Miscellany

1) Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 is good. Incredibly good. The kind of good that makes you happy that the developers really 'get' what was great about the original and build on it in genuinely exciting ways, rather than just updating the graphics and adding just enough new stuff to get away with calling it a sequel. Everything is designed to perfection and the only thing I can think of to improve on it would be to have a mode where the player can design their own challenges by tweaking about the game rules - the six game modes are all great and distinct but they also made me think: 'ooh, it would be great if I could combine this thing from King mode with this other thing from Waves mode,' for example. Or maybe add in a few different ways to score the game. Anyway, if you can buy it, buy it.

2) There's actually lots of good stuff coming out soon on the so-called 'casual' platforms. XBLA has Braid and a bunch of other stuff, and I've heard a lot of good things about the PSN content coming out (is it bad that PS3 is becoming slightly tempting just for PSN and, I suppose, Little Big Planet? Oh well, they'll still need to bring the price down another £100, at least). WiiWare has Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People, which is enough in itself.

3) Speaking of which, I've been noticing more than ever how my game playing tendencies ebb and flow. Right now I'm very into pick-up-and-play experiences, the kind that I could get addicted to for hours but can also have a good game in just a few minutes, like Geometry Wars. Fast, fun action. I suppose that applies to Rock Band, too, which I would be playing a lot more of except that it drove me mad for about 2 weeks with soundproofing issues. So instead I've been breaking out a lot of XBLA games and I'm finding it very hard to continue with something more drawn out, like Zelda. Meanwhile, Penny Arcade Adventures Episode 1 strikes a good balance - it's fairly involved and detailed but the individual story bits are cut into bitesize chunks, so I've finally started playing that. It can only be a matter of time though, before I'm looking for a world to be sucked into once again. I think I'll try to quantify my various gaming appetites for my next post.