[Gerritsón]

this game was a lot of fun:

[rainbowdash]

I like Pokémon, though I must say I spent more time with the TV show than with the game.
But I still played it.

The only game I really play now is Minecraft.
I absolutely love Minecraft.

[Weirdelves]

I'm thinking of playing that Gerben, I've heard it's good.

When I'm back from uni I wanna finish off Assassin's Creed Brotherhood and Fallout New Vegas, both of which are excellent, and I wanna get LA Noire too.

[ursulabear]

oh yeah new super mario bros for ds.

[dwaink]

wow check out the trailer on SKYRIM elder scrolls V

http://ingame.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/ ... orcs-oh-my

[Weirdelves]

wow check out the trailer on SKYRIM elder scrolls V

http://ingame.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/ ... orcs-oh-my

I've been following that, not a single game I'm looking forward to more.

[dwaink]

maybe i can beat Witcher2 by then

dwain

[Jordan~]

Just completed Dragon Age 2.

...



Man, that was awesome. Better than the first one. Deserving of the description, "spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate".

[dwaink]

Skyrim is all that and a bag of chips, just passed the 200 hour mark and still going strong on a first character, i would highly recommend this game to any that are looking to buy a "gamer" a gift for xmas. it is stunning on graphics and great on gameplay.

the new Star Wars-the old republic is cranking up as we speak as well

dwain-dropping out of skyrim long enough to breathe

[Weirdelves]

Really can't wait to play Skyrim when I get back home

[claire]

So I started playing the latest Zelda game today and is it just me or is this new, harp playing Zelda a little familiar looking?

[Jordan~]

I thought Skyrim was okay. Just okay, mind. Riddled with bugs, as with any Bethesda release. The plot was rather shallow: there's not much resolution in any of the major quest chains, with only a couple of exceptions, to the extent that I wondered if the end of the main quest was meant to be an artistic statement about what happens to the hero when he's no longer needed. It was pretty easy, and turning up the difficulty made fights longer, not harder - the only difference was that you needed to use your vast reserves of wealth to stock up on potions.

Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad game; I think it's just getting way more hype than it deserves.

[Weirdelves]

Ah man I disagree. What's so amazing about Skyrim (which I've been playing rather obsessively since I got it for christmas) is the contingent world that you feel entirely a part of, where every character has their own history and personality. I just feel Bethesda RPGs draw you in like no other, and I foresee myself spending many happy hours with Skyrim.

[Jordan~]

It's pretty immersive, granted. I just feel like procedural generation is relied upon too heavily. It's still got the odd, clunky conversations from Oblivion, the writing often leaves a little to be desired. You still hear a lot of, "Hello! How are you?" "I don't want to talk right now." "I hear someone sorted out those bandits at Blah Blah Cave." "Goodbye." Put a bucket on someone's head and they're dead to the world. Kick about everyone's crockery and they'll get irked at most.

Plus, while the AI has impressive potential, practically it's a little odd. I accidentally picked up a blacksmith's tongs, he attacked me all screaming, "I'LL EAT YOUR HANDS YOU SCUM!", put them back down and ran away. Went to see him later, he was happy to buy my junk. Next day, I'm fedexing and these thugs attack me. I cut them up, find a note among the pieces: that blacksmith had hired them to kill me. For TOUCHING HIS TONGS. It was funny, but, y'know, pretty silly.

I don't want to spoil anything, either, but the whole civil war thing doesn't really go anywhere, and "ditched on a hill" is about the best way to describe your eventual fate. Plus, I got a semi-gamebreaking bug where the Companions quest line bugged, resulting in Whiterun being perpetually under attack. I was able to get the quest to progress using the console, but still everyone's hanging around like they've just been attacked. The reason, it transpires, was a conflict between a Radiant quest and their scripted quest line. I really don't think your randomly generated "GO TO [x] AND KILL [x]" content should be intefering with the content someone actually wrote.

I'm maybe being overly harsh. It was enjoyable to play, and I know I'm a BioWare fanboy, but I'd say their games are a lot better - plot, characterisation and writing are still important; I don't think you can sacrifice depth for breadth.

[Weirdelves]

I take all your points, but none of that is game-breaking for me. Also, the combat is incredible. I've never played a game before where using magic, archery/ thief stuff and hand-to-hand all felt as immediate and visceral as each other. I think it's a real achievement.

[ursulabear]

nerds.

[Steve]

I have tried videogames a couple of times, and actually worked for a while in a big place that hosted TV shows about them. However, they gave me the most horrendous headaches. Perhaps that could be a good thing - it appears they are very addictive, and I could do without getting addicted to videogames!

And Ursulabear:

nerds.

You say that as though it were an insult. I've nothing against nerds

[Gerritsón]

I think that last one was sarcasm Steve Ursula might be the biggest nerd of us all!

[Jordan~]

I have tried videogames a couple of times, and actually worked for a while in a big place that hosted TV shows about them. However, they gave me the most horrendous headaches. Perhaps that could be a good thing - it appears they are very addictive, and I could do without getting addicted to videogames!

...Are you saying you worked with or near GamesMaster?

[Steve]

No ... I used to work for a place in Slough that was the biggest Cybercafé for miles around, and eventually morphed into a Training School. However, it didn't open at weekends, and so had these large rooms filled with PCs doing nothing. They therefore let them out to various operations ( ;) ) one of which was a satellite tv show which I believe was called Thumb Bandits. I never actually witnessed either the filming or the broadcast, but we did get to try out a few of the games. What always amazed me were the customers who wanted to do a flight simulation. Apparently it was very realistic. In all honesty, they would say "Let's go to Karachi" or something, so they'd do the take off from Heathrow (relatively engaging, I imagine, if you like that sort of thing) and then stare at clouds go by for 10 hours before coming in to land!
And our in-flight catering wasn't the best, either.

Re my above comment - No offence intended, Ursulabear. I apologise if that looked bad, but promise it wasn't meant to. [Packs my under-developed social skills away for another year!]