A Gaming Diary
360
Civilization Revolution (360)
Jun 24th
Another game last night. I was the Americans and achieved an economic victory. I could easily have got a domination victory centuries before that, but I left the Indians alive just so I could build up my funds. Now I’ve got all the victory types it’s going to be very difficult not just to pay each game for a domination victory.
I want to be peaceful, but the other civilizations keep declaring war on me, which means I have to defend myself.
Civilization Revolution (360)
Jun 22nd
Three epic games today. I upped the difficulty to Warlord, which fits me well. There’s no danger of actually losing the game, but the other civs can annoy you and interfere with your plans.
The first two games I played today were normal random games and I got a domination victory and then a cultural victory. (I was going for a cultural victory in the first, but everyone kept annoying me and I had to kill them.)
Then I tried the Game of the Week. Took me a long time to win as the first few millennia of human history were just one huge war between my Egyptian civilization and the Russians to the west and the Japanese to east. The story of the whole game was war, really, with me defending for year after year and taking any opportunities for offensive when I saw them. I think I only built one settler during the course of the game – all my other cities were captured from other civs. I finally won a domination victory in the late 21st century. I was 51st in the leaderboards for Warlord difficulty, which I fear means the game’s not sold too well.
Various Live Arcade Demos (360)
Jun 20th
Lost Cities – Might be a good game somewhere in there, but the presentation is awful and very hard to read. I got fed up with having to squint to work out what all the numbers were. Deleted.
Battlezone – I love the new look, but the demo is too short to give me any indication of whether the gameplay stands up. Seriously, it lasts about thirty seconds. Deleted.
Sea Life Safari – Actually seems okay and I think my wife would like it. It’s a lightweight Pokemon Snap with an Endless Ocean skin. Basically. I’d spend 400 points on it, but not 800. Not bought, but not deleted.
Civilization Revolution (360)
Jun 16th
Just got a Space Race victory as the Arabs.
I think I need to up the difficulty, though. I had to actively avoid all the other victory types to get to space.
Civilization Revolution (360)
Jun 15th
Just the one game so far.
I was the Zulu and rampaged around the world, winning a domination victory in 1450AD. Would have been earlier, but I couldn’t find the last couple of civs.
Excellent game.
Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness Demo (360)
Jun 11th
Nice long demo. So long I didn’t bother finishing it. Seems all right, maybe even quite good, but I don’t think I want to pay 1600 points for it. Also, oddly, while it was genuinely funny in places, the dialogue I saw between Tycho and Gabe fell completely flat for me. I was expecting that to be the highlight.
Call of Duty 4 (360)
Jun 11th
Pew pew! Pew pew!
This seems to be fundamentally different from most first person shooters, where the aim is to kill everyone and move on. In Call of Duty 4 I do shoot people, sure, but it’s more about staying alive under heavy fire than clearing the areas of enemies. It’s a fundamentally different style of game, which is probably what makes it feel so fresh.
Civilization Revolution Demo (360)
Jun 6th
ARGH!
Turn limit kicked in during an epic war with Greece!
This is horrible.
Civilization Revolution Demo (360)
Jun 6th
Wonderful demo. It’s turn-limited, but otherwise seems pretty complete. (I didn’t get any “You can’t build this in the demo” messages or anything.) It’s really, truly Civilization, but streamlined nicely. It plays quickly and feels right. I was doing really well in the demo and I’m very upset that it ended before I got to see what happened in my war against the Egyptians. I wanted this game before the demo, now I want more than anything else in the world. (Possibly.)
Great stuff.
Ninja Gaiden 2 Demo (360)
Jun 4th
Oh! I like this. Unexpectedly. I like this a lot.
There’s not an awful lot to it, but the thrill of slicing ninjas into bloody chunks didn’t get old for the duration of the demo. It’s fast, fluid and just plain old fun to play.
And the camera, while being a bit silly, wasn’t as awful as I’d heard.
Trouble is, I’m not sure if I’d like the full game or not. The demo seems to send you against early enemies with late-game weapons, I think, and doesn’t have any boss fights in it. So as a judge for annoying the full game will be, this demo does a bad job. As a piece of entertainment in and of itself though, it’s excellent.
