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Posted February 3, 2013 by Amy in Features
 
 

Gaming the Dry Spell

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In which we ask: What the hell are you playing at?

Let’s face it, this time of year isn’t the most exciting time for new game releases, and it’s a good thing too, cause we’re all to broke from the holidays to buy anything anyway. Add to that the fact that most of us are probably ready to ease off on the nonstop playing of our Christmas gifted games, and we end up with a strange time of year for gamers. So…what are you playing right now? We asked the Games Fiends team members just that:

Dan (developer in training, and token team Canadian): Nerf Wars at the school. Toronto Global Game Jam ended up being a bust because we ended up shooting each other mercilessly. Now I’m suddenly into Nerf guns.

Hanna (community manager du jour): The Hip Hop Dance Experience :0D

Amy (US Editor and consummate evil boss): +50 for Hanna!

Jeff (proud Texan and official reviewer of crappy pc games): Borderlands 2 and Assassins creed 3 when I can.

Justin (self proclaimed newsbitch and photoshop god: The Cave, and replaying Fallout 3

Amy:  Oohh, The Cave. I like the look of that one.

Troy (prolific reviewer and lover of red shorts): I unfortunately haven’t found the time or energy to devote to any game, really.  I am interested in The Cave, though.  Love Ron Gilbert’s games, but the average scores have me a bit concerns about playing the $15.  Is it worth it Justin?

Justin:  If you love adventure games, The Cave will be right up your alley. It is really funny, with lots of dark humor. My biggest complaint about is with how it is structured. There are seven characters to play with and each has their own level within the cave. On top of that there are a handful of levels that must be traveled through on the way to the character levels. You can only take three characters at a time, and you can only enter into one of the character levels if that person is in your party. This means that you will have to play the game three times to see every level, and the last playthrough will consist of only one level that you have not yet seen. If there had been two more characters/levels it would have been better.

Zeth (UK Editor and designated grammar troll target):  Erm… you could always read the review I wrote last week… before launch.. it’s probably not bad and all that…


Troy:  (Reading it now.)  ;)

Zeth:  To reiterate Justin’s words… If you like the previous Gilbert titles and have a penchant for Lost Vikings or similar platform adventure titles then it’s worthwhile. It’s only 4 or so hours long though… But you can play it through with each trio of characters… Diminishing returns tho….. 1200 points is the sweet spot on this for most.. Real fans will appreciate it even at 1600 :)

Peter (events guy and writer of long emails): I’ve not been getting a lot of actual playing time recently. But when I do
get time to play something for fun, I’ve been playing Atlantica Online for over three years, and can just dip in for a quick burst; I play LotRO, DDO and SWTOR with friends around the country – long distance socialising, as it were; and I was really getting into Planetside 2 and CoD:MW2 last year… But haven’t played either since mid December…I’m also visiting a friend who is encouraging me to take up a Minecraft addiction, though I’m fighting the urge for now.  Still haven’t got back to my Dungeon Siege resolution yet either…

Amy:  Ooohhh—loved Dungeon Siege 3, loooved. I’m sensing a “dammit, I don’t have time to play” theme going on here…and I kind of have to agree. I’m mostly playing Bookworm on my iOs (stand back y’all—we got a hardcore gamer over here). I made it level 28–yay me. :)

Mike (bargain games columnist and lover of tea):  Been playing a lot of WoW (surprise), Forza Horizon, WWE 13, Hero Academy and Unfinished Swan. Oh, and if you like your old school, humourous point and click games, there’s a game called Astroloco: Worst Contact which I’ve been playing for review for BG and it’s fantastic fun.  It’s not out until Thursday, but it has armoured battle trains!  And characters that argue with the narrator!  And did I mention the armoured battle trains?

Amy “Battle Train” kinda sounds like it should be a disco group from the seventies. “And now….Battle Train, singing their new hot single – Your Heart is my Station of Love”  ;)

Mike “Armoured Battle Trains” was the name of my punk band in high school.

Adam (Video review wizard currently spawning the next generation of Fiends): I haven’t had much time for gaming, criminally I just finished off Portal 2 which I grabbed cheap during the Steam sales (better late than never), and recently I fired up Skyrim and continued my epic trawl through. One shot kills with the bow *never* gets old.

Zeth: On the whole.. What are you playing front…. Just polished off Far Cry 3 and Halo 4. Played a load of blops2 over the double xp weekend. Now working through The Cave (some more), Ni No Kuni (review v soon) and Sleeping Dogs. The Cave we’ve talked about. Sleeping Dogs was ropey for the first 4 hours or so but I’m starting to get the hang of the melee combat more so it’s pretty good atm. Ni No Kuni is down right superb! And I say that as someone who walked away from jrpg titles back on the ps1! Extremely, extremely long tho! We’re talking 40 – 50 hours on a standard play through… Full play through of about 70+…So yeah… A bugger to review! Still on the pile (thanks to xbla, steam and holiday sales) are: Borderlands 2, Hitman absolution, Mark of the ninja, Fez, Trials evolution, Dishwasher smile, Axel and pixel, Dear esther, Singularity, Space marine, 40k, Bully, Lara guardian of light, Nfs most wanted, Rocksmith, Xcom enemy unknown

Pretty sure I’ve missed a couple….

Mike... Unfinished Swan was superb! Loved almost every minute of it!

Zeth definitely wins our stack of shame contest, but what about you? What are you playing now, and what do you have patiently waiting to be played? Share with us in the comments below!


Amy

 
U.S. Senior Editor & Deputy EIC, @averyzoe on Twitter, mother of 5, gamer, reader, wife to @macanthony, and all-around bad-ass (no, not really)