Be Excellent To Each Other

So we have the 'Games you have completed' thread so how's about a stuff you've got and are starting thread. Yes? Good, I'll begin then.

Operation Flashpoint 2: Got this yesterday and I've pootled around with the initial tutorial mission a couple of times now. In essence I have to agree with RPS that it's more of a sequel to the Delta Force games rather than the original OF game. This of course is a good thing, I used to love the DF games until the cheaters ruined the multiplayer side of things. I saw in the interview one of the developers sqwarking about the graphics, which is strange given that graphics aren't the issue in this type of shooter as the enemies are usually dots when you zap 'em. I'm really interested in getting to grips with this and the co-op mode sounds like mucho fun.

i've borrowed mass effect and batman off my bro. Darent go into the threads about them for fear of teh spoilz

My new flatmate has a stack load of games that Im half starting and making my way through.

Far cry 2
The orange box
The force unleashed
Top spin 2
King kong...
He also has Just cause, some crazy dragonball-z beat'em up (which is really strange (the game, not him)) amoungst some others

I am just about to start Eat Lead: Matt HAzard something or othert.

Don't bother with The Force Unleashed unless you hate yourself.

I started 'Dead Space' today, but I'm not sure how much I'm going to play as it's dead scary!!!

Andy bear, yesterday.

I'm about to start Half Life 2: Episode 2, after I've polished off the last achievement on Episode 1. Have found both the other Half Life games on The Orange Box reasonably enjoyable, although not fantastic, so my enthusiasm is only small (but nevertheless present, don't get me wrong). For lack of enthusiasm, see "Assassins Creed", which I bought months ago and really wanted but have never actually wanted to play since I got it. I'm sure I will love it when I do get around to it, which may be soon because I don't seem to be buying any of the other games I promised myself

I like this idea a lot.

That way if a game keeps popping up here but fails to appear on the finished games list then you can quietly hmmmm to yourself and possibly avoid.

Currently not really playing anything though.

Still churning through Tiberian Sun here. More broken scripting - a transport is meant to get dramatically shot down as it lands, having just had a time to unload a vital engineer to repair a crucial bridge. Except, somehow it wasn't working and an extra missile was hitting the transport just before it touched down, ensuring the engineer was killed. Prompt restarting the entire mission (an hour's play lost) to try and get it to work.

While I gripe, it's a peculiar thrill to be harvesting Tiberium and building tanks again, something altogether agreeable in fact.

You can at least accuse me of being shit at something I can influence, as opposed to a scripted event on the edge of the map that I have to sit and watch, you increasingly tedious cunt.

Haha, you can't even do a cutscene right!

And I have several more levels of tediousness I can rise to if required

I suck at games and will happily admit it. I didn't start anything today, but I did recently start Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction, and to be honest, I'm not hugely impressed. Sure, it's very pretty, but gameplay-wise it feels incredibly last-generation.

Oh, also, I started Monkey Island ep. 2 - The Siege of Spinner Cay, which I'm enjoying in a sort of "it's like every other Telltale game ever" kind of way. But despite all of Telltale's games being more-or-less identical, I do keep buying them, which I guess means I'm enjoying them.

Looks like i will have dead space, mirrors edge and merc 2 to start now, thanks to EA.

Just started Lost Odyssey - can see myself enjoying this game quite a bit. But what's with that Kaim bloke? 1000 years old and only level 10?

'ee dun forgot 'is mad skillz, innit?

I really enjoyed Lost Odyssey when I played it.

I've not bought any new games for a while, but that's ok because I've still got a fucking ton to get through.

i have only bought two. But now have 5 to play.

I played Doom on iPhone the other day. I'm so old school that i didn't think to tilt it to move, so there was a lot of getting knacked.

I haven't bought a game since March, and I've not even played that yet.

I've just refound Mordor, a brutally addictive roguelike that I last played about 15 years ago. It's still great.

In a lot of regards it is a polished version of an older game, but persevere as it becomes a lot of fun once you get past the first planet. Treat it a little like Serious Sam as it has some ridiculous weapons and a quite amusing script. I'm not saying you will enjoy it, but it's one of the few games I've played through twice in a long time.

I found GH:Metallica in Morrisons today for £26.99 and couldn't resist, so that will be started hey presto pronto like I'm sure me old china.

I agree with this. I didn't play overly many games that much like it previously, mind.

The DLC sequel, however, isn't so great.

I'm trying to work out what to play once I've finished Chrono Trigger on the DS. Love it - first RPG I've played since the 16-bit era (unless the Legend of Zelda series are counted as RPGs, dunno). Just got some remaining side quests to do, then face the final grand evil bad-guy, and that's it.

It'll be a golf game for me next I think as I've got Tiger Woods 07 (£1.99) and 10 (£8) on the way thanks to Ebay. However, I'm certainly due a session on the Wii as I've just bought Madworld for £6.60 and I've got a load of other unplayed Wii games gathering dust.

I've stuck with it - it's definitely picking up a bit, yes. I've got the galaxy map thingy now so it's become a bit more open - I think I'll try and stick with it, although with Uncharted 2 turning up this week... who knows Also, I got a few disc read problems whilst playing it - I'm hoping it's not the blu-ray drive fucked problem people seem to be getting after upgrading to Firmware 3.01 and it's just a dodgy disc.



I got about three or four hours into that, then came up against the first "boss fight" and it was so ridiculously hard compared to anything that had come before it that after trying for a good hour to beat it, I gave up and stopped playing. You can go back and grind random battles, sure, but that early in the game? That's just cheap. Also, it's a fucker for dirty disc errors, and the save points are miles and miles apart. It's just a recipe for frustration, really - a shame, because I'd quite enjoyed it up to that point. But hey, don't let me put you off it

I'm going to rush through Red Faction Guerilla this week as this Friday Uncharted 2 comes out followed by Forza 3 and then after that MW2.

Seems harsh to give it the rush treatment but having played through the first level I enjoyed it enough to make sure it doesn't get lost in the next few weeks gaming avalanche.

I've just started FEAR 2, it's great so far, even despite the fact that it's a pop up shooting gallery and also slightly ruined by the slo-mo mechanic. It kind of ruins the flow when you spend half the game standing behind a crate waiting for it to recharge. Worth a weeks hire for £4 but I'm glad I didn't bother buying it.

I rarely used that, as I found I had the same criticism as you. Try to force yourself into not using it, and it's a much better game.

It must be totally the opposite to the first game, then. I loved the first game and the slo-mo stuff made it, really.

I could try not using it I guess, but I quite like the slo-mo effect and I like using it, it's just the waiting around. Also I might just be a bit crap but those little crawly fuckers are a bastard at full speed.

Yeah, they are. I find panicking, spraying your gun wildly until you've plastered the crawly thing in a sea of bullets, then turning the game off and crying about the whole experience is the best way to go if you're not using slo-mo.



I couldn't get into the first game, after a few chapters, so I can't really compare them accurately.

I just started playing mass effect. I don't normally like RPG games, but I nabbed this for a fiver, thinking what the hell. I rather like it so far - it seems conversation-heavy, but it handles the conversations much better than other games. There's the usual saintly/evil/neutral response trichotomy (?), but it's actually pretty realistically written, and I like the way you don't choose the exact phrase, but just the tone of it. Also it seems to vary some of the things you say even when you select the same option.

I will enjoy playing it, I think, when I'm in the mood to mostly sit back and enjoy a bit of plotting and puzzling people and situations out. Yes.

Also, Mirror's Edge just about runs nicely on my PC. I am pleased, for it is lovely. I'm not buying any more games this year (damn you, Lewie) as I've got so many I've barely played, and I don't have much time to anyway. But I'll be alternating between those two and AI war a lot, I think. Also the last chapter of Max Payne 2, which hasn't grabbed me half as well as the first as it's less atmospheric and the character is less sincerely melodramatic, despite it improving technically and er ... controllically, over the first.

I can perform one of those with a steak knife.

I have a tracheotomy scar, as it happens. My sister tried to murder me again, this time with a bleach tablet. I'm really quite lucky I lived past infancy.

Also, another thing that's promising about mass effect - you can be good AND mean, without one cancelling the other out. It's about time a game let you do this - be a person who can be nice or nasty as best fits the situation, and not just tediously 'neutral'.

"Tell my wife I said... hello."

I know what you mean, there's a bit more nuance and (nng) "realism" in Mass Effect than in most of Bioware's games. My Shepherd was idealistic but didn't suffer idiots or tools, and the game let me RP that without any real problems.

I started Professor Layton and the Curious Village on my DS whilst on holiday and really enjoyed what I played, though in the holiday tradition my DS hasn't been used since the plane landed back in Blighty. I've also recently started Gran Turismo PSP, which is good enough for me to while a lunch break away on, but it's a hugely wasted opportunity. Some of the best graphics the PSP has ever seen, loads of cars, loads of tracks, excellent compromise between GT's physics and the limitations of the PSP's controls, but there's just no real game there. The licences have been reborn as actually fairly enjoyable challenges, but there's only an arcade mode for the racing - no tournaments, no championships, no nothing. You can buy new cars and change a few settings, but there's none of the usual upgradey gubbins going on. They've clearly done some good work on the actual game engine and there's a lot of content - so why they've skimped so much on the actual gameplay seems bizarre.

Other than that, the recent release of the Fallout 3 expansions on the PS3 means I'm back playing that again. Just finished Operation: Anchorage (bit crap, though you get a decent bonus for finishing it) and Broken Steel (how an expansion should be done) and about to start The Pitt. Haven't actually bought Point Lookout or Mothership Zeta yet, but I probably will.

Just started Far Cry 2. Then I stopped. I should have learned my lesson from playing Far Cry: Instincts. Bloody hell, but it's going to take a bit of teeth-gritting to stick it out - does it get better after the tutorial bit finishes?

It gets better. Then it gets annoying.

This. Play it for a few hours and leave it for a week or two. Grind it and you'll never play it again. It's something you kind of have to make your own fun in, rather than trying too hard with the missions and such, just play around with them and explore a bit and see what fights you get into. It is a hard game to love, though.

Remember to save often and frequently as some of the battles later on are long and tough and nothing kills a game faster for me than having to replay more than the last ten minutes of game if I die.

I rarely used it either as I kept forgetting it was there for the first half of the game.

Depends on how much you like games where you have an "Attack me" beacon on your head.

You need a review. Beware, may contain homophobia, racism, sexism and snooker.

I revisited the original Rocket Knight Adventures last night. I must have played it do death as a nipper, because it was only at the last fight with Axel that I started losing any lives, and, much to my surprise, I still managed a single-credit run. There are loads of tough forced-scrolling sections in which you can easily be crushed, too. Cool!

I'm going to try it on hard mode, now, which basically turns the whole experience into a cutesy version of Contra. What a wonderful game this is.

Oh bloody hell, I just bought Uncharted: Drakes Fortune on a whim, ahead of the release of Uncharted 2 on friday, and started it this evening.

And fuck if it isn't the best game I've played this year (apart from maybe Batman). How have I passed over this one until now?

Uncharted was pretty much the best game I played on the PS3 after Vegas 2. It's not incredible (apart from visually, as it is bloody gorgeous), but it's a very solid, fun shooter with a delightfully cheesy cast and script. Pretty damned tough in parts, too.

Far Cry: Instincts was a good game! Nice and solid shootery fun!

I picked up OpFlash: Dragon Rising... fuck me it is hard...