The Games We Play is a weekly feature about what has been going on in our gaming lives. Tell us what you've been playing in the comments.
Terry: I've always enjoyed music/rhythm titles but I've never been obsessive. I used to look at them the way most hardcore gamers look at a typical casual game - fun to try out, but not exactly something I'm dying to play on a consistent basis. Beatles: Rock Band is another story. Because of my upbringing, its crack for me, I've essentially turned into the gaming version of Tyrone Biggums. I usually sing (because I'm horrible with any instrument) and I'm not even good at that. But playing along with my all-time favorite band makes me forget how bad I am at the game.
When not playing with the Beatles, I've been hanging out with Batman in Arkham Asylum, which I've really had fun with. Sadly, with some fun games coming up (Halo 3: ODST, Need for Speed Shift, both NHL titles) it looks like it might take me as long to finish AA as it did to get through Red Faction: Guerilla.
Ian: While not as madly in love with The Beatles as Terry is, they are one of my favorite bands. This led me to having a great time with The Beatles: Rock Band. I made my way through much of the career marveling at the game's production values. I even tried out the harmonies with my apartment-mate. While the core game is the same as previous Rock Bands, this version is worth a purchase because of the great Beatles catalog.
I also purchased Madden 10 for the iPhone. Though more expensive than most iPhone games ($7.99 at the time of purchase), it is surprisingly fun to play football on the device. The game allows you to slow down the action mid-play, which makes the gameplay much more manageable. I would recommend Madden 10 for any sports fan.
Sean: I did a PC review a while back for Defense Grid: The Awakening and enjoyed it, but because it was a computer game -- not my favorite platform -- I ignored it like a drunk girl at a party. But when I saw it pop up on the 360's Most Downloaded file for downloadable games, I snagged it, because of my love for tower defense games. I'm thrilled I did. The amount of graphical detail and replay value in this game of protecting cores is incredible. I pulled an all nighter on Tuesday playing and beating every level. It was fun beating the stages at first, then going back to try and preserve all 24 cores earning gold medals. Shoot me an e-mail or reply to this post with your thoughts. I'd love to hear them.
In the short amount of time I wasn't creating towers to defeat aliens, I created a team in Madden 10 to mock my drafted fantasy team. Needless to say, ya'll can't touch me.
Jay: As I mentioned last week, my gaming funds have been low these past few months, but that’s a good thing, because it has given me the opportunity to play some of the other stuff I haven’t seen in ages. Metal Gear Solid 2, for instance. I had almost forgotten how insanely awesome that game is. It still holds up eight years later.
I also got mucho playtime with this week’s WiiWare releases, Colorz and Contra: Rebirth. I played a ton of bad Flash games as I continued my search for Flash game of the month, and finally found something I liked, Thing-Thing Arena 3.
Finally, I played through a huge chunk of Drake’s Fortune, thanks to the new $30 price tag. I was interested in it for a long time, but remained reluctant to pick it up. I am happy to say that it far exceeded my expectations.
