What Game Are You Playing At The Moment?

[Junkenstein]

I dont know why i didnt mention it ewarlier, but i've been plating also a good amount of the first S.T.A.L.K.E.R. lately

Holy bejesus. Talk about an atmosphere that gets under your skin. is not an horror game yet it manages to horrify me and make me feel uncomfortable. Maybe it's that Tarkovsky like landscape (i think the title didnt came out of nowhere), all grey rusting despair and rotting sickness. Maybe it's the sickening realism of the whole thing.

I wont call it an entertaining game (and boy it's hard to get into it when you're used to the silly over the top antics of this last generation of games. In this world, a skeletal dog can kill you) but it's amazing nonetheless.

I am missing some good adventure games, though. Besides the episodic monkey island series, the stuff that came out lately is quite horrid. The last good game i played in that style was the very good Overclocked, a game that managed being fascinating to play AND pull out a weird and disdturbing story...

[siric]

Playing Mercenaries 2 on my PS3 atm. It's really fun, but there are some really annoying glitches. Particularly how faction soldiers report you to their bosses at the drop of a hat.

I'm thinking of picking up GTA 4, but I was reading mixed reviews, any advice?

[Junkenstein]

Originally Posted by standardman

I've been meaning to replay HL at some point, Junk. Hearing that it's still good makes me eager to do it soon.

I wouldnt say it has aged perfectly. It's definitely an older, more clunky game. It's insanely frustrating at times (Apparently back then Valve werent the kind hearted crowd plesers of today that create games according to player's response), in some parts in a very idiotic and old school way. The story is still amazing, but the charcters are non-existent (although i still have to understand if the babillion lookalike scientists that repoeat "Greetings co-worker" or "You still believe that chaos theory is wrong?" while zombies are eating them alive, were done that way on purpose or not).

That given, it still has that unique approach to action gaming where you have to both carefully plan every step and blow up stuff in creative ways. The genius is there, just a bit awkward.

Valvemaniac note: Their sense to detail still gets me. Using Mike Patton to voice the infected in L4D is pure genius. I dont think there is another being or machine capable to trasmit the feeling you get when your the Boomer's pre-vomit retchings.

[Incognito]

Originally Posted by Junkenstein

I wouldnt say it has aged perfectly. It's definitely an older, more clunky game. It's insanely frustrating at times (Apparently back then Valve werent the kind hearted crowd plesers of today that create games according to player's response), in some parts in a very idiotic and old school way. The story is still amazing, but the charcters are non-existent (although i still have to understand if the babillion lookalike scientists that repoeat "Greetings co-worker" or "You still believe that chaos theory is wrong?" while zombies are eating them alive, were done that way on purpose or not).

It was also Valve's first title, so they were just getting their feet wet. Plus, the game was using a Quake 2 engine, so naturally the aesthetics and layout would be crude. For the time it was released though (1998), it was something stellar. They tried to expand on the characters in the following releases (Opposing Force, Blue Shift, Decay). I think what took the public by surprise aside from all other factors is how the special forces team to come in and clean up responded to your actions and used actual strategy.

Of course, HL2 came along and pretty much eclipsed it.

[Junkenstein]

Originally Posted by Incognito

I think what took the public by surprise aside from all other factors is how the special forces team to come in and clean up responded to your actions and used actual strategy.

Agreed, that's an interestingly dark turn. As Freeman thinks (aloud) in "Mind of Freeman":

"WHY ARE YOU SHOOTING ME? DO I LOOK LIKE AN ALIEN? AM I GREEN? THIS IS THE WORST RESCUE OPERATION EVEEEEER!"

It's still a delight anyway.

And, i have to admit, i'm a valve nerd all the way now. I even played "Lost coast".

It's all your fault Standardman. All. Your. Fault.

[Incognito]

Originally Posted by Junkenstein

And, i have to admit, i'm a valve nerd all the way now. I even played "Lost coast".

I'm pretty much a Valve and Rockstar Games fanboy; they can rarely do wrong in my eyes. I even drink my coffee out of a Black Mesa mug.

[Junkenstein]

If anyone wants to check it out, "Operation Flahpoint: Dragon Rising" is up for 6.99 through my deale.... i mean on steam.

Havent played this one but the original is as close as you get to a realistic combat simulator (with the pro and cons of that)

[ThisIsMyUserName]

Wow. I just finished Bioshock 2. Wow.
I can't recall another game/movie/book that I just sat and thought about for a while after.

I went back to the Bioshock wiki and read the story of the first one again to jog my memory, then saw how that "something in the sea" site had way more content than I thought. I spent the whole day going back through everything there and reading the wiki, listening to the messages. I got so involved with this guy Mark's back story, then heard his diaries in the game and really wanted to find him and know what happened. Then I finally did...

Very heavy stuff that plot. People I've mentioned it to don't seem to appreciate that you're killing innocent people (big daddies) who don't have much choice in attacking you. It made me sad every time I took one of them down. The world being populated with pretty much all bastards is something else I don't think I've seen in another universe before. You're helping and being helped by people who have a slick tongue, but are responsible for all this murder and enslavement.

I'd say the only problem I had with the game, was switching between plasmids and guns got really confusing in a firefight. During a battle, it really needs to pause on the PC and let you pick the item you want like on 360 (wow, never thought I'd be saying that). There was the option in the first one, where it wasn't needed. For some reason it's gone now.

Also I didn't really feel the same guilt over killing a big sister or alpha. They made them too aggressive and I saw them as an enemy like the splicers, instead of the victim they actually were. Maybe it's something about seeing them with the children that does it for me. Somehow their speed factors into it too though.


Edit: Yikes, just played about 10 minutes of the Pripyat Stalker game and had my fill. Those were some painful 1990 looking graphics. That was DX11? I guess I've been spoiled by the lowly Bioshock and Crysis.

[standardman]

It's worth noting that Operation Flashpoint 2 isn't by the same guys who made Op Flash 1, you want Arma II for that.

[standardman]

Here are the scans from the Game Informer issue of Portal 2.



2 player co-op with a Portal gun each (so 4 portals), Mac version confirmed, way more info at the link.