What are you playing? Thread 2.0

[Muttering Bill]

Muttering Bill, if you're into the puzzle games, try Echochrome. It's difficult but it's also fun. We're also playing Worms whenever we have time, which isn't much.

That looks excellent. I'll have to go and find the demo. I'm a little concerned about how long it will last though. 56 preset levels? Sure, that'll be fine for one or two playthroughs, but once you learn the layouts, there'll be no challenge. Have to wait and see if the user generated stuff will be as good as with littlebigplanet.

Two games just aren't working for me. I got bored after about an hour. But Gamefly is sending me Uncharted, that I should get tomorrow. And I'm going to pick up Folklore today (EDIT - my checkbook disagrees with this sentence).

And I wish to echo the 'meh' at Mass Effect.

[squiddly]

Some good old Lands of Lore thanks to DOSBox.

Now if only I could get Thunderscape to work properly...

[haLobEnder]

My 360 has been on the fritz lately as well. It's making a lot of weird noises -- even by 360 standards -- which leads me to believe my DVD drive is about to kick the bucket. If that happens, I think I'll look into modding the thing myself instead of sending it in for repairs; It hasn't even been a year since I sent my previous 360 in and frankly I can't afford another $120 for repairs... I sort of wish I'd get the RRoD.

Haven't been playing any 'new' games lately, just trying to finish up some that I've already started. I must have plugged 60 hours at least into Rune Factory 2 by now and it's still a lot of fun.

Amazon has just shipped out my copy of SMT: Devil Summoner 2 so I'll have that to look forward to soon. All the reviews seem to be very positive so far.

[Minaku]

That looks excellent. I'll have to go and find the demo. I'm a little concerned about how long it will last though. 56 preset levels? Sure, that'll be fine for one or two playthroughs, but once you learn the layouts, there'll be no challenge. Have to wait and see if the user generated stuff will be as good as with littlebigplanet.

Two games just aren't working for me. I got bored after about an hour. But Gamefly is sending me Uncharted, that I should get tomorrow. And I'm going to pick up Folklore today (EDIT - my checkbook disagrees with this sentence).

And I wish to echo the 'meh' at Mass Effect.

My husband and I really enjoyed Ratchet and Clank. Dancing pirates - can't get better than that.

[Trystane]

Gamestop is doing a deal right now where you can trade in your PS2 and 3 games to get a $100 off a 80 gig PS3. They're offering this deal till the end of May.

[Mme Erzulie]

Heroes IV is my personal favorite,but it really shines in multiplayer against human opponent,so if you want to play the campaigns,am not sure how much enjoyable will that be,since A.I. is really hopeless on adventure map,you can also try Equilibris,much better balanced factions and heroes abilities and other interesting fixes.

Oh, I've played them both before, so I know. I was just saying I'm enjoying it enough to see myself giving the sequels a replay as well.

[Darling]

Been playing Scrabble on my cell phone lately in class. Ace.

Nice. This is definitely my favorite cell phone game.

I started playing Prince of Persia this weekend and am underwhelmed, to say the least -- especially since I love the other Prince of Persia games. Visually it's stunning, but it's repetitive and the combat system is very weak. I'll still finish the game, but I'm glad I didn't pay full price for it.

[Jacen]

CIV 4 is dominating me again.

[Inigima]

Picked up Punch Out!! (Wii) and Sacred 2 (360). Yes, I know there's a PC version of Sacred 2.

Punch Out!! is exactly what I wanted from a new game in that series.

Sacred 2 seems neat but it has a steep learning curve and I'm gonna have to spend a bunch more time with it before making any decisions.

[devotee]

Downloaded Age of Empires 3 and have been toying with the Asian Dynasties expansion for the last week. The reason I downloaded was threefold, I wanted to see if I actually managed to figure out how to run Daemon Tools and using cracked files, I have been a bit disappointed with nostalgia games lately (Heroes 3 and Age of Kings) and of course, I have a 20 page paper due some time soon.

[Werthead]

Continuing to fiddle with Third Age: Total War and downloaded The Pitt for Fallout 3 yesterday, so will be taking a look at that soon.

[Muttering Bill]

My husband and I really enjoyed Ratchet and Clank. Dancing pirates - can't get better than that.

That's up next on my Gamefly Q. I enjoyed the PS2 R&C games, and the demo for the one new looks like it's pretty much more of the same. Still just a rental, as I'll likely only play through it once.

I ended up scraping together a few extra $ and picking up Eternal Sonata - figuring a good lengthy RPG would do well to hold me over for the next month. And that was the only one available that a) looked interesting, and b) I don't already own on the 360. Haven't tried it yet though. (Opting against Folklore because, while it looks very good, it just isn't that long.)

I did start Uncharted, and I am enjoying it very much so far. I would prefer if there were a little more exploration; there is some beautiful scenery, but I'm mostly just running through it, to get to the next area to climb, or the next fight. Sure, there are relics to search for, but they're pretty easy to spot - either glowing in the distance, or that there is an extra path I don't otherwise need to go down. But it's got a decent story (so far), good voice acting, solid action and platforming. It's a pretty well rounded game, and I can definately see what all the fuss was about.

[Rhaco]

As I posted awhile ago, I'd pretty much done all I could in Oblivion -- finished most of the quests (200+), maxed all attributes and most skills, found/created all the gear I wanted, etc. So I decided I'd try some of the DLC on the Marketplace. I went with the Fighter's Stronghold and Mehrunes' Razor. They're each only $2 or something, so I suppose they'd really have to be awful for me not to give them a thumbs-up. There's not much to do with the Fighter's Stronghold, but the castle itself is pretty cool, and the dungeon in Mehrunes' Razor is, I think, the biggest in the game. Only a few hours of content, but at that price I wasn't disappointed.

Considering how much I liked Oblivion, I'm guessing Fallout 3 would be right up my alley. Might wait for the inevitable Game of the Year package, though.

Other than Oblivion, I've only been playing Call of Duty: World at War. Really, I would've stopped playing it awhile ago, but everytime I get on I get a few invites and so usually get sucked back in. Most matches everyone just uses SMGs these days. I can't really blame them -- in most situations and in most of the areas of the maps you're just better off with an SMG. It's Treyarch's fault for making the SMGs the way they are and for designing the maps the way they did. Reducing the SMGs' minimum damage and reducing the range at which they reach minimum damage would be more than welcome, IMO. Anyway, it's not that I have trouble killing the swarms of SMG'ers, it's just that it changes the way the game plays when everyone's using the same type of weapon all the time -- in this case, shortish range spray and pray weapons. Everyone running in circles around the maps hip-firing SMGs at each other got old a long long time ago.

I tried going back to COD4's MP. I think it'd been almost a year since I last really played it. My god, the frag grenades. It's just comical how many are going off all over the place all the time. I don't know if it was that way a year ago and I was used to it at the time, if the game's evolved, or if I was just unfortunate to be grouped with a bunch of spammers. Whatever the case, reducing the power and number of frags is definitely something Treyarch got right with World at War.

I should be able to more than get my shooter fix in the next ~6 months since there seem to be a bunch of quality ones coming out. Battlefield 1943, ArmA 2, Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, Modern Warfare 2, and Battlefield Bad Company 2.

Of all of them, I'm most excited about ArmA 2. 225 sq km map, 100+ different vehicles, co-op campaign, and 50-player MP. The gameplay video on the official site looks awesome: ArmA2.com

[Maia]

Considering how much I liked Oblivion, I'm guessing Fallout 3 would be right up my alley. Might wait for the inevitable Game of the Year package, though.

The GOTY package comes out in October and will contain the game + 5 DLCs for 50 bucks. I am loving F3 (and I liked both MW and Obl, although I never finished either).

BTW, I remember that there was a fellow fan of the Quest on the iphone/itouch around here - well, the Quest expansion finally came out! And it is called "The Islands of Ice and Fire" - yes, the devs are fellow ASOIAF fans :).

[Inigima]

The GOTY package comes out in October and will contain the game + 5 DLCs for 50 bucks.

Got a link on this? I thought the three DLC packages that were out were all that were planned.

[Jon AS]

Got a link on this? I thought the three DLC packages that were out were all that were planned.

No, they've decided to release two more, one of them apparently dealing with aliens.

[Inigima]

I see, thanks.

[Humble Asskicker]

Found a great deal I couldn't resist. Bought an XBox 360 Elite with six games for 250 dollars. I'm somewhat afraid of a technical malfunction in the near future, but so far things are golden.

I'm playing through Grand Theft Auto 4 right now. Awesome game. The point people have made that it's more of the same isn't accurate, I think. The face lift doesn't quite contribute to the degree of GTA 3, but it makes things much more immersive. And the story is fun, the characters are terrifically voiced and detailed, and it's a blast.

True, the social gimmick is a double-edge sword. It allows you to get to know the characters better in an informal setting, but the need to constantly cater to them and devote time and attention their way when you want to focus on the main game, can get, uh, irksome.

I love the animation in this game though. It makes getting in fights and shooting people feel more real, more intense, and more satisfying. The bank job was an example of where it really heightened the experience (seriously, details such as a gun after a person drops it on the ground - observing that sort of the in the middle of a shootout is extremely cool).

There are still some exasperating aspects of the game (aside from maintaining a social network). It bugs the hell out of me when you fail a mission, restart, and are forced to drive a specific vehicle way the fuck out there before the real mission can begin again. Most missions are fairly simple, but usually the harder ones that take a few repeat plays do execute properly have that extra bit of annoyance that very quickly makes me want to just drop the game and do something else (but I don't, because I'm an addict). It's frustrating, not fun.

[Relic]

I ended up scraping together a few extra $ and picking up Eternal Sonata - figuring a good lengthy RPG would do well to hold me over for the next month.

Any verdict?

[ogbebaba]

Picked up Punch Out!! (Wii)

Punch Out!! is exactly what I wanted from a new game in that series.

:agree: though i had to go to work the day after I picked it up so i only go to play it or a couple of hours (only got to MR. Sand Man) I really like the verses mode and was pretty surprised to see little Mack hulk out like that and docks pep talks are entertaining as always