A Gaming Diary
Archive for June, 2010
Civilization Revolution (iPhone)
Jun 9th
Finished my game as the Chinese at lunchtime.
I’d been a Democracy for millennia by the end of the game, but the final capital city was so close and so tempting that I changed to Fundamentalism just so I could storm in with my Ninja Tank Army (who’d roamed around the world and conquered it all single-handed, pretty much) and finish things off.
At the end of the game my starting island and the two next to it were lovely, peaceful idylls full of scientists and artists and happy, wealthy citizens. The main continent was full of downtrodden peasants, cowering under the shadows of the tanks I was building in every city. Sure, I built a temple here and a courthouse there, but I was mainly just building those tanks.
In time I’d have stopped the military build-up (turned out I didn’t need them – the Greeks tried to fight off my invasion with spears and ancient rifles) and tried to make everything lovely, but the conquest phase of the game was a few brief years in which everyone (except the Greeks) declared war on me at once and invited my tanks in to play. Those cities I didn’t drive into decided to join me through choice, impressed by my culture, but I still used them as military bases.
At the end of the game all the other civilizations had disappeared entirely, except for a couple of remaining Greek cities on some islands I’d ignored.
I really do need to try a higher difficulty setting soon – but then I might have to actually think and plan, instead of winging it.
Red Dead Redemption (360)
Jun 9th
So, last night I saw the credits roll on what has to be one of the greatest games I’ve ever played. I got to the end without spoilers and I urge you to do the same. Knowing what’s coming would be absolutely ruinous.
With that in mind, if you’ve not finished the story and seen the credits then do not read any further. Please. Don’t do it to yourself.
HERE BE SPOILERS. TURN BACK. NOW.
No, really, go away.
ONCE MORE. HERE BE SPOILERS. TURN BACK. NOW.
So, you watch Dutch fall to his death and it’s time to go home. And it’s idyllic. You can see why John fell in love with Abigail and your son Jack is as whiny and full of himself as a teenage boy should be, but you sense that he’s got real potential. You herd cattle, tame horses and take your boy out shooting. And, of course, you know it can’t last.
But what’s going to happen? The ranch is set up so that at some point it might have activities. Maybe it’ll have infinite taming and herding missions. Is someone going to set themselves up by the horseshoes so you can play? Maybe this will become a happy, working ranch, a home to come back to after going off to hunt cougar or pick flowers.
Maybe. But it even if it does, there’s going to be blood spilled on the grass before you get there. You know it can’t last. And, if you’re like me, you’re dreading a mission where John goes out on his own, because of what he might find on his return.
None of that happens, though. They come to you. Dozens of men in army uniform. Are your wife and son going to survive? Even as it started, I didn’t expect what was coming. I mean, it’s an open-world game. Threads are left dangling – strangers, ambient challenges, all the extras of the game world.
And then John’s in the barn with a firing squad of sorts lined up outside. And then you realise. There’s no way you can take them all. You try – I think I dropped four of them before they got me – and you fail and John slumps to the ground. And suddenly you’re Jack, on a horse, riding back to your father. There he is, on the ground, looking as dead as it gets.
Still, though, you expect him to cough up some blood and wake up in his bed. But no. This game has had the audacity to kill John Marston – to kill you. That doesn’t happen. It just doesn’t happen.
But it did. And now it’s three years later and you’re Jack. You’re alone. The ranch isn’t populated by farmhands and cowboys. It’s just you, still sleeping in your childhood bed, though you’re no longer a child. What are you to do?
You’ve got revenge on your mind, but there’s no mission marker. It’s just you and the world.
I went to the graveyard near Blackwater to finish of a stranger storyline. Three years later and a widow is still by her husband’s grave, still mourning, still bitter. Nearby, I see a new stranger marker. A government man; I ask him about Edgar Ross. I have a lead.
And I ride.
I ride west. Which seems appropriate.
I find his wife. She sends me on my way. I let her live.
I find his brother. He sends me on my way. I let him live, too.
These are the sins of Edgar Ross, not the sins of his wife, not the sins of his brother.
And there he is, hunting duck by the river. Four bullers in his arm – and I hope he feels them before the final two bullets hit him in the head. He slips into the river, quite dead.
There I am, wearing my father’s old hat and duster coat, standing by a river in Mexico as the man who, more than anyone, is to blame for my father’s death lies there turning the water red.
Do I feel empty? Hell no. This revenge feels very, very good. And then the screen goes red and white, the words RED DEAD REDEMPTION are stamped on it and the credits roll. Immense satisfaction, but also a great sense of loss. Not only for John Marston, who I spent fifty hours with, but for the game. It’s the same feeling as you get when you finish a great book. You don’t want it to go on any longer, because it’s complete and it works and that’s the fucking story, but now it’s gone.
And doing it over again is possible, but wouldn’t be the same.
So, really though, what now? There’s a whole world out there. I’ve got challenges to complete and outfits to find and achievements to get there’s a number in the eighties that I have a real shot of getting up to one hundred.
But, no, more than that – who is Jack Marston? That’s what I get to decide. Is he ruined beyond redemption? Am I the man my father wanted to be or the man my experiences made? Outlaw or hero? Murderer or killer? (As John says shortly before he dies, there’s a difference. At least in intention.)
Now I get to choose. Online, I’ve seen a lot of people who played a “good” John Marston are playing an “evil” Jack. And I see the attraction. Free of cutscenes telling me who I am and pushing me in one direction, I now get to do whatever the hell I want. The world’s a playground and maybe I just want to shoot everyone.
I think that would be fun, to be the black hat. To put on my bandana and kill and kill and kill again with no remorse and a stack of pardon letters in my pocket.
Here’s where things get strange. It’s a game. Just a simple old game world with clear rules and boundaries and consequences. None of it matters. The story’s over and it’s a playground.
But I don’t think I can do it. I don’t think I can turn cold-blooded killer of the innocent. Not because of who I am, the big beardy fellow with an Xbox controller, but because I know what John wanted. He wanted his son to be better than him. And if I turn Jack into the scourge of the west, am I not betraying his memory? I feel like I have a responsibility to John Marston. We went through a lot together to save his son and, well, I guess I need to see him saved.
Let’s see what happens, though. I’m still in the shock of the endgame. In a few days maybe the feelings will fade and the bullets will fly into the heads of shopkeepers and farmers. We’ll just have to see.
SPOILERS ABOVE. IF FOR SOME BIZARRE REASON YOU’RE SCROLLING UPWARDS DO NOT READ THIS POST UNTIL YOU’VE SEEN THE CREDITS ROLL AT THE END OF RED DEAD REDEMPTION.
Civilization Revolution (iPhone)
Jun 9th
So, I finished up the game I was talking about yesterday with a cultural victory, as I wanted. Then there may have been another game, I don’t remember. Right now, though, I’m playing as the Chinese.
I got my least favourite starting position – a fairly small island. That means that to expand, I need to ferry units over the water in boats. Obvious enough, maybe, but it’s a pain. On the plus side, it means it’s easier to defend the core of my empire. On the minus side, getting units to reinforce my overseas holdings takes ages. I’ve got to what seems to be a big continent now and Shanghai is right between two saber-rattling civs who hate me. I’m trying to build up my forces to keep Shanghai safe, but I’m wondering if it wouldn’t be best just to give up and try to turn my starting island into a scientific research centre. Tricky decisions ahead. (Though as I’m only playing on Warlord difficulty – the second difficulty level – it’s going to be easier than it otherwise would be. I should probably step up another level soon, as I never actually lose a game right now.)
Carcassonne (iPhone)
Jun 9th
Still no idea what’s going on with Internet matches – in one current one with multiple players some people have moved, but some players don’t see those moves, but others do – but it’s fun when I actually do get to play.
Ten iPhone Games To Play In June 2010
Jun 8th
Here’s a list of ten games to play during this month. They won’t be the ten best iPhone games – any list without Angry Birds, Doom and Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is not a list of the greatest iPhone games – but they’ll be selected based on a mix of quality, novelty and relevance to the month’s events.
Carcassonne
Mostly excellent conversion of the classic board game. The interface is lovely, playing against the AI is fun and it’s a wonderful conversion. It’s let down a bit by what appears to be a completely broken online implementation – many games I’ve tried to play have been full of baffled chat messages and no actual game – but when it works it’s excellent. Easy to pick up, but brain-twisting in the best possible way as you try to make long-term plans based on hopes and educated guesses. Buy it as a single-player or local-multiplayer game with a possibility of bonus online multiplayer against friends and you won’t be disappointed.
Civilization Revolution
The App Store is built on novelty. Games appear for pennies, are the best thing ever for ten minutes, then disappear. Civilization Revolution is different. It eats both hours and battery life with equal abandon and is almost impossible to put down once you’ve started a game. You start with a small, wandering prehistoric tribe capable only of building a small settlement. You end up with tanks and fighter plans and nuclear weapons as you struggle to dominate the world through your military, cultural, economic or scientific might. It’s all incredibly absorbing and doesn’t deserve to be left to rot as you devour the latest, greatest arcade novelty.
Cubed Rally Racer
Of course, there’s a lot to be said for arcade thrills and Cubed Rally Racer is one of the best of the newer games on the App Store. Essentially it’s an isometric driving game, where the aim is simply to make it to the end of the randomly generated course with as many points as possible. You simply choose how long you want the course to be – ten sections for a commercial break, twenty-five sections for a serious challenge – and then try to get to the finish line without crashing. Hard to put down, seemingly infinitely replayable, this is a serious bargain.
Dungeon Solitaire
Fed up of traditional Solitaire? Has even Spider Solitaire got tiresome? Try this. It’s very much a Solitaire game – it’s all based on a deck of cards and the shuffle is as important as the strategy – but you’ll also have to engage your brain. It’s a great game with the default deck, but there are numerous expansions that add new cards, often with new rules. It’s nothing like Magic The Gathering, despite the screenshot suggesting otherwise, but it is the best Solitaire game I’ve ever played.
FIFA World Cup
This would not feature in a list of the ten best iPhone games, but you can’t really get more topical. And if you do get swept up in World Cup fever and want to play with real players on your iPhone, then EA have had the decency to put a decent game in this bit of merchandise. Nice features like arrows showing where your passes will go and excellent replays mean that this is a very solid game. Will you be playing long after the World Cup is over? I doubt it, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a good game to have right now.
iNetHack
It’s always good to get free games. It’s especially good to get free games when they’re absolute classics. Initially baffling, if you can work your way inside NetHack, you’ll be rewarded with a deep, endlessly-replayable roguelike. You move through the dungeon, killing monsters, trying strange potions, attacking shopkeepers by mistake and, inevitably, dying. Just don’t get too attached to your pets.
Orbital
An absolute, stone cold classic. This should be preinstalled on every iPhone. Today, for example, the queue in Spar was huge, so what did I do while I waited to buy my Mini Cheddars? Yes, I played Orbital. Three game modes, all worth playing, all sorts of high scores and a cold, yet beautiful, aesthetic. Absolutely essential.
Robot Unicorn Attack
This is one of those arcade novelties. Maybe you won’t play it forever. Maybe it’s not as good as the free Flash version. Maybe it’s overpriced at £1.79. Whatever. Right now, today, this is great fun. And it makes a change from Canabalt.
Slay
If Civilization Revolution seems a bit too much, play Slay instead. Games are quicker, military conquest is the only option and, well, it’s not even remotely the same, apart from being turn-based and based on conquering territory on a map. It’s been around for many years, but the fact that it’s the same as the ancient PC game shows how well the mechanics have stood the test of time. Easy to overlook if you’ve not played it, this really deserves your attention.
Trucker’s Delight: Episode One
And let’s finish off with another novelty. Beautiful graphics, simple yet addictive gameplay and a fairly worrying backstory based on a music video. I played it solidly for two days and haven’t been back since. I keep meaning to, but somehow things get in the way.
Red Dead Redemption (360)
Jun 8th
I love this game so much. It even looks beautiful in blurry shots taken with my iPhone off the telly screen.
I thought I’d finish the game last night, but there’s a lot more to it than I thought. I won’t say anything else right now, because I don’t want to prejudice your experience – or to encourage comments that may spoil things for me.
Expect a huge, emotional, spoiler-heavy post when I do get to the end of the story, though.
Civilization Revolution (iPhone)
Jun 8th
Last time I posted I was trying to press home my technological advantage over the other civilizations by shooting them dead with lead while they came at me with swords and arrows. Well, it worked and I won a domination victory with ease.
Next up, I started as the Mongols and got into a very costly early war with the English. I ended up with the advantage, but the struggle over one of my border cities went on for so long – millennia, possibly – that I was left a fairly distant second to the Greeks in terms of technology. (Also possibly territory at that point – I kept away from them and gave in to all their demands, so never saw the extent of their empire. While I was fighting the English, German and Indians the Greeks kept to themselves and even managed to launch part of a space ship from Sparta. So, with a few turns left, I nuked Sparta – it didn’t make any difference, but felt good – and then sat back and waited for the game to time out. Turns out that all my fighting had given me huge amounts of points – I’d conquered all of England, most of India and about half of the German empire – and I won a handsome points victory. Never satisfying to win that way, though.
Right now I’m playing as the Aztecs, simply because I wanted to start with some money. (Building roads in the early game can make a huge difference, but they’re expensive.)
Where I go from here I don’t know, but I’d like to try for a cultural victory. It’s just so difficult to stay at peace in this game. Other civilizations often declare war on me and if they do, I’m going to fight them. (And not just because I can’t work out a way to offer peace. The diplomacy screen lets me see details on other civilizations, but I can’t work out how to actually, you know, talk to them.)
Carcassonne (iPhone)
Jun 7th
Still no idea how you pronounce it, even after all these years.
One of my favourite XBLA games was the conversion of board game Carcassonne. (I’m using the past tense, as I don’t seem to have played it in about two years.) I even got all the single player achievements, which is very unusual.
Anyway, the iPhone version’s here now and it’s fantastic. The menus are a bit strange at times and Internet games seem to start randomly – I had a horrible time trying to start a game with a friend, but we got there in the end, though we’re not sure how – but the actual game interface is wonderful.
It’s a decent single player game, too. (I have trouble beating the “Easy” opponent, embarrassingly.) And there’s a “Solitaire” mode I’ve not yet investigated.
If you like Carcassonne, this is an excellent version. If you’ve never played it, there’s a tutorial here and it’s one of those “easy to learn, hard to master” kind of games. Highly recommended – I’ll let you know if I ever figure out what the problem with starting Internet games is/was.
Robot Unicorn Attack (iPhone)
Jun 4th
The iPhone version of the popular Flash game. Graphics are blurry and reduced view makes it a bit more difficult for decent players (I’m just as rubbish at this version as the web version), but still very playable. I’m enjoying it, anyway, even though it could be improved.
(If you’re wondering why the posts are so short today, it’s because the new iPhone version of Carcassonne is causing me great rage and confusion. Except a blog post on Monday when I might have calmed down.)
Red Dead Redemption (360)
Jun 4th
Hunting last night. Lots and lots of hunting. I needed beaver and boar and I eventually got everything I needed. Then I shot some birds and collected some Red Sage and made my way back to Mexico to give them all to chap who’s probably going to kill himself with them.
A pretty quiet night, really, but throughly absorbing.