What we’ve been playing: Week of 13/2/2011

Another late thing of this. These are going up so late it isn’t even funny.

So it was John Doherty’s first week here too making this his first ‘what we’ve been playing’ ever. His parents must be so proud.  Anyways how was yesterday for you? Lonely as always? Don’t worry you can read what the Sega Addicts writers played last week to make your life less depressing. Hit the jump for happiness.

Stevie Grant- Writer of Top 10 Worst and Boss Attack:
I’ve been playing nothing but a ton of terrible Sonic games. What could this mean? Find out soon…

Also Space Invaders Infinity Gene. It is the best game.

Alex Barbatsis- Writer of Retro Reviews and Freaky Fridays:
This week I looked at a copy of Resident Evil 2 for the Dreamcast and wept firey tears of sadness.

John Doherty- Writer of Take Cover:
As a new PS3 owner I’ve been going through the backlog and playing all of the PS3’s must haves. So this week I find myself playing Uncharted and I have to say I really don’t like it. The game is ok when you are platforming around in these beautifully textured environments parkour style. However when I get to a shooting segment I just groan. The shooting system sucks, there is never enough ammo, and there are only like 3 enemy models that you see a zillion times . If I am supposed to be exploring some ancient places that haven’t been seen in hundreds of years, why the hell are 1000 guys there waiting to shoot me? End of that rant. I have Stacking sitting on my 360 but I haven’t got around to playing it yet. I really loved Costume Quest and just about everything else Double Fine has done so I’m looking forward to this one.

Tom Kyzivat- Artist and Podcast Co-host:
Not a whole lot–just Marvel vs Capcom 2 (training for the nerd tournament on Valentine’s Day!), and I watched Mike beat Brutal Legend. Cool game! Shorter than I expected it to be, though he still has side missions to finish.

Kris Knigge- Reviewer and Podcast Co-host:
I didn’t play a whole lot this week, just a bit of Bionic Commando ReArmed 2, Dead Space 2, and Madworld. BCR2 has a totally different level-design paradigm than the first, but when you discover that the point of the game is to explore, it becomes pretty fun. Dead Space 2 is “Aliens” the game, and MadWorld is a lot of very crude fun. Fun fact: Madworld’s story was written by Yasumi Matsuno, director of the upcoming Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together! Also, midterms.

Alex Riggen- Editor in Chief and Podcast Host:
I played and finished Stacking and enjoyed almost every minute of it. It’s definitely one of my favorite XBLA games ever and the most well-made Double Fine game so far. I still enjoyed Psychonauts a little more but the gameplay mechanics of Stacking are far superior. There really isn’t a game like it in both visuals and game design. It’s also one of the first adventure games I’ve ever played where a solution to a puzzle wasn’t completely ridiculous. I highly recommend the game and there’s plenty of content in there for completionists.

I also started Hard Corps: Uprising for review and have finally finished the first level! The game is difficult but in a completely fair and “I need to try that again” way. It helps that there’s subtle RPG elements that allow you improve your character the more you play. That way each time you try a level you’re usually able to make it a little farther even if your skill level hasn’t improved. The RPG elements are completely optional so if anyone wants to test their skill barebones they can.

What I haven’t been playing is Final Fantasy 9. I started it a few weeks ago and am about 10-15 hours in but I’ve lost all motivation. This always happens to me in JRPGs and I unfortunately have a feeling I won’t actually finish the game.

And that was this week. I’ll give one big last welcome to our latest member of the crew here. And why don’t you too? In fact tell me what you’ve been playing also. That’s be nice. See ya next week!