Video Games!

[End Master]

For those of you that loved dying of dysentery in Oregon Trail, here's the zombie apocalypse variant: Organ Trail.

http://hatsproductions.com/organtrail.html

I played through it once a awhile back and meant to post it here before. Despite the cool theme, I think the game is actually easier than the real Oregon Trail, since I managed to beat it on my first try without losing anyone. (Or perhaps watching all those zombie movies just prepared me better)

Still they might've made some improvements on it since I last played it, as they try to make updates on it based on suggestions.

[Hi! My name is: Katie]

So, I'm looking for amazing video games with female characters.

I've played...
Portal
Wet
Bayonetta


I've also played games that give options...
Soul Calibur IV (I love this game!)
Saint's Row 2 (Though according to End I am actually not a girl, but a sex changed dude in the game.)
Fable 2 (Fable 3 lost my attention after four minutes.)
Dragon Age 1&2
Oblivion
Borderlands

Now I'm looking for something new.
I know Skyrim is coming out soon and that will surely hold me captive.
Saint's Row The Third is coming out soon too.

I just found a game called Lollipop Chainsaw and it made me wonder what other cool games are in development and have a female lead.

Any ideas???

[Dragavan]

Best female lead character of any video game series ever (in my opinion) is Samus Aran from the Metroid series.

Although Portal 2 is by far my favorite game of all time with a female lead.

[mizal]

You have the option of a female character in Fallout 3, and Morrowind as well. (which is way more awesome than Oblivion with graphics that can be even prettier given the right mods...)



Aquaria is a beautiful indie underwater side-scrolling action adventure game. (also on Steam) (video)

And, probably not what you had in mind, but if you're in the mood for reading...

Anchorhead
Christminster
Lydia's Heart
Worlds Apart
Crystal and Stone Beetle and Bone
All Things Devours
Earth and Sky series (you play as a woman in the first, her brother in the second, and can switch between the two in the third.
Max Blaster and Doris de Lightning Against the Parrot Creatures of Venus also lets you switch between a male and female protagonist.


(I'd link mine but it's pretty buggy and in the middle of an overhaul.)

If any of them look interesting the Gargoyle interpreter is the easiest way to play.

[Hi! My name is: Katie]

Aquaria looks adorable.

Lately I've been shamelessly addicted to Gardens of Time on Facebook. I've never seen the fascination with Farmville and the cooperative social aspects of this game mostly annoy me, but despite it all I find this game addictive.

@Drag- I haven't played Portal 2. I never technically finished Portal 1... I do that a lot with games, but almost never with RPG/Sandbox games. I guess I just don't like being told what to do.

I've played Mass Effect and Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas (or rather I played most of New Vegas.)

Also... unrelated to female game characters... the lego games are kind of fun. I wasn't too sure I would enjoy them, but I really like them.

[Vesnic]

So I heard that Skyrim came out today; but alas, my computer is too ancient (three and a half years!) and I don't have any consoles on which to play this latest creation from Bethesda.

I got decently addicted to Oblivion and then went back and achieved zen levels of patience fighting off those damned pterodactyl things in Morrowind. I played as a wood elf in Oblivion and then as an orc in Morrowind, named Rugdumph gro-Shurgak, who shows up in Oblivion as that crazy-as-fuck and mysteriously wealthy orc who commissions you to find his wayward daughter. He has the most unique take on the English language since Lewis Carroll and I remember thinking how very "on" the writing team must have been the day they created Rugdumph. On what, that is.

I always found Nord villages and cities to be very inviting, all warm and toasty buried under heaps of snow. I could really picture myself warming my belly with a big tankard of mead just before arm-wrestling a bear into simpering submission. It appeals to my inner berserker.

But that's all moot, really, since I don't have a viable way of playing this game. I'll have to rely on some of you here to give me a few vicarious zaps and home-cooked dragon burgers to keep me going during these long winter months.

[End Master]

Katie's playing Skyrim right now as a female Breton character.

It's pretty cool so far. I played some of it as my dark elf character and I already like it way better than Oblivion. The landscape and scenery is actually a lot more varied this time so it feels more like Morrowwind in that aspect.

Yeah if you were all into the Nord based town in Oblivion, you'd probably like this game since the whole game takes place in their homeland. The main plot is the civil war going on in the country and the return of the dragons.

[Hi! My name is: Katie]

Katie WAS playing Skyrim until someone snatched the remote. But, I guess I have time now to comment on the game.

The scenery was prettier in Oblivion, and I kind of miss the lush greenery, and nothing I've seen in Skyrim quite compares. I fell in love with some of the cities in Oblivion, and I'm not even particularly fond of any the locations I've visited so far.

It took me forever to design my character, because I wasn't happy with the options, but End reminded me that I was never quite happy with my character in Oblivion either. I recently began playing the Sims 3/Sims 3 Pets games, and the character design interfaces on those games are a billion times better.

On the other hand, I really wish I could play a little longer tonight, so I guess it must be kind of good.

[Vesnic]

I fell in love with some of the cities in Oblivion, and I'm not even particularly fond of any the locations I've visited so far.

My favorite was Cheydinhal. I loved its lushness and proximity to pure evil in the form of that most lovely Lucien Lachance. I finally took the plunge towards the end and let Vicente turn me vamp, if only for the smokin' red eyes and the chance to do one...more...quest.

Bruma was my second favorite, being all Nordy and all.

It took me forever to design my character, because I wasn't happy with the options...

My blonde female wood elf in Oblivion definitely came out looking a bit Downsy, but I managed to convince myself that this was in fact just her "ethnic distinctiveness" and besides, she was an ace with a bow.

Katie's playing Skyrim right now as a female Breton character.

Back when I thought I might actually have a chance at playing Skyrim, I figured I'd play as a Nord. I hadn't yet chosen to play a "native" character, which seemed like an especially big deal in Morrowind where everyone's completely xenophobic and race-crazy. So I thought I'd homeboy it and play as a big burly man-Nord.

Yeah if you were all into the Nord based town in Oblivion...

Yeah, there was Bruma in Oblivion and then of course the Bloodmoon expansion for Morrowind which, despite its annoyingly high rate of rapidly re-spawning deadly foes, was nonetheless all about the Nords and featured the Skaal Village with the big drinking hall. Going in there the first time, my mind was filled with sweet visions of debauchery and I even found myself dreaming about it.

But the most important thing of all: How's the writing?

[End Master]

Heh, the writing is going a lot slower right now.

I had to take a small side trip back into the wasteland to finish off the last Fallout New Vegas expansion, but I'm back into Skyrim. I've basically been exploring pretty methodically as usual since I get obsessive about not wanting to have a lot of unfinished quests/tasks/etc. in my quest log as well as having tons of undiscovered places on the map. I haven't traveled too far from the first major city, but I'm starting to branch out now.

Katie took the other approach of traipsing all over the countryside randomly and now she decided to start all over with a Nord character.

Supposed to pick up Saint's Row 3 tomorrow, but I don't think either me or Katie are going to be playing it anytime soon, though it'll be something to look forward to after the Skyrim binge is over.

[Vesnic]

So in my efforts to compensate for my lack of Skyrim by playing anything other than Skyrim, I recently signed back on to the dreaded Steam in order to download a little game called Limbo that had received some positive press. Two-dimensional, monochromatic and completely devoid of narrative, the game is nonetheless affecting with its creepy score and vague, dream-like images that float by and through you as you make your way to...wherever it is you're making your way to. One reviewer made a good point that people often confuse limbo with purgatory. Thus, the little white-eyed waif controlled by my keystrokes is not on his way to heaven, but in fact is attempting to rescue his sister who appears to be "somewhat dead". I only know this little bit of storyline because it's in every review and description, not because it ever appeared in the game itself.

I'm not sure if it's my keyboard or the way the game controls have been designed, but I have often gotten frustrated trying to execute the most basic of jumps and other movements. This game just doesn't have the proper, quick response which I've come to expect from playing so many other action-oriented games. I am nigh well sick of seeing my prone little body skewered on yet another pit spike!

I know for a fact that it's not me, that I have excellent hand-eye coordination. Despite my various and mysterious neurological setbacks, I am nonetheless quite capable of beating many different sorts of games. I've even played real games in my time, like ones involving balls and bats (no, not those kinds of balls and bats, you fucking perverts). I nearly made it onto the JV softball team, and once I almost broke my father's hand during a "friendly" game of front-yard catch. So it's not me.

Yet this feeling of annoyance persists as I drag my scrawny little ass through this gray one-way world. I've played with challenging setups before, with glitches and patches that weren't yet patched. What, then, is the real problem here?

The real problem is that Limbo is not Skyrim. And that's all there is to it.

[End Master]

They probably didn't port the game well. It originally came out for the 360 and a lot of times when something is ported over from console to computer the controls are all fucked up.

Anyway, I thought it was a cool game. The hardest bits are later on when you've got to deal with reverse gravity or when some brain worm lands on your character's head and you're basically forced to run in one direction. You can still jump or slow your character down, but you have to get into beam of light to burn the damn thing off before you can control your character properly again.

[Dragavan]

I have the game for my XBox and loved it... It is not completely devoid of narrative, but it is very light and mostly hidden in the actions of the opening and closing scenes of the game. I thought Limbo was one of the best examples of a strongly thematic game that works great. Kind of like Braid did a couple years ago.

[Vesnic]

Opening sequence, you say? I don't remember a lot of those. A lot must have really been lost in translation from the xbox to the PC. I'm still enjoying it, though, even if it's not Skyrim.

[End Master]

Limbo is one of those games that could be used as an example for the ongoing argument that video games can be "art".