The Official Althanas Gaming Thread

[Corvus MacCallum]

Convinction is definately among my interests on games to pick up, but I'm in no rush to grab it just because there are other titles I really feel I must sink my teeth into. Plus still filling out certain series, like ordering both Digital Devil Sagas last night.

Also the Personas differ in tone greatly from the regular Megami Tensei series. Sides if you wanted innuendos and such Persona 4 was the best for that, nearly your entire party was sexually repressed and it all came out thanks to their Shadows... oh and one of them was a toughguy punk that questioned his own sexuality since his interests aside from leather jackets included needle-point, doll making and if you play your card rights, Puppet classes.

Whereas in the regular series Shin Megami Tensei Lucifers Call(Nocturne to you USians) the world is destroyed within the first ten minutes, humanity numbers less than five and the main character finds himself changed into a part demon, having to fight and bargain his way through an unstable inner sphere of a dwindling world looking for Reason to reform it.

Setting like that lends itself quite well to fantastic [IMG]art.[/IMG]

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The Chaos expansion for Dawn of War 2 shall certainly be interesting, despite losing single-player control of so many races I was amazed and well pleased at the gameplay alterations.

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Ah yes I forgot one I'm solidly looking forward to, Dantes Inferno. In the demo it felt of solid God of War, but the imagry and the many circles you'll travel though, to me far more curious than what Kratos had slaughtered his way through. Plus the opportunity to saddle up big beasties.

[The Divide]

But in games like C&C and Age of Empires base building is a part of the strategy, and also something that's been at the very core of the game from the beginning. Hell, C&C's story is basically revolving around gathering Tiberium. So yeah, I think that EA took a great thing and did what they usually do; fuck it up.

You see, EA should really pay attention to the don't fix what isn't broken advice posted by about just every RTS fan on the face of the Earth. That would help. Tremendously. Too much effort in FIFA, not enough effort in C&C.

I can't believe you didn't play Starcraft, though. I personally don't like the game much (I know, blasphemy!), but I did give it a shot back in the day. It's worth a play, at least for the story.

"Back in the day" suggests a period of time where I was probably poor (actually, i'm still poor) or still trying to complete my first playthrough of Final Fantasy VII. I might do some homework on it and educate myself.

Anyways, anybody here like the look of Splinter Cell: Conviction? I have to admit that I haven't played all the games in the Splinter Cell franchise, but in this latest one it looks like Sam Fisher's going a bit crazy, kicking ass and taking names. It looks more action packed than the previous games, which could be both a good and a bad thing. I mean, Splinter Cell was always about sneaking and keeping to shadows, but it looks like that won't be the only option this time around. I feel it'll be a good thing. There was always too much pussyfooting in SC for my taste. :P

Never been a big fan of the later Tom Clancy games. Again, this probably has more to do with the fact I only progressed past a PS One in the last year when I got a DS, and subsequently traded it in with a bit of money for a PSP with Dissidia. I've been a little...behind, shall we say, with the generation progression. The last Tom Clancy game I played was Rainbow Six waaaaayyyyyy back on the Nintendo 64.

You see, we kick it old school, me and the boys from Manchester. I still have my Master System somewhere, unless rats have eaten it, or moss has made a home in the cartridge slot. Remember when you had to blow on a cartridge to make it work if you hadn't played it for a while? Good times, good times.

[Aiko]

"Back in the day" suggests a period of time where I was probably poor (actually, i'm still poor) or still trying to complete my first playthrough of Final Fantasy VII. I might do some homework on it and educate myself.

For education, nothing beats firsthand experience. They sell the Starcraft Battlechest at Walmart. It contains the original, plus its brood war expansion.

My favorite race to play as is The Zerg. Sometimes I like playing as the protoss. I just plain hate terrans. Starcraft's storyline is great, and I think its engaging. So much so that I'm thinking of buying the books.

[Letho]

Never been a big fan of the later Tom Clancy games. Again, this probably has more to do with the fact I only progressed past a PS One in the last year when I got a DS, and subsequently traded it in with a bit of money for a PSP with Dissidia. I've been a little...behind, shall we say, with the generation progression. The last Tom Clancy game I played was Rainbow Six waaaaayyyyyy back on the Nintendo 64.

Splinter Cell games are pretty cool if you like that sort of gameplay. In pretty much all of them you couldn't shoot your way out of a sticky situation, but rather had to plan ahead, stick to the shadows and take enemies out silently. Sort of like Metal Gear Solid, only even more bent on the tactics and stealth. I played Chaos Theory last, but I have Double Agent somewhere as well, waiting for a playthrough. At any rate, if you like that sort of gameplay, you can't go wrong with a Splinter Cell game.

You see, we kick it old school, me and the boys from Manchester. I still have my Master System somewhere, unless rats have eaten it, or moss has made a home in the cartridge slot. Remember when you had to blow on a cartridge to make it work if you hadn't played it for a while? Good times, good times.

Since we're mentioning ancient hardware, I probably still have an Atari 7800 somewhere. Man, that thing sucked balls, more so since my friend had a Nintendo back in the day. Take a guess which we played more. :P

The Chaos expansion for Dawn of War 2 shall certainly be interesting, despite losing single-player control of so many races I was amazed and well pleased at the gameplay alterations.

I'm not usually a fan of expansions or DLCs or whatever you want to call it because most of the time they're just mediocre addons made for hoarding even moar money. Very rarely there's an expansion that really expands the game's universe. Again, I have to mention Bioware, and their addons, especially for Neverwinter Nights 1 & 2. If all expansions were like that, I wouldn't mind wasting money/bandwidth/time on them. Hopefully, Chaos will be one of those. The trailer looked pretty nifty.

[Letho]

Two more that could be the shit.

Heavy Rain. Coming from the creators of the awesome Fahrenheit (or Indigo Prophecy, depending on where you live, I guess), this game looks to me very much like a movie in which you actually get to make decisions. I haven't found out much about the story, but what was shown so far looks pretty promising, especially the effects of your decisions (which were already pretty awesome in Fahrenheit).

Also, The Old Republic. Now, I'm not an MMO kind of guy, I've never played WoW or LotRO or any of that crap because frankly I found those game pretty shallow story-wise, found their graphics lousy and their gameplay boring. But I am a Bioware guy, though, and also think the two KotOR games are some of the best ever. Now, my fanboyism aside, The Old Republic seems somewhat different to me, mostly because they seem to focus much more on the story. The graphics are still a bit choppy in the videos I've seen, sure, and the gameplay doesn't seem revolutionary, but the fact that you can do most of the stuff in the game solo is something that sounds encouraging. Well, maybe not from the MMO perspective, but if you loved the KotOR games and want to dig deeper into that particular universe, The Old Republic could offer that. Until they make KotOR 3, that is.

[Godhand]

Heavy Rain.

Quick-time event games!

[Saxon]

I played Indigo Prophecy, and have been following Heavy Rain since it's conception. If there was a game other than Bioshock 2 that I wanted to get my hands on, its this. However, I've been coming aware of how quick-time events are slowly being associated with canned action and events, which was something HR's predecessor was solidly built on. If HR turns out with half of what developers are promising, however, it won't really matter.

I'm looking forward to the nonlinear storyline and the idea that you have 4-5 characters to run through, and once or if you die with them, the story keeps moving with another character. There is no replay button. Aside from making 'choices'. Be realistic. Developers abound have always promised giving you a choice between being a good guy or a bad guy, but it always amounts to complete polar opposites. You're either god's gift to man or the son of satan who lives off of blended human baby milkshakes. There's rarely a decent moral middleground.

[Letho]

Quick-time event games!

No, a great quick-time event game!

I played Indigo Prophecy, and have been following Heavy Rain since it's conception. If there was a game other than Bioshock 2 that I wanted to get my hands on, its this. However, I've been coming aware of how quick-time events are slowly being associated with canned action and events, which was something HR's predecessor was solidly built on. If HR turns out with half of what developers are promising, however, it won't really matter.

I'm looking forward to the nonlinear storyline and the idea that you have 4-5 characters to run through, and once or if you die with them, the story keeps moving with another character. There is no replay button. Aside from making 'choices'. Be realistic. Developers abound have always promised giving you a choice between being a good guy or a bad guy, but it always amounts to complete polar opposites. You're either god's gift to man or the son of satan who lives off of blended human baby milkshakes. There's rarely a decent moral middleground.

I agree. Also, I think this will make for great replayability of the game, if for no other reason, then to see what will happen to the story if you take a different choice somewhere down the path. Makes me wonder just how many endings the game is going to have.

[Chucklecut]

Also, The Old Republic. Now, I'm not an MMO kind of guy, I've never played WoW or LotRO or any of that crap because frankly I found those game pretty shallow story-wise, found their graphics lousy and their gameplay boring. But I am a Bioware guy, though, and also think the two KotOR games are some of the best ever. Now, my fanboyism aside, The Old Republic seems somewhat different to me, mostly because they seem to focus much more on the story. The graphics are still a bit choppy in the videos I've seen, sure, and the gameplay doesn't seem revolutionary, but the fact that you can do most of the stuff in the game solo is something that sounds encouraging. Well, maybe not from the MMO perspective, but if you loved the KotOR games and want to dig deeper into that particular universe, The Old Republic could offer that. Until they make KotOR 3, that is.

I've been waiting for this as well. I'm just hoping that they avoid some of the more annoying flaws in the previous games in the line, though most of those shortcomings came from game mechanics and not the story itself. And yeah, the fact that it seems solo-able is a good thing, honestly. Even for an MMO. There is nothing quite as annoying as trying to find a decently geared/leveled party to help with a quest/mission. I'd say a good 90% of why WoW is so 'addictive' is that to do any one raid, you have to sit on the damn game for hours, hawking in trade chat for someone of the appropriate role and gear level. I'd say solo-able is a great quality for games like this.

And so long as I am here, I'm gonna jump on the fanboy bandwagon. Gogo Diablo 3. Blood, Guts, and Glory!

[Sorahn]

Okay so I haven't been on Althanas in about half a century, but I can never resist a video game thread.

I'm personally really excited about FFXIII for no apparent reason. I've seen a couple of trailers and such, but I don't know much about the game. But I absolutely loved FFX, and this looks to be just as epic. Other than X though, I haven't played any other FF games (well, I was addicted to FFXI, but that doesn't really count, does it?).

And because of my love for FFXI, I have to mention FFXIV. That game intrigues me. I probably won't hop on right at the beginning, but I'll keep an eye on it. Hopefully it will be a bit more accessible for those who don't want to play it 5 hours straight every day of the week, like FFXI required.

And just to add something new to the discussion, what about Star Trek Online? I don't consider myself a Trekkie by any means, but I freakin love TNG. I've never played any Star Trek games before (mainly because I've heard they all suck) but this one looks promising. I've checked out about as much info as I can find on this game and it actually promises a decent story for an MMO (there will even be "episodes" like the tv shows) and nice gameplay. I definitely can't afford to spend much time on an MMO due to my last semester of school right now (a big reason I haven't been on Althanas in ages), but I still might pick this game up at some point down the road.