What’s been your primary game this past month? It could be a recent title, a new discovery, or something from your backlog. It could be an old favorite or a new flame. What game defined January 2009?
For me, it is Far Cry 2, on the PS3. This game was hard to get into, and rather stressful at the beginning. However, once I started figuring things out (and with the help of the excellent Far Cry 2 thread), it began to click. I’m only 23% into the game and still in Act 1, but so far, I have had many epic firefights, I’ve lost a buddy, I’ve found new buddies, and I’ve grown to love the flamethrower. Last night just for the hell of it I assaulted the Petro Sahel location with my sniper rile and flamethrower. The multitude of explosions was a delight. This is simply a fun game.
Far Cry 2 here as well. And now that I’m in the Southern Territory, it’s just become even more of a blast.
On the PC, Supreme Commander is still our game of choice every week. I’m finally starting to hit my groove in that game. I’ve been playing for months now, and I think I’m finally starting to get enough of a grip on the economy that I can concentrate on troops and tactics.
Fallout 3, which gets much better once you have waypoints all over the map and don’t have to slog through a sea of brown to get to points of interest. Honorable mention to Football Manager 2009, which has to be one of the most frustrating games I’ve ever played but is still incredibly addictive
Star Wars Galaxies but I’ve been dabbling with Nobunaga’s Ambition as well. I started reading a book about the Sengoku period and that got me to pick it back up.
I’ve also been playing Far Cry 2, and yeah, once you get to Act 2 it gets even better. Other than that, I’ve gotten a little time in with Boom Blox, mostly playing with my son, and a few hours of Mount & Blade, which I picked up during the Steam sale. That’s definitely a game where I find myself resolving to playing “just a few more minutes” over and over and over…
Defense Grid made the biggest impression for me and consumed more hours in January than any other single game. Freespace 2 was a close second.
At the risk of sounding horribly nerdy, does anyone keep a “gaming diary” or anything like that? I personally play a lot of games, but rarely put more than a few hours per game (in a month). I like to sample around to maximize the number of unique gaming experiences. This has the drawback that I’m not sure I can even name all the games I’ve played in January at the top of my head, not to mention December or farther back. It might be interesting to start taking notes.
Oh, probably Everquest II. Not that there haven’t been lots of other things, including Warhammer Online, WoW, and Age of Conan - I’m in an MMO transition period, sue me. But Everquest II has probably been the most total time and certainly the most memorable. I still can’t get over how much I like that game, especially when my experience with the original Everquest ranks somewhere just above my experience playing godawful free Korean MMOs. (I’m a little tempted to go back and see if another 8+ expansions and several years of good design examples have helped it turn into something playable. Doubt it, though.) There’s just so much to it, much of which is incredibly cool conceptually if not always carried out with impeccable skill. It even beats out WoW in certain user-friendliness metrics. Like quest target loot - nearly always drops unless you’re looking for one single item and is automatically looted.
Dwarf Fortress with a side of Mount and Blade, I keep wishing that I could somehow merge the two.
I held off on Mount and Blade for the longest time because try as I might it just didn’t look fun, that was before I ran down a dozen guys with my lance though.
Replayed Bladestorm from the English side and got Excalibur as a reward. This time I even got the artsy gentleman showing up to congratulate me on my art sales! And the Aegis blacksmith said he’d forge an Aegis shield for me but he wasn’t done when I quit.
This month i finally bought World of Goo, i played Mirror’s Edge (decent game, but not my type), in the retro section i was playing a bit of Quake I (the first expansion), but the game most played was…
Armed Assault + ACE mod 1.01 in Domination 3.0 Multiplayer
So much fun. Paradropping to the objetives, calling artillery to lasered targets, seeing the tracers in the night from a friendly BH fall in the enemies heads, killing armor with Javelins (or levelling buildings if you miss), running away from Hinds, etc.
January was a WoW month for me. I returned after a year plus absence, since my friends wanted to play WotLK with me (I’m the Priest, so you understand their motives). Unfortunately, I’m still only L70 (was L67 when I last quit), since I’ve been spending way too much time making a fortune playing the AH. Starting with 100G, I’ve amassed 3000 gold playing the AH for merely one hour over the past week. It’s really satisfying flipping items on the AH for a tidy profit. I need help.
On the downside, my huge PC, 360, PS3, Wii, DS, and PSP backlog continues to grow. You don’t want to know the quality titles that are pissed at me for not even playing them once. However, I am certain that Dawn of War II will own me in mid-February. I need more help.
I finally installed Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines this month, in an attempt to suppress the voices urging me to buy Fallout 3 and Prince of Persia.
Man what a great game. I’m currently on my third playthrough. The voices are gone. Although I’m playing as a Malkavian, so I’m not completely sure about that.
