What we’ve been playing: POST APOCALYPTIC EDITION

Hello and welcome to the end of the world. Do we still have time for videogames now? Well if we don’t then I guess it would be nice to take a look at what the last group of people were playing in the end of days. And by that I mean the folks who write for this site. Or at least some of them.

So avoid those super mutants for a few moments and curl up with a tin of the only food you can find and hit the jump, to read about those things we used to call videogames. And if you don’t like it, at least it’s not the end of the world. Oh, wait.

Stevie Grant- Writer of Top 10 Worst and Boss Attack:
I played the Thor game for DS, for review. Expect it tomorrow. Ugh.

OH! I also played House of the Dead Overkill which is amazing. Hilarious and fun. Now I just have the directors cut mode to beat and I’ll be done. But man that game is funny. Or should I say “motherfucking funny”.

Alexander Sargeant- Writer of Retro Reviews:
Would be Demonbane, but the download edition isn’t out yet. Get on this JastUSA. Also Galaxy Angel Part 2, which is like the first game, only you get to continue the relationship with your chosen girl from the first, and everything is ridiculously prettier than it was before. Except Forte, who still has an utterly perplexing bosom. It makes the lack of spiritual similar Sakura Wars getting sequels all the more depressing.

LA Noire. It’s super good, and any negatives are vastly outweighed by the ability to pick my hat off the floor in a heated gunfight if it gets knocked off. No More Heroes: Heroes Paradise which is quite great, as they really didn’t fix a lot of the issues from the first game. It feels like you’re playing something good looking but feels pretty identical to the Wii game. It is kind of weird to be playing it,

The Witcher 2, which has a HORRIBLY HORRIBLY malformed difficulty curve, that starts difficult as hell and progressively gets easier. Great experience, but to actually survive on normal you absolutely need to upgrade your QUEN shield magic as soon as possible.

Otherwise you’re going to die plenty. Finally Terraria, which is something you should absolutely get. It’s compared to Minecraft despite being a remarkably different experience overall. Just go into it expecting a procedurally generated co-op action RPG with really simple and satisfying crafting mechanics and filled with incredibly compelling challenges and loot. Don’t buy it if you aren’t excited at the concept of building bridges in the goddamn sky to adventure into floating-island forts and steal swords with the power to pull stars from the sky with every swing of the blade.

Pat Reddick- Community Manager/ Writer of Forum News and Not-so Classics:
I can’t help but feel responsible for bringing on this whole end-of-the-world thing. The last week or so has been the first chance I’ve had to play games in a long time, so what game did I choose? Final Fantasy 13. At first I was playing it ironically, like I played Sonic 2006, but then I realized I was actually enjoying myself. Sure it’s linear, it’s repetitive, Vanille has a stupid voice but for some reason narrates the game, but there’s something in there that is actually enjoyable. I’ll get back to you on this, it seems like I’ll be at it for a while.

Speaking of super-long JRPGs, I’m almost done Radiant Historia. I love it, it’s one of those games that I’m going to be sad to stop playing. I recommend it to any RPG fan.

Finally, I beat Pokemon White recently. All I have to say about that is: don’t believe the hype. If you want to play a Pokemon game play Heart Gold/Soul Silver. Black/White is just not very good. I don’t understand how they can have such a well-designed and convenient to use interface like they had in Heart Gold and then just completely scrap it for Black/White. Also, most of the new Pokemon suck. They said “hey look, we have more space to make Pokemon look over-the-top, lets over design everything so they bear no resemblance to the older Pokemon” and then promptly did that.

Sorry about the rant, I actually tolerated it until everyone’s level jumped up 10-15 levels in the endgame. That’s a big pain in the ass.

Josh Newey – Writer of With Great Power Comes Great Games and Underappreciated Gems:
I beat the waiting game this past Tuesday when Thor and Virtua Tennis 4 arrived all at once, and I’ve been condensing those into one game ever since. One is really good, one is not. I’ll leave it up to you to figure out which is which.

I’ve also been preparing for… Something… *wink, wink* by playing a couple classic Sonic games *nod, nod*. After answering the first “Sega Addicts Speaks!,” I was inspired to play through Sonic & Knuckles again, and I am now certain that I made the right choice. I won’t even be sick of it by the time… June 23rd comes around… *nudge, NUUUUUUUDGEAaah, you don’t care.

I care…

Wait no I don’t.

John Doherty- Writer of Take Cover:
I played so much Terraria this week. If you haven’t heard of this game yet you need to youtube the trailer. It’s a cross between Minecraft, Super Metroid, and Spelunky. Yeah, it’s that awesome. I made this super sweet floating mansion in the sky with not one, but TWO hot nurses in it.

I also played Thor for review. I don’t want to talk about it much here so if you want to see what I think head over to the review. SPOILERS there’s a hammer in it.

As usual I ended out my week with a few League of Legends games. I can’t seriously be the only person here playing it? Give the game a try, it’s free! If you do try it, add me as a friend! The name’s melatonin.

Being that I have the 21st off and that the world is ending, I’m going to sit around and play games about the end of the world. It should be easy because that’s just about every video game ever.

Tom Kyzivat- Artist and Podcast Co-host:
First of all, I’d like to welcome everybody to the post-Apocalypse. There will be assigned seating.

Now, as for games, we had a smidgen more Mortal Kombat this week, a few more levels in Limbo for my second play-through, and a spot of fun at Anime Central, a big-ass anime convention they held this weekend. They had a game room set up with all manner of console games, new and classic. I’ll write a full review of what I saw in my convention coverage article, but for the purposes of this article, I played some Battletoads for the original NES (yes, I am ashamed), as well as Superman and Combat for the Atari. Yeah. Why the world felt it needed to move beyond two-bit graphics, I’ll never know. Mike also competed in another Marvel vs Capcom tournament, but he didn’t win. He had fun, though!

Alex Riggen- Editor in Chief and Podcast Host:
I have been playing LA Noire and overall I find it to be quite enjoyable. It’s getting called “what Heavy Rain” should have been by some outlets which is understandable but it has some of the same problems that game had. Mainly, the fact that sometimes I don’t completely feel like its me making the connections in the case and the interrogating can be a little frustrating. Deciding between Truth, Doubt, and Lie makes sense but the main character rarely says what I want him to when I make my decision. Especially, when it comes to the doubt option when I think a witness is lying but have no proof. I often walk away from an interrogation answering all the responses incorrectly and I don’t understand why. It also doesn’t have that big of an impact anyway as I often solve the case correctly regardless.

Anyway, I feel I’m bashing the game too hard as that’s my only complaint and I’m still really enjoying it. The game is really written and the cases you go out on are compelling and there’s lots of good gameplay and exploration in each of them. It’s easily my favorite Rockstar game.

And then we all died. Tell me dear traveller your stories of survival, and what games you were playing in the comments. That is just in case comments exist now. Or if the internet does. Either way I’ll see you next week if we don’t all die in this hellish landscape. Talk to you then.