What video games are you playing?

[Jenn]

It took me a little over an hour, saving every couple of minutes, and about 10 reloads, but I did the first mission without killing anyone and without being detected in Dishonored. Hurrah!

In the sewers, when you have to drop down that sort of shaft where there's a guard waiting below, he was just too close and I kept alerting him when I dropped down. I tried throwing a bottle to get him to move away and I beaned him right in the head

[GenYus234]

I assume that it isn't the kind of game where he figured the flying bottle assualt must have been the wind.*

* Skyrim, I'm looking at you! Wind does not shoot arrows into the face of wandering guards.

[Jenn]

He blamed the rats

[Mr. Sender]

The game really surprised me the first time I alerted someone. I figured I'd just stand up high where he couldn't get me until I figured out what to do.

"Haha, he can't get me up here. Hey, why is he bending over- HEY! He's throwing rocks at me!"

[Darth Credence]

I think it is actually going to get easier to stealth after the first mission. The first power you get is blink, which will let you teleport from cover to cover. (That's odd - Chrome is telling me teleport is not a word.) The next power I got is one that allows me to see through walls and determine which direction everyone is looking. I've used it to good effect in sneaking past people.

[Morgaine]

I hope you'll let a video game virgin drop in to ask a question. My son wants Assassins Creed III for Christmas. If we preorder it he gets a special sword or something. Is there usually a deadline to download these things? I want to wait until Christmas to give it to him & I'd be really annoyed if we waited to give it to him & its too late to download the special sword. Thanks!!

[crocoduck_hunter]

You should get the preorder code with the item, but not in the box (Amazon usually emails it, while GameStop seems to be printing it on the receipt when you pick up the game). Usually, you don't actually have to redeem the code from the game itself, you can enter it directly into XBoxLive or the PSN and download it instantly. Don't know about PC, though.

[NewZer0]

I rented Just Dance 4 the other day. It's okay, but I'm not liking it as much as 2 and 3. There are fewer songs I'm interested in (though with both 2 and 3 there were songs I was originally "eh" about that turned out to be really fun). The songs on this one seem to be a little more modern/contemporary. There are still older songs ("Istanbul" by TMBG is particularly fun), but it doesn't seem to be quite as mixed.

They've drastically changed the Just Sweat mode and I'm not digging it so far. It's too much like an actual exercise tape.

It'd be cool to own it at some point, but I prefer 2 and 3.

--NewZer0

[Richard W]

I just had my first instance of a moment in a game having been somewhat spoiled by watching a trailer for it... in the Dawnguard expansion for Skyrim. It would have been a brilliant moment of unexpected drama, but I recognised the landscape and realised what was about to happen. Do we have to be careful of watching game trailers now too?

At least it warned me that I should save...

(eta) I was sure I was going to get an achievement for that fight, too. If those weren't "legendary dragons" then I don't think I want to meet one!

[Darth Credence]

Originally Posted by Morgaine

I hope you'll let a video game virgin drop in to ask a question. My son wants Assassins Creed III for Christmas. If we preorder it he gets a special sword or something. Is there usually a deadline to download these things? I want to wait until Christmas to give it to him & I'd be really annoyed if we waited to give it to him & its too late to download the special sword. Thanks!!

Amazon and Best Buy email the code. I just cut and paste it into my XBox account online, would never need to get into the game. The email they sent did not mention an expiration date, but I assume they expire eventually.

[MooseMacD]

I'm just getting back into Skyrim (XBox) and I have a question for fellow players (or anyone who plays a game where you can have multiple "homes/bases").

I just got the opportunity to by a house in Solitude and I realized that despite all the places I could buy, I still just have my first house in Whiterun and have divided up all the storage in it (one chest is all weapons, one is all light armour, one is all extra potions, etc).

So do you still keep one home/base for all your gear, or do you spread it around?

[GenYus234]

I keep just one home base with all my major stuff (Whiterun as it is centrally located, the first place I bought, and the blacksmith is right next to my house). But I'll store fancy weapons and armour in the other houses as they have display cases/mannikins to show it off.

I had one place for all my stuff in Fallout: New Vegas too. As soon as I got the room in the Lucky 38, I moved all my stuff from the hotel room in No Vac.

If for no other reason, crafting is easier with one place. If you have 5 cherry bombs in one house and a daedra heart in another house, you can'd to anything with them. But if they are in the same place you can build an awesome weapon.

[Darth Credence]

I keep everything except display items in one place. Whiterun was also my place of choice, for the blacksmith being next door. That way when I have to carry a large load to do some crafting, I don't walk slow for long. I'm thinking of moving stuff to my new house from the latest DLC, because I will have my own forge, but it leaves me a long way from anywhere to sell things. I don't know how much that matters at this point, since about the only thing I use money for is to train, and I still have more than I need.

[JoeBentley]

Got Alice: Madness Returns for the Xbox, but was surprised to find that the a new HD re-release of the original American McGee's Alice PC game was included free and I've got to say it looks pretty good for a 10 year old Quake III engine game. So me and E*E are playing through the original before we tackle the sequel.

[Morrigan]

I spread all my stuff around. MOst of it's in my house in Whiterun, but I dump the rest of it in my other houses.

[Richard W]

Originally Posted by MooseMacD

So do you still keep one home/base for all your gear, or do you spread it around?

I started off putting the stuff I didn't want to sell into a chest in my house in Whiterun, but I have the same psychological problem with these things as you do, and I soon realised that I should either sell it for cash, or if I thought it was going to be useful, carry it with me. (As I'm sure I've said before, I don't like fast travel - at least until late in the game - so I don't like the idea of having to go back "home" and sort out my kit between missions, especially as you generally have no idea which items might be useful).

This stopped being an issue when I got the Hearthfire DLC expansion pack. I've only built one house so far (with three wings...) but it's the first place that I've felt happy to leave stuff and have it as a base which feels like "home". The game gave me the illusion that I'd built it myself, with my own hands. This surely shows a major psychological weakness in me. Or perhaps it's just that I started using fast travel before I got the expansion pack.

I regret selling everything a bit now because I need 15 Daedric artefacts for an achievement, and I think I've sold most of the ones I had - I will go round and buy them back, though...

Originally Posted by JoeBentley

Got Alice: Madness Returns for the Xbox, but was surprised to find that the a new HD re-release of the original American McGee's Alice PC game was included free and I've got to say it looks pretty good for a 10 year old Quake III engine game.

I played it after. It's a lot harder than the new one... but I think it's ultimately a better game as well. Madness Returns is pretty good too though, and also has all the modern stuff like collectibles to go back for and so on. The story is better in Madness Returns too.

[JoeBentley]

Yeah I'm kinda bummed American McGee's Oz never got made. Some of the concept art looked awesome. I'm told some of the ideas for it were incorporated into the upcoming Sam Raimi film, but I would have liked to see it as a game.

[Richard W]

There are loads of games that I'm thinking of getting at the moment, but I managed to resist them all - I don't want to buy them at least until I've properly finished Skyrim. I should play more of Deus Ex: Human Revolution as well. I only got half way through, and according to the time stamp, it's over a year since I last played it. And Final Fantasy XIII isn't finished either, although that one is very dull.

The Dishonored game that everybody is playing sounds good, and so does Lego: Batman 2.

Then there's the re-release of XCom: Enemy Unknown, although I want to look at some reviews of that to find out exactly how updated it is. It's selling as a full-price game here, which seems a bit steep. I know the graphics are totally different (which I hope won't make it harder to see what's going on) but I don't know about the rest.

I'm sure there was at least one more that's available now that I was thinking of getting today. Assassin's Creed III, Forza: Horizons and Lego: Lord Of The Rings are all showing up to order as pre-releases and coming out soon as well...

(eta) Aha, XCom is getting great reviews and it sounds as though it's basically the same as the original, which is good. Also the review in The Guardian explicitly mentions that the controls are OK on the XBox, and specifically contrasts it with Halo Wars. Halo Wars came bundled with this XBox and its controls are so bad that it's almost unplayable as soon as you start needing to use any tactics beyond "point all your units at the enemy and tell them to attack". It's one of the reasons I was thinking twice about buying another strategy game...

[crocoduck_hunter]

Just downloaded Pinball Arcade for my PS3 last night.

I <3 Medieval Madness!

[GaryM]

I bought XCOM:Enemy Unknown for the PC (pre-ordered in fact) and am enjoying it very much. Surprisingly scary for a turn-based game.