A Gaming Diary
iPhone
Driver (iPhone)
Dec 9th
I’ve really been enjoying this, though a couple of times I’ve had to repeat missions due to hitting the wrong menu options. Still, live and learn. (Continue seems a better bet than Load Game to getting back to where you were.)
It’s great fun barreling down the streets and screaming around corners. The music’s great, too, with three different radio stations to listen to.
But, you know, what’s up with the cut scenes?
There’s moody and then there’s just plain too bloody dark. The way they asterisk out mildly rude words in the subtitles but leave them uncensored in the voiceovers is a bit facepalmy, too.
Driver (iPhone)
Dec 8th
In 1999 I sold my Playstation, moved to the USA and promptly bought another Playstation. One of the first games I bought was Driver, an excellent, if difficult, car chase game set in a series of free-roaming cities.
In 2009, I’m back in the UK again, and have just bought Driver again, this time for my iPhone.
And what a difference a decade makes. Not only does Driver cost £3.99 instead of fifty bucks, or whatever I paid at the time, but it’s now in the palm of my hand, the difficulty has been smoothed and it looks much better than it ever did before.
It’s really quite fantastic. Oh, there’s the same old trial and error to some of the missions I have a hard time believing that the cut scenes were ever acceptable, but it’s got the same muscly handling, lots of traffic, a perfect adequate draw distance, decent load times and a framerate that behaves itself for the vast majority of the time.
This isn’t a cut-down handheld version of Driver, this is a full, upgraded version of the game. Brilliant.
Okay, so it did crash once at the end of a cut scene, but when I restarted the app it had auto-saved at the beginning of the cut scene, so that was okay.
polyhedra (iPhone)
Dec 8th
This was free yesterday, which is an incredible bargain for what’s turned out to be a really excellent game. You press the screen to make shapes and have to cover 66% of the screen using a predefined number of shapes. There are enemies which destroy shapes you’re making, but can be trapped by finished shapes. You can tilt your phone to move the shapes around, which can be very useful for freeing up space or trapping the enemies.
Shapes.
It’s a lot simpler than I just made it sound in that clunky description. It all works brilliantly well, is very polished, is very hard to put down and has online high scores. If I’d paid for this I’d be happy with it, so go take a look if you missed it yesterday.
Sword of Fargoal (iPhone)
Dec 8th
Played an awful lot of this again last night – and a bit this morning lying in bed before sunrise, unable to get back to sleep.
I still haven’t died. I’m exploring every level very carefully before going down and I’ve not yet been in any obvious danger. I had a stressful time when I spent far too long confused after wandering through a toadstool patch, but it’s been pretty good. Well, except for that time a dark warrior stole my restoration potions and used all but one of them when I fought him to try and get them back. That was pretty awful.
Anyway, here are my current stats:
Not sure why I’m posting them, probably just because I can.
Words With Friends (iPhone)
Dec 8th
Look, I’ve got absolutely nothing to say about this. This is where the whole “gaming diary” concept falls apart. Yes, I’m still playing the game. People play words against me, I play words against them. When the game’s over, we start again. That’s all. Over and over and over again.
Still, PUBES, eh? That’s quite funny… or not. (It is.)
Minigore (iPhone)
Dec 7th
New Minigore update! Hooray! This one adds unlockable characters (some with in-game kills, others will real money), new enemies, a day/night cycle and new weapons. Pretty major update, all in all – and a good one. The picture below shows the new wormy enemies that come out at night.
As is traditional, though, the update seems to be bugged. I just unlocked Insane mode at 4,900 points, not the required 6,000 points.
Here’s the screen showing the achievement.
And here’s my high score table after the game.
Still, I’d have been really annoyed at dying on 5,982 points if I hadn’t hit that bug – and Insane mode is great fun, so never mind.
geoSpark (iPhone)
Dec 7th
The developers of geoDefense and Harbor Master have collaborated on this addictive action game. It’s very simple and very hard to put down. You tap shapes to get rid of them, if two shapes of different colours hit each other, it’s game over. Add to that a finger-dragging combo system that increases gravity as you go and some useful power-ups and you’ve got something that may well become an iPhone classic.
Shame the leaderboards have been hacked, but the developers are working on it, apparently.
(Oh, and ignore the high score in that screen shot – I’ve got over 25,000 now.)
Sword of Fargoal (iPhone)
Dec 7th
This is blindingly good. I liked it when I first played and it’s only been growing me. I played for a long, long time over the weekend and didn’t die. I’m currently on about level eleven, taking my time before going to each new level and going back up to old levels to check I’ve not missed anything.
The longer a character lasts the more tense things gets, because a single mistake can destroy hours of progress and send you right back to the beginning. I’m not sure I’ll ever retrieve the Sword of Fargoal from the depths of the dungeon, but I’m definitely going to try my best.
I just hope it doesn’t get too tense and I stop playing because I’m too scared of letting my character die. That’s a real possibility, you know.
Ramp Champ (iPhone)
Dec 7th
Throw balls at targets to get points and to complete level-specific goals. Spend the points on pictures of carnival tat. That’s about it. Fun, though, with well-designed levels. The fact it was free is a bonus, too. (Even if there are loads of extra levels to buy for real money.)
Samurai: Way of the Warrior (iPhone)
Dec 7th
This was free on Saturday, which prompted me to pick it up again after a long hiatus. Thankfully, it’s just as good as I remember. Once you get into it and the moves start flowing it feels wonderful, with you instinctively sidestepping enemies and then countering with your own attacks.
I finished off levels five and six while lying in bed on Saturday morning. Challenging, but not too hard, exactly what you want from a game like this. And, of course, it’s as graphically gorgeous as it ever was. Great stuff.
