What Games Have You Been Playing Recently?

The Game Room
1

I’ve been pining for a captivating new video game to play in the last few weeks. However, I suffer from Old-School Game Nostalgia (OSGN), and I find that most recent games can’t measure up to the vaunted games of my youth (FF7, FF9, Goldeneye, Super Mario 64, Baldur’s Gate series, Morrowind, Age of Empires series, to name a few).

I’ve thought about looking into MMORPGs, but I steadfastly refuse to turn over my hard-earned cash to a company after also paying a lump sum up front for the game. Guild Wars is a unique exception to this, since there’s no monthly fee. I played the original about a year ago and got fairly far, up to the point of Ascension. I ultimately lost interest for two reasons: 1) The low level cap completely removed the element of growth and progression since the maximum level is reachable so early in the game, and 2) the low level cap made the game increasingly more difficult, to the point where I would get slaughtered if I were teamed up with the NPCs and not other players. Frankly, I don’t want to have to deal with all the bozos the come along and would rather go out adventuring with the NPCs, but as I just stated, this became impractical.

I tried Oblivion, but the auto-scaling of the enemies and the loot was the worst, worst, worst(!) decision ever on the part of the developers. A large part of the fun of Morrowind was trying to outwit the big bad monsters, who on paper outclassed my character, and plundering the incredible treasure they were guarding (the glass equipment armories, anyone?). Also, the immensely open-ended nature of the game was a huge plus, too. I gave this game up to after about 20 hours of gameplay.

I also tried a throwback to a game from my “classic era”: Skies of Arcadia. It was an interesting concept, and the airship battles were neat, but the character motivations, dialogue, and plot were woefully see-through or absent altogether. I played a few games like Final Fantasy Tactics and Fire Emblem, which I thought were just okay. Having said that, I thought the Kessen games and Dynasty Tactics games (which are quite similar to the aforemention Game Boy Advance games) were excellent.

I didn’t mean to rant and ramble quite this long, so thank you for making it this far. What games have you played recently that you quite enjoyed?

2

Fallout 3 is great. Not perfect, certainly, but a lot of fun. The huge thread here testifies to that.

Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir has been entertaining me lately. Having a customizable party and open ended gameplay is great and a great callback to days of yore. Story is lackluster and the NWN2 engine is pretty dismal, though (Brand new computer and I still get less than stellar performance? And abysmal load times? Really?). Haven’t got very far, but good so far.

If you hate Oblivion’s level scaling (which I also despise) consider replaying it with a mod called “Oscuro’s Oblivion Overhaul” or “OOO” for short. Basically, it eliminates that level scaling and makes the game far more fun, in my opinion. If you’re not on the PC, though, you’re out of luck for that one.

I was not as enamored with Mario Galaxy as others were, but it is still a fantastic game if you long for more 3D Mario.

Of course, my standard recommendations of Cave Story and Dwarf Fortress are out in force if you haven’t tried them yet.

3

I just bought Left 4 Dead for xBox360. The graphics aren’t as great as the YouTube gameplay videos are and I even have component cables hooked up to my 26" LCD. Maybe those are running on the xBox’s that have HDMI. Anyways, the game is pretty standard shoot’em up zombie game. It’s fun, definitely not boring, but it sure as hell ain’t no Call of Duty in teh graphics department. But I give it a 6 out of 10.

4

For free mmorpg’s, I did a google search for “free mmorpg”, and there are a few sites dedicated to listing them. I’ve tried a couple of them;

Planeshift seems to show promise, although at the moment, it’s still in beta. Much of the functionality has yet to be implemented. That having been said, it seems to focus quite a bit on actual roleplay and interaction, which was one aspect I really liked about it.

Perfect World seems to be a good game too, although it seems mainly quest-driven for leveling, and didn’t seem to display much in the way of roleplaying. Warning: This one is a huge download (over 2Gig)

I haven’t tried this one, because I’m just using a plain laptop that doesn’t have the system requirements, but someone said that Atlantica is a good one too. Again, this one is also a huge (2Gig) download.

S^G

5

I have a Wii and DS… Not a whole lot of games that are coming out this year tickle-my-fancy. Not a bad thing, at a point of my life where money is so tight. Hoping to delve into PC gaming IF I’m able to get a graphics card this winter, (this isn’t a result of the Wii or DS lackluster year end, I’ve had Bioshock in my possession FOREVER). Times are tough though.

Right now, it’s, (as always), Yoshi Touch and Go for the DS. For some reason that’s a game I just pick up almost every time I bust out the DS. I beat World Of Goo on WiiWare, (also on PC), a while ago and still play that time to time. The latest though, Mario RPG, on Virtual Console. I played it at my friends house back in the day, and while it’s not my favorite RPG Mario, it still rocks.

If anyone cares the list for me would go.

  1. Mario & Luigi: Super Saga (GBA)
    Fawful made me laugh out loud, and I don’t remember a game ever doing that.

  2. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (GC)
    Also charming, and has a great battle system

  3. Mario RPG (SNES)
    Nostalgia, the fist of it’s kind, and Geno.

  4. Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time (DS)
    Compared to it’s “little brother” it’s uninspired. A good game, but not as good as the first.

  5. Paper Mario (N64)
    Good game, but it bored me a bit.

6

For something completely different there’s World of Goo. I am not much of a gamer at all (usually sticking to puzzles), but this one is strange and oddly compelling, with good in-game music and a mysterious plot and interesting subtext. Every time you think you’re getting good, it throws another little twist at you. (Or sometimes a major twist.)
I’m addicted.

7

I’ve been playing a lot- far too much, really- of Fallout 3. I’ve also been playing a fair bit of FarCry 2, and today, just for something a bit different, I’ve been playing Evil Genius, which is a surprising amount of fun. :slight_smile:

I’m a PC gamer exclusively; I don’t have any of the consoles and have no intention of changing that any time soon.

8

::Slaps Forehead::
I totally forgot that there was a forum specifically devoted to games now. Would a mod be so kind as to move this thread to that forum?

9

I’m playing the English fan translation of Mother 3 (a.k.a. the spiritual sequel to Earthbound). Video games are usually pretty impersonal so I’m amazed how much it makes you care about the characters and the village they live in, and how such a whimsical game can have such a threatening undertone. There’s a very strong theme of loss of innocence throughout. It’s like yes, this is a happy fun land, but there’s a very real danger from outside, and you’re sad because you know even though everything will be okay in the end (because it’s that kind of game), it’s never going to be the same again.

10

I guess this is about video games, based on the responses. I’m fine with that.

My wife and I are going through a phase where we are replaying some games. Here are my thoughts. See if you agree:

Okami - Pure gaming brilliance. Well, it’s not perfect(it is too easy), but all of its minor errors are forgivable because of how creative it is. One of the few games I’ve played recently that…tries something new! This should have been the next Zelda. Oh, I just remembered. It’s on the Wii, too now(was a PS2 game).

Twilight Princess - The actual “next” Zelda. I love this game equally to Ocarina of Time. I know! Blasphemy! It’s a great game, probably the best Zelda. I played the Gamecube version, by the way. I have no idea if it was better/worse on the Wii. Get this game if you have a Wii and haven’t played it, though. It is highly worth it. In fact, it might just be the underrated Zelda because it didn’t try tons of things new.

Wind Waker - Hmmmm…good dungeons. Otherwise, this is the worst 3d Zelda. The sailing is too extreme and it’s too easy. I like the main dungeons, but the sneaking in the Forbidden Fortress is annoying. I remember this being better when it was new.

The Sands of Time Trilogy - Play “Sands of Time” and “Two Thrones” out of this Prince of Persia gaming trilogy. They are brilliant and highly worth it. The new one isn’t on the Wii, I guess.

11

Oblivion on PC with the OOO and other graphics/gameplay enhancing mods is a completely, I mean radically different and BETTER experience.

Right now I’m playing:

Left4dead - Awesome zombie slaying goodness. It’s meant to be a coop game for the most part though. you can play single player, but coop online is where it’s at. There’s a decent size group of SDMB’ers that play it on Steam.

Far Cry 2 - Didn’t get very far when it first came out, I’m giving it another shot. It’s a great shooter, but has some serious flaws, not least of which is the repetitiveness of the missions, and the annoying guard posts that re-spawn every minutes, making them pointless to attack and a pain in the behind when trying to get to your next mission.

Fallout 3 - I was playing this until left 4 dead. I’m definitely going back to it during the holidays.

NWN 2 - SoZ - Good old school D&D gaming goodness. I’m almost to the end of this great expansion for the game.

12

I’m slacking a bit lately, I’m starting to play Kingdom of Loathing which is just excellent and I’ve been playing Super Mario 3 on line a lot lately, but you can’t save it so it’s a straight shot through or nothing.

13

Persona 4 is coming out this Tuesday (for the PS2, no less). If I were the kind of person who Knew a Guy and had gotten my hands on one of the review copies, I would say that if you’re a console-style RPG fan, this is probably going to be your game of the year. I would say that the half dozen hours I had spent with the game had only made me that more ridiculously excited to get my hands on it later this week. I would say that, while volume at work won’t let me take off any days this week for it, I have already taken off next Monday for a three day weekend of Persona euphoria.

I really can’t remember the last time I was so worked up about a game.

14

I have been playing Dwarf Fortress again, and it just keeps getting better. When I first played it was a simple 2D world with ASCII art. Now it’s a fiendishly complicated 3D game, and there are fan “skins” that add N64 quality graphics and some customized key mappings. The game has an incredible amount of depth… it’s like the Nethack dev team tried their hand at developing a cross between SimCity and Oregon Trail.

There is no user manual, only this ridiculously in-depth wiki. Remember: losing is fun!

15

Then let me ask a few questions about this series, which I have heard a bit about.

  1. What is it about the Persona games that are so good?

  2. I’ve only every heard people refer to Persona 3 and the forthcoming 4. Are 1 and 2 necessary to play to understand the current games? Are they direct sequels?

  3. Aren’t they way different from regular console RPGs? Is there some kind of social system or something like that that is a part of the games? If so, what is it?

Thanks! :slight_smile:

16

  1. There are a lot of things about it that are good. Personally? My favorite thing is probably the writing. Atlus’s US translation team is pretty much the best there is, when you’re talking about dialogue heavy stuff. In a more general sense, the entire package fits together Just Right.

  2. I never played 1 or 2 either. I don’t really like more things that are anime, anime-related, or anime-influenced. It took a LOT of recommendations from people I trust and a $30 price point to get me to buy P3:FES. And it was completely worth it. I spent 70 hours on the game and I didn’t even play through the full FES additional content. So definitely not necessary to understand what’s going on in the current games.

  3. They are half standard J-RPG fare, and half Japanese social networking sim/RPG. There is interaction between the two halves, and they’re both really, really good within their respective genres. Basically, the stuff you do on the social networking side (“during the day”) affects the powers that you can use in the dungeoning, J-RPG’ing side (“the night”). At least in P3, it was the over-arching story that kept both of them together and moving, and the player wanting to know what’s going to happen; I didn’t get far enough in P4 to get a sense of the whole thing, more just to get excited. :slight_smile:

Hope that’s something, maybe others can chime in with thoughts on the series as well . . .

17

Actually, depending on how you look at the information revealed in [del]Plot Exposition City[/del] New Pork City by Leder and Porky near the end, it’s either a direct sequel to Earthbound, or a distant prequel.

I’d actually say of the Paper Mario series I’d go The Thousand Year Door -> Super -> Original. The battle mechanics in PM were better (the gameplay in SPM, while good, was a little lackluster when compared to the Turn Based RPG system), but the story was much, much better in SPM. TTYD mixes the humor/story AND awesome battles, and is therefore perfect.

18

I love how Earthbound and Mother 3 involve you as if you were a character in the story. Most games try too hard to tell stories like films; there’s a whole level of interaction that’s mostly going untapped.

Paper Mario paved the way, but I do agree that TTYD refined the system to perfection and is more fun to play. SPM tried to be both a platformer and an RPG and therefore couldn’t do both optimally, and I think it suffered for it.

19

I didn’t count Super Paper Mario, because it’s not as much of an RPG imho.

20

…Oh, but I would agree with you.