What Games Are You Playing?

Prime 2 down.

75% collection
10:58

Took me a lot longer than prime but I played 2/3 of this game blind so don't think it is too bad and it is a bit bigger. Also 10% off the collection rate for prime but again this was blind and I know where nearly everything is in prime which helps.

Fantastic game, onto 3 next to finish the series.

 

Been playing Assassin's Creed II. I almost quit because I didn't like the beginning but I'm half way through and it's gotten pretty good.

 

AC2 is probably my favourite so far in terms of story. Brotherhood is just AC2.5, more of the same with a couple of extras and a more boring story IMO. Don't get me started on revelations. The fact that they COMPLETELY changed Desmonds face really put me off. I played about an hour and haven't touched it since. I will go back to it though, when I feel the need.

 

I only got a couple of hours in AC2 before I started something else, probably Castlevania: Lords of Shadow which was one of my sleeper hits for that year, and so never finished it.

Tried to get back into it recently and obviously my 60GB PS3 died since then so had to start again. Got a bit bored with the start so didn't get too far at all before giving up. Might try to carry on at some point soon as I only hear good things about AC2 but the first part of the game is pretty poor.

 

I got pretty far in AC2 but never finished it. It's good, but it's kind of overlong, and some of it really drags. I liked the tombs. Those had kind of a Prince of Persia feel to them.

 

Did you ever finish Alan Wake? I liked the story but didn't care for the rest of the game very much.

 

No. I enjoyed the story, especially now that I've seen Twin Peaks and know what it was referencing, but I hated the gameplay so much I couldn't bring myself to slog through it.

Lately I've been playing System Shock 2. Other than the graphics, this game has aged very well. It's just as good as I remember it. I'd still say it's one of the best games I've ever played. I love pretty much everything about it, the sound, the atmosphere, the storytelling, the RPG elements. It's kind of a toss up between this, Deus Ex, Freespace 2, and Half-Life 1/2 for best game ever as far as I'm concerned. It's a shame that so few people played SS2. It's a real gem that was a decade ahead of its time in many respects. Long before Bioshock or Fallout 3, SS2 had very similar, and possibly better gameplay.

 

I am about half way through Prime 3, soon I am going to have yo decide whether I play Other M again, actually on purpose without being forced at gunpoint.

Seeing as I will have played everything other than Metroid 2 (can't stand old gameboy games anymore) and there is so little out I might at least fire it up. See how far I can get before getting fed up with how bad it is.

 

World of Tanks

This is a free MMO game which sort of reminds me of the old Battlefield 2 and 1942 tank battles. The game is simple which is both a strength and weakness. Matches have two teams of 15 players and typically only last 5 to 15 minutes depending on how long you survive. The more you play the more tanks and upgrades you get. It’s a fun game if you need something to do for an hour.

 

Played some Red Dead Redemption tonight. I think it's been over a year since I've played it.

 

Same here. I almost forgot that it's one of the best games I've ever played. Might have to start again from the beginning.

I've been playing Final Fantasy III on my iPad, the real FFIII, not FFVI. So far it's very blah and a bit meh. But it's still early days and the game is over 20 years old.

 

Whatever was in that update has screwed up Max Payne 3. I can't even play it because their stupid Social Club won't respond when it's loading up. R* really goes out of their way to screw up their PC games.

 

I still haven’t finished it. I just got into Mexico not too long ago.

 

I began playing The Witcher 2 this afternoon. I'm a couple of hours in and I have to say so far this game is shit. I know it's way too early to have a real opinion on only being at the beginning and all but almost everything about this game just sucks. Characters I know nothing about/don't care for. A backstory I don't know since the original was only on on PC. They keep mentioning people and races and places I know nothing about, I'm constantly wondering what or who they're talking about. So far the combat has been really lame, you've got some stupid spells to cast but by the time you've finished the animation the enemy has recovered anyway so it just boils down to your classic gamecube punching, hold left trigger and spam A, real interesting. The graphics are pretty crap considering all the footage I'd previously seen making the game look awesome. The menus are a mess and confusing at first. I'm picking up dozens of items without any clue as to their usefulness. The controls are clunky, locking onto an enemy only works when it wants to. I was facing an enemy earlier but because I didn't stand there and wait for his name to appear before locking on my dude snapped to the enemy behind me, totally confusing me and allowing the guy in front to attack me. I heard people comparing this to Skyrim, HA! It feels more like Dragon Age and that game sucked ass as well. So far this early stage of the game feels like the most bland generic RPG hack n slasher of all time.

I'm wondering does the game suddenly get awesome later on or is this it? Should I push through the sheer boredom and frustration or just give up now?

 

Agreed. Witcher 2 was horrible. It's more Eastern European bargain bin trash similar to Stalker.

I think the worst part about it is that it's incredibly complicated, but you're never given much of an explanation of how things work or what you're supposed to be doing. Complicated games are fine, but at least give the player a proper tutorial.

The voice acting was awful. I didn't care about the story or the characters. It did have naked boobies though, so that's a plus I guess.

I disagree about the graphics though. Maybe you're playing it on a console, but on the PC it has some of the best graphics you'll find anywhere. The screenshots you saw were no doubt of the PC version.

 

I feel the same regarding complexity. I get the feeling they didn't want to hold your hand throughout the game but any explanation with regards to certain mechanics would be nice. On the tutorial you're given a chance to try out the things you've learned against some enemies and the game chooses a difficulty for you. The second enemy I faced had two swords and blocked every attack and killed me, making the game choose easy, I've just bumped it up to normal to hopefully spice combat up a bit. I feel the voice acting is decent enough, although some of the dialogue sounds like it was recorded too loudly, I sometimes hear distortion caused by clipping, pretty amateurish if you ask me. I've changed my opinion on the graphics, it can look pretty. I'm in Flotsam about to foil a hanging and it's quite picturesque. The kings children I saw earlier however looked laughably bad. The level of detail seems to fluctuate wildly at times. Now I've actually started the game proper and entered a town and made some purchases I'm beginning to be swayed a little with this game. It was only once I reached level 6 a few minutes ago that I realised I could get some perks from the skills tree, despite the game saying early on that I needed mutagens to do so. It's actually my mums game. She bought it a couple of months back and hadn't even opened it. I've got the week off work so I'm playing it. It's the enhanced edition and it comes with a booklet that based upon a cursory glance I had earlier looks like a walk through for the game. I might just use it.

In summary so far:

Not enough explanation. Combat too boring.

I just have to keep reminding myself I didn't realise how awesome Oblivion was until I'd played it a while.

 

Your mom plays videogames?? Damn I don't even know if my mom knows what a videogame is, bless her heart .

 

I haven't played Witcher, it's not available on ps3. But just two words.

First, there are games without proper tutorials and we lovd them. Take Dark Souls. I am not comparing it to W2 but it could be the same feeling where you have no idea what items are for and it doesn't bother you much.

Second, it's probably true that if you lack the context (haven't read the books), things could be confusing. But then, imagine playing a LotR game, a Harry Potter game or any game based on a strong context. As a developer, you can't run away from this context as people buying the game will expect it. On the other hand, people who don't know this context will feel confused.

Books are definitely worth of reading, frankly you could just read the very first story, "The Witcher", it's short but should give you the required background.