What Have You Been Playing Lately?

[Sadogoat]

This new forum doesn't focus on any specific gaming format or genre, but is intended for users to post 'blogs' (for lack of a better term) of their gaming activities lately. It was inspired by a thread on another forum which seemed to work quite well. So basically, all you do here is post 'reports' on what games have been occupying your time lately in general, where you're at with them, and perhaps anything imminent release-wise that you have your eye on....

[Sadogoat]

I'll kick this off with my own one so you can get an idea of what this board is for...

Fallout 3 - as much as I love it - is almost exhausted for me. Having got every achievement, finished virtually every quest (along with both of the DLCs to date), located virtually every Skill book and unique weapon, and explored every location (including a large number that don't appear on my Pipboy map), it's now got to the point - at last - where I have run out of things to see and do. The upcoming 'Broken Steel' DLC (due in the next 6 weeks or so) can't come soon enough - and rumors are abound that there will be even more content released after that one.

I've been playing a bit of Left 4 Dead again lately too. With the new Survival expansion due this coming week, I figured I'd shake off some of the rust in preparation. During an evening of play yesterday, I finally managed to obtain the 'Barf Bagged' achievement that had eluded me for some time and also complete the 'No Mercy' and 'Death Toll' campaigns on Expert difficulty. Only 'Blood Harvest' remains for me to crack the Achievement for all four completed (which leaves me with only the 'Untouchables' and 'Nothing Special' Achievements left to have every single one for the game).

Downloaded and tried the Outrun Arcade demo on XBL recently since I remember playing the original Outrun way back in the eighties. Although the graphics have been polished up a fair bit and the gameplay remains virtually the same, I couldn't get into it enough to justify unlocking the full version.

However, there seems to be a new XBL Arcade title called Zombie Apocalypse on the way which has caught my attention - it's a top down shooter for 1-4 players (co-operatively) in which you use a wide assortment of weapons to mow down endless hordes of zombies. Looks like alot of fun so I may be grabbing this when it arrives.

[Damien Stryker]

About two days into playing Resident Evil 5, I realized that, by replaying certain chapters without any penalty, I could effectively "gold whore." By doing treasure- and weapon-rich sections over and over again (say, the Ship Main Deck chapter) I could amass decent amounts of jewels to sell off. As a result, I've quickly brought three awesome weapons to full upgrade, these being the S&W Model 500 (my primary weapon for small groups/lone enemies), the Hydra (for larger groups and dogs) and the Beretta M93R (for Sheva). I already have unlimited ammo unlocked for the Model 500 and M92, so that makes things quite a bit easier. With RE4, you could with some relative ease amass treasure and riches to sell off but as you could only play it in a single run-through and not in separate chapters it was a lot more difficult to gold whore in the manner I'm doing. I think Capcom believed they were allowing gamers to play their favourite chapters over and over again at their will (which, to their credit, they succeeded at), but in the process they created an exploit that, when actually exploited makes the game far less challenging.

Going through BioShock again, this being my fourth playthrough. I'm currently at the start of Neptune's Bounty and, not having played the game in a while, I remembered that this is my second-least favourite section (first being Proving Grounds), because my character at this point is not ready for the Rosie Big Daddies and I have to deal with Peach and his stupid gang at the end. I'm going for the Good ending (AGAIN), because the game really isn't that much more difficult if you act morally. Sure, halving your Adam source makes it tougher to amass Plasmids and tonics but the developers failed to account for 1.) the massive spikes in Adam thanks to the occasional gift basket, and 2.) the fact that some players--like myself--tend to cultivate their character in a weapon-heavy manner. Telekinesis and Electro-Bolt are the only Plasmids I use regularly and even then I only need to update the latter. A fully-upgraded shotgun, I found, can take down a Bouncer Big Daddy in no more than four rounds of electric buckshot.

Recently, I lost my save game for Braid. I consider this somewhat of a bad occurrence. While most of the puzzle pieces, especially in the first (well, second) area, are easy to get there were some that were just bitches to obtain. There's an Area 3 piece that requires simply stuipid timing. However, I'm not going to push myself through that bit again because for the time being I can't even maintain a saved game. My old data is on the HDD but for some reason the game can't access it. I could blame this on my current 360 being a "refurbished" replacement and not a repair of my previous one but I'm not sure how as of yet.

[Injektilo]

Gears of War 2 - With the new housemate, needed some backup so he could complete it on the hardest difficulty
Deus Ex - Recent thread prompted to reinstall
Dawn of War 2 - Standard. I need a co-op campaign partner!
Silent Hill 2 - Lent it to a mate an age ago, just got it back...not particularly as immersive as the first couple of times

[spike_gta]

Most of the time I find myself playing Mount & Blade because the sheer amount of immersive, well designed mods for an already immersive game is quite staggering. While some just add some half assed units and/or factions some redo it enough to call it an expansion pack. At first I toyed with one called Calradia At War which redesigned all the units, added sub factions, added tons of new weapons and armour and topping it off with new heroes and quests.

It held me over for quite a while until I found Chronicles Of Talera which turns a pseudo-realistic swords and horses battle game into a fantasy style swords and horses game. Thing is, I loved the original and some of the expansions for keeping it moderately realistic because battles often felt brutal, the settings satisfied quite a bit and the sound is great as bombastic battle music rages as you slice a dudes face off as he screams quite satisfyingly. CoT keeps it all but throws out the pseudo-realistic settings and factions in favour of slicing off ork faces and becoming an undead champion waging war against the fascist-religious human faction.

It feels almost like an entirely new game and you can tell how much work went into this by the amount of detail and easter eggs that are in here. All new heroes have all new stories that delightfully reference the original game, side quests and hidden armour/weapons are plentiful and the games own lore and mythology is a true delight to explore. Also it somehow manages to improve the sound in that each arrow hitting your shield sounds even HARDER and your enemies scream even more painfully.

When not playing MaB however, The Orange Box satisfies in more ways than one considering the top notch, differently played games that are available. About half way through Half-Life 2 Episode 2 with nice breaks to Portal every now and then.

Anyway, I'm off to slice the faces off of some orks.

[nVidiot_Whore]

Gears of War 2 - Still fire up Horde mode from time to time. Both offline with my friend and online. It's good fun but certainly getting a bit old.

Killzone 2 - This game took me a while to get the hang of; the controls are a bit strange.. feel "loose" but once I got used to them I started to REALLY enjoy the game. Great single player experience; when I'm done with the game I'd love to find some people to do online co-op with.

Crackdown - Re-bought this game for $20 after losing the game.. think I lent it to someone and never got it back. Just a fun game; mostly just a really cool game engine with some cheap gameplay thrown in and an addictive leveling engine but it can keep you entertained for a few hours at a time.

[MacCabbe]

Spore - Ultimately disappointing.
Overdose : Painkiller - Refreshingly moronic
Left for Dead - Excellent, but SP leaves you a bittersweet taste
Cryostasis - Nice ambiance, mediocre gameplay
World of Goo - immensely satisfying - poetic too !
WH40K DoW2 - 100% fun, 0% replayable
Fallout 3 - Game of the year ? Fuck it, game of the decade !
Far Cry 2 - I'm probably the only one, but I loved it. Repetitive, but besides that, excellent.
Crysis : Warhead - Same recipe, shorter meal.
GTA IV - Lot's of qualities, but tends to be a tad anal, and way too much repetitive.
FEAR 2 : Project Origin - Shiny but empty. Excellent gameplay though.

Will give a try soon to Demigod...

[Damien Stryker]

Spore was fascinating in theory but when put into practice seems rather unsatisfying. Of course, I only watched someone play it but seeing it in action didn't draw me at all.

[MacCabbe]

Well, when I played that I had the feeling I was watching someone play that game =/

I designed my arachnids right. I designed my arachnid cities right. I designed arachnid whatnots right. But the whole gameplay is a joke. Total bore.

[orlando0381]

My computer has finally been fixed so my race to 80 continues. Lichking's dungeons = own in my book. But my guild disbanded so i dno how im gonna get into the 10 and 25 man raids.

I have beaten RE5 on all the difficulty lvls except professional which I am working on now. All my weapons are upgraded and almost all have unlimited ammo. I need the achievements for the versus modes, which im a little skeptical about seeing is no other RE game had one, or at least none that I've played.

Played L4D a little but am eagerly awaiting the patch to bring back death toll and the other one(its slipping my mind right now) for versus mode. Sado i got the untouchable achievement while playing blood harvest just stay in the barn, and jump down when the doors open in the humvee.

[kirkyl]

Counter-strike Source: (zombie escape mods) I never touch regular CSS anymore apart from to grief and piss people off (yeah i know i'm an asshole so sue me) however for a year solid i've been playing escape zombie mods,regular zombie mods have you barricading a certain room whilst holding off infected players but escape mods have you getting to point A-B while more and more players become infected.

RE5: Admittedly i've not finished it yet but hopefully i'll get round to it,its good but not as good as RE4 is and as a hardcore RE fan it pains me to say that,oh well.

Next week i'll be getting Chronicles of riddick: Assualt on dark athena for the PC so i'll be getting back to my good old gaming routine.

[Damien Stryker]

I've only just picked up the Mercy Killer achievement for Left 4 Dead. In fact, until recently the only completed campaign achievement I had was for Blood Harvest. I believe this round was on Advanced and by the time the chopper showed up we had eliminated the second Tank to attack us. As soon as we felled that beast I checked my health--12--and said "Fuck it" aloud to my teammates. "I'm going for the helipad." I got vomited on on the way there but when the slime cleared the chopper was right in front of me and I made the jump. I tried to pick the Hunter off Zoey, who was halfway across the roof, but it cut to the outro scene before I could land a hit.

Fun times, though. Made me remember why I love playing this game.

[BullpupDFWM]

Finished off Saint's Row 2 a few weeks ago, so I got stuck into Red Alert 3 for a little while. I have to say, RA3 is a lot better than I originally thought.. It's a little too camp, they've overdone the cartoonish aspects without really thinking about improving the function of the game (some of the worst pathfinding EVAR)

I've recently been playing Godfather 2. Christ, they butchered this fucking thing.
I loved the original, and I honestly would've been supremely happy if it was just more of the same. Unfortunately, this game would've been awesome if they'd completely neglected any relation to the Godfather franchise. If they'd produced this as a mafia game completely unrelated to the Godfather it would've been fucking awesome. Alas, it's bogged down with poorly written and acted scenes that form some kind of twisted homage to what is widely thought of as being one of the best sequels (if not movies) of all time.

[Fomorian]

Am playing Dead Space and enjoying the HECK out of it. I'm on my second playthrough, and dastardingly trying to upgrade everything to a max. Great athmosphere. Great controls. Great use of sound and the absence of it (while in space for instance). A bit on the "jump scare you then gross you out" side rather than the "creep you till you die" side of things, but still incredibly enjoyable. Rather short lived though.

I'm also playing RE5 along with a buddy. I've already stated my opinion on it: it feels like "RE4 the arcade game". Which is weird cause the latter could've easily be said to be the arcade game of the whole series. It's very fun to play coop, but there's just zero dread left in this game. You do get nervous when the music suddenly swells, but as soon as you begin popping caps into monsters and kicking the snot out of them, it just turns into Rambo. The creepy gross-out bosses could just as well be Castlevania baddies with a "parasite" motif. Everything is very streamlined to the point of abstraction, and the only plot-advancing scenes left in the game are universally cringeworthy.

But still, it's fun.

I guess I'm technically still playing Fallout 3 given that I haven't finished it yet and still am interested in playing it. Truth be told, I'm waiting for Broken steel. Once that's out, I'll be playing all the expansions back to back and merrily leveling myself up to 30.

I should be popping in Condemned 2 next. I bought it six months ago but haven't even opened the box! After that, I believe I'm gonna take a break from survival horror and probably gonna head out to DOW2 or Starcraft.

[Damien Stryker]

I wish they had removed every sound except for your breathing for the vacuum bits in Dead Space. Would have been even more effective.

[grov]

Originally Posted by Injektilo

Dawn of War 2 - Standard. I need a co-op campaign partner!
(

Dude, im there, whats ya msn? i really wanna play through the co-op with someone, but then again my net connection always kicks me out of online games, i haven't played online for like a year.

Ive been playing Dawn of War 2 and im gonna get back into Fallout 3 when i can be arsed.

[Injektilo]

my Live gamertag is Moonshield24 - you connected wirelessly? I found that all the DoWs so far can be a bit funny with wlans, try ethernetting?

[Damien Stryker]

I was so focused on GoW2 this evening that my hamburger buns partially burnt on the grill.

Got the achievement for completing the Dead Air campaign today. All's left is Death Toll, which I'm not looking forward to due to the final two levels. However, I did play the climax level at the boathouse and did better than on previous occasions; in other words, I survived this time.

[Shataan]

My activity consists of.... waiting for a game that seems interesting. Still waiting actually. Hoping Flashpoint II or ARMA II delivers. Still waiting for AVP 3. I might pic up Tiger Woods Golf for the PS3. I wonder if the PS3 has any good racing games? Maybe Sega Rally?

I am still incredulous as to how anyone can think that PC gaming is alive and well. Not from my chair it isn`t.

[MacCabbe]

You should change chair =/

[Nova]

Originally Posted by MacCabbe

Spore - Ultimately disappointing.

Is it sad that the most enjoyable part was the least developed? I had more fun as the actual spore than anything else. Tribal stage was close, though.

WH40K DoW2 - 100% fun, 0% replayable

So agreed. I want to play it more...but it doesnt even have a proper skirmish mode.

Fallout 3 - Game of the year ? Fuck it, game of the decade !

Especially with some of the mods out there. FOOK and Marts Mutant Mod are god sends. New weapons...and creatures are actually kinda hard to kill.

[MacCabbe]

Originally Posted by Nova

So agreed. I want to play it more...but it doesnt even have a proper skirmish mode.

They should have done EXACTLY like DII.

Something along the lines of a normal mode (piece of cake) which, once finished, would have unlocked a nightmare mode (real tough), which in turn would have unlocked a hell mode (near impossible). You would get to replay levels in order to level up a bit and get good drops. You could play it solo some times and coop some other times. Even the addition of a hardcore mode (total wipe-out = complete/definitive loss of the team -> start all over again) would have been genius. I would be a junkie of such a game.

[Damien Stryker]

If you have Left 4 Dead, download the Survival Pack. Now. It's free, so the only penalty is disk space. It's incredibly addictive, these little minute and a half to four minute (at the most) rounds that require much cooperation. There is absolutely no shortage of special zombies, and I swear one time I was tongued by three Smokers within two seconds of each other, until finally being pounced by a Hunter. A Tank will appear no more than thirty-to-forty-five seconds into the round. They give you all the time in the world to prepare, but in the fifteen rounds I played the longest I lasted was about four minutes (which Valve has labeled the "Bronze Standard" in game).

It comes with The Last Stand, constructed in the defense-heavy climax style of each campaign's final levels. It's a neat lighthouse locale with at least three good spots to defend from (top of the tower, inside the garage, and inside the house proper).

Two. Simultaneous. Tanks.

[Injektilo]

Originally Posted by Nova

So agreed. I want to play it more...but it doesnt even have a proper skirmish mode.

hum? define 'proper'?

the fixed-unit camera is proper good for replays I found.

[Salvage Guy]

Same shit I always play.

[kirkyl]

I'm waiting for the L4D content and so far its not here yet,yay Valve never releases on time whoo.

[Damien Stryker]

It was ready for my 360 when I woke up. I heard PC users wouldn't get until after noon.

[kirkyl]

Thank you Valve.

[Damien Stryker]

A good portion of L4D's populace resides on PCs and is the majority. Valve probably needed more time to set up PC servers to send out the update.

[kirkyl]

In other words it'll get delayed for another month,mark my words.