If you don't mind some squad based tactics stuff on top of that, the first Ghost Recon game is definitely worth a look.

I beat God of War for the first time yesterday. Game was quite fun overall, but did anyone else think the boss fights were obnoxious? The game didn't feel too difficult overall, but I kept getting REALLY annoyed by the bosses. It felt like the developers used some artificial means to make them difficult. Maybe I just suck.

God of War bosses are almost always in the old-school vein of hit 'em once and run the fuck away, rinse and repeat.

Anyone play Natural Selection II?

Support! Ghost Recon along with the expansions Desert Siege and Island Thunder is sweet. If you like planning a bit (it can be quite minimal if you don't like it) your moves for maximum efficiency, it can be quite satisfying. Funnily enough, I have good memories of being pinned down in the remains of a destroyed house, during a bleak and rainy day, hearing bullets zip by, they actually feel dangerous.

Loving XCOM.

Soooo... Black Ops 2. The little I heard about it rubs me the right way, but I can always use additional (and hopefully sensible) first impressions. Anyone?

Hey guys and girls! I was hoping I could get a minute of your time to check out this game called The Red Solstice. It's a tactical, isometric horror shooter with an emphasis on strategic team-oriented gameplay. The game itself is based off an old Warcraft 3 mod called Night of the Dead, being developed by some of the original creators of the mod.

I composed some of the music for the soundtrack, as well as the promo trailer for this game, so I do have somewhat of a vested interest in the title. However, if you check it out for just a minute, I think you'll see that this is the real deal; a rather high quality indie game. See for yourself! Please up-vote them on the Greenlight page if you like what you see

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=100311867&insideModal=0&requirelogin=1

BTW here's an extended mix of some of the music I did for the game

https://soundcloud.com/omni-psyence/the-red-solstice-aberrations

So PLEASE if you have Steam, just visit this page for a moment and check it out. We really do need all the extra votes we can get, it would make a huge difference as we are almost in the top 100. Thanks so much!

I gave it a thumbs up. Looks great, Night of the Dead was one of my favorite Warcraft 3 maps and it's cool to see it continue on.

It seems to be getting really good reviews, I skipped modern warfare 3 since it didn't have that good reviews but it looks like I will probably have to get this one.

Believe me, it's about as much of a colossal POS as Black Ops. No major gaming industry review site is going to slam these kinds of games for obvious reasons (hint: it begins and ends with "$").

Yeah I don't doubt some of the sites are just reviewing it high because they got money to do so, I'll wait until more reviews and youtube videos with gameplay are out. That being said it looks like it will be awesome with all the new improvements they have, and the original black ops was my favorite of the call of dutys, although completely for the online play as the campaign mode for the original black ops wasn't very good, but who buys call of duty games for the story mode? The multiplayer is where its at.

Everyone's saying that it's the best CoD since CoD4. So if you're a big fan of CoD's core gameplay, it might be worth it this time.

I have a good feeling that in the next month or two, players will come up with new cheap no-skill tactics. Happens with every CoD. If it doesn't happen this time, I'll be impressed.

If I get it and end up hating it like MW3 and Black Ops 1 (both of those games were gifted to me, if anyone's wondering why I keep buying shit ), at least there's zombies to kill.

The single player is what I care about, personally. If anything - who the hell buys a $60 game just for the multiplayer when there are free-to-plays that might turn out just as satisfying in that regard?

When COD4: MW came out, it was a big deal with a lot of my friends that had 360s. They played the single player maybe once and stuck to multiplayer until MW2 came out. I played one and then the next and it seemed like the exact same game. Just another $60 for new maps, weapon tweaks, and the like. Then MW3 came out and it was another $60 (or hell, more for extra stuff) for the exact same things that the other game added - more maps, weapon tweaks, and the same mechanical changes. Ultimately the same game and gameplay 3 games in a row, and stack Black Ops 1 and 2 on top and it's like playing the same games with very minor gameplay differences (just different weapons [barely], maps, and character models). I can say that the only memorable mission from any of the single player games of these last 5 COD games imo was the "No Russian" one.

So, if I am to rephrase, you're basically saying that despite the advertising and the positive review coverage, there are actually no significant changes/improvements in Blops 2 when compared to the rest of the herd. Correct me if I'm wrong, of course.

There's a lot of changes in Black Ops 2. Mostly metagame, pick-10 class system, more rational design philosophy of kill streaks and perks, etc.

The core gameplay, however, is still mostly the same. You still have the ability to quickly ADS after sprinting, guns behave almost the same as they usually do, etc. The biggest difference I've read about the core gameplay is that knife isn't 1-hit kill and you can't lunge.

The core gameplay is the biggest problem I have with CoD. The mechanics gives camping and cheap tactics too much strength. If you watch "skill montages", there's not really much skill going on. Those videos usually consist of guys killing poor unsuspecting players. He's not outplaying them or anything, he just simply catches them before they catch him.

And Yet It Moves failed to launch again, so I drew something to calm me down.

Wow. Crashed app art.

That's... brilliantly awesome.

It really is. If you could remove the "Please log in..." bit you might even be able to sell it

Thanks, but as a philosophy student I don't believe in making money.

Anyways, And Yet It Moves is an indie platformer that I got through one of the Humble Bundles in which you can freely turn gravity in 90 degree steps to advance in the levels. There are also other interesting mechanics that interact with the basic concept so it doesn't get too boring, but unfortunately it does get kind of dull at times since the puzzles (which you would expect much more of in such a game) are far too easy. Good for short, casual fun though. I'm not sure how I feel about the "torn cardboard" art style...

I had a lot of fun with AYIM for a few hours. Cool art!

I also have And Yet It Moves from a Humble Bundle. I heard it was pretty decent. I just recently started playing the copy of Bit Trip Runner I got from one of those, this game is pretty damn enjoyable and very challenging. Fair gameplay, simple but great controls. The music is pretty cool, especially the track Blackout City. Must track down the Compilation disc on Wii.

Black Ops 2

AKA Call of Duty 9.

Fuck that shit.

I've gotta have Persona 4 Golden. And I've gotta fucking have it NOW.

"If player fulfills criteria for at least good ending, daily activities are expanded to February 14th 2012, giving more time for events and social links."

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFUCK I NEED IT

I'm gonna buy P4 because I like the Megaten games, but I hope it's not as slow as P3. Good God, all that day by day stuff and having to wait to advance in the storyline was a killer.

There are certain story lock-out periods like the Full Moon events in P3, but they're more like 2 weeks long instead of 4 weeks. And P4 has more shit to do in the meantime, especially in P4G from the sounds of it. FUCKING JANUARY AND FEBRUARY ARE AVAILABLE NOW!! FUCK YEAH!!

Actually, the only thing that ever grilled my biscuits about P4 was finding clues about the victims in order for Teddie/Rise to find them.

I wrote this on bungie.net, but figured I could drop it here too.

Starting off this essayish thing: I don't care about the multiplayer, it's not relevant to Halo as far as i'm concerned and I will not discuss it. Multiplayer is just repackaged and given new mechanics every time and it's not what HAlo 4 should be all about. Henceforth the campaign of Halo 4 is what really turned me off. I played it for 9 hours the very day I got it, without stopping to do anything but eat, drink coffee, and piss. I was completely underwhelmed. So underwhelmed it felt like my mind was falling asleep and going numb. The campaign of Halo 4 was a painful experience for me.

What could possible my one's mind go numb? Well, perhaps it was the cut scenes that dragged on for eternity that I really couldn't care less about. In previous Halo games there was some brief yet concise discourse with some characters of the game, master chief would be his usual silent self and cortana would talk to you during the game. Well in this game, there's way too many cut scenes just involving cortana when you have to insert her chip into something so she could talk to you. I wonder why chief didn't just -blam!- leave her in there sometimes and just save himself the trouble of having to listen to cortanas deteriorating -blam!- ass.

Not to mention the story mode. What the -blam!- is going on? All I know is cortana's stupid -blam!- ass probably awoke that guy who flies around in that stupid ball. In the previous games you knew that you had a simple goal; stop the religious bastards from ongoing the great journey with the -blam!- Halo rings. I stomped their sorry asses in the other games, listened to grunts say humorous things while being surrounded by team mates who would also have cute little witty dialog whilst you play. In Halo 4, it seems like the people i'm working with are completely moronic -blam!- -blam!-s. Who's that guy who was calling out cheif and telling people to arrest him? Who was that girl who was like "You're shorter than I imagined." -blam!- HER! SHE'S TALKING TO MASTER MOTHER -blam!- CHIEF, 3 TIME HERO OF THE MOTHER -blam!- GALAXY! You're treated like you're some louse in this game.

Gameplay was abysmal. Isn't that what it all comes down to in the end? There's games that have no story that I'm still happy to play, such as DOOM. Halo 4 had too much -blam!- story that I didn't care about while the gameplay suffered immensely. The entire campaign was just a few new vehicles you get to either pilot or in one case, stand on. I couldn't help but feel a little funny doing the driving course near the beginning of the game and being reminded of the end of Halo 3 and thinking, what's the point of this so early? Not to mention the check points were extremely poorly spaced out. There were times when it would take me a -blam!- hour just to get to the next check point because, in the sense of wanting to get things done efficiently, preserving ammo, or just plane sucking, I would die. The game is very unforgiving. The enemies weren't terrible, it was just a little annoying how those dog things kept -blam!- hounding me constantly. Just too many forerunner enemy. You're not battling enemies with voices or consciousness, you're battling some stupid faceless enemy and it's boring as -blam!-. The covenant don't seem to show up as much as the forerunners either.

I have been a Halo fan ever since I first set my young little eyes on a master chief statue at a mall when I was young (around the time of Halo 2). I now possess that master chief statue. I remember playing Halo 2 at whoever's house I went over to until I finally found an Xbox at a garage sail at around the time when the Xbox 360 came out, when I finally got Halo 2 and Halo CE. Perfect time for me to make the transition into Halo 3. Halo 3, I had the most expectation of any game in my entire life and I loved it to death until Halo reach came out. I always proclaimed that Halo is my favorite game series of all time. 343 is royally -blam!- that up. I may not be the most articulate or well read Halo fan. I couldn't tell you anything about the Halo books or the story line, but I play the game over and over and played the online for Halo 3 for thousands of hours. It was my first ever online experience. Said I wasn't going to talk about online, but that's important to my point. Halo is a very important part of my life. 343 has no clue what they're doing. PERIOD.

I've hardly touched the campaign for Halo 4 but the multiplayer is great. I suck pretty bad at it (not a natural console fps player myself) but I really appreciate the skill and decision making involved in Halo.

Funny how the only AAA title that has any resemblance to arena shooters like Quake and Unreal Tournament is a console game. TF2 has arena shooter style mechanics but it doesn't have the momentum-based dynamics (item control) that Quake and UT have.

I remember last time I played quake, I found the controls unbearable. I'm actually trying to find a better version that allows for more customizeable (seriously customizable isn't a word, google chrome?) controls. It's just practically unplayable for me.

You're probably the only person in the world who has ever said that Quake's controls are unbearable, and considering how customizable .cfgs are, well, the game is very customizable.

I hate to sound like a jaded, cynical asshole, but I take anything that reviewers say with a grain of salt so fine, it's almost invisible to the naked eye.

The same could be said about anyone's opinion really, but I'm not sure it applies to this case. An established reviewer, paid or otherwise, could make something bad sound like something good, but I doubt any of them would go as far as putting their cred at stake by boasting game features that don't actually exist.

I've been splitting my time between Halo 4 and The Witcher 2 lately. I love both, the Witcher 2 is absolutely engrossing so far partly because of the graphics and the fantastic storyline that really immerse you into the world. Halo 4 is really impressive to me since its the first Halo I've played since 2 on the original Xbox. The story is alright so far, I really don't have any idea whats going on back story-wise, but its still making me push on. The multiplayer is really fun though, especially when me and my room mate do split-screen Slayer. I'm pretty average at online fps, but It's still a complete blast.

Also finished Assassin's Creed 3. Good lord was that a great game, arguably my favorite out of the whole damn series.

Ah. If that's what you mean by progression, then yeah you're probably right. I don't really care about how an FPS plays or 'mechanics'. The shooting part is always a chore for me and I wouldn't even notice the difference between the gameplay in Halo or Doom. I was referring to 'progression' in the sense that in Far Cry 2 felt like I was on more of a structured journey, Stalker felt too much like a sandpit of different factions.

I wonder how Far Cry 3 will fair...

so far far cry 3 looks like it has potential, with the score based kills and character level progression added, it may very well be a fun game.

Anyone else playing black ops 2? i got it for the zombies and multiplayer i could care less about the storey. havent had a chance to play the multiplayer yet but from what i have played of the zombie maps i am a little disapointed as they feel more like arenas rather than a level and there are too few options of doors to open or guns to buy on the walls. My other big complaint with zombies this time is when you die they dont give you a headshot stat, which is a bummer because i like seeing my kills to headshot ratio. I really dont see black ops 2 taking me away from borderlands two for very long. i am still loving the borderlands game and it has so much replayability i will be playing it for a long time to come.

I'm pretty excited for Far Cry 3. From what I've seen of it it seems pretty cool. I really hope they add an option to get rid of all of the junk on the HUD though.

I'm pretty excited for the new Hitman. I haven't been let down by IO-Interactive yet. The games have only gotten better so far, in my opinion, so I hope Absolution stays true.