Recently

Beat Hazard got an update in preparation for the upcoming DLC. I’m not entirely sure I like it better this way, but the DLC looks like it might be interesting. I’m not so interested in the multiplayer aspect, but the boss rush, new enemies, and new perks look fun. So, anyway, I’ve been playing a bit of that.

Played some more Audiosurf, too. Still a great game.

Beat every level of Mario 1 and played a little of the second quest. It’s a pretty good game, but it’s really overshadowed by Mario 3.

I’ve played a bit of hardcore Diablo II in the last few months.

Played some more Super Meat Boy. Just a few levels left in the light world, and then I’ll play through the dark world.

Played Torchlight a bit. I’m wondering whether Torchlight 2 will be worth it–if it’ll be different enough to warrant purchase. I guess time will tell.

I learned that I’ve been played Palamedes either very wrong or very right, depending on how you look at it. Discovered that by collecting the right blocks and pressing down, you can remove several lines at once. By removing every block manually, as I had been doing, you get a 50,000 point bonus at the end of the level, though. I got up to stage nine, I think, that way. I haven’t yet tried playing by getting rid of lines, but I imagine I’ll get much further and have a much lower score.

Played a demo of Vertex Dispenser. It isn’t too bad, but I didn’t really like it that much. Certainly not well enough to buy it.

Beat Hazard, and others

Got to rank Elite 10 and unlocked Suicidal difficulty the other day. I’m making fairly good progress unlocking the rest of the achievements, too–I’ve got seven to go.

Played Ten Second War–it’s really great.

Been playing some Shards of Dalaya this week, which is fun. Not sure how long I’ll keep it up, but it’s holding my attention for the moment.

Played a little Plants vs. Zombies, but I’m not too impressed. It’s just a mediocre tower defense game, really.

Tried out Rhythm Zone. Nice idea, but the execution leaves something to be desired.

Played a little Audiosurf–I’m definitely out of practice, there.

Games on Steam

Recently, I got several games on Steam, due to the awesome sale prices.

Portal: free, a while ago. I beat this one just recently–around 2010-07-03, I guess. Awesome, awesome game. I’ve got 6/15 achievements.

Beat Hazard: $2.49. Neat game, and worth the price. I have 13/25 achievements.

Audiosurf: $2.50. Another cool music game. I have 2/17 achievements.

Torchlight: $5.00. At that price, who could resist it? I’ve got 9/67 achievements. My saves were even compatible, so onward I go.

Civilization 4 complete: $9.99. Civ 4 provides enough gameplay that, compared to movies or something, $10 per playing session wouldn’t really be overpriced. $10 for the whole set (Civ 4, Civ 4: Colonization, Civ 4: Beyond the Sword, and Civ 4: Warlords) is a totally good deal. I spent four hours playing it last night. I was playing on easy, and it was indeed very easy. I’ll have to play on the next difficulty up next time. I was about ten turns away from getting a diplomatic victory (by having enough votes to just vote myself in) when the game ended and I got a time victory instead. I wasn’t far off from a domination victory (is that right? Having most of the map and population. That one.), either. Great game, but at 4 hours for an easy game against a few computers, I remember why I stopped playing before. It takes so long! Still, I’m sure I’ll play it enough to get my money’s worth.

All told, I spent about $20 during the sale on several extremely worthy games. I’m satisfied with the value I’m getting, which is unusual. Definitely I’ll make sure to put aside some money for the next sale like this. Who knows what gems might reveal themselves? There were lots of other great games at great prices, though I already owned several: they had Freedom Force and its sequel for less than $2 for the pair, but I already own Freedom Force. They had similar extremely low prices on various shooters and other games of types I don’t like, so not much temptation there. Still, a dollar or two isn’t two much to pay for even a less-than-stellar game, so I’ll look forward to next time.

Lately

Played a demo of Flotilla. Not impressed.

Played a demo of Osmos. Seems amusing, but I’m not sure it’s worth paying for.

Played Sonic Adventure DX on the gamecube. I really suck at controlling 3D games, and this one isn’t impressing me so far. I’ll give it a little more time, though, before I dismiss it.

Played Sonic Heroes, also on the gamecube. Not perfect, but it seems kind of fun. The switching characters thing seems like an interesting mechanic. It does seem to switch on its own sometimes, though, and I don’t know why. Also, I still suck at controlling 3D games. Nice graphics, though.

Played Audiosurf. Great game.

Restarted Trilby: The Art of Theft. That’s one cool game. I’ve only done the first level so far, this time through, but it’s still great. I’ll have to beat this one some time.

Played a little Super Mario Galaxy 2. Got another star or three and a comet coin. I need to spend a little more time on this one.

Played some Jumper. Got a couple of screens further along. This game is hard and sometimes frustrating. I did discover what was causing me so much trouble on the stage I was on (3-2, I think): if you land on a block that can fall and don’t jump right away, your jump will actually be your double-jump, even though you seem to be standing on the block. This got me killed loads of times. Finally figured it out. I had thought that I was just stupidly failing to hit jump in time or something.

Also recently played (about two minutes of) Dragon Quest on the NES, in order to see how my Japanese skills are progressing. The answer: slowly. Oh well.

Played some Alien Hominid on the gamecube. That game is really hard. Or else I just suck. Either way, I don’t do so well. It is a really cool game, though.

Played an hour or so of Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles. Not impressed. The boss battles take forever, and the minor battles aren’t really interesting. Since the magic things disappear when you leave the level, there’s no building up on those over time, and it seems to me like the physical attack is pretty useless. Well, I’ll probably play it a little more before I give up on it. Maybe the story will turn out to be interesting (though, also not high hopes of that happening).

Played some Diablo II recently. Got an item or two, though I don’t recall what.