Games: What games are you currently playing? [OT!]

[Nevan]

Beat Metal Arms, rented Rainbow Six 3. Talk about a realistic shooter. Besides it has one of my favorite weapons in it, the AK-47.

[mrwiseman]

How is it? I watched the intro and it was awesome, nice music and morphing. I've heard in-game graphics are great as well, and the gameplay is about being a human till you turn to a zombie, then be a zombie, then die, and back to human, right?

[Cataferal]

Currently playing Halo on X-box (which will from here on in be referred to as "teh PC"). You dont realise how heavy/big it is until you carry it all the way through London, i know i reprehend it for giving me a sore arm. The GC would never have given me this trouble.
That said, im back now, and upon setting it up, im giving it a fair chance with what matters; i'll give a little review on each game i have a later on.

[Nevan]

IRT Cat: What other games have you got? I've found Armed & Dangerous a lot of fun, and I think the price might have dropped by now. Another great game is Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge. The only problem I had with Armed & Dangerous is no multiplayer, but it is a great single player game none-the-less. I hope you enjoy your new PC.

[PhoenixKingSizer]

I'm playing Resident Evil: Outbreak. Shame I don't have the stuff to play it online, though I'd feel sorry for whoever got me as a teammate.

[Cataferal]

Well, i got the following with the console:

Halo - So far its the most played game out of the roster, both single and multiplayer. Im a little disappointed with the graphics, the texturing can seem plain at times; but when you take into account that it was in the X-box's launch line-up, its no surprise it didnt take advantage of its full graphical potential. The music is great, providing some fast tempo beats for the more action-packed parts, contrasting the mellow background chanting whilst you explore the beautiful world of Halo.
The gameplay is top notch for a FPS, and just about keeps me compelled enough with its versatility to keep me from getting bored - I dont like shooters. Multiplayer is fantastic, and cant wait to invite another 8 people round (complete with another x-box and 6 controllers) for some frantic fragging fun. 9/10

Midtown racing 3 - havent played

Medal of Honor: Rising sun - Good MoH gameplay, but way too short this time, it can be beaten within 6 hours on single player, and even less than that on co-operative. There is little to no music during the game, which is a shame when you consider how much the orchestral compositions added to MoH: Frontline's atmosphere. I traded this game in shortly after realising i had Halo to satisfy all my FPS needs - and that really is all i want. No more FPS' for me... 6/10

XIII - Except this, maybe. Extremely fitting cel-shaded graphics, and the inclusion of the comic style is very well presented and expressed. The story is interesting too, from what i played. If i had the time, i'd play this, but unfortunately most of it is allocated towards Halo. 8/10

Simpsons Hit'N Run - Havent played yet.

Splinter Cell - Havent played yet.

Shen Mue II (from trading in MoH:RS) - Yes! this is the stuff. Firstly, i watched the ShenMue hour+ long movie that was provided alongside it, just to jog past memories. That was a good move by Sega, and showed they considered this more than just a straight port from the Dreamcast. Other changes include an english dub, as opposed to the japanese one on the DC version, and slightly improved graphics, whereby edges look cleaner and sharper. Sega also took advantage of the extra two buttons present on the X-box controller by reserving one to take photo's whenever you want, and the other to alter filters on screen. I have no idea why they included a filter switching option, and it just makes the X-box feel more like a PC, nontheless, it does the game no harm, and may actually come in use during some of the darker stages of the game. Overall, this is a very well produced port, and my favourite PC game. 8/10 Edit The dubbing hurts this game a lot, in maintaining the original english voice-acting cast from the first ShenMue. Ryo's isnt bad, just a little bit robotic and plain sometimes. But as for the rest, they sound like they think this game is a joke, and pull out completely inappropriate accents. Normally it wouldnt be so bad, but the majority of ShenMue's gameplay is based on speaking, to find out where to go next; it justifies a decrease in 2 marks on the above score. Why couldnt they keep the original japanese dubbing?

I have my gaming eye focussed obsessively on Ninja Gaiden, having seen the reviews and trailers of it - so that should be my next purchase. Any other recommendations?

<font color="#101010" size="1">[ April 13, 2004 09:31 AM: Message edited by: Cataferal ]</font>

[PhoenixKingSizer]

IRT Wiseman: The game's a lot of fun. You only turn into a zombie online, and that's when your virus meter (you have a virus meter that increases throughout the entire scenario, it's not really a problem unless you're badly injured during a fight). Then you stay as a zombie for a certain amount of time, die, then come back as a human character in another scenario.

Online you can have three of players with you, while offline you only get two. The game's pretty challeging though, especially when you're working with computer-controlled NPCs.

[Nevan]

IRT Cat: You see the thing with the graphics, while they aren't top notch, Bungie HAD to release Halo with the XBox. That's why you can't do some of the stuff originally planned, such as drive the Wraith (Covenant tank, for those that use a PC you can find the animation for the MC getting in and out of the Wraith), use the Flamethrower (But you can on the PC version), use the Fuel Rod Gun (But you can on the PC version), use the Energy Sword (Look at the E32000 video), and many other things. To have such a pain (Microsoft) on you, you just have to comply and make ends meet.

Maybe all of this will be improved in Halo 2 with bump mapping and all.

[mrwiseman]

I've got Sonic Heroes (PS2 version).

What a pleasant surprise! I thought this game wouldn't be too good because of the team thing, plus Sonic Adventure 2 was so much worse than 1, but I found Sonic Heroes to be a great game.

First things first, gameplay is especially important in Sonic games. At first it would seem boring, then it would seem awkward, then it would seem confusing, but 5 minutes later I was there enjoying this team gameplay. Controls aren't as good as in the Dreamcast Sonic Adventures; the characters' response is way too exaggerated, though you can get used to it. Every character has something good and something bad, although I found Knuckles to be the more useful of the three for most times, as he's the strongest. Tails' flight is a bit too limited, and his attack on air is too weak; Sonic's homing attack power has been reduced; and Knuckles glide is most useless now, except when using lifts. It's a shame you can't switch characters on air.

A more traditional stage structure is back, with three acts per zone (although with different names), bonus stages, and some kind of boss in the third. Stages are VERY long, and finally, FINALLY, they have various paths to choose from, as in the good old Genesis times. I don't like the fact that they lack big, open areas, but getting all the other stuff I got, I can't really complain much. I have played three zones now, and the stage design is great! I haven't seen such great stages since... well, most of them are as good as Sonic Adventure 1 if not better, but the casino zone is the very best Sonic stage I've ever played, what an amazing design.

Difficulty is higher than in Sonic Adventure 1, which may not be convenient for a fast-paced game you want to play for the hell of it, but it's way better than Sonic Adventure 2. It's not that stages don't have a lot of void; they do have, but they have implemented some assistance to avoid it. What I value is that now I still die, but when I die, it's my fault, not the game's, as in Sonic Adventure 2 (which had poor stage design and the worst camera work ever).

Talking about cameras, nice improvement! The default cameras (the ones that follow you) are even better than in Sonic Adventure 1. You can rotate the camera and the game will more or less honor your decision, not like SA2 where L and R were completely useless and would get you dead if you use them. The look mode is back, yay! It's always useful to admire the scenery, which adds to the fun of playing IMO. Overall intelligent stage design and cunning stunts!

And something I love, this is the fastest Sonic game EVER! And, unlike SA2, you get to CONTROL the game even though it's fast. I remember screwing up at an ultra fast Sonic part without being my fault only once.

Oh, and enemies have energy bars! I've been longing to have this.

Graphics are pretty good, I'm impressed they could do that on the PS2; it's as good as Sonic Adventure 1; not as good as SA2 on the DC but it's fairly understandable; with graphics this good I don't mind the PS2's graphical inferiority; this is more than acceptable. Textures do have unstability problems near the camera (especially composite textures, something they had to do because of the limitations of the hardware), and occasional texture swapping glitches, but again, this is more than acceptable, if they can get graphics this good on the PS2.

Music is better than Sonic Adventure 2 (it couldn't be worse, could it?), although I liked SA1's better and the Genesis non-rock music WAAAAY better; heh, since PCM we're bound to have electric guitars on *EVERYTHING* that implies some kind of action, like they sounded any good (I'd rather go with square waves a la demoscene), but that's my opinion.

Sonic Team proved again they have no fucking idea of how to make a decent menu system, although this is a minor flaw. Just fight your way through the clumsy, unintuitive menus, and you're done. (Examples of poor menu design: ○ is ok and ? is back, though in the game the main button is ? as it should be and as it was on the Dreamcast; you are forced to have a game in the 01 slot; the game selection cursor is to the left of the screen, not in the center, so I created games on the 99th slot trying to load 01; you load your game inside options and they don't even tell you what will that do, nor you can cancel the operation......).

I haven't tried all characters yet, but Team Sonic seems to be the best; Team Rose has Big and that's a Big reason not to like it; and I couldn't care less about the Chaotix so far.

The story is really deep and moving, I shed a tear when Rouge convinced Shadow and the robot with such a touching speech... Of course I'm just kidding. The story is lame. If it's going to be nearly decent like in Sonic Adventure 1, I like it, but if it's going to be this bad, they better remove it. But I don't really care much for that as this is a Sonic game.

So overall I'm quite impressed with this game, I thought the Sonic Team would be somewhere south of fubar by now, but they've surprised me with a Sonic game that, without being the real, oldschool, freaky, purist, traditional, Genesis-line Sonic game we all want, is very fun and nice to play! I hope things start to get better from now, and the next Sonic game is at least this good.

[Nevan]

IRT Wiseman: The only problem I had with the graphics (On GC) is that I fell through the side of a stage once, when I switched a character. Still not quite sure why, though. The good thing about the GC menus is that it's better than the PS2's. But I'm glad to see you like it.