[Catbert]

Originally Posted by LaCroix

I'm trying out kotor 1. I never played it back in the day and many have told me that it's way better than the sequel. I have gotten to dantooine only to find that jedi/sith robes don't exist. Instead they all wear these strange uniforms. Call me vein but I'm gonna stop playing if there are no robes to look cool in.

There's lots of cool looking Jedi robes in the game, they probably just drop on other Jedis, I don't remember.

[Endosanity]

Playing:

Resident Evil 0 - GC - I like the team fighting and being able to leave items where-ever I want... for the most part. Right now just solving puzzles and opening doors.

Morrowind - PC - Currently on the island of... hell, I don't know. There is lots of snow. The monsters are a bit tougher. Trying to solve all the conspiracies that are going on.

Max Payne - PC - Even with it's dated graphics and 'good cop gone bad' storyline... I still really like this game.

[MoriartyL]

Originally Posted by MdaG

Metroid Prime: Just (re)aquired the missiles and morph ball. So far I'm pretty disappointed and bored. The controls SUCK as well. Should I hang in there, will it get better? I beat the original Metroid on NES 20 years ago and loved it, but this is just tedious. The save points are way too spread out.

Bored? Controls suck? Hm. I dunno how to respond to that. Does it get better? I guess it depends on what you're looking for. If you're trying to enjoy the whole exploring thing, Chozo Ruins is probably the best environment in the entire game. (Especially when you get to know it well enough to play without a map.) So I can't understand why you'd find it boring, unless you're looking for more action. What is it you're looking for? And what's the problem with spread-out save points? It forces you to get to know the layout of the environment so you'll be able to get back. If you could save anywhere, you'd just be trying to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible. This is better.

Edit: Sorry I didn't write until now- it was a holiday.

[Kolzig]

Originally Posted by Endosanity

Max Payne - PC - Even with it's dated graphics and 'good cop gone bad' storyline... I still really like this game.

Both Max Payne games are still my big favourites. I some months ago I played both of them through.

Max Payne 3 by Remedy, pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaassseee let that happen after Alan Wake wakes up.

[Lucien21]

Bioshock

Just finished the shocking Submarine Base level and entered Arcadia.

So far it's an excellent remake of System Shock 2, but as that's one of my fav games I'M LOVING IT.

Only grips is that it really doesn't punish you for getting killed so it makes it WAAY to easy to kill Big Daddies in stages.

[Terramax]

I've decided not to buy either the 360 or PS3 and there are no new Wii games I wanna buy so-- LETS BUY SOME MORE IMPORT DREAMCAST GAMES!!!

Playing:
Under Defeat - This a hidden gem of a game. Give this game a few years and people will talk about this as a cult classic. I'm so proud to own the limited edition. Owned it for about 2 months and still have a bash at it. Over 25 hours of gameplay buy now and I still haven't completed it with the limited continues on hard.

Ikaruga - Solid game. I'm not as fanatical about it as some, but the game has other people hooked when playing 2 players. I can see why non-shmup fans love this so much. If you're interested in getting into these kinds of games then this is a good start. Coming to Xbox live soon too.

Daytona 200 - loved the Saturn version (still own it in fact) but this is something of a dream. Just ordered my second DC Ferrari steering wheel so two of us can have a bash at it with a wheel each (apparently it just isn't so good with a pad). I haven't even started the tornament mode yet - just spend hours playing the single race.

Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike - My arcade sticks don't seem to respond to the special moves as well as other fighters (although I've ordered the X-arcade stick so hopefully that will make an improvement). This doesn't detract from my love of this game. I've mastered about 4 characters of 19 so I've got a long while before I become a master.

[MdaG]

Originally Posted by MoriartyL

Bored? Controls suck? Hm. I dunno how to respond to that. Does it get better? I guess it depends on what you're looking for. If you're trying to enjoy the whole exploring thing, Chozo Ruins is probably the best environment in the entire game. (Especially when you get to know it well enough to play without a map.) So I can't understand why you'd find it boring, unless you're looking for more action. What is it you're looking for? And what's the problem with spread-out save points? It forces you to get to know the layout of the environment so you'll be able to get back. If you could save anywhere, you'd just be trying to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible. This is better.

Edit: Sorry I didn't write until now- it was a holiday.

*Spoiler warning*
Basically I was expecting to be entertained by the game since everyone seems to love it. I'm not looking for anything except fun game play. I have no preferences concerning genre as long as it's fun. My gripe so far is that I have no idea what I'm doing.

Spoiler:

I'm answering a distress call and ends up on a ravaged space station full of insects and space pirates. I then meet a huge bug and kills it after which the station self destructs (and my suit brakes) and I follow a huge flying dinosaur to this planet. At this planet I find parts of my suit (I have no idea how they ended up here!?). What am I doing on this planet, why did I follow this bird?

So far I don't get it, but I've still not given up on it, I'm just busy with two other games at the moment. I will give it another shot later. Okami got way better after the first five hours and I aim to give Metroid Prime at least that before I decide on giving it up or not.

[MoriartyL]

Originally Posted by MdaG

My gripe so far is that I have no idea what I'm doing.

There is a story there, but it's not spelled out. There's a lot of backstory that you only read about if you use the scan visor on computers and "Lore entries" on the walls. So if you're not interested in the story, you barely see it, but the more you read the more it's revealed. It's a lot like Myst in that respect.

But it sounds like you're not having much fun uncovering the story for yourself. Okay. So I'll spell it out a little:

Spoiler:

The ship at the beginning belonged to the Space Pirates, the villains of the series. According to the computer read-outs there, they'd been doing tests with a material called Phazon. There were several of those big bug-creatures, which (as scans showed) they were injecting with Phazon as part of their experiments. You saw the disastrous results.

The dinosaur-like creature was Ridley, one of the Space Pirates' leaders. You might remember him from the first Metroid game, where you shot him to little bits for their dangerous experiments on Metroids. Evidently he was revived as some sort of cyborg. Samus chases him down to the planet to see what no-doubt dangerous scheme he's up to. Her ultimate goal is to stop whatever it is the Space Pirates are doing with this Phazon material.

There's a lot more to the story than that. Some things which might at first seem contrived are actually plot points. Case in point: the power-ups. These are not the same pieces of equipment Samus had in the beginning- those were damaged beyond repair in the explosion. But it actually does make a certain amount of sense that they'd be here. To explain how would mean telling you too much of the history of Tallon IV, so I won't. You should discover it for yourself.

[Nelza]

I'm currently up to Chapter 6 in 'Ninja Gaiden Sigma'.

I'm quite enjoying it although it is fairly hard and I suck at memorizing combos. My boyfriend gave up just after the second boss cause he found the game frustratingly hard but I'm managing to battle through.

Rachel's assets are over the top!

[MdaG]

Originally Posted by MoriartyL

...You should discover it for yourself.

Thanks for the recap. I have some vague memory of Ridley from Metroid
I'll fire this one up again after RE0.

[insane_cobra]

I started playing Mafia and so far I neither terribly like it nor dislike it. The concept and the ambition are great, but execution is somewhat lacking.

From the narrative side it seems to be a run-of-the-mill mobster story, but at least we haven't seen a lot of those in video games. Still, dialogue is rather inconsistent and cliche-ridden, and mediocre voice acting further takes away from it. Some parts of the story don't fit in that well. For instance, the first mission where you need to steal a race car is obviously added for gameplay reasons. I just found it strange listening to a don giving me an order to steal a car, bring it over so that his engineers could take a look at it and than return it. Doesn't sound like something a mafioso would be doing at all, there are much easier and better ways to fix a racing competition. Then again, it could be something taken straight out of The Godfather, for all I know, I'm one of the few people on Earth who haven't seen the trilogy (I know, I know...).

But my main gripes are with gameplay. Driving around has been quite boring and disorienting so far, but I presume it'll get better. However, the first shooting mission is an exercise in frustration. You need to interact with the environment to get where you need to be, but for your commands to register you have to be standing in the exact right spot. Even then your inputs are not always recognized. In addition to that, mobsters sometimes clip with doors and other objects so at times they can see you and shoot at you when they shouldn't be able to or before you can even notice they're standing there.

I don't know, I'm not too satisfied with the gameplay, but together with an interesting setting it's good enough to keep me playing. Maybe it'll get better as I get used to the game's quirks.

[MdaG]

Originally Posted by Nelza

I'm currently up to Chapter 6 in 'Ninja Gaiden Sigma'.

I'm quite enjoying it although it is fairly hard and I suck at memorizing combos. My boyfriend gave up just after the second boss cause he found the game frustratingly hard but I'm managing to battle through.

Rachel's assets are over the top!

How does it compare to the Devil May Cry games?

[AprilLives]

Mysterious Island. I must be getting very near the end of this game.

Due to a lack of new and original adventure games, I turned to a game that takes off on an existing plot from a Jules Verne novel (something I avoided until now) to find it is quite good and has little to do with the book.

The graphics are excellent and the locations pretty nice to be in. The voice of the character is very smooth but the game would have been richer had she interacted more with her environment and made more personal comments along the way.

Juggling the huge inventory feels a little to much like science class. It’s nice to find lots of stuff but the mixing and matching of it all gets a little stale.

I liked that the character is self-reliant. Also, she values life and doesn’t kill everything in sight. All in all a worthy game IMO.

[Cage]

Beneath a Steel Sky (PC)

SPOILERS
*********************************

Spoiler:

I just found Anita's dead body in a locker

I had to chuckle when Robert finds the body, cause his reaction is anything but sad.. "Oh no, not... ANITA!!", haha.

END SPOILERS
**********************************
First time playing through, so far I really dig it.

[Melanie68]

Cage, if you want to add spoiler tags just:

[ spoiler ]text here[ /spoiler ] (leave the spaces out of the brackets)

[Wanderer]

Originally Posted by Nelza

I'm currently up to Chapter 6 in 'Ninja Gaiden Sigma'.

I'm quite enjoying it although it is fairly hard and I suck at memorizing combos. My boyfriend gave up just after the second boss cause he found the game frustratingly hard but I'm managing to battle through.

Rachel's assets are over the top!

Ninja Gaiden Sigma, I have yet to play the full retail but I've played it on the previous xbox. I've been too cought up in heavenly sword and warhawk to rent Sigma.

[Nelza]

Originally Posted by MdaG

How does it compare to the Devil May Cry games?

I'd compare it more to 'Onimusha' really! If you liked Onimusha, you'll LOVE 'Ninja Gaiden'! Except with a Ninja instead of a Samurai and LOTS of combos!

It's more fast-paced like the 'Devil May Cry' games though! From what I remember of 'Devil May Cry2' I think it's similar to that.

@ Wanderer, yeah I'll also be purchasing 'Heavenly Sword' too! Only played the demo of it but I'm sold.

I think the most unexpected thing about 'Ninja Gaiden' is that after the first level. You find out that it's actually based in modern-day times - Samurais with guns on motorbikes chasing and shooting you down. LOL!

[insane_cobra]

Originally Posted by Nelza

I'd compare it more to 'Onimusha' really! If you liked Onimusha, you'll LOVE 'Ninja Gaiden'! Except with a Ninja instead of a Samurai and LOTS of combos!

I wouldn't compare it to Onimusha at all, fighting mechanics are completely different, much more reliant on jumping (which is nonexistent in Onimusha games), evading and other acrobatic moves. It's also about 4X faster, at the very least.

DMC is also not a particularly good comparison point. DMC is more flashy, while NG is generally more punishing (but also more rewarding) and more about edge-of-the-seat fighting than showing off. I'm not sure there is a game Ninja Gaiden can be compared to at all, it seems to be in a class of its own.

[Wanderer]

Comparison to Ninja Gaiden? I was thinking of more recent work, Heavenly Sword is a fair comparison in terms of it's combat system, slow though.

[MdaG]

Originally Posted by insane_cobra

I wouldn't compare it to Onimusha at all, fighting mechanics are completely different, much more reliant on jumping (which is nonexistent in Onimusha games), evading and other acrobatic moves. It's also about 4X faster, at the very least.

DMC is also not a particularly good comparison point. DMC is more flashy, while NG is generally more punishing (but also more rewarding) and more about edge-of-the-seat fighting than showing off. I'm not sure there is a game Ninja Gaiden can be compared to at all, it seems to be in a class of its own.

From the in game trailers I've seen I got the expression that it was like DMC...

Anyway. Okami.

Spoiler:

Just defeated Orochi and realized that the game isn't over yet (yay!).