What are you playing?

[Codefox]

Is anyone else as excited about Star Wars : Old Republic as I am?

[Sage Blackthorn]

Is anyone else as excited about Star Wars : Old Republic as I am?

When it was first announced, I was very excited about it. Of all the MMO's I've seen come and go, I think The Old Republic will be the one that is tempting enough for me to consider paying a monthly subscription fee (which is one of the main reasons I've never gotten into EverQuest, World Of WarCraft, or any game that after you buy it, requires a continuing subscription fee to play it. I've always preferred stand-alone games, or games with free multiplayer servers like Diablo. <Begin Rant>And even then, Blizzard's Battle.net games pissed me off because of how many people were using illegal cracks, hacks, and cheats on them. I remember one time a guy had hacked his character files so that all he had to do was place his cursor over you and you'd die. Where's the fun and challenge in that? Why do some people seem to delight in ruining other people's enjoyment of a game by cheating?<end rant>)

But the game that I'm really waiting for is the re-release of The Secret Of Monkey Island. It's a bit of nostalgia from my childhood, and I was pestering LucasArts to re-realse many of their classic games more than 10 years ago because I enjoyed playing them for their story line and none of my 8-bit DOS/Windows 3.1 games will play on my 64-Bit system.

[daydreamer]

Whatever Wii games I got...but lately Mario Kart Wii and 64 (from the shop channel). And Wii fit. I want to get back into Brawl and polish up my fighting skills. I just need someone to practice with *eyes my bro*.

[Tarvok]

Going through Morrowind again on my 360, working through the ranks of the Telvanni as a Breton Sorcerer.

[mesmorino]

I love Gears 2 as well! Most people freak when they find out, because i'm a girl and I guess i'm only supposed to like games such as cooking mama or something? Screw that, give me a gun with a chainsaw bayonet and some boots for curbstompin', and i'm all set!

lol well i'm always up for a game or two. I prefer horde (because it forces co-operation ) but i'm up for any game type really. my gamertag is Mesmorino, add me if you ever need an extra gun

[DDR_Ninja]

Despite its being a flash game, THIS is actually surprisingly good. Normally I don't like flash RTS games, they're either too easy or absurdly hard, but this one's perfect. It has 4 different armies to play as over 2 different campaigns, the character/unit designs are interesting, the story is fair, and it has 3 different modes of gameplay (quick skirmish, story mode, and then something like a more action-oriented version of Risk).

And besides all that, it has NINJA! :D

[disappears]

[Skids]

I've been playing The Beatles Rockband. I'm a huge Beatles Fan

[ShadeTail]

Deadly Creatures, lately. It is creepy as hell, and a lot more linear than it seems at first glance, but it is still the kind of action/adventure game that I tend to enjoy.

[kmyny]

Crisis Core for the PSP. It's pretty amazing.

[ShadeTail]

Now, I'm on Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers. It's not supposed to come out until Dec. 26, but one of my local game stores started selling it this past week for some reason. It's a pretty good game, but its been getting a lot of mediocre reviews. It is a graduate from the Hyrule School of Action/Adventure Games, and people were expecting a jRPG. So they wrote reviews about their own disappointment rather than the actual merits of the game.

[ShadeTail]

Oh, I forgot to mention: There is a (normal, non-talking) ferret named Mia who is a very minor but still extremely important character.

[Skids]

No wait, Now I'm playing Dark Sector for now, I hope I'll be playing something different tomorrow after I open my Christmas Presents!

[Dukat]

This thread needed some resurrection given the way "What are you reading?" turned most recently.

On the PC I finished DragonAge: Origins a couple of months ago. Epic and awesome, pretty much what I've come to expect from BioWare. The expansion Awakening hasn't been quite as good for me. In case anybody is playing Origins, I'll try to be careful and not give spoilers. My biggest complaint about Awakening is that it doesn't really matter how you ended the original game. It has one single start point for an imported character from Origins, and a different start point if you choose to play the origin story that comes with the game. One of the strengths of Origins was that there were several different turning points in the plot that dramatically affected the outcome. Awakening throws all of that out the window. It does have some nice cameos by characters from Origins, and it does have a good story. Some of the epic level spells are awesome, as is the equipment, and unlike other games of a similar vein, it allows you to start with almost all of your original gear you earned. I can't tell you how much game play time it has to justify its price tag, because I haven't finished it yet. I got close to 60 hours of game play out of Origins, doing pretty much all the side quests and taking my time.

Got a new board game a couple of weeks ago, "A Touch of Evil". Some have disparagingly called it Arkham Horror lite. I can see where the criticism comes from on the surface, but if you're willing to set aside comparisons and accept the game on its own terms, it's an enjoyable diversion, brought to you by the makers of "Last Night on Earth". Like LNoE, it also has its own soundtrack, amusing and not annoying or distracting during game play. It says that it gets bogged down past five players in competitive mode. We haven't tested this theory yet. With 3-4 players, it rolls very smoothly with the turns offering enough to do and enough intrigue to satisfy those who like to plot and enough ways to screw over anybody who seems close to winning to make it a little cut throat.

We also just bought "The King in Yellow" expansion to Arkham Horror. We haven't had the chance to test it out yet. All I can say is I hope it's not quite as close to impossible as "Black Goat of the Woods". That EP took an already difficult game and brought on the Hell. I'd love to actually get one of the board expansions to AH, but the game board takes up SO much room on its own that you practically need King Arthur's round table just to play it, never mind another full sized board with its own cards around it. We keep telling our gaming buds to buy a mansion. So far, no takers.

[Sezso]

I'm pretty sure that Bioware owns my soul. I devote EMBARRASSING amounts of time to their games. And the fandoms and forums surrounding their games. And the voice actors involved in their games. And the music in their games. It's a terrible terrible thing. -_-

I don't think I'm going to buy Awakening though. I've heard Zevran isn't in it! Half of my characters romanced him and... what. He just up and leaves them? F THAT NOISE! I'm not playing no broken hearted PC! Seriously. Bring back my naughty assassin and we'll talk. And DOG isn't it! He imprints on me and then changes his mind? I am so sad faced about Awakening.

I did love Dragon Age for a long time, but I'm hooked on Mass Effect currently. I've finally choked down my hatred of the male main character's voice and am playing so that I can play through one of the guy's romances, Jack. She's the most amazing character. I really REALLY hate playing as male!Shepherd though, it's truly the worst voice actor ever. Everybody in that game is so talented and just NAILS their character and there he is and everything is said in the same tone with hardly any inflection. *sigh* Female!Shepherd is AMAZING though. Her voice actor has been in seriously EVERYTHING.

I like this card game called Chrononauts. Basically you're a time traveler and you have to get back to your version of history (which is assigned to you via a card) and it's basically like our history only with a few important events changed. You might get to save John Lennon (which leads directly to him becoming Senator Lennon and later indirectly to stopping Columbine) or you might have to cause WWIII (in that timeline you are actually a cockroach descendant XD). The other players are changing the timeline too though and you might have to re-kill Kennedy to make sure you can get home. It's an interesting game and it leads to a lot of interesting discussions like how Lennon living might have stopped Columbine. The game makers put a lot of thought into it and so a lot of it has some actual basis to go off of.

Wait. "A Touch of Evil" is a board game with a soundtrack? That sounds interesting. Is it like, also with a DVD or something, or does the board itself actually have music built in? I'm trying to picture this...

[Dukat]

BioWare hooked me with Baldur's Gate, and I've been a sucker for them ever since. The Infinity Engine pretty much revolutionized the genre and even to this day holds up pretty well. I did a replay of Icewind Dale last year and didn't find myself just hating it or feeling limited by the interface. They get some massively talented voice talent. David Warner in Shadows of Amn. Awakenings has Robin Sachs. Robin freakin' Sachs! I lucked out in that the ending I wound up taking in Origins went ahead and fit Awakenings OK. I was lucky that way, but yeah. Where's my damned dog?

The only reason I've been avoiding Mass Effect 2 is that I've heard it's approximately 10 hours of game play for a hefty little price tag. I'll probably eventually break down and get it. But man, I need to feel like that 10 hours is some of the best time I've ever spent on a computer game to justify that.

The soundtrack comes on a separate CD for "A Touch of Evil". Pop it in the player, start the board game, and you're set. The one for "Last Night on Earth" is better, though. Really fits the end of the world zombie apocalypse theme. A game came out years ago called "Nightmare" that was played off of a VHS. (I know, seriously aging myself here.) It was great. Had some pretty good sequels, too. You had to follow along with whatever you were told to do on the tape. Toward the end it got pretty fast paced and intense. Campy as all get out, but lots of fun. It was very hard to win. And HOLY crap, I just did a quick search of it online for a link. I can't believe what copies of it are selling for. Glad we didn't get rid of ours when we got rid of our VCR.