The last game you played

[Grudge]

On the Rain-slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One - 8/10

Incredibly charming cross between old-school point and click adventure and casual RPG. If you're a fan of Penny Arcade you must play this game. If not... well, then you can fuck off.

Any game where you get to smash up hobos are good in my book, and in this one you also get to smash up mimes and barbershop singers. Awesome.

It's available for PC, Mac, Linux and Xbox 360 via Live Arcade, you can check it out here (and support indie game development while you're at it).

[Captain]

Perseus Mandate 10/10

orly? I might give that a try then. I liked Extraction Point but got bored of FEAR quickly after.

I uninstalled it after about 10 minutes of gameplay. Same old boring shit.

I've only played NHL 2004, BF2142, and the GRID Demo recently.

[MKJ]

fear is a trilogy?

[Don Carlos]

Mario Kart Wii - awesomeness

[Captain]

It's the Platinum Collection, Fear and it's 2 expansions. 12 squid ftw, except for the whole it's sodding broken part.

It also hates the 8800GT so it throws me an artifact freeze after about 10 minutes of playing. But I've beaten FEAR and the first XP and the games are dull rubbish, so no loss when I uninstalled them

[Don Carlos]

On the Rain-slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One - 8/10

Incredibly charming cross between old-school point and click adventure and casual RPG. If you're a fan of Penny Arcade you must play this game. If not... well, then you can fuck off.

Any game where you get to smash up hobos are good in my book, and in this one you also get to smash up mimes and barbershop singers. Awesome.

It's available for PC, Mac, Linux and Xbox 360 via Live Arcade, you can check it out here (and support indie game development while you're at it).

Awesome - I am looking forward to getting my hands on this one

[Grudge]

Mass Effect (PC) - 8/10

Cinematic space opera with a good story and interesting characters. The realtime combat is more like an FPS than a traditional RPG, which is nice and makes for a very streamlined experienced. The only low points are the rather cluncy inventory, occationally retarded NPC pathfinding, and the somewhat uninspired sidequests, but the main quest is great, which makes it all definitely worthwile. You do have to make some big decisions, which will have impact on the sequels (BioWare have said that this is the first game in a series of 3) since the world is persistent you will be able to carry over your character to the next game.

Here's my Shepard and her all girl squad:

[lvlshot]http://www.grudgedesign.com/misc/mass_effect_1.jpg[/lvlshot] [lvlshot]http://www.grudgedesign.com/misc/mass_effect_2.jpg[/lvlshot] [lvlshot]http://www.grudgedesign.com/misc/mass_effect_3.jpg[/lvlshot]

[Tormentius]

Mass Effect 8.5/10

Its one of the top RPGs I've ever played. The only reason it isn't a perfect 10 is the uninspired sidequests. The main story arc is just awesome.

[Mat Linnett]

Ninja fucking Gaiden bastard 2.
Not quite completed it yet; got to the very last boss battle (Arch Fiend's second stage), and it's pissing me off.
It would all be hunky dorey if it wasn't the fact that the end section consists of 3 boss battles with no save point or shop to buy healing items from in between.

Overall, quite a satisfying game, but pretty damn mindless. And some of the difficulty spikes are enough to leave an imprint of the 360 controller in my forehead.

That Russian level with the bloody mechs and multi-rocket launcher bastards did my swede RIGHT in.

Edit:
Completed it now, and don't know if I can be arsed to go through it all again just to get more achievement points.

[Transient]

Mass Effect 8.5/10

The only reason it isn't a perfect 10 is the uninspired sidequests. The main story arc is just awesome.

It's also terribly short and linear, but that's ok because the game is so polished.

[Grudge]

My playthrough was done in 27 hours, and I took perhaps 50-70% of the sidequests. Although that's pretty short for a traditional RPG, it's pretty long for a SP game these days.

[Captain]

The length was very good and the story kept me interested the whole way through. The gameplay was absolutely fantastic and blows KOTOR I right out of the water. Bioware sure knows how to provide a cinematic gaming experience. I'd love to see a KOTOR III done in the same style.

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[tnf]

Got "The Witcher" at a bargain price so I tried it. Runs like dick on my machine unless I have the settings low. Got good reviews and the story seems to be a good one, but the voice acting and some horribly cheesy dialogue make parts of it tough to sit through. Going to come back to that one in the winter or sometime later.

Got Lego Indiana Jones from Gamefly - it's OK. These games are decent and have some funny parts, but I'm already tired of it.

[Mat Linnett]

Witcher's definitely worth persevering with tnf, especially considering that they'll soon be releasing a free and extensive content pack.
One of my favourite games of last year.

[Therac-25]

ETQW obviously. 10/10.

Just started Quake 4. It feels like Doom 3, but more fun. 7/10 so far.

PA Game. Finally finishing that, as my Mac couldn't even run it past the first level respectably. Nearly done episode 1: 10/10

If we're going to consoles, Professor Layton & the Curious Villiage was recently completed on the DS. 10/10. Can't wait for the next one.

I'm looking for what games to install now that I have a copy of Windows. Thinking of trying Age of Conan out, as WoW just makes me want to hurl -- anyone else tried that yet (AoC, not hurling)?

[Therac-25]

All depends on what elements of WoW make you hurl, as you eloquently put it. If you don't like the whole grinding/questing malarkey you're pretty much out of this entire genre. AoC is a prettier WoW, however still missing several sheens of polish thus far unseen outside of Blizzard's long established epic. If time required to establish a character and level grinding doesn't float your boat you're better off with something like Guild Wars and it's quasi-mmo instanced missions.

Nah, it's boredom, more than anything. Just bored of the classes and the world and the same stupid quests, cartoon goblins, paper/scissors/rock class design, etc.

I just want something different, and I was hoping AoC didn't suck too much.

[Hannibal]

Been fucking about with the Spore Creature Creator. Extremely polished design and fun but I have zero patience for cultivating creativity on this thing. Every creature I design looks like the buttsex offspring of Dino and the Schmoo.

[AmIdYfReAk]

Been fucking about with the Spore Creature Creator. Extremely polished design and fun but I have zero patience for cultivating creativity on this thing. Every creature I design looks like the buttsex offspring of Dino and the Schmoo.

http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/comic.php?d=20080627

[MKJ]

just beat FF7 again. rofl.
going through FF12 now.. it didnt quite capture me the first time so maybe itll be better this time. still cant get over the poor soundquality of the voiceovers.

also, RockBand and Civilization Revolution. both quite awesome.

[Grudge]

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Shadow of Chernobyl - 9/10*

Although it was massively hyped during development, once it was released it seems like the interest faded quite rapidly to the point that many now seem to regard it as a big failure. Much of this was probably due to the bugs and crashing of the 1.0 version, but now, with the game patched to 1.0005 and together with an assortment of mods to further remove bugs and polish the graphics and gameplay, this game has turned out to what I regard to be one of the best shooters ever released.

Although a few bugs still remain, and the game occationally hiccups and you need to save and reload, it is definitely worth it due to the unique atmosphere and environments. Granted, it is not for everyone - the learning curve at the start of the game can be surprisingly steep and difficault if you are not an experienced FPS gamer, and the bleak and unforgiving environment won't appeal to everyone. Everything isn't explained at once and information isn't served on a silver platter (contrary to as it usually is in your ordinary FPS), and often you get to try to find out what to do next by yourself, and learn (the hard way) where you should (and shouldn't) go.

But IMO this is bleakness done right, the grey and brown serve a purpose and adds to the atmosphere. Plus, it's definitely one of the scariest games I've ever played. The underground areas are really creepy, and running around outside alone by yourself in the middle of the night can be a truly frightening experience. Naturally, this game benefits greatly from being played in a dark room wearing headphones (preferably at night).

Speaking of mods, I've played it using Stolls Mod Compilation, which contains various bug fixes, graphics and sound improvements and gameplay tweaks. It doesn't alter the vanilla game in any significant way, but provides a more solid and polished experience. There is also a very popular mod called Oblivion Lost, which is a more comprehensive alteration of the game - according to the creators bringing it closer to the "original vision" of the developers. This mod changes gameplay somewhat and adds lots of new features, weapons, monsters, characters etc. I think I'll install this next and use if for my second playthrough.

All in all - S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is a somewhat underappreciated title that has improved significantly since release, and which I think will be remembered and regarded as a cult hit for many years to come.

* the score is of course including the Stolls Mod Compilation. Without the mods, the game would unfortunately not get more than 7/10 due to the remaining bugs and quirkyness.

Some screenshots:

[lvlshot]http://www.grudgedesign.com/misc/ss_hugo_07-09-08_10-16-04_(l08_yantar).jpg[/lvlshot] [lvlshot]http://www.grudgedesign.com/misc/ss_hugo_07-09-08_10-23-58_(l08_yantar).jpg[/lvlshot] [lvlshot]http://www.grudgedesign.com/misc/ss_hugo_07-09-08_14-45-48_(l07_military).jpg[/lvlshot] [lvlshot]http://www.grudgedesign.com/misc/ss_hugo_07-10-08_10-53-38_(l11_pripyat).jpg[/lvlshot]

[ek]

games

[o'dium]

You know I got to some part in STALKER where I was in a junk yeard defending the camp against people, and that was when my ol GPU killed itself. I nevet went back to it.

I really should...

I've never even beaten Crysis either... Fuck I'm missing out on a few PC games atm...

Currently playing through FFVII (Original) on my PSP because the game never fucking gets old. Only 10 or so hours in atm, great stuff. Was thinking about playing some Dead Rising later just for kicks. Since getting my 1080p TV I haven't been back to it, and seeing as even on my old 32" Wide SD TV I couldnt tell what the fuck half the text was saying, it should be reet fun this time

[feedback]

STALKER was a game I tried to play but couldn't get into due to horrible performance, bland gameplay, and bugs. I'm sure it got much better later, and would have improved with the mods which caused my game to crash, but we'll never know.

[Tormentius]

Guild Wars: Prophecies - 6.5/10.

Now I'm working on the Eye of the North expansion which is pretty good so far.

[Mat Linnett]

After finishing Ninja Gaiden 2, I've now moved on to Okami, and dear god, this game is superb.
I mean, basically, it's a Legend of Zelda game. True, two completely different universes and stories, but they both play pretty much identically.

Where Okami stands out however is in it's use of the Wiimote and the utterly compelling visuals.
I'd read before that the game looks like traditional Japanese artwork come to life, and they weren't kidding.
It's utterly gorgeous, and it has nothing to do with resolution or how many visual effects the engine can handle, but rather totally compelling artistic direction.

In these days of everyone pushing resolutions higher along with polygon counts and effective use of realtime lighting, it's a breath of fresh air to play something where technology takes a back seat while art is allowed to flourish.

I don't think anything has impressed me as much visually in the last year, game-wise.

Definitely a must-have title for all you Wii owners.