The "What are you playing?" topic.

[Meneldil]

Alien Swarm with my GF and a friend of her. She's not very good (at all) with video games and we're only 3, but we're about to finish it in normal. D'oh.

[Martok]

Europa Univeralis 3 Complete (plus the HTTT expansion)

Sword of the Stars Complete (plus the ANY expansion)

Medieval Total War/Viking Invasion with the XL Mod

Shogun: Total War.

[drone]

Installed Quake 3 for some mindless FPS action. I almost forgot how much fun this game was, but my FPS skills have diminished somewhat. It's going to take me some time before I get effective with the railgun again.

[Splitpersonality]

World of tanks beta.

Another night up until 10:20 in the morning, thanks for mentioning the game Husar

[Prussian to the Iron]

Bad Company 2 on PS3, Far Cry 2 on Xbox, Age of Empires (1!!!!) on PC,


Far Cry 2 is an amazing game still, but it was weird how it handled the part I just did; I was at like 31% completion, then several blackouts, cutscenes, and about an hour later, I'm at like 48%. still great.

Age of Empires, where can I start? Old school RTS, if you haven't heard of it you must be living under a rock, 10,000 feet below the surface of Death Valley. Still pretty damn difficult though.

[Hooahguy]

I picked up Mass Effect 1 yesterday. So far its fun, but very different to ME2. Combat took some getting used to, but Im working on it and soon I will be as good as I was in ME2. I made it through my first firefight in ME1 today without dying!

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

I picked up Mass Effect 1 yesterday. So far its fun, but very different to ME2. Combat took some getting used to, but Im working on it and soon I will be as good as I was in ME2. I made it through my first firefight in ME1 today without dying!

...

You played them backwards?

[Hooahguy]

Well, yea, because I didnt know how awesome the ME series were.
So Im playing ME1 now and then I will import my ME1 Shep into a new ME2 game.

[Tiberius of the Drake]

EB-always good
Freedom Fighters-PS2-good somewhat oldie
POP:TFS-360-Not as good as the original Sand of time trilogy games but still good
Mercenaries 2-360-good random nonsensical destruction

[Jolt]

Installed Quake 3 for some mindless FPS action. I almost forgot how much fun this game was, but my FPS skills have diminished somewhat. It's going to take me some time before I get effective with the railgun again.

Why don't you play Quake Live then?

It's what everyone's playing nowadays, including me.

[Xiahou]

I recently got ME2 on a deal for $25, but realized I didn't keep my save game when I upgraded to Windows7.

So I went back and rolled up 2 new characters in ME1. A male "paragon" soldier and a female "renegage" infiltrator. After playing both through the intro mission, I decided I was having a lot more fun playing as my infiltrator, so I stuck with her. I haven't played the game in a long time and I forgot what fun it was. Another benefit is that I got to play the Bringing Down the Sky DLC for the first time. It was a great mission for a renegade leaning character.

[Hooahguy]

Speaking of ME1 and 2, has anyone ever tried not going primarily by the paragon/renegade choices? There is a thread over at the official forums that challenges people to not choose paragon/renegade choices just because they are paragon/renegade in order to get higher p/r scores.
I took up this challenge, so now I play through making choices that I would do, not just because they are p/r. So sometimes I'll comfort someone, the other times I'll throw them out of windows.
And if I'm in a conversation and Ive been a good guy so far but Im getting impatient, Ill just punch the guy because he annoys me.
Makes the game much more personable.

[Splitpersonality]

The problem I've found with playing games as if I'm in them is I'm too nice a guy to too many people

[Xiahou]

Well, I tried to set my characters background as someone who would tend to make "renegade" choices. Grew up on the mean streets of Earth, was the only survivor of a mission gone horribly wrong, ect. It's not hardcore roleplaying, but I try to make decisions that I think the character I set up would make- tempered heavily by what I think would be fun as well. I try not to let what alignment points I get for it dictate what response I make.s

For example, during the Bringing Down the Sky mission,

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

you have an opportunity to negotiate with some of the enemy and if during that, you choose to kill them you get renegade points. For my character, I imagined she would have no interest in even talking to these guys after seeing them massacring prisoner- so when he asked to speak with me, I just shot him in the face with my sniper rifle and killed him, but since I didn't do the dialogue first, I didn't receive any alignment points.

There's been several occasions where choices earned me some paragon points too, but by and large it's renegage.

[CountArach]

Well, I tried to set my characters background as someone who would tend to make "renegade" choices. Grew up on the mean streets of Earth, was the only survivor of a mission gone horribly wrong, ect. It's not hardcore roleplaying, but I try to make decisions that I think the character I set up would make- tempered heavily by what I think would be fun as well. I try not to let what alignment points I get for it dictate what response I make.s

Yep I do this too - I have in mind a character that I want to play as and then follow what he/she would do. At least I did in my first play through. In my second (and current) one I am consciously taking the opposite choices to see what I missed.

I'm playing through ME1 as a Paragon Adept and getting back into Dragon Age.

[Monk]

I'm playing through ME1 as a Paragon Adept and getting back into Dragon Age.

For hilarious fun, roll out on missions with an entire team of biotics (Liara, you as adept and any secondary biotic like kaiden or Wrex). You can juggle entire squads of enemies once you get leveled up a bit

[seireikhaan]

Giving another run through on Dark Messiah: Might and Magic. Must say, its incredibly fun going for an assassin build, slicing throats of orcs and necromancers and soldiers... too bad zombies can't be assassinated.

[frogbeastegg]

POP:TFS-360-Not as good as the original Sand of time trilogy games but still good

For a while I thought I was the only person who played it! Nice to see another.

I haven't posted anything in here since April so I guess I have some catching up to do. Hmm :tries to remember:

Star Ocean: First Departure PSP. Otherwise known as 'mash X to win'. Easiest combat in any JRPG ever. Didn't need any special moves, magic, tactics or brains. Heh, I didn't need to look at the screen to win most battles! I merely hammered X for basic attack over and over and let the auto-targeting do the rest. Boring.

Pokemon pearl, DS. First pokemon game I played since silver. I dumped it for the same reasons: charmless, tedious new pokemon, a concept being stretched further than it needs to by the insertion of junk, and above all boring gameplay. The original pokemon gave you a variety of types and attacks early on and demanded you use them. In this one all I did was use basic non-elemental attacks with all of my pokemon because they don't learn anything offensive and elemental until stupidly high levels. YAWN.

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, PS3. Ok. Dull combat and decent jumpy stuff with nice scenery. The monsters in the final portion of the game are a real 'what were they thinking?!' moment. Fast, close combat monsters in a cover and shoot gun game? Blergh. Fine, break all of your mechanics and ruin your game if you must, Naughty Dog, but don't expect me to like it.

Uncharted 2, PS3. The first game but bigger, prettier, and more polished ... and with more and stronger fast melee monsters dumped on you at the end. Gah! It's like Naughty Dog saw the millions of complaints about that in the first game and threw a hissy fit.

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands. Fantastic. Best entry in the series since Sands of Time.

Monkey Island 2: Special Edition. Weee! As good as I remember it being.

Lost Odyssey, xbox 360. Enjoyed it tremendously except for the one optional boss included in the DLC. It kills your entire party in the blink of an eye, is vulnerable only to a single cheesy tactic which you'll probably have to look up on the internet, and - the real bug bear - forces you to walk through 20 minutes of identikit corridors each time you die because there's no save point! GAAAAH! No, I haven't killed it. No, I don't think I will bother. Yes, it annoys me that there is a single thing in all of this 75 hour JRPG that I have not done - I wanted full completion because I like the game so much.

Finished my Baldur's Gate replay. Tremendous game, a real PC classic.

I started a campaign as the Macedonians on EU: Rome and made decent progress ... then got bored.

Currently playing: Metro 2033, xbox 360. It's a mixed bag. Some parts are good but not fantastic, other parts make me grind my teeth and wish I could shelve it. The bugs don't help matters. I had all of my gasmask filters disappear on reloading a game, not once but twice. The first time left me struggling badly on a lengthy surface section, the second time meant I couldn't go into the optional areas of 2 different levels. Some loot won't pick up - typically the same gasmask filters you desperately need thanks to the game forgetting you have them. One checkpoint save dropped me back further than it should have. Enemies can sometimes spot me from the opposite side of a level when I'm sneaking in full dark. Some achievements should have unlocked and did not. It's taken me 3 weeks to reach 2/3 done because for every part I like there's another I don't or a bug. Yet I can't bring myself to give up totally.

Soon: either Lego Harry Potter or Alhpa Protocol, depending on my mood once Metro is complete. Maybe Victoria 2 if I pick it up; I shall see how buggy and/or incomplete it is first. Buying a couple of paradox games near release has taught me caution.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Pokemon pearl, DS. First pokemon game I played since silver. I dumped it for the same reasons

Booo, Gold and Silver were great, the ones after were tedious!

[pevergreen]

Starcraft 2
Warcraft 3
Alien Swarm
Just Cause 2
GTA 4
Batman: Arkham Asylum

[frogbeastegg]

Booo, Gold and Silver were great, the ones after were tedious!

Were they your first pokemon games, by any chance?

I suspect that the series formula means that the one you play first is always the best. All others annoy you with the things they change, and the things they do not. I mean, how many times do I haver to get all the gym badges? I've already won master rank. Why not build on that? Why do I have to unlock the same abilites each time? Why should I be happy that my new electric pokemon a lame looking cat thing instead of a pikachu? Why is this pokemon a different type to what it was originally? It's death by papercuts.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Were they your first pokemon games, by any chance?

I suspect that the series formula means that the one you play first is always the best. All others annoy you with the things they change, and the things they do not. I mean, how many times do I haver to get all the gym badges? I've already won master rank. Why not build on that? Why do I have to unlock the same abilites each time? Why should I be happy that my new electric pokemon a lame looking cat thing instead of a pikachu? Why is this pokemon a different type to what it was originally? It's death by papercuts.

Nah, red was my first. I liked the improved interface and graphics, so maybe I'm just shallow. Red is a very close second behind gold for me, so it's not like I don't appreciate the originals. Also Gold/Silver has Heracross, my favorite Pokemon. So I'm definitely shallow. :P

[Splitpersonality]

Red and blue was my first, I still haven't beaten Soul Silver.

I enjoy all the games, but not diamond and pearl for some reason...



Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimmoire of the Rift, for my DS is fun too, been playing it for a while :o

[Prussian to the Iron]

original Red, Blue, Yellow on GBC were my first. loved gold and silver, ever since they overcomplicate things, undercomplicate things, and take things that should be left, and leave things that should be taken.

[CountArach]

Blue and Yellow were my first two followed by Platinum and SoulSilver. Eagerly awaiting the new ones. I do have to agree that most people will always have at least a soft spot for their original games and that is just because the series will always capitalise on one huge aspect of life - nostalgia. No pokemon will ever live up to the original 151 and the further the series goes away from that the worse it will seem.

[Meneldil]

Playing Cleopatra (Pharaoh's expansion). I like the new tombs I can build :D. Can't wait to play Cleopatra's campaign.

[A Nerd]

I am playing the following on and off:

Medieval II: Early campaign was fun but now turning into a siege fest and getting boring fast...
ArmA: Fun, kept buying the farm so I dumbed down the AI to a vegetative state and am faring much better...
The Tudors: A puzzle game based on a Showtime series I never heard of :P Fun nonetheless
Deus Ex: Replaying this old gem, JC Denton is still the coolest...

Others sporatically that I will not mention at the moment...

Want to buy some second hand Thief 3 and Police Quest Pack too, just haven't yet...

[Hooahguy]

After over 20 hours of gameplay, I finally beat ME1 on normal (I was a paragon wimp). It was such a great playthrough, I cant wait to start ME2 with my imported character!

So here are my pros and cons about ME1:

Pros:
The combat
Even though most people think of it as inferior to ME2, I disagree. While its not as fluid as the combat in ME2, the combat is much more dynamic than in ME2, where cover is an absolute must. Dont get me wrong, I still love the ME2 combat system, I just enjoyed fighting in ME1 more.

The story
Well, duh. When I beat the game I felt like I had acheived something big. I felt the same way when I beat ME2, but moreso with ME1, after a really hard boss fight in ME1 that ME2 lacks.

The Citadel
I loved walking around the different areas like the Presidium and the markets. This was something that ME2 lacked, unfortunately. But at least there are more stores in ME2 to shop from.

The upgrade/inventory system
A lot of people hated it; at first, I did as well, but after a bit I began to like it: being able to customize your weapon to suit the needs of the mission was great.

The amount of side missions
While many of them took place in repetative combat enviroments (why is every freighter and bunker in the game have the exact same layout?), but the fun Mako driving (gotta love driving up 90 degree slopes!) sort of made up for it. But at least there were more of them than in ME2.

NPC interaction
I liked how there were many people you could talk to in the game (Conrad Verner FTW) and it gave the game a real sense of immersion. Not that you dont have this in ME2, I just liked it in ME1 as well.

No annoying bypassing
I personally hated the bypassing mini games in ME2. There were so many of them that it really annoyed me. Maybe just to get into safes or such, but it seemed like they were everywhere in ME2. At least in ME1 the decryption minigame was fun, quick, and if you failed you could just use omni-gel to break in.

The Mako
I now know what it feels like to drive while high!

Hard choices
I wont spoil anything, but I liked how you had to make really tough decisions at various points in the game. ME2 had some, but nowhere near the magnitude of the decisions in ME1.

There's probably more, but Im blanking out right now.

Cons
Lack of weapon variety
There were only two models of each kind of weapon, but many different versions (nothing like going from level I to VIII in assault rifles and seeing the glaring difference in them), and sometimes it was pretty confusing. And no different colors does not make up for the lack of variety in weapon models.

Unskippable cut-scenes
The cut scene for landing/pulling away from the Citadel was unbearably tedious to watch everytime you land/depart from the Cityadel. At least in ME2 you could skip them.

No sprinting in no-combat zones
This I found annoying because oftentimes an NPC I have to talk to/do a mission for will send me different places across the Citadel. Jogging there is very tedious, in my opinion. A sprinting option would have been nice. On the topic of distance, I thought it was incredibly annoying that some missions sent you from the landing bay to the presidium, then back to the landing bay only to talk to one guy who sends you on your way after a 30-second dialogue.

Elevators
Mostly I dont mind them, but some of them, the longer ones usually, really bugged me. I mean, it took so long to get down to the C-sec offices that after a dozen or so times I began to avoid the Citadel to avoid the long elevators. Yes I know Im impatient. But at least Wrex's lines in the elevators were hilarious.

Confusing levels
I did not like how there was no pointer towards your objective. Sometimes I would get lost trying to find the elevator to my objective. But once I was on the same level as the objective I was fine, but still...

Repetitive level design
I mentioned this earlier- I did not like how every cargo ship and bunker was exactly alike.

Confusing controls
For my first few hours playing the game, I was very confused about the controls. I didnt know how to apply medi-gel or melee (turns out that the game does it for you) and I did not know why my grenades werent exploding until very recently. A tutorial would have been nice.

Lack of character depth
ME2's characters had depth to them with their own backgrounds that were wonderfully complicated in some cases. While there was some character development in ME1, it was pretty shallow. I would have loved to know more about Kaiden, Tali, Wrex, or Garrus, but I didnt get much.

Summary
I loved this game, even for its flaws. The Mass Effect gams are my favorite, and will most likely remain so. I hope anyone reading this who has not bought ME1 already goes out and buy it ASAP!

[Xiahou]

The combat
Even though most people think of it as inferior to ME2, I disagree. While its not as fluid as the combat in ME2, the combat is much more dynamic than in ME2, where cover is an absolute must. Dont get me wrong, I still love the ME2 combat system, I just enjoyed fighting in ME1 more.

That kind of worries me. I too love the combat in ME1 and I'm worried I wont like it as much in ME2 when I get there.

No sprinting in no-combat zones
This I found annoying because oftentimes an NPC I have to talk to/do a mission for will send me different places across the Citadel. Jogging there is very tedious, in my opinion. A sprinting option would have been nice. On the topic of distance, I thought it was incredibly annoying that some missions sent you from the landing bay to the presidium, then back to the landing bay only to talk to one guy who sends you on your way after a 30-second dialogue.

Elevators
Mostly I dont mind them, but some of them, the longer ones usually, really bugged me. I mean, it took so long to get down to the C-sec offices that after a dozen or so times I began to avoid the Citadel to avoid the long elevators. Yes I know Im impatient. But at least Wrex's lines in the elevators were hilarious.

Did you not notice the "Fast Travel" stations all over the citadel? They would basically warp you instantaneously between various locations.

I appreciate that the elevators add a sense of size to structures and allow for some color via news snippets or NPC conversations, but why not have the things move quicker?

Lack of character depth
ME2's characters had depth to them with their own backgrounds that were wonderfully complicated in some cases. While there was some character development in ME1, it was pretty shallow. I would have loved to know more about Kaiden, Tali, Wrex, or Garrus, but I didnt get much.

This is intriguing. Did you remember to talk to your teammates on the Normandy between missions? I thought they had rather a lot to say about their backgrounds. Is it that ME2 has so much more or that you just missed some of the content?

[Hooahguy]

That kind of worries me. I too love the combat in ME1 and I'm worried I wont like it as much in ME2 when I get there.

Dont get me wrong, the combat in ME2 is excellent. you have nothing to fear.

Did you not notice the "Fast Travel" stations all over the citadel? They would basically warp you instantaneously between various locations.

I appreciate that the elevators add a sense of size to structures and allow for some color via news snippets or NPC conversations, but why not have the things move quicker?

Yes I did notice the rapid transit but even so, the rapid transit didnt take you everywhere- you still had to walk many places.
Also, towards the end you see the elevator that Shepard is going in going super fast- I dont see why that couldnt be the case for the longer elevator rides. For the shorter ones I dont care how fast they are, just the longer ones bug me.

This is intriguing. Did you remember to talk to your teammates on the Normandy between missions? I thought they had rather a lot to say about their backgrounds. Is it that ME2 has so much more or that you just missed some of the content?

Yes I talked to everyone after every mission, nothing satisfactory to say, especially Garrus- after his little personal mission he was pretty dull.