It is late. I am full of second-run turkey and ginger ale. The fireplace behind me is crackling out its last and the snow is piling up outside. Good thing there’s plenty of warm game systems to keep us all toasty this holiday season.
The Destructoid staff played games this week. Lots of them. And then they all told me what games they played. Now I will share it with you. And then you will share what you played in the comments. If you’re really good, we’ll all go out for ice cream.
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Chester:Playing a lot ofNeed for Speed: Hot Pursuit. Like… all of the time. I’m not great at it — there are folks on my speedwalls who I will never beat — but I’m having a ton of fun working my way through all of the events and ranking up. I’m also playingMarvel Pinballand failing hard at beating Conrad’s scores[Never going to happen. -Ed], although I have a project in the works that I hope will help with this. Finally, I’m playingLost in Shadowsfor review, and since there’s an embargo until the game’s release date in early January, that’s all I can really say for now.
Sarkar:Since I graduated from college last Sunday, I have been spending my nights playingAssassin’s Creed II. I’m in love with the game; I just got to Venice, and I continue to be awed by the visual splendor on display. Plus, it’s just so damn fun to assassinate dudes, and half-learn Italian while I’m at it!
Aziz:I ran through theDead Space 2demo. Love the Zero-G controls and it’s really interesting (maybe only to me) that you have to really destroy a body before any ammo or health pops out of the corpse. Good thing stomping is faster now at least!
Toletino:I have to say that the best loyalty mission inMass Effect 2is, by far, Tali’s, because it emphasizes the parts ofMass Effect 2‘s gameplay that make it stand out, namely the talky bits and character development. Strip that out and you’ve got a middling cover shooter whose levels are constructed of space crates and space boxes. We need more courtroom scenes in every RPG that deigns to give a player dialogue options. That’s that.
Also on the RPG front, I playedDivinity II: Dragon Knight Saga,which is an almost complete revamp ofDivinity II: Ego Draconis, with new graphics, gameplay, and an expansion pack semi-sequel laid on top. If you thought the only good western-designed fantasy RPG of the last year wasDragon Age, you’re completely wrong. This one can easily equal Bioware’s higher-profile baby. If those old (and wrong) accusations that Dragon Age 2’s combat would be switching to real-timeMass Effect-esque “visceral combat”, were true, this would have been the best possible result of such a goal.
Don’t overlook it. At least, not while the Steam sales are still ongoing.
Sterling:I played theDead Space 2demo and had a blast. Pretty damn excited to play the full thing now. Also played through the Flash versions ofThe Fancy Pants Adventurein anticipation of the upcoming XBLA/PSN version, and they were quite good indeed. Otherwise, it’s been a load of iPhone stuff again, especially some of the holiday sales games likeSpider-Man: Total Mayhemand some of the EA shit. Good stuff.
Concelmo:A lot of handheld gaming since I traveled to North Carolina for the holidays:Dragon Quest IXandGolden Sun: Dark Dawn. Adore them both.Dark Dawnreview (finally) coming in early 2011! Sorry for the delay!
Devore:Quite a lot of older titles this week thanks to the Steam sales. Got almost an hour intoThe Witcher,and I kind of just want to stop playing and wait for the sequel, because the concept is great but some of the mechanics feel dated. I felt similarly aboutOverlord;Overlord IIis hilarious, has personality, and thank fuck, there’s a map. And then there’sOddworld: Abe’s OddyseeandStranger’s Wrath. The former is neat (this is my first time playing) but I’m not very good, and the latter is quite possibly the most broken PC port I’ve ever attempted to play.
As for the new stuff, I hit upRaskullsandA World of Keflings. I was surprised to see more at play inRaskullsthan the racing events. Both games are highly recommended.
Holmes: Sat shotgun on a 50 hour, cross country drive. That gave me plenty of time to try to repeatedly get my ass kicked by Ballos inCave Storyon DSiWare. I’d never played through that part on “normal” difficulty before. I think it took me six hours to get through it, and it was fun the entire time. Only truly brilliant design could make being repeatedly murder that fun and compelling.
Also playingFling Smash,Lilt Line,Super Mario All-Stars, Vanquish,andGoldeneyeWii. Fun times all around.
