A Gaming Diary
Archive for July, 2010
King of Tennis (iPhone)
Jul 5th
Rattling through these posts, pausing briefly to mention this funny little freebie. It’s not a tennis game, but a tennis watching game. As the ball goes from left to right you press the screen to follow it. If you look the wrong way, then it’s game over.
I am the king. Of tennis.
It should be easy, but when the ball hits the net it’s incredibly difficult to stop yourself from looking in the direction it would have gone. It really feels like a psychological experiment as much as it does a game. Why do I keep pressing the screen when I shouldn’t? Why? Who’s in control of my thumb?
The only real blemish is that the game seems to play sound effects even if you’ve got the volume down. Naughty, naughty.
World Soccer Champs 2010 (iPhone)
Jul 5th
So, yeah, I got into the second round of the World Cup at the weekend. A feat I’ve not managed before or since. Okay, so I then got knocked out by Australia, of all people, but I was still proud of my performance.
It may not look like much in that screen shot, but it's a fantastically rewarding footie game.
It’s a tough game – though I seem to find it tougher than a lot of other people – but it’s very satisfyng. It always feels like the game rewards understanding and skillful play. It’s not an instant smash hit, but it’s definitely a grower.
It doesn’t seem to be selling very well, which is a crying shame, as it deserves an awful lot of love.
I just wish it didn’t keep locking up my phone and forcing a hard reset when it decides I haven’t got enough free memory. Bit of a bugger, that – especially as I seem to be the only person with the problem.
Carcassonne (iPhone)
Jul 5th
Nearing the end of the game I won.
Just like Words With Friends, I play Carcassonne every day but never seem to blog about it. It’s hard to find anything useful to say. It’s a bloody brilliant game design, it’s perfectly executed on the iPhone and even the teething troubles with Internet play against friends seem to have been ironed out now.
Oh, and I won a game at the weekend. I think it was a fluke, though, because I don’t feel like I’ve really got a handle on the game yet.
Words With Friends (iPhone)
Jul 5th
A million and one games to get through after I spent lots of quality time with my iPhone over the weekend, so let’s get started. I’ve been neglecting to mention Words With Friends lately, despite playing it every day. So, to redress the balance, here’s a post about it.
Huh huh huh. Wiener.
Yes, it might have been better to do it on a day when I had fewer games to talk about, but never mind. Let’s face it, I may well still be blogging about the weekend’s games tomorrow.
Anyway, though, Words With Friends. It’s still on my iPhone, I still play it and it hasn’t changed in any major way, though every now and again the dictionary and interface get little tweaks.
Physics Gamebox (iPhone)
Jul 2nd
Just a quick one today. Didn’t play much of anything yesterday, but did play Physics Gamebox. It’s a new iPhone title bundling together two old Flash games.
First you’ve got Ragdoll Cannon, which was “homaged” by the iPhone’s Ragdoll Blaster. Now we get the original to play – and it does exactly the job you’d expect. Haven’t found any annoying levels yet, which is nice. (Though there are 200 to get through.)
Should that be fewer?
The other game is Roly-Poly Cannon, which reminds me a bit of Fragged. You have to send bombs out and blow up bad guys while leaving the good guys alive. Only a hundred levels to this one, but they generally last a little longer.
I think it should be, but I'm second-guessing myself now.
Neither game has set my world on fire, but they’re both decent, time-wasting fun – and getting both for 59p is pretty lovely.
Civilization IV: Beyond The Sword (Mac)
Jul 1st
The Zulu declared war again, as did the Indians and the Native Americans. (I was particuarly upset with them – I’d been the only civilization prepared to give them anything for centuries and had always refused when other civs told me to stop trading with them.)
Anyway, though I’d built up my forces, I hadn’t built them up enough. The Zulu stormed over my borders and wiped me out – all except one small city stuck between the mountains and the sea. They would have taken that, too, but I paid them off to get a peace treaty.
All that remained.
There was nothing left I could do, except sit back in my little city as the mighty Zulu gained a diplomatic victory.
The glorious Egyptian empire that had once covered half the globe was now a tiny, isolated state with no resources except corn and bananas and no power on the world stage. Our ancient cities were in the hands of the Zulu and we were left with a small city that had once, not so long ago, belonged to barbarians.
It hurts to see our cultural heritage and treasures in the hands of others but, still, we survived. That’s something.
Civilization IV: Beyond The Sword (Mac)
Jul 1st
Can I have my cities back, please?
Bloody Zulu and their Indian lapdogs. You see all those cities in Zulu territory to the west of my land? They used to be mine. Okay, so I left them almost completely undefended, but that’s because I was keeping all my neighbours happy. Was working well until the Zulu decided I was too close for comfort and declared way. I eventually managed to buy peace, but at the expense of about a third of my empire.
I can’t even get the help of other nations, as the Zulu are by far the most powerful civilization diplomatically. I’ve just got to try and keep them happy and see if I can launch a spaceship before they decide to take more of my land. I doubt it’s possible.
I did want to nuke them, but I don’t seem to have uranium to build any. Bother.
Anyway, back to it. I’ve got half an hour of lunchtime left.
World Soccer Champs (iPhone)
Jul 1st
Lovely penalty there.
Tried out the Tournament (i.e. World Cup) mode last night. Despite winning a game, my England team failed to get past the group stages. Oh well.
Re:Bounce (iPhone)
Jul 1st
Throw the ball around and hope to destroy those towers.
Decent, frantic ball-bouncing, ball-breaking game. Chuck the ball around to break balls and either reach the exit or stop the balls from advancing to the top of the screen.
I downloaded because it was free and being compared to Peggle. Well, it’s nothing like Peggle, but it was free, so fair enough.
