The Video Games Headquarters

Video Game Lovers ! Argghhh, no, not here !!! :doh:

Well, the other day I was wondering how many of us (AoS serious audiophile members, I mean) are at the same time video games lovers...


Because, I'm not so ashamed(*) to say that:

- been into video games since... 85 !
- had almost all video consoles since the Genesis Megadrive !
- still have a game arcade cabinet with JAMMA cards...
- played MMORPG actively for several years and still have two monthly subscriptions on WoW and Aion
- never go on holidays without at least two portable consoles

Sooooooooooo, I was wondering ... am I the only video game addict in this (wonderful) forum ?

Sooooooooooo, perhaps if you love video games (and if you dare to show it) you could give a short description of what you like, your gaming history (no need signing with a different account, though :eyebrows:).

After that, perhaps, we could exchange views about games, see who plays what and so on and so forth ? :interesting:

(*) I'm too old for this sh!t !

Well, my journey started at the age of 11, with a ZX81, graduating to a Sinclair Spectrum (48K no less!) in all it's rubber-keyed glory in 1983. I eventually moved to an Amstrad somethingorother, then an Amiga 500 before consoles took hold - A Sega Master System, Gamegear, and then Magadrive & Mega CD before the truly revolutionary PlayStation 1. Next up was the XBox, then PlayStation2, Xbox 360, Playstation3, and Wii, plus DS & a PSP to complete the set - as my wife often says, I really am a spoilt brat!

So, Dimitri - I'll see your "too old for this shit" and raise you about 10 years!

I really love driving games, especially Forxa 2 (Xbox360) and the Gran Turismo series (Playstation) and never much cared for FPS games until Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare. Whilst 5 was ok, 6 (Modern Warfare 2) for me redefines what is possible with today's consoles - and it is pretty damn amazing!

But then playability is what really defines a game - Tetris, Bejewelled etc. proving just as addictive on low-fi platforms... Bit like music really - simple is often best.

I have been known to play the odd game in my time!

Started out on Atari 130XE many years ago (Boulderdash, spy v spy ballblazer)

Later progressed to PS1 ( tomb raider Rayman doom Duke Nukem)

Then PC, where I progressed to professional geek status playing games online mostly Delta Force series ( became member of shadow Company squad, then BOB then the famous ATINOF (mostly playing black Hawk Down) !) don't play so much these days but do enjoy Portal and Half Life 2

Crikey, this takes me back!
Well, my first computer was the Commodore Vic-20 yonks ago. The games were very simple but the novelty factor was obviously there, as well as some surprisingly addictive gameplay---Blitz was a family favourite.
Then the flimsy Speccy 48k with more games than I could shake a stick at: Auf Weidersehen Monty, Spellbound, Dynamite Dan, etc. At a summer school there was a BBC Micro, and I remember playing Repton on that when I wasn't chasing the girls or playing badminton.
I think around this time I was also playing Gauntlet at the arcade section of a local gym/recreation centre. Lost many a 10p on that game. Also Zaxxon.
Gravitated up to the Commie C64, with the Dizzy series, Bard's Tale, Putty, Zool and heaps more taking up my free time.
Then I got the Amiga 500 and started arguing with my friend at the time over which was better, the Amiga or the Atari 500 ST. Xenon 2: Megablast was a fave around that time, along with Jeff Minter's odd games, like Llamatron. EDIT: How could I forget Speedball 2?!?!?!? No better 2-player game exists.
Then the PC came along, and I spent a lot of time at a friend's house playing Doom, which quite frankly used to scare the willies out of both me and him. Still does, actually, even with the lights on! All those little growls in the distance---fab!
At school we had a computer club which had nothing but Mac Classic SEs, and an LC II which had Civilization installed. A friend and I enjoyed that a great deal.
Then I got a job, got some cash, and invested in my first hifi (detailed under my Welcome thread), and computers kinda left my life. When I went abroad I used to partake of console action in tiny wee shops where you paid by the hour for any game you wanted on a variety of consoles---Gamecube and PS2 mostly I think. Here I first encountered Duke Nukem 3D ("It's time to kick ass and chew bubblegum---and I'm all outta gum."; "Your face, your ass---what's the difference?")---amazing! Oh, and Einhander, the best scrolling shooter (in the R-Type vein) I've ever played, but rare as hen's teeth.
Came back to Blighty, forgot about computers again (well, except for essays and research). Last games I've played are: World of Warcraft (kind of repetitive, but addictive); Doom3 (scary, excellent graphics); Return to Castle Wolfenstein (excellent); GTA3 (keeps crashing!); Quake 4 (crashing too!); Medal Of Honour: Allied Assault. Now I have an iPod touch and enjoy Wolfenstein 3D (darn zombies are tough though…), Lucky Coins, Bookworm and occasionally, Bejeweled 2.
Truth be told, soon as I got my first hifi, video games were relegated to the back seat, bordering on chucked out of the car completely. Still, nice to know I'm not the only nerd here. :)

i startwed out as a tiny little person with a commador 64 and progressed through gameboy - master system - snes - pc (for ages) then eventually got an xbox and psp! i now just have a little flappy gameboy lite thing
fave games of all time
sim city 2000
transport tycoon
everything gta
tiger woods golf
mercinarys
and most recently i did love a bit of prof leighton
i want a ps3 but hannah is dubious... and to be fair so am i... i cant just pick up and play for a short half hour, stick me in front of gta and dont expect me to talk to you for a few hours!

I started with an Amiga 500+ with Lemmings, Prince of persia and the like....
I soon moved onto a PC, a 286, upgraded with a sound card and CDRom drive, and began my everlasting love affair with point and click adventure games. My first was The Secret Of Monkey Island, and I am always on the search for new good ones... my favourites include the monkey island series, Beneath A Steel Sky, Grim Fandango, Day Of The Tentacle, but you name it, I've probably played it.
I was into FPS games fairly soon after, Wolfenstein and then Doom, and then much later on I was very keen on Unreal Tournament.
I too am a Grand Theft Auto addict, as Hamish no doubt is well aware.... but the best one by far is Vice City, but then I'm a massive fan of films like Scarface and Carlito's Way, so no surprises there.
I've stuck with PC, and have never had a console, but now I dabble on my Nintendo DS, on which I'm rediscovering my love of a good platformer from my Amiga days...
Oh yes, and I am embarrassingly good at guitar hero.... A by-product of unemployment...

ds lite... thats what i meant.. i thoght gameboy lite didnt sound right! (hi dan.. i bought a house :))

So I've just seen! you must be excited.... have you got a date yet?

I could come and have a nose around christmas ;)

hopefully! i need to have a chat with you about your xmas present at some point...but lets not hijack this thread to much .. il give you a ring in the week or summat

sound, shall look forward to that.... probably best to ring me on my house phone if you have the number
Back on topic, I forgot... this year, I've played a lot of Xmen Origins: Wolverine, and Batman Arkham Asylum....

Right now my son and I we replay on Skies of Arcadia (on Dreamcast)

just finished COD MW2.... it was good!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by DanJennings

just finished COD MW2.... it was good!

---

I loved the "Breach" slow-mo scenes, but generally thought it was the most immersive game I've played - the "Special Ops" section is good, too, and played a good few hours online.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Alex_UK

I loved the "Breach" slow-mo scenes, but generally thought it was the most immersive game I've played - the "Special Ops" section is good, too, and played a good few hours online.

---

Haven't done the special ops bit yet, will have a crack at it tomorrow

I've recently been playing the new 'Tales Of Monkey Island' episodic series.
It's excellent, and as with the other Telltale games, seems to be ironing out the kinks, listening to popular demand, and as a result getting better and better.
I never thought I'd get into episodic adventure gaming, but now I really enjoy them. Also recommended are Sam and Max Seasons 1 and 2 - excellent stuff. I believe they're also out for Wii.

Just finished Tales myself, loved the lot of it. It gave me a taste for adventure games again. Another good adventure game recently is Machinarium, the whole game is like a work of art, from the concept art style settings to the atmospheric soundtrack and wonderful animations, definitely recommended.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Maximum

Another good adventure game recently is Machinarium, the whole game is like a work of art, from the concept art style settings to the atmospheric soundtrack and wonderful animations, definitely recommended.

---

It looks nice, indeed. :)

I got Zelda Spirit Tracks yesterday, but I won't play before this weekend... :doh:

Was anyone here a fan of Final Fantasy 7 or 8?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sburrell

Was anyone here a fan of Final Fantasy 7 or 8?

---

A "fan" I don't know but I have almost all the FF. ;)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Maximum

Just finished Tales myself, loved the lot of it. It gave me a taste for adventure games again. Another good adventure game recently is Machinarium, the whole game is like a work of art, from the concept art style settings to the atmospheric soundtrack and wonderful animations, definitely recommended.

---

Thanks a lot for that man, I'm always on the lookout for new adventure games, I'm a bit of an addict.

Just finished Beneath a Steel Sky for the umpteenth time, such a fantastic game.

Anyone here do RP on a World of Warcraft european server (apart, I'm assuming, from Themis)?

not me I'm afraid....
I used to play the original ie old and not MMORPG, Warcraft and Warcraft 2....

I'm currently playing Runaway 3: A Twist Of Fate, and after a couple of ok-ish games, they've finally got it spot on with this - the finale.

Also playing Gears Of War 2 coop on my mate's XBOX. Very hard game, and I'm still not used to playing FPS games with a gamepad. Give me a mouse and keyboard any day.

Hmmm... Guitar Hero On Tour for the DS arrived in the post today....
I finished it on expert in about an hour and a half... oh well

I've never seen the point in the Guitar Hero type games - if I want to play the guitar I'll play my real one - but that's just me. I want my games to be something completely fanciful - jet pilot, soldier, F21 driver, wizard - the point of gaming for me is to be immersed into an alternative reality. So, I wouldn't have bought it anyway, but one and a half hours, even for the DS is quite poor... Still, you'd get most of the cost back on ebay I'd guess?

Still can't put Modern Warfare 2 down, multiplayer online. Now on 1st prestige, rank 49 - after nearly 2 months - reckon it will be at least a year at this rate until I get the 10th Prestige...

I'm going to buy Darksiders (while waiting for God of War 3)... anybody played ?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Alex_UK

I've never seen the point in the Guitar Hero type games - if I want to play the guitar I'll play my real one - but that's just me. I want my games to be something completely fanciful - jet pilot, soldier, F21 driver, wizard - the point of gaming for me is to be immersed into an alternative reality. So, I wouldn't have bought it anyway, but one and a half hours, even for the DS is quite poor... Still, you'd get most of the cost back on ebay I'd guess?

---

Have you ever had a go on one? It's ridiculously addictive and satisfying, I play the guitar myself (fairly badly) but I still learnt to love the game....

I shan't be putting it on ebay, because I think the multiplayer element is worth keeping it for, and there are also two other games that require the guitar grip thing....

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by DanJennings

Have you ever had a go on one? It's ridiculously addictive and satisfying, I play the guitar myself (fairly badly) but I still learnt to love the game....

I shan't be putting it on ebay, because I think the multiplayer element is worth keeping it for, and there are also two other games that require the guitar grip thing....

---

Only once, to be fair (after too many beers...) so probably not given it enough of a chance! (And I thought Singstar was rubbish too, until we got addicted...!)

I am completely obsessed with GTA4 at the moment...

I've only played GTA3 and I'd be glued to it if it didn't crash my PC on the crucial job that gets you off the first island :( . I was able to encode the radio stations into iTunes though - Chatterbox FM is fantastic! What're the radio stations like in GTA4?

holy cow you have missed out Simon!

After GTA3 was probably the best in the series: GTA Vice City, set in 1980s Miami, with an amazing 80s soundtrack to match, and Scarface and Carlito's Way references aplenty

Then there was GTA: San Andreas, set in 90s LA, and you play a black gang member, so plenty of hiphop and 90s alt rock

In GTA4, you play a Polish immigrant to New York in the present day, and there are literally TONS of radio stations, traditional Polish music, New York Hardcore punk, classic rock, psychic radio, chat, indie, jazz, whatever you want!

and of course you can put your own audio files in, and create your own radio station on all of them, but I think you could also do that on GTA 3 couldn't you?

The problem I had with GTA4 was that the character you play (Nico?) was a complete tw@t IMO, so I didn't give a stuff what happened to him!

I thought 'CJ' from San Andreas was much worse, and I think Nico softens a bit after a while

Perhaps I should give him another chance, then!

I got FF XIII and God Of War 3, both on PS3.

They are both very, very good. Recommended.

FF XIII has something that I always missed on FF : enemies are visible (and, thus, avoidable sometimes). Of course, as usually, a long, long story, with plenty of videos, very well made.
And the profession specialization (and upping) is not as complicated as the late FFs. Characters not part of your actual team, get equal experience, so they don't stay "behind". Fortunately.
It's a new genre : a tactical-movie ! :)

The special edition (with voice acting and better graphics) of Monkey Island 2 (one of the best adventure games ever made) is out now!
I want it more than is healthy.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by DanJennings

The special edition (with voice acting and better graphics) of Monkey Island 2 (one of the best adventure games ever made) is out now!
I want it more than is healthy.

---

Bought it and finished it already. Never played the second or third games (I know for a Monkey Island fan that's pretty bad) at the time so it's nice to catch up, and fill in some plot holes. I'm not sure whether I should find a way to play the third original, as that should be pretty much the full shebang already, though they may re-release it with fully compatibility and only a slight touch up to the graphics.

I don't think they'll rerelease the third one, the graphics are pretty good on that one, and it already has full voice acting.
You should definitely track it down, it's excellent. The fourth one (escape from monkey island) was ok, but definitely a dip in quality, but the new episodic series 'Tales of monkey island' from telltale games is excellent also.

and by the way, I've just finished it too. it was excellent.

It's likely to have compatibility issues though, and enough fans seem to want a re-release with only minimal or no enhancements. It should be easy enough to do and have enough people willing to buy it to make it a no brainer really.

I forgot how cryptic some of the puzzles were in the older ones, some require some real out of the box thinking to have a clue, where as with Tales you always knew roughly what to do. This wasn't a problem with the first special edition because I could probably write a walkthrough from memory. :mental:

I have just started Starcraft (again) and Diablo 2 on PC.

I'm currently playing Sam and Max season 3, a bit of Audiosurf now and again, and getting very annoyed with Batman Arkham Asylum on 'hard'.

Tempted to play Deus Ex again.
But not until I have finished giving Miss Croft a good seeing to though. :)

I mentioned Machinarium a while ago as a good adventure game. Well the designers have setup a 'pirate amnesty' and are selling the game for a mere $5. This game really deserves more attention and support. You can play the demo online or buy the game from the following link.

http://machinarium.net/demo/

I treated myself to GTA Episodes from Liberty City the other day.
It's great, but I wish I could afford a new PC, because I've had to turn all the graphics down :doh:

I'm also a long time gaming fan. I started out playing on a Commodore Vic 20 and owned several consoles and PCs since. Currently I have an Xbox360, PS3, PSP, and a DS.

I've played pretty much every genre of games through the years, but lately I've been drawn to games that can tell me a story and/or supply some action. Here are some of the latest games I've played:

Mass Effect 2
GTA4
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Heavy Rain
Fallout 3
COD: Modern Warfare 2
Metal Gear Solid 4
Gears of War 2
... and a few unmentionables.

I think next I want to try Dragon Age, Splinter Cell: Conviction, Alan Wake, or Red Dead Redemption. Too many games, not enough time!

I was a Speccy boy James.

One of my favourite ever games was Deus Ex (and the sequel, Deus Ex: Invisible War) - supposed to be a 3rd one out next year, can't wait!

I've also got all the consoles (actually technically the Wii & DS are the wife's) - also got the PSP and PlayTV for the PS3 which is a great combo as you can access the PS3 remotely via wifi and view TV, including recorded programs. Not that I do much but a nice gadget!

Still trying to get all my prestiges on MW2... Love driving games too, Gran Turismo 5 as well as next CoD out in November just in time for the cold dark nights...

Hi Alex. For some reason I never did play the Deus Ex games but I will definitely pick up the newest one. It looks pretty nice.
I used to play a lot of driving games too but got burned out and haven't played anything since GT4. Well, except for Test Drive Unlimited a couple years back.

Hi Guys

PC only gamer here, like to mod my games when I can, makes em last longer.

Just completed Farcry 2 and find myself wondering what to go for next, any suggestions ?

Have recently played and enjoyed:

The Elder Scrolls 4 Oblivion
Fallout 3
The Witcher Platinum Edition
Stalker Shadow Of Chernobyl
Stalker Clear Sky
Stalker Call Of Pripyat
Farcry 2

All of the above were modable apart from Farcry 2, cant understand why Ubisoft did that, if Farcry 2 had been modable it would have turned a good game into an exceptional game, but heyhoo anyhoo.

Thoroughly enjoyed all the Stalker series of games and would recommend them to anyone but hey, pack plenty of medkits and anti rad injections, you'll need them.

Think I'm gonna drop on to Game.co.uk and download Crysis, anyone played it?

Is there anybody there ?

Said the stranger as he knocked upon the moonlit door.