A Gaming Diary
360
Red Dead Redemption (360)
May 24th
I love Grand Theft Auto IV. It’s quite possibly my favourite game of all time – at the very least it’s in a tussle with Doom for the top spot.
I also love Westerns and, more to the point, the idea of Westerns, the dream of the West. I mean, I wear a cowboy hat every day and I live in rural Kent.
So Red Dead Redemption should be pretty much my dream game, knocking on the gates to the hallowed halls of the “Best Games Ever” from the moment the disc hit the drive.
And there’s no real need for suspense. After over seven hours with the game yesterday I love it. I loved it from the first moment I walked through the doors of the Armadillo saloon. It’s everything I wanted and any minor niggles I might have with the game are so tiny that I can’t even remember them right now.
I do remember how much of a badass I felt when slipping into Dead Eye mode to shoot a bandit through the skull as he held a screaming woman in front of him.
I remember the grief I felt when some lowlife scumsucker pleaded for my help and then stole my horse when I stopped to give aid – I shot him as he galloped away, but only succeeded in shooting his hat off.
I remember how terrible I felt – and still feel – when I shot an innocent man just to get my hands on a bit of paper he was willing to sell to me. (I’ve been trying to atone for that ever since, my own personal story of separate from the game’s scripted story, but tied up with it nonetheless.)
I remember being pursued across country by men not totally in the wrong, trying and mostly failing to shoot their guns from their hands and disable, rather than kill, them.
I remember standing on a ridge watching a train puff its way across the desert below.
I remember seeing a man being pursued by men shooting after him, killing them, then realising I’d shot lawmen chasing after a criminal.
I remember seeing a prostitute being attacked outside the saloon and shooting the man trying to kill her.
I remember a duel in a dusty main street.
I remember finding a bone, a bloodstain and a shoe in the middle of the desert.
I remember tracking down treasure, helping a con-man sell his wares, herding cattle in a vicious storm, riding out of a burning building, a conversation with a good man, watching a cartoon in an early picture house, picking herbs and stealing a horse for her own good.
And I remember kicking chickens, just to see if I could.
It’s magnificent. Atmospheric, brutal, emotional, exciting. Single shots can kill. You can see for miles. The soundtrack is perfect for the setting.
It’s a game where I walk around instead of running, just because it looks and feels like I should do so. When a game gets me like that, I know that I’ve been drawn in completely.
It’s two of my favourite things in the world meshed together perfectly. And while Irish and Bonnie may not quite be up there with Roman and Brucie, at least they’re not calling me up on a mobile phone to go bowling every few minutes. There’s a lot to be said for the being alone in the desert.
Skate 2 (360)
May 17th
Absolutely brilliant. I’m so glad I finally gave Skate a chance. I went for the second game as it was far cheaper to download it directly to the 360 than to buy a disc copy of the third game. I spent hours with this over the weekend, even when I didn’t mean to. I’m pretty rubbish at it, but the satisfaction gained from nailing a line after ninety minutes of trying can’t be beaten. Here’s a couple of things I did that don’t look impressive, but which made me very happy.
I’ve really got to thank my brother-in-law. If I hadn’t watched him playing Skate I’d never have bothered checking it out again after my pretty disastrous time with the demo of the first game. So Curt, thanks very much!
Indie Games Roundup (360)
May 17th
I played a lot of games over the weekend, so I’m going to lump the indie games I played on the 360 into one post.
MotorHEAT
Definitely the pick of the bunch. I paid my 240 points for unlimited gameplay and online high scores and don’t regret it for a second. The risk/reward system is absolutely spot on, leading to many deaths in search of better scores. (I did better before I’d worked it all out, which is a sign that it’s working properly.) My only problem is that none of my friends seem have bought it, but that’s hardly the game’s fault. Top stuff.
I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES 1N IT!!!1
It’s funny for a while, but games go on too long. Nevertheless, I paid the eighty points for the full version just to reward the developer for creating something amusing, slightly insane and that doesn’t completely forget gameplay in pursuit of the lulz.
Groov
I bought this a long time ago, but hadn’t played it for ages. The way the music and gameplay interact is pure, genuine brilliance and lifts a fairly standard twin-stick shooter up into the realms of the truly special. If you didn’t check it out when it was new, do so now.
Breath of Death VII: The Beginning Demo
Knowing, gently amusing NES-style RPG. I didn’t buy it, because I doubt I’ll ever put much time into it, but I’m tempted to spend eighty points just as a small message of thanks to the developer for putting a smile on my face for ten minutes or so.
Beat Hazard
This twin-stick shooter supposedly creates levels based on the music you choose. It looks very impressive and plays fluidly enough, but I didn’t notice much connection between the gameplay and the songs. It’s also a bit stingy, not even allowing you to finish a song in the demo. Along with the indie-high price tag of 400 points, that meant that I didn’t buy it. Worth a download, though, just to check it out.
Trials HD (360)
May 10th
Polished off the Easy and Medium levels at the weekend. I think I got a Silver medal on one level, but it was all Bronze medals apart from that. It’s getting tricky now – I wonder how I’ll cope with the Hard levels?
(Of course, if I hadn’t spent several minutes trying to get a strike on a level that included a set of out-of-the-way bowling pins I’d have probably tried out one or two of the Hard levels by now.)
Black (360)
May 10th
You remember Black, right? An Xbox first-person shooter with satisfying gunplay – both stealth and all-out-guns-blazing-near-genocide – and brilliantly designed levels and huge explosions and graphics so beautiful that they still look half-decent today.
It should, by rights, have been an absolute classic, but lengthy, incredibly, astoundingly dull, unskippable cut scenes and a save system that meant that there was no point playing the game unless you had a couple of hours to spare conspired against all the good things it did.
I played through the first two levels again on Sunday (with my iPhone in hand for the cut scenes) and nearly wept at the missed opportunity. It’s so, so close to being one of the very best FPS games that’s ever been made, but what I can only assume is some sort of bloody-minded “we’re going to make you appreciate our art whether you like it or not” attitude brings the whole thing crashing down.
The fact that I still put it on now and again, half a decade or so since it’s release, shows the quality. The fact that I’ve only ever seen the first few levels illustrates the problems.
Just Cause 2 (360)
May 5th
Did the third story mission over the weekend. Yes, an actual story mission!
(The reason I’m only updating the blog now with weekend gaming is that Monday was a Bank Holiday and yesterday I went to London and ended up standing on a street singing – on camera, mind you – for the BBC. But that’s another, rather shameful story.)
Very long it was, too. (The story mission, not the singing.) Had to rescue someone from a drug den, then there was a motorcycle chase, more fighting, a helicopter ride and then I completely destroyed an ancient temple complex. All the killing I can handle with ease, but destroying buildings of great historical worth? That made me feel a bit ill.
Apart from that, though, it was just the usual messing about and making things blow up. BOOM and suchlike.
Trials HD (360)
May 5th
Finally got round to getting the game when it was on offer for 800 points last week. It’s just as great as the demo suggests. Sometimes frustrating, yes, but the controls feel so natural on the 360 that it’s a completely different game from the fiddling, mildly-hateful PC version.
I’ve done the Beginner levels with gold medals, but now I’m on Easy I’m just concentrating on getting through each track – I’ll go and try to improve my times when (if…) I manage to complete them all.
As an aside, the first achievement I managed to get in the game was the one for breaking every bone in my body, which must say something about my play style.
MotorHEAT Demo (360)
Apr 29th
One of those odd indie games hidden away in the 360′s weird interface.
It’s an avoidance-based driving game rather like Racer on the iPhone. You only have to move left and right to avoid cars (and sometimes press a button to boost), but it’s incredibly fast and looks good, if obviously not as polished as properly commercial 360 games.
I may well buy it. You should at least give it a download.
Just Cause 2 (360)
Apr 29th
I love that you can just go for a drive and stuff to do just finds you.
Last night I was driving, saw the icon for a colonel pop up and drove into a base. Was soon being shot from all sides, clicked the trigger – nothing. All out of SMG ammo. A few bullets left in my pistol. A mere twenty bullets in my assault rifle. Ran through the base using my last ammo, firing almost randomly. Ran round a corner, almost hit my face on a fire engine, jumped in, turned around, accelerated, turned the colonel into meaty chunks under my tyres, open my parachute, turned around, grappled on to a weaponless helicopter, started to fly away, got shot by a combat helicopter that had flown up behind me, leapt out of my burning chopper, grappled on to the one that had been shooting me, hijacked it, saw bullets slam into me, wheeled around, shot up another helicopter that had turned up, sent it crashing into the trees below, then flew away to safety trailing thick, black smoke.
All of which took a couple of minutes.
I love this game.
I also swam down to the bottom of the sea to collect a drug drop, found a strange, stormy island filled with bizarre towers and, well, generally just buggered about.
Skate 3 Demo (360)
Apr 29th
Instead of just skating round randomly, I did some challenges last night. I learned how to break lots of bones and then tried out some tasks set me from some character I cannot remember in any detail. He may or may not have called me “bro”, but he sounded like he should, either way.
It was quite easy, though also slightly buggy. I completed a “don’t touch the stairs” challenge by, er, riding down the stairs. Huh.
Still, I’m sure that things like that won’t happen in the full game. Oh, wait… no I’m not.
