The "What are you playing?" topic.

[Fragony]

GTA: Chinatown Wars. Awesome, I never really cared for the 3d versions personally, to have this on my DS is a godsend. Better then GTA and GTA 2, and it completely annihilates anything from the 3d era. Why so serious? Truly amazingly sharp cell shaded graphics, no slowdown, how the hell did they pull this of? Glad they did.

[frogbeastegg]

I'm playing Enchanted Arms, the first JRPG released on the xbox 360. It's a bit of a marmite title; plenty of people loathe it with the burning of a thousand suns, others love it like the fluffiest, cutest hamster in the world. I quite like it but don't love it, which breaks my marmite analogy. Gah!

The battle system is quite similar to that of the HoMM series. They are turn based, set on a grid, your 4 characters on one side, the enemy party on the other. Position, the correct use of the correct power, and other such tactical thoughts are a must if you want to succeed. It's not another entry from the school of "hold down X to spam basic attack!" In an excellent move, you can fully automate a battle and speed the animation up; this makes passing the random battles relatively painless. The automate AI does a good job of handling the reasonably complex battle system. Battles even have opera music, just like HoMM.

If you have the right sense of humour the game's quite funny. The idiot protatgonist telling the idiot heroine that she's high-maintenace after saving her from her latest bid to win the "Stupidest character in a JRPG" award mostly made up for the urge to bang my head against a brick wall, for example. The story itself is a load of mad guff about a boy with an arm which breaks enchantments, god-like evil robots flying around the sky, and ... er, I dunno. Thankfully the plot knows it's inane and pokes fun at itself from time to time. This must be the first JRPG I have played where the idiot protagonist is called an idiot by everyone he meets, instead of being passed off as a cool, brooding loner with a heart of gold. Poor Atsuma, his best friends keep telling him he has a single brain cell.

It's a launch era game so it's not overly pretty and has parts which feel clumsy and clunky. The menu systems could have used more thought as they force the player to make more button presses than is necessary at certain points. The entire game lacks polish. The English voice acting ranges from acceptable to nasty. The music and sound is entirely forgetable, except for one area where they had the sound of a drill boring into rock playing in the background. That made me want to mute the TV. I was in that area for over an hour.

Yeah. Ok but not great.

[Jolt]

How well do you know your world?

[frogbeastegg]

Finished Enchanted Arms with the good ending. The final 1/4 of the plot was completely

Prompted by the success of co-op Resi 5, I started co-op Gears of War with my boyfriend. We're playing on hardcore. So far it's ... uh ... um. Grey, brown, more grey, more brown, grey and brown. Enemies who look irritatingly similar to the AI allies when played in split screen mode. Awful, awful characters and plot which doesn't even manage to reach the highs (lows?) of enjoyable cheese. The weapons so far don't feel very fun to use. The grenades are especially blergh - I do not want to stand there vulnerable like a big fat target with steroid muscles twirling the thing around my head until the game decides to let me throw it; I want to aim and throw quickly! The cover system feels clumsier than I'd expect from a game based around the concept. Ho hum. I shall try some more in singleplayer mode; if the opening levels are representative of the rest of the game we shouldn't waste our time with it.

I intend to replay Viking: Battle for Asgard. This time I'll try hard mode.

[Monk]

Gears of war. (the first)

I decided to pick up the original, i found a great deal on Amazon and payed under $30 for the collector's edition of Gears 1, while the normal edition is like $40!

For all my about Gears 2, i have to actually say it is a supperior title in comparison to its predesesor. I think the biggest change between 1 and 2 is the pacing. 2 never feels like it moves too fast, yet its pace is expertly tied into the plot (even though the plot is nothing special). You never feel like a task is too much to overcome, yet each of them present an "OH " moment that really gets your heart pumping.

In comparison, gears 1 feels like you're at a petting zoo. New enemies aren't introduced often enough to make you feel like the game is really after you. In gears 2, you're facing a new type of enemy every time you turn around. In gears 1 i went ages just fighting regular drones and grenadiers. Gears 1 feels too slow, and I have to say the moments where you have to fight Locust Berserkers is downright annoying and not fun. I am very happy they were never included in gears 2.

[frogbeastegg]

Hehe, Monk, should I accuse you of copying me?

Glad I'm not the only one who is finding Gears of War to be decidedly underwhelming. I am surprised you feel the same; is GoW2 really that much better?

[Monk]

Hehe, Monk, should I accuse you of copying me?

Glad I'm not the only one who is finding Gears of War to be decidedly underwhelming. I am surprised you feel the same; is GoW2 really that much better?

Honestly I'm just as surprised as you are. Being a college kid in the 18-24 range who owns a 360, I'm the very target that GoW focuses on.

Gears 2 is a good game imo, but i am hesitant to suggest it to you if you are not already a fan of the series. The GoW series is about as mainstream as you can get in modern gaming and frankly, if you didn't like the first I highly doubt that the second will sell you on the series. At its heart, you have to have fun with the core mechanics before you can enjoy all the shiny bells and whistles. That being said...

I have to say I love Gears 2. Yeah I blasted it to in my previous postings, but in retrospect I was a bit too hard on it.

There are some really sublime moments (like the levels that take place inside a giant worm and the monstrous bosses like the fish from the depths.) that really challenge you, while throwing you out of your element. You fight Brumaks and Reavers as if they were going out of style and in the first mission you end up face to face with a Grinder, something I've still not seen in the first game nearly four acts in. In GoW2, when I ended up in the main hall of a broken down hotel facing waves of Locust from all sides and it was the first mission, i knew what kind-of game i was playing.

Gears 2 is a game I will be playing for a good while, thanks in part to Horde mode multiplayer, but if you don't feel this is the kinda game you'd enjoy then don't be afraid to stay away. It's the Halo 3 argument: It's insanely popular but it's not for everyone.

[Fragony]

Isn't for me, too slow. I like to fight my way forwards instead of being pushed back. I can understand the appeal and they look and sound amazing, tried to like them.

[Craterus]

Been playing some of my old PS1 games. Final Fantasy 7, again. Driver (easy on the whole but very frustrating at points) and, inspired by Wrestlemania, the original Smackdown game.

Along with that, Pro Evo 2009 on the Become a Legend mode.

And a whole lot of FM, of course.

[CountArach]

Finally loaded up FEAR 2 and I'm loving it.

[Husar]

Did I already mention Drakensang?

Also played some ETW but Drakensang is better and more polished, even though the two aren't really comparable.

[CountArach]

Just bought Madworld today on the Wii and wow... my heart is pumping and I was laughing the entire time...

[Decker]

Walked into a store and stumbled upon The Legend of Zelda Orcarina of Time and Perfect Dark. I ended up getting Zelda. Brings back some good 'ole memories

[Monk]

Walked into a store and stumbled upon The Legend of Zelda Orcarina of Time and Perfect Dark. I ended up getting Zelda. Brings back some good 'ole memories

It's hard to go wrong with Zelda, especially with OoT.

As for me I'm still playing gears 2.

Recently picked up Guitar Hero: Metallica and am loving it. I also got recently Bioshock and have been running through that for the first time, and just.. wow. If you never played it I highly suggest it. I love the story.

[Decker]

It's hard to go wrong with Zelda, especially with OoT. :2thumbsup

Never can! And I'm keeping an eye out for Majora's Mask and Mario 64

[Warluster]

I'm currently play E:TW, M2TW and modding R:TW. I'm in a Total War'ish mood. Also got Hearts of Iron 2 Doomsday and Armageddon plus the complete Dawn of War pack for $30! THen proceeded to buy a shiny, new laptop and am in the process of playing my 100 or so games again with new graphics. Its very satisfying pushing all the graphics sliders to Ultra High

[frogbeastegg]

Finished Viking. Hard mode wasn't that difficult; if anything I found this playthrough slightly easier than my first. I breezed through areas I remember having trouble with last year.

Still got Gears of War to play. I haven't managed to convince myself to boot it up after the underwhelming first go.

[FactionHeir]

Did I already mention Drakensang?

Also played some ETW but Drakensang is better and more polished, even though the two aren't really comparable.

I got it back when it came out (the German version that is). I even ran the wiki for it at wikia, which was a big success personally, but eventually I lost a bit of steam on it because the game was simply too linear for replay value (I replayed it 3 times mainly to fill up all wiki entries with the team). Not getting any recognition from the devs wasn't great either.

Good concept, bad implementation.

As for my currently playing, still hanging around Witcher: Versus (because its a flash game) and Red Alert 3 + Uprising (finished both, beat everything etc. Nice thing was getting Uprising for free off the competition). Played a bit of C&C3 and Generals the last few weeks too just for nostalgia, but mainly to get all achievements and beat everything under the toughest difficulties.

I'm currently wondering if Demigod is worth getting.

[CountArach]

Getting further and further into FEAR 2 and the game is keeping me addicted. The atmosphere is tense, the AI is rather god most of the time and I find myself shooting at shadows during some of the scenes.

Thank god for Slow-mo.

I also played a bit of Guitar Hero IV last night.

[Gregoshi]

I finished Diablo Sunday night. I didn't really enjoy it much at all as it is quite dated. Way too much clicking. For some odd reason, I find myself a bit anxious to start Diablo II. It seems to be a huge leap forward in the interface & features departments. Oblivion on the Xbox has been on hold for two plus weeks as my son won't let me get near his Xbox - which has led me to start thinking about getting Morrowind on the PC.

[Xiahou]

I finished Diablo Sunday night. I didn't really enjoy it much at all as it is quite dated. Way too much clicking. For some odd reason, I find myself a bit anxious to start Diablo II. It seems to be a huge leap forward in the interface & features departments. Oblivion on the Xbox has been on hold for two plus weeks as my son won't let me get near his Xbox - which has led me to start thinking about getting Morrowind on the PC.

Why not Oblivion on the PC? To me, Oblivion (and Morrowind) is fairly unappealing in their retail form. With the right mods, they're both pretty good games though. Trouble is that there are no mods on the console versions....

Just bought Madworld today on the Wii and wow... my heart is pumping and I was laughing the entire time...

Did you finish MadWorld? I've been playing that on and off for a few days now and I really do like it. That sort of originality doesn't come along every day.

I recently found WiiMusic for a $20 discount, so I decided to give it a whirl- and since then, it's been taking up a big chunk of my gaming time. I'm pretty horrible at it, but the act of trying to arrange songs in different styles and playing them so that it all comes together as something that doesn't make my ears bleed, has been quite engrossing.

[CountArach]

Did you finish MadWorld? I've been playing that on and off for a few days now and I really do like it. That sort of originality doesn't come along every day.

I'm determined to finish FEAR 2 first before I go any further with Madworld. I love the gameplay though. So simple, so brutal and so hilarious

[frogbeastegg]

I finished Diablo Sunday night. I didn't really enjoy it much at all as it is quite dated. Way too much clicking. For some odd reason, I find myself a bit anxious to start Diablo II. It seems to be a huge leap forward in the interface & features departments.

Give it a try. I played Diablo II first and I found I couldn't get on with the original when I tried it. It felt very primitive and limiting.

Alternately, try Titan Quest. It's the same idea but with an ancient Greek setting, more character options and modern graphics/interface. Get the gold edition so you also get the expansion pack; it's very cheap these days.

[Gregoshi]

Why not Oblivion on the PC? To me, Oblivion (and Morrowind) is fairly unappealing in their retail form. With the right mods, they're both pretty good games though. Trouble is that there are no mods on the console versions....

Well, I've logged at least 130 hours on Oblivion Xbox and don't relish the thought of starting over again. Also, several people here have put in good words on Morrowind, therefore I can get an Oblivion type experience on the PC without re-hashing stuff I've already done. If I go the PC route, I guess I'll look into the mod that are out there.

[Gregoshi]

Give it a try. I played Diablo II first and I found I couldn't get on with the original when I tried it. It felt very primitive and limiting.

Alternately, try Titan Quest. It's the same idea but with an ancient Greek setting, more character options and modern graphics/interface. Get the gold edition so you also get the expansion pack; it's very cheap these days.

Thanks for the recommendation froggy. I'll look into Titan Quest. The price certainly sounds right. The only reason I have and am playing Diablo/Diablo II is that I picked up the warchest for $12US on the second to last day of Circuit City's liquidation sale.

[Crandaeolon]

I'm currently wondering if Demigod is worth getting.

Me too. The couple of reviews that are out already are pretty gushy. Anybody tried this yet?

[frogbeastegg]

Thanks for the recommendation froggy. I'll look into Titan Quest. The price certainly sounds right. The only reason I have and am playing Diablo/Diablo II is that I picked up the warchest for $12US on the second to last day of Circuit City's liquidation sale.

I thought of another one for you. Sacred: Gold. Note, not Sacred 2 or Sacred in a non-gold flavour. The sequel was very buggy at release, and still sounds as if it has a way to go. The expansions and additional content in Sacred Gold boost the game up from the unremarkable experience it was at release, and turn it into something which gets a lot of love around the internet.

When the slow drip, drip, drip of positive comments wore me down I got a copy from good old games. Very cheap, fully patched and up to date in the initial download, no DRM, no additional interfaces like steam or impulse; just a game ready to go. You can probably buy the gold edition on a disc from somewhere if you don't like downloads.

[Gregoshi]

Thanks again froggy. I'll put it on my list, but no more recommendations please. My brain will lockup due to too many choices and I won't buy anything. (you should see me walk into a video rental store and try to select a movie - brain lock!!).

[CountArach]

Just finished FEAR 2 this afternoon and I found the ending a little abrupt, but I felt that it was still one of the best plot-lines of any game I have played in a long time.

[Monk]

Gears 2 horde mode:


Beat my previous best with a group last night and took it to 22 rounds before we got overwhelmed. There were some tight spots, including one section where it was me all alone hiding behind a Boomshield against twenty locust. All i can say is thank COG for the Gorgon pistol (semi-auto burst pistol)

I've also been playing a lot of Left 4 Dead versus, more than usual trying to get ready for the DLC. Can't wait to play Dead Air in Versus mode.