Whats games have you been playing of late? Exclusive Beta Edition.

[Jon AS]

The game's minimum requirements are a 1.2GHz processor and 256MB of RAM. There is no way it's not going to run on that system.

[Paxter]

Not sure if you guys use this already/don't rate it very highly, but I personally find this gives a good indication of whether or not your PC is up to scratch for a particular game.

[Lightning Lord]

Not sure if you guys use this already/don't rate it very highly, but I personally find this gives a good indication of whether or not your PC is up to scratch for a particular game.

That seems pretty useful. Basically telling me that most games aren't going to work very well because my video card is crap. A little disappointing.

[Le Communard]

I never got around to playing EU3. I want to give it a try sometime, though. Shouldn't be that expensive any more.

You can get the "complete" version for 20 bucks on Gamers Gate, although you should probably wait until the new expansion comes out in December.

[potsherds]

Has anyone taken a look at Fallen Earth ?

It's an mmo-fps game. Release was supposedly really rocky (fairly normal for MMO's, no?), but since I only found it Friday, that was after a number of patches and bug fixes. Dl'ing it took forever though, so buying the disc would probably be a better option.

It's an 'after the apocalypse' storyline, a virus and nuclear war wiped out most of the human population. The game takes place in the Grand Canyon province, and I *think* the terrain is actually meant to represent that area fairly accurately, although I'd have to go and check on that.

You're a clone (which explains the dying and stuff), and there's supposedly a decent main storyline revolving around the area you started in, what your clone body was intended for, etc. Although I haven't continued that storyline past the tutorial. While you do gain 'power levels', you advance by putting AP points in certain skills. I've made a melee fighter-medic-tradeskills person so far. I think I'm probably overextending my AP points across attributes and skills. :P

There are various mounts (horses, motorcylces, ATV's), lots of salvaging and scavenging the junk littered everywhere for parts. I'm only in Sector 1, which I get the impression can take a fair amount of time to go through. In Sector 2 you can choose a faction to join which will give you specialized mutagenic abilities (basically the magic in this game :P). Probably going with Lightbearers (hate the name :ack:) since they specialize in healing and melee.

There's been very little review or press on the game. It's basically considered Indie by the players. I looked here for what felt to me like a decent intro to the game. If you click to the next page, it's a bunch of screenshots from the game with little blurbs about what's going on, or game mechanics, or storyline, etc. I also watched a youtube review:

The players are almost entirely made up of mature, kind, and extremely helpful people, and the GM's are responsive all the time in the help chat. Which is somewhat necessary, honestly. The game *is* buggy. The studio built the engine themselves and I've seen various bugs that remind me of nothing more than needing to remember to clear strings or repeatedly run a check for 'x' before doing 'y'. Approximately 98.9% of the problems you run into are fixed by logging off to the character screen and logging back in. :P

I was wondering if anyone else has given the game a try? And if so, what they thought of it. I like it so far, but I don't trust my immediate impressions of any game.

[Inigima]

I saw an SA thread about Fallen Earth. It looks really cool, but MMOs are hugely time-consuming and I don't know how I'd have time for a second one.

[Lightning Lord]

Sorry about posting such an inane question, since this is supposed to be games, not computers...

But is it really possible to reduce settings so my video card can run more advanced games? It seems I have a 64 MB Intel card (at work, can't check exact), which is a bit low for some games (Civ IV, Medieval II). Even if this is possible, would the games just not really be worth playing with reduced graphics?

[Alcibiades]

If you have an integrated intel graphics chip with 64mb, you're not going to be able to tweak your way into running Medieval 2. Civ4 might be a little more forgiving, but I doubt it.

It might even be using shared system memory, instead of dedicated vram.

[Max the Mostly Mediocre]

But is it really possible to reduce settings so my video card can run more advanced games? It seems I have a 64 MB Intel card (at work, can't check exact), which is a bit low for some games (Civ IV, Medieval II). Even if this is possible, would the games just not really be worth playing with reduced graphics?

Medieval II, no way in hell. CivIV, probably. And it turns out there is a demo, so you can check.

Oh, and graphics are the least important element in the Civ series. So, yes, even if you have to turn off all the details (I do), it's still worth playing.

[Atreides]

Sorry about posting such an inane question, since this is supposed to be games, not computers...

But is it really possible to reduce settings so my video card can run more advanced games? It seems I have a 64 MB Intel card (at work, can't check exact), which is a bit low for some games (Civ IV, Medieval II). Even if this is possible, would the games just not really be worth playing with reduced graphics?

Yeah there's no way it could run Medieval II. My laptop has a 128 MB card and it can barely run it. Dunno about Civ IV.

[potsherds]

I saw an SA thread about Fallen Earth. It looks really cool, but MMOs are hugely time-consuming and I don't know how I'd have time for a second one.

Yeah, not gonna argue there. One nice thing (or irritating thing, depending on how you look at it) is that anything you set up to craft in the queue will craft while you do other things (quests and such) as well as when you log off (I look at it as a time-saver, personally). But this is to offset the fact that crafting takes a more realistic amount of time than most mmo's (making dye is about 45 secs, bandages 1.5 mins, making a piece of armour or a weapon 10-15 mins). The other thing about crafting: it's fairly vital. The best gear to be worn and weapons to be used at any particular level is crafted. I find this game fairly original in a lot of respects, so it's really go my attention. :P

[Commodore]

I'm not one to get all hung up on gratuitous violence in gaming, but

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[Atreides]

Yeah that Modern Warfare 2 mission was unbelievably disturbing. At least they warn ahead of time that there is an extremely offensive and graphic mission, and give the option to skip it.

[Werthead]

Despite my apathy towards CoD4, I checked out MW2 when my housemate bought it today for PS3. Splendidly, my #1 complaint against the prior game - the infinitely respawning bad guys who will continue to regenerate until judgement day like some mid-80s C64 platform game - seems to have been eliminated and the combat seemed more satisfying as a result.

SPOILER: MW2 'story

The actual storyline seems to be rather heavily 'borrowed' from World in Conflict and bolted onto the visuals from Fallout 3 though, which seemed a bit unoriginal. However, I did like the way they just completely abandoned any lingering connection with reality and just took the story completely into the realm of SF bizarro-land, especially the bit where you are briefly playing an ISS astronaut and then get hit in the face by a nuclear explosion.

And I still can't work out if the quotes from Dick Cheney that sometimes crop up when you die are supposed to be serious or ironic.

Btw, Modern Warfare 3 already in development.

[BlueRose]

I'm not one to get all hung up on gratuitous violence in gaming, but

.

I couldnt handle it at all. I refuse to even be in the same room when that game is on after that. Was that really necessary? Really? I was horrified, I left to the one place I wouldnt have to hear it, the shower. I share what is basically a one room apartment, so I have no choice but to experience whatever is being played in my living room.

Normally I laugh at stories in the news about "video game violence is ruining society", but I really think that mission took it too far.

[Werthead]

I couldnt handle it at all. I refuse to even be in the same room when that game is on after that. Was that really necessary? Really? I was horrified, I left to the one place I wouldnt have to hear it, the shower. I share what is basically a one room apartment, so I have no choice but to experience whatever is being played in my living room.

Normally I laugh at stories in the news about "video game violence is ruining society", but I really think that mission took it too far.

What was ridiculous about it was that the game wasn't really trying to say anything that warranted such a sequence. If the game was a hardcore commentary on the War on Terror which focused say on psychological realism and the fucked-upness of the whole situation then maybe there would be a valid reason for having that bit in there.

Since the rest of the game plays like a gonzoid Chuck Norris movie instead and the storyline was phoned in by an ultra right-wing conspiracy nutjob who's read way too much Tom Clancy instead, Infinity Ward clearly and deliberately put that sequence in the game purely to piss some people off and drum up some controversy for increased sales. Certainly one of the more blatant and coldly cynical moves I've seen a gaming company do recently.

[Mme Erzulie]

Do what I do, and play FIFA10 instead. No killing civilians there. Only me killing everything around me in a blinding rage when I lose a match (or the 10th match in a row - this game is hard!)

[Renasko]

What difficulty level are you playing at, Erzulie?

[burnt hound]

Bought Brutal Legend and Dragon Age: Origin for the 360. I had planned to buy DAO to the PC, but since my computer crashed (again), I bought it for the consol. Haven't played them much, but so far they are very good.

[Werthead]

Steam did a little experiment. They made a note of everyone who'd signed the 'MW2 Server-Related Boycott!' thing and then used their powers to see what games people who'd signed the list were currently playing.

Well, what a surprise.

Guess publishers are going to be really intimidated by boycotts in the future, right?