The "What are you playing?" topic.

[Cute Wolf]

Playing again CNC 3 Kane's wrath, now on brutal skirmish against 3 brutal steamrolling opponent as the minimum enemies

[Hooahguy]

got 2 games: Crysis and Rainbow 6 Vegas 2.
im still deciding about R6V2, for reasons i will say, but i will talk about Crysis.

Crysis-
Crysis is so much better than Crysis Warhead.
the reason? its a real sandbox game. Warhead was more linear, thats probably why i didnt like it as much, but i will say, running like heck from a chopper and a dozen KPA soldiers, low on ammo and no more rockets is a BLAST. im having so much fun, running through the brush, diving under water, jumping into the random truck to try to evade the enemy, and i especially love sneaking up to a KPA patrol with cloak enabled and hitting them with a shotgun. pure SWEETNESS.

strangely enough, Crysis runs better than Warhead did.
the AI is intelligent, and i can no longer run and gun, as i did with Warhead. running and gunning will kill me. for sure.

anyways, i strongly recommend Crysis to anyone who has the system to play it.


Rainbow Six Vegas 2-
this is a much more mixed review.
i got this because it was only $5 on steam, so i said "why not?"
well, when it finally finished downloading, i booted it up, and when i got to the single player laoding screen, it froze, then crashed. i tried again, and it gave me a BSOD. i lowered my sound acceleration, which made it work, but by now i was having second thoughts.
then i got into the game, and it truly is a wonderful game, intense, hard, and very enjoyable. i still get crashes, and once i got the infamous "General Protection Fault" error, but for now it went away.
multiplayer is also very fun, and the ACES system and the ranking system is also very interesting.
i especially love how you can trip up your character any way you want to.

so for me, its a love-hate relationship. when it works, its a blast, when it doesnt, i just go back to Crysis.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

I currently have too many games.

I got EU3 Complete for Christmas and have been spending too many hours a day on it. Currently playing as France (if you can't beat the blob, join them) in 1600 and I've kicked England out of France, diplo-annexed Orleans and Provence, am about to gain Antwerpen and the other Flanders province as a core (stupid, stupid Brabant), and am currently beating up rebels who are angry that I sent 100,000 Frenchmen to their death in the Alps against Milan, who have mostly unified Italy (though I took Nice, Parma, and the one south of Parma from them, the clods). Also I went Protestant during the reformation, which was a lot of work. Had to shift into narrow-mindedness to get the missionaries to get rid of the religious turmoil modifier. The good news is I'm a world leader in government and production technology, and only actually behind in Naval research.

Other games I've gotten, through the steam sale:
Defense Grid: The Awakening - for $2.50 I figured I'd let RPS sell me on this as a fun TD game. Kind of enjoyed the demo, who knows if I'll ever get to playing it.
Torchlight - never played Diablo (don't hurt me) and only $5... again who knows if/when I'll play it.
Crysis + Warhead - $13, wouldn't have gotten it if it wasn't for the MechWarrior mod for it that just went public beta. Only played a minute of actually game, sadly you need to set up a Gamespy account to play Crysis multiplayer (and in this day and age, such a shame). Looks beautiful.

[Prussian to the Iron]

trying to play fallout 3 GOTY on my PC, but this disc came all scratched to hell. so i gotta return it to best buy (how did it get scratched when it is new and ive had it for a grand total of 2 days???) tomorrow. hopefully it'll be a ood one, and ill get to finally play what should be a great game, after loving morrowind and oblivion, and playing this for an hour or so, i am gettin pretty excited.


other than that, I'm about to beat the RDA (soldier) side of J.C's Avatar: The Game. I think I know enough to write a basic review, but I should play both sides before I do that. great game, I encourage everyone to get it. i got it for 20 bucks off for some reason, so i'm happy with that. didfnt get to play the multiplayer yet.


still playing Modern Warfare 2. after repeatedly cursing at my TV because of ninja-knife people who always kill em repeatedly, I finally made my own knife class. my first game with it I got 20-someot kills and 5 deaths. needless to say, I love it. still tryin to get the ACR, and that will be a grim day indeed for MW2 multiplayer.




For, when an ACR comes standard into my hands every spawn, all hell will break loose, and the first two horsemen, Conquest and War, will be unleashed upon the world of man, and they shall cower under the one named "The Spartan III", and they shall ask him for mercy, and he shall rebuke it with a resounding execution before killing his next victim. And so it was, that the Anti-Fun, "The Spartan III", wrought a path of destruction and death before his wake, as men and machines fell before his endless barrage of metal and fire. The earth and it's societies crumbled into dust, as the ACR turns all in it's path into skeletons, and the AT-4 turns all in its path to dust. And the baby Jesus of old descended unto him, and asked why he destroys all in his sight. And so "The Spartan III" responded with a Scorpion missle to the statue 'O Cristo Redentor', and so the Lord on high shut down the Modern Warfare 2 servers for all eternity, for they had unleashed on themselves the apocalypse, which would spread to the mortal world if not for their closing.

And so ended the Modern Warfare 2 servers, until finally the Jaws of Oblivion were opened anew, and the horsemen of the apocalypse did descend upon mankind, and "The Spartan III", now known as "Prussian Iron" after a 700-point name change, stepped through the gates, and so mankind did end under a hail of ACR's and AT-4's, and the few that hath survived were enslaved as metal-workers for "Prussian Iron"s ACR's.

[Kekvit Irae]

I'm replaying the Game of the Decade.

As a sociology major, this made me smile and laugh.

[Meneldil]

Trying Swords of the Stars Ultimate + Argos Shipyard.

Can't say I'm really excited as of now. I'm kind of lost, can't find the AI and the early game seems to be mostly about waiting. Not as bad as HoI though, and I'm pretty sure I'll like it at some point (I'll start the tutorials today, that will probably help).

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Meneldil - what race are you playing as? Humans have the fastest start (plus easiet FTL drive in my opinion). If you're finding yourself waiting too much, just decrease the number of stars in the map and face humans. You'll have more than enough incoming. :D

[Meneldil]

What is FTL? I was playing as the Protoss-like race. I guess I just have to get used to the game. Unlike Sins of a Solar Empire it's one of these games that requires a bit of training.

[frogbeastegg]

Started Silent Hill: Homecoming. I picked it up a while ago on the theory that, although I don't like survival horror much, I enjoyed Dead Space and Resident Evil 5 and this game's meant to be quite similar. Plus it was stupidly cheap.

I'm getting close to halfway through. So far I like it. No more, no less. It's all quite average.

The current section (police station) might make my opinion dip thanks to some questionable design decisions blobbed together in one section. Not sure how many more attempts I shall bother with; the difficulty spike feels cheap and I don't like the game enough to continue repeatedly dying Just Because(TM). :sigh: One more play session. If I don't get past the station then I think I will lose what wobbly interest I have.

[Beskar]

What is FTL? I was playing as the Protoss-like race. I guess I just have to get used to the game. Unlike Sins of a Solar Empire it's one of these games that requires a bit of training.

Faster than Light.

I started the game as humans, but their downside is that they only operate on nodes, while other races seem able just to fly in from anywhere.

If I was to change something about the game, it would be that you can build a colony anywhere. Not because it is get you any resources or anything, just so all my ships don't get stuck on corners and in dead-ends, etc as humans.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

What is FTL? I was playing as the Protoss-like race. I guess I just have to get used to the game. Unlike Sins of a Solar Empire it's one of these games that requires a bit of training.

FTL, as Beskar said, is Faster Than Light. Each race has a different mode of travel, which significantly changes how they play. I'm trying to remember how I learned the game, but I'd definitely recommend you play as humans and against humans to get the basics down.

[Fragony]

Fallout 3 is kicking my butt all over the place, man this game is pretty damn hard

[Ser Clegane]

Finally got around to start playing Mass Effect during the holidays.

Great fun - like the KOTOR games.

Bioware games seem to be the only ones that I frequently find enough motivation to actually finish. I guess I should order Dragon Age

[johnhughthom]

Playing through Mass Effect myself to get a save to continue on ME2, they are still saying you can import your save right?

Ser Clegane, if you are enjoying Mass Effect and generally enjoy Bioware games you will love Dragon Age.

[Prussian to the Iron]

Fallout 3 is kicking my butt all over the place, man this game is pretty damn hard

i brought it to my main Vista computer, ad oddly it's working. there tends to be some lag in Rivet city where there is a bunch of stuff happening at once, but not too much.

I think I'm about 50% done throught the main quest, but I'm not sure. I'm trying to be as un-knowing as possible about the game other than if I get stuck.


when I'm done with the MQ, I think I'll do mothership zeta, and then either point lookout or broken steel (BoS).


Operation:Anchorage was a letdown. I thought it would be longer. still cool though, and it got me Power Armor trainign at like level 8-9. so now I'm running around with Tesla armor, courtesy of some enclave soldiers who were nice enough to donate 8 fingers, a gatling laser, some missiles, some laser rifles and pistols, and their armor. nice folks when you get to know em

great game. only thing I hate about it is that companion recruiting relies on Karma level. I got my karma all the way down almost doing the "Power of the Atom" (blowing up megaton) for -1000, but then I couldn't get Jericho, he being dead. than I went to recruit Fawkes, and he's only for good karma. so now I'm gonna go donate money to churches, pure water to hobos, that sort of thing.

[Hooahguy]

reinstalled ETW


but i also installed Darth Mod Ultimate Commander which makes it a billion times more fun,

[al Roumi]

great game. only thing I hate about it is that companion recruiting relies on Karma level. I got my karma all the way down almost doing the "Power of the Atom" (blowing up megaton) for -1000, but then I couldn't get Jericho, he being dead. than I went to recruit Fawkes, and he's only for good karma. so now I'm gonna go donate money to churches, pure water to hobos, that sort of thing.

I know you just said you want to be as un-knowing as possible but...

If you want a sidekick with no karmic qualms, you do have 2 options... Jericho (Ghoul bodyguard in Underworld) and a Robot [whosenameican'trememberightnow] (roaming outside the Robot factory).

Also, I suggest getting Broken Steel before any of the other dlc, if not for the quests then at least for the xp extension. I capped out before completing the main story having done a few side quests.

Also, i hope you have been playing your char whilst logged in to WindowsLive! because I didn't until i got the dlc and then discovered that I couldn't play the dlc with a character not started through windowslive!

[Prussian to the Iron]

i'm logged in, but it wont sign in to the actual online part. its offline live. so im assuming all my achievements are for anught :(

and i thought charon was the ghoul? ive seen the robot near robco, RL-3. for 1000 bucks though i cant afford it. i could for like 500.


and i have GOTY with all DLC, so I'm good with that thing.


BTW: at 24/1820 megabytes transfer on my MAG beta on ps3! this will take 4ever!!

[CountArach]

I've gone back to Civ 4: Warlords with the Total Realism mod. This is one of the few games that I have always gone back to.

[Dodge_272]

Football Manager 2010 =)

[Xiahou]

Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes on the DS. If you liked PuzzleQuest, you pretty much have to like this.

[Meneldil]

Cool, another game set in HoMM5 universe. Is Godric the one we get to lead in HoMM5? Cause seeing the good old honorable dude as a japanime-12 year old Naruto is kind of disturbing though :p

[Craterus]

FM2010, Assassin's Creed 2, FIFA 10.

More to come too

[Fragony]

Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes on the DS. If you liked PuzzleQuest, you pretty much have to like this.

owwwwwwwwwwwww that looks great.

[frogbeastegg]

Finished Silent Hill: Homecoming. Seen all 5 endings and got all achievements. The gameplay never rose above ok level, and the plot made less sense the more I uncovered.

Think I shall play The Saboteur next; it was a birthday present and so it would be rude not to start it next. Looks like a good game and I expect I shall like it.

[naut]

Football Manager 2010 =)

Same. Playing as Derby. Coming 2nd after 19 games.

[frogbeastegg]

Saboteur is in the running for some early game of the year awards.

Most embarrassing stereotypes. Doesn't matter what nationality the character is supposed to be it's all bad. If the Irish main character were any more stereotyped he'd be dressed in green and advertising Lucky Charms on St. Patrick's Day.

Most cringe-worthy accents. I thought the Italian guy was French, the French sound like refugees from 'Allo Allo', the Irish is 100% cheap Guinness advert, and the British one sounds like heaven knows what. Oh, and the Germans. Just ... the Germans. Ugh!

The achievement confetti award for handing out over 1/5 of its awards in under 2 hours of opening tutorial gameplay.

The face/palm award for daftest story set up. The opening shows a random French chappy walking up to the player character, whom he has never met before, and asking him if he wants to blow up Nazis. In the middle of a busy club. Which is full of gestapo and German officers.

The 'second place' award for releasing after a title which does similar things but better. Climbing, free missions, and massive living cities with historical flavour were done better by Assassin's Creed II.

The "Whoops!" award for clumsy controls. I didn't actually want to dive off that 7 storey building. Or punch that soldier. Or run over those civilians. Or lob that grenade at my feet. But I did want to throw that guard off the tower (and didn't manage to) and stealth kill that other guard (and didn't manage to)

Best use of colour. Occupied zones are black and white with rare splashes of colour for things like swastika banners. Areas where liberty is starting to return are in full colour.


Heh. Most players say that the first couple of hours are by far the worst. I can say that the game's improving now that it's opening up and the barrage of dire cutscenes is easing up.

I also played the Bayonetta demo today. That wins the 'staring in stunned incomprehension at the screen' award hands down, and takes silver and bronze too! Insanity is entirely inadequate to describe it; it reaches new heights of Japanese crazy-game and then builds a skyscraper on them, stands at the very top, and stretches onto tip-toes.

[Martok]

Note to self: Avoid Saboteur.

I also played the Bayonetta demo today. That wins the 'staring in stunned incomprehension at the screen' award hands down, and takes silver and bronze too! Insanity is entirely inadequate to describe it; it reaches new heights of Japanese crazy-game and then builds a skyscraper on them, stands at the very top, and stretches onto tip-toes.

If it wasn't so (relatively) lengthy, I would incorporate that entire quote into my sig. Truly, a brilliantly hilarious metaphor.



As for myself, I'm still playing Armada 2526 when I can.

It's been a decent 4x space strategy game so far, if a bit "cold". The overall mechanics and (especially) AI are solid, but the various alien races are a little thin on flavor and personality. Gameplay-wise, the combat remains the main weak point for me -- numbers seem to be more important than tactics, and the battle timer is just way too short (and cannot be modded to be longer, to my dismay). Colony and fleet management is fairly easy & straightforward, however, and the UI is intuitive enough that one can pick up how to do things relatively quickly.

One of the biggest (and most pleasant) surprises is that engaging in diplomacy is usually a worthwhile endeavor; similarly, the strategic AI is easily among the best I've ever seen in a strategy game. It's not the "best" as in "able to conquer the world" per se, but as in "human-like". The computer-controlled races aren't overly myopic (for instance, they're generally smart enough to know that just because you have a lightly-defended colony close to their borders, it doesn't mean it's a good idea to attack it), plus they seem to have a pretty good sense of their strategic situation (e.g., if they're clearly losing a war, they won't stubbornly fight on for no good reason -- they *will* sue for peace....and they'll be quick about it, too).


So thus far, my experience continues to be generally positive. Another patch is due to be released soon, probably/hopefully in the next week or two, and is supposed to fix/improve a number of things, including the automation of moving population between colonies (the micromanaging of which, currently, can admittedly be something of a chore). I don't know that Armada would make my all-time favorites list -- at least not yet -- but I definitely don't regret spending my money on it.

[naut]

I was playing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. but I got to Pripyat and well, quit. It's too irritating and frustrating to be any fun.

Gripes:

• Armour gets destroyed so easily and it just becomes useless. Expensive to replace or repair (with repair mod)
• Can't carry much stuff, unless you mod the game.
• Weapons get destroyed too quickly, annoying in regards to stuff like the Vintar or unique items, if they are damaged GAH! Repair mods fix this somewhat.
• Getting stupid quests upon entering an area, no I do not want to clear out the bandit camp, I'm just travelling from Agroprom to the Bar. I don't care for your Garbage quest!
• Red Forest. Getting there is tedious and by the time I'm there my armour is damaged, so I'm susceptible to radiation, of which there is ridiculous amounts and I lose health and theres no quick command for anti-rads so I have to scroll through my inventory to reduce rads, then I get attacked and I'm in my inventory screen and I can't fight back so my armour gets destroyed and the cycle continues.
• Pripyat is so badly designed it's irratating. Snipers everywhere. Monolith guys everywhere. Trying to explore is no fun.

Otherwise it's an awesome and thrilling game. Mods for reducing/removing damage for armour/weapons would be good, I'll have a search for them and then if I find one I'll go back to it.

[CountArach]

Playing HistWar: Les Grognards Demo II (Only available to those who pre-ordered...)... a vast improvement on the bug-ridden first demo and this looks like it could be an awesome game.