WeekDAY gaming(3/5/12)- What are YOU still playing?

[Purple Santa]

A weekend spent doing more unpacking/putting away and wondering how much stuff do we really collect in almost 9 yrs together. But that is done for now. Because the main event is back...with the WeekDAY there is this:



Disappointment or not it is finally here. My FemShep is ready for the cause.

Since there are some who won't be playing ME3 (Heathens!) we still must ask...

What are YOU still playing?

[muddi900]

I still haven't ordered it!

[Reverant]

If this week's reviews echo Karak's concerns, I'll hold off until the game gets cheaper. I've already been driven off by one of Bioware's products this year.

My wife and I will be taking a trip to a South Carolina B&B for a delayed anniversary present for a couple days, since we're both on Spring Break now. I've got 3 books to read for school this week and a book from church to master in case they want me to take over the end of a Sunday school series. Realistically, there's no room for games in there. If I get a chance, though, it'll be either Tribes Ascend or messing around with console emulators.

[Karak]

Originally Posted by Reverant

If this week's reviews echo Karak's concerns, I'll hold off until the game gets cheaper. I've already been driven off by one of Bioware's products this year.

My wife and I will be taking a trip to a South Carolina B&B for a delayed anniversary present for a couple days, since we're both on Spring Break now. I've got 3 books to read for school this week and a book from church to master in case they want me to take over the end of a Sunday school series. Realistically, there's no room for games in there. If I get a chance, though, it'll be either Tribes Ascend or messing around with console emulators.

First I was only 5 hours in.

IGN has some ok reviews, they were the earliest. They said the game really actually gets very good at 15+ hours but before that they thought it was weaker than the previous games. So that makes sense for what I saw which was 5 hours in. Not the bugs but the poor writing and things just being thrown together.

They did concur that the new 3 styles of gameplay negatively impact the RPG elements. Namely, when your playing RPG the discussions and dialogue are notoriously shorter and more abrupt giving a strange feel to every discussion like stuff is missing. Those who enjoy the roleplaying and dialogue(me) will find themselves disappointed in many of the changes and the new conversation style.

My personal opinion is that it sounds like they tried to please everyone. Which can lead to weakness where strengths originally existed.

15 hours to get good isn't acceptable to me. But its the end of a series that I adore. One flawed gem doesn't make the entire ring not worth owning and I will play it. But a good ending won't erase a poor begining and it will make repeated playthroughs all the more painful.

[EternalGamer]

Originally Posted by Reverant

If this week's reviews echo Karak's concerns, I'll hold off until the game gets cheaper. I've already been driven off by one of Bioware's products this

Good or bad, you know very well there is zero chance Mass Effect 3 would ever get negative reviews. Big budget franchise sequels never do. Ever. Hype always dominates.

See Dragon Age 2, Grand Theft Auto 4, any Halo or Call of Duty game. All universally high reviews.

I don't know whether the game will be good or not, I just know after reading gaming press for nearly 30 years, I have zero faith they can see past the hype on release. At best, you will get game writers who didn't review it claiming it isn't that great five months or a year from now.

[Reverant]

Originally Posted by EternalGamer

Good or bad, you know very well there is zero chance Mass Effect 3 would ever get negative reviews. Big budget franchise sequels never do. Ever. Hype always dominates.

See Dragon Age 2, Grand Theft Auto 4, any Halo or Call of Duty game. All universally high reviews.

I don't know whether the game will be good or not, I just know after reading gaming press for nearly 30 years, I have zero faith they can see past the hype on release. At best, you will get game writers who didn't review it claiming it isn't that great five months or a year from now.

Dragon Age 2 isn't a great example of a well reviewed franchise sequel. The 360 version sits at 77% on gamerankings.com. That's in the same area as Tomb Raider Underworld, a game where it wasn't uncommon for enemies to stare at you blankly while you unloaded bullets into them.

[EternalGamer]

Originally Posted by Reverant

Dragon Age 2 isn't a great example of a well reviewed franchise sequel. The 360 version sits at 77% on gamerankings.com. That's in the same area as Tomb Raider Underworld, a game where it wasn't uncommon for enemies to stare at you blankly while you unloaded bullets into them.

Yes, but alot of those reviews are from late reviews or smaller outlets. I just looked at the list, and I can't find a major outlet that rated it below 8/10.

[MagGnome]

Originally Posted by EternalGamer

Good or bad, you know very well there is zero chance Mass Effect 3 would ever get negative reviews. Big budget franchise sequels never do. Ever. Hype always dominates.

See Dragon Age 2, Grand Theft Auto 4, any Halo or Call of Duty game. All universally high reviews.

I don't know whether the game will be good or not, I just know after reading gaming press for nearly 30 years, I have zero faith they can see past the hype on release. At best, you will get game writers who didn't review it claiming it isn't that great five months or a year from now.

With the exception of Rock, Paper, Shotgun (where the reviews are very laid back and interesting to read) I stopped reading reviews over 10 years ago. The two games that finally drove me over the edge were Black & White and Doom 3.

You may recall that both games received universal praise, and then a few months later the same critics started panning both games and saying that they weren't all they were cracked up to be. I realized then that the hype train greatly inflated game reviews, so I stopped paying attention to them.

[Karak]

Originally Posted by MagGnome

With the exception of Rock, Paper, Shotgun (where the reviews are very laid back and interesting to read) I stopped reading reviews over 10 years ago. The two games that finally drove me over the edge were Black & White and Doom 3.

You may recall that both games received universal praise, and then a few months later the same critics started panning both games and saying that they weren't all they were cracked up to be. I realized then that the hype train greatly inflated game reviews, so I stopped paying attention to them.

Agreed. At times they also hate for no reason.

Basically they are just like us. No better and no worse. Got to ignore them and go with your own data and your own gut
Did you not like Black and White?

[MagGnome]

Originally Posted by Karak

Agreed. At times they also hate for no reason.

Basically they are just like us. No better and no worse. Got to ignore them and go with your own data and your own gut
Did you not like Black and White?

Quit editing your post.

I did like Black & White, actually, at least the first couple of levels. Taking the creature away in later stages was a terrible idea, but I played the first couple of levels over and over again. They were fun!

Still, the universal praise followed by near-universal disdain among the gaming press really put me off of so-called "games journalism". Doom 3 was another example of that, with ridiculously high review scores (PC gamer gave it the same or higher score as Alpha Centauri!) and then a few months later everyone admitted that it was mediocre at best.

[Kelegacy]

Originally Posted by EternalGamer

Good or bad, you know very well there is zero chance Mass Effect 3 would ever get negative reviews. Big budget franchise sequels never do. Ever. Hype always dominates.

See Dragon Age 2, Grand Theft Auto 4, any Halo or Call of Duty game. All universally high reviews.

I don't know whether the game will be good or not, I just know after reading gaming press for nearly 30 years, I have zero faith they can see past the hype on release. At best, you will get game writers who didn't review it claiming it isn't that great five months or a year from now.

Did you see the screw up yesterday where a bunch of sites fell for 4Chan's hijinks? They made up some games, created box art, and a bunch of sites reported on it (even if it was a rumor tag) without ever checking the source.

I saw it on GAF and it just goes to show gaming journalism is pretty much non-existent.

The industry could use some good in-depth stories with true investigative journalism, with good interviews and research (like the little stories on NPR), but most of the gaming sites report on other's reports who in turn get it from some dubious source who could have made it all up, like yesterday.

I've been posting on GAF more lately just because there are so many people and threads there. And it's not blocked by work because it doesn't have "game" in it's URL I believe. I know, I'm a heathen, but some of the threads are pretty good. They just move waaaay too fast for me.

[EternalGamer]

Originally Posted by Kelegacy

Did you see the screw up yesterday where a bunch of sites fell for 4Chan's hijinks?

Yeah, I saw that and it is pathetic, but I'm not sure whether you blame them or the "up to the minute coverage" that readers crave more than carefully thought out and researched pieces. Heck, cable news has the same problem. There are some good sites, however, like Gamasutra, who offers more substantial think pieces.

I've been posting on GAF more lately just because there are so many people and threads there. And it's not blocked by work because it doesn't have "game" in it's URL I believe. I know, I'm a heathen, but some of the threads are pretty good. They just move waaaay too fast for me.

I post on GAF too but I usually hate myself for it. Whenever you challenge the dominate perception, you just get barraged by idiots calling you an idiot and animated .gifs. As I said before, trying to have a conversation on GAF is like trying to have one at a noisy sporting event. You have yell to be heard and it usually isn't worth it. The only thing that goes over well is "drive by" comments, not real conversations. Not to say real conversations can't occur there, it just isn't the ideal forum for them.

As for your RROD 360, try the towel trick. It works.


I got news today that I didn't win the excellence in teaching award that I put so much work into. I'm pretty bummed as I work extremely hard on my teaching: meeting with each student twice for every paper, grading 120 quizzes a week, and developing specialized course websites for every class. I pretty much define my self worth by my teaching and I'll be going on the job market next year, so an award like this would have really helped. I'm a bit ashamed to admit it, but when I read the email declaring the winners while eating lunch, I had to go into the restaurant bathroom to compose myself. I just have to remind myself that I don't do all this to win awards anyway. I'm still bummed, though.

I did win a "innovative course proposal award," which comes with a $100. But I think that was really a pity award because that course proposal was the weakest part of my portfolio from my perspective.

[Squidbot]

I'm still hoping that karak is playing a long winded trick on us all, in order to set expectations low, end result being us all blown away. I still hope that.

I picked up two Worlds II cheap at the weekend. I will NOT be playing that this week, for the simple reason that it's shite. Really, really dreadful. People on this site have said it's good. I strongly disagree.
As a result of being so disappointed in TW2 I picked up Saints Row The Third on the cheap. I expected to hate it but in fat I love it. It's just stupid fun. I'll be playing a lot more. In fact I'm going to go play it right now!

[Karak]

Originally Posted by Squidbot

I'm still hoping that karak is playing a long winded trick on us all, in order to set expectations low, end result being us all blown away. I still hope that.

I was only 5 hours in. See post above for a bit more data backed up by some of the other reviews.

[Pale Ale]

Originally Posted by Karak

I was only 5 hours in. See post above for a bit more data backed up by some of the other reviews.

This woman needs phosphorescent contacts stat!

Since I will be dancing away from the ME3 fire...


Asura's Wrath: The only reason I haven't played till I get deep vein thrombosis is I don't want to finish it so soon.

Sins: Farting around because I'm restless for the next expansion. Stardock/Ironclad look at me when I say this. Steam. STEEEEEAAAAAAMMMMM

Twisted Metal: is supposed to show up sometime this week.

Oh yeah TOR: Jumped characters again due to my fickle buddy, however Commando is sweet.

[Gorvi]

I could have probably bought ME3, but I decided to get Fallout: New Vegas Ultimate Edition instead. Since I finally finished the last bit of Fallout 3 content I had left over the weekend, I spent money I probably shouldn't have on that. I barely started it last night, but I can already tell it was a good decision. If anything can distract me from ME3 coming out, it's more Fallout, and with the massive amount of content New Vegas seems to have, I'll be busy for quite a long time. I can actually see this having multiple playthroughs, Hardcore mode is damn enticing.

I'm also going to try to put in more time with Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky. I had a few more hours with it over the weekend and it's JRPG bliss. Great writing, likable characters, a fun battle system, and a nice, open feeling mission structure, I love it. With this, P3P, Yggdra Union, Knights in the Nightmare, Tactics Ogre, and Ys: Oath in Felghana, my PSP will be holding me over just nicely until I can afford a Vita. Which, judging by my disappointing tax return, may be much longer than I had hoped. Oh well, now I'll actually play those games, instead of leaving them sitting on the shelf unplayed. I'd just better be able to afford one by the time Persona 4 hits, or I may have a nervous breakdown......

[Xydarc]

Today is gonna be a Skyrim day. Got a bunch of mods to try out. Plus, not all of them are titty mods.

Sent from my mobile. Forgive, or don't, any spelling/grammar errors.

[rein]

I rented Tricky thanks to Kel's mention of the Redbox freebie. Like Kel, I'm not as into it as others. I will return it today and pick it up in the bargain bin later.

I will probably continue to mess around with iphone games. I've been picking up Book of Heroes every few hours or so throughout the day and trying out Traveller AR. Other then that, I need to get a few household chores done and fix a flat on my lawn mower... ...and find a F'n job.

[MagGnome]

This week I am searching for a browser filter that will remove all mention of ME3 and Mass Effect 3.

Actually, it's a homework-filled week for me. I should have written a paper yesterday, but instead I watched a few episodes of Downton Abbey. Thus I will be writing that paper today. I have a math exam on Wednesday that I need to study for. Then I have a quiz on Thursday and a paper due Thursday. Finally I have an online exam that I will probably take on Friday.

I'll definitely have some time for gaming, especially at the end of the week which marks the start of my Spring Break! I'll be playing Bastion, Towns, Dwarf Fortress, and probably Puzzle Agent 2.

[National Kato]

Mass Erect 3.