The Video Game Thread - what are you playing?

gasteropod · Post by **gasteropod** » 26 Aug 2007, 14:44

saltysam wrote:Son is currently playing Bioshock on the 360.looks good.

My mate showed me that earlier today, it looked pretty bizarre.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 01 Sep 2007, 02:10

I've been having a good time with my new 360 Elite.

The Darkness is the only game I have, but it rocks. I would expect nothing less from Starbreeze, developer of the awesome Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay (which is currently being remade for 360/PS3). It oozes atmosphere and the gameplay mechanics are very creative IMO. The story is engrossing too, in some games it is much better when the character has a voice, personality and an identity.

The passive storytelling pioneered by Half-Life (having a silent protagonist) rarely works outside of RPGs (or mixed genre games) IMO. For example, I doubt that Deus Ex would've been as effective as it was if JC Denton had been a mute like Gordon Freeman, whose face we never see.

I tried Halo 2 on the console, that looks great when upscaled to 1360*768 (the resolution that I'm running the console at via VGA connection to my LCD monitor, I don't have a HDTV yet.).

I tried the trial version of Street Fighter 2 HD that was preloaded onto my HDD. I couldn't see what the big deal was about it being in HD, the characters still looked fairly pixellated. Maybe the High-res scalable character models are only available in the full version?

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 01 Sep 2007, 20:35

EvaUnit02 wrote: I tried the trial version of Street Fighter 2 HD that was preloaded onto my HDD. I couldn't see what the big deal was about it being in HD, the characters still looked fairly pixellated. Maybe the High-res scalable character models are only available in the full version?

Uhm... that's just the OLD SF2 that was ported over and which we've already seen a thousand times on all systems. They are still making the NEW HD SF2 and there isnt a demo out yet

They really fucked up the Backgrounds btw. The new sprites look pretty damn cool (except for the new Guile sprite), but they showed the new Vegas BG at their capcom blog, and it just looks horrible and totally out of place. Many people complained, including me, so hopefully they will do the right thing and have it redrawn by a capable artist...

http://blogs.capcomusa.com/blogs/digital.php

Anyway, I've been playing Psychonauts the last couple of days. In the beginning I found it a bit hard to figure out what the hell I was actually supposed to be doing. I probably didnt pay enough attention etc... but right now I get it and I LOVE the game. The humour is just great, and the gameplay is pretty diverse.
At the moment I'm in the Milkman's mind, and I love the way the 'workers' talk.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 05 Sep 2007, 15:05

I should be getting a Call of Duty 4 beta key. I dunno if I'll play it though, depends on how big the client download is.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 12 Sep 2007, 06:41

I've been playing Call of Duty 4 multiplayer beta and it rocks. FYI controls are the same as COD2&3 for 360.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 13 Sep 2007, 02:05

FUCK YES! Rez (HD remake) and Ikaruga are coming out on XBLA! Two games that I never got around to buying on PS2 and Cube respectively.

Blaizeyboy · Post by **Blaizeyboy** » 14 Sep 2007, 12:53

just checked my Wii, they're doing a Hanabi month, releasing games never released in europe, sept 28th 'sin & punishment'.......can't wait always wanted this game, gotta get some points now

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 14 Sep 2007, 13:21

I wanna Wii

(*waits for someone to make a "Well you should have gone earlier" joke*)

IronMonkey · Post by **IronMonkey** » 14 Sep 2007, 13:25

EvaUnit02 wrote:FUCK YES! Rez (HD remake) and Ikaruga are coming out on XBLA! Two games that I never got around to buying on PS2 and Cube respectively.

I had both for my Dreamcast. Rez is pretty good, a great way to chill out & very original. Ikaruga is awesome!

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 14 Sep 2007, 15:23

grim_tales wrote:I wanna Wii (*waits for someone to make a "Well you should have gone earlier" joke*)

There's Zelda:TP (GC port), RE4 (GC port) and Metroid Prime 3... that's it. It'd be worth buying for Metrioid Prime 3 alone IMO.

Lourdes · Post by **Lourdes** » 14 Sep 2007, 16:51

Anybody want HL2 & HL2: Episode One? I just pre-purchased the "Orange Box" and because I already own the former I can gift them to people once it's officially released.

IronMonkey · Post by **IronMonkey** » 14 Sep 2007, 17:15

Is there not going to be a standalone retail version of Episode 2? If not, that sucks for those of us who bought the original releases.

I think I'll be doing the same as you Lourdes once The Orange Box comes out... I'll give my copies of Half-Life 2 & Episode 1 to a mate.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 14 Sep 2007, 17:35

IronMonkey wrote:Is there not going to be a standalone retail version of Episode 2? If not, that sucks for those of us who bought the original releases.

Yes there is, only on Steam though for $30usd. It's a rip off though, for $20 ($15 if you preorder over Steam, plus you can take part in the TF2 beta starting next week.) more you get the two older games + Portal and TF2.

Lourdes · Post by **Lourdes** » 14 Sep 2007, 17:36

IronMonkey wrote:Is there not going to be a standalone retail version of Episode 2? If not, that sucks for those of us who bought the original releases.

I think I'll be doing the same as you Lourdes once The Orange Box comes out... I'll give my copies of Half-Life 2 & Episode 1 to a mate.

I don't know what the retail situation is. On Steam you can get the Orange Box or another 'pack' or you can buy Ep2 ($30), TF2 ($30) and Portal ($20) seperately. The Orange Box is currently only $45 ($5 off) and comes with a free game - Peggle Extreme - which I'm told is like crack - and there's also the chance to play TF early.
The buggers charged me VAT so it was about £25 but I'm rather pleased. They've clearly made a point of not charging much because they know people have the first two parts.

The gift idea is very good IMO as it means that anyone you give them to only has to buy the Orange Box to catch up unless they want CS and DoD (yawn) and then they can gift HL2 and ep1 to someone else.

IronMonkey · Post by **IronMonkey** » 14 Sep 2007, 18:24

Well I'm not really one for buying games over Steam. I much prefer to have the retail boxes so I guess I'll have to wait to see what happens with the retail releases...

IronMonkey · Post by **IronMonkey** » 14 Sep 2007, 18:25

Now roll on Nina Gaiden 2!!! :twisted:

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 14 Sep 2007, 19:15

I'd add Mario Galaxy and Super Paper Mario to that list for ones I'd love to try out on Wii

Lourdes · Post by **Lourdes** » 14 Sep 2007, 22:58

IronMonkey wrote:Well I'm not really one for buying games over Steam. I much prefer to have the retail boxes so I guess I'll have to wait to see what happens with the retail releases...

I usually pirate every game I don't HAVE to pay for (multiplayer ones) but with Steam games - Valve's at least - I've been happy to pay*. They've put a lot into making it the standard way to buy, and to play you use Steam anyway. I also think the pricing is pretty decent.
In part I suppose it depends on what sort of an internet connection you have. Steam maxes out my connection at about 2.5MBp/s so it's no real hassle to download the games. I really, really hate having to use CD's/DVD's. Even ripping/writing DVD's offends me.

*Okay a lot of this is related to how the myriad options for pirating Valve games get confusing.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 15 Sep 2007, 13:33

Lately I've been playing the Call of Duty 4 multiplayer beta on Xbox Live and it's awesome. You gain experience points for your frags, completing objectives (like planting or defusing bombs in Search & Destroy mode, depending on whether or not your team is attacking or defending that round.), completing missions; and thus you rise in the ranks (like leveling up in an RPG). By gaining ranks and completing challenges you unlock new weapons, new attachments, different perks. You can create custom classes with different combinations of guns, camo, grenades, etc.

Perks are special abilities, eg being able to sprint faster, more health, wider explosion radius, Last Stand (where you fall to the floor and pull out your pistol for one last opportunity to take out an enemy before dying), etc. Can have a max of three perks activated at a time.

I have no idea how they'll manage this system for the PC version.

Even though gamepads are inferior for FPS, I think I'll get the 360 version for the much better social experience. Xbox Live rocks.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 24 Sep 2007, 03:19

I dug up my old release copy of Half-Life 1 from 1998 and activated the CD-key on Steam (as only the Steam version of HL1 has Hor+ widescreen support AFAIK). Steam came up saying that I've got the "Half-Life Platinum Pack". Essentially Valve is giving me free copies of Opposing Force and Blue Shift, how nice of them I guess.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 02 Oct 2007, 11:34

I was playing the Crysis multiplayer beta earlier tonight. I had it on medium detail settings @ 1680*1050 with AA/AF/vsync off (using DX9 renderer of course.). The game still looks pretty at those settings IMO.

I loved how huge the map was.

I'd post some screen captures, but you're not allowed to as it would violate the NDA.

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 02 Oct 2007, 11:38

What kind of PC do you have, Eva... and what kind of PC would I need to play it?

Vista 64 bit with direct x 10, obviously... but do I need a physics card, and 4 Gb of Ram, or what?

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 02 Oct 2007, 11:45

Yi-Long wrote:What kind of PC do you have, Eva... and what kind of PC would I need to play it?

Vista 64 bit with direct x 10, obviously... but do I need a physics card, and 4 Gb of Ram, or what?

My specs:- WinXP x64, Core 2 Duo E6400 2.13GHz (oc'ed to 3GHz), 4GB DDR2-667 RAM, Nvidia Geforce 7900GS 256MB, ~600GB worth of HDD.

Ideally what you'd probably want to run the game at full detail with a good framerate:-
Vista, 2GHz minimum dual core, Geforce 8800GTS 640MB, 2GB DDR2.

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 02 Oct 2007, 12:35

Wow... that's some heavy shit you'll need. Will it support multiple cores (quad-core?), and/or a physics card?

I'm still wondering about what PC to get. Either a very fast dual-core, or a 2,4 Ghz quad-core.

IronMonkey · Post by **IronMonkey** » 02 Oct 2007, 12:56

EvaUnit02 wrote:I was playing the Crysis multiplayer beta earlier tonight. I had it on medium detail settings @ 1680*1050 with AA/AF/vsync off (using DX9 renderer of course.). The game still looks pretty at those settings IMO.

I loved how huge the map was.

I'd post some screen captures, but you're not allowed to as it would violate the NDA.

I don't suppose you have any spare keys?