A Gaming Diary
iPhone
Ragdoll Blaster (iPhone)
Jul 16th
I said I might get stuck and I seem to have done so.
I’m not quite sure what to do here.
(Ignore the little chap on the floor – I shot him off prematurely as I was trying to take the screen shot.)
Assassin’s Creed: Altair’s Chronicles Lite (iPhone)
Jul 16th
So, yes, I tried this again, too, after realising it was on my Mac and I just had to re-sync my iPhone to put it back.
Was it any better than before? Like Mega Man, yes it was. Pretty playable, even… just a bit awkward and not really much fun.
Mega Man II Lite (iPhone)
Jul 16th
So, I tried Mega Man 2 again. And was it any better? Well, look at the screenshot below.
That’s me, facing the boss at the end of the demo stage. I nearly beat him, too.
So, yes, it was a lot better than I’d given it credit for. So much better that it was almost playable. Actually, no. It was still quite a long way from playable, but it was much better than before.
Chances of me buying the full game? Zero. Absolute zero. A terribly ill-conceived port all round, but it does look like the poor buggers given the thankless task of porting it did the best they possibly could.
Baseball Slugger: Home Run Race 3D (iPhone)
Jul 16th
I like it when games have “3D” in the title. It’s all nostalgic and cute. You just want to pat them on the head and give them a shiny apple and tell them to run along home before they catch polio.
That aside, Baseball Slugger is comfortably the best game I’ve played for the iPhone. The controls just work. There’s no getting used to them, or being pleasantly surprised with how well they work, all things considered. None of that. You tilt, you tap, your guy swings his bat and either you hit the baseball or you don’t.
Aim your bat. Time your swing. That’s it. Nothing else to worry about. It just works.
I’ve been playing the Arcade mode for a day or two, but last night I decided to try out the online multiplayer.
That’s me there, just about to start playing against a chap called Ticookie. We played a few games and he beat me every time. In fact, everyone beat me, except one poor sod who actually managed to lose against me. My ranking points flew away like rocket-propelled birds as I lost over and over and over and over again. Yet I couldn’t stop playing. Arcade mode is great, but when you’ve got that little window up there showing a real other person and you’ve got the bars under the player names filling up something kicks in and grabs you and won’t let go.
You’re not taking turns, you see. Your playing your game, he’s playing his and you fill up your power bar (or whatever it’s actually called) by hitting the ball and getting points. Whoever fills the bar first wins, obviously enough. It’s a system that keeps things working, minimises the effect of any lag, but provides real competition. It doesn’t hurt that getting into a match is very quick and it’s easy to ask for a rematch after a round. It’s brilliant, just brilliant.
If you’ve got an iPhone and you’ve not got this game you’re DOING IT WRONG in caps. Just get it. Now.
Terminator Salvation Lite (iPhone)
Jul 16th
Buoyed by my success with controlling Resident Evil, I decided to try this game again. (Assassin’s Creed and Mega Man 2, which also use virtual d-pads had been deleted, so I couldn’t try those.) Guess what? It worked far better than it had before. It seems that Resident Evil had taught me how to get the best from virtual controls.
Moving around with the virtual d-pad and looking around by tilting the phone works best for me, though it’s hard to make small adjustments when lining up shots. The generous auto aim helps most of the time, but sometimes you just wanted to udge the sight slightly and it doesn’t respond until you’ve tipped the phone over more than you want to. Still, it’s a very workable solution, all things considered. I can’t imagine it working for something fast and precise like Quake or Unreal Tournament, but Terminator Salvation does seem to have been designed with the controls in mind, judging by this demo.
I played through it a couple of times and had fun both times. So much so that I’m toying with the idea of getting the full game.
I think I’m going to download Mega Man 2 Lite again to make sure it was as awful as I thought it was.
Resident Evil: Degeneration Lite (iPhone)
Jul 16th
I wasn’t expecting much, to be honest. Simple curiosity led me to download this. Resident Evil games are not known for their smooth control systems. And my experience with virtual d-pads on the iPhone had not been good. I was very much expecting to be unable to move and to be able to give the game a righteous slating.
But something strange happened. I started the game, rested my thumb lightly on the virtual d-pad (actually a virtual analogue stick, I think) and started trying to move. And succeeded. I wandered around the starting room I was in, found a ladder, dropped down into a another room, jumped through the window, shot some zombies, found a crank handle, opened an emergency shutter and found myself at the end of the demo.
I couldn’t believe it, honestly, so I tried the demo again. And again I managed to get through the whole (incredibly short) demo without bumping into walls or finding myself rooted to the spot.
No, the controls weren’t perfect. The 180-degree turn move worked one time in five, seemingly at random. Lining up head shots took more time than I’d like. But, hey, that’s Resident Evil for you!
I put the game away for a bit, then came back an hour or two later. It still worked. And then again, just before bed. Same again. Oh, yes, it’s clunky, of course it is – but the controls actually seem to work reasonably well. Who’d have thought that Resident Evil of all things would convince me that in certain circumstances virtual d-pads could work?
Will I be buying the full game for £3.99? I don’t think so. The controls are clunky, still, even if they’re far better than I thought they could be. I also worry that later enemies won’t be nearly so accommodating as I line up shots as the initial shuffling zombies. As a piece of technology I’m very, very impressed – I wouldn’t have played through the demo four times if I wasn’t – but as a game I’m not completely convinced.
Doom Resurrection (iPhone)
Jul 16th
Five pounds and ninety-nine pence. I’ll repeat that. Five pounds and ninety-nine pence. Now I’ll put a screenshot thing in to break up the text and provide for a brief pause and then repeat myself again.
Five pounds and ninety-nine pence. Now, we could talk endlessly about how the pricing of games on the App Store is a good or bad thing. We could mention that £5.99 is cheaper than most XBLA games these days. The fact is, though, that six quid for a game on the App Store is an absolute fortune. It’s some premium shit, if you will.
So, does Doom Resurrection do anything to justify the hefty price tag, apart from using the Doom name?
Well, I can’t really tell yet. I’ve only played the first two levels. However, I can say that it looks incredible, the controls are interesting and I’ve very much enjoyed my brief time with it. If it was, say, a £2.99 game I’d be urging you to go out and buy it right now – but is it really worth ten 59p games? Only time will tell and I simply haven’t played it enough yet.
But I’m really, really looking forward to getting back to it, if that means anything. I am a complete Doom whore, though. I even loved Doom 3 – loved it, I say! And I’m not sorry!
Rope’n'Fly (iPhone)
Jul 16th
Yes, I bought the full version, because I wanted to save my high scores and wanted to get rid of the thirty second time limit.
Two problems.
1) I tend not to last longer than thirty seconds, because I’m rubbish at the game.
2) The game doesn’t save your high score. You can upload it to the web site, but unless you’re near the top of the list you’ll never see it again. Doesn’t stop the swinging be a complete joy, but it makes it all feel a little pointless. And the game crashes if I try to play again after submitting my high score, anyway.
Bother.
However! But! Hooray! I went back and actually read the game’s description on the app store. There’s an update that’s been sent to Apple that fixes the crash bug and saves personal high scores, along with several other improvements. So in a few days all my concerns should be put to rest except, you know, the whole being completely rubbish thing.
Ragdoll Blaster (iPhone)
Jul 16th
In the old days, this might have been a free Flash game on a web site. Now it costs £1.19 and runs on your iPhone. Progress? Yes, if it keeps the developer in pizza and Diet Coke and means we’ll get more games of this quality. It’s another simple game when it comes to controls. There is a cannon on the screen. You tap on the screen and the location of your tap sets the angle and power of your shot. That’s it.
You’re not shooting cannon balls, though, but little rag dolls. Hence the name and all that. Your goal is simply to make the big red target and a rag doll touch. That can mean firing a rag doll into the target or, as in the level shown above, leaving a rag doll lying on the floor and then getting the target moving so it hits him.
It’s simple, amusing and devilishly addictive. So much so that I worry that the game will be far too short-lived. I’m running through the game like a race horse on speed who desperately needs the toilet. Or something. Maybe the developers will offer more levels in the future. But if not, I’ll have spent a mere £1.19 on something that entertained me greatly – and I could always go back and try to do previously-completed levels more efficiently.
Of course, I might start it up at lunchtime and find myself completely stuck on a level and delete it from my phone in a fit of game rage. Let’s hope not, eh?
Coast Guard (iPhone)
Jul 16th
Like Flight Control, sort of, only you’re in a boat and you shoot other boats, while trying to stop them from shooting the supply ships.
You’re a small boat, with guns, like I said. You draw a path for your boat to follow and click on the screen to shoot to that spot. The big supply ships come in from the edges of the screen and if they reach an island they drop a power up, such as a spread shot or extra health. The bad boats also come from the centre of the screen and shoot at both you and the supply ships.
The trick is to manage moving around with the very careful aiming needed to hit the correct boats – and only the correct boats. You can damage the supply ships just as easily as the enemy.
But is it any good? Well, yes. It’s a bit fiddly and hitting boats with any accuracy is hard, but it’s fun in short bursts and, best of all, it’s free. I’m finding myself hitting the Home button when I die instead of restarting, but I have been going back.
