GlassJaw
Hero
Am I allowed to start one of these? 
Anyway, after putting DDO away, here's my list:
Castlevania Dawn of Sorrows (DS) - Solid addition to the Castelvania series. Plays great on DS. Some pretty tough boss battles. Lots of stuff to collect.
Company of Heroes (PC) - WW2 real-time strat. Good but I suck at RTS games. Got to mission 13 out of 15 in the single-player campaign but didn't have the willpower to spend a lot of time finishing it.
STALKER: Shadows of Chernobyl (PC) - Open-ended first-person shooter. Just finished actually and loved it. I'm a huge Half-Life fan but I think I might have liked this better. Amazing environment and landscape design, some of the best I've seen in any FPS. It was really dark and creepy, which is probably why I liked it.
Lord of the Rings Online (PC) - Just started playing. Here's a list of first impressions and some comparisons to DDO:
Pluses:
- It loots amazing. DDO has better character/monster model detail but the landscapes in LotR are awesome.
- Huge areas. Just running around and checking stuff out is a lot of fun. Amazing water and nature effects (running through grassy fields, light and fire effects, etc).
- Tons of stuff to do: quests, crafting, deed quests (like explorer and slayer quests in DDO). There's plenty of solo content and you can always find something to do even if you don't have much time.
- Varied starting areas. Depending on the race you choose, you start at different places. Nice when starting a new character.
- Populated areas. It really feels like an active community in the towns. It's cool to see people running around doing stuff in the open areas too.
- Crafting. I haven't done too much yet but it looks like a cool system. Lots of vocation options.
- Money actually means something. Money seems more difficult to get and there are a lot more money sinks in the game (crafting, training skills, repairing, etc). I actually find myself upgrading my gear at the vendors which is a nice change.
Minuses:
- Limited character customization. Basically pick class and race. You can customization your traits (which you get as you complete deed quests) but it seems like this really doesn't kick in until you get into the higher levels. You can train all the skills available for your class as long as you have enough cash.
- Less twitchy combat. This is good and bad. The "twitch" is more hot-key based rather than mouse twitch. You definitely have a lot of options as you train more skills.
Anyway, after putting DDO away, here's my list:
Castlevania Dawn of Sorrows (DS) - Solid addition to the Castelvania series. Plays great on DS. Some pretty tough boss battles. Lots of stuff to collect.
Company of Heroes (PC) - WW2 real-time strat. Good but I suck at RTS games. Got to mission 13 out of 15 in the single-player campaign but didn't have the willpower to spend a lot of time finishing it.
STALKER: Shadows of Chernobyl (PC) - Open-ended first-person shooter. Just finished actually and loved it. I'm a huge Half-Life fan but I think I might have liked this better. Amazing environment and landscape design, some of the best I've seen in any FPS. It was really dark and creepy, which is probably why I liked it.
Lord of the Rings Online (PC) - Just started playing. Here's a list of first impressions and some comparisons to DDO:
Pluses:
- It loots amazing. DDO has better character/monster model detail but the landscapes in LotR are awesome.
- Huge areas. Just running around and checking stuff out is a lot of fun. Amazing water and nature effects (running through grassy fields, light and fire effects, etc).
- Tons of stuff to do: quests, crafting, deed quests (like explorer and slayer quests in DDO). There's plenty of solo content and you can always find something to do even if you don't have much time.
- Varied starting areas. Depending on the race you choose, you start at different places. Nice when starting a new character.
- Populated areas. It really feels like an active community in the towns. It's cool to see people running around doing stuff in the open areas too.
- Crafting. I haven't done too much yet but it looks like a cool system. Lots of vocation options.
- Money actually means something. Money seems more difficult to get and there are a lot more money sinks in the game (crafting, training skills, repairing, etc). I actually find myself upgrading my gear at the vendors which is a nice change.
Minuses:
- Limited character customization. Basically pick class and race. You can customization your traits (which you get as you complete deed quests) but it seems like this really doesn't kick in until you get into the higher levels. You can train all the skills available for your class as long as you have enough cash.
- Less twitchy combat. This is good and bad. The "twitch" is more hot-key based rather than mouse twitch. You definitely have a lot of options as you train more skills.
