A Gaming Diary
iPhone
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.
The War of Eustrath (iPhone)
Jul 30th
Played some more of this last night. The story’s still a bit odd, which makes it far more fun than the generic guff that you get in many games of this ilk.
Swearing is a very important life skill, I agree.
I had to play the third mission twice after letting one of my characters die the first time round, which resulted in the Game Over screen. (I can actually use her abilities, but she doesn’t have any healing powers and is rather fragile.)
Lots and lots of lovely numbers.
It’s good stuff, but all my questions remain unanswered. I wish there was some sort of proper guide within the game. Hopefully I’ll become comfortable with it as I play more.
Aqua Moto Racing 2 (iPhone)
Jul 30th
Do tricks, earn turbo.
I’m up to the “expert” cup now and, to be fair, it’s got a bit harder. Mainly because the other riders keep knocking me off my jet ski, the bastards. Nothing is more annoying than respawning just in front of a competitor who then knocks you flying before you’ve had a chance to do anything.
That said, I’ve still not lost a race, but I did get a silver medal, rather than gold, on one race. Not sure how that works, I guess it’s based on completion time.
Gravity Hook HD (iPhone/Web)
Jul 29th
“From the makers of Canabalt.”
That should tell you everything. You’ve got a simple, ferociously addictive little game that costs £1.79. And you can play it on the web for free.
Green blobs are safe to latch on to. The blue ones, less so.
Just bear in mind that it’s a lot simpler to tap on orbs than it is to move the mouse over them and click. My average score is a lot better on the iPhone than the web version, at least.
My only real problem with is it that my name breaks the high score tables. I’m using the same account or Canabalt and Gravity Hook, but it doesn’t look like the high score tables in Gravity Hook are prepared for my user name.
Witness:
My name's That Rev Chap.
That Rev and Chap aren't two different players.
It's all messed up.
So, yeah, if you’re reading this, developers, it would be lovely to see a fix. I know it doesn’t matter globally – I was one of the first to get the game, so that’s probably the only time I’ll be in the global table – but it would be nice for my local high score table to be formatted properly.
The War of Eustrath (iPhone)
Jul 29th
It’s a tactical SRPG thing. Think Shining Force, Fire Emblem, Disgaea, Jeanne D’Arc, etc. I’ve not played it much yet, but first impressions are pretty good.
There are the usual talking-head cut scenes between levels.
The trouble with a game like this is that it’s pretty impossible to recommend based on the forty-five minutes or so I had with it last night. I’ve done a couple of battles, yes, seen some of the story, but I’ve not really got into it yet. I’ve got so many questions.
How should I upgrade my mechs? (Or whatever they’re called in the game, I’ve forgotten.)
Why can’t Luke use any abilities even though he’s got lots of Will? (His Use button is always greyed out, but only for him.)
Is there a way of seeing how much damage I’ll actually cause in a fight? (The battle screen has huge amounts of information on it, so I may be missing something here. I can see a weapon’s power, but it doesn’t seem to translate into actual hit-point damage very well.)
The battles don't look great, but everything's clear enough.
If I could find answers to these questions then I’d feel a lot more comfortable with the game, but the tutorial is nearly useless and there’s no in-game help or manual that I can find.
