What are you currently gaming?

[Smarty]

I definitely get what you're saying. There are some points here and there where it feels like there's a galaxy threatening war going on, but they are few and far between. On the other hand, I don't think it could have been any other way. It's a linear shooter, just like ME2, with no space exploration to speak of. I mean, it would be pretty impressive if they actually did manage to make it feel like there's a huge war going on, don't you think?

I'll decide how I truly feel about it after I finish it, but so far I must say I'm not disappointed at all. It's exactly what I was expecting it to be. Not what I wanted it to be, but everything I expected it to be. Most of my disappointment came after I played ME2.

[Vrykolas]

If it was the first time they'd done this, then I'd agree. But after KOTOR and Dragon Age: Origins, I was hoping they'd come up with some better solution on how to make the galaxy wide threat feel more pronounced. Both KOTOR and DAO are great games, but the Sith and Darkspawn all but vanish in terms of their wider invasion outside of the start and end of the games. Meanwhile, you're traipsing up and down, doing little side quests and basically just buggering about, having a good time exploring, saving up to buy fancy weapons and dating people etc.

The issue for me is that to feel like something big is actually happening, you need recognisable places to be destroyed, invaded etc. You need real hard hitting scenes of carnage and destruction. And the emphasis here is on seeing it, not just hearing about it. Dragon Age Origins for example, should have shown us the fall of Lothering in the first game and pulled no punches in depicting it, (particularly if you left characters like Sten to die there). In ME3, the Citadel should have fallen at the start of the game. I think it was a huge mistake to leave the Citadel intact, as its the one place that we have real history with. We'd care if it was destroyed, so it should have been. That should have been the first place the Reapers hit, and the Allied races should have destroyed it themselves, rather than let the Reapers have it, when it became obvious they were going to lose the battle. Shepard could have made that call, then get the leadership out of there. They could then move their main headquarters to Omega and show they were wiling to get down and dirty to win this war. Stuff like that would have made it feel like there a proper war going on.

So yeah, I knew it wasn't going to be the game I wanted it to be, because ME2 had put paid to any chance of that. But quietly I had hoped, you know? I really wanted them to come good with this final installment, recapture some of that magic that made me love ME1. So when it was just 'reasonably good in its own way', it was a bit deflating.

[Nostalgia gamer]

I can't seem to get in a mood to play lost oddysey

[-Dragon-]

Resident Evil 0

[Tails]

Sonic Axiom, it's actually a fangame, but my my I say everything about it just looks so professional I have a hard time telling xD

I love everything about it, gameplay, music, visuals, it's all amazing. It plays sort of like a Sonic CD 2 and it's funny I love this game so much because Sonic CD is my favourite classic. The soundtrack for it is just nothing short of superb.

[Darth Revan]

Killing idiots in GTA San Andreas.

[Enkidoh]

Having found a DOS emulator for XP, I've started firing up some old DOS games I haven't played in years.

First up, was Princess Maker 2. Hard to believe this anime life sim/RPG was made by Studio GAINAX. But still very good regardless.

[Maxx Skywalker]

It's the week leading up to my wedding, so my older brother has been bumping at my place. Because he likes to hijack the TV, I have been unable to continue my adventures with CommanderVideo in Runner. The last few levels are quite difficult anyways. I've been playing quite a bit of Minecraft. I have been digging up sand and sandstone to make smooth sandstone for the walls inside my skyscraper. I've also successfully constructed a working chicken coop that farms eggs and if I get annoyed with the chickens, I can throw a switch which will send them into the furnace. Fun times. It's the first time I've ever successfully implented any kind of red stone wiring, so I'm quite proud of myself.

I've also played a little bit of TrackMania Nations and Counter Strike Source.

[Asamiya]

Team Fortress 2
Fallout 3/NV

[Smarty]

Earthbound

[Darth Revan]

Bully Scholarship Edition

[Vrykolas]

Clive Barker's Jericho.

Completed this game about 70 times, but I always come back for more. Its not a fantastically well made game by any means, but I just love the ideas in this game. Playing as a character who dies on the first level, but exists as a entity that can bodyjump into and take control of his team mates, who all have their own unique magical powers and weapons. Awesome levels, ranging from Nazi Germany, Ancient Rome and the time of the Crusades. And seeing as how its Clive Barker, there's more gore and body horror than you can shake a disturbingly shaped stick covered in viscera at. The fact that I like the characters and the story is just the icing on the cake.

The game's rough production values are unfortunate, but it doesn't diminish the fact that I love the mix of magic, horror, religion and adventure it offers. Really wish Barker would get involved with more games. Compared to many collaborations from other industries, his have been amongst the most successful IMO. He doesn't need to code the game, just provide the ideas and the dialogue.

[-Dragon-]

Flash Flash Revolution

[ROKUSHO]

demons souls

[Maxx Skywalker]

Right now I'm attempting to stay awake as I came back from a long day at Kennywood in Pittsburgh, PA, and then ended up having to work a third shift through the night. My eyes keep wandering off.. it's a struggle just to keep them open. Wish I'd have gotten more sleep last night.

In any case, I was at KennyWood all day, so that was occupying the large majority of my time today. Also played some MarioKart 7 til my 3DS batteries died. Afterwhich, we arrived at my younger brother's place where we played some Left4Dead 2 by going through Hard Rain on Expert.

I'm gonna stop typing on my phone, I can't seem to keep eyes open enough to complete this post.

[Smarty]

Final Fantasy XIII

[topopoz]

Clive Barker's Jericho.

Completed this game about 70 times, but I always come back for more. Its not a fantastically well made game by any means, but I just love the ideas in this game. Playing as a character who dies on the first level, but exists as a entity that can bodyjump into and take control of his team mates, who all have their own unique magical powers and weapons. Awesome levels, ranging from Nazi Germany, Ancient Rome and the time of the Crusades. And seeing as how its Clive Barker, there's more gore and body horror than you can shake a disturbingly shaped stick covered in viscera at. The fact that I like the characters and the story is just the icing on the cake.

The game's rough production values are unfortunate, but it doesn't diminish the fact that I love the mix of magic, horror, religion and adventure it offers. Really wish Barker would get involved with more games. Compared to many collaborations from other industries, his have been amongst the most successful IMO. He doesn't need to code the game, just provide the ideas and the dialogue.

You have Clive Barker's Undying before this one.

But yeah, Clive should totally involve himself more with games.

I still remember when I read Hellbound Heart it was the very first time that i felt a chill reading something.

[-Dragon-]

Super Mario All-Stars + World. Currently playing Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels.

[Vrykolas]

Agreed, Top. Undying was pretty good (I remember it won Gamespot's 'Best Game that Nobody Bought' award). Okay, so its no classic of all time, but its still far better than most forays into games by authors, directors etc. Barker admits he doesn't know much about video games, so he's reliant on the developers to actually make the thing, but his imput on story, dialogue and sense of darkly magical style for the games are invaluable. Because he has a great imagination and knows what he's doing. Most people only know him for the gore, but without genuine imagination and skill, he wouldn't have made it so big.

At the recent E3, I saw a round of interviews where a statement along the lines of '...We're trying our best to get the best technical staff we can - not so much writers, as anyone on the team can do that...' came up during a round table discussion. This kind of idiotic thinking is *exactly* why most games have such awful stories and dialogue. Because developers think they can hand the writing duties over to whoever has the time to do it, regardless of their actual skill or imagination. Its common sense surely, that you should give jobs to people who are equipped to do them, not just fob them off on any old Tom, Dick or Harry on your team, just to save a bit of money.

[topopoz]

At the recent E3, I saw a round of interviews where a statement along the lines of '...We're trying our best to get the best technical staff we can - not so much writers, as anyone on the team can do that...' came up during a round table discussion. This kind of idiotic thinking is *exactly* why most games have such awful stories and dialogue. Because developers think they can hand the writing duties over to whoever has the time to do it, regardless of their actual skill or imagination. Its common sense surely, that you should give jobs to people who are equipped to do them, not just fob them off on any old Tom, Dick or Harry on your team, just to save a bit of money.

Yeah I know what you mean, but this things tend to happen though because finding a quality writer is kinda roulette.

Doom 3 had a real writer and the storyline was shit. The Mass Effect Series had a real writter too I think and Chris Avelone and the buds at Obsidian can write stories that are 1000000000000 better than any Bioware or Bethesda writer. And they're not even proffessional writers.

Same as Yasumi Matsuno when he was still at Square Enix before he departed at mid development of FFXII.

[AFMG]

Playing Mother 1+2 (Actually just 1) on GBA (PSP Emu) and planning to play Super Metroid.

I played Earthbound before, didn't finish it so I plan to finish Mother before continuing Earthbound. Have to say, as many reviewers have mentioned, Mother and Earthbound are different beasts. Also I want to play Super Metroid. Never had the chance to play the NES one when I was a kid, and just 4 years ago got to play Fusion and Zero Mission. Just loved them. Tried Prime Trilogy and Other M and... bleh. So everybody says Super Metroid is the best one, so I'll try it now.

[Vrykolas]

I would argue that Chris Avellone etc do qualify as writers though, because they have been doing so for over a decade now. A good writer is simply someone who is good at writing, not necessarily someone who is an ultra successful, much published author etc. As to being a roulette, it should be obvious very quickly if someone is up to the task or not, and I would suggest that the vast majority of those roped in to do the writing in video games fall into the latter category. You would hope that developers ask for a little more evidence of a writer's quality, than their solemn promise that they are good writers, after all!

(I must also say that I think you're being a little harsh on Bioware there. I too consider Obsidian to be much better writers, but that doesn't mean I consider Bioware to be poor writers. They're a little too genre friendly for my liking, and employ far too much fanservice and Deus Ex Machina etc, not to mention they buy into their own hype too much these days. But they're still better than most out there, and perhaps with a bit of a lay-off period to recharge their batteries, they can come back strong next gen.

As for Doom 3... well, I didn't mind some parts of it. The intro section was certainly very different from what I was expecting, and the tension built quite nicely, as you knew eventually that the forces of hell would break loose. And when it finally happened, it was an effective sequence. I also thought that some of the sections with Sarge were pretty good. The revelation of what he really was, was pretty cool IMO. But yeah, it wasn't great because it took far too long to get to the hell levels, they were very uninspiring when you eventually got there, and then you were only there for about 5 minutes anyway. To be honest, giving Doom a proper story always seemed a little odd to me - Doom never really had a story before that, and it did just fine without one.

Its only story was a sort of jokey 'You are a very hard man - and you've decided to kill all demons everywhere, because they made you angry'. It took away from the essentially silly 'annihilate em up' fun that made Doom what it was. It was like that awful film 'Jet Li's The One' - if the whole film had been as simple and hilarious as that final scene where Li declares to a crowd of extremely large and hostile fellows: 'I am Yu Law, I am nobody's bitch - you are all my bitches' followed by an enormous fight, then that film would have been much better. Same with Doom - weapons and fighting first, story later (if ever).

[ROKUSHO]

dead rising, going for that last achievement which i dont fucking know why i never attempted it before

[topopoz]

(I must also say that I think you're being a little harsh on Bioware there. I too consider Obsidian to be much better writers, but that doesn't mean I consider Bioware to be poor writers. They're a little too genre friendly for my liking, and employ far too much fanservice and Deus Ex Machina etc, not to mention they buy into their own hype too much these days. But they're still better than most out there, and perhaps with a bit of a lay-off period to recharge their batteries, they can come back strong next gen.

Meh, from my experience I'm not embarassed on saying that they're 3rd to 4th class writers. KOTOR 1 was a Cliche Storm all over, to the point that it got offensive with the "reveal" (AND THANK GOD THAT OBSIDIAN LITERALLY FIXED ALL THAT ON KOTOR 2), Jade Empire was hideous, the first segments of ME1 are not that enthralling. Dragon Age I really don't know, I guess The Witcher was more appealing to me. ME2 was kind of interesting for some parts and specific characters, Miranda.
ME3 got dat ending. Which I still stand in the position of saying that it's stupid on how it got the rage for the "Betrayal of 2012".

I mean, they're not bad. But I think they're a little bit if not too much overrated.

As for Doom 3... well, I didn't mind some parts of it. The intro section was certainly very different from what I was expecting, and the tension built quite nicely, as you knew eventually that the forces of hell would break loose. And when it finally happened, it was an effective sequence. I also thought that some of the sections with Sarge were pretty good. The revelation of what he really was, was pretty cool IMO. But yeah, it wasn't great because it took far too long to get to the hell levels, they were very uninspiring when you eventually got there, and then you were only there for about 5 minutes anyway. To be honest, giving Doom a proper story always seemed a little odd to me - Doom never really had a story before that, and it did just fine without one.

Its only story was a sort of jokey 'You are a very hard man - and you've decided to kill all demons everywhere, because they made you angry'. It took away from the essentially silly 'annihilate em up' fun that made Doom what it was. It was like that awful film 'Jet Li's The One' - if the whole film had been as simple and hilarious as that final scene where Li declares to a crowd of extremely large and hostile fellows: 'I am Yu Law, I am nobody's bitch - you are all my bitches' followed by an enormous fight, then that film would have been much better. Same with Doom - weapons and fighting first, story later (if ever).

I know, but it's ID Software's attempt to catch up with the times. Their head developer was the one who came up with the popular phrase "Story in Videogames is like storyline in Porn".
And they do know what they are doing, that's why they left the storyline parts to an actual writer. And as you said, I was really hyped up with the slow start that the game got, it looked that it was going to be a Survival game with some Doom stuff but with some depth added into the flavor. I guess I expected too much.

But either way. I think we understand why quality writers are not involved that much in the industry.

We need more open minded and imaginative guys like Clive Barker.

[Maxx Skywalker]

I'm getting married tomorrow, but in the meantime, I just got my hands on Counter Strike: Global Offensive for the PC, because that's THE only way to play CS. It's good fun, though I haven't touched CS in forever, so the veterans on the servers were critiquing my performance.