The what games are you currently playing thread.

[Pegultagol]

Psychonauts - stopped for while marooned in Edgar's brain. The game contains the most original art direction or diverse thematic materials I've ever seen in a game or possibly ever will.

Day of Defeat: Source - I think it is a good online FPS and somehow have the most fun with it among any other titles of similar ilk I have.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - not so much playing the game per se as downloading different mods for it and fooling around with game mechanics.

Europa Universalis III - a terrible time sink, addictive as hell. Or Civ 4.

 

[JrK]

Oblivion - Heavily modded with among others Oscuro's Overhaul which makes it more Daggerfall like in that you can expect superdifficult monsters in remote dungeons. Also, no more random senseless l00t. Currently tempted to make a "Let's play Oblivion" thread, already made a character for it.

Neverwinter Nights 2 - I like the engine and ruleset, but just think it should have way less mindless hack&slash(blasted neverwinter city & orc caves!). I decided I'll finish it with an exotic build.

Day of Defeat: Source - A MP only WWII shooter which has, to my mind, the best combat engine ever encountered in an FPS. Weapons are very distinct, recoil is a serious problem and grenades are dangerous. I got into this after a friend showed it and now we're playing it semi-clan-based, but not serious clan-based.

Battlefield 2 - Already knew about this game from my brother, but decided to get it for real once I convinced a clanmate/friend from above game it would be nice for teamplay and the added possibility of playing against bots, unlike DODS.

I until recently played STALKER with Faiakes' mod but it got boring the second play through. It's too bloody lineair for my taste.

 

[psycojester]

If the entire game had been like the Military warehouse zone S.T.A.L.K.E.R would have been the greatest FPS ever. BTW does that acronym actually stand for anything? OR is it just meant to make it look cooler?

 

[MessiahMan]

I'm playing Dark messiah of Might and Magic. Although I found it fun at first, I'm at chapter 6 now, and the annoying bad guys are wearing the game thin to me. The voice acting is terrible, too Especially that "badass demonic dominatrix" stereotype in your head.


I also decided to give Introversion Software's latest title a whirl. I suck at Defcon, but I find the concept neat. Not sure how I like it yet, though. I haven't played with humans either, because I'm a pansy and I know I'll get butchered.

 

[Krafter]

I'm trying to destroy my backlog of somewhat older games that I have not yet beaten. I've got way too many games lying around and not enough time to play them in. I will have to be more discrimitory in my buying habits from now on.

Medal of Honor : Allied Assault + expansions
I don't buy EA games, let alone ports of console shooters, but the whole MOHAA games pack was given to me as a Christmas present a couple of years back. Generic WWII shooter, but it is refreshingly difficult on the hardest setting, so it is at the very least a challenge. I love shooting things, so that helps too. I'd give MOHAA a solid 5.0.

Front Mission 4
Turn-based Mech combat, what's not to like? It has the added bonus of not starring strange teenaged girl-boy hybrids, and it (so far) takes place predominantly in Germany and Venezuela, a nice change from the generic "New York again! LOL!" which seems to happen a lot. It's easy so far, but perfect to play a mission or two before bed. FM4 gets a 7.2 score.

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
My DS is getting a lot of love lately, largely because of turn-based goodness. FFTA is utter crap compared to the original FFT, but it still kicks butt. You have a full army of 24 characters, dozens of classes and skills to learn. The story (I hesitate to call it that) is straight out of a 8 year old's fantasy coloring book, and the main PC is a teenaged girl-boy hybrid. The laws system is possibly the worst game mechanic ever until Invisible War's universal ammo and Oblivion's level scaling took it out. Still, I loves me some turn-based combat. FFTA gets a 7.8 score.

 

[Helton]

Just beat Bloodlines. It was pretty good, thinking of giving it another replay pretty soon with the fan patch and as one of those crazy vampires.

Pokemon: Emerald is likely to see some time later today or over the weekend, though it is one hell of a shift in gears from the story and atmosphere of Bloodlines...

Alpha Centauri is always backup or rebound, I never get tired of it.

And I'm thinking of giving Dwarf Fortress another spin.

 

[MorningStar]

If you didn't play a malkavian, you didn't get the best part of the game. I'd kill to get another game that lets you play such a foolish character and not another classy superhero.

 

[aboyd]

Hmm. You guys are all very diverse, and seem to have a lot of time to play games. I'm a bit jealous.

I am currently playing Baldur's Gate 2 again, with the Throne of Bhall expansion. I am playing a Paladin (specifically, a Cavailier subclass). That's something I've never done before -- not in pen & paper games, or computer games. I've decided to play him a bit like Anomen, so my character is a self-righteous do-gooder.

The lame part is that people are right, the paladin stronghold sucks. I cannot tell what room in the building is "mine" and I cannot tell what chest I can use without getting the dreaded "someone has seen you stealing" message. Perhaps the whole building is mine, but the game makes it very unclear.

The good part is that I've assembled a good team -- Minsc, Jaheira, Mazzy, Anomen, and Nalia. We hit hard and fast. Most members of the team have 3+ attacks per round, and most have -5 armor class or better. For the first time in a CRPG, I decided to take on a dragon, and beat Firkraag. Got his scales, and got the armor made by Cromwell. I'm only about half done with chapter 2 at this point. I'm doing much better than I ever did on any previous playthrough.

 

[Sirbolt]

I'm currently only playing Puzzle Quest for the PSP. Surprisingly good game really, despite the Mangaesque visuals. Why an Australian company would stoop so low as to use those kind of visuals baffles me, but anyway. For those of you who do not know what it's about it's basically Warlords but with every battle fought as a puzzle instead of being automated.

 

[Sarvis]

Romancing SaGa at the moment, though I think I'm starting to get bored with it. Still need to finish Super Paper Mario and STALKER too. (I got AN ending for STALKER, but it was one of the crappy monolith wish endings... need to get the real ending.)

 

[AZ]

I have lots of games installed, but I don't play a lot of them.

BG1 tutu - never finished it, so I decided to do it whit tutu.
Divine Divinity - I'm replaying it - first time I fucked up my charter so I couldn't finish.
Icewind Dale - Usually I have this hack&slash installed and played it many times, I use this as some kind of coffee break game.
Lords of Magic SE and other old games.
Prelude To Darkness - I really love it, but the bugs always stop my enjoyment.


What I actually play

Dominions 3 - I can't get enough, very complex but easy to play. I could never play Civilization I felt it too ahistoric - roman legions vs tanks, ect.. , Dom3 feels "real" - everything is in it's place in the game world.
Urban Terror q3 standalone - When I feel an urge to kill time and others.

And I have Torment installed, I like the story, but somehow I hate that I can't hide the gui (whit "h" so it will only come up if I pause) like in other infinity engine games. Any solutions?

I bought Battlefield 2142 for a very good price at ebay so I will try it out as soon as it arrives. I loved to snipe in bf2, it was easy - I got very hight kill counts which I'm unable to get in Urban Terror.

 

[Section8]

Not enough games for me.

Currently:

Trauma Centre: Under the Knife - A DS game where you use the stylus to strut your mad surgical skills, and the game just keeps upping the ante with wacky parasitic infections.

and I guess Wizardry 7, but I'm not gaming that much at the moment. I'm tending to spending more time designing (good), playing guitar (also good) and working (not so good).

 

[Shagnak]

I'm not putting serious time into any game at the moment.

But I'm nominally playing Styrateg (a fantasy TB strategy game) and the demo of Undercroft (a Wizardry clone originally designed for the PocketPC).

Occasionally I play Final Fantasy X on the PS2. A lot of the time there is minimal interactivity so it's an easy game to play while I'm in my lounge helping with the kids. My wife thinks it's a bit of a laugh due to the bad soap-operatics. She thinks chocobos are pretty cool though.

 

[Elwro]

Elwro, mind telling me why I should bother with Pirates!? What prevents me from playing it is

A. I have the impression that there isnt a campaign, just pointless... something.

B. What if some minigame turns out to be so bad that I will hate it yet have to play through it countless times?

Well, I'm not sure if you should bother with it. For me the game's just plain FUN. It's great in half-hour installments. Looting and pillaging in the Caribbean is pure pleasure. And I like all minigames, including dancing.
The important thing is that I bought it at one-fifth of the original retail price. If you see it in a bargain bin, I think it's worth giving it a try.

Maybe it doesn't have a "campaign", but it's not a disadvantage for me. Not all games necessarily need one. There are some long-term goals, like finding and rescuing members of your kidnapped family, and just climbing up the pirate hierarchy, to be able to retire to a spacious piece of land and spend the rest of your life with a pretty wife.

 

[Andrej]

TOEE - Trying it again, with the Co8 mod.
EVE - Actions have consequences!
CIV 4 - Crank, it keeps you up at night.
JA2 - It's really my weakness.

 

[kingcomrade]

For you guys who are playing Psychonauts
http://hedgetrimmer.ytmnd.com/

edit- http://iamassassin.ytmnd.com/
"My motivations are clear only to myself." :D

 

[Fez]

Nice quotes. :D I saw these ones continuing the theme there too: http://sewerworker.ytmnd.com/ http://pie.ytmnd.com/

"rhubarb is a controversial pie variety"

 

[mindx2]

I have been playing Thief II again. This is still one of the best games I've ever played. Atsmosphere, tension, great AI, top notch voice acting, etc still hold up even today.

I recently started playing through Wizardry 6 but am finding it difficult to want to keep going back to it. Don't know why just hasn't sparked my interest as I thought it would. I want to go through all of 6, 7, & 8 with the same party and experience the whole story this summer.

I also have BG TuTu, BG II (with a buch of mods), System Shock II (w/ the textures mod), and Morrowind (w/ a whole mess of mods) installed with the goal to play them all at some point .

3. Replaying Deus Ex = Simply amazing. I play with HDTP, New Vision and HDR.

I am thinking about playing through this one again as I absolutely loved it the first time (as I did with SS2 and Thief II)! Where did you get the New Vision mod? I went to their website and it shows they have pulled the mod for some reason. Can't even click on their FAQ link... so what does this mod do?

 

[fizzelopeguss]

I'm on the xbox these days, playing ghost recon 2, shadowrun and Vegas.

 

[xemous]

T2X: Shadows of the Metal Age.

 

[Annonchinil]

Jak & Dexter II- I haven't played platformers in a long time and decided to give this one a try. Its fairly difficult and has a lame story but the game mechanics and the diversity of mission design make it really fun.

Red Alert 2- The controls are outdated and can be extremely annoying, however the Soviet campaign, naval/air/ground combat, urban environments and the fun movies make it worthwhile

On Hold
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War- The campaign is unbearable, each mission is simply attacking the req. points with some useless variations. Great atmosphere makes up for predictable story. I tried skirmish against the AI and found it fun, but the lack of unit variety limits the replay ability. I bought the two expansions and hope they will fix this.

Final Fantasy XII- Why RTwP combat!? The leveling system is an improvement from FFX but the combat system is unbearable. I'll come back because I like the story despite some cringe moments

Metal Gear Solid 3- I am playing it on a difficulty that makes it alternate between being really fun and amazingly painful.

 

[Deacdo]

Not really putting much time into any single game:

PES6 - Game I play the most by far. Ultimate pick up and play game. Can't wait until PES7...bastards at Konami better not make the PC version based off the PS2 version again

Half-Life 2 w/ SDMOD - Pretty fun, SDMOD makes the game really flexible. Currently stuck because of a bug, but once I figure out how to continue, all is well

HOMMV - On and off. Not really digging it that much. Seems so half-assed and simplistic after playing AoW: SM.

Silent Storm/Sentinels - Really enjoy this game. Going to completely replace HOMMV for TBed goodness, even though I've already played them. Intend to use a No-PK mod.

Freespace 2 w/ Open Source mod - It's been on my HD for a little while. Deserves more attention.

Far Cry - Now that FEAR is done and I'm stuck in HL2 it will probably get some more attention.

Odin Sphere (PS2) - Looks really nice. Pretty unique game.

Melty Blood - a PC 2D fighter. Based on an anime I like. Shit graphics, but has decent gameplay.

Jets N Guns - Cool side scroller...but I suck and can't get past the 3rd level

Virtua Tennis 3 - Could Sega have made the game any easier? I'm probably going to shelve it.

Gearing up to play:

Oblivion w/ a shitload of mods - The latest version of OOO is about done, MMM is compatible with it, and Deadly Reflex 3.3 should be uploaded this weekend. Add some texture packs and a dozen or so other and you have effectively a new game

VtM: Bloodlines - New patch, figure I'd give another go (combat system put me off before, never got into it).

CivIV - Had it for ages, but haven't played. Figure I'd give it a go before I pick up GCII Gold.

DMoMM - Because it doesn't look like it will get much better with age

FEAR expansion - Finished FEAR a few weeks ago, getting the itch for more serious violence.

I'll probably load up JA2 at some point with some mods. It has been too long and I need to be reminded what near gaming perfection is like.

Looking at that list I think I may have ADD 8)

 

[Deacdo]

Oblivion - Heavily modded with among others Oscuro's Overhaul which makes it more Daggerfall like in that you can expect superdifficult monsters in remote dungeons. Also, no more random senseless l00t. Currently tempted to make a "Let's play Oblivion" thread, already made a character for it.

What "leveling" mod are you using (if any)? The "character development" system seems horribly broken and tedious in Oblivion, and I know of several mods for it, but none that make me think "that is the one". Are you using one (AF Leveling etc.)?

 

[Deacdo]

Jak & Dexter II- I haven't played platformers in a long time and decided to give this one a try. Its fairly difficult and has a lame story but the game mechanics and the diversity of mission design make it really fun.

Have you tried the Ratchet & Clank games? IMO, best platformers ever made. Possibly because they lean more towards action. Nice graphics, cool weapons, not too frustrating.

Final Fantasy XII- Why RTwP combat!? The leveling system is an improvement from FFX but the combat system is unbearable. I'll come back because I like the story despite some cringe moments

Sold my copy after playing for around 10 hours. Combat was awful...and there isn't any other gameplay.

 

[Deacdo]

I also have BG TuTu, BG II (with a buch of mods), System Shock II (w/ the textures mod), and Morrowind (w/ a whole mess of mods) installed with the goal to play them all at some point .

How does SSII look with the mod (comparable to games from what year)? And what texture mod are you using?

Is the BG moding scene still going strong. There was tons of stuff in development at one point, but it looked pretty complex to get everything running and I hated 2nd Ed. D&D, so I never got into it.

 

[Sarvis]

Final Fantasy XII- Why RTwP combat!? The leveling system is an improvement from FFX but the combat system is unbearable. I'll come back because I like the story despite some cringe moments

The FFXII leveling system has one gigantic flaw: by 3/4 of the way through the game you have bought all the character upgrades, and probably filled out all the weapon skills you actually want as well. FFX was much better, in that you couldn't have every character get every upgrade, so they ended up actually being different in the end.