What game are you playing?

[Aftershock]

[NismoR34]

[drunknmonkey_au]

Those that read my last post in this thread won't be surprise that I've spent most of my game time since then with The Witcher. Finished off Chapter II last night and it's getting better and better as I dig deeper into the game and it's world. Chapter II seems a hell of a lot longer then the first and quite a lot more open. Looking back on at what happened I can see multiple part that could of played out much differently not only if I'd chosen a different option but also if I'd done quest it a different order. It'll be interesting to see how my choices will affect the story and the world later on.

I was regretting my choice (or lack of one) at the end of chapter II. I was given the chance to pick a sides in the conflict that's brewing in the world but form me the decision was just to hard. On one hand you have to order who while seeming righteous and out to do good also come across to me as a force that could quite easily get out of control and become just as evil as those they hunt and fight against. Then you have the Scoia'tael (Non-Human rebels) who I can relate to as a lot of the resentment and hate they receive your also subject to being a Witcher. I can understand the point of view they have but it's the extreme way I've seen them go about there business so far that makes me question if I should support them or not.

So as I said I "was"regretting my choice, especially as another choice I'd made earlier in the game seemly doomed one side in the fight anyway, that was until something happened early in chapter III that made me decided to side with the order. Only problem is now I'm worried how this choice will affect relationships with some of the support character, particularly the non-human ones. I both love and hate how this game can make such simple choices seem so hard sometimes

Well I think I've talked about story enough so I may as well get into the combat in the game and how much I'm really enjoying that part too. Early in the second chapter you get a second sword, so now you have a steel sword which is strong vs.humans and a silver sword that is strong vs. beasts. Then you have 3 sword styles that are each effective on different opponents that you can switch to on the fly. Add in timed button clicks for combo attacks and the ability to level up each style for each sword individually which grants more attacks and bonus effects and it makes for a pretty deep combat system. Then you've also got signs(magic) as well, so far my preferred sign is the first on you get with is a force push kinda thing. It's great for knocking back opponents when your surrounded and after pouring some skill points into it it's also has a chance to stun enemies resulting in the chance for a 1 hit kill execution move.

Damn this post ended up getting long so I think I'll leave it at that for now But I'm interested to hear how Caps in progressing though Chapter II and hearing what he though of it
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Massive thanks to döppelganger for the sig

[redemption]

Playing Silent Hill : Homecoming at the moment.
I wasn't expecting much of the game, actually I was expecting it to be average to crap, but I question if its possible to be disappointed with crap? cause I think I am.
I've played threw every Main silent hill (exceptions being the GBA-Japan only Play Novel, the Arcade light gun shooter, Mobile other mobile game Orphanage), and this is probably the most frustrating game in the series. The stories kind of good though, feels a little obvious where its going at the moment (as I understand it, I’m a little over half way threw).
They've gone and broken the inventory system with this 'wheel' set up. I think they've gone for a approach where you should be able to quickly go in and pick an item, but as soon as you let go of the inventory button, Alex uses what ever item is selected, this can result in you wasting helpful items.
There’s also a lot of button prompts in the game, things like turning a valve, cutting a flesh wall and defending from a instant death attack. It takes away from the atmosphere, and that’s another thing. It sort of looks like silent hill, like the movie did, but It doesn’t feel like silent hill.
Enemies are a lot more vicious in this, the new dodge system can be touchy, and the heavy and light attacks make some enemies pitifully easy (Lurkers would have to be among the easiest enemies in the series, a simple Fast, Fast, Heavy, short Charge combo makes there heads splatter, oh, and puts blood that distractingly disappears after a second), while the nurses can trap you in a corner and take half your health away in a matter of seconds.
Half the chairs and small tables in the game get knocked around when you walk into them. I read a interview with the developer where he said it annoyed him that the environments not being 'interactive' was unrealistic, but way these things you've bumped into move seem a bit unrealistic, and its annoying when your trying to get out of a room when a god damn table had knocked over and wont let you get out.
And the chair/table that was blocking the door seems to be the most fiendish and difficult puzzle in the game so far. I seriously spent more time trying to get out of a freaking office then I did on any of the puzzles so far.

I’ve seen a couple death animations that I suppose helped lead to the game being RC’ed, there not very silent hill, so I doubt there really going to be missed by the fans when the game comes out, but I’m yet to see the stuff that’s actually “important” to the plot (might be just around the corner though).

[Capoeira]

I haven't put much time into The Witcher of late but as for progress, I'm still in Chapter 2 and doing a bunch of quests in the swamp. I think I've pretty much covered everything I could do within the Merchant Quarter so I'm plowing through the swamp missions while getting my ass kicked by those freaking plants.

I've been sort of disappointed, not with the game, but with one of the consequences of my actions that has apparently cut short one of the story threads that I was looking forward to seeing through. I feel like I screwed up, and that isn't pleasant. It's cast a bit of a pall over my time in the game but it's sure to pick up again the more I play.

Tbh, I'm thinking of putting the game on hiatus until I get my new computer set up. I don't like knowing I'm playing the game without it looking and running as good as it could be. I've had to disable the grass in the game because to leave it on means to suffer through constant stuttering. It's become more of a problem now that I'm in the swamp. With grass it looks great, without it, it looks a very barren...

That doesn't mean I don't want to hear how you're going with your game drunknmonkey_au Keep those posts coming!
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Say You Want A Revolution

[ANDYBALLINA]

Playing the COD 5 Beta and its awesome.

Runs smooth, looks great. same controls and COD4, but it feels different enough.

The dogs are cool and there some nice explosions/effects.

Can't wait for the full version.
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PSN: ANDYBALLINA1

[UWSguy]

I have to disagree with some of the comments about Silent Hill, I actually enjoyed it a lot though I can see where you are coming from. It is the least scary of the chronological games but yeah I thought they were pretty faithful. The dodge system takes some getting used to (took me half the game to realize it also depends on the direction you push while dodging) and it is probably my second least favourite in the series but it still is a better than average game, not AAA but not bad either.

I think this one just needs some time for people to enjoy, I remember when IV came out basically everyone hated it but now people are talking about how great it is.

[Cro]

I finished off Infinite Undiscovery over the weekend. I quite enjoyed the game, with good gameplay and a fairly interesting, although in the end predictable storyline. The thing that got me was that really it felt like it was just a test on the new consoles for Square before the release Final Fantasy. I mean to have no voice sync, especially in an RPG these days is unforgivable. Still felt what it did right was good fun, though.

Been flogging the hell out of Fifa 09, to see how far Fifa has come the last few years, EA have really stepped up and got this fantastic game.

Tonight I started up Overlord, I'm quite liking how it works, and can't wait to get deeper into it, as I know I'm just getting the intro at the moment.

Also looking to finish off Saints Row before I go out and grab 2.
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[redemption]

[Peveus]

Saints Row 2. Heck yes.
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Currently Playing: Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii)

[Smurf80]

Almost finished my first playthrough of Halo 3. Yes I know im late to the party but I guess better to be late then not at all.

I have enjoyed it thus far but to be honest I do not understand what the hype was for this game. It is a great shooter but to be honest I have enojoyed Gears of War more than this. I have just rescued Cortana and im now on the final chapter. Hopefully will have this finished by tonight.

Having said that I do like the story, and it has interested me enough to pick up the expansion when it comes out and maybe Halo Wars.
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Thanks to segax for the sig!

[mattstep]

My copy of LEGO Batman arrived last night, had a quick go and it rocks! Changing batsuits is sweet, plus the old-school grappling gun makes me smile.

I also tried to continue getting through Paper Mario on the Cube the other night. I dunno, it really does feel like a chore... I'll attempt to force myself through it, but I'll see how I go.

Viva Pinata: TIP also arrived with LEGO Batman, put the disc in for a spin to check it was region free, but didn't actually have a play.
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ALL THINGS PILKINGTON

[döppelgangbang]

Sweet gaming cluster****.

WipEout (apparently) has taken the place of Mario Kart as my weapons based racer of choice. Not that I've played either for over a week.

I've been playing "Trauma Centre" on Wii. We never remember the name and have begun referring to it as "Cut Some C*** Open", as if this wasn't enough to elicit illicit guffaws the re-naming of in game drugs keeps the doctor/nurse relationship lively: "Stick him with Jungle Juice!"
"Suture?"
"Suture self!"

My house-mate, after digesting 3 or four bargain-bin FPSs came home with de Blob on Tuesday. Painting the town red is a seemingly endless joy. Missions fall one by one as the world explodes in colour. No REAL challenges yet... and after one night's play it's already wayside.

LEGO Batman is as enamouring as its predecessors, that is if it didn't keep crashing. I struggle to understand how TT haven't figured out how to make a Lego game that isn't full of bugs: Random transportation, screen tearing and the gooD ol' fashioned shut down the PS3 at random intervals trick... all in the first 3 levels.

Late last night, after wading through the (listed) candy coated slathering of casual friendly games we booted up Bioshock. All I had absorbed by osmosis about this game failed to prepare me for the spectacle and theme of this gem. Quoting Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged the game and had me in a lather at its opening cinematic. I knew there was a literary connection, I had no idea how deep it was. Similarly, I knew the game had awesome art direction. I was not prepared to be attacked by citizens in rabbit masks while signs cut neon trails across the aquatic tableaux. Not prepared to be spoken to in rambling mad snatches by my foes. Not prepared to be terrified.

After that... I was definitely not prepared to share my game experience. My mind is bent on playing more without the constant threat of someone else sitting by waiting for their turn.

[Gamesta]

I'm playing Saint's "mother f-ing" Row 2.

[Jarrod]

The Witcher: Enhanced Edition

Early opinions from myself as I've only played for an hour or so (basically the prologue).

So far I'm enjoying it. It's initially a bit of a let down, as going from Mass Effect to The Witcher really shows how advanced and cinematic the general conversations in Mass Effect were. The Witcher suffers from far weaker camera angles, animations, etc.

Combat took a bit of getting used to, again I put the blame on Mass Effect. It's been a little while since I've played what is essentially a point-and-click RPG. Once you get the hang of the stances, and what the game is trying to achieve, it's more enjoyable.

The game does a great job of drawing you into the overall world, I must say. The whole concept of The Witcher, the main character, your friends, and the way everything is presented is very appealing. You genuinely want to learn more about what is going on in the world around you. The game also has a very dark tone, which in an age of teen targeted games its nice to see something a bit more sinister.

While I've only experienced one or two 'choices', and am yet to see their true consequences pan out, I give huge props to the developers for making the choices difficult. It really isn't clean cut. There's no "good" or "evil", just choices and their consequences (I think the game mentions that...).

All in all, I have to say that my initial impressions were a bit weak, mostly due to some poor animations (compared to other games), the combat, and the overall learning curve of the way the game operates, but the more I played the more I wanted to learn, see, and experience.

The Witcher looks to be the kind of game that will grow on me more and more as I advance through the chapters. More impressions to follow.
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[bobboblaw]

Oh my God, how much fun is Saints Row 2? Sorry, I've just really had a great time playing it today. I started it, was very amused by creating my character (being spanish, I made mine with the Hispanic accent and appearance, than had massive purple dreads, long blue beard, and big nerd glasses (note, last 3 features not based on me )) and just laughing my head off at the taunts/appearances. Then the first mission started and I felt a little underwhelmed. Being able to pick up alot of stuff from the ground as a weapon was cool, but I wasn't too enthralled.

Than I got to the city and started the first proper mission, and before I knew it, 3 hours had passed me by. I hate to compare this to GTA IV (which I absolutely loved), but this game takes the cake. There are many things wrong with the game, I dislike the car handling (though I am getting used to it), aiming guns is a little finicky, and there are some small noticable glitches (ie, cars appearing/disappearing) but the sheer amount of fun is unrivaled. I only did 3 main storyline missions, with the rest of my time spent exploring the city and partaking in some very amusing mini-games. The celebrity crowd control in particular was a hoot. The dialogue is fairly low-brow but ridiculously funny ("is it true you had sex with a fish?"). And chasing streakers with a baseball bat with a cameraman in hot pursuit was hilarious fun.

Also, I don't understand the complaints against the graphics. Sure, not one aspect looks astounding, but the draw distance is incredible, being able to see vehicles and even pedestrians far into the distance is great, and I really like the colourful unrealistic visuals, as it really suits the game. Also, absolutely no load-times (apart from 1-2 seconds before a cutscene) is the icing on the the aforementioned cake.

Also, a quick mention on the soundtrack. It's great. There are some great songs there. Was I surprised to hear soundtrack whores Wolfmother in the game? Not at all. I shouldn't talk about this game anymore as all it's doing is making me want to play it more.


I also put in Bioshock on PS3 for a quick try. It's been over a year since I played through it, and I'm enjoying it more this time around. There's not much more I can say that hasn't already been said about this masterpiece, but I can say that the PS3 version isn't a hack job. The load times are drastically reduced from what I can remember the PC version was like. Also, I played the PC version on all high settings, and the graphics seem slightly better on the PS3, particularly the colours.
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Steam: bobboblaw

[Artificial Stupidity]

Halo 3 online. Every day. I had a long, long break from it, but now I'm completely re-addicted - especially to the Team Swat -playlist. I have a group of dedicated friends playing as well, which is always a plus.
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[chickenplucka]

I'm playing Saints Row 2 360, Bioshock PS3, Lego Batman Wii, Pure 360, Fifa 09 360 and ticket to ride on the xbla
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[Zhou]

Found that I dont have that much money to spend this month on the big releases. So instead, I did the cheap option and borrowed some games from a friends collection to help pass the time till i can get some more money. Following games all PC:

Tom Clancy's Rainbox Six vegas 2 - I was never a big fan of the Tom Clancy games, just like I was never a fan of games with a war theme to it, but just like Cod 4 and CoH got me into war themed games, R62 has really sucked me into the whole team based commando operative kinda game. Sure i died a truckload of times, what with my usual rambo styles adopted from cod 4 failing miserably in the world of R62.

At first, one complaint ..yet merit I had to say about the game was it was lifelike, even with the game set to easy mode, 1 well placed shotgun to the back spelt sure fire death. But you know what? I didnt care With re-loading times between deaths hardly noticeable, I kept on retrying till i got past the level/finished the terrorist hunt. That says a lot considering usually when I die in any other game at the frequency I did in vegas 2, I would have found hacks/cheats/given up.

At first, the idea of having 2 guys to assist is stupid, and for the first few missions, I pretty much Lone wolf'ed it and was fine. Later on, I found it was integreal to the mission to have them either scout ahead, watch my side/back or just clear out rooms and the sort. Very very nice game overall.

Bioshock - Originally, I wasn't interested in bioshock..those were the days where I couldn't even run half life 2 without it lagging like there was no tomorrow. But Bioschock..wow..just wow. Runs so smooth now on the new laptop. In any case, only up to the point where you get the chemical thrower, I must admit there are some elements of the game that get a bit repetitive, but some parts are just so awesome. Really lovely atmosphere. And if anyone was wondering, I decided to harvest all the little sisters..yes i know. I'm a bastard. Just that I thought to myself, eh might as well get max adam out of it and try out all the attacks..But on the next play through, I swear I'll save all of them.

Sims 2 - Been playing this one for a while now, and its just as addictive as sims 1, countless hours went into making a whole neighbourhood of families and houses. However after a while, the chore of juggling a 2 parents, 2 kids household gets too much. Not to mention, there are just sometimes where the AI just goes nuts and WANTS you to quit playing. eg one point, the house was on fire, the bathroom was flooded and every other electical device was broken. Making a house with a moat is cool though.
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My flickr
i7 930 | 6gb ddr3 Ripjaws 2000 | GTX 560 | 1tb 7200rpm WD |

[Limericklad]

Just finishing up Assassin's Creed, started work on a review.
Moving on to finish BioShock. Then gonna move onto Dark Sector. Might pick up Saints Row 2. Saw it cheap in town today but because I have not finished the above games (or Mass Effect and some others ) I don't wanna waste more money.
What with study and all that I'm not putting as much time into gaming so I'm falling behind.
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www.chairshot.org
www.chairshot.org/forum

[mipac]

Saints Row 2 is so much fun. I'm getting a lot more enjoyment from this game than I ever did with Grand Theft Auto IV. The gameplay is just so much more varied and entertaining. If I had a choice right now between Saints Row 3 and Grand Theft Auto V, I would choose Saints Row 3.
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[Cro]

[daishogun]

well today I started picking up games to use as trade bait for LBP (I love DSE) and the first game I got was Skate, for like 27 bucks so I'm playing that while I wait to pick up another bait or get LBP... its okay but i really dont want it, so good thing it is bait
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[Sin Ogaris]

I hated the final Carnales mission, it took me the longest to finish. Otherwise the missions were fun (final Rollerz was my favourite, definitely).

Saw Nismo was playing Skate so I loaded it up as well and have been having heaps of fun online, haven't won many, but I've been racking up the exp in trickster (more a trick fan than a racing fan). Loads of fun.

Oh, and I finished FEAR today, devastated I didn't find all the boosters or phone/laptops, could have sworn I did. Oh well, it was an awesome game right until the end, I really enjoyed it. Could see the ending coming a mile away but it was still a great story and the final moments were really gripping, especially once you exit the facility right at the end, one of my favourite moments in gaming ever.

[shinhawk]

I'm about 120 hours into Disgaea 3. I also just finished Yggdra Union and plan to play through it again in hard mode.
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