What I’m playing right now…
Madden 08 (PS3) – Awesome game even if it’s a bit ubiquitous every year. Graphics look great on the PS3 (this my first time playing on next gen) coupled with HDTV. Interestingly EA seems to find new touches to add to the game to keep it fresh for those of us who have played season after season on this game. New stuff this year include one handed catches and improved Hit Stick (you can now hit a guy low or high depending how flick the analog stick). The Madden Cards seem to be gone, which I don’t mind at all. I thought it was silly and never used them, except to unlock classic teams. Now it seems they have a trophy room that keeps track of your accomplishments. That definitely seems better to me. I haven’t really gone online yet, but they have the usual leagues and season modes that you’d expect from Madden. Another thing that is no more is the NFL Europe teams, as NFL-E is no more. Again, something I doubt many people used as it wasn’t that popular. All in all a great game as usual.
NBA Live 08 (PS3) – This game is leaps and bounds from the last version of Live that I played. Mind you that was on a previous gen console, but still, this is crazy how good this game is. The graphics look great (player faces are really good), game feels really good with the controls, sound is good. Lots of new stuff this year. Quickstrike Ballhandling: this is basically a more “organic” way of making moves with your player using the analog stick. No more push right to do this move, left to do this one. Now you can make move combinations and it looks more fluid and less robotic. Go To Moves: now players use the moves that they use in real life like Kobe’s turn around jumper (that he stole from MJ), Dirk’s weird looking shots that he somehow makes. I like this feature of course cuz it just adds to the realism. My favorite new addition is something I have been wishing they’d add for a long time. International Teams! Finally I can play as Dirk on the German team, Yao on the Chinese team and Gasol on the team from Spain (current FIBA champs). Of course they only have like 8 teams, but I’m sure (I hope) it’s only a start. They still don’t have NBA D-League (minor league) teams and it would be a good addition, especially in the Franchise mode where you could call up players. All in all, highly impressed with the additions and new stuff they have in the game and how great the game looks in HD.
MotorStorm (PS3) – MotorStorm was one of the first games available on the PS3 when it came out. It’s obvious that they wanted this to be a game that showcased what the PS3 is capable of. Mission accomplished. If you haven’t seen this game in HD, I highly suggest it. It’s beautiful! On top of that, it is VERY fun! There’s good racing as well as gratuitous crashing and running people over. Actually you could argue that part of the strategy is making sure that you knock the other guy out of the race (or at least knock him back). The game is surprisingly deep. There are lots of tracks and you can download new tracks (for a nominal fee). Then there are events, which is basically a collection of tracks and conditions (basically which vehicle you have to use). You can also download new events. Of course there are a lot of vehicles, with more you can download. I gotta say this is some of the most fun I have had just playing a video game.
Gran Turismo HD (PS3) – This is not a demo nor is it a full game. There are only 10 cars and 1 track. You can only do time trials and drift challenges. It’s basically meant to showcase the game before the full version comes out. And showcase it is. I hate to sound redundant and call this game beautiful, but it is. I can only image that GT5 is going to be classic. There is no online play, but you can upload your best times and see the best times on each car from other players. You can download a replay of the best racers to see how they got their time trial time. Though the game is lacking in depth, it does it’s job well of holding me over till the full game comes out. Oh and it’s a free download. You can’t beat that.
Anticipating: Gran Turismo 5, Metal Gear Solid 4
So what’s everyone’s current list looking like?
I totally feel you about narrowing it down. That’s basically why I love sports/racing games. You can get into your franchise/career and play a lot or a little, depending on your time. Same with Starcraft, however, a match can get long in SC.
I too am waiting for SC2 to come out, but I’m mad they haven’t shown any Zerg info on the Blizzard site yet. Wasn’t that game supposed to be out already?!
MGS4 will take a good portion of my time when that comes out. Of course that’ll probably be the only game I play until I finish it.
Because of my resent move my budget is really tight and I cant really afford to buy any new games. I ones I do play is Halo 3, Guitar Hero 3, (on and off) Fable, and Final Fantasy series. I tried to get on SC online but because of my internet speed I lag in the game
Take a look at my speed test.
http://www.speedtest.net/result/209709100.png
Any way that is what I do with my free time.
I was thinking about making a arcade machine to play all the
nes, snes, sega, ect. Have you guy ever thought about making one.
Well first off I’ve become totally addicted to Tower Defence games. Online, you can find a plethora of them for free. http://www.towerdefence.net is the main site I frequest. They even got a nice little TD game for my Sidekick 3 lol.
But on to the real stuff. 360 is my weapon of choice.
1) The Orange Box – I didn’t buy it, but it’s definately one of the best buys you can make these days. Portal is amazing and I’m mad that it’s so short. HL2 is always dope (yeah that’s right, I took it there) and TF2 seems cool.
2) Rock Band – The drums are wonderful and I can keep up my real life drum skills and even improve my speed and timing with this thing. The singing part is surprisingly fun and addictive. The guitar and bass parts are way easier than the Guitar Hero series but still fun. Still hoping to get 4 people together for a full band.
3) Need for Speed Carbon – I liked Most Wanted better in terms of gameplay but overall it’s a pretty fun game. It’s as realistic as you can get without breaching the uber realistic line of Project Gotham Racing, and thus soon crossing over into totally real Forza and the like. The cops are way tougher in this one though. Pretty fun.
4) Guitar Hero II – I’ve played GH1, GH3, and Rock Band, and I think out of all of them, GH2 has the best song list. Still love to crack this thing up. Jordan pwnz j00!
5) Switchball – a nifty little Marble Madness type game. My wife loves it and the music and gfx are cool. Coop is nice.
6) Geometry Wars Evolved – I started playing this again and I’ve finally been able to consistantly get over 200,000 points. It’s tough but there are some tips I followed online to get better. It’s pretty addicting, and the music is wicked.
Dang, Shen. You’re in PR?? Yeah, ain’t gonna get great connections down there.
Shen, you might actually have to go to like a game cafe or something out there.
i actually had NFS:Carbon but i wasn’t really feeling it. traded it in. i’ll probably put the money towards Tiger Woods 08. i did see NFS:Prostreet and i want to download the demo and check it out. is Switchball like Marble Madness back on the NES?
Yeah it’s like Marble Madness, but more dreamy and outdoors. It’s cool. If you don’t like Carbon you probably won’t like Prostreet. Well maybe. Prostreet is like track racing, no cops or anything. The GFX and cars are awesome but the whole reason I play NFS is for the cops, it’s fun.
Actually I downloaded the demo to NFS:ProStreet over the weekend and I kinda liked it. My first exposure to NFS was Underground 1 & 2 which didn’t have the cops. Maybe that was why I wasn’t feeling Carbon. I also couldn’t really get with the whole “crew” idea. My only issue with ProStreet so far is that it’s way too sensitive. Tho I attribute this to being a demo version. I’m hoping you can adjust the sensitivity in the main version. I also don’t really like steering with the analog stick, so that could be it as well (no option to change that in the demo). I downloaded a bunch of racing demos over the weekend so maybe I’ll do a “demo review” or something.
Well Prostreet is also so supposed to further bridge the gap between arcade style driving (Burnout, earlier NFS games) and sim driving (Forza, Gran Gurismo) and make it more realistic than past NFS games. If that’s your style, it will work for you. Lord knows it’s better than stupid Ridge Racer lol.
Yeah the crew thing was relatively useless. I preferred Most Wanted that had more boss battles and no crew.
I’m playing Call of Duty 4 like crazy online, still in the middle of bioshock, of course Halo 3. I haven’t touched mass effect, asassin’s creed, Kane & Lynch yet, but I want too.
Of course Guitar Hero is a staple although I haven’t gotten on the Guitar Hero 3 or Rock Band Bandwagons yet. Not that I don’t WANT too, but honestly, infinity ward owns me. Call of Duty 4 is the 400 lb. gorilla of online multiplayer right now.
Seriously.