The "What are you playing?" topic.

[naut]

Dune Wars. It's Emperor: Battle for Dune mod for Civ4: BtS. Quite fun, a broader more strategic scale.

[G. Septimus]

waiting for another STAR WARS game

[The Wizard]

I'm revisiting Baldur's Gate II right now, and it's good to be back

[frogbeastegg]

I'm revisiting Baldur's Gate II right now, and it's good to be back
Did you try Baldur's Gate 1 with EasyTuTu?

[The Wizard]

I'm too lazy, and your warning of needing 15 GB (and having to manually copy buttloads of files) scared me off ~;p

[Arthur, king of the Britons]

Right now I'm playing the good old proper fallout games (Fallout 1 and 2)
Ah brings it back so many good memories... sigh :book:

[Prussian to the Iron]

Right now I'm playing the good old proper fallout games (Fallout 1 and 2)
Ah brings it back so many good memories... sigh :book:

i've been wanting to play FO1 and 2, after playing FO3 and waiting for NV. kinda itchin to understand all the lore behind it. unfortunately, i dont think its free downloads like Daggerfall and Arena (first 2 elder scrolls games) are. ill check.

P.S: LOVE your sig!!! never thought about that!

[johnhughthom]

I'm too lazy, and your warning of needing 15 GB (and having to manually copy buttloads of files) scared me off ~;p

Hmm, it's been a while but I don't think there is much in the way of manually copying files, I remember the installer doing all that. It does take a chunk of space though (no more than ETW or DAO I suppose).

[frogbeastegg]

I'm tinkering Armada 2526, and continuing my leisurely replay of Baldur's Gate and Tales of the Sword Coast.

I'm also replaying Bioshock on hard with vita chambers turned off. This is clearly madness - I'm no good at FPS, there were points I struggled with on easy when I first completed the game 2 years ago, and the game's difficulty was built with free and limitless resurrection in mind. Big daddies can one-shot me, most splicers kill me in 2 hits, it takes a bazillion bullets to kill anything if you don't hit it precisely in the middle of the forehead, the vulnerability makes playing incredibly tense, the brass balls achievement is notoriously buggy and so I might not even get the pointless little badge. Why oh why oh why am I doing this? Talk about your doomed effort.

It's actually going very well :dizzy2: I killed the first big daddy without getting hurt, killed the second one without much more difficulty, and am midway through Neptune's Bounty with full eve hypos and medkits, lots of ammo, around $450, and a newly augmented supply of tonics thanks to the 380 bonus adam for saving 3 little sisters. There's been rough moments, quite a few near death experiences and a bunch of desperate improvisation. I wouldn't call it fun or enjoyable; I would say it's better than the first run. Being vulnerable, having limits, and needing to rely on plasmids, the wrench and brains is a whole new game compared to the run and gun of my first playthrough. Definitely a case of saving obsessively and in multiple slots - I was slaughtering my way up towards the research camera yesterday, absolutely on fire with awesomeness, barely taking any hits and cutting through splicers with ease, then I turned a corner and met an enraged big daddy rosie attacking a splicer who turned his attention to attack me. The splicer missed hitting me as I dodged, the big daddy missed hitting the splicer … and unfortunately he chose to lead fire in the same direction I dodged in. One hit, dead, and back I go to before I get the grenade launcher. :sigh: Tried twice more and neither attempt turned out half as well.

Having made it this far I don't see why I won't finish. The opening 3 levels are the hardest in the game as you're very limited in terms of abilities, tonics and resources. Just a matter of time, a research camera, and a dead Peaches, and I will be on easy ... easier street.


I'm too lazy, and your warning of needing 15 GB (and having to manually copy buttloads of files) scared me off ~;p
It's easy if you have decent instructions and the results are well worth it. Most of my problems came from not being warned that the full install of Baldur's Gate is anything but. It's a mostly full copy of disc 1 with very little taken from the other discs.

In my case the missing files were the area data and cutscenes, and I'd expect that to be quite standard. Copy those over before running easytutu and that should be that. Quickest and easiest way to get all of the files there is to run the full install, then explore disc 1. Go to the data folder, ctrl+a to select all the files in there, and paste them into the data folder in your install. Open the move folder and copy the movie files to your install's movie folder. Repeat with all the remaining discs. If Windows tells you that a particular file is already present in the folder tell it not to overwrite. Simple, if time consuming.

EasuTuTu won't install if you don't have all of the required files so it's hard to end up with a broken install. If you use the option which deletes your original BG install you'll get some disc space back.

[Arthur, king of the Britons]

i've been wanting to play FO1 and 2, after playing FO3 and waiting for NV. kinda itchin to understand all the lore behind it. unfortunately, i dont think its free downloads like Daggerfall and Arena (first 2 elder scrolls games) are. ill check.

P.S: LOVE your sig!!! never thought about that!

Glad you like my sig :beam: , and yeah it's quite a lot of lore one have to know about, I would recommend this site as a place to start:http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout_Wiki search for the called "Fallout Bibles" in particular.

[Prussian to the Iron]

Glad you like my sig :beam: , and yeah it's quite a lot of lore one have to know about, I would recommend this site as a place to start:http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout_Wiki search for the called "Fallout Bibles" in particular.

i actually have that site bookmarked :P

anyway, I'm not sure if I said anything on here, but like 2 weeks ago or so my xbox got the red ring of death, so i had to send it in. unwilling to give up modern warfare 2, the next day i got it on the PS3. for some reason it seems easier; on the xbox, i had a negative kill/death ratio. on the PS3 I average at about 1.10, and half the time I get like 2:1, and then the next game with same people I get like 1:2 or something similar. its very interesting really. I think ti has something to do with how I use my guns. if I dominate a whole day using the same gun, almost every time the next day I suck with it. this has happened with just about everything but the M4A1 and the SCAR-Heavy. I'm not entirely sure why.

hmm......what else? tried installing rise and fall: civilizatiosn at war. had to do a system restore on my vista laptop, though it went to right before it was installed so its all good.....ill try installing on my grandmas computer...

I'm setting a goal for myself to finally beat Bioshock (got it last.....year at some point before fall. got to Arcadia i think and then I just stopped playing for some reason.) before the years end, hope i can meet it. I've always been kinda anxious to finish it, just never found the time or the will to play it over call of duty.



oh! waiting for Halo:Reach. looks pretty cool, though I'm still waiting on those damn iron-sights for every gun so I can aim thing. I hate spraying when with proper aiming I'd be fine.

aparently you can have like 50 A.I and 20 vehicles on screen at once, far more than any previous halo. should make for epic battles.

[Kekvit Irae]

Returned Uncharted 2, Bioshock 2, and a couple other games for 100 dollars credit and Saints Row 2. Yahtzee was right; spraying human feces from the back of a septic truck IS good fun!

[Arthur, king of the Britons]

Prussian Iron;2433018]i actually have that site bookmarked :P

D'oh!~:doh:

Oh and Fallout 1 & 2 is in the "Fallout Collection" re-release thingy,
I don't think it's available for free on teh internet but I think it's available on Steam if you can put up with their evil ways that is.

[Prussian to the Iron]

D'oh!~:doh:

Oh and Fallout 1 & 2 is in the "Fallout Collection" re-release thingy,
I don't think it's available for free on teh internet but I think it's available on Steam if you can put up with their evil ways that is.

i think i saw it at Best Buy when I bought FO3 actually, but I dont wanna pay for those, especially considering i probably will play once, and not touch them again, plus i robly wont even finish them or like the gameplay. just thought that id like to get the story from the games themselves; i find that what a wiki says is typically far less in-depth or cool than hearing it from a game.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

I'm currently playing browser-based 4X game Neptune's Prinde (http://np.ironhelmet.com/), and contemplating creating a thread here to set up a game or two. I figure I should wait until I finish my first game though. Well worth a look, I think, and hardly a time sink if you don't want it to be.

[Arthur, king of the Britons]

i think i saw it at Best Buy when I bought FO3 actually, but I dont wanna pay for those, especially considering i probably will play once, and not touch them again, plus i robly wont even finish them or like the gameplay. just thought that id like to get the story from the games themselves; i find that what a wiki says is typically far less in-depth or cool than hearing it from a game.

Personally I am quite fond of the gameplay, takes a bit of time to get used to the turnbased combat and it's lack of userfriendliness so it's quite understandable if you would not like the gameplay. I agree that getting the story from the games themselves is a lot more epic/interesting than reading it from a wiki.

note: sorry to hear about your xbox360 problems. :sad3:

[Kekvit Irae]

I'm now playing around with my rubber facehugger thanks to my preorder of the Hunter Edition of Aliens vs Predator.

[Husar]

I'm now playing around with my rubber facehugger thanks to my preorder of the Hunter Edition of Aliens vs Predator.

I wasn't impressed by the demo but I didn't expect the game to be so bad that you'd rather play around with the toys that come with it. ~;)

[Kekvit Irae]

I wasn't impressed by the demo but I didn't expect the game to be so bad that you'd rather play around with the toys that come with it. ~;)

Unfinished demo =/= full game

[Husar]

Unfinished demo =/= full game

Absolutely, I'm aware that the demo was limited to DX 9 and taken away from me after a few matches, but then I don't think the full game could be that much improved and I just read from my favourite reviewer that he bought it and it was sobering.
I wouldn't have tried the demo if I had expected the game to fail, but I'm curious what other people think, the demo just wasn't impressive and you'd wonder why they'd release a demo that makes the game look worse than it is.

[Prussian to the Iron]

I'm now playing around with my rubber facehugger thanks to my preorder of the Hunter Edition of Aliens vs Predator.

i was thinking about getting that, is it worth the 60 bucks?

[Kekvit Irae]

i was thinking about getting that, is it worth the 60 bucks?

It's actually pretty great. It's like an update to AvP2. If you're thinking of getting it, the best advice I can give is rent it on a console to see for yourself, or wait until the price drops if you plan on playing it on the PC.

[Kekvit Irae]

Now I'm currently romping through Devil May Cry With Boobs And Cheap Deaths, aka Dante's Inferno.
You would think that with the number of DMC clones released over the years, EA would have at least perfected the controls and camera, but noooooo...

EDIT: But they did perfect Lucifer's and Dante's wangs. Go figure.

[Prussian to the Iron]

Now I'm currently romping through Devil May Cry With Boobs And Cheap Deaths, aka Dante's Inferno.
You would think that with the number of DMC clones released over the years, EA would have at least perfected the controls and camera, but noooooo...

EDIT: But they did perfect Lucifer's and Dante's wangs. Go figure.

i've seen videos and heard reviews, apparently most people think it less DMc and more God of War. but if i get AvP, no way im gettin inferno. by any stretch, I'm probably getting GoW3 when it comes out.

[Fragony]

Demo is out at least

[Kekvit Irae]

Here is a screenshot of my current progress in Heavy Rain:
http://www.robotparty.us/heavyrain.jpg

Apparently I'm not alone in this. (http://www.google.com/search?q=heavy+rain+freezing+ps3&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a) I returned the game back to GameStop and got Afrika instead.

[naut]

Heavy Fog?

Reminds me of the Sab for PC, you couldn't escape the main menu and the work around was to disable multi-cpu. :no:

And you actually got Dante's Inferno? Waiting for God of War 3 would have been the safe bet.

[Kekvit Irae]

So far, Afrika is a pretty fun game. It's got some heartpounding moments (for a photography game) when you're trying to capture that perfect shot of a cheetah bearing down on a gazelle. Despite the bad framerate issues and the humongous savefile (387mb!), it's more fun than Prototype by far. What Yahtzee left out of his review of Prototype was that Alex is a bipolar climber. The controls are crap (due to over-sensitivity of the controller), and Alex cant decide whether he wants to run up the side of a building or air boosting off of it. This annoyed me SO much when trying to get that damn landmark orb on the top of the Empire State Building. I quickly ditched that game.

[Kekvit Irae]

I'm now officially addicted to Afrika. And here's my proof:

http://www.robotparty.us/afrika/AfrikaLulz1.jpg (language warning)
http://www.robotparty.us/afrika/AfrikaLulz2.jpg

[frogbeastegg]

I've finished my hard no vita chamber Bioshock game and it didn't glitch at the end either so I got both achievements. Rather surprised to be honest; when I first started I thought it something of a doomed endeavour. If anything I found the final levels to be easier than on my original easy mode run. That's an indicator of how rubbish the game's guns are against the boosted up splicers, even when you've fully upgraded and researched, and are using the specialised ammo types. Wrench + electro bolt + anything that boosts the wrench = spliced up death personified.

[Scienter]

I'm addicted to Rayman' Raving Rabbids on the Wii. I played it with some friends and had to get a copy for myself. On the PC, I'm playing STALKER.

[Prussian to the Iron]

i'm hoping to pre-order GoW3 for my playstation, coming out i think....the 16th? so like 2 weeks from today. if I dont get that game at release, i'll have to seriously replan my next 5 months in gaming.

got my playstation to work again. level 66 almost 70 in MW2 so close!

[Meneldil]

For all the huge nerds out here, here's Backloggery (http://backloggery.com/), a website which allows you to list the games you've played or finished, your achievements and what not. Nothing better to boost a nerd ego.

Courtesy of pevergreen.

[Fragony]

I'm now officially addicted to Afrika. And here's my proof:

http://www.robotparty.us/afrika/AfrikaLulz1.jpg (language warning)
http://www.robotparty.us/afrika/AfrikaLulz2.jpg

Endless Ocean on the Wii is great if that's your thing, very relaxing. The new one is supposed to be excellent. Now if they would be so kind to release a new Carnivores as well.

[Prussian to the Iron]

Endless Ocean on the Wii is great if that's your thing, very relaxing. The new one is supposed to be excellent. Now if they would be so kind to release a new Carnivores as well.

you mean that hunting game? i loved that! I tried to paly it a few times a year back, but i couldnt find the disk sadly. one of my fave computer games of all time though; even if the gameplay wasnt great, i spent like 2 or 3 years playing it exclusively, except the PS2 of course.

[Fragony]

Aye, could never find a copy but I played I played the demo to death. So incredibly awesome to be both the hunter and the hunted, when you sometimes saw a predator catching a prey you forget you were playing a game. And sometimes they got you.

[G. Septimus]

NTW this, and NTW that
I wanted to try the demo, but my CPU broke down......................

[Prussian to the Iron]

Aye, could never find a copy but I played I played the demo to death. So incredibly awesome to be both the hunter and the hunted, when you sometimes saw a predator catching a prey you forget you were playing a game. And sometimes they got you.

being about 8-10, they very VERY frequently got me. i also spent endless hours simply roaming seemingly endless lands, finding nothing and then....BAM! T-Rex eats me. deaths were very entertaining as well.

did you ever play the Ice Age one? just as cool, only with a bit more variety, plus you get to hunt a Yeti/Abominable Snowman after you get enough points. like trying to hunt a Wampa from Star Wars......with some rocks and a sling.

I might go buy another copy actually....

[CountArach]

Playing Guitar Hero World Tour and for the first time ever I got a Full Combo/Perfect Performance on a song on Expert difficulty. I can never listen to What I've Done by Linkin Park ever again.

[naut]

Crusader Kings as Napoli.

[frogbeastegg]

I've gotten hooked on Toy Soldiers, an xbox live arcade exclusive WWI trench defence game. I'm very surprised I liked it - I don't like tower defence games, don't care for the setting, and completely distrust any game which bases itself around toys thanks to 99% of such games being dreadful. By the end of the demo I knew I had to buy it.

Each level takes place inside one of those old fashioned toy boxes where you open up the lid to find a scale model of a battlefield to arrange your soldiers on, complete with buildings, trenches and sandbags. If you swing the camera to the right angle you can see the 1920's decorated room outside of the box. You need to prevent the enemy from reaching your base. Each level has a set variety of emplacements and they come in two flavours: large (can take anything) and small (machine guns, chemical, mortar only). You can also lay down barbed wire. The soldiers themselves are fairly detailed reproductions of period units. The attacks come in waves and you always have a vague idea of what type of enemy that wave will consist of; the indicator only shows the predominant unit type though, and most waves will contain a mix of cavalry, vehicles, planes, infantry and/or elite infantry. Each attack starts with a flare being launched, the siren going off and the enemy swarming out from their trenches or driving down a road onto the field. Every few levels the final wave contains a boss as the enemy gathers enough pocket money to throw something like a giant (clockwork powered, natch) tank or a zeppelin at you.

You can fly fighters and bombers and drive tanks on levels where they are available, and take personal control over any of the fixed emplacements at any time. Yes, that means you can hop in your Sopworth to take on the Red Baron, peer down the scope of a sniper rifle or man a machine gun as the hordes go over the top. Units can be upgraded on the fly and gain different abilities. A level 1 machine gun can put out a stream of lead and is the most effective against basic infantry. A level 2 needs to reload much more frequently but fires a larger calibre of bullet which is more effective against cavalry. A level 3 machine gun gains minor effectiveness against vehicles. Units can be repaired when damaged or sold if you want to use the emplacement for something else.

You initially play as the British during the fairly lengthy original campaign. Once that's completed you open up campaign+ where you play as the Germans. There's also a survival mode, and 4 difficulty levels. Levels can be replayed at any time once you have unlocked them, and you will be able to use any unit you have gained from the campaign so it's possible to take advanced gear into the earlier levels for a better score and some payback. There's local and internet multiplayer if you're into that. There's a bundle of pointless yet fun doodads to unlock by fulfilling bonus objectives in each mission.

It's a polished production oozing attention to detail. There's period songs, and wobbly old grainy movies with the classic silent movie style border and subtitles. All loading screens are designed to look like the box of classic toy solider sets. Historical quotes are scattered here and there. The visuals are excellent for a downloadable game.

[Secura]

I've gotten hooked on Toy Soldiers, an xbox live arcade exclusive WWI trench defence game.

Ahhhhh, I believe I saw that game on Inside X-Box... it looked pretty decent; nice sharp graphics, yet simplistic and easy to get into. I'm a bit of a history buff, so anything remotely historical piques my curiousity, but I'm really fussy about what sort of games I play... I'm glad there's a demo, will check that out soon as possible.

Is there a Co-Op mode? Or at least, split-screen multiplayer? :3

[Meneldil]

Playing Mass Effect 1 (I know, I'm late). While the game is overall pretty awesome, I just can't stand the Mako. It's fun the first 5 times, it is incredibly tedious when you're exploring the 25th planet. If at least the planets weren't all randomly mountainous, it'd be bearable, but as it is now, it is the biggest let down ever. Climbing dozens and dozens of mountains (or finding a way around when you're unlucky) gets on my nerve. I finished all assignements, which means I'm done with all this, but I'm seriously considering not going through the game anymore just because of this. I really wanted to at first, but I won't be able to go through 15 hours of Mako-ing.

Also playing EU3:HttT, as Burgundy. After many failed attempts, I finally managed to get France down to 6 provinces (and more importantly, no one else to conquer). Alas, while doing so, I let the English grow out of hand (he owns a large part of southern France), and unlike the french, I can't take his capitol and invade his lands.

Finally, I'm trying, I'm really trying to get interested into Swords of the Stars, but meh. It just doesn't happen. I play the game, click "End turn" every 45 seconds, I am puzzled everytime I have to fight a battle. Pity, cause the game looks interesting. There's just something I don't get.

[Hooahguy]

im currently on the 3rd mission of Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory.
so far, its a blast. it is so frustrating, and yet so rewarding playing this game. sneaking around is very cool, especially with the sound and light meters.
using all the gadgets, the cool moves, the heartpounding stealth gameplay, all sums up to an awesome game. not to be missed. its $10 on steam, very worth it.

[Azathoth]

Hehe, the free saving in Chaos Theory was a godsend. Play Pandora Tomorrow or the original and then come back and tell me about frustrating.

[Hooahguy]

the problem is that theres no checkpoint system, so if you forget and die you are in huge trouble.
also, you can only have one save at a time, so you cant go back 2 saves if you need to.

[Azathoth]

You can look at it that way, I suppose. But the game is still more lenient than its predecessors. If I remember correctly, alerting the enemy no longer results in instant mission failure.

I love Lambert's line: "This isn't a videogame."

[Fragony]

Splinter Cell is trial and error, you will die a lot but you just need to figure out what the game wants you to do, it has nothing to do with stealth. Play Thief if you want stealth done well.

[Hooahguy]

Splinter Cell is trial and error, you will die a lot but you just need to figure out what the game wants you to do, it has nothing to do with stealth. Play Thief if you want stealth done well.
clearly youve never played the bank mission.
or you never tried to get 100% on a mission either.

[frogbeastegg]

Ahhhhh, I believe I saw that game on Inside X-Box... it looked pretty decent; nice sharp graphics, yet simplistic and easy to get into. I'm a bit of a history buff, so anything remotely historical piques my curiousity, but I'm really fussy about what sort of games I play... I'm glad there's a demo, will check that out soon as possible.

Is there a Co-Op mode? Or at least, split-screen multiplayer? :3
There's split screen versus and online versus. The game's designed around only 2 sides on the battlefield so co-op wouldn't mesh too well with that.

[Beskar]

Playing FF13, so far so good. I heard people whine about it, all I can think is that they have ADHD. The game like FF8 (only other FF game I played) has a lot of story elements etc, and the game is meant to be very story based in the beginning to introduce you to the characters and storyline. So unless you not interested in storylines, etc, you obviously make a pass at the game.

[Hooahguy]

right now im deeply entrenched in Battlefield Bad Company 2
the single player is short, but sweet.
the multiplayer is the best ive seens so far, much better than COD4.
you actually need to use strategy when you play, not just blatant run and gun.

[Meneldil]

Playing FF13, so far so good. I heard people whine about it, all I can think is that they have ADHD. The game like FF8 (only other FF game I played) has a lot of story elements etc, and the game is meant to be very story based in the beginning to introduce you to the characters and storyline. So unless you not interested in storylines, etc, you obviously make a pass at the game.

The Final Fantasy series lost its charm with the PS2. All FF since FF10 then have ranged between "meh" and "terribad". Having played FF13 for a few hours, it goes into the "terribad" category so far.

And that's coming from a dude who refused to hear anything about the Playstation, played FF7 and then ran to the nearest store to buy a PS and the game. A guy who finished FF6, 7, 8 and 9 half a dozen time. A guy who who bought FFX-2 despite the terrible reviews.

Hopefully FF13 Versus will have a more FF7ish tone to it, though I think will still end up as a running fest throughout an endless corridor. And I expect the characters to look retard too. Japanese scifi was bearable in FF8 cause of the poor graphics. It burnt my eyes with FF10 and 12.

Edit:
Still playing ME1, on hardcore. Oddly, I find this playthrough easier than the first one. I had to get used to the whole "take cover and use biotics" part of the game at the beginning, but now I reached the point where I simply fend off waves after waves of Geth and husks. I still go down quickly if I get hit, but it rarely happens. Except if it is significantly harder, I except to breeze through Insanity just as quickly, by using a balanced team.

[johnhughthom]

FF8 (only other FF game I played)

Good choice, my fav FF game. Much better than 7 in my opinion. Haven't played any since 10, I know the games were always very linear, but why did they have to take away the illusion of some sort of freedom in the game?

[Secura]

Playing FF13, so far so good. I heard people whine about it, all I can think is that they have ADHD. The game like FF8 (only other FF game I played) has a lot of story elements etc, and the game is meant to be very story based in the beginning to introduce you to the characters and storyline. So unless you not interested in storylines, etc, you obviously make a pass at the game.

You bought Final Fantasy XIII? Or was it a gift for your birthday? I didn't know you had it; I assume it's for 360, as you don't own a PS3.

SquareEnix should be pleased; this is the first game Beskie has bought for his 360 in a very, very long time. I'm the console advocate, he's more of a PC gamer. :P


Good choice, my fav FF game. Much better than 7 in my opinion. Haven't played any since 10, I know the games were always very linear, but why did they have to take away the illusion of some sort of freedom in the game?

FFVIII is my favourite too; massive graphical step-up from VII, more likeable and realistic characters (compare Tifa to Rinoa, Cloud to Squall) and the Guardian Force system. Loved every moment of it. :3

[Prussian to the Iron]

nothing....unfortunately. damned PS3 decided to die on me right before a 3-day weekend.

[Beskar]

The Final Fantasy series lost its charm with the PS2. All FF since FF10 then have ranged between "meh" and "terribad". Having played FF13 for a few hours, it goes into the "terribad" category so far.

It is no where near terribad. I played 11 hours so far. yes, it is very storybased, but that is that, it is very storybased. If you like pretty much interactive stories, then it is ok. If you want Dragon Age Open-ended RPG, then you are definitely in the wrong game. As for it being very linear at the start, it is, but it is not that bad.

I have a few qwerks with the story, but as I get past the mile-stone, where it apparently goes open-ended, should be fine. So far the game hasn't "lost my attention".

[Meneldil]

On a relative basis, FF13 is maybe not terribad, though it certainly isn't a great game either. But according to previous Snes and PS one FF standards, it is indeed a terrible disappointement.

I played FF10 to death for the sheer respect I have a for the series. But something just didn't work. Then I tried FF12, got bored after 5 hours and never touched it again. I'm trying hard with FF13, just to make sure it's not an "old sob who hates everything new" kind of feeling, but there again, it just doesn't work: I'm bored. The characters are whiny and annoying, and the game feels like you have to run through a 80kms long corridor. Just like johnhughthom said, they took away the illusion of freedom. But then, saddly, the same can be said about most modern RPG's.

That makes me sad more than anything. I wish the new FF's were as good as the 6th, 7th or 9th one.

[frogbeastegg]

Heh, I thought I'd be alone in playing FFXIII here! I shall be starting once I've wrapped up the last bonus objectives and top ranks in Toy Soldiers, which, incidentally, I'm still loving. Highly recommended.

I created a FFXIII thread.

[Xiahou]

After building a new PC a few weeks back, I find myself playing Oblivion once again. Every time I look, I find new "must have" mods. The best new additions this time around include RealisticFatigue, DarNified UI, and the stunning Qarl's Texture Pack....~:eek:
https://img191.imageshack.us/img191/4254/105589d1216583315tespla.jpg

[Prussian to the Iron]

gah!!!! God of War 3 just cam eout and now i have to wait a month to play it!!!!

though ive made a resolution to not look up any info about it no matter what.

[drone]

Just fired up the original Dawn of War for the heck of it. Good times! :2thumbsup:

[Beskar]

Playing Dawn of War Chaos Rising with pevergreen. He is evil, keeps killing all the good guys.

However, I wish they expanded it to a total of 6 squads, with 3 each on 2 player, and even a 3 player option of 2 each.

[Scienter]

I've been playing the new Borderlands DLC, The Secret Armory of General Knoxx for a while. It's a pretty large expansion, lots of new baddies, a new vehicle, and I like the new missions. Oh, and loot!

[drone]

Playing Dawn of War Chaos Rising with pevergreen. He is evil, keeps killing all the good guys.

However, I wish they expanded it to a total of 6 squads, with 3 each on 2 player, and even a 3 player option of 2 each.

Does DoW II still have the ridiculous activation/Steam/GfW-Live requirement? Or did Relic patch that out already?

[pevergreen]

Does DoW II still have the ridiculous activation/Steam/GfW-Live requirement? Or did Relic patch that out already?

Oh no, ONLINE YOU MUST BE.

And you must suffer terrible matchmaking.

On the upside, if you've bought CHaos Rising, if you register the game at THQ (you don't have to input a serial or anything) you get a code to download 6 wargear items!

edit: And it was your choice Beskar. I gave you all the choices a man could want and this is how you repay me?

[Prussian to the Iron]

finally got to play God of War 3 on my friends PS3. sad thing is that I probably will finish it on his PS3......


anyway, great game. brings back fond memories of the first 2, though i alwas find myself at less than half health for some reason

[Warluster]

pevergreen, would you recommend DoW2? I saw it for $30 the other day and enjoyed DoW1/CoH. Is it worth the $30 or should I just wait until Victoria 2/Red Dead Redemption.

As to what I'm playing right now; I am switching between Metro 2033 and BFBC2. Both games are great fun. Bad Company 2's singeplayer was okay, but its multiplayer is stunning. IMO, everything within it is high quality; the sound is one of the best features, the graphics and destructible environment adds to the experince and stratergy, the maps are the works of veteran mapmakers. My only problem is that the connection problems are common (as is lag) and within a game people usually spam a singe class (This is on the PC).

Metro 2033 is a good game. I've only played half an hour, and so far its the most scripted game I've ever played. Extremely linear, moreso then CoD or other games like that. Despite that, I still find it great fun (Though a one playthrough type of game, I suspect) and the atmosphere is entrancing and due to the linear nature of the game it can tell the story true to the book and still maintain the 'environment'.

[Prussian to the Iron]

im not sure if i want to get Bad Company 2. i definitely loved the first one, but I got SOCOM:Confrontation a few days ago, so when my PS3 gets back I'll play that. maybe I'll do the same I did with Bad Company 1; wait a year or 2, then buy it when its $30.

[Hooahguy]

get BC2, its multi is like no other.

[Fragony]

clearly youve never played the bank mission.
or you never tried to get 100% on a mission either.

Clearly you have never played Thief. Splinter Cell isn't a stealth-game, it's a game about stealth. It's as open-ended as gravity the only way is down. In thief you are given a mission, how you want to solve it is up to you. Not a on-rails series of petty stealth-challenges but a semi-sandbox where quick wits and creativity always pays of, or smacks you in the face. Hard. Can you finish the game without even killing a single person? Can you finish the game not having being seen at all, sorry man just sneaking through? Can you make a desperate escape by shooting a rope arrow in the ceiling, climbing the rope and jump on another floor and find a hiding place? No you can't you just have to do what the makers want you to do.

//waits for that other rabid Thief fanboy to confirm

Anyway, playing Darksiders and it's good. I wanted to buy God of War 3 really, but they can shove the 70 euro they want me to pay for it up their :daisy:, I might just [turn green and go on a Hulk style rampage] for the first time in my life just because of this overpricing. Darksiders on the other hand costed only 20 euro and it's a truly splendid title and it's a pretty damn recent. Combat feels great, the post-apocalypse setting is great, the puzzles are Zelda-esque great, money well spend oh yes.

[Prussian to the Iron]

get BC2, its multi is like no other.

im sure ill get it eventually, but with the new house, the new paintball gun, the ps3 repair, i dont see that in my near future.

[frogbeastegg]

Started Bioshock 2, xbox version. I've made it as far as Pauper's Drop. Thus far I'm not impressed; it's the first game minus the neat and unique and plus a handful of boring. Boring weapons, boring combat, boring level design, and a complete rehash of the opening sections of the original. The atmosphere is weak.

My hard/no vita chamber run of Bioshock taught me to appreciate my plasmids and fight in a creative manner, and here I am in the sequel feeling like my hands are tied because the melee doesn't work how I want, the plasmids feel weak, and the guns are not great. The first proper Big Sister fight wasn't very interesting. The two gathers weren't interesting either. Resource carrying capacity feels artificially limited as your item caps are lower than the original and yet there's resources lying around everywhere which I can't use or pick up.

I'm not convinced by the Big Daddy character at all - I make stomping noises as I walk and control in a mildly (irritatingly) clumsy way, and that's meant to make me a behemoth instead of a regular guy? Then I found a Little Sister and get a rehash of the first game's speech about "Go harvest, it's much better for you!". Big daddies protect the little sisters. It's what they do, are engineered for, and are brainwashed to live for. Why is it presented as so little of a deal to harvest one? They should have stuck to the original idea of having you play an ordinary surface man come to Rapture to search for his missing daughter.

Not fond of the tweaked controls either. Which bright spark decided to put the health pack hotkey onto the d-pad? The d-pad which famously doesn't recognise inputs that well. The d-pad you have to let go of more important buttons to reach? And all so I can have a lame, useless and unwanted melee attack stapled onto the B button instead. :sigh: Look, just give me a designated melee weapon which does an actually useful melee attack when I pull the fire button, ok? Then I won't get hurt so much, and when I want to use my health pack I get healed on the first press while continuing to fight effectively. It's not rocket science. :mutters about it being almost as bad as God of War's insistence on using the right stick for dodge despite it being a lot slower and more awkward that the 'hold block and push direction' command used by most other action games: Amazing how small things like this can infuriate!

They've even gone so far as to re-use 'how much is that doggy in the window?' :shame:

[Hax]

//waits for that other rabid Thief fanboy to confirm

How ironic that I totally agree with Fragony. Thief is true stealth. It should be the bar for all stealth games, I think. But the game itself is quite stealthy and not widely known.

[Xiahou]

Fragile Dreams (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvXKZT80wCc)
&
Infinite Space (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCzs05WllMI)

Both promise to be excellent, based on some initial playtime. :yes:

[pevergreen]

pevergreen, would you recommend DoW2? I saw it for $30 the other day and enjoyed DoW1/CoH. Is it worth the $30 or should I just wait until Victoria 2/Red Dead Redemption.

Hi Warluster, havent seen you around for ages! We should totally have an orgah meetup. :yes:

30 AUD? Yes. Get chaos rising as well, if you can afford it.

Metro, I've been told by one of my L4D2 friends, has the great atmosphere, but terrible shooty.

[Meneldil]

I finished a second Mass Effect playthrough and despite the fact the game is great, I didn't feel like doing it a 3rd and 4th time (to get all achievements), so I switched to S.T.A.L.K.E.R Shadow of Chernobyl.

I already played it when it was released, though I couldn't finish it because of job+university. It's kind of cool, and wow, it is actually difficult. Playing in normal (STALKER) mode, I often find myself dead when I'm facing a few opponents. Mutants and weird animals are okay, even when they come in pack, but people with guns and whatnot? I'm always outgunned, outnumbered, and have to find way to defeat them without wasting grenades.
Biggest disappointement so far is the plot, or rather, the lack of plot. Ambient is awesome and as spooky as one could hope, too bad it has the same issue as most sandbox games, ie. a lame and uninteresting plot.

I'm also playing Supreme Commander solo game. Just like with the original Total Annihilation, the game is hard until you're able to build the biggest stuff. As for the AI, it's completely scripted, which means you just have to build a dozen guns where it attacks you without ever bothering about the rest of your base. Then wait until you have enough resources to build artillery or nukes that can blow her up from afar, and bam, mission complete.

The game would actually be challenging if the AI was actually a real AI, and not a bunch of scripts. Game still doesn't feel nearly as fun as Total Annihilation. It gets a bit better once you reach T3, but even then, it feels blank.

[CountArach]

Pokemon SoulSilver - Nostalgia is my friend.

[Secura]

Pokemon SoulSilver - Nostalgia is my friend.

I want this... but my DS Lite's finally given up the ghost.

I bought it around... October 2006, and the battery's finally gone, doesn't last more than an hour of charge if that. I managed to complete Ace Attorney Investigations with it, but now it's useless, utterly gutted. Can't afford a replacement or new battery either. :<

[Warluster]

Hi Warluster, havent seen you around for ages! We should totally have an orgah meetup. :yes:

30 AUD? Yes. Get chaos rising as well, if you can afford it.

Metro, I've been told by one of my L4D2 friends, has the great atmosphere, but terrible shooty.

I mainly hang around the Interactive History forums.

I'm defintely getting DoW2 after Red Dead Redemption. I love the giant demons the Chaos spawn so much (Especially their animations. I remember one demon from DoW would pick up a space marine and hit him like some sort of gory tennis game).

One way to compare Metro 2033 is that (and I saw this interesting comparison in a review) is that it is similar to the Half Life series. Both games are linear, both games have extremely good atmosphere. While Half Life (2 especially) has better weapons and puzzles, Metro has some really good ideas (such as the need to check air, etc). The only way they can't be compared is that I think the characters of Half Life are much more interesting then Metro, but I have enjoyed both games for the same reasons (Metro is also based on a book so it is expected to have this approach to gameplay, they couldn't make it free-roam). Despite all this its more of a 'rent' game. The only reason to replay it is to re-experince the plot.

[frogbeastegg]

Finished Bioshock 2 this evening. I think my boyfriend had the right of it when he said, "It's just a load of similar lookin,g bland corridors filled with the same few enemy types over and over." after watching me play through the final level. I would rather play the original game a third time than replay the sequel.

Next, no idea. I'm still trying - and failing - to muster the enthusiasm to continue FFXIII. I do feel like an RPG; I don't want to have two massive games on the go at the same time. Either I admit defeat on FFXIII or I keep on going ... or I play another short game to delay the choice.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

I'm really enjoying HeartGold, currently training for the Elite Four in Victory Road.

[frogbeastegg]

I decided to start Lost Odyssey. It's only been sat on my pile for nearly 2 years, saving it for a rainy day I guess. That means FFXIII has shuffled onto my 'try it again sometime to see if I like it better' pile.

Lost Odysessy is so far excellent. It's everything FFXIII was not ... both good and bad. Some of the gameplay mechanics are outdated by comparison to FFXIII, others are far better. The characters, plot, attitude, soundtrack, voice acting, styling, pacing, and just about everything else are miles better. There are towns to explore, sidequests to do - all of those little things which were missing from FFXIII and made the linear nature of the game so grinding. It plays like a traditional final fantasy title, which is no surprise considering how many of the important names behind those games moved to Mistwalker Studio to make LO.

Kaim is another of those grim, "..." JRPG leads. He's possibly the first to have a decent reason for being that way. Over 1,000 years old, he's had wives, children, friends, lovers, and seen them die every time while he's stuck ageless and wishing he could follow them. The little tales from the earlier parts of his life show him to have been a warm, caring man who's now loved and lost so many times his heart is worn out. Those tales are one of the high points of the game so far. They vary in tone, from uplifting and warm to poignant or depressing. They were written by a professional Japanese author, and the result is that they arre a cut above standard game writing. You could bundle the whole lot up and sell it as a collection of short stories, and they would hold their own well. Aside from Kaim, I have the comedy character who is actually close to being funny, and the attitude chick who's fairly likeable. I've encountered a few others who will eventually join up and, shock horror, they're ok too. No squeaky people, no brain damaged people, and no animal-mutant people. That's nice, and all too rare for the genre.

LO's opening cinematic addressed that age old question of "Why don't they use [insert battle gameplay mechanic] on [insert cutscene problem]?", as in "Why didn't they use a phoenix down on Aeris?" and I think that's when I realised that was I going to enjoy this one very much indeed. There's a battle raging between two armies. One side has taken heavy casualties. So they roll up mage towers and start casting mass resurrection spells to bring their soldiers back fit and well. Then some crazy-bod cast meteor, and the entire plain along with both armies were swallowed up by the lava which pours from the sky as thousands of tonnes of rock burns its way down to earth. Everyone dies horrifically, except for Kaim. You start the game picking your way across the cooling rock, seeing the twisted and charred remnants of war machines protruding from the new ground level.

[Gregoshi]

Madam froggy, I'm not nearly the gamer you are and I neither have the time ~:mecry: or (sometimes) interest in playing many of the games you do, BUT I really enjoy reading your commentary/analysis of the games you play. :bow:

[CountArach]

I want this... but my DS Lite's finally given up the ghost.
I would hate for that to happen.

I'm really enjoying HeartGold, currently training for the Elite Four in Victory Road.
I'm just leaving the safari zone heading to the Steel gym now. This game is so good and, as with all pokemon games, remarkably addictive. It is the reason why it is midnight on the day I have an essay due and I've just finished my first draft...

[Martok]

Distant Worlds (finally!).

[frogbeastegg]

Madam froggy, I'm not nearly the gamer you are and I neither have the time ~:mecry: or (sometimes) interest in playing many of the games you do, BUT I really enjoy reading your commentary/analysis of the games you play. :bow:
Glad my ramblings are of entertainment to someone. :bow:

[TinCow]

The recent Civ V news got me hooked on Civ IV once again. Such a superb game, really. I've played hundreds and hundreds of hours of Civ IV, and it's still fresh and rewarding with every new game.

[Beskar]

I played the new splinter game demo.

It was awful, got up to the warehouse and just went "stuff it" and went guns blazing simply because it wasn't my type of game. Can't remember the last splitercell I played, but it was nothing like that.

[Ibn-Khaldun]

Steel Panthers: World War 2 is the game I recently started playing again.

[Secura]

I played the new splinter game demo.

It was awful, got up to the warehouse and just went "stuff it" and went guns blazing simply because it wasn't my type of game. Can't remember the last splitercell I played, but it was nothing like that.

I downloaded this demo and really enjoyed it; when I went round to see Beskie a few days ago, I took my harddrive and he gave the demo a go... you can see his response above.

Personally, I felt that the game was moving along with the times and the narrative; gone is the Sam Fisher of old, working for 'the man', doing things mostly by the book; instead we have a Sam Fisher who would probably shoot your face off for a cough drop. The demo was quick-paced, action-packed and really gave a feel for the new situation the main character has found himself in.

I found getting used to the buttons quite difficult; I suppose I've been spoiled by many modern gun-play games where a simple tap of X (I'm a 360 user) would reload; I would often end up throwing my sticky cameras onto walls where they were useless or setting my EMP pulse off and making the guards bake a fresh batch of bottom brownies. Finally figured out that reloading was executed by pushing the right analog stick instead, which was one of those "duh" moments when I finally grasped it.

While Beskie was found countless times and filled with more holes than Swiss cheese, I personally managed to evade all signs of detection, kill every guard and complete the level with no real hitches; I'm definitely going to give the game a rent, in the very least, and I'd suggested anyone try the demo, it's worth that much. :3

[Crazed Rabbit]

I was playing L4D2 regularly.

I just got Warband and started in on the single player.

CR

[Prussian to the Iron]

finally got my PS3 back from the repair center, started playing God of War 3 and SOCOM: Confrontation.

love GOW 3, as expected.

SOCOM is kinda weird.....dont like the 3rd person, awkward unchangable control scheme, inability to quickly aim....its still good though. spent most of the day dying as last guy, but one time i took out the last 2 guys on the enemy team at the same time with an AK while they tried to capture a point. still trying to figure out how to use the damn claymores...

[frogbeastegg]

Still playing Lost Odyssey. I'm up to the start of disc 3 now. The game continues to impress - it has not one but two (2!) child characters and neither one is annoying, squeaky, useless, aimed at the perv crowd, dressed up like a scary Victorian doll, or otherwise awful in any way! It's incredible! There's even a good reason for them joining the party. And - and there's a queen who isn't a stuck up lady-dog and/or a complete idiot! And the glasses-wearing quiet-research-girl isn't so niave she should have died of misadventure before her first birthday! The villain hasn't got a case of Sephiroth envy either! Nor is he a transparent "Look, I have evil eyebrows, bwahahah!" jobbie.

It's funny. The game is very traditional in terms of how it plays and how it presents itself. In terms of character and story it's anything but. If it keeps this up LO will enter onto my list of favourite JRPGs.

[Kekvit Irae]

While suffering from a severe case of shingles, I've got nothing else to do but play games all week and next.

Currently, I'm still playing Dragon Age: Origins. This time with a Dwarf Noble. It has quickly become my favorite origin story because of the massive amounts of dialogue changes once you hit Orzammar.

I'm also alternating between that and Simplz Zoo (a cute yet addictive Bejeweled clone) and Just Cause 2 (Mercenaries 2 meets Bionic Commando).

[Kekvit Irae]

L4D2: The Passing is coming out tomorrow, and I'm not too sure I wanna play it. Yes, I know that one L4D survivor will die, and after looking at the poster on the L4D website, I know who it is.

[Prussian to the Iron]

just reached 2nd prestige MW2. still playing GoW3, holding true to my "no-spoilers" promise, so i have no idea how far i am.


oh. got a gamestop modded turbofire PS3 controller, which makes me p0wn on CoD.

[Husar]

oh. got a gamestop modded turbofire PS3 controller, which makes me p0wn on CoD.

A what? And why do they sell cheating-gear? I thought one advantage of consoles was that noone gets a bonus due to better hardware....

[Prussian to the Iron]

the funniest part is it is $40, which is actually less money than a non-modded controller.

[pevergreen]

L4D2: The Passing is coming out tomorrow, and I'm not too sure I wanna play it. Yes, I know that one L4D survivor will die, and after looking at the poster on the L4D website, I know who it is.

It was ok. Better than Crash Course, but not as good as Parish/DeadC/DarkC.

Francis has some GREAT banter.

[Crazed Rabbit]

It was ok. Better than Crash Course, but not as good as Parish/DeadC/DarkC.

Francis has some GREAT banter.

I liked it. The finale definitely showed how the maps are evolving (I hate the Dark Carnival finale. Just a big open area, where the stupid huge no spawn area around survivors means you have to spawn halfway across the map and plod across open ground to approach the survivors). But it was just three maps.

And I really disliked how they treated the one L4D member dying.

Specifically,
How the death isn't even mentioned. He died without any dialogue from his fellows, without any remembrance. He was just a body you find lying on the ground, no mention of what happened, that you can pick up a weapon from, like a dozen other bodies scattered over various campaigns. Shameful. Meaningless.

Realism versus is really awesome though. The stupid thing is they plan on ending it after a week. Why?

CR

PS The person I thought was going to die didn't after looking at the l4dblog poster.

[Chimpyang]

Just finished Heavy Rain, WOW.

[Prussian to the Iron]

nothing. my parents banned vid games from me for....idk how long, so i'm forced to resort to late-night playing with headphones and coke. so that sucks.

oh i was playing the Halo: Reache beta up until then. epic. i encourage everyone to DL it if you can, if you can't....you're missing out. it is utterly amazing.

[CountArach]

Bought Red Steel 2 on a whim. The controls take a little getting used to but it is good for a bit of hack 'n' slash goodness.

[Monk]

Just Cause 2

It's always refreshing to see a sandbox game that knows what I like. Sure, games like GTA4 are amazing story devices that can really lay the groundwork for some good narrative. That is ignoring the fact, hwoever, that half the time when I pop in a sandbox, i'm going to be looking for ways to crush people's castles. In that sense, Just Cause 2 is a huge success because it knows exactly what it is, a spectacle. Any attempts to take the game serious for its story or narrative is simply impossible. The moment I did a sky-dive off a television tower I had rigged to blow up, hit my parachute to glided effortlessly down to the ground only to land ontop of a civilian car and surf my way down the high-way as the explosions kicked off... I knew why.

This wasn't an action game, it was an action movie (an 80s action movie to be exact!) - full of cliche, explosions, bad acting, stereotypes and one liners. It turned out to be an amazing ride but one I just couldn't stick with story-wise. When blowing crap up is the entire point of the game I simply got bored of the main story missions, why not just cut out the middle-man and cause chaos without a reason? The one huge downside (aside from you know, a terrible storry, bad voice acting and stereotypes!) is the game world. It's way too big. There's a fast travel system but I can't use it to visit new locations, and when my objective is over 18 km away.. that is a killer. Just Cause 2 really needs an in-game radio to help those long travel times between shoot-outs, otherwise, a fun (if a one trick) experience.


Assassin's Creed 2

You know for all the absolute craziness that surrounded this game I must say I'm completely underwhelmed by the final experience. Moreover I am unsure as to why such a mediocre game could inspire Ubisoft to go to such lengths to protect it with their intrusive "always on" DRM. Being a huge fan of the original AC isn't easy, as many people are quick to point out whenever i bring it up all the flaws the game had. And there's no point they argue that I cannot deny. The combat was bland, the story was ridiculous and mini-missions were nothing short of repetitive. Yet for all of that I immediately fell in love with the game's mechanics, it was genuine fun stalking through cities seeking out targets. Finally striking that killing blow after spending an hour or more doing the leg work really felt like you'd accomplished something. The sequel is anything but satisfying.

The story is incredibly hard to follow right from the start, I don't know half of the people involved in the main antagonist plan even though I'm killing them one by one. Characters get introduced so fast it's hard to keep your thoughts focused, specially since if you blink you'll be working for them and not understand why! The narrative is still stupid and without spoiling it, it's clear what happened. The writers at Ubisoft wanted to make this huge epic to tie into the original, only they forgot that to write a good story you need to do more than watch the History Channel's conspiracy shows. At no point in the game have I ever felt a connection to any character i've been urged to sympathize with. The mechanics are vastly improved from the first game and that, in of itself, is the real sad part to all this. Everything you can imagine was made better, blending into crowds is seamless. You climb faster, you can assassinate much more efficiently, but the mission structure combined with the lack of direction in the game really makes it feel less like a sandbox and more like a series of missions you're being herded to.

Where as Just Cause 2 is a game that after a completed mission throws its arms up and says "Find your own ride back to base!", AC2 simply drops you next to the next quest giver. I could even understand this direction if some of the missions didn't take place years apart! At around the 5th hour I went to one of my contacts for my next mission and the protaganist simply proclaims "These last two years have been good to you!" ... Thanks for telling me now, I guess? It's a game I don't think I'll be finishing nor even returning to. Just Cause 2 is a game I can come back to whenever I want for some good old fashioned chaos. AC2 doesn't even provide me that. Oh, and the combat is essentially unchanged from the first. What. :no:


Tropico 3

I really liked this one, but once you know the keys to success its a little hard to lose. I think there's a big thread somewhere around the Arena about this one, so I wont say much. Though the tutorial is awful. If you can buy it retail, the digital copy (at least Steam's version) had no manual forcing me to learn everything the hard way. Of all the games I played recently I liked this one the most, just wish the replay value was a little better.

[Hooahguy]

Beat Hazard
a very fun game to waste time on. also a new way how to listen to music and really get to appreciate your music.
but DO NOT get this game if you arent into metal or hard rock. then it just gets easy.
really hard to beat a boss during the Master of Puppets solo... :sweatdrop:
also if you get epileptic seizures dont play this please.

[al Roumi]

Just Cause 2

It's always refreshing to see a sandbox game that knows what I like. Sure, games like GTA4 are amazing story devices that can really lay the groundwork for some good narrative. That is ignoring the fact, hwoever, that half the time when I pop in a sandbox, i'm going to be looking for ways to crush people's castles. In that sense, Just Cause 2 is a huge success because it knows exactly what it is, a spectacle. Any attempts to take the game serious for its story or narrative is simply impossible. The moment I did a sky-dive off a television tower I had rigged to blow up, hit my parachute to glided effortlessly down to the ground only to land ontop of a civilian car and surf my way down the high-way as the explosions kicked off... I knew why.

This wasn't an action game, it was an action movie (an 80s action movie to be exact!) - full of cliche, explosions, bad acting, stereotypes and one liners. It turned out to be an amazing ride but one I just couldn't stick with story-wise. When blowing crap up is the entire point of the game I simply got bored of the main story missions, why not just cut out the middle-man and cause chaos without a reason? The one huge downside (aside from you know, a terrible storry, bad voice acting and stereotypes!) is the game world. It's way too big. There's a fast travel system but I can't use it to visit new locations, and when my objective is over 18 km away.. that is a killer. Just Cause 2 really needs an in-game radio to help those long travel times between shoot-outs, otherwise, a fun (if a one trick) experience.

Good review, I've also been palying Just Cause 2 for a couple of weeks now. The comparison with GTA3(+) is a good one, I'd say it's like a mix of Farcry2 and GTA. It is the perfect way to spend 30 mins or so mindlessly blowing stuff up. I'm sure everyone else enjoyed the odd (frequent) rampage in GTA, resulting in the National guard and apaches being brought in to deal with your pyrotechnics. Well, in this game you can use your grapple to hang from the helicopter, shoot everyone on the ground with your sidearm (or MP5) and then hijack the helicopter itself.

The best bits of JC2 seem to me to be the product of a brainstorm on what people whould like to be able to do in GTA when it starts getting silly. The worst bits (plot, map size) are I think neccessarily sacrificed to allow the freedom and sillyness to happen. The only thing is, as in GTA, the rampages are not quite as satisfying or engaging as the plot missions, so that's why say 30 mins at a time for JC2. Its a damn good 30 mins though.

Otherwise, in terms of game swhich have been engaging me a bit more, I've been discovering Deus Ex (from the Steam sale) and also playing blood bowl, which is a lot of fun and very stategic. I'm skilling myself up for a league -ther eare a few running on the RPS forums...

[Azathoth]

Pokemon Yellow. It's tedious. Don't get what everyone sees in the franchise.

I'll just continue playing it until I have all the badges and Pokemon.

[Prussian to the Iron]

Pokemon Yellow. It's tedious. Don't get what everyone sees in the franchise.

I'll just continue playing it until I have all the badges and Pokemon.

:shame::brood::brood:

[CountArach]

I'll just continue playing it until I have all the badges and Pokemon.
:laugh4:

Just finished Portal and I'm now doing the Advanced Challenges. This is one of the best games I have ever played, and requires a huge degree of lateral thinking, which is a nice change in the FPS genre.

[Prussian to the Iron]

Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood and Fallout 2. both great games.

COJ is probably the most actual fun ive had in a game for a long time. not entertainment, but fun, if that makes sense. the graphics are pretty good, the sound is good, strong story, and, the most important, fun as hell combat.
multiplayer is, unlike most games, fairly balanced as well. you have your 1-hit kill weapons, like the bow and sniper rifle, which take a comparatively long time to shoot again compared to other guns. then you have medium power weapons that are 2-3 shot kills, such as the rifle, which are faster, but not fastest. then you have the shotguns, which are usually 2-hit kills and reload fairly quick, plus good fire rate. after this, you have the pistols, which are pretty much last resort weapons, taking several shots to kill, but you can specialize in them if you so choose and they are not underpowered.

Fallout 2 is great, just finished FO1, so I'm now pretty familiar with the combat system. unfortunately, you start with a spear and knife, and pistols cost a lot of money, so you dont start out packing heat like in FO1. makes it alot harder. i just started though, so i hope it unfolds as great as people say.

[Kekvit Irae]

I just got into Dwarf Fortress (http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/) thanks to Something Awful's Let's Play of Boatmurdered (http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Boatmurdered). Boatmurdered is an epic saga of killer elephants, war dogs that give birth in battle and have their newborns join in on the fighting, and dwarves that go berserk and kill everyone (while on fire).

And dear god... it really is one of the most complex games ever made. If you want to aspire to be a geographer or a geologist, this is a game you HAVE to play.

Losing is fun!

[Prussian to the Iron]

getting back into morrowind. finished Call of Juarez, great game.

[Fragony]

Wolfenstein, great fun, feels oldschool. Or it's just old-fashioned. Or maybe it's behind the times. Whatever, it's a blast to play, best pure shooter since Quake 4.

[A Nerd]

I've reinstalled AOE3. Had some fun with the sandbox skirmishes against the AI. Will be undertaking the campaign soon! I'd like to see how it compares to AOE2 which I played endlessly.

[Meneldil]

I've reinstalled AOE3. Had some fun with the sandbox skirmishes against the AI. Will be undertaking the campaign soon! I'd like to see how it compares to AOE2 which I played endlessly.

It compares pretty bad saddly. I don't know what's wrong with the game, but it simply is not as much fun as AoK.

[Hooahguy]

the problem with AOE3 was that the AOE formula does not work with that time period. maps are too small, the 200 unit limit is really annoying, and there are no big engagements, only a bunch of small ones that after you win those you go on and ravage the enemy town.
i played it for a few days then uninstalled it to make room for Homeworld 2.

[Martok]

Distant Worlds and Sango 2. I'm getting my strategy on!

[CountArach]

Fallout 3. Oblivion with guns. I'm not complaining.

[Prussian to the Iron]

Fallout 3. Oblivion with guns. I'm not complaining.

good game, good game.

started a new game on Fallout 2 due to being limited as a inactive slaver, so this time im not a slaver.

[Monk]

All Points Bulletin Closed beta. I haven't mentioned this since i was under NDA, but since closed beta is essentially over with tonight -

I think APB is a wonderful game, the concept is great and the gameplay feels like a persistant GTA4 singleplayer game, only in mmo setting. The thrill of loading up a car and blowing crap up is insanely. Insanely gratifying. The two sides are set up in a really interesting way and the game is really addicting. You can easily get into a groove of doing missions and lose all track of time, since you never have to head back to base to get the next, you get updates via a pda like device on new missions which you can accept or deny. You can pick up new missions on the fly, respond to calls for backup by people in your faction or jump into one of the opposite faction's missions and try to mess up their game all in the same way. It creates this incredibly tense atmosphere where at any one time you could be in a shoot-out or dodging grenades, just as soon as standing on a street corner. But, that is where the good ends.

The game is mired in technical difficulties, namely a massive memory leak. You can only play for one or two hours before the game crashes hard and there are a few instances of sound glitching horribly as you drive. The pvp balance is :daisy: to all belief too, but the devs know this and have pledged to work on it. Basically think of it this way. Each weapon can have up to 3 upgrade slots. Some dont have any, some only have one - ect. The problem is this: if you do not have an upgraded gun you are sitting at a horrible disadvantage against someone who does. Think of it as playing COD4 without any perks whatsoever.. you're gonna get hurt a lot. This would not be a problem if the matchmaking system was any good, thus far it isn't. You can easily find yourself staring down some hard balling rollers with nothing but a pea-shooter and duct-tape.

It is made worse by the fact that to get the best weapons it takes a long time. APB is suffering the same problem WoW has in that you are your weapons, and that is a hard thing to break away from. It's really gonna be tough for them to balance reward without breaking the system. At the time of closed beta closure, the system was not broken, but it was sporting enough cracks to sink a battleship.

As of now, APB represents a great concept that needs more time. This is normal for MMOs actually - hardly any is released in good condition. (WAR had the most stable of all the ones i've beta'd iirc) and with the devs pledging to get matchmaking, the tech problems and imbalance straightened I think it could shape up to be something worth the time. As of now? There's tons of fun to be had, but you have to take it as it is. Right now, its a VERY mixed bag.

APB releases on June 20th.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

What is the format of the actual shooty bits? FPS, third-person, WoW/Old Republic stand around waiting for cooldown timers?

[Monk]

What is the format of the actual shooty bits? FPS, third-person, WoW/Old Republic stand around waiting for cooldown timers?

Straight up third-person shooting with grenades. It plays very similiar to GTA4.

No activated powers, though there are passive perks (that i mentioned) as well as auras available once you unlock them. You can have an aura, for example, that restores ammo to all friendlies within a set amount of distance.

[Prussian to the Iron]

KOTOR. runs on my crappy 6 year old XP, though admittedly laggy sometimes. logged around 18 hours since monday around 7PM, with school every day. i might have a problem, but it will have to wait til i finish this, then KOTOR 2 to be treated.

[Martok]

Am currently playing Armada 2526 with the new 1.03 update. I can't comment on how the battles are yet, but I'm remembering why I enjoy this game. I like the atmosphere, and it's always nice to see an AI that actually behaves intelligently for the most part.

[pevergreen]

EU3 with HttT.
Supcom 2
Fallout 3
Supcom: FA
Battlefield: BC2
Modern Warfare 2
Hitman 2
Defence Grid: The Awakening

[Prussian to the Iron]

Morrowind, Fallout 2 (still), KOTOR 2

[Azathoth]

I just started up Pharoah. The game found a way to piss me off pretty much instantly: mere minutes into my old save, half the population emigrated. My advisors told me they were angered by my incredibly extortionistic 1% tax rate.

I decided to apologize to my citizens by setting the tax rate to 0%. After all, those 7 deben I've collected this year should be more than enough to sustain the city's infrastructure.

Well, it's all fruitless, "People are upset with me because taxes are so high".

******* amazing.


Morrowind, Fallout 2 (still), KOTOR 2

No, see, I saw that "18 hours from Monday to Friday" post, and it's really not unreasonable; back in my heyday I spent upwards of 5 hours a day just gaming. But, to finish KOTOR in 2 weeks while playing two other, even larger, RPGs? You're fast.

[A Nerd]

I downloaded 'Children of the Nile' from Steam awhile back. Been playing it on and off. It's quite fun, building the cities, trading for goods to make monuments and the like. Though it is terribly hard to keep those people happy somtimes, even when you provide what they are looking for!

[Prussian to the Iron]

I just started up Pharoah. The game found a way to piss me off pretty much instantly: mere minutes into my old save, half the population emigrated. My advisors told me they were angered by my incredibly extortionistic 1% tax rate.

I decided to apologize to my citizens by setting the tax rate to 0%. After all, those 7 deben I've collected this year should be more than enough to sustain the city's infrastructure.

Well, it's all fruitless, "People are upset with me because taxes are so high".

******* amazing.



No, see, I saw that "18 hours from Monday to Friday" post, and it's really not unreasonable; back in my heyday I spent upwards of 5 hours a day just gaming. But, to finish KOTOR in 2 weeks while playing two other, even larger, RPGs? You're fast.

@pharaoh stuff: thats hilarious! "your extortionately high 1% tax rate"!

yeah, i got just totally addicted to it man; i think i was playing somewhere around 8 hours a day, with a 5 hour minimum. KOTOR2, unfortunately, isnt as fun at all. im on the first real planet, and it still feels like a tutorial planet, which i thought was supposed to be Peragus. so im mainly playing Morrowind, i might finish FO2 this week though

[Monk]

After waiting far longer than I should have I finally got a DS lite with a little bit of extra money I had laying around.

I'm in love with this handheld and will likely pour a lot more time into it once i get the money to fill out its library a bit. So far I've focused on older titles like Metal Slug 7 and the Mario titles. Metal Slug 7 in particular has proven to be my favorite purchase thus far but god it's difficult. I'm not sure if its the game or the combination with the DS screen but a lot of the time projectiles get hidden in explosions or points counters and all of a sudden i'm dead. I wish the shooting controls were a bit more dynamic as there's no way to shoot in diagnol directions (I'd kill for a Contra shooting scheme) but still, very fun!

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Currently I'm playing Beyond Good & Evil, which I got off of GOG. Fantastic game marred by frustrating controls and camera. Just did the first main part, and I was sweating bullets for a lot of the sneaking bits!

[Xiahou]

After waiting far longer than I should have I finally got a DS lite with a little bit of extra money I had laying around.

I'm in love with this handheld and will likely pour a lot more time into it once i get the money to fill out its library a bit. So far I've focused on older titles like Metal Slug 7 and the Mario titles. Metal Slug 7 in particular has proven to be my favorite purchase thus far but god it's difficult. I'm not sure if its the game or the combination with the DS screen but a lot of the time projectiles get hidden in explosions or points counters and all of a sudden i'm dead. I wish the shooting controls were a bit more dynamic as there's no way to shoot in diagnol directions (I'd kill for a Contra shooting scheme) but still, very fun!You owe it to yourself to try some of the multitude of turn-based strategy games that the system offers. Many of them, like Advance Wars: Days of Ruin (http://www.amazon.com/Advance-Wars-Days-Ruin-Nintendo-DS/dp/B000XJNTMY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1276572300&sr=8-1), are quite cheap now too. :yes:

[pevergreen]

DS Lite = GBA games = Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken

[Azathoth]

Currently I'm playing Beyond Good & Evil, which I got off of GOG. Fantastic game marred by frustrating controls and camera. Just did the first main part, and I was sweating bullets for a lot of the sneaking bits!

You're gonna love the final boss. The controls....well, I'll let you see for yourself.

[Meneldil]

I just started up Pharoah. The game found a way to piss me off pretty much instantly: mere minutes into my old save, half the population emigrated. My advisors told me they were angered by my incredibly extortionistic 1% tax rate.

I decided to apologize to my citizens by setting the tax rate to 0%. After all, those 7 deben I've collected this year should be more than enough to sustain the city's infrastructure.

Well, it's all fruitless, "People are upset with me because taxes are so high".

******* amazing.


I'm halfway through the game, and I never had this problem. The default tax rate is 9%, but I often increase it to 11% or 12% when my economy booms (white big residences). But I must say the game is quite difficult overall. I had to cheat my way through two missions that I couldn't complete by myself.

The most crappy thing that has happened to me is the kingdom raising the pay while I'm playing at max speed: you don't notice the new change and after a while all your citizens leave the city, leaving you with a bunch of empty building that will one by one start burning or collapsing. By the time people come back, your city will be a field of ruins.

That being said, taxes are not what you build your city with. It's trade (and gold, if available) that's going to bring in enough cash to build stuff. Even if you put Tax Offices everywhere, you'll hardly make enough money to pay half your workers. Quite different from Caesar games, where all cash mostly came from taxing.

[Azathoth]

But I must say the game is quite difficult overall. I had to cheat my way through two missions that I couldn't complete by myself.

Definitely. Until now, I hadn't bothered with the campaign since 2002.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

You're gonna love the final boss. The controls....well, I'll let you see for yourself.
That's what I've heard. :P The combat so far has been mercifully easy (except for the kind of cheap invincible guards during the sneaking bits) so I'm hoping it's just hard in comparison.

[Decker]

Let's see...
Started playing Morrowind for the PC as well as The Battle for Wesnoth.
On my PSP I am playing Disgaea 2: Dark Hero Days.
The PS2 is Dragon Quest VII and Kingdom Hearts (just picked this up as I've never played it).
For the N64, it's Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time and Banjo Kazooie.

[Tony Furze]

Been playing a lot of Fallout 1. Not so keen on 2.

Now Civilization III scenarios-they do actually have:

Medieval
Crusader States
The Boer War
The American Civil War
The Rise and Fall of The Mughals

now that's what I call variety.

Will fire up Morrowind with some sort of improving mod.

Then Mafia 1.

[Caesar the IIIV]

Half-Life: Source

[Fragony]

Owwwwwwwwwww Disgaea, have yet to play the sequels but great game. Such excellent drawing, the music is just epic. And it's FUNNY. Mostly because they are evil.

The Dark Adonis remains the best midboss ever

in honour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zokOLzDiD8

[Decker]

Owwwwwwwwwww Disgaea, have yet to play the sequels but great game. Such excellent drawing, the music is just epic. And it's FUNNY. Mostly because they are evil.

The Dark Adonis remains the best midboss ever

in honour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zokOLzDiD8 Never played the first one but I agree that it's a great game! The dark humor is to funny and the art is great and I actually had one of the songs stuck in my head the other day :embarassed:

And I'm not that far into Kingdom Hearts yet... got caught up with Morrowind and Disgaea :sweatdrop:

[Prussian to the Iron]

in honour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zokOLzDiD8

the fu-?

[Fragony]

How dare you question the great prince Larhal.

About anything.

[pevergreen]

EU3
Fallout 3
Mirrors Edge
Mass Effect
Defence Grid
MW2
Supcom 2

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

I've been playing X-COM while waiting for Mass Effect to download. X-COM is frustrating; I'm not very good at it. :P I've done enough research to get some of the real good stuff but I hate losing troopers so often just let shot-down UFOs go. And there are at least 3 enemy bases nearby. I went down one with a plasma hover tank and 10 troopers in power armor. My tank traded fire with some mutons then gets missiled by some sort of homing thing I haven't seen before. I packed up my troopers and booked it.

[Hooahguy]

SWAT 4
what a great game!
it is a lot like rainbow six: raven shield, but you have more equipment and you cant always just shoot everything you see. because your aim is to arrest the suspects, shooting them isnt such a great idea, and you try to hold off on shooting them as long as possible. and if you shoot a suspect if they arent threatening you or a hostage. i cannot tell you how many times ive failed a mission because i shot a suspect when they werent aiming a gun at someone!
you have an arsenal of tactical items and weapons: door wedge, tear gas, pepper spray, tasers, non-lethal shotguns, assault rifles, and the list goes on.
while nowhere near like the real thing, its probably the closest thing to it, especially helpful for me because im seriously considering a career in law enforcement.
the game looks good for an old game, and the general animations are great. AI is good, the suspects even flanked me a few times!
very few noticeable bugs or glitches.

my only gripe is that there no real knockout gas which you can equip. if there are three armed tangos in a room, all you can really do to subdue them is to deploy gas or stinger grenades.
i give it a 9.5/10

[Gregoshi]

Started up a Mori campaign in STW tonight. I'm gonna have to beat plough shares into swords because my starting lands are so piss poor for farming I might as well. :laugh4:

[CountArach]

Exams finish tomorrow which means that I've got a month of uninterrupted gaming ahead of me on my new PC. The list of what I have waiting for me (In various stages of beginning):

Mass Effect (6 hours in and loving it)
Bioshock
Assassin's Creed
Fallout 3
Crysis
Pro Cycling Manager 2010
STALKER
Left 4 Dead 2

I know there are a lot of people here who play L4D2, so if you want to add me on steam I'd love to have a game with you guys. My steam id is CountArach.

[Monk]

In honor of Steam's massive Mass Effect day a couple days ago, i've loaded both games in the series on my comp for a complete run through. So far i'm about 5 hours in on the first game and really noticing the flaws (after so long in the sequel) but still loving the game as a whole.

Other then that i've been trying to settle on a nation to play in EU3 for about a week, still can't decide on anything solid. I've played Milan (and formed Italy) and took that game to completion, Muscovy (formed into Russia) has also been done. Any good suggestions from the fellow EU3 players on the board?


I know there are a lot of people here who play L4D2, so if you want to add me on steam I'd love to have a game with you guys. My steam id is CountArach.

Hit up Crazed Rabbit, he's on Steam (under that name) and regularly plays L4D2 a lot. :yes: I would tell you to add me, but I do not currently have it installed. I'm on a bit of a Team Fortress 2 kick as far as MP goes, currently.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

In honor of Steam's massive Mass Effect day a couple days ago, i've loaded both games in the series on my comp for a complete run through. So far i'm about 5 hours in on the first game and really noticing the flaws (after so long in the sequel) but still loving the game as a whole.
Doing the same thing. A part of me wants to get ME1 over with so I can get to better shooting and inventorying. The other part of me a completionist so I'm going to spend hours looking for the tiny repetitive mercenary hunts. I got Bring Down the Sky, though, which wasn't bad.

[Crazed Rabbit]

Hit up Crazed Rabbit, he's on Steam (under that name) and regularly plays L4D2 a lot. :yes: I would tell you to add me, but I do not currently have it installed. I'm on a bit of a Team Fortress 2 kick as far as MP goes, currently.

I know pevergreen plays as well. Or he did, it seems he's into EU3 right now.

I do play L4D2 regularly, though in the past few days I've been playing the 1866: Western mod (http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,120665.0.html) for Warband online.

I think it may be the best PC online western shooter right now. Plus, the devs want to create something that's a more realistic and deliberate shooter than a run and gun and jump around to avoid getting shot game. (In game, people actually stand still to shoot, because that's the only way to shoot accurately!)

The only problem now is they included primitive grenades, which are underpriced and overpowered, which has led to spamming of said grenades. They're going to be nerfed in the patch though.

CR

[pevergreen]

I know pevergreen plays as well. Or he did, it seems he's into EU3 right now.

I'm only logging like 8-10 hours of EU3 a day...

Played one round of L4D2 last night. I play for the friends I have that play it, not for enjoyment. But yeah, CA I'll catch you somehow, make you add me. I haven't lost my touch.

Monk: Like I said, get WWM, I gave you a link to a walkthrough to make it work with the beta patch.

[Prussian to the Iron]

I know pevergreen plays as well. Or he did, it seems he's into EU3 right now.

I do play L4D2 regularly, though in the past few days I've been playing the 1866: Western mod (http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,120665.0.html) for Warband online.

I think it may be the best PC online western shooter right now. Plus, the devs want to create something that's a more realistic and deliberate shooter than a run and gun and jump around to avoid getting shot game. (In game, people actually stand still to shoot, because that's the only way to shoot accurately!)

The only problem now is they included primitive grenades, which are underpriced and overpowered, which has led to spamming of said grenades. They're going to be nerfed in the patch though.

CR

have you played Red Dead Redemption or Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood? IDK if Red Dead has MP, but CoJ does, and it is very much realistic and fun, for the most part.

[Monk]

The Witcher

I have to say, it's rare that I play a game that approaches sex this immaturely. It borderlines on absurd at times, especially the first instance of it happening. One of my companions had failed during the tutorial and I decided to give her a pep-talk. I kid you not, by choosing the line "It's not your fault." i somehow started a.. shall we say, encounter. I starred at my monitor for a solid five minutes in awe, long after the brief scene had ended and we were already in the next plot device dialogue section. I couldn't believe what I just saw, and didn't understand why it happened. This scene would play out a few more times, women throwing themselves at me for no reason, out of the blue, while our lives are in danger from an angry mob. It's become comical at this point.

Beyond that the actual game is a bit lack-luster. Combat is quite enjoyable but i'm finding most quests amount to nothing more than tedious busy-work. Gather 10 leaves of some obscure plant and bring them back! ...What is this, a mmo? But even so that's not what made me decide to stop playing, put simply the voice-acting is delivered in the most dreadfully monotone i've ever heard. It's so deadpan, your character reacts the same way when comrades die that he would when realizing he's out of toothpaste. It isn't limited to the protagonist either, everyone is suffering from a severe lack of "I don't give a :daisy:" and delivers their lines without any form of emotion.

In the words of a much funnier man than I, if this game doesn't care about its story then why should I? It's a shame too, because the combat system is quite fun once you get the hang of it. Even with the "Enhanced Edition" Witcher falls flat in too many crucial areas for me to give it a pass. It's been a long time since i played a game as boring as this one.

[Centurion1]

Call of duty modern warfare 2. And Rtw of course But that's a given.

Call if duty 2 had If Not the best one of the best campaigns I have ever played. The acting was fantastic the storylune while a Tad predictable was still God and it often felt like I was watching a movie.

[Prussian to the Iron]

glad you liked it.


hovering between TES2: Daggerfall and Morrowind on PC, enjoying my last few days of Modern Warfare 2 on the PS3 before we move and I won't see it for another week or two.

[ReluctantSamurai]

I guess I'm a bit "Oldskool". I'm still enjoying Baldurs Gate. My first attempts at the BGT mod and using several of the AI enhancement paks has me reaching for the reload button far more than I anticipated:laugh4:

[CountArach]

I've been playing a few things lately. Crysis every now and again (marvelling at just what Crytek have done with their graphical engine), but mostly Mass Effect 2 and Left 4 Dead 2. I also booted up Portal last night in an effort to try to get a couple of those achievements. Within 3 hours my brain was hurting and I had to stop.

[naut]

STALKER: Priboi Story.

Ah. So awesome. Ten minutes of play defined the AI for me, sporadically skilful. Agroprom, bandits attacked me all attacking front on out of a door, I picked them off easy. Then I moved forward and there were 7 more bandits outside the compound in some trees. I scaled a building and started shooting, 3 came towards me to take cover behind the compound wall. I killed one. Two more started advancing I picked them off, while 2 others hid in the trees giving covering fire. While I was trying to eliminate them from among the shrubbery the other 2 who had reached the wall earlier flanked all the way round my building and up the second internal ladder killing me from behind with some concentrated shotgun fire.

[Kekvit Irae]

World of Warcraft has recently sucked me in. -.-

[Prussian to the Iron]

oh Kekvit I'm dissapointed.


well, not current, but I watched a bunch of E3 gameplay and trailers today, and i know what I want up through april 2011.

unfortunately, one of the coolest-looking trailers, Star Wars: The Old Republic, is only an MMORPG, which I not only don't like, but can't afford. It had enormous potential, maybe in the future.


anyway, my wishlist as far as I know so far:

CoD: Black Ops- I'm a fanboy, my frends are fanboys, I liked WaW better admittedly than MW2, at least Nazi Zombies and Campaign. MP was kinda the same quality for me
Ghost Recon: Future Soldier- This looks like it will be my favorite, despite being a total Halo nerd, CoD fanboy, and only playing 1 Ghost Recon, not even to completion. the cloaking thing and ust everything looks epic.
Assassins Creed: Brotherhood- Pretty cool looking. definitely a gamble to stay with that character or his immediate family, but I think the new team concept will pay off. THE BEST PART: At the end of the trailer, it said to pre-order for a Harlequin (Harley Quin in Batman, obvious easter egg) as a MULTIPLAYER SKIN!!!!!!!!!!!!! MP in AC baby! I've been lobbying for this since the first one came out!
Gears of War 3- No explanation needed. awesome game series, stil looks pretty epic, but I wish there would be some change in gameplay for once.
Halo: Reach- It's Halo. it's new. I was in the first 3 days of the MP Beta (fricking mom took it away after that, and I got it back a month later, here's the kicker, the day after the Beta ended), and it was very much awesome. I don't think anything will ever beat the feel of Halo 1 PC MP on Blood Gulch, or Halo 2 on Coagulation. But the maps and the weapons feel very very good, and I haven't even done most of the gametypes or used vehicles. only 70-something days left, i counted :)


I think thats it, lots of promising games this year.....

EDIT: Oh fail. fail fail fail. S:TW2 obviously on my list. fail.

[Decker]

hovering between TES2: Daggerfall and Morrowind on PC, enjoying my last few days of Modern Warfare 2 on the PS3 before we move and I won't see it for another week or two.
How's Daggerfall going for you?? I botched my first character and had to start all over.

[Prussian to the Iron]

i dont like it. it seems like leveling occurs almost at random, too slow, nobody but the mages guild sells spells which i cant join because my magic skills aren't high enough because I dont have any really useful spells, and the random dungeons are a bitch (is that allowed?). especially hate the random dungeons, because it means that if i get lost and have no idea where to go, i cant just look it up online like i can with morrowind. i spend half my time in dungeons outrunning skeletons, and the one im currently working on is confusing as all hell, with a fricking moat that means i have to hug the wall so i dont get eaten by dreughs.



if i continue to play it, if, then it'll just to see what happens at the end, which i would watch a let's play for, but there are very few of those, probably for the reasons above.

[Kekvit Irae]

i dont like it. it seems like leveling occurs almost at random, too slow, nobody but the mages guild sells spells which i cant join because my magic skills aren't high enough because I dont have any really useful spells, and the random dungeons are a bitch (is that allowed?). especially hate the random dungeons, because it means that if i get lost and have no idea where to go, i cant just look it up online like i can with morrowind. i spend half my time in dungeons outrunning skeletons, and the one im currently working on is confusing as all hell, with a fricking moat that means i have to hug the wall so i dont get eaten by dreughs.



if i continue to play it, if, then it'll just to see what happens at the end, which i would watch a let's play for, but there are very few of those, probably for the reasons above.

1. Leveling is not random. It's always after you rest once you obtain 15 skill points in any of your Primary, Major, or Minor skills. Misc skills do not figure into your leveling. This is a well known "cheat" for staying level one, just like Morrowind and Oblivion: just assign skills you will never use to your Primary, Major, and Minor skillsets (like languages), and use the Misc skills as your main skills. If you level up, so will the monsters. You should only level up when you feel your combat skills are up to snuff. And, seriously, don't fight zombies at level 1.

2. To join the Mage's Guild, assign one magic skill you have absolutely no desire to increase into your Primary skill. You need at least 22 in this skill and 4 in another magic skill to join the guild. I prefer using Alteration or Thaumaturgy since all the others have really awesome effects you want (primarily Destruction for blowing things up, Restoration for healing, and Mysticism for enchanting items with Soul Trap). Once you join as an Apprentice (Rank 0), you'll have access to the very vital Spell Maker.

3. I have never once explored a dungeon (sans the newbie one or small crypts in graveyards) fully. And I probably never will. THEY ARE HUGE! I suggest making your own map, or taking with you some really worthless junk to drop on the ground at intersections as "bread crumbs" so you know which way you came in case you want to leave.

Take a look at the UESP for more hints and tips to help you along with my favorite game of all time ( http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Daggerfall:Daggerfall )

[Prussian to the Iron]

i know the leveling system from reading, but it seems like it is random. like i rest/travel, and my climbing or thaumaturgy skill levels up, even though i have no thaumaturgy spells and i didnt climb.

[Monk]

Metro 2033

If you've never heard of this game, or only heard bad press about it I for one don't blame you. There's a lot of negative press floating around the mainstream gaming sites about this one. The ones I read spent the majority of the time detailing how broken and unplayable it was, from the AI to the oddities of combat. Lemme say right now that Metro is not a game that is as polished as it should. AI quirkiness is what will cause a lot of frustiation in playing it, as is the insane amount of bullets it takes to kill something, I'll say now though it never once reached the point that many others have claimed. I've seen a lot worse.

This game focuses on something a huge amount of FPS games lack - immersion. This is definately a game that strives very, very hard to make you feel like you're in the world it presents and I have to say it does that part very well. At its core, however, Metro is a game of buts. The world is amazingly fleshed out and feels alive, but the story feels rushed. The enemies are creepy, relentless and engaging but the combat balance is all over the place. The biggest complaint i can throw at this game is there simply isn't enough ammo to accomplish the things the game expects of you, resupply zones are few and far between and you'll always be hurting for bullets.

It also pegs itself as an entry into the FPS-horror genre, and as for horror I have to say it isn't scary. It isn't for lack of trying, but for all the immersion the scare tactics it throws at you are choreographed a mile away. I will give it this, though. It may not be scary but there are some generally creepy moments in the game. There are also moments that try to be creepy but fall flat on their face. Like a said, a game of buts. Metro 2033 was the first game ever developed by 4a games, and i gotta say for a first time contender they didn't do half bad. I haven't finished the game yet but i'd already support a sequel.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

The beautiful people at Valve put Red Faction Guerilla back on sale for today, so I'm DLing that now...

I've been playing EU3 (moved on from my Prussia game that I posted in the EU thread and started a pretty strong Poland, taking a break cuz I don't want to deal with those jerks in Austria)...

I'm also almost done with Psychonauts, but the last level is pretty annoying. Then I'll have to try and finish Beyond Good & Evil.

[Hooahguy]

i just finished COD5, and i think its the best COD game out there, because the immersion is so much better than COD4. i really enjoyed it, including all the gore.

im downloading red faction guerrilla from vehonex right now, he graciously allowed me to use his steam account while he is away.

[Ja'chyra]

i just finished COD5, and i think its the best COD game out there, because the immersion is so much better than COD4. i really enjoyed it, including all the gore.

im downloading red faction guerrilla from vehonex right now, he graciously allowed me to use his steam account while he is away.

Shhh, don't think that's allowed.

[Hooahguy]

Shhh, don't think that's allowed.

i think its fine.

[Hooahguy]

ok so now im playing Red Faction Guerrilla, courtesy of Vehonex.
its a fun game, overall. who cares about a good plot? i just like blowing :daisy: up!

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

I picked up RF:G from the steam sale, and it really is fun. My one quibble is there aren't checkpoints in the super-important missions. Which is amazingly frustrating.

But I'm returning to my one true love, TF2, now that the engineer update is coming out.

[Hooahguy]

your quibble is that? my quibble is the controls for driving.
im on that part where you need to knock down the 12 sensor towers, but because i cant really aim my truck anywhere, its really frustrating.

[Monk]

But I'm returning to my one true love, TF2, now that the engineer update is coming out.

Honestly i thought it'd never get here. The first update item, the revenge shotgun, looks promising! Maybe it'll give those spies something to think about before sapping my sentry. ~D

Though to be honest, i think the engi will need something to go along with the shotgun to make it truly effective. Maybe swap out the pistol for an item that gives a one time injection of health and that shotty suddenly looks very enticing. Regardless. Looking forward to Day Two's reveal. :yes:

[Meneldil]

Playing Super Mario Bros Wii with my coworkers during lunch break. Awesome game.

My gf and I bought L4D (1) during steam sale, so we're also having a look at this one.

I'm still playing Pharaoh, but I admit it's getting frustratingly difficult, even in 'easy'. I might give up at some point or another.

Finally, I borrowed Vampire: the Masquerade at my workplace (a video game magazine). I'll give it a try some day or another.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

your quibble is that? my quibble is the controls for driving.
im on that part where you need to knock down the 12 sensor towers, but because i cant really aim my truck anywhere, its really frustrating.
That part was pretty tough; just keep trying it and never slow down. The driving is a little wonky at times, and I find that it depends on the vehicle you're in. The best is driving those heavy wedge-like APCs :D


Honestly i thought it'd never get here. The first update item, the revenge shotgun, looks promising! Maybe it'll give those spies something to think about before sapping my sentry. ~D

Though to be honest, i think the engi will need something to go along with the shotgun to make it truly effective. Maybe swap out the pistol for an item that gives a one time injection of health and that shotty suddenly looks very enticing. Regardless. Looking forward to Day Two's reveal. :yes:
I blew all my spare weapons trying to get the golden wrench. No dice. :sweatdrop:

[Decker]

Finally, I borrowed Vampire: the Masquerade at my workplace (a video game magazine). I'll give it a try some day or another.Would like to know how that game is. It caught my eye a while back but couldn't find anyone who'd played it and give me some feedback on it.

[drone]

Played some Borderlands in co-op/LAN/beer mode over the 4th of July weekend. Good fun. :2thumbsup:

[Meneldil]

Would like to know how that game is. It caught my eye a while back but couldn't find anyone who'd played it and give me some feedback on it.

Didn't have time to try it yet, will try to get some time for it tomorrow :)

[Decker]

Cool! Will look forward to your report.

Also has anyone tried the RPG Maker? Seems mighty tempting to try.

[Fragony]

Would like to know how that game is. It caught my eye a while back but couldn't find anyone who'd played it and give me some feedback on it.

Get it, love it. Buggy but right up there with the greatest.

edit: continuing Assassins Creed 2, great fun. It's depressingly easy as your first weapon is way too good, one slash and bye, there is hardly any penalty for getting caught. They better give me something to scare me. But a great setting with tons to do, and a great hero.

Laughed at 'it's me, Mario'.

[Splitpersonality]

Playing (as I type this) some endless battle on Super Street Fighter 4.

Switching between this and Battlefield Bad Company 2, I know it's kinda old but meh, it's still fun :D

[CountArach]

I've been playing Mass Effect 2 quite a lot over the last few days.

[Hooahguy]

Im with CA here and have been playing a lot of Mass Effect 2 lately. In fact, so much that I havent even finished Red Faction Guerilla yet. Shame on me, but then I get back to working on my relationship with Miranda and its all worth it.
Bioware needs more DLC for me to sink money into.

[Centurion1]

fired up aoe II again.

damn no wonder i was addicted.

[Hooahguy]

Try doing a match with 8 nations, a free for all on small islands.
That :daisy: is hard.

[Centurion1]

bah, all you have to do is outlast the suckers

[Hooahguy]

Harder than it looks when they are constantly making alliances against you and invading.

[Centurion1]

i usually had locked teams.

and ok i submit, very hard? never ever been able to do 7v1, that is impossible.

[Hooahguy]

Locked teams? Bah!

[Prussian to the Iron]

well, for about 2 weeks I got addicted to some game called Combat Arms, but it got old real quick. Basically, there are 2 types of players in that game that anybody can be grouped into:

1. Those with K/D ratios of 1.20 and under,
and
2. Hackers.


and if you go into the game and play you will learn why.



So anyway, i ditched that a couple days ago, now I'm playing lots of Bad company 2, which I LOOOVE after getting all vehicle unlocks, and learning how to master helicopter flying (only use the right stick to fly, its all that matters). lots of M&B Warband too. thinking about gettin a girlfriend, which will majorly impair both of those.

[Splitpersonality]

Burnout paradise sure is fun.


Thinking of booting up some FF7 - FF9 and doing myself a let's play, as soon as I can configure freaking hypercam to record WITH stereo mix and my microphone on Windows 7 :/

[Ja'chyra]

well, for about 2 weeks I got addicted to some game called Combat Arms, but it got old real quick. Basically, there are 2 types of players in that game that anybody can be grouped into:

1. Those with K/D ratios of 1.20 and under,
and
2. Hackers.


and if you go into the game and play you will learn why.



So anyway, i ditched that a couple days ago, now I'm playing lots of Bad company 2, which I LOOOVE after getting all vehicle unlocks, and learning how to master helicopter flying (only use the right stick to fly, its all that matters). lots of M&B Warband too. thinking about gettin a girlfriend, which will majorly impair both of those.

I hear they're on sale over at Steam.

[Prussian to the Iron]

nah, I got my eyes set on one 2 houses down. after her cousins leave in a few days I'll try. I prefer hand-bought anyway :P

[pevergreen]

Well if you succeed, you can post about her here.

I've got a feeling these will be my games for the next period of time:

Warcraft 3 (NO ITS NOT WoW **** OFF. I hate WoW :stare:)
Alien Swarm
maybe tiny bits of:
Just Cause 2
TF2
Overlord

[Prussian to the Iron]

Pever never fails to deliver!

yeah i hate WoW as well. dont see why you would pay 20 bucks a month for a game when you can buy one far superior for at the most 60 bucks, and dont see why you would pay that same amount for social interaction when you can do that at this place called.....real life.


no offense if you play WoW, i just dont see the point or the logic in it.

[Hooahguy]

nah, I got my eyes set on one 2 houses down. after her cousins leave in a few days I'll try. I prefer hand-bought anyway :P
Please say you will open a new thread about this.... PLEASE

I also played Combat Arms once. For the first month it was out it was really fun, but then, as you said, it was all hackers and people with huge KDRs.

[Monk]

Pever never fails to deliver!

yeah i hate WoW as well. dont see why you would pay 20 bucks a month for a game when you can buy one far superior for at the most 60 bucks, and dont see why you would pay that same amount for social interaction when you can do that at this place called.....real life.


no offense if you play WoW, i just dont see the point or the logic in it.

Like i said in one of my game previews here in this thread (i believe for APB), when you buy an MMO you pay for two separate games. The initial purchase can represent you buying the game as it is, all of its faults, its greatness and its quirks you're going to experience when you get home. The subscription fee is you paying for what the game will be, as in, you're investing to see the game's potential grow. The good MMOs will use their subscribers' money to upgrade their servers, introduce balance patches and create new content at a constant stream - so in a sense you're seeing the dividends of your subscription every few months. The bad ones will do none of those things, or will succumb to the early growing pains of the mmo genre.

As for why to play an MMO - well it's not for everyone. Not only due to their structure, they require a lot of free time and a regular source of income. When i played i justified it in simple ways. $15 a month is the equivalent to paying .50 a day, which is cheaper than eating a hamburger every day of that month. Having a little money that I didn't fret over losing, the subscription wasn't a huge hurdle to get by.



and dont see why you would pay that same amount for social interaction when you can do that at this place called.....real life.

Most MMOs aren't solely based on social interaction. The vast majority actually have.. you know, gameplay. ~D

[naut]

Pever never fails to deliver!

yeah i hate WoW as well. dont see why you would pay 20 bucks a month for a game when you can buy one far superior for at the most 60 bucks, and dont see why you would pay that same amount for social interaction when you can do that at this place called.....real life.


no offense if you play WoW, i just dont see the point or the logic in it.
I played WoW for about 3 months, and you and anyone who hasn't played it are seriously underestimating the amount of content and the quality of the gameplay. It's actually quite good at what it does.

[Prussian to the Iron]

i did play it for a little at my friends house one time. hated it. it requires such a massive volume of time, and I dont see how anyone has it, as well as time to work to pay for the damned thing.

then again, I'm one of the few CoD fanboys here....and yes Hooah, I wil most certainly post about it.

[Splitpersonality]

So Starcraft 2 drops in America this Tuesday.

I can't wait to check it out :o

[Meneldil]

I played WoW for about 3 months, and you and anyone who hasn't played it are seriously underestimating the amount of content and the quality of the gameplay. It's actually quite good at what it does.

Sad to say, but WoW is indeed one of the best games out here gameplay wise. After having played to most MMO's and RPG's available, I've come to the conclusion that none of them can even try to compete with WoW nervous yet extremely deep gameplay.

As for the players, I've met several dudes who play WoW, have very good jobs and a family. Not everyone there is unemployed, student and living on welfare.

[Prussian to the Iron]

So Starcraft 2 drops in America this Tuesday.

I can't wait to check it out :o

never played the first one, but my buddy seems all excited about it. if theres a demo ill try it.


Sad to say, but WoW is indeed one of the best games out here gameplay wise. After having played to most MMO's and RPG's available, I've come to the conclusion that none of them can even try to compete with WoW nervous yet extremely deep gameplay.

As for the players, I've met several dudes who play WoW, have very good jobs and a family. Not everyone there is unemployed, student and living on welfare.

the question is: are those with very good jobs and family vey high level? doubtful, because almost everyone I've ever known who's parent(s) work dont get home until at least 5-6PM, and many get home later. where does the WoW time come in? factor in dinner, shower, and family time, and you probably have a max of 2 hours to play each worknight, and thats assuming that you got home at 6:00.

[Monk]

the question is: are those with very good jobs and family vey high level? doubtful, because almost everyone I've ever known who's parent(s) work dont get home until at least 5-6PM, and many get home later. where does the WoW time come in? factor in dinner, shower, and family time, and you probably have a max of 2 hours to play each worknight, and thats assuming that you got home at 6:00.

Your expectations are misplaced, you'll find not all jobs are one in the same in hours, shifts and work responsibility. There was a guy I worked with early last year who boasted he only worked twelve days a month, and that was a busy time for him.

I played WoW on and off for four years. In that time i met people from all walks of life, and yes, including those with "very good jobs" and families. Meneldil is right, not everyone playing has no life, although those players are there as well.

[caravel]

Shogun: Total War.

[Decker]

Dragon Quest VIII on the PS2.

[Prussian to the Iron]

thats why I said almost, not just plain everyone. one of my best friends, again, plays WoW, and he's not what I'd call a loser. but he does spend too much time on it.

12 days a month? what was that guy doin? sign me the hell up!

[Splitpersonality]

Very soon I'm going to start a let's play (or rather a how to successfully fail) of FF7 - FF9 on the PS1 :o

Will update this thread with my youtube once the videos are up! :D

[Monk]

thats why I said almost, not just plain everyone. one of my best friends, again, plays WoW, and he's not what I'd call a loser. but he does spend too much time on it.

12 days a month? what was that guy doin? sign me the hell up!

Freelance work for a translation software and conference organization company. Was a really sweet gig.

[Prussian to the Iron]

hmm.......was he doin the software work or the linguistic work?

[Double A]

Dwarf Fortress!

Although I am spending more time on the org, TWC, and CFC than playing DF.

[Husar]

World of Tanks, so much that I almost wish I hadn't gotten a beta key yet... :help:

[Splitpersonality]

Applied for the beta, looks pretty good....


Stayed up all night playing Final Fantasy X on the advice of ATPG, I'm loving it but dreading having to start over and redo the 6 hours in I am :/

[Fragony]

Borderlands, something original for a change

[CountArach]

I just finished Mass Effect 2 with my save game from ME1... this was quite possibly the best ending to any game ever. I can't wait until ME3 is released.

[Monk]

I just finished Mass Effect 2 with my save game from ME1... this was quite possibly the best ending to any game ever. I can't wait until ME3 is released.

The music for the final mission is incredible, not that it isn't for the entire game but on that last run it is immensely well done.

[Hooahguy]

The music for the final mission is incredible, not that it isn't for the entire game but on that last run it is immensely well done.

Agreed! I'm actually considering buying the OST, its that good. I especially love the Illusive Man's theme.

[CountArach]

The music for the final mission is incredible, not that it isn't for the entire game but on that last run it is immensely well done.
Oh yeah no doubt. Clearly a huge amount of time has gone into making the entire last hour of gameplay a memorable experience.

I booted up ME1 again to replay it through as a paragon this time.

[Fragony]

Never played either because of Bioware fatigue. But the best soundtrack remains this anyway https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQTsj8c-RHM

[naut]

I just finished Mass Effect 2 with my save game from ME1... this was quite possibly the best ending to any game ever. I can't wait until ME3 is released.
Really?!?

I found it to be a somewhat of a crapsicle. Well, maybe not that bad, but I prefered their original concept art for what the ending would have looked like, I mean wow.

[CountArach]

Really?!?

I found it to be a somewhat of a crapsicle. Well, maybe not that bad, but I prefered their original concept art for what the ending would have looked like, I mean wow.
Seriously? I was on the edge of my seat and was amazed at how utterly ruthless the game was. There were a couple of very over the top bits, but for the most part it was a fantastic ending sequence.

[Jolt]

I'm back into playing Populous: The Beginning, this time trying to end the expansion "Undiscovered Worlds". It is awesome enough.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Seriously? I was on the edge of my seat and was amazed at how utterly ruthless the game was. There were a couple of very over the top bits, but for the most part it was a fantastic ending sequence.

Well, you have a few different things going on that people object to, even if I didn't really mind and still got caught up in the intended drama. MASSIVE SPOILERS:

The first is that the human reaper is really, really cheesy. There's no discernible reason for the reapers to make their ships look like their enemies - how was that thing going to look if it was flying through space? And why haven't we seen other reapers that look different from the standard one? Inexplicable and cheesy. But I was lost in the moment and let it slide.

The other thing, and there was an RPS piece about it, is that the game hypes up the mission as a suicide mission, but you are probably not going to die and most of your crew probably won't, either. I think most people spent the time to max out their crew loyalty (or just about) and got most of the ship upgrades (or just about). Then you'll have all or most of your team ready for the final confrontation. If you pay attention to what is being asked in each situation, it's relatively easy to figure out which crew members should do which part so they don't die. And so your suicide mission ends with you losing one or two or none of the crew. It was still a blow to the gut to lose Moridin for me, but that was because I was dumb (Moridin earlier even says he shouldn't "hold the line" but I left him holding the line).

Those two large, legitimate complaints aside, I thought the pacing and varied nature of the final mission was still fantastic and I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. Perhaps the game is relying too much on smoke and mirrors, but I still enjoyed it very much.

[Monk]

Well, you have a few different things going on that people object to, even if I didn't really mind and still got caught up in the intended drama. MASSIVE SPOILERS:

The first is that the human reaper is really, really cheesy. There's no discernible reason for the reapers to make their ships look like their enemies - how was that thing going to look if it was flying through space? And why haven't we seen other reapers that look different from the standard one? Inexplicable and cheesy. But I was lost in the moment and let it slide.

The other thing, and there was an RPS piece about it, is that the game hypes up the mission as a suicide mission, but you are probably not going to die and most of your crew probably won't, either. I think most people spent the time to max out their crew loyalty (or just about) and got most of the ship upgrades (or just about). Then you'll have all or most of your team ready for the final confrontation. If you pay attention to what is being asked in each situation, it's relatively easy to figure out which crew members should do which part so they don't die. And so your suicide mission ends with you losing one or two or none of the crew. It was still a blow to the gut to lose Moridin for me, but that was because I was dumb (Moridin earlier even says he shouldn't "hold the line" but I left him holding the line).

Those two large, legitimate complaints aside, I thought the pacing and varied nature of the final mission was still fantastic and I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. Perhaps the game is relying too much on smoke and mirrors, but I still enjoyed it very much.

Tackling the spoiler'd comments on Mass Effect 1 and 2, containing information about their ending, structure and theme.

If you have not played through Mass Effect 2, you've been warned:



This will sound like quite the cop-out but I fully expect a some amount of cheesiness in my sci-fi storytelling. Mass Effect as a series was built on moments of pure over-the-top greatness mixed with cinematic drama, that's what makes it great. It combined both styles unapologetically, fighting off human reapers and people being cloned inside plant monsters that mind-control colonists is just as awesome as riding in at the head of a human fleet to save (or damn) the entire social and political structure of a galaxy.

The RPS piece was very well written on the second point, and in a sense I agree. Everyone keeps telling you it's a suicide mission but that really isn't delivered very well in the game's narrative. You're encouraged to take as much time as you want in building your team and gaining their trust, and there's never much sense of urgency (until the IFF mission but by then we're already 2/3 in). It's more due to the fact that as a game, Mass Effect 2 has an incredibly bloated middle act during which you have unlimited time to do whatever you wanted. If the count down began after you boarded the collector ship instead of after you obtained the IFF, it would put the player in a position where he had to pick and choose who was gonna be loyal, since there's no way he could do all the missions without consequence. This is something i hope is fixed for ME3

As for what I'm playing: A mix of Mass Effect (like many other orgahs it seems) and Team Fortress 2. I'm also pondering starting an EUIII game at the start of August, played to completion before I start classes again. It's gonna be a rough Fall quarter. ~:(

[CountArach]

Well, you have a few different things going on that people object to, even if I didn't really mind and still got caught up in the intended drama. MASSIVE SPOILERS:

The first is that the human reaper is really, really cheesy. There's no discernible reason for the reapers to make their ships look like their enemies - how was that thing going to look if it was flying through space? And why haven't we seen other reapers that look different from the standard one? Inexplicable and cheesy. But I was lost in the moment and let it slide.

The other thing, and there was an RPS piece about it, is that the game hypes up the mission as a suicide mission, but you are probably not going to die and most of your crew probably won't, either. I think most people spent the time to max out their crew loyalty (or just about) and got most of the ship upgrades (or just about). Then you'll have all or most of your team ready for the final confrontation. If you pay attention to what is being asked in each situation, it's relatively easy to figure out which crew members should do which part so they don't die. And so your suicide mission ends with you losing one or two or none of the crew. It was still a blow to the gut to lose Moridin for me, but that was because I was dumb (Moridin earlier even says he shouldn't "hold the line" but I left him holding the line).

Those two large, legitimate complaints aside, I thought the pacing and varied nature of the final mission was still fantastic and I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. Perhaps the game is relying too much on smoke and mirrors, but I still enjoyed it very much.
Oh yeah I agree with the first point, though it didn't surprise me to find it in the game, and on the second point:
I guess that to anyone without Shephard's unique abilities it was a suicide mission and right down to the very last cinematic of him jumping into the ship, it is clear that a lesser person would have died by this point. I agree that I never truly felt like I would end up dying, and I understand that it is highly unlikely that many people do go that way, but at the same time I can see why the Devs would make it rather difficult to die. The whole point of Shephard is that he is too good for death. Personally only 4 of my crew members made it out alive (Jack, Mordin, Miranda and Samara, with Jack being the only one I actively used of those), but that was because I was curious to see what would happen if I intentionally didn't do all the loyalty missions and made a couple of bad choices.

My biggest criticism of the game was the whole meet-up-with-Liara-again-only-to-run-chores-for-her-and-find-she-doesn't-really-care thing. That quite annoyed me and it felt like a part of the game that was something of an afterthought.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Oh yeah I agree with the first point, though it didn't surprise me to find it in the game, and on the second point:
I guess that to anyone without Shephard's unique abilities it was a suicide mission and right down to the very last cinematic of him jumping into the ship, it is clear that a lesser person would have died by this point. I agree that I never truly felt like I would end up dying, and I understand that it is highly unlikely that many people do go that way, but at the same time I can see why the Devs would make it rather difficult to die. The whole point of Shephard is that he is too good for death. Personally only 4 of my crew members made it out alive (Jack, Mordin, Miranda and Samara, with Jack being the only one I actively used of those), but that was because I was curious to see what would happen if I intentionally didn't do all the loyalty missions and made a couple of bad choices.

My biggest criticism of the game was the whole meet-up-with-Liara-again-only-to-run-chores-for-her-and-find-she-doesn't-really-care thing. That quite annoyed me and it felt like a part of the game that was something of an afterthought.
Personally I don't have a huge problem with the mission not being as difficult as advertised, it's just I understand where the complaints are coming from about it. It would be cool to make some choices more meaningful (sacrifice Shepard to save the crew, or the crew to save Shepard?) but I think the ending was fine anyway.

As for Liara, I wonder if it was underdone to set up the DLC they're releasing. The whole thing felt pretty off, partly because I could only ever find 4 of the 5 parts of the logic puzzle and always got it wrong, and partly because Liara had a different voice actor. Really, them skimping on that section of the game makes me less interested in Liara-centric DLC.

[Hooahguy]

Personally, I think that the suicide mission was too short. I mean, you are attacking the Collector HOMEWORLD. You should have to fight through much, much, more. Plus I really like APG's idea of the "sacrifice one to save the others" idea. I also wish I could go more places in the Citadel.

[Crazed Rabbit]

Just finished the Dead Carnival campaign with VehoNex and some others. ON EXPERT.

Arghhhhhhhhh...the second to last level is so very difficult. The common do 20 hp damage each. Jockeys do 12 damage. Witches insta-kill.

And there's four more campaigns for the achievement...

:cry:

Per the ongoing ME2 conversation;
I too feel that letting you get away completely from the end without anyone dying robbed the supposed 'suicide mission' of a deeper emotion. Plus once again the whole sense of urgency in the midgame was undercut by the leisurely ability to do missions.

CR

[Meneldil]

Alien Swarm with my GF and a friend of her. She's not very good (at all) with video games and we're only 3, but we're about to finish it in normal. D'oh.

[Martok]

Europa Univeralis 3 Complete (plus the HTTT expansion)

Sword of the Stars Complete (plus the ANY expansion)

Medieval Total War/Viking Invasion with the XL Mod





Shogun: Total War.
:2thumbsup:

[drone]

Installed Quake 3 for some mindless FPS action. I almost forgot how much fun this game was, but my FPS skills have diminished somewhat. It's going to take me some time before I get effective with the railgun again. :no:

[Splitpersonality]

World of tanks beta.

Another night up until 10:20 in the morning, thanks for mentioning the game Husar :laugh4:

[Prussian to the Iron]

Bad Company 2 on PS3, Far Cry 2 on Xbox, Age of Empires (1!!!!) on PC,


Far Cry 2 is an amazing game still, but it was weird how it handled the part I just did; I was at like 31% completion, then several blackouts, cutscenes, and about an hour later, I'm at like 48%. still great.

Age of Empires, where can I start? Old school RTS, if you haven't heard of it you must be living under a rock, 10,000 feet below the surface of Death Valley. Still pretty damn difficult though.

[Hooahguy]

I picked up Mass Effect 1 yesterday. So far its fun, but very different to ME2. Combat took some getting used to, but Im working on it and soon I will be as good as I was in ME2. I made it through my first firefight in ME1 today without dying!

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

I picked up Mass Effect 1 yesterday. So far its fun, but very different to ME2. Combat took some getting used to, but Im working on it and soon I will be as good as I was in ME2. I made it through my first firefight in ME1 today without dying!

...

You played them backwards?

[Hooahguy]

Well, yea, because I didnt know how awesome the ME series were.
So Im playing ME1 now and then I will import my ME1 Shep into a new ME2 game.

[Tiberius of the Drake]

EB-always good
Freedom Fighters-PS2-good somewhat oldie
POP:TFS-360-Not as good as the original Sand of time trilogy games but still good
Mercenaries 2-360-good random nonsensical destruction

[Jolt]

Installed Quake 3 for some mindless FPS action. I almost forgot how much fun this game was, but my FPS skills have diminished somewhat. It's going to take me some time before I get effective with the railgun again. :no:

Why don't you play Quake Live (www.quakelive.com) then?

It's what everyone's playing nowadays, including me.

[Xiahou]

I recently got ME2 on a deal for $25, but realized I didn't keep my save game when I upgraded to Windows7. :oops:

So I went back and rolled up 2 new characters in ME1. A male "paragon" soldier and a female "renegage" infiltrator. After playing both through the intro mission, I decided I was having a lot more fun playing as my infiltrator, so I stuck with her. I haven't played the game in a long time and I forgot what fun it was. Another benefit is that I got to play the Bringing Down the Sky DLC for the first time. It was a great mission for a renegade leaning character. :yes:

[Hooahguy]

Speaking of ME1 and 2, has anyone ever tried not going primarily by the paragon/renegade choices? There is a thread over at the official forums that challenges people to not choose paragon/renegade choices just because they are paragon/renegade in order to get higher p/r scores.
I took up this challenge, so now I play through making choices that I would do, not just because they are p/r. So sometimes I'll comfort someone, the other times I'll throw them out of windows. :evilgrin:
And if I'm in a conversation and Ive been a good guy so far but Im getting impatient, Ill just punch the guy because he annoys me. :yes:
Makes the game much more personable.

[Splitpersonality]

The problem I've found with playing games as if I'm in them is I'm too nice a guy to too many people :laugh4:

[Xiahou]

Well, I tried to set my characters background as someone who would tend to make "renegade" choices. Grew up on the mean streets of Earth, was the only survivor of a mission gone horribly wrong, ect. It's not hardcore roleplaying, but I try to make decisions that I think the character I set up would make- tempered heavily by what I think would be fun as well. I try not to let what alignment points I get for it dictate what response I make.s

For example, during the Bringing Down the Sky mission, you have an opportunity to negotiate with some of the enemy and if during that, you choose to kill them you get renegade points. For my character, I imagined she would have no interest in even talking to these guys after seeing them massacring prisoner- so when he asked to speak with me, I just shot him in the face with my sniper rifle and killed him, but since I didn't do the dialogue first, I didn't receive any alignment points. :smile:

There's been several occasions where choices earned me some paragon points too, but by and large it's renegage.

[CountArach]

Well, I tried to set my characters background as someone who would tend to make "renegade" choices. Grew up on the mean streets of Earth, was the only survivor of a mission gone horribly wrong, ect. It's not hardcore roleplaying, but I try to make decisions that I think the character I set up would make- tempered heavily by what I think would be fun as well. I try not to let what alignment points I get for it dictate what response I make.s
Yep I do this too - I have in mind a character that I want to play as and then follow what he/she would do. At least I did in my first play through. In my second (and current) one I am consciously taking the opposite choices to see what I missed.

I'm playing through ME1 as a Paragon Adept and getting back into Dragon Age.

[Monk]

I'm playing through ME1 as a Paragon Adept and getting back into Dragon Age.

For hilarious fun, roll out on missions with an entire team of biotics (Liara, you as adept and any secondary biotic like kaiden or Wrex). You can juggle entire squads of enemies once you get leveled up a bit ~D

[seireikhaan]

Giving another run through on Dark Messiah: Might and Magic. Must say, its incredibly fun going for an assassin build, slicing throats of orcs and necromancers and soldiers... too bad zombies can't be assassinated. :oops:

[frogbeastegg]

POP:TFS-360-Not as good as the original Sand of time trilogy games but still good
For a while I thought I was the only person who played it! Nice to see another.

I haven't posted anything in here since April so I guess I have some catching up to do. Hmm :tries to remember:

Star Ocean: First Departure PSP. Otherwise known as 'mash X to win'. Easiest combat in any JRPG ever. Didn't need any special moves, magic, tactics or brains. Heh, I didn't need to look at the screen to win most battles! I merely hammered X for basic attack over and over and let the auto-targeting do the rest. Boring.

Pokemon pearl, DS. First pokemon game I played since silver. I dumped it for the same reasons: charmless, tedious new pokemon, a concept being stretched further than it needs to by the insertion of junk, and above all boring gameplay. The original pokemon gave you a variety of types and attacks early on and demanded you use them. In this one all I did was use basic non-elemental attacks with all of my pokemon because they don't learn anything offensive and elemental until stupidly high levels. YAWN.

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, PS3. Ok. Dull combat and decent jumpy stuff with nice scenery. The monsters in the final portion of the game are a real 'what were they thinking?!' moment. Fast, close combat monsters in a cover and shoot gun game? Blergh. Fine, break all of your mechanics and ruin your game if you must, Naughty Dog, but don't expect me to like it.

Uncharted 2, PS3. The first game but bigger, prettier, and more polished ... and with more and stronger fast melee monsters dumped on you at the end. Gah! It's like Naughty Dog saw the millions of complaints about that in the first game and threw a hissy fit.

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands. Fantastic. Best entry in the series since Sands of Time.

Monkey Island 2: Special Edition. Weee! As good as I remember it being.

Lost Odyssey, xbox 360. Enjoyed it tremendously except for the one optional boss included in the DLC. It kills your entire party in the blink of an eye, is vulnerable only to a single cheesy tactic which you'll probably have to look up on the internet, and - the real bug bear - forces you to walk through 20 minutes of identikit corridors each time you die because there's no save point! GAAAAH! No, I haven't killed it. No, I don't think I will bother. Yes, it annoys me that there is a single thing in all of this 75 hour JRPG that I have not done - I wanted full completion because I like the game so much.

Finished my Baldur's Gate replay. Tremendous game, a real PC classic.

I started a campaign as the Macedonians on EU: Rome and made decent progress ... then got bored.

Currently playing: Metro 2033, xbox 360. It's a mixed bag. Some parts are good but not fantastic, other parts make me grind my teeth and wish I could shelve it. The bugs don't help matters. I had all of my gasmask filters disappear on reloading a game, not once but twice. The first time left me struggling badly on a lengthy surface section, the second time meant I couldn't go into the optional areas of 2 different levels. Some loot won't pick up - typically the same gasmask filters you desperately need thanks to the game forgetting you have them. One checkpoint save dropped me back further than it should have. Enemies can sometimes spot me from the opposite side of a level when I'm sneaking in full dark. Some achievements should have unlocked and did not. It's taken me 3 weeks to reach 2/3 done because for every part I like there's another I don't or a bug. Yet I can't bring myself to give up totally.

Soon: either Lego Harry Potter or Alhpa Protocol, depending on my mood once Metro is complete. Maybe Victoria 2 if I pick it up; I shall see how buggy and/or incomplete it is first. Buying a couple of paradox games near release has taught me caution.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Pokemon pearl, DS. First pokemon game I played since silver. I dumped it for the same reasons

Booo, Gold and Silver were great, the ones after were tedious!

[pevergreen]

Starcraft 2
Warcraft 3
Alien Swarm
Just Cause 2
GTA 4
Batman: Arkham Asylum