The Video Game Thread - what are you playing?

Toge · Post by **Toge** » 24 Aug 2006, 18:51

The game itself if £18 from play.com, which is cheaper than all the other formats... updates/patches are free from sites like PES Insight.

And yes, no-one is as geeky as me

Yi - Get it on PC and I'll give you a game

Toge · Post by **Toge** » 24 Aug 2006, 18:53

http://www.play.com/Search.aspx?searcht ... x=0&go.y=0

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 24 Aug 2006, 20:49

I've been playing GTA:San Andreas (PS2).

Ray_Rogers · Post by **Ray_Rogers** » 26 Aug 2006, 07:01

thelostdragon wrote:I remember that I enjoyed "Diablo 2". Is it still enjoyable these days? I mean is it a timeless game as say "Tetris"?

First time playing it (it's my housemate's) and I'm already near the end of Act II. My character is a lvl 23 Barbarian with of course his name being Conan.

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 26 Aug 2006, 11:13

EvaUnit02 wrote:I've been playing GTA:San Andreas (PS2).

Did you just start with the game? Have you played the other 2 (3d versions)?

I was very excited about this game when I read the previews and reviews and all, but somehow when I got it it just didnt click with me. I've heard about others having the same problem with this game, and that you need to persevere a bit, but so far I havent done so and left it...

So tell me what you think of it.

Toge · Post by **Toge** » 26 Aug 2006, 21:24

RE4 in under 2 hours!

http://speeddemosarchive.com/ResidentEvil4.html

amazing!

thelostdragon · Post by **thelostdragon** » 27 Aug 2006, 03:29

Toge wrote:RE4 in under 2 hours!

http://speeddemosarchive.com/ResidentEvil4.html

amazing!

Get the fuck out of here. I don't believe a single word of this, lol! Under 2 hours?

*Loading the videos.*

Ray_Rogers · Post by **Ray_Rogers** » 31 Aug 2006, 23:20

Still Diablo II!
I accidentally used a HEX Editor and screwed up my save file. Started all over again but still the same class and name. I'm already lvl. 13.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 03 Sep 2006, 21:11

DKC 3 on GBA (actually DS Lite but you know what I mean).

Fun game that brings back memories of a SNES classic, more annoying than I remember at times though, unsurprisingly, the resolution had to come down a little, it doesn't seem as easy to control as the SNES version and the music isn't nearly as good or atmospheric.

The Game Over screen jingle is cute though

Seven out of Ten

IronMonkey · Post by **IronMonkey** » 03 Sep 2006, 21:49

Today I finished Contract J.A.C.K. Its nowhere near as good as the other 2 games in the No-One Lives Forever series!

I am currently making my way through Halo 2 on XBox...

Kurgan · Post by **Kurgan** » 07 Oct 2006, 22:43

My brother bought Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence today, and it doth rock.

I've personally being playing Company of Heroes (which is great, by the way) and Defcon which is a really well thought out little game. The demo gives you a great idea of what to expect from the full game, seeing as how it is pretty much the full game.
Heartily can recommend any of the three mentioned above, especially the last one which only costs £10 if you want the full thing.

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 20 Nov 2006, 01:51

I bought NBA Street V3 on friday (10 euro), and played it tonight. I dont understand it very well yet, but I seem to be winning my games so far, and it's a lot of fun as well. I dont know how long I'll stay interested but I'd rate it at least an 8 or a 9 up till now.

I'm thinking about buying Oddworld; Strangers Wrath, and very maybe Half Life 2.
Oddworld is supposedly a pretty good game with very nice design and good sound/music. I've read a bunch of very favourable reviews, although it's also mentioned that it isnt very 'original'.

As I said, I'm also thinking of getting Half-Life 2, as I've never ever played it before (havent even played Half Life 1 before), BUT I think I wont buy it for Xbox, as it's supposedly coming out early next year for the 360, which I will probably buy, and since it very probable that Half Life 2 will be much better on the 360 (it has ALOT more content, and obviously better graphics and such). So I will want my first experience with the game to be on the 360.

Keung · Post by **Keung** » 20 Nov 2006, 14:01

Bought Tony Hawks Project 8 the day it came out and it is amazing! There's a new feature called 'Nail The Trick' and what you do is control each one of your legs with each analog stick while in slow motion. Here's a video for anyone thinking wtf? lol

http://youtube.com/watch?v=5k_pG_BvFYY

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 20 Nov 2006, 15:39

Why EA even bothered with an Xbox port of Half-Life 2 is beyond me.
A. The console wouldn't do the game's visuals the slightest justice.
B. Xbox 360 was almost out the door by the time the port was released.

IronMonkey · Post by **IronMonkey** » 20 Nov 2006, 18:21

Actually the XBox version of Half-Life 2 running in 480p does look pretty good. The only gripe I have is that the framerate drops when the Havok physics engine comes into play.

Anyway, I'm STILL playing Ninja Gaiden Black (can't get enough of it!) and I'm also getting back in to Project Gotham Racing 2...

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 21 Nov 2006, 00:08

I never really 'clicked' with PGR2. I played the original Metropolis Street Racing on the Dreamcast a billion times, probably almost finished it, but PGR2 on Xbox was pretty boring I felt. I cant really put my finger on WHY I feel it's boring, but I justw asnt wowed by it at all.

My favourite racegame on xbox is without a doubt Rallisport Challenge 2, followed by Forza.

Almost picked up Oddworld today, but didnt. Seems like a nice game but I also have a few other games I should be playing first (Psychonauts, Windwaker, etc)

Been playing NBA Street V3 throughout the day. I'm in career-mode (or whatever it's called), and I seem to be doing fine. Won 48 games, lost 0. Won a bunch of tournaments, although havent won a dunking contest yet.
It's a cool game, but it does have a few flaws. One of them being it's not always very clear where the ball is, and who has it. A minor flaw in a fast, hectic game, but still. When it comes to tricks, I'm mostly buttonmashing, as it seems it does a different move I press the same combination anyway...
Also been invited to join a few NBA teams, but declined them all. Wanna continue with my own team for the moment. Also not really sure what joining an NBA team will do for me.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 26 Nov 2006, 00:23

I've been playing uncut Japanese version of Genma Onimusha on my Xbox. It is SO much better than the PS2 version it is not funny.

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 26 Nov 2006, 01:08

EvaUnit02 wrote:I've been playing uncut Japanese version of Genma Onimusha on my Xbox. It is SO much better than the PS2 version it is not funny.

Is the uncut japanese version different from the european release? If so, what are the differences?

You have a modded xbox, right? Can you name the most important benefits for you?

Cause I'm still thinking about getting a 2nd xbox, but then I'll have it modded. 2 reasons: Xbox is my favourite console, so if mine ever breaks down, I'd like a back-up. And I'd especially like one where I could back-up all the games on the HD, so I wont run the risk of losing any of them due to disk-failures, or a laser-failure.
2nd reason is that there are still a couple of games on the Xbox that I dont have yet, but I'd really like. Big problem being that they arent sold anywhere anymore.

Other reasons would be the region-free dvd player, not having to use the remote control, playing DIVX and such, and the emulators allowing me to play some old games I used to love...

Anyway, back on topic. After having bought Battlefield 2 for the xbox about 4 months orso ago, I decided to open it up and give ita try. Didnt bother with the single-player as supposedly it's crap. MP is fun though, although you have the usual problems of teammembers being idiots and shooting you, and people constantly playing in the same map. I like it better then Halo 2 though, cause there you feel like you hardly stand a chance as people will just jump and stab you, or are great at sniping etc cause they know the map etc. BF2 seems a bit more accesible for the starting player.

Also bought Oddworld, Strangers wrath today. gave it a quick try, and it's OK. I'm guessing I'm just not a big fan of the platform-shooting genre. It doesnt really 'wow' me or anything. I have the same issue with the prince of Persia games. I'm just not that interested in progressing, or getting involved in the story etc... which is a shame cause I can tell they ARE good games.

Toge · Post by **Toge** » 26 Nov 2006, 12:25

anyone with pes6 yet? fantastic game

IronMonkey · Post by **IronMonkey** » 26 Nov 2006, 13:01

Yi-Long wrote:You have a modded xbox, right? Can you name the most important benefits for you?

Stream media from your PC with XBMC! Videos, photos & music can all be streamed to your XBox through a LAN. That is my main reason. You can also use HD modes on a modified XBox (I use mine in 720p).

Yi-Long wrote:Cause I'm still thinking about getting a 2nd xbox, but then I'll have it modded. 2 reasons: Xbox is my favourite console, so if mine ever breaks down, I'd like a back-up. And I'd especially like one where I could back-up all the games on the HD, so I wont run the risk of losing any of them due to disk-failures, or a laser-failure.

If you're going to buy a new XBox, go for the Argos £50 offer. You get an Xbox & 4 games (Halo 2, PGR 2, Fable & Forza Motorsport) for £50! I'm going to buy another XBox from Argos & put my old XBox in my parents living room so that they can stream content from my PC whilst I'm doing the same on my plasma in my bedroom. At the moment they have to wait until I'm not in to be able to catch up with the latest episodes of Prison Break & The OC!

Yi-Long wrote:Anyway, back on topic. After having bought Battlefield 2 for the xbox about 4 months orso ago, I decided to open it up and give ita try. Didnt bother with the single-player as supposedly it's crap. MP is fun though, although you have the usual problems of teammembers being idiots and shooting you, and people constantly playing in the same map.

I haven't played Battlefield 2 on Live for ages! Whats your Gamertag mate? I'll give you a game sometime. My Gamertag is in my sig. I love Battlefield 2. Its more arcadey than the PC version but I much prefer it! You should also check out the single player mode; its not the best but it is still pretty fun & definitely worth playing through.

The only thing I don't like about the game is that there are different button layouts for the single & multiplayer parts, so you can't just pick up & play 1 side of the game & then switch to the other without having to re-learn the controls.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 27 Nov 2006, 01:32

Yi-Long wrote:Is the uncut japanese version different from the european release? If so, what are the differences?

ALL Euro/US releases of Oni1 for Xbox and PS2 had one entire FMV sequence deleted. I can't recall why, but the reason was pretty lame. The Japanese versions of Oni1 for Xbox and PS2 can be switched to 95% English text and 100% English speech. Only the FMVs aren't subbed, so you'll have to switch to the awful English dub to understand what's going on.

The massive enhancements that Capcom made to Genma Onimusha (Xbox) or Warlords (PS2) make for a much much better game. Good overview here.

Anyway avoid all PAL copies of the PS2 version of Oni1. It's a bad PAL conversion with massive borders and only 50Hz so thus ~20% slower. Also the original Japanese language track has been removed. For a game like Onimusha speed is essential, nothing short of 60Hz is acceptable. The Euro copies of Genma Onimusha should be fine though, it should run in full 60Hz mode, AFAIK has the Jap track intact, the FMVs might be subbed too. I dunno bout how it is in Europe but Genma Oni is very rare in Australasia.

Benefits of a modded Xbox:-
-XBMC is awesome as IronMonkey mentioned. I use it to watch downloaded TV episodes and fansubbed anime streamed off my PC over the LAN. You also use it to add your own sub streams. So watching unsubbed DVDs is extremely easy (none of that rubbish that Hung goes through like re-encoding DVDs). But XBMC's DVD playback is pretty rubbish though, you can't pause DVDs and to stop it from playing you have to reboot the console.

-480p progressive scan for games. 90% of PAL games still support 480p. You have to switch Xbox to NTSC mode though. Use the Enigmah Switchdisc program to switch your Xbox's BIOS EEPROM from PAL to NTSC modes and vice versa on the fly.

Soft-reset - Right-trigger + left-trigger + start + back on most mod chips reboots the console. Very handy.

-Multiregion DVD support.
-480p DVD playback (which MS disabled on ALL Xboxes for some reason) is possible too, by using a patched version of DVDX2. I hate using the controller in place of the DVD remote though. The Xbox DVD remote + dongle is completely disabled in DVDX2.

-Emulators. Eg the Xbox port of ZSNES is awesome.

I recommend just installing a mod chip rather than soft-modding. The soft-modding tricks described over Xbox-scene.com just sound too elaborate and waste of time IMO. Eg tracking down a v1.0 copy of MechAssault or some ancient mediocre EA Bond game.

Kurgan · Post by **Kurgan** » 29 Nov 2006, 21:51

Playing Gears Of War and Dead Rising on Xbox 360. The first has some bugs which were common on the previous generation of machines, but on the whole is pretty action packed, and I've not played enough of the latter yet. Looks fun, though

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 29 Nov 2006, 22:32

IronMonkey wrote:
Yi-Long wrote:You have a modded xbox, right? Can you name the most important benefits for you?
Stream media from your PC with XBMC! Videos, photos & music can all be streamed to your XBox through a LAN. That is my main reason. You can also use HD modes on a modified XBox (I use mine in 720p).

That sounds good, but do you have it connected to your PC through a wire, or wireless? How does it connect to the PC? The HD mode sounds great, but I dont have a HD screen yet, so that kinda sucks. But for the future it's nice to be able to play some games in high-res.

Yi-Long wrote:Cause I'm still thinking about getting a 2nd xbox, but then I'll have it modded. 2 reasons: Xbox is my favourite console, so if mine ever breaks down, I'd like a back-up. And I'd especially like one where I could back-up all the games on the HD, so I wont run the risk of losing any of them due to disk-failures, or a laser-failure.
If you're going to buy a new XBox, go for the Argos £50 offer. You get an Xbox & 4 games (Halo 2, PGR 2, Fable & Forza Motorsport) for £50! I'm going to buy another XBox from Argos & put my old XBox in my parents living room so that they can stream content from my PC whilst I'm doing the same on my plasma in my bedroom. At the moment they have to wait until I'm not in to be able to catch up with the latest episodes of Prison Break & The OC!

Wow, thats very good value, even though I already have all 4 of those games...
A plain old Xbox without games is still 88-100 euros here in Holland if you buy one new. If that offer was available in Holland I'd buy my girlfriend an xbox...

Yi-Long wrote:Anyway, back on topic. After having bought Battlefield 2 for the xbox about 4 months orso ago, I decided to open it up and give ita try. Didnt bother with the single-player as supposedly it's crap. MP is fun though, although you have the usual problems of teammembers being idiots and shooting you, and people constantly playing in the same map.
I haven't played Battlefield 2 on Live for ages! Whats your Gamertag mate? I'll give you a game sometime. My Gamertag is in my sig. I love Battlefield 2. Its more arcadey than the PC version but I much prefer it! You should also check out the single player mode; its not the best but it is still pretty fun & definitely worth playing through.

The only thing I don't like about the game is that there are different button layouts for the single & multiplayer parts, so you can't just pick up & play 1 side of the game & then switch to the other without having to re-learn the controls.

My gamertag is Yi-Long or something. I think it's the same as my nickname here. I'm still pretty crap, although every shot that hits it's target is nice

Had a beauty of a shot a few days ago, where I sniped the pilot of helicopter in midflight

Killed him with 1 shot, so he was already dead before the chopper went down

It's a nice game but I do feel a bit bad about not really being any good. I prefer to play as a sniper, but when opponents get too close you're pretty much helpless.

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 29 Nov 2006, 23:02

EvaUnit02 wrote:
Yi-Long wrote:Is the uncut japanese version different from the european release? If so, what are the differences?
ALL Euro/US releases of Oni1 for Xbox and PS2 had one entire FMV sequence deleted. I can't recall why, but the reason was pretty lame. The Japanese versions of Oni1 for Xbox and PS2 can be switched to 95% English text and 100% English speech. Only the FMVs aren't subbed, so you'll have to switch to the awful English dub to understand what's going on.

The massive enhancements that Capcom made to Genma Onimusha (Xbox) or Warlords (PS2) make for a much much better game. Good overview here.

Anyway avoid all PAL copies of the PS2 version of Oni1. It's a bad PAL conversion with massive borders and only 50Hz so thus ~20% slower. Also the original Japanese language track has been removed. For a game like Onimusha speed is essential, nothing short of 60Hz is acceptable. The Euro copies of Genma Onimusha should be fine though, it should run in full 60Hz mode, AFAIK has the Jap track intact, the FMVs might be subbed too. I dunno bout how it is in Europe but Genma Oni is very rare in Australasia.

Wow, thats pretty stupid, to fuck up the FMV's so that it doesnt have subs... :N
I dont even have a PS2 so no worries about me picking up PS2 versions of ANYTHING

Genma Oni was pretty widely available for a while, but I never bothered picking it up. havent seen it lately though.

Benefits of a modded Xbox:-
-XBMC is awesome as IronMonkey mentioned. I use it to watch downloaded TV episodes and fansubbed anime streamed off my PC over the LAN. You also use it to add your own sub streams. So watching unsubbed DVDs is extremely easy (none of that rubbish that Hung goes through like re-encoding DVDs). But XBMC's DVD playback is pretty rubbish though, you can't pause DVDs and to stop it from playing you have to reboot the console.

I'm no techie so alot of the above means nothing to me, but I'd love to be able to watch my downloaded anime on my TV

How come you cant pause DVd's in XBMC? That just sounds very weird. Even if you have the remote control you cant pause it? It sounds like it would be an easy thing to include in the program?

-480p progressive scan for games. 90% of PAL games still support 480p. You have to switch Xbox to NTSC mode though. Use the Enigmah Switchdisc program to switch your Xbox's BIOS EEPROM from PAL to NTSC modes and vice versa on the fly.

uhhh... (???)

Soft-reset - Right-trigger + left-trigger + start + back on most mod chips reboots the console. Very handy.

Sounds handy, especially when a game freezes. battlefield 2 has a tendency to freeze while loading, especially before 'Backstab'.

-Multiregion DVD support.
-480p DVD playback (which MS disabled on ALL Xboxes for some reason) is possible too, by using a patched version of DVDX2. I hate using the controller in place of the DVD remote though. The Xbox DVD remote + dongle is completely disabled in DVDX2.

Wow, that totally sucks, that the remote is disabled. region-free dvd player IS a good reason to get a modded xbox though.

-Emulators. Eg the Xbox port of ZSNES is awesome.

I recommend just installing a mod chip rather than soft-modding. The soft-modding tricks described over Xbox-scene.com just sound too elaborate and waste of time IMO. Eg tracking down a v1.0 copy of MechAssault or some ancient mediocre EA Bond game.

The emulators are one of the main reasons I'm interested in getting a modded Xbox. I used to have a Commodore 64, and an Amiga, and ofcourse a bunch of consoles, so there are times where I long to playing some of my old favourites again, for old times sake. Games like Superfrog, Turrican, Sensible Soccer, Chrono Trigger, etc etc.

And yeah, if I DO get my xbox modded, I'll definately buy one that has a chip installed, plus probably 1 with a big HD.

BTW, is it possible to play Battlefield 2 on a modded xbox, from the HD, over a network that ISNT Xbox Live? And are there many people online?

slasher13 · Post by **slasher13** » 30 Nov 2006, 09:25

I don't know where is a good place in the UK to get the xbox modded, especially near Sutton. I wouldn't like to do it myself.

Err actually what the best modchip to get on the xbox