What are you playing?

[PartridgeSenpai]

Atom Zombie Smasher: A wonderfully strange strategy game about containing a zombie outbreak with the limited resources at hand. You've gotta deal with your failures, especially given that completely freeing a district of zombies is almost always an impossible task, and you've gotta take what you can get. I really enjoy it.

Bit Trip Runner: A rhythm game in the iconic Bit Trip series, and probably the best actual game in that series. It's a neat little distraction, but it's always been too hard for me to really get into it (I can never get past world one's final levels XP).

Lone Survivor: A fantastic 2D horror game that is very reminiscent of what a 2D Silent Hill would be like (in fact, I'm fairly positive that the creator has actually done Silent Hill "demakes" before). Highly recommended for any horror or Silent Hill fan. (for reference, I'm a huge scaredy babby and bad at horror games, and even I managed to finish it without too many problems).

Machinarium: A point and click adventure game that is far more about the pointing and clicking than the adventure part. You would be very hard pressed to ever get stuck in a King's Quest kind of way in Machinarium. It's much more about the zen-like exploration of a hand-drawn machine world than brain-destroying puzzles like older point and clicks were.

Shank: An action game brought to you by the people who would go on to make the fantastic 2D stealth game Mark of the Ninja, and the also fantastically fun Shank 2. I actually don't know that much about the original Shank, but given how fantastic their other games are, I think it's safe to give it a shot if you like hand-drawn animation styles and lots of silly action gaming.

VVVVVV: A fantastic (albeit a little short) platformer about switching gravity! It's been out for ages, and it's a great way to spend a couple hours if you want a very retro art style, great platforming, and some great music.

Hope these help

[Xeogred]

Alright you sold me on some of those, I'll prioritize them over the others.

[Ack]

Alright you sold me on some of those, I'll prioritize them over the others.

And here I was told that after the new year, you'd be coming to bug me for advice in Killing Floor 2.

[Xeogred]

Did fastbilly1 say so? lol, I can't see myself getting into Killing Floor.

Not to disappoint... I'm just mostly a solo FPS gamer. I'm that weird guy that played Borderlands 1 and 2 solo (did co-op some of the DLC from time to time though and it was awesome).

[ElkinFencer10]

Did fastbilly1 say so? lol, I can't see myself getting into Killing Floor.

Not to disappoint... I'm just mostly a solo FPS gamer. I'm that weird guy that played Borderlands 1 and 2 solo (did co-op some of the DLC from time to time though and it was awesome).

I'm the same way about FPS games, bro.

[Ack]

No worries, I actually have mostly played KF2 solo. The solo experience of the game is a fair bit different from the multiplayer version, because in MP it seems you pick a defensible location and do your best to hold it, while in SP there is far more running and gunning. There are still certain levels with defensive points to hold where you can thin out the horde a fair bit, but at some point you're likely going to end up being forced to make a run for it.

[Xeogred]

How does Killing Floor compare to the Serious Sam games?

[Ack]

It doesn't, in my opinion. Serious Sam is far more ridiculous in its running and gunning. You're moving around a lot of big, open areas, firing ridiculous weaponry at hordes of ridiculous enemies. Killing Floor 2 has considerably more corridors, and while there is a twitch element in single player, it's not nearly as severe as Serious Sam. Also KF2 has more strategy on how you tackle certain kinds of enemies which can vary heavily based on which perk(read: class) you are using. A Firebug, Berserker, SWAT, and Sharpshooter are all going to have to tackle the big monsters in different ways. Serious Sam primarily requires you strafe and shoot things until they die.

Now if you really like Serious Sam's kill-all-that-moves, ridiculous-firepower gameplay but want a darker atmosphere, I'd suggest the Painkiller games.

[Xeogred]

Wait... I must have been mixing up Killing Floor with Painkiller. Kill! I think I played some Painkiller years ago and didn't really like it. Killing Floor looks more like a Left 4 Dead thing at a glance I guess? No idea though.

I don't love Serious Sam, played them on the Xbox originally. But I rebought most of them on Steam sales and am currently playing First Encounter HD, Second, and Serious Sam 2, jumping around all of them haha. I talked about it in the FPS thread. I have some complaints, I don't love or hate Serious Sam, but I seem to keep playing them so maybe I'll finally beat these. It gets more fun in the second half of each game when you have more weapons.

The feeling of these enormous empty looking arenas and slaughtering thousands of enemies makes the games feel 50 hours long to me. But they don't really seem that long according to some lists and HLTB. I think it's been more motivating keeping tabs of a level listing on the side to see where I'm at. lol

[prfsnl_gmr]

I am playing Shantae: 1/2 Genie Hero (WII U) with my children. It is awesome; I love it; and I suspect that it will be the first game on my 2017 "games beaten" list.

I am also playing Bloo Kid 2 (3DS). It is very different from the first game, but it is also a lot of fun. (Whereas Bloo Kid is a single-screen, Mario Bros.-inspired platformer with some puzzle elements, Bloo Kid 2 is a Super Mario Bros.-inspired scrolling platformer. Moreover, the updated version of Bloo Kid 2 addresses many of the criticisms in its early reviews.) It will probably supplant Giana Sisters DS as my favorite European Super Mario Bros. clone. Also, it's only $4 in the eShop; so, fans of the genre should be sure to pick it up.

Finally, I am toying with Blek (iOS). It is a pretty, clever puzzle game that is only playable with touch controls. I am about half-way through it, and I will probably finish it up before the end of the month.