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What video games are you playing at the moment? You scum, you... degenerate... scum...

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Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

14:23 / 21.04.06

I have recently...aquired...Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter for the X-Box.

This is one of the hardest FPS games I have played, and the moron AI they give your sidekick is a part of that. The graphics are pretty well done, and I do like the urban environments and the wide range of mission objectives.

So yeah, when I get a little tired of pwning n00bs in WoW I go get my ass shot off in Ghost Recon.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

15:53 / 21.04.06

I'm loving Doom 3 on the PC finally... so much better than on the Xbox, though it was pretty cool there. Yeah, it's just Doom but prettier, but c'mon... DOOM! And PRETTIER!!!

08:39 / 22.04.06

I got Running with Scissors 2 or Postal 2 depending on what country you come from I think. This is a banned game in Australia, and apart from a few dumb things you can do, I am still trying to find out what all the fuss is about. You can run around and shoot people and beat people up, but doesn't that happen in most if not all 'shoot em ups'? I might have to progress a few more levels before I get to the good stuff maybe?

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

11:07 / 22.04.06

I have to confess I quite enjoyed Postal 2. Some of the set-piece battles were fun, although the engine, AI and graphics were all a bit rubbish, and some of the offensive stuff was objectionable rather than shocking. I can forgive it a lot purely for the Gary Coleman sequence.

ONLY NICE THINGS

08:42 / 24.04.06

I've gone retro lately - inspired by the acquisition of a USB joystick, I loaded in Crimson Skies, but have yet to spend more than five minutes on it, nor done anything but steer repeatedly into the sea. The aesthetic and the setting of Crimson Skies always appealed to me more than the game.

Recently, in part in an attempt to vary a diet of Eldar asskilling, I also reloaded American McGee's Alice, which, 5 years on, is an incredible piece of design - both the graphics and the levels, the AI of which is showing its age very badly, in particular in the boss battles. It's left me thinking that possibly Oz might not be too shit, although I think Alice lends itself more to an ooo-scary presentation, which with Oz is just going to feel silly.

16:46 / 24.04.06

I know what you mean about Crimson Skies: the PC game is alright but it really doesn't live up to the potential of its setting. Possibly it needs revisiting, in fact iirc FASA (makers of Battletech) did a tabletop wargame, maybe even a RPG, though I have no idea if they were any good.

The Return Of Rothkoid

01:55 / 28.04.06

Another big thumbs up for God Of War, which I'm currently loving. There's something so satisfyingly visceral about it. Ahh, swordchains! My advice? Turn off the smoothing that the game defaults with - it gets even prettier.

My only concern with the game is that some of the puzzles seem a bit intrusive, the further on you get in the game. Mind you, I don't mind any excuse to rip skulls off to use as keys.

Yes, the third installment is light years ahead of the first too. It's a bit less trial and error - it lets you have a contingency plan, and if all goes tits-up, a quick stab of the knife dispenses with that problem. I tried to like the first two Splinter Cells - I actually enjoyed the third. The stuff it adds by and large makes sense - swapping gun-hand, giving the pistol a slow-charging (but unlimited) EMP pack that lets you shoot out lights without a bullet. It also looks far better than the first two games; very beautiful.

See, the third has been shitting me. I enjoyed the first two, and am finding the changes they've made to the controls (so it seems, at least) are fucking annoying. Still, we'll see - I spose I'll keep on with it, as this series is one of those ones that I sort of end up getting pretty fucked off with, but feel the need to see it through to the end... something I never felt with, say, the PS2 Shinobi.

Was anyone else a bit disappointed with Silent Hill 4?

Haus: I've been playing Alice on and off of late, too - it is a lot better than expected.

07:20 / 28.04.06

Oh, Oblivion. Sweet Oblivion. Why must you torment me so? My darling, you crash so often; is it something I said? Your quests, your leveled rewards which require so much planning; whatever happened to leisurely strolls through crypts, no matter my character level? The thrill of exploration ought not be constrained by such mundane details; if I could bring your sister Morrowind to completion at level 12, I certainly ought to be able to finish a few of your quests at level 1 without being punished unduly for it. Speaking of your sister -- why is it that she, an Imperial province, took days to cross by foot, whereas you, also an Imperial province, are perhaps ten miles across in any given direction? The Kate Moss starved-waif look does not suit you, my dear; please, tell your parents to feed you up a bit.

I love you, truly I do, but I just don't think we're right for each other. You won't let me fly, you won't let me teleport, and you rip my heart out each and every time you crash, which is often -- 'once every five minutes' is charitable. Perhaps we can continue seeing each other, but I must demand that you find some willing programmers and patch yourself first. I just can't go on like this.

What were your playtesters thinking?

09:23 / 28.04.06

Oh, Oblivion. Sweet Oblivion. Why must you torment me so?

A popular sentiment, it seems. I have about half a dozen friends who are returning to Morrowind out of sheer disappointment with Oblivion.

I'd say give it 6-8 months and the modding community will have turned Oblivion back into something like a real game.

10:07 / 28.04.06

That's certainly what I'm hoping.

12:27 / 28.04.06

I've been plodding through Rogue Trooper on the PS2

Whilst I'm not convinced with the gameplay, the geekjoy of having Bagman Helm Gunnar and Rogue roaming about Nu-Earth offing norts and chasing the traitor general is altogether too fantastic to bring the experience down

Kiltartan Cross

13:23 / 28.04.06

Heh. I'm still addicted to Oblivion. I have a low opinion of the main quest, but the Dark Brotherhood is great fun so far.

I was more tempted to go back to playing Daggerfall (which in fairness is possibly the buggiest game in existence after Frontier and FFE than to playing Morrowind. Wouldn't it be nice to have seen a proper random terrain generator included in Oblivion? I don't particularly care whether my map of Cyrodiil is the same as everyone else's map of Cyrodiil, just so long as the big cities (and it would be nice if they were big; it seems you could drop the Imperial City and every other Cyrodiilian settlement into the streets of Daggerfall and still have room to throw in Vivec City and Mournhold) were in the right place.

Oblivion would be improved most, for me, though, if killing bad guys was quick. My uberpowered up scout with super-ultra-blade-skills and fearsome Daedra-gifted, armorer-enhanced nastily-enchanted sword of spangliness (because it was so friggin' slow, I went out of my way to find the most damaging weapon possible, and it made not a jot of difference) takes about fifty hits to deal with a goblin warlord (and thanks to the genius levelling system, every goblin generated is a warlord... clever... talk about chiefs and indians!) It's really naff. It looks crap. My mouse button finger hurts. If only they could've managed some kind of fluid scale of damage that meant that when you and the baddies were at the same sort of power, combats would be quick, instead of treacle.

Disappointed of Cheadle.

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

14:14 / 28.04.06

Wait

Theres a ROGUE TROOPER game????

Does your gear have voices?

14:27 / 28.04.06

Yeah they talk - it's kind of limited in-game to the odd phrase here or there, mainly from bagman when he's handing you ammo. They're a bit more chatty in the cut-scenes

Bagman manufactures ammo, medkits, mini-mines and the like and hands them to you

Helm gets placed on computers and hacks through doors

Gunnar can be set up as an autogun holding off dastardly Norts whilst you take cover or sneak off elsewhere

My mental age was knocked down to about 8 when I started playing it on Saturday - It's barely recovered since.

The Return Of Rothkoid

23:15 / 30.04.06

Well, I'm currently going all spaghetti-western and playing Red Dead Revolver which I scored for $15.

That's about what it's worth, really. The idea's cool - a western game! Woo! - but the execution is a bit shady. The camera's shit, and the action... well, it's a bit average, and doesn't ramp up evenly - it's either the case that missions are a walkthrough, or they're fucking impossible.

Hmm. I do like the soundtrack and the visual effects that make it look like an out-of-focus screening of a spag western, though. That's cool.

So I'm cleaning up the streets. Except they're not paved with anything. And I'm occasionally riding a bull.

Tuna Ghost: Pratt knot hero

00:48 / 01.05.06

Recently picked up Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex for the PSP, and, um, it kinda sucks. I had played GitS:SAC on the PS2 (the first few levels, anyway, the game was in japanese so I eventually got stuck somewhere) and enjoyed it, despite the fact that it got bad reviews. What can I say, I like flipping around like a ninja and using mad haxor skills.

The game for the PSP, though, is a FPS and not a particularly good one. There's a nice range of weapons, sure, and you can hop into your tachikoma at just about any time and blow all kinds of shit up, but the controls are a little stiff and the graphics aren't anything to write home about.

Really, I guess it's a pretty decent FPS, but I was expecting more. And the political intrique aspect of the plot is predictable, and the overall story is pretty dull. Still, it was only twenty bucks and it has the same voice actors as the show and movies, so it wasn't all disappointment.

Jake, Colossus of Clout

01:15 / 01.05.06

I'm interested to hear a little more about the PS2 version- it was almost universally panned by critics, so I'd like to hear a different opinion. I'm an enormous fan of the show, so I was disappointed to hear it sucked, but if you have nice things to say, maybe I'll try to pick it up on the cheap.

Tuna Ghost: Pratt knot hero

21:50 / 01.05.06

Well, like I said, it was in Japanese so I have no idea what the story is. I'm a big fan of the show, but with that many characters and all the shit that goes on I imagine it's difficult to make a video game that fits in to the overall story of the show (or movies, for that matter) but still be it's own stand-alone story (forgive the pun). It's one of the problems I have with the PSP version, and I imagine it's not much better for the PS2 version.

But if you can get past that, I have to say I did enjoy the game without any story. There was some irritatingly inconsistent elements, like at the start of the first or second level Motoko leaps from a helicopter and lands on the concrete (dramatically cracking the pavement, of course). Later on in the same level, if you accidentally fall half that height, you die. What the fuck? Is she a cyborg or not?

Anyway, I was able to look past all that and just enjoy having Motoko flip around, dodge bullets, beat people up while invisible and hack into people's brains (I thought it was sorta clever the way you "hacked" people. A fun way to introduce a puzzle element into the hacking process, but most critics said it was lame). I think if you're a fan of the show, it wouldn't hurt to pick it up cheap. I would, if I had a PS2.

13:15 / 07.05.06

Well I completed God of War yesterday. I thought it tailed off a bit towards the end with the penultimate level just being really really annoying, like some bad early 90s platform game. Still over all it was a very enjoyable game. Can anyone recommend any decent games for the PS2 that will give a similar quick blast of action?

ONLY NICE THINGS

10:23 / 08.05.06

I've just finished Alice. I was discussing this with Paleface, and agree with him entirely - it's a series of fantastic level designs without much of a game attached. I'd also say that the character designs and animations were fantastic for their time, the weapons are imaginative (although since they all have the same ammo, you never use some beyond a certain point)... but it's a game you want to look at rather than play. The enemy AI is dreadful, even allowing for inflation. Towards the end, the puzzles are beautiful and intricate, but the narrow, twisting environments encourage the same run-shoot-back off -drop bomb-shoot action to the point of mantric repetition. I ended up going through the last levels in god mode, because I was interested in revisiting the levels as a tourist but not actually in playing through them. Think how unlikely you'd be to do that on your second replay of Half-Life 2, say... in part, it's a testament to how games have advanced, but I've been more gripped by older games than this when returning to them after a long lay-off.

11:43 / 08.05.06

Well I completed God of War yesterday. I thought it tailed off a bit towards the end with the penultimate level just being really really annoying

Oh god that annoying jumping up the spiky poles, I personally haven't played it, but I have watched my roomie go through madness and back on that particular section.

Heh. I'm still addicted to Oblivion. I have a low opinion of the main quest, but the Dark Brotherhood is great fun so far.

I played Oblivion for about 6 days straight and then haven't touched it since, some things have really improved, but too much of what I didn't like in morrowind is still there. However I would agree that the sideline quests are much more interesting than the main story line. I had gained access to the Arcane Library, joined the ranks of Thieves and had the Dark Brotherhood look me over, all thoroughly more enjoyable than trying to find some kings illegitimate son!

Also recently, against my better judgement, I picked up Tomb Raider: Legend, not really my usual game at all. Having only played the first one and not really liking it I wasn't sure how we'd get on, but so far 55% or so through it I'm still really enjoying it, as platform games go.

Another quick notable mention, Star Wars Lego, oh my word, the graphics are pretty crap, its quite buggy, but boy is it fun to play. Destroying world objects that blow up in to Lego blocks or using your powers to build bridges etc. Hours of brainless fun!

nedrichards is confused

12:53 / 08.05.06

The graphics aren't crap in Lego Star Wars, they look like Lego! That's *awesome*.

Kiltartan Cross

13:30 / 08.05.06

Alpha Centauri/Alien Crossfire. I got fed up with Oblivion and went back to an old classic. The game has such a well-presented and coherent vision, the factions all encourage you to play with their strengths - but don't limit you to doing so - you can experiment with societies, with a vast array of possible units, with terraforming, with everything, the inter-faction diplomacy feels more 'real' than any other Civ, and Planet itself deserves serious respect - mess up the ecological side of things ("why shouldn't I terraform with planet busters?") and you'd better be prepared for a legion of wriggling rainbow warriors. Alpha Centauri is Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy for the PC, and I love it.

13:43 / 08.05.06

The graphics aren't crap in Lego Star Wars, they look like Lego! That's *awesome*.

Ok, perhaps crap was the wrong word. Yes they look like Lego build models and they of course should, this is indeed a very cool part about it.
What I meant was that the developers didn't really put in any smoothness, even the cut scenes are missing some AA action. Being predominantly a kids game means they can get away with doing things like that.

nedrichards is confused

15:57 / 08.05.06

yeah, good call. /me thinks they were developing mostly for the PS2, fabled home of non-AA-ness.

Personally I'm playing mostly Xbox Live Arcade at the moment Geometary Wars, Hexic and Wiiiiiiiii (or whatever it's called. This is becuase Oblivion is in the post. I fimly expect never to post here again after it arrives as I shall be lost.

The Return Of Rothkoid

00:28 / 09.05.06

I currently am playing Evil Genius which I got for $20 at EB Games the other week as part of some campaign or other. And I really like it.

Well, I sorta really like it.

The way it looks is superb: very much in the vein of James Bond baddies' bases-in-volcano-craters. It's pretty slick without being overly cheesy, and is probably a good management-sim adjunct to No-One Lives Forever. Basically, you design your Evil Underground Lair, train minions, gather henchmen and commit Acts of Infamy across the world. The animations are really cute, atomic-age-spyesque, and there's a lot to like about it. Gameplay, however, seems a bit of a drag: it's very slow, and there's a bit of clunkiness in the immersion factor - it's a game that's not as easy to get into as you'd imagine.

Still, I like. Because I like being evil, obviously. That, and it runs on my piece-of-shit integrated graphics PC without choking too much. (One day I shall rebuild... one sunny day... then they'll all PAY...)

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

16:29 / 12.05.06

I love Evil Genius.

Though at the moment I'm mostly getting my "washing the scum from the streets" fix from Swat 4. I like the uniforms, I like the weapons, I like yelling "POLICE! GET YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR!!!"

I also like chucking CS gas canisters at people.

It's all a bit dodgy, really, and I try not to think about it too much.

Jake, Colossus of Clout

18:29 / 12.05.06

Phyrephox-Can anyone recommend any decent games for the PS2 that will give a similar quick blast of action?

The Devil May cry games offer a ton of slashing and blasting, and the first two should only be twenty bucks. Resident Evil 4 isn't as fast paced, but it's one of the best games ever made, and there's a lot of shotgun blast-to-quasi-zombie's-domepiece action. if you haven't played it, you really should.

The Return Of Rothkoid

02:08 / 23.05.06

Evil Genius gets bloody hard, I'm discovering. Gah.

Am about to launch into the lifesuck that is Medieval: Total War - it's cheap now that the next one's due/is out - but at the moment am totally kicking heads in a superfunhappy way. How? By playing Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy which is by turns really easy and pretty obnoxious. Still, I really am digging it - it's got great design, and still looks pretty good, given its age. Lots of fun, quite aside from the fact that Dee Snyder voices Daxter, which is one of the best things I've ever heard.

Here's to designers putting prog scan and 16x9 in their games. Hurrah!

10:34 / 23.05.06

Devil May Cry is very different to GoW, though; DMC is focused on arcade-style skill-tests and maximum combat; GoW is epic action/adventure. If you've not played the Prince of Persia games, the first one is utterly awesome - less combat, but more acrobatics, and very enjoyable. I didn't like the second very much, but at least the combat was better.

I'm ploughing through Metal Gear Solid 3, which is wonderful in so many ways. Very refreshing to play. I'm also playing Tekken 5, which I've just acquired; I played a fair bit of T3, but this is the first one I've given serious time. Fun. I prefer the styles and interface of Virtua Fighter, still, but am beginning to discover the neat depths to the system - mainly in knowing when to break off combos, anticipating juggle, and dummying attacks. Characters getting most play right now: Lee Chaolan, Kazuya, Steve, Raven. Raven's interesting - plays like an even more subdued version of DOA's Hayabusa - lots of very short strings that are designed to be mixed up.

07:27 / 24.05.06

I'm playing SiN Episodes: Emergence at the moment and it's quite bad. At first glance it seemed to tick all the right boxes for my gaming requirements: bright colours, noisy explosions every other second and - crucially - cut scenes featuring enormous jiggling tits. So I was kind of astonished to find that I wasn't enjoying it at all. There were a couple of good moments where people got set on fire and screamed convincingly, but other than that the thing was so absolutely simplistic and repetitive I found myself wishing for some kind of cerebral engagement, and that's something that almost never happens.

It's also very old fashioned. It seems strange and stupidly unrealistic now - after the likes of FEAR, Far Cry and call of duty, to have weapons that are absolutely precisely accurate to a pixel, for example. Plus the enemies are complete cretins. I'd forgotten how ridiculous it is to play a game where you accidentally miss a shot at someone's head, shattering the glass behind them, and they continue doing whatever they were doing as though nothing had happen. See also: shooting a guard in the middle of their conversation, and having their partner act as though nothing has happened [i]even though[/i] their mate's brains are splattered over their jumpsuit. Rubbish.

P. Horus Rhacoid

15:12 / 24.05.06

My life's quite videogame-heavy right now. Having found myself with a Gamecube for the summer (housemate left it behind) I did some shopping around on Amazon and found a copy of Killer7 for 12 bucks including shipping. Best 12 dollers I ever spent. So far I'm finding the puzzles pretty easy (I've gotten stuck maybe twice and had to consult a walkthrough) but the atmosphere and gameplay creepy and awesome, respectively. The simplified controls make a ton of sense to me, a casual gamer at best.

The game's also surprisingly funny- I've laughed out loud at a number of things. Con Smith's barrage of 'Fuck you!'s (I just scored critical lock-on with him), the whole concept of Mask de Smith (just got his new costume), the heroic techno music that plays when you go through the Gate on the way to a boss... Amidst the creepiness of blood-spattered walls, spine-chilling laughs and invisible exploding zombies it's nice to have something to laugh at. I love this game.

I'm stuck, at the moment, on the fourth mission (the theme park), trying to kill the goddamn ceramic smile. I doubt it's particularly hard, I just suck at aiming and I died a few times and wanted to take a break. Then I got distracted by Season 2 of The OC on DVD (DEAR GOD IT'S LIKE CRACK) but having finished that I'll probably try and close out the mission sometime today.

To summarize: Killer7: creepy as hell, funny as hell, addicting as hell, awesome as hell. Best game I've played in a long time.

I also found the Marathon games available for download so, until Killer7 entered my life, I was playing a lot of Marathon 2 while listening to the Videodrome soundtrack which makes the game creepy as fuck. Highly recommended. I'll dig up the link and post it in the freeware thread when I get the chance.

Finally, I continue to suck at Kenta Cho games. The game I have been sucking at most recently is Gunroar. I can almost never make it past the second boss but I love it.

10:00 / 29.05.06

ghost recon advanced warfighter xbox360 til i get Oblivion Elder Scrolls next week. Can't wait for that one. Bit exhausted with GRAW: online is more simplistic than i anticipated, preferred Far Cry Instincts on Xbox but can't afford Predator yet. Perfect Dark Zero is still the best online shooter IMHO.

17:10 / 30.05.06

Heyo, I've nearly completed Resident Evil 4 for the PS2, and I've really loved it to be honest. I'm a bit behind the times and me and my girlfriend went halves and bought the PS2 and 16 games off one of my mates for £70, which was quite a bargain. Went to Game, traded in all the games for Resident Evil 4 ( on offer at £19.98), Final Fantasy X, Super Monkey Ball Deluxe, The Weakest Link, Crash Nitro Kart and Viewtiful Joe. All of which I've tried but I usually stick to one game and complete it before moving on to the next, which in this case is going to be FFX.
I've read a lot of what people have said about God of War and I'm now blatantly going to buy it, sounds mint. Rezy 4 is really really cool, the graphics are amazing (although not as good as on the Gamecube from what I've read). The storyline really is mint, the cutscenes and acting throughout is great; also you can NEVER put the controller down and relax because during cutscenes you usually have to mash the buttons to dodge falling things/monsters. Most of all, what everyone wants from a Resident Evil game, its arse-rapingly scary.

Just waiting for the new Half-Life 2: Episode One addon for the PC now, day after tomorrow! Woo.

06:10 / 31.05.06

When you say "nearly completed", where are you exactly in RE4? It's just, you know, it doesn't really every 'stop'; the last hour is crazy.

Fabulous game, one of my favourites.

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