A Gaming Diary
360
Wheelman (360)
Oct 21st
Only had about twenty minutes to play this last night, but managed to get in one brilliantly fun mission. I had to escape from a pursuing car, then turn around and destroy two other cars before they reached a casino. I’m not quite sure why, something to do with finding someone called Paulo, or something. I think I might want a job from him, but I’m not sure.
Anyway, I only managed the one mission, then just had time to discover that Vin Diesel likes standing in fountains and can duck, but cannot jump. Then it was time for Stargate Universe, so I had to stop playing.
Wheelman (360)
Oct 19th
I suspect that in the office of the developers of Wheelman there was a whiteboard. And on this whiteboard, written in big red letters were the words: “MAKE MOVIE-STYLE CAR CHASES!!!” I’m guessing about the number of exclamation marks. And I suspect that MOVIE-STYLE was underlined several times.
I’ve only spent half an hour or so with the game (thanks to The X-Factor, Harper’s Island, Eastenders and season one of Dollhouse eating my weekend), but that half hour was a gigantic feast of car chase excellence, with handbrake turns around sharp corners, huge leaps from road to train tracks, jumping from car to car, ramming cops off the road and pedestrians leaping out of the way at the last second.
You know, pretty much everything that makes car chases so thrilling. If it’s the game’s aim to make you feel part of an amazing action movie, it does the job admirably. How this will translate into several hours of gaming remains to be seen, but the core chase mechanics are definitely present and correct.
Shadow Complex Demo (360)
Oct 13th
Though maybe it wasn’t Red Faction’s fault after all.
I started Shadow Complex, got annoyed with it at the beginning when I didn’t realise I had to shoot the helicopter, started to enjoy it for a bit, then died and had to restart at a checkpoint a few rooms back and turned the game off.
It seems like it might be a very good game. It felt a bit awkward to control, but I’m sure it would be fine with a bit of practice. It just completely failed to keep me interested.
Probably just a phase I’m going through.
Red Faction: Guerilla (360)
Oct 13th
This has now been sent back to Lovefilm, uncompleted and surprisingly unloved.
I’m not sure what the problem was. I loved the demo when I played it a few months ago and I expected that I’d love this game, but it didn’t come together. I could blame too many dull drives or the slightly awkward shooting. I think, though, that I might be to blame. I just don’t think I’ve got any patience at the moment. Every moment that wasn’t the Best Thing Ever, every death, every restart, they all put me off the game.
I’m just so used to iPhone gaming these days, which consists of five minutes of fun, a check of Twitter, a refresh of some forums, a peek at Google Reader, back to a game for a few minutes, etc.
That might not be it, either, though. I just might be one of those restless phases at the moment.
Though, that said, I played Arkham Asylum to death for a few days not so long ago, so maybe Red Faction simply isn’t as good as I wanted it to be.
Red Faction: Guerilla (360)
Oct 1st
Had an hour or so with this last night and thoroughly enjoyed myself, though it’s difficult to know what to write about. I’ve not been doing any story missions, just side missions, so there’s no plot to talk about. (Not that the story looks like it’ll be all that interesting, but you never know.) I’ve been firing rockets, throwing around charges and shooting people, all that good stuff. Buildings have collapsed impressively, enemies have flown through the air amusingly and I’ve managed to shoot down some enemy planes.
I did do one new mission type last night, which had me riding on the back of an amazing vehicle shooting rockets at, well, everything in site. Some amusing dialogue from the driver. Lots of explosions.
It’s not really a game that requires many words.
Trials HD Demo (360)
Sep 29th
Tried this on my netbook a while back – about the same time as Defense Grid, funnily enough – and didn’t really get on with the controls, so it took me a long time to get round to trying the Xbox demo.
But, yeah, wow. I can see why the game is getting so much praise. Somehow, between PC and 360 the game has been absolutely transformed, from a fiddly physics-based key-tapper into a joystick-wrestling, white-knuckle thrillfest.
If there’s any way I can afford some Microsoft points then this is going to get bought. It’s amazing.
Red Faction: Guerilla (360)
Sep 29th
We’re getting there, we really are.
It’s all coming together.
Last night I was more careful, I died less (though not infrequently) and I had a grand old time. I’m really growing to love the missions that involve other characters, though the “defend a certain area” missions seem to be incredibly tough, with the EDF coming and coming and coming, seemingly without end. I need more rocket launcher ammo, I think.
The only real problem with the game is that driving between missions is all a bit dull. I do my best to enliven it by doing jumps where I can, but that normally ends up just meaning I take longer to get anywhere. Unlike GTA IV, where the driving between missions is probably the best part of the game, Mars is just a bit dull so far.
Still, it’s worth it. Leading raids on chemical plants, bringing down wind farms, killing a courier and making an escape in the martian equivalent of a milk float, these are all great moments.
Red Faction: Guerilla (360)
Sep 28th
Couldn’t play this on Friday night, because I was out in that London drinking with reprobates.
Couldn’t play on Saturday, because I was too hungover to blow stuff up.
Tried to play on Sunday and managed an hour that was filled with great moments, but somehow I couldn’t get into it. I think the problem was that my heart just wasn’t it. I kept dying because I was more concerned with throwing explosives around than protecting myself. When I actually went on missions and tried to complete them I had a great time, full of tens moments, gut-wrenching losses and hard-won victories, but I was just finding it too easy just to cause mindless destruction and ignore the fact that people were shooting me.
I suspect that I still wasn’t quite right on Sunday, though I didn’t quite have a two-day hangover, thankfully.
Defense Grid: The Awakening Demo (360)
Sep 28th
Tried this out on my netbook at while back, but it didn’t run. Now there’s a 360 version, though, I got to play it. It’s a fixed-path tower defense game, with an interesting approach to lives, some lovely graphics and an amusing voice over from Jim Ward.
If I had a spare 800 points and wasn’t overloaded with good TD games on the iPhone I’d consider a purchase. That’s not meant to be damning with faint praise but… but I suppose it is, whether that was intention or not.
The problem is, I didn’t play it long enough to get any interesting levels – the first two that I played were very limited. I suspect it gets an awful lot better later on.
I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!!1 Demo (360)
Sep 28th
I’m not entirely sure I’ve spelt that correctly.
Anyway, this is a fairly standard – though decent – twin-stick zombie shooter, enlivened by presentation that turns it into as much of a comedy sketch as a game.
I didn’t feel the need to play it again after one play, but I’m glad I played it that once.
