What I've been playing now

It's been quite a while since I've posted about what games I'm playing, there's just been so many to play that I haven't had time to write about them! What's on deck now?

I finished Fable 2 pretty quickly. It was fun and engaging, easy and interesting. I'm happy they're releasing DLC so soon, great timing since it's easy enough to get through the main story. I like the breadcrumb trail, the emotive system, the way experience is earned and divided by skill. I also really loved the music in the game; it really added a lot to the game.

The bad were still very present, but not enough to make me put the game down for long. The co-op experience was severely crippled, unfriendly and actually discouraged us from playing the game co-op for more than 15 minute chunks. The inventory system that was horribly disorganized (can't even sort alphabetically?) and kicked you out every time you used an item so you had to re-enter to use the same item twice in a row? The choices in the game didn't go far enough. Your final and ultimate decision at the end, sure it has an impact, but it still feels as if nothing you did before even mattered if you playing the extra post-story quests.

We bought Fallout 3 (with lunchbox) the day it came out. I've only had the chance to reach Megaton. My hubby, on the other hand has collected all the bobbleheads in the game. But now that he's done with it, I've got my chance to play it!

I've had opportunities, sure, but I haven't really been motivated to pick it up. It's so...bleak. Every time I see him play it, it all looks the same. It's grey. Blech. I see enough of that outside every day with the coming (non-nuclear) winter. Even the original Fallout games weren't that dreary. There was Reno! And Vault City! Islands of humanity shining out from the post-apocalyptic world. And the radioactivity made things sparkle a bit too ;) I'm just not interested in relaxing into doom and gloom after a long day.

We're also slowly making our way through the latest WoW expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. There's some neat variety in the missions, like airlifting survivors out of an area, driving around a tank and riding mammoths. I like how there are central mission hubs, but there are so many more secondary and tertiary hubs from those too. This expansion feels a whole lot less linear. Burning Crusade felt far too linear, going from one hub to the next.

We're in no rush to get through it. We play it more like a casual game, something to pass the time for an hour or two, with a few days off in between. Even with the new quest types, they can still get a bit repetitive, so it's nice to take a break between so that I don't go insane from fetch quests.

Left 4 Dead is the latest co-op game we bought. So much fun:) It's a rare game where I'm willing to play through a problem area time and time and time again. I've got a notoriously short challenge vs. fun threshold. And yet I can keep playing the same section again and again to try to pass it.

The only problem seems to be that you really need 4 people to play it. The AI, while surprisingly intelligent, can be so frustratingly stupid at times. When you want to hold your ground, close the doors and keep in a tight group, idiot AI will open the door, run out, and get stuck behind a wall. *sigh* It can be frustrating when you know you're failing not because of something you're doing, but because of something you have no control over and can't fix. When you reach that point of realization, it's a game ender. I need to find more people to play this game with, most people I know are playing it on PC.

I waffled for a long on which platform I should get Civilization Revolutions, but given its addictiveness, I had no choice but to go with DS. Easily portable! It's a dumbed-down Civ, for sure, but it's still civ. It's fun:) And it's always just...one...more...turn!

I haven't had much time to spend on it yet, but I know that it's one I'll play off-and-on for many many years to come.

We had also picked up Tales of Vesperia to play co-op. Unfortunately the co-op is as bad, if not worse than Eternal Sonata. The second player doesn't get to explore and doesn't gain any achievements. The game is also highly customizable, like any hardcore JRPG, and a second player really inhibits the amount of time you feel ok with tweaking, lest the other person get bored. We had high hopes.

Aside from the co-o stuff though, the game is amazing! The characters are exceedingly adorable and hilarious. And the art...it's the most beautiful game I have ever seen on the Xbox. The art style is so perfect, you're playing a manga cartoon. It's worth checking out if you like JRPGs.

And while I haven't picked them up for a while, I still need to make my way through all of Half-Life 2, Braid, more Wii Fit to unlock, Castle Crasher among others.

There's a bunch of games that I still want to buy, but haven't yet, like Chrono Trigger for DS, Dead Space, Afro Samauri, and oh so many more. It's just been an explosion of awesome games! yay!