What game(s) are you playing?

[Wolfie]

Going to play Killzone 2 tomorrow, just got it today for AUD$40 (from Target, cheapest!) but been busy night booze partying.

[Fuu]

wolfie i have been playing a few games of svc in your honour, using exclusively Hugo. It's pretty hilarious till i meet Goenitz.

[Apathy Wind]

Going to play Killzone 2 tomorrow, just got it today for AUD$40 (from Target, cheapest!) but been busy night booze partying.

I've been playing K2 myself lately (online at least - I couldn't be arsed to play the actual game). If you're going online be prepared to die - alot. It can be fun from time to time so I really can't make up my mind whether I like it or fucking despise it. A bit too Call of Duty for my tastes, either way...

[Wolfie]

Just woke up & abt to go play it. bwaaahahaha

i played the demo & i think it looks ok, though nice GFX but not sure abt all the arms & stuff. I like Resistance 2 coz their guns mostly different than other FPS, but sure if i like this KZ2 coz it looks generic. and the only thing i will hate is the run button. i hope i can change that in this full ver. aw heck for 40 bucks i dun care atm.

can this KZ2 play split screen 2 players? i have 2nd controller (Logitec) and I havent update mine to 3.00 FW. I heard there r prob after ppl updating it. ugh i prolly playin offline atm.

@Fuu
SvC is shit. And I hate cRapcom. SF games in particular.

[Fuu]

whatever wolfie i 'm adding Earthquake to the playable roster but he's not as hilarious as Hugo.

[Bugle/Hawk'M]

Just finished Mass Effect 2. I got the first one on a Steam sale for 5 USD and liked it so much that I bought the second one. I was never much for Bioware games, but I really enjoyed this series so far. Also, I have been playing the new Lost in Nightmares DLC for RE5. It is nostalgic and fun. With it you also get a new Mercenaries mode with Barry, which is awesome. I now officially have over 100 hours in RE5, which is a bit disturbing.

[SonicTempest]

In varying amounts:
- Crysis - pretty damn awesome so far...and of course, really pretty.
- Prince of Persia Warrior Within - emo Prince sucks, but the combat is a lot better, I have to admit.
- Torchlight - when I feel the need to click on things furiously for an hour or so.
- Resident Evil 5 - still looking for someone to play co-op with on PC...in the meantime I'm trying to beat some of the missions singleplayer.
- Deus Ex - mainly playing this since I missed it around the time of its release (was too busy playing Half-Life mods). Pretty great so far. Speaking of which...
- Half-Life - replaying the first game on Hard difficulty. I forgot how ridiculous the soldiers were in this game.

I started replaying Mass Effect on Hard to see if it'd hold my interest any better, but it didn't. I hear the sequel cuts out a lot of the stuff I found boring about the first game, though (like the poor attempt at allowing exploration).

[Shiny]

Bayonetta: I took a break from it to play UC2, and it's still as alluring as it was when I first played it. Probably because I haven't beaten it yet.

Uncharted 2: Bought it initially because I was going to play with the ON crew, but I could never find a good time to play. I'm a good deal through the story mode, and slowly but surely getting better at multiplayer. There's something very sexy about finding a gaggle of people shooting at your teammates from long range while you dangle from a ledge in front of them, toss a Ralph Nader in the middle of them and watch them explode. Level 26 now; hope I can get to 30 by the end of the weekend.

Darksiders: Like I was telling Foxhole, it's like the Legend of Zelda & God of War had a child, the child goes to college and gets a degree in Mythology. Didn't really live up to its destiny; but entertaining nonetheless.

NBA 2k10: After all the trades, I've played it more often, although I mainly use the Magic.

Zen Pinball: I've come to the conclusion that I will not break 20 million on any of the tables. The Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 table is cool, and I think my best table is El Dorado.

Assassin's Creed 2: It started slow, but now it's picked up pace, and it's fun as hell. Makes me want to visit Fuuville even more.

MvC2: Downloaded it since it was half price. If any of you happen to have it and are online, send me a message and beat me up.

fl0w: It was free on the 13th, so I got it. Haven't spent much time with it though.

Red Dead Redemption: Oh, that's not out yet? Expect seeing it on this list when it comes out though. I loved Red Dead Revolver.

[kadosho]

Castlevania - Dawn of Sorrow
(I just recently picked up a DS finally!) used but in great condition
Any other ds title recommendations?

[Gunsmith]

Darksiders: Like I was telling Foxhole, it's like the Legend of Zelda & God of War had a child, the child goes to college and gets a degree in Mythology. Didn't really live up to its destiny; but entertaining nonetheless.

It seemed more to me like God Of War had a child, which ran off and denied GOW was his father while he quite obviously was following his father's footsteps. Everything about that game (at least in the first ten mins of the level 1 demo) screams GOW rip off. At least Bayonetta was sexy.

[SonicTempest]

Bought Batman Arkham Asylum a few weeks ago during a Games for Windows Live sale and I just beat it - too short, which wouldn't be an issue if it weren't for the fact that it was also too easy. And I was playing on Hard! I really don't get how this was the game of the year 2009 for so many people.

Oh well, back to working through Crysis and Deus Ex I guess.

[Foxhole]

Bought Batman Arkham Asylum a few weeks ago during a Games for Windows Live sale and I just beat it - too short, which wouldn't be an issue if it weren't for the fact that it was also too easy. And I was playing on Hard! I really don't get how this was the game of the year 2009 for so many people.

Probably because it captured what it probably feels like to be Batman, especially if you learned the intricacies of the combat system. It's almost ironic that the better you are at the combat, the harder the game is. Because quite frankly, if you wanted to, you can seriously just mash your way through every fight in the game, but it kinda defeats the purpose of playing, sorta like playing KOF but only doing jump D's all day.

The game took me about 10-12 hours, but I solved every puzzle. Still wasn't GotY for me, though it would have easily made the short list.

[SonicTempest]

I'd argue that the combat system has no 'intricacies' to speak of. It basically reduces to this:
1) Press A a lot
2) If you see someone starting to attack you, press Y (keep in mind the activation window for this is gigantic)
3) jump over the guys with tasers, then see #1
4) stun the guys with knives, then see #1
5) If you have a string longer than 5 hit Y+B to knock out one of the guys, then repeat from #1
6) If there's a titan henchman in the group just run around a lot until he charges at you. Toss batarang, repeat from #1

I did this throughout my whole playthrough, and got quite a few 20-chains.

The combat only started to get sort of challenging when you had multiple titan henchmen in the room along with a regular horde of guys, but by the time the game starts throwing those situations at you it's pretty much over. And if the game allows you to beat it by mashing throughout the whole thing, that's a design flaw - it doesn't matter if there's a more 'stylish' way to do it or not.

The stealth sections were sort of fun but again, too easy, and there aren't enough of them either. The guards never spot you on the gargoyles, so you can hide up there all day. I literally had a situation where I was trying to do an inverted takedown and the guy LOOKED STRAIGHT UP AT ME but did nothing. Also having detective mode gives you another advantage that isn't really necessary - the ability to see enemies through walls. Sure, it lets you do cool stuff like blow up walls and ceilings but it also makes the stealth sections a lot easier.

Oh, and I also solved every riddle in the game - not that it was hard, given that the Ridder's secrets maps all count as riddles too, and once you pick them up they show you the location of every riddle in the game.

As for games that get harder the better you are at them:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_Hand

That's the only example I'm aware of.

[Foxhole]

That is the basics of it yes, but a twenty chain isn't particularly impressive though. When you start adding in the batarangs and batclaws into the combos throwing people off ledges and juggling Titans and gun users it can get quite hectic. Sadly there isn't enough of it in the regular story mode. I suppose the problem with the intracicacies of Batman's system is that there's no need for you to actually get better, unlike the example of KOF I used earlier. If you spend time in the combat rooms like I did, it might help you grow some appreciation for the system, but I have a feeling that it really isn't your cup of tea.

I guess you didn't really care for being Batman either?

The combat only started to get sort of challenging when you had multiple titan henchmen in the room along with a regular horde of guys, but by the time the game starts throwing those situations at you it's pretty much over. And if the game allows you to beat it by mashing throughout the whole thing, that's a design flaw - it doesn't matter if there's a more 'stylish' way to do it or not.

Saying that it's a design flaw is a pretty negative attitude. I understand you have a bias towards hardcore gaming, but you have to realize that games nowadays have to cater to the mainstream as well as the hardcore. It boggles my mind that you maintain that "hardcore" attitude towards fighters and shooters but refuse to apply them to any other genre. There's nothing wrong with that, but if you're going to evaluate them just as thoroughly you should at least put in the same amount of effort. If you feel that it's not worth the effort then that's more likely a personality flaw or sheer laziness. And stylishness as an argument is a bit of a cop out, if you wanted to, you can beat most fighting games with jump attack, trip, and block even on the highest difficulty, so would learning special moves just be a more stylish way of beating Street Fighter or KOF? You could argue that when it comes to multiplayer the basics just don't cut it, but in Batman, you'll never be on the leaderboards unless you actually learn to beat baddies in a more "stylish" manner. Much like I touched on earlier, the game challenges you to be Batman, and if you've ever watched the cartoons or movies, which I'm sure you have, the man rarely gets hit, I'm sure the comic nerds who played this game wanted to emulate that experience and with enough dedication you did. If you simply don't care, you have the option of mashing your way though. The game should be accessible to all gamers.

On top of all that you never really bothered to touch on the decent story, fantastic voice acting, and great atmosphere. They may not matter to you in your gaming experience but from all the people who had Batman on their list for GotY, these certainly factored in.

[SonicTempest]

The voice acting and atmosphere were pretty good but I thought the story was a bit lame. It felt like one of the crappier episodes from the animated series, to be honest.

The reason I say it's a design flaw is this. You can play stylishly if you want, but the game offers you no incentive to do so beyond getting a bigger exp and life bonus at the end of the fight. Even on Hard, the game can be beaten easily by mashing attack and counter alternately for the most part (as you yourself noted). A better game would require you to play in that manner in order to beat it. If it was trying to give you the experience of playing as Batman, where as you said, he never gets hit, it should give you a bigger penalty for ever getting hit. As it stands the enemies were barely scratching me when I got hit on Hard difficulty.

OK, maybe you should probably cater to casual players as well. But that's the whole point of having difficulty levels. Casual comic book fans can feel free to pick the lower levels if all they want is to feel like Batman. Harder levels should actually make it a challenge to survive.

And I am evaluating the game thoroughly - purely in terms of mechanics, against its peers, after having beaten the whole game. Compared to something like God Hand (a game which forces you to use every move at your disposal if you want to beat it, let alone beat it stylishly), or even Devil May Cry 4 (which is not the best DMC game but at least makes button mashing suicidal to a good extent) the combat mechanics in this game were honestly pretty weak. And the stealth segments, like I said, were way too easy since you have the ability to see enemies through walls and instant access to safe hiding spots indefinitely in all but one of the stealth sections. Compare this to a game like Metal Gear Solid where you have no such advantages and need to actually figure out the guards' patrol routes and move around accordingly, and escaping when you're in danger of being spotted is quite a bit harder than simply looking up and pressing a trigger button.

I mean, if you enjoyed it and thought it was one of the best games of last year, then more power to you, but it didn't live up to my standards at all.