New Games Thread
 

So, I know we have a few gamers out here, and I'm bored, so I'm going to start a new thread on video games.

Stuff I picked up recently:

Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks.
Very simple beatemup platformer, but also quite entertaining. My thumbs hurt, and I think I'm almost done after only a little bit of playing. But, it really brings me back to my MKII roots (which was the last and only MK I seriously got in to). I was also basically looking for a game where I got to mash buttons and beat shit up and have it look cool without much brain involvement. For that, it was perfect.

F.E.A.R.
Pretty damn cool FPS. So far I really like the single player, haven't tried multiplayer. My main gripe, though, is that I have a widescreen monitor, and it doesn't have my native resolution supported. Oh well. Nice and creepy. You know, a military style shooter where there is a creepy little possesed girl that haunts you.

Burnout Revenge:
Very unrealistic driving, but so what, its fun. Crashing, racing, blowing stuff up. Man, I'm sensing a theme in my recent game purchase. No thinking, just blow shit up.

Here's my review of those games, from the perspective of a housemate to the guy that plays 'em:

Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks.
Hiyah!! Hiyah!! Oooh!.... Hiyah!! Oooh!..... Hiyah!! Hiyah!! Oooh! <cut scene music> Hiyah!! Oooh!.... Hiyah!! Oooh!.....

F.E.A.R.
"Dude, that looks like the original half-life at 1280x960."

Burnout Revenge:
...wait, so the crowd cheers when you crash into stuff? That's pretty fucked up. ...lemme borrow it when you're done, okay?

Howabout Call of Duty 2? I have it on PC, its takes up far too much of my time.

Star Wars Battlefront 2, Shadow of the Colossus, and Castlevania: Curse of Darkness are my recent picks.

I also have Fable: The Lost Chapters, Jak X Combat Racing, We Love Katamari, and Soul Calibur 3 sitting stacked on my console stand, waiting to be played more.

November is "ambivalence month." I dig having new games to play, but I really wish publishers would save a few of them for the slower months of the year instead of dumping them all on us right before Thanksgiving.

I also just found that Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion may be delayed until spring, so while I'm seething at being denied what was to be my most anticipated holiday title, I'm glad that I may now be able to skip dropping $400 on the Xbox 360 right away. I don't want one without Oblivion. :mad:

OOh, how is Shadow of the Colossus?

I also just heard about the Oblivion thing too :mad: I think I'll wait a little for an 360 now.

Shadow of the Colossus rocks. I just finished my first play-through on normal mode the other day, and I'm working on hard mode and the time attack levels to unlock some extra stuff. The overworld is quite unique - their artists created genuinely breathtaking landscapes, with sweeping plains, windy deserts, dark forests, towering seaside cliffs, and lots of nooks and crannies to explore. The Colossi themselves are a blast to combat. Some are big and slow, others are smaller and quicker, and there are a couple of airborne types that take you for crazy roller coaster rides.

The ending kinda twists your mind, too. I found it to be well worth playing.

Haven't played it. I liked the first one, but there are so many WW2 shooters out there now, I've kinda lost interest.

I was thinking about picking up that one too. I played the demo, though, and unfortunately on my TV the game doesn't look so good. Its fully the TVs fault though, as everything just ended up looking too washed out. Still, the concept of "only boss battles" is pretty cool.

I think the game is designed to look a bit washed out. The final version has a decent gamma control, but a good chunk of the game is just kind of misty throughout. The final version also has proper 480p and 16:9 support, as well as improved draw-distance, LOD blending, texture clarity, and general detail over the demo, so it is capable of looking comparably attractive for a PS2 title. Since the PS2 blows at bilinear filtering and mipmapping, though, it still sometimes becomes a big shimmering mess. Ultimately, I was fairly impressed by the way it looked on my 32" HD.

On a game related note, a guy at work forwarded this link to me:

http://hlcomic.com/view.php?date=2005-05-01

A satirical comic based on Half Life 2

Great way to end a work day.

"Quick question. Explosive Barrels, should we cluster around them?"
"Excelent question. Yes, yes and yes"

Wow, that just wasted 30 minutes of my life! At least it was funny! :lol:

The guy is constantly working on it, make sure you check back!

The CS scenes are so true it is scary :lol:

"OMG!!! (fag)"

FEAR is coming to the 360 :) That's the only 360 game I think I'm looking forward to. The gaming horizon seems very bleek.

It's not so bad. . .

let's take a look at my wish list (that I probably won't be able to afford). . .

September: Okami (PS2), Valkyrie Profile 2 (PS2), Loco Roco (PSP)
October: Splinter Cell (X360), Children of Mana (DS)
November: Metroid Prime 3 (Wii), Zelda Twilight Princess (Wii), Forza Motorsport 2 (X360), FEAR (X360)
December: Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops (PSP), Super Paper Mario (GCN), Castlevania SotN (XBLA)

And of course God of War 2 (PS2), Bioshock (X360), Mass Effect (X360), Assassin's Creed (X360 or PS3), and Metal Gear Solid 4 (PS3) next year. . .

There is a good amount of stuff due for the 360 this year. The first year is always slow for a new console. It was the same (worse, even) for the Xbox, GCN, and PS2. So far the 360 has had a pretty strong lineup.

Oh, and Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 in November. :D

So the Wiizy (pronounced weezy) is really really coming out in November?

Hmm, and here I've been wasting all my time on Titan Quest (PC) and Sudoku (DS). I haven't been keeping up lately, actually, so I don't really know whats coming out soon.

I am looking forward to Mass Effect though. Even though I don't yet have a 360, I'm thinking of getting one if that game is any good.

Well if it sucks buy one for Forza 2. I bought an Xbox for Forza and did not regret it.

We'll see. Forza was alright I guess, but I didn't play a lot of it. Besides, Forza 2 just got delayed from what I'm seeing, probably not till 2007.

These days I'm usually quite pleased when an anticipated game gets delayed a bit. There are often too many to buy at once.

I still don't have a 360, so.. no Oblivion for me.

And I'm not playing it on PC, unfortunately..

Oblivion is a silly game. Neat, but I just can't play it.

Also, Jerimiah, is the release date for Forza still November? Or is it gonna be pushed back as Nick has stated? I hope not...

Yeah, here is my source, from another forum I read (but don't post on a lot)

Till '07 according to the offical Forza forums. (Link to forum announcement)

Oblivion is kinda fun, but I got bored. But its one of those games you need to spend a ton of time in, and I just don't want to get sucked in again.