One of the only sports I absolutely love to watch is tennis. This year’s Wimbledon final between Federer and Nadal was one for ages and probably the best match I’ve ever seen. This week I’ve been playing the ever loving hell out of Top Spin 3 since I have a review going up this afternoon. Luckily though it’s a game I would have played anyway since I spent a bunch of time with the first two in the series. No need to go on with my opinion of the game here.

There’s been some WoW sprinkled in there too, of course. Mainly I’ve been focusing on PvP and upping my Jewelcrafting skill. There’s some sweet equipment I’ve got my eye on and there’s a lot of honor to be had in order to get it.

That’s about the size of it for me, What’cha Been Playing?

Well, if you take into account what Dan wrote today it’s more apt to say that there were During E3 Doldrums as well. It’s hard to disagree with anything he wrote but after listening to some of the guys on the 1Up podcasts I think there’s an argument to be made for the direction the show took this year.

This week was mainly full of playing a couple games for pieces on the site. Look out early next week for our preview of Introversion’s Multiwinia (multiplayer version of the excellent Darwinia) that will be hitting PC, Mac, Linux and XBLA. It’s RTS that is right up my alley, but more on that next week.

The other piece to look forward to is a review of 2K’s Top Spin 3. The series took a dramatic turn this year for fans of the previous two entries in the series but it seems like a turn for the better so look for that late next week.

That’s about the size of it for me, what about you all? What’cha Been Playing?

Pardon my passive aggressive nature with the title and the picture, but it’s not like America gave us a present for our birthday on Monday — so today you JIMXORRD!!

But enough about me and my megalomania — on to what we’ve been playing. This week I’ve taken a bit of a breather from MGS4 — it’s a combination of trying to prolong the experience mixed with some fucker on the player one podcast ruining Act 4 for me. Either way I’m taking a bit of a break. So what did I play in it’s stead?

Dabbled a little in Unreal Tournament III — definitely a fun experience. If I could get more of my friends to pick it up it probably would have gone from a rent to a buy (especially since you can get it used for $14.99 now). Also finally got around to trying out Boom Blox. I get the hype, but at the same time… I don’t know. It’s a solid experience but it’s lacking the game-of-the-year qualities that a lot of bloggers were hyping.

And of course, Super Stardust HD.

That’s pretty much it for me this week. What have YOU been playing?

As you may have guessed from his mysterious disappearance, our own Kevin Alexander is on vacation and livin’ la vida loca (which I assume is Spanish for sitting around his new house and continuing to unpack/decorate.) Sure we’ll miss the poor boy when his absence causes us to replace him with a work-for-hire Columbian child, but on the bright side that means you get to see my bright and shiny face for the next couple of weeks of What’cha Been!

It’s been mostly Metal Gear Solid 4 for me. Just wrapped up the second act. I’m trying to balance my time between the story and the kick ass multiplayer. Also just started Kororinpa: Marble Mania for the Wii thanks to a quality Goozex trade. If you like Marble Madness descendants but want to chuck Super Monkey Ball through a window, you might want to check it out.

But enough about me — what have YOU been playing?

Now I’m not saying that The Gute is any where even in the same realm of coolness as Johnny Cash, but when I saw these pics yesterday it was one of the first things I thought of.

I’ve had a WoW-filled gaming week with a little bit of Beyond Good & Evil thrown in. My goal of hitting 70 is still hanging out as I’m just past 68 making me realize I’m going to need some serious game time to meet said goal.

So, what’cha been playing?

I have a new War Cry that can be seen in the title of this posting. When June started I was level 65 in WoW and now I’m about 25% into 67. My goal is to hit the level cap by 11:59pm on June 30th so I can finally join the rest of my guildmates and finally start playing the game, for real.

Level 66 went by in a blur. I hit it on Sunday night and then leveled again on Tuesday or Wednesday night after running Mana Tombs and the Circle of Fire in Nagrand. Between the two of them I think I got 75% of the xp needed to level and pretty easily at that. The Ardent Fury gang makes everything look easy.

After my nightly WoW sessions I’ve been winding down by winding myself up with Trials 2: Second Edition that I reviewed earlier this week. I’m in to the medium level courses and they’re now taking me about 10 minutes and almost 100 failures a piece to clear. This game is challenging, to say the least.

When I need a quick fix and I don’t feel like running down to my basement I’ve been firing up the 360 and getting back in to Burnout Paradise to remind myself about what it feels like to have a lot of fun driving in a video game.

So, What’cha All Been Playing?

Earlier this week there was a bunch of hub-bub about a patch in Age of Conan that accidentally decreased the size of boobies in the game. I picked up the game late last week and haven’t spent a ton of time with it but I do like what I’ve played so far. It’s currently just your standard MMO fair but I’ve put myself on a PVP server where you can attack (and be attacked by) anyone, even your own race. There’s a bunch of guys from 1Up playing on Tyranny who started a guild with the objective of attacking anyone who’s not in their guild. I need to get up in that.

Between Dan being in Florida and most of Ardent Fury being in Nag’s Head I didn’t spend a whole lot of time in WoW, but that changed last night and I’m still inching my way through the levels. I do plan on playing as soon as I get home tonight (around 6:30 EST) and getting as much play time in as I can. The Kara raiding has started and I don’t want to fall too far behind.

Other than that there’s been a decent amount of NHL 08 on the 360 and I’ve recently picked up the PSP Atari classics collection and Monster Hunter Freedom 2 at GameStop’s big sale and have dabbled in those a bit.

What’cha’ll Been Playing?