What game(s) are you playing right NOW?

I think Sony, too, deserve some credit for supporting and funding entirely new projects, instead of trodding on tried-and-trusted paths. Whereas most big name companies rely on existing franchises, rehashing the same old things again and again year after year, to milk out as much profit as they can (EA Sports, anyone?), it's refreshing to see some companies actually taking risks in unknown territory. That's the only way to realise 'true' next-gen gaming, in my eyes: not just achieving some prettied up graphics, but also finding ways to get people emotionally attached.

I don't doubt that eventually, hardware will mature enough for us to see photorealistic graphics, but if THAT'S all next-gen has to offer, then it feels pretty much hollow to me. An empty shell, so to speak - all show, but no substance. I feel the majority of the gaming industry thus far has only been trying to raise the envelope for better graphics, but forgetting entirely about other aspects.

Without taking financial risks on new, untested ideas by the big companies, how will it be possible for creative talent out there to bring us such games as ICO and Shadow of the Colossus?
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I totally agree Sharingan, and this was what I was trying to get at with my recent poll about preferring more realism or artistic style within a game.

As hardware becomes ever more powerful developers keep pushing for realism until one day we definitely won't be able to tell it isn't real footage being used. This will be great for games that can use realism to shock and excite the player. As I also mentioned in the other thread about this for a war game, the realism of war is something that would enhance a game and give added realism to the immersion of the experience. But for many others a unique artist style is more important than realism. Gameplay and enjoyment have to come first.

Why create perfect realism and believable environments with true to life physics, when instead you could create something from our imagination, and physics that allow us to do more than reality allows only gives more scope to experiment and enjoy. And why does it even need to be anything like realistic? It doesn't.

Many slag off Sony but as you say they are not scared to take risks with gaming projects. There have been a lot of titles released since the original Playstation that have been quite different and proved you don't need to confirm to known gaming templates for something to be enjoyable, unique and entertaining. Many music based games instantly come to mind such as PaRappa the Rapper or Guitar Hero. And ICO and Shadow of the Colossus really showed how to create games that take away the need for a load of on screen stats and hints, and let the player work out the environments and game mechanics. Much like real life.

Nintendo have always been the other developer not afraid to take some risks. The innovations in their current Wii and DS clearly shows this, but they don't quite take the same risks when it comes to their first party games. They always fit into the Nintendo gaming mould and Nintendo hardly ever step out of their cute little Mario world. They do experiment and explore imagination in their games though so you have to praise them for that, but when you look at the range of variety in the Sony releases they experiment with a much wider variety of genres and ideas.
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Currently, there's two games I'm dabbling with, those being Folklore (PS3) and Rogue Galaxy (PS2).

Folklore is great. It's not really an RPG as I previously thought it would be, but more like an action-adventure with some RPG elements. Think of it as a cross between Zelda and Pokemon. The storyline is really the game's strong point - there's some plot twists that really took me by surprise. Gameplay is fun as well - there's over 100 monsters to catch, and each of them can be powered up in varying ways. To level them all up, it would take quite a bit of time.

Rogue Galaxy has been quite fun so far, if a bit overwhelming. It seems like there's so much stuff to do, it's easy to get sidetracked. The combat system, I thought, was a bit unwieldy - especially the targeting and the camera were a pain. The huge monster encounter rate and the weird difficulty curve didn't help much either. At one point I thought I was doing okay, even considered my team was a bit overleveled, and then suddenly monsters appeared that started taking 50% health off my characters with single hits. The dungeons seem a tad on the large side too ... some even bordering on the insane. Still, I think it's a pretty good game. The truely hardcore gamers could probably get a lot of playtime out of this should they want to unlock everything there is.
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I completely agree with your comments regarding Rogue Galaxy. I've not played far into the game yet as I still have a few others I'm finishing off first, but the few hours I did play so far gave much the same impressions.

The combat system was probably the one thing that felt over complex and I found myself dying because I was fighting the controls, more than making bad decisions during a fight. The targeting and camera definitely needed some improvement.

And yes, the strength of some of the enemies seems to suddenly shoot up without much warning.

Maybe we have just become too used to games that lead us through the progression too much, giving us helpful stat boosts and level ups at stages in the game where they are just about to be needed. Maybe more games should be like this, going back to the old days where RPGs did contain monsters you had no hope of beating until you did some grinding and levelled up your party enough to finally progress.

But it is always bad design when areas of a game introduce very powerful enemies at a point in the story where the developer knows roughly the level the player will have reached.

Definitely a more hardcore RPG compared to many others, but worth playing for anyone into the genre. The graphics are also some of the best seen on the PS2.
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Yeah, Rogue Galaxy was the first RPG in a long-ass time where I've actually had a Game Over in. Several times, even. Through no real fault of my own, really, as my team was flattened in 3-4 seconds, by mobs that simply mowed everything down before I could react.

Or maybe I'm just getting slow

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Currently playing a few games:

Final Fantasy Tactics A2 on the DS: A fun tactical RPG, using the tried-and-trusted formula. The storyline sucks balls, but there's tons of quests to do and dozens of character classes, so expect quite a bit of playtime.

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune on the PS3: Began playing this again after the Trophies patch. Forgot how much fun the game was! And, even now after a year since its release, it still manages to impress graphics-wise.

Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty on the PS3: A mini-story that serves as a bridge between 'Tools of Destruction' and the next installment of the series. So far, quite fun, and it's looking better than ToD too due to some revamped textures and effects. Seems like Insomniac didn't optimise this game as much as they did ToD, though, since there's parts with framerate chops where nothing really extraordinary is happening.
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I just got Uncharted and Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction as Platinum edition for 20€ each, which is quite a bargain. Also got MGS4 at eBay for 33$ and Mercenaries 2 for 40$. I'm currently playing:

- Mass Effect (XBox360, still not finished)
- Burnout Paradise (PS3, great fun)
- Mercenaries 2 (PS3, pure destruction)

I also recently got Bioshock, Gears of War and Halo 3 for 10$ each at eBay.
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