What We’ve Been Playing: Week of 7/8/2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joNwYPdEBTc

Segata Sanshiro. What a guy!

Hello and welcome to the thing where I copy and paste email responses I get about what other people have been playing. So I won’t stall any longer, or at all for that matter. Hit the jump to do some reading!

Stevie Grant- Writer of Top 10 Worst and Boss Attack:
So yesterday I picked up Paper Mario and the Thousand Year Door again. Fuck Twilight Town. Shit really sucks.

On the new side of things I brought and completed Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet. There were some awkward puzzles, but I did have fun running around and just taking in the atmosphere. Seriously the art style in that game is amazing. And that’s all I basically played. The things worth talking about anyway.

Sven Wohl- Writer of The House of the Dead Retrospectives:
I have been playing a surprising amount of Let’s Golf 3D on the Nintendo 3DS. Really fun and addicting, let’s me kind of forget that the 3DS has no games. Outside of that it has been a lot of Phoenix Wright and I started Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, a Metroid like game on Xbox Live Arcade that I will write a review about. I’ve also gotten Catherine this week and pumped in some hours into that one. Really fun, but really hard game!

Alexander Sargeant- Writer of Retro Reviews:
I’ve been playing family emergency. It was dramatic to say the least.
Hellaciously busy, but I’ve found more time to put into Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg. It’s become one of my favourite Sonic Team games ever. It’s just really damn fun. The kinder surprise aspect of finding out what is inside an egg once it’s powered up is probably the highlight. The animals that pop out are badnik levels of bizarre design.

Also Catherine which is extremely stressful. I thankfully am thoroughly enjoying the puzzle sections, and as I knew I’d love the adventure parts because that’s simply how I tend to roll it’s an absolute joy so far. Gearing up to my first ending it isn’t totally clear how the plot would split into different ones quite yet or indeed when in the story. I think I see a twist coming, but part of me is also using Shin Megami Tensei logic and it looking to see where the hell Lucifer is this time, the cheeky rascal.

Josh Newey – Writer of Sounds of Sega and Twenty Days of Sonic:
I’ve been playing a whole bunch this week. More than anything, I’ve been ravenously inhaling Shadows of the Damned. I tend to fall for anything that Shinji Mikami or Suda 51 puts out, so it was inevitable that this game would appeal to me. I will say I was caught offguard by the increasingly dated Resident Evil 4-with-a-twist control scheme in yet another Mikami game, but the unique machismo and consistently hilarious writing keeps me absolutely enthralled. I am getting a little bored of Suda’s obsession with dicks, though.

I also picked up EDF: Insect Armageddon from a Redbox a couple days ago. Now I wish I hadn’t. That’s not because I didn’t like it. Quite the contrary; I desperately want to hold onto this fun little distraction like it was my own, but I can’t afford to keep getting charged two bucks a day for it. Oh well. Despite terrible graphics and a laughable presentation, it’s a load of pick-up-and-play fun. I love the jet soldier. Anybody else playing this right now?

Tom Kyzivat- Artist and Podcast Co-host:
More Marvel vs Capcom 3, but you knew that. And for Mike’s birthday, he got Mortal Kombat vs DC, which is okay. It was fun to play as the DC characters, but they suffer from the same standard basic moves set and predictable special moves that I’ve come to expect from Mortal Kombat. And the combination throw moves seem a bit imbalanced (at least for how much life they take). Overall it kinda feels like a missed opportunity, but I can’t judge it too harshly considering MK9 came out afterward and is much, much better.

Kris Knigge- Reviewer and Podcast Co-host:
I’ve been rather busy this week, but I’ve had the chance to grind some of my characters in Valkyria Chronicles II, which has tapped into the strategy-RPG-loving niche of my brain again. Finishing up certain sub-characters stories has been fun too, as the more you learn about a character, the more potentials you can unlock for them, eventually culminating in a character-specific mission.

If you don’t have VCII, but own a PSP, you’re depriving yourself of a fantastic game. Go remedy that.

Oh yeah, also some InFamous 2, which I adore.

PS: Brett, I purchased Tekken 6 for $10. I have no idea what I’m doing. We should play sometime.

Alex Riggen- Editor in Chief and Podcast Host:
I played through Shogo on the PC earlier this week. It’s a giant mech FPS developed by Monolith and was much better than I expected. I bought the game from gog.com about a year ago and finally decided to boot it up. It’s kind of corny and the character models and textures are a little off-putting but overall it was the most fun I’ve had with a “giant mech” inspired game. It does feel like the game would have felt pretty ahead of its time back when it was originally released. I’d like to see Monolith revisit the franchise someday.

Now, I’m currently playing through Enslaved on PS3. I like it quite a bit and it feels like an awesome combination of Uncharted and Beyond Good & Evil. I wouldn’t say its as good as either of those games but its still a really fun game to play with a great story so far.

And that’s it for this week. Let me know what you’ve been doing in the comments. You don’t have to. But it would give you some purpose. See you next time!