every match. so some people forget to turn it on and bingo, youve got yourself against people who can use speed mode the entire match.
but the thing that cripples crysis wars the most is the lack of varied servers. most servers, as is the case with BF2142, play only the most popular servers. in BF2142 it was Suez Canal and Camp Gibraltar. in crysis, its Battlegrounds and Victoria Falls, or whatever that map is called. dont get me wrong, the map is fun, but it gets tiring. there are very few populated IO maps, like steel mill or graveyard, at least around my area.
but when i do get on a server thats IO and has more than 4 players on it, its a BLAST, with action every second. almost literally.

overall, ive had a positive experiece with Crysis Warhead/Wars. i can run it on mainstream settings smoothly, even when i am attacking a mass of aliens or stupid AI controlled KPA soldiers.

do i regret buying it? no. but do i wish the makers had worked a bit harder on it, or at least made the campaign longer? abosolutely.

Hooahguy

06-09-2009, 06:02

since im bored and want more posts, ill do another review.
Battlefield 2142

this game, as with all Battlefield games, is a multiplayer game. if you dont have a good internet connection, dont bother with the BF games (with the exception of BF: Bad company). the single player in those games are lame.
now, to the other stuff.
the graphics look as if they have been reused from BF2. simple graphics, but not all that bad. the terrain and building graphics are mediocre, so if you are looking for nice graphics dont look here.

the gameplay is overall good. its a simple game, and fun, especially with walkers and gunships.

the maps that are less intensive on vehicles make for some very intensive infantry battles, only for a walker to show up and ruin the fun, making you sprint for cover.

the titan mode is a blast, considering you have a competent squad and you are squad leader (SL) and actually command and not just run around aimlessly.
if you want squad based tactics, go on Tactical Gamer servers, where teamwork is practically a requirement.

but of course, the game has its faults. server crashes, bugs, hackers, cheaters, the works.
but it wasnt enough to stop me from playing over 160 hours of BF2142 (just look at my xfire page- its true!).

overall, if you are looking for a cheap, futuristic multiplayer game, get this game. but if not, go somewhere else.

CountArach

06-09-2009, 13:10

I picked up Geo-Political Simulator (http://www.geo-political-simulator.com/) today for half price. And I have to say - if you think any Paradox game has a steep learning curve, you HAVE NOT seen this game. The level of depth is astounding and the tutorials only provide a cursory glance (Which is even worse considering they are not interactive, just videos). However, at the same time this seems like a really interesting game if you like the inner-workings of government and politics.

I'll have another go tomorrow and put some more thoughts up.

Husar

06-09-2009, 16:20

Tried ARMA again. Apparently I'm a sucker for punishment, but I heard it was bearable with mods.

It isn't. I'm still sickened with all the stupidity in the game; it's a shell of a game, the developers apparently having forgotten to make a )(@&$(*&$*&#($ game and not some simulation engine ("Oh, look at me! I'm a special forces operator but I can't switch between weapons while moving, beecause I'm functionally retarded, like this 'game'"). I don't want to invest a (@&%@*load of time learning how to operate the game - EU3 is by comparison tetris in terms of learning how to get to enjoy the game.

The worst game purchase of my entire life. And the next one is coming out soon; the developers and fanboys say it will actually be a game this time, not some husk foisted on people. Bah - sounds like CA after RTW, and we know how that turned out.

God, I loathe this game. I'm giving serious thought to uninstalling it and destroying the DVD.

CR

In fact, I bought the "next one" last week.

Why switching weapons while running is something that you find necessary in this game is beyond me but the game isn't exactly complete anyway, the "next one" that is as I skipped ArmA.
I have to say though, incompleteness is something i have almost come to expect from games "from the east", they do however usually fill a void that all those polished games "from the west" may never be able to fill so I usually like them despite their faults.
Haven't started the campaign yet, gonna wait for a few patches and get used to the controls (again) in the editor first. Oh yes, you can't deny that the BIS games have a splendid editor.

For now, I've got to finish my ETW campaign with the French though, I just destroyed the US, I really hope one can actually get peace treaties in the next patch, so far my only option seems to be to destroy whoever declares war on me. Maybe one could bribe them with tons of money but after a surprisingly huge dutch fleet blocked my major trade port and made me go bankrupt for a while, that wasn't really an option.

Oh, and froggy, I think I hardly ever blocked in Heavenly Sword, attack is the best defense as they say and you're right in that it doesn't make a lot of sense with multiple enemies anyway, I did however manage to use some combos that I wanted after a while IIRC. Was prolly not splendid but more or less the only game of it's type that I played so i guess i wouldn't know that it can be done better.

Meneldil

06-09-2009, 17:12

I'm currently going through Titan Quest : Special Edition with my bro.

I don't really know what to say about it. The game looks nice, and playing in ancient greece is quite refreshing.

So far, I can't comment on the whole story, as it's pretty basic (Go and meet Leonidas, who tell you too meet the Oracle of Delphi), so I'll stuck to the gameplay :
- the various domains and skill-trees are quite interesting. You get something like 8 of these (Earth, Spirit, War, Protection, Storm, Nature, Dream, etc). Each comes with his own active and passive abilities, and since you can take either one or two domains, I guess you can end up with a lot of variations and different gameplay.
- unfortunately, so far (we're level 17), gameplay is actually pretty lame. I'm going with a Nature/Spirit caster, while my bro is making a War/Storm fighter. From what he told me, he only uses his basic attack, since most of his skills are passive buffs. As for myself, I usually run around with my pets (3 wolves and a lich) and auras, and look at the other guys doing the job for me, while casting a heal every 5 minutes.

I chose these domains because I usually enjoy being a healer/support class, but I guess this kind gameplay doesn't work well in a hack n' slash. If the game proves to improve a bit, we might play it in Epic and Legendary mode. Otherwise, we'll switch to Loki or wait for Diablo3.

seireikhaan

06-10-2009, 00:24

CountArach

06-10-2009, 00:42

My interest is piqued. I think I'm gonna buy it. Do I need buy both the simulator and the upgrade, or do I just buy the upgrade?
I dunno, I just got the basic game. I would assume you have to get both, but you might want to ask here:
http://geopoliticalsimulator.freeforums.org/general-f1.html

EDIT: After a curosyr glance at their website, you do in fact need both.

Fragony

06-10-2009, 07:01

Yep it's official, I can't play Siren it's too scary, up to the point where scary just isn't fun anymore but pure torture. geez.

congratulations on a job too well done.

CountArach

06-11-2009, 13:43

Been playing EUIII with MMP again. Playing as Piedmont, trying to build up to control most of Northern Italy, but it seems Venice has vassalised Milan and as such controls 90% of Northern Italy on its own... brilliant...

Monk

06-11-2009, 15:09

After 45 hours of gameplay I've finally reached level 60 in Mass Effect (the level cap) and earned the Exteme Power Gamer achievement. I've also beaten the game on Hardcore and unlocked Insanity difficulty.

I have to say that even for me, a veteran of numerous completions, hardcore really strained my abilities. Even with my biotic juggling team! my 50/Adept/Renegade Shepard had plowed through everything on veteran, but once i knocked things up to Hardcore, the game basically realized that I dared to play and threw everything at me. I couldn't just rush enemy positions anymore, and I had to utilize every power my squad had. Something that was very new. For the first time since i first picked up a controller, real tactical considerations had to be taken.

I had begun to think Mass Effect was a great game, but far too easy when you neared the level cap. Hardcore has shown me otherwise, and I look forward to hitting Insanity difficulty once I've had a few days to catch my breath.

Crazed Rabbit

06-11-2009, 22:58

In fact, I bought the "next one" last week.

Why switching weapons while running is something that you find necessary in this game is beyond me but the game isn't exactly complete anyway, the "next one" that is as I skipped ArmA.

Well, for me it just detracts from gameplay and is one of the things that hampers your character in frustrating ways.

Oh well. I'm back to EU3, again.

CR

frogbeastegg

06-12-2009, 21:36

I had begun to think Mass Effect was a great game, but far too easy when you neared the level cap. Hardcore has shown me otherwise, and I look forward to hitting Insanity difficulty once I've had a few days to catch my breath.
Hardcore is the difficulty where the game shines. At that level you need to use all of your party's skills to survive, think tactically, and work to win each battle. It transformed the game's battles from having nice but slightly dull to being very fun.

Insanity lives up to its name. It piles on the enemy immunities, damage reduction and hitpoints to the point where most fights are drawn out slogs. Lots of instances can kill your character in a single hit (I played insanity as a level 60 soldier with maxed immunity, aka the toughest type in the game) so make sure you save early, often and obsessively! Certain battles took me several goes; you will definitely earn your passage and reaching that final cutscene feels great. Oh - and never fight in the mako! Get out and do it on foot unless you have a death wish. As you've probably already noticed the vehicles' stats don't change between difficulties, and on insanity it's made out of tinfoil coated in dynamite.

Aemilius Paulus

06-13-2009, 00:46

Alternating between EB and Rise of Nations lately. Maybe I will give Opposing Fronts (Company of Hero stand-alone expansion) a shot this week. I had it for a while, but never got to it really.

Oh, and of course, I am looking to get into the world of grand strategy, such as Europa Universalis and Hearts of Iron. It is a big step for me though, as I have always been an RTS/RTT guy. (and TW was the only RTT I have played).

Hooahguy

06-16-2009, 05:24

officially the hardest game ive ever played. well first of all, theres only 2 difficulty levels: normal and realistic. and realistic is really hard. usually i only die on normal difficulties with first try about 1-3 times by the end of the first few missions.
well, not with this one. lets see.... ive died about 6-8 times in the first 1/3 of the first part of the first mission. and that is sad. having beated Ghost recon advanced warfighter, i thoguht that this would be a breeze, but i was wrong.

anyhow, the graphics are actually very nice, and the fact that its set in the neon on vegas goesnt hurt, but needs anti-aliasing. ah, the curse of a game from 2006.

multiplayer is good, but there arent a lot of servers, nor very many people online. ill probably do better with R6V2.

Martok

06-16-2009, 23:03

Am finally getting (back) into Gary Grigsby's War Between the States. I'm playing as the Union; will see if I can get the Army of the Potomac off to a better start than they did historically. :sweatdrop:

frogbeastegg

06-20-2009, 15:31

I'm done with Infinite Undiscovery. Right near the end and I cannot take any more! It's not up to TriAce's usual standards, not close.

It's a flawed game; lots of good ideas, lots of silly things which should have been caught during playtesting. In battle your attacks don't stun an enemy but theirs stun you, so it's easy to get stuck in a situation where you're being beaten to death with no chance to save yourself. There's very little variety in battle. The game doesn't pause when you access the menu so using healing items etc is an utter nightmare in battle, and there are no hotkeys, no shortcuts, and no other ways to reduce the lengthy and fiddly menu process in order to get and use a healing potion sometime before you drop dead. Your AI party members are mostly decent but when they have an AI breakdown they have a major breakdown which gets your entire party wiped out more often then not. You can use 3 AI members in your party, yet you're given a massive parade of people who barely get to do anything. Something like 18 party members, maybe more. At various points you will be forced to use certain characters, or have others taken away. Trying to keep everyone equipped with good gear is ridiculous. Characters not in your party only gain 50% XP so they get left behind in no time unless you give them an expensive accessory.

The flaw which finally made me give up is the appalling lack of information regarding where to go next and how to get there. I don't like having my hand held in a game. I'm fine with exploring. I like to need to think a bit. This game is wilfully cryptic. Either they don't tell you where to go at all, or they tell you a place name with no idea of where it is or even on which continent it's on. Or, as at the point where I gave up, they tell you what to do and it doesn't work, leaving you stranded and frustrated with no idea what's wrong or why. I'm sick of wandering clueless for hours until I stumble across a cutscene trigger which advances things, and I'm sick of consulting the guide on gamefaqs. And as for subquests! There's no way to track what you have found, let alone what you should do. There are loads of side quests in this game. Assuming you can find them - the game expects you to hunt around town until you find a specific party member, and then drag them around the entire place talking to every last person. Repeat with all the other party members. Because most quests are only triggered by character X talking to the quest giver and there's no way to find out who to use until you try successfully! Gah! There's not even a way to find out where a specific party member is in a town - you have to search all over until you find them.

It's a shame because the game is nice when it's not trying to make you hate it. The item creation system is fun and detailed, the world's expansive, there are no loading times, and there's loads to do if you have the patience. The plot is much better than the usual fare.

But ... yeah. "Take the castle teleporter to Cassandra." is where I bow out. The teleporter is there. It doesn't work. I don't know why. I've talked to everyone in this massive town several times, and wasted an hour searching for another teleporter or cutscene trigger. There isn't one. This after 3 extremely rubbish boss battles in a row where the party AI couldn’t cope and got itself killed repeatedly, after a stupidly confusing dungeon, after forcing me to slog around an area seemingly designed to make the player commit murder out of sheer frustration thanks to stupid random warp points. I've had enough.

Meneldil

06-21-2009, 00:50

Currently playing Bioshock, and long story short story, it's a blast. Probably the best game I've played since FF7.

For a FPS, the gameplay, while staying FPS-ish, is quite original. Plasmides (spells) are quite cool and offers a lot of possibilities: burn people alive, froze them, throw huge chairs and tables in their faces, use electricity and water to kill a dozen of them.
The guns feel like you're actually shooting at people (unlike some other FPS in which using gun makes you yawn), too bad some of them are mostly useless (the flamethrower and the crossbow), and the upgrades are kind of "meh", but well, I guess that's better than nothing.

So, gameplay is all kind of great. But what makes the game beyond complete awesomeness is the setting and the plot.
A secret, utopian city built underwater that slowly turns into a orwellian hellish nighthmare? Deal. The game is creppy, and when I say creppy, I mean, really freaking damn creppy. By creppy, I don't mean scary or terrifying (although it is quite often), but disturbing.
I'm not going to spoil much, but I can't help but feel sad when by the sight of this former wonderful city that turned into a deadly labyrinth inhabited by a bunch of psychotic maniacs.

Through the various recorded messages (perfectly voiced in french), we slowly witness how these people fell into madness, how former benevolent utopists become tyrannical murderers, how scientists become monsters for the sake of pushing the limits, or how mobsters become megalomaniac bastards. I almost feel some pity each time I kill one of these wandering souls looking for loots and ADAM in the formerly majestous and now abandonned city. I feel sorry for the people who believed in Fontaine/Atlas, and died for nothing or were betrayed by their savior.
I feel sorry for Adams Ryan, who tried to create his own perfect world - beyond communism or capitalism - and succombed to madness when things turned bad.

Now the game has some downsides, or at least is not always perfect. The moral choice regarding little sisters is a bit too much simplistic for me. Save them, you're the good guy. Kill them, and you're the bad dude.
The whole 'ammo distributors' thingy is a bit too much far fetched IMO, even for Rapture society. I mean, you find those all over the place, and it kind of kills the immersion: "Oh, and abandonned plaza with people lying dead on the floor and a machine selling ammunitions and food". IT's fun at first, but it kind of get old.
Furtermore, it makes plasmids more or less useless. Using them is fun, but it's slower and more complicated than cutting through people with a shotgun.

The pirating mini-game is also fun at first, but it quickly because tedious. After a few levels, pirating becomes so hard that you most of the time rely solely on luck to succeed. Some enhancements make it (a tad) easier, but it still is quite annoying IMO. I hope they'll scrap that part in Bioshock 2.

I mention these little details merely because I refuse to admit that the game is perfect. In any case, it's damn awesome and I can't wait for Bioshock 2 (though I also fear a sequel will never be as good as the original).

Dutch_guy

06-21-2009, 16:58

The guns feel like you're actually shooting at people (unlike some other FPS in which using gun makes you yawn), too bad some of them are mostly useless (the flamethrower and the crossbow), and the upgrades are kind of "meh", but well, I guess that's better than nothing.

The crossbow is pretty devastating, setting electrical traps is one of the best ways to destroy the big daddies and the same goes for explosive bolts. Just saying this because I didn't immediately figure out how to use those electric crossbow traps, let alone realise how usefull they could be. Didn't use the flamethrower a lot I admit, but the liquid nitrogen on the other hand is well...fantastic against pretty much any zombie you can find.

Oh and yes I do agree, bioshock has to be one of the best games I've played in a while.

:balloon2:

Monk

06-23-2009, 13:03

I have given up on Mass Effect's insanity difficulty, and for that matter i've also given up on Gears of war 2's Insane difficulty for the exact same reasons. I was playing through both games in an attempt to try and get some extra gamerscore (worthless really) and to challenge myself in a new way. I also had my eye on the N7 gamer pic that comes with completing ME on Insanity. Well, after countless hours of shouting creative curses that has my family worried about my sanity, i can safely say I never want to play either of these games above Hardcore EVER AGAIN.

In fact, i would rather write a contrived post listing the outlandish things I would rather do than play insanity difficulty. It's. Just. Impossible. I fancy myself a damn good ME player, but even my Biotic jugglers who made Sarren into a kitty kat cat on Hardcore could not even get passed Feros on Insanity. I run into enemies who are walking refrigerators with the regen powers of wolverine and they can two shot me with their shot guns. The amount of times I stood up and made obscene gestures toward my TV... I just couldn't count.

And do not even get me started on Gears 2's insane setting. I've never contemplated throwing things at my TV before... but wow. I've defeated both games on their respective hardcore setting, and frankly i believe that is my limit. I just can't take this anymore, i need to have fun again.

Froggy, I salute you. For being able to defeat ME on Insanity you are truly more gamer than I. *takes off his hat* :bow:

Next post - Prototype

Hooahguy

06-23-2009, 14:33

Americas Army 2
seeing that AA3 was a complete flop (https://img190.imageshack.us/img190/7264/lolkyw.jpg), as of now, i downloaded AA2 so i can play with my clan mates.
best decision ive made since i got R6V1.
the gameplay is very enjoyable, and while the graphics are very old, the gameplay makes up for it. rounds are fast and furious, and training is also fun, but can be frustrating.
if you like BF2 or any multiplayer FPS, download the AA2 deploy client.
plus its FREE.

frogbeastegg

06-23-2009, 14:39

Froggy, I salute you. For being able to defeat ME on Insanity you are truly more gamer than I. *takes off his hat* :bow:
Wow. I think that's the first time anyone's said something like that. :faints:

It's. Just. Impossible. I fancy myself a damn good ME player, but even my Biotic jugglers who made Sarren into a kitty kat cat on Hardcore could not even get passed Feros on Insanity. I run into enemies who are walking refrigerators with the regen powers of wolverine and they can two shot me with their shot guns.
Feros was nasty. It took me a couple of deaths before I succeeded :sees Monk's eyes glowing with a desire to strangle and adds hastily: I figured out a few things which you'd be able to use as well should you find you want to go back to the game.

The first is what weaponry to use. You have the spectre X weaponry? If not then there's your first problem; you need the most powerful weaponry you can get in order to be competitive. The spectre X shotgun has a good knockback effect on it. Add in the level X rounds which have the knockback effect on them (hammerhead?) and two level X upgrades which significantly increase weapon cooldown. Now a third to one half of your shots will knock over the enemy it hits, and you can fire pretty much constantly. Shotguns fire in a spread pattern, naturally, so you can knock over more than one enemy if you're lucky. Give your two allies the same setup. The idea is to shoot at anything which is standing until it falls over, prioritising the closest targets. If nothing is standing then shoot at the closest target on the ground. If the Asari clone is there get her ASAP! She is the single biggest danger. It takes forever to kill the creepers but they go eventually.

The second key was about how the waves of creepers are triggered. Each time you damage the tendril thingies more creepers are activated so kill the initial lot of creepers, put a shot in the tendril, clear the next wave, and repeat until the tendril is gone and no creepers remain. Be careful not to accidentally catch a tendril with the spray of your shotgun!

The third key was space. Don't be afraid to walk backwards as you shoot; the areas you have already cleared will remain free of enemies. You should already know to keep the heck away from the creepers unless you want to die; distance is the single defence you have. There are a few points in that area where you can save your game once the enemies are gone. Certain points make for good defensive standpoints, mainly doors or anywhere else the creepers are funnelled tightly towards you.

The main thing to do with the AI team members here is to keep them close to you so they don't shoot a tendril and trigger a wave you aren't ready for. It doesn't matter much if they die so don't risk yourself or break your target priority to protect them. Their shotgun suppression is very useful and it does get a lot rougher if both are dead, however I (barely) survived that situation a couple of times before the end.

Be methodical. Be patient. Don't take any risks. Knock them down, clear them out, catch your breath, get back into position, start the next wave. When an entire room is complete try to save, backtracking if necessary to get far enough away.

If you're still trying to get to the underground part, the shotgun tip still works. Be heartless; kill the afflicted instead of knocking them out. The lightside option is near-impossible to pull off.

In the end Feros wasn't that bad. The boss in the lab or the run through zero gravity at the end, gah! Double gah!

I played insanity as a soldier, a class which gets little love because has no fancy powers. I suspect that helped me think in the right direction - when all you have is a gun you have to use everything the environment gives you and think smart. Your character can wave a hand and disable several enemies at once; mine had to work with an assault rifle and cover. When a Krogan comes charging at your character you'll levitate him and that's that; I had to find a solution based on my guns and the terrain. When there are too many Krogan to lift my approach continues to work where yours stalls. The soldier's extra health and shield power don't make much different on insanity; it was still possible for me to die in an instant with immunity.

Get a spectre X pistol, give it upgrades which stop it overheating and boost the damage it does versus the enemies you face, and activate your maxed out marksman and shield powers. Now your character has a better damage output than my soldier and almost as much defence. Use cover, fight smart, and if you use Kaiden and Wrex then you have a combo of the most useful tech/biotic powers for disabling enemies on characters who can handle a gunfight. If there's a powerful enemy like an armature then order your team to use their powers on them, otherwise you can leave them to their own devices without much trouble.

Monk

06-23-2009, 15:03

Feros was nasty. It took me a couple of deaths before I succeeded :sees Monk's eyes glowing with a desire to strangle and adds hastily:

:eye twitches:

Appreciate the do's and don'ts froggy, and yes waving a hand about and making your enemies go flying is a particular favorite of mine.

Weaponry is the Spectre X stuff with inferno rounds. Straight, hard burst through Marksmanship with an added Damage over time. Throw in massive amounts of biotic attacks from Shepard and tech attacks this set up really kept the AI off balance... until Insanity. All around though I should probably change the main strategy since everything and their mother has Immunity after Hardcore. Last difficulty things started to get tough but i was able to just power through things with guile, here? I'm not powering through anything...

..I guess I should stop turning hammerhead rounds into omni-gel. :embarassed:

Really the problem wasn't space, it was that after my intial burst/float/throw stage the enemy still has enough health to prove a problem. So it really throws me for a hurt, if i can just survive for a few more seconds my powers will be off cooldown and i can enter into another juggle cycle, maybe the hammerhead rounds were the missing link. I'll give them a try. :yes:

If you're still trying to get to the underground part, the shotgun tip still works. Be heartless; kill the afflicted instead of knocking them out. The lightside option is near-impossible to pull off.

Forgive me, you must have mistaken me for a Paragon player. :evil cackle: Shepard can only be Renegade in my story-archs.

In the end Feros wasn't that bad. The boss in the lab or the run through zero gravity at the end, gah! Double gah!

Please, I don't want to think about that now. :sweatdrop:

I'll give the game another go from the start (giving me time to gather up supplies for the entire squad) in a few days, maybe next week after i've had some time in something else. I went into Insanity blissful of how hard it actually was, you really gotta buckle down and really get your game-senses going. It doesn't mess around. I respect that in a way, but in another... :inaudible rage:

frogbeastegg

06-23-2009, 15:43

Weaponry is the Spectre X stuff with inferno rounds. Straight, hard burst through Marksmanship with an added Damage over time.
Consider a change of ammo. Polonium stops enemy health regeneration in addition to damage over time. Inferno only has a stronger version of the damage over time effect. I used it on the weapons I didn't have polonium for.

I looked on the ME wiki to see what the knockback ammo was. It's sledgehammer rounds. Hammerheads are the weaker version. 1 level X sledgehammer round and 2 level X frictionless materials.

Really the problem wasn't space
Then I guess you didn't reach the staircase where they unavoidably come at you from both sides. Stuff of nightmares, I tell you. I could hardly move; I ended up jammed in a corner with both team members dead, barely able to see because the camera was having a fit, frantically blasting away at enemies so close they were standing on my toes. That's the section where all my deaths came from, and when I passed it I was one acid burp away from another.

Just thought I'd share that cheerful story in order to give you something to look forward to :gring:

Meneldil

06-23-2009, 19:48

Finished Bioshock. As said earlier, I deeply enjoyed it, though the end-scene was the biggest let-down ever.
The last boss was just too easy to kill, I was like "Yeah, I'm done, let's enjoy the video :)" and really expected something exciting or awesome, given the game quality. All I got was a 28 seconds long video showing how Jack saved the little sisters and brought them out of Rapture, how the graduated, got married and all that.
All we can see during most of these 30 seconds are hands. What a disappointement.
I'm considering playing it again to see the other ending, but I mean, I'm not sure I'm willing to do it just for a 30 sec video and 2 or 3 cut scenes.

So now, I'm playing God of War. Almost done with it apparently (normal mode). The game is fun, but like most hack 'n slash/beat them all, it gets kind of repetitive at some point. Cube-Cube-Triangle-L1, rinse and repeat.
The platform and 'use your brain' parts of the game range from entertaining to frustrating. In any case, the game is fairly good, and I can see why it was rated so high at release.

Please remember to use spoiler tags - froggy

Xiahou

06-23-2009, 20:50

I think I can safely say, after 60+hrs, I'm finished with the final volume of .hack//GU. Yeah, there are still a few things I could still do, but I finally got the "secret" epilogue ending and at some point you have to say enough is enough and move on. :yes:

Next up on the console side is more PS2 RPG love- SMT: Devil Summoner. On the PC, I'm playing some EU3, but I'm feeling the MassEffect itch again.... for some reason. :inquisitive:

Hooahguy

06-23-2009, 21:36

I'm considering playing it again to see the other ending, but I mean, I'm not sure I'm willing to do it just for a 30 sec video and 2 or 3 cut scenes.
or you can just look for it on youtube. :beam:

naut

06-25-2009, 14:51

Ok. My brother got Prototype yesterday. Imagine Assassin's Creed on crack/steroids and then you have Prototype. Pretty good so far, although I've only played about 10-20%.

Monk

06-25-2009, 15:02

Ok. My brother got Prototype yesterday. Imagine Assassin's Creed on crack/steroids and then you have Prototype. Pretty good so far, although I've only played about 10-20%.

The free-running is 10x more fun, and the story is 10x more shallow. I also got the game and I'll be posting thoughts soon. I'm probably at the same place you are, Psychonaut as I just got it yesterday. :2thumbsup:

Furunculus

06-25-2009, 15:11

Armed Assault 2 (aka Arma II)

totally awesome - op-flash with MOOAARRR!!!!!!!!

naut

06-25-2009, 16:41

The free-running is 10x more fun, and the story is 10x more shallow. I also got the game and I'll be posting thoughts soon. I'm probably at the same place you are, Psychonaut as I just got it yesterday. :2thumbsup:
My thoughts exactly. I love the side missions/events. Consuming stuff and running up walls is so much more fun than the actual missions. I do like the fact that you are caught in the middle and not part of either side, oddly refreshing. I never really expected much from the actual story line, so if it disappoints I won't mind. If not it'll be a bonus.

johnhughthom

06-26-2009, 01:55

Just had a blast at Mount & Blade, haven't played since just after 1.0 came out. I had forgotten how much fun planting an arrow in someones head from a galloping horse was.:smash:

penguinking

06-26-2009, 02:28

naut

06-26-2009, 03:14

Just got Hearts of Iron II, one of the best video games I've ever played. Having a blast, and conquered the world as Germany and France. Ridiculously amazing game, though the AI could be a bit better. Also, the 1944 scenario is impossible as Germany.
You might want to try out some of the mods. Most improve the AI and make battles longer and more difficult.

The 1944 scenario isn't impossible, it is pretty damn difficult though. There's a good AAR over at the Paradox forums on it.

Martok

06-26-2009, 06:33

Taking a break from War Between the States (still figuring that one out, really) to play Birth of the Federation again. The latest version of the Balance of Power mod has just been released; am greatly enjoying the new ships and the (much) larger maps so far. :2thumbsup:

CountArach

06-26-2009, 06:35

I'm going to buy the newly released Pro Cycling Manager 2009 tonight. I'll let you know how that goes.

naut

06-26-2009, 08:15

I'm going to buy the newly released Pro Cycling Manager 2009 tonight. I'll let you know how that goes.
What would you do in it?

CountArach

06-26-2009, 11:00

What would you do in it?
You organise when your riders attack into breakaways, when your team helps with pursuit, you organise sprinting. Essentially anything that is tactical within a cycling race. Added to this is the managerial aspect of the game that many people would be familiar with from Soccer/Basketball manager games.

Csargo

06-26-2009, 11:02

Sounds like it would be boring.

CountArach

06-26-2009, 11:04

Sounds like it would be boring.
For most people, yeah, but I'm one of those crazy few people who actually enjoys pro cycling.

Csargo

06-26-2009, 11:18

For most people, yeah, but I'm one of those crazy few people who actually enjoys pro cycling.

Well hopefully it's fun for you.

Monk

06-26-2009, 11:32

I've had a few days with Prototype and I've come to a conclusion. It was one I already knew, a lesson hard learned after i played ETW but is re-afirmed here: big name game reviewers are terrible and give no accurate indication as to whether something is good or not. You can watch and read reviews all day, but there's no substitute for picking up the game yourself and just giving it a try.

Prototype is a game that tries quite hard to be something epic. Right away you're set on Long Island as a mysterious infection is slowly tearing its way through the city. You play as the protagonist, who's been infected with a special strain of the virus and is seriously :daisy: at the guy who did this to him, whoever that might be. It's not the most original story, but hey it works. In truth, the cliche of "I'm awake and someone is gonna die" could have been forgiven if the delivery was anywhere close to decent. The cutscenes that should explain things.. don't. All they are is glorified "Go here, do this." and the only true plot development comes through flashbacks, or the fancy "Web of Intrigue".

To put it simply, no one around you knows what happened to you, but there's people in the city who do. So you have to hunt them down and "consume" them, which gives you their memories and a piece of the plot. I have to say this sort of story-telling is actually really cool, and I give them props for thinking outside of the box (even if it didn't work completely).

The story is bland, but that's not why you're gonna want to buy this game. This game has some of the BEST combat i've ever played. Okay maybe not the best but it certainly has the best system I've gotten my hands on so far this year. The lock on system reminds me of Assassin's Creed, but where Assassin's Creed coddled you by having 1 enemy attack at a time, Prototype forces you to master evasion. Fighting 3 infected super-beasts? Yeah well you better keep an eye on them since ONE can drain half your life.

The combat is fast paced but it never feels like it's out of control since everytime you swap targets, you initiate a temporary slow down in time. This can get annoying at times, but when you're trying to dodge and roll around it really comes in handy to keep a handle on the situation. The combat is also terribly unforgiving.. I mentioned that sometimes a single Special Infected character can drain half your life in their combos. At first I thought this was a SERIOUS flaw, but a few missions into the game I unlocked a dodge-roll. You master this? Combat never feels more than you can handle. Especially when you can "consume" people for health.

That's the thing about Prototype. It does something that raises an eyebrow, but it knows when to pull back for the sake of your sanity. While I have died to some cheap moments that made me sigh, It's never been to the point that i wanted to stop playing. Each time I died i saddled up for another go. (which is exactly the opposite of how I feel in games like, say, gears of war where a death is painful)

The upgrade system is massive, providing a huge array of moves and the controls are tight and responsive. Something you'll be thankful for when you've got dozens of moves at your dysposal toward the middle of the game. It's just simple button mashing at first, but before you know it you're using literally every button on the controller in a fight and.. the strange thing is it's not that hard to master.

The last thing i'll talk about, and i know i'm leaving a few things out but i just wanna give a first impressions here, are the side-missions. My god are they fun. Ignoring the fact that you've got a huge open world and, by the 40% completion mark can potentially have all your powers unlocked for some really satisfying mayhem, the side-missions offer up some ridiculously fun gameplay. There's the War missions where you ally with one side of the conflict (military or infected depending on the mission), and play one side off against the other. The free-running challenges, the gliding challenges, the kill challenges (use a certain weapon/power/vehicle ect) you'd think they'd get old, but I've found myself staying up into the wee hours trying to get better scores on the missions just because they are so satisfying and give such good rewards. My favorite are the War missions where you have to maintain a military disguise and use whatever weapon you're spawned with. The game effectively becomes something entirely different, instead of playing a super-hero game you're playing a shooter, and it actually pulls it off!

Despite my love for this game, a lot of people don't like it. I understand that, the game does so many things wrong.. but it does so many right that it's really hard to get mad imo. It's a lot of fun, and I would recommend it to any of my friends. To quote penny-arcade... you can karate kick helicopters in mid air. What else would you want?

It sorta reminds me of Bioshock. I could talk all day about how much I love that game, but all you need to know is there's a power that shoots bees from your hands. Bees. From your hands.

:2thumbsup:

frogbeastegg

06-26-2009, 18:19

Oh dear. I'm on my third underwhelming game in a row: Afro Samurai. It's supposed to be enjoyable swordfighting nonsense with gorgeous celshaded graphics and a decent plot. In actual fact it's bland, dull, and the plot consists entirely of characters dropping f-bombs and/or killing each other for reasons not explained. The whole tone is (to be read in stereotypical gangster accent) "I is so mature wit ma blood and ma swearing and a black bro who so badass he Samuel L Jackson."

I'd have had a marginally higher opinion of the game if I'd played it before Ninja Gaiden 2. It's hard to accept sword combat which lacks punch and proper options after that. In Afro Samurai I'm spamming a single combo over and over because it's far more effective than anything else, I don't use the special attacks because they get me hit 8 times out of 10 and miss 1 out of the 2 times they don't get interrupted, I don't block because it's too slow, I can't dodge. Hits don't have any weight to them; hitting an enemy - or being hit - feels exactly the same as missing and swiping at thin air, if that makes sense. Afro is knocked out of his attacks each and every time he's hit and it doesn't matter how feeble the hit is. Most of the combos leave you wide open to being hit, either because they are too slow or because they don't swing wide enough to cover your sides and back. Using anything other than [spam Y] is asking for pain. Consider that you fight large groups of goons all at once. Sounds tedious, right? It is.

When you're not engaging in dull fighting you're platforming. With twitchy controls. And a jump which doesn't always cover the same distance. And platforms with edges which resist you landing on them. Over death drops. :skull:

I'm near the end of level 3 and I'm considering ditching it. This time I'm siding with the professional reviews and not the general gamers.

Heavenly Sword. Infinite Undiscovery. Afro Samurai. Humph. I want to play something fun now, please.

naut

06-26-2009, 19:47

Thanks Monk for the excellent overview of Prototype. I couldn't have said it any better. :bow:

Monk

06-27-2009, 10:05

Thanks Monk for the excellent overview of Prototype. I couldn't have said it any better. :bow:

:bow:

I've been playing Mass Effect on Insanity mode parallel to Prototype, alternating between the two if you will. I'm finally nearing the end of the main quest line and I can feel the tension building. taking the advice Froggy has given me I've beaten this game into helpless submission with my juggling team. Liara, Kaiden and adept Shepard: Three throws, three lifts, two warps, one singularity and an odd assortment of tech powers from Kaiden. Adding in Spectre X weaponry with all sledgehammer rounds that have a knockdown effect and the control over a fight I have is ridiculous.

I was right in my last post when i said all i needed was an edge, and thanks to froggy I've got the missing piece between my juggle timers to effectively lock down an entire squad of krogan. I'm not only ready for the last stretch of the game, I welcome it. Do your worst Mass Effect. :chucks:

Coincidentally I've fallen in love with Noveria. it was always one of my favorite planets but I could never understand why, but I've finally figured it out. If you are a die-hard Renegade player (like me) then Noveria gives you some of the best and most hardcore one-liners from the Shepard voice actors.

My all time favorite line from this game comes from that planet, right before you confront Saren's second in command. When it's clear you can't talk things out and a fight may be inevitable.. Shepard responds with a line that made me laugh really hard the first time I heard it.

"You won't look so smug with a bullet in your head."

That just sums up my enjoyment of the Renegade play style in this game. Paragon is fun, but I just can't help but turn to the dark side in Mass Effect nearly every go through.

frogbeastegg

06-27-2009, 13:02

I'm playing Star Ocean: The Last Hope. I expect a dull plot, boring characters, annoying voice acting - and the single greatest action RPG battle system ever made. Lots of side material to pursue, pretty graphics, amazing cutscenes, and all of the neat Tri-Ace touches which differentiate their games from the run of the mill Square-alike JRPGs. Infinite Undiscovery was a test bed for this game; everything which did work has been carried over and improved, everything which didn't is either fixed or dropped.

I'm not far in but so far I like it.

I'm not only ready for the last stretch of the game, I welcome it. Do your worst Mass Effect. :chucks:
It's a great feeling when it all clicks and you dominate insanity, isn't it? When I disposed of the final boss I set the controller down to one side, said, "Eat that, you jumping annoyance!" and poured myself a glass of Bailey's.

Crazed Rabbit

06-28-2009, 08:13

ARMA II Demo.

Better AI, I suppose. But the game is a resource hog. I've got a nice computer that runs empireTW on highest settings. But I have to turn the settings on this game down until it looks like HL2. And the mouse-lag, developer implemented, remains. Oh, goody.

One good thing about turning off some graphics was getting rid of the motion blur. Apparently all the soldiers are constantly trashed, because a slow turn makes the world become a blur.

CR

Fragony

06-28-2009, 12:56

Thanks Monk for the excellent overview of Prototype. I couldn't have said it any better. :bow:

Sounds good, not really fond of sandbox games, just doesn't click, but Prototype sounds interesting enough, might pick it up once it goes budget. Or even before, which would be tomorrow. Everything I hear about it has that smell of 'flawed gem'.

A flawed gem is what I am playing as we speak, 'Alone in the Dark'. Undecided if it does more things right then it does wrong, but I am playing the sucker there is something about it. PS3 version supposedly fixed some issues with the 360 version, they should have fix fixed it. Having the control scheme of Resident Evil 4&5 would not have hurt the game. Why don't have all horror-survivals the controls of R4&5. Still compulsive playing, you just want to know what's going to happen.

Monk

06-28-2009, 18:22

It's over.. it's finally over. 8 hours and 52 saves later, it's over. Mass Effect on Insanity has been defeated and the final boss got his :daisy: juggled into oblivion, i'm serious he only got off two shots against me. By the time I reached him I was in NO MOOD for games (ironic), it was go time and by god one of us was gonna die.

When i reached the spot where you confront him i nearly threw my controller at the TV because the 360 locked up! It was the first console freeze i'd seen in a while and it happened right as I was about to fight the final baddie.. thankfully no damage was done and the temperature of the console was fine, it was simply reduced to a moment of stupidity.

This was definitely a 'non-canon' play through, a save file that won't be used in Mass Effect 2. I didn't develop my crew member's stories beyond two and I hardly did any side-missions. This was a straight play through to the end with the single goal of beating the worst this game could offer. I'm proud to say, I did it. I'm sitting here looking at my gamercard now - that N7 gamer picture? The motivation for this personal hell? Totally. Completely. Worth it.

Crazed Rabbit

06-29-2009, 03:42

ARMA II Demo again. I'll say this for it; it makes me want the game to be good, unlike ARMA, and it draws me back into it.

It could be great...in a year.

CR

Mouzafphaerre

06-29-2009, 20:18

.
Back to real gaming after almost a year exclusively with flash backgammon.

Evropa Barbarorvm 1.2 and -soon- Invasio Barbarorvm - Rvina Romae
.

TevashSzat

06-30-2009, 03:11

Another run through of Neverwinter Nights 2 and MotB. This time, as a 17 Warlock/ 10 Blood Magus/ 3 Hellfire Warlock hopefully.

Warluster

07-04-2009, 08:40

I need a recommendation on some games to buy... recently I've been looking into trying/playing some of he MMO's out there, and being a LOTR fan LOTRO has interested me, obviously. I've enver really played MMO's except for Guild Wars. I was wondering whether its worth getting the Mines of Moria expansion for the original LOTRO, or does the original have enough content for a single purchase?

As for games I am playing lately; I bought Oblivion GOTY edition and love it, though for some reason the main quest with the Oblivion gates, etc, doesn't seem to be working, restricting me to the Shivering Isles (No real complaint there, such a unique gameworld SI is!). Also meddling with some mods out there, the main ones adding some good weapon quests and even a drake to fly around Cyrodriil.

Two others which I have been playing when not with Oblivion is Guild Wars and Empire: Total War. Both are entertaining and good time fillers, but unfortunly, neither are as fun as Oblivion...

Another run through of Neverwinter Nights 2 and MotB. This time, as a 17 Warlock/ 10 Blood Magus/ 3 Hellfire Warlock hopefully

My vanilla game crashed dramaticlly and lost all of my saves, so it turned me off the original campaign. Do you have any recommendations for custom made campaigns?

Meneldil

07-05-2009, 07:57

Well, there are actually 2 MMO that stand out, World of Warcraft, for it's polished world and gameplay, and Eve Online, for its gameplay.

Eve Online is not a fantasy, hack n' slash MMORPG, but a space trading and fighting one.
WoW offers the most content, the more class diversity, and overall, the more things to do among fantasy settings MMO (even if a large part of it is dumb farming, and even if it lacks things such as housing or a real trade system).
Furthermore, while pretty hardcore at first, it's more and more casual friendly, so you can start out now, and still have fun/loots. Eve OTOH is absolutely hardcore.

Now, LotRO. Well. LotRO is by many standards similar to WoW. Trading system seems at first more varied, but it's not actually. The character personalisation is not done simply by gaining levels, but also by fullfilling various objectives, such as exploring, killing x number of orcs, and so on.
Playing in the Middle-Earth is also quite entertaining, obviously.
But there are a few problems:
- Firstly, there's not much people playing. While WoW euro forums have thousands of message posted everyday, LotRO ones barely have a few hundreds. You'll hardly meet someone before you reach the Moria part, and even then, the world is basically empty.
- You cannot PvP openly, which by all means, sucks (and I don't really enjiy PvP). Having to roll an orc character that you cannot play for anything but PvP blows.
- The whole end game part lies on an armor set that you have to farm in 6 people instances before being able to raid. Atm, finding these armor sets is quite a pain and prevent a whole lot of people from raiding in the Moria.

Warhammer Online is also a decent game. I've only played through the beta, and despite it's rather blank aspect, it has a few good ideas, like public quests, widespread PvP. The world seemed quite big, and the latest patch added the Tomb Kings. Ancient Egypt like undeads, pretty cool in my book. But then, apparently, the game is also quite empty, and couldn't rival with WoW and its 10 million subscribers.
I couldn't say about the character personalisation, as it was pretty much non existent during the beta, but back then the devs were saying that you could add trophy and stuff on your armor, as well as use a wide variety of skills.
Gameplay is also pretty basic. All in all, WoW, LotRO and WAR Online have pretty similar gameplay. You gain new skills, put them in your hotkey bar, and bash them whenever the cooldown is ready. Learning it is easy, mastering it is much harder.

There is also Age of Conan, which is - I think - the only fantasy MMO other than WoW that makes some money. The game is pretty cool at first, and the original world and great voice acting really help. The gameplay is quite originial. You push buttons to use different combos against your oponents. Something like < < ^ > to cut a head directly. Finish moves are cool too. But the whole thing gets pretty boring once you've been through every combo half a thousand times.
Then, when I played, the game was quite unbalanced, as in long ranged class could wtfpwn pretty much everything. Seeing my lvl 15 barbarian unable to even hit a level 7 archer and die stupidly after running after a faster foe for 5 mins made me go 'What the hell?'. Furthermore, the game didn't have any openess, which is terrible for a MMO. You pretty much cannot go out of the path made by the designers. A 5 feet tall hill or a small wall was enough to stop your character from going any further. The corridor syndrom kind of ruins the game for me (just like it ruined some RPGs like Final Fantasy 10 and 12).

As for the hardcore/casual thingy,
- EVE is pretty hardcore
- WoW is hardcore, but becomes more and more casual friendly with each patch (some people think it sucks, some think it's great, I think it has pro's and con's)
- WAR is middle ground. Since it's mostly PvP, you don't have to play a lot to do stuff, but you can do it if you feel like it.
- LotRO is regarded as the most casual friendly MMO. I only went through the free trial (10 or 15 days) without ever dying, even in an instance, playing with people who apparently had no clue.
- I have no idea as to Age of Conan rating.

WoW offers a larger community, obviously with much more idiots and no-life teenagers who think they're cool because they have some 'skills' and make witty/stupid jokes. But it's also much easier to do something that requires are group, or to find buddies. People in other MMO's tend to be generally more mature, but since you hardly meet anyone in most of those, well, things are even in the end.

In any case, LotRO, WAR and WoW have free trials available. So if you cannot make up your mind, you can try each of those for a few days and take what you prefer.

frogbeastegg

07-05-2009, 18:06

I started Chrono Trigger DS this morning; I've been playing while reinstalling a tonne of stuff on my PC. This game is excellent so far, it lives up to its reputation.

Like many others here I'm playing Sword of the Stars plus expansions. I started one game then my PC died; now I have reinstalled windows and got most things set back up I have begun another on the same settings.

Technically I am still playing Star Ocean: The Last Hope but I haven't tocuhed my xbox in over a week. I haven't felt like it.

econ21

07-06-2009, 12:09

I need a recommendation on some games to buy... recently I've been looking into trying/playing some of he MMO's out there, ...

One issue to bear in mind with MMOs is the "time sink" issue. Do you want a game that may come to take most of your gaming time for months, if not years? A related issue is the subscription fee, although that can act to restrain the "time sink" problem.

It may depend what kind of personality you are. If you tend to have an addictive personality, trying a MMO requires some thought as they can be very addictive. I think it is partly because they are designed to keep you playing for a long time (to keep getting the fee). So you level slowly, farming may be required, you have to repeat activities to get good drops etc. Paradoxically, you can also productively chip away at your MMO tasks by playing for very short periods of time, so they may end up taking up more and more of your life. Whereas a richer single player game you may load up only if you have an evening to devote to it. The social nature of MMOs may also be addictive - you can be joining an internet community (a guild or whatever) and that can be much more compelling than a single player game.

Some other people - with different personalities - can stop and start MMOs just like other games. I am not sure why people react so differently. Sometimes gaming with your real life mates (e.g. if you are at school or whatever) may help keep it under control.

I tried WoW and after an hour was going to quit. I was persuaded to continue and then gradually found it utterly compelling. However, looking back on it, I wonder if some addiction was involved, as objectively speaking the core activities - the combat, the grinding, the raids - were not as impressive experiences as what you might get in single player games. But psychologically, I found them much more compelling than an SP game. An MMO will fill your time, but you may be better served looking for other games that may have a shorter life span, but offer a richer one.

I also tried Warhammer Online for a short time - too short to develop an addiction. It seemed decent, but not good enough to justify a subscription fee (compared to just buying and playing single player games).

BTW, on Lord of the Rings - have you tried the Third Age mod for M2TW? And the Last Days mod for Mount and Blade. Both are fantastic.

Meneldil

07-06-2009, 14:22

Agreed. WoW took me 2 years of my life.

The monthly fee is not really an issue. 12€ a month is not nearly as expensive as buying a game or two on a regular basis. But yeah, the addictive part is here, and is an issue for a whole lot of player (the majority of them I'd say).

FactionHeir

07-07-2009, 00:23

Currently playing CS:S, DOD:S, CS 1.6, ETW and NWN2, dependong on mood etc. Looking forward to the new Blizzard (SC II, D III) games, but those are probably still months (if not years) off.

caravel

07-07-2009, 17:03

Well... I was playing NWN1 until my savegame corrupted last night. I've been through the whole thing with the same character and I'm now playing the HotU scenario. I was in the Underdark and trying to quicksave when the corruption hit and I lost about 3+ hours of playing. I'm now kicking myself for not sticking to keeping more than one regular save game.

:wall:

FactionHeir

07-07-2009, 18:13

The OC tends to autosave a lot though?

I usually stick to 1 savegame unless I want to test two outcomes. Worked for me so far, except when your game crashes and then you need to go back to your last save.

Alexander the Pretty Good

07-11-2009, 04:20

Re-installed MechCommander which wouldn't let me get past the first briefing. Very disappointed, I thought it worked on XP. :(

Re-installed MechCommander 2 but it's just not the same. :(

Xiahou

07-11-2009, 06:54

Deadly Creatures (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NT_B69F8USY).

This is a game I had been following for awhile, but when it came out I just had too many other games on my plate to justify purchasing it. However, when I saw it for $20, I couldn't resist. :2thumbsup:

I finally sat down and got to play for a little over an hour, which got me through the first two chapters- one playing as the Spider, one as the Scorpion.... Both have different move sets and combos, with the spider being a more agile fighter and the scorpion being more offense oriented.

So far, I've been pretty impressed- it's definitely in the running for best Wii visuals from a 3rd party game. The camera has been almost perfect (which is something in a game that has you wall climbing) and I've found the gameplay to be very refreshing. The environments are well done and really give you a good sense of being in the insect world. If I had to knock it for anything, it'd be difficulty. So far, I've died once- I often take damage, but crickets and grubs have been plentiful and I'm quickly healed. Then again, it's still very early and I'm only playing in "Normal" skill level. Based on what I've seen so far, I'd probably give it a 4/5- we'll see if it holds up for the duration of the game though.

Monk

07-15-2009, 09:08

After heavy maintenance on my 360 i've been using the last two weeks to stress test the console. Forcing it to work as hard as I could and seeing if it dared to freeze up again. Mainly all i did was achievement hunt while forcing the xbox to stream music from my PC. So far so good, the results have instilled me with enough confidence to return to business as usual (and even to make a thread about such in the Hardware/Software forum).

Along with Achievement hunting, the random Gears 2 grind fest and a couple of dips into Prototype, i've actually returned to PC gaming in a small way. What could bring me back to it after I went head first into Live? Believe it or not The Sims 3. Don't laugh! ~:pissed:

What can I say about the Sims 3? Normally i right some long summery post that hits on as many major points of the game without going too far into detail. I mainly do this to give posters a general idea of what to expect, but with The Sims you know what to expect. It's The Sims. if you never enjoyed the first or second then chances are you'll not enjoy three, but if you did then think of Sims 3 as Sims 2, times a thousand.

The downtown area is a really nice touch and sorta reminds me of The Sims: Hot Date (the last Sims game i played before this) in which you could take friends out for a night on the town. The great thing about it here is it's a seamless part of the world and there is no point where you don't believe what you're looking at is a living, breathing town. You can go there pretty much at any time andthere's even rewards for exploring which i thought was a great addition. Here's a tip, head to the graveyard (or one of the abandoned mines if you can find them!) after dark for some cool surprises.

The huge downside is the content. There's just not a lot there, sure you've got enouge houses, jobs, clothes and items to keep the casual fan like me interested but the hardcore Sims fan is gonna be really surprised by how little you get out of box. You'd think this is so they can milk this game dry with expansions like they've done in the past and that's likely true, but a huge slap in the face (in the face!) is the online store. Where you buy DLC. It reminds me of the extensive download websites that sprang up when Sims 2 came out that offered tons of new houses, items and even player created Sims. Apparently EA was paying attention, and decided people should pay for new content. :rolleyes:

Lastly, i have to say it feels like this game was an attempt to blend The Sims with SimCity. While you can't lay down power lines, collect taxes or zone property, you have a fully functioning Town Editor that allows you to plunk down new community hang outs, houses for people to live in as well as the standard move in/evict/split up and merge household tools. It's a really nice concept and one i've had tons of fun with.

Bottom line is: if you liked The Sims or The Sims 2 then you'll instantly love Sims 3. If you didn't then the shiny new toys probably won't keep you entertained for more than ten minutes.

drone

07-15-2009, 16:14

Picked up the GalCiv II Ultimate pack, giving it a whirl. Still trying to figure out the economics, but it's fun so far.

Real life currently requires games I can pause/quit at any moment, so MTW is on hold... :whip:

frogbeastegg

07-15-2009, 20:43

In a few short minutes I shall be starting The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition. I'm going with the xbox version since I despise steam. I wonder how much I will remember? It's over a decade since I last completed it.

econ21

07-16-2009, 23:21

Real life currently requires games I can pause/quit at any moment, so MTW is on hold...

Um, that brings back memories of having to fold up a laptop, taking care to preserve a paused MTW battle - one of those three hour epics, with multiple reinforcing armies etc. Good times, although probably a little hard on the laptop.

drone

07-17-2009, 02:19

Um, that brings back memories of having to fold up a laptop, taking care to preserve a paused MTW battle - one of those three hour epics, with multiple reinforcing armies etc. Good times, although probably a little hard on the laptop.

I'm at a point in my Swiss game where all I have left are multiple big battles per turn, coming up on 1453 and sprinting towards 60%. Uninterrupted 5 hour blocks of time are not an option at the moment. :sweatdrop:

al Roumi

07-17-2009, 11:25

I am so disolusioned with ETW that I'm back to playing Civ4, Mount & Blade and Mass Effect. Bought sword of the stars based on recomendations on this forum but not finding it as accessible & entertaining as the above 3 games.

Anyone know when M&B Warband will come out?

Monk

07-18-2009, 18:13

Fallout 3 and every DLC currently released (aside from Anchorage). From The Pitt all the way to Point Lookout and everywhere in between I'm back in the good ol' Capital Wasteland, shooting raiders and kicking it with Dogmeat.

Won't touch too much on anything here, i'll save that for the Fallout 3 thread. The only thing I'll really add here is that I never realized crafted weapons were so effective. Me and my new Deathclaw Gauntlet have been having a grand time. ~D

frogbeastegg

07-18-2009, 21:17

"Well hello there, fancy pants."

That's Monkey Island completed. Twice. Once as a slow ramble soaking up the scenery, voices and experience, once as a speed run to pick up the last achievement. MI may well be the most enjoyable 100% gamerscore I have, every achievement is given out for doing something fun or for plot purposes. All those people who insist a classic point and click could never work on a console need to play this and then shut up, please.

Monkey Island has held up incredibly well; it's every bit as funny, playable, quotable and relevant as it was when it first appeared. The remake lavishes love on the framework to bring the visual and audio side up to a more modern standard, and the game's charm is increased, not decreased, but it. The voice acting in particular is great. Between the returning actors from MI3 and the choices made for the MI exclusive characters, everyone sounds like I imagined when I first played it a decade ago. Anyone with access to steam or xbox live should buy it. Now! LucasArts should be encouraged to show similar love to their other classics.

"It's a rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle."

That said, I did find the insult sword fighting to be quite limp this time around. Most of the pairs weren't funny, and didn't make much sense. The rhyming version in MI3 was much better.

The downside is that I now have a craving for more point and click classic gaming, and a desire to keep doing MI quotes. If only SCUMMVM didn't hate me. If only 'The Dig' and 'Fate of Atlantis' were available from somewhere other than steam. :sighs and dreams: I'll get the first two Simon the Sorcerer games from Good Old Games; they were good back in ye day. I might find them funnier now I'm more aware of fantasy genre clichés and stereotypes.

"Look behind you! A three-headed monkey!"

Centurion1

07-18-2009, 23:03

Currently playing Prototype for Xbox360. The game has some nice features, but for a free roam i found it to be somewhat repetitive, good storyline though. Although my moral character is beginning to sag a bit, i used to never kill civilians in video games (gta was a problem for me), but im finding it necessary in this current game.

Crazed Rabbit

07-19-2009, 08:55

Played some MP ETW with some other forumites. Staying away from the SP, since it still sounds bugged.

Continue to play L4D. :sweatdrop:

Bought SotS, but just not really interested. I'll give it another go soon, I figure.

CR

Ferret

07-19-2009, 23:40

Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood.

Only just started the story but multiplayer is great fun.

Hooahguy

07-21-2009, 00:59

Monk

07-21-2009, 01:02

i heard that the graphics werent so good, especially the background buildings.
plus theres not a single manhattan landmark.

The graphics won't win any awards but they aren't as bad as many made them out to be. They aren't ugly, they're just bland. Methinks many professional reviewers these days have been spoiled by high end graphics and are quick to scoff if something isn't on the bleeding edge. :juggle2:

Centurion1

07-21-2009, 02:42

Yes the graphics were not stellar. But it is a massive free roam game. Really what your playing for is the storyline and the interesting combat system.

Oh and there are new york monuments. The empire state building sticks out. (love jumping from the tip of it), There is also the Brooklyn bridge, and central park. The streets are all accurate. True not the best game but i dont regret playing it.

For a sandbox game of epic proportions and good graphics i would recommend mercenaries 2. truly a good game, even if it was a little buggy (i never experienced a single bug)

Hooahguy

07-22-2009, 19:33

Oh and there are new york monuments. The empire state building sticks out. (love jumping from the tip of it), There is also the Brooklyn bridge, and central park. The streets are all accurate.
really? none of the screenshots had them nor did any of the reviewers.

Centurion1

07-22-2009, 20:58

Well thats just foolish i can assure you they are there. Central park is huge

Monk

07-22-2009, 22:01

Street Fighter IV

I've been putting off reporting on this gem for a while just because i wanted to full wrap my brain around it first. Day one of playing can be related to a lot of frustration as I hammered on the controller like an infant screaming "WHY DOES THE MAN NOT GO?" Day two could be summarized as extreme joy as I pulled off my first Ultra Combo and watched the cinematic flare. Here I am on day three and all i can say is I love this game. If there was one game that could pry me away from Gears 2 multiplayer this is it.

The presentation is amazing, the graphics are slick and stylish and every character has received no less attention than you'd expect, being wonderfully diverse. Super Combos, Ultra combos, focus attacks, EX moves.. its all a lot to get a grip with if you're not familiar with any of these systems. In truth it took me around 10 hours of gameplay split up over a few days to really start to grasp things and get the moves to fire off on demand. Let me tell you, once you finally climb the learning curve and link a focus into an Ultra combo to finish a fight it's a thing of beauty. The combat system is one I'll touch on more in the SF4 thread, should anyone care to ask (though pever could probably tell you more) instead i'll highlight a few of my favorite features.

First and foremost I find the feature that allows me to play single-player while I wait for a multiplayer match to pop an amazing addition to the game. Most of the time I get an opponent right away, but sometimes it takes a while. Thanks to the games Request feature, I can hammer away in single-player without a single moment of downtime. I mean honestly, how awesome is that?

Championship mode has won a place near and dear in my heart. Basically it's like an impromptu tournament. You compete in a series of three (i think) matches to try and earn a championship win. Lose once and you're done, go the distance and earn a few bragging rights. The reward system is based around Grade points (GP), which seem to cause you to rank up after obtaining enough, and championship points (CP). I'm not sure what the CP is for really other than providing a little chest thumping to show off your top score should you win. :dizzy2:

There's also a ton of challenge modes all with differing rule sets, from survival to time trial they give you the chance to add new colors for your fighters, ranks and icons to show off in MP. Honestly if you wanna get the hang of the game with greater detail i recommend the higher levels of Time trial (anything post trial 10). Well that, and just beating your head on Live. :laugh4: The one huge downside for this game imo is the final boss. He's so cheap it's not even funny, he caused a lot of frustration before i figured out how to beat him consistently, though he still throws a wench in my plans from time to time. The matchmaking is a bit hit and miss too, but if you just rock arcade mode while keeping your request options on you'll find some really good opponents no problem. :2thumbsup:

Honestly I can't think of many bad things to say. I bought the PC version and i am utterly amazed at how good this game runs on my machine. If you can grasp the deep combat system I really recommend this one. Whether you get it on console or PC this is a great addition to any game library, but if you grab t he PC version i also highly recommend using a USB controller of some kind. The keyboard is incredibly clumsy..

https://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x301/swcsalha/Beatdown.jpg

Happy fighting! :beam:

naut

07-23-2009, 11:24

really? none of the screenshots had them nor did any of the reviewers.
Of course the monuments and buildings are there. They took the layout and buildings straight of Google Earth. So it is almost 100% accurate.

Fragony

07-23-2009, 13:15

Geo wars Galaxy, incredible. Proves two things,

1; if you have to have only one gaming system buy a DS
2; buy one anyway

Xiahou

07-29-2009, 07:05

I got ahold of WiiSports Resort, and I've gotta say- it is everything it's cracked up to be. :2thumbsup:

It's basically the sequel to WiiSports, but to just write it off as that doesn't really seem fair. Some of the activities repeat- bowling and golf spring to mind, but this time with much more precise controls and both are infinitely more enjoyable now. I've only played it a little less than two hours, but so far, my clear favorite has been the sword play games, followed by archery, but the frisbee games also seem like alot of fun.

Really, anyone who got any kind of enjoyment out of the original WiiSports should go pick this up as it's bigger and better than the original in most every way. The only drawback is that it only has one MotionPlus adapter packed in. If you have friends, you're definitely going to be wanting to buy another attachment seperately for sword duels and other multiplayer games. :yes:

------

Another Wii game that people might want to give a second look is Little King's Story (http://www.gametrailers.com/video/review-little-kings/52831). I think I'd best try to describe it as 'Pikmin' meets 'My Life as a King'. You collect treasure, build up your kingdom, assign your peasants jobs, conquer your neighbors and complete side quests while enjoying a great soundtrack.

On a personal note, I also appreciate how the game doesn't hold you by the hand and spell out every single thing you're supposed to do and, as the linked review states, it can be challenging. That's a good thing.

Hooahguy

07-29-2009, 13:59

Geo wars Galaxy, incredible. Proves two things,

1; if you have to have only one gaming system buy a DS
2; buy one anyway
my little bro had a DS, i didnt like it. the graphics were pretty bad, and some of the buttons stopped working.

anyhow, here is my review for Call of Duty 4

when i first really heard of COD4, i was still obsessed over BF2142. i didnt like of the whole idea of COD4. i got into heated arguments on whether COD4 or BF2142 was better. me and a friend even did a project for school debating the two games, even though they couldnt really be compared, since one was infantry based and the other was both infantry and vehicle.

for a while i put off buying COD4. i was skeptical of the whole "run and gun" and the linear type of gameplay, but now that ive played COD4, my view has changed. radically.

COD4 is a truly excellent FPS, and deserved without a question "game of the year" award.
unlike Rainbow Six Vegas, it has a very high replayability factor, which makes up for its short, but insanely fun and tense campaign, probably the best campaign i have ever played in any game. ever.
the MP i do not know about because i havent played MP yet (and probably wont for a while), but im sure its just as good.

what i like about COD4 is the constant flow on enemies. unlike in R6V, if you do not press on, more and more enemies enter the fight, making it harder to get through. in R6V, there was a scripted amount of enemies and once you defeated them you went on and didnt have to worry about being flanked, for you usually know where the enemy was and you didnt have to worry about the enemy moving fro their pre-destined places. true, while R6V is much more tactical, it gets repetitive very fast. i could only lay through the campaign for R6V twice on hardest, because in each time, my enemy did the same maneuvers and were almost always in the same place. not so in COD4. while at the beginning of a mission the enemy may be in the same place and there still may be a scripted huge attack, the enemy is always in different places.

i like how in COD4 you have to choose your cover carefully, or keep on moving around, because if you stay in one place for too long you get killed through a wall.

your allies arent dumb, but also need you to make them push forward. rarely do they lead the way, which is fine by me.

also, in R6V there were only two difficulty levels: normal and realistic. in COD4, you have easy, normal, hard and vet (at least as far as my memory serves), and this makes for a more varied game experience.

the graphics in COD4 are stupendous. while they technically dont reach Crysis levels, it looks better because i can run it at a higher setting than crysis.

even though its a linear game, i definitely had more fun in COD4 than Crysis. the reason? while in crysis you had the multiple options on how to play, you only had the tools to do one or two types. usually the tools to make it interesting were in the middle of the level, by which time you were so in the thick of things there was no point in changing tactics. for instance, there was one part where you had to clear a town full of enemies. now, i would love to get a sniper rifle and take them out one by one, or sneak around with a stealth weapon, but i couldnt because all i had was an assault rifle. and stealth in crysis is horrible, and poorly done. so while crysis totes the "freedom" factor, it really doesnt have that much. at least in R6V you can choose your weapon loadout before the mission.

i could go on, but i think im boring you too much, so ill finish this.

COD4 is an amazing game. i could easily play it until the sequal, Modern Warfare 2, comes out. easily. even the short single player, i could play for hours over and over and not get tired, and each time plays out a different way. one time ill breeze through a chokepoint, other times ill get hopelessly stuck.
get this game if you dont have it already. get it, you will not be disappointed.
:2thumbsup:

CountArach

07-31-2009, 11:29

Re-installed Half Life 2 today and I completely forgot how good the start of that game is.

frogbeastegg

08-01-2009, 15:22

Beskar

08-02-2009, 00:42

Currently playing Dawn of War 2, looking for some co-op action, but no one I know owns it. Doh.

Xiahou

08-02-2009, 02:08

I have been slumming it with Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires, xbox version. I've completed all of the campaigns, recruited all 250 officers, won all of the special battles, used all of the strategic orders, and ended up with a 100% gamerscore without needing to go out of my way.

Not sure what I shall play next. Something short, light and fun, if I can locate something fitting that description in my to-play pile.
On Thursday I got Dynasty Warriors 6: Empires for the PS3. I think I've found my version of videogame crack. Even though the battles are largely repetitive, I can't seem to get tired of working through the different scenarios- invasions, escorts, etc. I started out in Edit Mode and made a character to begin Empire Mode with. I started out as a Vagrant Officer and did a few mercenary missions until I decided it was time to throw my lot in with one of the various rulers- Dong Zhuo. ~:eek:

I've made my way up from a lowly Gate General to a Lt. North General and am able to offer policy advise at council. I've also managed to befriend a few subordinates. Now I have to decide whether I want to stay on serving Dong Zhuo, server another, or overthow him and become a ruler myself. It'd probably be tricky to take him on, being as powerful as I've helped him become, but I like a challenge. :beam:

Anyhow, it's a great game- for me at least. I'm sure it's not for everyone....

FactionHeir

08-02-2009, 02:25

Playing Age of Chivalry (Source mod) currently and thoroughly enjoying it. Most of the time I'm so focussed on the objective and getting the team win than my own k/d ratio though :grin:

Craterus

08-02-2009, 02:32

Still playing Football Manager 2008. Put together a team of Galacticos with Fiorentina and just reached my first ever Champions League final after beating Arsenal 5-4 on aggregate in the semi finals (lost 4-1 at the Emirates, won 4-0 at home). A tie of 2 legs there.

frogbeastegg

08-02-2009, 19:53

On Thursday I got Dynasty Warriors 6: Empires for the PS3. I think I've found my version of videogame crack. Even though the battles are largely repetitive, I can't seem to get tired of working through to differenuet scenarios- invasions, escorts, etc. I started out in Edit Mode and made a character to begin Empire Mode with. I started out as a Vagrant Officer and did a few mercenary missions until I decided it was time to throw my lot in with one of the various rulers- Dong Zhuo. ~:eek:

I've made my way up from a lowly Gate General to a Lt. North General and am able to offer policy advise at council. I've also managed to befriend a few subordinates. Now I have to decide whether I want to stay on serving Dong Zhuo, server another, or overthow him and become a ruler myself. It'd probably be tricky to take him on, being as powerful as I've helped him become, but I like a challenge. :beam:

Anyhow, it's a great game- for me at least. I'm sure it's not for everyone....
Dynasty Warriors 6: Empires takes the concept and pushes it to the next level. 5: Empires and Samurai 2: Empires are both far simpler, and much more limited in what you can do. 6: Empires essentially merges the 'Warriors' battlefield combat series and the 'Romance' turn based grand strategy series. I'm looking forward to playing it, once I'm done with Samurai 2: Empires. I know I won't be able to go backwards if I play 6: Empires first.

Martok

08-03-2009, 16:55

Been playing Lords of the Realm II with the Siege Pack after I downloaded it from GOG last night. Good times. :2thumbsup:

Warmaster Horus

08-03-2009, 19:25

I've gone back to Europa Barbarorum - one of those things that suck you in easily... I started 2 days ago, and am now in 222BC (that's 200 turns in total), and I've barely seen it fly by.
Otherwise, I entertain myself with Prototype when I've got my overdose of strategy. It reminds me a lot of Assassin's Creed, really. Of course, it's not the same setting, but the gameplay is kind of close. Big open city, not much to do in it though, rather repetitive missions... Still, it's a nice game.

caravel

08-04-2009, 08:41

Shogun - Total War

Veho Nex

08-04-2009, 18:14

Shogun - Total War

My man!:2thumbsup:

Paradox

08-04-2009, 20:30

Just finished playing the GTA IV DLC (TLAD).

Currently playing:

UFC 2009 Undisputed (10/10)
Battlefield 1943 (8/10)
Dynasty Warriors 6: Empires (7/10 thanks to the strategy phases and not the crappy battle phases)

Monk

08-05-2009, 13:18

Marvel's Ultimate Alliance (360)

Yeah it's a really old game, I got this for free (packaged with Forza 2) when i bought my 360 but never really played either game more than five minutes. Though when I had Assassin's Creed and Mass Effect days later, could you blame me? :laugh4:

It's not an overly great game but one thing it reminds me of is the old Gauntlet arcade games, or the N64 adaption (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gauntlet_Legends) which is a definite good thing. The Marvel universe has seen a loving adaptation to the game and there's more villains to fight than you can shake a stick at. The story is weak, but hey, I am not playing a Gauntlet clone for the story. The combat is.. well, it's mind-numbing but it's very satisfying. While you can use super-powers the game is, at its heart, a simple beat'em up.

Besides, since i got it free and dusted it off after 2 years of not playing.. I really cannot complain! :2thumbsup:

Spoilers about the greatest easter egg in gaming history.

One hilarious thing that the designers included was references to Pitfall and Brickout from the old Atari 2600. This has got to be the greatest easter egg i've ever encountered on the 360, but in short there's a section of the game where you're forced to "play for your freedom". Your captor warns you about the 'pitfalls' along the way, and before you know it you're playing the original Pitfall with a 3 inch version of your super-hero in the place of the pitfall guy. It was amazing.

You do the same with Brickout. You find yourself on a brickout screen with your guy as a little dot, you run up to the paddle and hold X while you drag it back and forth.

I had one complaint with these sections, as great as they were they lasted way too long.

al Roumi

08-10-2009, 16:53

After buying it on the Steam 50% sale, I've started playing EUIII. Never played a EU game before, not since civ4 have I experienced such a learning curve! It really feels like I'm peeling the layers off an onion, expanding my knowledge and understanding of the game each time i sit down and play.

Not having a printed manual is a bit of a bummer to say the least though: it took me an hour playing the colonization tutorial to figure out my fleets had to be in port to give them a commander... yes, I could alt+tab to the pdf manual but it's not as accessible (:thumbsdown: steam, but then it was half price...)

Last night i started my first proper campaign as France, kicking England off *my* continent and -aided by scotland and Welsh nationalists- capturing the entirety of English Lands. I was slightly annoyed that I hadn't in doing so destroyed England (as would have happened -at least untill a revolt, in a TW game), but then bargaining for a favourable settlement was good fun. Kent and Wessex are now mine though, so the hundred years war will likely restart -this time being fought out in Britain...

Monk

08-11-2009, 15:10

1 vs 100

Okay, Microsoft really needs to take some notes because this is how you treat your community. A fun as heck trivia game that pits you against, and with, other players for the chance to win real prizes. And it's free. If you've got an Xbox live gold membership then you can play. No tricks, no gimmicks, just pure fun. The world needs more of this. I sat down at 9pm to give it a try last night, when i looked at the clock next it was midnight. :stunned:

It's got two modes, "extended play" and the "Live!" version. The extended play is sorta like any other online Trivia game, only played with thousands of people at the same time and surprisingly addicting. Playing the Extended play both nets you entries into contests and makes your chances greater than you'll be "on stage" in the Live version. The Live version is a full blown game show complete with a host, which i've yet to experience. It sounds like amazing fun, though.

Next 1 vs 100 Live is this Friday, gonna try to catch it.

CountArach

08-11-2009, 16:29

Guitar Hero: Greatest Hits. I recommend this game for anyone who joined the franchise late, like myself, because there aren't many songs from World Tour on it - it is mostly GH I and III as far as I can tell.

Monk

08-12-2009, 23:25

For the love fest (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showpost.php?p=2271683&postcount=1353) I showed Prototype you'd have expected me to finish the game. Well in truth I never did, i got to the 60% completion mark and just gave up on the plot as I was utterly convinced it couldn't be more fun than just tearing through town slaughtering infected and military personel. In short I was right.

The last few missions are utterly dull with a couple of plot twists that were neither a surprise nor very intelligent. If I didn't ave so much fun with the game these missions alone would have made me pretty upset, as would the laughable choice to altogether drop two notable characters without any given indication as to why. This is one that's going in the vault and won't see the light of day for a while. I won't even save this thing for achievement hunting.. in fact if the free-roam wasn't so fun I may never play it again.

Gah.

Krusader

08-12-2009, 23:38

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. Well the xpack Alien Crossfire to be precise.

Played The Witcher Enhanced Edition last two days, but just got annoyed with the game. It had its very nice moments, but others again just made me utterly frustrated, which I never was with the Bioware or Bethesda games.

Motep

08-13-2009, 00:26

Im actually not playing any games at the moment. Guess I burned myself out. Book it is!:book:

al Roumi

08-13-2009, 13:57

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. Well the xpack Alien Crossfire to be precise.

Awesome game! I've tried for a few years to get hold of the alien crossfire expansion, to no avail and my disapointment. When oh when will Firaxis do a refresh (assuming they have the rights to)?

Azathoth

08-15-2009, 03:51

Playing Geneforge 2, a generic isometric RPG with a laughably pretentious plot and a lot of problems, including the fact that it is basically the same game as the first (think Ghostbusters 2 to Ghostbusters). Only available through the developer's site, and at $25-28 each (for Geneforge 1-5) not worth it.

Monk

08-15-2009, 05:25

It's been a slow couple days since I finished up Prototype, and in between working on my article for the Gahzette and other worldly duties i attend to I've decided to revisit a few games in my library. Specifically this has led to achievement hunting in Fallout 3, Assassin's Creed and Prototype (yeah i know, i caved. I do enjoy the combat so much though) with a little SF4 tossed in there too.

1vs100 completely refuses to work this week. Apparently there's some sort of random error that makes it nearly impossible for me to connect to the Live game and nothing I've done on my end resolves it (or can solve it). God bless you, Microsoft, just as I was starting to have fun you snatched the controller from my hands with a sneer. Their tech support is brilliant as well, I think I'd have better luck with some sort of shamanistic spirit guide. Maybe next week. :shame:

After selling three games last week I got the time to really sit down to decide what will replace those abominations in my library. Force Unleashed has taken its rightful place at my side and i'll get into that more once I've gotten the chance to play it.

Paradox

08-15-2009, 21:16

Things have been boring lately, but replaying Portal and downloading The Secret of Monkey Island is keeping me busy, at least until the release of Shadow Complex, which should be the arcade game of the year. I'm looking to get a 100% gamerscore on MI before Shadow Complex releases.

Also, both games are amazing. But Monkey Island really surprised me, and I'm having a lot of fun with it despite its short storyline, so there's still hope for the point and click genre.

Crandaeolon

08-23-2009, 12:28

http://progressquest.com/

I can't believe I managed to miss this one. Words fail to describe the awesomeness.

Monk

08-24-2009, 04:48

The last few weeks has definitely been a time for older games. Trading in 3 games (GH: Metallica, Halo 3, Call of Duty: World at War) I got 3 back; Victoria: Empire Under the Sun, Mirror's Edge and The Force Unleashed.

I won't bother with overviews but I will say a few things. Mirror's Edge was not as fun as I had hoped it would be. I went into the game hoping to get some really cool chase scenes and tons of free running but what I found instead was a game built on jumping puzzles. That's okay, i guess, but it's not what I wanted nor expected. Besides I hate jumping puzzles. I really think the game could have benefited from a bit more "open ended" approach.

Force Unleashed is a game I thoroughly have enjoyed every waking moment I've given it. I loved prototype because of how powerful the combat system made you feel while at the same time challenging you, Force Unleashed does a very similar thing. My only complaint is the boss battles which aren't that challenging. Most are daunting but have a gimmick to them, figure it out and you'll beat it easily (I call this Devil May Cry 4 Syndrome).

Lastly I picked up Victoria for a little under eight dollars soon followed by its expansion for $10. All I gotta say is wow, I think I'm in love. It's about three times as complicated as I remember the HoI series being but somehow its far more rewarding. There's numerous .orgah posts around here about Victoria so I won't go into huge detail. Just like EUIII, it is gonna stay on my hard drive for a long time.

CountArach

08-24-2009, 11:54

Lastly I picked up Victoria for a little under eight dollars soon followed by its expansion for $10. All I gotta say is wow, I think I'm in love. It's about three times as complicated as I remember the HoI series being but somehow its far more rewarding. There's numerous .orgah posts around here about Victoria so I won't go into huge detail. Just like EUIII, it is gonna stay on my hard drive for a long time.
Yet another person is converted :bow:

frogbeastegg

08-24-2009, 17:11

I've been playing Samurai Warriors 2. It's kind of annoying - I didn't precisely want to play it now but my boyfriend wanted some co-op and now the game's on my xbox's hard drive and tag I feel I should complete it. Leaving it would make me feel like I have unfinished business each time I used the console. ~:(

It's one of the better Warriors series games. :sigh: Just not in the mood for it.

Mouzafphaerre

08-25-2009, 00:49

.
Planning to give Deux Ex a try.
.

Beskar

08-25-2009, 02:54

Currently playing: The Last Remnant

Xiahou

08-25-2009, 08:16

Spent about 2 hours playing Cursed Mountain (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fq7gZnDfB). It's a pretty good horror game for the Wii that's come out with little to no promotion or fanfare- I couldn't even find any proper reviews for it.

First off, they couldn't have picked a better setting for a survival horror- the Himalayas. Abandoned mountain towns, Buddhist temples, and of course, the mountains themselves(they're everywhere you look) all make for eerie backdrops. The story has been pretty good so far, although I don't really care for some of the freeze-frame style cut scenes. The graphics serve the game quite well considering the Wii is a non-HD console. And while its no Eternal Darkness, the game does manage to be creepy enough. At this point, if I was going to give it a knock, it'd be for difficulty. So far, battling ghosts hasn't been too much of an ordeal and I seem to have a plentiful supply of healing items (incense). I think if the encounters were more deadly, it would serve ratchet up the tension and help make the game scarier...

But, on the other hand, I'm only a couple of hours in, and I did finally die right before I decided to quit for the night. So the difficulty does seem to be ramping up a little bit... I certainly wouldn't want to pass judgment on it this soon.

Fragony

08-25-2009, 11:37

Monk

08-25-2009, 12:07

Yet another person is converted :bow:

Gotta admit the feeling that comes from fighting your first successful war while managing everything else about your empire is an amazing one. That alone was enough to let me know the $18 USD was well spent. :thumbsup:

Jolt

08-25-2009, 16:13

.
Planning to give Deux Ex a try.
.

One of the best RPG FPS's ever. Quite probably the very best. The beginning level is very confusing, but once you pass that mission and the next one, you'll begin to get hooked by the plotline.

Gregoshi

08-25-2009, 19:38

I've been working my way through Diablo II, which is a huge improvement over Diablo, though I've found both rather blah. "Clickfest" indeed. Particularly in DII, there are few encounters I even feel the slightest bit concerned for my health, and that is usually more a fear of the unknown with the major baddies. Most times I died was from not paying attention to my health while "fighting" those large "how many kindergartners can you beat up" encounters.

I got Oblivion for the PC over the weekend, so I no longer have to fight my son for time on his Xbox 360. After playing on the Xbox with a controller, getting used to the mouse/keyboard has been a little awkward - which surprises me more than a bit.

Mailman653

08-25-2009, 19:59

I got the new Batman game at midnight yesterday, its great so far.

Xiahou

08-25-2009, 20:38

I got Oblivion for the PC over the weekend, so I no longer have to fight my son for time on his Xbox 360. After playing on the Xbox with a controller, getting used to the mouse/keyboard has been a little awkward - which surprises me more than a bit.

If you haven't already, stop playing immediately and get some good mods for it. Mods make Oblivion great, you're really missing out if you're not using some of the big ones. I think we have a thread somewhere here on the subject....

johnhughthom

08-25-2009, 21:20

CountArach

08-26-2009, 11:38

If you haven't already, stop playing immediately and get some good mods for it. Mods make Oblivion great, you're really missing out if you're not using some of the big ones. I think we have a thread somewhere here on the subject....
What he said.

I'm playing Pokemon Platinum.

naut

08-26-2009, 19:42

Modern Scenario for HOI2. Very neat mod. Rather annoying bug means you can't save, but oh well.

frogbeastegg

08-26-2009, 21:15

Fragony

08-27-2009, 09:44

One of the best RPG FPS's ever. Quite probably the very best. The beginning level is very confusing, but once you pass that mission and the next one, you'll begin to get hooked by the plotline.

Didn't really get me hooked until the Lebedev sequence, after that there was no turning back. And it just kept getting better and better and ultimately leaves you breathless. I wish I could reset my memory and relive all the surprises.

Beskar

08-27-2009, 12:19

Paradox

08-27-2009, 23:12

Just got Batman: Arkham Asylum. This is easily the best game of the year so far. 44% complete with it.

Jolt

08-28-2009, 00:35

Didn't really get me hooked until the Lebedev sequence, after that there was no turning back. And it just kept getting better and better and ultimately leaves you breathless. I wish I could reset my memory and relive all the surprises.

I don't remember the Lebedev. Is it that part where you're in the plane with the terrorrist and some woman?

I recall the part where you are first contacted by...Icarus? (Not the major cyber entity) *checking wiki*, Daedalus. That's the part where I really realized (Man, I'm really hooked to this game)

Warluster

08-28-2009, 07:15

I'm currently playing Hearts of Iron 3, and I have to honestly say, its my second most favourite out of Paradox Interactive's games. They've made so MANY great, excellent changes to HoI 2 but at the same time added in more things, like a spectacular new map which has 10 000 provinces, and a new intelligence system, and the AI is so much better, and, and... theres a lot of new things which will heighten the experince.

HoI 3 needs some work, and it will take a year or so to get it to that perfect state, but like every other PI game its worth every single cent of money.

I'm also playing a Victoria/Revolutions save game which will then be converted to a HoI 2 Complete game. Never played such a long game before and looking forward to play over two world wars and a lot of history.

Fragony

08-28-2009, 12:44

I don't remember the Lebedev. Is it that part where you're in the plane with the terrorrist and some woman?

Yeah, that part, it's your first major choice it floored me at the time how it could play out. Still does really. Played the second? Underapreciated imho.

Monk

08-30-2009, 19:09

Ran through the new Mass Effect DLC this evening. Yawn; a bunch of bland FPS MP style scenarios for a game which isn't primarily about combat. There are 3 variations each on four themes: shoot as many enemies as possible in a time limit, survive as long as possible against infinite enemies, run and capture several points on the map as quickly as possible, and kill a set number of enemies as quickly as possible. Most missions can be completed in under 2 minutes. Get first place in all 12 and you get an extra mission: survive until the clock runs down against a horde. Finish that and you have won yourself your own home base, pretty pointless this late in the day.

Back to Samurai Warriors 2 again.

Is it really that bad? I ask simply out of morbid curiosity, it's sitting on xbox live marketplace for a measly five dollars and at that price it's sorta hard not to take a look.. Though the description doesn't inspire much enthusiasm in me. It promises 2-3 hours of more gameplay, but if all that amounts to is shallow combat then I'm not sure it's for me.

When i heard there was a new Mass Effect DLC in the works, i was thrilled. I was expecting another Bring Down the Sky which I absolutely loved. (Lots of combat, a few side quests and a good main story, yes please!) Instead, it sounds as if all they added was a combat focused mini-game. A real shame, i was looking to bring "The Jugglers" out of retirement for another go. They've not seen a run since I tested my sanity on.. well, insanity!

frogbeastegg

08-30-2009, 19:40

Is it really that bad?
In a word, yes. You know how much I love Mass Effect.

The only reasons I can think of for getting it are if you are a completionist and must have everything, or if you want to farm a bunch of combat achievements. The DLC has 3 achievements and the ability to launch endless bouts of combat make it easy to chalk up the kills required for the gun and power achievements. I didn't even get that much use out of it as I had 100% before this DLC appeared.

Greyblades

08-31-2009, 15:46

Would it be any use for someone who wants to practice his fighting?

frogbeastegg

08-31-2009, 20:34

Would it be any use for someone who wants to practice his fighting?
Not entirely. Well, it depends what aspect you want to practise. If it's aiming, running about without cover, and dealing with spammed hordes of goons that spawn without any sense of terrain utilisation, then yes. If it's tactical cover based fighting against enemies pre-placed to create a battle that makes use of the terrain, then no.

It's like Mass Effect trying to do Quake. The arenas have little cover and using it is futile because you're either sprinting around to find markers/enemies, or you are being swarmed on all sides by endless spawns. There's no room for tactics, no time to consider a plan, and no need for them either. I passed all the scenarios by selecting my assault rifle and holding the trigger down, and there were only 2 I didn't get 1st place on at the first attempt. Both of those maps were 'capture the marker' jobs and it took me a bit to find the first marker because they don't bother to mark them on your hud.

If you want to hone your combat skills play on hardcore or insanity. Hardcore is the difficulty where the game truly shines IMO; the enemies have skills and use them frequently meaning your team needs to do likewise, along with using the terrain and the various weapon upgrades. Insanity gets a bit tiresome as too many enemies have immunity and take forever to kill.

Greyblades

08-31-2009, 21:00

I kinda meant practicing using your team to fight, but from the sound of it your on your own for the DLC's missions.

frogbeastegg

08-31-2009, 21:12

I kinda meant practicing using your team to fight, but from the sound of it your on your own for the DLC's missions.
Your team's there. I totally ignored them the entire time; the AI is good enough at shooting and basic power usage that I didn't need to give orders. On some arenas I could probably have won by standing with my back to a wall and putting the controller down while they did all of the killing for me.

Xiahou

09-01-2009, 03:23

I finished Cursed Mountain, and have to say I really enjoyed it. The setting and the Buddhist themes were both refreshing, but it was the setting that stole the show- abandoned mountain towns and villages, sprawling monasteries, and of course the mountain itself. I was pleased with how well they pulled it off on the Wii's comparatively weak hardware. One of the touches I appreciated was being able to look down on areas you've come through as you progressed through levels. It really helped create a sense of scale and it reinforced the sense of isolation.

Sorry for the poor image quality, but I don't really have a good way to get screenshots from my consoles.....https://img19.imageshack.us/img19/2800/0827090304.jpg

The game was a little on the short side, probably less than 15hrs, but I could definitely see myself wanting to play through it again sometime.

Meneldil

09-01-2009, 10:26

Just went through Starcraft/Broodwar and Warcraft3/TFT solo games.

I'm now left wondering, as I don't find any game that catches my interest. I'm thinking about starting yet another (likely never finished) EU3 game, replay HoMM5 and addons, or reinstall WoW (which I'd rather avoid as far as possible).

I have so many games to finish/play, but none of them really interests me at the moment :-/

FactionHeir

09-01-2009, 12:13

Play Age of Chivalry with me :grin:

All you need is HL2 or another type of source game.

drone

09-02-2009, 21:10

Giving Demigod a try. Not that deep of a game, but the matches are quick and entertaining.

Prussian to the Iron

09-04-2009, 14:03

well, lately I've been playing alot of Oblivion, but yesterday I DLed Mount and Blade: LOVE IT!!!

Krauser

09-05-2009, 10:26

Is it really that bad? I ask simply out of morbid curiosity, it's sitting on xbox live marketplace for a measly five dollars and at that price it's sorta hard not to take a look.. Though the description doesn't inspire much enthusiasm in me. It promises 2-3 hours of more gameplay, but if all that amounts to is shallow combat then I'm not sure it's for me.

Generally, the number of gameplay hours should exceed the cost of the game. Sure, it's just $5, but that can go towards some other future purchase that is really worth it. Too many people get tricked into buying DLC because it's "only" a few dollars. It really adds up over time.

On topic:
I'm going through an RPG phase right now playing Neverwinter Nights, Oblivion, and Mass Effect. Also wishing there were deeper RPGs these days like Baldur's Gate 2. I still play it sometimes, but I've practically memorized everything.

Husar

09-05-2009, 14:26

Venetica, and so far I'm enjoying it. :2thumbsup:

seireikhaan

09-05-2009, 16:45

HOMM3. Been a while, so I'm a bit rusty.

Monk

09-05-2009, 23:48

Truth be told I've been replaying a lot of my older games lately, and also still continuing my Victoria run. Mass Effect is getting (yet another) play through as I work to make my biotic jugglers even more efficient and Gears 2's multiplay is never far from my mind.

But beyond that I haven't been playing much, Fall classes start up soon so that (and my meager social life) has had my attention for the last week or so. Though I have to admit, with the holiday gaming releases fast approaching that I think my library may see a few new additions. On the top of the list are Assassin's Creed 2 and Modern Warfare 2. :2thumbsup:

Mouzafphaerre

09-06-2009, 01:00

.
Sea Dogs :pirate: and Europa Universalis Rome
.

johnhughthom

09-06-2009, 07:24

.
Europa Universalis Rome
.

Was it worth the hassle?

Mouzafphaerre

09-06-2009, 14:03

Was it worth the hassle?
.
Here. ~:)
.

frogbeastegg

09-06-2009, 14:47

And that's Samurai Warriors 2 done! Phew. I can't be bothered with survival mode or the silly board game thingy so those two characters can stay locked.

I'm now playing Metriod Prime Trilogy on the wii. Or I would be if I weren't still waiting for it to arrive. My copy should have been here on Thursday, Friday at the latest. :sad froggy: The only game which I have preordered and wanted to play right NOW in absolutely ages and it's also the only time in absolutely ages that the Royal Mail let me down. Oh well, not the end of the world; it's only a game and it will probably arrive tomorrow.

Fragony

09-06-2009, 15:49

.
Sea Dogs :pirate:

So close to greatness

Mouzafphaerre

09-06-2009, 16:24

.
Indeed. What a misuse of resources. :no:
.

frogbeastegg

09-09-2009, 19:03

Metroid Prime Trilogy dawdled its way home in today's post, 6 days late. I'm savouring the last moments of anticipation; I shall start playing after I've had something to eat. It's time: I have been waiting for this since Corruption's release day.

Metriod Prime is one of the stand out games from last generation, and possibly my favourite gamecube game fullstop. The original release had but a single flaw IMO: the controls. My fingers could not handle them as the spring on the pad's shoulder buttons was too strong for me to hold down comfortably for lengthy periods of time, and needing to release and re-press the button repeatedly in short periods of times was agony. That meant my ability to aim failed during frantic battles or certain long sections between save points, and the pain was enough that I couldn't leave it on pause and come back after a brief break. I've started it three time and aways end up stuck at the same part: phazon mines. It's just too long between save points and with the hardest battles in the entire game; my fingers broke every time. Echoes was worse - the game was more demanding, and so I had to give up before I'd got past the second proper boss because I got to the point where I couldn't even get the aim button to depress far enough to register. Corruption's wii based controls were perfect; within half an hour of starting that game I knew I wanted the other two games ported over.

Finally I will get to see Prime and Echoes, start to finish. I might replay Corruption or I might not; I have already completed that one and found that the world wasn't as enjoyable to explore as it was all cut up into seperate chunks.

Prussian to the Iron

09-09-2009, 20:08

you should post a review once you get really into it; i am considering getting it too, and haven't beaten corruption yet.

Xiahou

09-10-2009, 01:13

I wanted the Trilogy just for the widescreen support. I'll look forward to playing it, but next up for me is Muramasa (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBzDnqyg-S4).

seireikhaan

09-10-2009, 03:44

Might and Magic 6: Mandate of Heaven

All kinds of pixelated goodness. :2thumbsup:

Ok, so the graphics are kinda brutal, but what it comes down to- I like playing the game, and it makes me come back for more. :yes:

johnhughthom

09-10-2009, 03:52

Crusader Kings.

You ever judge a game by it's title? I always thought Crusader Kings would just be EU in the Holy Lands. :oops:

I think I care more about my virtual family than my real one. :laugh4:

Now when will that woman give me a son??!!

Playing Deus Vult with the VIP mod.

Jolt

09-10-2009, 09:00

I think I care more about my virtual family than my real one. :laugh4:

:stunned::inquisitive::laugh4:

Awesome thing I did for myself was when my first leader managed to get the Holy Roman Emperorship (By then he was Emperor of the Spains and of the Roman Empire (Byzantium), Protector of the Holy Sepulchre, King of Portugal, Aragon, Léon, Castille and Navarra, Egypt, Jerusalem, Mauritania and Africa.) His name was "D. Estevão I". Curiously he was the son of the first character I ever saw in CK with my very own first name (He too was King of all those places, except Egypt, Jerusalem and Africa, the former two he conquered in his three zealous crusades which eradicated the giant Seljuk Turkish empire.)

I proceeded to use a special program to trace back all his ancestors from Estevão I. Sort of an "Imperial Lineage". My dynasty was a Portuguese one "De Braganças", hailing from Braganza. Obviously in the Imperial blood of Estevão ran the genes of all the Royal Iberian famillies at the start of the game. The Berenguers from Aragon and the Jimenez from León, Castille and Navarra. However after the death of the Emperor, things went downhill as the Emperor died without a male heir, and his only daughter married to a de Bragança which was of a seniorest branch of the dynasty (The split happened long before that date, since the Heir of the Kingdom was excommunicated at the time the King died, so he couldn't inherit the throne, which fell to the second son of the King. Than both branches eventually grew, with the senior one was eventually dilluted with Russian ethnicity). In the end, the duaghter married the direct senior heir of the familly, and their son (Unfortunatly of Russian ethnicity) became King, succeeding the Emperor. The empire was gigantic by that time and after the Emperor's death, the Empire was plagued with rebellions. Unfortunatly, my computer had to reformat and I forgot to save that save game. :P

johnhughthom

09-10-2009, 09:56

I'm aiming on becoming King of Ireland, your scale of achievements are a bit ambitious for me yet I think.

I restarted twice, first game my twelve year old daughter commited suicide because she didn't get on with her eight year old sister... (first time I have ever been genuinely disturbed by a game, couldn't play that any longer). Second game two days in the Pope died and Leinster became Papal controller, they excommunicated me immediately (no idea why) and at least twenty people claimed my title, I was gone in a year...

My current game is much better, created the Duke of Ulster and I have two vassals two years in, still no son though...

Prussian to the Iron

09-10-2009, 15:20

in my stainless steel campaign, my Aragonians are starting to really kick some Moorish ass. Nobody even knows badass until they watch the enemy get annhilated by Aragonian top-tier swordsmen (cant remember the name)

frogbeastegg

09-10-2009, 17:17

Returning to Tallon IV was quite the experience. Although I have played Metriod Prime 3 times it's been several years now since the last time. Discovering that it's all aged fabulously and can still affect me in the same way it did the very first time is quite special. As soon as I heard that familiar theme and stood in the grassy landing area in the rain with feelings mixed between awe at the loneliness of the world and a thrill at how much there was for me to explore, I knew the game hadn't lost anything. It's an incredibly well designed and realised world.

Reminds me of an era when Nintendo made sure its fans got several triple A titles each year. :nostalgia:

you should post a review once you get really into it; i am considering getting it too, and haven't beaten corruption yet.
If you like Corruption at all then the Trilogy is something of a must. While a good game in its own right, Corruption is generally agreed to be the weakest of the three. The controls were the only thing it improved on. If you haven't played Prime 1 then it's worth getting for that alone; I got right near the end of the game each time I played it and can say that it only gets better as it progresses. I can't speak as much for Echoes as I played so little of it back then, though I very much liked what I did see and would have played on through if the controls hadn't killed my hands. I'm really looking forward to tackling it with the new control system - it's one of my longstanding gaming regrets that I couldn't endure the controls and get further.

Aside from the superior wii controls, the Trilogy package features widescreen, and it reinstates the progressive scan mode which a)most people couldn't benefit from back then and b)got removed from the PAL releases. Loading times are around half of what they used to be. Some glitches have been fixed. There are a bunch of little tweaks here and there.

I still own my gamecube and copies of all 3 Metriod Prime games, and I felt it more than worthwhile to purchase the trilogy.

I wanted the Trilogy just for the widescreen support. I'll look forward to playing it, but next up for me is Muramasa (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBzDnqyg-S4).
I'd like to hear what you make of Muramasa. In the event it comes out on PAL shores I'd like to know if it's worth getting or not; I love the artwork and the premise sounds good.

Prussian to the Iron

09-10-2009, 19:05

thanks, I'll probably get it now. To the Car-you-get-into-when-you-ask-your-grandma-for-metroid-prime-trilogy-for-channukah-Mobile!

and that Muramasa game looks pretty crappy. I mean, it's a wii game...that looks like its on the DS. 2D? nothing really intuitive or complicated?

I mean, I don't like most Japanese games anyway (and especially hate the anime-like ones), I guess I just never had a good experience with them.

but I do remember Klonoa 2 from years and years ago. let's just say that I was playing that right before I went to go see LotR 1 in theatres on opening day :P. I then got stuck in some stupid maze and proceeded to shatter it in about a week >:)

Xiahou

09-12-2009, 01:27

I'd like to hear what you make of Muramasa. In the event it comes out on PAL shores I'd like to know if it's worth getting or not; I love the artwork and the premise sounds good.I've spent an hour or so with it and it's pretty good. It probably surprises no one that the graphics are beautiful, but the game play has been interesting so far as well. It has many RPG style elements included, such as cooking, shopping, sword forging, inventory, ect. You can have up to 3 swords and an accessory equipped at any one time. The swords are a tad fragile, so managing them is an important part of combat. Using special attacks and blocking wear down the swords "life" (I forget what term they use for it) and if it runs out, the sword breaks forcing you to choose another. All swords, even broken ones heal when left in their scabbard- broken ones take a long time to heal and aren't usable again until they are fully repaired. There's a lot of running around, taking in scenery, and talking to people with a healthy dose of ambushes and fighting sprinkled in. The game world is mainly linear, but it has occasional branches that you can choose depending on what your destination is. Also some later areas are sealed by magic that you need more powerful swords to open- so I imagine I'll be doing a bit of backtracking later to open them.

The combat has more depth to it than I expected....
Your basic attack button is A, and your special attacks are B. If you crouch and attack, you do a low sweep-type attack that lets you hit downed enemies. If while crouching, you tap left or right, you do a doge. If you hold A, you block. If you hold A while crouching, when you release it you do a powerful flourish, that is good for breaking certain enemies' swords. If you are holding A and tap left or right, you do a dash attack in that direction- up to three of which can be strung together. A plus tapping up gives you a jumping upercut, while A and down does a ground smash attack. Also, holding A blocks, and well timed attacks can reflect enemy projectiles... All of these can be strung together to help you lay down the punishment... For example, you could do an uppercut attack, do a midair dash attack across the screen, and then do a smash on another enemy below you. :2thumbsup:

I started on the easier of the two skill levels and, so far, staying alive hasn't been a problem. In combat, my goal is to get the 'unscathed' experience bonus, rather than worrying about staying alive. You can change difficulty on the fly, so I may bump it up later but for now, I think I'll keep it fairly easy until I'm more comfortable with the various aspects of the game. I started out playing Momohime's storyline, so at the very least, I hope to be ready for the harder skill level by the time I'm ready to play as Kisuke. The game is supposed to change significantly on harder skill levels, and I've heard that there's a hidden super-hard mode in addition to different endings available for subsequent play-throughs, so hopefully it will have some replayability.

Whew, that was a longer post than I intended.... :sweatdrop:

al Roumi

09-18-2009, 16:32

Mount and Blade Warband Beta! Choppy Choppy! Who wants Swadian kebab?

johnhughthom

09-18-2009, 16:54

What's your in-game name?

edit: nvm, spotted you putting a few bolts into peoples heads.

Meneldil

09-18-2009, 23:38

HoMM5, heroic difficulty. Just finished Agrael's campaign.

The missions are pretty straightforward, I barely noticed the increased difficulty (I used to play in normal). Took me longer to finish the 2 first campaigns than on normal, but I got the ultimate skill for both Isabel (ultimate retaliation is pretty bad) and for Agrael (Urgash Call makes everything trivial).
Things might change later on (I fear the end of Markhal's campaign, this one used to be a pain even in normal), and I heard the two addons are sometimes almost impossible on heroic.

Meh, we'll see. I might aswell drop halfway through. I have already completed the main game campaigns a few times, hopefully I'll reach HoF and ToE quickly.

frogbeastegg

09-19-2009, 22:39

I'm nearly done with Metroid Prime. One last session tomorrow should see me done; I acquired the last of the ability power ups this afternoon and all that's left now is the final sweep for the remaining artifacts and health/missile expansions, and then the final bosses. It's amazing how much easier the game is when you're not battling the controls. Aside from the aiming differences there's one wii specific change which has brought sunlight and rainbows to my experience. Enabling the morph ball to jump once without laying a bomb is a tiny change and yet it makes a massive difference to ease of use. Jumps which used to take me multiple attempts I now manage on my first go.

After that I have a choice. Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Mini Ninjas or .... Batman: Arkham Asylum. The last's a totally unexpected entry on the list - I don't have any interest in batman whatsoever. Far too many people of taste saying far too much good about it for me to pass over the chance to try it out though. According to a wide bunch of assorted folk it has stealth like the Thief (!) games, exploration and powerups like the Metroid series, combat which is simple to pick up and has great depth like Ninja Gaiden, polish and love in spades, and a design which keeps the game flowing without bogging down or becoming overly repetitive. I'm adding a dumper truck's worth of salt to that gushing and expecting nothing much more than a good, varied game with polish.

Might go with Mini Ninjas. Short, easy, silly, and stylish as can be - a perfect flavour break. I wasn't intending to pick it up until later but Zavvi had it on sale for £17.95 for a couple of days so it would have been daft to pass it over only to wait for it to drop back down to that level.

Paradox

09-20-2009, 01:22

The last's a totally unexpected entry on the list - I don't have any interest in batman whatsoever. Far too many people of taste saying far too much good about it for me to pass over the chance to try it out though. According to a wide bunch of assorted folk it has stealth like the Thief (!) games, exploration and powerups like the Metroid series, combat which is simple to pick up and has great depth like Ninja Gaiden, polish and love in spades, and a design which keeps the game flowing without bogging down or becoming overly repetitive. I'm adding a dumper truck's worth of salt to that gushing and expecting nothing much more than a good, varied game with polish.
After finishing it, I'm inclined to say it is the game of the year so far. In fact, I think there has never been a superhero game as good-looking and inspiring as this one. The plot is straightforward, and pretty much stays faithful to the Batman comic book universe, you don't have to be a fan to notice this. The voice acting is terrific, they even brought Mark Hamill to voice The Joker. And finally, the thing I enjoyed the most, the extremely addicting Riddler Challenges and riddles. Despite the replay value deal, this game is great and it wouldn't be wise to pass it up, and a rental should do it if you're that uninterested.

This was a pretty boring year for me in terms of gaming, and this was the only non-casual game that forced me to wipe the dust off my 360.

Monk

09-20-2009, 01:30

Oh dear. What have I gotten myself into?

The AION beta passed and I must say that by the end of it I was very impressed with the game, overall. Strange DRM methods aside (not really intrusive, but very annoying for it to understand it's able to connect) I've not found a single fault with Aion, if you like MMOs definitely give this one a try. The only thing it has left to prove in my eyes is the high end pvp content, which I'll get my chance at after launch in a few days. I'm both looking forward to, and dreading, playing an MMO again.

EUIII has also gotten some attention from me. My plan (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showpost.php?p=2337050&postcount=603) to play a single game spanning EUIII and Vicky:rev has proven to be a project rather than a game, sucking up a lot of my free time from the last few days. The scary part is I'm only around 90 years into the game (out of a possible 500 if the converter ends up working) after 4 days of play in my free time. I'm having a lot of fun with it but I must wonder which will come first. The end of the game or death by old age? :skull:

My 360 has actually grown cold these last weeks. After a huge surge in use during the summer i've turned back to PC gaming. Among EUIII and waiting for AION, i've also begun to dabble in SW: KOTOR II once more. Getting this game to even work for me (being on vista and using an nvidia) was trouble in of itself, but once i did I was reminded why people considered this game to be so good, crippling bugs and all. If one of the major cut content mods ever get released maybe it'll be worth finishing rather than dabbling in (one is scheduled for next week, so fingers crossed).

frogbeastegg

09-20-2009, 15:25

100% completion for Metroid Prime in 14:02. All I can say is wow. What an experience. It feels great to have finally seen the ending all these years after I first got the original release of the game.

Prime was probably my favourite gamecube game. It's definitely my favourite wii game by a long stretch. I have no hesitations in calling it a classic, and one of the best games I've ever played. It's a must play game IMO for anyone with either a wii or a gamecube.

I definitely need to take a bit of a Metroid break before starting Echoes. Feels like I need to let the rush settle down before I can look at another in the series without risking becoming burned out or muddling it all into one sprawling mess in my mind.

After finishing it, I'm inclined to say it is the game of the year so far. In fact, I think there has never been a superhero game as good-looking and inspiring as this one. The plot is straightforward, and pretty much stays faithful to the Batman comic book universe, you don't have to be a fan to notice this. The voice acting is terrific, they even brought Mark Hamill to voice The Joker. And finally, the thing I enjoyed the most, the extremely addicting Riddler Challenges and riddles. Despite the replay value deal, this game is great and it wouldn't be wise to pass it up, and a rental should do it if you're that uninterested.

This was a pretty boring year for me in terms of gaming, and this was the only non-casual game that forced me to wipe the dust off my 360.
It's a few dozen statements like this which convinced me I needed to try the game even though I don't like batman or superheroes. Shopto were offering it at a decent price and I get discount with them because of who I work for, so I have a copy and I shall probably tackle it after Mini Ninjas. After Metroid Prime I feel the need for something simple and relatively easy; the final half of that game was pretty challenging.

Fragony

09-20-2009, 16:04

Personally I liked Echoes even better, even moodier, and the switching from dark to light makes for fantastic navigation puzzles. It's a bit hard at times, some bosses just too hard to be fun, especially the boost-guardian. When you finally beat them you are all OHYEAHDIEEEEEEEE but after 30 tries with 5 almossssssssssst got ya it takes a certain persistance.

Husar

09-21-2009, 15:36

Majesty 2, it's fun! :2thumbsup:

frogbeastegg

09-22-2009, 14:00

I've finished Mini Ninjas. You might be thinking that's a bit quick, especially for my standards. Rest assured it's not because the game is microscopically short or because I gave up on it in disgust: it's so darned addictive I played for some 8 hours straight yesterday! :feels like some sort of sad frog with no life: Another 3 hours this morning saw it finished. I'm missing 2 achievements and I intend to head back and collect them in a bit.

Each time I thought about quitting there was something else to play on for. Another beautiful view, another neat stealth bit, another item to pick up, another ninja to free and try out, another castle to infiltrate, another funny cutscene with the Evil Samurai Warlord, another area of water where I could go fishing. The demo does not do this game full justice. It's one of the early levels where you don't have so many options.

The game plays like a mix of Tenchu, Metal Gear Solid, Zelda and Ninja Gaiden. Most of the time the choice is often left you to: you can stealth your way along killing few enemies, stealth along and ambush, charge in head first and engage in slaughter, or - most often - a mix of all three. You might be a mini ninja but that does not hold you back from having the toolkit and abilities of a larger one. You can do the acrobatics you'd expect of a ninja: wall run, climb, wall jump etc. Aditionally you have items like smoke bombs, potions, shuriken, caltrops, various types of bombs, lots of magic spells, and 5 different melee weapons.

Lots of attention and love have gone into the Japanese setting, to the point of having Japanese voice actors provide the English dialogue with the correct accent (a la Shogun: TW (actually for that reason I kept expecting to hear how "The enemy general is running away like a whipped dog!")) and Japanese dialogue for the samurai enemies. Music is all Japanese too, and it's lovely. And the views! This game has some of the most gorgeous scenery I've witnessed in a game. The flooded village level in particular had some sights I'd love to snapshot and use as a background.

Played on hard mode the difficulty was perfect for a relaxing ramble. It was possible to die very quickly if a mistake was made, yet most of the time it was easy to avoid making fatal mistakes with a bit of thought and care. Those times when I did die another attempt or two with different tactics saw me successful.

Definitely one of those 'pure joy' type games. I'd gladly have paid twice as much for it if I'd known what lay ahead.

naut

09-24-2009, 06:40

Fable II. Pretty good. I like the story, the gameplay is pretty straight-forward, dialogue is quaint. I absolutely love the humour, especially in the item info and easter-eggs.

SwordsMaster

09-24-2009, 06:59

Fable II. Pretty good. I like the story, the gameplay is pretty straight-forward, dialogue is quaint. I absolutely love the humour, especially in the item info and easter-eggs.

Was that ever released for PC?

naut

09-24-2009, 07:01

Was that ever released for PC?
Unfortunately no. Xbox 360 only.

SwordsMaster

09-24-2009, 07:07

Unfortunately no. Xbox 360 only.

Pity. I liked the first one...

naut

09-25-2009, 13:05

Pity. I liked the first one...
Same. But, I always thought the PC controls were irritating; on Xbox it is a lot cleaner, simpler and intuitive.

Jolt

09-25-2009, 22:55

Woot! Finished Final Fantasy 8 for the first time in 10 years, and I even defeated Omega Weapon, all this while I was coming back on the train to my hometown! I was happy for the ending, it was pretty cool.

I must say that in my major game several years ago, I had got stuck in Adel. Now, with my entire team, GFs and Abilities levelled, I must say it was surprisingly easy to plow through Adel and the rest of the game (With the obvious exception of Omega Weapon, which killed me some 10 times), the final bosses in Ultimecia's castle usually went down after a minute of fighting and Ultimecia herself and her GF and the final transformation were so easy it just seemed like battling a normal boss.

Omega Weapon was a very different thing. Its attacks were immensely crippling, and half the time I had all three members each with Triple using Support Magic on themselves. Used my two "Hero"'s on that battle as well as practically every Megaelixir. I suppose it was major bad luck I only connected one Lion Heart limit break throughout the entire battle with Omega, otherwise he'd have gone down much faster as well, but Irvine's Limit Break with Armor Piercing ammunition also helped immensely (In total of those limit breaks, he dealt an unbelievable amount of damage).

I enjoyed the last song "Eyes on Me" as well as the final scene where Squall and Rinoa finally kissed (I was thinking they were never gonna do anything more than hugging each other.

Ever since I played it, I always considered it my favorite Final Fantasy of all series. The end didn't change my opinion one bit.

Samurai Waki

09-25-2009, 23:04

Surprisingly, I'm actually playing ETW, 1.4 Patch actually fixes a few things that were real game breakers for me. Now if only they could have addressed most of these things before release.:no:

frogbeastegg

09-26-2009, 14:20

Things I dislike about Star Ocean: The Last Hope

Difficulty spikes. One area you're winning battles with your eyes closed, the next all enemies have 6 times as much health and do loads of damage.

Lymle. She looks and behaves like a particularly bratty 6 year old yet is supposed to be 15. She talks in a droning monotone which could bore the hind leg off an elephant. She says "'kay" at least once per sentence, 'kay, sometimes more, 'kay. She's rubbish in battles. She's nasty towards one of the few tolerable characters for no reason and we're supposed to find this cute.

The way the AI targets whatever character I'm using in battle 95% of the time.

Lymle.

The way most enemies now have attacks which stun lock my character until I've lost half my health.

The ridiculously low limit on stackable items in your inventory. 20 of each. 20 where most games allow 99. 20 - so I'm constantly having to throw away perfectly good items in order to open treasure chests. Which links to below:

The way you cannot open a treasure chest if your inventory is full of one of the items it contains.

Lymle.

Bosses where you cannot tell how much damage you are doing or if you are damaging them at all until they drop dead.

The way the camera is set too low, around waist level instead of shoulder level.

The way moving the camera up so you can see where you are going also zooms it out so you can't see anything.

The way Edge runs so slowly when in large areas.

The fact that they expect you to hammer X in order to make Edge dash when on the world map. The way dashing makes me feel motion sick, and makes Edge hard to control.

Lymle.

The way Edge is so clumsy to move. Analogue controls my right foot; it feels like I'm using a D-pad style set up. Either you're stationary or you are running. You won't move at all if Edge can't take a full step. If you're in a smaller area Edge will walk - slowly. Very slowly. Unless you push a button to make him run. Why?! What happened to pushing the stick further to move faster? And why is lining up to open chests one of the hardest things in the game?

The long cutscenes where characters repeat what other characters have already said. You mean that they repeat things that characters have already said? Yes, they do repeat things that characters have already said.

The fact Edge fell for the world's most obvious trap and now will not stop moping, whining and being emo about it.

Lymle.

The fact that the game keeps on making areas and quests permanently inaccessable with no warning. If you don't follow a guide you're stuffed.

The fact that the next area wants me to ride on giant pink bunny rabbits without thinking this strange and/or twee.

Needing to run across massive areas in order to get back to my ship to do item creation, only to then run all the way back in order to hand the item over to a quest giver.

Lymle.

The way the battles seem to be expecting me to let my party use skills and spells all of the time, when either they do less damage than my ordinary attacks or cost so much I run out of MP and MP refill items.

The fact that every now and then it's good so I never feel able to shelve it as a bad game and walk away!!

I'm about halfway through the story now. It's taken me 3 months to put in the 23 1/2 hours.

Beskar

09-26-2009, 14:29

Things I dislike about Star Ocean: The Last Hope

Lymle. She looks and behaves like a particularly bratty 6 year old yet is supposed to be 15. She talks in a droning monotone which could bore the hind leg off an elephant. She says "'kay" at least once per sentence, 'kay, sometimes more, 'kay. She's rubbish in battles. She's nasty towards one of the few tolerable characters for no reason and we're supposed to find this cute.

Lymle.

Lymle.

Lymle.

Lymle.

Lymle.

I'm about halfway through the story now. It's taken me 3 months to put in the 23 1/2 hours.

:laugh4::laugh4::laugh4:

frogbeastegg

09-26-2009, 14:35

Behold the horror (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNauq6_9iP0). Watch that and shudder. Then remember she's meant to be 15 and experience the full agony. Then consider that I'll have spent hours watching garbage like that by the time I reach the end of the game, and tens of hours having to listen to her droning "'kay" ridden dialogue.

Husar

09-26-2009, 20:41

Behold the horror (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNauq6_9iP0).

Ahahaha. :laugh4:

She also doesn't look like she 's 15.

johnhughthom

09-26-2009, 22:51

Is there a particular reason she looks and acts like a six year old?

Tratorix

09-26-2009, 23:48

Is there a particular reason she looks and acts like a six year old?

Terminal JRPG syndrome. Fortunately, there is no cure.

I've been playing Heroes of Might and Magic II lately. Which I unfortunately suck at.

Prussian to the Iron

09-27-2009, 00:38

Behold the horror (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNauq6_9iP0)

jesus, thats horrible.

shes supposed to be 15??!!?? are you positive? she sounds like a 6 year old who had too much pot (don't ask)

and wtf? 'nappy time'? is she trying to be 5?

she looks like a 6 year old. i dont know how those crappy japanese game designers do such a horrible job sometimes.

not that no other game designer screws up, but japanese games are almost always have that weird anime look that just totally annoys me and makes me wanna smash the game into a million pieces.

Greyblades

09-27-2009, 01:03

Thats an pretty big overeaction.
Hmm wikipedia seems to imply that she was traumatised resulting in acting like a child.

frogbeastegg

09-27-2009, 14:09

She's 15. The manual says so, as does the in-game encyclopaedia. All of the other characters look and act their age. Which is to say they are a bunch of teenagers out to save the universe complete with their own old-aged (he's like, 35!!!1!) cyborg super scientist 'alien' friend. :sigh: Reimi and Feize aren't bad and Meracle the cat-girl-thing manages to be both funny and likeable. Anyone who considers the obligatory sappy angel type to be a giant chicken, and stalks her with a knife, fork and bib is alright by me. I'm so going to make those two share a room on my spaceship when the sappy angel type formally joins up. :devilish:

At no point at all (so far; I'm about midway through the story now) does it bother to explain to you why Lymle is like she is, not so much as a hint. You have to go look her up in the encyclopaedia, at which point you're told that when she was 6 she opened a portal to a demonic realm and did some crazy magic on herself in order to stop herself feeling or growing because if she hadn't she would have gone insane. I only saw the explanation because I was searching for something else; until then I believed the manual had a typo and she was intended to be 5.

On the plus side the game's finally given me another massive planet to explore with loads of side quests and goodies, and enemies which are reasonable to fight. So at the moment it's enjoyable.

Beskar

09-27-2009, 14:14

It is 15, so all the paedophiles/lolicon lovers, can fap and say "come on, she is 15!"

frogbeastegg

09-27-2009, 14:41

I admit that was one of the first thoughts which came to my mind, right in line after "Oh goodie, here comes the obligatory twee child type.", "What were they thinking with that voice!?", and "I'm stuck with this for the next 60 hours? Noooo!". She wears white ankle-length bloomers under her dress so shots up her skirt are 'safe'.

We also have the mostly naked ultra jumbo-breasted female mage. Her breasts are individually animated and naturally they exert a force on the camera similar to a tractor beam. She's been on my team for 1 whole cutscene and already she's making suggestive remarks and double entendres. The cat-girl-thing is also mostly naked. Neither of them would be org-safe to post a picture. Each time Reimi wins a battle the camera zooms around to give you a glimpse of her space shorts.

Meanwhile on the male side of the cast we have the "So girly looking you won't know I'm a man unless I talk!" Edge, the effeminate Feize, the walking lump of metal Bacchus, and the "Yay I have a scar and wear my shirt undone so you can see my famine victim styled super scrawny ribs!" Arumat. The only sexual innuendo levelled at them involves hints of threesomes with the boobtastic mage or Edge spying on Reimi in the shower.

Sometimes being a female gamer is a distinctly uncomfortable experience.