Starting this week, we bring you a rather light-hearted feature that outlines what all the writers on IVG are playing. Some of us are catching up on our backlogs, some are revisiting older games, while some are busy playing on newly acquired platforms we once used to mock.
Murali Venukumar
So I’ve mostly been playing Deadlight and Lollipop Chainsaw this past week. I’ll be digging into Deadlight in my official review so let’s talk about Juliet Starling and her sparkle hunting chainsaw instead, shall we? This is exactly the sort of kooky, low-budget, quick turn-around game that I’ve missed from the good old days of the PS2. It’s also deeper, funnier and a lot more likable that its slightly ham-fisted marketing campaign would have you believe. I’m still early in though, so I’m hoping the slightly simplistic combat will improve once I start unlocking new attacks. But that aside, go Juliet!
Sameer Desai
So picture this – a gentle turtle ambling forward; a machine gun, a shotgun and a bearded mage (pointy hat and all) strapped to its back. In its path is an army of goblins – on foot, in the air, in buildings. That’s Shellrazer, a new iOS action-strategy game that I’m amazed is selling for just $0.99 right now, especially considering how incredibly deep it is. Shellrazer has been taking up most of my time, but that aside, I’ve also been playing a bit of Goal Defense on the iPad and Tony Hawk HD on the Xbox.
Hemanth Kumar
F1 2011 has kept the racing driver in me happy for the past week, like the many, many weeks before. Dry qualifying in Valencia ensured a pole position start for yours truly for this Sunday. Apart from that, I’ve also been playing a top secret game which will be showcased in one of our features this week.
Vikram Subramaniam
This weekend is all about CSR Racing on the iPad. At first glance, it’s a drop dead gorgeous but seemingly simplistic drag racing game built upon the much loathed freemium model. Once engaged, however, the depth beneath the dermis shows. Varied, real life cars with individual performance traits, an addictive upgrade system, multiple competitions and silky smooth performance all combine to deliver a thoroughly enjoyable game, one that does not require a single penny of real money to be spent to play and complete.
Abhinav Pattanayak
While my IVG brethren have been hitting 100 Colonel Stars with alarming regularity, I am still chugging my way towards my first Colonel in Battlefield 3. The launch of the Close Quarters mappack meant I now have an option to jump into a fairly fast-paced MP session when I get bored of Conquest mode. The four new maps are great examples of DICE’s map-making prowess and the destructibility just adds to the fun of creating your own shortcuts and surprising the enemy. The new Gun Master mode has been fun too, though I am yet to get that elusive knife kill.
Amit Goyal
Transformers: War for Cybertron. Yes, I know it came out two years ago. In fact, I bought it two years ago, but I somehow never got around to playing it. While it is mostly the standard TPS affair, Breakdown flirting with the limits of Megatron’s patience with his wisecracks alone makes it more worthwhile than the snorefest that was Micheal Bay’s Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Oh, and I can never tire of hearing “Autobots! Roll out!” I also picked up The Walking Dead for the iPhone, and so far it is shaping up nicely. It reminds me of Heavy Rain, but I will reserve judgement till I see more.
Abhinit Prakash
Asura’s Wrath is the game that has been entertaining me this week. Blasting multiple larger-than-life foes with six arms has never been more fun. Combat feels a bit shallow, but is never a sore point because of the game’s relatively short length. The game’s shortcomings are more than overcome by its lustrous presentation with the snack-sized chapters making the game easy to pick up and play at any time. I will be playing the Nirvana DLC next, which has been touted as being better than the game itself.
Avinash Bali
This weekend, I’m going to be killing a lot of Russians in Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. It’s not a patch on the older games and it is rather simple at times, but it sure is fun. The story is rubbish, but tight gameplay, enjoyable stealth mechanics and an extremely fluid animation system have totally won me over. Also, there’s something very satisfying about sync shooting four bad guys in the face. Besides GRFS, I’ll be jumping into some Battlefield 3 on the PC and trying to better my score in Hitman: Sniper Challenge on the PC.
Arijit Dasgupta
A good week to be playing World of Warcraft. I managed to down Heroic Deathwing on both my Shadow Priest and my Death Knight. I snatched the mount with a perfect roll of a 100. Next week, will be Heroic Ragnaros for the uber cool firehawk mount, plus getting my Paladin ready for Mists of Pandaria.
Abhishek Dahiya
For the past week, I have been playing “FIX MY GODDAMN GPU, YOU JERKS!” with MSI. The level design is terrible (traffic everywhere) and every time you fail your objective, you have to start from scratch. Also worth mentioning, the MSI AI is horrible. On the plus side, the graphics are quite nice (very realistic) and it’s free to play. Also, I’ve been playing a fair bit of Spelunky; check back for the review of that one later on in the week.
Mithun Balraj
I’ve started down the long road to recovery post-Steam sale, and have tried to restrict the games I play to the ones that I have purchased in the last month – Q.U.B.E, Offspring Fling!, The Walking Dead and SpaceChem to name a few. I’ve spent the most amount of time with AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! for the Awesome though. I’m playing it religiously in the hope that it will help me get over my acrophobia.
Rishi Alwani
Max Anarchy has been consuming most of my gaming time. Beating the shit out of mutants and other assorted post-apocalyptic vermin is insanely fun. Aside from that, I’ve been stabbing my smartphone to shoot zombies in the face in Dead Trigger, ending with results that are a little less than dismal. I would be ploughing through Uncharted 3 had Sony made hardware that was slightly more reliable.
That’s about it from us. Let us know what you were busy with this weekend.
