*Snicker*

I know exactly what you mean. The gameplay of Metal Gear 2 was great, unfortunately the excessive plot turns and various soap operas were too much. All I can say is that fortunately both 1 and 3, (the latter of which makes my favorite game list) were easier on both points.

The thing is, half the time I'm wondering whether the plot isn't entirely ironic - it's difficult to judge whether some of it is badly written soap-opera or cleverly constructed postmodern parody. (Then again, that doesn't change that some of the voice acting is painful. The bit where Otacon mourns E.E... Pretty painful.)

I've got MGS3 waiting on my shelf. I guess there's perhaps another two or three hours of playing time before I get to the end of MGS2, since I'm now running around naked on Arsenal.

Well, there's certainly a few more hours of watching movies and listening to speeches... how much actual playing is left is rather up in the air. (Also, don't despair... things won't be quite as hopeless as they look at one point).

Can you tell me how long the final cinematic is, roughly? I wouldn't want to get started on it fifteen minutes before I'm planning to go to bed, and still find myself watching it two hours later...

I finished the masterpiece known as Halo 3.

Furious, did you finish Heavenly Sword?

The single player campaign in Halo 3 is definitely short unless you crank it up to difficult or Legendary. Without getting into spoilers, Halo 3 is definitely focused on the multiplayer both online and off.

I think it is compelling enough to go through another play through though. There's this big gargantuan brute in front of me called Homework. I finished the game after Homework last night.

I think Homework should be the first or final level of the game.

quote:

Originally posted by Furious:
I haven't even rented HS yet. 6-7 hours of gameplay the first time around? I'll wait 'til the game drops to $30.

Well, it worked out pretty slick for me. I borrowed a coworker's Xbox 360, rented Halo 3 at the local grocery store and now that I know the ending, I can move on. I'm sort of glad it didn't take two weeks worth of rental to get to the end. It's worth it though.

Finished Metal Gear Solid 2, and feel pretty meh about the ending. I liked the "is this all real?" feeling you get when things go weird on Arsenal, with your superior going all wonky and bits from earlier Metal Gear games creeping in... but the actual ending didn't do much for me. And I think I prefer the Thief/Deus Ex/Splinter Cell sort of sneaking to MGS's gameplay. Still, looking forward to MGS3.

quote:

Originally posted by Furious:
Playing Resident Evil 4 with all the bonuses. Much easier with the Chicago Typewriter.

...

YES, I'm good enough to finish RE4 by myself, but NO, I didn't do all the stupid extra stuff and I loaded a saved game off the Net onto my PS3.

I wish I had regular-work hours instead of grad student hours because I'd love to get RE4 for Wii. I've only got a few hours a week to play and I don't know that I'm going to get to that one.

Company of Heroes: Oppsoing Fronts

Great Expansion. I love the RTS. You get to play as the Germans, Brits and Canadians this time.

Just tried out the PC demos of Unreal Tournament 3 (looks like fun, and once again great bots - definitely an alternative to having 13-year olds shoot you in the head and then call you a fag...) and Call of Duty 4 (very intense, very well made, even if it's basically the same as the previous games, just set in present-day conflicts instead of WW2). Worth checking out, even though they're fairly big downloads (UT3: ~800MB, CoD4: ~1.5GB).

Also, I got three PS2 titles yesterday: Bully, Okami and Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence. I need a proper Sony memory card before I can play the latter, unfortunately, as it doesn't recognise my non-Sony cards...

Anyone get the Orange Box?

Portal looks like great fun. First game in a while that makes me wish I had an Intel Mac to play Windows games on.

I'm almost done with Twilight Princess and dragging my feet to prolong it (my Save-the-World to Sidequest ratio is about 1:3 or less). After that, more Zelda for the DS!

Oh, and I suppose I should be playing "work on your dissertation" also, but that runs on a crappy platform that's no fun at all.

Amazon.co.uk is only sending it off next week, but I'm looking forward to both Portal and Half-Life 2: Episode 2. And Team Fortress 2.

I am hearing nothing but great things about TF2. It's not my typical kind of game, but it sounds like they've made it possible to play the game in a lot of different ways to accommodate lots of player styles.

Just received Soul Nomad and the World Eaters for PS2

I'm a big BIG NIS Fan and this one looks to be crossing traditional NIS style with Ogre Battle type combat.

Am psyched to get going on it... as soon as I have some time and am back home in Sydney (stuck in Canberra for work)

quote:

Originally posted by The Boyâ„¢:
Anyone get the Orange Box?

Portal looks like great fun. First game in a while that makes me wish I had an Intel Mac to play Windows games on.

I got the Orange Box recently. First played Portal, and it's brilliant indeed. Very short, but in its shortness it's perfect, like the most polished short story ever. Great writing (both funny and really disturbing at times), voice acting, visual design. And a fantastic ending. The only reasons anyone might have not to play this are an absolutely crappy sense of spatial awareness (is that what you'd call it?) and a tendency to get dizzy in first-person games. I don't usually, but some of the more extreme changes in perspective as you go through the portals made me feel a tad queasy.

I just started Episode 2, and it looks pretty good too. Some of the visual work on the characters is amazing - the first Vortigaunt you see is one of the most real-looking characters I've seen in a game. The way the light reflects realistically off his skin and eyes reminded me of Gollum in The Two Towers.

I'm still waiting for Metroid Prime 3...

Phantom Hourglass is fun. Really, really fun! There isn't a single DS feature that isn't used to great effect in the gameplay. (Those poor people caught in the Twilight in the ancient Hyrule are going to have to wait for a little while. I'm in the future sailing around.)

It actually makes me more annoyed at how short Wind Waker was. I like spending time in this version of Hyrule.

I dusted off my Nintendo DS and played it for the first time in almost a year.

I forgot how simple and fun New Super Mario Bros was. It's a little slice of genius.

Phantom Hourglass was too short, just like Wind Waker.

Next DS game on the docket is Hotel Dusk Room 215.
Next Wii game (I should beat Twilight Princess in the next couple weeks if I don't get sidetracked fishing) will be:

Guitar Hero III, woohooo! Rock on!

This is going to sound cliche, but I am bringing the Wii with me on Thanksgiving break to my parents' house so I got Wii Play. I told my dad this and he was really looking forward to shooting ducks again and disappointed that he can't get retribution on that damn dog.