A Gaming Diary
Archive for October, 2009
Car Jack Streets (iPhone)
Oct 12th
Most games are easy enough to write about. A quick description, followed by something that amounts to a “yes/no/maybe” and I’m done. I try not to waffle on too often, partly out of laziness and partly because I think most people reading this prefer quick impressions over longer pieces of writing.
(I’m willing to bet that most of my longer blog entries get skipped over by the majority of people who subscribe to the RSS feed, which seems to be how most people read this site.)
Anyway, I’m a bit stuck when it comes to Car Jack Streets. I tried the Lite version a while back and wasn’t at all impressed, but the full version of the game was free over the weekend, so I decided to give it another chance.
First things first: I’m enjoying the full version a lot more than the Lite. Oddly, though, that’s mainly because I can drive the cars now, when I couldn’t before. The controls haven’t changed, as far as I can tell, I just seem to be fine with them now when I wasn’t last time I tried. Small adjustments and u-turns in tight spaces can still throw me, but general driving around isn’t a problem.
I can also appreciate better the things the game does well.
There are a lot of weapons around the map, meaning you’re never defenseless for long.
You never have to go hunting for missions as you get contacted all the time.
There’s a clever real time thing going on – when the game says you need to earn $50,000 in a week it means a week. There’s no game clock, the day and time are the real day and time.
And it’s got a powerful flamethrower, which is never a bad thing.
All in all it’s a more playable and interesting game than I thought it was.
It’s without annoyances, though. In the heat of the moment I keep getting lost and failing missions because I’m not sure what I’m doing. Now and again I fail a mission without any real feedback as to why, even though I think I know what’s going on. Sometimes missions come through that start in fifteen minutes, which is longer than most of my play sessions. And, most of all, having to go back to a safe house to save is deeply irritating. Fail to save at a safe house and when you next start the game you’ll have lost your car and all your weapons. Nasty.
geoDefense Swarm (iPhone)
Oct 12th
Spent a lot of time over the weekend trying to complete the first level of Medium difficulty.
I failed.
I got up to wave 19 a few times and might have made it if my towers had decided to shoot at the enemies right by the exit, instead of ones only half-way round the maze.
Irritating, but not a fatal flaw. I just have to come up with a better plan.
Minigore (iPhone)
Oct 12th
Now I’ve unlocked Expert mode, this is just brilliant for a quick fix. The controls are spot on, it’s fast, furious and full of personality. I adore this game, it’s just a shame that I had to jump through hopes so I could enjoy it the way I wanted.
After praising the game’s use of OpenFeint in a previous post, though, I’ve discovered a problem. I still don’t have the achievement for unlocking Expert mode, despite getting it days ago. D’oh.
Incidentally, my wife saw me playing and asked if I’d customised the main character to look like me. I had to tell her that, no, it’s just a coincidence that John Gore is large-headed beardy chap. All he needs is long hair and a black cowboy hat.
Sky Burger (iPhone)
Oct 12th
Another free Nimblebit game, takes the basic gameplay of Scoops, but replaces all the foods with burger ingredients. You’re given a recipe – for example, six burgers, three blocks of cheese and twelve tomatoes – and have to grab the foods you need while avoiding the ones you don’t and then finish it off with the top of a bun.
Just a simple twist like that makes all the difference and while Scoops was incredibly dull, I’ve found myself playing this a lot more than I thought I would. It’s not brilliant or anything, but I’m keeping it on my iPhone for now.
Scoops – Ice Cream Fun For Everyone (iPhone)
Oct 12th
Another Nimblebit game.
Tilt left and right to move your teetering stack of ice cream scoops across the screen. Catch scoops, avoid non-ice cream foodstuffs.
While I agree with the game’s message, it’s really not very interesting and I deleted it after my first go.
Textropolis (iPhone)
Oct 12th
In an act of stunning generosity and/or a desperate attempt to seek publicity, Nimblebit made all their iPhone games free over the weekend. This is one of them.
I like the idea of this game. There’s a list of city names and you have to make as many words as possible from the letters in that name. As you make words, you get more people and buildings appearing and definitions of the words you make fly across the screen.
It’s spoiled by a couple of things. Firstly, by allowing plurals, verb forms, etc. it makes many words into chores as you have to keep submitting all the variations. Secondly, it’s a strict American dictionary so a lot of common British words aren’t allowed, which gets surprisingly annoying.
I’ve not deleted it off my iPhone yet, but it might not last much longer.
Words With Friends (iPhone)
Oct 12th
Despite feeling bad about making a nasty little word a couple of weeks ago, just for the points, I made another offensive word this weekend.
Much less offensive than the last one, though, to my mind. I get a bit uncomfortable, but it doesn’t seem to stop me. Especially when I’m way behind, as I was in that game.
Minigore (iPhone)
Oct 9th
Yes, you’re seeing that right – I have unlocked Expert mode! Managed it on my second go this lunchtime.
The game is now brilliant again. It’s funny how things that annoy you become things you love about the game when you start enjoying it.
For example, when trying to reach the 2,000 points I needed to reach Expert mode, I was getting really very irritated with furries appearing from out of the shrubbery and killing me. Since unlocking Expert mode I now love the way that to stay alive you really need to stay in open space so the enemies can’t hide, but that you also need to keep moving. The balance between trying to stay away from cover and keep away from approaching enemies is one of the things that makes the game great.
Oh, and it is great. Now I’ve unlocked it, I can see that Expert mode works better than the original. It doesn’t start off like Normal mode but ramp up faster, oh no. It gives you 2,000 points and starts you off at that level, with enemies coming thick and fast the moment you start playing. It’s great.
Oh, and for the record, it’s so frantic that I don’t even mind having three lives instead of two. I worried that the extra life would extend the game too much, but that hasn’t happened.
Basically, the Minigore I loved is back, but now it’s better. It’s just a shame that it was unlocked at the beginning and that I had to suffer through several fairly dull attempts to get it back.
Unfortunately, now I won’t have time to take screen shots any more.
Mourn its passing, for you shall never see its like again.
Rope’n'Fly 2 Lite (iPhone)
Oct 9th
Liked the original version of this game, so tried the demo of the sequel.
It appears to be the same, except with weather effects, a rubbish 3D look to the buildings and some sound effects.
No compelling reason in this Lite version for me to upgrade and it looks rather like an update, not a sequel, but for 59p games I’m not going to complain too much about that.
