miffy495

That'll do it for Fallout 3. I did every bit of sidequest that came my way, but can't help feeling like I missed a bunch of things. That said, I loved what I played, so I just caved and got the three DLC packs that I didn't already have. Lots more Fallout 3 to come in the near future for me, but the core game can now go on my "finished" pile. Yay!

Yeah, that was the race that I finished in first by pushing my firetruck's about-to-explode flaming wreck across the finish line about 4 seconds before it blew. I then got to watch that amazing moment in spectator mode. Well done to all involved. I couldn't stop laughing for way too long.

Oh shit, does this game have a proper Blizzard manual? The last Blizzard game I bought was Warcraft III, and that thing came with a goddamned beautiful book that was hundreds of pages long and loaded with lore. Blizzard games have always had great manuals. I figured that now that everything's so digital focused that wasn't a thing that would happen anymore, but if Starcraft 2 has one of those, I may just be the happiest gamer. In some cases, I think I've liked the manuals that Blizzard has put out more than the games.

Indeed, great to see everyone again. Some moments of genuine hilarity occurred, and I'm very happy with the way everything went down. Cheers, all. Also, cool to see some relatively new people around.

I feel kinda bad that I didn't remember the day it came out now. I preordered it and just figured that I'd get it in the mail at random one day and be pleasantly surprised. Is it really such a momentus thing? I mean, I'm sure it will be good, but all the hype has been putting me off.

Meh, I completed it in 28 hours without any trouble. Anyway: I started on gaming in a similar way to most people here when my dad got a 286 for his work. I played a lot of Lemmings and Hugo's House of Horrors on that thing for a while. I think I was about 3, and the text parser for Hugo helped me work out vocabulary and spelling long before elementary school did. Lemmings helped me work out planning skills as well. My mum tried to buy only games that she could see having developmental benefits to me. My dad was born in 1935, so he never really caught on to using the computer for anything besides word processing and solitaire, but my mum helped me work stuff out. Either way, I started really getting into games at my babysitter's house the next year. She had two teenaged daughters with an NES, and every day after kindergarten until my mom got out of classes (at the time, she was getting her Master's of Social Work) I would sit there and watch them play Battletoads, totally fascinated. I decided that I must have a Nintendo for my fifth birthday. I begged for months, and when December of 1992 rolled around I got an SNES as a combination birthday/Christmas present. It came bundled with Super Mario World and Super Mario All Stars, and that was all I needed until my a year later, when I got Donkey Kong Country 2 and Mario Kart. Those games, and eventually a Power Rangers licensed beat 'em up, were all the game that I had until 1998. I still played some things on PC, mostly adventure games as the old computers that my dad could pick up could actually run them, but I was a Nintendo kid. I later got a Virtual Boy, also as a combination birthday/Christmas present (9th birthday this time) but never had a game aside from the bundled Mario Tennis game. In 1998, my father had a heart attack and died. My mum was still finishing her studies (PhD in Social Work at this point) and had to raise my sister and I on the money that she was making as a TA at the University. I was 10, and had nothing to do other than retreat into my games. Some people in the neighbourhood (small, close-knit town) pooled some money and got my sister and I an N64 for Christmas that year, which came right after my 11th birthday. My Godmother got me Ocarina of Time, and my sister got Diddy Kong Racing. We played those two games exclusively for years, except for sometimes borrowing Goldeneye or something from a friend. In 2001, my mum finished her studies and was hired teaching at the University of Calgary, so we moved out West. She got a computer from work, which was the first time I'd seen something newer than a 486. I instantly became a PC gamer. Starcraft and Diablo 2 were my big ones, but I finally got Half Life around the same time and started getting into FPSes. Got Quake 3 and the like pirated (I now regret those days, and have tried to make up for them) and played a lot of games for almost no money. Saved some cash and got a Gamecube around the same time, but never played much aside from Zelda and Metroid Prime. Got a job when I was 16 and went console crazy now that I finally had some money to spend on it. Got a PS2 for Katamari and an Xbox just because. Had some fun with those, and given my SNES and N64 upbringing, have never minded console controls for games. Nowadays, I work full time and can afford all consoles and portables (if sometimes only just), but given the choice I'll always play on a PC first. It was where I diversified my gaming, where I discovered that companies other than Nintendo make games, and importantly was cheap enough (again, I repent for my piracy) that I could turn it from a diversion into a hobby.

That would mean I'd need to install it, which would take quite a long time. I'm not sure if my computer's designated "Steam drive" has enough free space left on it...

Well dang. Too late now.

Yeah, when I saw the "preorder and get Mafia 1 free!" thing, I caved. It's done. This is, of course, stupid of me. I still want to finish Fallout 3 before playing any other PC games, and Starcraft 2 (also preordered) comes out in a matter of days, and I still have stuff from the Steam sale (notably Bad Company 2 and Metro 2033) to play, but here we are. I have really bad impulse control sometimes. Dang.

Rather than choosing which version to get (unless its seriously hobbled or I want to play on XBL, it'll pretty much always be PC for me), think you could give me any advice on whether I should preorder this myself? The first game was intriguing to me, but came out when I was in 9th grade and didn't have a job, so I never bought it. As such, I don't know how the series feels. This one has me perked up a bit to check it out, but I'm on the fence. Most of the good stuff that I've heard about the game has been conceptual or from early preview builds. I know it has potential, but have no idea if it comes close to reaching it. Would anyone who has had a chance to see the game at press events or conventions care to throw in their thoughts?

I love that they put out a huge bug-fix patch less than a week after I finish Awakenings. Especially since it specifically corrects the "LEGACY TATTOO ASSET: DO NOT USE!!" thing.

Just beat it myself about 5 minutes ago. I enjoyed it, but I think I'm ready for what Rockstar wants to do with GTA next now. I'm feeling sorta done with Liberty City and the people in it. I really want, more than any other thing they might be working on, a return to San Andreas now. They proved they can do huge outdoor expanses with Red Dead Redemption (different teams, I know) and to have people doing back country of that quality with cities like the islands from GTAIV would be incredible. Anyway, the consistency is indeed frustrating. I think the saddest thing about the whole experience though was realizing that GTAIV is more than 2 years old now and that open world games have kept evolving. Gay Tony felt dated. Much as I had fun with it, it felt dated. Having finished Just Cause 2 and Red Dead Redemption both earlier in the year, I feel like the crazy open world and serious open world have both been done better between the two of them. I've got my closure on the Liberty City story now, so I'm ready to start waiting for what's next.

Man, I gotta finish Bioshock 2. Throwing it on my mental pile of Steam games to get through before starting anything new. Right now, have about 4 missions left in Gay Tony, so going to try to wrap that up tonight. Status report on Fallout 3: have now gotten much further than I had before. Kind of an early game thing, I know, but I'm still 6 levels below where I stopped playing on the PS3, so that should give you an idea of how much time I'd spent in the game without doing any main quests. Having a good time with it, coming way too close to death way to frequently. Making my way to Rivet city on two broken legs with 10 HP left was particularly draining on my stress levels. Like pretty much anything though, I'm refusing to fast travel. Somehow it always feels like missing the point of a game like this. EDIT: Yup, that'll do it for Gay Tony. Throw another game on the pile, ma, I'm tearin' em up. Thoughts are in that thread. Next on 360: Brutal Legend.

Wait, why is it awful? We thought the game was awesome. Maybe if you play it on easy or something it's not as atmospheric? Maybe the cool stuff just didn't impress? Maybe the narrative (which I agree would be very easy to get confused by) just isn't Snoogle's cup of tea? It's fine if he doesn't like the game. I found it to be both a very suspenseful game (I barely shot anyone for the first 7 hours or so, relying almost entirely on my fire axe as ammo was so scarce) as well as having a very different and interesting narrative as compared with most (particularly horror) games. The fact that everything was ambiguous and that , in my interpretation, made me feel like it was more of a good mindfuck horror movie story than a Video game one. The very fact that I needed to say "in my interpretation" in the last sentence impresses me, actually. Still, those movies also aren't for everyone. What you said about the gameplay, Snoogle, is pretty accurate. With a few exceptions, like the heavily redacted bit discussed earlier in chapter 15, that pretty much is the game. The gameplay is only part of it though. The atmosphere, the tension, the setting, the ambiguity of the story, the mindfuck moments, the feeling that your character actually is freezing and having to do all of this while wearing heavy snow gear, and so on are what made it amazing. If those aren't grabbing you, I don't know what else I can say. Sorry you aren't digging it?

Yeah, I'm so psyched for Stranger's Wrath PC. I never finished it. It was the last game I got on Xbox, and when the 360 wouldn't play it, I was completely gutted.

Why are you zooming in? I spent the entire game with a sawed off shotgun in my right hand and an SMG in my left...

Sorry, my girlfriend was an atheist before we met. I don't think I'm allowed in the club.

Not really if they're going for the Diablo style. That's where dialog always was in those games.

Huh. Only did so once for me. I had complaints with the game, to be sure, but stability was not one of them. Yay, PC gaming!

Sam and Max 303, Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent, Cryostasis, and Dragon Age: Awakenings. It's been a productive couple of weeks. Quick reviews: Sam and Max: The weakest episode in the season, but still a damn fine adventure game. Worth playing for the opening section alone. Nelson Tethers: Frustrating design at times, but so charming and funny that it more than makes up for it. Really hope the pilot is successful. Cryostasis: One of the best games I've played in recent memory. Play this game, you owe it to yourself. Awakenings: Interesting. A better story than DA:O, but the same gameplay. Very abrupt ending that left me a bit cold, but everything up to it was worth the time. If you enjoyed the original, it's worth a shot. EDIT: 4 hours later, and that's another game done. Halo: ODST this time. I quite liked it, though it was a bit annoying when the game assumed that I had weapon "y" during a cutscene when I hadn't touched the damn thing all level. I absolutely loved the city bits between missions, some of them were downright terrifying. The missions themselves were actually kind of a relief. After the crazy stress of getting to one, running from hunters and patrols, just playing through a standard Halo level was like downtime. Less memorable, but if the entire game had been like the city sections, I probably would have had cardiac issues. The endgame was much less interesting, but I'm glad they're not bothering to put boss fights in Halo games so much any more. They always seemed so forced, especially as the draw of Halo combat is outwitting the enemy squads. Fighting one big powerful thing always felt like missing the point. That the endgame is just an extra big squad seemed right this time. Anyway, that's 5 games finished in 8 days. I'm freaking killing it lately. Take that, backlog! I think I've been emboldened to go back and try to finish Fallout 3. I got to level 16 on the PS3 without even bothering to find Galaxy News Radio (the second or third mission out of the vault) simply by exploring like crazy and looking through side content. This time I'm going back to the beginning on PC and going to actually see what happens with the plot. It's a bit of a daunting task, and that game intimidates the hell out of me, but with that much of a dent put in my pile of shame, I feel up to a challenge.

I got an 8 gig memory stick from a camera store, so yeah. You don't need an official PSP branded one, as so many people seem to believe. Mine isn't even a Sony in any way. Works great, and I actually do put a lot of time into PSP games. I think it only ran me about $25.

My brain keeps on thinking that that ogre is a graphics glitch. That armor just looks wrong.

Yeah, I haven't actually minded it so far. Then again, pretty much all "high-fantasy" crap bores me to tears. The main campaign at least did a couple of things that spun away enough to interest me, and the expansion (while still sorta hackneyed and boilerplate) is doing a bit more of that still. It's a video game story, so I don't expect much. All I ask is that it's enough to draw me through. It's doing that, so I'm happy with it.

Would've responded earlier, but I've been out of the house for a couple of days. I'm really glad that you liked it as much as you did, man. I was worried given how insistent you were that horror games weren't for you that you'd be put off it and I'd have recommended a game to you that you'd never play. Indeed, was one of the coolest moments I've ever played in a game. I was so stunned when it happened I actually lost half my health before I realized what was going on and died. Had to play that bit twice, but didn't mind at all. What a moment. And yeah, 'blix, you should buy this game. You really should.

Like so many others, waiting for the PC version. Looking at the GB Quick Look, this just didn't seem like a console game to me. I hope enough people buy it for them to be able to justify the port, but I won't be one of them.