Finished games...
I've just finished (or decided to stop playing) 3 games:
1.) Half-Life 2: Episode 2
This game runs a fantastic story, with characters that could be strong and emotional moments that could be groundbreaking... if only the moment-to-moment script writing didn't TOTALLY SUCK.
You spend the majority of the game feeling as though you're in kingergarten. Every time you do anything, you get a "nice shot!" or a "great job, Freeman!" from one of the other characters. Annoying.
But the gameplay mechanics are brilliant - the final battle is impressive. I won't spoil it for those who haven't played.
2.) Portal
This game is so well-written. The Estro-HAL voice constantly in the background is subtly funny at every turn, then later develops a twisted character so brilliant, it shows up Hollywood's takes on computer personalities by a significant margin.
Another thing I found interesting about Portal was the avatar. An apparently Latino female clad in an orage jumpsuit is visible through portals quite often - seeing "myself" in this way was strange. At one point, I made portals into a corner so that I could examine "myself" more closely, and stood for a moment awash in cognitive dissonance.
I don't identify easily with female avatars - I know this. But in Portal, where your in-game "body" is unusually important (in that you fling it through space pretty regularly), my need to identify with my avatar is unusually strong. Staring at the (rather stern) face of my avatar, I couldn't make the connection.
3.) Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Demo
The number of Middle Eastern combatants one kills per second during this demo is, to put it mildly, surprising. Subtle (but to my mind somewhat unavoidable) racism aside, though, there are a few interesting things about this game.
First, shooting an enemy doesn't necessarily result in a kill, even in the chest - it's random, much as in real life. Just as soldiers that were in Mogadishu talk about putting multiple shots into an enemy combatant only to see him keep running, bullets in CoD4:MW have unpredictable effectiveness.
Second, the reasons why you're not dying are much more clear in this game than in previous CoD games. In previous games, there was a distinct feeling that one was a bit too invincible - your enemies use good tactics, so winning with a small squad seems unlikely. In 4, though, enemies break cover too soon, fail to work together in realistic ways, and tend to spray fire rather than aiming and squeezing off burts. Meanwhile, your American military teammates move as a squad, fire accurately from cover, and communicate with the player and each other to coordinate fire on high-threat targets. It's a nice feeling - like what you're doing is more genuinely an achievement.
Also, I'm about to hit level 70 in World of Warcraft on my mage. I'm Nickiter on Smolderthorn Horde, so if you have an account, roll a char on my server and say hi! If you're looking for a guild, I have an amazing one...