This is going to get long, as it’s a first-impressions post for some of these games, and probably more than you’d care to read. Here’s what we’ve been playing.
Tony:
360:
Soul Calibur IV
I’m still in the buttonmashing (duh) phase of my play-through, but I’m already hooked on the customization and unlocking. Can’t get enough of it. SC IV looks great and handles very well. I’m not fully comfortable with all the moves and combos but I’m getting the hang of it. I’ve got a long way to go, however. I got into a ranked game online the other night and got beat down pretty good. The guy I was fighting was pulling off five and six hit combos while I was flailing around trying to hit him.
I’ll be playing SC IV for a while.
Battlefield: Bad Company
GW2 – If you’ve seen me on Live lately, this is probably what I’ve been playing. I love the original Geometry Wars and GW2 is six times better. With the six different game modes, each one with a hook, I’m loving it. The integration with hi scores and your friend’s list is genius. Everytime you play a game, up in the corner where the high score is displayed, shows the score of whoever on your friends list has a higher score than you do. It’s absolute genius. Every time I play a game I’m reminded that I need to catch Greg on Pacifism, Kim on Evolved and Masem on just about everything else.
Pacifism, the game where you don’t get to shoot (you know, in a shooting game), is by far my favorite game mode. While they’re all a blast, I find myself playing Pacifism more than any other.
Grand Theft Auto IV
PC:
I’ve also been playing a few games on the PC, but mostly brower-based.
Corpse Craft – This is another one of those links I saw come across the Twitter wire. I don’t remember who linked this one but I’ve been playing it non-stop. The easiest way to explain Corpse Craft is to combine Bejeweled and an RTS-lite game. Then, take those two games and throw in Zombies. Yeah, I know, your mind is blown. Just check it out.
Also, check out Whirled while you’re at it. It’s another flash-based gaming site, a-la Kongregate, complete with achievements and other perks.
The last game I’ve been spending time with is another browser based game called Fallen Sword. It’s a simple little RPG, with a bit of an MMO-feel. It’s all turn based combat and moves, but it’s a bit addicting. I always sneak in a few turns any time I sit down at the PC.
So that’s what I’ve been playing. I know Nat will be updating this post later as well with his current line-up.
(And here I am…)Nat:
360
Too Human: I think you’ve heard enough from me about it.
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed: I feel that this game, while good, is so full of lost potential that I hope to have it competed by the end of this week in order to get a good trade for it. There are some “wow!” moments, and there are some “what?” moments. I generally give out a lot of “sigh” moments.
PS3
Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction: This is a game that is just fun to play. It helps that it’s a visual treat as well.
The Last Guy, Pain, Super Stardust HD, and Everyday Shooter: I’m finding some of the offerings on the PSN Store to be a real treat. I spend most of my time here.
PSP
Exit: I played the demo on XBLA and loved it. The style. The pacing. It fits. I don’t know why I never bought it. I guess I wanted to play it on the PSP first. Finding it for $10 was the best game deal I’ve had all year. It’s my, ahem, toilet title.
PC
Spore: I don’t know why I purchased this. I’ve played it a total of five times, and I think I may be done with it. I’ve not even reached the beloved space stage. I’d rather just create creatures and vehicles.
What I’ve not been playing.
The DS or the Wii. When we do play the Wii, it’s Bloom Blox.
(…and now back to Tony: Nat)
What have you been playing?
My XBox is on a UPS truck to the repair center for the 2nd time… 🙁 At least it isn’t costing me anything
PS3: Pixel Junk Eden, a wee bit.
PC: Spore, LOTRO and mostly Warhammer Online
Web: Conquer Club (http://www.conquerclub.com)
Wii, DS and PSP are ‘resting’ for now. 🙂
Heh. My 360 is in the shop too. Grr…
Tony, I hate you for introducing me to Corpse Craft. That thing is EVIL!
I just finished The Force Unleashed on the PS3. Man, what an awesome story coupled with a complete let-down of a game. I never got the sense of pure power that the demo and trailers give you and I spent more time fighting with the game itself than the enemies within it.
Plus, note to developers, dropping your guy into a room with a million enemies does not make your game hard. It makes it cheap.
I have to say that I’m very glad I rented the game. I only took 2 days to beat it. I’d almost recommend just looking up the cutscenes online so you can get all of the story out of the way.
Now that that’s done, I can play some other stuff.
Spore shall be played. I’m in the Civ. stage and want to move into space soon. I’m also plugging away at Persona 3: FES on the PS3 and I just picked up Dragon Quest IV on the DS, so that will get some play. That, and Disgaea on the PSP.
I have to say that the remake of DQIV is probably my favourite of the Square-Enix remakes so far. I’ve never played the game before but it doesn’t look as jarring as the FFIII and FFIV remakes do. The 3D stuff is left mostly for the environments while the characters are still sprites.
PS3: Mercs 2
And I just got $300 worth of PC upgrades. My rig can now beast CoD4 max settings max AA etc at 1680×1050
😀
@Pete – I think my 360 is on the fritz as well. I haven’t played anything on my DS or Wii, either, but I do have a game for the DS on the way from Gamefly.
@Brock – Corpse Craft is addicting, EVIL-ily addictive. Sorry 🙂
I’ll definitely be renting SWFU now based on your mini-review. We definitely need to talk about some reviews for the site!
@FS – Tell me what you think about Mercs 2. I am still on the fence. I’ll be downloading the demo as soon as I can.
Mercs 2 is pretty fun if you just want to blow crap up in an open environment. I haven’t been able to sink a lot of time into it, but given how much I enjoyed the first one, what I’ve played of Mercs 2 lives up to the bar set by the original.
Stupid RRoD… I could be playing it right now!
Man, we should totally start a petition to send to Microsoft and bring this red ring problem to their attention!
Yeah, they’ve done nothing about it!
Seriously, now my system just started this today. It occasionally thinks the game I’ve inserted is a movie DVD so I get the on disc warning.
It’s like putting your 360 game into a DVD player. Try it and you’ll see what I mean.
Uh oh. It’s catching.
In all honesty, I’m not missing my 360 THAT much right now. Aside from not being able to play Rock Band 2 (which thankfully came out AFTER my box died) and the various games I’d picked up recently, I’ve been kind of glad not to have the distractions. I’ve been able to really sink a lot of time into Persona 3 and a few other games that are in that “I really want to play this game, but after I finish this other, quicker game” category.
I’ve mentioned to Brock and Tony before. If my 360 goes kaput again even under warranty, I’m getting rid of it.
This falls under my “frustration” argument.
@Brock – I just tried it again, mines definitely dead. I am missing it, but not terribly. Would I be a bad person if I decided that it was time to jump ship and trade in the 360 for a PS3? Nat’s posts about LBP are starting to sway me.
@Nat – I’m feeling the same way at the moment.
I will say that I am very, very happy with the PS3. It doesn’t have nearly the library of games that the 360 does but many of the new releases show up on it in one shape or form.
And I’m almost getting flashbacks of when I first got my PS2 now that my 360 is in the shop and my PS3 is my de facto next-gen system to play. I had a stack of PS1 games to work on back in the day when I got the PS2 and spent most of the first year playing upscaled PS1 games. Now I’m doing the same thing, only this time I’m going through my back catalogue and catching up on PS2 games I never got around to finishing. And while the PSN doesn’t have the sheer volume of games that XBLA has, the quality is much higher on a per game basis. It helps that they can ship games like Wipeout HD and Siren:BC that are essentially retail games at downloadable prices, which just isn’t possible on the 360 (for most of the XBLA titles).
I wouldn’t say that you should toss the 360 in a fire and never look back. But I will say that I can endorse having a PS3 in your household now, which is something I would have been hard pressed to do 6-9 months ago.
That’s what I’m struggling with — a lot of what I still want to play is on the 360, but the PS3 library is getting more and more attractive. The ability to play PS2 games I missed is another incentive.
And of course there’s that Blu-ray thingie I’ve heard about.
Well, you’d better hurry up and get one if you DO want to play PS2 games on your PS3. That won’t be an option for very long!