A Gaming Diary
Archive for November, 2008
Fallout 3 (360)
Nov 11th
Got myself a canine companion last night. It’s the only part of the game I’ve gone looking for spoilers about, after finding out about the dog from an unspoilered comment in a forum thread. (Mind you, it seems that the dog was a big part of the prerelease information the developers released, so I can see why its mention wasn’t deemed spoiler-worthy. Where do you draw the line?)
After getting the dog I headed back to DC to find the sewers I needed to go down to test out my stick of mole rat repellent. I got enough for the main objectives easily enough, but haven’t found enough to get the optional bonus. Annoyingly, I’ve found several mole rat corpses lying around in the sewers. I seem to have exited the sewers now and am in the subway system, which is populated by raiders. I hope there’s a place with more mole rats in down there, otherwise I’m going to have to return to the surface and wander the wastes around Megaton hoping that some will come and find me.
As for the dog, I’m not sure how useful he is. He won’t jump up or down, so some routes I could otherwise take through the city are blocked off to me. He’s good at showing me where bad guys are and does some damage to them, but I’m not sure whether or not he’s hindering my sneaking.
Peggle (iPod)
Nov 10th
Just one quick level after playing Song Summoner. I’m very good.
Produced some great shots near the end of the level to win. Skill-based great shots, at that. It’s not all about luck, you know.
Song Summoner (iPod)
Nov 10th
It’s a Final Fantasy Tactics game. On an iPod. Where you use songs to create new units.
Amy Winehouse’s Back in Black produces a rubbish archer, Half Man Half Biscuit’s Tending the Wrong Grave for 23 Years produces a decent mage. Etc.
Not done much, yet. Initial cut scene and tutorial, the creation of sixteen troopers and the first battle proper. It’s a bit fiddly to control, simpler than the DS FFT game and has some annoying load times, but it’s on an iPod.
Far Cry 2 (360)
Nov 10th
There are games that have got better reviews while I was away on holiday, but none of them seemed like they’d fit me so well. Satisfying gunplay in an open world? Sounds very much like my kind of thing. And, luckily, I was right. Every gun fight is fun and the world is lovely. I’ve only done one story mission since the tutorial ended – everything else has been exploration, opening safe houses and doing a couple of missions for the gun seller.
The only really annoyance is that sometimes the game doesn’t seem to spawn the correct number of enemies by safe houses, meaning you can get to them, kill everyone, but still not unlock them.
And the lack of saving opportunities means that you can’t just have a quick blast – and sometimes dying means losing a lot of progress.
But, you know, it’s nice to have a game where dying has real consequences for once. Also, very little of the repetition you may have to do is annoying. The fights are always different and it’s only really redoing the danger-free diamond pickups that grates. An option to save after each of those would have been very welcome indeed.
Fallout 3 (360)
Nov 10th
You know, I don’t think this game has a stupid subtitle? A sequel without a colon? What’s going on with the world, eh?
Anyway, I didn’t get on with the original two Fallout games, but I loved Oblivion. This game is an effective synthesis of the two. It feels exactly like a post-apocalyptic Oblivion, but the levelling and skills systems seem (from what I can remember) to have been taken wholesale from the Fallout games.
I did a lot of stuff and enjoyed myself thoroughly, but got a bit fed up with some fire ants that kept killing me. That quest was an effort – I probably should have left it for a few levels. Maybe level four isn’t the right time to be tackling it. My only decent weapons skill is Small Guns and my trusty pistol did very little damage to the ants, so I had to improvise with scavenged ammo and new guns. And mines. The main problem, though, was a lack of healing items. I got 500 bottle caps (the game’s currency) for being very naughty indeed, though, so maybe I should find someone selling medical supplies and stock up.
Peggle (iPod)
Nov 7th
It’s Peggle.
In my pocket.
It’s a good thing it eats up the Nano’s battery or my life would be over.
Tomb Raider Underworld Demo (360)
Nov 7th
Exactly what a Tomb Raider game should be.
I even got stuck and turned it off in annoyance.
Perfect.
Mirror’s Edge Demo (360)
Nov 7th
After a few weeks completely devoid of gaming while on holiday, I came back and downloaded some demos that I missed.
And this one is really good fun. When it all flows it’s just about the best thing ever, when you stumble it’s annoying, overall it’s probably a winner.
