Video Games - Watcha playin'?

[Adam]

We've got these threads for books, movies, music, etc., I figure it's about time for a video game thread that isn't all WoW all the time.

So, watcha playin'?

My current game of choice is Demigod, an "action-RTS" from the designer who did Total Annihilation and Dungeon Siege and the publisher who did Sins of a Solar Empire. I'm liking it a lot so far. It builds on the idea of the hero units you see in a lot of the newer RTS titles, to the point where you only control the hero (aka demigod). One review I read compared it to watching World War I unfold in real time, and that's pretty accurate. Each map has a number of prebuilt fortifications and AI-controlled troops spawn regularly and throw themselves at each other in predictable ways. They're perfectly matched (until you start spending gold to upgrade them, anyway), leading to an endless meat grinder until you, as the demigod, intervene to create breakthroughs for your allied armies to exploit. Naturally, the demigod on the other side is trying to do the same thing, and you can play with 1-4 demigods on each side.

There's a hokey backstory about some god breaking the divine rules and subsequently being destroyed by the rest of his pantheon, who then host a tournament among his half-mortal offspring, who fight over the right to ascend to godhood as his replacement, but the game itself has no story. So far, I've been having a lot of fun with single player (although the difficulty curve is a bit steep...Normal is far too easy, but Hard is kicking my ass), but I may actually try online play, something I haven't done with an RTS since Starcraft. Usually I have trouble with the rapid micromanagement and divided focus required to compete in multiplayer RTS, but Demigod eliminates most micromanagement. I think I can handle steering one guy around, as opposed to twelve groups of troops.

[Crumb]

It seems like I have been playing Call of Duty 4 forever. Only recently have a grown a bit bored by it.

I just started playing some Fallout 3 that my nephew loaned me. it is a very interesting game, but I have died too often. I'm not used to dying so much in a role playing game. I should check out that Fallout 3 thread that someone started since I haven't looked at it since I started playing.

[Ensign Steve]

I'm playing minesweeper and sudoku on my ipod.

I'm not being silly! I'm srsly addicted.

[seebs]

The Dark Spire for DS.

Basic Wizardry-style dungeon crawl. For extra fun, they allow you to set it back to Wizardry-style graphics (no decoration, just straight lines for walls and the like, little 8-bit sprites to represent creatures).

I thought it was sorta fun, and then during the tutorial, my thief couldn't unlock a door. After the second try, the game's narration window then said:

A faint click is heard. "I've unlocked it for you, but pretend you did it yourself, okay?" Now the party must play a degrading game of make-believe.

I love this game.

[ceptimus]

I still play Untangle from Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection quite a bit.

I play the free version of Scramble on my iPod touch

[Adam]

Originally Posted by Ensign Steve

I'm playing minesweeper and sudoku on my ipod.

I'm not being silly! I'm srsly addicted.

iPhone games are the devil. I have the first level of Pac-Man, because they'll give that one away for free, but they want 5 bucks for the rest of the game, and I'm not paying that, but it's Pac-Man, and sometimes it calls to me.

[Ensign Steve]

Originally Posted by ceptimus

I still play Untangle from Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection quite a bit.

I play the free version of Scramble on my iPod touch

OMG. I can't believe you linked to Simon Tatham. I donated the computer that had it installed, and I didn't install it on the new one, because of time sink... Until now.

I like untangle, but bridges is my favorite.

[Ensign Steve]

Originally Posted by Adam

iPhone games are the devil. I have the first level of Pac-Man, because they'll give that one away for free, but they want 5 bucks for the rest of the game, and I'm not paying that, but it's Pac-Man, and sometimes it calls to me.

That's why sudoku and minesweeper are the shit. It's all "pay 99 cents to unlock the expert level." I'm all "fuck you, I'll play beginner for 14 hours straight. Don't think I won't!"

[Demimonde]

Good thread Adam, extra points for playing a game in which I am God.

I have been playing God myself as of late. Dusted off Sims2, and have been creating all kinds of bizarre and crazy characters and environments. Stan O'Scratch is devilish rouge with the most epic of basement compounds, which from above appears the quaintest little cottage. The Gaudi family is a single mother with a love aspiration which is rude crude and butt ugly. Her child is evil too. I made an alternative culture ant farm. Three guys, Indie, Techno, and Punk, and three girls, Gothika, Granola, and Preppi. They live in a giant house that is shaped like an X, which was a bitch to build but turned out awesome. Great clash of personalities there.

When I want to kill something it is Tenchu Wrath of Heaven, because I am poor and it is still win after all these years. Love that game. I will not get a PS3 until I get HDTV, because why bother, and I won't be able to afford the whole shebang until aproximately fall 2011. So until then I am retro girl.

[Kael]

Well, this last week I've been playing almost nothing but WoW with my wife. She got interested again so we'll likely play quite heavily for a few months until she gets bored again, then she'll not play at all for a while and I'll go back to a few times a week. My three shelves+ of other games have been sitting here looking at me with sad, neglected eyes. I kinda feel bad, except about Dungeon Siege II which I hated and The Witcher which I couldn't get to run properly. They can suck it.

[Deadlokd]

That's funny seebs.

I had been waiting for this game to come out for months. GemCraft chapter 0 | Armor Games Awesome tower defence game where you combine gems of different colours to make better gems and then put them in traps or towers and they shoot the bad guys. It's seriously addictive. Over a hundred levels and different modes of play to unlock through the game.

I started HL2 again a month or so ago and then formatted my HD and lost my save games. Beyond that I can't afford new games.

But there's an awesome doctor game on the Wii that I want. You use the Wii remote like a scalpel and cut people up. And, I presume, put them back together again.

[erimir]

Lately, I've been playing mostly Smash Bros. Brawl (almost exclusively multiplayer), Mario Kart Wii (mostly multiplayer, I'm also trying to unlock everything on my Wii) and Civilization 3 (I have Civ4, but my laptop needs to be fixed and it won't run on this computer...).

I haven't been playing any one-player adventure type game in a while. I beat Twilight Princess, Super Mario Galaxy (I could still do it on Luigi mode, I suppose), Metroid Prime 3, Chrono Trigger DS and then there hasn't really been anything that piqued my interest since then.

But you know if there's another Zelda, Metroid, Mario or Chrono game, I'll jump right on that shit. I might also be tempted by a quality Mega Man game (speaking of, I still haven't beaten Mega Man 9... Dr. Wily's castle is so hard )

[Qingdai]

I've been playing that browser game Travians (not Travian the war game) which is quests and building stuff. It's ok.

I am also playing the worlds slowest game of Myst 4.

[erimir]

Originally Posted by Qingdai

I am also playing the worlds slowest game of Myst 4.

If it's anything like Myst 1 (the only one I've played) then you're just being redundant there.

[Qingdai]

Oh it's much better, and very beautiful, I'm just taking years to play it.
I'm not a war gamer or like games that make me twitch.

[BigBlue2]

Video Games - Watcha playin'?

Europa Universalis III

[Malloch]

Currently playing Freelancer, which is a space flight sim-like game. It has a story line, if you want to follow it. You have to occasionally because if you do the mission they give you it often opens up new areas and equipment. Also playing Mass Effect. I probably have a smattering of other games I'm playing, but I can't remember them all.

[Adam]

Originally Posted by Adam

My current game of choice is Demigod...

The design team speaks:

Q: What about modding?

A: We have discussed this issue with GPG and I can’t make promises on this but I can tell you that what we would like to allow is for people to mod AI players (LUA) and then submit them online and let them compete to see how they do. This would encourage good AI modding. We would also like to support mod support in Demigod proper where the Pantheon would support players downloading officially “blessed” mods and be able to play them in game. I don’t have any ETA on this yet.

:nerdgasm:

[Malloch]

After running into issues with freelancer after trying to install some mods, I switched back to trying to finish Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines. Tremere FTW!

[Deadlokd]

Originally Posted by Malloch

After running into issues with freelancer after trying to install some mods, I switched back to trying to finish Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines. Tremere FTW!

I bought that off Steam ages ago. I thought it was quite crap and bought Bloodrayne II to make up for it. The problem though is that I don't play those games when the kids are home, I don't want to warp their fragile minds. So it means that after owning Bloodrayne for a year I'm still on the first level.

[Wonderbread Leotard]

Odd, I had no problem getting The Witcher to run properly, without any help whatsoever. Perhaps the real problem is not so much with the game or its designers as with Kael.

Originally Posted by Kael

I kinda feel bad, except about Dungeon Siege II which I hated and The Witcher which I couldn't get to run properly. They can suck it.

[Malloch]

Did someone hear somthing ?

[Qingdai]

No? Why?

[Deadlokd]

Nothing intelligent. The grunting of the Moronis rapis maybe.

[livius drusus]

I've been obsessing over Mahjong lately. I have no idea how the Spenser et al manage to finish a puzzle so quickly. It took me 5 years to finish one in under 3 minutes.