What are you playing at the moment?

[SirKicksalot]

I finished MW3 today. It lasted a bit over 4 hours.

It's easily the best campaign in the series. The levels are the widest in the series since Call of Duty 2. The pacing is much improved and all the scripted events fit better. It's like a first-person Uncharted, always throwing you in the middle of some awesome events and always coming up with new scenarios. I was never bothered by the game taking over compared to, for example, Crysis 2.

As a side note, it's hilarious how all Call of Duty clones make you wait until the AI lines up or opens the door, while in MW3 (and 2) you open most doors and nobody's bothered if you get ahead of the dude with *FOLLOW above his head.

Yes, there is a really stupid and badly done interactive cutscene, but it's not worth any attention. Later in the game it portrays some horrific events much better. I suppose nobody's getting worked out over scenes stolen from Children of Men...

It wraps up the story nicely, especially after the mess that was MW2.

As for the multiplayer - p2p is a bit rubbish, which means it's incredibly better than the totally broken system they had in MW2. There are dedicated servers but they're unranked and I actually enjoy leveling up, so I'll stick to p2p. The weapon levels are cute, but they don't hold a candle to what BLOPS brought to the series. The pointstreaks are a good idea - rewards are no longer tied only to the number of kills, you can achieve them by going for the objectives too. The maps have way less verticality, which is a very good thing. The flying killmachines are toned down compared to MW2. The weapons deal slightly more damage.

The community, as always, blows. Campers and people insulting everybody. Not many noobtubers though - so far. I wonder why the MW series attracts such retards... I swear BLOPS was a cleaner game.
I suppose I'll prestige once and then abandon it. My favourite game mode is FFA, which always loses players after the first weeks.
This weekend will be dedicated to MW3 and BF3 multiplayer.

[sabrage]

Picked up 2008's iteration of Prince of Persia again in anticipation of re-playing Sands of Time. I really don't mind the combat, the fact that you never die, the simplicity or the easiness of it all... But the dialogue is absolutely horrendous and the fact that I can't turn off the tutorial messages is absolutely infuriating. The gameplay itself is all well and good, but I think I'm going to end up playing Mirror's Edge again instead of going back to Sands of Time. I think the level design is actually really great, but Mirror's Edge just seems so much better in comparison. Luckily, the game is gorgeous, and I like the semi-non-linear structure, so I'll probably stick with it to the end. Really, though, I feel like the game is a step in the wrong direction (having only played SoT and this in the series) because the time manipulation mechanic felt so amazing the first time I played it. The "flow" of the game isn't disrupted by the changes they made, but the feeling really is.

Hotly anticipating Skyrim, which is downloading at the moment. Shame Steam keeps freezing on me for no apparent reason.

[SirKicksalot]

Are you playing it with the keyboard or with a controller? I tried the keyboard and it was fine until one of the bosses (an immortal one I think) which I just couldn't defeat. Now I have a controller and if it's manageable I might reinstall it...

[sabrage]

I'm playing with my 360 controller. Using a mouse+keyboard for platformers just feels... Wrong. That applies for most any third person action game, though I'm sure a mouse would be better for any Gearsalike (and was surprisingly painless for Arkham Asylum.) The gamepad was recognized without any fiddling, and it feels great.

[Hensler]

Skyrim, of course. I just had to pull myself out of the lands of the Nords because my eyes are aching.

[amusingthebrood]

What game time I have is currently being spent on Grid. I am possibly the worst driving game player in the history of ever, and possibly the most easily frustrated as well, but I'm loving Grid. With all the driver aids on and the AI drivers set to easy I am actually competitive and largely capable of keeping my car on the track. I even feel like I am improving. For a risky punt given previous bad experiences it is turning out to be a great investment for very few pennies.

[Althea]

What game time I have is currently being spent on Grid. I am possibly the worst driving game player in the history of ever, and possibly the most easily frustrated as well, but I'm loving Grid. With all the driver aids on and the AI drivers set to easy I am actually competitive and largely capable of keeping my car on the track. I even feel like I am improving. For a risky punt given previous bad experiences it is turning out to be a great investment for very few pennies.

Got to agree. I generally stay away from racing games as I find them either samey or just irritating, but GRID is amazing. Visually, it's absolutely stunning even though it's a few years old now. The cars are great, the tracks are great (although some can really be annoying, like that one with a small bridge), and it plays really well.

[amusingthebrood]

... but GRID is amazing. Visually, it's absolutely stunning even though it's a few years old now.

I thought that as well, it does look lovely. Given its age I did put it partly down to me not having many recent pretty games to compare it to, but apparently not.

[NecroKnight]

Battlefield 3

[sabrage]

*sigh* I guess Skyrim isn't gonna finish downloading anytime soon, so I caved and bought that new Indie Royale. Really pleasantly surprised by Scoregasm. I used to be absolutely addicted to Geometry Wars on my 360, but Geometry Wars 2 didn't really do anything for me. Scoregasm takes the more structured approach that GeoWars 2 does and brings back the particle effects hell that was the first one. And just when I was thinking that the game was too easy, I tried a couple of the challenges... I'm convinced that most of those little bastards are impossible.

Sunk another hour or so into Call of Cthulhu. The atmosphere is fucking fantastic, and I'm really impressed by how interactive a few of the characters feel. The story is just picking up, and I'd be enjoying it as we speak if the bloody thing didn't keep crashing on me. There's one particular part that crashed my game twice as I entered the room, but I was able to get around it by hopping through the doorway. That's my only real complaint about the game; the forced save points wouldn't bother me if every crash didn't necessitate a few minutes of retreading. I've yet to touch a gun, or any weapon for that matter. So far it's just a stellar first person adventure game.

Oh, and I played about 10 minutes of Voxatron. It's charming as hell, but I hate that firing "locks" the character model in the direction you're shooting and how arcadey it feels. I think I'll stick with The Binding of Isaac.

[agentorange]

Sunk another hour or so into Call of Cthulhu. The atmosphere is fucking fantastic, and I'm really impressed by how interactive a few of the characters feel. The story is just picking up, and I'd be enjoying it as we speak if the bloody thing didn't keep crashing on me. There's one particular part that crashed my game twice as I entered the room, but I was able to get around it by hopping through the doorway. That's my only real complaint about the game; the forced save points wouldn't bother me if every crash didn't necessitate a few minutes of retreading. I've yet to touch a gun, or any weapon for that matter. So far it's just a stellar first person adventure game.

Count yourself lucky if your game permanently crashes just before you pick up that first gun.

[Kadayi]

A lot of BF3 multi-player. Skyrim & LA Noire are happily sitting on my Steam account now to be explored over the weekend, however I've a feeling invariably I'm going to find myself capturing & recapturing Hilltop & forest on Caspian as well as rampaging around Grand bazaar & Seine for a large part of it.

[Dugular]

A lot of BF3 multi-player. Skyrim & LA Noire are happily sitting on my Steam account now to be explored over the weekend, however I've a feeling invariably I'm going to find myself capturing & recapturing Hilltop & forest on Caspian as well as rampaging around Grand bazaar & Seine for a large part of it.

Let me know what you think of LA Noire. My first reaction was love. My last was contempt.

[Oak]

Let me know what you think of LA Noire. My first reaction was love. My last was contempt.

You just described my relationship with my ex-wife.



Try the veal, folks.

[Hensler]

Let me know what you think of LA Noire. My first reaction was love. My last was contempt.

Are you referring to the actual horrible ending of the storyline or just a dislike of the game after you played more of it? For me, it was both.

[Kaira-]

Darkness Within: In Pursuit of Loath Nolder. And I'm enjoying myself, though some of the puzzles so far have been quite... exotic, to say. After this, I'll probably play Darkness Within 2, since I got the Collector's Edition for cheap cheap price of 10€ from... Gamestop.

[SirKicksalot]

Renegade Ops. I'd love it if it had unlimited lives. I guess I'll use a trainer because the Normal difficulty is a bit retarded and Casual doesn't give access to most toys.

[Herzog]

I finished BIT.TRIP Runner today. Damn the last stages were difficult! Also got my second mom kill at Binding of Isaac. On the fps-side I am still struggling at getting better in Red Orchestra 2, but there is some progress! But this game really needs more patches! Also been playing some rounds of QuakeWorld FFA...

Next up: Deus Ex (left off some monthes ago half-way through, coming to HK I think) and Amnesia:The Dark Descent

[sabrage]

Spent most of my day playing Far Cry. Finally got past that goddamn jeep part, after which the game gets a hell of a lot better. I'm usually content hole myself up in one spot, sniping guards and mowing down anyone that gets too close with my P90. God damn though, trigens are fucking annoying. If you're going to give your enemies a leaping ability, please don't make their attacks one hit kills. Gotten a few CTDs so I'm done with it for tonight, I think.

I wish I'd been recording while I was playing. I had a particularly sublime run where I cleared an entire base without getting shot once, culminating in driving a jeep straight into the last man standing. Why can I get into this, but not STALKER, Deus Ex, or Crysis? I guess it helps that every weapon in Far Cry feels great, not to mention useful.

Also, Blocks That Matter gets hard.

[The JG Man]

I would like to be finishing off the last hour or so of Amnesia, but I believe the latest ATI driver update has made that unpossible, along with Minecraft and likely a few other games, although I haven't checked to see. Otherwise, Battlefield 3 has been taking slight chunks. I'm disappointed in the maps, but the gameplay is fine I suppose. Also got done with Renegade Ops, which was a fun blast.

More importantly, started on The Binding of Isaac earlier and played it for about 90 minutes. Good stuff. Shame there is no official controller support, but it plays well enough. I don't like how some rooms feel incredibly hard, in the balance scheme of things, but such is the like. Got as far as the penultimate level in one attempt, but I traded all but my final heart for a new character and an item. All things considered, not an entirely smart move! Still, a fun game I'll likely spend a lot of time with. Helps the music is great, but then again I'm not entirely surprised.