What Are You Playing (Spring 2012)

[Yoshi]

The Vernal Equinox has occurred, my dogwoods have bloomed, the birds are chirping, and the thunderstorms have started. It's spring!

This is what I'm playing:

Grand Theft Auto III (iOS) - This whole concept is ridiculous. 12 years ago, this game defined a generation, and now it's available on phones. It's not without concessions though. Driving is where the controls suffer the most, and that's my favorite part of this series. That makes it more of a novelty to me, and I tend to focus just on the story missions, but it's still an impressive effort.

Jurassic Park: The Game (PC) - I'm just starting this one up, as I wanted to pick something from my mountain range of shame that I could knock out entirely this week. I'm crossing my fingers that it's at least as enjoyable as Back to the Future.

Mass Effect 3 (PS3) - I've basically shelved this one for a week-plus after several quests got closed off to me after I finished a mission without any kind of warning. So now I probably can't get enough "stuff" together for the best ending while keeping this a single player game. When you add in the fact that the trophies for setting guys on fire, lifting them off the ground, overloading their shields, etc. can only be done by Shepherd and not the squad this time, forcing additional play beyond one single player run, I'm just not motivated to play. When great but relatively short games like Gears of War and Uncharted force multiple play thoughs, I don't like it. When a freaking RPG that takes 30-50 hours does it, that's just horseshit.

ShadowGun (iOS) - I've been pleasantly surprised that a Gears of War clone is actually playable on my phone. The virtual controls work as well as can be expected, and the action is good. There are some hacking opportunities that are sort of a mix of Mass Effect 2's and Simon Says to break up the action. For $0.99, this one was well worth giving a whirl.

[The_Meach]

Kingdoms of Amalur - fun, easy to fit in quick sessions; inventory sucks

DCU - free MMO fix; be a superhero

Magic the Gathering: fun, can listen to miserable podcasts of secrets and play

[gameoverDude]

Skyrim: Civil war questline is now finished after siding with the Imperial Legion.

TGM3: More Master mode with Classic rules. Still stuck at the S1 mark. Not the toughest Tetris game but it's surely damn close- a close second to TGM 2 IMO.

Dynamite Duke (Arcade JPN ver.): Stage 6, 382980 pts. on defaults. The stage 4 hurricane-kickin' master ninja boss is no problem anymore. I'm now working toward a 1CC. As good as DD was on Genesis, the arcade one is much better- especially with three more stages and a higher level of difficulty.

[sedition]

Starting Friday at about 1 pm I'll be playing Tera. I plan on getting my lancer to level 37 then just endlessly running Heathen's Shelter.

[MechDeus]

If I get my work done I'll be on, I was sad that I ended up missing last time entirely.

[Diff-chan]

Saints Row The Third - this game is fun but, IMO, a noticeable step back from the 2nd game. I'm so glad I didn't sign up for the season pass as well, since everything I hear is that the DLC is all complete trash. These publishers know that people can feel ripped off and remember this stuff, right?

SFxT - well, I like it *dodges tomatoes*

Okamiden - fun game but way longer than it should be (sound familiar?). I'm up to 14 hours with no end in sight and it really should've topped out at 10-12.

[sedition]

If I get my work done I'll be on, I was sad that I ended up missing last time entirely.

Let me know on Steam if you get up to 37 and want to go through there this weekend.

[GohanX]

I'm continuing my random 3do playing, and I popped in Wolfenstein 3d. I didn't have a computer when the game was popular, so I really only played the shareware on a bud's black and white screened notebook. I gotta say the 3do version is pretty nice, the controls actually work pretty well considering the controller limitations. It also helps that aside from the first couple of levels this is an entirely new experience to me.

[No One]

I'm on a bit of a Konami kick at the moment, playing Silent Hill HD Collection, Hard Corps: Uprising (fuck the haters, it's awesome), and for some weird reason an awful lot of Castlevania HD after not touching it for half a year or so.

[Nash]

NBA Jam: On Fire Edition (Xbox Live Arcade)

I've been wanting to get into a number of other games, but just haven't had the time. This is all I've been able to get in, one or two matches at a time. It's a nice update to the original NBA Jam. It controls well, the moves are spectacular, and the presentation is nice, if not a little too goofy. Of course, the computer cheats quite a bit. Also, it kind of sucks that being on fire isn't as effective as it was in past games.