What are you playing?

[Paul Beardsley]

Having just acquired a PS3 for my birthday, my wife and I are playing Silent Hill: Homecoming.

It's the first of the series not to be written by Konami, I think, and while it's far from being a Silent Hill 2 (one of the finest pieces of horror fiction in any medium), it's very engaging and entertaining.

We also got Heavy Rain, which appears to be the first successful attempt at an interactive movie. We spent a couple of hours on it, and are convinced it will repay commitment, but that's for the future.

[Fazor]

I played through Mass Effect 1 and 2, then Dragon Age: Origins, then moved on to FFXIII but have stalled at this last bit. Partly because I found FF to only be moderately amusing, and partly because I haven't been playing games. Nice weather means there's too much to do around the house, and my new books should be in today so those will keep my evening entertainment time occupied for a while.

[PetersCreek]

I'm still playing Borderlands on the PC. I'm currently into the latest DLC, The Secret Armory of General Knoxx. I still haven't done more than a little dabbling in Left 4 Dead 2.

[ShadowSot]

Rarely play games... but I got God of War III, not to bad, a bit short though.
Uncharted 1&2 are great games for the PS3, in my opinion.

[stutefish]

I keep coming back to Civ (4, now).

[mike alexander]

Solitaire. I haven't gotten to the end of it yet.

[The Backroad Astronomer]

I keep coming back to Civ (4, now).

More addictive than crack.

[FarmMarsNow]

I recently played Spore. It was fun.

[Bluevision]

Homecoming was a massive letdown for me personally. I agree 100%, Silent Hill 2 is actually the most masterfully executed horror story that I've ever... experienced? There are some games that have my heart going 180 bpm playing them (Dead Space comes to mind,) but the atmosphere is just amazing. You connect with the characters, the pacing is superb, and there's a level of depth that rivals some of the best movies.

I've heard quite good reviews of Heavy Rain, though I would call Fahrenheit (or Indigo Prophecy,) to be the first "successful" interactive movie, even if it did have a whacky story. With current generation graphics, I'm hoping that more of these will come around because I really liked how Fahrenheit worked. Heavy Rain looks like it actually has a much more sound plot, and I'm excited to purchase and play it this summer.

Right now, I'm doing my second run through of GTA IV (stupid me didn't make a backup file before choosing to kill Dimitri,) and building up my level-creating skills in Little Big Planet to flesh out a couple good ones in the coming months. I also just finished today yet another run through of Super Mario Sunshine (missing only 3 blue coins and one star.) Also waiting for the mythical release of steam and Source engine for Mac.

[HenrikOlsen]

Currently on a partial nostalgia trip with Torchlight, not because it's old but because it's a mix of Diablo's setting (and very heavily inspired incidental/background music) and Diablo II's item and character system with updated graphics.
The critters actually made me think it was a Blizzard game, which was partially explained when I read the credit and saw it's made by several lead developers from Blizzard.
It's published on Steam with a free demo of the full game, locked to 7 character levels and about the same number of underground levels.

Incidentally, I like that way of making demo's, when I paid for it I already had the full game installed and the character I'd played was still there ready to continue.
Also, they use the Steam servers to save the characters so with the same Steam account on multiple machines you have access to all your characters.

[grant hutchison]

I'm playing Bioshock. Very, very slowly indeed. Given to me by a friend, who was appalled that I didn't have any games to match the capabilities of my graphics card.
But this jumpy-shooty stuff is a whole new skill-set for me, and I'm really, really bad at it. I think I'm more cut out for contemplative, point-and-click, puzzle-solving adventures; stuff in which mad screaming people don't try to kill me all the time, anyway.

Grant Hutchison

[Starfury]

Guild Wars, have been for 2 years now. Any other Guild Wars players here on BAUT?

My main character is Xavia Mindwalker, I'm an officer in the guild The Dragons of Middle Earth [TDME].

[Doodler]

I've completed two run throughs on Dragon Age Origins and Awakenings. Thoroughly enjoyable game with a lot of replay possibilities. Awakening's linearity was a bit of a letdown, along with 80% of the DLC content not making the leap to the expansion, but I'm 95 to 99% satisfied. Will probably do one more run through before heading back to Star Trek or finding another game.

[HenrikOlsen]

But this jumpy-shooty stuff is a whole new skill-set for me, and I'm really, really bad at it. I think I'm more cut out for contemplative, point-and-click, puzzle-solving adventures; stuff in which mad screaming people don't try to kill me all the time, anyway.

You may like the combat mode of XCOM 3, I know I do.

Basically you have a group of people, you give them orders and/or set their general response pattern, then let time run for a while where they act out those orders, if needed you freeze time again to give more orders, until the baddies are gone or all your guys are down.

[Bluevision]

^^ Or Fallout 3 with VATS, I think is a better bridge between point and click games and FPS's.
If you want something to bring you into FPS's from puzzle-solvers, Half Life 2 is quite good for that, imo. It eases you into the action, while maintaining a puzzle-solving quality throughout. And it actually has an immersive storyline without sacrificing the gameplay.

Haven't played XCOM, but is the gameplay premise similar to SOCOM?

[ginnie]

I'm playing my new Epiphone short scale bass a lot lately.

[Fazor]

Guild Wars, have been for 2 years now. Any other Guild Wars players here on BAUT?
My main character is Xavia Mindwalker, I'm an officer in the guild The Dragons of Middle Earth [TDME].

I played Guildwars when it first came out, up to about the first expansion. Then I got hooked on real MMOs (as in, more than just a few people in an instanced dungeon) and World of Warcraft stole about two years of my life.

[megrfl]

Wii - Nancy Drew: The White Wolf of Icicle Creek. I play for about 30 mins a week because that's about all I can take. It has to be the lamest game I have ever played, but because I started it, I must finish it.

When I can't sleep I play Halo, PC. I haven't beaten Legendary, yet. Probably never will.

[darkhunter]

Splitting my time between Need for Speed: Undercover and Fallout 3. I also have D%D and Rifts campains running with my kids on the weekends.

[jokergirl]

Still playing Lord of the Rings Online, mainly for the roleplay. It's fun, but less addictive and less focused on levelling than WoW. And there's a huge number of female gamers, interestingly enough.

I might play Settlers (the boardgame) with some friends in the weekend, if I can drum up enough for a nice game.



PS: Oh, and I played (still play) Guild Wars, though at the moment I rarely log in as Lotro takes up my MMO quota. I don't really have a main, but if you see someone from Homeless Kittens [meow] <-(can't remember the capitalization of that one) it's probably either me or my BF.

[AndreasJ]

I've not played any computer games in ages. I do regularly play boardgames and tabletop miniatures games.

[Moose]

Pokemon SoulSilver at the moment.

[Fazor]

Pokemon, eh?

[Moose]

Yup. I don't have to worry about save points, and a DS is portable, so those useless downtimes between classes aren't as deadly. It's a decent RPG in its own right.

[Ilya]

Still playing Lord of the Rings Online, mainly for the roleplay. It's fun, but less addictive and less focused on levelling than WoW. And there's a huge number of female gamers, interestingly enough.

What always turned me off World of Warcraft and other MMORPG's is the "MM" part. You end up with commitments to too many other people, and have to structure your life around the game. Since last October I've been playing DDO (Dungeons & Dragons Online), and I love it. The big difference is that player characters cannot harm each other, so there is no in-game politics or war among players. Consequently, there is no pressure to "level up" nor to get the rarest shiniest magic item. The focus is on exploring mazes, killing monsters, and solving puzzles. Most of the time I play alone; when not alone, it is with "pick-up groups" who I probably never see again.

It is run by Turbine, the same company which runs Lord of the Rings Online.

[Fazor]

Yup. I don't have to worry about save points, and a DS is portable, so those useless downtimes between classes aren't as deadly. It's a decent RPG in its own right.

I've avoided it for two reasons; first, the stigma of playing Pokemon. Second, because it's a "collection"/"Search and find" based game (at least, from what little I know about it), so I know I'd be instantly addicted.

[Fazor]

Since last October I've been playing DDO (Dungeons & Dragons Online), and I love it.

I may have to hit you (and anyone else who plays DDO) up. I registered an account two or three weeks ago, now that it's free, but I haven't actually installed it yet. Nor did I really look into the company structure; is it 100% free, or "free" with content you have to purchase if you want to use it?

[EDG]

Just started playing Borderlands, and lots of indie games. I'm generally waiting for the Cataclysm to come out for WoW though.

[Fazor]

Just started playing Borderlands, and lots of indie games. I'm generally waiting for the Cataclysm to come out for WoW though.

I have Borderlands for xBox, and I liked it, but it's more fun multiplayer and actually requires some coherent teamwork. I don't have a headset, and so without a keyboard, there's really no way to communicate. That made it less fun.

Single player is okay, but with co-op it's better.

[HenrikOlsen]

I may have to hit you (and anyone else who plays DDO) up. I registered an account two or three weeks ago, now that it's free, but I haven't actually installed it yet. Nor did I really look into the company structure; is it 100% free, or "free" with content you have to purchase if you want to use it?

"Free" with extra things you can buy. From the manual:

Feature           Free                              VIP
Classes           All except Favored Soul and Monk  All
Races             Dwarf, Elf, Human, Halfling       All
Geography         Stormreach                        All
Premium Modules   Buy                               All
Character Slots   2                                 10
Login Queue       No Priority                       Priority
Chat              Limited                           Unlimited
Auctions          Limited                           Unlimited
Mail              Limited                           Unlimited
Gold              Limited                           Unlimited
Shared Bank Slot  Purchasable                       Yes
Turbine Points    Buy                               500/month

You'll be playing a Demo, but they don't actually have the honesty to tell you that straight out.