I'm really feeling the time crunch right now when it comes to all the games I really want to put more time into, balanced against work, family, reading - you know, the rest of life - and so unfortunately, this new site of mine which I want to get a running start on with lots of writing has suffered this week. My apologies for that.
A brief list of the things that are occupying my time that I'm really enjoying and I recommend you check out:
- Already mentioned - Torchlight and Borderlands. I've gone on about Torchlight at length, it's still great, and the full editor is out now so the mod scene is most likely about to explode for that. Last night I got my hunter character up to level 20 in Borderlands, and again, now that I'm "playing it right" I really am having a much better time.
- Dragon Age: Origins. I think the large review sites have covered this fairly well, but even after hearing their praise I'm genuinely surprised (and thrilled) at how excellent the storytelling in DA:O is. The voice acting is some of the best - and some of the most - I've seen in any game I can remember, the combat is a mix of the best parts of Baldur's Gate-era Bioware games and the best parts of more modern action RPG's / MMO's (skill cooldowns, party inventory, fantastic UI), and I really am enjoying the world they've built so far. Beating this game will be a long trek for me but I'm looking forward to taking it.
- The original Left 4 Dead, in anticipation of its upcoming sequel. I've been doing a piece over on Immortal Machines about some of the full campaign mods that have come out for Left 4 Dead - we covered "Vienna Calling" and "Death Aboard" a couple weeks ago, and we're about to tackle "Cold Case" and "Dead Before Dawn". It's great to see such large-scale user created content for any game, but in light of the recent bru-ha-ha over the PC port of Modern Warfare 2 (which I won't right now get into) it especially warms the heart to be reminded of how well some games on the PC encourage their players to not just play the game, but play with the game and engage in the creative endeavor of generating content.
- Batman: Arkham Asylum, which I got really deep into right after its PC release but then got distracted from when Torchlight came out. I need to get back into it and finish it up, because it's an exquisitely crafted single-player action game, and the best videogame representation of the Batman character I've ever seen.
So just between those things I'm already more than maxed out on my gaming time, but there's also New Super Mario Bros. Wii, which is about to arrive and which I'm very excited about if for no other reason than I'll have another game my wife will probably be willing to pick up and play with me. And of course Left 4 Dead 2 is imminent, so my coworkers and I will be giving that at least one night a week, most likely more at the outset.
Oh! This didn't get much fanfare, but a WiiWare remake of the original NES title Excitebike just came out this week, called Excitebike: World Rally, and it's delightful. It's a 3D game but it plays on a 2D plane just as the original did, with the same basic mechanics of getting the angle of your bike right for jumps and landings, tripping up your opponents, balancing boost against overheating, and building your own tracks. There are now multiple backgrounds for different locations to add some visual flair, and it's playable over Nintendo's WFC system if you can tolerate the friend codes. If you have any fond memories of Excitebike, I think it's worth the $10 to check out.
So that's that, and now I'm off to figure out which game I'll bite off another chunk of. I'll probably cross-post my Left 4 Dead mod article on Cold Case and Dead Before Dawn here once we get that up over at IM. After that, we'll see what there is to talk about. I'll probably feel the need to praise NSMB Wii, since the rest of the internet will be covering the praise of Left 4 Dead 2 with wild abandon, I'm sure.