The "What are you playing?" topic.

[AggonyDuck]

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

[naut]

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

[Andres]

GTA IV (PC version) and absolutely loving it

Then again, I'm a bit of a GTA fanboy

[Crandaeolon]

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

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

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

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

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

[Monk]

GTA IV (PC version) and absolutely loving it

Then again, I'm a bit of a GTA fanboy

NIKO MY COUSIN!

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

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

[frogbeastegg]

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

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

:froggy gains 250XP:

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

[Fragony]

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

[frogbeastegg]

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

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

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

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

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

[CountArach]

Playing PBEM games of Campaign Waterloo and Campaign Jena-Auerstaedt

[Crazed Rabbit]

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

CR

[Fragony]

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

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

[frogbeastegg]

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

Yes. The secondshooting section is so much easier that it's not funny; it's like they accidentally put them in the game in the wrong order. The asteriod section runs on a semi random script; some attempts at it are easier than others due to the mix of rocks it sends.

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



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

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

[Monk]

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

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

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

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

[johnhughthom]

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

[Monk]

Call of Duty: World at War.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Devil May Cry 4 next post.

[frogbeastegg]

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

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

Devil May Cry 4 next post.

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

[seireikhaan]

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

[Fragony]

Siren: Blood Curse. Dear god this is scary



leave me alone!! bad zombie!

[Monk]

Devil May Cry 4.

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

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

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

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

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

You'll fight each boss twice.

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

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



Mass Effect: Bring down the Sky

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

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

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

[frogbeastegg]

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

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

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

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

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

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

[Crazed Rabbit]

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

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

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

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

CR

[Hooahguy]

id thought id review Crysis Warhead/Wars again.

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

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

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

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

[Hooahguy]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[CountArach]

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

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

[Husar]

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

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

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

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

CR

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

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

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

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

[Meneldil]

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

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

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

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

[seireikhaan]

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

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

My interest is piqued. I think I'm gonna buy it. Do I need buy both the simulator and the upgrade, or do I just buy the upgrade?

[CountArach]

My interest is piqued. I think I'm gonna buy it. Do I need buy both the simulator and the upgrade, or do I just buy the upgrade?

I dunno, I just got the basic game. I would assume you have to get both, but you might want to ask here:
http://geopoliticalsimulator.freefor...eneral-f1.html

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

[Fragony]

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

congratulations on a job too well done.

[CountArach]

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