The "What are you playing?" topic.

[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 Some of the gameplay mechanics are outdated by comparison to FFXIII, others are far better.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 or (sometimes) interest in playing many of the games you do, BUT I really enjoy reading your commentary/analysis of the games you play.

[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 or (sometimes) interest in playing many of the games you do, BUT I really enjoy reading your commentary/analysis of the games you play.

Glad my ramblings are of entertainment to someone.

[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,

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

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.


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...
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.

[CountArach]

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

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.