Game of the Month - June

[Aristophan]

What's been your primary game this past month? It could be a recent title, a new discovery, or something from your backlog. It could be an old favorite or a new flame. What game defined June 2009?

Infamous is the first game that I have ever gotten a platinum trophy on. I was never very much into achievements with the Xbox 360, or gamer score even, especially since mine was so low compared to everyone else. I have had my PS3 for 10 months now, and I have become more and more attached to trophies. It adds the metagaming aspect that I missed from my stints at WoW - the extension of the game beyond the time playing it where you work on finding the best strategies to meat a challenge. Infamous isn’t a very tough Platinum to get - it only took me two times to play through the game, and I probably would have done that anyway just to see the evil side. However, when I was getting bored with Infamous, and anxious to move on to Red Faction, the thought of my first Platinum trophy kept me going. I don’t know if I’ll ever do that again with another game, but I’m satisfied that the stair-step image of my trophies no longer tops out at a 0.

[Equis]

I started all 3 open-world games. RFG, inFAMOUS and Prototype.

RFG is the only game to have held my attention that I actually took my time to enjoy the game, rather than plow through the missions. It's been the first open world game in a long time that I simply enjoy being in, and thus would spend time driving around, looking for collectibles and tackling missions when I felt the need and wont to. It struck the balance between open-world exploration and glorious destruction.

inFamous was alright and Prototype was far too busy a brawler for me.

[Janster]

Finally a proper version of Blood Bowl...

I'm so hoping it will be a success..

[Quitch]

I've been spending a lot of time playing AI War: Fleet Command (http://arcengames.com/). Due to the asymmetrical nature of the game it has a real solitaire feel to it where you're the one controlling all the action. Sometimes it has felt a little grindy, yet I keep coming back, playing yet another 12 hour campaign.

Part of this is due to the developer being incredibly open to ideas, especially improvements in existing features (so the interface has improved in leaps and bounds), and partly because... I'm not even sure, it just keeps drawing me back in for more.

[Joe M.]

As a new DS owner, Advance Wars: Dual Strike has been taking up an unreasonable amount of my time lately. I love everything about it and I don't really know why.

[Naeblis]

ArmA 2!

I also played Prototype a good number of hours (around 14) until i was so bored with the game that i uninstalled it. Anno 1701 is being right now a good distraction, i am playing the scenarios, that are almost a extension of the tutorial, pretty easy. But still engrossing to play.

[red guy]

Sims 3 has me addicted. So many skills to develop, so many traits to play with, so many riches to acquire...

[extarbags]

Probably Garou: Mark of the Wolves. Wow, what an amazing game.

[Jazar]

I'm beginning to doubt that I'll ever get a platinum or 1000 XBL points on any game. I might get close with Infamous but those stupid stunts will probably stop me.

This month has been Infamous, a little Lost and the Damned (I'm really starting to lothe GTA4. Everything about it from the music to the controls to the missions that are all basically the same.), Fallout 3 Broken Steel (Just got past the robot & ghoul battle and damn was that a pain on hard mode. I'm very low on stims!), Ghostbusters, Demon's Souls, Resistance Retribution, Rock Band Unplugged, and Patapon 2 (getting on my nerves as well. I didn't mind the grinding so much in the original but this one seems much worse)

[Dave Long]

UniWar!

Also, Garou: Mark of the Wolves, Raiden Fighters Aces, King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match (PS2), Wii Sports and Punch Out!!

Jazar, you forgot UniWar!

[Matt Bowyer]

This month has primarily been Crimson Gem Saga for the PSP, followed by Drakensang, Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts, and Fall From Heaven 2, all on the PC. Oh, and a lot of Dynasty Warriors 5 on the PS2.

[Demolira]

I'd have to say Dawn of Discovery or Treasure World.

I checked my Steam stats, and Dawn of Discovery has 38 hours played... and it came out last week. I've barely scratched the surface on the achievements in the game, so it'll keep me busy a while.

[Brian Rucker]

I'm in the throes of leveling a character in City of Heroes. Went back to check out Mission Architect and hadn't been there in ages. Ran into an old buddy of mine and his big, old, guild so I need to get my guy up to 50 so I don't feel like an utter nebbish. As a Dark Armor/Dual Blade tank Mister Harm's unusual and the concept is slick enough I'm really enjoying playing him. RL's a bit icky these days so mindless grinding is all I'm really up to anyhow.

CoH has really improved over the years. The level grind isn't nearly as bad as it was. You can rocket up fairly quickly if you stick to PuGs either missioning old school or doing Mission Architect content. There are some hardcore farmers abusing MA but Paragon's sorted out most of the issues there. SG bases are impressive and functional now. Nobody's come close to SWG's housing in terms of aesthetics and freedom to decorate but there are many real reasons for actually visiting one's SG base which is a huge advantage.

Aside from that, I'm messing around with my new PSP a bit. It's impressive. Yes, I know, I'm late to that.

[sam and the firefly]

Wii Sports Resort and Winning Eleven 2009.

[Skipper]

Sims 3 on the PC, Red Faction: Guerrilla on Xbox 360.

[Omniscia]

June wasn't much of a gaming month for me. Too busy with other stuff. But I did find some time to rediscover the sheer joy of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri.

In the 10 years since its release, nothing's come even remotely close to knocking it from the top spot on my list.

[Chuck]

True, so true. Game of the last century for sure.

After watching Terminator 4, I craved some Rebels vs our new Overlords, so it's been a very Half Life 2, Ep 1, Ep 2 month, with a little Beyond the Sword to fill out my turn-based gaming needs.

[Disconnected]

Thief 2 mostly, and Armageddon Empires and Demigod.

[LesJarvis]

I bought the Civilization 4 complete pack on Steam about 3 and a half weeks ago, and haven't played much else since.

[Lorini]

June was just an awesome month for me. From the Lakers winning the championship, to Dawn of Discovery (PC), Sword of the Stars, Devil Survivor, Steam board game, Valdora board game, it was like a 30 day Xmas.

[Imryll]

Oblivion and WoW with a touch of Sims 3.

[Erlend Grefsrud]

Got Metal Gear Solid 4 for £15, so I'm getting some old man action and I really like it so far. The story is utter gobshite, but the gameplay is solid 24-carat fucking gold. Even the shooting is good. Really love the complexity of the stealth and the very feel of sneaking around a raging battlefield, picking a side and helping one win, see what happens when I do ... the sense of tension in the game is simply magnificent, but whenever I am not under pressure I feel superhuman.

I also like that Snake has bouts of anxiety and that he can combat it with either drugs or CODEC therapy. Take that, Woody!

I'm also playing a bit of Zeno Clash, Freedom Force, Yosumin and Freespace 2, though not to the same degree as MGS4. I put also played quite a lot of The Club, which is really great actually, and a complete adrenaline rush of a game. It feels like a mix between Resident Evil 4 Mercenaries and a racing game, but with more retarded shooting mechanics and incredibly bland environments. Still, the game is quick-fix and intense enough that it doesn't really matter that the environments and characters are incredibly uninspired. It's all perfectly servicable, and some of the levels are quite brilliant from a design perspective, with really good guiding of the player's line of sight and all that jazz. A gamer's game.

I also tried World At War. Drab, insulting and hideously derivative of CoD4. Protip guys; the CoD4 gameplay style is like bullet-time: Diminishing returns kicks in blisteringly fast. I particularly dislike the way they've gone all AfterEffects on the level transitions. In CoD4 it kinda-sorta made sense in a cheap, Tom Clancy-esque techno-thriller way -- but the slick, contemporary presentation of the battles and weapons, complete with archive footage of mass-graves and soldiers marching is incredibly kitsch. Fantastically tasteless. Makes the Saving Private Ryan opening scene (the graveyard, not the beach) look understated.

[jason_wilson]

Red Faction: Guerrilla is the first open-world game that I've ever liked. I enjoy this so much that I even like just running around and smashing things with my hammer. My PC game for the month is Heroes of Might and Magic V, a series that I've never played until now (thank you, Steam).

[Dufresne]

Well, I got my DS this month, and I've spent a good 30 hours playing through Chrono Trigger DS, which is still just as awesome as ever.

In the final days of the month, however, I finally became the proud owner of Crackdown, and although I've had it for just one week, I've already started dreaming about agility orbs. It's so brutally entertaining that despite the fact that I have a Cities XL beta key, I haven't even downloaded it to my computer yet.

So I'd say it's about a tie between Chrono Trigger DS and Crackdown.

[Marged]

Viva Pinata and then Sims 3, both on the PC. They both are kinda pushing the limits of what my laptop can handle.

[spiffy]

I'm bouncing between Arma2 and Rise of Flight. Both started very shaky, what with getting them tuned in and figuring the design decisions out, but it's getting much better as I'm digging into the actual content.

[Rock8man]

June was a tie for me between Red Faction Guerrilla and Demon's Souls.

I also played through Infamous, but that didn't make that big of an impact on me. RFG and Demon's Souls were both fascinating for very different reasons and very engaging up until I left for vacation to Mexico.

[Dean]

I am still playing Fallout 3. Having a blast with it, though it did start to get a bit repetitive (I'm playing a sniper).

I picked up Ninja Gaiden 2 used and popped it into the drive to make sure it worked. I'm now on Chapter 6, and having great fun making up cheesy ninja dialogue while beating up on monsters.

I also picked up Ticket to Ride on XBLA (thanks 4000 spacebucks deal!) and spent a couple of days playing that both alone and with my wife.

And I've been playing a couple of ARGs.

[Lucidvizion]

Split probably equal time between Sims 3, Freelancer, and UFC 2009

[Kurina]

Clear Sky for me.

I grabbed it for $15 during a Gamersgate sale, and I have been hooked since. I haven't played any of the series up till this point, and I am aware that SoC is supposedly better. However, the atmosphere in this game is great and I am having a blast. I've apparently been missing out on an awesome series until that sale.

[snowcrash22]

PS2:
Up to about 65 hours in Persona 3 FES. The video game's Dark Hour and my own late night habits are starting to get blurred. Seriously considering doing some studying before I go to bed so I can boost my Academics. But I could also use a little extra sleep before the fight tomorrow at midnight.

PC
Spent about 5 hours in Penumbra Overture (it was like $5 on Steam a few weeks ago).
Zipped through Plant vs. Zombies
and I <3 TF2 Harcdore.

[Paul_cze]

PC

I replayed whole Splinter Cell series.So it is Chaos Theory, because that game ROCKS! Hocking is a great writer, I cracked up during almost every interrogation.

Now in 5th mission of Double Agent and hating it, Ubi Shanghai sucks..

[BDGE]

PS2:
Up to about 65 hours in Persona 3 FES. The video game's Dark Hour and my own late night habits are starting to get blurred. Seriously considering doing some studying before I go to bed so I can boost my Academics. But I could also use a little extra sleep before the fight tomorrow at midnight.

I left off around the same time stamp. REALLY need to get back into it, miss the game.

Though I'm pretty much playing through all Fallout 3 DLC content in one swift swoop. Anchorage(pretty cool, chinese stealth armor is both awesome and stylish!); Pitt(meh all around...especially trying to find all 100 of those ingots, not a fan of this pack); Broken Steel(still in the midst of it); Lookout(In the future I will have beaten it!).

[Robert Sharp]

inFamous has taken up most of my console time. I've been playing KOTOR2 on the PC and enjoying it. I've also played a lot of LOTRO, especially when I first get up in the mornings. I've spent a LOT of time gaming this month, actually.

Still having a hard time finding a good FPS for the PS3 though. I've just started Killzone 2, and it's gorgeous, but the gameplay isn't moving me yet.

[Shadari]

Mostly Far Cry 2 and Diablo 2, both on the PC.

[Creole Ned]

I poked around a bit in a few games but didn't really play any a great deal. The one exception was Company of Heroes which I played a fair amount with a couple of friends against the AI.

I actually spent a lot more time in June reading rather than gaming.

[Marcin]

I ripped through RFG - it was good, but over so, so very fast (seems like). It doesn't really have any long-term legs for me, either. Prototype on the other hand ... well, we'll see what happens when I finish that, but I'm taking my time much more - it's so easy to get distracted with a random hive battle, making up all sorts of silly self-imposed restrictions or rules, or just going on a mission of zombie genocide.

Also spent a good chunk of time with XPlane and its associated bits like World Editor, Overlay Editor and Google Sketchup :) Some day hopefully soon, Eugene will have a proper airport rather than a placeholder.

I expect next month will be more Prototype, more XPlane, but also ArmA2 and EVE. I guess I need a hefty dose of sim/deliberation after the ridiculous and gleefully dumb exuberance that is Prototype. It helps that EVE appears to have a metric tonne of new things to do since I played last (2007).

[Pogue Mahone]

I'm enjoying an adventure game renaissance, between recent XBLA releases of Wallace & Gromit and Sam & Max plus playing Hotel Dusk on my DS -- not to mention the impending release of new Monkey Island adventures. I thought their day was done, but I'm having a fantastic time with these games. Those guys at Telltale are on my short list of developers that I will buy anything from, they've not let me down yet.

[Fugitive]

I mainly went back to Fallout 3 and worked through all of the side quests and DLC stuff that I hadn't gotten to yet. I'm also enjoying Mass Effect a lot, but didn't start it until really late into the month.

[malkav11]

For once, a month not primarily occupied by WoW. I've kind of burned out because I've got the gear I need to raid, but I was enormously unsuccessful in actually getting people to raid with me and I've finally given up on forming my own raid group after a couple months of dismal failure. There's stuff to do besides raid, of course, but I just feel like it's spinning my wheels if I'm not raiding and have no prospect of doing so in the near future. Maybe I'll find a group with times that work for me and my friend both, or maybe patch 3.2 will help. I dunno.

What I have been doing is bouncing between inFamous, Red Faction: Guerrilla, and Prototype. Of the three I've probably spent the most time with Prototype. It's slighter than Red Faction, but it's a stupid amount of fun.

Add to that a renewed addiction to Fallout 3 thanks to new DLC (not that I've touched any DLC yet), a couple of mods, and the added beauty of the game now running on my 19" widescreen display. And a multiplayer comp stomp in Dominions 3, and you've got my month. (I finally picked it up. It's soooo good.)

[Jason Lutes]

As far as new stuff, the Champions Online beta has been taking up a fair amount of time. Beyond that, most of my gaming hours in June have been consumed by Mass Effect (frequently stalled out due to crashes) and Fall From Heaven 2 (on Prince difficulty level, which is gruelling). And I still play 3-5 ranked 1v1 matches of Company of Heroes nearly every day. That game is pretty much the perfect RTS as far as I'm concerned.

[alexlitel]

In terms of time invested, Skate, but I spent a night with Midnight Club: Los Angeles and really liked it.

[MitchyD]

Red Faction is the correct choice, everyone. Thanks for playin'! :)

[Bandersnatch]

Played Mass Effect like crazy most of the month. Had never played it until now. I really enjoyed it, felt the same magic I got playing Kotor for the first time.

Been playing inFamous a little bit almost everyday. Got Prototype as well, but I'm too lazy to switch the discs. The game is alright, kinda disappointed playing an evil character. I would of murdered Trish a couple dozen missions ago if I could. The side quests are clearly intended for hero characters. What do I care if the reapers bugged your house?

Got HOMM 5 from the Steam deal and have been enjoying that. Never played a HOMM game before, but I loved King's Bounty: The Legend. Can't believe how similar it is to King's Bounty, instant deja vu once I got control. At least HOMM 5 doesn't leave you butthurt in the beginning. King's Bounty had such a crappy tutorial by comparison.

I was playing The Last Express earlier in the month, but haven't played it in awhile. Blew me away when I first started playing though, it's held up really well for a game that came out in 1997. I've had to rewind a ton though and listen to the long concert far too many times, but I finally got past that part.

[Intangir]

I replayed whole Splinter Cell series.So it is Chaos Theory, because that game ROCKS! Hocking is a great writer, I cracked up during almost every interrogation.

Aw man I always wanted to play Chaos Theory but wouldn't on account of StarForce. I had forgotton all about the game until I read that. Has this ever been released without StarForce (digitally or otherwise) since it launched?

PS: Dammit, why does Steam have Double Agent and not Chaos Theory. :(

[krayzkrok]

Plants vs. Zombies, because I missed the May rush.
Aquaria, because that's one of only two decent games on my laptop before I put PvZ on it.
Peggle, because that's the only other decent game I had on my laptop.

[Taranis]

I spent most of June playing TF2.

After suffering burnout from TF2 I started playing "Battle for Wesnoth" which is a fantastic game and the price is right (Free) besides, if you're a fan of turn-based fantasy wargames you need to try this game.
http://www.wesnoth.org/

[Jason Cross]

Gotta give the nod to Sims 3 for June. It's just too damn funny and addictive.

Red Faction: Guerilla would easily be in the top spot otherwise. I also very much enjoy Rocket Riot for $10.

Not having as much fun with Overlord II, which is kind of a let-down.

[BigWeather]

Red Faction for me, no contest for me...

Though MTG:Duel of the Planeswalkers gets a special "f*** you" for getting me re-hooked on paper and maybe even online MTG. (Great game for 800 points, though, just have to be able to resist getting sucked back in... Maybe you'll be stronger than I!)

[belgerog]

So far I'd say RFG. I started having fun from the first minute with this game.

Also I've gone back to Fallout 3, which is awesome. I always play RPGs in cycles, last time I played fo3 was in february.

[KWhit]

BLOOD BOWL

[MythicalMino]

Blood Bowl

[armand v]

Red Faction Gorilla and Fight Night 4 mostly. Behind those two are Portal, Rock Band 2, Fallout3. Only glanced at Left4Dead, Guitar Hero Hits, Half Life2, UFC and Ghostbusters.

[Chris Nahr]

Still having a hard time finding a good FPS for the PS3 though. I've just started Killzone 2, and it's gorgeous, but the gameplay isn't moving me yet.

I also started Killzone 2. The generic WW2 environments and weapon selection are rather boring but otherwise it's a very solid shooter, definitely better than the disappointing Resistance 2 campaign.

[fuzzyslug]

I ran through Infamous as a good guy and started it over as a bad guy. Sly Cooper got a little older, a little more human, and now shoots lightning out of his ass. I really enjoyed the game. Marry great climbing mechanics with a game that practically pushes you through it. Low hurdles sit between you and the next mission. The game isn't interested in punishing you, always finding damn near the perfect restore point without requiring a reload. This one made it to the "completed" pile pretty quickly as a result.

I still play NHL '09 pretty consistently. QT3 is well represented in the NHL rankings. This is the best sports game ever made.

On the PC, I'm still farting with all the PvZ extras. The Zen garden is a project I share with the kids and my second run through is close to complete.

[Couchfire]

The World Ends With You.
I know it came out a while ago, but I just picked it up, and having never played a JRPG, I'm really enjoying it.

[Lizard_King]

Also I've gone back to Fallout 3, which is awesome. I always play RPGs in cycles, last time I played fo3 was in february.
Yeah, dammit. Being able to skip all of the boring parts and enhance the interesting ones with mods now that I have a PC capable of running it on the highest settings changed everything.

Other than that, thanks to the pc, I played a lot of Pirates!, Prototype, and a good amount of RE5 now that we've found out (duh) that the other use for the router configuration 50 ft ethernet cable I got is system link.

[Marged]

I also picked up Ticket to Ride on XBLA (thanks 4000 spacebucks deal!) and spent a couple of days playing that both alone and with my wife.

Wait wait, how do you do that? You can see each other's cards! Do you have to shield your eyes during her turn? Is the game still fun?

[Dean]

Wait wait, how do you do that? You can see each other's cards! Do you have to shield your eyes during her turn? Is the game still fun?

We played two games, one with just the two of us, and one with 3 AI's. The first game with the two of us was kind of a tutorial, so we stayed out of each other's hair and I helped her on what she could/couldn't do (she'd played the boardgame once about three years ago, but that's it). The second game it was more each of us playing against the computer AI. I was the eastern seaboard and she was more the middle.

It didn't feel horrible being able to see her turns. Actually it was more annoying that I couldn't see my cards or my section of the board while her turn was happening, so I couldn't plan ahead.

It's set up so it warns you whose turn it is before it starts. I could see more competitive people bringing a magazine and reading during other people's turns or something like that.

[Anti-Bunny]

Blood Bowl.

And Arma 2.

[Rimbo]

sacred 2

[RepoMan]

Prototype all month for me. It's just plain fun to destroy everything with my hideously mutated and absurdly powerful hoodie-wearing psycho dude.

[Crater]

Mass Effect finally bubbled it's way to the top of the queue a few weeks ago, and I've really been enjoying it, Mako and all.

Recently picked up RF:G, looking forward to playing that next.

[Rob_Merritt]

Ghostbusters and Sims 3.

[Paul_cze]

Aw man I always wanted to play Chaos Theory but wouldn't on account of StarForce. I had forgotton all about the game until I read that. Has this ever been released without StarForce (digitally or otherwise) since it launched?

PS: Dammit, why does Steam have Double Agent and not Chaos Theory. :(

I bought locally released version when it was on sale for 15 bucks ( http://xzone.cz/nahledgame.php3?idg=1687 ) which contains first three games, and ironically Chaos Theory is the only one completely stripped of any DRM whatsoever - it does not even have a simple disc check.First game and Pandora have disc check, annoyingly : /.

Unfortunately I have not seen that game anywhere digitally..

maybe GOG could get it sometimes, since they have Ubi somewhat onboard..

[Dean]

I bought locally released version when it was on sale for 15 bucks ( http://xzone.cz/nahledgame.php3?idg=1687 ) which contains first three games, and ironically Chaos Theory is the only one completely stripped of any DRM whatsoever - it does not even have a simple disc check.First game and Pandora have disc check, annoyingly : /.

Unfortunately I have not seen that game anywhere digitally..

maybe GOG could get it sometimes, since they have Ubi somewhat onboard..

It's on Xbox Live as an Xbox Original. It didn't show up when I was just browsing games, but when I went to the Xbox Originals section it was there.

[intruder]

WoW mainly. Got my druid to 80 and now running Heroics in tree form + Naxx 10 and 25 to gear up. HoTs + Wild growth aoe heal 4tw.
Farming Ulduar while trying to not fall asleep with my 2 other 80s.


Additionally:

Finished: Turning Point: Fall of Liberty (PC)
I have to say it was less bad than people said. It's a generic shooter for sure but I could beat it without any bug preventing me from proceeding.
I had to memorize the last level of the game because there it gets pretty unfair (close quarter fighting with shotgun equipped enemies in tight corridors. 1-2 shots and you are dead so better know beforehand when they will come from where).
I like the absurd story though (break into the White House to assassinate the puppet President) and the end was really patriotic.
Big plus: The German spoken by the soldiers was REAL German that made sense to a native speaker unlike shit in Wolfenstein etc.

In progress: Prince of Persia (PC)
I suck at platformers + Xbox gamepad but the game is ok. I like the beautiful graphics + music. A big minus with certain reviewers was the fact that the Price speaks with an American accent but that didn't bother me so far. I like the "flirting" and "teasing" between the princess and the guy.

Also in progress: Suidoken: Tierkreis (DS)
I was "stranded" on Geneva airport since my flight got delayed and there I saw this game that is according to others hard to find due to a low print number. I picked it up and I'm about 3-4 hours in.
So far it's nice though not GoTY material. Unlike with Prince of Persia I'm quite bothered by the thick US accents in the cutscenes!
Makes that fantasy world less immersing for some odd reason. :(
Fighting is quite straight-forward and the story is interesting so far.
We will see how that will turn out.

[Wheelkick]

Mass Effect - Finished it and loved it. But most of last month and this week has been spent working my ass off to get my project in shape for the upcoming summer vacation.

[Nixxter]

Deadspace (fighting the PC controls all the way, but still enjoying it and thinking a sequel will only be better).

DS - 80 hours in with Final Fantasy IV.

Maybe with a few days off around the holiday I'll finish these up and fire up some new gamez!

[Freezer-TPF-]

I've been growing my backlog again recently, so naturally I jumped back into Civ4 as a classic avoidance technique.

I'm planning to grab King's Bounty this weekend as a way to wean myself back off of the Civ4 pony.

[runesword forger]

Wii: Tiger Woods 10 and The Conduit. Both are a blast online.

Board/Card: Tigris and Euphrates, El Grande, Bridge, Guillitoine, Wits and Wagers. Would recommend all of them for the right audiences.

[Desslock]

World Series of Poker visit satiated my poker fix for the month, so actually played a lot of games this month -- some strange choices though:

- X-men Legends 1 coop on the gamecube with the wife. Never completed the game, and having fun primarily seeing the depictions of the characters, although it's so linear and repetitive with the noname enemies that it's kinda boring.

- Gears of War 2 coop on 360 - finally playing some xbox multiplayer and it's a lot of fun - obviously game was designed to be great in coop, and I've really enjoyed it. Would love an experience with the same engine/gameplay that was less on rails, however, and the story is just silly.

- Far Cry 2 on the PC - played about halfway through on the 360 -- much better game on the PC at superhigh resolution on a 30" monitor, although vehicle combat is a little more clumsy. I probably spend too much time obsessing over diamonds though, and the repetitive guardposts are more of a drag the second time through. The actual weapons are great, however - best explosions and fire effects ever, and I'm enjoying using weapons that are different than I used the first time. First person combat is a lot easier on the PC though, because of the controls.

- Demon's Souls on the PS3 - probably my game of the year so far. Haven't spent as much time as I wanted on it yet, but really enjoying it.

That's about as platform agnostic as it gets.

[TomChick]

That's about as platform agnostic as it gets.

I'm proud of you, Stefan! And to think this time last year, you were calling anything on a console system a "magic mushroom game".

They grow up so fast. Sniff.

-Tom

[Jose Liz]

Prototype ftw

[Warren]

Oblivion like crazy once that was on Steam. Before that, I went nuts on Sword of The Stars.

For me, June was the first month in a while that was not mostly getting sucked back into Mount and Blade mods punctuated by short bursts of the latest shiny (ie latest Steam/Impulse/Gamersgate sale!!).

Gaming has been very, VERY good this last couple of years. Lots of choices, quirky indie to big massive AAA, with lots of choices on how to get the goods, with frequent sales all around. All kinds of awesome.

[espressojim]

Got HOMM 5 from the Steam deal and have been enjoying that. Never played a HOMM game before, but I loved King's Bounty: The Legend. Can't believe how similar it is to King's Bounty, instant deja vu once I got control. At least HOMM 5 doesn't leave you butthurt in the beginning. King's Bounty had such a crappy tutorial by comparison.


I've spent a good chunk of this month playing King's Bounty:The Legend, and I'm a former HOMM 5 (and HOMM 1-4) player. Part of the reason it's taking up the whole month is that I'm on my 3rd start, now that I feel like I "get" the game (played up to elven lands last game, only did the first island the first time.)

As a big HOMM fan, I think this game is close to HOMM, but somehow different - you can't capture castles to get access to limited numbers of troops per week, which really drives the action on that game. Stacks don't grow in size either as time progresses, so you don't need to be fast in KBtL to do well. I guess I'll just have a lower score for bouncing around the maps...

Still, excellent game. It instantly reminded me of all the love of HOMM, and it was comfortable in the way that playing a previous iteration of HOMM was - each new game in the series tweaked and changed things, and this did the same, but the mechanics were pretty similar. I find that tier 5 units aren't as powerful here as HOMM, and damage spells don't scale as well in KBtL (and leadership caps troop levels, not gold), but otherwise the games are very similar.

[Faceless Clock]

Kings Bounty is on my list of games to get as soon as I have spare cash begging to be spent. I loved that developer's last game (Space Rangers 2) and from what I've played of the demo, it seems Kings Bounty has the same quirky charm.

For me, I was really into Prototype. But now not so much. I've probably played about 15 hours of the game and I have not finished it yet because I have spent so much time wandering around causing havoc. Now I don't think I will finish it. Once you're gotten your fill of explosions and chaos there isn't much more to do.

[Alistair]

I just looked at the King's Bounty demo - not for me...

What I've just finished was The Last Express. It took 12 years, but I got there. It's a fascinating mix of the absolutely awesome (setting, dialog, aesthetic) and the ultra-clunky, in its means of navigating the train it takes place on. They went for a super-enclosed space to let them focus on people and events... but failed to find a way of presenting them to the player that wasn't tooth-judderingly frustrating...

One for the historians :)

http://www.archive.org/details/The_Last_Express-Making_Of