Strelich

Silent Hunter III. I'm a hardcore sim fanatic, and CAOTD (Aces of the Deep: Command Edition) is an old favorite of mine. If I had any complaints, it would be the concessions made in modelling ship physics and AI in general. (The uber acceleration of all ships, the magic stabilization of the main and flak guns under AI control, or the empty ports.) Graphics are excellent, and the mechanics are solid. It's somewhat moddable, though some issues as mentioned before can only be fixed by the dev team. I'd say an 8.5/10, given that.

Lock On:MAC - Flaming Cliffs - As much as I was a fan of Flanker 2.5, I must admit that I wasn't that keen on this sim, maybe because it seemed like it was more of a flight simulator (among the best fidelity flight models in any sim out there) than an all around combat simulation. The graphics are nice, though the sim is very CPU intensive. In other words, other than the best systems out there, 'stutters ahoy'. The AI for aircraft are limited and predictable, and the avionics systems for the US aircraft are somewhat simplified. However, I'm an avid fan of Falcon 4 and all the mods for it, so it is a step back in many ways. I would say 6/10.

Both sims are from Ubisoft, which is pretty much the only remaining major publishing company willing to release simulations. Suffice it to say, given console dominance and development costs/times, it's a big risk only Ubisoft has taken.

SWAT 4: I haven't played it much, the enemy targeting AI is to me a little too good. That, coupled with the rather strict rules of engagement (only in that the game can be rather twitchy in excessive force and declaring compliance in sudden gunfights) means they hose down half your team in a doorway before the team returns fire). However, it's a pretty tight package all around, which modding communities are working in lieu of a SDK. All three games listed here have SDKs in the works. 7/10.

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Monty this seems strange to me.
The movies had that movie thing,
but nonsense has a welcome ring
and heroes don't come easy.

Catdaddy33

I picked up Far Cry for 10 bucks in the bargain bin, and is a blast to play. Considering its a yr+ old looks great even comparied to Doom 3/HL 2.

akito

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory

This game is one of the best games on my machine right now. I've always been a fan of the splinter cell games, and this just makes it so much better. The single player campaign is amazing, and jumping online is equal amounts of fun. Online play used to be very VERY buggy, as in you couldn't play a coop game for more than a couple seconds, but it seems that they've fixed that with this latest patch, and now I find myself playing this game more than anything else almost.

9/10 akito-points for this title!

Half-Life 2

Best.Game.Ever.

11/10 akito-points for this. That extra bonus point is because Counter-strike: Source came with it. :P

SSG505

Brother In Arms: Road to Hill 30

Best game i've ever played in my life. I beat it on normal then difficult and about 1/3 of the way through on authentic. The game just sucks you in like nothing i've ever played before.

10/10

Jade Empire

Cool game but a little on the easy side. Camera was kinda iffy in certain areas but I loved the diffrent styles to choose from.

8/10

nukeu666

i bought final fantasy 8 and the longest journey 2 weeks ago...
but im still in middle of baldur's gate (8/10)

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keeb

xbox: Oddworld: Strangers Wrath, Lego star wars, episode 3: rots.
PS2: God of War, Star ocean, FFX
GC: Animal Crossing, Mario party 6, zelda the windwaker
PSP: Hot shots Golf
DS: Mario 64 DS
SP: Harvest moon: FoMT
PC: Asheron's Call

bookerV

Xbox
Crimson Skies: 6.5 / 10 Mindless repetitive fun. Decent story so far though.

Jade Empire: 9.5 / 10 This is just the type of game that I have been craving for the last little while. I am only about 1/4 of the way through the game but so far I am loving it, and I am already planning to replay it through as soon as I am done. I have heard that it is too short though, which is too bad. This is a great console RPG though, despite its length.

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Lionel Hutz

Fallen

Advent Rising

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wdevauld

Most recently:

Xbox: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Rock Star has done it again
PC: Sid Meier's Pirates. Remake of an old classic. Kinda a cross genre RPG/strategy/arcade. Very good game except that Pirates don't dance. Yarrrr.....

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Bacchanal

I just got God of War the other day, and I'm loving it. I think I'll go get Destroy All Humans tomorrow, it looks quite fun.

I got NFL Street 2 a couple weeks ago, and I wish I hadn't. It isn't nearly as fun as I thought it would be.

pacaveli

for the PS2, i bought x men legends and im loving that

and i got area 51 and i just got into online play cause im not big on FPS stories cause they're boaring and pointless, online play is fun though

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heccubusiv

Batman Begins, too short of a game and seemed to be the same thing over and over again but traps were cool.. and the bat mobile was sweet... worth renting and beating in a weekend

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odu_sonar_AE

I just purchased NHL Eastside Hockey Manager 2005. It doesn't have the killer graphics these other games do, but for people like me who are suffering from a missed NHL season, this is the next best thing.

Slavakion

Sinistar. By far one of the best old-school arcade games.

MexicanOnABike

katamari damacy: best 25$ ever spent!!!
10/10 get this game.

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MexicanOnABike

i just got into my DavemirraProBMX2... and well it's a fun game. i'm just getting used to the controls so it's cool. 8/10.

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dun_ask

CS Source.. 9.5/10

Guild Wars 6/10 (I liked WoW's community better more social interaction..you get to know your server more)

Xell101

Nexus: The Jupiter Incident 9/10

I heartily approve of this game. A real time space combat simulator with fully 3-d environment with battle reminscent of Babylon 5. The game looks great but unfortunately buggy, nearly all come from woefully suboptimal system configs, the rest come specific and easily work aroundable causes. I hit one and it took me less than three minutes to get around once I checked the game forums. The best aspect of the game is the difficulty. The top difficulty setting is nearly unbeatable due to well performing AI, not ships with 300% health or other cheats. Actually strategy is required once you're above minimum difficulty, it's great. I'd give it a ten, but yeah, bugs.

Bacchanal

How is that? A guy at Best Buy was trying his ass off to sell it to me, but I hadn't heard anything about it, so I passed.

As I mentioned earlier, I got Destroy All Humans, and it's fun. I've only played it for about half an hour though, since one of my friends really wants to play it too (and I'm still playing God Of War). It has a bit of comedy in it that had me chuckling, but the controls are something to get used to.

battlemouth

animal crossing
god of war
brave samurai musashi

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jwoody

I bought 'Destroy All Humans' yesterday and had good go at it last night.

First immpressions were that it looks and feels a lot like the Tony Hawk games without the skateboard. That's not necessarily a bad thing though, I think this game will really come into it's own once I get the hang of the controls.

Probably the second funniest game I've played this year, after LEGO Star Wars.

If I had to rate it now I'd give it... mmm... 7 out of 10.

#EDIT# After playing from start to finish I'd rate it at 4.5 out of 10.

guthmund

Well, I picked up two more...

1- Jade Empire. Absolutely fabulous game. I would expect nothing less from the crew that gave us Knights of the Old Republic. It is a bit short, but the replayability (is that even a word?) makes up for that a bit. I definately like the way they handled the style sets and modifiers. I was disappointed that you couldn't customize the actual character (weapons, clothing/armor that sort of thing). At the very least, I wouldn't have been so disappointed if they had let you choose a distinct face for your character. All that aside, it's a very pretty game, the story is actually pretty good and the fighting stuff is outstanding. It's just too short and a little bare boned. I'm going to give it a 7/10.

2- Pariah - This game gives me a headache. First off, it's ridiculously hard. Now, I'm a big...big Halo fan and although I might not be the top of the charts, I'm certainly no slouch. This game is hard. I don't know what it is, but you literally have to be right up on top of the enemy to shoot them properly with just your standard run of the mill kind of gun. Even then you can unload a full clip of ammo at the bad guy, blood and guts spraying wildly, and he'll still be standing. The levels are a bit atrocious and a lot of them consist of running wildly to one side of the map, flick a switch, run wildly to the other side of the map while killing a whole bunch of bad guys that seem to come out of nowhere. Now, the story is pretty good, so far, and the vehicles are fun to drive, so it's not all bad. And the weapons are nice and you can toggle a 'god code' with the cheat menu, but it just isn't enough. I give it a 5/10.

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Ripsaw

1 - God of War. Working on finishing hard mode to perfect my combos and parrying before I try God Mode. Halfway through. Finished the challenge of the gods to unlock the costumes.

2 - Cracked open FFVII again. I never finished it, time to see what happens at the end.

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One life, one chance, one opportunity.

bobophil

Half-Life 2


I got HL2 the day it arrived at EB Games.

Everything about it far surpassed my wildest expectations. (And those were set pretty high to start with.)

6 out of 5

Burnout 2


I got the directors cut for currency. (cant complain)

5 out of 5


Kirby: Canvas Curse

This was probably the best DS game i've played in a while.

5 out of 5


Simpson's Hit and Run

Pretty good, but it was a complete spin-off of GTA

4 out of 5


Half-Life PS2

MURDERED THE GAME. The singular point was for the title Half-Life.

1 out of 5


more when I remember...

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-Homer

keyshawn

Resident evil: code veronica X [ps2]

[bought it used for $9]

So far, game reminds me a lot of alone in the dark. It's somewhat difficult, and the opportunities to save are somewhat sparse, which kind of frustrates me. This forces me to play for an hour or so at a time, so I don't have to constantly redo parts over and over again. The camera isn't the best, but I heard that's it's actually for the better.

Too early to rate it.

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RubenBaraja

Finally started playing Top Spin on the Xbox due to post Wimbledon excitement.

Found it quite easy at the moment and am currently ranked 10.

Looking forward to the sequel which I am sure was announced at E3

msf518

Last game I bought was MVP Baseball 2005, great value for the 29.95 price tag.

Johnny Pyro

SWAT 4- awsome game where you get to control your vey own swat team. (for PC)
Guild Wars-its free,its online, its badass

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guthmund

Picked up another a few days ago...

X-Men: Legends -- Fun stuff. I've been playing co-op with my nephew and we've been having a blast. Some of the missions have been a bit off kilter and it's kind of difficult in the beginning until you find the right tactics against the onslaught of enemies.

It's kind of fun to whoop ass with a whole litany of X-men and the addition of some of the voices from the actual movie....well, that just makes my day.

At $20.00, I don't see any reason why you wouldn't pick up this game and give it a go.

The menus are a bit difficult to manuever through and some of the character additions seem...well, it seems they didn't put as much thought into some of the second tier characters as they did the top tier, but that's okay, I don't use them all regularly anyway.

8/10

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Gatorade Frost

Latest game I bought was World of Warcraft, which I bought a week or two ago. Otherwise I'll buy a game once every six months or so.

I give it a 3/5. At first it was a 4/5, then I started getting into it, then I hit lvl 12, and then biff.... down to 1/5 since I practically had to grind through 5 levels to be able to beat anything succesfully without getting my n00bs p00ned off. Then level 20 comes around, I enjoy it a little bit, but now that I'm there it's lost its thrill. So that may be the end of my World of Warcraft playing.

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Emo Philips

Ragbags

Pacific Fighters (+ Forgotten Battles + Aces Expansion Pack)

BEST GAME EVER. WWII flight sim with about a billion flyable planes and realistic (enough - don't visit their forums and talk about realism though... sheesh) flight model. Good range of online play options from arcade-tastic to I-wish-I-were-the-love-child-of-Biggles-and-Hermann-Goering-real. I get a little upset that shipping doesn't try and dodge torpedoes though.

MS Flight Sim 2004
Lock On: Modern Air Combat
X-Plane

Detecting a theme?

Rome: Total War

And Medieval Total War. Best RTS/turn based strategy game there is (with the exception of Harpoon). I still feel happy remembering the time I crushed Gengis Khan's entire army in a single epic battle. I was so proud of my brave little soldiers.


Half Life 2

When I want to shoot people in the face without a cockpit windshield in the way. Great pretties, good atmosphere (though the canals were a little tiresome), and reasonable plot.

SF CAVE!!!!!

BEST GAME EVER AS WELL, APART FROM ALL THE OTHER GAMES BETTER THAN IT. Best score: 3795.
http://www.sfcave.com/javaCave.php

skinnymofo

ratchet and clank: up your arsenal

i could just be a dork but i love the ratchet and clank series. a tad longer than the second game but also a tad easier (and no races or outer space fights)
overall id say 7.5/10

guthmund

Prince of Persia 2 : Warrior Within

I've never played these games before despite all the good things I had heard about this one and the previous Prince of Persia.

This game is hard even with the difficulty set on 'easy'. I'm new to the series, I've got no experience with the controls and 5 minutes into the game they throw the first mini-boss at me. None of the moves that the tutorial have mentioned up to this point work against this gal. I eventually beat her by running towards her and rapidly tapping different combinations of buttons at random. No skill involved.

The camera sucks. Any allusion the game makes to 'camera control' is laughable because it just ain't there. The camera angles in the game are irritating, which makes some of the challenges near impossible to do. The save points are few and far between. Not to mention oddly placed. I mean, I would imagine the ideal position for them would be right before big boss fights or after a particularly difficult stretch of puzzles, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

And the map...what map? it's a pretty picture that colors itself in as you explore each area. It doesn't begin to help with navigating the ginormous world I find myself stuck in. I've spent the vast majority of my time in the game just wandering around.

I really want to really like this game. I think the story is fantastic so far and despite the clunky controls, once you get the hang of it, it's really kind of satisfying to slice someone down the middle or pop their head off. Not to mention the really cool stuff you can do (slide down curtains, run along walls, climb...anything.) It's just not enough to off set the irritating camera, the ridiculously difficult bosses or the aimless wandering because you're not sure where to go.

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RubenBaraja

Guild Wars

Played for about 10 mins and really have not got a clue what is going on.

Looks like the manual is gonna be needed for this one

hulk

Oh man, pity you're having such a hard time with it, PoP2 is such an awesome game. That first boss is a right bitch, as you said (even beating it completely on normal I got trunced playing again on hard) but once you grow on it a little it's great. The combat isn't it's strong point, the freedom of running the walls, flipping from poles and launching baddies from gigantic towers just rocks.

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"'There's a tendency among the press to attribute the creation of a game to a single person,' says Warren Spector, creator of Thief and Deus Ex."
-- From an IGN game review.

guthmund

After a few days spent getting control of the...controls, ( ) I have to say, I'm liking it a bit better.

Actually, the combat is one of the reasons I keep playing it. The buttons are still a bit clunky, but at least the combos are starting to make sense a bit. Like I said, I really, really want to like the game. I like the freedom to run and do anything I want. I just wish the camera wasn't so damn irritating. And even that I could overlook, if the map was better (think...Splinter Cell 3 / Metroid Prime 2).

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NoSoup

If you liked PoP2, you'll love the first Prince of Persia that come out. It's not as dark, but I believe it was much, much better when it comes to control and camera work. The only issue with the first one, I believe, was the legions of enemies you have to fight. It gets a bit repetative, but the puzzles are even better

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Bacchanal

A friend of mine bought Flat Out, and I spent quite a bit of time playing and watching it last night. It has some really, really fun stuff to do. Throwing the driver from the car in the high jump is HILARIOUS! The races are pretty fun/tough as well. From just having played it last night, I'd buy it.

My personal opinion: 8/10

hulk

The combo system does take a while, very true. Once it clicks, though, you'll be splitting heads (literally) all over the place.

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"'There's a tendency among the press to attribute the creation of a game to a single person,' says Warren Spector, creator of Thief and Deus Ex."
-- From an IGN game review.

Derwood

Finally bought GTA: San Andreas last night. I played for 4 hours and I think I'm 4.5% complete. (Unlike Fable, where 4 hours and I was over 50% complete).

Rockstar earns their $50 for sure!

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