Just finished Crysis. Was quite awesome fun for the most part, let's see if I can crank out a review post-haste.

That will be worth reading indeed.

Been tooling about C&C - Generals and Age of Mythology. I'm more of an AOM player than a C&C player — i'm just not frenetic enough (as yet) and the need to be constantly be on the aggressive is very alien to the way I play RTSs. I like to be left mostly undisturbed till I can pummel the opposition with wave after wave of immensely powerful forces.
AOM on the other hand has been a blast so far - especially now that I have four large veteran hydras. I only wish the game had been gorier but one can't have everything i guess. For the first time since Freedom Force (mmm must revisit!) I actually had to tear myself away from the computer to get to work. It's also probably (now that I bothered to read the manual) one of the most user-friendly and intuitive games ever though my urge to play in the moronic drag and drop manner of my wasted youth reasserts itself whenever large enemy forces manifest. But yeah hotkeying to banners is a snap and the sorta thing EVERY RTS game should have.

^^Turtling is my downfall as well. Dawn of War was the first game that forced me to run my ass off and control the map while cranking out the goodies back at homebase and still let me have fun the whole while.

Finally playing the complete UT3, and feature-wise it's a mixed bag at first look. The campaign mode is total cock. In spite of having a 'story' and cutscenes, it feels far more ridiculous and disconnected than the simple 'choose your team and claw your way to the top' premise of UT2004. Assault's gone; so is Bombing Run. Onslaught has a few changes, mostly fun ones. There are less characters, but custom costume options for each team. LAN sessions are still exquisite, and with features and resolution toned down a bit, this will still run at a good clip on midrange rigs and not end up looking too bad, to boot. Review has to happen. Soon.

On a friend's recco, playing Chrono Trigger on an SNES emulator. Turn based combat still not that comfortable, but the oldschool feelgood quest feel so far is great.

Was quite impressed by FIFA 08 on the 360, though I hear the PC version is naff. Of course, I still suck balls at it, leaving me no option but to plod on in Amateur difficulty. Quite a few decent modes, but lack of training from setpieces is stupid. Especially when I take crap free kicks. In 06 FIFA World Cup, I had mastered this long range lobbing free kick for a guaranteed goal every time, thanks to at least an hour of practicing just free kicks.

Anyway, presentation wise, 08 is untouchable. Cloth movement, seamless character animation with a wide array of moves and crystal clear graphics. Gameplay wise, it's not that far off either. Though I'm still largely reliant on running down the flank and crossing the ball in for a header or toe-in, and haven't been able to do shit with through balls yet.

^^The PC version *is* quite bad..

Was playing Half-Life 2 recently. I went through this part where you're driving a boat and stopping off at various points to open floodgates for the boat to pass.

At one point I abandoned the boat and started to wade through the water so that I wouldn't rush past secret goodies etc. And then I reached a point where I need to go through a long tunnel filled with radioactive slime, which means constant health drain. At the end of this I meet an attack copter. There's no freaking way I can outrun this thing and putting every single grenade and bullet I have into it barely makes a dent.

There's no way I can return to the boat I left some gates back and I don't have a save-game in which I am still on the boat. I expect I'll have to start the game all over again.

Muhahahhahahaha. Somehow when game related mishaps occour to you and Ganesh, they are extra funny.

@ravenus: Dude, there HAS to be something you're missing. HL2 never puts you in an unwinnable situation. Maybe some health packs you missed, some cover you can use while the copter's around.

Oh wait, I think I remember this part. If I'm right, you have to do one of those physics puzzles to get this ramp angled up so you can launch the boat into the tunnel. The next part is a huge chase sequence with the copter and some more Combine baddies hot on your trail. Brilliant fun.

I think you lost him at 'physics puzzle' Chax. That's the sort of thing that has R running off to bury his tear stained face in the heaving bosom of Quake 2.

BS! We're not talking about your stint with the tutorial level of Baldur's Gate 2. I have done boat over ramp thingies, I doubt if it applies in this level. Thing is, I left the boat a few floodgates back and I'm not sure but I think they close up or something. Maybe I'll check later.

Hahaha. Last couple of posts were hilarious!

Started on Heroes V - Tribes of the East. The first campaign was good fun with the usual caveats of the Heroes V series. Nival is unrivalled when it comes to creating characters, powers, animations, creatures and bare concepts — they've revitalised the Barbarian class as Orcs and made a more aggressive melee oriented style of playing a necessity and not an option. It works quite spectacularly and some of the powers your Orc gains are truly magnificent. And yet, Nival slips up when it comes to placing these interesting characters in an interesting context. The story is yawn inducingly boring and the maps kinda uninspired. Yet the sheer novelty of playing a new race (and lotsa black metchulllll) helped me breeze through the first campaign. Am on the next where I'm playing a Necromancer — what's interesting is a few atypical mods on the Necromancer units (Poltergeists instead of ghosts; and a few other mods on zombies and skeletons as well) which the game rewards you for trying to discover and adopt, something I'm going to do as soon as I get home.

Been tinkering with some casual games like DarkSide and the terribly addictive Marble Blast. Just got a load of AAA-type titles, so will report back on that in a bit.

Finished one mission from the Necromancer campaign in Heroes V. Was pretty decent ovrall though they've fallen into the Daiblo-ical trap of giving old mosnters new skins and a few moderate ability tweaks. On these ability tweaks I remain a bit sceptical but hey they also threw in a few new battle animations. Am slogging through mission 2 which again unortunately relies on a lot of pointless traversing through the map. But still the fun opf combat is great and a brilliant incentive to keep playing.