What Are You Playing?, Games! Options

[Tarantio]

I've sampled bits of a lot of new games lately, my nice little staff discount at game is great. Except the fact that I spend most of my time writing or coding for my coursework games leaves me little time to actually play my purchases. So far I've had goes of:
- Kingdom Hearts 2, which was awesome to the max. I didn't even really mind the huuuuugely long "intro" part of the game, because like KH games should, it made me feel like being hugged, a nice little calm before being thrown in at the deep end with the rest of the game;
- Broken Sword: Angel of Death has been taken a scene at a time, much more slowly than its predecessors. I've yet to pass judgement, but its missing all the prettyness that the first couple of games had, instead being replaced with drearyness and realism, perhaps not as endearing as it could have been;
- Dawn of War: Dark Crusade is a big step forwards and a big step backwards for the DoW series. The campaign map is beautiful and well trumps Empire at War's freeform campaigning for the simple fact that there are seven factions instead of a mere two, and two full new races is awesome (its a standalone-cum-expansion, so the scope of the improvements is rightly large). The big problem, though, is that each and every one of the races have had huge restrictions placed on their unit selections. Gone are the days of massive tank battles and hordes of elite troops fighting over little patches of ground, instead replaced with over-balanced armies that have already had their selections made for the user, all in the name of competitive balance (DoW is a very big game for online play). I'm a bit peeved that my single-player enjoyment had to be so harshly reduced all for the sake of some nuts online that need their zerg-rush-esque strategies curbed all because they can't learn to play fair.
- Guild Wars Nightfall: Oh how I wish I had time for this. I'm a huge GW fan (largely due to finding out about it on these forums), and I have a complete collection of preorder items and collectors edition games, but I've not played more than about an hour of the newest chapter, so I can't really comment. The new levels of complexity look abundant enough to get lost in, though, and the sheer generosity in the dev teams' content is staggering - despite all the beliefs and rumours, they've included pretty much all of the stuff that fans have been screaming for, righted any number of injustices, and otherwise kept up their impeccable record of good practises in customer relations.
- Battlefield 2142: oh how I loved thrashing this game for about four days straight, until it brought about a relapse in my insomnia. Graphically its not anything new - its got similar system requirements to its predecessor, and mostly uses the same effects, but the variety of gameplay is just fantastic, and the "future but not quite future" setting and equipment is just brilliant, a nice mix of star-trek-esque gadgetry and familiar brute-force guns (a particular favourite is the anti-vehicle-rifle, but I'm also partial to rifle-rockets for their whole "kill round the corner" factor). Piloting Mechs is much fun as well
- X-Men Legends 2: not a new game, and certainly not the new Marvel: Ultimate Alliance that I've been wanting to play for a few months now, there's a slight charm associated with this game's predecessor that I couldn't find this time around. Admittedly, I played eight straight hours of the first game with three of my mates, living off crisps, pizza and 7up and shouting at people in their character names for using all the health packs and then dropping players into spikes purposefully (damn you, Jean/Callum!). There's just none of the charming characterfulness in this one (and no fastball special, either), and I really hope they found it again for Ultimate Alliance.

Ooh, long post. Bad Dave *slaps wrist*

[MistressAlti]

I've become a Nintendo Wii addict. Sadly, the game I play the most is the Wii Sports game that came with it...

[Mata]

I hear the Wii's Zelda game is excellent.

I've been doing the 'buy two get one free' deals on Xbox games, trying to make sure that I get ones that will work on the Xbox 360.

Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic: wasn't immensely gripped to start with, so I've skipped on to...

Jade Empire: which I'm really enjoying. The missions are enjoyable and varied. The voice acting is mostly very good and the levels are gorgeous to look at. It's clear that the emulation is working as hard as it can because there are a few quite sever frame rate issues when you're in a town near water effects, but it's mostly behaving itself. It's been keeping me up late at night, which is a sign that it's got to be good.

Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy: We bought this after playing the Xbox Live downloadable demo... Well, I played it for a while, then Sues played the demo for ages. Sues doesn't often get into computer games, so it's really good to have a game that we can play together. The game is very forgiving, with infinite lives and a low difficulty threshold, and this reaffirms my recently held belief that a good game doesn't need to be hard, just interesting. If you struggle with most games, I highly recommend this, and the co-op play is great fun!

[Tarantio]

I've become a Nintendo Wii addict. Sadly, the game I play the most is the Wii Sports game that came with it...

Mine's on preorder. I was a bit upset to hear I wasn't getting my staff hardware discount on this, but hey, its better than shelling out £300 for a 360 any day. Wiiiiiiiiii!

Zelda will be one of the first games I get for it, too, Mata, I'm looking forward to something a little more exciting than Wind Waker was - the combat was good, but sailing for minutes on end was booooring. I swear, I used to set a course, go make dinner/have a cup of tea or something, then come back just in time to get to where I was going. Still, it had better be harder than Ocarina of Time as well, that was a bit disappointing in that department. Looking forward to it though...

[Mata]

So far I've been immensely unfussed by every Zelda game I've played. Somehow the appeal of them has completely passed me by, so I'm wondering whether I can be bothered to try another one even if it is also allegedly fantastic. I know I'm in the tiny minority here, because everyone else seems to think that they're among the best games ever.

[PsychWardMike]

Right now, I need to beat Makai Kingdom and The Simpsons: Hit and Run.

I hope to be playing a few games soon, though. Namely:

Marvel Ultimate Alliance
Okami
The Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess
Final Fantasy XII

Woo!

[Sir Psycho Sexy]

A friend of mine had a Wii on pre-order, and what with him living with me at the moment (long story) I have free access to it. Anywho, Twilight Princess is fun, I especially like running about as a wolf thing with a weird cat type thing riding on your back, little weird but fun. Once you get used to the fact that waving the controller wildly actually does something now, playing the games becomes second nature pretty quickly. It's quite pretty too.
He also got Wii Sports and Wii Play (which comes with an extra controller), but as we've not had a chance to play anything multiplayer, I've not even looked at those.

[blackbeltduck]

Kingdom of Loathing!-a black and white stick figure game.

It requires registration, but it is free. I have been horribly addicted to it for two years, which may say more about my personality than I wish to reveal.

[PsychWardMike]

I've been playing a lot of internet chess and word games. Woo.

[elphaba2]

Guitar Hero.

My pinky hurts like hell. Excellent game, though.

[Mata]

Gears of War - 'tis very lovely looking, and the blasting is very satisfying. There's a really nice rhythm to it, although it's sometimes a little too easy to be careless and blown away in a few seconds. There's not much room for experimenting with different play styles: you either use the style they want you to, or you get killed. Fortunately, that style is nicely honed and jolly good fun, but occasionally it would be nice to run screaming like a banshee into the thick of them with at least a vague hope of not being cut down like dry bamboo in front of a bored samurai.

[PsychWardMike]

I'm getting back into Soul Calibur III, now that I'm at home from uni and have a little brother to play with. We're having all sorts of fun and we usually go a minimum of 75 rounds when we play. He's always either Voldo or Siegfried and I'm always either Ivy or Kilik. We switch sometimes, but those four are our power players and make for the most fun, cursing filled games. Fun times.

[Novander]

I got my Wii yesterday, after a month of waiting. I got Wii play (for the extra controller) and Warioware with it. My arms ache already, but it's maybe the most exercise I've had all year. I've ordered Red Steel and an extra Nunchuck (because losing at four of the five wii sports isn't humiliating enough).

My friends code thing is, quite possibly, 5454 1288 1892 4390

[monkey_called_na...]

i dont have a wii, but i want to get one.

current games:
pc: warcraft 3, heros of might and magic 2, age of empres 1 2 and 3, spades, risk, towers, and divine divinity

muds: ring of power (bdsm), passion and pain (bdsm), beauty (bdsm), armageddon (post appoc), prodigy (bdsm), edge of midnight (medievil), and a few others

ps2: scarface, final fantasy x2, the final fantasy about vincent (cant remimber the name, loaned it to my cousin), monoply, and about to get my hands on god of war 2

n64: zelda oot, tetris spere, 1080, and mario cart

recently beaten: ff12, ffx, god of war, prince of persia 2, mortal combat, and ff7

[PsychWardMike]

It's spring break, I've been playing Resident Evil 4 like it's my damn job. The game totally deserves every bit of praise it's recieved.

I also (finally!) scored a copy of Disgaea: Hour of Darkness. Mucho fun.

[trunks_girl26]

It's spring break, I've been playing Resident Evil 4 like it's my damn job. The game totally deserves every bit of praise it's recieved.

Ditto, only substitute FFXII with RE4....I love that game so much....I don't want it to end ;_;

[Mata]

I'm on FFXII at the moment, and it truly is a superb piece of gaming. The characters are nicely judged, it doesn't take itself too seriously, the new fighting system is superb... It's just brilliant!

In other moments I'm playing Superman Returns on the 360, which really isn't brilliant, but I borrowed it from work. The city is fantastic, and it's a great rendition of the freedom of being Superman... But there's nothing to do! It's just the same thing time and again. Shame: with the technology that they made the city it could have been superb, but for whatever reason they just didn't get the gameplay in there.

[Tarantio]

I'm close to 60 hours into FFXII, did that in a week and stopped for a bit. Its lacking something; I think it might be strong characters, since the dialogue is few and far between, but then Balthier starts talking to someone and that gets proven wrong; it could also be the fact that any fight that isn't a boss is only ever a matter of moving close enough to start the combat and letting the gambits do the rest, but then I do enjoy fiddling with the gambits and leave some room to play about in combat as well. I'm on hiatus from it at the moment anyway, so I'll decide what it is that's bugging me when I finish it.

I've gone back to playing a bit more Battlefield 2142 now that the first booster pack is available, and that, as always, is hilarious amounts of fun, though occasionally frustrating when you get a bad team.

Right now, though, I'm playing through Jade Empire special edition, something I've been waiting for on the PC for about three years now. Lemme tell you, it was worth every second of the wait. Bioware have delivered something not only on par with KOTOR, but something that expands on it, runs fleeing away from a pre-constructed universe into a lush, beautiful hand-crafted new one, and then shoves in so much perfection that it hurts. The combat is perfect - its well balanced, so few fights are excruciatingly hard, but if you stop paying attention for a second you get your arse handed to you. The characters are perfect - there's a bit of everything in your followers, just like there was in KOTOR, from the dark ex-assassin to the hopeful, but naive, childhood friend, to the madcap "I like exploding things" inventor and everything in between. The game itself is perfect - the graphics are sharp, pretty and surprisingly undemanding of your system, and the loading times are mere seconds, which for a game of its size and scope is astonishing. I'll stop ranting about it, cos I'm gonna start playing it again. I reccommend it to any RPG/action fan out there who has a decent PC and some time to get lost. Ooh, and its so easy to get into as well, nothing like the more prohibitive neverwinter nights. Awesome!

[Oni Usagi]

I finally let my friends convince me to play World of Warcraft, and I've been playing that pretty regularly since spring break, so about 3 weeks. Also I recently realized that God of War 2 is finally out but I don't have a ps2, I'm really looking forward to playing it at my friend's.

[sirdudly]

Harvest Moon 64, seriously the best game for the console.

[Daria]

De Blob.

A Dutch game where you are a big inky blob and have to colour all the town buildings. Fun fun fun!

[mooooooooooopo]

At home it's mostly Excite Truck and Zelda on the Wii, both of which are awesome in their different, close to polar opposite ways. Kororinpa on the Wii was great but very short so I temporarily traded it for Super Monkeyball Banana Blitz - that was a mistake because Banana Blitz has possibly the worst controls I've ever had the misfortune to encounter. Before I got the Wii I was getting retro with Empire Of Steel on the MegaDrive and Super Probotector on the SNES.

At work Battlefield 2 is great for LAN gameage during lunchtimes and obviously I spend far too much time playing the game that we're working on and of which I'm still not allowed to reveal details. D:

[michael1384]

I've been playing the legend of zelda on my wii. it's very good. It has a brilliant storyline.

[michael1384]

Tremulous. Thats the name of the online first-person-shooter I am playing a lot. Anyone else playing it?

[PsychWardMike]

God I love summer. Gives me a chance to catch up on the gaming that I don't do whilst at university.

Been playing a lot of Super Smash Bros. Melee and Mario Kart Double Dash!! with my little brother and best friend. My brother and I also started a game of X-Men Legends 2, but haven't done too much with it.

I came home with an excess of moneys, so I bought many new games that I've had my eye on.

X Men Legends
X Men Legends 2
Okami
Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones
Final Fantasy XII

Woo!

So far I've run through Okami which was brilliant. Almost all I hoped it would be. Also, it was one of the few games which had a serious emotional impact on me, and I have to say that many articles I've read are correct: Okami is one of the best arguments for video games as art on the market.

Currently playing Final Fantasy XII which I'm enjoying. I was initially put off by the fighting system, but it's pretty intuitive. I only wish it was more like other FF games and would just throw Gil at you. It's kinda scarce as far as I can tell which is a problem since you have to buy damn near everything. Also playing Paper Mario: TYD. I enjoy it well enough, but I probably won't finish it until I'm done with FFXII.

And now that I am gainfully employed, I plan to buy the last of the games for this generation. Mario Tennis, The Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess, Shadow of the Colossus, and Marvel Ultimate Alliance. Then I'm done! Finished! Freed from the shackles of fandom and collectors!

Until I buy my DS!