The "What are you playing?" topic.

[Lorenzo_H]

1) MTW
2) STW
3) RTW

I notice that alot of people that were playing M2TW seem to have gone back to playing other games.

Wow you're a real Total War fanatic aren't you?

[Sigurd]

The only game I have active on my computer is Battlefield 2.
I wish I had more time playing it... but alas, RL is demanding quite a lot of my spare time these days.
Hence it can take 1 or 2 weeks between each session.
The consequences is getting a little rusty BF2 skills. It usually takes 1 or 2 rounds getting creamed before I finally make some decent stats.

The upside is, the game never gets boring. The best buy I ever made.
I had a fun session this weekend on a local server (ping of 34) with relatively few players on the Wake Island 2007 map. All players averaged around 100 points and I received a couple of badges and ribbons in that one round.

[ajaxfetish]

Most of my time's gone into Guildwars lately (minesweeper when the net is down ).

In the event that other people are around, there's Phase 10, Uno, Catchphrase, Cranium, Risk, frisbee . . .

Ajax

[Sensei Warrior]

MTW:VI (slightly tweaked my own personal homebrew) Nov in Early. Mucho fun turning digitized enemies into digitized enemies full of arrows.

Mechwarrior 4 You get to pilot around in a walking tank carrying more implements of destruction than you can shake a stick at turning other walking tanks into molten slag.

StrongholdA castle builder. Gotta love it. You get to build Castles. This is potentially the only drawback of MTW. I can't design what my Castles look like, and the Castles in MTW are so ugly.

I haven't played Settlers in so long I forgot which version I own. But I liked it alot.

I spend equal time tinkering with MTW tweaking and whatnot but I don't think thats considered playing the game.

[Decker]

I am currently playing:
Combat Missions: Afrika Korps: Very fun and quite intense at most times to very exciting and exhilarating at others.
and Barbarossa to Berlin: I've never taken such a beating from any AI like this game has administered to me before!!! DAMN Kv2's
Call of Duty 2: Playing on a realism mod is extremely more statisfying, especially when that guy you just shot in the chest will actually die instead of wasting half of your clip. If you have played the game, you will know what I mean.
FIFA '06 for the PS2: I dislike the game mechanics as they seem unrealistic and "phony" at times. The manager mode is my favorite/best part of the game. I have already gotten fired from coaching the Houston Dynamo to a horrid season(I won like 3 game out of 15, and it wasn't even mid-way through the season yet lol) to coaching Wycombe FC from League 2 in England to mid-table of League 1!! Sooo fun that manager feature is. I also fixed a tourny my team was in We took first place
M2TW: Im usually broke almost all of the time. It kinda resembles my wallet, weird huh?!

[Bijo]

Have been playing Sniper Elite (http://www.sniperelitethegame.com/). A game that requires you to have much patience. The enemy AI is brutally efficient even if set to Easy AI.

But the realism portrayed is pretty cool. It's really satisfying to line up carefully and squeeze off a shot to an enemy's head from a large distance with a sniper rifle, as you then witness the bullet's traveling with the bullet cam, plunging itself into the target, as a piece of flesh (and bone?) is ripped out of him.

Take into account the considerations one must take for a single-shot kill: gravity, distance, wind, background noise, elevation, etc. Not to mention to carefully protect the flanks/rear of your shooting position with tripwire grenades for instance, as you work alone.

Relocation is very important too: a few shots from one place and you need to move your ass fast to another spot. As said, the enemy AI is sometimes ruthlessly efficient and may just flank you sneakily when you think you're safe, deploying their own snipers to pick you off.

The tension that builds up when you get closer to your goal (for instance picking off an important officer, or destroying a convoy, or to give cover fire to an ally).

Sniper Elite is one of those games that seems so under appreciated. While it has some annoying slowish elements and some anti-climaxes, it's certainly a good game and the only one of its kind :)

[frogbeastegg]

Finished Shadow Hearts 22 hours, over two months. Nice game, but by the final hours I was sick to death of the judgement ring. It was a nice idea at the start, and through much of the game, but by the end I wanted to be able to painlessly spam my characters' attacks a la nearly every other console RPG out there, rather than having to focus carefully on what was happening and time my button presses to the sweaps of the ring. It was a new kind of monotonous, and one whiuch couldn't be mitigated by my favourite tactic of reading a book while spamming attacks, and only checking the screen now and then to see if I need to heal yet. It's going to be a long time before I start the sequel; I don't want to see another judgement ring for a very long time.

Next up is Shadow of the Colossus. I need a short little game to play between now and Okami's UK launch, so starting 60 hours of Baten Kaitos or something wouldn't be sane. The game's had much adoration on this forum (waves to Fragony ), and when I found a mint condition copy of the special collector's edition staring me in the face for less than the price most places are charging for the standard edition it seemed like a hint. Not sure what I'll make of it. On the one hand I like games which try to be different, on the other I'm a frog who has never liked boss battles.

[caravel]

Mechwarrior 4 You get to pilot around in a walking tank carrying more implements of destruction than you can shake a stick at turning other walking tanks into molten slag.

That was the last Battletech game for me, ever. The poor excuse for a plot, combined with the iffy FMVs and annoying gameplay really did it. In terms of physics, controls and game balance it was better than MW3 which was a poor effort. Neither is a patch on MW2 though of course, especially the 3dfx Interactive Edition that i got with my first Voodoo 1 4MB card. There is something about that game that is far better than the later releases: Ambience...

[Sigurd]

Alright...
I just installed a new game on my laptop.
Europa Univeralis III

My first experience with this series.
Simple but OK graphic, lots of intrigue and diplomacy.
I like the feature of getting your enemy to annex land to you as a price of peace compared to the TW variant (what you take is what you get).

Vassalage is also a great feature I didn’t find useful until I was attacked by several nations at once (being France I found myself waging war on 3 front lines) and my vassals/Allies took completely care of 1 of my front lines.

Also noticed that this is not a fast pace game and you are in danger of spending too much time in front of your screen.

[naut]

Bought Battle For Middle Earth 2, personally I think it's terrible. Incredibly tedious, buggy and overall boring. Will be returning it from whence it came.

[Sensei Warrior]

That was the last Battletech game for me, ever. The poor excuse for a plot, combined with the iffy FMVs and annoying gameplay really did it. In terms of physics, controls and game balance it was better than MW3 which was a poor effort. Neither is a patch on MW2 though of course, especially the 3dfx Interactive Edition that i got with my first Voodoo 1 4MB card. There is something about that game that is far better than the later releases: Ambience...

There was a plot? MW4 the only one I own, and I use it purely for wanton destruction purposes. Of course it is being phased out in leiu of a much more efficient stress-relief game, "Shadow of Rome".

[Kekvit Irae]

MW4 did, indeed, have a plot, which ties into the BattleTech universe. Unfortunately, it was marred by bad acting. MW4: Mercenaries was VASTLY superior to MW4 in every way. No lame Live Action videos, and an open-ended game. Plus I love how you can take a Jade Falcon Nova Commander as a bondsman. Much love to the Clanners.