A Gaming Diary
Archive for August, 2009
Doom Resurrection (iPhone)
Aug 17th
An update to this game came out at the weekend. It added forty challenges – e.g. get a high score on a level, do a level in a certain time, etc. – and a brand new map.
Golly.
I’m not sure why iPhone games get all these bonus updates after release, but I’m not complaining. Anyone who thought that this game was low on content when it was released – a claim I refute – has less cause for complaint now.
It’s also, as I type, still £1.79 instead of the normal price of £5.99. Given that it’s easily worth six quid, if you don’t buy it when it’s on sale… well, you’re being a bit silly.
I finished off the story at the weekend, then tried the extra content. The challenges seem to be aptly named, as I failed the first one, despite only mucking up in one spot. Also, though it’s really nice having these challenges, would it not have been possible to strip the story sequences out of the levels? It’s very odd for a challenge to be interrupted by out-of-context dialogue.
I also tried out the new map.
It’s excellent. Enemies always appear in the same places but, unlike the main game maps, it’s random which enemy types appear in which spots. So on one go you can have imps flinging fireballs at you and on another zombies might be firing assault rifles. It makes a bit difference and it’s pretty great.
It’s also very hard – I’ve hardly managed to get anywhere, even on the easiest difficulty setting.
So, yes, all in all, though the challenges don’t appear to be perfect, one of the best games on the App Store just got better.
Wolfenstein RPG (iPhone)
Aug 17th
This game gets rather difficult after the first level or so.
Survival now seems to depend on scouring the levels for health kits, using syringes and trying not to get cornered by multiple enemies – though that’s much easier said than done.
This is not, I don’t think, a game for hoarders. I think I’m going to have to save often and make good use of my inventory in order to progress.
Where I am now, I’m out of anti-fire syringes, I’m surrounded by a lot of enemies and I’m scared. Very, very scared.
That screenshot above reminds me of happier, simpler times.
Words With Friends (iPhone)
Aug 17th
As usual, I have nothing much to say. I played this a lot over the weekend and I lost some games and won others. I can’t remember any amusing words that were allowed, nor any that were disallowed seemingly at random.
This is the problem with a gaming diary. I have to blog about this game, otherwise it will seem like I have stopped playing and if there’s any point at all to this thing, it’s to show what I play over time – which games get one day of play, then disappear, which games keep on giving over weeks or months – but that doesn’t mean I have anything to say about them.
Str8ts (iPhone)
Aug 17th
Nothing further to report.
This is still an excellent puzzle game and I still seem to be improving.
That’s pretty much all there is to say, I’m afraid.
TowerMadness: 3D Tower Defense (iPhone)
Aug 17th
Yet another game that was free for a while over the weekend.
The title pretty much says it all. It’s a tower defense game in 3D. Which means you can zoom in, so it looks like this.
That, however, isn’t the most useful view, so you’ll no doubt be playing it like this.
I haven’t played this much. I went through the Easy level and didn’t have any problems, then a day or so later tried the Medium level. I placed some towers in the wrong place, which wasn’t too annoying, but I when I sold a powered-up tower by mistake I got angry and quit out. I’m not sure how I manage to sell towers by mistake, but I did it several times.
Also, I can’t find a way to find out about my towers after I’ve placed them. Maybe I’m missing something. I just feel that there’s a bit of a barrier between the game and me – and that it might not be a very interesting game even if I could get past that.
As I said, though, these are very much first impressions based on very limited play. I’ll have to try again, see I can get comfortable enough with it to see inside.
Dropship (iPhone)
Aug 17th
Another game that is/was free for a bit to drum up interest from a community baffled by the huge amount of games available for the iPhone.
This one I very much enjoyed. It’s all 2D, despite what the graphics might suggest, and you have to fly down to green box and then fly back up with it dangling and swinging beneath you. Along the way you have to shoot enemy gun emplacements and rescue little people named after the contacts you have on your phone.
Here’s me rescuing Richard “Too Rude For Live” Gaywood.
That one touch adds a huge amount of life into a simple game. It’s a fun game, which I plan to play again. I’d think that regardless, but being able to rescue friends and family just adds an extra incentive to the game – who will you find next?
Saucelifter (iPhone)
Aug 17th
This is just like that old game, er, you know… ::coughs into sleeve::
Yeah, that one.
Okay, I can’t remember the name. But it’s just like an old game where you were, I think, a helicopter, and had to shoot things and rescue little chaps. This is the same, but you’re a flying saucer.
Normally it costs money, but as part of the App Store implosion event, it was free over the weekend.
I’m not sure how much I like it.
The problem is, it starts off being very easy to survive, but my lack of steering skills means it takes me ages to rescue the little guys, so it’s several minutes before there’s any real danger (i.e. ground-mounted guns) – and then I die almost immediately, as I’m rubbish.
Honestly, I’m not sure the game’s at fault. If I could get better, it would get more interesting more quickly. If I didn’t have five pages of games on my iPhone, I’d be more likely to get the practice I needed, but as it is, I can see this being ignored. Which, I think, is probably a shame, overall.
I really do like the look of it, though, except I’m not quite sure why it keeps going widescreen on me. I think it means there are people to rescue nearby, but I’m not sure.
Also, I really, really, really overuse commas.
Touch Physics Lite (iPhone)
Aug 17th
Strongly reminiscent of (i.e. pretty much identical to) an actual computer game I played, ooooh, ages ago. Is this the iPhone version of said game or a clone? I have no idea, having no idea what the old one was called, or whether it was a Flash-based web game or a download.
Anyway, you draw shapes and they become objects. They then become part of the level and fall down and push things, etc. The goal is to get a ball to a star.
Witness the glory!
That level was very easy. In fact, in the Lite version there’s only one even vaguely tricky level, then the whole thing stops. A few more levels would have been nice, really.
Well, anyway, it seems decent and it’s on the “possibles” list, but with the explosion of games on the App Store right now, the implosion of prices – let’s enjoy it while it lasts, because this can’t be sustainable – and the fact that my credit is running out, I won’t be buying it any time soon.
4×4 Jam (iPhone)
Aug 14th
I just download 4×4 Jam as it’s on sale for £1.19 right now and it’s the closest thing to Fuel on the iPhone.
First impressions: It is impressively bouncy. Also, I think I like it.
There doesn’t seem to be any sort of career mode or progression or unlocking or anything of that sort. You just choose environment, vehicle, game type and difficulty and go play.
There are two environments.
One is green and brown.
One is just brown.
There are at least two vehicles, but I didn’t bother checking for any more. (This is why my blog description specifically mentions that this is not a review site.)
I’ve only tried the Jam mode so far, which places a checkpoint gate somewhere on the map, which you have to drive through before your rivals. As soon as someone goes through a gate it disappears and another one appears. First to get through five gates wins. It’s good fun
Controls work well and the physics and handling are a bit odd, but not unappealing.
Overall, yeah, a nice little game, I think, based on about ten minutes of play.
Civilization Revolution (iPhone)
Aug 14th
Did get to play much last night, because I was off in Chelmsford going to see my brand new, er, second cousin twice removed. Very cute baby; she fell asleep on me. Here’s a picture of her being grumpy with my wife.
Anyway, I did play some Civ Rev at lunchtime yesterday, then in bed last night before falling asleep. I’m the Mongols again. I love that barbarian villages join you as cities. It’s a great power. I never seem to have enough money to build roads until late in the game, but never mind.
The game started with an early war with the Greeks, but they asked for peace when I took their capital, Athens. Now they’re a happy little (single) city state nestled in the folds of my expanding empire. Then the Russians and Spanish both got annoyed with me and I went to war with, well, maybe both of them, though I’ve only fought the Spanish so far. I think I might be at war with Russia, too, but I get Catherine and Isabella mixed up when I click quickly through demands. The fight with Spain, though, has been going on for centuries. I’ve taken a few of their cities, but the Spanish are holding on well in the east. I don’t have money to build roads and my eastern cities aren’t very productive, so sending units to the front lines takes ages.
However, deep in the heart of my empire, scientific research is flourishing, so I may go for the technological victory again.
Also, here’s a tip that some players don’t seem to have worked out. I’m not very good at explaining things, but I’ll give it a go.
To move units a long way, you can click across the map. See the image there? There’s a confirmation asking whether that’s the destination you want to move to. If you want to move somewhere, say, to the south of that point, don’t click the tick or cross, just click on the map to the south. The destination marker will move to that point and the map will scroll so that it’s in the centre of the screen, so you can then click even further south. By “hopping” across the map like this, you can give units orders to move a long way and then leave them to it over multiple turns.
Did that make sense?
