A Gaming Diary
Archive for September, 2009
iDrop Dead (iPhone)
Sep 23rd
I didn’t intend for my lunchtime to be eaten by this game again, but it was.
I finished off all the goals in Normal Mode, now I’m doing the timed goals. They were all very easy – once I’d figured out the right character to use for each one – until I hit one that asks me to get 20,000 points in five seconds on a level and I can’t see how to do it. I’ve tried all the characters and none seem to work. The puny ones don’t give enough points for complete destruction, the ones with high points are too tough. I’ve had best luck with a mid-range character, but that’s only got me 17,000 points at most and I normally get around 10,000.
Words With Friends (iPhone)
Sep 23rd
Still playing this.
And still getting some good words now and again.
Squareball (iPhone)
Sep 23rd
I don’t know why this game is so hard. It shouldn’t be. It’s not unfair or complicated or anything.
The ball bounces up and down in the middle of the screen and you swipe the level to scroll it. You pick up coloured blocks and try to avoid bouncing off the top and bottom of the screen.
It’s very clever idea and it’s implemented very well. I just don’t know why I can’t get off level one. It’s baffling, but I keep trying.
Way of the Samurai 3 (iPhone)
Sep 23rd
This is interesting.
It’s a free promo game for Way of the Samurai 3 on the 360 and PS3. I never played the second game, but very much enjoyed the first one on the PS2, back in the day.
This little app consists of a very basic game – swipe up to block attacks, swipe down to attack – and combines it with videos of the “proper” game.
It’s not really very good, but it’s an interesting promotional device nonetheless.
iTubes (iPhone)
Sep 23rd
I wish I could stop playing this, but it’s just too good.
I noticed last night that it’s done me out of two achievements.
I should the “score over 10,000 in Time Attack” one and, I assume, the one for completing level one – unless that’s only triggered on Normal mode, or something. (I’ve only played Easy and Hard.)
Another little oddity to round things off, though. Look here.
Yep, I’ve apparently played that mode twice, but don’t have a score for one of my goes. Hmm.
iDrop Dead (iPhone)
Sep 23rd
Wow, this is fantastic. I’ve opened all the worlds now, I think, and completed almost every goal of every level in Normal mode. It’s been really good fun, but I guess I’m getting to the end of it now. The remaining goals shouldn’t take so long to polish off.
I’ll have to see if any of the other modes offer as much fun, or whether they’ll just be extras I tire of quickly. Regardless, I don’t think it’s going to be the longest game in the world, but 59p for the amount of fun I’ve had makes it a great buy.
iDrop Dead Lite (iPhone)
Sep 22nd
After ten minutes with iTubes, I spent far too long playing iDrop Dead Lite. It’s based on a Flash game, which you can play HERE. For some reason I never really got on with the mouse controls in that version, but the iPhone version seems to work much better.
Maybe it’s just me.
Anyway the Lite version gives you two levels to play around in. You have a cute little bear chap and you have to cause him as much damage as possible. Each level seems to have four goals. From memory they are:
1) Detach the head.
2) Detach the head and have it fly through a marked zone on the level.
3) Score over a certain number of points.
4) Completely dismember the bear.
Something like that, anyway.
Basically, you throw the poor little guy around.
Heads fly.
Saw blades cut down to the bone, then turn the bone into powder.
All good, dirty fun and getting the goals on each level proved to be very compulsive. Beyond the “cute animals + gore” factor, you’ve actually got an interesting physics-based puzzle game. It’s Rob Zombie to iBlast Moki’s Frank Sinatra, or something.
Anyway, full version is only 59p, so it’s been bought.
iTubes (iPhone)
Sep 22nd
Had a quick go of Time Attack here in the office, where I have a solid GPRS phone signal, but no wifi. No, the score didn’t get recorded, despite OpenFeint running fine.
Anyway, enjoyed the game itself, though I think I got stuck at the end, unable to make any paths. (They have to be over two tiles long.)
My fault for using my power ups too early, perhaps, but it would be nice if the game would allow a way out – or even end your game early – if there’s nothing you can do.
Of course, it’s possible I missed something obvious. You can check the screenshot above and see.
iTubes (iPhone)
Sep 22nd
Right, I’m going to do a lot of complaining in this post, so I’ll get this out the way first – the core game of iTubes is absolutely ace. It’s the only game I played last night and the “rotate blocks to make pathways” mechanic fits me to a tee. I love it, even if I don’t quite understand when bonuses are awarded.
So, what have I got to moan about?
Well, the first thing is that games go on for a minimum of ten minutes and there’s no way to save. You have to play the whole game in one go. For an iPhone, that’s pretty unacceptable. But the developer has said he plans to let you save in a future update, so I can let that go for now.
The second thing is, well, the game uses OpenFeint. You know the problems I have with that. The actual interface to OpenFeint has got a lot better lately, with the new version actually showing your position on the global leaderboards. If it worked, it would be pretty great.
I had some many problems with it last night, though. It was twittering my achievements fine, for the most part. Once it failed, but that seemed to get cached and went through when I next started the game.
My problem is with high scores. I was mainly playing Time Attack last night and made some decent scores, I think. However, none of those scores got recorded.
Some people managed to get scores recorded, but not me.
I didn’t often get error messages, but once I saw this screen.
Anyway, as I test, I tried Classical Hard mode. After playing I went to OpenFeint and saw the screens below.
That said, when I checked this morning, although I still had no Time Attack scores, my Classical Hard mode score was on the global leaderboard. So that was just a delay, then, and not a real problem.
I’m not really sure what the problem is. Are game developers just not checking for errors properly? Does OpenFeint actually have a way to check for errors? Are the scores failing to upload without an error somehow? I don’t know.
The only thing that may possibly be an issue is that in my house my phone signal comes and goes all the time, but my wifi connection is, as far as I’m aware, solid. Does losing the phone connection somehow put OpenFeint in an offline state, even though I still have a wifi connection? I don’t know.
It’s very annoying, though, whatever it is.
Pajatzo (iPhone)
Sep 21st
Apparently this is a very common form of gambling in Finland and the iPhone version is now free.
You shake to fire coins, then tilt to try and make them go through the slots to pay out money. Takes about thirty seconds to figure it out, don’t worry.
If you like that sort of thing, I think you’ll probably like it.
Um, yeah.
