What Video Games Are You Playing?

[Torgo]

I started playing through Final Fantasy XII again on the PS2 yesterday.  Near brilliant gameplay even if the story/characters are kind of blah.

[Jack]

Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 is hard LOL.  I thought the bosses were bad, now they're throwing TWO bosses at me at once!  I've got to replay this chapter and try to conserve enough health powerups to stand a chance.  You have to build your skill up to such a high level that normal foes, who seemed pretty challenging in the previous chapter, are just like lunch meat in a shredder now.

[Joe the Destroyer]

Thanks to my entries on the Name That Game thread, I restarted EVO: The Search for Eden.  Love the game, even if it is a little repetitive. 

[Pilgermann]

I found Close Combat , CC: A Bridge Too Far, CC III: The Russian Front, and CC: Invasion Normandy second hand for a little over $2 total!  I used to have The Russian Front but sold it several years ago because it was going for good money on eBay.  These are the discs with jewel cases only.  I'm sure I could still profit off of 'em but The Russian Front is such a cool game and I've never played the others.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bta1RlSW2I0

[Jack]

Got Gran Tourismo 4 on the PS2.  These racing games are so addictive!  At first the controls seemed really twitchy and difficult, but it takes a while to develop some skill with them.  Once you do it's very satisfying and fun.  You get money for competing in races, and use it to upgrade your car or buy a better car.  I upgraded my Toyota MR2 quite a bit, until it was somewhat competitive.  Each little thing you do makes a noticeable difference.  Now I just bought a Mustang GT, it's better with no modifications than the Toyota was with about $50 K in mod's.  And I even got to choose which color it would be - canary yellow    Now I'm starting to upgrade it.  Looking forward to eventually buying a Dodge Viper and a Corvette.  Once you get enough money you can eventually buy all kinds of exotic cars and full out race cars.  

So far I'm still on the beginner races, the first bunch of them I can win every time, so now I'm working on the second batch.  They're harder, but you can win more money.  There are tons and tons of races on real, professional tracks as well.  I usually finish in last place, buy about 40 seconds, on those.  You really have to get familiar with a track before you can be competitive, otherwise you're heading into hairpin turns at 120 mph, sliding way off the track, and by the time you get back on you can pretty much forget about it.  There's also a replay mode - after you finish a race, you can watch it as if it was on TV.  It's freakin' hilarious.  All these cars nicely staying on the track, not running into each other, and then this one insane screwball jumping curbs and slamming into everyone else!  I laughed my butt off.

[Jack]

Here's the Viper I just bought in GT4:



I can race it, modify it, take pictures of it;  just as good as the real thing almost!  And it's paid for 

[Jim H]

I just beat Fallout 3 on PC.  Good game.  It's not as good as the first two though.  The gameplay gets a little dull and repetitive by the end, the writing wasn't as good, and the ending was REALLY lackluster.  I also don't understand how they managed to make such sloppy conversation trees, something I haven't seen in any game made in the past decade.  For example, there's a bit very similar to a bit from the end of the original Fallout, where you can convince a character of the error of his ways and he will basically defeat himself.  But, I did this, and then I could talk to him again and make the game go in a different direction.  The conversation trees have no "memory" of what you've said previously, which blunts the importance of your choices a great deal.  It really takes away from the "role playing" feel of the game.  Well, along with the fact that you're given fewer choices about what you can do to begin with.

Ok, enough b***hing though.  The game has some quite good voice acting, a few good characters, most of the story telling is fairly compelling, and most of the time the gameplay was fun. 

I still haven't played all the extra content stuff (it didn't install correctly due to how incredibly glitchy and buggy the game is), but I gather one add-on alters the ending. I'll play through that, but taken as a game by itself, it is overall just barely an 8/10.

[BTM]

Lately, I've been a bit addicted to the original Sims which I bought three discs (Sims, Livin'Large, Hot Date) at a yard sale for $2.00.  It's one of those games I've heard a lot about but never got around to playing.  

I like it, but it seems lately the damn thing has been buggy as hell.  It's locked up a few times (and I don't mean the "total lock up" where you can do anything but reset, I mean the "nothing is moving, but you can still move the arrow around with your mouse but can't do anything else, not even go back to Windows, f**k you" type of lockup.)  Have run into some other bugs and crazy s**t I couldn't fix.  Been looking for some tech support docs, but since it's an old game, there's nothing really about it on the net anymore (they sequels have made it obsolete I suppose.)

Guess I need to look into seeing if I can play the second one on my computer (that or go back to playing one for the other games I got only halfway through and then got bored with for some reason or other.)

[Javakoala]

I just beat Fallout 3 on PC.  Good game.  It's not as good as the first two though.  The gameplay gets a little dull and repetitive by the end, the writing wasn't as good, and the ending was REALLY lackluster.  I also don't understand how they managed to make such sloppy conversation trees, something I haven't seen in any game made in the past decade.  For example, there's a bit very similar to a bit from the end of the original Fallout, where you can convince a character of the error of his ways and he will basically defeat himself.  But, I did this, and then I could talk to him again and make the game go in a different direction.  The conversation trees have no "memory" of what you've said previously, which blunts the importance of your choices a great deal.  It really takes away from the "role playing" feel of the game.  Well, along with the fact that you're given fewer choices about what you can do to begin with.

Ok, enough b***hing though.  The game has some quite good voice acting, a few good characters, most of the story telling is fairly compelling, and most of the time the gameplay was fun. 

I still haven't played all the extra content stuff (it didn't install correctly due to how incredibly glitchy and buggy the game is), but I gather one add-on alters the ending. I'll play through that, but taken as a game by itself, it is overall just barely an 8/10.

I'm playing this on the PS3 and loving it. Gotta love the over-the-top critical hits where you pop a Super Mutant Brute with a 10mm round and it freaking explodes into a bloody mess.  Although, weird things do happen in this version as well. I was in Rivet City. A guard ran past me, popped open the armory door and then every guard on the ship descend on my butt and started shooting me. I was just walking through the room.  WTF?

[Paquita]

Lately, I've been a bit addicted to the original Sims which I bought three discs (Sims, Livin'Large, Hot Date) at a yard sale for $2.00).  It's one of those games I've heard a lot about but never got around to playing. 

I like it, but it seems lately the damn thing has been buggy as hell.  It's locked up a few times (and I don't mean the "total lock up" where you can do anything but reset, I mean the "nothing is moving, but you can still move the arrow around with your mouse but can't do anything else, not even go back to Windows, f**k you" type of lockup.)  Have run into some other bugs and crazy s**t I couldn't fix.  Been looking for some tech support docs, but since it's an old game, there's nothing really about it on the net anymore (they sequels have made it obsolete I suppose.)

Guess I need to look into seeing if I can play the second one on my computer (that or go back to playing one for the other games I got only halfway through and then got bored with for some reason or other.)

As a former Sims addict, I may be able to help!  I had that problem a lot too.  One of the fixes I found is that you need to install the games in the proper order for it to run more smoothly.  For you it would be the Sims, then Livin' Large and then Hot Date. Did you already install them in that order?  Hot Date seemed to cause problems for me.  It's kind of a buggy game.

[BTM]

As a former Sims addict, I may be able to help!  I had that problem a lot too.  One of the fixes I found is that you need to install the games in the proper order for it to run more smoothly.  For you it would be the Sims, then Livin' Large and then Hot Date. Did you already install them in that order?  Hot Date seemed to cause problems for me.  It's kind of a buggy game.

Actually, I did.  Haven't played it much since installing Hot Date though (think only once, just installed it a day or two ago.)  What I really hated was when I was out in downtown with some guy and I decided to buy some hot dogs, thinking maybe I could give a few to my friend.  Well, the guy just stood there for a bit like an idiot, so I'm like, "Er.. okay, I'll give it a sec.." But it still had the "Hot Dog" icon in the corner.  Then I sped up time and STILL nothing happened, people were still moving around (except my guy) but I wasn't doing anything.  Finally, I canceled the order and told it to do something else..

An "X" appeared on the hot dog icon, but NOTHING happened.  All the while, people are still moving around, my energy and other stats are slowly decreasing, and my friend is walking around.  I speed up time, and my character's energy went down to nothing, my friend got p**sed cause I was ignoring (sorry pal, I can't help it) and my guy STILL just freaking stood there.  The hotdog icon would NOT go away.

What really sucks is having to restart the whole damn computer.  I mean, I can see the game messing up, but when I have to reboot my computer, sometimes wrong there.  Dunno, this is why I quit playing Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, even though it's an awesome game.  I could only get it to work when I did a clean boot, and after that, I had to restart the computer and reactivate all the stuff I had turned off previously.  It got to be too damn much of a hassle.

I guess that's the main reason console games are kicking the PC game market's ass all over town...

[Jack]

Here's my latest Gran Turismo 4 acquisition:



Nice little Ford GT40.  I got the Viper built up to 970 hp, but it just didn't handle very well.  The GT corners like it's glued to the road.  Even though it has a mere 686 hp, it seems to accelerate just as well as the Dodge.  It's not quite as fast in the top end, but I'm not done modifying the engine yet either 

[lester1/2jr]

dropple 24-7

[Leah]

GTA 4
N Game

[Jack]

Still playing Gran Turismo 4 on the PS2.  Got to this "license test" where I have to drive around the entire Nurburgring, which is 12 miles long and has around 100 corners, in less then 10 minutes, without sliding off the road a single time.  In this car with twitchy handling.  This is as much fun as a root canal.  I think I'll need to buy one of those steering wheel toys accessories in order to do it. 

Also got Gran Turismo 5 Prologue for the PS3.  It's sort of a demo of the full GT5 game which is coming out in March of next year.  It's pretty fun.  A much, much smaller game than GT4, but I'm having a good time with it