VideoGamer.com Plays

What we've been playing this week.

Tom Orry, Editor - Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise, Xbox 360
Wez has a word for games like this that I won't repeat here, but I don't care. Viva Piñata was great and the sequel Trouble in Paradise is too. It's more of the same, but it's been tweaked in all the right areas. What's more, there are new Piñatas, which makes putting the controller down an extremely hard thing to do. Due to an office move I've been stuck playing it on a crappy old TV but it still looks brilliant. It's so good that I'm playing it as I write this. Because of the magic of the internet you would have been blissfully unaware of the fact that there was a six-hour gap between the first two sentences and the rest of this paragraph due to an extended Piñata session. If you love god sims or management games and want something a little more colourful and cute, check this out.

Wesley Yin-Poole, deputy editor - Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2, XBLA
In all six game types I have the top score on my friends list (Tom's recent triumph on Pacifism was quickly eradicated). This is the beauty of Geometry Wars - the first thing you see when you boot up the game is your score compared with the score of your friends. Seeing my gamertag on top in each and every one - from Deadline to Sequence - is hugely satisfying. But my l33t gaming skillz brings with it some problems. Because I'm top, my motivation for playing is dwindling. I need a challenge. So, VideoGamers, add me as a friend - wyp100 - and give me a high score to beat. Oh - and see you on Monday evening for the first VideoGamer.com Games Night!

James Orry, News Editor - Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2, XBLA
After sitting watching Tom play Viva Piñata 2 for the best part of half a day, followed by a Chinese takeaway and the England match, what better way to round off the day than Geometry Wars 2. Four of us sat in the lounge - all feeling the effects of too many chicken balls - and unsurprisingly our Geometry Wars 2 skills had deserted us. In a three-hour session of hotseat Pacifism gaming the highest score came in at only 7.5 million, with the majority of attempts coming to an abrupt end before the million mark. The moral of this story... don't expect to set any new high score in Geometry Wars 2 after you've stuffed your face with Chinese takeaway.

What have you been playing this week? Let us know in the comments section below.