What have you been playing... IN FEBRUARY 2008

Yes, it's that time of month again. I tried to delay it a little bit
because, technically, we already *had* this thread this month (thanks
scubahsteve for making me feel useless! ;-), plus this was a short
month and all... but eventually I knew the thread had to come back.

So let's bypass the usual claptrap -wanted a thread about games,
yadda-yadda- and move on right to the meat.

February wasn't a big gaming month for me; technical issues (dead
monitor!), work issues, and just a lack of really good new games kept
me from playing as much as I'd have liked.


* Half Life 2 Episode 2 (replay)
Standard disclaimer: I don't own HL2 for certain reasons I'd prefer
not to go into in this thread, but I still manage to play it thanks to
a less-picky friend (so long as Valve isn't getting my money, I figure
my ethics are intact ;-). I didn't actually play HL2:Ep2
start-to-finish (one of the disadvantages of not owning the game) but
I got through most of it. While I wish Valve would *finally* start
moving the plot along, the overall experience is still very good. The
set pieces are very nice and the game is equisitely balanced (except
maybe for the last sequence, but I probably only say that 'cause I
suck at grav-tossing those bombs). The characters are appealing and
the graphics are very nice. It's just a well-put together product, and
except for one niggling flaw (I'm not going to say it! *HE* might
hear!) it's something I'd love to own.



* Sins of Solar Empire (new)
Sins is an unusual mix of RTS and turn-based strategy. While I'm not
sure it altogether works -and it's certainly no replacement for the
ancient classic, Master of Orion- I did stay up far too long in the
night playing this game. My main gripes are the lack of a strong
campaign-mode, the underwhelming technology-tree, and the lack of
varied enemies. Unfortunately, these few problems result in a lack of
longevity for the game; twenty minutes into the game you've pretty
much seen it all. Three days and two campaigns later, I'd gotten bored
with it already. Maybe after two or three expansion packs are
released, the game might become more interesting in the end-game, but
after a few more days of diddling about with it, I uninstalled.



* Penumbra Black Plague (new)
I picked this game up on a whim; I'd tried the tech-demo a year ago
and wasn't all that impressed, but I figured I should give the
full-release a try. Not too surprisingly, I still wasn't impressed.
Perhaps it was the stunningly bad performance (I played Crysis on
medium-to-high settings, but Penumbra ran with a single-digit
framerate?) or the understated atmosphere, but four or five rooms into
the game and I had enough. Uninstalled.



* Hellgate London (new)
I'm not a fan of Diablo. I mean, I've played it (and it's sequel, and
many of its clones) to completion, but they never really grabbed me. I
just find the gameplay boring; questing hour after hour so I can have
a sword +17 to replace my sword +15? And everything I'd read and heard
about Hellgate London said it was Diablo, except this time in
third-person view. Still, Diablo did have a somewhat interesting
story and good atmosphere -enough to make me want to play it to the
end- so I figured to give Hellgate a shot.

As expected, the gameplay bored me to tears. What did surprise me is
so did the story; the overall plot was tiresome and the miniquests
were the sort of random grind I'd expect from an MMO. There was a
distinct lack of variety throughout the game; the monsters all looked
the same, the tilesets looked the same; the weapons and armor all
looked the same. It was only because, quite frankly, I didn't have
anything better to play that I managed to get through this game to the
end. The overall experience was unrelenting dullness and it wasn't
five minutes after the credits rolled that the game was uninstalled.



* Star Wars KOTOR (replay, continued from last month)
On the otherhand, KOTOR kept me entertained. Though not without its
flaws, it's still manages to engage me. The biggest disappointment was
that it finally ended and -sadly- the KOTOR2 fan-patch hasn't been
released yet.



* Jade Empire (replay)
Since I couldn't play SW:KOTOR2 (or rather, not so much as "couldn't"
as "I refuse to do so until the fan-patch adds in all the stuff
Obsidian forgot to put in"), I decided to go with another Bioware RPG,
Jade Empire. Mildly entertaining, the game has a number of major
problems that keeps it from being a classic. Foremost of these is the
awful combat system that made KOTOR's combat look deep in comparison.
Secondly was the trite and utterly predictible plot. And third was how
short and linear the game was; with virtually no subplots, I whipped
through Jade Empire in a fraction of the time I took with KOTOR. Less
than a week after I'd started, I'd beaten the big-bad foozle and had
to uninstall.


* Neverwinter Nights 2 (replay)
Are you sensing a pattern here? Yes, another Bioware RPG. This time I
tried NWN2. Sadly, though, the computer I was playing it on (a Dell
laptop and not my main gaming rig) just wasn't up to the task; even
with the details cranked down, the framerate was still terrible. But
since the game wasn't grabbing me, I considered it no big loss and
uninstalled it after only a few days into my quest.


* Sega Rally Revo (new)
Sega Rally Revo has this really cool thing going for it: deformable
terrain on its tracks. Race around through the mud and you -and your
opponents- will tear up the tracks, leaving realistic ruts in the
road. Race through a puddle and the water will even fill up the ruts
in the way you'd expect. Unfortunately, that's pretty much all this
game has going for it; the racing is otherwise unexceptional and after
five or six races I'd gotten bored and uninstalled the game.


----

Well, that's all I did for February. Not as much as usual, but
hopefully things will pick up in March. So now it's your turn:

What have you been playing ... IN FEBRUARY?
.

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