The "What are you playing?" topic.

[frogbeastegg]

I don't think we've ever had one of these. May as well give it a try. The idea is simple: say what you're playing, what it's on, and what you think. Progress is optional.



Currently playing:
PS2: Shadow Hearts. About half way after 10 hours. Quite a good RPG, this. A bit different to the usual JRPG; it's got a dark atmosphere, a good(!) random encounter rate, and an interesting battle system which requires concentration and more participation from the player than blindly hitting attack over and over.

Wii: Red Steel. Still dawdling through the opening. Fun. Over the top action movie silliness with great controls.

PSP: Lord of the Rings: Tactics. I've got about 2 hours of play recorded; I'm only playing on my lunch hour when I don't want to read a book. It's nice enough, the missions are bitsized so I can typcially play two per lunch break.

And I am going to finish one of them before I so much as try another game! Even if I get new ones. Even though I don't get much playtime, so it takes ages to finish anything. No more flitting from game to game: I'm going to finish what I start, either playing till the end or until I have had enough and am no longer enjoying myself.

[AntiochusIII]

Yay, first after-first-post post!

Civilization IV: Warlords. I'm on a roll with Saladin, playing the easiest difficulty (just learning the ropes, hey!). Despite it being the easiest difficulty, it's not easy for me at all. (Then again, I suck at every game I play.)

I'm playing quite expansionist, keep pushing on settlers after settlers in the hopes of widening my Empire as far as possible -- it's a Pangaea map, so gaining as much land as I could is a priority of mine, despite the drawbacks in maintenance/research. But have been avoiding war so far except for the underhanded Aztecs (damn that Montezuma) attack when I overextended my military. Took me the whole Middle Ages to stop and get back at them.

Right now I'm in Industrial. A very, very fun game. And the Great Walls are beyond awesome.

I've also been getting back on EU2. Awaiting the new AGCEEP with extreme anxiety. Come on, guys! Where's the new map you promised?

[TosaInu]

Red Orchestra Ostfront.

MTW VI SamWars.

[drone]

All on PC:

MTW:VI, Viking Era Irish campaign, in the mop up stage, should be done in 10 turns or so. Also have a Early Era Danish campaign from a while back, may get around to that after my Irish campaign is done.

I also have Dawn of War I may go back to for some fun, short games, while M2TW and Warhammer MoC are sitting in their boxes, awaiting a newer, faster PC (and patches ).

[Andres]

I made the mistake of re-installing GTA:San Andreas.

Now, if you want to excuse me, I just unlocked San Fierro and I have 50 snapshots to take

[Geoffrey S]

The odd few turns of Alpha Centauri, when I've got the time. When I get back home in the weekend I may go for a few years as Epirus in EB.

[Bava]

Just finished a Dawn of War MP game. I lost (which is bad ). To a good friend (which is even worse ). I think im going hear the story of his "Victoraaaaay!!!" every time we meet for approx. 3 months....

Currently on my HD: DoW, Mount&Blade (with The Last Days mod), EB.

[econ21]

Solo play - Civilization Warlords - got drawn back into Civ4s "just one more turn" addiction thanks to the Arena. Got quite far playing Elizabeth on Prince, but then I lost a town to a back stab due to a lack of a military. I also messed up by building the National Epic in a different town from my Great Library and other Wonders. So now I want to start afresh and do things right this time.

I still have a very promising NWN2 campaign on hold - just arrived at Neverwinter - but that's an experience I am holding on for a while so I can savour it. I don't really have enough leisure to do it justice

Multi-player (co-operative with son) - Dawn of War Dark Crusade. 2v2 skirmishes with the AI are fun; the AI works like a real team so it is hard to beat. By contrast, it's a yawn playing solo.

PBM - M2TW HRE campaign in the Throne Room. I should be playing M2TW solo as well, as its a much more satisfying experience than Civ4. But not nearly as addictive. I confess I'm also waiting for the patch, as learning about the 2H and shield bugs has dampened some of my enthusiasm for the battles (knowing they could be better).

[CountArach]

Ummm... Rome Total War, because I refuse to play M2TW until someone mods it to fix many of the gameplay problems I have.

Doom 3 off and on...

That's really it.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Blast from the past style: Armed and Dangerous

[lars573]

PC: M2TW, Cossacks 2: European wars, Far Cry. Plus I just beat FEAR.

Xbox 360: Just beat Splinter Cell:DA, Superman Returns, Oblivion DL content (Theives den and Wizard tower), trying to finish Quake 4. I'm going to pick Star Trek:Legacy again soon.

PS2: Every once in a while I'll pick up SoC and kill a Collosi.

[Martok]

During the workweek: Birth of the Federation, Romulan campaign, Normal difficulty, Domination mode. Have conquered the back-stabbing Cardassians and the "couldn't take a hint to leave me alone" Klingons. Am in a cold war with the self-righteous Federation, and the Ferengi keep demanding tribute even though I overpower them on a scale of at least 4:1.

On the weekend(s): MTW/VI - Pocket Mod, Fatamid campaign, Normal difficulty, GA mode. No progress yet beyond the first few years of building/training -- Caravel kept releasing updated versions of the mod, and I was compelled by my neurosis to keep downloading/installing them (thus nullifying the progress I'd made previously). This is going to be the latest update for a while, though, so I finally feel free now to play how I will.

[doc_bean]

Mostly Fire Emblem: the sacred stones (GBA), my second playthrough, started right after I finished it the first time.

I still have to finish the final chapter of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, but I'm taking a break from that now.

[drone]

During the workweek: Birth of the Federation, Romulan campaign, Normal difficulty, Domination mode. Have conquered the back-stabbing Cardassians and the "couldn't take a hint to leave me alone" Klingons. Am in a cold war with the self-righteous Federation, and the Ferengi keep demanding tribute even though I overpower them on a scale of at least 4:1.

Maybe I should mix in a little BotF with my MTW. It's been a while since I've played. I wonder if it will run on my girlfriend's laptop. Never tried it on a widescreen, do you know if this works?

[Zenicetus]

WoW -- unfortunately way too much time on this, but my S.O. is infatuated with it, so that's our social gaming time together.

M2TW -- most of the non-WoW, solo gaming hours spent here.

GalCiv2 -- pretty much through with this, but I still go back for a short campaign or two when I want a break from M2TW.

[Martok]

Maybe I should mix in a little BotF with my MTW. It's been a while since I've played. I wonder if it will run on my girlfriend's laptop. Never tried it on a widescreen, do you know if this works?

I have no idea, unfortunately - I've just got a plain old 17" CRT monitor. I've *heard* it works okay on flatscreens and laptops, but that the image might not go all the way out to the edges (since the resolution is fixed at 800x600).

[Sjakihata]

Playing on PC:

Call of Cthulhu
M2: TW (just got it the other day)
EU III demo

[Husar]

Well, have only a PC so:

Medieval 2, quite a great game IMO, even with it's flaws.

Anno 1701, very fun game, takes a lot of time though, you basically populate some islands in the new world and produce goods to advance your population from pioneers through settlers and citizens to merchants and finally aristocrats who pay a lot more taxes. To get all the stuff you need for your population to advance, you will need to open settlements on other islands and build ships to bring the products to your main island. Most of the game is peaceful but wars are also possible with three types of ships able to fight(two merchant versions without cannons) and some land based soldiers. The combat is pretty basic but the focus is on building up and trading with AI players, foreign cultures etc. Well, got carried away in explaining, on to the next

Gothic 3, most of my playing time is spent with the other two at the moment but from time to time, i still play some Gothic 3, a few more patches really couldn't hurt the game, but it can be fun nonetheless.

Supreme Commander Beta, playing this now and then if I have some time and there is a joinable game since open games are not that many, the players always want to start quickly it seems and often joining doesn't work or you get kicked because it has already started.

Lately I also started Silent Storm Sentinels again and may play a few other older games or new demos from time to time(like Mount&Blade).

[TevashSzat]

I'm kinda split between medieval 2 total war kicking turkish ass as milan or playing starcraft brood war on battle net, siege tank + goliath = pwnage

[C-F]

Well, I 'play' in 3 'categories' pending time and mood

a) just got Anno 1701 and am delighted and having fun - one just has to have plenty of continuous time to make it worth while...
EU III demo (yesterday) - no comment yet - full version due end of the month
RTW TE5.1, finished 2 campaigns( Rome and Britons) and thinking about starting a 3rd (was waiting for gold, but that won't happen now... )

b) I've 'shelved' Caesar IV ; M2TW for the time being awaiting patches, games with lots of potential but currently falling short...
So its Pharaoh, Baldurs Gate 2, and Victoria


c) for 'fillers' or 'quicky's' I do Minesweeper, Kyodai Mahjongg, and Flight Simulator X

PS, forgot 4th category : bought but not installed/played yet - Oblivion; Age of Empires 3; Freelancer; Emperor rotmK; Quicken Willmaker plus...

[Motep]

Pc: Age of Empires II (again...), Rome, and Star Wars: something or another (I cant find it)

PS2: Mercenaries: playground of destruction (again), Final Fantasy X (again), Final Fantasy VII (again), and Scarface: The world is yours. All you do in that game is sell cocaine...and kill people...and do missions where you kill people to protect people, deliver goods, smuggle, all with our favorite foul-mouther Cuban.

[Joolz]

Hmm.. What I play?

Mostly PC:

TES IV - Oblivion: It's addicting, but it won't last long without the amazing mods out for it. The only thing I hate the most is that the incredibly lousy animations

M2TW: My favorite Strategy/Turn-based game. I hated the numerous flaws it had, but because of the mods fixing these problems it's been great.

Source games (DOD:S, CS:S etc) - Great online games, despite of all the 9 year olds cursing and saying "suxsors, noobs, and hacks etc."

Dark Messiah: Play it from time to time. Mainly because of the unbelievable combat system. But the games really short. Hoped it was like Oblivion.

Warcraft 3: Play online Battle.net (Kodo Tag!)


I REALLY want to play World of Warcraft, I haven't bought it yet. Hear that Buring Crusades expansion came out for it. I fear that it will suck my life away, but I still want to play it...

[BigTex]

Playing Rome, with EB .8 installed, amazing. Oblivion from time to time. Used to play M2TW hard, but have given that up until the patch comes.

Currently waiting for Vanguard Saga of Hero's to be released though. Looks like a very nice game, from what I've read.

[Nikpalj]

I've finally, finally got my hands on the Julian May's "Pliocene Exile" / "Galactic Milieu" SF saga so I'm spending a fair share of my free time making my way through this, not much time left for games I'm afraid.

Like some posters above, for my strategic fix I also play the excellent Birth of the Federation but in my case with the (heavenly) Ultimate Dominion Wars 2 mod installed.

In my current game I'm leading the mighty Dominion forces... and as I've been lucky enough to have the game randomly generate my empire on the edge of the map, so far I'm bordering only the ever tedious Federation.

Our diplo relations have more or less crumbled to dust during the last 10 turns because of a contested minor race solar system into which we've both been stuffing credits, hoping to make them join *our* side. I've managed to get them into a military alliance with my empire, but right after that the Feds had built up a starship range-enhancing Starbase in the system closest to the neutral zone dividing our empires (meaning that they can now invade me) and have 3 light cruisers chillin' out there.

I didn't like that at all, so I've (strictly as a show of force!) brought my 18 attack fighters, 18 battlecruisers and a dominion battleship to hang out on our side of the trenches...

I'm currently waiting for their next move while stuffing some more creds down the contested minor race throat. And when the little people finally DO join me, the Dominion armada is going to power up their warp engines and cross the neutral zone right into Federation space... to teach them a lesson in obedience.

"Victory is life!!!"

The other strategy game I'm playing is the fantastic Jagged Alliance 2 with the community made 1.13 mod installed. It brings into play hundreds of new weapons and many, many game enhancing tweaks, some quite extensive.

The most fun & enjoyment I get out of the game is when I have to defend the towns that I've liberated because my mercenaries get to fight together with 20 to 30 A.I. controlled militia forces against equal number of enemies. This means some huge, yummy turn based firefights with a lot of people, weapons, options and lots of tactics involved. And that's all I ever wanted from a squad level turn based strategy!

I'm considering getting my hands on either MTW: VI in order to try out that Samurai mod for it (got sick of vanilla MTW a long time ago and most mods are made for MTW:VI which I don't own)... or Starshatter space sim / tactical capital starship combat game because it looks way too cool to ignore - a kind of Total Air War or dumbed down Falcon 4.0 of space sims!

Or maybe both of them?

Being a Star Trek nut that I am, for my action fix I'm dividing my time between Starfleet Command: Orion Pirates with the Universe at War (TNG) mod and Starfleet Command 3 with the Generations at War mod installed.

Both games are in many ways similar but each one tends to have something the other doesn't - and those mods really make both of them shine... specially GaW because vanilla SFC3 is simply put, crap.

[Fragony]

Currently playing Lost Planet, not that great imho, but as filler it will just have to do. Also playing Wario:Smooth Moves and Zelda:The Twilight Princes.

[Arciel]

Eh, I'm playing CyberNations, OGame, NationStates, AstroEmpires and Earth 2025. All are browser-based games.

I'm also playing Master of Orion 3 for the PC.

[Grey_Fox]

Splinter Cell: Double Agent on the PS2.

[FesterShinetop]

c) for 'fillers' or 'quicky's' I do ...Kyodai Mahjongg...

Thats one been on my HD for years now, great game to play when you got some time to kill!

For the rest I am playing too much games at the same time (as usual... ):

CSI 3 dimensions of murder: short and fun, got it for free, propably finish it today...
Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers: got it two days ago, still have to get into it
F.E.A.R.: Awesome game, I only dare to play in daylight...
Civilization IV: Only when I got plenty of time ahead... so damn addicting...
X3 Reunion: Flying around once in a while, very relaxing game...
Medieval II: Working on giving the Scots world domination
GTR and GTL: For the occasional racing kick

Other games I still have on my HD that I still have to finish are SWAT 4, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, LOTR Battle for Middle Earth II.

I need more time...

[pevergreen]

Right

Browser Games:
Ogame
Cybernations
For King and Country
lastknights
3 different Mafia Games

PC Games
M2TW
RTW Vanilla
RTW RTR 6.0 gold
LOTR BFME2 Rise of the Witch King
Star Wars Battlefront 2
DND Online Stormreach
Motorcross Madness 2
Rise of Nations: Thrones and Patriots
Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne
Neverwinter Nights Plat Edition
Baldurs Gate
Baldurs Gate 2
Icewind Dale (all three with all xp packs)
Homeworld 2
Master of Orion 3
DND Dragonshard
Total Annihilation
Delta Force: Xtreme

Gamecube:
Battalion Wars
Mario Party 4 (with my sister)
NHL Ice Hockey 2001
Dark Summit
Smash Brothers Melee!
Some Wrestling game
Soul Caliber 2

XBOX 360
Dead or Alive 4
Topspin 2
Fifa 07
Project Gotham Racing 2 or 3 whatever it is.

Thats all i can think of right now.

[SwordsMaster]

Well, these are the ones currently installed on my laptop, which is all I play...

Hitman: Blood Money: Great episode in the Hitman series, recommend it to all of you. Best graphics and physics so far too...

Medieval II: Total war: What can I say you already don't know yourselves? Keeping this mostly for PBMs and an occasional attempt at Otumba

Victoria: An Empire under the Sun: The strategy game to rule them all, IMO, playing this less and less as deadlines come closer and free time gets sparser.

Hearts of Iron 2: Doomsday: Great fun. Faster and intenser than Victoria. Also gets boring quicker, once you have established yourself firmly...

Europa Universalis III (demo): Well, there is a whole thread for this one, but it looks promising, and I enjoy toying with the text files to produce funny combinations. The Papal states getting the Calvinist reform is my favourite so far. Looking forward to the full game.

Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne: Can't beat it for atmosphere and film noir dialogue. After beating this 6 times on different machines, need to beat it again to see the good ending... Also recommend trying out the Cinema 2.0 mod. It adds some funkier visuals, although the film noire gets intermixed with Miami Vice somewhat...