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The Current Cinema thread is great fun, but cinema is no longer the largest and most lucrative media form. For a few years now, similar money has been invested in the development of, and larger returns have been seen, in the arena of video and computer games.
The last few weeks have seen the technology news pages trumpeting the launch of the much anticipated GTA IV game, from Rockstar, as the largest media launch link ever, beating the last record launch which
was Halo 3 (and when you consider that GTA IV is available for both the XBox 360 and the PS3, while Halo 3 was XBox 360 only, that's hardly surprising and, if anything, speaks well of the Halo franchise).
So i thought it was about time that
had a similar thread to The Current Cinema.
What are your favourite computer and video games? Why?
What are your least favourite? Why?
Feel free to add to this thread on an ongoing basis as new games get released.
I'll get the ball rolling:
(I have an Xbox 360)
GTV IV
I've only just yesterday started playing it (in typical fashion, the retailers sold out on day 1 - when was the last time a film or DVD was sold out completely, everywhere, on launch day?) and already I'm hooked. It looks sumptuous, the gameplay is interesting and fun, and it has the GTA franchise's (under Rockstar, anyway) characteristic satirical humour.
e.g. A cartoon available on the TV in the main character's first, rather squalid, apartment, called "Republican Space Soldiers" would make the blood of any American to the right of centre boil, and make everyone else roll on the floor laughing. An indication that most of the development is done outside the USA, in Britain apparently, which I didn't know. In the UK it launched the same weekend as Iron Man at the cinema and I daresay that many of the people who would otherwise have gone to see that were tucked away at home roaming the streets of Liberty City (an even more thinly-veiled New York City than in previous installments.)
10 out of 10 (based on about five hours' play only)
Halo Trilogy
The first game was really amazing and groundbreaking on it's own, probably shifted several million units of the original XBox console. The two sequels have built on thes firm foundations. I'll chance my arm and say that this was the first really cinematic game. iTunes shifts the Original Soundtrack Recordings in significant numbers, and I'm frankly not surprised. Nobody these days bats an eyelid when the music of, say, Ennio Morricone sells independently of the movies it features in, and as far as I know the Halo franchise is the first game where the music has done the same thing.
10 out of 10 (Halo 1); 9 for both sequels
Guitar Hero III
I tried this because I fancied a change from my usual shoot-'em-up or sandbox* games. I chose this one because it had a couple of music tracks I liked, and have found it great fun on the Easy and Medium settings. I don't have the special guitar controller, and I've found the Hard setting on a normal controller next to impossible. I don't know whether to splash out on the guitar controller, or have six extra finger grafted onto each hand to be able to continue.
Pleasingly, I have found that I really liked several of the songs I didn't know, so the game has expanded my musical tastes - that's not a bad result.
8 out of 10
* For non gamers - this means you get an environment set up for you where you can choose what you do next, rather than rigidly following a scripted plot.
The Orange Box - Half-Life 2
I was a late convert to Half-Life on the PC, but I thought it was a great game and really enjoyed the spin-offs too. This game put the sequel and its own sequels and spin-off episodes in one box. There so much there, in fact, that I haven't got around to playing at least two of the peripheral games.
10 out of 10
Oblivion: The Elder Scrolls IV
A sandbox game set in a sword-and-sorcery milieu, this game is simply huge. The developers have released several additional packages of extra missions and content; theoretically they need never release another episode as a stand-alone, they could just carry on releasing bolt-ons for this game.
I've played this for several hundred hours in total over the past two years or so, and there's still stuff I haven't done. An amazing game.
10/10
The last few weeks have seen the technology news pages trumpeting the launch of the much anticipated GTA IV game, from Rockstar, as the largest media launch link ever, beating the last record launch which
was Halo 3 (and when you consider that GTA IV is available for both the XBox 360 and the PS3, while Halo 3 was XBox 360 only, that's hardly surprising and, if anything, speaks well of the Halo franchise).
So i thought it was about time that
had a similar thread to The Current Cinema.What are your favourite computer and video games? Why?
What are your least favourite? Why?
Feel free to add to this thread on an ongoing basis as new games get released.
I'll get the ball rolling:
(I have an Xbox 360)
GTV IV
I've only just yesterday started playing it (in typical fashion, the retailers sold out on day 1 - when was the last time a film or DVD was sold out completely, everywhere, on launch day?) and already I'm hooked. It looks sumptuous, the gameplay is interesting and fun, and it has the GTA franchise's (under Rockstar, anyway) characteristic satirical humour.
e.g. A cartoon available on the TV in the main character's first, rather squalid, apartment, called "Republican Space Soldiers" would make the blood of any American to the right of centre boil, and make everyone else roll on the floor laughing. An indication that most of the development is done outside the USA, in Britain apparently, which I didn't know. In the UK it launched the same weekend as Iron Man at the cinema and I daresay that many of the people who would otherwise have gone to see that were tucked away at home roaming the streets of Liberty City (an even more thinly-veiled New York City than in previous installments.)
10 out of 10 (based on about five hours' play only)
Halo Trilogy
The first game was really amazing and groundbreaking on it's own, probably shifted several million units of the original XBox console. The two sequels have built on thes firm foundations. I'll chance my arm and say that this was the first really cinematic game. iTunes shifts the Original Soundtrack Recordings in significant numbers, and I'm frankly not surprised. Nobody these days bats an eyelid when the music of, say, Ennio Morricone sells independently of the movies it features in, and as far as I know the Halo franchise is the first game where the music has done the same thing.
10 out of 10 (Halo 1); 9 for both sequels
Guitar Hero III
I tried this because I fancied a change from my usual shoot-'em-up or sandbox* games. I chose this one because it had a couple of music tracks I liked, and have found it great fun on the Easy and Medium settings. I don't have the special guitar controller, and I've found the Hard setting on a normal controller next to impossible. I don't know whether to splash out on the guitar controller, or have six extra finger grafted onto each hand to be able to continue.
Pleasingly, I have found that I really liked several of the songs I didn't know, so the game has expanded my musical tastes - that's not a bad result.
8 out of 10
* For non gamers - this means you get an environment set up for you where you can choose what you do next, rather than rigidly following a scripted plot.
The Orange Box - Half-Life 2
I was a late convert to Half-Life on the PC, but I thought it was a great game and really enjoyed the spin-offs too. This game put the sequel and its own sequels and spin-off episodes in one box. There so much there, in fact, that I haven't got around to playing at least two of the peripheral games.
10 out of 10
Oblivion: The Elder Scrolls IV
A sandbox game set in a sword-and-sorcery milieu, this game is simply huge. The developers have released several additional packages of extra missions and content; theoretically they need never release another episode as a stand-alone, they could just carry on releasing bolt-ons for this game.
I've played this for several hundred hours in total over the past two years or so, and there's still stuff I haven't done. An amazing game.
10/10
What are your favourite computer and video games?
EVE
Why?
Its a space ship combat simulation game with an almost unlimited universe.
Currently I fly a range of ships, including a very good mining barge in which I gather ore to become minerals to become new ships, profit and ammunition and then when I'm feeling aggressive, a Typhoon class battleship.
The local channels are fun and my corp mates are a great laugh. Whizzing around and fighting battles when I have a few hours to spare is very entertaining.
What are your least favourite? Why?
Sports games
EVE
Why?
Its a space ship combat simulation game with an almost unlimited universe.
Currently I fly a range of ships, including a very good mining barge in which I gather ore to become minerals to become new ships, profit and ammunition and then when I'm feeling aggressive, a Typhoon class battleship.The local channels are fun and my corp mates are a great laugh. Whizzing around and fighting battles when I have a few hours to spare is very entertaining.
What are your least favourite? Why?
Sports games
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