A Gaming Diary
iPhone
Sword & Poker (iPhone)
Jan 15th
Down on the twentieth floor and things are getting tricky, mainly because I always feel the need to pick up all the treasures on a floor before I leave. If I just took the quickest path to the boss I’d probably do fine. Well, maybe – I’ve not actually seen the boss yet, he might be a tough one.
I’m easing off a bit on this game now. I’m still playing it a lot, but it’s not consuming me any more. I’m finding it much easier just to play a battle or two and then put it down for a while. I think this is probably a good thing.
Vector Runner (iPhone)
Jan 15th
Forty-fourth best score of the day, bitches!
Yeah, okay, so that’s not very impressive, but it was by far my best run so far.
Bayonetta (360)
Jan 15th
Bayonetta is so amazingly brilliant that I just want to explode with joy. Okay, the cut scenes go on too long, but I’ll be skipping those after my first time through the game – and, yes, I fully intend to play through Bayonetta multiple times. I probably won’t, because I’ll probably get stuck on a boss two-thirds of the way through the game, take a break and then never go back, but right now I’m in love.
(Let’s not mention the part where I got stuck last night because I’d forgotten a technique the game had told me about a few days ago. The problem with playing for half an hour here and there is that it’s easy to forget the tutorial stuff that happened days ago.)
My only real problem is that I’ve only got stone medals so far. Okay, so I’ve only completed two chapters, but both of those have given me the lowest ranking. It’s quite upsetting, as it feels like I’ve been doing rather well.
Words With Friends (iPhone)
Jan 14th
I’m probably giving a false impression of my skills from my screenshot selection.
The Horrible Vikings (iPhone)
Jan 14th
I’m not quite sure what to make of this, to be honest. It’s a catapult game, where you have to send your viking flying through the air to reach a target, bouncing off ninjas and hunks of meat and stuff on the way.
It’s all quite confusing, to be honest. There’s an awful lot of talking – the conversation below appeared after five or so consecutive shots and disappeared just before I smashed my iPhone – but not a huge amount of real guidance and I’ve been very, very gradually trying to worm my way inside the game while feeling like I don’t quite get it.
I think one problem is that you have infinite lives. There’s not a certain number of shots required to win a level, you just keep going until you do. The “best score” recorded for each level shows the number of shots, so I guess the idea is to do each level as efficiently as possible, but that way probably won’t get you much money, which is used to buy upgrades from the shop.
I guess I should just fire off vikings to try and get lots of money, buy everything in the shop, then go back and try and improve my scores for each level, but that just seems like grinding.
I really don’t get it. In itself I like it rather a lot, tilting my iPhone to try and hit things to bounce off and time my butt slam to hit the level target, but the whole surrounding structure seems unfocused. I guess I’d just like a more linear mode, without the map, with upgrades given to me when they’re needed and a target number of launches for each level. And maybe some points or something. And medals. Or maybe I don’t need any of that, maybe I just need to feel like I’m actually working towards a solution for each level, rather than doing the same thing over and over until I get lucky. I’m really not sure.
Vector Runner (iPhone)
Jan 14th
It’s just the iPhone version of this Flash game. You move left and right and try to pick up good stuff and avoid hitting bad stuff. Very simple, good fun, looks a lot better than that screen shot suggests, the touch controls work perfectly well and there are online leaderboards. Good stuff.
Sword & Poker (iPhone)
Jan 14th
No longer playing this exclusively, but still playing it more than I probably should be. Had to go to the doctor again today and once again it proved itself king of the waiting room. It’s really getting quite tricky now, actually.
I should probably look through my spells and see if there’s any point changing them. Trouble is, the two I’ve got equipped (sort cards by suit and steal cards from the opponent) are incredibly useful at times.
Sword & Poker (iPhone)
Jan 13th
In bed. On the sofa. In the waiting room at the doctor. At my desk. On the toilet. I’m only one step away from trying to play while I’m driving. I’m about halfway through now and I think I’m going to be at loss when it’s over, as I was when I finished Angry Birds.
Sword & Poker (iPhone)
Jan 12th
It’s a light RPG where you go through dungeons a tile at a time, fighting monsters, collecting treasure, buying upgrades for your character, etc. Pretty standard stuff, really, though done well, with a good art style, a minimum of story and a well-judged gradual introduction of gameplay elements. The English translation is slightly iffy, but it’s clear enough and doesn’t harm the experience. So far, so good.
The really interesting part of the game, though, is the battle system. There’s a grid of cards in the middle of the screen and you and your opponent take turns laying down cards to make poker hands. It’s all hugely addictive and I’ve had to forcibly drag myself away after the game ate my entire lunchtime and threatened to swallow my afternoon. If this post seems a bit disjointed then it’s simply because my head’s still stuck in the game and I can’t quite seem to let go.
There’s a Lite version to try if you’re not convinced enough by me to shell out 59p on the full version, but I’d definitely recommend having a look, as long as you’ve got nothing important planned.
