What Are You Playing?, Games! Options

[michael1384]

I'm planning to buy gta san andreas and then download that mod which lets me play online.

[Novander]

I've been playing Super Mario Galaxies on the Wii. It is fun, yes. Awesome fun, maybe, but it is nowhere near Twilight Princess' awesome.

I've managed to convince myself not to buy anything new for the 360 until my pay comes in (my first proper paycheck! I am so excited!) and I can see whether or not I can afford it. I bought Crackdown a while ago and while it is a great game (which goes something like this: First island: oooh, I can jump really high! Second island: oooh, I can throw big objects really far! Third island: oooh, I can... argh! So many of them shooting at me!) but I maybe wonder if I shouldn't pay more attention to my finances and less to my consoles.

[Mata]

I'm scared of Super Mario Galaxies. Everyone who is jaded with gaming seems to say that it has single handedly restored their faith in games, life, and the fluffiness of small kittens. I feel a weird creeping certainty that I won't be that gobsmacked by it. It's now been hyped by the world so far that I think only a pure injection of electrons into the pleasure nodes of my brain can possibly make it live up to expectations. I am using this doubt as a defence mechanism, this way when I play it, if it turns out that I do think it's rather spiffy then I'll be able to say that it's better than I was expecting. Now that's what I call logic.

[michael1384]

I'm scared of Super Mario Galaxies. Everyone who is jaded with gaming seems to say that it has single handedly restored their faith in games, life, and the fluffiness of small kittens.

That's how it makes me feel.

[Mata]

Then you are only adding to the fear.

I've finally bought my first download-only game: Super Stardust HD. I enjoyed Geometry Wars on the 360, but I never really felt that I was controlling the situation - I was always defending. Stardust makes me feel like I'm back playing Smash TV on the SNES again - waves come at you, but with good play you can regularly pull yourself through scrapes intact. The risk/reward aspect is beautifully balanced and weapons system is simple and effective. Great fun!

[michael1384]

Join us mata... you cannot resist.

[Mata]

I can - I haven't got two hundred quid to spend on the system and I probably couldn't find one in the shops even if I did!

[michael1384]

Just found out about a new console called 'the winner'. It's shaped exactly like a ps3 and sports a totally-not-a-wiimote controller.

Downloaded the origional snes sim city. The origional and the best I say.

[Mata]

Sim City came out on PC first, I'm pretty sure... But yes, I spent many hours on the SNES version myself.

[mooooooooooopo]

Sim City came out on PC first, I'm pretty sure... But yes, I spent many hours on the SNES version myself.

I've also spent far too much time playing Sim City on various platforms.

Weirdly it was originally developed on the Commodore 64 as a spin off from the level editor for Raid on Bungeling Bay but first released, like Mata said, on PC and Mac then later Amiga and C64 then later still got ported to 6493634963 other platforms including the SNES.

Guilty secret time: I've been playing Pokemon Blue on the GameBoy.

Also, Halo 3 at lunchtimes with 8 players via system link. Somehow fun despite my hate of console controls for FPS games.

[Mata]

One thing I'll say for console controllers in FPS games is that it means, in terms of hardware, everyone is equal in multiplayer. My graphics tablet is lovely for drawing, but it's pants to play games on!

So, games:

I played through Assassin's Creed on the 360 over a couple of weeks. It was better than most reviews said but not as good as it felt like it should have been. The plot was pretty bad. The animation was consistently stunning. The audio was too repetitive. The world all looked gorgeous, but it also all often looked the same (they could have at least put different colour filters on the cities to give them some vague variation past what goes on the top of the towers). The missions were samey, but they were mostly all very satisfying too, so I didn't mind that as much as most people seem to have felt. The collectables were utterly pointless, making me believe that they were only there to give some variety to the environments, not actually for gameplay purposes. It was good, and I played it a lot until I'd finished it, but I doubt I'll be bothered to play it again outside of research.

Currently I'm playing Uncharted: Drake's Fortune on the PS3. The animation is very good indeed, but not up to the level of Assassin's Creed. The levels visually have been a bit samey so far (about 50% complete) and the game looks like it's going to be pretty short, which is disappointing. The really stand-out factor for me so far has been the script and voice acting. Yes, this should be irrelevant since they don't directly impact the gameplay, but it really builds a sense of reward for achieving things. Another wonderful bit is that they don't repeat unnecessary audio samples if you redo a section - why has it taken this long for that to happen?

[michael1384]

I've been playing Super Mario Galaxies on the Wii. It is fun, yes. Awesome fun, maybe, but it is nowhere near Twilight Princess' awesome.

They are the two games that prove that the wii is not 'just a motion sensative gamecube'

Just wish they were both longer.

[michael1384]

Bought the simpsons game on wii. It's just like the film. Not as good as you expect it to be. Mainly because of the evil camera.

[Mata]

Ssh! Mind what you say, one of the coders from that game is a regular on here

Currently I'm playing Mass Effect. So far, so good. The combat is a bit 'Gears of War' Lite, and the conversation trees are sometimes quite dull, but overall it's pretty decent.

[michael1384]

I bought a Gamecube controller and The legend of zelda: Wind waker. It's a good game but I don't have a memory card. So the Wii is going to have to stay on until I get one.

[mooooooooooopo]

Bought the simpsons game on wii. It's just like the film. Not as good as you expect it to be. Mainly because of the evil camera.

Ssh! Mind what you say, one of the coders from that game is a regular on here

Hehe.

The camera used to be a lot better, then certain companies decided that it would be bad for them if the leading platforms had a worse camera than the 'secondary' platforms. Sad but true. The camera is evil in more ways than one.

Recently I've been playing Paper Mario on Virtual Console, which is rather fun. The only thing that slightly got to me was the weird combination of turn based combat with reflex based attack/defense enhancing moves.

[Phyllis]

I also played (and finished) The Simpsons Game recently. I was way too amused by watching the credits and seeing how many people I know...lalalala.

I cursed the camera (loudly) many times throughout the game. I think the first level was the worst for that. Also, Lardlad. Freaking Lardlad. I was very tempted to hunt down anyone who had anything to do with that thing since some of them live in my city! moop was lucky -- he didn't work on that part and thus avoided my wrath. Most of my criticisms while playing were met with "They made us do that" from moop, though, so he didn't have me grumbling at him too much.

Right now I am playing Final Fantasy XII. I started playing it during the summer, then got bored and didn't touch it for months. It just doesn't seem to grab my attention as well as the previous ones did.

[michael1384]

Still playing wind waker. It struck me the other day that there are no loading times. Found out that the loading times are masked by the sailing.

Pretty nifty if you ask me.

[Novander]

I just completed Mass Effect. Because of how the combat handles (hide round a corner, wait for the enemy to come to you, lean out and shoot them) the side quests and world exploration all gets a bit repetitive, but I can cope with that and the main plot is actually really good. And not just compared to other games; it's a brilliant addition to the science fiction genre.

I've ordered Devil May Cry 4 for the 360 which I've heard also has a fairly decent plot but should have a far more active gameplay experience than the often rather sedate Mass Effect.

[Mata]

I also played (and finished) The Simpsons Game recently. I was way too amused by watching the credits and seeing how many people I know...lalalala.
[...]
Right now I am playing Final Fantasy XII. I started playing it during the summer, then got bored and didn't touch it for months. It just doesn't seem to grab my attention as well as the previous ones did.

I think I stopped playing The Simpsons game after an evening, possibly two. The script was good, and the game was okay, but I've played more satisfying things... With less annoying cameras. We got stuck very early on in the game because we took Homer up to a high place, then a thought bubble showing Bart appeared and the camera focussed on him, so we assumed that Homer was positioned, now we had to do something with Bart. Nope, we just had to take Bart up to the high place instead. That took us far too long to work out.

I know exactly what you mean about FFXII. The story isn't nearly as gripping as the earlier ones (not helped by the bloody stupid fantasy names that are utterly unmemorable). The combat seems to be a mash-up of two different styles, and suddenly isn't as good as either. Unfortunately it seems that lots of RPGs are going in that direction.

I just completed Mass Effect. Because of how the combat handles (hide round a corner, wait for the enemy to come to you, lean out and shoot them) the side quests and world exploration all gets a bit repetitive, but I can cope with that and the main plot is actually really good. And not just compared to other games; it's a brilliant addition to the science fiction genre.

I've ordered Devil May Cry 4 for the 360 which I've heard also has a fairly decent plot but should have a far more active gameplay experience than the often rather sedate Mass Effect.

I'm playing Mass Effect at the moment. I'm about ten hours in and really enjoying it. I did find it a bit weird that I had a bit of fighting on an alien planet, then seemed to spend the next four hours walking around chatting in a space station. It's all very well having a fully structured backstory, but my gods there are just. Too. Many. Words. We don't need to know the life story of every single person in the whole building, do we?

[michael1384]

Bought Ghost Squad for wii, it's very good, but the wii zapper hasn't arrived yet and it doesn't play well without it.

There seems to be a sudden, unstoppable demand for official nintendo wii zappers, anyons sure why?

[Novander]

Devil May Cry 4 is pretty lame. I'd not played a Devil May Cry game before, so I didn't really know what to expect, but it wasn't something so repetitive, linear, and repetitive. I guess I was hoping for Diablo 3 (truth is, every time I so much as glance at a game these days I'm hoping it'll be Diablo 3), but with guns and stuff, but it's not, it's so... arcade-y. And that's not what I want in a game. I want to control a character I can really come to care about, not one who just happens to carry a big sword and can levitate by shooting.

I got it because I needed a break from something heavy and involving, like Mass Effect was (Mata: I know what you mean about So Many Words, but I am the sort of person who likes to go through every single conversation option and will happily read All The Words, so I didn't mind) but it turns out heavy and involving is what I'm into. I've borrowed Fable from a friend, so I'll be ready when Fable 2 comes out this autumn/winter. Haven't tried it yet though.

[steven_silverwoo...]

I like to keep bang up to date with my game playing. That's why I'm mostly playing 'Eric and the Floaters' on a ZX Spectrum emulator on my imac. I think it was made in about 1983. Kicks the piss out of the PS3

[michael1384]

Finally getting around to completing Ocarina of Time. Stuck in the shadow temple.

[Mata]

I like to keep bang up to date with my game playing. That's why I'm mostly playing 'Eric and the Floaters' on a ZX Spectrum emulator on my imac. I think it was made in about 1983. Kicks the piss out of the PS3

You want the Dizzy games. Those absolutely rocked, and they were a classic lesson of 'how to immensely punishing to your players'. The first one had a gulley covered my two clouds. If you stepped somewhere in the middle of the clouds (an area not highlighted by anything in particular) then they disappeared and the gulley became impassable and the game unfinishable. Harsh!

Then again, Jet Set Willy was perhaps even more punishing, although that was mainly due to the necessity for pixel perfect jumping.