What are you playing?

[Duke Floss]

finally got around to beating Bioshock all the way through for the first time. Beat it as a good guy - and I am shocked at how terrible the ending is. It makes SS2s ending seem epic.
Other than that it was a lot of fun, but never felt near as suspenseful as either System Shock game.


As for Brothers In Arms on the ipod - here is an example of how linear it is. I had a spare moment (so I thought) before having to head out to the next objective point (big yellow circle) - I decided to explore the surrounding level a bit and was promptly told I had failed the mission for "not following orders"... I walked like five steps to the left of the path

[bobby 55]

At Gog.com I bought a copy of Freespace 2 for the princely sum of 8 AUD. After playing Wings Of Prey I feel like revisiting the space sims. I tried my ancient copy of Starlancer but it and Windows 7 just don't want to work together.

[Jetsetlemming]

Infinite Space on the DS. About three hours in so far, waiting for some more options to unlock as I progress before really judging it. So far the battle mechanic (You're a space ship fighting another space ship, you have heavy attack, light attack, and dodge as initial moves, dodge only dodges heavy it makes light more accurate for some reason, you can move closer or farther and range effects accuracy, you have a ATB-esque bar that controls what you can do when) seems kinda interesting if it gets significantly more complicated besides rock paper scissors with some 1d movement. The game's hilariously anime outside of that, even moreso once you learn that the developer's a nine man team called "Nude Maker", who when they aren't making Steel Battalion and Infinite Space, make pc porno games.

I also got Pokemon: Soul Silver, because Nintendo managed to shoot that nostalgia arrow direct hit on the 13 year old me who still occupies the deep dark recesses of my mind and laughs at farts. Haven't started it yet, though. I'm somewhat reluctant to. This game took up all my free time and a lot of my not-free time between 6th and 8th grade. Fistfights were had over raw deals or cheap team selections. Hours and hours were spent talking about which pokemon was the coolest.

[Duke Floss]

Just got Dungeon Hunter & Earthworm Jim on the ipod touch - both are excellent. Dungeon Hunter looks as good as Dungeon Siege did back when it came out. Earthworm Jim is classic

[Kman]

Deadly Premonition, the most surprising budget title I've ever played.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadly_Premonition

Its essentially Twin Peaks the video game except with some even quirkier characters, a different overall story (besides the whole young girl being murdered thing) and the protagonist, Francis York Morgan, likes Coffee and BISCUITS. HUGE DIFFERENCE!

Unfortunately there is currently no PAL version of the game and the US version is region locked.

ALSO, do not trust IGN! Their review is ignorant as hell and they really just try to make it clear how bad the graphics are. But since we're all Deus Ex fans after all, I doubt any of us care THAT much about graphics, I sure as hell don't.

Oh, and did I mention its a 20+ hour game for 20 USD?

[Jonas]

I've gone back to Rainbow 6: Vegas 2 to satiate my gun fetish because I don't want to buy Modern Warfare 2 or Battlefield: Bad Company 2. R6V2 is more my kind of game anyway: slow, tactical, and with co-op. Gonna fire up some pistol-only terrorist hunting with Nick tomorrow.

[bobby 55]

I've gone back to Rainbow 6: Vegas 2 to satiate my gun fetish because I don't want to buy Modern Warfare 2 or Battlefield: Bad Company 2. R6V2 is more my kind of game anyway: slow, tactical, and with co-op. Gonna fire up some pistol-only terrorist hunting with Nick tomorrow.

Pistols only eh? Cleaning up Sin City the hard way..... that's playing badass.

I'm alternating between Me 2 second playthrough to see what bonuses you get and ME 1, this time as a Vanguard to see how that plays in ME 2. I'll get to play some Freespace 2 from Tuesday when I can download the 1.5 gig penalty free.

[Kee715]

Fallout 2

[Duke Floss]

Deadly Premonition, the most surprising budget title I've ever played.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadly_Premonition

Its essentially Twin Peaks the video game except with some even quirkier characters, a different overall story (besides the whole young girl being murdered thing) and the protagonist, Francis York Morgan, likes Coffee and BISCUITS. HUGE DIFFERENCE!

Unfortunately there is currently no PAL version of the game and the US version is region locked.

ALSO, do not trust IGN! Their review is ignorant as hell and they really just try to make it clear how bad the graphics are. But since we're all Deus Ex fans after all, I doubt any of us care THAT much about graphics, I sure as hell don't.

Oh, and did I mention its a 20+ hour game for 20 USD?

that looks awesome!!!!!

[Jonas]

Finished Rainbow Six: Vegas 2. Good game, all things considered. Got on my nerves towards the end though, when the second to last mission separates you from your team members and you have to complete all four levels in it on your very own. In a game that's geared towards team tactics, that's kind of a low blow.

I tend to use my element (squad, if you will) essentially as bait, sending them in when the situation looks fishy, so I can hang back in good cover when they trigger the enemy spawns. Tom Francis once described snipers as homicidal cowards, and that's pretty much what I am - or in JC's words, I like to pick them off from a distance. That doesn't work so well when they don't spawn until you're standing in the middle of a huge open room with no cover. The beginning of the oil refinery mission is super fun because you can sneak around and pick the enemies off silently, but once you get into the refinery proper, it's pretty much impossible to stay hidden, the stealth mechanics just aren't advanced enough for that.

Anyway, it was solved by inviting Shane (That Guy) into my game. Co-op makes the campaign ludicrously easy because as long as one of the players is alive, the other will respawn next to him/her 10 seconds after dying, it actually feels like a cheat. With Shane's help I breezed through to the end of the game.

There's something else going on with Vegas, which goes for both the first and second game in this particular offshoot of the Rainbow Six series. All good games have a certain vibe, a certain atmosphere, but when I returned to Vegas 2, I was immediately transported a couple of years back to when I first played it. It's hard to put my finger on it, which is annoying since as a game designer that's the sort of thing I have to be able to deconstruct, but I think it's something about the way they render the colours and lights in the game, along with the extremely colourful and highly detailed settings of the game (it is Vegas after all). The colours sort of wash out in a very dreamy way. I think the basic feel of the game may have something to do with it too, the constant switching between first- and third-person view, the quick and flexible team orders system, and the slow, heavy movement of the player character. It gives the whole game a very unique... well... vibe.

Usually when a game hits me that directly with a memory callback, it's tied to the particular situation I was in when I played it first - for example, I think of a certain Half-Life DM map called Devious, and I can recall what the weather was like outside my house the day I played it (sunny, dry, and slightly breezy) and what music I was listening to (Until It Sleeps by Metallica - annoyingly it works both ways, so every time I hear Until It Sleeps, I think of Devious). But my memories of Vegas aren't really like that, at least I think. It's kind of weird. Anybody else get something like that?

[Jane_Denton]

Fallout 2

I love Fallout 1 and 2...

I'm playing Spellforce 2... it's a little addictive I've clocked over 70hours this week playing it during my March Break!

I bought the Spellforce 1 and 2 pack on Steam for dirt cheap too! I love a sale!

[bobby 55]

Usually when a game hits me that directly with a memory callback, it's tied to the particular situation I was in when I played it first - for example, I think of a certain Half-Life DM map called Devious, and I can recall what the weather was like outside my house the day I played it (sunny, dry, and slightly breezy) and what music I was listening to (Until It Sleeps by Metallica - annoyingly it works both ways, so every time I hear Until It Sleeps, I think of Devious). But my memories of Vegas aren't really like that, at least I think. It's kind of weird. Anybody else get something like that?

Association with older games yes, not so much with the ones of the last few years. I remember beating Deus EX on a summers day just before a thunderstorm. Freelancer got beaten when I was pretty sick with the flu. Others are faded memories.

I just beat ME 2 for the second time and this time everybody lived. \o/

[Jetsetlemming]

Reinstalled Starcraft and Diablo 2. Not going to play Diablo until the 24th though. I started a custom 1v1 game in SC, me vs a random AI in the Boxer map. I thought I was doing pretty good, had a barracks and factory and three supply depos built, had a squad of five marines on their way to go pester the enemy protoss base, and vultures on the way... and then three zealots walk into my currently undefended base and go about murdering all my SEVs.

[Jaedar]

Dawn of War 2 Multiplayer.

I was going to whine about balance issues. But I dragged my feet and now they've announced a patch which fixes pretty much everything I was going to whine about. GODDAMN you Relic/THQ for your brilliant post-release support! srsly though, I love you guys

My lack of skill is still disconcerting though, I spend half a year away from the game and now I spend like half of my matches ashamed of my performance. I can do better I used to be brilliant. If I wanted to brag I'd say I was practically playing on pro levels (at least according to Guffwull aka GFWL).

Still it is very fun, and the new units and the new race are pretty good. Chaos are not as good as in the first game although that isn't a very valid complaint; its like saying: well, the story isnt as good as Torment. I especially like the fact that the chaos gods are your (abusive) advisors.

I just beat ME 2 for the second time and this time everybody lived. \o/

Congratulations! Now you'll get an email in the third game in which they thank you [/Sarcasm]

[bobby 55]

Or put shit on me for failing to do so in the first run.