What VIDEO GAME(s) have you been playing? ARCHIVE

Gears of War 2 and whatever demos I can fit onto my puny Arcade's memory.

Catan and Carcassone both seem to be good implementations of the board games. Castle Crashers was a total blast. I think I'll have to download that once I get my hard drive I bought on eBay. Braid also seemed fun and a great mesh of gameplay with theme. The story is about trying to make up for a mistake that separated the hero and his princess and in the game you can hold down a button to rewind, and you're forced to rewind every time you die.

Age of Booty looks interesting but the demo was really really short, so I really didn't get a clear idea of how the game actually plays. Shadow Complex looks awesome and it's made by some local developers.

No, you gotta play smart in RE4. There are a couple of parts where guns-a-blazin' works and is actually the right way to do it, but when you're hugely outnumbered and low on ammo there at the beginning it isn't going to work. You've almost always got to figure out how to use the environment to your advantage and figure out the best weapons for the job.

You can actually sort of be cheap and post up in a house and wait for the ganados to come through the door and just cut them up with the knife- that's actually the best way to do it. But when Dr. Salvador shows up (chainsaw guy), you've got to put him down or he will put you down. Keep shooting him in the head, it take a couple but he'll die. Always keep him in your view because he's got that one-hit kill. And don't forget that you can stab/shoot pretty much every enemy in the game when they're on the ground, that helps a lot.

"Play Smart" is not in my gaming vocab, Board or Video! That might speak to my win-loss record though...Hmm...

Been playing Fable II which I got for free recently.

It's not bad, but I really hate the plot-on-rails being unchangeable. And the evil path isn't very satisfying.

Red Faction: Guerrilla - It plays like a mix between Shadowrun, Tribes, and Lost Planet. Usually runs smooth as silk and the weapons, maps, and packs are incredibly well-balanced.

Resident Evil 5 - I just finished my third co-op playthrough on the toughest difficulty setting. I tried to get into previous games in the series (1, 2, and 4), but they all had terrible controls. Why do I move like a tank (1,2)? Why does the camera spring center (4)? Firing a gun accurately in dangerous conditions is difficult. Turning around is not.

Anyway, the controls in this one are acceptable and the online co-op play makes the whole thing palatable. It's too bad the RE team's idea of horror is stuff jumping at you through windows or around corners.

Left 4 Dead - My team finished 2nd in a summer league a few weeks ago. A hell of a lot of fun with the right people, but we've all about played this one out. When it was new, it was so much fun to watch the survivor team make a simple misstep and fall apart. Now everyone knows the best choke points, so it's become much more a war of attrition than anything else. L4D2 promises to be a lot more chaotic, so I'm psyched for that.

I only really play RPGs of the action variety any more, but where's the love for Planescape: Torment? I'm a big fan of Fallout 1 and 2, but Torment is on a different level. It asks tough questions and forces you to make tough choices. Granted, some of that is buried under mountains of text, but I'm still struck by the emotional impact it had on me.


"An elderly man was sitting alone on a dark path, right? He wasn't certain of which direction to go, and he'd forgotten both where he was traveling to and who he was. He'd sat down for a moment to rest his weary legs, and suddenly looked up to see an elderly woman before him. She grinned toothlessly and with a cackle, spoke: 'Now your *third* wish. What will it be?'"
"'Third wish?' The man was baffled. 'How can it be a third wish if I haven't had a first and second wish?'"
"'You've had two wishes already,' the hag said, 'but your second wish was for me to return everything to the way it was before you had made your first wish. That's why you remember nothing; because everything is the way it was before you made any wishes.' She cackled at the poor berk. 'So it is that you have one wish left.'"
"'All right,' said the man, "I don't believe this, but there's no harm in wishing. I wish to know who I am.'"
"'Funny,' said the old woman as she granted his wish and disappeared forever. 'That was your first wish.'"

I actually started playing Planescape: Torment yesterday. I've heard good things about it and finally got around to playing it. It seems really promising so far.

Good to see the PS:T love. My favorite CRPG ever.

Been playing an odd assortment:
ExciteBots on Wii. excellent fun. It and its older brother (Excite Truck) are just about the only racing games I like.

House of the Dead: Overkill on Wii. Sooooo awesome.

Rittai Picross (soon to be released in English as Picross 3-D) on DS. Oh my yes. Better than the 2D version. I think I can finally put this one down, although it consumed me for a loooong time.

Fairy Tower for PC. This is a pinball game made by Little Wing pinball. Highly addictive and adorable. Great sound effects and a very good "feel".

Years ago, I bought Planescape: Torment NEW and never opened the box. I feel like an idiot cuz people STILL talk about it.

RE4: One of the most effective, yet terrifying, ways of dealing with the chainsaw guys is shotgun blast to the face, so that he falls down, and then you run up to him, crouch, and knife-slash him SPAM SPAM SPAM until he starts to get up. Run away, do a 180 and repeat. It's so scary and intense. DIE YOU FOCKER! DIE DIE DIE

i love it, what a freakishly great game. Huge action sequence from the beginning. Salazaar is one of the most amazing video game villians of all time. I loved the dialogue. And then just when you think you've finished the game, there is an entire new level on the island with a labratory (those regenerators are the scariest things ever. I can still hear them breathing around the corner...)

The ungodly screeches of the female visitors gives me shivers just thinking of it. And the chainsaw sisters pffft! fuggedaboutit!

Like you Michael i played through ALL the extras. The timed battles were my most frustrating yet rewarding experiences ever in a video game. I've played through all the main RE games including 5 (which seemed similar yet inferior to RE 4) but RE4 is my absolute fave second to RE1 (which I played the shit out of.)

Fairy Tower for PC. This is a pinball game made by Little Wing pinball.

WHOA! What do you know about Little Wing pinball games! Those are awesome, FAIRY TOWER is probably the best overall, but the last one I really got into was JINNI ZEALA, the one with the 1970s Arabian Nights theme. MONSTER CARNIVAL is a favorite too, and actually their old ones are pretty great too. ANGEL EGG is nuts.

I think they're the best video pinball games ever made. The Williams collection for Wii is a very close second.

I did play through MADWORLD recently too...that game is almost amazing. I didn't like the juvenile commentary at all so I turned it off, but the gameplay is just a blast. I love the reckless disregard for human life in it, it's so over-the-top it's actually pretty funny. There's so many goofy acts of murder that I actually laughed out loud over, like dumping the guys in tempura batter, then into the fryer, and then onto the serving tray. Or the human dartboard and the jet engine toss. The boss fights were great, and I love the ESCAPE FROM NY/RUNNING MAN vibe of the whole thing. I thought it was just a pretty good brawler up until the point where you start beating the shit out of werewolves and vampires. Then it became something sublime.

I have LITTLE KING'S STORY too...it's really cute, I love the presentation, but it just doesn't grab me. I'm not really much of a fan of the PIKMIN-style gameplay and I get really, really tired of wandering around only to find I didn't bring the right guy with me to cut down a tree or getting stomped by an unexpectedly hard fight and having to backtrack 20-30 minutes. It's really well made, just not a kind of game that I really like, come to find out.

DS: playing Final Fantasy Tactics A2. I love Disgaea DS and so far FF beats it, mainly for the variety of battles. Also playing AW Days of Ruin and Front Mission. Can't wait for Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes; saw a couple of videos and battle looks quite original.

Wii: my Wii has strictly been a golf similator for about a year. I have a crappy TV and fast-paced games are very hard on the eyes. Hope is at hand, I'm getting a HDTV in two weeks!

PC: it's been a while, but last game I played was Armageddon Empires (I have an old laptop). I should download the Close Combat remakes from Matrix soon; those are my favorite PC wargames of all time.

I'm playing through Ghostbusters right now. The plot is very linear, but the nostalgia alone is enough to make it worth it if you enjoyed the movie. By all rights, the game should have been the second movie.

Fuck Vigo the Carpathian.

Flashback, Fade to Black, Another World: Damn, the French really do know how to make games.

Space Rangers 2: A completely insane stew of RPG, Merchant of Venus, the Fighting Fantasy books, and RTS. One minute, you'll be space dogfighting with alien pirates, the next you'll be gambling on cockroach races in prison.

Wild Guns: One of the most underrated SNES games.

Prince of Persia 1 & 2: Fuck that fancy schmancy 3d bullshit. It's just a fad anyway.

I think they're the best video pinball games ever made. The Williams collection for Wii is a very close second.

You're not helping me in my quest to differentiate us in Steve Avery's eyes.
I will have to try the other ones you mention of theirs, Fairy Tower is just plain awesome. I have to agree with your quote above. I also have Pro Pinball-Timeshock (from gog.com) but it's just missing a spark that Fairy Tower has. Also I kinda suck at pinball and Timeshock is pretty hard.

Madworld I traded away while it was still worth something on Goozex. I will put it on my list to get when it's cheap again. Little King Story is also on that list.

Also I just played a round of Peggle on DS earlier tonight and man is that fun in short bursts.