Games you're playing right now, and my freetime's demise

[Lamrock]

Nowadays, I have been playing Twisted Metal games a lot. With the upcoming port of TM: Head On with extra features, and the fact that I personally consider Twisted Metal 2 to be the greatest video game of all time, it has been a perfect opportunity to go on a TM jag. Right now, I am working on making a flash version of Twisted Metal.

[benji]

Twisted Metal 2 is no Chrono Trigger, but it is on my top ten of all time I believe. And for a long time it was my number one. Even the lousy PC port (for hot eight player multiplayer) was great.

But I think it's best to forget about Twisted Metal, III and 4. Oh, and Small Brawl. There was only one game on the Playstation, and Twisted Metal: Black, and there will be Head-On (from Dave Jaffe! Throwing in Black 2 deleted stuff!) for PS2. Although Black hasn't held up that well.

Anyway, to contribute to the spirit of the thread. I got GameTap, and have been playing anything and everything that catches my fancy on there. I beat 19xx last night, good times. Will check out Overlord soon.

Also, as with my good friend Jae, have been playing too much JFK Reloaded. I seriously desire a game like this with more hott scenarios and improved gameplay. Anyone knows of any sniper games other than Sniper Elite, let me know.

[Lamrock]

Nice to see a fellow TM fan on the forums. TM3 and TM4 definitely sucked, but every couple years I'll pop one of them in when bored. They were made by 989 (of NBA 08 fame ) rather than Singletrac/Incog. Small Brawl was decent though, as TM1 is a classic. Black is overrated, but still fun, and I actually think its aged quite well... Can't wait for Head On Special Edition by Jaffe. If it is decent, and gets finished, I'll post my flash TM here.

Back on topic: In addition to TM, I have been playing Live 08 and The Orange Box.

[benji]

Small Brawl was decent? Four runs all over it, despite the story. I thought it was pretty trashy and close to unplayable on some of the levels.

Head On has a revamped Paris, which is hottness.

Have you played the true Twisted Metal 3? Rogue Trip: Vacation 2012? I think I played that for like two months straight after getting it back when it came out.

[Patr1ck]

Portal. Probably will be the greatest game I played this year. Very fun and amusing. Up next is Episode 2.

I finished Crysis and must say that if you love graphics and you have the hardware, this is one of the games to play. Only thing I didn't like is that the open environments weren't utilized as well as they were in Far Cry. Far Cry had alot more variety as far as enemies go, also.

Assassin's Creed is starting to get repetitive. So, I go save a citizen, and then they say thank you and you get new allies, right after that, I assassinate the citizen.

[Lamrock]

Small Brawl was decent? Four runs all over it, despite the story. I thought it was pretty trashy and close to unplayable on some of the levels.

Head On has a revamped Paris, which is hottness.

Have you played the true Twisted Metal 3? Rogue Trip: Vacation 2012? I think I played that for like two months straight after getting it back when it came out.

Well, when you compare it to 3 or 4 it isn't bad. I liked some of the level design, and the similarity to TM2. It wasn't a great game by any means, but there is definitely some fun to be had.

The revamped Paris makes me really happy. Whenever I play 2 player in that game, I go to Paris. Such a brilliant level. I hope the Head On version is as good.

I've always wanted to play Rogue Trip. I might have to search for it on Ebay soon.

[benji]

I've personally always loved Los Angeles, the first level, I think it's well set up. In multiplayer on PC, I liked driving around the track with Thumper and finding mashups of other cars and letting loose with my special. Although the other levels certainly allow for that as well. 2 easily has the best levels of the entire series.

I'm sure you can pickup Rogue Trip somewhere cheap, if not on Ebay, than on Amazon. It's basically 2 with different characters and more destructable levels. Most of the characters are similar to ones in 2 in terms of how they play. If they didn't leave Sony, it probably would've been III.

Well, I hated Small Brawl personally. As much as I can hate a Twisted Metal. (I played through III with all the characters for Darko's sake.) It's the only one I still don't own. Although I could be tempted again if I see it at the local store for under $5. If only to complete my collection. (Plus Twisted Metal Black Online, although I hear the servers are gone for that, making it redundant.) It was only really like 2 in that Black tried to be like 2 and the stripped it down for Small Brawl. I think it played a lot like 4 with more "arcadey" physics.

[el badman]

Portal. Probably will be the greatest game I played this year. Very fun and amusing. Up next is Episode 2.

Agreed, it was definitely a fun game, can't wait for some new stuff. Just like HL2 Episode 2, that game contains a bunch of easter eggs too...
I saw that they're planning to make and sell plush versions of the "Companion Cube"

[Lean]

Assassin's Creed is starting to get repetitive. So, I go save a citizen, and then they say thank you and you get new allies, right after that, I assassinate the citizen.

Reminds me of Metal Slug. The E3 review of Assassin's Creed could've been overrated.

[Lamrock]

As much as I can hate a Twisted Metal. (I played through III with all the characters for Darko's sake.)

Oh man, now thats a hardcore fan. While I'll admit that I played a lot of TM3 in my younger years (I didn't hate the game so much when I got it, since I was only 7 or 8) but that takes commitment. Making it through those 8 awful levels with all 14 terrible cars is impressive. I'm actually playing the game right now because of that. In the TM: HO Extra Twisted trailer, Grimm's TM3 profile info is played over it for some reason...

I didn't mind 4 too much though. The gameplay is still lame, but I thought level design was greatly improved (not TM2 caliber), and the game as a whole was vastly improved.

On the discussion of Portal, I really liked it. Best part of the Orange Box IMO. But really, the whole package is great. The one thing preventing my 360 from gathering dust.

[benji]

Oh yeah, four is, for sure, a big improvement over three. My problem is that it doesn't feel like you're controlling cars in that game though. They zoom about too much, it's hard to explain. You can see if the difference if you play a bit in the first two, then play four and Black right after.

[Lamrock]

Yeah, I do know what you mean. You do realize that you can change it via the pause menu though? I prefer Medium, as it is like TM2 for the most part... After beating 3 (with Spectre, who doesn't really make sense as a Viper GTS), I decided to move on to 4. It is pretty decent all around, especially in the gameplay department. It doesn't control as well as TM2 of course, but unlike 3, its playable. Another thing that was bugging me in 3, and 4 but less is the fact that enemies grab healths. It is so frustrating to battle a car for 5 minutes, only for them to grab a full health, and make you do it over again.

Also, Remotes don't explode on impact, there doesn't seem to be a reverse button (I kept getting stuck, and having to ricochet myself to escape at times) and the stories suck. The only character I like is Calypso, but despite his awesome special and armor, his speed makes him hard to use. Decent game though. Major improvements in level design for sure. Hidden areas don't feel forced, and work well.

[The X]

I'm playing Uncharted: Drake's Fortune....beautiful Indiana Jones/Tomb Raider type game....this is probably the first game that I have played on 360 or PS3 that I have thoroughly enjoyed....

[Donatello]

Damnit, I'm playing WoW again

[keem21]

Im hooked on The Witcher right now..
one of the best RPGs i have ever played..

[Matthew]

I'm playing Uncharted: Drake's Fortune....beautiful Indiana Jones/Tomb Raider type game....this is probably the first game that I have played on 360 or PS3 that I have thoroughly enjoyed....

Whoa this is NOTHING like tomb raider. And that's a good thing. I've been impressed by the storyline and puzzles in this game. The combat though is a bit shaky, especially aiming your weapon and headshots don't count as instant kills.

But it's by far the ps3 exclusive so far and I'm having fun with it.

What games did you play on the 360? Crackdown? Gears of war? Cod 2?

[Indy]

Assassin's Creed is starting to get repetitive. So, I go save a citizen, and then they say thank you and you get new allies, right after that, I assassinate the citizen.

I've been playing this game for the last few days, and I can see how it would get repetitive, but right now I'm still in awe of all the awesome kill animations in fights. I love provoking big group of guards and fighting them off with the small blade.

[Matthew]

If you think saving a citizen is repetitive, then don't do it?

[shadowgrin]

It's the "inner good" inside him that makes him do it.

[Ryan]

I got a little bit of free time and started playing Mass Effect. It's pretty slow going so far but the depth of the story and dialog is pretty damn good.

[JaoSming]

Got a couple of my buddies over yesterday and played 10 straight hours of 2k8, Halo3 and Rock Band. I'm just proud that my 360 didn't have any issues during that marathon.


EDIT: Portal = Most Satisfying 2 and a half hours of gaming in a long time.

[Lamrock]

EDIT: Portal = Most Satisfying 2 and a half hours of gaming in a long time.

I spent a good chunk of X-Mas day beating Portal with my brother. Even though it ended up taking us longer than the reviews' 3 hour prediction, it was amazing. So good I went back the next day to beat the advanced puzzles.

Right now I'm playing Mass Erect, (started slow, but I'm enjoying the story) The Orange Box (mostly Half Life 2), Guitar Hero 3 and TM2 PC.

btw, benji, Have you played TM2 PC online via Kali? I've spent the last couple nights playing it with TMAlliance members. If you have a Kali account, or ever get one, we should play Tm2 on there some time.

[benji]

I have to admit, I'm disappointed. I flew through the first 18 "tests" of Portal in about 35 minutes, it crashed on loading the 19th, and my autosave crashes upon load. And I don't really have any desire to go back to the game presently. Even for the boss fight and the often proclaimed best part. I don't feel like wasting half an hour (ten minutes of which is me trying to place portals while falling and not having the gaming kung-fu to do it consistently...in other words, more thinking, less reflexes plz. just to get to the one level that should be design of the entire game. (EDIT: Pdub showed me I'm an idiot, and that there is a chapter stop right before it. He also set up a nice home for me where there will be orderlies to take care of me 24/7 for when the madness returns.)

Like BioShock and COD4, I don't see how this lives up to the hype. Maybe it was ruined by having played Narbacular Drop and the flash version long ago. Also Prey. Which did all the portal gameplay mechanics first, even if not as good, although closely. The puzzles only started to get mildly clever, and less tedious, when there were things that could hurt me, although the X's, lack of moving and laser sights made that easy as cake.

I'm a big fan of black comedy, but I don't get the orgasms for Portal's story, which is far from amazing or groundbreaking. I think I also was completing things too fast to get enough delicious comments from GLaDOS.

Also, I wrecked the Source Engine by firing a portal from one end of a very long hallway onto the celing in the exact spot needed in one of the puzzles. Had to reboot, heh.

8/10, at best. Probably the third best PC game I've played from this year after Desktop Tower Defense and BioShock. Have yet to play TF2 though. (Also, not the third best game I've played for the first time this year. JFK Reloaded has stolen a lot more time. And I'll be playing Making History for years more than I will Portal.)

As of this point...GOTY 2007: Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
Runners-up: God of War II (PS2), Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii)

btw, benji, Have you played TM2 PC online via Kali?

Negative, I will look into it.

FURTHER EDIT: Upon completion of the game, my overall sense is unchanged, that it is less of a standalone game, and more like a section/level/area of a larger game. The comedy clearly reaches it's peak during the final battle. I think that there were really only like four-five stages max in the game, the earlier ones could've easy been combined. Ten levels the complexity of the last two (where I had enemies to outmanuever), would've made it more worthwhile in my opinion. I'm still unsure if two and a halfish hours of main gameplay (once through, then through again with the commentary) is worth $20 (although, at $12.48 as I paid...probably), especially with the lack of desire to simply revisit the puzzles currently. Kinda feels like Rayman Raving Rabbids.

Although, I did love when I got stuck inside something, because I fired the wrong portal away. Even if I didn't die, and simply had to reload.

Hopefully, there will be a pack of maps involving sentries. I had gobs more fun with those than I ever did using momentum, even if they were insanely easy to defeat.

So to restate, very good, an 8, 7 early, 9 late, but not close to GOTY in my opinion. And , at some of the Eurogamer comments, especially "game of the decade".

[Lean]

Currently smashing my controller on Legacy of Kain: Defiance, I know it's pretty old but that's the only recent Legacy of Kain game that I didn't play, along with the original Blood Omen and Soul Reaver.

[benji]

Wait...so you didn't even play the good ones?