I was playing Civilization 5 again, but suddenly my processor is starting to overheat... no clue why. It gets to 70'c and suddenly sky rockets to 90'c in a matter of seconds, before ultimately shutting down. Never had the issue before now. Fortunately, I'm getting new hardware in about a week.
I'm been playing through Halo:CE Anniversary on Legendary. Once you make it past "The Truth and Reconciliation" it's actually not that bad. I'm on the final stage (The Maw) so I'll be moving on to new stuff soon.
Also, I've been playing a lot of Castle Crashers with my two girls. It's a great party game and pretty much a straight-up button masher (so, it's not hard for them). It's got a bit of potty humor (pooping animals and enemies) but it's fairly harmless. If you're familiar with the game, we just discovered that the deer from the Thieves Forest level can be seen in the Full Moon level. He's visible in silhouette and is pooping his way to outer space.
Waiting in the wings:
o Gears of War 3 - which I need to finish
o Skyrim - got it for Christmas but wanted to finish other stuff first before I got sucked in
o Minecraft - just bought it today since a friend was bugging me to play on their server.
Minecraft scares me. I'm sure it's fun but I can't imagine a bigger timesink..! These days I tend to play games start-to-finish and then move on to the next one. No time for things like sidequests, etc. Being a Dad Gamer is hard work, haha. Jess, I don't know how you find the time with a family around!
A game I want to get back into is Treasure Adventure Game. I played it before but seemed to hit an awkward difficulty spike right at the start where I climbed a huge tree and needed a lot of money to proceed. Maybe I went the wrong way or something, but I want to give it another try soon.
Yeah, Minecraft does look like a timesink. Considering how little time I have for gaming these days, I'm not entirely thrilled about the prospect of having to "mine" and "build" all of the tools/blocks I need. However, I understand there is a "free play" mode where you get to build all you want without having to dig for stuff. I'm sure I wouldn't mind the digging and work if I actually had more time.
To your point - Being a dad gamer IS hard!
My two girls get nearly all of my time at home. What's left, my wife and I try to spend together. That doesn't leave much time for gaming. So, I probably get one night a week to play (or make) games. I have been able to to "sneak" in a bit more time as I've introduced our girls to Castle Crashers. They aren't allowed any TV during the week but on Friday nights we host a "Movie Night" at our house for the girls and some kids in our neighborhood. They get to pick out a movie (something appropriate) and enjoy it with good friends. It's actually a nice tradition and everyone looks forward to "Movie Night" at the Bowers house.
Recently, I've gotten "permission" from my wife to allow a half hour of game time before the movie on our Xbox 360. Since we have a room full of kids, only 4 player party games will do. I've got a few but the one everyone just loves is Castle Crashers. If you have an Xbox 360, I would highly recommend it. When someone runs out of life and "dies" - the other plays can run over to them and perform "CPR" to revive them. It's great fun and fairly harmless.
If I'm on my computer, I'm usually making my Pokémon-style game ('Alpha Pack', just made the project page here). Any other time, though, I'm playing Pokémon: White. So far, really enjoying it, even as an original-151 purist : P I'm definitely on a huge Pokémon kick right now, it's all I think about.
I was playing Skyrim, but I burned out. Going to wait a few months for some great mods to come in (isn't the Steam workshop thing excellent?) then I'll probably start yet another new character!
GTA San Andreas, because I want to play through it before GTA V.
Battlefield 3 a bit, Minecraft, stopped playing Skyrim.... Um, a bit NBA Jam on Fire, when with friends.
Yeah, Minecraft does look like a timesink. Considering how little time I have for gaming these days, I'm not entirely thrilled about the prospect of having to "mine" and "build" all of the tools/blocks I need. However, I understand there is a "free play" mode where you get to build all you want without having to dig for stuff. I'm sure I wouldn't mind the digging and work if I actually had more time.
To your point - Being a dad gamer IS hard!
My two girls get nearly all of my time at home. What's left, my wife and I try to spend together. That doesn't leave much time for gaming. So, I probably get one night a week to play (or make) games. I have been able to to "sneak" in a bit more time as I've introduced our girls to Castle Crashers. They aren't allowed any TV during the week but on Friday nights we host a "Movie Night" at our house for the girls and some kids in our neighborhood. They get to pick out a movie (something appropriate) and enjoy it with good friends. It's actually a nice tradition and everyone looks forward to "Movie Night" at the Bowers house.
Recently, I've gotten "permission" from my wife to allow a half hour of game time before the movie on our Xbox 360. Since we have a room full of kids, only 4 player party games will do. I've got a few but the one everyone just loves is Castle Crashers. If you have an Xbox 360, I would highly recommend it. When someone runs out of life and "dies" - the other plays can run over to them and perform "CPR" to revive them. It's great fun and fairly harmless.