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

I'm still digging SCRIBBLENAUTS. There really is a shitload of things in there. So far I have determined: ORCA > SHARK > BARRACUDA > OCTOPUS--and ORCAs don't eat people. This is incredibly handy so far.

Awesome tool: GRAPPLING HOOK. It's totally dynamite and doesn't kill animals in situations where you may be eager to do so. I am also master of the TRAMPOLINE and INCLINED PLANE.

Oh yeah, there's tons of stuff, no doubt...but 99% of it is useless!

Right now I'm on this one where I have to get the starite out of a block of ice over a lava pit. A tripwire drops it into the lava. NOTHING works right, and compounding the issue is that half the time I'm in the middle of building a solution and fucking Maxwell takes off and runs through the tripwire and I have to start over.

The interface _sucks_. It doesn't matter that the control is spotty, it's that the interface is no good. Touching to make him move when you also touch to pick up and move objects was a HUGE mistake.

I also think they overdid it on the number of puzzles...about half are awesome, the other half are terrible.

Black Barney wrote:

good new scifi/horror games for PC?

Resident Evil 5
The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena
Red Faction: Guerrilla
Prototype
Bionic Commando
Eve Online: Apocrypha
Sins of a Solar Empire: Entrenchment
Swords of the Stars: Argos Naval Yard

Those are all good although some are better than others. My favourites from that list are Swords of the Stars (awesome turn-based sci-fi strategy) and Resident Evil 5 (solid horror shooter 3rd person, adventure elements too).

You've already played Fallout 3 I'm guessing? And Batman Arkham Asylum doesn't interest you?

Let me know what you end up getting and if you like it

Thanks for reply.
I have Sword of the Stars and it`s great game - very similiar to Master of Orion. I didn`t tried last two expansions yet, first have to finish a game where rebel AI is causing big problems.
I have played Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from butcher bay and it was pretty good (Assault is supposed to be some sort of remake)
Sins of a Solar Empire - tried, weren`t impressed
I won`t bother with Eve, I don`t have time for online games.
I`m downloading now 'trial versions' of Prototype, Mass effect, Crysis
and definitely will give a try: RE5, F3, BAA, Red Faction

awesome! Glad you took the time to go through that (that post I made was a bunch of work

let me know how you like the games you download and try. Someone else on this site is experiencing Mass Effect for the first time so you might want to try that. Amazing combination of RPG and shooter set in a sci-fi setting. Sounds up your alley, yo.

Black Barney wrote:

glad you like it! Soldier is perfect for your first playthrough. Biotic is advanced stuff and I saved that for my Insanity difficulty run through. Biotic is probably the most powerful character I think. It's insane when you pump up Signularity how powerful it is. But when you're a weak biotic at first, you are SO easy to kill. Glad you're having fun. If you're on Veteran difficulty or lower, feel free to spend points in Charm and Intimidate. The extra options you get in dialogue are really funny and fun.

Hmmm, I'm playing on whatever the default difficulty is. I invested some points in charm because I encountered a side quest I couldn't complete unless I had access to the charm/intimidate options.

Turek wrote:

Black Barney wrote:

good new scifi/horror games for PC?

Resident Evil 5
The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena
Red Faction: Guerrilla
Prototype
Bionic Commando
Eve Online: Apocrypha
Sins of a Solar Empire: Entrenchment
Swords of the Stars: Argos Naval Yard

Those are all good although some are better than others. My favourites from that list are Swords of the Stars (awesome turn-based sci-fi strategy) and Resident Evil 5 (solid horror shooter 3rd person, adventure elements too).

You've already played Fallout 3 I'm guessing? And Batman Arkham Asylum doesn't interest you?

Let me know what you end up getting and if you like it

Thanks for reply.
I have Sword of the Stars and it`s great game - very similiar to Master of Orion. I didn`t tried last two expansions yet, first have to finish a game where rebel AI is causing big problems.
I have played Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from butcher bay and it was pretty good (Assault is supposed to be some sort of remake)
Sins of a Solar Empire - tried, weren`t impressed
I won`t bother with Eve, I don`t have time for online games.
I`m downloading now 'trial versions' of Prototype, Mass effect, Crysis
and definitely will give a try: RE5, F3, BAA, Red Faction

Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena is a remake of Escape from Butcher Bay combined with a brand new multiplayer mode, and a new shorter adventure called Assault on Dark Athena.

The reviews I've read state the real winner of the disc is still the original Escape from Butcher Bay, though Assault on Dark Athena isn't too shabby. I'm sure the multiplayer is probably tacked on.

I'm glad they redid Escape from Butcher Bay because the original Xbox game is not backwards compatible on the Xbox 360.

metalface13 wrote:

Hmmm, I'm playing on whatever the default difficulty is. I invested some points in charm because I encountered a side quest I couldn't complete unless I had access to the charm/intimidate options.

You should pump up the difficulty to Veteran. The default difficulty is too easy. Veteran will nab you more experience points per kill too. Eventually you're going to want to do hardcore and insanity run throughs so Veteran at least gets you a bit ready (Insanity is SO hard)

I bought Scribblenauts as well. I'm in the honeymoon period Barnes described, I can see the frustration on the horizon though.

Been playing TearDown's Space Hulk in anticipation of playing actual Space Hulk. Great stuff!

Oh, you're gonna get there, believe me. I spent an hour yesterday trying to glue wooden planks together to build a makeshift bridge. But then Maxwell would charge, and fuck everything up.

Of course, it _is_ cool that I'm using glue to stick wooden planks together to make a bridge...it's cool that it's in a freeform game like that, no doubt. But the limitations are such that when the game should be at its greatest, it isn't. And the more I play, the more I find out that the solutions aren't logical in most of the puzzles at all, they're just stupid. Like one last night where I used Hell (yes, Hell) to knock over a rock and keep it from blowing up an oil drum. Then I just used wings (got tired of the jetpack) to swoop over Hell and get the starite. It was kind of funny, but it was also dumb...I got hell because I was bored with the puzzle and started typing in random crap- not because I figured anything out.

Lagduf wrote:

Is your 360 still in it's 3-year red ring warranty?

If so, just head on over to Microsoft's Xbox customer support site.

You can fill out a repair ticket in around 5 minutes which includes setting up having a coffin mailed to your house to send back to Microsoft.

It's quite an easy process.

Did anyone pick up Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2?

Gamespot gave it a 7.5/10 - not the greatest review, but at least a game in the series finally has online co-op play.

I have a feeling I quickly put this title aside for when ODST comes out next week.

I've had my 360 for 18 months or so. It was working fine, except the colors had started getting slightly screwed up (blue instead of yellow/green, stuff like that). I unhooked everything, when I turned it back on I had a one red light problem, no error message (or anything else) appearing on the screen. When I called tech support, my warranty was over, and they couldn't really diagnose what the problem was. I didn't want to pay for a 'kin repair, so I'm trying to fix it myself with help from some youtube videos and other bits of wisdom from the Internet.

Once you open your 360 case, the official warranty is void. After my first fixing attempt, I made it work for about 2 minutes (enough to watch the intro to RB: Beatles) before it screwed up with a 3 red lights error this time. Now I'm trying to fix it by removing the x-clamps that hold the heat sinks to the motherboard. We'll see how that goes. If not, fuck that, I'll probably just buy an arcade version, the second controller could come in handy. I just hate giving Microsoft more money for faulty hardware.

the elite is a really good deal (100 off) right now. Just get that.

OR, if you're supercool, you wait until the limited edition Modern Warfare 2 consoles come out with the two controllers, Modern Warfare 2 and the 256 gig hard drive.

NICE


(that'll be expensive tho)

Black Barney wrote:

the elite is a really good deal (100 off) right now. Just get that.

OR, if you're supercool, you wait until the limited edition Modern Warfare 2 consoles come out with the two controllers, Modern Warfare 2 and the 256 gig hard drive.

NICE


(that'll be expensive tho)

Already have a 128 gb HD though, so I don't need that.

ah, then yeah the Arcade version is best (it comes with an HDMI port now, ya?)

I think the Arcade version is only like 199 and comes with full warranty (plus the new arcade versions all have that new chip/motherboard thingie that doesn't overheat).

You should bite the bullet and just get that then cuz you don't wanna miss out on tons of awesome 360 gaming just cuz you're steamed with Microsoft.

Computer and console games became a big, big industry first. THEN they became cool. As a segment of the massive entertainment industry, board gaming is an abject failure.

In our society, failure in the marketplace is the worst faux pas imaginable. We forgive our celebrities for public drunkenness, for racist and sexist statements, even for killing dogs. But commercial failure leaves a stench that never washes off.

Who was it that said that when mass communications mediums become obsolete they either die or become art forms? Massive historical forces like economics and technology are leading us away from board games at breakneck speed. I don't think we can expect board games to attain the cultural importance that video games have. In order to become cool, they have to become art. That won't happen unless some exceptional artists come along and turn board games into something new.

What will that new thing be? I don't know, but one possible direction is to emphasize the DIY handicraft aspects of these games. If video games have gotten to be big like corporate rock, then board games have to be indie rock.

EDIT: whoops. Wrong thread. Nevermind.