The Official "What Are You Playing Now?" Thread

[Danny Bateman]

Indeed, Outlaw was always my favorite. I played through his campaign first. His special just looks BA.

 

Some of them blew. 8-Ball's special was kind of weak, IIRC. Mr. Grimm's was hard to use unless you were right behind them. And Yellowjacket and Axel were just awful.

[It'sNotAFakeID]

Mass Effect 3

[Blaze1up]

Still Madden all day, my Husker team is pimp.

[strigori]

Mass Effect 3. So far I am very impressed.

[It'sNotAFakeID]

Mass Effect 3. So far I am very impressed.

 

As am I, the very little I've gotten to play of it. But it looks, and feels better than Mass Effect 2

[hack]

roger that on Mass Effect 3. i played ME 1 into the ground and i as meh on ME 2. but ME 3 has pretty much everything i could have wanted out of the series.

 

i like had a bazillion ME1 saves on my 360, but i didn't have one tailored to the romance story wanted to go with (Tali). so i powered thru ME1, accidentally got romantic with Ashley and then accidentally on purpose killed her with a nuclear bomb. oops. but other than that, my shepard was a complete boy scout. in my spare time, it was a week to beat ME 1.

 

i played thru ME 2 in another week and started as soon as i finished ME 1. first time around i was meh on it, but on reflection it wasn't that bad. the massive change in mechanics left me cold, but i got used to it. romanced Tali (for want ever that was worth), saved my entire squad by my crew of Cerberus red shirts got turned into reaper spread. i'll probably go replay it again to see if i can save the entire ship crew plus my squad, but that's later.

 

ME 3? it fukkin delivers. especially the Tali romance and the conclusion of the geth/quarian conflict. this weekend i plowed thru twenty hours of game play and it's been pretty awesome.

 

only two things kinda ticked me off...

 

1. couldn't import my Shepard image (wtf, bioware? how does THAT not get picked up in beat testing)

2. the final big reveal of what Tali *really* looks like under the hood is a photoshopped stock image from the internets. way to under achieve there, bioware.

 

other than that, it's been a sweet ride.

[walksalone]

Just finished my 5th season on NBA 2K12. Won the NBA title after sweeping the Cavs (still makes me chuckle)...

[VectorVictor]

only two things kinda ticked me off...

 

1. couldn't import my Shepard image (wtf, bioware? how does THAT not get picked up in beat testing)

2. the final big reveal of what Tali *really* looks like under the hood is a photoshopped stock image from the internets. way to under achieve there, bioware.

 

other than that, it's been a sweet ride.

 

Be prepared to add #3 The ending disregards how you've played the game (you instead get three Deus Ex choices told to you that don't correspond to Paragon/Renegade choices you've made) and doesn't resolve much of anything, and #4, in order to get the best (true) ending, you'll have to grind (a lot!) in multiplayer to get your Galactic Readiness percentage up to 100%. And I'll personally add #5, an integral character is tacked-on day one DLC...and most of his assets are already on the disk. Cheap and greedy...

 

ME3 is okay at best, though they *finally* got a good system of how to handle gun assignments/upgrades and power-up purchases (only took them three games...), but the 1P is very short compared to ME and ME2, and it seems that this game could have been a lot better had EA not saddled BioWare with shoehorning in a multiplayer component.

 

Hell, between DA2, ME3, and SW:tOR, we're starting to see EA influence BioWare in the wrong direction--pretty much what BioWare fans like myself feared when EA procured them. Considering this is the third game in a row that BioWare has failed to deliver on, it's no wonder that the prime BioWare assets (e.g., the writers from ME and ME2, who did very little w/ME3) are starting to jump ship for their own studios.

[It'sNotAFakeID]

So far (I haven't gotten much into the game) but it just feels different than ME or ME2 did. Maybe because it's a different type of scene (fighting the entirety of the Reapers head on instead of indirectly (i.e. the Collectors in ME2 lead by Harbinger)) but I think they did a great job with upgrading the guns and powers. Still, I think EA is to blame for Bioware's "less than what was expected by a majority of the folks with how they thought the story was going to go" product.

 

EA's push for having "every possible game to have multi-player" is ruining the story/single player of a lot of good games.

[VectorVictor]

EA's push for having "every possible game to have multi-player" is ruining the story/single player of a lot of good games.

 

This x1,000.

 

And the reason they want multiplayer is so EA can force an online pass onto people buying the game used (their "Project $10, if you recall), and eventually shut the servers off for everyone that bought their pass, thus forcing them on to whatever the next iteration of Mass Effect will be.

 

Anyway, it looks like BioWare is going to be another one of the many studios that EA has acquired over time, only to run it into the ground and sell it for parts once it starts turning out clunkers. And the clunker period for BioWare doesn't appear to be too far off at this point, sad to say. Probably why BioWare's best people have recently left the studio to start their own endeavors.

[Enhance]

Mass Effect 3. I was also annoyed with the character imports. Although my ME2 Shepard was the default Shepard look, ME3 had my imported 'face' as some random black dude. Kinda weird.

[It'sNotAFakeID]

EA's push for having "every possible game to have multi-player" is ruining the story/single player of a lot of good games.

 

This x1,000.

 

And the reason they want multiplayer is so EA can force an online pass onto people buying the game used (their "Project $10, if you recall), and eventually shut the servers off for everyone that bought their pass, thus forcing them on to whatever the next iteration of Mass Effect will be.

 

Anyway, it looks like BioWare is going to be another one of the many studios that EA has acquired over time, only to run it into the ground and sell it for parts once it starts turning out clunkers. And the clunker period for BioWare doesn't appear to be too far off at this point, sad to say. Probably why BioWare's best people have recently left the studio to start their own endeavors.

 

Money-mongering at it's finest. It's like EA feels like they don't get as much money as they deserve. Their games sell and their games sell for the most part really well so I can't see how they don't get enough money. So they force the "online pass" on every freaking game they make, which makes buying a game used obsolete. Absolutely ridiculous.

 

In an economy where money is tight as it is (which I guess if that's the case video games shouldn't be bought in the first place) but it appears with this online pass crap, that EA doesn't care about their customers.

 

And what's even more ridiculous is the fact that there are idiot buyers out there who are just blindly following EA, because "look at all the cool new features they are putting in the game!!" So EA continues to not loss money and so it sends them the message that, "yes, we can screw the customer over, because they still buy our games."

 

Furthermore, because they have a monopoly on the gat damn market for football games, they can continue to put crap out every year and make us be beta-testers until they patch the game. NFL 2k5 is much better than Madden 12 could ever dream to be. College Hoops 2k8 was eons better than NCAA Basketball 2010. NCAA Football continues to put out crap year after year.

 

More about the NCAA Football series, when EA asks for suggestions that they'll put in the game for next year, do they even listen to us? I mean, I see a ton of people asking for just better overall game play, forget the flashy multi-player or custom conferences in franchise, just a deeper franchise mode (suspensions, better game play, etc...) but what does EA promote? These flashy, more-often-than-not broken new things that are "really cool" instead of focusing on what makes football, football.

 

Okay, end rant. It's upsetting how EA is ruining video games.

[Danny Bateman]

EA's push for having "every possible game to have multi-player" is ruining the story/single player of a lot of good games.

 

This x1,000.

 

And the reason they want multiplayer is so EA can force an online pass onto people buying the game used (their "Project $10, if you recall), and eventually shut the servers off for everyone that bought their pass, thus forcing them on to whatever the next iteration of Mass Effect will be.

 

Anyway, it looks like BioWare is going to be another one of the many studios that EA has acquired over time, only to run it into the ground and sell it for parts once it starts turning out clunkers. And the clunker period for BioWare doesn't appear to be too far off at this point, sad to say. Probably why BioWare's best people have recently left the studio to start their own endeavors.

 

Money-mongering at it's finest. It's like EA feels like they don't get as much money as they deserve. Their games sell and their games sell for the most part really well so I can't see how they don't get enough money. So they force the "online pass" on every freaking game they make, which makes buying a game used obsolete. Absolutely ridiculous.

 

In an economy where money is tight as it is (which I guess if that's the case video games shouldn't be bought in the first place) but it appears with this online pass crap, that EA doesn't care about their customers.

 

And what's even more ridiculous is the fact that there are idiot buyers out there who are just blindly following EA, because "look at all the cool new features they are putting in the game!!" So EA continues to not loss money and so it sends them the message that, "yes, we can screw the customer over, because they still buy our games."

 

Furthermore, because they have a monopoly on the gat damn market for football games, they can continue to put crap out every year and make us be beta-testers until they patch the game. NFL 2k5 is much better than Madden 12 could ever dream to be. College Hoops 2k8 was eons better than NCAA Basketball 2010. NCAA Football continues to put out crap year after year.

 

More about the NCAA Football series, when EA asks for suggestions that they'll put in the game for next year, do they even listen to us? I mean, I see a ton of people asking for just better overall game play, forget the flashy multi-player or custom conferences in franchise, just a deeper franchise mode (suspensions, better game play, etc...) but what does EA promote? These flashy, more-often-than-not broken new things that are "really cool" instead of focusing on what makes football, football.

 

Okay, end rant. It's upsetting how EA is ruining video games.

The only games of theirs I choose to partake in are NCAA and Madden.

 

I agree completely with what you are saying. I understand the complexities that go into designing a realistic sports simulation or any type of game really-- but if you have the same basic template for the game leftover from last year, how dang hard is it to modfiy it in order to add in updates that are actually worth two craps?

 

I'll tend to discussing the two games I choose to buy, but it is very frustrating to have updates like interactive field turf or pylons than it is something that is actually useful. The coaching carousel put into NCAA this year was kind of nice, but it seems like the only thing that gets changed in Madden from year to year is scouting. I like the change made to free agency this year to make it into an Ebay like bidding system as opposed to making an offer and simming thru to the next day to see how FA's react... but even that is a relatively minor change.

 

Hey, EA... We KNOW you have your hands in a ton of stuff and churn out a bunch of games every year. Good for you, you found a cash cow to milk. Now, how bout you actually stop being such a bunch of lazy mofos and put out games that are new and exciting and actually worth the $60 because they've changed significantly from last year? INstead it seems they're content to just be lazy jerks every year, hype up a bunch of very minor, very arbitrary changes, and call it good.

 

In short, I agree 100% with you on their laziness when it comes to updating their games. They probably don't listen to the desires of the actual consumers in terms of what to fix for next year, and the monopoly they have on sports games is really just sad.

[It'sNotAFakeID]

But regardless, I am playing and enjoying Mass Effect 3 right now.

 

Have also started playing some College Hoops 2k8 on the side. Something about March Madness always gets me into playing that game more.

[Stu]

Dead Nation

 

This is a PSN game I downloaded for free after they offered two free games following the horrid PSN outage.

Finally played it through and it was a blast. Graphics and effects are great for an overhead shooter, TONS of zombie hordes to kill. Playing online with a partner is great fun.

 

I hope some of you PS3 owners grabbed this when it was free.