The Games I Play; The Settings I Use
Mafia 2 is a third-person action adventure set in the 1940s and 50s. On the surface, the game looks a lot like Grand Theft Auto, but Mafia 2 takes a much more linear, cinematic approach to the genre, using its large open world more as a backdrop than as an interactive playground.
Borderlands is basically a mix between an FPS and an action RPG in the spirit of Diablo — kill stuff and get random-generated loot. While co-op is arguably the best way to play the game (the game supports up to four players), it can also be played solo and it runs pretty well on a Mac that’s three years old.
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Tags: borderlands, diablo
I’m not an online gamer, but the EA Store had a great deal on Battlefield: Bad Company 2 a few weeks ago so I picked it up. Below are my settings for the single-player.
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Tags: battlefield
There’s not a lot I can say about S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat that I haven’t already said about S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl. These are open world FPSes that, in turns, terrify and delight. They are games you play with the lights off and your headphones on so that you can soak up every drop of the atmosphere — because, face it, there’s nothing quite like wandering through the pitch of night with a tiny flashlight, while you’re slowly bleeding to death, your ammo is running low, and you can’t sprint because you’re too overloaded with the loot of other fallen Stalkers.
Dragon Age: Origins — Bioware’s return to fantasy. I’d been waiting for the release of DA:O ever since I first heard about it, and it’s one of the few games I’ve ever pre-purchased (Fallout 3 and Batman: Arkham Asylum being the only others). But what can I really say that others haven’t? You can read the reviews to find out how the game stacks up to others in and out of the genre. Needless to say, the game itself has lived up to my expectations and, in terms of its performance, it has exceeded them: Dragon Age: Origins runs extremely well on my Mid 2007 24” iMac.
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Tags: dragon age, batman arkham asylum, fallout 3, nwn2, drakensang
I came late to the Gothic series of RPGs, having only played Gothic 2 in February of this year. I really enjoyed that game, however, so I bought Gothic 3 a month or two ago when it came on sale. While enjoyable, Gothic 3 was a bit of a departure from the second game (bigger world, less story) and left me wanting something more in line with Gothic 2. Enter Risen.
Tags: risen, gothic series
I’ve never really been into strategy games; I don’t really have the patience and/or strategic mind for them. I find RTS games, specifically, the most difficult in the genre. It’s one thing to be able to think through an action completely when the opposing team is standing still and it’s your turn, but quite another when everything is happening in real time and you have to think and plan on the fly, anticipating and reacting in seconds to your adversary. Needless to say, I’m not good at RTSes. However, that didn’t stop me from picking up Men of War when it was 60% off on GamersGate. And while I find this World War II RTS quite difficult (even on the easiest setting) it’s also been a lot of fun to play. How does it run? See below.
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Tags: men of war
I think Assassin’s Creed was one of the most divisive games to come out in 2007/2008. For some, it was one of the best games of the year; for others, the game was shallow, rigid, and repetitive and didn’t live up to its potential. I picked up AC last week from Steam since it was 50% off ($10 USD) and I’m really glad I did. Having just beat the game, I can safely say I really enjoyed it and I’m definitely looking forward to the sequel.
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Tags: assassin's creed, steam
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl is one of the scariest, most atmospheric games I’ve ever played on the PC. I’m not a huge horror fan — not even a little horror fan — but that didn’t stop me from buying S.T.A.L.K.E.R. last July. In fact, two things overrode my instinct to not get the game: 1) Shawn Elliot repeatedly mentioning the game on the GFW Radio podcast and this article by Jim Rossignol on Rock, Paper, Shotgun.
I picked up the Dungeons & Dragons-based Neverwinter Nights 2 and its expansion Mask of the Betrayer last summer in a desperate bid to quell my hunger for an RPG. I didn’t finish NWN2, but I mostly enjoyed what I played of it, slowly learning the D&D ruleset. In March, I was totally engrossed by MotB when my internal hard drive died, wiping out Windows and my saved games. I haven’t gone back to MotB, but I recently reinstalled NWN2 and the newly released $10 adventure pack Mysteries of Westgate. As they all use the same engine, the main game and add-ons run about the same on my iMac.
