I played a bit past that part, but it just didn't hold my attention well. I admit to being a kind of a sucker for shooters but mostly those set in sci-fi universes. Or of course WW2 shooters because hey, M1 Garands are awesome, are they not? That AC-130 part was awesome. Give Half Life a try. I think you'd maybe enjoy it a bit, and there's no dirty stuff or profanity and you do get to lay waste to lots of bad aliens and the plot is really very good.

Or of course WW2 shooters because hey, M1 Garands are awesome, are they not?

Yes, they are.

I tell you what, I will see if my library has Half Life. And if it does, then I will ask my brother about it. And depending on what he says, maybe I will give it a try.

SnowAngel

Ditto on Half-Life 2! My brother downloaded that recently and I've been enjoying watching him play it. It's a very creative game, and quite fun—if a bit intense at times.

I go weeks without posting, and wind up making a monster-post. I apologize in advance for length and off-topic-ness.

All this mention of brothers ... it's because of mine that i've gotten into Minecraft lately. It's not precisely my cup of tea - i prefer RPGs with quests and characters to talk to - but it can be very pretty, and in one world i'm trying to build a castle. It's also a game my brother and i both like, which isn't a common crossover. He's much more of a shooter guy than i am.

A couple weeks ago i was playing Dragon's Age: Origins pretty regularly, though i've lapsed a bit on it lately. It's a decent game, i suppose, but i couldn't help comparing it to others, and it didn't hold up too well. Of all the elite groups that you end up a part of in so many RPGs, the Grey Wardens are without doubt the worst: all drawback, no benefit. And i have some serious issues with the ending.

Some of the characters are fun (Alistair is made of 100% adorable), but others can be irritating, and despite being made by a supposedly progressive company, some types of armor that cover a man's torso suddenly become bikinis when placed on a woman. I find the role of religion in the Dragon's Age universe to be interesting; it's better-integrated than in many games, and thankfully not reduced to "just believe" simplicity, but certain elements of it are very odd. I was also very irritated by my inability to comment on the bad logic in some of the debates on the topic, but until they make a game dedicated to proselytizing others in the name of your religion, i don't think i'll ever find a game satisfying in that way.

The trailer for Uncharted 4 was released at E3 (i think), and it looks beautiful, of course. I am also extremely pleased to note that

I suspect there are some Halo fans here -- is it playable on the PC, or just xbox, and how many games are there? I'm vaguely familiar with it, and a machinima series i've been watching has gotten me a little more interested in it.

Not sure if machinima falls under television or video games ... anyone familiar with machinima at all?

I suspect there are some Halo fans here -- is it playable on the PC, or just xbox, and how many games are there? I'm vaguely familiar with it, and a machinima series i've been watching has gotten me a little more interested in it.

I'm not a particularly big fan of Halo, but I've only played the first two, so I cannot speak to the quality of the later games. The series has a really interesting plot but the Covenant (the alien consortium at war with Earth) were kind of cartoonish in many ways, especially the goofy little aliens that look like lizard-Ewok crossbreeds (and sound like them too). I remember the game was pretty and the weapon selection was decent, but the level designer needed to made to play his/her creation 48 hours straight so that they could understand why needlessly endless mazes went out with Wolfenstein 3D in 92'. Now my younger brother enjoys some of the later Halo games, but it's just not my cup of tea. Half Life 2 does the same job so very much better, although it is not really a perfect comparison.

A couple weeks ago i was playing Dragon's Age: Origins pretty regularly, though i've lapsed a bit on it lately. It's a decent game, i suppose, but i couldn't help comparing it to others, and it didn't hold up too well. Of all the elite groups that you end up a part of in so many RPGs, the Grey Wardens are without doubt the worst: all drawback, no benefit. And i have some serious issues with the ending.

I played DA (whatever the original game was) for about 10 hours and to me it felt a bit like a Mass Effect mod with no frills. It was alright but I just couldn't get myself into it, and while playing it I kept thinking that I would really rather play Mass Effect. If it works for ya', then go for it...seemed like a perfectly workable fantasy game to me, just not to my taste.

Ditto on Half-Life 2! My brother downloaded that recently and I've been enjoying watching him play it. It's a very creative game, and quite fun—if a bit intense at times.

See? Rosie gives her endorsement! You know it must be good! Seriously though, you get 3 really great games in one package and nowadays you can probably walk out of the store with it for practically nothing just by batting your eyelashes at the guy behind the cash register. Well, perhaps that'll work for you. When I try they call the police.

EDIT: I'm nerdish with regards to video game sequels, so I will point out if you want to play Half Life 1 it's a wonderful, wonderful game although it's very dated by today's standards. A group of independent programmers got together about 10 years ago and decided to remake the whole game with the tech included in Half Life 2 and it felt like it would never get done. But they eventually finished Black Mesa Source last year and it was mind-blowingly awesome. I cannot recommend enough you're giving it a try if you're able to give it a whirl, although it's PC only and when last I played it was still a tad bit buggy. Link is here. It's a totally free download, but be very careful where you try to download from because some of the links are quite misleading. I suspect you'll find it was well worth it once you get it downloaded though!

Ditto on Half-Life 2! My brother downloaded that recently and I've been enjoying watching him play it. It's a very creative game, and quite fun—if a bit intense at times.

See? Rosie gives her endorsement! You know it must be good! Seriously though, you get 3 really great games in one package and nowadays you can probably walk out of the store with it for practically nothing just by batting your eyelashes at the guy behind the cash register. Well, perhaps that'll work for you. When I try they call the police.

Well, thank you both for the recommendation, but I can't do that right now even if I wanted to. We are currently scaling everything down in preparation for a long distance move. And I don't have my own computer yet (although I plan to buy a laptop as soon as I can save enough money to buy one). I am on my parents desktop right now, which we aren't allowed to use for gaming.

We almost always buy video games online, so I don't think that strategy would work. But I will keep it in mind should I ever planned to purchased a video game at Game Stop and not have the money.

All this talk of games makes me want to play something, I haven't played or watched my brother play a game since we finished Ghosts.

Oh, and I like Halo, but because it's suppertime and I am hungry, that will have to wait.

SnowAngel

Well, my brother wanted me to try playing Half-Life 2, so I decided to give it a go.

I'm doing better than I would have expected. (And probably better than he would have expected, too. ) I do wish there was an option to turn the blood effects off, though. Not really a fan of gory aspects of the game, but that's where the dated graphics come in handy, and I suppose I can overlook that in favor of the clever story and the gameplay. However, I also wish that the Combines were robots; I keep worrying that someone like Barney is under one of those suits, so I try to wait until they shoot first.

It'll be interesting to see how far I get. I hear that there is some scarier stuff at later levels; my brother hasn't let me watch those parts because he doesn't want to "spoil the surprise."

It'll be interesting to see how far I get. I hear that there is some scarier stuff at later levels; my brother hasn't let me watch those parts because he doesn't want to "spoil the surprise."

I wholeheartedly concur with his judgment! One word. Ravenholm.

Oh yes. Ravenholm.

My favorite part of the game was Highway 17, a portion where you spend the majority of your time driving around in a dune buggy thing. Also, don't worry about the Combine troopers. The only ones who are remotely human anymore are the Metro troopers and they're already too far gone to come back. Barney's the only one who you'll find disguised as one. The Combine Elite soldiers towards the latter stages of the game are the ones you need to keep an eye out on! Also I suspect you're going to love Dog when you meet him. Keep us abreast of your progress through the game!

I did like Dog; he's awesome!

You should have seen me when I found out I was going into Ravenholm. "I don't want to go! I'm not ready!! And I never even got to go to the kitchen where the Vortigaunts were cooking!! "

I'm still in Ravenholm, and only recently figured out the way you're "supposed" to deal with the adversaries there. My brother said that I was doing remarkably well for someone who was going about the level the completely wrong way.

Hopefully I'll make it out of there alive... or at least without having died too many times.

There's an achievement you can unlock on the XBox 360 for Ravenholm by going through and not using any firearms or your crowbar. You can only use the gravity gun. It's something I pulled off but would never recommend doing again! Also you get to see lots more of dog in the future, and if you think he's great now just wait!

It's lots of fun getting to hear about someone playing HL2 for the first time! Keep those posts coming!!

Lol, I'll have to try that challenge in Ravenholm sometime. That sounds very difficult. Gordon finally made it out alive! Father Grigori is an interesting character.

I really enjoyed Highway 17; it was fun! I really don't think I'm cut out for being a crane operator, though. I recently just finished up with the firefight near the lighthouse,

Spoiler

which I won very quickly by running up to the airships as they landed and shooting the Combines as soon as they jumped out.

I had never really thought of that tactic before, Rose. Learn something new everyday! I miss my old dunebuggy, although you get something *very* cool to drive in Episode Two. You'll think you've died and gone to muscle car heaven. What's your favorite weapon so far? I love the revolver. It's a 6-shot beast that can take out Zombies and Headcrabs in one shot, or even most Combine troopers with 1 round too. I just wish the ammo wasn't so uncommon. And the Crowbar is my ever-stalwart companion and lots of fun even into the latter stages of the game. Keep an eye on the Gravity Gun too...you'll see just how very awesome it becomes later on in the game.

Yeah, I was kind of bummed when they took my ride away.

I've moved on to the Sandtraps level and I'm finding that I do not like Antlions at all. I'm sure I'll figure 'em out eventually, though. In the meantime, my brother is finding my cries of dismay very amusing.

I like the revolver, too! It's so powerful and effective if you aim right. I also love just going willy-nilly with the crowbar if I'm up against a wall. The gravity gun is really neat, too. I love how it can turn almost anything into a potential means for self-dense. Not to mention it's highly helpful when your dune buggy gets stuck in a ditch.

Ha! What'd you think of that bridge you had to climb all over?

You know, we actually have a copy of Half-Life 2 in my house, which none of us have ever played. A friend gave it to my dad, who wasn't really interested in playing, and at the time my mom didn't let any of us kids play M-rated games (aside from Halo, mainly because my older brother got into it before she realized it was M-rated). At this point, I think she'd let us play it, but... let's see when I get around to it. If it's half as good as the Portal games are, I will have to get around to it eventually.

I have to admit, I'm a casual gamer; I'm often just as content to watch someone else play through a video game's story as I am to play it myself. But, that doesn't mean I don't game for myself as well. Right now, the games I'm playing are:

A) Guild Wars 2. Very, very casual player; I logged in a couple times this month because my dad (who's a daily player) talked me into it. While I absolutely love the Mesmer class (I love classes that revolve just as much around putting conditions on your enemies/confusing them as direct damage ), that's... pretty much all I've been loving about it lately. I find the story dull and repetitive, and despite championing that it's "your story", it seems to be just as much about various NPCs they've created--and sometimes, very ANNOYING NPCs (Trahearne, I'm looking at you ).

B) Star Wars: The Old Republic. I finally have a computer that can run it again, so... yay! I love the Old Republic games, so of course I got the game when I could afford it. Overall, I really enjoy the story, I just wish they'd made it a third single-player game instead of an MMO. It doesn't help that I'm now taking advantage of it being "free to play" (I'll pay for the subscription again as a reward to myself for getting my to-do list accomplished ), and they really, really like to remind you of how much easier it would be to do things like, oh, have enough inventory space if you'll just cough up a little more money.

C) Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. Like I said, I'm a big fan of these games. I was in the middle of my... 5th?... play-through when my hard drive fried. I'm not sure whether or not my progress was saved. Oh well; there was something I kind of wanted to undo, and contrary to popular opinion, I actually really like the first world--I prefer the first part of the game to the ending.

D) Mass Effect 2. I'm actually almost to the end of this one. Actually, I probably could be done at this point, but I'm kind of dreading the ending. I didn't get enough Paragon points to keep both Miranda and Jack's loyalty, and I already know that