Twentyten has kicked off with a blast and this year is looking to be an excellent time to be into PC gaming. I’m actually worried; there is just so much to play and I already have a backlog. A long backlog. I don’t really mind; too many games to play is the best problem in the world to have, and I thought I’d share it all with you for an easy going Friday post – then we can have a nice old natter about what everyone else is up to in the comments.
I managed to get Bioshock 2 out of the way early, which was lovely. The multiplayer though is plain old broken – every time I’ve jump into a server it’s been nothing but lag so it’s stricken from my list. I’ve not long completed S.T.A.L.K.E.R which was more than excellent. And since it has a <£20 price tag - which is, frankly, ridiculous - anyone interested in games enough to stop off here should be playing it. I actually went through it like a bit of a sadist: hard mode and no crosshairs. I wanted to be scared of the zone and have to play it like a STALKER: scouting, sneaking - it worked.
Currently I’m absorbed in three wildly different new releases/soon to be releases. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is utterly brilliant. It’s controlled chaos and proper Battlefield – as in Battlefield 2 battlefield. I’m tending to play as a Technician which is fantastic; silenced Sub-machine guns for deep, stealthly infiltration; accompanied by rocket launchers and the ability to repair vehicles. Perfect.
Sup Com 2 I keep dropping in and out of. The AI is pretty boring to be honest and it’s only the Two Toms who are willing to do proper multiplayer matches. Great game though – we have a little chat going up about it on Monday, and you should bear in mind that we did this before we did a 1 vs 1 vs 1 game with all 3 of us – I’m much happier with it now.
Lastly I’m playing Just Cause 2, but I’m not allowed to talk about that. I can say I enjoyed the demo a lot though.
I heard a bit ago that something called “Mass Effect 2″ came out and is rather good. I really want to play it but I need to tackle ME1 first. It’s firmly on my ‘to play’ list but is continually getting relegated. It’s the same with Modern Warfare 2 though to a much lesser extent. The fact that it’s still £40 (double the price of STALKER on release) added in with the fact that I hate so many things about it (50 cent, dedicated servers, blah blah) is keeping it at the bottom.
Torchlight has been sapping a lot of my time. It really is wonderful and very hard to find fault with. You can session it for hours or just pick it up for 15 minutes, and because it’s so light on resources you can happily play it while your PC is busy doing other stuff. I think the joy of it is in how easy going it makes dungeon crawling without making it simple and how well it fights off tedium with distractions and shinies.
Me and Ed ended up playing a fair bit of Titan quest from the THQ pack but it’s died off a bit. He’s a hard as nails mage/healer while I’m flouncing about with dual swords, trying and failing not to die. I can hit hard but always seem to end up tanking, which isn’t what my character’s for. Maybe if Ed STARTED BEING A BETTER HEALER I wouldn’t die so much. It’s fun though and is scratching that co-op itch I get now and again.
Talking of Ed, I know he’s off in Start Trek online. If an MMO has ever appealed to me it’s that – it sounds like it has properly stepped away from the kill x of y formula that I so hate. But, it is still an MMO. They need commitment I just can’t give and I think I’d rather just play a better crafted/written singleplayer RPGs anyway. Like Mass Effect.
More stuff is sitting waiting from the steam sale too. Beyond Good and Evil is calling to me since it’s always cited as being so bloody lovely and I’ve never played it; then Darwinia and Psychonauts are the same. Day of Defeat, Overlord I and II, Red Faction, Monkey Island, and Xcom all need playing or continuing with, but again, slip below the other stuff.
And this is all against a tide of releases. Mafia II, Splinter Cell and Ruse (hopefully Ubi will drop this ridiculous DRM), Brink and everything else I can’t think of at the minute but know I’ve missed. God, what a year it’s going to be.
That’s me anyway. What are you lot up/looking forward to? I fancy a natter so go ahead.
I’ve mainly been catching up on games that I missed before, but bought in the legendary Steam sale: GTAIV, Saint’s Row II, Mirrors Edge, Dirt II etc. Pretty sad that all of those games except ME are sequels.
As for what I’m looking forward to: the Dwarf Fortress update should be fascinating, if only to see what more skilled players do with all the new features; I haven’t played Bioshock 2 yet; Emily Short is probably working on some more IF; and I’m hoping that Cyanide will have some kind of reveal for their games based on A Song of Ice and Fire.
Mafia II looks like it could satisfy my sandbox itch, though I never finished the first one. I played it on PS2 and it made me cry.
So far this year I’ve been playing a lot of Day of Defeat: source, a load of Mass Effect 2, quite a bit of Bloodbowl, added a touch more time to my Dragon Age game (still nowhere near finished), bit of TF2 and returned to a few classic games in the Heroes of Might and Magic series.
Oh and a couple of days ago I got Bad Company 2. I’ve been playing it pretty much solidly ever since as it is an immense game of greatness. I’ve only really been playing medic though, getting all the unlocks.
Looking forward to Splinter Cell: Conviction as it may well be a good laugh. Also the special edition of Monkey Island 2 that’s been announced for the summer. And who knows, perhaps some really good games that came out years ago for consoles that i wanted to play might even be released on pc!
Oh yes, 2010 is great! Not to mention all of the older games I STILL haven’t finished. Meh!
Anyways, TF2 still keeps me up, L4D1/2 (both!), DoW2 (with our very own Miker), STALKER 1, am looking to play Caster since it just got updated and finally the rest of the Orange Box. Also King’s Bounty Armored Princess. I’ve even recently picked up the original Far Cry, it’s freakin’ brilliant. STALKER Complete’s AI sometimes works really well, but there are some glaring holes in it sometimes. Far Cry in comparison is pretty well done.
I just got the Starcraft II Beta, so I’ll probably sink some time into that. Really, though, I’ll probably cave in and get Chaos Rising because I loved Dawn of War 2′s campaign, repetitive as it was. Comparing the two, I really can’t help but feel that Blizzard has kind of boxed themselves into a hole with Starcraft I’s success. It really is Starcraft in HD — not that I have any problem with that.
I still need to finish Call of Pripyat, but the goddamn exoskeleton I shelled out for won’t let me sprint, and it’s just fairly slow paced. I also mean to finish Company of Heroes’ campaigns, as I’ve heard they’re well done. And I need to finish Mass Effect 1, Monkey Island SE, The Witcher, etc, etc.
2010 is looking great, though. I looking forward to — wait for it — Max Payne 3. I’m not so keen on the style that Rockstar took with the game, but I loves me some Max Payne, so I can’t wait to see how that turns out.
Happy gaming, all!
I’m excited for everything around the actual SC2 game. Mod tools, map editors, oh man, it’ll be fantastic.
I’m also enjoying the joys of a Steam related backlog. i’ve loaded up GTA IV and I’ve also got Red Faction Guerilla, Torchlight, Loom, Doom III and others to work my way through.
On the upcoming games front I’m quite excited about Mafia and Max Payne 3. Then there’s the Dragon Age DLC to contend with. I’m also still hloding out hope that Alpha Protocol is going to turn out decent.