What Are You Playing - February

[mavrach]

Skyrim - I basically beat it. I'd spent at least 120 hours, which is unprecedented for me. I beat the questlines for the Winterhold College, the Companions, the Dark Brotherhood, the Thieves Guild, the Daedric quests, the Civil War, and then the main questline. The level of designing that went into this game is staggerring. Any one of those questlines would have made a decent RPG. Then you beat the game and it lets you continue as if you've done nothing special, totally encouraging you to stay.

The glitches were a big problem. At first it would crash a lot, forcing me to restart the PS3. Then came the slowdown/laggy graphics issues. The best way to fix that was to go indoors and wait for several in-game days. Then there were some logic gaps...worst was the Theives Guild, where early on you get the Theives Guild's special armor. I didn't like it so I sold it. Then a little further you get to trade in that armor for a better suit. But if you don't have the armor anymore you're completely screwed because the NPC just keeps asking if you have it. She's a fence, which is gone at that point. And at the end of the Theives Guild quests, you need her again for a final upgrade. So I couldn't officially complete that line (and get my PS3 trophy) because I sold the stupid armor. Considering the level of detail that went into this game, you'd think they would've polished it a bit more before release. I guess it was more important to get the game out for Christmas.


Uncharted 3 - Pretty good, but it felt clunkier than the previous entries. The controls just felt less refined. I liked how the storyline focused more on Drake & Sully's relationship, whereas Sully was barely in the second game. I wish they'd stop having Drake & Elena break up between each game. And the Uncharted games do exactly what the Tomb Raider games do, and exactly what the Indiana Jones movies did - The hero is always pursuing an artifact that promises great fortunes, only to find said McGuffin is actually a danger that had been sealed away for a reason. The hero never gets the treasure and instead learns about themselves. It's tried & true, but Uncharted needs to tighten up if it doesn't want to become Tomb Raider after a few more entries.

The Legend of Zelda - Skyward Sword - Zelda games have the problem of loading 90% of their plot into the first two hours of the game, so you have to slog through kiddie characters before finally getting released into the game world. There is an over-abundance of tutorials. I get that they're going for younger gamers, but I wish there was an option to skip learning how to use the bombs that I've been throwing for 25 years now!

The gameplay is tweaked a bit. Instead of an overall overworld, the surface plays as sort of a pre-dungeon dungeon, where searching objectives must be completed before you even get into the main dungeon. I like that they're experimenting with the formula, as that's a main complaint about the Zelda series, but I miss the open-world aspects where you can go anywhere you want, unlocking puzzles with newfound weapons.

I had to buy a Wii Motion Plus controller (apparently they don't make just the add-on component anymore), so I essentially payed $90 for this one. It's not quite worth that price tag (esp since I don't expect to buy any more Wii games), but it does use the controls well. With a little refinement, this game could be a lot better. It's just sorta making me want to replay Twilight Princess.

[Attrage]

Good to hear from a fellow PS3 gamer that you managed to finish Skyrim even with the bugs. It gives me hope.

As for me, there's Skyrim, then more Skyrim, then more Skyrim. Then I thought I'll have anothe playthrough of Call of Duty: World at War, it's been a while. I lasted two missions then thought, screw it, back to Skyrim.

[Gabriel Girard]

My laptop's GHZ are a bit low and I'm behind on games so I'm playing Bioshock 2. I'm also playing Arkham City on my PC. Will probably by a PS3 later this year (see how behind I am?)

[Steve T Power]

I approve!
Meanwhile on the Power Ranch:

- Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning - Oh great, another love able life sucking bitch of a game. This is what happens when a hardcore gamer (in this case, self confessed wow/Elder Scrolls junkie Curt Schilling) takes everything he loves about gaming and crafts the shit out of it. Take the explorative feel of the Elder Scrolls games and cross it with Fable's sense of world design and artistry, and take the combat from something much more refined, and you get close to just whatan achievement this thing is. Fun, deep, huge! The developers are a dream team of creative minds, and Schilling's 38 Studios comes out swinging for the fences... home run? Hell no... Grand Slam.

- Soul Calibur 5 - Something of a return to form, and i'm digging it.

[Gabriel Girard]

Looking at the specs, my laptop might be able to run Skyrim. I'll try and see...

[Gabriel Girard]

Looking at the specs, my laptop might be able to run Skyrim. I'll try and see...

''Found'' it online and it seems to be working perfectly. I'll try it a little before buying it. I never played any of the Elder Scroll games and I'm more used to Bioware RPGs (KOTOR, Jade Empire, Neverwinter Nights).