What games are you playing right now?

This really really disturbs me and I don't know what to do.

http://www.destructoid.com/sony-doesn-t-know-if-psn-hackers-have-your-pe...

best reason to have an xbox yet.

Brink.

SO. MUCH. LAG.

They need to somehow fix that. Games mostly unplayable right now.

No comment on the 360 and lag problems. Except the previous sentence.

Yeah I'm on 360. I think I've spent more time fiddling with my character and the guns than playing the actual game because of the lag.

Heard the PC version runs fine though. Figures.

I loved Deadly Premonition, as far as I got into it before being distracted by Portal 2. It had been in my 'to play' pile for ages. Love the Twin Peaks quirk.

Currently hooked on Mass Effect. After starting and quitting the game four or five times, it finally sunk in. And got claws in me.

speaking of twin peaks, you can now stream the whole series on netflix.

Brilliant
Through some series of events Itunes has available for sale both seasons, cleaned up, remastered and at 720p. Absolutely gorgeous job someone did restoring it.

Twin Peaks will forever be in our cultural subconscious.

I like it that way.

So you think if I start it back up and stick with it, I may enjoy it?

Your recommendations are usually pretty good.

i tend to adapt to any control scheme pretty quickly - deadly premonition mostly reminds me of the controls of some dreamcast games and early horror games.

really was digging where the story was going, the unusual characters being introduced. some of the puzzles were disappointing because you expected them to be a lot more than they were, would read them and get to figuring them out in your head, and couldn't because it was stupid simple and they made you overthink.

from what i did play, i know i'll be going to it when i get the chance, and i'll end up loving it. give it six hours when if you're willing, and see what you think.

I actually got stupid stuck on a puzzle because I was making it way more complicated than it was (the chess puzzle). I was so frustrated and pissed so I looked it up and it wasn't even really a puzzle in my eyes.

yup. that's the one i was hinting at. i was going through chess board configurations and move orders in my head and finally had to look it up. i never use walkthroughs either. that bit pissed me off.

I'm the same way! I was like - I know how to move chess pieces for fuck's sake!

I felt so defeated having to look it up and, man, "you gotta be kidding me!"

I got Mortal Kombat! I'm gonna go play it now!!!

MY main ones at the moment are:

Portal 2 (Amazing on so many levels)
Deadly Premonition (Such a fantastic game! Love so much about it)
Deadspace 2

I still can't believe people actually like Deadly Premonition. So slow, terrible acting, and the controls are awkward. I'm going to give it another go still though because I promised Berto. But still, I'm surprised.

Started playing Halo Reach. It's pretty good. It's my first Halo game. I don't see why everybody loves them so much though. It's good. Not great. It really reminds me of Gears of War. But I love the Gears of War games...

Which reminds me, I can't wait to buy Gears of War 3 in September.

I don't play Halo but I think the reason they love it so much is because it revolutionized the 1st person shooter/multiplayer since Goldeneye. I don't know if this is true though, because in my opinion, the only thing they changed was the control scheme. The multiplayer looks exactly like Unreal Tournament which came before it.

Still playing MK. I'm at the end of the MK2 part. Fighting Shao Kahn. Just a matter of evading him until the time runs out.

are you enjoying it?

How lucky that you get to go on and play Halo: Combat Evolved next.

Don't go in the basement.

Halo basically made console shooters popular again. The first and Reach are my favorites. It and Call of Duty get a lot of undeserved hate and it's mostly due to the kinds of people who play them, not the games themselves.

Beat Dead Rising 2: Case Zero the other day. I got it when it was one sale the other week. I can only handle the Dead Rising games in small doses before I become unbelievably bored so this was perfect.

Also playing Portal 2 and Limbo but I think I'm just too dumb for puzzle games. I'm stuck on both of them and I'm trying to resist the urge to look up the solutions online.

Speaking of CoD and resisting urges, I'm resisting the urge to rebuy MW2 because I know once I get it I'll be reminded as to why I sold it in the first place as I do with every old game I waste money on rebuying again.

Reach has the best online play yet of the Halo games, though I do still miss the racing clans of H:CE.

Is Combat Evolved the first one? Because I do like Halo. I was thinking of buying the other ones just to play through the story modes.

Also - I haven't played it online yet, so I can't really judge that portion.

My favorite online shooter gameplay is Rainbow Six. I compare every game I play online to that. I also had a lot of fun playing Gears of War 2 online.

Yeah, Halo 1 is "Halo: Combat Evolved". It's called that by pretty-much no one, however.

Can I play regular xbox games on my xbox 360? Because Combat Evolved is only available for xbox. But it is only $10, so bonus there.

Some games you can. My copy of Morrowind runs on my 360.

And I think Halo 1 and 2 can be downloaded off the marketplace.

You can.

Supposedly there are some that don't run on 360, but I haven't found one yet.

I buy a lot of used $2-5 games and play em for a couple days then sell em back.

I am. A lot. I'm really into video game mythos and MK has a very interesting one.

Gameplay-wise, it has a lot to offer the single player. Story mode is fun and as I said, interesting. Tutorial is kind of tough because I still can't get down the timing of certain moves. Challenge Tower is great beyond words. 300 different challenges, I'll be here for a while. And Arcade Mode is Arcade Mode. Not much to say about that.

PSN is back up, but not the part of the network that lets me redeem my online "Kombat Pass". So..lame.

Thanks guys! I'll have to look into that.

I wonder if Matt is playing LA Noire.

I just texted him. It comes out the 20th there.

Oh. I just saw the video review for it.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/review-hd-l-a-noire/713930

I feel like it's too long and it's going to spoil some of the game... I watched a little of it though.

I downloaded Outland on the Xbox 360 marketplace this weekend and thought it was fantastic - to the point where I finished it in two sittings, then went back to find all the hidden collectables. It's an awesome side-scroller, with a great art style and a really cool light/dark mechanic. You can switch your character between the two on the fly, and whatever phase you're currently in lets you absorb attacks of the same color, yet only damage enemies of the opposite color. It leads to some clever sequences and amazing boss battles, so I can't recommend it enough. It was a great way to pass the time until tomorrow, when L.A. Noire will officially seize control of my free time.

Also, I loved Portal 2, and think it makes a strong argument for the best writing in any game, ever. Stephen Merchant's performance alone is worth the price of admission.

Loads of Xbox games run fine on the 360. All the Halo ones do. After Reach, which was my first Halo game too, I played through the campaigns of Halo 1-3. I'll get around to ODST someday, maybe. Probably not.

Still really digging Mass Effect. I know I'm going to want to immediately pick up ME2 when I finish, but a big part of me wants to wait until they release a Platinum Hits edition with all the DLC on disc.

I've often wondered about those games, but I found the demo merely ok. Not good enough for me to buy. But sometimes the demos don't do the games justice.

It took multiple false starts before I could really get into it. Play, shelve, pick up months later. Repeat. Once it took, though.. I've already sunk 40 hours into my first run-through, doing all available missions and quests, and I feel there's still at least 1/3 of the game left. Really looking forward to where this series may go.

NO SPOILERS PLS.

I finished ODST and liked it well enough, but didn't really have the desire to play more of it. Which is unusual for me in that if I do like something, I can do it repetetively endlessly.

I hated Mass Effect. Played it for 3 hours and gave up.

I remember saying that on a game forum I used to go to and this guy jumped me, saying I needed to play the entire game to 100% completion before I was allowed to say whether I hated it or not, how I needed to have an "informed opinion."

He was being totally serious by the way.

I'm pretty much in the exact same boat. I skipped Mass Effect when it first came out, but when ME2 received so much praise I decided to go back and play it so I'd be caught up on the story - I think I managed to stick it out for six hours before giving up.

The funny part is that a couple months ago I decided to bite the bullet and try Mass Effect 2, story knowledge be damned, and absolutely loved it. I'd put it right up there with Red Dead as one of the best games of last year. The game does a great job of giving you enough backstory to get you up to speed, and there are a million codex pages to read if you really want to know every last detail of the universe. Sometimes I wish that I'd had a completed save from ME1 because it could have potentially changed some parts of the story, but it's still not a big deal. My advice is to skip ME1, grab a copy of ME2 for twenty bucks, get the DLC packs "Katsumi: Stolen Memory" and "Lair of the Shadow Broker" and dive in.

This looks so fun. But I'm always iffy about getting PSN games because even though they are cheaper, I don't know if the money spent is going to be worth it, seeing as you can't return it.

I hear ya mate. I did the same thing repeatedly, but kept coming back around eventually, spurred on by reports of how good it was supposed to be.

Guess I had to be in the right mood to get into it. Very glad it finally worked out.

Yeah, like Pete said that I said, doesn't hit shelves for a couple more days, but know that when it does I'll be an inch from the screen. I'm even considering calling in sick for work. Is that bad?

Yes

No.

I'm going to vote No too. It comes out today here in Canada, so I've already got my copy waiting for me when I get home from work. And with the day I've been having, I'm thinking about calling in dead for the rest of the week.

Think about it this way: If you went, you'd be halfassing it anyway until you got home to play. So to go in would just be dishonest. Call in sick.

It's out here today and I actually am sick but I'm going to work anyway (considering I only worked two half shifts last week). Plus, I work late tonight and then early tomorrow, so my husband's going to bring it home and it's just going to sit in front of the TV until then.