A Gaming Diary
Archive for March, 2007
Worms (360)
Mar 8th
Sigh.
I honestly, honestly want to like it, want to love it, but the more I play the more disappointed I am.
I don’t know if it’s my memory or the game, but the physics don’t feel right. It feels like everything’s too heavy, or that the game’s playing out underwater, or something. It’s just slightly off, but things just don’t seem to behave as they should. The ninja rope doesn’t feel quite right, either. I don’t know if it’s me or the game, but I can’t seem to hook myself over things, it’s like the length changes a little too slowly. Thinking back, though, I don’t think I’ve ever got on with the ninja rope on any console version before.
And the selection of weapons seems ever more stingy and drab.
Why couldn’t this have been the first 150MB Live Arcade game? Packed with all the customisation and weapons we could ever want? Why couldn’t it be Ultimate Worms instead of Worms Lite?
It’s a missed opportunity and it’s a crying shame.
Worms (360)
Mar 7th
Despite the name, it’s not Worms. Not really. It’s some sort of Worms Lite.
The core gameplay is there, unquestionably. The game just works fine and is good old Worms… what there is of it. It’s what there isn’t that’s the problem. There’s just so much missing. The crates don’t explode properly. There’s no petrol bomb, no baseball bat, no drill. Customisation options are sorely lacking. I’ve not yet seen a mine fizzle out, nor seen any weapons apart from the standard ones come out of crates.
And the first time I played I did a load of challenges and while it saved progress in those – I was the 92nd fastest player in the world on Challenge 2, last I checked – it didn’t save my team stats. I thought the delays were to get rid of bugs?
It’s a real shame, because there’s an engine here with so much potential. There are people who can look at this game and be very proud of what they’ve created. But it’s just the skeleton, there’s no meat. I am genuinely missing things. I’ve wanted to use the baseball bat a couple of times. I’ve wanted Worms to dance around on beds of fire. I’ve wanted to drill down on to a Worm positioned directly below me.
It is a very, very good Worms Lite. It’s just not the real thing.
(And can I delete the foreign language Worm voices, please? I really don’t want to hear them when playing.)
Hitman Blood Money (360)
Mar 6th
So, after not wholly-botching the You Better Watch Out… mission, I was off for some Death On The Mississippi. Haven’t cracked it yet, after a few tries. Managed a cleanish kill (by which I mean the target died and so did any civilian witnesses) or two, but there are seven targets on this level and I’ve not seen most of them.
Had quite a disturbing moment when I threw a body into a furnace to dispose of it, only for the “Target Killed” icon to come up aftwerwards. It was then that I remembered I’d only knocked them out when I’d attacked them. Oops.
Hitman Blood Money (360)
Mar 5th
One thing about going through old games and throwing out those you’ll never play again is that you’re reminded of games you never finished and do want to play again. Like, obviously, the excellent Hitman Blood Money.
I did the tutorial again to remind myself how things worked, then started the first Mission on Normal difficulty. It was so hard that I gave up and loaded my old save, which was set on Expert difficulty. There doesn’t seem to much difference, really. When I last played I’d got stuck on the mission “A Murder of Crows”, but after some experimentation and some less-than-clean kills I managed to complete it. I only got a Gangster rating and left four witnesses alive, but I didn’t do badly enough to make me go back and do it again.
Now on to the next mission, where I have to kill a porn baron. I’ve not got very far yet, just a couple of badly-botched and fatal excursions.
Crackdown (360)
Mar 4th
Now my stats can’t go down I decided to kill lots of civilians and cops today. It was fun for a while, but the cops are never any real challenge so it wasn’t as much fun as it is in other sandbox games.
Playstation 3 Plans
Mar 4th
I went into Gamestation today and put down £20 on a Playstation 3. Probably won’t get one on launch day, they don’t reckon, but I’m not overly bothered. The reason I’ve gone there – when Game and many online stores still have preorders for launch day open – is that I want to trade in games against the cost of the console, given that it costs an obscene amount of money in this country, and Gamestation give the best prices in town.
To that end I went through all my PS2, Xbox, 360 and Gamecube games and asked a series of questions.
1) Is it a UK game? If no, leave on shelf, if yes, proceed to next question.
2) Will I, thinking realistically, ever play it again in my life? If yes, leave on shelf, if no, proceed to next question.
3) Is it something that, even if it won’t get played, will still be loved? If yes, leave on shelf, if no, put in “to be traded” pile.
I’ve ended with about two hundred games to trade in and the vast majority of the games that I’m keeping are only staying because they’re foreign. They’re mostly very old PS and Xbox games that I picked up very cheaply several years ago, so I doubt I’d get more than a quid or two each. And I’m guessing the likes of Pro Evolution Soccer 2 and Dave Mirra BMX 2 won’t even be taken. Even the most recent stuff I’m getting rid of – 360 launch titles – won’t be worth anything much by now. I’m not going to take everything in at once, but some time in the next couple of weeks I’ll be taking the first hundred or so up to Gamestation. I’ll see what happens.
The person behind the counter is going to hate me, I’m sure.
(Actually, I’m pretty sure my Dave Mirra 2 is a US copy, so I shouldn’t have put it in the bag. I’ll find out in Gamestation, I guess. And I’m already regretting not keeping Mario Golf on the Gamecube, so I think I’ll take that back, too.)
Kororinpa (Wii)
Mar 4th
Well, that’s the forty-five main levels done.
Got some secret levels to do and, I assume, more to unlock. Then there’s Mirror Mode and trying to improve completion times. (This is where the Wii really needs Friends Lists and Leaderboards.)
Super Mario World (Wii)
Mar 4th
Ack!
I forgot you couldn’t save after every level in this version. I’m never going to be able to finish this. I’ve done the easy stuff and now I’m into the sections where every level is a killer.
Kororinpa (Wii)
Mar 4th
This is good fun, but I’m in the mid-twenties now and the levels have become really quite tricky. Also, after a session I find my forearm really aches, which I’ve never heard anyone else mention. Maybe I’m doing it wrong.
Super Mario World (Wii)
Mar 3rd
Yeah, I spent some more points. At least it was on a good game this time. A classic game, in fact.
Despite playing it a million times before, though, I managed to get completely stuck in first Ghost House for ages and ages. Gah.
