Carno

I've recently played Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl and Supreme Commander. I loved C&C3 and am still plowing through the GDI campaign. I also loved STALKER and played it nonstop until I beat it. Apparently there are seven different endings that you can get, depending on what you do throughout the game. Excellent AI and nice graphics.

Supreme Commander was the odd one out in this trio. I didn't find the graphics too appealing and the camera is horrible. I'm not a fan of the top down view at all, so this was hell for me. Also, no mini map. I understand that I can scroll all the way out and see the world view, but I much prefer being able to glance down and see the action from a mini map. I don't want to have to leave the scene of a battle just to check the world view. I also thought the maps themselves sucked. The terrain detail is pretty shoddy and it hardly looks like you're actually fighting on a planet rather than just a flat green colored thing with trees randomly thrown on. The unit controls were annoying to me as well. I really couldn't play this game for more than 15 minutes before I wanted to uninstall it. So I did.

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Kadath

So I got God of War and Shadow of the Colossus to tide me over until I get the Elite. God of War is fine, although combat feels a little bit like button mashing. Haven't gotten into SotC yet.

Carno, you really didn't dig Supreme Commander? I had read that with a dual display you could get a tactical display on one screen and the main view one another; that sounded pretty hot.

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longbough

You too?
I just purchased God of War and Shadow of the Colossus, too. I also saw a used copy of God of War II, so I had to buy it.

GOW is fun so far - but I got spoiled by the higher resolution graphics of my PS3 and XBOX 360 games.

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"I do believe that, where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence. Thus when my eldest son asked me what he should have done, had he been present when I was almost fatally assaulted in 1908, whether he should have run away and seen me killed or whether he should have used his physical force which he could and wanted to use, and defended me, I told him that it was his duty to defend me even by using violence." - Mahatma Ghandi

skier

Playing Guitar Hero II right now, first time for any guitar game and i'm having a blast right now, i think i've played it 4 hours straight now


also picked up super paper mario which is pretty sweet but i can only take so much puzzling for one day

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CyCo PL

I just scoured ebay for some DS games, and I got:

(shipping included in prices)

Contact: $20

Meteos: $17

Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime: $15

Can't wait until they start coming in the mail. I'm extremely happy about Rocket Slime, I wasn't expecting to get it that cheap. It's supposed to be new and sealed as well, but I would bet that it's not new and somebody just used a shrinkwrap machine to "seal" it. As long as the game works though, I don't care.

Kadath

longbough:

So I have decided I hate GOW and want it to lose its childhood pet in a traffic accident. The decision to have jumping/balance puzzles in a game where the camera is deliberately disadvantageous to you is a dick move. I don't know how far you've gotten but Spoiler: Hades is just fucking obnoxious.

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impulse03

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Carno

Yeah, that does sound neat, but I don't have two monitors so it is a useless feature for me. I really just didn't like the camera either. When I zoomed it all the way in, it looked like I had the resolution set to 640x480 even though it was set to 1280x1024. When it was zoomed out a little, the view was too top-down. I prefer a more isometric view.

And even then I didn't find the graphics all that appealing either. The game just didn't "grab" me at all.

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CyCo PL

I got Contact for Nintendo DS in the mail yesterday, and it's a pretty fun game if you enjoy MMO's. The game itself isn't an MMO, but the combat feels very MMO-like. You target a monster and go into "combat mode", and your character auto attacks while you occasionally perform special attacks.

The stat development system is pretty simple and feels really good-- there are all of the standard RPG stats: strength, agility, dexterity, stamina, etc.. There are also individual weapon skills, i.e. knife, club, fist weapons. When you swing a weapon, the respective weapon skill goes up, and also stats like strength and dexterity. As you get attacked, defense skills and agility may go up. Pretty standard for MMO's and PC RPG's, but not really as common for console RPG's. It gives the game a computer RPG feel that I really enjoy. The game got mediocre ratings because the combat isn't as active as most people would like, but honestly, if you play MMO's you'll probably enjoy it.

I should be getting Dragon Quest: Rocket Slime in the mail tomorrow, I'm looking forward to trying that out.

pixelbend

Rocket Slime is awesome. I'm just finishing it up.

I was about half way through Hotel Dusk and made a bad decision and didn't have a save game to go back to. After I finish up Rocket Slime, I guess I'll be going back to that.

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guthmund

C&C III: Tiberium Wars is a good pick. I'm plugging through the GDI campaign and so far, so good. The last round of missions (southeast Europe) have irritated the hell out of me, but I've pushed through. Can't wait to try the NOD side.

Viva Pinata - I mentioned this one earlier, but I picked up the "official" game guide and it's opened up a whole new aspect to this game that I guess I just didn't "get" before. It may take a bit to get into, but stick it out...it gets loads better.

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nolan36

Half Life 2 + Episode 1 : Simply the best games I've ever played! Insane graphics and a good story line. Took me pretty long too to beat it.

Counter Strike: Source : Good multiplayer game.

About C&C 3, it looks pretty good but I don't know if its worth the 50$ (that's how much it was last time I checked).

hulk

Picked up F.E.A.R for the 360. Maybe I'm just jaded - no scares at all. I had a bigger feeling of unease in Resident Evil on the 'cube!

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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.

longbough

Yeah, I didn't think F.E.A.R. was scary at all - and I played it on a high-powered PC. I thought Resident Evil was a much scarier series - and Doom 3 on the PC was scary for me.

Also the first Silent Hill (the only one I played) - was supposed to be scarier than the Resident Evil games ... it wasn't. It tried hard but it didn't work.

I think many horror games fail when they try to make more "plot" for the game. Too much plot makes the game feel like someone's attempt to make a movie and that you're going toward a resolution of some mystery. It's games that seem to forego the plot that seem to be more "immersive" because you can't orient yourself with clues and a story ... you just want to survive.

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"I do believe that, where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence. Thus when my eldest son asked me what he should have done, had he been present when I was almost fatally assaulted in 1908, whether he should have run away and seen me killed or whether he should have used his physical force which he could and wanted to use, and defended me, I told him that it was his duty to defend me even by using violence." - Mahatma Ghandi

hulk

Shock scares aren't enough for this veteran. I remember the freakiest moment in REmake was when I could see the a zombie's shadow against the wall - the camera angle didn't include the window, but I knew what was there. It didn't just bust right in, either, until I least expected it to.

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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.

Embic

just picked up lotro, been playing for a few days, so far i like it, its a nice break from WoW. also picked up pokemon diamond first day it was out, played it non stop for a week till i beat the elite 4, still need 2 pokemon to get my national dex. i think both are great games.

Fallenleaf

eh, GoW2, its was good but disappointing. um FFXII great game but short compared to most of them but the side quests are fun and take a long time to do some of them. um damn i cant remember what the most revently released game i played is besides GoW2. oh but isnt Shadow of the Colossus a beautifully rendered game just because how big the damn world is.

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guthmund

Spiderman 3 for the 360

This game has been getting a lot of flack on the internet and to be sure, it certainly deserves....most of it. The cutscenes are....bad just doesn't really do it justice, I think. The voice acting (with the exception of J.K. Simmons) is just fucking horrible despite having most of the movie cast on the payroll. The fighting requires absolutely no skill, the in game mini-games are atrocious (damn you skydiving Spidey!) and you'll have to replay a ton of missions because a lot of the time they just leave you hanging with absolutely no guidance whatsoever. Oh, and the game manual is a joke. It's like 6 pages and most of them are general warnings about epilepsy, screen burn in and how to insert the disc properly.

However--and here's where it shines--the city is beautiful. I've been through a handful of different missions, but nothing is more enjoyable than just swinging through the city. It's over twice the size of the city in Spidey 2 and the webslinging is so much more intuitive. The models are great, the city feels...right, especially at night and even though you're constantly interrupted by a myriad of generic criminals that you have to "avert," it's worth it. If the team had put half as much into the rest of the game as they did this, the game would have been fantastic.

As it stands, it's only mediocre. 6/10

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Devoid

I recently acquired Titan Quest: Immortal Throne. It's like Diablo II, but it fiexed all the things that were wrong with it, like the town scroll shenanigans. You can have 2 classes, it's 3D, and I'm terribly hooked. Definitely recommended to anybody that likes the D2-style gear driven RPGs that has about a thousand hours to kill.

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Esoteric

Pokemon: Diamond for the Nintendo DS. This game is beyond addicting, and it's so awesome. I've put in about 35 hours so far and I know I'm nowhere near finished. People are saying they're putting in 90-100+ hours. That is amazing for a game that's only $35 and on a handheld no less. Also picked up Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow which is great too, but it hasn't been touched since I put in Pokemon.

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Made a date with Divinity, but she wouldn't let me fuck
I got touched by a hazy shaded, God help me change
Caught a rush on the floor from the life in my veins

Bacchanal

I haven't posted in here in a while, and I've played a ton of games sine then.

PS3:
Need For Speed Carbon: Fun game, but nothing too special outside of the graphics and unlockables for the cars.

Resistance Fall Of Man: I've only played this at a friend's house (though I borrowed it from him the other day) and it seems fun though not terribly difficult unless you're on hard or superhuman.

Motorstorm: Really fun racing game, but don't expect any more than that. There's no story, and once the game is complete, that's it.

Def Jam Icon: Nothing too special at all about this game. Use rappers to fight other rappers and try to guess when you'll/they'll get knocked out.

Blazing Angels: Tough game, more work than fun in my opinion.

360
Rockstar Presents Table Tennis: This game is entirely too fun in two player mode, but hard as fuck on single player (to me at least, again, I've only played it at a friend's house).

PS2
God Of War 2: I don't know what it is about this game, but I don't like it nearly as much as I liked the first one. It's still good, and fun, but nothing surprises me in this game, and the button mashing thing is... shit.

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Pragma

Halo 3 beta: Plenty of fun. I missed out on Halo 2, so it may be similar to that, but it's definitely enjoyable and I'm looking forward to them opening it up to everyone else to get more people in the game.

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CyCo PL

I just recently picked up Etrian Odyssey on DS. It's the best RPG I've played on DS so far, and I own Final Fantasy 3 and Pokemon. I just can't put the game down.

Challah

Titan Quest: Immortal Throne
Great D2-style game. Graphics are nice, story is done well, combat is exciting and the class system is superb. There are no closed servers for online play, which can be frustrating, but the developer is just starting out and couldn't make closed servers a reality. Get a small group of gamers you trust (to avoid cheating, and lay down some ground rules regarding drops) and go hunting for phat loot. I think it's the best game of its kind since D2.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
A lot of people describe this game as "Oblivion with guns." That's not a fair description - this game blows Oblivion to tiny bits without blinking. It has the best atmosphere I've ever experienced in a game, a wide range of weapons and a FRICKIN' AWESOME ballistics model that brings said weapons to life. Playing on a high difficulty level makes the game even better, as it makes every shot count and MAKES YOU FEEL LIKE YOU ARE TRULY FIGHTING FOR YOUR LIFE IN ONE OF THE MOST HOSTILE ENVIRONMENTS EVER CONCEIVED IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY.

Both are highly recommended.

guthmund

F.E.A.R. - Kind of late on the bandwagon for this one, but with the Halo 3 beta (AWESOME! by the way...) shut down and nothing new on the horizon worth a shit, I decided to grab this one and go with it.

I have to say, I'm unimpressed. The story is pretty solid, and the transition/cut scenes are decidely creepy, no doubt about it, but not enough to offset the blandness of the gameplay. Gray hallway after gray hallway with the only break in monotony being groups of generic, homogenous "clone" soliders that really aren't that bright. The bullet time function is well done, but makes the shooting aspect way too easy. That is to say, The AI is so...clueless (?) that I can shoot one using my slow motion, duck behind a wall or convenient dumpster, recharge my slow motion meter and repeat ad infinitum without garnering a scratch. I will say, however, it is awfully cool to chuck a grenade in slow motion into a group of baddies and, like I said, the game is sufficiently creepy, but with the addition of game play this one just falls flat.

6/10

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Carno

What difficulty were you playing on?

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Esoteric

Replay it on the hardest difficulty and see if it changes your mind. I know for a fact I got my ass fucking kicked up and down those gray hallways. :P The multiplayer is great if you can find a game also.

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From a head full of pressure rests the senses that I clutch
Made a date with Divinity, but she wouldn't let me fuck
I got touched by a hazy shaded, God help me change
Caught a rush on the floor from the life in my veins

guthmund

Okay. I amped up the difficulty and I'm not quite so dissappointed in it. It does get insanely difficult in places and that's nice, but I'm still kind of apathetic about it.

I'm going to give the multiplayer a go tonight, I think....

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Telluride

Yesterday I purchased Dirt for X-Box 360. It's a rally racing game that is REALLY good, in my opinion. The graphics are great. The damage to your car and the resulting effects on performace are great. The sound effects are great. In summary: it's great, in my opinion.

There are several different types of races to choose from (rally, rallycross, hill-climbs, etc.). I haven't tried all of them yet, but the ones I've tried have been really fun.

This game will probably eat up a lot of the free time I use to post here at TFP. So if you notice that I'm missing, I'll probably be sitting on the couch playing this game.

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Pogue Mahone

I got "Tomb Raider: Anniversary" on Saturday. It's actually quite fun. It's like a re-make of the first, but with stuff from "Legend". Great graphics (for the PS-2), great controls. Tomb Raider's fun again!

I've also been playing "Dead Rising" and "Gears of War" on my friend's 360. "Dead Rising"'s a gas, and it gets difficult fast. I haven't played single player for "Gears of War", but the multiplayer co-op's fun as hell. Not a fan of the online mode, though.

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Esoteric

Condemned: Criminal Origins
This game is fucking intense! Never have I been so scared, so many times until I bought this game. The melee system is great and having to constantly look around every corner and behind you is just crazy man.
Also rented Splinter Cell: Double Agent which is also great. Awesome graphics, great stealth gameplay and it also gives you choices to make to keep the trust of both of the organizations you're working for.

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From a head full of pressure rests the senses that I clutch
Made a date with Divinity, but she wouldn't let me fuck
I got touched by a hazy shaded, God help me change
Caught a rush on the floor from the life in my veins

guthmund

I loved Condemned. Didn't get too far (for whatever reason), but it the CSI stuff mixed in with that great melee system and the creepy atmosphere made for some good times.

Splinter Cell is also an excellent choice. Short, but good. The video from their new game looks promising as well.


Overlord - This game is pretty fun. Think Pikmin without all the cutesy-tootsy shit. Different minions do different things and have different attributes. You collect stuff for you evil overlord castle, including scantily clad slave girls and a mistress if you like them a bit meaner. Lackeys galore to do your bidding and whole trove of demon-like little monsters that live and die by your word. There's something oddly satisfying watching your minion pry a knife from a dead chef's hand and then leap without reservation to plunge said knife into the back of the retreating enemy all at the flick of your finger.

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