What are you playing?

[Loerwyn]

I have been playing skyrim and so far has ultimately left me bored. Maybe the whole open world RPG thing is not for me and i need more of a story

If you need story, Bethesda are not the developer to look to. They excel at open world/sandbox titles, but their writers are pretty poor. Even the titles they merely published (Hunted: The Demon's Forge, Fallout: New Vegas) weren't exactly stellar in their stories.

I'm currently playing Just Cause 2 thanks to an early birthday present from my mum (complete edition was on sale for £6.80 on GamersGate!), and it's absolutely nuts. Make this explode, make that explode, string that guy up to the ceiling, pull a statue down with a fire truck, parachute off an exploding crane - it's awesome!

[NickeeCoco]

But I'll be setting Skyrim aside for the weekend, since I'll be playing The Old Republic for the open beta testing. The NDA has been released, so I can talk about it this time.

[PeterWilliam]

Been out of gaming for several years now, but looking at the Black Friday price point of XBox 360, as well as thinking about the games I want to play (e.g. Oblivion, Skyrim, Arkham Asylum, Arkham City) and dangerously tempted. Luckily, I've a wife that has 'spider sense' whenever I'm this tempted - i.e. won't let me anywhere near the wallet.

I've got to admit, a SW MMO is something I may not be able to resist.

[PeterWilliam]

Ok, thinking about games and SW got me a little geeked out today. As a control against spending money, especially this time of year, I reset up the PS2 and XBox so that I could play through somes games I've left unfinished and/or unplayed. Started in on KOTOR II, for the XBox, tonight.

[Loerwyn]

Y'know Peter, you've got a PC, you could improve that or get a new one I don't have a console, I do all my gaming on this. It's not exactly problem-free, of course, you do need a bit of an ability to learn or just push on to fix stuff yourself, but it's rewarding.

[NickeeCoco]

I've got to admit, a SW MMO is something I may not be able to resist.

I'm lucky I've got a fiancee who likes gaming too. And I must say, that The Old Republic is pretty awesome. The fact that they've voiced the entire thing changes the feel of play completely. Have they completely revolutionized MMOs? No, they stick to the standards, but the voicing and the story lines make it feel more like a first person RPG. Really fun.

[saintjon]

Arkham City sunk its claws into me last night to the tune of being up until 3:30 with no idea how late it was. Feeling I am in fact an Arkham Asylum expert like they recommend in the description I chose hard difficulty and it took me awhile to get my thug-busting skills back up to snuff. I love the new quick-throw controls, the grappling claw feels much smoother to use in combat now. I love all the new gadgets so far, I love that they start you out with a fairly comprehensive set of gear from the first game instead of having to get everything one piece at a time all over again and I love playing as Catwoman (the Poison Ivy bit seemed a bit like being thrown off a cliff though, hope you've enjoyed the ten minutes of game-time with this character have fun doing the hardest 3 fights of the game so far). I like that Catwoman is different from Batman to play as but still has a nice fit in the gameplay. I'm also really enjoying all the different approaches to including the different villains and stuff. I even bumped into a guy I'm pretty sure is Azrael but damned if I can find him again. Game is beautiful to look at, fun to play and compelling to unravel. It looks like I'll be at it for at least 60 hours or so trying to get everything.

One of my best friends has an Awesome Reach (youtube this for the funniest send-up of gamer-brand turbo-hype ever) like level of anticipation for The Old Republic but what I've seen hasn't really set my heart a-flutter to be frank. Maybe I will swing over when he's playing beta this weekend and see if watching the game in action makes me feel any different.

[kater]

The opposite of Awesome Reach being Zero Punctuation (naughty words may be said in this video ):

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/vide...an-Arkham-City

[Loerwyn]

The opposite of Awesome Reach being Zero Punctuation (naughty words may be said in this video ):

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/vide...an-Arkham-City

Of course, Yahtzee has to be taken with a massive dose of salt. I won't deny he's right about things, but he's also often wrong or... uh... wrong.

Still haven't forgiven him for the Mirror's Edge review. Or the latter half of Mogworld.

[chitman13]

Finally got around to picking up Left 4 Dead this week after thoroughly enjoying the second one. Only played the first few levels, but so far it seems even bettet than the second one. Will be sitting down shortly to blast more zombies...

Also picked up Fable 3 (loved the second, and needed to make up trade-in value) and Skyrim. I'm really not sure why I decided on Skyrim, it's not the sort of game I would normally pick up and play due to the size and, well, because it's fantasy. Going to give it a go though, if I don't like it I might trade it in for Saint's Row The Third.

[chitman13]

I'm really not sure why I decided on Skyrim, it's not the sort of game I would normally pick up and play due to the size and, well, because it's fantasy. Going to give it a go though, if I don't like it I might trade it in for Saint's Row The Third.

Won't be trading in Skyrim, that's for sure. While I'm not too fussed about story in these games, I have been rather captivated by the open world it presents. I've only played a handful of hours to date, but it's offering plenty for me to enjoy. I'm the sort of person that will just wander around aimlessly doing stuff I find interesting, and because of this it will probably take me a good while to really get into the story and mechanics.

[Agassizii]

Playing through Dragon Age: Origins once more. I have realized that I missed a lot of things during my first play through. I spent about 25-30 hours the first time and I've read that most people spend way more time on it. So, this time I'm doing everything that I can find to do in the game.

This game is very addicting. Good thing winter break begins in less than two weeks.

[Loerwyn]

I'm in the final mission of The Settlers 7 (12 out of 12, which doesn't sound a lot but easily counts for perhaps 15-20 hours of game play at the least), and I'm really getting into it now as the latest nVidia beta drivers have turned the game from mess to WOW!, which is awesome as it means I'm not sat at a loading screen for - rather literally - five minutes.

Sadly, though, I've completely ballsed up my defences, so I'm going to have to try and get them in gear before I can win. So close, yet so far.

[chitman13]

So after an initial burst of excitement and enthusiasm for Skyrim, last night I just really could not be arsed with it. I'm hoping it was just my mood at the time, but the more I think of it the more daunting the game becomes. I think I need to set aside a good amount of time to play it before giving up or not.

[chitman13]

Traded in Skyrim today. The guy serving me looked at me like I was mad, but there we go. Got Halo Anniversary Edition instead and very much enjoying it. Sci-fi shooter, much more my cup of tea. Never played any of the Halo games before so it's nice to be able to start with the first, albeit with updated graphics.