Last game you finished, tell us about it

Er.....you completed Clear Sky in 2 days?

Is it really that much shorter than the first S.T.A.L.K.E.R? Just curious, I haven't played it yet myself. I had already heard that it was a buggy mess, and decided to wait until after it was more fully patched. The first game took at least a few days to finish, and that was only if you ignored all sidequest.

JDR13 said:

Er.....you completed Clear Sky in 2 days?
Is it really that much shorter than the first S.T.A.L.K.E.R? Just curious, I haven't played it yet myself. I had already heard that it was a buggy mess, and decided to wait until after it was more fully patched. The first game took at least a few days to finish, and that was only if you ignored all sidequest.

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I sat pretty much nonstop those two days but yeah. I do not know if I would say it's shorter than SoC. I am normally a completist and there are some things to do, but in Clear Sky doing the optional content felt more of a waste. If you want to do it all, you are in for more than two days.

I tried to do everything at first, but eventually I gave up because it didn't felt worth it. You can help factions and eventually join with one of them, but I am sceptical that the reward for doing so is beneficial. I eventually joined with the STALKERS over the Bandits, Duty and Freedom, even if I unlocked the possibility to join Freedom. I did chase down every artifact (I think) in the game, at least if the guide I used to do so was complete (which I doubt it was).

Then there's USB memory sticks of which there are about 3 per area. They unlock better upgrades at mechanics. To get them all you have to find as many hidden stashes as possible, which you unlock by either by killing opponents and looting them, or paying for their location from an NPC or bartender. Since the 2nd alternative is so expensive I did the first option on the first map (Swamp) and that took bloody ages. That means that I didn't upgrade all the extra upgrade slots. You will probably not be able to collect USB sticks for the Bandit mechanic anyway since you are likely to end up enemy to them.

Here's the real problem: your armor is decaying really fast and you have to pay to repair it. As a result, chasing loot made me feel I was going backwards. Unlike SoC, money is an issue. Looting and selling isn't worth it at all since your income on such work is very low. Minimissions is the way to go, but most of the time a NPC who offer missions simply tell you that you can't help them, which is frustrating when you ran over a large map just to talk to them.
You will be happy when you can get 3-4000 rubels from running a couple of minimissions, but the Military can trash your armor in 10-20 seconds leading to up to a 9500 repair on the SEVA suit.

Silent Hill: Homecoming
Silent Hill "5" is the seventh game related to the mysterious city Silent Hill. I have finished every game in the series, including Orphan (the mobile game) and I have ofcourse also seen the movie. Gamewise, I will probably have to rate the fifth game somewhat better than Origins (SH "0") but I wouldn't say it's a great game. Why?

Well, let's start with the good stuff. SH5 looks and play better than the entire series so far. The character models looks absolutely great, the transitions between the foggy world and the Otherworld looks just great. The story itself, considering the "real twist" and all, is by all and all pretty good. The combat system have been boosted a bit as well over previous games.

The bad... well, it's difficult to point out why SH5 overall felt like a boring experience. The story, well, most of the game there's barely any story at all. You can guess early on that things really isn't ok with "coming home", but there really isn't much into it. The game fails the psychology of earlier games. It isn't really that scary, and there isn't much of emotion into it. Most of the time you will simply run around, dodging monsters, doing puzzles, but the storytelling simply isn't there. I guess one who craves another horror game after Siren 3, Penumbra: Black Plague and Dead Space can check it out, but beyond that I wouldn't recommend Silent Hill: Homecoming.

3:47 am and Sarevok is dead.

Killed him on the first try even = ]

So that's the end of BG1 & ToTSC, my first completion of both. Now to install BGII, I'm excited to start it.

Baldur's Gate is a great game, I'm glad that I went back and decided to play and finish it for once and for all (i only made it about halfway the first time). Tales of the Sword Coast definitely ramped up the difficulty, w/ some of the fights being harder than the final battle against Sarevok.

Didn't you find the level cap to be frustrating, Sammy?

yeah, I got kinda screwed by that, and it's my own fault for putting off the expansion install til end game (i didnt know that you had to play it before the end). I maxed out before the expansion, i got all the way to sarevok, installed totsc, and then had to run out and try and take advantage of the increased cap during the expansion. Worked out ok in the end I suppose, finished the game so I did somthing right. I rolled up a really good character, so I'll be starting anew in BG2

I had a similar experience with BG when I first played. Keep in mind that this was literally the first AD&D game, crpg or pen and paper, that I had EVER played. So their special skills and such were a bit baffling to me at first.

My play throughs went like this:

1) Played through with a Paladin. Went all the way to Saravok and couldn't beat him. Tried multiple times, couldn't get it done. So I figured more experience might help. Killed and killed and killed to get to the next level. Only to discover the level cap.

2) Thankfully, despite that frustration, I really loved the game and decided to play it again from the beginning and pay for attention to leveling up, maxing equipment, etc. Got almost to the end and decided to by TotSC. Thought it would be fun to play AFTER I killed Saravok. Didn't realize it had to be installed. Just as I'm descending to meet the bastard: FATAL CRASH. My drive got FUBAR'd. All game data lost.

3) Third time's a charm, right? Decided to change things up a bit and played as a female mage, and only kept chicks in my party. Decided at the beginning to install TotSC after I read something online about the level cap increasing. Once in figured out that TotSC was an add-in, not an extra adventure for afterward. Leveled myself up all the way, then went and beat the crap out of Saravok!

4) Decide to play one more time for fun. Downloaded the Dark Side of the Sword Coast mod, removed the level cap and went at it. Hated the vampires, and I think I was level 17 or something by the time I got to Sarevok (which made him way too easy!)

5) last time I played was earlier this year. Played it in BGTuTu. Still loved it!

xSamhainx said:

Worked out ok in the end I suppose, finished the game so I did somthing right. I rolled up a really good character, so I'll be starting anew in BG2

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You're not planning to import your character Sammy? It takes away from the experience if you don't imo.

Yeah, Ive been internally debating it, i'm just barely out of the proverbial front gate. If i got to keep my loot that would be one thing, but I dont. The character I rolled has better stats, yet my old char is higher level.

So still thinking it over. Gonna be a long game

You actually do get to keep a couple of items, assuming you found them. Balduran's Helm, and the Gold Pantaloons(needed for a cool Easter Egg later on) will be transferred if they're in your inventory.



*Edit* Here's a more complete explanation.

http://forums.bioware.com/viewtopic.html?topic=218104&forum=19

xSamhainx said:

3:47 am and Sarevok is dead.

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Haha, that´s just about the same time I finished him too.
Not a good day for Sarevok.
Played with EasyTutu, BG1 NPC Project and Sword Coast Stratagems and it was a fun "anniversary" ride.

My fighter/mage is now consolidating a party in heavily modded BG2.
It will be probably pretty fast run cos I can´t wait to replay Planescape: Torment since Qwinn just released new versions of his fixes/ tweaks.

Far Cry 2
Far Cry 2 is a sandbox free-roaming FPS. What does that mean? Well, basically you find yourself in a superb engine, free to do things in your own order with lots of optional content for you to deal with.

Trouble is, none of it really matters.

I found myself 36 hours into the game when I finally saw the credits and it could have been ten. I spent a lot of time on the bonus content (and completed it all). Frankly, it doesn't give you anything. I am not sure it's worth chasing down the diamonds either. You really just need one setup of weapons which you can afford if you do the assassin missions and the weapon dealer missions then continue to only do the main quests.

The story doesn't feel emotional, philosophical or epic. Beyond that I found my self wasting most of my time traveling from point A to B in fed-x missions, defeating the same respawning guardposts over and over again.

Far Cry 2 is a vast world of generated content. I believe that's why it in the end feels so empty. And the ending, well, that was a really bad ending.

Far Cry 2 isn't really a game I could recommend to anyone. It's too bad and frustrating considering the engine is so great.

Very nice summary ... I tend to think that many of the 'GOTY' folks didn't invest so much time or something ... I still call it one of the 'disappointments of the year'.

Yep, Farcry 2 was easily the worst game I´ve played this year.
All those missions were beyond tedious and nonimaginative, plus the topography was rather horrednous - just a web of canyons making any stray from path impossible. And those respawns...

I liked it in the beginning but those problems became obvious pretty fast.
4/10 max.

If FarCry 2 was a Christmas gift... it would equate to a big fat lump of coal.

I give credit to anyone who had the patience to actually finish it. I played it for 2 days after I got it... and haven't touched it since. It's still on my hard drive but I don't see myself ever starting it up again.

I just finished Final Fantasy XIIafter roughly 100 hours of game time. I decided to ditch most of the still open side quests and take on the end bosses after I noticed that I could deal with pretty much anything I met; this was after my usual strike team had reached an average level of 55, bought most licenses, owned decent weapons and armors and the most important spells (i.e., pretty much all the medical/healing/HP-enhancing spells).
Well, I must say that I really liked the game; while there was less emotional involvement with the characters this time, game mechanics were rather smooth and made even grinding (i.e., doing the levelling up needed to beat certain enemies) entertaining because of the mob hunting background. Summons weren't all-powerful this time around, but collecting them was a rather entertaining affair. And it was the longest newer cRPG I played in years .

Jaz said:

I just finished Final Fantasy XIIafter roughly 100 hours of game time. I decided to ditch most of the still open side quests and take on the end bosses after I noticed that I could deal with pretty much anything I met; this was after my usual strike team had reached an average level of 55, bought most licenses, owned decent weapons and armors and the most important spells (i.e., pretty much all the medical/healing/HP-enhancing spells).
Well, I must say that I really liked the game; while there was less emotional involvement with the characters this time, game mechanics were rather smooth and made even grinding (i.e., doing the levelling up needed to beat certain enemies) entertaining because of the mob hunting background. Summons weren't all-powerful this time around, but collecting them was a rather entertaining affair. And it was the longest newer cRPG I played in years .

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I pretty much agree with this review. I left some of the game undone as well after wasting too much time with the game. The game is less emotional than previous FF games, but the mechanics are a step up.

Singles 2: Triple Trouble
Well, this is an unusual title for me, I can say that much. The game is like a "grown up" (or non American) version of The Sims. The main goal of the storymode is to get a couple back together after a not so happy breakup. In the typical Sims-style interface, this is done by building up your apartment, earning experiencepoints by making friends which allows you to buy useful skills that makes life easier. Even if I felt pretty little replay value, playing the story was pretty addictive. There were always something to do which just required a few days work.

Finished Dead Space a minutes ago.

Phew...What a game!.

Dead Space is really a heart pounding action game with relatively coherent story, and balanced pacing withoud feeling of rushed in the last couple chapters as happened to some games. One very notable thing about Dead Space is the surprisingly atmospheric sound effect implementation. It really multiplied the scare factor if you have high-end 5.1 speaker plus SB X-Fi sound card. When i tried playing the game with sound turn-off or using a headphone - the game just felt different and almost not scary at all.

In short, Dead Space is scarier and better action game than Doom 3, maybe as scarier as Silent Hill 2, or more.

Due to two steady disappointments from Creative Labs, I haven't bought a soundcard since 2004, unless you count the one that is locked up in the post office for me until after new years eve, which happens to be a X-Fi.

The first card was an Audigy, the heavy package with an extra box. While the EAX improvements were noteworthy, I had a major load of driver issues. Finally I gave in to grab myself the Audigy 2 version, and kept getting the same problems. When I called Creative they offered to SELL me a new driver CD, back in 2004. Appearently you couldn't download the new software from the web (nowadays I noted that Driver CD's from Creative is often uploaded to sites such as piratebay... the only drivers on the piracy market I think).

The greatest issue I still have is that I have 7.1 speakers, creatives own in fact. I have an annoying bug is that causes windows speaker settings to reset itself. Whenever I set my speakers to 7.1 home and check back a few days later, it's back to Desktop Stereo Speakers again. I do not have a habit to check my speaker settings all the time, so it have happened that I finished an entire game only to realize afterwards that the game would have had full 7.1 support, if I had remembered to change my speaker settings.

Sorry for that short rant. Dead Space is a great game, and should be compared to Doom 3 as they are very similar in theme and setting.