These games worth getting?

[Slowtrain]

Pay no attention to the folk who hate on this game for no decent reason.

 

 

Extreme boredom of course not being a decent reason.

Edited July 17, 2008 by CrashGirl

[Morgoth]

Bioshock was anything but boring.

[Purkake]

I would recommend you stay far away from Psychonauts. The art design is cool but the gameplay is just boring platfrom jumping and a staggering amount of collecting pointless items. I thought Psychonats didnt sell that well because it was too weird for the mainstream audience but thats not true, it didnt sell because its a bad game. Tim Shaeffer must have left half his brain at Lucasarts when he quit.

eh? Psychonauts is a fantastic game. one of the very best non-CRPGs i've played.

 

yes, the game involves jumping and, as with any game that involves jumping, sometimes the jumping is challenging and - when things go rough - a little irritating.

 

but to describe Psychonauts as 'just boring platform jumping' is like describing LOTR as 'a boring book about some hobbits'. The true strength of Psychonauts is its humour and its story. If you don't have a sense of humour, you might dislike this game. You might also dislike it if you have no appreciation for great writing. p.s. the items you're collecting are the furthest thing in the world away from 'pointless' - they're all related in a meaningful way to the story.

 

Bioshock is similarly a great game. Pay no attention to the folk who hate on this game for no decent reason.

 

Assassin's Creed? Stunning graphics and great gameplay that's captivating about 90 minutes. Unfortunately, as someone else already pointed out, every quest is structured identically to the first, so after the first couple of quests, the whole thing becomes supremely repetitive. But worth playing for those first 90 minutes or so. Especially the pretty graphics.

 

Bioshock is only great if you haven't played System Shock 2. If you have, you will see that it is pretty much that, right down to the plot twist, but dumbed down, sorry - streamlined for the console crowd. The art direction and atmosphere are great, but the gameplay is pretty bad and the rpg elements are few and far between. The worst thing about Bioshock is that it could have been so much, but falls flat on its face.

 

Also you might want to check out Yahtzee's review at here. Yeah, he mostly puts everything down, but I think that he pretty much nails it with his review.

[Pidesco]

It was repetitive, repetitive, repetitive, repetitive. Enemies did little besides rushing you, the pipe minigame was too easy and always the same, and except for a couple of exceptions the level design was just one long corridor.

[Istima Loke]

What I liked about Bioshock was its "mature" setting. And when I say "mature" I mean, that it feels real. Characters are well done, the city feels like a city etc. The story I didn't like that much (but I was spoiled about it so that may be the reason). But RPG it ain't. It's a shooter that gets quite bland and repetitive when it comes to gameplay.

 

EDIT: What I really hate about my posting is that I press "Preview post" so many times, that in the end someone has already said what I was trying to say far better than I ever could.

Edited July 17, 2008 by Istima Loke

[Slowtrain]

Bioshock is only great if you haven't played System Shock 2.

 

 

Good point. If someone hasn't played SS2 then they might find Bioshock new and exciting. Unfortuneatly I have played SS2 so many times that I found Bioshock really little more than a shadow of SS2. I think Levine's decision to attempt to recreate SS2 pretty much point for point but in a streamlined form hurt my experience of the game. I am hoping that Bioshock's sequel attempts to do something more original than redo SS2. I would probably enjoy that more. It would also need to either bring the FPS gameplay up to a higher level of quality or add more rpg goodness or surival horror back into the mix.

[mkreku]

Bioshock

Maybe the ending makes the whole thing worthwhile. Highly doubt it though.

Unfortunately, the ending is the absolutely worst aspect of that game. A Doom-style endboss after all that 50's style and relatively realistic enemies and setting? Horrible. Just horrible. Embarrassingly unfitting.

[wesley2]

Assassin's Creed? Stunning graphics and great gameplay that's captivating about 90 minutes. Unfortunately, as someone else already pointed out, every quest is structured identically to the first, so after the first couple of quests, the whole thing becomes supremely repetitive. But worth playing for those first 90 minutes or so. Especially the pretty graphics.

I actually found that if you got into the story a bit, it was a little easier to do the side quests. If you really wanted to figure out stuff about your target and kill him really efficiently, you could do all the side quests to get the required info. At least that's how I played...maybe I'm just a sucker for period pieces. Another thing that kept me going was the new cities and areas. You're always going to new places which I thought was really cool. Along with that, your character is powering up as you complete assassinations and by the end of the game you have some truely badass moves which are really cool to unleash. The last 3-4 assassinations (especially the last one

which wasn't even really an assassination as much as it was a battle

) were the best I thought. in fact I've replayed the last assassination maybe 4-5 times so far.

[Bartimaeus]

Mass Effect (Any good?)

Medieval 2 - Total War (I played Shogun back in the day, has the concept changed?)

STALKER (Should I wait for Clear Sky?)

Oblivion w/ exps (Should be abled to get it cheap, I didn't really like Morrowing at all, has there improvement?)

Orange Box (Interested in Portal and TF2, I dig the art style)

 

Mass Effect was pretty sweet, in my opinion. Go get it.

 

Medieval 2 is somewhat fun, yet somewhat boring in the same instance. I think it's just because I have a general dislike for RTS, but this one actually made my time enjoyable, yet it still seemed to have a boring factor in it. But it's still pretty fun to mess around with.

 

S.T.A.L.K.E.R....is okay...I'm not a fan of FPS, but I have played it. And in my opinion, it's pretty farging hard, but if you're use to quick saving and loading all the time, you'll have fun.

 

Oblivion was fun, but you really, and absolutely, do need mods to make it really enjoyable. Just get them. I'm not joking. Getting mods for Oblivion can make your experience a thousand times better, even though, it is still initally fun. Like above, you need to quick save and load all the time, too.

 

Orange Box - Portal was short, yet absolutely fun. Like I said before, quick saving and loading is really needed for this, too. It's very unique, too, and I doubt you'll find something like it anywhere else. - Team Fortress 2, I haven't played yet...(even though, I've had it for like a year...), so I don't know. Half Life 2: Episodes Whatever were fun, though, imo.

 

(edit) Agreeing with the poster above about Assassins's Creed.

Edited July 18, 2008 by Bartimaeus

[Rosbjerg]

NWN2 / MotW - It's a kind of must-have for any fans of the RPG Fantasy genre. I've only played NWN 2 through 1,5 times. I don't find the story all that good - I've been trying to complete the MotW but I can't muster the will to do it. I was so horribly dissapointed by NWN 1, that some of it has rubbed off on NWN 2. But I do recognize a good game when I see it and I have and will recommend it to others. So yes, you should at least try it!

 

Mass Effect - I really enjoyed this game, but I see where all the critizism comes from. Most people feel really immersed and sucked in on their first playthrough (so did I), but for the second and third you start to see how repetitive it actually is. But I'm really glad I bought it! The first playthrough was definitely worth the cash, without a doubt.

 

Medieval 2 Total War - This is one of my favorite games (I love the series), so I'm a little biased here. So I'll talk about the main weakness - The AI - it's bad and you'll get probably get annoyed with it after a few games. The AI doesn't know how to fight, it will abandon important cities even though it's clear that they'll be attacked (like if a crusade or jihad is declared) and the Mongols can really ruin your game if you play any of the muslim nations - they are way overpowered. Which I know they were irl. But it kinda sucks that you'll get steamrolled if you play Egypt and they come your way.

 

Sins of a Solar Empire - I have very mixed feelings about this game. If you like the 4X types of games you'll probably like this. It's well balanced, interesting and original. The graphics are great and the game is challenging.. But it fails for me because the story is so interesting, but it doesn't have anything to do with the actual game. A small game takes place in 1 solar system with maybe 8-10 habitable worlds. Which seems stupid to me. If they'd made it so that you play in a series of solar systems with only a few planets in each - then I would've liked much more. Maybe I'm a little unfair here - but I really lost alot of interest because of that design.

 

Assassins Creed - The freedom of this game will amaze you. You can climb almost any building, choose any path to get to the part of town you want to get to and it feels very dynamic and real. The combat is a bit wierd at first, but when you get used to it it's both cool and fun.

After a while it becomes repetitive, as others have mentioned. But the design saved the game for me. Worth the purchase imo!

 

CoD 4 - If you enjoyed any of the other Call of Duty games, this is a must-buy! It's short, but my God it's so intense you have no idea! Love it!