What games are you playing now?

txa1265 said:

Really? I haven't played the demo yet - not good?

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Think Deus Ex:Invisible War.

JDR13 said:

Think Deus Ex:Invisible War.

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Please don't make me barf and angry simultaneously

Well, I'll have to try it ... if for no other reason than to prevent myself from wasting $50 (as I wish I did with Far Cry 2)

I have played a bit of the demo now and I cannot say it that much different from the formula of the first game. The graphics have a major improvement ofcourse.

Currently, I'm spending time running a community fortress in Dwarf Fortress, alternating between sessions on Shaiya online, the occasional Doom/Doom 2 wad file and some Call of Duty: United Offensive online.

Time will soon be short due to impending school, but I'll probably still find some time off in the weekend to play a little.

monolith is apparently not to good at making sequels; granted i didn't ever play more than the demo for fear but homeworld 2 was one of the biggest letdowns of any sequel i've ever played. invisible war though however one of the best, demo sucked though especially since it played like crap with my graphics card at the time. that said invisible war certainly was inferior in nearly every way to its predecessor except in my opinion the much more reality relevant storyline, but people and their great expectations doomed it along with it coming out at possible the worst time technologically before the dawn of pre-next gen games and hardware. any sequel that takes many years to come out is going to have to be different due to the status quo of the day and nearly every great game that gets a sequel in that respect almost never lives up. system shock 2 for example is a much better game than the original though that is great as well. who doesn't agree with that? those who played the original when it first came out.

my advice for those looking forward to risen like myself is: pretend you've never heard of pirahna bytes or gothic, and then it will most likely be one of the best games you've ever played.

I consider Invisible War to be inferior to Deus Ex in most areas, but also superior to games in general. The storyline, as you say, was quite good. In the end you were allowed to pick which major ideology would have the chance to dominate mankind in the future, each one taken to the extreme.

txa1265 said:

Speaking of 'console-ized ... I'm playing Rise of the Argonauts and Mirror's Edge.

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I did not find Mirror's Edge to be consolized. Not at all.

Well, while Deus-Ex:IW did have many positive aspects, I can't say much about FEAR 2.

You'll immediately notice the HUD and interface just screams "Xbox". The enemy soldiers, who were fun to battle in FEAR, are now just cannon fodder. You fight more enemies at once, but now they drop almost instantly with 1 or 2 shots, regardless of where you shoot them. The movement and mouse aiming also has that consolish "floaty" type of feel to it. Even the overall atmosphere, a strong asset in FEAR, feels very different. Rather than trying to build up any kind of tension, which the original game was so good at, F2 just throws cheap thrills at you every 5 seconds.

I highly recommend playing the demo first if you were thinking of buying it.

dteowner said:

Completely out of the blue, I got the urge to install Bioshock again. I'm playing on easy again and it's still great fun. Even when I know the story and have experienced the atmosphere, it's still very immersive. Actually, knowing the ending is allowing me to appreciate some of the clues more.

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I'm looking forward to playing that one again when I have time, especially now that I can use DirectX 10. I don't think I could play it on easy though, even on "normal" I think I only died 2 or 3 times during my entire first playthrough.

Having finished the demo I felt through and through like I was playing the first F.E.A.R. Like in the first game I begun questioning the prescense of all these noface, noname soldiers who pops up with hightech equipment with no end. Who they were, why they were there and who supplied them was a greater mystery than Samsara, Sadako, Onryō or uh... Alma. Like the first game I could guess when Alma would appear next, like "oh, this place looks like a place where Alma will show herself" and I was right most of the time. I will probably play it since I played all the other games, but I see no reason why someone who liked the first game shouldn't play the second since it's more of the same.

JDR13 said:

I'm looking forward to playing that one again when I have time, especially now that I can use DirectX 10. I don't think I could play it on easy though, even on "normal" I think I only died 2 or 3 times during my entire first playthrough.

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I suck rocks at shooters and I'm not really playing the game for a challenge so much as the experience. With those parameters, "easy" is the way to go for me. Given your experience with the genre and apparent desire to be pushed a bit, "easy" would be a horrible choice for you indeed.

just to clear up my mistake, homeworld 2 was developed by relic, who i'm a huge fan of and fear was developed by monolith whose only 2 games i enjoyed weren't made by them but rather published by them: odium and septerra core

monolith also developed no one lives for ever, which why being interesting and somewhat clevererly written, was a horrible letdown (cheifly the gameplay)when i finally played it considering what great things i'd heard about it...doubt i'll ever go back to it after getting about halfway or more through it.

danutz_plusplus said:

I did not find Mirror's Edge to be consolized. Not at all.

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Have you compared playing with the X360 controller to keys & mouse? It isn't so much that it is console-ized as it is inherently a console game and plays best with that sort of controller. At least IMO. Unless you like falling off buildings ... which *is* fun on occasion

txa1265 said:

Have you compared playing with the X360 controller to keys & mouse? It isn't so much that it is console-ized as it is inherently a console game and plays best with that sort of controller. At least IMO. Unless you like falling off buildings ... which *is* fun on occasion

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I've only played it with keyboard and mouse (don't own an xbox controller myself), so I don't know if it plays better with a controller. If you say it does, then maybe it does. But personally I never felt the keyboard&mouse to be lacking in any way. I very rarely fell off buildings (most of my deaths happened during that fight with that wrestler/business man as I just could never click just in time to start the escape-maneuver; I started that event about a dozen times a think).

Another point with regards to Mirror's Edge. I've seen loads of reviews that complained about how crappy the shooting mechanics were. And I just never saw that. Imo they were ok, and nothing spectacular. And I remember some of the fights where I actually had fun. The fights with the cops/swat felt a lot like cat-and-mouse games, where I constantly try to hide, get their weapons, take out as many as I can, hide again, etc. This felt like fun. Hard sometimes but I enjoyed myself. Maybe it's just me.

Mirror's Edge is really fun ... I have an internal thing where any game - such as the Tomb Raider or Top Spin games that really benefit from a controller I think of as inherently 'console-based'. That alone isn't a negative ... it is when everything else makes you feel like you're on a console.

So while Mirror's Edge works well ... Rise of the Argonauts doesn't work well with either control system.

Just played the demo of F.E.A.R. 2 and I agree with almost everything JDR said.
Since the original F.E.A.R. is my favourite FPS I had high expectations for the sequel.While the game is far the worst FPS ever it feels more Halo than F.E.A.R.
Anyway what's the ETA for this?

Due to the talk about "consolizated games" in another thread, I had to take up one of the most amazing titles 2008; Alone in the Dark 5.

Just a few great experiences during the first level of the game:
First function in the game: Blink. Yes. Blink, with your eyes. Now that's an awesome function. How come no developer have ever implemented a such great function before?

I equip a fire extinguisher to extinguish some fire. The game tells me "Use Mouse 0 to use extinguisher". Well, Mouse "0" is the same as Left Mousebutton. So I press Left Mousebutton, and nothing happens. It takes me about 10-15 minutes, and a search through forums to realize that I have to be in first person mode first.

I try to drop the fire extinguisher again. There's a special key called "drop equipment", so I push that button. And nothing happens. Well, yet a few minutes later I realize that when I hold a fire extinguisher specifically, I have to use "Cancel".

Now I am climbing up a rope, and the game tells me "To drop rope, press PrntScrn". Not only is there a unique key to be assigned for the most awesome function "Drop Rope", it's by default tied to Print Screen. Try holding down A with your pinky and then press PrntScrn with your thumb. Good luck.

So what icons are used whenever the game ask you to press specific buttons? XBox 360 buttons. Sweet, at least the game have gamepad support. Can I assign another handy gamepad to the game, such as my trusty DualShock II controller? No.

Having remapped loads of buttons, I realize that I cannot remap a key, because that key is used for handbrake. I believe I wanted to use Mouse 1 for "jump", and appearently you can "jump" and "handbrake" at the same time, that's why you cannot assign the same button to both functions. Or maybe I cant and the game is just programmed that way.

So I try to climb around outside a building. Suddenly an explosion go off 10 floors below, sends a police car through the air and kill me. Car thrown 10 floors. Now that's some explosion!

I am climbing around outside a skyscraper, and the whole building is coming down. Bits and pieces are falling over my head, yet none of it hits me. Now the game tells me to press Mouse 0 to climb up, and so I do. Uhm, seems I can go to the right. Oh noes, I couldnt, so I fell down and died. Maybe I did something wrong? No. Ten attempts later I realize that despite the fact that it looks like I could go right, the proper way is to jump up to the thin ledge above me.

Now there's a monster, so I have to smack it with a sword. To do so, I must pull the mouse down to make the character hold the weapon over his head, before I can use left mouse to attack. Unique.

So I have dropped a monster and now I need fire. Eventually I found a chair that I can try to lit up. So I quickly drop the sword, then I am eventually able to pick up the chair. But how do I put it into the fire? Well, using mouse you can actually wave items around. Problem is that it doesnt seem to be possible to point the chair down into the fire. Well, unless you try again sometimes later after trying lots of other stuff, then it suddenly work.

So now I am in a dark entrance hall. There are bugs jumping around, dangerous ones. But since monsters can only be killed by fire, I cannot kill them. Oh, I managed to kill them by getting them to jump into a fire. Great.

But sorry, the last one was level 2.

i thoughrougly enjoyed this alone in the dark myself. its a bit clunky 'til you get to central park, and that first chase scene took over an hour of replays (though the game does give you the unique feature of fast forwarding through difficult spots if you desire). the unique gameplay is what made the game a load of fun for me. the inventory management in my opinion is far more fun and rewarding than most rpgs.

never has a game made duct tape so fun! (though technically its more like electrical tape)

Kostaz said:

Just played the demo of F.E.A.R. 2 and I agree with almost everything JDR said.
Since the original F.E.A.R. is my favourite FPS I had high expectations for the sequel.While the game is far the worst FPS ever it feels more Halo than F.E.A.R.

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Trust me, I know how you feel. I really enjoyed the first FEAR, and while I wouldn't say it was my favorite FPS, it was definitely in my top ten.

Kostaz said:

Anyway what's the ETA for this?

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Not sure, but after playing that demo, I can't say I really care.

I was bored enough to run a few levels of Red Faction as well, from 2001.