Replaying the first two Myth games. What a great series. Too bad the third one sucked.

Gaming fantasy of the day. If Relic Entertainment (makers of the brilliant Homeworld and Company of Heroes games) were to pick up the license to Myth and make a sequel, that would be amazing and I'd weep tears of joy. Detailed small-scale combat like Company of Heroes, but with the Myth atmosphere and medieval weaponry? It must be so. Bring back the journal entries and the narrator, bring back the maps and the illustrations. Make it gory and horrifying.

Also, get Tarsem to do the movie.

As a fan of Relic's past games, hope you are playing Warhammer 40k: Dawn Of War + Expansions and the new Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War II. Essentially Myth in space set in the Warhammer 40k universe with the best RTS squad-to-squad gameplay yet devised. A modern day masterpiece in all respects.

I played the Dawn of War II demo a little while back, and enjoyed it. For whatever reason I never got around to playing the first game. I'll have to remedy that.

The exact same fucking thing happened to me!! I've tried going back to previous saves really far back, and nothing doin'. Really unbelievable!

I'm surprised to find out that I wasn't the only one, though. Over 50 hours of play and I can't finish this damn game.....

I was able to get it to work though. I cleared out my 360's cache, re-downloaded the patch for the game, and went back to a save I had that put me back in Raven Rock. I'm not sure which one did the trick (99% it wasn't the cache trick though), or if it was a combination of all three. But once I played through the end of the Raven Rock mission I was good to go. Make sure you have the patch, and then I'd recommend just going back to an older save that's BEFORE you exit Raven Rock. Hopefully you have one.

I'm replaying Bioshock to get some more achievements I missed. I'm going through it on hard mode without vita-chambers on. Makes the game significantly more difficult. I know I'm not going to get all the achievements though. I guess my quest to get all the achievements on any given game continues...

Also replaying Resident Evil 4, since I had a blast with 5 (played the entire thing with a friend, by the way. And it's worth the time and effort) and wanted to revisit the older game.

I'll definitely try that! Only later on after a friend finished it that I realized that I was about 10 minutes away from the end of the game! Frustrating!

Bioshock is probably my favorite game to come out in the last few years. Resident Evil 4 is a close second. I've been playing 5 through on Professional with a friend. Very difficult!

Dead Space and Metal Gear Solid 4 are other strong ones, at least from last year....

Myth II was fucking awesome. I replayed it over and over years ago.

Currently playing nothing, Wii and PS2 both stolen

Still have all my games, but not really the will to go buy anther PS2 or GC (only have like 3 Wii games so no point in that), so I guess it's down to portable games until I can afford a PS3 without feeling guilty.

Playing the PC port of Braid. Incredible game.

Yeah, I was blown away by the demo. I bought it when it was on sale on XBLA for $10 and am saving it for after I finish Half-Life 2.

The puzzles in World 5 are astounding. You're lucky you have yet to discover them .

Also been playing Left 4 Dead on the 360. At first I almost threw the controller at the TV because the game's so fucking dark but after 10 miutes it's just plain awesome. Get some friends, play coop and kill thounsands of zombies in a game completely lacking of any storyline. I don't think it can get any better than that.

I've been stuck in the middle of Dragon Quest V for DS since Friday and have lost almost any interest in the game I had.

I fell out of Fallout 3 a few months ago and am just getting back into it.

The world is sure engrossing, I just wish I felt like I was more involved in it. There has to be a way to combine the more personal storytelling aspects of a Square type RPG game with the massive freedom offered here.

That's the problem with all Bethesda games.. But the fucking stellar gameplay more than makes up for it. Oblivion ranks as one of my top 5 video games of all time.

Its not a "problem". Its a design choice.

Beth throws in the 'chosen one' A-plot, but the draw and appeal of their games is you make your own adventure in the world. Oblivion was a step away from that and they suffered negative fan reaction as a result. Morrowind was Beth at the height of their design prowess.

Just the way Morrowind opens, "Wake up. You were dreaming". And the PC wakes inside the game and world. Brilliant!

A strong meta-textual statement by Bethesda as their last hurrah for that vaunted series. Far removed from the immersion breaking opening of Oblivion.

Imagine if Half-life began with CGI. What nonsense.

I'm sorry, but as a person who played Oblivion first, Morrowind kinda sucks.

I'm sorry, but Oblivion is an awful game. Tedious and uninspired.

Interesting. Can you point out a single gameplay or design flaw in Morrowind vis-a-vis Oblivion?

I recall the first Elder Scrolls games. When reading the lengthy 200+ page manuals, the first description of Nirn was "You are not on Earth!".

The ingame compass pointed to True East rather than True North.

Perhaps the biggest mark of shame, the Post-TESIII:MW games bear is a total pandering to low players by having the compass point North. TESIV:O was a literal dumbing down of the series. Trading in the alien and strange worlds of mystery for a generic Medieval European setting.

I do like Oblivion. But there is no question which was the more ambitious of Morrowind and Oblivion.

Maybe "sucks" was the wrong word. As you could probably tell by my preference of Oblivion over Morrowind, I'm more of a casual gamer. I guess I needed a little more hand-holding, which Morrowind didn't provide. I was completely new to TES when I got Oblivion for 360 and loved it because it was so intuitive, despite being such a huge game. I guess I didn't have the patience for Morrowind's lack of guidance. To be honest, I was only able to play about an hour of Morrowind before I put it down, Oblivion kinda spoiled the Morrowind experience for me.

Did you play Morrowind as it was intended or an out sourced port?

Because Morrowind was one of the most intuitive games from a control scheme pov; 8 keys.

I got the GOTY edition for the original Xbox. I meant intuitive in that you knew exactly where you were supposed to go for each quest. There wasn't a lot of guesswork involved in Oblivion, whereas in Morrowind I felt lost the entire time I was playing. Again, a testament to how much of a casual gamer I am.

Xbox port.

In the original Morrowind, there is a running journal that players can annotate. As well as a zoomable map, that can also be annotated as you wish.

A game series based on exploration that automatically marks the map for you and does everything short of provide flashing arrows to your destination (oh wait, Oblivion does do that)- is not much of an exploration game w/r/t Oblivion.

Again, I do like Oblivion. Though it is a different beast altogether from genuine Elder Scrolls. In the same way, Fallout 3 is a successor in name only to the previous Fallout games.

The thing about Oblivion is despite all of those obvious hints that helped me along, the game was still immersive as hell.

Just beat Dragon Quest V for DS.. About to start Chrono Trigger for DS.

Always found both Oblivion and Morrowind rather dull. Morrowind had the better setting though.

And just to put in perspective how much I love Oblivion, here are my top 15 video games of all time:


1. NBA 2K9 (360)
2. Perfect Dark (N64)
3. Super Puzzle Fighter 2 (XBLA)
4. WWF No Mercy (N64)
5. Oblivion (360)
6. Sonic 2 (Genesis)
7. Mario Kart 64 (N64)
8. Harvest Moon (SNES)
9. Banjo Kazooie (N64)
10. Toe Jam and Earl 2 (Genesis)
11. Mario Tennis 64 (N64)
12. Streets of Rage (Genesis)
13. Dragon Quest V (DS)
14. GTA 3 (PS2)
15. Metal Gear Solid 2 (PS2)

...

Every other game

That list is an embarassment.

I'm not gonna make any excuses for it.

have you played the College Hoops series?

Because College Hoops 2k8 (360) is a beast of a basketball game. Love how it plays and recruiting is excellent.

Yeah, easily the best realistic basketball game of all time. I got NBA 2K9 and it just doesn't' compare. Graphics are obviously better, sound is better, presentation is nice, but nothing beats the immersion of recruiting and developing players and working your way through your coaching career.

Obviously they couldn't do the recruiting, but they should do something about franchise mode in the NBA 2K series. You just feel like you're building an allstar team and there are too many guys who are too awesome in the game. They have a 50-100 rating scale and virtually everyone is a high 70 or higher or they won't be on a team within a season or two. The great players aren't great enough compared to the very good players. After a few years your players are all virtually interchangeable and you never feel a connection to the team you've made. And the CPU makes awful, awful trades.

And rookies are too good.

For a true GMing gaming experience, you gotta look to the independent gaming scene. Wolverine Studios has a great game out, Draft Day Sports: Pro Basketball, in which you can take a team over as a General Manager or Coach. There are a bunch of online leagues that use the game in which a person can take over a team against other people. It's really in-depth and pretty realistic, and the leagues are really fun to be a part of. But for actual gameplay, NBA 2K9 is great. I haven't played the College Hoops game but it would be hard to improve upon NBA 2K9's gameplay. The only gripe I have with the NBA 2K series is that some wing players are way too good (e.g. Lebron, Kobe) and it gets really annoying when people choose to use only one player on their team to score all of their points.

What is the most recent Myst title and is it worth picking up?

Yep.

DDS has both a pro and college game. Gary Gorski, the developer, posts at a text sim board I frequent (24K+ posts!). There's also a game called Fast Break College Basketball out there, too. I'm much more of a text simmer than an arcade-style gamer.

College Hoops 2k8 is actually still better gameplay wise than NBA 2k9. Not saying that NBA 2k9 is bad...it's great...but that's how good College Hoops 2k8 is. It's hard to drive. As it should be.

1/3 of the year has passed. Has there been a single must play, breakout game released this year on any platform?!? Weak.

so who else is pumped for Fight Night Round 4?

That game is going to get a shit load of time from me. Would like to beat some of your asses on it. xbox live.

I am playing a lot of MLB 2k9. I only have a 360...so I can't get The Show. But post-patch, this game plays fine.

I am doing a franchise with the Washington Nationals. I normally like to take bad teams and try to build them up in every sports game, so I figured the Nationals would be a fun challenge. Well, I have physically played 25 games...and I have less than a month to go in the season and I am 5 games up on the Mets for lead of the NL East.

My team is dismantled though. lineup...

SS Josh Bartlett
CF - Lastings Milledge
LF - Adam Dunn
2B - Dan Uggla
RF - Elijiah Dukes
1B - Nick Johnson
3B - Ryan Zimmerman
C - Teagarden (from the Rangers)
Pitcher Spot

my rotation has a bunch of young guns. Andrew Miller, Scott Olsen, Clay Buccholz, Brandon McCarthy, and Homer Bailey. And my Bullpen is alright. I got Howell and Wheeler from the Rays. Signed Hideo Nomo and got a couple other bros in there.

Overall, I thought all of the trades I made were pretty legit. Starting off I had a lot of good outfielders and a decent amount of pitching to trade bait with. Fun game.

Is it really OK? I read some much bad stuff that I didn't seriously consider buying it. Plus, in arcade games, I like to play out my games, so baseball is always the one sport I tend to stay away from. Even hockey is somewhat bearable, and of course, football is perfect for multi-season runs.

Yeah, if you want to play out all of your games...then baseball would be fucking ridiculous. However, I don't mind simming a lot of games.

and yes, it really is ok. I was really pissed when I heard how bad it was out of the box, but they have fixed a lot of the things that were keeping me away from the game. It's no perfect title by any means, but it's fun.

The thing about Geometry Wars is you sit down to play for 5 minutes, and the next thing you know it's 2 hours later. Great game

With the release of Broken Steel yesterday, I downloaded all three of Fallout 3's DLCs. Having the original ending not be the real ending might be considered a little cheap now, but I don't care in the slightest. The level 20 cap kept the game from being anything but really easy at the end of the game, and while the new cap might not really help the game be harder (I have yet to really encounter many of the "harder" new enemies, except one or two that I had NPC help with), I can at least get some new perks to fool around with that makes things a bit more fun. I just like messing around in the game's world anyway, no matter how easy, and now I have more to mess around with, too. The longest I've spent on any game is 92 hours, but now I think I might break that mark with this game (80 hours and the three DLCs to complete).

Fallout 3 is killing me like nothing ever has before. 63 hours in, a level 17, I still haven't done Operation Anchorage (but I did do The Pitt), and as far as the main quest goes I only just found Dad's holotapes in The Jefferson Memorial last night. This could likely be a 120+ hour excursion for me. Maybe longer, depending on how long it will take to bump up to a 30 in Broken Steel.

I bought Fallout 3 three days ago, but still haven't touched it. Is it safe to assume that it's better than Oblivion?

Never played Oblivion. First game of this genre for me. I haven't completed anything in the RPG realm since KOTOR. Gave up on Jade Empire and Mass Effect after I started them as they were quite boring.

The fan made adventure's mod really improves the balance of FO3. Welcome To The Wasteland is the only way to play FO3.

^^ Plus the Fallout 3 Script Extension subset, natch.

And Fallout 3 high resolution packs for outputs higher than 1920x. Of course.

There is just a lot the mod community brings to FO3 and if you chose poorly you are missing out.

I'm using this thing to play Fallout: