What Game Are You Playing At The Moment?

[Junkenstein]

LUCASARTS ADVENTURE PACK ON SALE!

ONLY 4.99 Euors (Or whtever you stars and stripers and godsavethequeeners use).

And you'll get:

-Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade : Where it all began. the most brainwrecking adventure ever made by LucasArts and a starting point for their name as a legend in adventure gaming.

-Indiana Jones And The Fates Of Atlantis: Nowadays when you mention adventures you think of point and click, find the object give thge object, talk to person, ertc
Fate of Atlantis was much more: you could approach the story with different way to handle the puzzles. You could fiht the enemy, talk him into letting you in or move crates to uncover a secret passage. And much much more. With Monkey Island 2 and Day of the tentacle the greatest adventure ever made.

-Loom: a weird, spiritual game. Set in a world populated by guilds, that use their spells by chating songs, with a shakesperian plot ans a laid back yet melancholic atmosphere, this game must be played to be understood. No usual interface, only your staff and notes to magically modify the world

-The Dig: Orscon Scott Card's writing, a revamped graphic look and a hollywood voice casting (Robert Patrick, anyone?) makes for a sci-fi drama with a spiritual edge and an addictive series of puzzles. Not perfect, but still a gorgeous, absorbing experience

[Altruism]

Haven't picked up RDR yet. Probably will mess around with it in the next week or two, but I came across videos of some terribly amusing bugs. At least most of the bugs aren't game breaking and generally seem to be entertaining.

[standardman]

Oh Valve,



Half-Life 2, the best first person shooter ever made, is available on Macs tomorrow.



This should be an automatic buy for those who don't already have it:

Originally Posted by Junkenstein

LUCASARTS ADVENTURE PACK ON SALE!

ONLY 4.99 Euors (Or whtever you stars and stripers and godsavethequeeners use).

And you'll get:

-Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade : Where it all began. the most brainwrecking adventure ever made by LucasArts and a starting point for their name as a legend in adventure gaming.

-Indiana Jones And The Fates Of Atlantis: Nowadays when you mention adventures you think of point and click, find the object give thge object, talk to person, ertc
Fate of Atlantis was much more: you could approach the story with different way to handle the puzzles. You could fiht the enemy, talk him into letting you in or move crates to uncover a secret passage. And much much more. With Monkey Island 2 and Day of the tentacle the greatest adventure ever made.

-Loom: a weird, spiritual game. Set in a world populated by guilds, that use their spells by chating songs, with a shakesperian plot ans a laid back yet melancholic atmosphere, this game must be played to be understood. No usual interface, only your staff and notes to magically modify the world

-The Dig: Orscon Scott Card's writing, a revamped graphic look and a hollywood voice casting (Robert Patrick, anyone?) makes for a sci-fi drama with a spiritual edge and an addictive series of puzzles. Not perfect, but still a gorgeous, absorbing experience

[standardman]

Originally Posted by Junkenstein

That's because i am a genius.

I think that the reaction to the latest Bioware efforts is a testament to their great approach to their branch of games.

Anywhere else, you have developers who love to simplify their games and make them more and more about the looks or the adrenalin rushes than the power to take the player somewhere else. Nothing against adrenaline rushes, but even those have to be good or i get bored.

Both ME and DO have players debating their love for the characters, the decisions and the depth of the plot as much as the actual playing. And those same players approached ME2 with a religious zeal and with "IDONTWANT TOKNOWANYTHING" spirit that you see only for movies.

They got into the character of Tali, instead of the usual big boobed characters that teenage gamers have inconized in the past. A faceless alien. And all because her dialogue was natural enough to make her likeable.

The gameplay is amazing and simple enough to get you drawn into the games while still not making them simple or easy. And the story makes you feel like you HAVE to care about the characters.

Happened to me with Mass Effect 1 and 2 (maybe more 2) and it's happening again with DE. I shaped my main character exactly how i wanted him, by making him act and speak in a certain way and the virtyual world acts accordingly. Plus the characters have so many layer of depths, i dont ever know how any action will affect them or how they will act. Morrigan alone is a character of a complexity you rarely see.

Only Valve has done better with making me love a bunch of animated pixels. But.... i dont.... want... to.... think... about.... that.... (BUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUUUUUUU!!!!!)

They've become so good at letting you define your character and making you care about his/her fate beyond just your score. Bioware manage to make 'cinematic' games that are still absolutely games.

Funny you should mention Valve (bestdeveloperever), I think both Bioware and Valve stand as great examples of developers who have honed and perfected what they do so well it's about as close to 'auteur theory' I've seen in gaming. I have issues with auteur theory but you know when you're playing a Valve or Bioware game or when someone is attempting to ape them.

Originally Posted by Junkenstein

Dragon Age is hard to get into if you get the wrong character, and it's very slow at the beginning. First time i played, i used the human noble guy and i thought it was incredibly flat and lame.

You have to choose something different and act wildly. The game adapts to your choices in a great way, and shifts the tone completely. It's the quintessential great idea in that game and what's killing modern gaming and making it look retarded. Dragone AGe succeeds because it doesnt tell the player "either you do this action or you die or have a bad bad ending". It says "You can do this. You can do whatever you want. But everything you do will have a conseuqence. A BIG one."

Anyway, as soon as the Grey Warden initiation unfolds, it's one climax after the other. (and some sweet comic relief too. God bless Alistair)

That said, Mass Effect just made me so emotionally broken sometimes, it was weird. In the first one the dialogue with the Sovereign was the single most creepy moment i've seen in both a movie or a game. Whoever wrote those lines is a genius.
ME 2 is just an adrenaline rush. Usually i dont give a flying fuck about virtual charcters, and there i was getting angrier and angrier trying to save them all.

Goddamn it, stop making me want to play 70 hour RPGs. I suppose I am single, may as well take advantage of my urge to hermit-up.

Originally Posted by Kydizzle

Altitude is a blast!

I know! I bought it in a bundle a while back but only got to it during the free weekend. Those huge 64 player games are chaotic fun and there's a surprising amount of strategic depth once you look for it.

[rhesusattack]

Originally Posted by madeyeshawn

Honestly the only thing I do in this game is wander around hunting and murdering everything in sight. I love being an evil cowboy out on the lamb. Lets raid towns and kill the innocent; then run away from the law and hide in the mountains.

There is an achievement for getting a 10,000 dollar bounty. Should be a lot easier with a posse full of evil fucks.

Yeah, I thought I was a badass at $1800. Guess I have a ways to go.

[rhesusattack]

Originally Posted by Altruism

Haven't picked up RDR yet. Probably will mess around with it in the next week or two, but I came across videos of some terribly amusing bugs. At least most of the bugs aren't game breaking and generally seem to be entertaining.

That cougar-man one had me cracking up, but I did have a couple of nasty bugs myself that required me to at least go back and load a previous save and lose some progress.

[Kydizzle]

Those made me laugh a lot and I haven't even played the game.

[standardman]

Valve have updated The Orange Box with a Mac version, which means if you own it on one format, you now own it for both. Even better, your save files are now stored in the cloud and are platform agnostic. Save it on a PC, load it on a Mac, world peace through mute physicists hitting things with crowbars in alien-choked Eastern Europe.

They also updated Half-Life 2 with achievements and 'graphical upgrades' (dunno what, devilishone thinks it might be HDR and higher res textures). This gives me all the excuse I need to play them again.

Don't already own Orange Box or a Mac owner new to steam? I've got your back.

SAAAAAAAAAAAALES

The Orange Box is 30% cheaper on steam £11.89 gets you the definitive statement in the modern linear FPS in Half-Life 2 and the episodes, the perfect puzzler Portal and the finest class based shooter ever made in Team Fortress 2. MAC AND PC FRIENDLY ULTRO-BARGAIN IN CAPS!

Over on Impulse, the Mass Effect and Dragon Age bundles are on sale for the Americas and Canada only, $41.99 and $47.99 respectively.

Sins of a Solar Empire is a tiny £2.77/$3.99

Demigod is £6.94/$9.99

Gratuitous Space Battles Complete is £14.20/$20.45

And the wha-huge THQ Ultimate Bundle is only £25.78/$37.12 it contains:

Company of Heroes Gold
Company of Heroes Tales of Valor
Full Spectrum Warrior
Full Spectrum Warrior – Ten Hammers
Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights
Red Faction
Red Faction II
Red Faction Guerrilla
S.T.A.L.K.E.R – Shadow of Chernobyl
Supreme Commander
Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance
Titan Quest
Titan Quest: Immortal Throne
Warhammer 40k: Gold
Warhammer 40k: Dark Crusade
Warhammer 40k: Soulstorm

Insane.

I keep meaning to post about some games I've been playing. It's what this thread is for, after all.

[Junkenstein]

Since everyone of you fucking console jagoffs love to talk about a game that doesnt seem to have a plan for development for P(fuckin)C (And i dont trust rockstar anymore about this, after they made GTAIV almost unplayable without being patched 150 times and manhunt 2 released after years of pointless waitin)....

Has any normal person played Alpha Protocol, yet? Or tried it, at least? The reviews are the most schizoid over. They go from "The most abominable piece of shit ever made" to "A graphically imperfect but very engaging experience".

I'm a negative human, so i have the tendency to believe the No's... But if anyone give is it acheck. After i really enjoyed AC2 and i was almost sure i'd hate it...

PS: STANDARDMAN! DONT ACCUSE ME TO BE THE ONE MAKING YOU PLAY GAMES!!!! YOU TOLD ME ABOUT STEAM! I DIDNT EVEN PLAY GAMES ANYMORE! NOW I HAVE TO GET THEM ALL! AND I SUFFER BECAUSE OF A GAME ENDING!!!! ME! STONE COLD ME!!!!! I BAWLED AFTER THE ENDING OF HALF LIFE AND IT'S YOUR FAULT! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

(Throws himself out of the windows and realizes it's the ground floor. Then goes back to play Diablo 2)

[standardman]

Originally Posted by Junkenstein

Since everyone of you fucking console jagoffs love to talk about a game that doesnt seem to have a plan for development for P(fuckin)C (And i dont trust rockstar anymore about this, after they made GTAIV almost unplayable without being patched 150 times and manhunt 2 released after years of pointless waitin)....

Has any normal person played Alpha Protocol, yet? Or tried it, at least? The reviews are the most schizoid over. They go from "The most abominable piece of shit ever made" to "A graphically imperfect but very engaging experience".

I'm a negative human, so i have the tendency to believe the No's... But if anyone give is it acheck. After i really enjoyed AC2 and i was almost sure i'd hate it...

I have GTA IV on my 360 and PC, couldn't get it to work on PC but they did remove a lot of the shit recently. It's a bit of an insult since GTA started on PC.

It weird, all the way through development, I've had the same impression of it - good idea, might be poorly executed. The company that made it are of Fallout 1 and 2 but also KOTR 2 so god knows.