Whats everyone playing at the min?

[Ferral]

Havnt done one of these threads in a while. So as title states and maybe a few bits about the stuff you are playing so its an info point for peeps that are wondering what to buy.

So in the spirit of things I will get started with the stuff I'm playing that I am enjoying :

Shadows of the Damned (PS3) : Suda 51 game (not that I'm ever really that bothered about the creator, if it takes my interest I get it regardless). Plays similar to RESI 4 with control style, yeah it feels a bit clunky in the controls, however its one hell of a ride start to finish, some decent boss fights and freaky kind of game design with locales etc. Literally a fun 3rd person adventure game.

Arcania Gothic 4 (PC) : Bad reviews didnt really put me off this. The previous Gothic games I found a bit tedious in the whole way quests were tracked more than anything else. At times found that I could be running around for ages trying to find something. Granted this game isnt as big in scope but its literally a fun RPG in a decent detailed fantasy world. Another plus point is that it is nowhere near as buggy as previous titles. Typically it has a standard type story as most RPG's do but its one of those games that is so easy to pick up and play.

Homefront (PC) : Another game with average reviews, single player campaign is short, however, its is action packed start to finish with some good set pieces and pacing. Multiplayer side of things is actually fun with a few game types that are typical of multiplayer games. It could do with a few extra maps and game types but I have put a good few hours into it already and enjoyed every minute of it. You dont get as many spawn campers and working as a team to attack an objective flows naturally and really well.

I picked up Homefront Steelbook edition and Gothic 4 on a 2 for £30 from Game a few weeks back. You get a few extras for the multiplayer side of things this way also. Pretty good deal.

Outland (PS3) : I've never really been one for Indie games, they seem to be hit and miss a lot of the time with a few memorable exceptions like P.B Winterbottom, Machinarium and Braid (for me anyhow). This game pricked up my ears though, when released PSN was down so was a bit jealous of the 360 owners (have a 360 but hardly use it for gaming now). Can honestly say well worth the wait, typical platform game with a few interesting extras like light and dark auras to help you get past environmental hazards and puzzles. It just works so well on so many levels. Another great thing is the sound and visual design, dark but colourful at the same time. Would have gladly paid round the £20 mark for it, even better though that it was much cheaper!

Hunted Demons Forge (PC) : Typical Gears of War type clone set in a dark fantasy world though. Excellent for Co Op play but just as good when playing on your own. Typical UE3 chunky type visuals with characters and the setting, its just a great mindless hack and slash adventure game.

I have also been playing Witcher 2 quite a bit after reading Kalniels excellent review, Rise of the Argonauts, Driver Parallel Lines and Alice Madness Returns to name but a few. Not forgetting I do play retro quite a bit, new system and I fire up Commodore 64 and Amiga emulators on a regular basis!

So whats everyone else into at the minute?

[Gerrard]

On the PC, I'm hopping between Minecraft (on Allen's server) and X3: Terran Conflict which I picked up in the summer sale on Steam a little while back.

On my phone (HTC Desire), a friend recommended Inotia 3, so I've started to play that during breaks at work.

[Stephen C]

All on the Xbox 360.

Just finished Crysis 2, unimpressed.
Top of the 75 odd strong pile to play is L.A Noire and Dungeon Siege 3.

Also been playing a bit of Torchlight lately, awesome game full of awesomeness.

Oh and a bit of Garry's Mod on the PC :3

Edit: Forgot to add, finally got into Mass Effect, around 30 hours in so far.

[planet436]

A bit of Torchlight, Fallout 3, Singularity and Deux Ex.

My backlog is huge though now, especially after picking up both the Humble Bundles :/

[jim]

Nothing particularly unconventional right now, but here goes:

Mass Effect 2 (PC): One of my favourite games of all time, got ME1 and ME2 in the Steam sale so I've been playing through, making (largely) different decisions to my previous playthrough. Playing a second time, it's easier to see the flaws - combat isn't great, planet scanning is mind-blowingly dull, and I miss the planet exploration a little. However, in terms of character interaction and storyline, I've still never played a game that drew me in so emotionally and makes me feel such a genuine part of the game. So I haven't changed my mind, it's still epic, although definitely flawed in parts. DLC is horrifically overpriced given the age of the game.

Gran Turismo 5 (PS3): Well, same old. I love GT5, had every title since the second one and loved all of them. A couple of bits are very frustrating - you are virtually forced to play the B-Spec part of the game, where a CPU driver takes the car out and you just tell them whether to go fast or slow. It's incredibly frustrating because they're so inept at times, taking a car that's easily fast enough and refusing to overtake the car in front because there's a 0.01% chance they might make contact. And you can't speed up any more, you have to watch it in real-time, and if you have to go and make a cup of tea *during* a game then you know something's wrong. The damage is an utterly meaningless addition that they needn't have bothered with, and likewise with the challenges, especially Top Gear. The Top Gear track is there, but daft races aren't, and then during the closest thing they have to a daft race you aren't allowed to crash into another car or you'll be disqualified. They clearly didn't watch Top Gear before implementing it. It's still a cracking game, in exactly the same way all the others have been, and the addition of Lambos and Ferraris is great, but after all this time in development you'd think there wouldn't be as many flaws.

Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 (PC): Always wanted this game when it came out, but spend my money elsewhere, and got it recently in a Steam sale. Whatever people say about "graphics don't make a game", I can really feel it here. Everything looks like plasticine, and it really lacks immersion as a result. It also focusses so heavily on the "flanking" feature, that you can routinely line up a headshot and the game pretends you missed, because shots only match the sights when you're side-on to the enemy... right. It's not even that old, but really showing its age now. Hoping that once I've got through this, the story will continue and the sequels will be better. Perhaps CoD, for all its flaws (except CoD2 which was perfect ) has given me very high expectations over the years for WWII shooters.

Chime (PC): I love this game. I love this game. I love this game. Yeah, it's very brief, very simplistic, and nowhere as full featured as games in a similar bracket. Which begs the question, what bracket is it in? To me, it's a relaxation game, something I can play without getting stressed and feel pretty chilled out. To me, that only really includes Crayon Physics Deluxe, and Audiosurf - and there is the answer. It's the music that makes these games. Crayon Physics Deluxe with music muted and mp3s in the background isn't half the game imo. Likewise, Chime. I don't think I'm actually a big fan of the music persay - I wouldn't listen to it in my spare time, but it suits the game perfectly. If you just want something to pass 20 minutes in the evening when you might want to punch something, games can easily exarcebate the situation, and that's where for me Chime comes in. Did I mention I love this game?

[Smudger]

The missus is out tonight, so I've got a gaming night planned.

Choice of GT5, Assassin's Creed 2 or God of War 2...

I know they're all quite old now, but I want to get through them before having a go at the latest versions. (apart from GT5, of course)

[razer121]

On pc im playing mass effect 1 trying to do everything....not going to write a massive story on it as im sure everyone is aware of it!

On my ps3 im burning up time on Mortal Kombat....wow what a job they have done! when you start to link combos together with xrays it is amazing to play! the online mod is great, and being able to get 4 people in on a match is great for partys and the like...fatalitys, are way over the top but implemented well, fighting is more relistic in this game, the slow down after a punch and such, it makes for a good solid gameplay, ok minus a few moves but still! a game well worth getting! music is great aswell as some klassic stages (see what i did there?) so yes BUY THIS GAME NOW!! and let me know if you want a match and i can rip your....apart

[kalniel]

Just finished:

The Longest Journey
Yes, old school time, thanks to availability in recent Steam bargains this one is still accessible. The art is still fantastic, even if the characters look more like lego creations due to the low resolution. Full voice over is a surprise in a game this old, but it's all about the story, which is cracking. Old school style lack of progression until you've clicked on the exact thing 20-gazillion screens away that the developers want and inconsistent interfaces and puzzles might prove frustrating to the newer gamer, but it'll illicit more than a few wry chuckles along the way. I'd like to forget the rubber ducky/plaster/clamp/string/whatever combo and timed clicking though...

Dreamfall: The longest journey
How bizzare. Take a 2d point and click adventure game and throw it out the window, replace with a third person perspective platform puzzler. Well, OK, not quite, but it's a massive shift from the previous game. The 3d landscapes actually stand up amazingly well to today's standards, but the control methods and gameplay that seems to consist 80% of sneaking around and reloading because you got the timing wrong really let down the experience. Having nicely established the lore in the first game, Dreamfall adds a completely new element which jars a little with the setting, but it's again a great story, told well.
Until the end.. which is such a blatant setup for a future MMO I just wish mr tornquisitunwritablename would get on with it.

[Blademrk]

PC
Torchlight
Dead Space
and a big backlog of games on steam, and I'm slowly working my through so I can get enough space to install them.

360
Halo: Reach (picked it up on Monday)
Alien Breed Trilogy
and a few others

PS3
Portal 2
Dungeon Siege 3
Mortal Kombat
Marvel vs Capcom 3
LBP 1 & 2
just finished Dead Nation (single player, haven't tried co-op yet)

[Yosh]

PC
Guild Wars (Ongoing)
Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Borderlands
Minecraft
Kings Bounty (Plus expansions) Junk

360
Trials HD
Fable 3
Forza 3

Hoping to pick some more games up this weekend. Really looking for some good RPG's with loot! Considered Oblivion again, maybe someone can recommend something else?

[kalniel]

PC
Guild Wars (Ongoing)
Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Borderlands
Minecraft
Kings Bounty (Plus expansions)

360
Trials HD
Fable 3
Forza 3

Hoping to pick some more games up this weekend. Really looking for some good RPG's with loot! Considered Oblivion again, maybe someone can recommend something else?

Fallout 3, Fallout NV. Both on offer on Steam at the moment.. maybe a bigger offer coming on Sunday.
Torchlight is an excellent homage to Diablo. Two Worlds 2 is meant to be OK.

[Ferral]

I forgot about Two Worlds 2, plays really well and is a damned fine game to boot. Love it must admit, well worth the purchase if you like RPG's. Thats another one I've been playing quite a bit to add to my list. Does require a half decent system to run it maxxed out though, could only just run it on my gaming lappy (granted, said lappy is now 2 years old). Looks really nice on my new system though in 1080p res.

[Allen]

Haven't got a lot of time these days for games, but when I do it's one of the following:

Minecraft - on my server of course!
BF:BC2 - still enjoy the odd game here and there, can't wait for BF3.
Borderlands - was really sad that I "completed" it so quickly, despite having loads of missions to do and only being level 30 something. Struggling with the Underdome Riot DLC, have 3 times now made it through to the final challenge (level 5 wave 5) and died and just get really pissed off at losing so much time so don't start again. Now on 2nd playthrough though.

Do not play any MMO's anymore, nice to be able to play normal games again.

[Allen]

On the PC, I'm hopping between Minecraft (on Allen's server) and X3: Terran Conflict which I picked up in the summer sale on Steam a little while back.

I also picked up X3 (well, the whole boxset thingy) on the summer sale, but am having a bit of difficulty getting into it. There appears to be more options/commands etc than EVE and no real tutorial that actually tells you what to do/where to go.

[Iron Sights]

On pc im playing mass effect 1 trying to do everything....not going to write a massive story on it as im sure everyone is aware of it!

On my ps3 im burning up time on Mortal Kombat....wow what a job they have done! when you start to link combos together with xrays it is amazing to play! the online mod is great, and being able to get 4 people in on a match is great for partys and the like...fatalitys, are way over the top but implemented well, fighting is more relistic in this game, the slow down after a punch and such, it makes for a good solid gameplay, ok minus a few moves but still! a game well worth getting! music is great aswell as some klassic stages (see what i did there?) so yes BUY THIS GAME NOW!! and let me know if you want a match and i can rip your....apart

I was thinking of getting MK but I just dont have the time these days. In the past I have always picked scorpion as my main. Who do you play as?

[oolon]

My addiction appears to have switch from Monday Night Combat to Spiral Knights (damn you steam), Spiral knights is a fun little java based multiplayer adventure game. Which I am playing "hard man" style without playing 3 rings money, as its nominally free to play. I think the reason I like it, is because it has a well development market, with trading, Auction House and Energy/Currency exchange. The Exchange is done on a real world model of order books and direct market access.

I did have a little phase (a month) of playing Dark Spore (my review of it is on Hexus), but it slipped away when I got to the last level and there were all those steam challenges.

I have played Sanctum a bit as well, I need to put in a few more hours into that so I can produce the review of it I promised. It is a very nice game just not fully addicted to it.

I failed to get into Witcher 2 at all.

Gothic 4 just annoyed me after a while, it was not the same game as 1-3.