A Gaming Diary
Archive for October, 2006
Naked War (PC)
Oct 6th
Multiplayer turn-based strategy played over email.
Only done a few turns so far, but the interface is nice, it runs on rubbish PCs and it’s got a nice style to it.
Stay tuned for future updates, but first impressions are that it’s well worth a look. Could be an indie sleeper smash. Or something.
Sonic The Hedgehog Demo (360)
Oct 5th
I tried this again to see if I was being too hard on it before.
I wasn’t.
Need For Speed: Carbon Demo (360)
Oct 5th
Bloody awful.
I played it yesterday when I was off work sick and could only stand it for about a minute before the horrible framerate made my head feel like it had split in two. (Before playing it merely felt like my head was in danger of splitting in two.)
You can play around and customise bits of your car before racing, but beyond the spoiler I doubt anybody would notice any difference during the racings. (Especially in the in-car view, obviously.)
Anyway, the framerate is no better than Most Wanted last year and the racing seems significantly more annoying and handling much more sludge-like.
I am not impressed.
Sonic The Hedgehog Demo (360)
Oct 3rd
No, I’ve not played it again, but I’ve written something I think begins to sum up how bad it is -
Imagine you get into work to find your boss at the door with a cardboard box of your belongings telling you to go home. Forever. So you walk home in the rain, stepping on dogshit twice on the way. On your doormat is a letter from the bank saying they’ve discovered errors in your account dating back twelve years and you owe them $57,583.10, payable immediately. Annoyed, you kick the cat, which lands at an awkward ankle and breaks its neck. It’s yelping in pain and confusion, trying the drag itself across the floor by its chin, so you put it out of its misery with a heavy book. Just then the doorbell rings and it’s your wife’s parents come to collect the book they lent you. Which you’re holding in your hands. Covered in cat brains. And an eyeball. With a dead cat lying on the hallway carpet behind you. They turn in disgust and leave, their Volvo running over your prize-winning flowers in their haste to exit your driveway. Then you go upstairs to find your wife to tell her about your day and find she’s been brutally murdered. Her brains – looking not unlike the cat’s – are spread all over your bed. You call the police and they arrest you and beat you in the cells and feed you food they’ve all pissed in, but by mid-evening come to the conclusion that you’re not a murderer and it was all the work of a gang of seventeen men she had been sleeping with every day for several months while you were at work. The police therefore simply charge you with animal cruelty and release you on bail. You get home to find you’ve been burgled because the police investigators left your front door open. All that’s left is your TV and Xbox 360. And a tightly coiled turd in the middle of your living room floor. So you sit down on the floor, away from the turd, download the Sonic demo and play it and it’s the worst thing that’s happened to you all day. That’s how bad it is.
42 All-Time Classics (DS)
Oct 1st
Thank fuck for that.
I’ve finished the incredibly painful Stamp mode, which means I’ve got all the games unlocked.
Really, it was horrible, horrible, horrible. Some of the games just made no sense whatsoever to my poor brain.
Awful.
Dark Messiah of Might & Magic Demo (PC)
Oct 1st
Oooh pretty.
Freezes for half a second whenever it fancies – maybe when it loads a new sound effect? – which shouldn’t be a big deal, but as it tends to happen during combat and set pieces kind of ruins the game.
Same problem as in Half-Life 2, as it happens, but it happens to a much greater extent here.
Half-Life 2: Episode One (PC)
Oct 1st
COMPLETED!
Very good game when it wasn’t crashing all over the place. I’m thinking about playing Half-Life 2 through again now, but I might wait for the 360 version and play it there instead.
Company Of Heroes (PC)
Oct 1st
Just had to defend a French town from a German invasion.
Awesome.
I failed the first time, but was far better prepared the second time and withstood the onslaught with the use of barbed wire, mines, anti-tank guns, sandbags, machine guns and, eventually, tanks.
And a sniper.
Very, very intense.
