What are you currently playing?

[R. Kasahara]

We've done this before, so let's do it again: what'cha been playing?

I started Halo Wars yesterday, and gameplay-wise, I'm pleasantly surprised. It's simple compared to a lot of PC RTSes, but the missions are interesting and the control scheme is great. The only major gripe about it is that the campaign seems to be short (I'm roughly 2/3 of the way into it) and story-wise, the typical Halo Formula is wearing thin.

I'm also playing Pokemon White, which is really focused and different for a Pokemon game, but still fun if you like the franchise. Recently got Gym Badge #8, but I don't want to head to Victory Road just yet

[Keefy]

Lord of the Rings online, again.

And I may be due a break. Got caught up in the crafting system and now it seems like I have to put in a good few hours a day just to make it worthwhile. I've boxed myself into a corner which demands effort, and repetition, which is a bad thing. Can't really fault the game for that, just the bizarre approach I've taken to it. Probably due a break.

Football Management has been calling lately. Oh, God...

[Anguipes]

Disgaea 4. Oh my god, so much Disgaea 4.

[Cyrus]

iPad

FF Tactics (never got far on the PSX version, to my eternal shame.) Slowly getting used to the touch UI, which I expect will end up being a real joy to use when I'm fully up to speed. Loving the new translation.

PC

In limbo with a playthrough of Baldurs' Gate 2 (also never beat this before, also to my eternal shame) which I really need to break soon or just accept I'm not gonna finish it this time either. Partly my fault since I played through BG1 just prior and wasn't actually meaning to marathon both. BG2 being a lot more difficult doesn't help. What do you mean I have to think through my battles?

Terraria, which I'm mostly over -- much more fun a game than Minecraft, but not nearly as much fun to explore or build in.

Speaking of which, I recently made an ill-advised return to Minecraft -- though I finally visited a populated, long running shared server for the first time and holy #$%! look at all this stuff they built!

A late-game Civ V "Arabia vs Persia and the Iroquois" session which I'm probably not gonna wrap up because that is SO last weekend.

Finally, started playing Beyond Good and Evil off of Steam. Cute game, combat's kind of bluh though. Need to pick this up again soon or it'll go the way of BG2.

360

Arkham City. 'Nuff said.

[MickJaz97]

Metal Gear Solid 1 and MGS4

[Clidus]

Nearing the end of Final Fantasy XIII-2. Just checking out the side quests before making a final run at the ending.

Before that I had been playing Zelda: Skyward Sword, which I need to go back to. That's a great game. The motion controls are absolutely sublime. It makes you wonder what the Wii might have turned out like if the motion plus was in the original hardware and if this had come out much earlier in the lifecycle. Such as it is, this is the swan song for the Wii and the last good reason to own one.

Next on the agenda: Alan Wake's American Nightmare, Metal Gear Solid HD Collection and Mass Effect 3

[R. Kasahara]

An update for me: yesterday I started Baroque (PS2) but decided not to continue on with it. The game's a roguelike, and although I like that genre, the story's pacing is sloooow, and the world and characters don't have enough of a hook to convince me to slog through the same dungeon dozens of times. I go into more details about this at my blog but the basic gist of it is that a good battle system doesn't make up for bad pacing and direction.

So anyway, I went back to Da Haloz. Started Halo 3: ODST today and I'm impressed so far. Right off the bat the atmosphere is completely different-- darker and moodier-- than the other games, including the first one (which has a little bit of dark/moody about it). The plot so far is more about solving a mystery than saving the human race and/or galaxy, which is a nice change of pace (though I'm half-expecting some such save-the-world twist to come along later on). Playing as a Helljumper as opposed to super-soldier Master Chief is a different experience; the ODSTs control pretty much the same, but are more human-- there's more of a sense of vulnerability. I'm digging this tension; hope the rest of the game is just as good.

After I beat ODST, I'm going to jump right into Halo: Reach. Why not, right?

[Xenophon Rampant]

I am stuck in video game limbo. I refuse to buy consoles anymore, because I always end up buying just one or two "must have" titles. On the xBox360, the Gears of War series, Mass Effect series, and Bioshock series all looked very, very sexy, but I opted out because I knew the money vs returns would be bad.

So, right now, I'm stuck playing some old games that I love. Recently I've been going back to the Stronghold PC series, and have been playing a lot of Stronghold 2 multiplayer.

[R. Kasahara]

Starting ODST over again. I made a mistake yesterday and triggered an event out of order, so I replayed the prior one, hoping that would work out in my favor. It didn't-- the framing device the game uses made it so that the only mission goal I had checked off was the one I replayed (I should've had at least three) Deleted my save and started over again, knowing that I couldn't delete the achievements I had gotten thus far, which was irritating (Steam >>> Xbox Live, BTW). Today I learned that the audio logs (VISR COMM data) that I had unlocked had also gone undeleted. Arrgh.

And this is why more current-gen games need to rely less on autosave and provide a manual save option... and I don't mean "Save and Quit", either I love what I've played of the game, but it's a victim of a horrible, and popular, line of thought when it comes to saving.

On the xBox360, the Gears of War series, Mass Effect series, and Bioshock series all looked very, very sexy, but I opted out because I knew the money vs returns would be bad.

Well, the good thing about the Mass Effect and BioShock games is that you can also play them on PC

[namatamiku]

Loving the new SSX. Which is a huge relief, because there has not been an exceptional release in this series since 2003. 2005's On Tour was mediocre and forgettable, and 2007's Blur on Wii was just a real piece of shit.

SSX New doesn't carry the same memorable over-the-top aesthetic design as Tricky (many of the tracks look the same, really), and it doesn't maintain the seamless sense of an interconnected world that SSX3 had (kind of by nature, since this takes place on mountain ranges throughout the world rather than a single downward series of peaks). Instead, this one is set apart by increased ease of control and some very addictive multiplayer networking. All courses are available from the start, and you're shown each track's Trick/Race score for everyone on your friends list. There's alot of back and forth as you hope around the world trying to smack down their scores while they do the same elsewhere. This concept had me glued to Geometry Wars 2, and here it's on an even larger scale. There's more, including some pretty cool Global Events and some gimmicky bits involving armor and wingsuits and some other kind of unnecessary accessories. The gear doesn't add much, nor does it hurt.

I like the new directions they're adding, and I really hope we see a Tricky-style sequel that gives tracks more vibrancy. That's probably my biggest complaint: I love the snow, the game has a beautiful atmosphere, but it's really lacking Tricky and 3's color. I want it to be more festive.