A thread along the lines of the Whatcha Reading thread was created last month but petered out. But who cares? It’s fun to touch base with the diverse group of gamers we have here every few weeks to see what people are up to! So here’s a fresh thread for September.
So last time we did this I was mainly playing a lot of board games but I haven’t been doing that so much lately. I’m hoping to get a few games of 1960: The Making of a President in but I don’t see that occurring in the immediate future.
I gave up on Metal Gear Solid 3 a few days ago after finally getting fed up with the lousy controls and interface. Providing my own MST3k commentary on the god awful story (“We return to the deep jungles of Siberia…”) can only keep me going for so long.
Ironically, however, I fled into the arms of Dwarf Fortress, a game I’ve bounced against multiple times due to the painful interface (do they really need four completely different control schemes for providing the exact same kind of input?). I’ve been playing it with the wiki open and I’ve actually managed to get a functional fortress going for the first time. Okay, I don’t have any metal besides zinc and my first wave of immigrants unexpectedly quintupled my population (six months on and I’m still carving out bedrooms since I only have two picks; I’m on the verge of trading for any metal objects and just melting them), but I’ve overcome the mental hump to enjoy the building aspects.
I’ve ordered a copy of Persona 3 since I’ve heard really good things about it and I’m looking forward to the Wii version of Samba De Amigo which hits in a week or two.
I’m finishing up with Blue Dragon on the Xbox 360. Just made it to Disc 3 last night and it’s been less than impressive so far. The characters are pretty bad and the pacing of the story leaves a lot to be desired as well. I’m mainly going through the motions now for completion’s sake.
Once I’m done with that, I’m considering Braid. I’ve worn the demo out playing it over and over. And, Rock Band 2 comes out very soon too. I’m sure it will get quite a lot of my playtime this month. Lost Odyssey’s been waiting patiently for me to get to it for awhile too. A busy month of gaming for sure.
When I get some time to play, I’m still playing Rock Band. It’s a blast. And I just finished Eternal Darkness Sanity’s Requiem on the Wii. It’s an amazing game in the survival horror genre. I loved it too.
I went back to Culdcept Saga mainly because I want to see how many of the Achievements I can grab. The card battling is ridiculously addictive and it’s a great game to play in 30 minute chunks.
I’m still on the fence over whether I’ll buy Star Wars: The Force Unleashed or just rent it, but either way, I’ll definitely be playing that one in a few weeks.
Well, my girlfriend’s in law school, so to compensate for her studying a lot when I’m around, she let’s me play XBOX 360 and PS2. (We have a semi-long distance relationship as it is. I usually only see her on weekends.)
I just finished Max Payne on PS2 for the first time. Great game with a very nice noir feel and wonderful writers. However, the console controls are the wonkiest wonks to ever wonk. The sniper rifle was an exercise in frustration, and the dream sequences were an exercise in futility. Even with the controller sensitivity cranked way down. Give me mouse for fine control of movement any day. Analog sticks suck.
This month, though, she bought me “Too Human”. It is a stunningly beautiful game with a nice play on Norse mythology. However, the combat system leaves a bit to be desired. There is no real penalty for death, other than your losing your combat meter and your equipment degrading over time. And death comes easily. Especially with elemental monsters that can freeze you or start you on fire. And if a mine explodes in your area, it will not only take a lot of your health away from the initial hit, but you will proceed to ignite on fire. Fire is bad. There is no way to put it out other than letting it expire on its own, and you can easily lose most of your health as you burn. Really, I would have preferred they just do all the damage at once, watching myself burn up makes me feel like the game is taunting me for being a moron who went and got himself lit on fire. Also, the elementals move as fast as you do. So when they rush you, you have to run away while shooting. (Taking them out in melee is bad.) However, when you run, you tend to turn around even when you’re trying to shoot them. The game doesn’t let you instantly flip around to run backwards. You have to actually aim forwards, hold the trigger to shoot, and then run backwards. It’s wonky.
So yeah, I’m not sure how I feel about the campaign mode of this thing at this point. I imagine the multiplayer probably is better. (My girlfriend hasn’t activated her XBox Live yet. I think I might be able to strike a deal with her where I’ll pay for part of it. I really need to play Bioshock on Hard with the vita-chamber deactivated and I need the patch to do that.)
Yeah, but only because the guy who started it was a jerk.
I was playing that last week and it is a really good game. It has what I consider the most important thing in a game - lots of things to do.
But my attention has now been wrenched away by Final Fantasy Tactics A2 on the DS. I had just started it last month and I’m now obsessively fiddling with my clan. Like I said - there’s always something to do or some adjustment to make.
I picked up Empire of the Sun at the World Boardgaming Championships at the beginning of August, and am in the process of getting waxed in a couple of PBeM games. I’m also doing a For the People PBEm game as well.
Will be headed over to a friend’s house this weekend for some serious face to face action.
One of these days I’m going to get around to getting the “ultimate” ending for defeating all three gods. Just not anytime soon…
I’ve been turned off by the hype on that one. Good Star Wars based games dried up around the time George Lucas realized there was money to be made still in flogging the Star Wars brand. The way I figure it the game has been heavily promoted enough that a large crowd will buy it which means that a year from now it’ll be going for less than ten dollars used. I’m a game developer’s worst nightmare: a patient man.
I first played Max Payne on the PC and had no trouble with the controls so I’m inclined to agree with you. FWIW the sequel is fun but extremely short. I finished it about four hours after I started playing. I couldn’t believe I was at the end when I finished it.
I waited a while to see if you’d start another thread before I began this one. I fully expect this one to dry up in a few days as well since I don’t foresee people logging in everything they play like some people log every book they read in the other threads. I just figured polling every few weeks to see what people were up to was a nice idea.
Playing: Medieval II: TW
Red Orchestra
TF2
Millions of halflife mods
Rock Band
Soul Calibur IV
Not playing: Spore
Wish I was playing: Left 4 Dead only a month and a half left…ugggggghhhhhhh hurry upppppppp
Impressed that people are still playing Dwarven Fortress, though. It really is quite excellent and has a limitless learning curve (some people do some really insane things with the engine) but it was a little too pointless, buggy, and repetitive. I start up a new fortress or two every update, though.
I’ve been playing Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction and Guitar Hero 2 on PS2. I hadn’t played any of the guitar games in the last couple of months and picked them up again recently, and it’s amazing how badly my skills have degraded in most cases - I can rarely make it onto my old high score boards anymore, with the occasional exception (once I beat an old high score by something like 40,000 points and don’t know why).
Now Playing: nothing, because I have been working sixty hour weeks recently and my girlfriend was in town over the long weekend. That should end fairly soon though, after which I will get back to…
In the Middle Of: Persona 3:FES, Final Fantasy XII, Final Fantasy IV (DS), Final Fantasy Tactics A2, and the odd bit of Fantasy General for the blast from the past.
Waiting For: Dragon Quest IV (DS), Persona 4. Starcraft 2, I guess, though that’s honestly my least favorite Blizzard IP. After that it’s a bunch of stuff that comes out next year for the most part.
(Why, yes, I’ve been in a RPG mood recently, can you tell?)
At the moment Madden 2009. This was my first next-gen Madden game and my first since 2005. So far, color me WOEFULLY unimpressed with the 3 years of “progress.” It’s playable, but hardly enjoyable. The ground game is so inconsistent. No matter what call you make the defense has you pegged, you’re only hope is quality WRs that can beat coverage. Audibles, hot-routes, line shifts, blocking audibles, defensive line shifts, DB shifts, defensive audibles, “hot-blitzes,” coverage audibles…and check out the YouTube of Brett Farve trucking a 300+ pound defensive lineman. :smack:
I’ve already ordered Spore. I hope it’s good. If it is, it’s possible I might never pick up Madden again. If not, Fallout 3 later this year may be my swan song from gaming.
NCAA Football 09
Tiger Woods Golf 09
(yeah, I’m a sucker for the EA sports games. But in both cases, it happens to be the first NCAA I’ve bought since the 06 game, and the Tiger Woods since the 07 game)
**Rock Band
**and occasionally a little bit of Puzzle Pirates if I’m exiled from the living room.
As of tomorrow, add Spore to the list (a Sunday release?). I was perfectly content just waiting until, say, Christmas. Then I looked at the AU official site, and the reviews based on their release, and video, and so on. Damnit, I can’t hold out.
El Perro Fumando is picking up The Price is Right on Wii this week. I’ll probably play that. Otherwise, the abovementioned exile (though by then, I’ll have Spore, so I’m not worried).
By the end of the year (though since I’m on PS3, not in September), Rock Band 2 is being released.
I’ve been playing Medieval II: Total War- Kingdoms for a wee bit, having more or less finished Oblivion.
Right now I’m waiting for Colonisation, Mercenaries 2, Fallout 3, Grand Theft Auto IV and FarCry 2 to come out on PC (I don’t do consoles).
I know Mercenaries 2 is out, but I’ve seen zero reviews on it anywhere and that concerns me, along with the fact the main character (the guy on the box with the grenade) doesn’t appeal to me. I’m hoping I can customise my character or choose from several in the game…
