I think someone asked what games I’m currently playing. Eh, what the hell, it’s an easy post.

Right now my available gaming ‘platforms’ are as follows:

• Xbox 360 – I’d say this is the primary gaming box.
• Dell PC, circa 2003 – I still remember when this ran every game like butter. Not any more.
• MacBook Pro – Not running many games natively, but the web, ah…
• Nintendo DS Lite – Not doing much with this, but I do have one, so worth noting.

And what am I playing? Well, in a sort-of order pertaining to how much each one’s getting played…

Grand Theft Auto IV: Well duh. Of course. Who isn’t? I’m about 20-25% of the way through, and enjoying it a whole lot. I’d probably enjoy it a lot more with a massive HD TV, big sound system and totally understanding wife… but we can’t have everything.

I have to say when you stop and think about it, it really is just GTA again, but then it does something spectacularly wonderful or you just turn a corner and go “Holy cow, that’s the New York skyline… well sorta” or you hear something on the radio that makes you (if I must) ‘LOL’ and you remember you haven’t played GTA since 2005… and all is right in the world again.

So polished, so clever, so snarky (So, so snarky! How does Rockstar sneak this stuff past US types?) and at its best, so much bloody fun, everything else just looks like A Game by comparison. GTA IV, right now, is The Game.

City of Heroes: And I ain’t just saying that. I go in spurts with CoH – months might go by without a login (I’ve missed plenty of ‘special events’ that way) and then I’ll be playing every night. I’m back in for Issue 12 though. Have a post on that coming, but don’t get excited.

Generally speaking I’m a solo player, occasional pick-up group. I’ve been in supergroups but then I wander away from the game and find they’ve turfed me out, so I think I’m fated to stay ‘single’. By the way, I almost exclusively play on Union; no offence to Defiant types (or Americans, for that matter).

Ikariam: A free-to-play web browser game, which is nice as I can play it in odd moments at work or home. I started toying with it because I’d heard it was a bit Civ-like, but when playing it looks more like Settlers. Liking it, although I have to say it could be a bit more… dynamic. Still the relentless build-up of colonies is always an easy, seductive path to ‘just one more turn’.

Funny thing though; there are no turns. It actually all happens in real time, which is kinda cool… except when, like tonight, you push the button on a building upgrade which will take eight hours (and prevent you from doing anything else in that time).

On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One… AKA ‘the Penny Arcade game’: I’m fans of PA from waaay back (Ask me (in person) about my brush with their rising fame sometime) so I was always going to play this. It certainly helps that when you buy a key, you get Mac, PC and Linux versions at the same time! Nice. So far I’ve just played around with the demo but I’ll be getting my credit card out soon enough; it’s got Jerry’s writing, which is lovely, and Mike’s art, sooo… how can you lose.

Various 360 rentals: Recently – as my Gamertag shows – I’ve been trying out Marvel Ultimate Alliance and Assassin’s Creed. Interestingly, they’re both at their heart the same game: endless repetition of a limited range of tasks, masked by lovely presentation and shiny stuff. It shows what a jaded cynic I am that I realised this inside about an hour of playing each. It also shows what a sucker for shiny things I am, considering I stuck both in my rental queue.

Finally, I should mention before anyone bothers to snipe; yes, I play other NCsoft games, but I’m a bit limited by my PC (and now having a Mac at work). Guild Wars is still an on-off love affair, I enjoyed my fair share of Tabula Rasa, and I’ve spent time in Lineage II and Dungeon Runners as well. So there….