Well, it's definitely Autumn. How do I know? Is it the longer nights, the colder days, the golden leaves? Hell no; I know because all the good games are coming out at the same time. Why they can't spread these releases out over the rest of the year I'll never understand; there is so often a dearth of quality titles to pass the weeks in the summer doldrums...
It's been a month since the last time this thread was instantiated; time to do it all over again. You've all been busy playing the games; now get busy telling us what you played. After two years of doing this, I'm sure you guys know the how and why, so let's jump right into it.
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* Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords (replay) With the release of the "Restored Content" mod by some dedicated fans "The Sith Lords", originally rushed out the door by an overzealous publisher, is at long last complete. Unfortunately, all this added material doesn't make for any better a game.
Cryptic, overly wordy and poorly paced, "The Sith Lords" is perhaps the least interesting Star Wars games I've played. It's dull! The badly voice-acted cut -cenes go on too long and the great revelations of the late game are so telegraphed beforehand that there's no surprise. The gameplay is humdrum and -despite some heroic attempts at character customization- the way the plot railroads you down a particular path means there is no real difference if you chose to be good or evil. Its music is pompous and self-important and never fit any of the scenes; even visually the game fails to stand out. Despite its age, the original Knights of the Old Republic had some interesting set-pieces but The Sith Lord's reliance on bare, poorly textured rooms offered no sense of wonder or style.
Apologists for the game have pointed accusatory fingers at LucasArts for throwing this title out early for Christmas, but I can hardly blame them; even a whole other year of polish would not have made this an enjoyable game. Its just no fun.
* Batman Arkham Asylum (new) Batman has had a spotted past as a video-game franchise; a few have achieved those the heights of mediocrity, and most have outright stunk. Arkham Asylum, though, may be Batman's first really good incarnation as a video game.
But despite rave reviews from certain quarters, I didn't find this game without fault. It's competent, stylish and unabashedly true to the source materiel and achieves that delicate balance of combat and platforming that so few similar games match. But the game does have a few flaws. For one, its boss battles are a chore, largely because they often artificially increase the difficulty by locking down the camera at a certain angle (all of a sudden, your reflexive grasp of the controls which served you so well in the other 99% of the game have to be tossed aside to learn a new control scheme). Its reliance on save-points (or, more to the point, the disturbing absence of a quick-save) also frustrated me unnecessarily at points. But most importantly, there is little new to this game that you haven't seen before in other titles; its all very well done, but Batman doesn't break new ground.
But on the whole, these are all minor complaints; Batman Arkham Asylum is a solid title and I had a lot of fun with it. The World's Greatest Detective might not have the World's Greatest Game, but I expect I'll revisit it again and again over the years.
* Wanted Weapons of Fate (replay) A mediocre game based on an equally mediocre movie, Wanted doesn't need to do much to surpass expectations because nobody expected it to be any good. But Wanted manages to surprise because it is not, contrary to all predictions, a terrible game. Okay, it's not really a good game either, but it's not bad.
Oh, okay, I could make a list of things this game did wrong: it's a very short game, has the barest minimum of weapons and enemies, it uses save-points, it has an obnoxious main character, sluggish controls and an underdeveloped plot. But its combat is stylish and fast moving and that alone elevates it above most "movie games". It may not hold up in the long run -in fact, its two-hour gameplay is probably a benefit, since the lack of variety would make the game wear out its welcome if it lasted any longer than that- but for a quick adrenalin rush it was a welcome fix.
* Resident Evil 5 (new) I can't get excited over Resident Evil 5 coming to the PC because I never was a big fan of the series to begin with. With its haphazard controls, player-unfriendly gameplay and contrived storylines, I just never understood why the series was so popular. And while RE5 is hardly going to convert me, I will go so far as to acknowledge it is the best of the series.
Gone, thankfully, are those horrible camera angles; you at last have full freedom of movement (Resident Evil 4 boasted this feature as well, but the controls of the PC port were otherwise so awful that they just as well might have left them in). That alone makes this game superior to all the others. Sadly, the contrived plot, the limited inventory, the goofy enemies with oddly-placed vulnerabilities - those are all still there. But at least I'm assured that in this game I'll always be able to SEE my enemy rather than worry that I'll wander into one of the many camera angles that leaves me entirely vulnerable...
Complaints have already been made about your AI-controlled comrade-in-arms or that this is another console port; I found neither of these issues so troublesome as the ridiculous conventions of the genre. RE5 makes games like Serious Sam look deep in comparison. Still, it did have decent production values and popping zombies in the head never gets tiresome. It just would have been a better game if it wasn't so much like... well, like Resident Evil.
* Quake IV (replay) It's Quake 4; does anything really need to be said about this game? Its a competent but unexceptional shooter made by iD and Raven. The most recent of the series that set the standard for the genre, the most unusual thing about this game is how conventional it seems. Quake 4 doesn't take any chances in its gameplay or setting.
In fact, I was surprised at how old Quake IV felt. Not because of its graphics engine; that still holds up thanks to the impressive lighting and despite its low-res texturing. Nor is the gameplay at fault; it's traditional run-n-gun but that's not old, that's classic. It's the game's design; I mean, the silent space-marine fighting mobs of aliens in industrial grunge? How late '90s! But perhaps its fitting that the series that started that style should also be its last hurrah.
Still, I had fun with Quake IV, even if it is becoming exceptionally dated. It may not have been particularly fulfilling, but it was a comfortable return to normality, or at least as normal as things get when you are up there amongst the stars shooting space-zombies.
* Left 4 Dead (replay) In honor of Halloween, I dusted off my Left4Dead CD once again. I hadn't a chance to play the recently released "Crash Course" campaign yet, so that was a nice bonus. It was a delight to feel that nervous tension again as I stalked uncertainly through new terrain, not knowing what was waiting for me around the corner. Left4Dead has excellent maps but far too few of them and while the new campaign helps somewhat, the game is still too short (ten more levels, Valve, and we'll call it even).
I avoid the online aspect of the game this time as my experience with online games is that a year after a game's release and the community has devolved into two camps: the hard-core and the griefers. I had no desire to play with either of them (the best time to play is right after release, when everybody is new to the game and there's a sense of camaraderie as everybody explores the features together but that time is long past). But the single-player was enough for me, even if it was too quickly over and I had to move on to something else.
* Trine (new) For a complete change of pace, I installed Trine. A platform/puzzler in the mold of the Lost Vikings, Trine's fairy-tale style is immediately appealing, although the saccharine-sweet narration was quickly skipped so I could get right into the gameplay.
Its physics-based puzzles were easy to grasp but difficult to master... no, strike that. The game wasn't that difficult at all, especially once you start unlocking the more powerful abilities. The only real challenge was the time-based climax. Aside from that, most puzzles were easily solved after a few moments of observation. The combat was less enthralling; it often felt like filler material to pad out the game. Nonetheless, I did appreciate the ability to get through most of the puzzles in different ways, depending on what character I was using.
The game is relatively short; you can actually play through it entirely in a single sitting. Unfortunately, after the joy of discovering all the neat things I could do, the game falls into a rut and the latter half of the experience was no-where near as fulfilling as the first. And aside from the less-than-enticing option of going through a second time to find the few hidden secrets that eluded me on my initial run-through, there was little replayability. Trine was fun; there just wasn't enough to it.
* Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare (replay)
Dear Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare,
I guess it was inevitable that -what with all the hype about the imminent release of your sequel - that you and I would get back together. I just wanted to see if we could re-ignite a bit of that old flame; can you think of a better way to prepare for the arrival of one the most anticipated games of the year?
Except, well, that old flame never really did burn that hot for us, did it? We had some fun times together in the past, but we never really connected and this time it wasn't much different. Oh sure, you have some awesome production values; there's some real flash wrapped up in you that only ten million dollars of
> Well, it's definitely Autumn. How do I know? Is it the longer nights, > the colder days, the golden leaves? Hell no; I know because all the > good games are coming out at the same time. Why they can't spread > these releases out over the rest of the year I'll never understand; > there is so often a dearth of quality titles to pass the weeks in the > summer doldrums...
> It's been a month since the last time this thread was instantiated; > time to do it all over again. You've all been busy playing the games; > now get busy telling us what you played. After two years of doing > this, I'm sure you guys know the how and why, so let's jump right into > it.
> ------
> * Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords (replay)
> * Batman Arkham Asylum (new)
> * Wanted Weapons of Fate (replay) > * Resident Evil 5 (new) > * Quake IV (replay)
I thought this stank the place out. Boring, linear, unoriginal tripe.
> * Left 4 Dead (replay)
I disagree with your comments about the online community here - they do hold true for the likes of Counter Strike, but I find L4D players generally pretty good. Perhaps playing on Expert can bring out the worst in some, but stick to Advanced or lower and I find everyone very pleasant.
> * Trine (new) > * Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare (replay)
> --------
> What have you been playing... IN OCTOBER 2009?
Left4Dead
Left4Dead2 demo As discussed elsewhere and ad infinitum on the Steam forums, at best the jury is out on this one...
Battlestations Midway (I think - this could have been last month). Either way, it's too difficult for me so I've given up.
BF2 - to sample the new DLC provided YEARS after release (I'm looking at you, Valve)
Various cheap games via Steam, none particularly good.
A few demos, such as NFS:Shift, Zombie Bowlorama (ok, but not worth buying)
Other than that, I've tended to set Stumbleupon to only serve online games and found many a gem in there. I especially enjoy physics based games and many are higher quality than the £7.99 fayre found on Steam. I would encourage all to have a go via StumbleUpon...
Not sure what the point of these laundry lists is, so I'm just going to mention the few games briefly I played by far the most:
* AoC - finally out of Tortage. This mmo just keeps grabbing me even though I can't put a clear finger on why * Crysis - up to ice mountain level - best fps in a long time * Wolfenstein - yet another WWII occult/supernatural shooter; might be worth persevering with, but not sure * Torchlight - ok for a diversion & can be played on the laptop which is a bonus * Stalker Complete 2009 - started the game again for this. Very tough TC/mod & gives the game a whole new lease on life
Seriously considering subbing to Fallen Earth this month. It looks like it might just be everything like Fallout that Flopout 3 & Borderlands ain't & never will be. ;)
On Sun, 01 Nov 2009 22:22:58 +1100, Nostromo <nos...@forme.org> wrote: >Seriously considering subbing to Fallen Earth this month. It looks like it >might just be everything like Fallout that Flopout 3 & Borderlands ain't & >never will be. ;)
It'll be one of those games you will either really like pretty quickly or dislike in the same short time span.
I spent a lot of time in the various beta stages in the hopes that it would grow to be the game I was looking for. It's a laudable effort from an Indie company but it has some major flaws in its application.
The combat animations are notably poor and the act of combat itself feels stilted and highly unsatisfactory. The behaviour (or lack of it) of the AI in combat situations is dreadful. The NPC that you shoot will run straight at you which is bad enough, but most often, those around it will just stand there and let their friend get slaughtered.
If you want a game for the setting, exploration, crafting, and sense of community, then Fallen Earth is for you.
If you want some, or even all of those things, plus a satisfying combat experience as well, then I would not recommend this game to anybody looking for that type of package.
If you do take the plunge then I would strongly suggest making a melee character and concentrate on building up crafting and trade skills. The melee combat is ugly as sin, but it's a lot more effective than ranged combat plus you don't have to craft mountains of ammo all of the time.
Thief3: Finished The Shalesbridge Cradle level on Halloween, scary! and am about the break into the Museum to recover the remaining Artifacts. I think this is the farthest I've gotten in this game since buying it, what, 6 years ago? and I'm enjoying it thoroughly: great stuff. It's running fine under Windows7, though you need minor tweaks like changing the cpu affinity with a shortcut mod (C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /C start /affinity 1 E:\Games\Thief3\System\t3.exe) and making sure Vsync is enabled.
Kingpin: I noticed a retrospective article on this at rockpapershotgun, and bought it on impulse from GoG for $5. Very brutal, hard action, with no apologies. It's good when you're in the proper hyper-aggressive mood. Runs fine under Win7.
L4D2 demo: there's a certain amount of Serious Sam Sequel Syndrome in the demo, with some brighter colors and less of the grittiness of L4D, and I'm having some slow mouse response issues under Windows7 that need settings attention, but I found a second run through the demo with some friends who were good about calling out warnings of spitters & chargers very enjoyable, and I'm looking forward to the full game. Clearly Valve wants to keep players guessing and moving around more with the use of the two new Specials to break up camping strategies.
On order: I decided to skip Borderlands for now, and instead bought Stalker: Clear Skies & Rainbow6: Las Vegas for $5 apiece from Gogamer. I've never played a R6 game, and want to be caught up for the newest Stalker game when that's released next year. Yay!
On 1 Nov, 01:35, Spalls Hurgenson <spalls_hurgen...@verizon.net> wrote:
>> what have you been playing in october 2009?
Using DOSBox, I have been playing two SSI RPGs called "Champions of Krynn" and then its sequel "Death knights of Krynn". I finished the first game, and I am half way through the second. They were released in '90 and '91 respectively, and are old school TSR dungeons and dragons games, based on the advanced 2nd edition rules. I'm not competant enough to provide any kind of summary or review of these games, except to say that I think they're good.
>On Sun, 01 Nov 2009 22:22:58 +1100, Nostromo <nos...@forme.org> wrote:
>>Seriously considering subbing to Fallen Earth this month. It looks like it >>might just be everything like Fallout that Flopout 3 & Borderlands ain't & >>never will be. ;)
>It'll be one of those games you will either really like pretty quickly >or dislike in the same short time span.
>I spent a lot of time in the various beta stages in the hopes that it >would grow to be the game I was looking for. It's a laudable effort >from an Indie company but it has some major flaws in its application.
>The combat animations are notably poor and the act of combat itself >feels stilted and highly unsatisfactory. The behaviour (or lack of it) >of the AI in combat situations is dreadful. The NPC that you shoot >will run straight at you which is bad enough, but most often, those >around it will just stand there and let their friend get slaughtered.
>If you want a game for the setting, exploration, crafting, and sense >of community, then Fallen Earth is for you.
That's what pretty much attracted me to the game to being with.
>If you want some, or even all of those things, plus a satisfying >combat experience as well, then I would not recommend this game to >anybody looking for that type of package.
Combat AI & animation is something that can be patched/tweaked, the other stuff is usually a lot harder to fix once fuxed. ;)
>If you do take the plunge then I would strongly suggest making a melee >character and concentrate on building up crafting and trade skills. >The melee combat is ugly as sin, but it's a lot more effective than >ranged combat plus you don't have to craft mountains of ammo all of >the time.
The fact that it's an indy effort & an above average mmo from all accounts is almost a no brainer for me. I do prefer ranged/pet classes, though I might make a hybrid & see how I go. Given there are no classes from what I read, it's ok to experiment with skills initially to try stuff, as I'm not a min-maxer typically, unless a game forces you into it. Cheers Rob! ;)
>Using DOSBox, I have been playing two SSI RPGs called "Champions of >Krynn" and then its sequel "Death knights of Krynn". I finished the >first game, and I am half way through the second. They were released >in '90 and '91 respectively, and are old school TSR dungeons and >dragons games, based on the advanced 2nd edition rules. I'm not >competant enough to provide any kind of summary or review of these >games, except to say that I think they're good.
Dude, you deserve a minor medal just for finishing a 20yr old DOS crpg in this day & age of graphics whoredom!
Spalls Hurgenson <spalls_hurgen...@verizon.net> writes: > Well, it's definitely Autumn. How do I know? Is it the longer nights, > the colder days, the golden leaves? Hell no; I know because all the > good games are coming out at the same time.
Uh, you are saying that but you have only three new games and five replays on your list? And Trine isn't exactly new...
> What have you been playing... IN OCTOBER 2009?
Still not getting much gaming done. I suppose summer is really over now that the F1 season is done... Anyway, my gaming in October was just a little Saints Row 2 and GTA4 on the PC. Haven't really gotten into SR2. While I'm no graphics whore, the engine is just so dated and performance is so badd... I may let it sit until I upgrade. I've been wanting to see GTA4 with the hires textures too, so it's getting to be that time.
Some more GTA4 on the Xbox these last few days, in the form of the second DLC. Finished in three days, game says 65% done and 12 hours game time. Kinda disappointed on the length, but other than that it was solid Rockstar entertainment. New side missions are actually new. I feel a little surprised by this... In general, "The Ballad of Gay Tony" has a lighter touch than the main game and previous DLC, they brought back a lot of the fun stuff from GTA:SA. Even some new stuff.
I finished the game and went back to a save game just before the ending mission. Found a support character (mutant) to team up with. Did some more exploring but I think I was too far in the game to find a different game ending end mission. After a while I realized that my teammate was invulnerable and could not be killed.
Made the game too easy.
ARMA 2 Demo
I really like this type of open world fps that lets you plan your own strategy to complete a mission. Tried some tweaks to get the game to run faster with some playable frame rate on my system with triple screens before I try the full game. It was OK except for in the trees and some heavy battles the frame rate was in the low 20's. L
Maybe the new OFPDR can replace it?
Operation Flashpoint (2) Dragon Rising
I was a big fan of OFP1. I don't trust Codemasters to make a proper sequel that is not too arcade-ish. I saw the trailers and it actually looked promising.
The average frame rate is not really that much better than ARMA2 on my setup, except the minimum frame rate does not dip as low. Tried changing the graphics settings (there is not a lot to change) and it did not change much.
This game has the same overdone HDR/Bloom effects as DIRT. The day sky is always an overly bright yellow glow and the objects like player uniforms glow too bright also. I don't know why they make it look like this.
The tracers at daytime look seem a bit bright. In a close heavy battle it's like a Star Wars game.
DIRT has files with graphic settings that could be edited with Notepad to reduce the HDR and bloom. It also would help to increase frame rate when HDR disabled. OFPDR has all these files hidden and locked. Maybe someone can make a hack to change it.
There is no lean movement for looking around corners.
The quick command menu is different. It uses the movement keys to select so you can't move when using it and the game play does not pause as in F3 with the Pip Boy or Vats. It maybe would be better if the command menu key was just momentary and did not require a second press to turn it off.
I hit the key be accident and then realize too late that is why I am not moving.
I have not finished the game yet, but so far the game play is fun. You can take hits more than OFP1 and it's easier to hit targets after running or standing so the action is faster. No jump function (that's OK), but you can step over low objects and walls. The AI does try to flank and use cover. It is hard to get them to do what you want some times. You can't order them to stay crouched or prone.
The voice acting and sounds are OK.
OK, however there are some things that really bug me about this game.
No game save option. It only keeps a single save for the mission and saves the next check point (not waypoints) and you never know where that is. If you made a bad strategy decision or failed to complete a secondary task you might have to restart the whole mission because the last auto-save was after you made the mistake.
Re-spawning enemy disappearing dead bodies (usable weapons and ammo). I took out the enemy at a roadblock and then at the objective area to rescue a crew. Then an APC showed up. I need an AT launcher. Went back to the roadblock to take the AT launcher from the dead enemy but the dead bodies were all gone! Had to run back to the last weapon crates that had an AT launcher. Go back to the objective area and the enemy at the roadblock had re-spawned!
Take them out and get back to the objective area, but the enemy there had re-spawned also and I got killed.
Do you want to load the last checkpoint? Uh where is that going to put me? OK, load last checkpoint. I am back at the objective area without an AT launcher and here comes the APC again!! Time run out, crew killed, mission failed.
Do you want to reload the last checkpoint? No! Restart the whole mission!
OK it's an open world type game with a fairly large map area.
But nearly every mission has you running to the next checkpoint before time runs or the mission is failed. No time to plan your own strategy, sniper the enemy or sneak around to the back for an attack. You have to follow the waypoints or you might miss a checkpoint game save. And if you do travel too far from the waypoints, you get a warning that you are out of bounds and then mission is failed.
Yes it's an open world game but your freedom is limited. You have to follow the mission script and path, not like on rails as with COD or HL, but not free as like ARMA and OFP1.
Maybe user made missions will let you play the whole island,
no re-spawning and not time limits, but I am getting frustrated with the official game missions.
These issues are not much different than some other fps non-open world games, but I don't think it is a sequel to OFP1 and should be called something different.
I guess I will finish the game but I think I would rather play ARMA2.
On Sun, 1 Nov 2009 22:48:42 -0800, "Lou" <Nospam...@nospam.net> wrote:
[snip]
>But nearly every mission has you running to the next >checkpoint before time runs or the mission is failed. >No time to plan your own strategy, sniper the enemy or >sneak around to the back for an attack. You have to >follow the waypoints or you might miss a checkpoint >game save. And if you do travel too far from the >waypoints, you get a warning that you are out of bounds >and then mission is failed.
For all its warts, the thing I love about ARMA2 is that you have some time to breath and explore the world.
I was interested in the new Operation Flashpoint, but the comments you've made kill it for me. Should have known with them pushing it so much on the consoles that it was going to be some COD type crap.
>On Sun, 1 Nov 2009 22:48:42 -0800, "Lou" <Nospam...@nospam.net> wrote:
>[snip]
>>But nearly every mission has you running to the next >>checkpoint before time runs or the mission is failed. >>No time to plan your own strategy, sniper the enemy or >>sneak around to the back for an attack. You have to >>follow the waypoints or you might miss a checkpoint >>game save. And if you do travel too far from the >>waypoints, you get a warning that you are out of bounds >>and then mission is failed.
>For all its warts, the thing I love about ARMA2 is that you have some >time to breath and explore the world.
>I was interested in the new Operation Flashpoint, but the comments >you've made kill it for me. Should have known with them pushing it so >much on the consoles that it was going to be some COD type crap.
Ditto. I've lost all respect for Codemasters since CMR1/2 & OPF1, not to even mention their DRM/copy protection crap.
Spalls Hurgenson wrote: > And that was how I spent my October. So I'll just end -as I always do- > with my regular question:
> What have you been playing... IN OCTOBER 2009?
GRID - Great game to just try for 10-15 minute sessions.
Burnout Paradise - Finally got a good deal at Frys Electronics ($10), and used the DVD key to unlock the demo (which was the complete game in the first place). The game doesn't offer a proper way to delete a profile and start fresh. I had to delete the game data in user/appdata directory to start from the beginning. It's even more of an arcade title compared to GRID, but again a great game to try for 10-15 minute sessions and make some progress.
NFS: Shift Demo - A very different game compared to GRID, because of different driving mechanics. The in-car view is awesome. I'll get it once it goes on sale.
Assassin's Creed - This has to be one of the most boring games I have ever played. The fact that technically it's so good, makes its failures even more disappointing. There's hardly anything to do in this game, except looking at waypoint markers in minimap and pressing few buttons. There are no gameplay tactics, no variety and no set pieces. Basically it's a collection of mini-games. I don't know if I'll be able to finish it. Right now, I am about 30% through. The performance is great on my HD4850 and Core i7 920@ 3.5GHz machine.
Heart of China (DOSBox) - I am almost finished with this game. Still has a lot of charm. It's though shocking to see how short some of these games used to be. I think, a walkthrough of this game would be smaller than this post of mine.
Final Fantasy X (Emulated on 80GB PS3) - I am at this game for three years now. After a few months break, made some progress and went from 27 hours in to almost 31. I might be more than halfway through. By the way, the PS2 emulator on PC (PCSX2) now plays these games (at least on my Core i7 CPU) without any problems.
Disney Pixar's Cars - My two year old son loves this game. I probably played it more than any other game on the list. Thankfully, he likes NFS:Shift, GRID and Burnout as well, so I do get some break.
Spalls Hurgenson wrote: > What have you been playing... IN OCTOBER 2009?
(2000-09-27) *Sanity, Aiken's Artifact* Developed by /Monolith Productions/
Action (Puzzle-Adventure), 3rd Person top-down View Playwise quite similar to the 'Ubi Soft Paris Studios' game 'Dinosaur' i played recently. Here your one hero gets 'talents' that gives special psionic abilities to help you fight enemies and solve puzzles, abilities like push heavy objects or fly/levitate to new places whereas in Dinosaur different characters had these abilities. Storywise, i am an Psi-cop fighting against evil and if that makes some think of Babylon 5, incidentally there is a Shadow-ship hidden as an easter-egg in the other game i played as ...
... i still spent most of the month in Ancaria, finishing the RPG 'Sacred I, Underworld' campaign. After finishing it i spent time testing different ingame things and trying different character-builds.
Also did an Adventure, Side-scrolling Point-and-Click Interface game. *5 Days a Stranger* (ver. 1.3(2003-09-29)) Developed by /Ben Croshaw/ Created with the help of the freeware Adventure Game Studio (AGS) by 'Chris Jones'. You get stuck inside a haunted house with some others and have to find out why the house is haunted and find a way to get out before all get killed off.
-- Nah-ah. I'm staying out of this. ... Now, here's my opinion.
Please followup in the newsgroup. E-mail address is invalid due to spam-control.
I just finished up STALKER with the 2009 mod. I think it lives up to its billing as one of the scariest games ever. It was thoroughly engaging, though I couldn't help but feel a frequent twinge of disappointment every time the game degenerated into yet another one of those FPSs in which you're expected to be a one-man army, when the game could have been so much more. It's all just getting a bit silly and unrealistic, especially when I'm carrying 60 medkits and using one every 20 seconds, because of the horde of soldiers I have to blast my way through. And I was playing it on the easiest setting, FFS!
I've also been inexplicably playing Laura Bow in The Dagger of Amon Ra. In case the name doesn't instantly ring any bells, it's one of Sierra's lesser known adventure games from back in the early days of CD rom games. I never had the chance to try it back in the day, but thanks to abandonware websites, I finally tracked it down. Wow, these old Sierra games have really not aged well; particularly the low quality audio (seems inexcusable for a CD game) and the low res graphics. And then there's the oh-so-tedious, never-quite-makes-sense- unless-you-know-what-the-designers-were-thinking gameplay. But, it's cute, the character is likeable, it's witty. And it's good for nostalgia. I guess.
And then there's Spelunky... I think I finished playing Spelunky before October, but it continues to haunt me. It's the most devious, most irritating, most briliant game I've seen in a long time, possibly ever. I still can't seem to avoid booting it up once in a while, and then feeling angry at myself 45 minutes later when I'm STILL playing it. You may not have heard of the game, but trust me, I'm doing you a favour by not providing a download link.
Inspired by the genius of Spelunky, I've been hard at work on my own randomly-generated dungeon crawler game. It's finally gotten to the point where it's playable enough to sort of entertain me. And so I've been playing that a bit too...
> I've also been inexplicably playing Laura Bow in The Dagger of Amon > Ra. In case the name doesn't instantly ring any bells, it's one of > Sierra's lesser known adventure games from back in the early days of > CD rom games. I never had the chance to try it back in the day, but > thanks to abandonware websites, I finally tracked it down. Wow, these > old Sierra games have really not aged well; particularly the low > quality audio (seems inexcusable for a CD game) and the low res > graphics. And then there's the oh-so-tedious, never-quite-makes-sense- > unless-you-know-what-the-designers-were-thinking gameplay. But, > it's cute, the character is likeable, it's witty. And it's good for > nostalgia. I guess.
I really enjoyed Dagger. I think just the atmosphere more than anything else. It was a rather unique setting. Flapper-era games aren't really all that available. I never played the original Laura Bow. Overall, my most enjoyable graphic adventure is still probably Deju Vu for the NES, though. It's not particularly good, so I guess it was just a case of the right game at the right time.
I still occasionally look into the home-brewed modern text adventures. Some of them are really, really good. Better stories than anything the studios are putting out.
> And then there's Spelunky... I think I finished playing Spelunky > before October, but it continues to haunt me. It's the most devious, > most irritating, most briliant game I've seen in a long time, possibly > ever. I still can't seem to avoid booting it up once in a while, and > then feeling angry at myself 45 minutes later when I'm STILL playing > it. You may not have heard of the game, but trust me, I'm doing you a > favour by not providing a download link.
Heh... that took about a months worth of playtime from me, too. It's interesting in playing it that the player doesn't really get mad at the game, he gets mad at himself for his mistakes. If only I didn't try to make that jump or accidentally use a bomb instead of a rope. The game is never completely unfair, except maybe the first time you encounter a new challenge. I still haven't figured out more than a couple of the game's secrets. I never even got close to finishing.
> Inspired by the genius of Spelunky, I've been hard at work on my own > randomly-generated dungeon crawler game. It's finally gotten to the > point where it's playable enough to sort of entertain me. And so > I've been playing that a bit too...
Graphical or text based? There's always room for another good roguelike. I'm getting a bit sick of ADOM, and most of the others don't have the staying power for me ADOM does.
> >> What have you been playing... IN OCTOBER 2009?
> <snip>
> > I've also been inexplicably playing Laura Bow in The Dagger of Amon > > Ra. In case the name doesn't instantly ring any bells, it's one of > > Sierra's lesser known adventure games from back in the early days of > > CD rom games. I never had the chance to try it back in the day, but > > thanks to abandonware websites, I finally tracked it down. Wow, these > > old Sierra games have really not aged well; particularly the low > > quality audio (seems inexcusable for a CD game) and the low res > > graphics. And then there's the oh-so-tedious, never-quite-makes-sense- > > unless-you-know-what-the-designers-were-thinking gameplay. But, > > it's cute, the character is likeable, it's witty. And it's good for > > nostalgia. I guess.
> I really enjoyed Dagger. I think just the atmosphere more than anything > else. It was a rather unique setting. Flapper-era games aren't really all > that available. I never played the original Laura Bow. Overall, my most > enjoyable graphic adventure is still probably Deju Vu for the NES, though. > It's not particularly good, so I guess it was just a case of the right game > at the right time.
> I still occasionally look into the home-brewed modern text adventures. Some > of them are really, really good. Better stories than anything the studios > are putting out.
> > And then there's Spelunky... I think I finished playing Spelunky > > before October, but it continues to haunt me. It's the most devious, > > most irritating, most briliant game I've seen in a long time, possibly > > ever. I still can't seem to avoid booting it up once in a while, and > > then feeling angry at myself 45 minutes later when I'm STILL playing > > it. You may not have heard of the game, but trust me, I'm doing you a > > favour by not providing a download link.
> Heh... that took about a months worth of playtime from me, too. It's > interesting in playing it that the player doesn't really get mad at the > game, he gets mad at himself for his mistakes. If only I didn't try to make > that jump or accidentally use a bomb instead of a rope. The game is never > completely unfair, except maybe the first time you encounter a new > challenge. I still haven't figured out more than a couple of the game's > secrets. I never even got close to finishing.
> > Inspired by the genius of Spelunky, I've been hard at work on my own > > randomly-generated dungeon crawler game. It's finally gotten to the > > point where it's playable enough to sort of entertain me. And so > > I've been playing that a bit too...
> Graphical or text based? There's always room for another good roguelike. I'm > getting a bit sick of ADOM, and most of the others don't have the staying > power for me ADOM does.
This one is graphical. It's top-down, a la Gauntlet. I was trying to make something that feels like a 2D version of Ultima Underworld, but with randomly-generated content.
If I ever get it to a slightly-more-playable and slightly-less-ugly state, I'll try to post a message here.
> * Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords (replay)
Hmmm ... I was considering looking into this after having finally played KotOR. Now I think I will pass.
> * Batman Arkham Asylum (new)
Aside from LotRO and SH3, this is really the only game I have played in October. My first response is: awesome!
Now that I am nearly done (2nd last boss battle) I have to agree with you ... again. I can live with the save points instead of 'save anywhere' but the changing FoV for boss battles drove me crazy. The battle I am currently working on (8th attempt) feels like random button-mashing instead of sneaking and fighting. It is not fun.
This leads to a question. Uh ... what exactly am I supposed to do with my trophies. Yeah, Poison Ivy is purdy and all ... but why do I need a 3D rotating model of a bad-cop Arkham guard, etc.? Am I missing something?
> * Resident Evil 5 (new)
Installed but not really played enough to comment.
On 2009-11-03, DistantLight <distantli...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I've also been inexplicably playing Laura Bow in The Dagger of Amon > Ra. In case the name doesn't instantly ring any bells, it's one of > Sierra's lesser known adventure games from back in the early days of > CD rom games. I never had the chance to try it back in the day, but > thanks to abandonware websites, I finally tracked it down. Wow, these > old Sierra games have really not aged well; particularly the low > quality audio (seems inexcusable for a CD game) and the low res > graphics. And then there's the oh-so-tedious, never-quite-makes-sense- > unless-you-know-what-the-designers-were-thinking gameplay. But, > it's cute, the character is likeable, it's witty. And it's good for > nostalgia. I guess.
The first Laura Bow game "At the colonel's bequest" is better in my opinion. It's not as "point and click" and used a text interpreter to perform your typed commands - from memory it was an EGA game.
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