jedicri

Yeah... lol, too excited to post even initial first impressions. Okay, I've put in at least an hour or so (I think...). I've only did the straight shooting deal with some stealth thrown in but I'd like to try some more of the Close Quarter Combat (CQC) that's readily available if I can but get my sneaking down pat. BTW, I love the use of the tin drum as use for cover and covert movement --- hilarious in my eyes. I've recently met Drebin and have yet to make some aresenal aquisitions from him and I've also built up some Drebin credits as well. I thought Drake's Fortune looked amazing, but MGS is far superior in the graphics department. Must be played on a tv set that supports 1080p. Control hasn't been an issue for me. I like the fact that you can play in first and third person but I suspect that most will play in the latter aspect and use the former mostly for sniping situations. One can skip the lengthy but beautifully rendered cutscenes but from what I understand, one can miss some pertinent information if it is skipped. Too many thoughts to digest at the moment so I'll leave it at that for now. Great game and a must have for PS3 owners.

Well, it's been a long time waiting, including the delays and the release dates being pushed back further, but so far, it sure was worth the wait! Okay, back to gaming!....

Posted but edited from Currently Playing Thread: Well, I finally got my copy of Mass Effect PC version. I've been playing a few hours and so far no problems save for the minor issue of having the game crash upon starting. The solution for Vista 32-bit, as shown in the Mass Effect Bioware forum, was having to make some configuration changes: 1) opened up the shortcut in Games, right clicked, selected customize, selected edit 2) selected shortcut, advanced - clicked run as administrator It seems that Mass Effect does not support SLI as also reported by others with SLI builds ( http://masseffect.bioware.com/forums...433&forum=127). Framerates dropped dramatically upon entering the Citadel Tower; however, after I disabled SLI, the game ran very smoothly in same said location. I like how the HUD has been changed; it is more user friendly not to mention the addition of very accessible quick keys --- on-the-fly action as opposed to long pauses in firefights to issue commands --- the pauses here have been dramatically shortened. Demiurge Studios did one heck of a job porting this game over to PC. Graphics are crisp and of course improved and gameplay more immersive (for me anyway being more of a k/b and mouse gamer).

I've installed Crysis and Mass Effect and after some minor configuration tweaks that are always expected in any pc games, both have played flawlessly thus far. Crysis is still an intensive resource hog (still no computer out there that will play it as it was meant to be played and seen by its developers --- oh well) but I've at least managed to play on "Very High" settings but with other graphic options on "Off" --- otherwise I'd be facing a slideshow.

Well, I finally got my copy of Mass Effect PC version. and the interesting thing is, I'm enjoying this playthrough moreso on the PC than I did on the 360 simply because I prefer shooters on the PC than on the console (I suck on console shooters). The Immersion factor is also better on PCs I find. I've been playing a few hours and so far no problems save for the minor issue of having the game crash upon starting. The solution for Vista 32-bit, as shown in the Mass Effect Bioware forum, was having to make some configuration changes: 1) opened up the shortcut in Games, right clicked, selected customize, selected edit 2) selected shortcut, advanced - clicked run as administrator It seems that Mass Effect does not support SLI as also reported by others with SLI builds ( http://masseffect.bioware.com/forums...433&forum=127). Framerates dropped dramatically upon entering the Citadel Tower; however, after I disabled SLI, the game ran very smoothly in same said location. I like how the HUD has been changed; it is more user friendly not to mention the addition of very accessible quick keys --- on-the-fly action as opposed to long pauses in firefights to issue commands --- the pauses here have been dramatically shortened.

Just an update: I've just finished installing Vista and did the dual boot route between XP and Vista. No problems encountered. Going to give Assassin's Creed and Crysis a whirl on Vista in the following days to come. Thus far, I haven't encountered any slow downs at all. Quite fast.

Nice! High on my list on games mentioned above: Metal Gear Solid 4 Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Far Cry 2 ... with honourable mentions going to: LEGOS Batman and Indiana Jones Mirror's Edge Bourne Conspiracy (I tried the demo, available on 360 and PS3, and really got a kick --- pun intended --- out of the fights which depict that seen in the 3 movies) Tomb Raider: Underworld Gears of War 2 I'm still on the fence with Soul Calibur 4 however....

UPDATE Not sure if anyone has already heard the news requiring legit owners of the game to re-authenticate the game every 10 days online but after numerous complaints by the PC gaming community and from soldiers on tour duty, EA has backed down from this ridiculous attempt to curb the inevitable piracy of Mass Effect. Glad to hear it was done before the launch date otherwise there would have been another debacle that was game publisher Take Two and Bioshock a year or so ago. http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/?p=1726#more-1726 http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/05/ea-loosens-spor.html

Anachronox

Yeah, Vista is the most secure OS yet what with all those pop-ups appearing asking you what you want to do. I know it can be configured to stop such pop-ups but according to my brother, those that have done so had problems (can't recall exactly atm --- very early in the morning, lol). The more I'm experimenting on Vista on my brother's rig, the more I'm liking this OS. I've already started researching on dual-booting between XP and Vista. I'm leaning on installing Vista on my second HD rather than partitioning my main HD where XP is installed. Hopefully next week I'll get this done as I'm (finally) taking my first week of holiday from work (and well deserved I must say, lol!). And you're quite right, I've come to realize that the pros outweigh the cons (not that I've noticed any that some may take exception to).

Debut Gameplay in HD! http://www.gametrailers.com/player/33780.html Trailer Analysis http://www.gametrailers.com/player/33775.html Enjoy!!!

More info from different sources: From Videogamer.com http://www.videogamer.com/xbox360/mirrors_...review-912.html From Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror%27s_Edge

Played a bit of it --- great fun as it is very charming! Download here: http://www.gamershell.com/download_25786.shtml

You guys have got to check out this teaser trailer of this interesting game. http://www.gametrailers.com/player/33585.html More info here: http://ps3.ign.com/articles/855/855856p1.html Mirror's Edge, from DICE the creators of the celebrated Battlefield series, presents players with a familiar setting. There's a giant city, you can go anywhere, leaping your way up and across the face of buildings, scaffolds, and generally anywhere that you can see. The twist? It's all delivered through one of the most active first-person displays that we've ever seen.

X-Wing Alliance

Vampire: Bloodlines

Quake

Now that MS have announced that they'll stop supporting XP, I've gotten a copy of Vista as did my brother. He installed it first. I'll eventually do when I get some time. As some of you probably know, SP1 is officially available and there a breadth of updated software and hardware drivers; I personally don't foresee any problems (perhaps some, hopefully not) with hardware or software conflicts. I know for a fact that I can download updated drivers for my printer and whatnot. I messed around with Vista and thus far, I'm liking it. It needs some getting use to of course. IMHO, you need at least a dual core to run things efficiently. My brother and I both have Quad Core CPUs so this isn't an issue for both of us. There have been complaints about this and that and quite frankly, I've found such and such comments to be untrue, in my own experience that is. I like the fact that you are able to back up your XP files and configurations and later put these back in after having installed Vista --- very nice touch! I'll post more of my impressions of Vista particularly in the area of DX10 gaming titles and see what gives.

(The) Longest Journey

Crysis

Assassin's Creed, PC version Starts off slowly but I'm getting into it. I've just finished my first assignment but I must confess, it wasn't stealthy as I had hoped it would be. I love the free running aspect of this game plus the added aspect of being capable to climb virtually any structure in your path --- this particularly helps when you're being pursued by guards and soldiers and you need to break their line of sight of you.

UPDATE Mass Effect will be released on May 28 in North America and on June 6 in Europe. Although the DLC, Bring Down the Sky won't come with the game, it will be made available to be downlaoded free of charge to registered Bioware community members on the game's release day. http://kotaku.com/381399/bring-down-the-sk...-pc-mass-effect

Yeah, I agree. I was hoping it would be on the PS3 as well. There are even hopes by many fans that the original FF VII be re-made for the PS3. By hooking up the PSP to my PS3, I tried playing Crisis Core on the latter --- unfortunately, the PS3 has only been updated so the PSP has remote access to the PS3 contents, oh well....

I'm surprised that with so many FF fans here, no one has yet mentioned Crisis Core that has already been in release since March 25 (U.S.) and will be released in Europe June 27. I've taken a shot at playing it using a friend's PSP and as one might expect, it has great storytelling and amazing cutscenes to boot. You play mostly as Zack as the game plays to his inevitable fate. Cloud and Tifa have cameo appearances. Core Crisis is an acttion/rpg with combat in real time. http://www.square-enix.co.jp/ccff7/

A new Trailer with Yoda and Darth Vader in action! Check it out: http://www.gametrailers.com/player/32811.html?type= At the time of this writing, the link to the HD video was not working so I've only provided the link to the SD video. This too: http://www.gametrailers.com/player/32927.html