Video Games - a general discussion thread — Page 180

I just got a new PC, one that actually has some good gaming capabilities (been on a crappy laptop since '07), so I'm catching up on a lot of the big stuff I missed out on when it was new, like the Orange Box and Bioshock. Any other recommendations? I'm thinking of going for either Left 4 Dead or Batman: Arkham Asylum next.

Also, anyone else play Team Fortress 2 on PC? I'd totally be down for an OT.com team. :D

You're on the right track with the Orange Box and Bioshock. Being as those were the first two games you listed, I take it you are a shooter fan, so yeah, I'd definitely say go for Left 4 Dead or Left 4 Dead 2 (over all, I like L4D better, but L4D2 has some pretty cool additions). Those games are a lot of fun, but they really shine the most when you play them online with friends (I've had some fun games with strangers too), otherwise they wear thin pretty quick.

Arkham Asylum looks really awesome. I have still never played it, but I have only heard good things about it.

Braid is absolutely fantastic, a really fun change of pace.

Bioshock 2 was released today, I've just spent the last hour playing it and it definitely lives up to my own personally expectations. Of course, wouldn't recommend it until well after you beat the first one.

If you liked Resident Evil 4, then I'd definitely recommend Resident Evil 5. If you never played Resident Evil 4, then I'd highly recommend it.

It seems like these days Halo is equated with downing copious amounts of Bud Lite and going four wheeling (i.e. very redneck), for some reason. So, at the risk of sounding extremely low class, I actually really enjoyed Halo 3 and would recommend it. It feels a lot different from other shooters. Rather than just blasting through things, you often have to stop and plan out an attack strategy, otherwise you're doomed to fail again and again.

Fallout 3 has earned a permanent spot on my all time favorite list. I've gotten every achievement in that game, and yet there is still so much of it I haven't seen, so many characters my character has never met, and so many locations I have never discovered. The GOTY edition comes with all the expansions, which are definitely worth getting. 

These stupid exclusive items kind of annoy me. It really isn't very fair. If I don't buy L4D2 via pre-order, then I never get to play with the baseball bat, or if I don't bend over backwards buying junk food or trading with people, I never get to play with these cool little bonus items on ME2.

Rogue Squadron on the N64 had an unlockable Naboo Fighter, it was a cool little bonus to discover months after the game was released. I imagine that if that came out today, the Naboo Fighter would be some exclusive pre-order DLC or something you have to pay $5 dollars for.

I guess they are nice little bonuses for the fans, not things you have to have to enjoy the game, but fun extras for those who want to go through the effort. But let's say some guy buys a 360 this time next year, plays Mass Effect, and becomes a HUGE fan of the series. He hears about these cool DLC things that he can never have, it would be pretty disappointing. I think it is kind of lame. They are turning something valueless that costs them nothing into bonuses that should supposedly carry some value.

Also, remember back when you'd get cool but worthless swag (like t-shirts, or posters) for pre-ordering games? At least it was something tangible back then. A lot better than my lame little extra multiplayer characters I got for pre-ordering BS2. 

Okay, enough ranting. Tune in next week to hear me go off on achievements/trophies.

C3PX said:

You're on the right track with the Orange Box and Bioshock. Being as those were the first two games you listed, I take it you are a shooter fan, so yeah, I'd definitely say go for Left 4 Dead or Left 4 Dead 2 (over all, I like L4D better, but L4D2 has some pretty cool additions). Those games are a lot of fun, but they really shine the most when you play them online with friends (I've had some fun games with strangers too), otherwise they wear thin pretty quick.

Arkham Asylum looks really awesome. I have still never played it, but I have only heard good things about it.

Braid is absolutely fantastic, a really fun change of pace.

Bioshock 2 was released today, I've just spent the last hour playing it and it definitely lives up to my own personally expectations. Of course, wouldn't recommend it until well after you beat the first one.

If you liked Resident Evil 4, then I'd definitely recommend Resident Evil 5. If you never played Resident Evil 4, then I'd highly recommend it.

It seems like these days Halo is equated with downing copious amounts of Bud Lite and going four wheeling (i.e. very redneck), for some reason. So, at the risk of sounding extremely low class, I actually really enjoyed Halo 3 and would recommend it. It feels a lot different from other shooters. Rather than just blasting through things, you often have to stop and plan out an attack strategy, otherwise you're doomed to fail again and again.

Fallout 3 has earned a permanent spot on my all time favorite list. I've gotten every achievement in that game, and yet there is still so much of it I haven't seen, so many characters my character has never met, and so many locations I have never discovered. The GOTY edition comes with all the expansions, which are definitely worth getting. 

Actually, I was never really that into shooters until fairly recently; I liked them, but given options they would never be my first choice. It just seems like the best games coming out for the PC these days happen to be damn good FPSs. :P   (Never have been a big fan of Halo though. Tried several times, just never really clicked.) I'm actually making my first foray into online gaming, as Team Fortress 2 is the first online game I've ever really played.

I'll probably pick up Fallout 3, but not until after I've finished HL2, Bioshock, and Batman. Man, this is going to be a tough semester. :P

Edit: OH! I just remembered, I recently dug up all the old Dark Forces/Jedi Knight games. They all run except for Jedi Knight/Mysteries of the Sith, something about not being compatible with the newest Directx (running a Windows 7 machine). This is my first time to play Jedi Academy though, diggin' it so far.

Looks like that port of Perfect Dark that was announced for Xbox Arcade last year will be coming out in March and cost 800 ms points. There are plenty of screen shots for it floating around out there, and it looks absolutely beautiful. Definitely my next (and last for a good long while) game purchase. 

Anyone else here playing Bioshock 2? I have only been able to clock a few hours on it so far, but I am really enjoying it. Seems like it is another game the general population has decided not to like before even playing it, which has been the case for ever game I've bought over the last six months (ODST, L4D2, and now BS2). Maybe I just have crappy taste in games and am not get the full gaming experience the modern world has to offer.

At the end of the day I am really not that into games. The field fascinates me, I am really into the history and the business side of things more than anything (probably a result of reading the book Game Over in my late teens). I just like to come home from work, pop a disc into the Xbox and unwind for thirty minutes or so, shut it down, and go do something more productive. FPSs serve that purpose really well, and these days some of, what I feel, are the coolest stories are told through sci-fi FPS games. The Half-Life series including Portal, and Bioshock are some of the most entertaining sci-fi stories I have come across in a very long time.

I am also not the type that likes to talk on the phone much, I am too antcy to sit still for any period of time without multiple types of or no stimulation. Having one part of my brain working minimally while the rest sits idle drives me half insane. Since a couple of my close childhood friends have 360s, I find it a real treat to be able to stay current with them while killing zombies/Covenant invaders together, it feels more like we are in the same room together, and provides me enough stimuli to keep comfortable. Before I got my 360 the extent to which we kept in touch was an email or a phone call every six months or so, so Halo and L4D have been a real treat for me for that aspect alone.

I read a review that said the second Bioshock was good but not as good as the first or as shockingly innovative.  Seems to be a fair review unlike the fanboy adoration of ME2 which is a very good game but story wise not as good as the first but has better gameplay mechanics.

I just hope Arkham Asylum 2 is as good as the first but sequels are almost never better than the first except in the case of Empire Strikes Back.

The first Bioshock is a pretty unique experience (err, unless you played System Shock 2...), Bioshock 2 on the other hand is more of the same, with a great deal of new features. I think more of the same is what a lot of us wanted, I for one really like dropping back into the world of Rapture and picking up where I left off. It is very familiar, but yet there are plenty of surprises. Not been there done that familiar, but pleasant nostalgia familiar. There is plenty of new stuff in there, and an entirely new storyline. This is more of a fan adventure/mystery story than the dark dystopian novel like story of the original, but I think they did a really good job making it a fresh new tale from the world of Rapture, without making it feel like they it had to be tightly woven to or live up to the first games story (from what I have seen of it so far, anyway). Rapture in the first game was a huge place that felt like it had many tales to tell. BS2 definitely fits into this.

However, talks of turning it into a trilogy of games and even a film on some back burner some place makes me a little leery. They stand a good chance to really beat this poor franchise into the ground and severly cheapen it. I think a sequel was a great idea, but I don't think they should take it any further, at least not for many years down the road.

The "sequels not as good as originals" thing mostly applies to movies.  I think most game sequels are expected to be better than the original. 

Speaking of Dante's Inferno, I was in a book store today and saw a copy of the actual literary work bearing the cover art of the video game... and a little part of me died inside.

The Demo for GoWIII is on the District 9 Blu Ray.  At least, that's where I got it.

As a non PS gamer, I used to think I was really missing out on the God of War franchise.  I was always looking for the GOW clone to come to Xbox so I could stop pining for the series.  If the demo for GOWIII is any indication, I guess I can stop worrying about it.  There are some cool concepts and generally the Greek Mythology setting entices me... but the game itself I didn't think was that fun.  And I can't say I enjoyed the gore or brutality much.

I enjoyed the first two God of War games (have actually yet to beat the second one), it was the visuals that attracted me to the game. I have always loved Greek mythology, so that was another reason I was drawn to it. Ultimately, anyone going into it for the mythology will be disappointed, as there is actually no attempt by the creators to actually follow the real mythology, rather they take massive liberties with it just taking chunks they thought were cool and tossing them in where ever they feel like (which I still enjoyed well enough).

In the end, it is a very visually pleasing buttom masher filled with plenty of puzzles of varying difficulty levels (most of them being not at all). But it is also extremely gorey, so anyone who dislikes gore in their games won't care for it.

There is also a fair deal of female nudity in them, the first two both featuring a sex mini game that earns you extra points (it is really lame, the camera pans away, and you pretty much play dance, dance revolution with the sounds of your character grunting and the women groaning. I felt it the whole thing was in pretty bad taste and did absolutely nothing to help the game out. Just added to please the large protion of the games audience who have never actually had the opportunity to do that in real life). The Gorgons and the Sirens (who, interestingly enough dwell in the desert, far, far away from any source of water) go around with their breasts hanging out, as do some of the temple priestesses.

Originally, missing out on God of War III and Metal Gear Solid 4 were the only reasons I had to think twice about buying a 360 instead of a PS3. Since I have still yet to beat GOWII or MGS3, and have kind of lost interest in both series, I am glad I didn't let those factors motivate me too much.

The last Tomb Raider game I finished (or enjoyed) was Tomb Raider 1 in 1995.  I tried TRII and one of the other sequels, but they were just missing something that made them... fun. 

But for some reason, Tomb Raider Legend stuck out to me as something worth looking into.  The demo was pre-loaded on my 360, so it was one of the first impressions the 360 made on me.  At any rate, I picked up all 3 360 games this fall and started with Anniversary. 

AnniversaryT was a nice trip down memory lane and I thought they modernized it very well.  (The available commentary has the original designer and the remake designer comparing notes.  It's pretty interesting).  Anniversary was released after Legend, but looks and plays like a slightly older game- so I think it was wise to start there. 

Legend was really fun.  They seem to have morphed Lara into half Indiana Jones and half James Bond.  This is what I think they were trying with the 90's sequels, but it never gelled well.  Legend was "lighthearted" and had plenty of "action set pieces" aside from the normal puzzle, exploration and basic action elements.  The story really moves and seems to be one that you can actually follow.

I'm about halfway into Underworld.  It's a direct sequel to Legend, but it seems to have changed theme quite a bit.  It's more focused and driven, also darker and more serious.  The graphics also underwent a massive upgrade which gives the game a nice slick look.  It also brings in elements of Anniversary- both from a game mechanics perspective and a storytelling one as well.  So it nicely ties the three games together.

In all, the three new games seem to avoid whatever was dragging the 90s sequels down and making them "unfun."  It seems that Tomb Raider borrowed from the original Prince of Persia and and then improved on it, then Prince of Persia Sands of Time borrowed back and then improved on it again, and now Tomb Raider has borrowed the best from everything including the new Uncharted games.  So If you liked the original game from way back when, you might want to give the new ones a shot.  If you've been looking at the games wondering if they were any good, you can know that I at least have found them to be very fun.

Now only if they would lower the price on the two DLC levels for Underworld.  I spent $10 on the game, and they're asking me to spend $20 on the DLC?  Where is Adam Smith's invisible hand?!?!?!

Also, I'm starting my first play through of SystemShock.  I thought about trying to emulate the KB/M controls to my Xbox controller (I'm playing on my laptop and don't want to deal with an actual mouse) but it seems that the cursor is sort of required too much to do that.

Has anyone played this recently and have any advice for a modern gamer playing an old game?