What game are you playing?

[Lethevich]

Playing Half-Life at the moment. Given that it is 12 years old it has aged well. However, it is less perfect than I remembered.

The graphics engine is a huge problem when rendering deep chasms, textures disappear into blackness after a very short distance, and the torch cannot illuminate that blackness, meaning that even if it has a bottom, you can't discern it.

It relies sometimes on the "ha-ha, you died because you are not psychic" formula (bridges falling underneath you in set-pieces that you are supposed to be witnessing unfold in front of you but walked too fast, etc).

The zombies are stupidly under-powered, they are slow but also hit badly. The groups of green beam aliens tend to do less damage than a same-numbered group of headcrabs, the shotgun is worse than the pistol, etc. A zombie taking 15 seconds to break down a door may have been scary when it was new, but now it is tedious.

But ignoring all that stuff, it achieves the remarkable feat of still being worth playing. Games such as Quake can't pull this off unless the person is on a retro-trip.

[greg]

Excellent! What system are you playing on? (i played it on the PS2).

[Lethevich]

PC - It's fun that I don't even have to use my gaming PC because no matter how bad this PC is, it cannot fail to perfectly run something so old.

At the moment I am stuck on my first Gargantua (after the first tentacle boss) - I think my hits aren't counting because I'm firing from a concealed place rather than in the open and I've run out of ammo. Guess it's time to reload and retry.

Edit: Oh, it's an un-killable set-piece, you need electrify some rails with a power generater elsewhere. Cool beans.

[lisa needs braces]

Ign.com awarded Uncharted 2 its "Game of the Year Award" for 2009, so rather than just dive into that one I am playing the original which is also well regarded. I'm surprised at how much I'm liking it (I've put Metal Gear Solid 4 aside to play it.)  The graphics are gorgeous and the action fast and enjoyable. One annoying thing though: Nathan Drake is clearly a psychopath. He is merely after treasure yet kills hundeds of people. At least in most other action games/first person shooters your killing of endless bad buys is morally justified (you're trying to save the world, you're in Word War II, etc.) But no. Nathan Drake just keeps killing "bad guys" who might have only picked up guns because they're trying to feed their families.

[drogulus]

Playing Half-Life at the moment. Given that it is 12 years old it has aged well. However, it is less perfect than I remembered.

The graphics engine is a huge problem when rendering deep chasms, textures disappear into blackness after a very short distance, and the torch cannot illuminate that blackness, meaning that even if it has a bottom, you can't discern it.

It relies sometimes on the "ha-ha, you died because you are not psychic" formula (bridges falling underneath you in set-pieces that you are supposed to be witnessing unfold in front of you but walked too fast, etc).

The zombies are stupidly under-powered, they are slow but also hit badly. The groups of green beam aliens tend to do less damage than a same-numbered group of headcrabs, the shotgun is worse than the pistol, etc. A zombie taking 15 seconds to break down a door may have been scary when it was new, but now it is tedious.

But ignoring all that stuff, it achieves the remarkable feat of still being worth playing. Games such as Quake can't pull this off unless the person is on a retro-trip.

     How dare you?

     

[Lethevich]

To be fair I gave up on HL towards the end, it got very tedious. I noclip and godmode cheated my way through the final two areas as it just stopped being fun. The first 4/5ths of it remain very entertaining, though.

[DavidW]

I'm surprised at how much I'm liking it (I've put Metal Gear Solid 4 aside to play it.)  The graphics are gorgeous and the action fast and enjoyable. One annoying thing though: Nathan Drake is clearly a psychopath. He is merely after treasure yet kills hundeds of people. At least in most other action games/first person shooters your killing of endless bad buys is morally justified (you're trying to save the world, you're in Word War II, etc.) But no. Nathan Drake just keeps killing "bad guys" who might have only picked up guns because they're trying to feed their families.

I did the same thing back a couple of years ago, set aside mgs4 to play Uncharted.  I thought that that the Gears of War inspired shooting sections were tedious and repetitive and not done well, same complaint with Uncharted 2, but in that game it takes up even more game time.  Still overall I liked those games.

[lisa needs braces]

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHJVolaC8pw

[lisa needs braces]

I did the same thing back a couple of years ago, set aside mgs4 to play Uncharted.  I thought that that the Gears of War inspired shooting sections were tedious and repetitive and not done well, same complaint with Uncharted 2, but in that game it takes up even more game time.  Still overall I liked those games.

Beat it this morning. I can wait to play the sequel (but I do want to play it since it's supposedly better.)

[DavidW]

Beat it this morning. I can wait to play the sequel (but I do want to play it since it's supposedly better.)

The sequel captures a cinematic feeling much better than the first game (actually much better than most games), despite my rant about the shooting sections, it's one of the best ps3 games that I've played.  I hope that you enjoy it.

[greg]

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHJVolaC8pw

Same here.

[lisa needs braces]

The sequel captures a cinematic feeling much better than the first game (actually much better than most games), despite my rant about the shooting sections, it's one of the best ps3 games that I've played.  I hope that you enjoy it.

I'm sure I will, given the unanimous strong praise.

This weekend I made progress in Metal Gear Solid 4 (I've so far been playing 21 hours on Big Boss Hard. I think I'm about to finish the 3rd act as I was fighting a boss (a flying creature) when I saved the game last. Also, I made the decision on the 3rd act to start skipping the cut scenes because the story/scenes are so self-indulgent. )

I also started to play Super Stardust HD. I think I'll have a blast trying to complete the arcade mode (which requires you to clear the 25 stages without saving.)





   

[Tapio Dimitriyevich Shostakovich]

Drakensang - River of Time /again. Love it.

[Brian]

Out of the Park Baseball 11. This game lets me become general manager of a baseball team and, although I can't actually take swings or throw pitches, I am in charge of trades, transactions, promotions and demotions, deciding who goes in the rotation and lineup, meeting payroll, setting ticket prices, and developing the minor league system. Call it a baseball game for geeks!

I started with the Opening Day 2010 Milwaukee Brewers, gutted the roster, and currently have my Brew Crew on pace to win the division in June 2012:

(So far my biggest blunder has been trading for Ryan Dempster. Since the deal went through, he's had a 9.18 ERA for me. He only cost me one mediocre prospect, but that's still a bad return.)

[Josquin des Prez]

Just bought the special edition of Monkey Island on Steam. I just got a massive nostalgic kick just by listening to the main theme again. PC gaming was so much better back when it was an exclusive hobby for basement nerds, some of those games actually had heart: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoT5qK6hpbw&feature=related

God i'd give anything to go back in those days.

[EDIT] Original:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjvD3C_nvBk&feature=related

[Lethevich]

I tried Monkey Island, but like basically all games in that genre the puzzle solutions were all too obtuse and I had no nostalgia to make me put up with it.

An excuse for a bump:

[karlhenning]

Playing "Genius." Rules here.

[Josquin des Prez]

I tried Monkey Island, but like basically all games in that genre the puzzle solutions were all too obtuse and I had no nostalgia to make me put up with it.

Sometimes they can be obtuse, other times they can be rather clever. Puzzles are only a part of the game though. The writing and story, not to mention atmosphere, make it a well worth the experience even when the puzzles are at their most illogical. Even after so many years the writing and humor still hold the same amount of charm, there really is no comparison with modern games.

[DavidW]

Like the cartoon Lethe, so true especially brings back memories of Doom.

[greg]

Like the cartoon Lethe, so true especially brings back memories of Doom.

And it reminded me of Tomb Raider...