A Gaming Diary
Archive for August, 2009
The Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition (iPhone)
Aug 7th
It’s a classic.
It’s a classic I’ve only played for five minutes many years ago – I never even left the Scumm Bar.
I loved Sam & Max Hit The Road. I rather like Day of the Tentacle, but I think I got stuck and never finished it. (This was in the days before GameFAQs.)
I played this enough to get out of the Scumm Bar, into town and to get used to the controls. (More or less – how quickly do you have to double tap for it to register? Really?)
It raised smiles. I think it even raised a couple of chuckles. I have no issue with the quality of the game. I can even work with the controls. That’s all fine.
It’s just that I really couldn’t be bothered to wander around talking to people and checking out locations to try and find out what to do next. I know that that’s the whole point of the game. I don’t know if I just can’t be bothered with adventure games any more or, as I think and hope is more likely, I just wasn’t in the mood yesterday. We’ll see.
Blue Skies 3GS (iPhone)
Aug 7th
This is a version of a well-received helicopter shooter that will only run on the 3GS, because it uses pixel shaders, or something.
It’s 59p.
I’ve not played it much, but I like the controls and it seems like it could be fun.
Really, though, you know the iPhone has arrived as a proper gaming platform when you start up a new game and the first thing you think is, “Ooh, the water looks nice.”
I hope to have something more constructive to say later, when I’ve played some levels that don’t just teach me the controls by giving me static targets to take out.
Regent Style vs Trombone (iPhone)
Aug 7th
Right, um, okay.
The trombone wants water. You have to use your hair to stop the trombone from getting the water. A click sends your hair up the screen. When it reaches the top it comes back down. If the trombone hits it, you get points. If you’re timing is off and the trombone gets to the water droplet, you lose.
I have no idea if this is as random as it appears or whether it’s a reference to something I have no knowledge of. (A forum in-joke somewhere? A reference to a popular beat combo I don’t know about?) I’m not sure it matters, frankly.
As a game it’s very simple, but playable – and it’s free. But I’m not sure whether the game’s the point.
Words With Friends (iPhone)
Aug 7th
What can I say that hasn’t been said?
Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose, I always keep playing.
Str8ts (iPhone)
Aug 7th
I love it when a plan comes together.
I’ve played quite a few more levels now with no problem. Mind you, that may be because people hardly ever phone me.
This really is a great puzzle – and it’s been put on the iphone with enough care to become a great puzzle game. Also, the developer has informed me that the puzzle is his own invention, it’s not based on any existing puzzle, Japanese or otherwise.
I don’t know why it’s grabbed me when other grid/number puzzles haven’t, but I’m not complaining.
The Bigs 2 Demo (360)
Aug 6th
Played a proper, real console for the first time in ages and choose The Bigs 2 demo as the game to welcome me home. Arcade baseball, with bizarre little QTEs and what may or may not be mini games scattered around. I didn’t really fully understand it and it took me several innings to even begin to get the timing down, but I started to get into it after a while. As the full game’s a budget title I’m quite interested. Shame I can’t get screen shots off the 360, but at least that means I can post this from my iPhone, even if I’m not actually writing about it for once.
KenKen Lite (iPhone)
Aug 6th
Still in a puzzle mood, worried about the Str8ts bug, I downloaded KenKen Lite. I think it’s the same thing as the Killer Sudoku that’s in The Times every day. I don’t do it myself, but people in the office do.
It’s all right. The interface isn’t as good as the one in Str8ts, but it’s okay. The puzzles themselves are… fine, but that’s about it. I’m probably being a bit harsh on it because it’s £2.99, but it really didn’t grab me. Well, it didn’t feel like it grabbed me, but I did do all the puzzles in the Lite version before I turned it off, so it must have had something going for it.
Str8ts (iPhone)
Aug 6th
So, I was getting addicted to this. It’s a wonderful puzzle. However, I got a phone call while solving a puzzle. When I went back to the game, it crashed when trying to go to my last game. I could play all difficulties except the easiest, which is where I really need to be right now. In the end, I had to reset my data and start over from the beginning. (You can’t choose puzzles to play, you have to do them in order in each difficulty.)
A pretty fatal flaw, really, so before I went to bed I pouted on the Touch Arcade forums and sent an email to the developer. I woke up this morning to find two responses, one private message on the forum and one email, explaining that I’d been sent a private message and going into more detail about the problem, which seems to be very rare – and which only occurs on a few of the early levels, even then. The developers are apparently fixing things and hope to have an update sent off to Apple forthwith. Now that’s service.
Bad bug, yes, but great service, brilliant game. As Meat Loaf said, two out of three ain’t bad. In this case, I’d go further and say that it’s really rather good. I’ll carry on playing, at any rate.
Words With Friends (iPhone)
Aug 6th
Normally, I wouldn’t resign from a game. I like to take them to the bitter end.
However, with those scores the way they were and with the Q stuck in my hand I didn’t see any way out, so that game I gave up on. I wish there was some sort of etiquette for resigning. Looking back, I should have just used the chat screen to explain my decision.
