Usually around this time of year, I play through a season of Madden '04 while I’m waiting for the football season to start. I did buy '08, but it’s horrible.
I’m rather bored though. Finding coaching mode extended the play I got out of it for a few more years, but 3 hours per game is pretty rough. (I used to sim 90% of it.) Now, I play through all the home games and some of the away games as well, but the last bug I found just took all the fun out of it.
If you save the game in the middle, quit, and then load the game, the game thinks everybody bought another ticket, so you can make nearly unlimited revenue every game. However, it appears that money bugs after a certain amount, and it wraps back to zero or something.
I’ve done just about all the goals I wanted with the game though. Maybe the only goal I have left is having the entire AFC pro bowl team be my team.
I might load up X-Com or Mechcommander again though. I used to play through the entire Mechcommander solo campaign about once per year. I really miss X-com though…I haven’t gotten around to loading the shell though to run it.
Other than that, I still gamble a bit online once in a while.
I’ve been a big fan of FPS’s since the Wolfenstein 3D days, and for the past 5 years or so was heavily into Battlefield 2. I played Call of Duty 4 but didn’t care for it - not enough teamplay for me. Played Battlefield: Bad Company 2 as well, and thought the maps were too confined. I wanted something bigger than BF2, not a game played out on a small section of a BF2 map with fewer players. I gave up on FPS’s for awhile.
I played some Dungeons and Dragons Online for awhile, which was fun. Up until level 4 or 5, you can play for free without missing out on much content. I enjoyed it so much I payed the monthly fee for a few months, but by level 15 I was finding it to be a bit of a grind, literally, as I played the same areas over and over to farm for supplies to build better weapons/magic items. Add to that the clan blow-up we went thru, and that was the end of DDO being fun for me.
I bought Oblivion yesterday via Steam for $8.50, hoping to get some gaming fun without having to depend on others. Oblivion itself has a ton of content, but this purchase also includes a couple of expansion packs. In addition, the modding community has been extremely active, with a lot of gameplay tweaks, graphic additions/upgrades (hi-res textures, etc), and more adventures/quests. Hope it keeps me busy awhile.
Ultima Online. No, really. I found a free server that emulates the game circa 1998, back when it was cutthroat and bloodthirsty. There’s usually around 400 or so people on at any given time, so it isn’t a ghost town. I’m loving it.
When sick of that, I’ve been playing a lot of Europa Universalis 3. I have been crushing the heathens of eastern Europe as the Papal States.
Umph, well, mostly I’ve been playing Nethack and Fallout 2, and solitaire. Seriously. I don’t like realtime shooters, and I am not a big fan of MMORPGs (and the monthly fees). So that’s what I’ve been playing, plus a little Improbable Island.
We’ve been getting the SDMB L4D2 games going a lot more regularly lately, a few times a week. I’ve been playing the new maps for defense grid.
I started playing TF2 again a little bit - it just recently got released for macs and I very much want to crush apple fans who probably haven’t played a video game since qbert. Unfortunately there’s no sure-fire way to identify them. I wish they got marked with some sort of silver apple on their helmets or something.
I just started playing Oblivion again since the complete edition was on steam for a few bucks. I’m going to have a much more heavily modded experience than my first playthrough years ago, should be better.
Still playing through dragon age.
Alternating between the various codemasters racing games I got cheap - dirt 2, dirt, toca 3, grid.
Really, since I have over 150 games via digital distribution and I don’t have to worry about installing stuff or swapping discs or anything I randomly play whatever I’m in the mood for at that time, so the games I’m playing from week to week can change a lot.
Lots of World of Warcraft. My laptop won’t even run the first Mass Effect (video card isn’t up to spec), so it, its sequel, and Dragon Age are waiting until I eventually upgrade.
World of Warcraft. That’s pretty much it. I’m looking forward to Civ V, but I’m not sure my computer will run it. since my old gaming PC died and I’m down to using the ‘backup PC’.
Recently, I have been replaying Starcraft and Broodwars, so that I’ll remember the plot for Starcraft II. Of course, I’m sure there are pretty good summaries online that take less time than actually playing through.
Before that I was re-visiting Pool of Radiance followed by Curse of the Azure Bonds. Once upon a time I used to painstakingly map these grids. Back then, of course, I didn’t leave home without graph paper anyway. The game was such a powerful draw that I kept a copy and my current saves on me at all time in case I found a chance to sneak into a computer lab and play. Since you can’t save mid-battle, this would sometimes result in me missing class. That, and my inability to stop playing in general. Now, hell, it’s a neat aversion, but I can’t quite recover that obsession.
I got a demo of Torchlight and was trying that out, but honestly it doesn’t seem that fun to me. I guess I’ve played so many games like it that it’s just not that interesting anymore (maybe it’s the fact that it’s a demo too…perhaps the full game is more interesting).
What I’ve really wanted to play lately is Panzer General 3D, but unfortunately the CD it was on is completely shot and I can’t seem to find any place to download the full game that isn’t a hack or pirate.
I have also kicked around the possibility of getting XCOM (Steam has a copy for download, though not sure if it will play on my system), as it’s been years since I played that and it was one of my favorites. I wish someone could take a lot of those old games, keep the game exactly the same but simply with reworked graphics.
The UFO Aftermath/Aftershock/Afterlight series are spiritual successors to xcom. Not quite the same (biggest difference is real time pausable combat rather than turn based) but you might like them.
Back in April 2k games who apparently have the rights to the xcom name announced a new XCOM game… to be an FPS shooter. lol consoles I guess.
Over the last few months, I’ve spread my time out between Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark (Paladin/Sorcerer is amazing!), Civ IV: BTS, and Team Fortress 2. I’m quite pleased with this rotation, and I suspect that when I’m done with Hordes, I’ll let my RPG slot go to either NWN2, Mass Effect 2, or The Witcher.
The basic nature of combat is also different : X-com is all about sending waves of rookies to die in hilarious and suicidal ways. In the Afterblank wars, you’ve got just the one team, few and unpredictable reinforcements and losing even just one of your veterans is a big blow.
Amusingly enough, the inverse is true of the air combat part of the games : in X-com, every single interceptor is extra-precious, because they cost a mint and aren’t easily replaced. In Afterblank, you’ll probably lose hundreds of jets in suicidal intercepts and not care one bit.
As for the Steam version of X-Com(s), they work pretty well with Dosbox, although you might run into a slight problem where scrolling in tactical battles justs zips around much too fast to play with - but the games are very popular still, and there are quite a few forums and wikis out there to walk you through any issues you might run into.
Just finished Portal. Really cool game.
also finished an unknown rpg ish game called Numen, …Meh.
Currently on my second playthrough of DragonAge, taking the mage route this time.
I used to play Asheron’s Call years ago. For its tenth anniversary they came out with some cool updates, I’m considering resubbing to it. It was such an awesome game back in the day. I have yet to play an mmorpg that is better (game mechanics not graphics) and I’ve played most of them.
Nothing for about a month, which is only sort of a surprise. I tend to retreat into my den in the winter, playing games as much as possible, but now that summer’s almost here, they’ve lost their interest for me. Happens every year. Before I quit, I played a bunch of games almost to the end: Psychonauts, Spellforce, Torchlight, Overlord. I quit The Witcher about a quarter (?) of the way through: I found it a lot more trashy than I did compelling. Not that there’s anything wrong with trashy–I’m happily working my way through season 2 of TruBlood–but I just didn’t find the Witcher to be interesting enough to justify collectible trading cards of babes you’ve banged.
The cable guy was around the other day and I was home alone (except for him outside) with no internet or TV. I could have read a book but instead I started flipping through old CDs looking for mindless entertainment among my catalog of online stuff and strategy games. And there was Doom II. I don’t play much but I’ve been knocking out a level or two a night just as a wind-down before bed.
Civ4 and mods
Operation Flashpoint 2, flawed but a neat military sim.
AudioSurf, good for zoning out and listening to music at the same time
Borderlands, co-op on Sunday nights with a friend
I’m playing Risen. It’s a greatly underrated game - came out almost to no notice. No fanfare. But the game is good. Tough, especially right at the start. Combat is quick and unforgiving, and god help you if you don’t have a shield. But that makes it very satifying when you finally succeed. The game is made by the creators of Gothic, and it pretty much is identical to a Gothic game if you played one.