A Little Place to Chat About Video Games

msmcneal · Post by **msmcneal** » Thu Jan 15, 2009 2:47 pm

Since McCulloch started threads about just about everything else, I thought I'd start one on video games. What games are you currently playing? What are some of your favorite games? What is your favorite genre?

OnceConvinced · Post by **OnceConvinced** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 9:45 pm

msmcneal wrote:My favorite genres are RPG's, fighting games, and battle sim/strategy games. I love the Legend of Zelda series, for the most part, although I realize they are not RPG's in the true sense of the word, they still set the style and standard for them. The Final Fantasy games are probably the ultimate in RPG games, although some of the D&D games were pretty good. Breath of Fire will always be a favorite of mine, as well as Chrono Trigger/Chrono Cross. There's probably dozens more, but those are the tops. I like the Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter games, if only for the nostalgia of them. I like all those old ninja games, like Ninja Gaiden and Shinobi. The Tekken games are probably the best fighting games out right now, mainly because they take actual martial arts styles and incorporate those into the games. My favorite game of all time, at least for now, is probably Starcraft. The early Warcraft games were fun, but I probably won't play World of Warcraft. Diablo II was excellent (can you tell I'm a Blizzard fan yet?). I like the GTA games, mainly because of their ability to go anywhere and do anything. If you get tired of the main game, just go around town, there's plenty of other stuff to get involved in. If they would do that for an RPG, I'd be in heaven (metaphorically, of course). I used to get into racing games, but not so much anymore, although I will play one from time to time if I'm bored enough and don't feel like doing much of anything else. I never got much inot MMORPG (I think that's how it's done). The user created dealies on Starcraft were fun, though. I don't really play as much video games as I used to, no matter how hard I try. I just can't do it much anymore, but I still do enjoy them from time to time.

The more I read your posts the more I like you.

I'm a huge FF fan as shown by my avatar of Auron. I don't really go for the fighting games, but am into GTA. I finished San Andreas with 100%. NEVER AGAIN!

McCulloch · Post by **McCulloch** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 10:52 pm

Homicidal_Cherry53 wrote:Plus, it's not so much the control scheme itself I don't really like. It's the fact that controls all too often become the main focus of the developers, which frequently causes them to neglect other elements like story and gameplay. It's not the movement itself, but the fact that the Wii makes developers forget that there are things that are a lot more important than how you control your character.

Yeah, I hear you. Movie makers, ever since they started with digital effects, have forgotten everything they ever knew about story and character.

Anyway, my golf game, my ski run and my tennis match really don't need much of a story line. Video games, are a lot like operas. The stories generally don't stand up for themselves, but are a good excuse for performance.

ChristianGuy · Post by **ChristianGuy** » Mon Jan 19, 2009 1:18 pm

I play a good bit. I love the Halo series and the Call of Duty series, but my favorites are Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4 (the new one is not too impressive). I have the whole xbox live thing and its pretty fun, but virtually shooting people gets a little old after a while. I enjoy pretty much any game, provided its not too vulgar or gory. The only games that I am really bad at are the guitar hero games (Its really hard for me after playing the real thing) and racing games.

Gonzo · Post by **Gonzo** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 4:20 am

Super Smash Brothers Brawl is where I shine, never really played much of the other ones, but this one is a game I really enjoy. I also enjoy most fps games like the Halo series. I even played world of warcraft for a while. Come to think of it I enjoy most if not all genres of video games. I guess I'm just not picky with my forms of interactive virtual entertainment, which is fine because I can pick up most games pretty quick.

GrumpyMrGruff · Post by **GrumpyMrGruff** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 10:07 pm

I'm lucky enough to have a job that requires fun critical thinking, but this means I like games that shut down my brain for awhile after a day at work.

Lately, I've been playing Left 4 Dead on the PC. It's a first person shooter in which four random online players are pitted against waves of zombies. Enemies are procedurally generated so that each play-through is unique. It's a fun way to pass 40 minutes.

My collection is mainly first person shooters, puzzle-adventure games, role playing games, strategy, and flight sims. If I'm not playing to clear my mind, I tend to go favor games with compelling plots/world-building (even if playability is slightly compromised). Some all-time favorites are Deus Ex, Myst, Morrowind, Red Alert 2, and Independence War 2. Wow, that list makes me sound very conventional.

OnceConvinced · Post by **OnceConvinced** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 4:21 pm

I've been playing "Left 4 Dead" over the weekend on the XBox. (I'm a huge zombie fan). At first I was disappointed when I found it to be a 1st person shooter. I hate 1st person shooters. (Mainly because they make me feel queazy). But this one didn't make me feel queezy and it grew on me as I played. It was a little one dimensional though. I prefer games like Resident Evil where you have to solve puzzles to get through. "Left 4 Dead" was just a shoot every zombie you see type of game to get from point A to point B. I did really enjoy the different scenes, which made each campaign unique. I think the game was a little on the short side though.

I wish someone would create a game based on the original "Dawn of the Dead".

FinalEnigma · Post by **FinalEnigma** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 4:51 pm

How can you people play shooters on a console when you have a computer in front of your face? The control mechanism used for a console makes it more difficult to be as good. its an arbitrary added handicap for no reason whatsoever. There is nobody in the world who could beat me at an FPS with me on the computer and them on a console. consoles have their place, but it sure isn't shooters. resident evil works on console, unreal tournament doesn't.

I once played a game with my brother in unreal tournament on the computer. i set the AI difficulty to max, then went into the individual controls and raised it to max there. Then i set the game type to instagib(basically the only weapon is a laser that always kills in one hit) and played capture the flag. The computer was on the highest difficulty it could play. we would be running through a hallway and the door would ope on the other end, or someone would come around a corner, and we would have .3 seconds or less to kill them before they shot us. If you miss, you die. if you take longer than .3 seconds, you die.(to find out your reflex time, or to find out just how fast .3 seconds is, go here http://www.happyhub.com/network/reflex/) me and my brother actually succeeded in capturing the flag once after an hour. note that to do this we had to successfully kill many AIs in a row without one mistake. I used to be so good at this game it was idiotic. this would be literally impossible to perform on a console. there is no way you could set the sensitivity high enough on the controller to turn that fast, especially without spinning out of control the minute you twitched. console shooters arbitrarily decrease the skill of the player due to bad control mechanism.

OnceConvinced · Post by **OnceConvinced** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 8:14 pm

I prefer to have my games run on a console. I always have problems with games run on computers. Besides my video card isn't up to scratch for a lot of modern games. And I also prefer to be resting in an easy chair playing games than sitting at a desk with a mouse in my hand.

Homicidal_Cherry53 · Post by **Homicidal_Cherry53** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 10:49 pm

OnceConvinced wrote:I've been playing "Left 4 Dead" over the weekend on the XBox. (I'm a huge zombie fan). At first I was disappointed when I found it to be a 1st person shooter. I hate 1st person shooters. (Mainly because they make me feel queazy). But this one didn't make me feel queezy and it grew on me as I played. It was a little one dimensional though. I prefer games like Resident Evil where you have to solve puzzles to get through. "Left 4 Dead" was just a shoot every zombie you see type of game to get from point A to point B. I did really enjoy the different scenes, which made each campaign unique. I think the game was a little on the short side though.

I wish someone would create a game based on the original "Dawn of the Dead".

It is pretty boring if you're playing alone. If you get four people together to play, though, it is UNBELIEVABLE.

There are actually people working on a Dawn of the Dead mod for the PC, as well as a Raccoon City mod from Resident Evil 2.

Negative Proof · Post by **Negative Proof** » Thu Jan 29, 2009 5:16 am

Wow, my thread exists!

So yeah, I'm a big gamer. I spend most of my free time on here and playing video games.

First off, I'm a WoW (World of Warcraft) nerd. For anybody who plays, I've got a level 75 Blood Elf Shadowpriest.

I think I'll attempt my first ever all-time top 5:

1. Diablo II
2. Final Fantasy Tactics
3. Chrono Trigger
4. World of Warcraft
5. Morrowind (Elder Scrolls III)

As you can tell, I love RPGs. Character creation and customization is where it's at for me. The closer games get to simulating the experience of rolling a pen and paper D&D character, the happier I am (yes, I've also played tabletop D&D).

I have a pretty broad history with video games. My first system was an Atari 2600. I later got a Commodore 64 from my uncle. I don't have it any more, but I'd bet that wherever it is, it still works. I spent months playing the old gold box AD&D games. From there, I've owned (at one time or another) an NES, Super NES (both of which I still have hooked up in my living room), Genesis, Nintendo 64, Playstation, Xbox, Xbox 360, and now a Wii.

Two shameful admissions:

I never owned a PS2.

I've never played Starcraft. Not even once...

So currently, I'm playing World of Warcraft (of course, it never ends), Call of Duty: World at War, and World of Goo for Wii. If you're looking for something different, but still insanely entertaining and viewable as art... go for World of Goo. It's a relatively short game, but has good replay value. It ruled my world for about 3 days (in between work, of course).

It makes me happy that this thread exists.