Fallout 3 (PC)

I swore I would finish up a couple of game – I did. But, what happened instead? Fallout 3 went on sale on Steam a couple of weeks ago, and I couldn’t pass it up. Now, I’m 48 hours into that and the few titles I was hoping to finish before starting something else haven’t been touched since. To make matters worse I also picked up Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 and it’s sequel Earned in Blood, when they were on sale, adding two more games to the pile. At this rate it’s looking like I’m never going to finish another game – ever – and as proof of this concept, I bought the Dawn of War: Platinum Edition pack this morning. Please, Steam/Valve stop making it so easy to buy games.

I loved Oblivion when it came out so it’s not too much of a surprise that I’m enjoying Fallout. It also helps that I’ve got a couple of friends playing at the same time, we’ve had a couple discussions which really highlight the many possible ways to play the game. Each of us have employed a different play style which has lead seeing the story progress differently. Ultimately, the main game story line leads to the same place (which is tweaked a bit with the addition of the Broken Steal add-on) but, it’s nice to see a few of the paths to get there.

I purchased the PC version of the game and just before starting it I looked around the internet hoping to find some sort of journal style add-on so I could have the game keep track of what was going on. The idea was to keep a log of sorts here on the site as I played through. I wasn’t able to find one unfortunately so, that never happened. Anyway, even as I’m closing in on the end of the main story line Bethesda has just released the fifth (and final?) add-on, Mothership Zeta. I really want to check that out but, I’m not really happy with having to buy the downloadable content from Games for Windows Live. It’s the “Microsoft Points” I just can’t stand the thought of using them. I’ve never even bought any add-ons from the 360 Live service. Hopefully, when the Game of the Year edition of Fallout 3 is released on Steam we’ll be giving access to the DLC either for free or through Steam itself at a discounted price. Of course, I’ve got a bunch of other games I should be playing before I even thing about starting on the DLC.

*update*

Forgot to mention, I also picked up Men of War last weekend.

Here we are once again. It’s a pretty short list this time around but here it is.

God of War II (PS2)

Having to walk into the living room to use the PS2 has proved difficult over the last couple of weeks as I’m not much further in God of War II then when I last wrote about it. If I don’t get back to it soon I’m going to have to add it to the unfinished pile.

The Witcher (PC)

I’ve spent most of the month working my way through The Witcher. I had started playing a while back but, when I moved everything over to my new computer I had some issues with my save games. Which was kind of annoying but, I was able to catch back up to where I was in no time. The recently announced update brought the game to the front of my unfinished games list. This is one that I’m sure I’ll be able to squeeze in enough time over the next week or so to finish it up. I’ve just begun chapter 3, out of a total of five, and am still really enjoying the game. I’m glad that I decided to get back into this – it’s a great game.

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor (DS)

Atlus US has just released it’s first Shin Megami Tensei game onto the DS. I’ve spent a little bit of time with it and so far it’s been pretty good. In the beginning it feels kind of like The World Ends With You but that passes pretty quickly once the game gets moving. I haven’t really played enough to pass judgment on it yet but, I can say I fused a Jack Frost yesterday. I have a feeling it’s going to turn into a major grind game but, I’m going to try and stick it out.

Assassin’s Creed has been on sale over at Steam for a few days now, and I’ve been waiting to pick it up since I never bought the Xbox 360 version. I finally grabbed it on the first, had it downloaded and was playing a few hours after later. So far, the game has been pretty fun however, I’m prepared for it to start to drag though, thanks to the warnings from the interwebs – I can already see it coming. That’s not what I’m writing about though, you see two days after I bought the game, I was playing when suddenly the game crashed out to the desktop. I didn’t think to much of it as I started it back up, only to notice that the Ubisoft introduction movie was very choppy. Once in game, I picked up just about where I left off, roaming around the city performing one of the missions that will follow me throughout the rest game. I go running along roof tops after a request to stealth kill a bunch of archers. I run up, unheard, behind the first – pressing the button to trigger a stealth kill. Jumping in the air Altair swings his arm back with his wrist blade drawn, when suddenly – nothing. He’s frozen in mid-air, just for a few seconds though, and then it’s back to business. Strange, I hadn’t noticed that before. I finished off the remaining archers with the same results, a pause during the stealth kill animation. I figure well, maybe it’s something to do with the animations themselves and run down to a group of guards and sure enough I start getting weird pauses during the fight while trying to use counters.

So, now I’m a bit concerned, I have done anything to the system since last playing so I defragment the hard drive that all my Steam games reside on. Checking it this morning I find I still have the same problem – and then the game is deleted. I figure I can re-download it quickly enough but, might as well do it during work. Fast forward to lunch time and giving it another shot. Upon start up I still have the same stuttering intro movie. Once in game I again attempt a stealth kill with the same results as before. Now, I’m starting to get a little worried – have I fried my video card already? That couldn’t be it after all, everything else runs fine. Deciding it might be time to see what the Steam forums have to say. I quickly find a post labeled “SOLUTION to Freezing while killing” right on the top of the Assassin’s Creed forum which details what is going on. Apparently, when ever the player attempts a stealth kill (or counter or picks up a flag or saves) the game attempts a connection to Ubisoft servers. Yes, it appears that as part of the games DRM the game is phoning home in an attempt verify it’s legit. Only problem is something has been up with the servers the last few days and they haven’t been responding properly resulting in stuttering while the game tries to sort out whats going on.

Luckily, the fix is to simply add the IP addresses of the servers into the hosts file making them redirect to the localhost. Computer gaming and DRM at it’s finest – thanks Ubi!

Now that Mirror’s Edge is down to a reasonable $19.99 on Steam, I’ve been really thinking about picking up a copy. However, when discussing this the other day with a friend, I got called out for playing (and not finishing) too many games. He’s right I’ve started more games then I can count, and the Now Playing posts don’t always cover games that I’ve started and never really gone back to.

According to Steam I currently own 76 games. Out of those games there are 22 titles that have a clear start and an end, which I have yet to finish. There are a couple I do want to get back to like, Beyond Good and Evil, Indigo Prophecy and definitely The Witcher. The others I want to finish at some point I’m just not in a rush to get back to them. On the PS2 side of things I really need to finish up ICO and Shadow of the Colossus, as well as Killzone. Then there are games I doubt I’ll ever actually finish, like Persona 3 (not to mention FES), Persona 4 and Devil Summoner 2. I just don’t have the time to give Atlus titles what they deserve. I feel a bit better about not working on Persona 4 that much more since I’ve caught a few random episodes of Giant Bomb’s Endurance Run.

I need to check out the Xbox 360 back catalog and see if there are some console exclusives that I want to go back and play. I say console exclusives because lately due to Steam, and buying a new computer, I’ve finally swung back around to being more of a PC gamer. Not that I ever stopped playing games on the PC it’s just that I find myself turning on my 360 less and less. Also, I have to figure by the time I pick up a PS3 it will probably have a OK library of exclusives as well. I’m thinking maybe I’ll do a full catalog of games I haven’t finished and start forcing my way through.

Oh, and I did pick up Mirror’s Edge… so the Steam game count is up to 77.