Video games

[Anfinwen]

Just curious, does anyone else on Narniaweb play the first person Nancy Drew games from Her Interactive? In my opinion they are the best Win/Mac games out there. I just played The Shattered Medallion, but I think my favorite is still The Scarlet Hand.

[fantasia]

I've never even heard of it Anfinwen, but I've played detective games before and thoroughly enjoyed them so I can see myself liking it.

Is anybody buying Mario Kart 8? I think it comes out soon... not sure on the exact date. It's the first game I've been excited to play in quite a while.

[Shadowlander]

Finished off Bioshock: Infinite and its DLC's (that's "DownLoadable Content, for those of you not in the know ) and was very, very impressed. The world of Columbia, while fun to play in and explore, just doesn't have the same allure and fascination that Rapture from the first two games had. And I think they kind of understood that as the DLC's were largely dealing with the Rapture setting (and let me tell you, it was wonderful to go back, even if but for a short time ). Still working on achievements and that'll take a long while yet to do so I'm sure I'll go back through and find all sorts of things I missed before as I always do with my other games .

Now I'm working on Dead Space 3. Dead Space 1 and 2 are games I only play during daylight hours. Last time I tried it at night our dog came up and put her cold wet nose on the back of my leg, resulting in me doing a wonderful impression of a Saturn V rocket taking off. At any rate the first two games put you in the situation of being all alone in a setting where pretty much everything is out to get you and likes to do so by being kind of terrifying about it. Part 3 is actually a 2-player co-op game, provided you know someone who owns DS3 and desires to play. I do not, so I'm still in solo-ville here. I can only imagine that it'd be more of an action game and not so much survival horror if someone's with ya'. Not much else on my radar right now, so I'll see what comes up later on. Still waiting for a really cheap version of Minecraft to show up at the local thrift stores.

[Shadowlander]

My wife got me back into World of Warcraft. I tried to resist. I really did. But it happened last night and now I'm back in again.

Don't judge me.

[SnowAngel]

Your taste in video games is very strange, SL.

I stumbled across Call of Duty: Ghosts at the library last week, thought my brother might enjoy playing it. He does. Unfortunately it has to go back to the library on Friday.

Last night he was playing the campaign on Ghosts when his cellphone rang, he set the controller down with even pausing the game. He left the room to talk, so I picked up the controller and played until he came back. I don't play single player every often, more like almost never, and other than the room being dark (it was almost 10:00 PM) and my being by myself - I thoroughly enjoyed it.

SnowAngel

[Shadowlander]

You should try your hand at a Survival Horror game and see how you fare in that environment. I recommend Dead Space.

[SnowAngel]

You should try your hand at a Survival Horror game and see how you fare in that environment. I recommend Dead Space.

Thank you so much for your kind suggestion, SL, but no. I am sticking with Call of Duty, Rainbow Six, Splinter Cell, etc.

A couple months ago my brother got the Halo games for the 360, do you like those?

By taking turns playing my brother and I finished CoD: Ghosts yesterday, and much quicker than I thought we would. It turned to be a better game than he thought it would be, and now I think it's on his to-buy list.

SnowAngel

[IloveFauns]

I find it so much harder to get into video games these days. I do enjoy playing zelda and other games but I am a very casual gamer now which is kind of depressing considering the hours I use to spend playing.

[Shadowlander]

SnowAngel, have you considered trying out a sci-fi game like Half Life 2 (part of the Orange Box) or the Fallout games? There's some language and content in the latter, but it'd probably make for a nice switch from endless military shooters. I tried Modern Warfare but the only part I really liked was the portion with the AC-130 Gunship. That was a blast! Other than that I love WW2 shooters as far as the traditional types go. Seriously, give Orange Box a try...3 games in 1, including Portal!

[SnowAngel]

No, I hadn't. And I don't think I will. I like all of those "endless military shooters". Plus I don't play more than a couple times week anyway and I almost always play coop with my brother or younger sister or both of them.

My brother does have a few games that aren't military shooters; Assassin's Creed (I think he has 3 for the PC and 2 for the 360), Lord of The Rings: War in the North, and a couple of others.

Did you play all of Modern Warfare? Or just to the mission with the AC-130 gunship?

SnowAngel

[Shadowlander]

I played a bit past that part, but it just didn't hold my attention well. I admit to being a kind of a sucker for shooters but mostly those set in sci-fi universes. Or of course WW2 shooters because hey, M1 Garands are awesome, are they not? That AC-130 part was awesome. Give Half Life a try. I think you'd maybe enjoy it a bit, and there's no dirty stuff or profanity and you do get to lay waste to lots of bad aliens and the plot is really very good.

[SnowAngel]

Or of course WW2 shooters because hey, M1 Garands are awesome, are they not?

Yes, they are.

I tell you what, I will see if my library has Half Life. And if it does, then I will ask my brother about it. And depending on what he says, maybe I will give it a try.

SnowAngel

[The Rose-Tree Dryad]

Ditto on Half-Life 2! My brother downloaded that recently and I've been enjoying watching him play it. It's a very creative game, and quite fun—if a bit intense at times.

[Arwenel]

I go weeks without posting, and wind up making a monster-post. I apologize in advance for length and off-topic-ness.

All this mention of brothers ... it's because of mine that i've gotten into Minecraft lately. It's not precisely my cup of tea - i prefer RPGs with quests and characters to talk to - but it can be very pretty, and in one world i'm trying to build a castle. It's also a game my brother and i both like, which isn't a common crossover. He's much more of a shooter guy than i am.

A couple weeks ago i was playing Dragon's Age: Origins pretty regularly, though i've lapsed a bit on it lately. It's a decent game, i suppose, but i couldn't help comparing it to others, and it didn't hold up too well. Of all the elite groups that you end up a part of in so many RPGs, the Grey Wardens are without doubt the worst: all drawback, no benefit. And i have some serious issues with the ending.

Some of the characters are fun (Alistair is made of 100% adorable), but others can be irritating, and despite being made by a supposedly progressive company, some types of armor that cover a man's torso suddenly become bikinis when placed on a woman. I find the role of religion in the Dragon's Age universe to be interesting; it's better-integrated than in many games, and thankfully not reduced to "just believe" simplicity, but certain elements of it are very odd. I was also very irritated by my inability to comment on the bad logic in some of the debates on the topic, but until they make a game dedicated to proselytizing others in the name of your religion, i don't think i'll ever find a game satisfying in that way.

The trailer for Uncharted 4 was released at E3 (i think), and it looks beautiful, of course. I am also extremely pleased to note that Nate is wearing his wedding ring! If they had broken him and Elena up again ...

I suspect there are some Halo fans here -- is it playable on the PC, or just xbox, and how many games are there? I'm vaguely familiar with it, and a machinima series i've been watching has gotten me a little more interested in it.

Not sure if machinima falls under television or video games ... anyone familiar with machinima at all?

[Shadowlander]

I suspect there are some Halo fans here -- is it playable on the PC, or just xbox, and how many games are there? I'm vaguely familiar with it, and a machinima series i've been watching has gotten me a little more interested in it.

I'm not a particularly big fan of Halo, but I've only played the first two, so I cannot speak to the quality of the later games. The series has a really interesting plot but the Covenant (the alien consortium at war with Earth) were kind of cartoonish in many ways, especially the goofy little aliens that look like lizard-Ewok crossbreeds (and sound like them too). I remember the game was pretty and the weapon selection was decent, but the level designer needed to made to play his/her creation 48 hours straight so that they could understand why needlessly endless mazes went out with Wolfenstein 3D in 92'. Now my younger brother enjoys some of the later Halo games, but it's just not my cup of tea. Half Life 2 does the same job so very much better, although it is not really a perfect comparison.

A couple weeks ago i was playing Dragon's Age: Origins pretty regularly, though i've lapsed a bit on it lately. It's a decent game, i suppose, but i couldn't help comparing it to others, and it didn't hold up too well. Of all the elite groups that you end up a part of in so many RPGs, the Grey Wardens are without doubt the worst: all drawback, no benefit. And i have some serious issues with the ending.

I played DA (whatever the original game was) for about 10 hours and to me it felt a bit like a Mass Effect mod with no frills. It was alright but I just couldn't get myself into it, and while playing it I kept thinking that I would really rather play Mass Effect. If it works for ya', then go for it...seemed like a perfectly workable fantasy game to me, just not to my taste.

Ditto on Half-Life 2! My brother downloaded that recently and I've been enjoying watching him play it. It's a very creative game, and quite fun—if a bit intense at times.

See? Rosie gives her endorsement! You know it must be good! Seriously though, you get 3 really great games in one package and nowadays you can probably walk out of the store with it for practically nothing just by batting your eyelashes at the guy behind the cash register. Well, perhaps that'll work for you. When I try they call the police.

EDIT: I'm nerdish with regards to video game sequels, so I will point out if you want to play Half Life 1 it's a wonderful, wonderful game although it's very dated by today's standards. A group of independent programmers got together about 10 years ago and decided to remake the whole game with the tech included in Half Life 2 and it felt like it would never get done. But they eventually finished Black Mesa Source last year and it was mind-blowingly awesome. I cannot recommend enough you're giving it a try if you're able to give it a whirl, although it's PC only and when last I played it was still a tad bit buggy. Link is here. It's a totally free download, but be very careful where you try to download from because some of the links are quite misleading. I suspect you'll find it was well worth it once you get it downloaded though!

[SnowAngel]

Ditto on Half-Life 2! My brother downloaded that recently and I've been enjoying watching him play it. It's a very creative game, and quite fun—if a bit intense at times.

See? Rosie gives her endorsement! You know it must be good! Seriously though, you get 3 really great games in one package and nowadays you can probably walk out of the store with it for practically nothing just by batting your eyelashes at the guy behind the cash register. Well, perhaps that'll work for you. When I try they call the police.

Well, thank you both for the recommendation, but I can't do that right now even if I wanted to. We are currently scaling everything down in preparation for a long distance move. And I don't have my own computer yet (although I plan to buy a laptop as soon as I can save enough money to buy one). I am on my parents desktop right now, which we aren't allowed to use for gaming.

We almost always buy video games online, so I don't think that strategy would work. But I will keep it in mind should I ever planned to purchased a video game at Game Stop and not have the money.

All this talk of games makes me want to play something, I haven't played or watched my brother play a game since we finished Ghosts.

Oh, and I like Halo, but because it's suppertime and I am hungry, that will have to wait.

SnowAngel