What are you playing right now?

[Nakor]

I got the Oblivion Game of the Year edition, so it comes out of the box with Shivering Isles and Knights of the Nine, fully patched. I did install the Unofficial Oblivion Patch (which to the best of my knowledge hasn't caused anyone problems) and the following mods:

Atmospheric Weather
Book Placement
Streamline
Harvest Flora
Harvest Containers
Natural Habitat
Natural Vegetation
Natural Water
Salmo the Baker
Expanded Hotkeys and Spell Delete
Supreme Magicka
Alive Waters
Akaviri Kojima

[Roemello]

Just finished my first playthrough of Mass Effect... and now like Soloist, I just gotta do a second run Great game start to finish... I'd imagine there'll have to be a sequel given the end To think I almost didn't get this game

[Nakor]

I'm starting to wonder if I shouldn't check into it. >_> But with The Orange Box, I've got enough to go through for now.

[soloist]

The Oblivion for 360 could use some extra mods right about now.
There were unofficial mods I read of that allowed more anima-
ls to appear and allowed for gradual weather changes which
I thought was a nice touch... but since there were not of-
ficial, I did not try them for fear of damaging my save-
d game. Mass Effect is worth checking out, Nakor, b-
ut after you're content with the progress that you h-
ave made in Orange Box, though. Roemello, did y-
ou know that Mass Effect is part of a planned tr-
ilogy? There are two more being created, but
I hope that EA does not attempt to tamper
with them since EA now owns Bioware a-
nd Pandemic. I guess that is why ther-
e is so much more information in th-
e game that seems to be a bit mu-
ch or even useless. I am certain
that more sense will be made
when the next two games a-
re released. Congratulatio-
ns on completing ME, Ro-
emello! I have complet-
ed my 2nd playthroug-
h and will be startin-
g a 3rd so that I c-
an get my chara-
cter to level 60.
I am being wi-
cked this ti-
me aroun-
d though
(laugh-
s). A-
dvi-
ce:

When creating a new character for Mass Effect:

-start a new game, but use the same ID to continue to advance your character's level from the point it is currently at. You keep your armor and when you gain allies, you can set their levels at the point where it was before completing the game. You can give them their armor back along with the upgrades they may have received... so be careful when deleting or selling items.

-start a new game, but create a new ID to start a new character from scratch again. You will gain an additional ability of your choice of four and will start from level one all over again.

-if you wish to play the game at a higher difficulty to get the corresponding achievement point, remember to change it at the main menu under the EXTRA, because if you change the difficulty mid game, even after you start it, the achievement point will not be earned.

I-
f yo-
u have
any quest-
ions about th-
e info given, I s-
hould be back arou-
nd 9:00pm EST. Good
luck with your progress!!

[Nakor]

The mods aren't much of a risk to current savegames, because you can always just remove them and get it back. The save game problem is when you've played with a mod for a while, and remove it. It can be difficult to remove a mod from the game and then use a save that was "used" to having that mod there. Sometimes this can be gotten around by going into a small area with no characters and nothing affected by the mod, and waiting a few days time in-game, then saving again and removing the mod. Also, any older saves that didn't have that mod can always be used without it.

There are a few mods that don't fully work except on new saves, like Obscuro's Oblivion Overhaul (designed to raise difficulty, set level minimums and maximums on NPCs, alter the way levels are gained, and many other changes), but to the best of my knowledge, they don't actually harm existing saves.

I believe the tool Wrye Bash also can mod savegame files so that the effects of mods (like OOO) can be added/removed from them.

[soloist]

Two more games for the new year,
though one is kind of old consi-
dering it was available arou-
nd the time the PSP was i-
ntroduced (the first ver-
sion), while the othe-
r has been out lat-
e last year, but
I just got aro-
und to actu-
ally picki-
ng it u-
p to-
da-
y.





Warrior's Orochi (a fusion of sorts from both Dynasty and Samurai Warriors universes) and Tony Hawk's Underground 2: Remix (essentially, it's a port of the PS2 version with additional and exclusive PSP levels)...




The backs. Tony Hawk was only 10 dollars while Orochi was still 40...



:nod


R-
ega-
rding t-
he mods,
I was refer-
ring to the 36-
0 version, beca-
use saves are per-
manent, there... so
any mod used for it c-
annot be restored unles-
s you have a backup save
elsewhere (like a memory c-
ard). That's the bonus of PC u-
pdates and patches. Hopefully, t-
his is the next step in game saves
on console systems (at least I hope).

[Nakor]

Ah, that makes a difference then. I wasn't aware the X360 version had user-created mods.

[Poison PJ]

Just about to finish my first Mass Effect playthrough.

[soloist]

Indeed there are user created mods for the 360 version
of Oblivion, Nakor. I was tempted to download one
of them, but since I devoted ALOT of time ma-
ing the progress that I did, I wished not to
risk losing it since the site I visited me-
ntion that downloading them carries
a degree of risk. Do you plan on t-
rying out Oblivion again, Nako-
r? I'm currently a level 34 w-
ith 366:03:11 hours logg-
ed in. Many of which c-
ame as I left the ga-
me on over night
numerous time-
s (laughs). C-
ongratulat-
ions on
your
first pl-
aythrough
of Mass Effe-
ct, Poison PJ! W-
hat did you think of
the end music of M. E.?

[Nakor]

Oh, I'm not done with it yet. I haven't been playing it as much since picking up The Orange Box, but I haven't dropped it either. I haven't finished the main quest or the Mages Guild quests yet, both of which I'm still in the middle of.

[soloist]

I found it difficult to get into Orange Box after getting really involved
in Halo 3 when I first obtained it since they both were released
near the same time frame. After Mass Effect, anything i-
s possible... rather, it WAS. I started playing Call of
Duty 4 online and was hooked on that too! Espe-
cially since I was playing with alot of peopl-
e whom I was familiar with from work
and the neighborhood. Was there
a particular order in which yo-
u played Orange Box, Na-
kor, or did you start
with Portal? Sinc-
e I never play-
ed Half Lif-
e 2, I wil-
l play t-
hem i-
n or-
de-
r.

-Half Life 2
-Half Life 2: Ep 1
-Half Life 2: Ep 2

(then either of these two...)

-Portal
-Team Fortress

[Nakor]

I played some of Portal and some of HL2. I've gone back and beat 5 of the advanced chambers (haven't tried the last one yet) and did a couple of the challenge versions (now those are a challenge!). I'm something like 7-8 chapters into HL2. I, too, will play Ep 1 and Ep 2 in order after beating HL2.

Team Fortress is purely a multiplayer game, no single player missions or aspects, so it really doesn't fit anywhere in the play order. I haven't touched it yet.

Still working on The Longest Journey, I think I'm on Chapter 11 of that game.

[soloist]

I heard of how challenging Half Life 2 was, but I did not
know whether or not it was due to the high difficult-
y level of the game or the fact that it's a physics-
based title with puzzle strongly supporting the
use of physic with intelligent design. Most
of what I have heard was from people f-
rom my work-place who have played
it, but have not gotten too far fr-
om what they have mentioned.
Chapter 4 or 5 I believe, bu-
t that was back in Novem-
ber (laughs). I played s-
ome Call of Duty 4 o-
nline and a bit m-
ore of Ace Co-
mbat 6 (off-
line) rec-
ently!

[Poison PJ]

loved the ending music. My only gripes are how short the main story was & the overwhelming level of graphic glitches

[soloist]

The graphical glitches is due to the version of
Unreal engine that is used. Bioshock had t-
his problem and numberous other titles
utilizing the Unreal engine... even G-
ears of War, though not as much
since it used an upgraded ver-
sion of the Unreal engine 3
where as Bioshock used
a modified version o-
f the 2.5 engine a-
nd Mass Effect
used UE 3, t-
he standa-
rd vers-
ion.
Most
games t-
hat use the
UE experience
such visual hiccu-
ps. Maybe the next i-
teration of the UE will h-
ave this problem remedied.