What Video Game are You Playing Now II?

[Rev. Powell]

I am also playing a strategy game based on "Dune" a lot, either online or against AI. Games take 1-2 hours and when I have enough spare time I like to do that. Not sure if that counts as a "video game," though (it's a board game adapted for computer).

[M.10rda]

Sounds like a video game to me! I am insufficiently smart for real strategy games... I loved JAGGED ALLIANCE 2 back in the 90s for its combat, but as soon as mutant bugs began infesting my mines if I left them unattended for long, I was cooked!

[chainsaw midget]

I'm playing Lollipop Chainsaw right now. 

It's about a cheerleader with a chainsaw that comes from a whole family of zombie hunters.  During a zombie outbreak, her boyfriend gets bitten so she cuts his head off and uses black magic to keep it alive.  It's very much a bad movie in videogame form.

[Alex]

Has anyone tried the "Five Nights at Epsteins" game?

[M.10rda]

^^^ /s? Or is that a real game?

I've been (incrementally) playing a nearly 20-year old console port based on QUANTUM OF SOLACE... which jumps from action sequence to action sequence while providing very little or no explanation for how Bond gets from one city or continent to another or why... which is fine, actually, because QOS was pretty boring iirc. There is a little variety in gameplay but mostly it's just Bond dashing from one source of cover to another, then ducking out to shoot an endless parade of bad guys, which....... again, is quite fine, as that's all I tend to have energy or attention span for before bedtime. Also the levels are mostly pretty quick/short, which again is actually ideal since (as w/ so many unholy console ports) it has no option to save anywhere, so if I get killed I'm reverted to some arbitrary checkpoint and lose precious minutes of my life. Then again I am playing a nearly 20-year old console port based on QUANTUM OF SOLACE, so perhaps I shouldn't complain about my precious time being wasted.

[Jim H]

Not exactly a game, but blended with it...  I'm tinkering around with RPG Maker right now.  I've jumped around with various game engines and programming itself for game dev since I was around 12, and never really got too far.  I probably won't now either, but it's fun.   

A key difference with RPG Maker for someone without many skills, it comes with a full suite of basic assets, so you can make a basic project with zero hard artistic talent.  The flip side of this is if you put a game out that has that default look, everyone assumes you have zero artistic talent.  Heh.

[M.10rda]

That's cool! I feel like basic assets could be used in a creative/unique way or to tell a creative/unique story that communicates your "artistic talent"........ level design and storytelling is still artistic!

[Rev. Powell]

Finished up Half-Life: Opposing Force. I do not really like endgame bosses who are impossible to defeat without looking up a walkthrough. I never would have figured out the procedure to beat him on my own. Next up: Half Life: Blue Shift, then Half-Life 2.

[M.10rda]

Of the first four official games, I liked OPPOSING FORCE the least. I recall BLUE SHIFT as being better (if a little short of the original). HL2 is the best of the group.

[Rev. Powell]

I hate the jumping tests, they're not a lot of fun, just frustrating. I prefer shooting things. 

[M.10rda]

Oh same here.
Lately I've briefly sampled a bunch of "open world"-type action/adventure/shooter things... SAINTS ROW 2-4 and the newest SAINTS ROW reboot, the original RED DEAD REDEMPTION, and the original DEAD RISING. All of these can be fun for about 30 minutes and then I can drop them, walk away, and not come back for weeks/months/ever w/o feeling too bad. The drawback for all is that none of them allow you to save anywhere  so once I start a mission, I'd better be able to finish it in 20-30 minutes or... 

Pluses of RDR - it still looks amazing for a 16-year old game (maybe I'm playing a newer version w/ updated graphics, I dunno) and there's some fair Old West flavor, though it has a lot of the jank of the FTA series.

Pluses of DEAD RISING - you can kill a lotta' zombies and (if you have Wand/WeMod) you can pause the in-game clock, making the game fun and playable rather than impossible. The cut-scenes are hilarious, featuring a moronic hero who looks and sounds like a 'roided-out David Cross with hair-plugs and a bad-ass black DHS agent buddy who sounds like he's voiced by Keith David but isn't.

Pluses of the SAINTS ROW series - Easier and less frustrating than GTA games, lots of cool crafted action set-pieces, tons of ludicrous humor, and you can customize your player character. I always play as a curvaceous punk redhead with a British accent.