What are you playing?

[PoolMan]

Sept 24, 2009 2:14:29 GMT -5 BlackCatWhiteCat said:

This and Scribblenauts kinda makes me want a DS now.

Kinda. Not enough to get it, actually, but still...

You own a PSP, but NOT a DS? So what, fun games don't appeal to you? I've loved my DS every minute I've had it. Between the excellent touch controls, the slew of unique and great software, and the ability to go back and play my old GBA games, it's been awesome. Probably my favourite gaming device ever, and I include the big consoles on that list.

Sept 24, 2009 16:47:28 GMT -5 helioseclipsed said:

Does anybody here give the platforming/battling element a hearty recommendation?

I did already! Weirdly, I can't find the post, but I quite enjoyed it when it came out.

The thing about Hatsworth is that the control (and display) would be impossible without the dual screens of the DS. You literally couldn't make the game on any other system.

Full disclosure, though: while I loved Henry Hatsworth, I didn't love it enough to finish it - traded it in a while back.

[BlackCatWhiteCat]

I bought the PSP as a Christmas gift for my husband last year, mostly for him to enjoy on the pending (but now over -with!) deployment. I haven't owned a hand-held system since the Sega Game Gear and haven't even touched one except to help my nephew with Super Mario World on the Advance and to play a couple minutes of God of War on hubby's PSP.

In fact we'll be getting rid of the PSP soon, as he broke the screen on deployment and, since he's supposed to be home for a long time, would rather trade it and all its accompanying accessories/playable things in toward a PS3.

A hand-held just doesn't interest me in comparison to playing on our 46" LED screen and home theater system.

I even hear that Dissidia, the only reason I was interested in keeping the PSP, isn't all that good. Sad news, indeed.

[PoolMan]

This just in: New Super Mario Bros Wii is candylike awesome.

It's also hard as hell. World 2 had me cursing and wanting to throw my controller (now I see why they strap it to your wrist!).

But the first 2D console Mario in fifteen years, complete with multiplayer? Sooooooo happy.

[Al]

Nov 22, 2009 11:00:20 GMT -5 PoolMan said:

This just in: New Super Mario Bros Wii is candylike awesome.

It's also hard as hell. World 2 had me cursing and wanting to throw my controller (now I see why they strap it to your wrist!).

But the first 2D console Mario in fifteen years, complete with multiplayer? Sooooooo happy.

Agreed. I've played through about half of it with two friends and it's a total blast.

[PoolMan]

PoolGirl and I put in some quality time on it this weekend. We kept it civil, but let's just say I've seen shades of what they're talking about when Penny Arcade described it as marriage poison.

You do not want to be responsible for pushing your wife into the path of an oncoming fireball, or down a pit. God forbid you steal her mushroom (language).

However, her longstanding position on videogames is "Mario is awesome, everything else is meh", so this has been a rare treat.

[BlackCatWhiteCat]

Nov 23, 2009 10:30:14 GMT -5 PoolMan said:

PoolGirl and I put in some quality time on it this weekend. We kept it civil, but let's just say I've seen shades of what they're talking about when Penny Arcade described it as marriage poison.

You do not want to be responsible for pushing your wife into the path of an oncoming fireball, or down a pit. God forbid you steal her mushroom (language).

However, her longstanding position on videogames is "Mario is awesome, everything else is meh", so this has been a rare treat.

My friends have this game and we've been anxiously awaiting the chance to go over to their house and play. Maybe the holiday weekend will give us a good chance to check this out. I hope it's not friendship poison, as well.

As for what I'm currently playing I've been playing Left 4 Dead 2 like a madwoman, finished Portal tonight and finished Bioshock as the good guy. Now I'm goin' bad, baby.

[Rett Mikhal]

We all know the REAL friendship poison game was Battletoads.

Edit: I suppose I should actually say what I came in here to say. I've been playing Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, over again. This is probably the tenth time I've played through it, but this time I've installed the finally publicly released Restored Content Mod, which restores a lot of key scenes and features.

KOTOR II will always be in my top three favorite games, which goes with the natural irony of my life considering there is nothing I hate more in entertainment than sequels, and yet my favorite games and movies ARE sequels... I guess it's just saying they did it right, by my impossible standards.

[BlackCatWhiteCat]

Nov 24, 2009 17:58:10 GMT -5 Rett Mikhal said:

We all know the REAL friendship poison game was Battletoads.

What, you mean there were more than three levels in that game?

[TheOogieBoogieMan]

The latest game I bought was Gears of War 2. As I was buying it, I had a sinking feeling that it was a bad idea, since I find shooting games (third person, but especially first person) pretty boring. My fears came on stronger when I started playing, cause I realized that in terms of gameplay, GoW2 is pretty similar to Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2, a game I bought cause it was super cheap and immediately regretted getting.

Luckily for me, though, I'm really enjoying Gears of War 2. It's vibrant, and colourful, the weapons are fun and the bad guys challenging, and unlike GRAW2, I don't have to micromanage my AI soldiermates.

[Rett Mikhal]

Quite sad how far the Ghost Recon series has fallen, especially since the first one was so great and so inventive. An FPS/RTS tactical shooter with RPG elements? Greatness... replaced instead with bumbling AI team mates and a big helping dose of dumb. I believe one of my first posts on this forum was a loooooong winded review of Ghost Recon 2 and how it killed the series.

[PoolMan]

I'm playing Might of Magic - Clash of Heroes on the DS right now. It's a turn-based strategy game where the enemy's army is in the top screen and yours is in the bottom, and you do a sort of match 3 game with your soldiers (based on their uniform colours). A horizontal line makes a wall, a vertical line makes an attack, and the objective is to punch through the enemy's army and hit the commander in back - sort of like scoring a touchdown by getting around the D. Play multiple characters to experience multiple army types (you get to lead an army of zombies at one point - hooah!) and pick up oversized elite and champion units for extra punch.

It's definitely weird, but it's also very fun and unique. Definitely recommended for the strategy/puzzler buffs out there!

[TheLuckyOne]

Our Xbox 360 seems to be broken, so I'm reaching out to you guys for advice before I knuckle under and pay Microsoft $100 to fix it. Here's the situation: a year and a half, maybe two years ago my father-in-law won the system in a silent auction at work and gave it to us for free. (This is key because we never had the option of getting a replacement agreement or extended warranty, just the one-year warranty that came with the system, now expired.) It's worked perfectly since I hooked it up until I started playing Resident Evil 5 about two weeks ago. Even then, it only started to freeze about a week ago. At first it was sporadic- it would freeze as the game was starting up, I'd reset it, then it would start fine. But it's now at the point where it won't start at all... sometimes the system will freeze before the title screen, sometimes I can get past that and even choose weapons for a mission, but then it'll freeze right before the mission starts. Here are the things I've tried so far:

-I checked the disc itself, which has no scratches on it. It's also not limited to RE5, as I tried playing Silent Hill Homecoming and the Xbox Live Pacman demo and they both froze. (Curiously, Rock Band and Guitar Hero seem to work perfectly fine.) That's what makes me think it's the system, not the game.
-I changed the screen resolution from 1080 to 780 or whatever the next step down is.
-I cleared the HD cache and removed the hard drive, but it still froze.
-I moved the system to a better-ventilated area and gave the power box better ventilation.

So that's where I am now. Like I said, I'm about ready to give in and send it to Microsoft, but obviously I'd rather save the $100 if I can. Has this happened to anyone, and if so, how did you fix it? Any advice?

-D

[dex]

Sorry to hear that, Drew. I have no specific solution, just some ideas.

1) It may still be a heat problem, due to accumulated dust. If the warranty is no longer valid anyway, you might as well open your box and clean it.

2) Do your lights sometimes flicker, e.g. when the fridge or electrical heating kicks in? My router is susceptible to such minor power fluctuations -- maybe the xbox too? Drove me crazy after moving.

3) Do local game shops still exist? A competent one might be able to help you for less than $100.

4) Wait till it red-rings. I hear you get a 3-year warranty then. scnr.

Good luck!

[TheLuckyOne]

Thanks, Dex, I really appreciate the advice. My only hesitation about opening it up to clean it is that from what I've read online, it sounds like if the console's been opened then Microsoft won't fix it. Not sure if that's true, but if it is, I'd rather pay $100 for a repair than $250 for a new system. I thought about taking it to like a Gamestop or something, but even if they would fix it, I doubt they'd give me a warranty afterward.

Okay, one last solicitation before I knuckle under and ship it to Microsoft- anyone either had this happen, or know whether opening it up indeed means they won't fix it?

-D

[funkymartini]

Sept 22, 2009 15:58:01 GMT -5 PoolMan said:

I picked up Metroid 3: Corruption for the Wii from our local library the other day (our local library rocks - the weekly Rock Band tournaments are testament to that!). I've always loved the Prime series since it began on the GameCube, but boy oh boy, the Wii controls just blow it out of the water.

The left (nunchuk) hand feels pretty much the same as it ever did, but the wiimote in the right hand gives you an incredible deftness with Samus' arm cannon that I can't even comprehend how I used to aim with the thumbstick. Point and shoot shooting? Awesome!

I also really loved how in the first few minutes of Corruption, they actually populate the Metroid universe with other characters. You walk around a fleet starship meeting other bounty hunters and officers - it's a shot of much-needed personality for the series.

Plus, they've rereleased all three Prime games on a single Wii disc, and they're all retrofitted with the new Wii controls. I've got to get a copy of this!

I may be a little late to the party (Corruption originally came out about two years ago) but I'm loving the experience just the same.

whoa.. a library has games?? I live in Vancouver, which library would that be? I heard they have em at SFU but unless i'm a student i believe i can't check out from there.