We've already got threads about TV and movies, now we have the gaming equivalent. I actually thought about starting a thread a while ago about the games we are all currently playing but kept forgetting. Thanks to a reminder from Jayne in her latest post I thought I'd get the ball rolling on it now.

I've got about 3 games on the go just now:

Final Fantasy XIII. Not really enjoying the story or the combat. I finished it last week, but I'm still upgrading weapons, levelling up and doing all the side quests (which is basically just Marks like in FFXII).

It took way to long to get to a non-linear section (chapter 11 out of 13!), the AI for the battles is really annoying. Example: Medics curing everybody in yellow danger for ~200 per move instead of curing one person for ~600. ~400 to everybody in two moves or ~600 each in two moves? Me, I'd go for the ~600. If something can get everybody in the yellow then they're going to keep them there if you're only curing ~200.

Also, if one creature dies it's completely random who you and the AI go for next. More often than not the AI goes for someone completely different to you. And usually they're nowhere near dying. Whereas you're actually hitting something that's already half dead. If the AI helped it'd be dead in one move.

Other than those major niggles it's not that bad. I do like the stagger idea aswell as setting up 2-5 attacks in the one move. The levelling up and class system is pretty good aswell. Being able to change paradigms (the class) in the middle of the battle is similar (but more in depth) to changing character mid fight in FFX. Speaking of FFX, the summons are similar. Everyone has one Eidolon (the funky new word for summon, in VIII it was Guardian Forces, X it was Aeons, now it's Eidolons, why can't they just call it the same thing), you can bring it out in battle as long as you have enough TP to pay for it (you have a 5 bar TP guage, summons cost 3) and you have about 30 seconds of use out of it before it'll disappear. But Eidolons also have what I suppose you'd call Limit Breaks (Gestalt in this). You can do more damage in Gestalt, but you're limited to 5 things and a time limit. Maybe I shouldn't have said as much as that, sounds pretty confusing and convoluted!

Upgrading the weapons is a bit like VIII where you've to get the right items to do it. Although, it's not as bad as that. You basically need about 4 different items to upgrade one weapon fully, but you need multiples of the items. To upgrade a weapon to it's first major level you'd need 36 Sturdy Bones then a specific amount of Perfect Conductors, then you need a specific catalyst to change the weapon. Repeat that again with slightly different items depending on the weapon/accessory you're upgrading.

The only problem with that is that you need a Trapezohedron to upgrade some weapons to their final stage. This can be bought for 12 million Gil. And Gil is the one thing you always need. There is another way to get it though. But you've to be lucky. Kill one of the Ademantoise which has over 5 million HP. Not too bad considering some of the normal bosses have a similar amount. But when you add in the fact that he can do 15,000 damage to everybody in one hit you kinda know you're screwed before you even start.

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I've just finished Sniper: Ghost Warrior on normal and I'm working on getting the secrets, although I think it's screwed up as I know I've got 6 to get (counting the ones I've got) but according to the level stats there's only 4 that I've missed. And they're all normal pick ups in the levels so I think 2 of them haven't counted. I guess I'll find out when I finish going through it looking for them again.

Anyways, it's a bit like a really low budget FPS version of Spec Ops (the PS1 3rd person games). Better than Call of Duty, but the story is still naff and there are a fair few collision glitches. But then it's from a low budget company so I forgive them for the glitches.

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Been playing Call of the Dead at a mate's house. Great fun trying to kill a zombified George Romero, but bloody difficult aswell! Not too fond of the actual game itself. Played a bit of Modern Warfare 2, didn't think much of it, Black Ops is more of the same. But with Call of the Dead I think they're actually onto a good thing. If only it was a little bit easier and a completely seperate Arcade title.

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So what's everybody else been playing?