What video games are you playing? pt. 2

[Conspiracyof1000]

Spore Creatures for the DS.
I am very, very dissapointed. The whole marketing thing was you can create your own character and use him throughout the game. But no, you are required to pop some legs or some shit on when you can't pass an obstacle so your at first cute little guy turns out looking like he was thrown in a blender with a crapload of cartoon body parts. Bleh.

Also lots of Rock Band 2, the demo for Banjo Kazooie Nuts and Bolts, and regular old Banjo Tooie since I can't find Banjo Kazooie (the first one - yeah this post got confusing fast.) N64 rules man!

[Free?]

Fallout 3. I'm impressed with how creators kept the atmosphere of the series.

[Vera]

Still FFIV on the DS.

:[

Because I'm too busy and important to constantly game.

[khaaaaan]

After finishing the campaign in Gears of War 2 it's been nothing but Horde for me. That shit is addictive. I only pause too eat and poop. And to Fallout 3 a little.

[Static_Martyr]

I just got Persona 3 the other day. I don't normally care for these quirky niche-Japanese titles, but I've been feeling bored and stagnant so I decided to try something new. It's pretty decent so far, although the music is terrible (J-Pop/J-Rap/J-Dance).

The dialogue and story are a cut above standard fare, for the most part....but there are some parts of the dialogue that seem quite awkward, as they left in the traditional Japanese suffixes of "-san," "-sempai," "-kun," and things of that variety. It's strange to hear them spoken in English.

All in all, it feels like a decent game that, nonetheless, someone approached and injected with a giant syringe filled with Steaming Hot Japanese Pop Culture. It's clearly designed for fans of anime or Japanese culture in general, what with all the seemingly meaningless references to aspects of Japanese culture (such as classroom conduct and some social structures).

[Thomas]

Red Alert 3

How is that? Is it better than C&C 3: Tiberium Wars? I've always preferred the Red Alert series to the other C&C games, and this one looked spectacular.

[F@ BANKZ]

The one on my iPod: 'Vortex'. It's horrible, do not play Ipod games ever, unless they are a reproduction of delightful 80's brilliance.

[Redjie]

Yesterday I tried to play Dead Space during approximately two hours. Nah, I'm not ready for the science of video games, I guess One day I'll learn how to like that.

[Andy]

Sold all my PS3 game the other week, and got some new ones:

Fallout 3
Dead Space
Far Cry 2

I've not played Dead Space at all yet, but I've heard good things; I played a little bit of Far Cry, and it's good, but I've not played enough to have a proper opinion. The game I've been mostly addicted to is Fallout 3, which is a very, properly good game. It does have faults though, quite a few little gameplay and sound glitches, but my main gripe is the fact that you can only level up to 20 - a point you can easily get to after getting not even half-way through the game. That's a shame, because once you've got to L.20 and have completed the main story (which is over a little too soon), there isn't really any desire to carry on further.

I played some Pro Evolution 09 on the Xbox over the last couple of days and enjoyed it.

[sKratch]

Re: My own post about STALKER: Clear Sky. I don't know, I love this game. There's a lot of bad stuff about it, mostly dealing with some bugs (at one point I had constant crash-to-desktop and had trouble patching because... um... I didn't buy the game). Also, you often have to walk a lot between objectives or dish out cash to "guides" that instantly transport you to a few select locations. But it's really immersive and I love running around finding cool shit and upgrading my weapons. I really enjoy good FPS/RPG games, a la Deus Ex (the original).

I'm gonna try beating the entire Half Life series again, including Opposing Force, Blue Shift, Half Life2, episode one, and episode 2.

I can't wait until Episode 3 comes out. I'll shit my pants if they bring back Adrian Shephard.


EDIT: Also:

I am absolutely prepared to be both underwhelmed and bitter about Episode 3. Half Life 2 was amazing. It's pretty much a sea change from Half Life 1 in many ways, but it was still great, and looked beautiful. Episodes 1 and 2 were ok, but I actually don't remember them in very specific ways. Episode 2, as I recall, was weaker than E1. Also, the time between "episodes" is ludicrous. If you take 3+ years between releases, don't fucking call it episodic content. I have my doubts about the quality of Episode 3, but I'd love to be surprised.
On another note, I'm pissed at Valve for Orange Box. I've discussed this before, but here it is:
My biggest issue with it is that Team Fortress 2 was originally reported as shipping free with Episode 2. Team Fortress, from its first inception under Quake 1 (can anyone still remember the sound pipe bombs made when they bounced around?) has been freeware as long as you owned the game whose engine ran it (but I guess there's only been Team Fortress and TFC, for the first half life engine). Team Fortress 2 was announced AGES ago and became vapor ware. When Valve took it down the "make it playable for assclowns that suck at video games", I was pissed. They removed defining features of the game (custom grenades were HUGE in TFC) and made it look like a cartoon. Now, I understand they basically made a brand new game, which makes me at least slightly ok with them making you pay extra for it. Then there's Portal... If my memory servers me right, Portal was also to ship free with Episode 2. I've heard phenomenal things about Portal but I haven't played it because I wasn't about to pay some stupid amount of money for Orange Box when I already owned Half Life 2 and Episode 1, and didn't feel right paying for Team Fortress. In fact, I didn't even play Episode 2 until quite some time later when it went way down in price.

tl;dr version:
Valve are a bunch of assholes cashing in on their product and catering to this new n00b market. I hope Episode 3 doesn't suck.