Published on October 30, 2008 By Island Dog In Gaming

It's one of those months again that there are tons of games being released, and so little time and money for them all.  It has almost become a new type of balancing act, trying to figure out which games to get and plan a month or two ahead of time.

We also can't forget the holiday season is rapidly approaching, and from now until then there are a lot of releases coming down the pipes.  How to choose between all these?

This past weekend I picked up Guitar Hero: World Tour.  It's been pretty fun, but cost a lot.  Everyone here has been talking about Fallout 3, Fable II, Red Alert 3, etc.  I just don't know what to get now.

Which games have you picked up lately?


Comments
on Oct 30, 2008

How to choose between all these?
You need ...

"Gamer Manager"

First, design you gamer ... from the boxers all the way up to the non-slip wrist band and the screwed up eyes.

Then take control of his environment ... from the carpet all the way up to the bedroom wallpaper and permanetly closed curtains.

Are YOU man enough to build him the ultimate gamer rig?

Finally, you're ready ... but have you enough money left this month ... to choose the games he's going to play.

on Oct 31, 2008

Fable 2, Fallout 3, Far Cry 2, and LittleBigPlanet are all so fantastic.

on Oct 31, 2008

World of Goo was brilliant, cheap, and won't take up too much of your time (< 10 hours).  No DRM.

King's Bounty has been quite fun, but is also a time hog.

Colonization is very good, but too hard. It's shorter than a Civilization game, but still takes at least a long afternoon to get through a game of it.

on Oct 31, 2008

I picked up FarCry2 just for the Map Editor...I've been waiting for YEARS for a console FPS to have something like that they included, and it's pretty damn amazing.

I'm working on a Stardock HQ map...if anyone wants to play me I'll post it when I'm done

on Oct 31, 2008

Gamefly.  Don't spend $60 on something you can beat/play through in a week (or weekend).

 

on Oct 31, 2008

Far cry 2 is an embarassing game.

So beatiful and... so boring. This game simply have ONE kind of mission, ONE kind of enemy, TONS of respawn every fucking 10 meters and a wonderful panorama.

on Oct 31, 2008

I may be getting Red Alert 3 soon. I've been waiting on it for a while; I loved the RA2 campaigns. A few years ago, I picked up the Red Strike pack that includes the original RA2 and Yuri's Revenge a few years back and enjoyed the cutscenes immensely as well as having a lot of fun with the off-the-wall units.

I'm playing Spore, Mass Effect, Titan Quest, Oblivion and Half-Life 2 right now, so those are keeping me pretty busy with my relatively-small time budget for gaming (most days about a half-hour before work and sometimes an hour after work, maybe a couple of contiguous hours on the weekend).

Stuff I'm waiting for: NWN2: Storm of Zehir, NWN2: Mysteries of Westgate, Starcraft II, Disciples III

I may get Fallout 3 for Christmas or maybe not. From all the reviews I've seen, it looks to be a worthy successor to the line, but I'll probably wait until I'm finished with Oblivion (I pretty much just started the game, having picked up a new copy of the CE on Ebay). Fallout 3 looks to be a huge time sink.

 

 

on Oct 31, 2008

I'm not getting Far Cry 2 because Ubisoft do not know how to make current-gen games that support widescreens properly, so they won't be seeing any money from me. Doesn't help I keep hearing nothing but issues with the game and there's a very large chance we'll never see anything done about it so yeah, I'll save myself the cash and not beta test for Ubisoft.

As for Red Alert 3, I'm not sure what to think. It looks flashy and all but I can't help it will grow boring real quick because its just so ... standard. They did not implement one new concept or anything, its just a bog standard RTS that we have all been playing for the last few years. Wish there was a demo or something for it.

As for Fallout 3, I'll probably get that one but I'm going to wait and see if Bethesda announces anything in regards to the construction kit. I wouldn't have played Oblivion as much as I did if it wasn't for all the community made mods that made everything so much better and gave more content to explore through.

on Oct 31, 2008

Hellloooo....

 

LEFT 4 DEAD!  The only game you'll need this year. 

 

Zombies...Co-op play...randomness...

 

.....I mean...Zombies, man! 

on Oct 31, 2008

You need ...

"Gamer Manager"

First, design you gamer ... from the boxers all the way up to the non-slip wrist band and the screwed up eyes.

Then take control of his environment ... from the carpet all the way up to the bedroom wallpaper and permanetly closed curtains.

Are YOU man enough to build him the ultimate gamer rig?

Finally, you're ready ... but have you enough money left this month ... to choose the games he's going to play.

You make that game, I'll play it.

As for Fallout 3, I'll probably get that one but I'm going to wait and see if Bethesda announces anything in regards to the construction kit. I wouldn't have played Oblivion as much as I did if it wasn't for all the community made mods that made everything so much better and gave more content to explore through.

If they've kept the feel, but put in a wimp mode for people like me (Fallout's "Easy" isn't), I'll buy it.

on Nov 03, 2008

As for Fallout 3, I'll probably get that one but I'm going to wait and see if Bethesda announces anything in regards to the construction kit. I wouldn't have played Oblivion as much as I did if it wasn't for all the community made mods that made everything so much better and gave more content to explore through.

If they've kept the feel, but put in a wimp mode for people like me (Fallout's "Easy" isn't), I'll buy it.

 

I haven't seen that yet, but from the previews, I don't think they kept the feel; I guess it depends on what you mean by "feel," though. It's an Oblivion-style first-person POV RPG with pseudo-turn-based combat (meaning that it's pausable if you hold down a key--why do devs think we want to hold down keys to do things?--this is the same stupid interface design that annoys me about ME--just make it a toggle already!). The story loosely follows that of the first two games (not counting Tactics [now THAT was hard]), but isn't set in exactly the same time period. But it's still a post-nuclear spiritual successor to Wasteland.

I got the Premier Edition of RA3 as a late birthday present this weekend. I haven't gotten too far yet, but I'm playing through the Soviet campaign and it's pretty fun.

 

As for Red Alert 3, I'm not sure what to think. It looks flashy and all but I can't help it will grow boring real quick because its just so ... standard. They did not implement one new concept or anything, its just a bog standard RTS that we have all been playing for the last few years. Wish there was a demo or something for it.

I disagree, Phazon. The co-commander concept is something different and a pretty cool feature for those who enjoy online gaming with friends (although, as the game points out, if you're like me and you have no friends , you can use the AI co-commander). All of the single-player campaign missions are designed around the idea that you and a partner will be completing the mission objectives cooperatively. I can't speak for the wetware commanders (competence will vary) but the AI commanders are pretty good at staying alive and giving you adequate support; in fact, I sometimes think that if I did nothing more than issue periodic orders to my co-commander, (s)he could complete the mission alone.