A Gaming Diary
Archive for June, 2010
Red Dead Redemption (360)
Jun 14th
I found Merle wandering round Mexico, so I caught and tamed him again. I then traded him to a horrible man in exchange for someone’s freedom, then stole him back… and then watched him crumple to the ground when attacked by a cougar. Argh!
On the plus side, I’ve now completed the “kill two cougars with a knife” challenge.
Doodle Jump (iPhone)
Jun 14th
I still feel cheated by the way the Israel footie team knocked me out of the World Cup in FIFA on the PSP.
Lovely new World Cup skin, which has you jumping up a football pitch, avoiding enemy “players” and jumping through the goal to move on to the next opponent. Very clever rejigging of the core game. It’s therefore a crying shame that it doesn’t have its own leaderboard or high scores, given that it’s harder than the standard skin.
Carcassonne (iPhone)
Jun 14th
Nooooooooooooo!
Sometimes, just sometimes, I hate this game. (And not only when the online mode refuses to work properly.)
Lightbikes 2 (iPhone)
Jun 14th
Tron.
With a jump button.
You know what you’re getting.
I died as soon as I took the screenshot.
Sometimes annoying – every now and again lines can seem to disappear resulting in an unexpected crash and my stupid left thumb keeps straying on to the boost button by mistake – but capable of some absolutely glorious moments as you edge past a rival and make them crash, or jump at just the right time to avoid certain death.
Shame I haven’t been able to join any online games, even when trying on my work’s solid connection.
Also a shame that the single-player mode seems to jump from “impossible” to “impossibly easy” after you learn the ropes.
Still, it’s free and sometimes tremendously exciting, so therefore well worth downloading.
Pac-Match Party (Web/iPhone)
Jun 11th
Pac-Match Party is an excellent free web game. You can play it HERE.
The web version.
It’s another match-three game, but adds lots of nice twists, such as matching presents to get power-ups, making lines of ghosts next to Pac-Man so he can eat them for bonus points, having to make matches on coloured tiles to complete levels and having parts of the level inaccessible.
It’s too easy, but apart from that, it’s probably the best evolution of the match-three concept that I’ve played in ages.
So when the iPhone version was released I plunked my £1.19 down without a second thought. Which may have been a mistake, as the iPhone version loses a lot of what made the web version special.
The iPhone version.
There’s a much smaller playing area, no Pac-Mans (Pac-Men?) on the field, no parts cordoned off and different power-ups, to name the changes that spring immediately to mind. Much of this will be a result of the platform, of course. In fact, there’s a good chance that all the changes are a consequence of having a smaller playing field. It’s hard to block sections off when there’s not much there to begin with, after all.
Initially, it was a huge, almost crushing disappointment. It’s not the same game at all. As I’ve played it more, however, I’ve started to like it, at least a little. There’s bonus point-scoring items to tap, which you don’t see in the web version, and the new Pac-Man power-up seems to have great scoring potential. There are also achievements to gain, though there’s only a local leaderboard. Which is a bad thing.
Talking of bad things, you can’t move tiles (or even tap bonus items) until everything’s settled down, unlike the web version. Oh, and the short between-level cutscenes are in landscape mode even though the game’s in portrait mode, which is just bizarre. It’s also just as easy as the web version – I’m on level fifteen now and haven’t broken a sweat.
It’s confusing, really. If the web version didn’t exist I’d probably like the iPhone version more. (Except, of course, that I’d probably have ignored it.) It’s not a bad game, it’s merely a decent example of a crowded genre, when the web version promises much more.
Civilization Revolution (iPhone)
Jun 11th
I did it! I won a game on King difficulty! Look!
USA! USA!
I actually only came third in terms of points, but I got to Alpha Centauri, so I won. I was the Americans and lucked out, having a reasonably large area to expand into at the start. My only land border was with the French. We scrapped a few times, but I kept giving them money and technology to keep them sweet. That meant that the civilizations who hated me – the English and Japanese – couldn’t wage any effective wars against me and I was able to actually improve my cities, rather than put everything I had into military units. Good stuff.
Carcassonne (iPhone)
Jun 11th
Solitaire mode. The tutorial was a bit rubbish - or I skipped some of it without realising - but it eventually makes sense.
Tried the Solitaire mode of Carcassonne last night. Basically, you need to create cities and roads that increase in size. First up, you need to create roads and cities that cover two squares, then three and so on. Laying tiles loses you points – and the points you lose increase as the size of the map increases. So you’ve basically got to complete cities and roads while trying to keep the map as small as possible.
It’s hard work, but in a good way, I think. I need more time with it to be sure.
Civilization Revolution (iPhone)
Jun 10th
So, I’ve tried three games on King difficulty, one level up from the difficulty I was playing on before.
The first game I survived to the end with a tiny wee empire of three cities, but came last.
The second game, I started a very early war with the Egyptians, which turned out to be a mistake, as they took my only city and wiped me out before I’d discovered, well, anything. (I declared war in a fit of pique when they came along and stole a barbarian village I’d been working on. Oops.)
The third game was better. I was the Mongols and basically spent the entire game at war with the Zulu and the Americans. I made a few gains from the Americans, but that was countered by my losses to the Zulu. At no point could I really do anything to improve my civilization, as everything I had was going into military units and trying desperately to research new technologies to try and get ahead in the arms race. It didn’t help that a couple of my tank armies lost battles they should have easily won and were wiped out.
I was the Mongols in that game.
Still, third place isn’t so bad. I just wish I could work out how to improve my game. Trying to keep a small empire means you don’t really have the resources to compete, but expansion just makes you a target for the other civilizations. It’s tough.
Red Dead Redemption (360)
Jun 10th
Yes, I’ve finished the story, but I’m still playing.
Last night was pretty wonderful for the three hours or so I played. I collected some plants, saved some helpless people, played horseshoes and took part in some epic shootouts. A couple more achievements – for getting lots of money and doing some hideouts.
I’m already starting to be a bit of a naughty boy, though. I started a couple of bar fights (and ended one of them by pulling out my rifle and splattering brains across the ceiling of the Armadillo saloon). I shot a dog and a pig, just to work towards the “kill one of every animal” achievement. Worst of all, I shot a train driver and then heard screams as people left the train to see what was going on and got attacked by wolves.
It doesn’t matter, though. I’ve got my bandana on, so I’m not losing any honour. That makes everything okay, right? Right?
:Shift: (iPhone)
Jun 10th
Ooh, stylish.
Stupid punctuation in the name aside, :Shift: is a very well-designed game. It looks nice, the control scheme works very well and it’s full of mind-bending puzzle action. Unfortunately, it’s the kind of puzzling that makes me very frustrated and cross. My fault entirely, there’s nothing wrong with the game itself, but I’m not sure if I should play much more of it. Still, it was free, so I can’t really complain.
