A Gaming Diary
Archive for August, 2010
Strategery (iPhone)
Aug 4th
The end game is tedious.
Okay, so I complain about this. It’s too reliant on starting position, the victor becomes clear a long time before the game ends, etc. So, then, why was this the only game I played last night, eh?
DungeonCore (iPhone)
Aug 3rd
Update time!
New graphics! Balancing! You start in the shop with money to spend!
A PAUSE BUTTON YOU DON’T HAVE TO BUY!
The hat gets you extra money.
Most notable, though, is the new save feature. You can spend coins on saving your game – the further down you save, the more it costs. This adds a new layer of strategy and means you can avoid the early stages of the game. I wasn’t sure at first, thinking it might break the roguelike purity of the game, but I think it’s a good addition. It’s not always possible to save – or wise – so it adds more to the game than it takes away.
Oh, and there’s a free Lite version out now, if you’re intrigued, but don’t want to spend any money.
Strategery (iPhone)
Aug 3rd
Fucking Strategery. It’s the most annoying name ever. Almost impossible for me to make my fingers type it. “That’s not a real word!” they scream at me as I try to force them to do my bidding. I suppose I’ll get used to it eventually.
Stretagy. Strategy. NO! Strategery.
Typing it takes an eternity as I peck out the letters one by one, with much thought between each one.
Horrible, horrible “word”.
The biggest maps don't fit on the iPhone's screen.
Anyway, it’s Dice Wars and would probably work better on the iPad’s big old screen than it does on the iPhone’s tiny little viewing window. Starting position and luck seems to play more of a role than any… strategy – oh for fuck’s sake, it’s ruined my ability to type the word strategy now! – but it’s just as addictive and wasteful of time as the game it ripped off.
I played the Lite, I bought the full version. I don’t exactly regret it, but I whenever I play I just feel like I should be doing something more interesting, like playing another game entirely. I think it’s that the choices aren’t that interesting and really just boil down to how fast you choose to try to expand. Maybe I need to play with manually-placed armies.
Gravity Hook HD (iPhone)
Aug 3rd
Catapult yourself as high as you can.
This is very interesting. (Possibly.) I played a fair bit of Gravity Hook last night and really felt like I was getting better at the game, but didn’t get anywhere close to my high score. What’s that about?
World Series of Poker Hold’em Legend (iPhone)
Aug 3rd
Well, here’s an interesting little feature.
If you lose all your chips and are forced out of a game, you can see the screen below.
A second chance.
As you can see, it lets you carry on playing at the current table. A nice little feature, I suppose, for when you’re kicking yourself for going all in with a pair of Jacks, or something.
Except, if you choose to buy another chance, you don’t pay with your in-game dollars, but with real money – the second chance costs 59p.
You can also buy extra in-game money with real money, though I really can’t fathom why you’d want to.
Helps explain why they can give the game itself away free, though.
Fastar! (iPhone)
Aug 2nd
Fight Against Squares: The Action RPG. Fastar. You see?
Side-scrolling, hack and slash where all the enemies are squares. Might seem like an odd idea, but it’s actually rather brilliant, mainly because there are a million different game modes. When one gets stale or annoying, just jump on over to a different one.
This is one of the more intense game modes - you usually fight the squares one-on-one.
Could do with a few more short modes, but that’s a very minor complaint. Other than that it’s pretty brilliant.
I should explain why, I suppose, but I couldn’t tell you. Maybe it’s the personality of the squares, maybe it’s that everything seems to have been tuned and balanced incredibly well, maybe it’s all the control options, maybe it’s the global leaderboards. It’s probably a combination of all those things and more.
Cat Physics (iPhone)
Aug 2nd
If you like cats and you like physics…
Nah.
It’s one of those “place arrows to send a ball to the target” games. With cats for no reason.
Get the ball from one cat to the other. Simple.
Good, puzzling fun for the hour or so it took to clear all the levels, but I can’t be bothered to go back and move things around pixel by pixel to get three stars on every level.
Free, though, which is always a plus.
World Series of Poker Hold’em Legend (iPhone)
Aug 2nd
It’s a Texas Hold’em poker game. It’s nice presented, has decent controls and, after one game, doesn’t seem to have anything much wrong with it. But what do I know? I’m rubbish at poker. I can’t even remember whether a straight beats a flush.
Red cards are better than black ones, right?
So, despite having had my eye on this game for a while – it’s generally regarded as the best Hold’em game on the iPhone, I think – I’ve never got round to buying it. It was free at the weekend, though, and still is at the time of writing. Which, I think, makes it worth keeping on my phone, despite it using about a hundred megabytes of precious space.
Worms (iPhone)
Aug 2nd
Worms was finally on sale, so I grabbed it. I’ve wanted it for ages, but was worried that three quid might be too much if the controls weren’t up to snuff. I was prepared to risk £1.79, though.
It's definitely Worms.
I’ve tried practice mode and some quick games. The graphics are lovely and the sound samples are intact and create one of the warmest glows of nostalgia in all of gaming. It’s all very Worms, though, as always, I’m missing some weapons. Is there a drill? If there is, I haven’t seen it.
The controls, though. Oh, the controls. They’re not awful – though the ninja rope seems almost impossible to control – but they’re complicated enough to cause problems. The sensitivity seems a bit wrong, too. Jumping seems to happen too often, while dragging the aiming reticle into an exact position seems to be far harder than it should be.
I’ve not played it an awful lot, though. I’m hoping that with time I’ll be flying about the place and sending weapons flying with amazing precision. There’s just a barrier here that you don’t have with a mouse and keyboard.
DungeonCore (iPhone)
Aug 2nd
Death doesn’t let you know he’s coming. He doesn’t phone in advance. He doesn’t send you an email asking if it’s a convenient time to pop round. He doesn’t even knock. He’s just suddenly right there and a brilliant run is over while you stare at the screen wondering what the hell just happened.
It’s brilliant.
Spikes and sharks, ready to kill you.
I managed to get a new high score at the weekend, a little over four thousand points. Not too bad, but I’ve not checked my position on the global leader boards for a while. Even better, I unlocked a new achievement for getting over seven hundred coins, so now I’ve got more options in the shop.
