what games are you playing?

[Fitz]

I don't really game ever, but I played Left 4 Dead 2 last week and thought it was actually pretty fun, other than the few and far between save points which pissed me off because I'm usually more of a run up and hack/shotgun things to death kind of guy than a sniper and therefore die a lot. I definitely have that mentality in Gears of War with the chainsaw gun. My computer is so outdated it can't play any of today's games.

I wasn't impressed with the L4D2 demo enough to buy L4D again so soon (it's more like an expansion pack than a sequel), but it's definitely a game that requires a very different playing style. Running up and beating / shotgunning things to death is actually a valid strategy, but you have to take caution not to stray too far from your teammates and not get surrounded or overwhelmed. Also, if you learn the audio cues for various special infected, you'll save yourself a lot of trouble by being prepared to deal with them before they attack (and don't forget to tell your teammates). Oh and the witches just love attention.

This has been somewhat fixed in Bioshock 2, hacking takes place in real time. More dumbing down though, in that hacking can be done without tools when you're up close and personal, and the tools are fired from a pistol allowing you to target a camera or turret from a distance and hack from there.

Never caught the "Spiritual Successor" bit... now I get the letdown I guess. I knew it was made by the same guys but I expect most companies that once made hardcore games to dumb things down for the masses with their new releases. Trust me, I've been just as angry at Deus Ex 2, Fable 2, Oblivion, etc... for that handholding feeling. I judged Bioshock 1 on its' own and really enjoyed it.

Yeah, I wanted to be able to form an impression of it by itself, but I'm a huge SS2 fan and it's essentially impossible for me not to compare it, especially when the devteam has actually said they set out to make SS2 again.

[mypasswordis]

Yeah the witches are super annoying. Took me awhile to realize to NOT shoot at them, and avoid them at all costs. I must say, it is quite enjoyable being the one to kill special infected. I want to play it again, especially co-op, but the person who owns it (and the 360) doesn't like it.

Played some SSBM today at another person's house, I'm a total noob. Played a decent amount of Brawl last year and got almost decent at it but lost all my skills by now.

[NightWoundsTime]

I've played a lot more Bioshock 2 now and can report that it is actually a little brutal, even on medium. Some things are still fairly easy, but the combat is tough, resources are tight, and they've put in a lot more huge fights than the first game had. Can't imagine trying to go through this thing on the hard difficulty.

[The Monkey]

Plants v. Zombies for iPhone.

[Fitz]

I've played a lot more Bioshock 2 now and can report that it is actually a little brutal, even on medium. Some things are still fairly easy, but the combat is tough, resources are tight, and they've put in a lot more huge fights than the first game had. Can't imagine trying to go through this thing on the hard difficulty.

Moar brutal is certainly a good thing, although I'm not thrilled about an increasing focus on large fights.

And speaking of brutal, I'm getting back to work on the add-on story of Persona 3: FES, where bosses are even more ridiculously cheap and unfair than in the main story. I can't wait to finish this and Persona 4, then go play some of Atlus' much harder RPGs (not sarcasm).

[Beefy]

Finished Mass Effect 2 the other day. I still feel like they nerfed the combat a bit compared to the first, but I enjoyed it on the whole.

The humour and role playing was better though. Hearing Mordin sing Gilbert and Sullivan was brilliant

[EdipisReks]

The humour and role playing was better though. Hearing Mordin sing Gilbert and Sullivan was brilliant

yeah, that was a high point in my gaming career! i thought the ending was way too easy. i very much am looking forward to the third installment.

[Beefy]

i thought the ending was way too easy

Yeah, I agree. The only difficult part was working out the largely arbitrary rules by which you needed to pick people for tasks in order for everyone to survive.

[rogue]

Been playing some Stalker: Call of Pripyat recently. Definitely a bit dumbed down from the first game (weapon progression is noticeably faster/easier), but still no hand-holding like most modern FPS's. Still a great FPS/RPGish experience, with probably the best atmosphere out of any FPS of recent memory.

[Fitz]

Auggggh, I came so close to beating Erebus in Persona 3: FES on the first try last night, but I made some dumb mistakes when he was down to the last sliver of health.

Been playing some Stalker: Call of Pripyat recently. Definitely a bit dumbed down from the first game (weapon progression is noticeably faster/easier), but still no hand-holding like most modern FPS's. Still a great FPS/RPGish experience, with probably the best atmosphere out of any FPS of recent memory.

STALKER is one of my favorite games, man. I've clocked a crazy amount of time in SoC, although I was a little late to the game with Clear Sky so I'm still playing that. Once I finish it I plan to pick up CoP for sure. Are the game mechanics closer to the first or second game?

[Fitz]

Well then, I had no trouble whooping Erebus' ass on the second try. I'm a bit disappointed actually, considering how tough the Nyx Avatar fight was in the main story, and the overall increase in difficulty for the epilogue. And that's even with a self-imposed handicap of using only certain party members for the entire epilogue.

[EdipisReks]

Beneath a Steel Sky on my iPhone. iPhone is perfectly suited for adventure games, i hope that there is a new blossoming of the genre, as it was always one of my favorites.

[Fitz]

Even though I don't normally like adventure games, Beneath a Steel Sky was pretty friggin' awesome.

I've been trying to play Xenosaga Episode 1 but my PS2 has a lot of difficulty reading dual-layer DVDs, which is rather irritating when it starts freezing up in the middle of one of the 5 hour long cutscenes.

[NightWoundsTime]

Yeah adventure games own. I bought the admittedly lame Sam & Max episode pack for Xbox 360 and even that was fun. I'm hoping that they bring the new Monkey Island episodes to the 360 soon. If not I'll pick them up on Steam eventually.

I've got Beneath a Steel Sky on my Nokia N810 but haven't played much of it.

[deepak]

Auggggh, I came so close to beating Erebus in Persona 3: FES on the first try last night, but I made some dumb mistakes when he was down to the last sliver of health.




STALKER is one of my favorite games, man. I've clocked a crazy amount of time in SoC, although I was a little late to the game with Clear Sky so I'm still playing that. Once I finish it I plan to pick up CoP for sure. Are the game mechanics closer to the first or second game?

Are you using any mods for the first one? I thought STALKER was sort of average when it first came out, after all the hype and features it advertised. And I hear Clear Sky was just a disaster.

[Fitz]

Are you using any mods for the first one? I thought STALKER was sort of average when it first came out, after all the hype and features it advertised. And I hear Clear Sky was just a disaster.

I haven't exhausted my entertainment with the stock game, so I haven't tried any mods for it yet. Perhaps next playthrough I will, since my current save I have enough weapons and ammo stockpiled at the army warehouses to take on the entire zone by myself, am on friendly terms with both Freedom and Duty, and just go exploring random areas (bandit hunting) or make occasional trips to Pripyat to give fire support to help other stalkers against monolith troops.

Right now I'm now playing through Front Mission 4. It's the first time I've played a TRPG since FFT came out, and I'm enjoying it a lot more than I expected. Battles can be long and repetitive, but I don't find them particularly boring or unfair, perhaps because of its similarities to the Battletech TTG and the number of tactics and strategies I'm able to pull straight from Battletech.

[rogue]

Are the game mechanics closer to the first or second game?

Overall gameplay is similar to the first (fairly linear progression, no "faction wars" stuff), but IMO they also kept the best stuff from the second - weapon/armor modification, artifact detection, etc.

[Fitz]

Overall gameplay is similar to the first (fairly linear progression, no "faction wars" stuff), but IMO they also kept the best stuff from the second - weapon/armor modification, artifact detection, etc.

That sounds like the best of both worlds then. Fixes the issue with the unique weapons/armor being too precious to actually use, and removes the stress-inducing faction wars nonsense. While I get into the roleplaying aspect and always help out my fellow stalker (especially if it's a green dot I see in trouble), having to rush to someone's help every 2 minutes for the faction wars gets irritating (and usually it's over by the time I get there, even if I run the whole way). I kinda like artifact farming from the first game though, it gave a little more purpose for making treks into certain areas, besides just checking on the status of friendly/neutral stalker camps and killing any new threats, but I can understand why they changed the way finding artifacts works.

Have you been to the official boards for the game? There's this guy there, I think his name is Tejas Slacker or something like that, who has made some absolutely epic threads detailing his adventures in the zone. I mean, that guy roleplays seriously hardcore in it, spending more time in one area than most people do for the entire game. I think at one point he went for a walk around most of the zone just following along with a certain NPC to see where all he went.

[rogue]

That sounds like the best of both worlds then. Fixes the issue with the unique weapons/armor being too precious to actually use, and removes the stress-inducing faction wars nonsense. While I get into the roleplaying aspect and always help out my fellow stalker (especially if it's a green dot I see in trouble), having to rush to someone's help every 2 minutes for the faction wars gets irritating (and usually it's over by the time I get there, even if I run the whole way). I kinda like artifact farming from the first game though, it gave a little more purpose for making treks into certain areas, besides just checking on the status of friendly/neutral stalker camps and killing any new threats, but I can understand why they changed the way finding artifacts works.

Yeah, COP is probably the most balanced and coherent Stalker game. I also help out the fellow stalkers, especially now that there are a lot more random mutant attacks. CS's faction wars got too grating and it seemed like there was little to no payoff from doing them. My only beef with COP is that the combat seems slightly tilted towards fighting mutants rather than humans - some of the 'super mutant' fights can be annoying, and I just plain prefer the human-human combat anyway. There's nothing like firing off 3 round bursts with the F2000 at some dude and seeing one of them connect straight to the head

Have you been to the official boards for the game? There's this guy there, I think his name is Tejas Slacker or something like that, who has made some absolutely epic threads detailing his adventures in the zone. I mean, that guy roleplays seriously hardcore in it, spending more time in one area than most people do for the entire game. I think at one point he went for a walk around most of the zone just following along with a certain NPC to see where all he went.

Hah, that sounds like a good read. I'll have to check it out. I definitely don't have the time I used to play games, but some people just have no lives at all it seems. Of course, then there's the real-life stalker guys: English Russia

[deepak]

Have you been to the official boards for the game? There's this guy there, I think his name is Tejas Slacker or something like that, who has made some absolutely epic threads detailing his adventures in the zone. I mean, that guy roleplays seriously hardcore in it, spending more time in one area than most people do for the entire game. I think at one point he went for a walk around most of the zone just following along with a certain NPC to see where all he went.

That's awesome. I love when people do that stuff and document it.