Here are some capsule reviews of some games I have sitting around on Steam. Most of them I got for stupid dirt cheap in one bundle or another. I don’t think any of them are what you’d call hot and new by any means.
The Binding of Isaac: How do you fuck up the great idea of combining a roguelike with an arena shooter? No diagonal shots, that’s how. And then you implement it in Flash so it runs around 13fps on a Mac.
Bioshock 2: I fiddled with this for about an hour before deciding that, you know, I don’t care how pretty they are, I really just don’t enjoy FPSs unless they have a sexy evil AI or are Portal. Bonus suck points for its tendency to keep showing me low-res textures for signs even after cranking texture detail up.
Dustforce: An odd mix of frustrating and compelling. It really needs at least some tenuous hint of a story to make me want to actually play all its technical platforming insanity. Really pretty, though.
Strong Bad’s Cool Game For Attractive People: Oblique, poorly-hinted puzzles galore. It might have been more fun if I actually liked Homestar.
Limbo: Vicious and horrible at first until you start seeing it as a videogame version of an Edward Gorey book. The last level stops having any kind of narrative justification and is just one deathtrap after another, causing me to resort to a walkthrough and quit really giving a shit about the player character.
McPixel: Stupid, random, and absolutely insane. I didn’t finish it but I laughed a hell of a lot. Recommended.
Psychonauts: aaargh why did they update to a new version that’s full Mac native code, but terribly crash-prone, instead of the version bundled in Wine, a few weeks before I decided to play with it? FRUSTRATING.
Rochard: A very clever little space platformer starring a fat construction worker with a gravity control remote. Gets stupid halfway through when it’s revealed that the Macguffin is something left with Native Americans by ancient astronauts, but still fun.
Sam & Max Season 3: The Devil’s Playhouse: Holy cow, the beginning of episode 3 is the first time I have EVER felt like I was actually BEING A DETECTIVE while playing a detective game, there’s a really neat twist on the traditional dialogue tree mechanic. Lots of point-n-clicky fun. Recommended.
Scoregasm: This one keeps on not being uninstalled because it’s a great little quick blast: an arena shooter with some really clever levels, and an occasional bulletstorm kind of attitude. I think I actually bought this one all by itself for a whole $5-10. Recommended.