Now Playing/completed thread 2009

Playing Bioshock, Dead Space, Killzone2, for MP fun I've been playing L4D, Quake Live and a bit of Street Fighter 4.

Been finally giving Mass Effect the attention it deserves and it's by far the best game I have played since HL2 in 2004 =)

I'm also playing the occasional L4D with buddies from work every once in a while. Oh and Pokemon Platinum and Chinatown Wars on the DS when I'm too tired to play on the PC

Since january I've played an insane amount of L4D, which I plan on keeping doing

I also played Dead Space, only did the first two chapters. I realize it's a very well made game, but I just felt too contrived controls wise and there simply wasn't much new that the genre had never seen before.

Finished Mirror's Edge, which is a lot more my type of game than Dead Space. I was intrigued by the whole first person thing, but thought it was done elegantly most of the time and simply put, "worked". On the other hand I was frustrated to no end by the targeting system and the sometimes inane level design choices that made the targeting system even worse. The whole game felt just fine running outdoors on rooftops, then slowed down to a crawl inside buildings. There was a lack of clear starter for each acrobatic sequence indoors, which in turn didn't feel so bad outdoors as you had multiple ways to reach certain points.

But the most irritating things of all in this game was inertia. For instance, clinging on to an air duct ledge and pulling yourself up, you may very well end up falling down on the other side of the air duct because of the speed with which you get on top of it. As small a difference as that is, simply moving your left stick upwards is too much. I'm talking about you level 7..... That felt irremediably wrong on so many levels that the game sometimes felt like a chore to finish.

As much as inertia was pitched as a selling point for the game, it definitely wasn't needed to play and finish the game even though it definitely made you feel cooler playing the game so these aforementioned situations clearly fell on the level design part of the game.

Overall, I would have liked to see a longer tutorial system. Maybe an opt-in system. Because of the novelty of the presentation (first person platforming), I felt going into the game after finishing the tutorial like I clearly needed more time to practice and even more to memorize the inputs. A sign of that? I had to go look at a video walkthrough online to realize weapons could be picked up on the ground. I thought the only way to acquire them was to disarm an enemy. And once you had dropped them they were gone for good. The worst part about this was....this walkthrough was for level 7, and I was done with the game 1 hour later

I've been grinding for guns and infinite ammo on RE5.

And what a grind it's been. Infinite Magnum ammo makes the game exponentially better though.

GTA IV, just got all 200 pigeons the other day, going for all the stunt jumps now.

Also playing Motorstorm 2 and Killzone 2 MP quite a bit at the moment.

Deus Ex and Civ 4 BTS.

Beat The Nameless Mod a couple weeks ago. Good stuff. Ending level kinda sucks but then the exact same complaints apply to the final area of DX itself. Took 21 hours for a single playthrough and there's a whole nothing main quest to play through, waiting for the second patch to be released before I start on that.

Beat Chinatown Wars recently, too. It was really good for a DS game, but the main quest is super short, and the top-down view really hampers my ability to recognize areas of the city and visually identify things, which makes exploring for drug dealers, the hidden statues, side quests etc. annoying and not really worth it. I'll still occasionally start it up and go on a rampage but that's it. While it lasted the quests were really, really fun.

I've got a Thief 2 play currently postponed but I intend on finishing it sooner or later. I just finished the bank mission.

Just Finished

Dead Space - One of the best games I have played in a long time and one of the best Horror experiences in any medium to date.

Killzone 2 - Can't get into the multiplayer but the singleplayer as a lot of fun and I did take an interest in the story.

Playing

Halo 3 - I have yet to stop. Had the new maps for a while now, bungie put so much work into their products.

Halo Wars - The path finding is awful at times but apart from that loving Halo Wars. Great single player and the multiplayer is a lot of fun.

Also got braid on PC and am playing L4D with friends still and went back to GTA IV just to run around the city and play about.

Quote from sarge mat

Halo 3 - I have yet to stop. Had the new maps for a while now, bungie put so much work into their products.

What products?! Remember that Halo3 was released 2 years ago...

Quote from Mazy

GTA IV, just got all 200 pigeons the other day, going for all the stunt jumps now.

Quote from Mazy

I got to the point where I was thinking that life is simply too short to waste on stuff like this, and I’m wasting my youthful 20’s on something that I wont give a shit about in a few years, only to regret every single minute of it.

• 
  [*:c549fgr9]DoDonPachi: Daifukkatsu: The best STG I have ever played, I got the 1-ALL ages ago but I’ve never got past 2-2 on the loop. I also credit-fed to

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harder

than he looks.
[*:c549fgr9]Progear: Stuck on 2-2 on this one too, the loop and its requirements are evil but it’s pretty easy to clear normally. You can grab it on MAME if you’re interested.
[*:c549fgr9]Street Fighter IV: I play this because my friends like it, I’m not sure if I like it – I seem to be enjoying myself but seem to spend large portions of time swearing.

Not really much to write about the ones I've already completed that except Persona 4 was too long!

Recently finished Resident Evil 5, Ninja Blade and Fallout 3. Still playing Street Fighter IV and Killzone 2 MP. Will probably go through RE5 and Fallout 3 again sometime soon. Just started another round of Dead Space on impossible.

Fallout 3 really surprised me. I went in expecting to really dislike it, but I think it does show that a PC style RPG can be done properly on a console without feeling gimped. The Pip-boy is probably one of the coolest interfaces I've seen. The perks, the leveling, the environment, all really great too.

The one major nagging aspect of it though is the dialogue and NPC's. Didn't feel like many characters really fit the world. I think there was an opportunity there to really craft some unique characters; It's hard imagining a 1950's post-apocalyptic world set in 2077 inhabited by individuals with speech patterns not too different from our own. There's a lot of space to fill in the game, I can understand that, but it's an RPG.

It's something I always felt Deus Ex really nailed, grounding their characters through dialogue and giving them a real sense of time and place.

Quote from Erratic

Fallout 3 really surprised me. I went in expecting to really dislike it, but I think it does show that a PC style RPG can be done properly on a console without feeling gimped.

The last time I heard someone discuss platforms for Fallout 3, they said they got a new PC and switched from 360 to PC for it, and it was like night and day. He said he missed having a M&KB so much with it.

I remember I played Morrowind first on the Xbox and found it kinda stiff and annoying, though I couldn't really place what the problem was, and then when I got it on PC I loved it. Everything was so much easier and simpler to use when you have a mouse to work menu screens!

Quote from Skjalg

What? I never said that I wasn't gonna have fun anymore. GTA IV is such a grotesquely detailed and deep game that I never think I'll stop enjoying, and this is just a way to experience that depth.

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Which leads me to Grand Theft Auto IV. After I ditched the points, the first thing I started doing was something that I’d wanted to do ever since GTA IV came out, but never felt I had the time or patience for; Shooting all 200 pigeons of the game. Now that might sound dull, and there’s an achievement tied to doing it so it might also sound like I was backtracking. But the real reason is that it’s just the best way of experiencing everything of this truly epic game has to offer, and I’m not talking running around and just shooting random people, but walking around, looking at all details and just soaking in the world. One day I walked from the far end of Broker to the whole other end of Alderney (The entire map of the game), and it felt good.

But think whatever you want, I dont care

Quote from Jetsetlemming

The last time I heard someone discuss platforms for Fallout 3, they said they got a new PC and switched from 360 to PC for it, and it was like night and day. He said he missed having a M&KB so much with it. I remember I played Morrowind first on the Xbox and found it kinda stiff and annoying, though I couldn't really place what the problem was, and then when I got it on PC I loved it. Everything was so much easier and simpler to use when you have a mouse to work menu screens!

Yeah, Input is generally always faster on a PC. But the Pip-Boy itself was clearly made with console input in mind and I'm not sure how much more fluid it would be with a M&KB.

And is Oblivion that much better without mods? I remember the vanilla inventory being balls.

Quote

":1vbgqymg]

What products?! Remember that Halo3 was released 2 years ago...

In terms of support post launch.

I have so many unfinished games it's not even funny. Weirdly though I still play them all, slowly inching through each one — I kind of like the way doing them so slowly makes the storyline take a long time to get through, as if it makes it more epic or something.

My main ones right now:

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts

For those who like the idea of building your own vehicles and such, this game is a dream come true. Fans of the original like me will get a particular joy from the countless throwbacks, including a level made out of the Nintendo 64 games' fuckin' levels, and constant remixing of the soundtrack. I have to take this in small chunks, but it's really fun.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

I play this when I fancy something a bit more thoughtful, as it's god damned hard when you play it on the hardest available difficulty from the outset. Takes a really long time to progress on such a difficulty, but it's fun and the story is really well engineered.

Fable 2

Really good, definitely one of my highlights of the past few years. It basically builds upon everything the original Fable accomplished, and is seriously immersive once it gets its hooks into you. The sheer depth to the world and the things you can waste time doing are a joy for me throughout, where even relatively pointless secondary quests are still worthwhile because of the funny/interesting storytelling. I've finished the main story but I still have a number of minor quests to do, and once the second expansion comes out I'm going to get both of them at once.

Killzone 2

Excellent shooter, which delivers very exciting entertainment when you've got home from work and just want to spend half an hour shooting shit up mindlessly. Similarly to Banjo, I have to take this in small chunks as without a strong narrative I find it hard to play for long periods of time.

Metal Gear Solid 4

Playing it for the second time, properly exploring the different routes (it's possible to skip entire battles full of unique situations if you choose a different approach). The tactical depth and such in this game is immense, with almost every encounter having played out totally different to how it did the first time.

A nice example is a troublesome few soldiers walking around together. The first time I played it, I just knocked them out with a sleeping gas mine. The second time, I hung above on a ledge and dropped down on one which crushed him to the floor, grabbed the second guy from behind and put him in a chokehold, shot the first guy in the head while using the second as a human shield, and then slashed the throat of the guy in my arms. Fuckin' brutal, and fuckin' hardcore. I felt like a legend for at least a few minutes after doing that.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Typically superb Zelda action, which kind of takes me back to my childhood when I used to love Ocarina of Time due to its very similar presentation and such. Really no complaints about this game at all, although there's not much to rave about either other than affirming that it delivers a nice combination of Ocarina of Time and Wind Waker's gameplay.

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

Absolutely fantastic. Is this game underrated? If it is you need to fuck that off and play it right now, because although it doesn't really do anything outstandingly innovative it puts it all together really well, has a great atmosphere, and has an engrossing story. Kind of reminds me of the non-urban parts in Broken Sword, actually.

Quote from Thrik

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts

For those who like the idea of building your own vehicles and such, this game is a dream come true. Fans of the original like me will get a particular joy from the countless throwbacks, including a level made out of the Nintendo 64 games' fuckin' levels, and constant remixing of the soundtrack. I have to take this in small chunks, but it's really fun.

Must reiterate for how under appreciated the game is. Probably one of the best looking games out right now as well. So good. So unique.

It's to do with one of the missions, can't remember what one though. Check on google.

I'm playing Diablo 2 again. Level 64 WW Barb