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

SUPER MARIO GALAXY with the kids. This is a nightly ritual, it fucking rocks.

The DS is currently rocking CASTLEVANIA: PORTRAIT OF RUIN, BANGAI-O SPIRITS (Aarontu--this would be up your alley if the DS is an option), and GTA: CHINATOWN WARS. A smattering of DAS KARTENSPIEL is thrown in there too.

I need to finish PORTRAIT OF RUIN...I hate those carnival stages.

Yet again, I will second BANGAIO SPIRITS. Buy it at Target for $15. One of the best recent Shmups.

IKARUGA...that one's hard to top. I've got the Gamecube one. It really, really wants me to turn my LCD TV on its side to get the right top-down shooter aspect ratio. The option is there.

And there's always DODONPACHI...LORDS OF THUNDER, SOLDIER BLADE, STRIKERS 1945, JETS N' GUNS...that's all I played last summer, shmups from all over the history of the genre.

I played a lot of Xbox 360 demos this weekend

Section 8: Very generic sci-fi shooter setting. It was kinda fun, although I'll chalk that up to not dying once and killing a bunch of dudes.

Bioshock: Pretty awesome and very creepy

Dirt 2: Nice graphics, kind of fun for a race game. But I don't really get into racers.

WET: Very stylish looking but I get the feeling the whole grindhouse look is going to get played out quick. The demo was fun but I think the whole jumping, sliding, shooting thing would get old quick.

Devil May Cry 4: What's the fuss? It looks like a modern Square emo guy with sword and gun game. I didn't like the way the camera jumps around when you enter different areas. Pretty ho hum.

Call of Duty: World at War: Man, World War II has been done to death in shooters, but I still found CoD:WaW to be pretty fun. The battlefields are really chaotic.

I also keep playing the Magic: Duels of the Planeswalkers demo. I should just crack open the wallet and buy the full version.

The new Professor Layton is better than the old Professor Layton. Except they still have Towers of Hanoi, my least favorite puzzle in existence. Thankfully I can solve it very quickly by now, having been forced to replay it in every recent Bioware title.

I'm playing some new ZX Spectrum games from www.bobs-stuff.co.uk/ I was very surprsised to see new quality games being releae for the Spectrum... BTW, if you've got a Nintendo DS, the ZXDS emulator is one of the best in ANY platform: zxds.raxoft.cz/

I also got the new Minis Mario game on DSiWare and it's pretty good, although I still think I like the original mix of platformer/puzzle better...

And of course, Wii Sports Resort, a really great game and much better than its predecessor. Sword fighting is excellent, but I'm really enjoying some of the other games like Basketball, golf and flying game.

I'm also waiting for the Metroid triology to be released in Europe, I never finished the first one, never played the second one and sold the third one after reaching the final boss...

Just got Rock Band 2. It's fucking amazing. I am almost tempted to change my avatar.

Man does not live on song lists alone. The smoothness of the Rock Band package...from the interface, to the ease of the online store, to the billion songs in the online store...it is incredible at just how much better put together it is than Guitar Hero: World Tour.

I ran out and bought some Wii points so my kids could have a few games. I bought three songs. That was after agonizing over the list of a butt-billion songs to buy. Then I ran out and bought another Wii points card. Bought another several songs including fuckin' FEAR OF THE DARK....holy shit, I'm in hog heaven.

But Rock Band peripherals (especially guitars) still SUCK NUTS. Get yourself Rock Band 2 and a Guitar Hero guitar, and you're all set.

Ken B. wrote:

I ran out and bought some Wii points so my kids could have a few games. I bought three songs. That was after agonizing over the list of a butt-billion songs to buy. Then I ran out and bought another Wii points card. Bought another several songs including fuckin' FEAR OF THE DARK....holy shit, I'm in hog heaven.

Do they have any Maiden songs where you have to hold a Dickinson note for like 20 seconds? Cause, that'd be sweet. (I think "Seventh Son" would do it...)

Dude, I was so tempted just to buy the entire catalog of Maiden right then and there. I limited myself (for now) to Fear of the Dark and Wasted Years. There are several great songs...


"Aces High" (Live)
"2 Minutes to Midnight"
"The Trooper"
"Wasted Years"
"The Number of the Beast"
"Run to the Hills"
"Can I Play with Madness"
"The Clairvoyant"
"Powerslave"
"Fear of the Dark" (Live)
"Hallowed Be Thy Name" (Live)
"Iron Maiden" (Live)


I can't figure out how to buy songs on the Wii by album or pack rather than individually. Anyone know? All I could get was a song listing. I stupidly bought "Jeremy" by Pearl Jam even though I want the whole album.


And as an aside, if there is ANYONE who doesn't get chills from the opening of the live version of "Fear of the Dark", then you have no fucking soul.

Ken B. wrote:

Just got Rock Band 2. It's fucking amazing. I am almost tempted to change my avatar.

Man does not live on song lists alone. The smoothness of the Rock Band package...from the interface, to the ease of the online store, to the billion songs in the online store...it is incredible at just how much better put together it is than Guitar Hero: World Tour.

Good to see you've finally seen the light.

And as an aside, if there is ANYONE who doesn't get chills from the opening of the live version of "Fear of the Dark", then you have no fucking soul.

No kidding.

metalface13 wrote:

Hex Sinister: What do you not like about GoW2?

Just an assortment of minor nitpicks that add up to make me bored enough with Gears of War 2 to not finish it. It really felt too much like playing Halo which I'm not a great fan of. There was too much bad dialogue and I didn't care about the characters at all like they wanted me to. The weapons were mostly a bore and it felt like too much running around hearing blah blah blah and not enough killing shit.

I just didn't like the style of it, didn't get an immersion experience that a good shooter presents. I've come to find that I really don't like the "heal over time" mechanic that they used. I guess I am old school and prefer hunting for med packs. Yeah, that is a pretty stale standard I suppose but I really don't think the other alternative is an improvement. If you have 2 hp's left and are limping around because you aren't performing well, too fucking bad. You need to stay on your toes until you can find a health pack. I like how that works because it adds tension and when you find some needed health you can wipe your brow.

Despite some nice graphics, which really doesn't amount to crap, all in all it was just so vanilla it made me sick. The "get cover" aspect was interesting at first but got dry quick. I dunno, it just felt so generic and cliched. Dull.

Which brings me to Black Barney's reccomended Dead Space which I've been playing all week. This is exactly what I wanted to be playing. Yet, here's the thing... It's 100% cliches and rips off every game under the sun. Somebody decided to mix up Doom, Half Life, Resident Evil and whatever else I forgot. I mean completely rip off, it really is just a hybrid of those games. Inventory management and upgrading from RE4/5, even the aim style is the same. Gravity gun from HL2 is in there even.

But it works.

There is really not an ounce of originality in it yet I (generally) don't care if they are going to steal stuff as long as they do it well and in the right spirit. It's kind of the same way I feel about some groups. I know whos style they're ripping off but if it's good and done with some heart - fuck it. Mostly. But this is a shooter, I don't expect them to re-invent the wheel with the genre. I just want a good shooter.

Anyway, scary monsters eviscerate you, rip your fucking head off and replace it with their own. Meanwhile, you can surgically lance off arms, legs, and tenticles of their own for good effect. The zero G areas and vaccuum levels are pretty cool. Most of the weapons are amusing... Plus, you get to hunt for med packs.

The difficulty (on hard) is just right. There is never as much ammo as you would like so you have to really interpret which gun to use at what times. Indecision in choosing which gun gets me killed a lot. It can be fairly difficult at times which is just how I like it.

It's well trodden territory but it delivers all around.

On the negative side, the ambient sounds are a little over-used too early on in the game. In fact it can be quite noisome. The story isn't important. You're basically trapped by yourself on a space hulk and alien organisms want to do nasty stuff to you. Nothing groundbreaking but it provides a good environment. Finding all these text and audio logs all the time left by dead people is a pretty stale tactic though. Less is more, here.

The main characters are boring, especially the completely annoying bossy chick with the 'tude cliche which I really do fucking hate a lot. She will comm you up a lot which is bothersome but livable since you are always on your own, alone. Which kinda brings me back to one of the things I didn't like about GoW2. I don't like having AI buddies tagging along with me most of the time. I've played a couple games that do this right but they let you have some squad control commands. That's fine if that's the case. But it just didn't feel right in GoW2. Unless I feel like I'm giving the orders or there are other players, I don't want any company.

OH MAN, i'M so happy you like it. It's an amazing game (Dead Space). I totally loved it. So glad you're playing on Hard. Survival Horror MUST be played on Hard because without the possibility of dying often, the game is not scary. The game pays homage to so many other games and movies, I love it. There is an early sequence which is almost exactly like when Ripley is running to the shuttle at the end of Alien with the strobe lights and everything. So terrifying.

If you want to have fun, let somebody play it who is used to shooters but does not know that you're supposed to only take out the limbs. My friend Matt runs into his first necromorph and starts firing like crazy the plasma cutter into the thing's head and chest and then gets ripped to frickin' shreds. He's screaming "DIE DAMMIT!" the whole time. It was so funny.

The death sequences are a total throwback to RE4 which has the best death animations ever. I DARE you to allow yourself to be killed by one of the moving heads with tentacles (NOT the babies, but the head part of the tree-like necromorph that turns into 3-4 smaller units when you kill it). It's the most disgusting and creepy death animation ever. I almost wanted to throw up.

Let me know if you want me to detail it here. It's so cool.


btw, i really liked Gears of War 2. Too bad you don't like it. I found the first gears of war to be WAY better tho.


KEN! You finally got Rock band 2! That game is SO GOOD. It's so sick how much better than GH World Tour it is. My favourite 3 music games are GH2, RB and RB2. They are all flawless in their gameplay. Lots of fun. I'm getting my 42" plasma today with home theatre system and I can't wait to try it.

btw, I hear GH5 is way better than GH World Tour but still not Rock band calibre. I really hope that the Beatles Rock Band is going to be great



to the guy who has a 360 and is wondering about Magic:the Gathering. Yeah, it's worth getting. It's lots of fun.

I'm currently playing the CRAP our of Batman: Arkham Asylum. It's absolutely incredible. I love it. I just entered the botanical gardens if anyone is wondering.

oh and yay for Chinatown Wars coming to the PSP

I got GH5 last night. Pretty cool, tons of songs. Apparently you can unlock Kurt Cobain and Johnny Cash as your "singer" avatars. Some notable things:

-You can import songs from GH-WT into the game.

-All four players can play the same instrument if they want. So you can have 3 guitars and 1 bass, etc.

-There is mid-song joining and dropping that is seamless to promote "party mode" if that is your thing.

-All songs are unlocked at the beginning, so it is another "party mode" support feature

I was pleased with what I played last night.

I'm enjoying Planescape: Torment so far. I NEVER thought I would enjoy an RPG based on D&D, (I've tried many and they all end up being tedious exercises in frustration) but the game is actually fun in spite of its D&D 2nd ed. mechanics. I suppose its because the game's emphasis is on figuring stuff out and talking to people and not on combat, and also because the setting is pretty dang cool. The whole game seems to take place in one huge interdimensional city, or something.

Black Barney wrote:

MUST be played on Hard because without the possibility of dying often, the game is not scary.

I DARE you to allow yourself to be killed by one of the moving heads with tentacles (NOT the babies, but the head part of the tree-like necromorph that turns into 3-4 smaller units when you kill it). It's the most disgusting and creepy death animation ever.

Yeah, that's truly the best death scene. I got to see that one a lot unfortunately lol. I did poorly on a couple of the later battles and my supplies are pretty depleted.

Playing on Hard seems like yesterdays Normal setting lately. Which is wierd because I'm older and slower.

Has anybody tried the new Wolfenstein yet? I read some pretty lackluster reviews so I didn't rent it. Also, it sounds like they got rid of the health pack bit. I was really hoping it was going to be good since it was pretty much the first FPS I ever played back on my friend's Atari Jaguar.