What Are You Playing?

[Proj2501]

Bought MW3. Played it. It's cool but only played it a surprisingly short time. Dark Souls has the power to make me not want to play a COD game.  

I get the feeling around here people love to hate on COD. Please don't read the following as if I'm some rabid COD fan boy, I'm not. It is a fun title to play with friends you know in real life online. I don't think there's any denying it. It's an accessible game to most gamers. I'd love to play some other games with friends (again, DARK SOULS) but this seems to be the game EVERYONE will play together. In that sense, it's worth it. Is it somewhat recycled? In some ways. What other game can 8 or more friends play together at once? No sports game I'm aware of. Amongst people I know, it's the communal game anyone can talk about and get into. None of my friends are lighting bonfires like me...  

I probably should break the habit of quitting MW matches midway to go farming. 

[Konketsuji]

I have nothing against Modern Warfare, I even like it, the campaign especially. I look at it as 5-hour roller coaster ride with some breathtaking and satisfying moments. I don't care about the online multiplayer, since I prefer fighting games online, even though sometimes four of us play CoD 4 offline and it's pretty fun, I must say.

[Walter]

I don't think Call of Duty is particularly fun for an FPS. It's well polished, but not a good user experience in the end. I'll explain. I enjoy playing with a team, laying out a plan, having assigned roles. But you jump into a CoD match, it's just a chaotic mess of maniacs running around shooting people in the face, yelling racial and sexual slurs over the microphone. I wouldn't wish that experience on my worst enemy.  There's nothing that validates a $59.99 price tag with the meager updates they provide the multiplayer side of the game with. Resorting the perks? A handful of new maps? What a joke. Oh yeah and $15 for 3 maps? Get the fuck out... Activision has turned the franchise into a cash grab, and people should start voting with their wallets.

But beyond that, I have a problem with how Activision treated the original team at Infinity Ward, and how they acted after it. They denied them pay, essentially forced them out of the company, and after nearly everyone on the original team leaves, Activision scrambles together a ramshackle team and spit out a by-the-numbers game, keeping the Infinity Ward title to boot.

Is it somewhat recycled? In some ways.

How is any element of Modern Warfare 3 NOT recycled? Maybe some of the textures? Pretty sure they imported the assets of Soap and Price, the main characters, over from the existing games. And do we even need to get into the backwash of the game design?

What other game can 8 or more friends play together at once? No sports game I'm aware of.

Any other first-person shooter, for one.

[JudeauChop]

Battlefield > Modern Warfare... 

[Konketsuji]

 There's nothing that validates a $59.99 price tag with the meager updates they provide the multiplayer side of the game with. Resorting the perks? A handful of new maps? What a joke. Oh yeah and $15 for 3 maps? Get the fuck out... Activision has turned the franchise into a cash grab, and people should start voting with their wallets.

Here it's 80 bucks for consoles and 20 for PC, feel the difference. =) And, yeah, 60 $ is also to much, twenty is the right price tag, especially for multiplayer lovers who buy maps and shit.

[Griffith]

It is a fun title to play with friends you know in real life online. I don't think there's any denying it. It's an accessible game to most gamers. I'd love to play some other games with friends (again, DARK SOULS) but this seems to be the game EVERYONE will play together. In that sense, it's worth it. Is it somewhat recycled? In some ways. What other game can 8 or more friends play together at once? No sports game I'm aware of. Amongst people I know, it's the communal game anyone can talk about and get into. None of my friends are lighting bonfires like me...  

I don't think Call of Duty is particularly fun for an FPS. It's well polished, but not a good user experience in the end. I'll explain. I enjoy playing with a team, laying out a plan, having assigned roles. But you jump into a CoD match, it's just a chaotic mess of maniacs running around shooting people in the face, yelling racial and sexual slurs over the microphone. I wouldn't wish that experience on my worst enemy.  There's nothing that validates a $59.99 price tag with the meager updates they provide the multiplayer side of the game with. Resorting the perks? A handful of new maps? What a joke. Oh yeah and $15 for 3 maps? Get the fuck out... Activision has turned the franchise into a cash grab, and people should start voting with their wallets.

So, in a nutshell, what makes it good is also what makes it bad; it's the lowest common denominator of gaming. The watering hole from which gamers and non-gamers can come and drink together peacefully (or by shooting each other in the face, whatever). To put it another way, it's like the latest big pop culture music/movie/show where the biggest appeal isn't necessarily the quality of the product but the breadth of its reach, which affords one entry into the largest possible social community.

No thanks. =)

[frankencowx]

There's nothing that validates a $59.99 price tag with the meager updates they provide the multiplayer side of the game with. Resorting the perks? A handful of new maps? What a joke. Oh yeah and $15 for 3 maps? Get the fuck out... Activision has turned the franchise into a cash grab, and people should start voting with their wallets.

yeah!!! 60 bucks for a glorified expansion pack is bogus. I wholeheartedly second the notion of them dropping the price. For 60 bucks I want more content.

[Oburi]

Hypothetically, if they didn't release all the games between the first MW and the new one, I would buy it for sure. Like instead of releasing so many titles as separate games they combined the content of the MW games and Black Ops, making the campaign longer and multiplayer more polished with a lot of maps. THAT would be something worth my money. It's how it should be. But why would they ever do that when they have so many people shelling out full price for all these games. And everyone seems to be happy with it. Many, many of my friends have gone out and bought MW3 already just like they did Black Ops not too long ago and I just wonder if/when they will call it quits, because you know Activision won't. 

Again, I don't think the games suck or anything. I have had lots of fun playing the series in the past, but I won't turn a blind eye to a company that's literally putting the minimum amount of content possible to get away with calling it full game worth $60 ... and then doing it all over again in another 6 months. They can get away with it too because the multiplayer gives you unlimited hours of gaming. But honestly, is it not something a few map packs or some expansions couldn't do for MW1?

[Aazealh]

None of my friends are lighting bonfires like me...  

I wanna light your bonfire so bad buddy.

...But I'm playing on Xbox 360.

[Oburi]

...But I'm playing on Xbox 360.

Have no shame! 360 MASTER RACE HERE!!!!

Seriously though have you been playing online? If so how do you like it? I've been going solo for everything to save humanity. It wasn't easy defeating Bell Gargoyles on my own believe me.

[Aazealh]

Seriously though have you been playing online? If so how do you like it? I've been going solo for everything to save humanity. It wasn't easy defeating Bell Gargoyles on my own believe me.

I defeated all the bosses by myself as well. I've helped others fight bosses a couple times though, and I've also fought some people as a Forest Hunter, but for the most part I've been playing solo.

[Viral Harvest]

it's the lowest common denominator of gaming.

This.

Call of Duty is the Madden of first person shooters at this point, for bros who would rather pound Coronas with a rifle than a Cowboys jersey. I don't care if it makes me a snooty, snobbish, jaded asshole - these games are buns.

[frankencowx]

Playing Super Mario 3D Land. Lots of retro tunes from SMB3 on NES, which is awesome. However, the difficulty is kinda... easy =/

[Griffith]

Playing Super Mario 3D Land. Lots of retro tunes from SMB3 on NES, which is awesome. However, the difficulty is kinda... easy =/

Yeah, it's arguably on par with Mario 3/World in that regard (being generous =), and you actually start losing lives later on, though you'll have so many I can't even imagine getting a game over (I had like a 100 by the end of my first run through of the main game, and now have max lives through the level 1-2 trick). Anyway, it's pretty awesome the way they've managed to make it play and feel like classic Mario in a real 3D experience; an impressive translation that makes you realize what a truly different 3D interpretation Mario 64 was, though its influence is obviously evident here as well. I'm not the best person to analyze this though, the last Mario game I played was Sunshine, and boy was that a brief tryout (felt like Super Mario: Sonic Adventure). They've obviously learned from that mistake since, though 3D Land could use a little more dialogue/story, even if it's just more classic window dressing ala 3/World. But, I don't want to say any more for now, everything I was going to bitch about initially (world "map," power ups, bosses, and the aforementioned window dressing) has largely been answered with unexpected twists that validate the way things are setup, and which I'm loving the more I play.

[frankencowx]

Does something different happen to the main game after you beat it Griffith?? I read somewhere that the game gets 'better.' Don't know if that means the difficulty gets amped or what?

[Handmade]

Currently playing my second playthrough of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

I would love to do a weaponless playthrough, just because the fiery vampire killer/alchemy whip is so fucking awesome. 

I cannot stop playing this game. And I cannot stop thinking about it when I'm not playing it. I dare start to wonder if it might have been the best game on the ps1!

[Johnstantine]

Currently playing Twilight Princess. Always meant to get to it, but never did. And with Skyward Sword coming out next Sunday, I need to at least get HALF way through this one.

Apparently the play time is around 50-60 hours.  I'm on it.

[Aazealh]

Apparently the play time is around 50-60 hours.  I'm on it.

Was more like 40 hours to me, and I don't rush through games.

[Griffith]

Does something different happen to the main game after you beat it Griffith?? I read somewhere that the game gets 'better.' Don't know if that means the difficulty gets amped or what?

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

 

[frankencowx]

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

Ahh I get it now. I beat it, and must say, it does get better!!! They really know how to make the final Bowser fight epic, to the point where you're teetering on the edge of your chair; specifically 3D Land and New Super Mario Bros on Wii.

[Walter]

Ahh I get it now. I beat it, and must say, it does get better!!!

I just beat it tonight. Fucking amazing game, particularly the last world and everything involved with it.

10/10.

[Johnstantine]

Was more like 40 hours to me, and I don't rush through games.

Was that just beating the story, or collecting everything?

[Aazealh]

Was that just beating the story, or collecting everything?

Beating it and doing some side stuff, but not everything, no. That'd lengthen it, but this kind of challenge stopped being compelling to me years ago.

[Johnstantine]

Beating it and doing some side stuff, but not everything, no. That'd lengthen it, but this kind of challenge stopped being compelling to me years ago.

Yeah, I'm not big on side quests myself. I quit doing those quite some time ago.

[Madam President]

Juuuuust finished taking Lost Odyssey out to dinner!  I'm currently playing Saint's Row the Third.  I've only played about two hours or so, but something about this one makes me want to go back and play the second installment, rather than this one.