A Gaming Diary
Archive for April, 2010
Street Fighter IV (iPhone)
Apr 19th
What is there to say? I’m still playing this and still enjoying it immensely.
Yep, still Blanka.
I haven’t switched away from Blanka, but maybe I should. I just enjoying using him an awful lot and I still need to get the hang of charging while doing other things.
Minigore (iPhone)
Apr 19th
Updated 3.7 wiped save data for those unlucky enough to load the game after installing it, but another update came out at the weekend that threw goodies at us as way of compensation.
Argh! Geroff!
Now, then, I’ve got every single character unlocked and huge bank of kills for any new characters that get released. I’d rather have worked to get them on my own, but better that than having to unlock everyone again.
Didn’t actually play the game much after loading it to test the fix, but had a bit of sun with Sensei Evan and his dual grenade launchers.
Just Cause 2 (360)
Apr 16th
In a change from the normal format, I’m going to offer some PRO TIPS for Just Cause 2.
PRO TIP: Trying to escape from an entire army on a moped is not the best idea.
PRO TIP: When jumping from a really, really – no, like, really – high building, remember to open your parachute before you hit the ground.
PRO TIP: If you want to steal an awesome fighter jet from a military base while under heavy fire, don’t leave the truck you rode in on in the middle of the runway.
PRO TIP: Somewhat related, when trying to to follow a helicopter in a passenger jet, don’t just get in the plane and taxi straight into some trees.
PRO TIP: During a high speed speedboat chase, don’t look around to admire the view, hit an island, fly through the air and end up underwater and upside-down while your quarry speeds off unhindered.
PRO TIP: Most importantly, don’t try to get 100% in every settlement you come across or you’ll go insane.
Football Manager Handheld 2010 (iPhone)
Apr 15th
My wife, on Twitter, last night:
*sigh* @thatrevchap has stupid Football Manager on his stupid iPhone. I miss him.
Also:
He seems to take personal offense every time the other team gets a goal.
I only played two matches last night! Two!
The first didn’t go so well. A great start, but then… aaargh!
Noooooooooooooooo!
The second, though, was my first win of the season.
Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!
Hopefully it’s the start of something good. (Though I did get a bit frustrated and applied for a new job in a fit of pique, so maybe I won’t be at Oxford for long.)
Just Cause 2 (360)
Apr 15th
An epic quest to find the gang known as the Roaches. I’d avoided seeing them earlier, instead doing missions for the other two gangs, so last night, after much mayhem, I decided to go and find them.
Couldn’t.
There were no Roaches icons on my map that I could see. I spent minutes zoomed in, sweeping around, looking for a blue icon.
Nothing.
So then I remembered the paper map in the game box. That – hooray! – should be the location of the Roaches HQ. Spent a few minutes flying a helicopter over there. Found a big mansion with people standing around in an empty swimming pool (um…) but no mission.
Harumph.
Resorted to the Internet. Lots of people with the same problem – but then some help. I was told to go a little way down the coast and, indeed, there was a mission icon on my map down there. It’s just I hadn’t seen it, because it’s blue and the icon’s over the sea.
Sigh.
So I went down there and started the mission. Great game, but really. Didn’t anyone notice in testing that it was impossible to see the icon for that mission?
Warpgate (iPhone)
Apr 14th
I’m really, really loving this now. There’s an intriguing universe and a real sense of adventure and exploration. The story missions actually force you to make meaningful choices and I genuinely feel that I’m part of a larger story. It’s fabulous stuff, really.
I got a lovely new ship today. Much more powerful than the one I started with.
My only criticism so far is that there’s not much penalty for dying. When you use a warpgate to travel to a new system – which you do often – that acts a checkpoint for your progress. I’ve never lost more than about two minutes of play through dying and that cuts away the tension that should be a part of exploration and combat. I’m not sure if I’d like a roguelike system of permadeath – though it does appeal to me and could maybe be added as an option, along with high score tables – but maybe some system where you lose half your money, or something like that.
Football Manager Handheld 2010 (iPhone)
Apr 14th
It’s called FM 2010 in the App Store, but the title screen says Football Manager Handheld 2010, so I’m going with that. It’s rather more descriptive, after all.
Well, you know what you’re getting. It’s Football Manager… on the iPhone. Cut down from the PC version, but very familiar to anyone who’s played the PSP version, the only really important thing is the interface. First impressions suggest that it’ll be fine once you get used to it, but it’s unfamiliar and not especially intuitive.
(There’s a separate manual app that you can download for free – I’ve had to refer to it a couple of times.)
Still, I’ve managed to play a few games, change my formation and change around my squad, so it seems to be workable.
I took over Oxford United because there’s no random option that I could see. (Incidentally, there’s also no obvious way to get team info before you select them, which is a shame.) They come with a default 4-3-3 formation, so I left that alone for my first friendly match.
We lost 3-0.
So I decided to go back to the old standby of 4-4-2 for the next friendly.
We lost 3-0.
The score didn't stay 0-0 for long.
Hmm. I stuck with 4-4-2 for the next match, but focused on attacking.
We were down to 3-0 within twenty minutes. Oof.
Hooray for Norville!
Near the end of the game, though, there was a glimmer of hope as Jason Norville scored a late consolation goal. That’s something. I think I need to see how things go at the start of the season and see if I can work out a way to get the best from my squad. I’m a firm believer that midfield is what counts in football so I’m going to concentrate on that. There’s still time to bring people in.
Either that or I’ll look for a new job.
Warpgate (iPhone)
Apr 14th
A top-down space trading/exploring/combat game that reminds me a fair bit of the mighty Space Rangers 2. That should probably be recommendation enough for a lot of people.
You'll want to play it zoomed out, but that doesn't do justice to the excellent ship models.
You fly around a huge galaxy, completing missions, mining asteroids, buying and selling goods and upgrades and generally trying to avoid fights as much as possible in your puny mining ship. Well, that’s what I’m doing so far. I’d like to make my name as a pirate at some point, I think, but I’m a bit worried that I’ll die horribly if I try.
When you enter combat the screen swirls in an RPG-manner and takes you to another view, where your ship flies around automatically and you press buttons to fire your weapons when they’re ready. There’s an update coming to change things a bit, but while it’s not incredibly interactive it’s fine the way it is now. Just don’t expect to be dog fighting, avoiding enemy fire and using flying skills to take down ships better than your own.
Just Cause 2 (360)
Apr 14th
Bah. My pet theory was that the bizarre accents seen in the demo of Just Cause 2 were because the makers of the game didn’t want it to be set anywhere geographically specific, so had used different styles of architecture and weird voices to try and make sure things were set in some fuzzy fantasy dictatorship.
One of the first lines of dialogue in the opening cut scene, though, tells us that the game’s meant to be set in south east Asia. So bang goes that theory and any excuse there may have been for some of those voices.
However, voices aside, there’s really nothing to complain about so far. The demo did an excellent job of introducing things and the full game hasn’t disappointed me at all in the three and half hours I’ve played so far. There’s all the action and unexpected, laugh-out-loud explosive carnage that I could wish for. I’ve done some missions, but I keep getting distracted by the tempting army bases and airports scattered around.
I’m just glad that I’m not someone who feels the need to fully complete games. Getting one hundred percent completion on this would take a long, long time – and the weakest moments in the game are where you’re walking round an area trying to find the last destructible object you need to complete it.
How long it’ll last before it starts to get a bit a stale I don’t know, but I do know that it won’t be soon.
Back Home
Apr 13th
Right, I’m back in the UK, so should start updating this blog again soon. There’s jet lag, unpacking, a mountain of post and everything to contend with, so it may not be tomorrow, but I’ll try to get back to it before long.
If you’ve any interest in seeing what I did on my holiday, my lovely wife has blogged about our trip HERE.
