January is an interesting time for video games—we're just coming off of a landslide of new releases, but there aren't too many games on the horizon. Finally, some breathing room! So… what are you playing?
I'll go first:
The Room Two (iPad): After finally listening to my boss Stephen Totilo's enthusiastic endorsement, I started playing The Room on iPad last month. What a game! I tore through it and am now midway through the sequel, which just came out. It is excellent. The sound design on this game alone… god, I'd love to own replicas of the puzzleboxes, just to listen to the little gears click and whirr.
République (iPad): I'm also playing Camouflaj's Kickstarter'd stealth game République. I really like the concept—you play a camera-jumping cypher, helping a young girl evade guards in what amounts to a dystopian teen fiction universe—but I'm finding the controls awkward. Still, cool game. I'll finish episode one for sure.
Year Walk (iPad): You may be noticing I'm playing a lot of iPad games. That's because I just got a new iPad mini, so I'm tearing through my backlog. I never actually finished Year Walk last year, which means I'm walking back a year and playing it while I walk.
AC IV: Freedom Cry (PS4): I'm actually still replaying the core ACIV as well, but I'm currently working my way through Freedom Cry on PS4. It's very good. I loved Evan's essay on it.
Battlefield 4 (PS4): Every so often I hop into a multiplayer match in Battlefield 4 to see if the servers are working, and I wind up playing for a good chunk of time. I haven't encountered many of the problems that are so widespread, but I do hope that DICE can get this game working properly for everyone, because it's really fun when it works.
State of Decay (PC): I spent so, so long playing this game without advancing the story, so after 25 or so hours I'm only just now getting things going. I could play it forever, probably, but I'll have to actually go and finish sometime soon. Maybe over the weekend.
Don't Starve (PC): I've been playing this one as an IGF judge, and while it's got its hooks into me, I'm still not convinced I actually like the game. It feels like a lot of busywork to me, and while I enjoy the general aesthetic, it seems like a bit of a time-sink. I might only have room for one roguelike in my life, and that's probably got to be State of Decay, at least for a little while longer.
Or, well..
Spelunky (Vita): Or Spelunky, which I've also been playing. I've finally crossed the threshold of people writing about this game and making me want to get deep into it. Doug Wilson's epic-length article over at Polygon about the Eggplant Run was just too cool. I want to have a better grasp of this game, because more and more I sense that it's one of the great game design feats of all time.
And those are the games I'm actively playing at the moment. Games I might pick back up and finish include: No One Lives Forever 2, which I didn't finish after getting a ways into it for those features I was writing last year, Alpha Protocol, which I really want to finish because I was just starting to really like it when I had to stop and play other things (happy now, DocSeuss?), Rust, which Luke has me super curious about, though it's another roguelike and I've already discussed the amount of space I have for those, and I'm sure like 10 other games that I'm forgetting, because there are too many great games.
Your turn. What are you playing? If you could follow a similar format to the one I used, with bold text and the occasional image or video, that'd be great. Sound off!