A Gaming Diary
Archive for March, 2007
Sonic and the Secret Rings (Wii)
Mar 3rd
Put another hour or so into this. It’s really quite good. It doesn’t flow as nicely as I’d like it to, but that says as much about my skills as the game itself. I’m at the stage now, though, where I’m not sure when I reach a hard challenge whether I’m being rubbish or whether I need to level up a bit before attempting it.
Crackdown (360)
Mar 3rd
I’m a bit lost now I’ve found all the agility orbs.
There are the hidden orbs, but they’re in such odd places I don’t think I could find them all without some amazing luck or several weeks of daily play. There are car stunts to do, but I find the driving a bit too clumsy when it comes to trying to hit ramps cleanly and such. There are rooftop and road races, but I’m too keen on them, really. I might try out the road races some time, but I’m not sure I want to do rooftop races up The Keep, achievements or not.
Talking of which, I got myself the Master Agent and Global Impact achievements today. I was disappointed there wasn’t any sort of in-game reward for reaching Master Agent status. I’d have enjoyed having immunity from Agency reprisals for killing civilians, or something.
Crackdown (360)
Mar 3rd
500 AGILITY ORBS GET!!!!
I found them all by myself. The final was on top of the big geodesic dome that I’d tried scaling a few times before, but which I thought was impossible to get up. In desperation I tried a final time just before I was going to turn the 360 off and go to bed, caught a beam at the correct angle and – bang! – up I went. Never have five glowing green orbs stacked on top of each other looked so sweet.
Also tonight I found a ton of hidden orbs – I’ve now got 232 of the 300 – and a few car-stunt-based achievements.
Sonic and the Secret Rings (Wii)
Mar 1st
First impressions, then.
Short version: it’s good, really quite good.
Long version: read on.
It takes a while. It jumps into a six-hour (approx. figure) cut scene before letting you play and when you do… oh, it’s not too good. After Excite Truck it feels slow, clunky and just weighted all wrong. Sonic starts off very slowly and only gets up to high speeds after a good long time and only if you don’t hit any obstacles, which you do. There are a lot tutorial levels and, really, I felt like I’d wasted my £27.99 while playing them.
Then the first level proper starts and everything you learned actually becomes useful. You start to level up and get new powers, such as increased acceleration. There are twists on different levels, such as having to avoid breaking jars. (No, really.) There are different collectables and medals to get hold of, giving the promise of replayability. Speed boosts help keep things moving. And it doesn’t hurt that it looks absolutely lovely.
Gradually, like Sonic’s initial acceleration, it grew on me. It hasn’t yet reached the heights of excitement that Excite Truck gives you from the first second. Oddly for a Sonic game it feels slightly more deliberate than that and it relies even more on the memorisation of stages. Sometimes you can get caught up against an obstacle and it grinds to a halt. But that’s your fault and the game is genuinely good fun and addictive – I kept failing a level in Dinosaur Jungle today and never once felt like giving up, I always wanted to beat it.
It’s a genuinely, actually, shockingly good 3D Sonic game.
But, Lord, I miss Chao Garden.
