What Are you Playing Right Now + Impressions?

I'm currently playing:

Guitar Hero III - Addictive and I can lose hours playing it online.

.Hack Vol.2 Rebirth - it's alright. Too repetitive and easy though.

KoToR - Pretty good so far, but I'm not compelled to play it...yet.

N+ is fantastic! I'm a little stuck where I'm at, I'm on a level with 4 heat seaking missile launchers and a bunch of land mines. Nastystuff! :D

Pata-pata-pata-pon! pon-pon-pata-pon! chika-chika-pata-pon! This song won't leave my head! Such a great game. Death to the Zigotons!

PixelJunk Monsters is one of the best games I've played in years. I'm completely addicted to it. Right now I'm trying to make a dent in the hard levels, and trying to get perfect scores on the medium levels. I probably have 30 hours into this game. Insanity!

Lost Odyssey is kicking my ass! I really love most everything about this game. I'm about 20 hours in. The music in this game is incredible, as is the overall presentation. This is my favorite JRPG since FFX.

Last, but not least, I've been playing Fable again. I'm playing as a nimble archer type, and playing for the good ending. The game has its flaws, but it is so charming.

Resident Evil 4 Wii - I tried playing this game, I really did. Is this really considered a modern classic? I just can't get into this game at all. It featured some of the most frustrating controls I've dealt with. Anyway, I think I'll stop tracking RE5. Maybe the genre simply isn't for me, which is what I was kinda assuming in the first place.

Apollo Justice - Just finished the game the other day. It's good. Some of the new characters are rather close to their old counterparts - Maya and Trucy both seem equally clueless. I think I actually like the way the prosecutor is a lot less antagonistic than in previous games. The last case, as they tend to be, was very good, but the first case played into it so well too. Love seeing Ema return as well as the new detective, even if she is more moody.

Zack & Wiki - I'm about a third of the way done now. With RE4 being such a disappointment, I wanted to play a Wii game in my backlog and this was the only other one. Some Capcom goodness, and a rather nostalgic point and click adventure game of sorts. Neat puzzles, nice art style, and totally annoying flying monkey. I hope the game allows me to plot his assassination as a late-game puzzle. Ding! Anyway, this game was budget priced when released, and it got another price drop about 2 months later, so there's little reason not to check it out, it's one of the very few good third party attempts on the Wii, sad to see it fail and send messages to the publishers.

Wipeout Pulse - Never played a Wipeout game before, and I wanted to screw around with a handheld game before God of War releases tomorrow, so I played a bit of this game. Very good. I can't compare it to previous games - I know that Pure is a fan favorite and this is the direct sequel. However, there's just a ton to do. There's like, 238 races in the campaign, so getting a gold in each will give you a lot of value for your game, plus toss in online playing, upcoming track and ship downloads, and so forth. There's even a screenshot tool, and a custom playlist (though it's a bit awkward getting it to work, you can put up to 30 song files into a directory). Pretty good overall impressions here.

The last big console game I finished was Lost Odyssey. It's a Squaresoft RPG from their PS1 glory days with better graphics. Nothing more, nothing less. Reviewers will likely not be happy with that, but for a number of RPG fans, they'll be totally sucked up by this game.

Shadow of the Colossus- Really good game so far (I think I've defeated 4 or 5 colossi as of now) Really dig the fights. I find that the environment is a little too bland in my opinion but I like galloping to the next battle

Def Jam Icon- After I beat the game I will never play it again. It actually is fun but I don't care too much for slow fighters. Best part of the game is how the music influences the fights. It almost turns into a match where having your music playing can be the deciding factor.

n+. It's just so addictive. Just another more level, please.

Team Fortress 2. Diversifying my cIasses a bit lately, I'm doing a lot of pyro work besides my usual cIass. Action is so fast paced I can't really see this game wearing out anytime soon.

Resident Evil 4. I can't seem to find enough time to sit down quietly and enjoy this masterpiece on my first playthrough. Instead of that, I'm slowly enjoying it like a fine wine. Brilliant pacing.

Super Mario Galaxy. Any bits of time lying around get swallowed by this game. Pure, unadulterated fun.

Well, I bought Mass Effect today so I'll try and get some impressions of it up sometime tomorrow.

The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall - Level 13 right now, just got the Dust of Restful Death on the Isle of Balfiera. Still the best in the series, if you ask me.

The History Channel: Civil War - A Nation Divided - Finished it just recently, short game and has its flaws but a nice change of pace from World War II.

Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza - Just started the thing not too long ago, fun budget game and worth the 5$ I spent on it. My only complaint is the voice acting, some of the actors (like Takagi) are horrible. Luckily McClane sounds pretty good, though. Thank god for that.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion:

I must confess, this game is pretty overwhelming. I just got past the introductory level the other day, and haven't made all that much progress since. I spent some time just exploring and getting to know the town. I've journeyed through a few caves and have gathered some good weapons, but there's so many things to do I'm really not sure what to do first. Then I've repeatedly been in trouble with the guards, over pretty much nothing... sometimes accidental things. I've served like 3 jail sentences already. This last time I resisted the guards for a while, but kept running into them and just decided to get it over with and serve my time. Then I stole the guard's key as he walked past... didn't even have to open the cell since he did it himself to come in and beat me. I was narrowly able to escape the prison and just kept running throughout the rough terrain until I lost them. This is when things finally started to get fun for the first time. Having lost all my weapons and armor, and being very wanted by the guards, I've had to lay low and rummage through the country side, beat some things to death with my bare fists (which is unbelievably entertaining), then I stole a guard's horse and headed my way to the first objective. I've endured much chaos since breaking out of that prison and I am loving it. Although I'm totally gathered a bunch of new weapons and armor and whatnot, I'm planning on heading back into that prison and stealing my old items back fairly soon. That should be a blast. Things are definitely looking up.

Devil May Cry 4 - Been playing this game since its release and I still haven't grown tired of the gameplay. I've kind of slowed down playing it in favor of other games, but this game is an absolute blast to play. The combat is tight and engaging, and I find the visuals stunning and the music perfect for demon slaying. Level repetition rears its ugly head far too much for my tastes, but they gave me what I wanted with the free-style combat. Playing as Dante on Bloody Palace is the perfect playground for trying out all of his moves. I love being overwhelmed with options.

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: I'm playing a bit of this as well. Never played Daggerfall, though I hear the game is absolutely massive. I tried Morrowind on the XBox, but I couldn't get into it, but it was more of the technical issues rather than the actual game itself. Oblivion is incredibly addicting, the issues I have with the game are overshadowed by everything else. I finally got the chance to play this game in HD and everything looks stunning.

Rez: Never new what this game was about. Watched youtube videos and never really got it. Then I played it and found it to be an incredibly enjoyable experience. Taking the ordinary mechanics of shooters and adding layers of trance music as you progress made the game feel very unique. Currently trying to work on score attacks.

Super Mario Galaxy: What hasn't been said already? This game is very fun. It never feels like you're doing the same thing for too long and manages to keep me engaged with different mechanics with the wiimote without feeling tacked on. My biggest issue with the game is the camera. I normally never have an issue with camera controls in games, but I'm fighting with this one the whole way through, especially when underwater. I hear so much praise for it, but I can't understand why. I find it really annoying

Resident Evil 4 Wii - I tried playing this game, I really did. Is this really considered a modern classic? I just can't get into this game at all. It featured some of the most frustrating controls I've dealt with. Anyway, I think I'll stop tracking RE5. Maybe the genre simply isn't for me, which is what I was kinda assuming in the first place.

argianas

I have to ask, were you using the Wii controller, or the Gamecube controller? I never played the Wii version of the game, but Gamecube controls worked very well. I think the issue some people have with the controls might come from expecting third person shooter mechanics, when it is very similar in Resident Evil controls, but with a different perspective.

Trying to stick to a game or two right now. Not easy when I have Uncharted, Mario Galaxy, and CoD4 in my backlog. However, I am playing through:

No More Heroes: I love the action. I wish they would've made a more traditional action game with levels and end bosses. the open world does nothing for this game. I'm ranked #6, so I have 4 more main battles to go.

Endless Ocean: What an amazing experience. The sense of discovery and wonder are unparalleled. I am really blown away by this game. I hope it does well.

Lost Odyssey (Xbox 360)-Keeping me entertained so far. I'm on the 2nd disk and the story is starting to gain momentum. The turn-based battles are really exciting, and are a really good change of pace for me. I'm really loving the main character, Kaim. The 1000 year dream text sequences really add some interesting background information about Kaim. The game provides a good challenge and forces you to think out your actions in combat. Does feel out of place on the 360 though. I just cant imagine the typical Gears player playing a JRPG for over 40 hours.

N+ (Xbox 360)-A very simple but addictive game. This is essentially a platformer puzzle game with excellent physics. It provides for me the same level of charm that Portal brought to the table. Only complaint is the lag in the online multiplayer.

Mlb 08: The Show (PS3)- Just got this game today, but I've spent plenty of time with the demo. Excellent, excellent baseball game. The graphics show what the ps3 is really capable of. I'm going to be putting in a lot of hours in this game.

Playing a few games right now.

RE4 (Wii)- controls are ok but not spectacular. I've played the original GCN version for a bit and the Wii controls are a step up, but could be better. I like the game for the most part, but occasionally it seems like the developers made some parts hard for the sake of being hard- a bad design decision. When that's not the case, it's a lot of fun, though.

Mario Galaxy (Wii)- It's a pretty fun game, but not the best game ever like some say. Frankly, I've sort of lost interest with it. It just feels like a halfway point between the sidescroller Marios and M64 and does neither of them that well.

Pro Evolution Soccer (Wii)- One of the local game shops had it on display (they have a Wii running all day) so I've become friends with the workers so I can play more! Seriously, the controls for this are the real deal. I think I'd be even better at the game if it was in English, which would make learning the controls a bit easier.

Stranglehold (PS3)- I can only play it in 15 minute bursts, as the gameplay has sort of worn out on me. It was cool to see a Hong Kong styled movie-game appear, but once the novelty wears off, there's not much else.

I'm thinking about starting up Vampire- The Masquerade: Bloodlines soon.

[QUOTE="argianas"]

Resident Evil 4 Wii - I tried playing this game, I really did. Is this really considered a modern classic? I just can't get into this game at all. It featured some of the most frustrating controls I've dealt with. Anyway, I think I'll stop tracking RE5. Maybe the genre simply isn't for me, which is what I was kinda assuming in the first place.

_Dez_

I have to ask, were you using the Wii controller, or the Gamecube controller? I never played the Wii version of the game, but Gamecube controls worked very well. I think the issue some people have with the controls might come from expecting third person shooter mechanics, when it is very similar in Resident Evil controls, but with a different perspective.

It's the Wii controls I was using. I don't think it matters though, as I think it was more the way they designed the gameplay than the actual control scheme I'm choosing. It seems more geared towards people who played previous RE games, which I hear have even worse controls so these would seem better in comparison. Still, I find this among the toughest games to jump into control-wise among the many many games I've played.

Resistance: Fall Of Man - Always stayed away from this game because I didn't like the demo. Ended up renting it and really getting into it... beating it in 2 days. :oops: Although derivative at times, I was really impressed with the pacing, the polished shooting gameplay, and the overall feel of the game. Just goes to show you, demos can be misleading.

Mass Effect - One of my favorite RPG's ever, playing through a second time, now as a Paragon. I'm also completing the side-missions - most of which suck. And I really wish they would've left the moon car out of the game. :)

Metroid Prime 3: I've been playing this off and on for 5 months, and I have a serious love/hate relationship with the game. I'm planning on picking it back up tomorrow, but we'll see.

PS3-Uncharted...3rd playthrough. This game is amazing. Great characters.

360-Gears of War...I finally decided to try this game out. It's great, but hard...like really hard. Pretty good, but a little bit overhyped.

PSP-Socom: Tactical Strike...nice change of pace for the Socom series, but I can't wait for Socom 4 for PS3.

Orange Box (XBox 360): I have been playing through each of the single-player games on the Orange Box for about the past 3-4 weeks. I started with Half-Life 2, which was my second playthrough. I played it on the PC when it was released and decided this time around to play it all the way through on hard difficulty. I thought it would still be a quickie since I had played through it but it put up a lot more of a fight than I thought, hehe, especially in the later stages. While I do like the PC version better, I felt the differences were pretty minimal outside of the controls. The game did a little like it's starting to age in a few spots, and playing through on hard is a much more frustrating experience than normal, but it's still one of the best games out there.

Then it was on to the new stuff - Portal, Episode 1 and Episode 2. Portal's great, and the final sequences are hilarious. It's easy to see why pretty much everyone likes this game. I don't really have any complaints about it, not even the length since beating the game unlocks some pretty hard challenges that satisfy the need for more that you feel after beating the normal campaign and will keep you busy for a while. Ep. 1, which I was playing for the first time (can't really explain why I never picked it up before this) was a bit on the easy side. It's cool to fight alongside Alyx, but she did too much of the work. There's an achievement called something like "The One True Bullet" where you get a bunch of points if you play through the game firing only a single bullet, and I did it on my only playthrough and was actually surprised at how easy it was. Plus it was a bit short. I am glad in hindsight that I did not buy it separately because while the experience is a strong, quality experience, I might have felt a bit slighted due to length and ease of the game. Ep. 2 is what I'm currently playing and am enjoying very much. It's nice to have a change of scenery into nature a bit -- into some caves and forest areas -- since sometimes HL feels a bit heavy on stuff like ventilation shafts, pipes, sewers, toxic waste, abandoned buildings, etc (although those of course are in Ep. 2 too). Both overall are worthy expansions to HL2 and outstanding shooters but don't quite match the brilliance of the original. I will finish Ep. 2 probably tonight or tomorrow, then maybe dabble in Team Fortress 2 a bit before Brawl's release although I'm not sure since I'm not much for multiplayer when I don't know the people I'm playing against.

Sins of a Solar Empire (PC): Deeper than the Marianas Trench. There's so much to learn and manage. If you're good at RTS or turn-based strategy, this game's going to come a lot easier, but I'm good at neither, so I've only been taking it in in small doses. I kept hearing how it's a mix of Civ and a game like Homeworld or Starcraft, but it's more like a combination since you have to do much of the same type of stuff that you do in Civ in addition to a lite version of the gathering/building/battles that you see in an RTS. Any sort of experience in those genres helps greatly with this game -- I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who doesn't have that. But I have to imagine that strategy fans will love this game because while not flawless, so much is included and it is mostly done well. Those who prefer RTS may be turned off by the slower pace of the battles, but overall my early impressions is that it's a winner.

Really have to try Sins of the Solar Empire. Sounds like my kind of PC game. The real time battles I could do without, but ok.

Currently playing Lost Odyssey and liking it well enough, as one of the richest jrpgs I've come across recently. Just started playing Patapon on the PSP as well, and so far I'm very impressed with it. It's innovative, fun and surprisingly deep. I can see it getting a bit repetitive over time, but it's so charming and clever I'm sure i won't mind.

PS2 (Since I got it some moths ago):

-DBZ Budokai Tenkaichi 3 - Addictive, lot of characters, great battles. Fun game. I would have added some more maps... the idea of the same map but in midday, afternoon and night is... boring. Lack of maps, but even then an excellent game.

-Burnout 3: Fun at the beggining, thn you just play to listen the tracks.

-Rogue Galaxy: everyone is saying what a great game this is, but I got bored in no time (I'm a hardcore RPG gamer so...)

PC:

-Warhammer 40K: Dark Crusade : reminds me of C&C 2 or C&C 2: Yuri's revenge. But boring, since although doing the same things (which I find fun) than in C&C, in this game you have to capture and secure many strategics points as part of the missions... in all missions, even skirmish. So... Boring, since it doesn't let you concencentrate in the strategy.

-Sins of a Solar Empire: Saw the qualifications in this website and though "Hey! Seems good". When I begun to play, I did the tutorial... didn't get too much, did it again... got bored. Tryied to play, WTF??? Naaaahhhh.... returning it today.

Fable: The lost chapters. Old, but forever a clasic.

Silent Hill 4: the room. ... .... didn't play it much. You feel the convertion from joystick to keyboard is not well done. Why having a PS2 would I play that game on the pc? Wel... I'm like that.

Sins of A Solar Empire - Amazing multiplayer game. Not much more to say about this one.

WH40K: DC - The greatest multiplayer RTS ever IMO (I consider Sins a completely different genre though, I'd hate to have to choose between the two), I'm getting prepared for the release of the new expansion "Soulstorm".

TW: Medieval 2/Rome - I'm trying to make up my mind on which is the greatest Total War game. I'm kind of tilting towards Rome.

Halo 3 - I doubt I'll ever get bored with this one. I can spend hours just watching saved films of my more memorable matches from different perspectives.

Rez HD - It's like an acid trip, only you don't wake up in wierd places the next morning.

Sins of A Solar Empire(PC): Kinda disappointed that the game is only skirmishes. The intro had me thinking I was in for one hell of an epic campaign across the cosmos. I'm still at a pretty intermediate level but I have yet to find any reason at all to build cruisers. Frigates and capital ships are all I really need to win a conflict, but I suppose someone who knows how to use the cruisers well would completely dominate me and prove me wrong. I love the scale of the game. I get great satisfaction warping my fleet millions of lightyears across the galaxy to help my ally or launch attacks. The sheer sizeof the theater of battle makes the whole experience feel so epic. An equally large tech tree always has me busy improving my military and culture. The selection of building coupled with the logistic/military slot system is always spurring me on to conquer new worlds and expand my empire. This is a welcome motivation rather than expanding for the sheer giggles of it. Pirates can be annoying and the black market is always jerking my chains, but then it wouldn't make much sense if space pirates wern't, at the very least, an inconvenience and the black market was Wal--Mart friendly now would it? Good visuals to boot.

I give Sins of a Solar Empire two appendages flailing around in the air up.

Trauma Center: New Blood: Im about 90% through the game and its been a great experience, at first I thought it would be an easy pick up and play sort of game but in some parts.. I found it quite challenging. Either way I recommend this title for any Wii owner.

Trauma Center: New Blood: Im about 90% through the game and its been a great experience, at first I thought it would be an easy pick up and play sort of game but in some parts.. I found it quite challenging. Either way I recommend this title for any Wii owner.

Pi-R-Sq

Viewtiful Joe - I'm on the last half of the final chapter.The game is great.Excellent sense of styIe,great action,some intense challenge,and some extremely inventive puzzles and scenarios.There are times when the game feels like it's offering too much challenge,but that just makes the game all the more satisfying once you figure it out.Need to find a copy of Viewtiful Joe 2.

Killer7 - My second favorite GC game now.Bought it early January,and I'm going through my second playthrough of the game,this time in Killer8 mode.When I first played the game,I didn't particularly like it,but then it just "clicked" for me,and now I can't get enough or stop thinking of this game.

SSX Blur - Picked it up...last year,I think?Took a small hiatus from it,but now I'm getting back into it,and I'm having a blast.I finally unlocked the second peak,which I was unable to do several months to do.The controls have a steep learning curve,especially with the ubermoves,and I'm sure some people will never get themselves to like the control scheme,but now the game controls extremely naturally for me,after tweaking the analogue stick/nunchuck sensitivity,of course.Addictive gameplay,and some great music.

Metroid Prime

No More Hereo

Ive been playing

DMC4

COD4

The Orange Box

and Trying to get all the achiements for assassins creed

And many others but these are my favs

I'm in-between games right now. Wrapped up The Witcher on Sunday (such a great game with a surprisingly satisfying ending) and I'm planning to format my HDD one of these days. After that is done, I think I'm finally going to start S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl. But then again, it would be nice to take care of something from my backlog...hmm, what about Ico? Also, I will be buying Viva Pinata real soon.

EDIT: Heh, forgot to mention the only game I'm actually playing right now - Team Fortress 2. Impressions? When you've played something over 300 hours, you're way past the impressions point.

I'm in-between games right now. Wrapped up The Witcher on Sunday (such a great game with a surprisingly satisfying ending) and I'm planning to format my HDD one of these days. After that is done, I think I'm finally going to start S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl. But then again, it would be nice to take care of something from my backlog...hmm, what about Ico? Also, I will be buying Viva Pinata real soon.

EDIT: Heh, forgot to mention the only game I'm actually playing right now - Team Fortress 2. Impressions? When you've played something over 300 hours, you're way past the impressions point.

UpInFlames

I think you'll like Viva Pinata. I can understand why the game never took off with the mainstream, but it's surprisingly deep and involving.

I think you'll like Viva Pinata. I can understand why the game never took off with the mainstream, but it's surprisingly deep and involving.Jbul

I'm sure I will. I fell in love with it the second I saw it and was ecstatic when the PC port was announced which I didn't expect to happen at all. I haven't had the time for a new game for a while now (Team Fortress 2, The Witcher and Gladius have kept me busy for months), but an opening has appeared and it's the perfect time to dive into that game.

I'm playing through Psychonauts currently, and I have to say - I'm having fun AND wonder "WTF were they thinking?".

Waiting for Condemned 2 though, and then Vegas 2....

I just finished STALKER ast night and got to see three of the seven endings. A regular one, a hidden one and the complete ending. Once the patches improved stability and cut down on the bugs, the game turned out to be excellent but with quite a few flaws.

Right now I'm starting a Twisted Metal Head On: ETE marathon and seeing how many characters I can beat the game with before my gf comes over... So far I'm done with Axel, Mr. Slam and Thumper.