After the plethora of indie games last weekend, only 3 below $10 came out this week, with a much more mangeable total playtime of ~12 hours between them. Well, you'd think it was more manageable, but I'd rather have spent twice as many hours playing last week's games. So, which games were a joy to play, and which felt like rolling a boulder uphill? Read the summaries below, and click on the links for my full reviews of them:

Crazy Machines Elements: ($10) Supposed to be The Incredible Machine for the Xbox generation. Just made me wish I was playing The Incredible Machine again. Oh wait, look what's on sale at GOG for the same price!

Scoregasm: ($10) A good dual-stick bullet hell shooter whose difficulty curve is thrown out of whack by its own mechanics.

Shank 2: ($10) A surprisingly responsive side-scrolling brawler, once you customize the controls.

Which of those 3 games would I keep playing?

Eh, none of them, really. Shank 2, perhaps, if only to try the coop online. I'd play Scoregasm again if I was interested in high scores (and if I could get past the brick wall that is the Insane final boss). Crazy Machines Elements is getting deleted off my hard drive immediately. I wouldn't shed any tears if all of them were deleted, honestly. Shank 2 & Scoregasm are good, but they're no Pineapple Smash Crew or S.P.A.Z.

In other news, Unstoppable Gorg was recently patched with an update that adjusted the moderate difficulty level. Since my review of it cited the obscene difficulty of the Moderate campaign's later levels as my big issue with the game, this patch could've rendered most of my complaints moot. I might have to revisit it if I ever have the inkling or the time. (The problem with quickly reviewing new games is that a few patches could completely change the score you'd give it.)

After the plethora of indie games last weekend, only 3 below $10 came out this week, with a much more mangeable total playtime of ~12 hours between them. Well, you'd think it was more manageable, but I'd rather have spent twice as many hours playing last week's games. So, which games were a joy to play, and which felt like rolling a boulder uphill? Read the summaries below, and click on the links for my full reviews of them:

Crazy Machines Elements: ($10) Supposed to be The Incredible Machine for the Xbox generation. Just made me wish I was playing The Incredible Machine again. Oh wait, look what's on sale at GOG for the same price!

Scoregasm: ($10) A good dual-stick bullet hell shooter whose difficulty curve is thrown out of whack by its own mechanics.

Shank 2: ($10) A surprisingly responsive side-scrolling brawler, once you customize the controls.

Which of those 3 games would I keep playing?

Eh, none of them, really. Shank 2, perhaps, if only to try the coop online. I'd play Scoregasm again if I was interested in high scores (and if I could get past the brick wall that is the Insane final boss). Crazy Machines Elements is getting deleted off my hard drive immediately. I wouldn't shed any tears if all of them were deleted, honestly. Shank 2 & Scoregasm are good, but they're no Pineapple Smash Crew or S.P.A.Z.

In other news, Unstoppable Gorg was recently patched with an update that adjusted the moderate difficulty level. Since my review of it cited the obscene difficulty of the Moderate campaign's later levels as my big issue with the game, this patch could've rendered most of my complaints moot. I might have to revisit it if I ever have the inkling or the time. (The problem with quickly reviewing new games is that a few patches could completely change the score you'd give it.)