Now Playing - the video game edition

[TheBigLow]

Great thread!  I'd missed it before today.  I'm also absolutely hooked on Dragonquest IX.  The character customization is great, the humor is wonderfully subtle and clever, and the story unfolds nicely.  Great combat system; frustrating buying and selling, alas.  Just started Halo: Reach yesterday.  It felt great to be back in a Halo game.  Up next on my DS:  The World Ends with You, which I've owned for ages and never started.  Also need to get back to FFXIII, especially since Fallout 3: New Vegas is most definitely going to be sucking up a whole lot of time when it comes out!

[mgriffin]

Oblivion: Game of the Year - I'll finally be able to play the game the way it was meant  to be seen!
Fallout 3 - never played, but highly recommended and same company that put out Oblivion.
Gran Turismo 5 Prologue - I wanted a driving game and everyone said this one was to get, in spite of the fact the full Gran Turismo 5 is out in a couple months.
Tekken 6 I love fighting games.
Soul Calibur 4 - more figthiing - I had tekken and soul calbur on Xbox (as well as dead or alive)

Oblivion might just be my all-time favorite video game.  Fallout 3 is up there too.  I also loved Morrowind (Elder Scrolls III) and almost didn't buy it (I played it after Oblivion, Elders Scrolls IV) but my buddy who got me into Oblivion told me it was worthwhile, and it was. A few sessions into Morrowind I stopped noticing how much more primitive it looked.

If Bethesda released an Elder Scrolls V and charged $500 for it, I'd be first in line.

I also rate Gran Turismo 3 and 4 pretty highly.  Buying GT 5 Prologue strikes me as a total waste of money, considering it's something like 2% of the content of the full version of GT 5, for about 50% of the price (unless of course you found it really cheap used somewhere).  I mean, I bought Prologue myself when it came out, but that was because I was dying for a GT racing fix and the complete game was more than a year away.  But I sold Prologue a while back because I figured nobody would want to buy it once the full GT 5 had a firm release date.

Not interested in fighting or sports games (except racing) personally, but I know lots of gamers love these.

[False Mirror]

Fallout 3 - never played, but highly recommended and same company that put out Oblivion.

I usually don't have any time for playing computer games, but I recently played Fallout 3 and it was one of the best games I've ever played. Not because of the graphics (no match against Crysis, which is an awesome game as well), but mostly because of the overwhelming post-apocalyptic atmosphere and the immersive gaming experience with the freedom to do whatever you want (much more freedom than in Oblivion even).

[mgriffin]

The soundtrack to Fallout 3 was a big part of the atmosphere.  I found myself singing that Ink Spots song constantly for a month or so.

[jkn]

Well - call me stupid for buying Gran Turismo Prologue... ;-)   I'll likely wait for the full version to come down in price - unfortunately - constantly holding the 'x' button down is... ummm... tiring.

Fallout 3 - can't wait to try it.   I'm knee deep in Dragonquest IX though - and anxious to see where it goes. 

[mgriffin]

Well, I wouldn't say "stupid"... maybe you've just got lotsa extra money. 

Great, now I have "I Don't Want to Set the World On Fire" going through my head.

Ink Spots rule.

[jkn]

Definitely not lots of money... so - stick with 'stupid'.  ;-)

[LNerell]

Well - call me stupid for buying Gran Turismo Prologue... ;-) 

That's not stupid, here is stupid. Buying Gran Torismo 4 thinking it would work in my brand new PS3 player I just got. Sadly its a PS2 game, and the newer slim PS3 players don't support PS2 games, ooops!   Oh well, I only paid 4 bucks for it, but to make matters worse my PS3 player packed it in about two weeks after I got it. Still waiting for a replacement unit. 

[mgriffin]

GT 3 and 4 are such great games, I'll have to always make sure I have a machine to play them.  If my original PS3 conks out I'll have to buy a PS2.  BTW, can you believe people still buy PS2 consoles, new?

[jeff pearce]

we have a Wii in the family room, which is nowhere close to a serious gaming console, but I've had fun (while the kids were asleep!) playing "House of the Dead: Overkill"- good old fashioned shooter game done up like a campy grindhouse flick, with about 800 instances of the "M-F" bomb.

On the computer, I've been playing Quake live quite a bit lately- all online, all browser-based, and it runs great in Safari.  We've come a long way from 11 years ago, when Griffin and I would play Quake online with a dial-up connection.  If I remember correctly, I fragged Griffin about 100 times per game.  I eventually stopped playing Quake when, one morning while in an especially violent part of the game, my then two year old daughter (who woke up especially early), snuck up behind me and asked- with a very concerned, almost frightened voice- "daddy, what happened to that boy's head?".  "Quitting Quake" was a better option than explaining decapitation via chaingun...

[mgriffin]

The label always lets the recording artist win.

[False Mirror]

Great, now I have "I Don't Want to Set the World On Fire" going through my head.

Ink Spots rule.

Haha, me too.

You can find all of the GNR songs on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txPqV0lZaSE

[jkn]

My Oblivion and Soul Calibur games arrived last night!   However, I had dog washing and laundry to do and it was "America's Next Top Model" and "Modern Family" night... so... playing soon!

I really should make myself not start Oblivion until I finish my track for the upcoming Relaxed Machinery artist compilation...  no, that might be cruel and unusual punishment to myself... ;-)

[mgriffin]

Great, now I have "I Don't Want to Set the World On Fire" going through my head.

Ink Spots rule.

Haha, me too.

You can find all of the GNR songs on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txPqV0lZaSE

I ended up getting the soundtrack CD!

[mgriffin]

My Oblivion and Soul Calibur games arrived last night!   However, I had dog washing and laundry to do and it was "America's Next Top Model" and "Modern Family" night... so... playing soon!

I really should make myself not start Oblivion until I finish my track for the upcoming Relaxed Machinery artist compilation...  no, that might be cruel and unusual punishment to myself... ;-)

Nah, just set aside 200 hours in the next month or two to plow right through Oblivion.

[mgriffin]

Oh, John... incredibly useful Oblivion reference wiki here. Maps, walkthroughs, all kinds of stuff if you get stuck.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Oblivion

There's one for Morrowind at the same site if you ever replay that.

[LNerell]

GT 3 and 4 are such great games, I'll have to always make sure I have a machine to play them.  If my original PS3 conks out I'll have to buy a PS2.  BTW, can you believe people still buy PS2 consoles, new?

I've never played GT3 or 4, but I have the original GT for the PS1 still. That was a fun game for its time. Mike, how do you drive those cars on your playstation, with the regular controller or do you have a wheel? Just wondering.

[mgriffin]

I have a wheel but I never use it. My brother gave it to me 7-8 years ago when I was playing GT3 several hours per day.  I just use the controller.

[jkn]

Thanks for the Oblivion link - used to go there all the time... haven't gone in years, forgot about it.

[mgriffin]

Here's another one, not as useful as the first, but has some different content.

http://oblivion.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page