Mass Effect 2. I never finished the first one, but decided to skip ahead to this one b/c I hated my ME1 character and hadn’t realized there were areas on the ship where I could talk to my crew until two of my team were dead. I’m enjoying ME2 for the most part. 11 hours in, though, and I feel like the combat is pretty repetitive (why does every spaceport leave conveniently located crates in the middle of their hallways?). Spaceport fetch quests are a pain as well based on your slow running speed. It’s been a nice break from two straight months of Skyrim.

I picked up ME2 for really cheap today for PS3, so I’m going to start on that once it finishes installing. Hopefully this time I can save Kelly this time: I need someone to look after my fish.

Im playing Rage on my X360, and what a beautiful crafted shooter !!, I know everybody was talking about the look of the id Tech 5 engine, and it looks good – but im talking Gameplay here, Rage has some of the best FPS gameplay in a long time, im playing on normal, and plan on playing on hard & nightmare, its just a good game, im enjoying it a lot – but i did hear it has a meeh ending….let see

Jack, I’ve been doing some ME replaying too these days. We’re recording a Spoils episode this week on the Mass Effect series thus far, and I’m pretty psyched to talk Shep.

After playing a few more hours in, I’ve noticed that I’m changing some of my responses a little bit from normal. I’ve been doing nearly everything as Paragon, but I’ve done some Renegade choices here and there. The first time I played I did everything completely Paragon, with this playthrough I’m feeling like I can make some decisions more like I would do in the situation. I think knowing the outcomes makes me feel like I won’t be messing up the story if I mix things.

Why am I the only one really posting in this thread? Come on guys!

Speaking of podcasts, I was on the upcoming Fall Damage, so I don’t want to repeat what I said on there for what I’ve been playing. I also played some Killzone 2 last night. Had a lot of fun with it – hopefully I’ll actually finish it this time!

The MGS HD collection looks interesting, I want an HD, updated version of the first Solid game though! I’ve tried to play it again, but it’s quite difficult to go back to a control scheme like that after playing more modern games.

I played more ME2 this afternoon, I’m loving it eh. I am feeling like I’m rushing through some areas though.

I played the first part of the Hammerhead DLC while I was at it: It felt so much like the first game with it’s awkward set-up, layout and game-play. Even though it reminds me how bad the first game was in some areas, It made me miss the Mako and the general feel of it before it was “Stream-lined” in ME2.

Also, Mason, you should definitely pick up Catherine, it’s absolutley fantastic.

The puzzle aspects of Catherine are what scare me off but it’s on my “eventually” list. Maybe 2015, lol?

I spent a few months writing for Nightmare Mode a while back and they couldn’t stop going on about Persona. Is it something that a non-JRPG fan could get into?

I tried playing MGS last year. Graphically it was actually “better” than playing PS2 games because my PS3 is the second-gen with PS1 compatibility but not PS2 but I totally agree about the gameplay. Back in college my roommate and I tag-teamed the game on the Extreme difficulty and I beat it three times – enough to get the James Bond suit, which is so awesome. Last year I played on easy and couldn’t even get past Sniper Wolf.

David Hughes:
The puzzle aspects of Catherine are what scare me off but it’s on my “eventually” list. Maybe 2015, lol?

I spent a few months writing for Nightmare Mode a while back and they couldn’t stop going on about Persona. Is it something that a non-JRPG fan could get into?

I tried playing MGS last year. Graphically it was actually “better” than playing PS2 games because my PS3 is the second-gen with PS1 compatibility but not PS2 but I totally agree about the gameplay. Back in college my roommate and I tag-teamed the game on the Extreme difficulty and I beat it three times – enough to get the James Bond suit, which is so awesome. Last year I played on easy and couldn’t even get past Sniper Wolf.

I was talking about MGS2 myself, not MGS1. Don’t have the ability to play that one, nothing backwards compatible to it (The slim PS2′s aren’t BC to PS1s, right?) The stealth/action gameplay isn’t the bad part, really…though some scenarios are a nightmare. The bad part is the fucking platforming they have you do from time to time. Jesu Christo is that fucked.

And Persona 4 is DEFINITELY a pretty hardcore JRPG, but it’s smart about it. The deeper systems don’t need to be explored to be competent about the game, and you can futz your way through it no problem. If you want to beat the extra bosses you’ll need to grind, but for a jrpg there is very little grinding necessary to progress the story.

I’m not a huge JRPG fan myself, I came to them too late. I appreciate them for what they are, but my first Final Fantasy was FFX. I went back to FFVII from there, and never beat either. Working through Chrono Trigger right now as well as Persona 4, and they’re both really smart about being jrpgs, something I’d say the Final Fantasy games aren’t.

SO yeah, I’d say definitely try Persona 4 out. It’s a game that actually analyzes homosexuality, transexuality, and themes along that line (in the context of Japanese society and with a bit of simplication done for the American release because we can’t handle that apparently). It also looks at the idea of putting on masks for social situations and…yeah, it’s just good. The gameplay’s fun, the social sim stuff is fun, the characters are interesting (even if the English dub isn’t always the best…the female voices are not good at all), and it’s just interesting in general. Don’t be afraid to let the game last a long time, there’s no reason to try to burn through it. It’s a nice game to play for a couple hours on a Saturday, and then wait two weeks and do it again. It’ll take you months or more to beat it that way, but that’s fine, it works for this game.