Topic: The Currently Playing Thread / Recently Finished Thread

[Quemaqua]

Sadly, that isn't so.  I'm playing online with my PS3.  PS3 online play is free and the thing supports wireless connectivity out of the box.  Microsoft wants me to pay a monthly fee for multiplayer and drop a hundred bucks on a wireless thing.  I'm realizing now that while the PS3 was always more expensive, to make my 360 do everything I want it to do, I'd have to actually pay considerably more than the PS3's original price to get it there since I was stupid and bought a core system.  Now, I could get a wire to hookup to my router for the 360, but that won't do me any good once the system gets moved to the living room with the big TV.  So... yeah.  No 360 online for Que.

[K-man]

Sadly, that isn't so.  I'm playing online with my PS3.  PS3 online play is free and the thing supports wireless connectivity out of the box.  Microsoft wants me to pay a monthly fee for multiplayer and drop a hundred bucks on a wireless thing.  I'm realizing now that while the PS3 was always more expensive, to make my 360 do everything I want it to do, I'd have to actually pay considerably more than the PS3's original price to get it there since I was stupid and bought a core system.  Now, I could get a wire to hookup to my router for the 360, but that won't do me any good once the system gets moved to the living room with the big TV.  So... yeah.  No 360 online for Que.

Do what I did and get a 50 foot cat 5 cable for 10 bucks.  A lot more peace of mind than using the wireless dongle, as I don't have to worry with any signal issues. 

As far as paying for live goes, I understand.  However, XBL is much more robust than PS3's service is at this point.  I've also had ZERO issues whatsoever with playing online on 360 (that little outage in December notwithstanding).  The 50 dollar investment per year is personally worth it, as I play a number of games online. 

It really is the most stable and robust online setup available to you on a console at this point.  PS3's will improve dramatically once Home hits, but that might be a while.  I hear that Sony is having trouble shrinking the OS' footprint so new features such as in-game voice and home can be added.

[Cobra951]

Yes, I heard about Sony's dirty little secret.  The OS is so big that it puts some serious hurt in the memory games can use.  Another thing that shocked me is that the PS3 cannot scale to higher resolutions (like 720p to 1080i) without impacting performance.  The 360 has independent hardware after the game code does its work, but the PS3 uses the GPU for scaling.

Que, my top stunt score in Burnout Paradise under my online profile is now close to 10 million.  Under an offline profile, I got close to 20.  At first, I didn't understand stunt chaining at all.  Then it all sort of clicked.  You can keep a stunt run going forever, all around the map.  Where you start is irrelevant.  Watch the white wedges count down.  When you have one left, *tap* the boost.  Drive fairly slow in between jumps so you don't risk crashing.  Find all the *safe* superjumps and billboards you can.  The train tracks over on the west side have several.  The long bridge followed by the naval yard is about the best single run.  Never let the wedges run out, and the chain continues.  The timer is irrelevant.  Drifting around turns helps refill the boost meter.  Some cars drift much better than others.

I finished The Darkness on Easy.  I still didn't get all the collectables, but I did get the 100-point achievement for being one with the dark.  (You need to get a certain number of kills with each of the powers.  It's expressed as a percentage, so I don't know how many.  The demon arm is the only bitch here.  I only scored like 8% with it during the first game.  I hardly used it.)  It was too easy on this setting.  Next up: Hard.

[Quemaqua]

Pretty crazy, Cobra.  I used the demon arm probably more than anything else.  I love that thing to death.  A combo of that and regular weapons was my standard setup, and it's cool using it to pick up garbage cans and the like for shields against gunfire, not to mention as giant bowling balls if you can get it right (though that can be tricky).

As for the PS3 versus 360 thing, I don't doubt that Microsoft's actual framework is better, but the fact that it costs money is 100% prohibitive for me (and there's no way I'm running cable all through my house for something I'll likely only use once in a blue moon, so it's really a moot issue for me).  I'm sure there are indeed problems with the PS3, probably even some that will annoy me at one juncture or another, but so far all I've run into is the pickiness of the credit card address info.  You have to enter it character-for-character to what it is at your bank, otherwise it won't go through.  I actually had to set up an online banking thing just to view it (or call my credit card's lame customer service and attempt to figure it out over the phone since it doesn't print up on my statements).  Thankfully it works now, so hopefully some flOw and Everyday Shooter will be mine.

[Cobra951]

Ha.  I never thought of using trash cans as shields.  I have to try that.  Bowling?  I know you can throw stuff, but I didn't think it was accurate enough to use while the bullets are whizzing by.

I'm well into the game again on Hard mode.  Wow.  The difficulties are aptly named here.  "Easy" was way easy, and "Hard" is as nails.  The AI seems to ramp up as well as damage.  I almost couldn't get out of the construction site at the very beginning, and the cemetery after that had me seriously consider quitting.  I died over and over until I managed to take out the first 2 guys before they moved, then jumped my way back toward the construction site, where the friendlier geography allowed me to keep the rest of them in front of me, and hold them off.  The gravestones are a bitch to defend from.  After I got my powers, things became a lot more manageable.  The creeping dark from afar is still the safest way to play.  I can't imagine egging on the waves of bodyguards at Paulie's place so they would charge me and get impaled on the demon arm.  I did that until I got the achievement I mentioned before, but that was on the Easy setting.  I wouldn't last a minute against the Hard thugs that way.

I got my first kiss down here when I was 15.  Some hooker named Candy.  She crossed her legs, an' broke my sunglasses.  Good times . . .

[Quemaqua]

Yeah, hard is definitely tougher.  I play most of these games on hard first time through now, and you're right, the first couple areas before you get your powers are just *hard*.  It gets a lot better once you've got your pal, though, so no worries.  It's definitely doable, barring a couple of potentially frustrating spots.  But with some foreknowledge of what's going on you should be fine.

[shock]

Forgot this thread was around..

SWAT 4 mainly, with a little bit of STALKER thrown in.

[Cobra951]

Yeah, hard is definitely tougher.  I play most of these games on hard first time through now, and you're right, the first couple areas before you get your powers are just *hard*.  It gets a lot better once you've got your pal, though, so no worries.  It's definitely doable, barring a couple of potentially frustrating spots.  But with some foreknowledge of what's going on you should be fine.

OK.  Then explain to me how I can survive Shrote's ambush in the church for more than 20 seconds.  Actually, my record I think is longer than that, maybe 30 seconds.  I've died about 50 times, and I'm taking a death break.

Edit:  That's it.  Unless someone tells me something I don't know, I officially give up.  This stage is beyond my abilities on Hard.  100 attempts is good enough to convince me.

[MysterD]

Forgot this thread was around..

SWAT 4 mainly, with a little bit of STALKER thrown in.

I got SWAT 4 and its Expansion.
Just ain't got around to it.

So, how do you like the game???

[Quemaqua]

OK.  Then explain to me how I can survive Shrote's ambush in the church for more than 20 seconds.  Actually, my record I think is longer than that, maybe 30 seconds.  I've died about 50 times, and I'm taking a death break.

Edit:  That's it.  Unless someone tells me something I don't know, I officially give up.  This stage is beyond my abilities on Hard.  100 attempts is good enough to convince me.

I don't know what to tell you other than that part is hard as nails.  I'm pretty sure I basically just used the black hole to take out the first guys that drop from the ceiling in the back of the room, used whatever decent guns I had to slay the other guys that then popped out in that immediate vicinity and around the middle of the room.  Then I tried my best to hide behind a pole in the corner of the room, popping out some darklings when I could and hopefully keeping my darkness powers charged enough that I don't die when taking hits from gunfire.  It's definitely a crapshoot, but I'm pretty sure that's more or less what I did both times during the initial parts of that battle.  Eventually you whittle things down enough where you just have to take out the guys on the top floor, who can be a real pain in the ass, but you can take them without getting killed as long as you're careful (black hole does wonders there).

So to sum it up:


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Worst illustration evar.  You should always stay on the outside of the pillars, next to the wall, never in the middle where my arrow thingy is, but you get the idea.  Run back toward the back wall, kill the 3 or 4 guys that drop using black hole, retreat behind that first corner pillar to recharge and use your guns to kill whoever can still see you (tough), and if you don't die, then run to the opposite side, where the arrow in my illustration ends.  Hide behind that pillar, summon any darklings you can (if you run halfway down that side, the righthand side, I think there's another spawn point), and just try to hole up there as best you can until you can kill a few guys.  If you need to get out, retreat down the righthand side of the room there and use the pillars as best you can to take out whoever is left on the ground floor.  Watch for the guys up top so they don't kill you, but worry first about taking out whoever is down on your level.  Once you've gotten that cleared out (it should be fairly obvious), then worry about the upstairs guys.  Spawn lots of darklings at that point just to give them something else to shoot, and sometimes the gunners will help you find where the bad guys are hanging out.  And don't worry, the game really doesn't have any other parts that are that hard... if you can get past it, you should be able to get through the rest of the game without wanting to throw yourself off a cliff.

Anyway, that's far from any detailed strategy.  Maybe there's some rhyme or reason to it, maybe there isn't, but that seems to be how I remember going about it both times I played through the game (I stopped just before that on my 2nd run, which is why I didn't quite finish it 3 times).

[Cobra951]

Well, I figured I needed to keep the pillars between me and the shooters as best as possible.  Problem is that it never seems to be good enough.  Many of the deaths were nearly instant.  I got to hear "Estacado" from Shrote, and then curtains.  I tried summoning darklings as often as possible, and I tried the black hole.  The problem with the black hole is that it leaves you without a shield.  I can't see everything that's shooting at me.  I get blindsided every time.  The pistols aren't fast enough, and the Uzis have too much muzzle flash.  (Can't see past it.)  The save point has me whip out the pistols, and just trying to select anything past those 2 options gets me dead.  Sheesh. I'm all for challenge, but not flat-out unfairness.

[wizall]

I'm still playing CoD4, almost obsessively.  I'm still only passable, but I'm getting better.  The MP is the most enjoyable gaming experience I've had in ages...provided I mute all the dumbshits.

[Quemaqua]

Well, I figured I needed to keep the pillars between me and the shooters as best as possible.  Problem is that it never seems to be good enough.  Many of the deaths were nearly instant.  I got to hear "Estacado" from Shrote, and then curtains.  I tried summoning darklings as often as possible, and I tried the black hole.  The problem with the black hole is that it leaves you without a shield.  I can't see everything that's shooting at me.  I get blindsided every time.  The pistols aren't fast enough, and the Uzis have too much muzzle flash.  (Can't see past it.)  The save point has me whip out the pistols, and just trying to select anything past those 2 options gets me dead.  Sheesh. I'm all for challenge, but not flat-out unfairness.

The only time you'll be safe using the black hole is that first shot, really.  Otherwise it's too risky (though if you can manage to eat a heart in the middle of firing it, it will instantly refill your dark powers and set you up for another shot right away, which might be worth considering).  I'd recommend an assault rifle as opposed to the uzis for this scenario also, if you've got any.  You shouldn't be instantly dying... not sure why that is.  Fire the black hole at the guys in back, break left toward the wall, kill anyone the black hole didn't get, recharge, cut across the room to the other side by staying next to the back wall, hole up and kill anyone you can.  If you can't see very well, maybe adjust your TV temporarily to settings that make it a bit easier to see?

[Cobra951]

Yeah, I really, really miss the gray-scale purity of CRT.  Very low-light detail goes to mud on LCD by default.  I've spent inordinate amounts of time trying to get that without washing out the image.  Over-brightening it is definitely a good suggestion.  Right now, though, I'm in no rush for more torture.

But thanks for the tips.  I appreciate the help, truly.

[MysterD]

Currently still playing Culpa Innata.

Probably the best pure adventure game I've played since TLJ and Shadow of Destiny.

There's a few annoying tedious pixel hunt puzzles (two are coming to mind), but it don't get much better than this for pure adventures in this day and era.

[shock]

I got SWAT 4 and its Expansion.
Just ain't got around to it.

So, how do you like the game???

It's really hard.  Haha.  I played through Swat 3 forever ago, and really liked it, but I feel like they really upped the ante (Spelling?) with this one.  I find myself failing a ton of missions, and I am only playing through on Medium/Average/whatever.  It's good, though.  Really enjoyable.  I can't recall if 3 had as much emphasis on the team dynamic as 4 does, but I like that fact.  The AI can be pretty stupid, sometimes.  Team members, specifically, seem to run in like dumbasses and die pretty quickly in the later levels.

Overall, though, it is enjoyable.  I like the emphasis on only using deadly force when absolutely necessary.

[Quemaqua]

Currently still playing Culpa Innata.

Probably the best pure adventure game I've played since TLJ and Shadow of Destiny.

There's a few annoying tedious pixel hunt puzzles (two are coming to mind), but it don't get much better than this for pure adventures in this day and era.

I'm sorry, but that's one of the ugliest games I've ever seen, and I'm not even talking just technical graphics, either.  That thing is fucking ugly.  All I can figure is that they hired a blind guy as art director.  I had nightmares just from looking at the screens for 10 minutes.

[MysterD]

I'm sorry, but that's one of the ugliest games I've ever seen, and I'm not even talking just technical graphics, either.  That thing is fucking ugly.  All I can figure is that they hired a blind guy as art director.  I had nightmares just from looking at the screens for 10 minutes.

The graphics are not the draw of the game by any means, Que. Hence the very low system requirements -- especially by today's standards.

Yes, Shadow of Destiny graphically probably looks better than this Culpa (which is a much older game, too). But, if we're gonna talk good puzzles (except them two annoying pixel hunts), non-linearity in an adventure (we need more of that done to push the genre forward), good voice-acting, storyline depth, and other things -- Culpa sure got that part down. Other games should takes notes from this one there, when it comes to that stuff.

If you want to talk about a very good looking adventure game, just graphically look at Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened.

[Quemaqua]

Again dude, I'm not talking technical graphics.  Whoever designed that shit should be shot in the face.  I challenge anyone else here to look at screens for that game and then tell me that they want to play it.  Seriously.  I'm not saying the game is bad necessarily, just that the art fucking sucks.

[MysterD]

Graphically, on the technical and artistic fronts, Culpa's character models and artwork are not gonna win any awards -- even if this 2007 game was say put out 5 years before that. There's no way.

I guess at least it ran great, 60 FPS always w/ it running in 1024x768 w/ AA and AF turned up all the way and graphics quality maxed-out. LOL.

Though, one oddity -- I do wish the game had a gamma/brightness setting to bump up and down, myself -- like most games do.

The artwork is definitely nothing to write home about (it's passable and by far the game's biggest weakness, as far as I'm concerned), but the rest of the game is something to write home about. Just about everything else this game does, it does right; extremely right. More adventure game companies need to take notes from these guys on how to make an adventure game when it comes to story depth, dialogue (there's tons of it and its all good stuff, too), non-linearity (plus there's multiple endings), and puzzles (minus the two tedious pixel hunt puzzles; adventures need to stop w/ the tedious type of pixel hunt puzzles).

[Pugnate]

I googled the screenies, and remembered reading about the game somewhat. PCG's Andy Mahood gave it a cautiously positive review, saying there was a decent story buried somewhere in there. The premise seemed interesting as well. Your character was a citizen of a futuristic Utopian society that was part of a one world government; basically a union of all the first world countries. I think your character was sent to a third world Eastern European country, to conduct an investigation into a murder of a diplomat or something. 

But Andy Mahood did express his disappointment with the visuals, saying that he was very disappointed considering visuals were the strength of the genre.

I am surprised I remember so much. I guess I was wanting to play the game, seeing as how I love Adventure. I think they mentioned the game was developed by some Turkish team, which might explain the bland visuals. I suppose they didn't have the budget to hire some quality artists.

[MysterD]

I googled the screenies, and remembered reading about the game somewhat. PCG's Andy Mahood gave it a cautiously positive review, saying there was a decent story buried somewhere in there. The premise seemed interesting as well. Your character was a citizen of a futuristic Utopian society that was part of a one world government; basically a union of all the first world countries. I think your character was sent to a third world Eastern European country, to conduct an investigation into a murder of a diplomat or something.

Mr. Bogdanov (the guy who is killed) is not a diplomat, no. He is a citizen/member of the World Union, but is actually killed over in one of The Rogue States that is NOT a part of this World Union (he's killed over in Odessa, Russia). That is why you're investigating; he's one of your own that was killed not on their own soil and the World Union wants this case solved. As Phoenix Wallis (of The World Union), you basically conduct interviews galore throughout most of the length of the game to find out the why and the who.

The game has TONS of dialogue and options in dialogue, I should note. Basically, murder doesn't exist in this squeaky-clean society; it hasn't in YEARS.

There are a lot of subjects and themes touched on in this game, which range from sex to immigration.

The puzzles ain't too hard, but the majority of them are fair game. Nothing really there for "irrational puzzles" -- like we've seen in some other games. There are two pixel hunts puzzles that are ridiculous, though.

I'll actually go into them, a little bit...

Single Butterfly Assembly Puzzle
[spoiler]It just takes a while to actually assemble the picture, basically. That's the biggest thing. At least it lets you know you've got things in the right place when you do put it there, so that makes it nice. It just gets tedious, after a while like most pixel hunts -- that is all. [/spoiler]

Footage Re-Assembly Puzzle
[spoiler]Could've been one of the best puzzles in the game, but two things hurt it.

First of all, you have to kind of figure out from the grainy footage what the hell you will re-assembling. And it's not like you can replay this footage over and over, either. And it's not like Phoenix takes a picture of the graint footage so she can have something to reference (which she actually does for some other puzzles, oddly enough!)

But, really -- the major problem w/ this puzzle is unlike the Butterfly Puzzle, after you finish part one of the puzzle (and reassemble the split frames into half the amount of frames, which is time consuming but not too hard), you actually have to put them all back together in the right places and reassemble the picture). This can take a while, which is okay. But worst of all, the game doesn't really let you know when you're put the right piece in the right spot. At least the Butterfly Puzzle lets you know you've put the piece in the right place.[/spoiler]

But Andy Mahood did express his disappointment with the visuals, saying that he was very disappointed considering visuals were the strength of the genre.

I definitely think they're majorly dated. Again, I think this is easily the weakest part of the game, myself. the rest of the game is great, despite the two pixel hunt puzzles.

I am surprised I remember so much. I guess I was wanting to play the game, seeing as how I love Adventure. I think they mentioned the game was developed by some Turkish team, which might explain the bland visuals. I suppose they didn't have the budget to hire some quality artists.

Yes, a Turkish team put together the game.

[Cobra951]

I'm into Zelda Twilight Princess again.  Started over, since it's been so long since I played before.  I also moved it to the Wii, which was a good move.  (I have the Gamecube version.)  The system gave me the option to run it in progressive mode (480p), and it looks so much better.  Some backgrounds have like a cloth-looking texture, I guess because they're designed to vibrate on interlaced displays.  (The even fields are a slightly different shade from the odd fields.)  But other than this artifact, it looks great, and moves so well.  The image is PC-stable, if not PC-sharp.  The colors are significantly better defined.  Must be the component cables.  (I use S-Video with the GC.  Don't know if progressive/component is even an option here.)  I'm in Kakariko village, and headed to Goron mountain next.  But yeah, the news, to me at least, is that the Wii handles GC games really, really well.  I will verify that it isn't just the latest Zelda that can benefit from this.  It could be that there's something built into the game, but the progressive option came from the Wii OS, not the GC virtual system running under it.

Edit:  I'm wrong.  It looks like the progressive option is part of the game itself, or the GC system.  It's chosen with the GC controller. 

[Pugnate]

I've paused my Bioshock experience, and am reinstalling Oblivion. This time I will be playing with the OOO 1.3 mod, which apparently fixes a lot of stuff -- at 450MB, it must.

[Quemaqua]

If by "fixes" you mean "alters to suit personal preference", then yes.

[Xessive]

The Unofficial Oblivion Patches fix a lot of stuff.

I'm trying STALKER again. The patch fixed a lot of the bugs. I'm finding it very difficult to like this game though. I'm not a fan of the theme or many of the visuals. I still find the interface is unappealing too. It's just a very ugly game to me (I'm not talking about texture quality). Maybe that's the look they were going for. Sorry, I had to get the visuals out of the way before I get down to the mechanics.

The gameplay is just not working for me either. Sometimes it's punishing and other times it's too easy. Then there are times when it is completely confusing. The most annoying thing so far is the ridiculous amount of traveling I have to put in. I have yet to find a weapon I like. So far all the weapons are crap and I end up having to use the weapon with the most available amount of ammo (since ammo is so scarce too). What I do like is that a headshot is an instant kill; with that in mind seven 9mm rounds in a guy's leg should at least disable him if not kill him.

I don't really get a feel for any of the factions. The NPC's are just dry, generic folks. The story (whatever there is of one) is just so bland.. It's very hard to care. I'm just finding it very tedious to play this game.

On a positive note, I'm glad I found a game I don't enjoy just because I don't like it, rather than a game-breaking bug or crappy design (although the design in STALKER is disputable).

[Pugnate]

If by "fixes" you mean "alters to suit personal preference", then yes.

Well when its something the majority want then its more of a fix.

[MysterD]

The Unofficial Oblivion Patches fix a lot of stuff.

I'm trying STALKER again. The patch fixed a lot of the bugs. I'm finding it very difficult to like this game though. I'm not a fan of the theme or many of the visuals. I still find the interface is unappealing too. It's just a very ugly game to me (I'm not talking about texture quality). Maybe that's the look they were going for. Sorry, I had to get the visuals out of the way before I get down to the mechanics.

I liked the game's look and atmosphere. The atmosphere really made the game, if you ask me.

About the Inventory Interface, I thought it was fine, myself.
It wasn't great, but it did serve its purpose just fine.

The gameplay is just not working for me either. Sometimes it's punishing and other times it's too easy. Then there are times when it is completely confusing. The most annoying thing so far is the ridiculous amount of traveling I have to put in.

STALKER: Clear Sky will have a quick travelling system like Oblivion or Silverfall.

Where once you visit the place once, all you'll need to do next time is click on the location map to get there instantly, regardless of where you are on the would map.

I have yet to find a weapon I like. So far all the weapons are crap and I end up having to use the weapon with the most available amount of ammo (since ammo is so scarce too). What I do like is that a headshot is an instant kill; with that in mind seven 9mm rounds in a guy's leg should at least disable him if not kill him.

Ammo is NOT scarce if you kill anything that walks.

B/c I took on this style of playing when playing STALKER, I wound up often having too many weapons and too much ammo often -- so I often had to drop stuff from my Inventory b/c my character would weigh too much and could've move.

I often wound up selling lots of ammo and weapons, too -- resulting in having loads of money, even after buying things.
GREEDY ENDING
[spoiler]
Having a ridiculous amount of money when you finish the game results in a bad and hilarious ending, BTW.[/spoiler]

I don't really get a feel for any of the factions. The NPC's are just dry, generic folks. The story (whatever there is of one) is just so bland.. It's very hard to care. I'm just finding it very tedious to play this game.

Are you following all of the "Strelok" quests?

Those "Strelok" quests are the best story-based stuff in the game. Especially when you find out who Strelok is, actually. Though, I did like the plot and premise of it a lot; there's not too much depth to the actual "Strelok" story, when compared to games like Deus Ex, The Witcher or Planescape: Torment.

I hope Clear Sky has more storytelling depth, myself.

On a positive note, I'm glad I found a game I don't enjoy just because I don't like it, rather than a game-breaking bug or crappy design (although the design in STALKER is disputable).

I loved STALKER, myself. I wish there more open-ended world shooters w/ non-linear gameplay, myself.

[Quemaqua]

Well when its something the majority want then its more of a fix.

Then the majority want you to ditch OOO and reinstall.  There's your fix.

[Xessive]

I liked the game's look and atmosphere. The atmosphere really made the game, if you ask me.

About the Inventory Interface, I thought it was fine, myself.
It wasn't great, but it did serve its purpose just fine.
STALKER: Clear Sky will have a quick travelling system like Oblivion or Silverfall.

Where once you visit the place once, all you'll need to do next time is click on the location map to get there instantly, regardless of where you are on the would map.
Ammo is NOT scarce if you kill anything that walks.

B/c I took on this style of playing when playing STALKER, I wound up often having too many weapons and too much ammo often -- so I often had to drop stuff from my Inventory b/c my character would weigh too much and could've move.

I often wound up selling lots of ammo and weapons, too -- resulting in having loads of money, even after buying things.
GREEDY ENDING
[spoiler]
Having a ridiculous amount of money when you finish the game results in a bad and hilarious ending, BTW.[/spoiler]
Are you following all of the "Strelok" quests?

Those "Strelok" quests are the best story-based stuff in the game. Especially when you find out who Strelok is, actually. Though, I did like the plot and premise of it a lot; there's not too much depth to the actual "Strelok" story, when compared to games like Deus Ex, The Witcher or Planescape: Torment.

I hope Clear Sky has more storytelling depth, myself.
I loved STALKER, myself. I wish there more open-ended world shooters w/ non-linear gameplay, myself.

You're right about the ammo if you've got the right weapon. The ammo isn't that big of a deal for me, unless I'm using a specific weapon like the L82 Enfield (not sure what it's actually called in STALKER but that's what it looks like).

STALKER is just too open, too much stuff goes on and I get lost too easily. By contrast in Oblivion it's easy to keep your bearings and track down your quests. And Crysis is technically quite linear, but the gameplay is open.

The game gives me little motivation to go on. I'm following the Strelok mission but they're the ones that are getting really tedious, making run to the side of the world and shit.[spoiler]Does it end up with something stupid like I was Strelok all along? I could see something like that working in a more cinematic game but not STALKER.[/spoiler]

Right now I'm having a hard time distinguishing if STALKER is more tactical or arcade. It feels like the game is undecided.

It's a real task to go on with this game.. It feels more like a mundane job.. I'm going back to more fun adventures.

[Pugnate]

Then the majority want you to ditch OOO and reinstall.  There's your fix.

 

Right now I'm having a hard time distinguishing if STALKER is more tactical or arcade. It feels like the game is undecided.

I'll give it another shot at some point. I hear that it pays off eventually.

[gpw11]

I'm currently playing through the great Shining Force II on a Genesis emulator.  The game hasn't really aged all that well in that there are some features that seem like a complete shame to not have in there  (positioning should affect your attacks and such), but it's still fun.

Apart from that I'm still messing around quite a bit with Saturn emulation.  It's a bitch in that none of the hardware accelerated emulators work very well. 2D games such as Dragon Force and Legend of Oasis are perfectly fine in SSF's software graphics environment, but 3D games like Shining Force III (the later two scenarios have been fan translated) and NiGHTS look so bad after being stretched out to a playable resolution that they're almost unplayable. I don't know if this is something that will ever be fixed.

All of that aside, I think I might try to pick up Chronicles of Riddick today when I make my hungover walk of shame to pick up my car.

[gpw11]

Sorry for the double post, but I've also been messing around a bit with n64 games with high resolution textures.  Specifically Paper Mario, and the difference is huge.

Old:




New:

[Quemaqua]

Damn, I need to get me some of that.  I never got to play that one.

[Xessive]

Sorry for the double post, but I've also been messing around a bit with n64 games with high resolution textures.  Specifically Paper Mario, and the difference is huge.

Old:




New:

Wow that is a drastic change! I should get back into N64 emulation.

[gpw11]

I played a few hours of OoT with a new texture pack a few years ago, but it didn't come close to having this level of change.  It really works fantastically with Paper Mario (and apparently there are some really cool ones for Mario64 as well).  The only downside is that this one is a work in progress, so some textures aren't upgraded yet.  You probably won't even notice with the environment textures, but because the characters in the game are made of nothing but textures there's a pretty stark contrast if one hasn't been changed yet.  Beyond that, there does seem to be some cases where a single texture for animation of a character hasn't been done yet and the character will flicker between the two as it moves about. 

By no means is it a huge deal at all and with the new textures combined with the general art style make this one of the more visually appealing games I've come across recently.  Pretty good for a game that's pretty close to 8 years old (or more...I have no idea).

Anyways, I just set my ps2 back up and got back into Persona 3 because of this little piece of awesome.  I'm fully back into it and fully enjoying it.  It's also cool to see that Persona 4 will be based closely on P3, and Persona 3: FES (an expansion) has been announced for North America.

[Quemaqua]

Playing Folklore now when I get the chance.  Since OWmeet2008 is happening, that's basically from like 1 - 3 in the morning when everybody else has gone to bed.  I'm not too far in, but other than the game being aurally appealing and bleeding gorgeous, the story is ramping up nicely too.  It starts off in quite stilted fashion, but if you keep at it and go through the prologue chapters for Ellen and Keats, the two characters, you should end up feeling satisfied and motivated to continue (and the beginning of Ellen's first chapter has made me even more interested).  You get the choice of using either Ellen or Keats for each chapter, and you'll have to play each chapter as both no matter how you choose to do it, but it's weird because it seems like it's best to simply play a chapter as Ellen, then as Keats, then move on to the next in the same order, yet you're allowed to play a bunch of successive chapters as Ellen then go back and play them all over again as Keats.  It just doesn't quite make sense when the story logically seems to want Ellen-Keats-Ellen-Keats.  Whatever.

Anyway, really liking it.  Bought and downloaded the first two content packs in a little bundle that cost I think $5.99.  That nets you eight quests, 2 new folks (the monsters whose souls you steal and subjugate in order to take on their abilities), and 2 new outfits for each character.  Not too shabby.  We'll see if it ends up being worth it, but fans of the game so have thus far not complained at all and have expressed to the developer that they're happy to have the extra stuff.  There's no more DLC planned, so at this point there are 6 packs total, which can be purchased at a slight discount if you buy them in the 3 2-pack bundles instead.  If I enjoy the game as much as I feel like I'm going to, I'll likely spend the extra money.

[Cobra951]

Sorry for the double post, but I've also been messing around a bit with n64 games with high resolution textures.  Specifically Paper Mario, and the difference is huge.

Last time I tried Paper Mario in emulators, it would flicker like crazy.  It was too nasty to play it.  I guess they've fixed that in the graphics plugin.

[gpw11]

They have for the most part.  I have come across it (at least the backround flickering) in one screen in the Star Road area though.  It might be fixable but I haven't really looked into it since it hasn't popped up again.

[Ghandi]

I'm playing Chrono Trigger since I never got a chance to play it before now. Great game. I did find it a little easy until I got to the boss that I'm on (I forget his name), who is kicking my ass. I think that I need to level up some more before I fight him.