Video Game Thread

[LordKinbote]

[Death Mage]

Have you tried Mirror's Edge?
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[LordKinbote]

[Poisonium]

[LordKinbote]

[Scurra]

Lego Harry Potter

Other than Super Mario (which doesn't really count), this is the only video game "franchise" series that I now buy sight unseen upon release.
Sure, there's been pointless engine creep over the years, but the basic system - recreate a classic family movie series in Lego with silent slapstick action, seemingly endless hidden extras and the joy of completely destroying almost all of the "furniture" en route - was created almost perfectly with their first Star Wars game, and the formula has stood firm.

And it's nigh on perfect. Again. Amusing subtle rewrites of plots and scenes to enable the gags to work; amazing graphic detail on the characters who are, after all, only Lego people; a level of difficulty that actually isn't beyond me for once and little flourishes that make it all worthwhile. Sure it's a little bit too closely tied in to the films, but I imagine that was a part of the original deal. And they've split it into two - so that the next bit can come out with the last movie.

But I don't care. Now, what will TT do next? I've been holding out hopes for Lego James Bond, and someone brilliantly suggested Lego Pirates of the Caribbean. After all, they might even manage to make the plot of the third one coherent...
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_{still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon}

[Death Mage]

I'd love to see Lego Batman 2. I just finished Lego Indiana Jones 2 myself, since it was down to $20 at Best Buy. As you say, a wonderful series. Indy 2 seemed lacking though, like they streamlined the game. It took far less time to complete, but that's not altogether a bad thing, especially compared to the grind-fest that is Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga.

As for what new franchise? There's going a third Lego Star Wars (for the Clone Wars). Pirates would be awesome. TT also made a game for Narnia, and that might be amusing Legofied as well.

But where's my Lego Ghostbusters? THAT would be my #1 choice.
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[Antrax]

[Antrax]

118. Special world is very challenging, especially the comets. I'll get 119 today (yesterday I fell into a pit three times while in view of the star, so I have the level generally figured out) and 120 is a comet that'll appear after I beat 119, and judging by the character of the level, will probably just be a daredevil/speed run of several consecutive bosses, which is doable. So I'd have to say I prefer SMG 2 to 1, though I've known that since the throwback galaxy
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After years of disappointment with get rich quick schemes, I know I'm gonna get rich with this scheme. And quick!

[Antrax]

It was a speed-run. 5 bosses, 5 minutes. Nothing too fancy. Up to 123 - the regular 120 + 3 of the ones you unlock afterwards. Not sure I'll still go for 100% completion, the new stars are a bit boring after the craziness of the special world.
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After years of disappointment with get rich quick schemes, I know I'm gonna get rich with this scheme. And quick!

[Poisonium]

Indigo Prophecy (from the same company that made Heavy Rain). I'm liking the story a lot, the quick time events, not so much.

[Death Mage]

I just finished Lego Harry Potter as well. Very crash happy on the PS3, which made roaming Hogwarts for the final collectible items very painful.

Honestly, I'm a bit torn with the way the most recent games have gone. Lego Indiana Jones 2 streamlined things, but really they did so too much. The levels were largely pretty small, especially for the first three movies (there's a lot of 1 room story levels). The bonus levels showing off the create-a-stage are neat, but also pretty small (and sometimes exploitable). Which made for a game that felt a lot shorter than previous entries.

Lego Harry Potter seemed to go the opposite way. You'll have to go back over the story levels in free play to collect everything again. And there's a TON of stuff to collect hidden around Hogwarts, the big hub of this game. Almost too much to collect, really, as the game detracts to "finding the last few obscure hiding places", and a lot of redundancies. The "free play" versions of the Indy 2 levels were different, same stages, different goals. Here, it's the exact same level, only with new characters/abilities unlocked so you can get the stuff you could only look at the first time.

And they all still suffer from the multiplier madness, only now the "expensive" stuff to buy isn't. So it becomes even MORE pointless to run around with huge multipliers for studs. (Even worse, Indy 2 changed the multipliers to add some extra, so you can get even more in it.) Risk vs Reward, people. The reward is pointless if you can't use it.
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[Scurra]

Currently still working my way through Hogwarts to find the missing stuff. But it doesn't feel completely tedious.
Only one level felt totally annoying (the spiders one); even I managed to complete all of the others and find everything in them. (Well, except for a truly horrible freeze on one level - PC version - which even the WB support guys failed to solve except via a workaround.)

I agree that they didn't quite figure out how to make the Freeplay work properly - for instance, finding a way to use Animagi as well as just Dark Mark characters that wasn't just the digging/pipe ability which other characters had.

I have no idea how they can do a part II without it feeling horribly repetitive though. Hogwarts has been captured so well this time around that there isn't really room to go anywhere. I really loved the way the parts slowly opened up during the Story Mode so it never felt overwhelming. And there are still some doors that I don't seem to be able to get through... But I shall still be getting it, so that part of the marketing plan worked.
_________________
_{still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon}

[Antrax]

174 stars, but I'm taking a short break to play Red Steel 2 (Wii). I've wanted a motion plus enabled swordfighting game for a while, and this one got good reviews. Good graphics in Wii terms, fluid battles and very little brain activity. I like.
However, the darned thing forces you to swing wide and hard if you want to break guards or perform some moves, so I rested a bit with the Monkey Island 2 remake. Better than the first remake, though the audio commentary was just terrible. For most part it's Ron Gilbert and Dave Wossname telling the world how cool they are and how great Lucasarts is. And if it's not made up and they really don't remember their own game to the degree portrayed in the commentary, then it's just sad, because I as a gamer who has played a lot more adventure games than these two have designed, still remember the entire game by heart.
_________________
After years of disappointment with get rich quick schemes, I know I'm gonna get rich with this scheme. And quick!

[LordKinbote]

Too many games! Summer is a blessing and a curse.

96% through Assassin's Creed II. Much better than the first one. Lots more variety. The controls are still wonky...parkour gaming should feel effortless. I should not be jumping to the right when I want to jump forward.

DJ Hero: Fun stuff. Since the game was a commercial failure, the price is now right ($50 used. That's $70 less than it was a year ago).

Deathspank: The return of Ron Gilbert! Funny game, but the fetch quests get a bit repetitive. I'm not that far in yet, so maybe that will change. I can't help but see the adventure game it *could* have been if the hack-and-slash was downplayed just a tiny bit.

Sam & Max Episode 4: Beyond the Alley of the Dolls: Awesome as always. I wholeheartedly recommend this series, even though the puzzles are on the easy side.

I might buy Limbo tonight, because I hear it's wonderful.

Oh, and Bayonetta, which I haven't played a single second of because of all the other stuff I've been playing.

[Antrax]

You enjoy season 3 of Sam and Max? I thought (think) it was (is) for the most part atrocious. I haven't played Ep 4 yet, but so far:
- Max' expression seriously screws up the atmosphere. It's a lot less psychotic when he says violent stuff while frowning with those huge eyebrows, it was much funnier when he had that bland expression.
- The humor is almost nonexistent. From a game where you had dozens of clickable spots, we're down to only useful interactive stuff, with very few comments about them. Moreover, for some reason they decided the repetition (start at the office, souvenirs from last cases, same cast of characters) is bad, even though that's the essence of comedy. I thought it very clever the way to same items elicited different responses every episode, and I LIKED the structure.
- The new control scheme is... not as good. But this is a necessary evil for other platforms, I guess.
- The puzzles are just bad, though uniquely so.
Episode one was all future vision this, future vision that, and the C.O.P.S new mechanism was so pointless. Plus, the confusing captions on actions, especially in the last puzzle, were just bad design.
Episode two is good for most part, except for the parts where they act irrationally (train ride section comes to mind), and the fact that you could die. How cheesy is the tired "wait, that's not how it goes" instead of just designing the game in a way that actually prevents you from dying?
Episode three introduced the worst, most out of character sequence I've seen in a game series in a long time. It's an interesting idea for a puzzle, but I couldn't get over by how out of place it all was. The last segment also felt rushed and underused - I think that could have been an entire episode in its own.

So yeah. I really loved the first two seasons, but season 3 is just an attempt to break out of a typecast I was enjoying immensely. There's nothing wrong with being repetitive if you're repeating something good, and ruining the franchise to prove you can be creative is just childish, IMO.
_________________
After years of disappointment with get rich quick schemes, I know I'm gonna get rich with this scheme. And quick!

[LordKinbote]

[Death Mage]

I'm in a bit of a lull right now. I finished Brutal legend a few days ago. It's interesting, definitely a Schafer game. It's good, story was very interesting, but there are points where it's a little too surreal, and abstract. There's a lot to do in the game, but the game really only tells you how to do half of 'em. For example: I spent the game ignoring serpent statues and, I guess "legends", becuase I thought you needed a special solo to open them. I also heard 3rd hand of players who didn't know about collecting the tabs, and thus didn't know they could summon their vehicle and had to walk everywhere. I also didn't even find the motor forges until about a third of the way through the game. Basically, it's VERY easy to miss some very basic stuff if you don't remember some abstract detail from the beginning of the game.

The sudden RTS elements came as a bit of a surprise too. A lot of people apparently didn't like that. Myself included, really. It's hardly that complex, but it was an unexpected surprise, and I am not a real fan of RTS games. (My play style is generally incompatible with them. I like to take my time and max out tech trees, RTS games really need more speed than that.)

I still think it's a worthy game to play. There's a lot of really good stuff in it. There's just too many unexpected or unexplained gameplay elements in it.

So now, I've finished those games. A pinched nerve in my back effecting my arm means I can't do any PC gaming right now (it's on my dominant/mouse arm), which is a shame becuase I've got Bioshock 2 waiting for me, as well as Oblivion w/ all the DLC. But, in order to rest my arm, I need to stick with consoles for a while. And.. there's not a lot of console games I want to play at the moment. :\ I've got some good ones I need to finish, just no desire to play those genres right now. I hate it when this happens.
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[Antrax]

I know the repetition was heavily criticised, as were the graphics. l just haven't met anyone who agreed with it, until now. Sam and Max' roots are in comics (which is very lighthearted) and in the original game (likewise). I don't understand who got the bright idea that it needs to be grittier. I also don't understand why move to a single game in five parts instead of five "episodes" - like I said, I thought the formula was perfect the way it was.

And to say the noir segment was not out of character, it was just "a new side of the character" is just mincing words. You could turn Max to a seven foot tall spotted green giraffe that spews mathematical riddles, and call that "a new side of the character". Not every potential side is IN-character just because you call it that.

I agree that they can try out new stuff, I just think it's a shame. On a serious note, I won't be pre-ordering season 4 until after I see what they've made of it, because I find season 3 to be out of tune with my perception of what a Sam and Max game should be, and as a result considerably less enjoyable. So, I sincerely hope that I'm a minority, because otherwise they might find out their success was the result of them doing the games people like me want, and not whatever the artistic types that think up creative ways to mangle characters like.
_________________
After years of disappointment with get rich quick schemes, I know I'm gonna get rich with this scheme. And quick!

[LordKinbote]

[Antrax]

Finished it now. I'm always amazed how much I disagree with the adventure gamers reviews for this season. I thought it was pretty enjoyable despite being rushed (most glitched episode I've seen so far. Nothing earth-shattering, just weird stuff like Max turning invisible. I was stuck in a wall once but switching to Max and back moved me out of it). What was weird was that many of the good jokes were hidden - I especially liked Sam's Shakespearean ultimate fate. I don't get why hide your best material in optionally-discovered actions.
So, while I still strongly disagree with the direction they took the series in (I much preferred Stinky's diner with dozens of irrelevant hot spots) and while the psychic powers are still used in straightforward ways for most part (the new one was especially boring), this was a well-written episode (I liked the repeated Samulcra jokes. I guess my sense of humor is just more infantile) and it advanced the plot nicely.
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After years of disappointment with get rich quick schemes, I know I'm gonna get rich with this scheme. And quick!

[Samadhi]

Enjoyable trailer for DC Universe Online. I don't know much more about it yet.
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And he lived happily ever after. Except for the dieing at the end and the heartbreak in between.

[RSA*]

I got SMG2 a couple of days ago. Hadn't had much time to play but it seems fun. I'm at 8 stars. I was going to play more yesterday, but the purple star guy was like "Stop playing video games fatty."

[Antrax]

Yeah, he's a bit of a douche. I especially hate how after you get a really difficult star, he comments about how much he appreciates your effort, as though he would've done it better.
_________________
After years of disappointment with get rich quick schemes, I know I'm gonna get rich with this scheme. And quick!

[Antrax]

Finished the third season of Sam & Max. I stand behind everything I said about it previously. The writing was much better for 305 than it was for previous episodes of this season - the self referential humor really worked for me. However, the conclusion of the plot arch was just too much. It was definitely epic, but it was just so incredibly convoluted and tried so hard to be mature. I don't want mature, I want comedy. It's the same problem as the one I've had with their take on Monkey Island. I don't want innovation. I don't want character development. I just want more of the good stuff. Seinfeld ran for ten seasons without the characters changing one bit. Why is it not good enough for an adventure game series?
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After years of disappointment with get rich quick schemes, I know I'm gonna get rich with this scheme. And quick!

[Sentran]

I'm a video game addict. My current primary drug of choice is Starcraft II (I've already finished the campaign, and I'm going through again to try to unlock all achievements). I play a bit of multiplayer, even though I'm not very good at it.

For MMORPG my choice is FFXI. I've been playing on and off for around 8 years now. My wife and I play together, but we take frequent long breaks when life intereferes with our play time.

I play Cafe World, Farmville, and Frontierville on Facebook, all daily. I was playing Evony for a while, but I got discouraged when every time a city started to build up steam, someone would come in and take it over.

I have XBox 360, Wii, PS2, DS, and 2 PCs. I also have an emulator and almost every title for original Nintendo and Super Nintendo. I've played more games than I can count. Anyone aware of a 12-step program? Not that I NEED one, just curious.
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Sentran
"Speaking of double negatives, I haven't read greylab yet today." - Lifeinmomland

[CzarJ]

I've been replaying all the games on Super Mario All-Stars for SNES. I'm currently on World 8 of Lost Levels, God help me.

[Death Mage]

Fallout: New Vegas. I'm enjoying it so much more than 3 (and I really liked 3). Writing's hit or miss at points though. Some of it, Vault 11, Sunset Sarsaparilla that had some deliciously dark humor and great humor. Some of it, Vault 22 had potential, but just ended up a bit flat to me.

As for gameplay, it's obviously very similiar to Fallout 3, same engine and what-not, but far more open-ended (which is pretty impressive). There are factions to pick sides from, far, far more quests, more little side ventures to waste time with. All in all, the end of the world has never been more fun.
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[raekuul]

I've been playing a lot of Commander Keen lately. I've even started to try my hand at modding the levels for Marooned on Mars.

In other news, I play Trickster Online for my MMO.

[Poisonium]

Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword

I've found this out: I'm terrible at attacking later than renaissance. And medieval is difficult. So the only viable victory for me is either diplomatic or space race (time doesn't count). I guess I need a lot of practice.
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I tried apt-get install lifebut it only returned E: Couldn't find package life

[Dread Pirate Westley]

Cannons and, later, artillery. Lots of them and expect to lose most. It helps if you can save up some CR3 macemen since gunpowder units can't go up that line. And if it gets as far as getting air power involved, send in your fighters first to take out/soften up theirs before your bombers get there.

[wordcross]

I picked up Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock band box the other day, but I'm lending my system to work for a promotion where I get to play on company time. So I haven't had a chance to really play through much of it. So far, though, what I have seen is pretty nice. It's mostly the same gameplay elements as the last few GH titles, with some new patterns thrown in that have given me a hard time but aren't impossible. Which is ideally what should happen, so yay

The new drum kit looks cool and has some much needed improvements, although it's somehow both more and less toy-ish than the old style. The guitar is just a new body-style, nothing new or different about the interface.
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Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?

[WatersEdge]

I just started to play “Call of Duty: Black Ops”.

All I could say is that it is an upgraded version of Modern Warfare 2 but it’s really awesome.
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I replaced my floor tiles with tiles --links removed, mv

[AcidFast]

I picked up Oblivion: Game of the Year Edition - comes with Knights of the Nine and The Shivering Isles. I haven't played either expansion, but this game is just so awesome, that I had to get into it again. It's kind of old. too, but still kicks ass.

I just don't understand how to access the expansions - does anyone know? I don't know if I'm willing to go through the WHOLE game again, last time it was very time-consuming (I think I logged more than 200 hours playing first time around...I was head of almost every guild (second in command of Fighter's guild)
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When I get sad, I stop being sad and be awesome instead

True story

[groza528]

Kind of old? I'm still playing (well, replaying) Morrowind!
To start KOTN you need to go to Anvil and talk to the prophet. There might be a minimum level required for this; I'm not sure. Be warned that KOTN does kind of put a damper on your role-playing options as you need to play a pretty virtuous (read: squeaky-clean) character to access many of the quests and items.
Shivering Isles is great. The world feels much more alien, similar to how Morrowind was. You should get an automatic rumor about a "Door in Niben Bay" within about one game-day or so, but if you just head down to Niben Bay there will be a new island there with a stranger portal on it.

[AcidFast]

Scurra, PoP: SoT is def one of my favorites, as well
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When I get sad, I stop being sad and be awesome instead

True story

[groza528]

[AcidFast]

I just picked up Safecracker (it won EGM Puzzle Game of the Year) - its pretty awesome so far - I am not sure how long its going to be, but I hope its very long.

The puzzles are difficult enough to keep my interest, yet not hard enough to be really frustrating, so they're about perfect. They also vary a bit in difficulty, which is kind of nice, too.
_________________
When I get sad, I stop being sad and be awesome instead

True story

[Antrax]

I really liked Safecracker. It was a bit on the easy side, but that's what usually happens with puzzle games these days. It's not long though - I think it has 20-something safes all in all.
_________________
After years of disappointment with get rich quick schemes, I know I'm gonna get rich with this scheme. And quick!

[Poisonium]

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow

I love stealth games, way too much for my own good. The story is acceptable, and better than the other games in the series that I've played. Fabulous mission on a train early on in the game, probably the best single stealth level I've ever played.
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I tried apt-get install lifebut it only returned E: Couldn't find package life