I was just curious what you guys were playing at the moment. The holiday season is pretty much over, and many of us received games from friends, relatives, or ourselves So what if I'm not a "kid" anymore? I can still ask for Mario Kart for Christmas!!

So that's game #1: Mario Kart: Double Dash. Very fun, thought there's something of a learning curve if you were really into the first two games. Also the computer is insanely difficult at higher CCs. I was able to beat all the cup races except for a couple mirror cups (which I haven't gotten to yet) in a day or two, but it wasn't without much frustration.

#2: Prince of Persia. Looks very cool, just started it. The camera looks like it could get annoying, and it's sometimes a bit tough to tell what to do next, but the time stuff is so cool. I never get tired of running on walls.

#3: Viewtiful Joe. Holy crap!! No, that's not excitement over how good the game is, that's amazement over how difficult it is! I've fought the first level boss about 25 times now and still can't get past it. I've read message boards and game FAQs, and found out that I'm doing it right, more or less, but despite one match where I hit this boss about 50-60 times, I still died. These days I'm not looking for frustratingly difficult games. I'm looking for something enjoyable, even if it's easy. Which brings me to:

#4: Max Payne 2. I actually never played the first game, so I'm not sure why I wanted this one. I'm glad I did though! This is my favorite of all of them so far. This game was just a pleasure to play. Yeah it was pretty easy and short, but it's just so good that that doesn't matter. I especially appreciated the generous amount of saving you can do at any point you want, making it quick to replay a failed segment. This is the first computer game in a long while that I haven't gotten bored with and cheated my way through the last half. I did cheat on the two harder difficulty levels, but cheating is part of the fun for me, and I only wanted to see the alternate ending.

Anyway, sorry for the long post. I'd just love to hear what other people are playing, and maybe get some ideas for games I'd like to try.

Well I tend to be about 6 months to a year behind on games b/c I like to pick them up on the cheap. However I have recived word that my roommate has gotten a GameCube for Christmas, which is as good as me getting one. Sweet!

I felt about Max Payne 1 as you seem to about 2. Highly enjoyable and also the first in a long while that I didn't cheat at all to beat. (Unless you count quick saving after every bad guy cheating ) I look forward to picking up 2 when the price drops. (BTW 1 is really cheap now so you might want to pick it up for more of the same fun.)

Anyways, the game I have been playing most lately is Warcraft III (non-expansion). Lots o' fun.

So what if I'm not a "kid" anymore? I can still ask for Mario Kart for Christmas!!

Damn straight. I picked that up literally the day it was released. It's been a bit of an obsession since the first game. I found it to be quite easy to adapt to it after Mario Kart 64, and it didn't take me long to beat every cup in every class with a perfect score (I did say "obsession"). And yes, a couple of the All Cup Tours did take me more than one try.

But it hasn't lost it's appeal. I know several people who play it, and we all still like to play Versus or Battle. Lasting playability.

I haven't played video games in nearly a year, I think, but when I do, I still stick to the old school MAME stuff. I quit playing new games around about Doom II. Tried Quake for about 20 minutes, and it made me nauseous.

However:

#2: Prince of Persia

I played the old scroller version non-stop through my last years of high school. This game *ruled*. I wouldn't mind taking a crack at this new version.

Quick takes on the stuff I've been playing.

- Armed and Dangerous (PC): Very funny, fun to play, slightly quirky gameplay but still great. The Shark gun and the Topsy Turvy bomb are awesome. A bit too short in terms of hours-of-play-per-dollar, but still great.

- Call of Duty (PC): The Medal of Honor team hits another home run with this one. A must-play. I've only played the single player missions so far, but since MOHAA deathmatch is a staple at our LAN parties, I'll bet this one will become one, too.

- Halo (PC): Finished it earlier today. I had no idea it would be THIS good. There are moments near the end of the single-player game that are truly sublime in terms of evoking the goosebumps and the chills up your spine at the same time as it's causing the whole "fight or flight" adrenaline rush. Much of the gameplay is what I imagine Half Life 2 was supposed to be. In fact, I'm now worried that when HL2 finally does come along, I'll yawn and say "it's just Halo with slightly better graphics". Again, I haven't done multiplayer yet, looking forward to trying it.

- Rogue Squadron 3: Rebel Strike (GameCube): Lukewarm reaction. Didn't give me that "oh my god this is the coolest thing I've ever played" response that I got from RS2:Rogue Leader, but that's only because the sequel always has trouble surpassing the standards set by a particularly good first version. Basically, Rebel Strike is made up of all the stuff they didn't have time to do for Rogue Leader. Meaning that you get to do some particularly cool and intense missions, so that's a really good thing. And there's a co-op mode where you can play all the missions from Rogue Leader as two cooperative players. That's a nice touch. Anyway, if Rebel Strike and Rogue Leader had come out in the opposite order, I probably would have been saying "oh my god this is the coolest thing I've ever played" to Rebel Strike and being Lukewarm about Rogue Leader. Oh: Still no widescreen mode on this one.

- Quidditch World Cup (GameCube): My review is at Amazon.

Speaking of video games, finally got to meet Ed Rotberg tonight. Had a nice New Year's Eve dinner at my friends' house, and Ed and his wife were there. Great people. Talked a little shop. He's working on something for the N-Gage at the moment.

I just bought a GameCube recently, so I didn't get in any games for Xmas, and the games I bought are older because they're cheaper. Right now I'm playing Eternal Darkness, which is very cool and reminds me quite a bit of Alone in the Dark (which probably shows my age and that I've never played Resident Evil).

Max Payne 2 was pretty good, but it added so little beyond the original that it was a disappointment. The only new things I can remember are the super-quick reloads when in bullet-time mode and the fact that the slowness of bullet-time changes depending on how many bad guys you kill. But my big disappointment was with the cut scenes. In the first Max Payne, they were very tongue-in-cheek, and that seemed to have been lost in the second one where they became kind of dry and boring. I didn't really have a problem with the length because I rarely manage to finish longer games. Tell me about the alternate ending, though. I didn't replay the game on the higher difficulty settings.

Max Payne 2, and that's pretty much it. I don't have time for video games anymore. I have to make choices between love, music, and pitteling around (read: playing video games). Since love and music are at the top of the list, video games get booted generally.

...But I was so vocal about how much I liked MP1 that my wife bought me the sequal. The way I figure it, it'd be rude NOT to play it! So that's been pretty much it for the last couple of days. I haven't played anything in the last year and I've been having a real blast.

I especially appreciated the generous amount of saving you can do at any point you want, making it quick to replay a failed segment.

Actually the best part about the quick saving is that it uses two rotating slots, so if you're a trigger happy saver (like myself) who tends to save not realizing a guy is about to put a bullet in your head, you can go back to the previous quick save. That was my favorite feature from the first game; I don't know why more games haven't done the same.

BTW, for those playing MP2, what kind of times are you getting on "Dead Man Walking?"

but it added so little beyond the original that it was a disappointment.

See, this didn't bother me at all. I mean, in truth I probably won't play it through as many times as I did the first one, but I figure they pretty much nailed it the first time around, why mess with a good thing? Oh, and the Dead Man Walking part is great fun, though I'm not sure how long it will last.

In the first Max Payne, they were very tongue-in-cheek, and that seemed to have been lost in the second one where they became kind of dry and boring.

Yes, did you get the impression they started taking it seriously?

Need for Speed: Underground.

The physics are actually quite realistic. I was impressed.

[D]id you get the impression they started taking it seriously?

Yes. That's what I meant. Well, at least during the cutscenes. Less so during gameplay.

Call of Duty - Tony said it too, but this is a must play. It's really amazing and every time I finish playing it I'm totally stressed out

Prince of Persia - Beautiful game. It really captured the originals in 3D. I agree the camera sometimes screws with you, though. That's the ONLY complaint I have, though, and it's relatively minor.

Beyond Good & Evil - It's been really fun so far. Looks great.

XIII - Haven't really started playing it yet, but the visuals and style are really slick. I'll post again after I get into it.

ms

the games I bought are older because they're cheaper. Right now I'm playing Eternal Darkness

Hey, the best part about Eternal Darkness is that supposedly it didn't sell very well when it was released, despite being a very, very good game. The sanity effects only get better throughout the game, as well. The actual attacking and fighting of enemies is the weak point of the game, I think, but just in that it's a bit repetitive. It's still fun to blast the hell out of zombies.

And I'd also suggest picking up the rerelease of Resident Evil for Gamecube. It was completely overhauled for the new system, and really looks beautifully scary. My roommate and I play it with the lights out (we have to wait for night to play it), and it scares us more than most horror movies do.

Tell me about the alternate ending, though. I didn't replay the game on the higher difficulty settings.

*SPOILERS* This is a spoiler for the actual ending as well:

In the first two difficulty levels, Max and Mona get to the manor, Vlad shoots Mona and Woden, Max goes and kills Vlad, Max comes back to see Mona die in his arms.

In the third difficulty level, it ends the same way, except Max comes back after killing Vlad and Mona gets up. She doesn't die.

This makes me wonder how the sequel will go. The end of the credits implies that there will be another game, so I don't know which story they'll follow. I suspect they'll kep Mona alive. Hell, she died in the first game, didn't she? She's also too kick-ass and sexy to kill off

I actually had a lot of fun cheating my way through to get the alternate ending. And you know, with all that ammo, my favorite weapons were the dual desert eagles. They're so much fun!

And you know, with all that ammo, my favorite weapons were the dual desert eagles.

Ah yes, another improvment from the first one. You couldn't use dual desert eagles before.

tony, per your halo comments
go back and play through it on legendary. its the same story, nothing fancy (although it does have a neat new ending) but its like playing a whole new game. you really have to watch what youre doing. if your shield drops, your dead. whole new strategic element.

its the same story, nothing fancy (although it does have a neat new ending)

Wait, you're saying that the ending is different if I play it on a different skill level?

I just got an XBox and so I now have an embarrassing backlog of games I've started but have not finished. Currently in the rotation...

Prince of Persia (Xbox) - An excellent game that I finished way too quickly. But now there are the PoP1 and PoP2 unlockables I'm planning on playing later... PoP1 is sadly the Mac version so it doesn't have the same nostalgic value I was expecting, but still it's just as good (and I forgot just how unforgiving!)

Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee (Xbox) - Got this for Christmas from my brother in-law. An oldie, but I am enjoying it. I didn't like the demo I played two years ago, but I think I was mislead to believe it was supposed to be a platformer in the vein of Mario et al. It's more a puzzler like Lemmings and the earlier Oddworlds. Pretty fun for free!

Legend of Zelda, Collector's Edition (GameCube) - Man this is fantastic. I plan to play this end to end soon. I've already played them all save Zelda II: Adventures of Link. I consider this my version of watching the LoTR trilogy in one sitting!

Cubivore (GameCube) - I picked this one up used as I like odd-ball game concepts. I love the idea, but the execution is a little sloppy. It's interesting, but I can't seem to bring myself to just finish the damn thing.

Final Fantasy X (Playstation2) - At first I was amazed at the sheer amount of unique content, but now I am just bored. This is the first incarnation of combat that I've liked in the versions > XII. But now I am at Zanarkan (sp?) and the creatures you fight are immune to almost everything...

I just finished Ratchet and Clank going commando. I like it a lot I really liked the first one too. Now I am going to start Jak 2.

the ending is different if you beat it on legendary. only one different ending. but, the intro is different for every difficulty

if you beat it on legendary

So you mean that the cutscene is different, or that there is a different level or different gameplay?

gameplay takes a completely different mindset. cant just rush in. and there is a different cutscene.

I thought I'd post again after completing some more of the games I mentioned. Here is the order I would put the games in, in terms of which is most enjoyable to play:

1- Max Payne 2
2- Prince of Persia
3- Mario Kart DD
4- Viewtiful Joe

Many might be suprised at my choice for Mario Kart. Well, considering how insane the computer player is in single player mode, the fun is sometimes missing from the game. I haven't, however, played it with friends yet, which is really the only reason I wanted it. But for single player, it isn't that great.

Max Payne 2 was just so much fun. For example: in MP2, I got to climb onto the ledge of an apartment building with the objective to land on the awning a story below, "shootdoge" (slow-motion dive while shooting) backward, falling a story while eliminating the gunmen on the ledge below before landing on the ground. Things like that made it a hell of a fun game, as did the ability to choose how hard the game was.

Like some people have said, I don't want to spend a lot of time playing video games, so playing the same level over and over is not my idea of fun, especially if the gameplay sucks. In MP2, I could have played through the game using the automatic quicksaves after every cutscene, or I could do what I did, which was save after every successful room clearing

Prince of Persia amazed me in two ways: how fun repetitive actions can be sometimes, and in the way that a lot of the game simply felt cheap in quality. By the first statement, I mean that you don't do a wide variety of things in the game, but what you do is really fun. I never once got tired of running along walls. However, you do fight enemies that can be difficult even with the ability to rewind time. Several times I would be killed, try to wind back time, and was only able to wind it back a second or two, to instant I was hit. Out of battle it's possible to rewind time 10 or 15 seconds. And here's one for people who've played the game: did you have difficulty with the "haste" spell? There were several instances where I desperately wanted to use it, but it simply wouldn't trigger. You would think an action like R+L would be easy to perform, but time after time I would try to trigger it, nothing would happen, and I'd get hit for my troubles. All my tanks were full, but I was unable to get it to work. So, despite that, I had a fun two days playing through the game, which is yet another game I haven't had to cheat my way through, so that made it fun.

Viewtiful Joe inspires me to get an Action Replay. Seriously, this game is unnecessarily hard. That isn't fun to me. I'll have twice as much fun cheating my way through it.

So, to reiterate, get Max Payne 2 now. It's seriously fun. I suppose Bitt is right, the story didn't seem tongue-in-cheek at all, except for funny stuff unrelated to the story, like "Lords and Ladies" and Baseball Bat Boy, but that didn't matter to me. I liked it. I will definitely check out the first game.

I just finished Ratchet and Clank going commando.

*ahem* We don't really need to know whether or not you wear underwear while playing video games.

I'm fairly oldskool when it comes to computer games, so my current top 5 are:

1) Unreal Tournament (and Hexen and Heretic - I'm counting them as one)
2) Gradius 3
3) Starcraft (parts one and two)
4) XIII (okay, it's new, but still oldskool)
and 5) Diddy Kong Racing

also been playing Sonic The Hedgehog and a wee bit of Dance Dance Revolution.

I don't really get Halo at all. There's no way I would buy an X-box juust for that. Admittedly I wouldn't be likely to get a Gamecube either. And unless I reprioritise dramatically I won't even get a PS2. They just aren't good enough when compared to PCs.

erm....IMHO

Happy New Year everyone! Ain't it great to be back at work.

I'm currently playing Fatal Frame II on the PS2, which my lovely girlie gave me for the holidays (the game, not the PS2).

Pretty scary game, really. WAAAAAYYY worse than the Resident Evil line...

They [consoles] just aren't good enough when compared to PCs.

I have problems with consoles. The controllers are usually very limiting. Playing an FPS, for example, on a console is, to me, an exercise in frustration. The grpahics are not as good as on PCs, even if the limitation is only the monitor (TV). (I've not seen an Xbox via HDTV, so that might be better, but I think that the support for that in the games is pretty limited.) Also, while you usually gradually upgrade your PC, you have to buy a whole new console every few years in order to keep up.

But the one thing that consoles have over PCs, and it's major, is that you just put in the disc/cartridge and you're ready to go. No futzing about with video drivers, no wondering if your video card is good enough, no arguing with the variety of things that PCs make difficult due to their multi-purpose-ness. For that reason, console games can be a lot more fun, especially those where the console controller is a good choice for the game.

The controllers are usually very limiting. Playing an FPS, for example, on a console is, to me, an exercise in frustration.

Agreed, which is why I was patient to wait for the PC port of Halo (and I'm glad I did).

On the other hand, the GameCube controller is so good for certain kinds of games that I am looking to get an interface plug that lets me connect one to my PC's USB port. (Unfortunately, the one I want seems to be sold out at all the distributors at the moment...)

No futzing about with video drivers, no wondering if your video card is good enough, no arguing with the variety of things that PCs make difficult due to their multi-purpose-ness.

And the corollary to this is development and testing being easier on consoles. You develop for a known target platform and don't have to worry about the video drivers changing or even the CPU speed or memory size changing. Bugs that might cause a PC game to crash on certain systems might go unnoticed on a console because they never cause the game to fail (regardless of which console it runs on).

First, my complaint wasn't about console controllers, only that they're inherently limited. You can get other controllers, but they're kind of few and far between, whereas alternative controllers for a PC are relatively common. It's also hard to decided to buy that $200 steering wheel for Gran Turismo 4 when you know that that's the only game it's ever going to be useful for.

Secondly, exactly. My point, though I didn't quite get around to stating it, is that consoles are the definition of plug-and-play. You put the disk in and turn it on. There's nothing else to it. There are seldom any bugs, and, if there are, you're not going to spend hours figuring out if it's your system or not.

Also, while you usually gradually upgrade your PC, you have to buy a whole new console every few years in order to keep up.

Gradually upgrading your PC over a typical console lifespan will definitly cost more then the new console + controllers + memory cards. Keeping my PC at the high end of gaming peformance every two years costs about $800-$1000, depending on what all gets upgraded, if not more.

No argument, but there's a psychological block to throwing the old thing away in order to get a whole new thing, even if you eventually do that with a PC, too.

I agree with your points for the most part. I can't stand playing the GTA games on consoles. Pretty much any game that imerses you into a 3D world with free reign and requires targeting is going to suck on consoles.

However, there are plenty of exceptions. I find that many platformers do fine on consoles. Zelda was fine, and required little targetting, and Prince of Persia mostly suffered from bad automatic camera angles. The camera was usually pretty easy to move on your own.

But on the most part, there is no substitute for a mouse. And I agree, every FPS I've seen is hell on a console, but I don't play those anyway.

In contrary to all this, I also say that there are plenty of games that play better with a console controller. Fighting games have no need for keyboards, IMO, and when companies put a lot of thought into their controllers (like Nintendo), it's much nicer to have that natural feel when beating on people in Soul Caliber 2. Plus, most platformers (as Tony has said in the past in defence of the GC controller) require only a primary button and a few secondaries.

I must disagree, though, on your statement about PC controllers. Every gamepad that I've tried out in stores has felt horrible to me. Cheap quality, awkward, ugly, and generally of very poor design. And they're expensive. I ended up with the generic Sidewinder.


I also agree with the second point you were discussing. I love not having to mess with things to get a game to work properly. Every time I want to play the GTA games on my PC system, for example, I have to uninstall Logitech's mouse software, and go into Windows mouse controls and adjust the motion speed. Then when I stop playing, I have to change the speed again and reinstall the software, all because they couldn't fix a bug that only appeared on a few people's system where the in-game mouse sensitivity didn't effect the Y-axis as well as the X. That just sucks.

there's a psychological block to throwing the old thing away in order to get a whole new thing

You throw your old systems away?! However you take your statement, I have no problem going to a new console. In fact, I see this as a good aspect in relation to your previous point: the games will always work!

Just think: I can still play all the games I've ever owned on my Sega Master System. Yet Tony has a thread going about a way to finally play DOS games reliably on curent systems all these years after they were in their prime. My PC can't play games l owned from 4 to 6 years ago like Worms: Armageddon and the first two Warcraft games. But if I want to play Altered Beast on my Sega, I just bust the console out. I don't have to keep a second machine around or dual-boot my Gamecube.

So, as new console systems are released (which is only every 4 years or so, by the way), my game library only grows, it isn't replaced.

Gamepads on PCs do suck. But I'd argue that the gamepad is a pretty poor controller design anyway. I'd rather just use the keyboard; that way, I don't have to hold it. Of course, analog gamepads are a little better, and there are some games where a full-blown joystick isn't the correct controller, either. But I feel like the analog gamepad is in that class of things that gets the job done in most situations but doesn't do any one thing well.

Ok, y'all were right about Call Of Duty. It rocks. I'm now stuck on one of the tank levels... Fun, fun, fun!

Thanks for helping me with another happy addiction.

- Jon