A Gaming Diary
iPhone
Orbital (iPhone)
Sep 17th
So, I decided to try and play Pure mode last night, in an attempt to beat my previous high score of 26.
That’s a picture of me just starting my first game of Pure mode on the new iPhone, full of hope and expectation.
My best score ended up being, er, five.
I’ve got some work to do.
geoDefense Swarm (iPhone)
Sep 17th
I finally beat level two! Go me!
I also almost beat level three, but didn’t. Not sure why. It was getting late and my memory is hazy.
I love the difficulty level in this game. I’m very much up for a challenge. I just wish that some of the difficulty didn’t come from my towers being completely idiotic when it comes to choosing targets. So many times enemies amble past my final defenses on tiny slivers of health while my towers decide to fire at enemies that are miles away from the exit. It’s very frustrating, but I guess it’s just something you need to allow for.
i Love Katamari (iPhone)
Sep 17th
So, this is currently on sale for £1.79, reduced from £4.99. I had the credit sitting in my account, so I downloaded it without hesitation.
Which may have been a mistake.
It’s not that it’s a small version of the game – that’s understandable and okay by me, given the price.
It’s not the framerate, which though slightly alarming never stops the game being playable on my 3GS.
It’s not the tilt controls as such, they work fine.
It’s that you can’t calibrate the controls, as far as I can see. The game is set up with a neutral angle that makes no allowances for being slumped on the sofa or lying in bed. If you’re not sitting up, almost hunched over the phone, you can’t play it. Bah.
(Also, I apologise for managing to take such a bland, grey screen shot of the game.)
Orbital (iPhone)
Sep 15th
I was right.
Getting a new iPhone and setting it up as a new phone means I’ve lost my high scores forever.
Sob.
I guess I’ll just have to beat them, then, eh?
I was on 44 on Gravity and 26 on Pure. I had one go last night on Gravity and got 34. So there’s hope.
geoDefense Swarm (iPhone)
Sep 15th
Finally!
Stuck in submission hell for weeks, geoDefense Swarm has finally come out for a mere 59p. Given how good the original game was, that looks like a bargain.
Swarm looks more like a companion to the original game rather than a sequel, being very similar but allowing for maze creation rather than working with set paths. I only managed to do one level last night, but everything seems okay so far.
Max Injury Lite (iPhone)
Sep 14th
Simple stuff. Throw a crash test dummy down a flight of stairs, get points for damage and hitting objects.
Fun enough, but punching (instead of throwing) the dummy seems to work about one time in ten and it’s all a bit slow.
Slightly tempting to buy the full version for 59p to get some extra levels, but I’m in no hurry.
Words With Friends (iPhone)
Sep 14th
Installed Words With Friends on my new iPhone and got asked to enter a password, though I’d never used a password before.
Seemed a bit odd, but I assume it was because I was connecting from a different phone. A quick trip to the web site got me sorted out and all my games were intact, so not a big deal.
Adrenaline Golf Online (iPhone)
Sep 14th
The next game I tried was the mini golf game Adrenaline Golf Online, because that was the other game that wasn’t working at all.
It, too, worked as soon as I started it up.
As I’d only bought it to test out my iPhone, I wasn’t really bothered whether it was any good or not, but I’m pleased to report that it’s pretty good. The hole design (licensed from another developer, I believe) is good and the swipe controls are excellent, making even a simple tap requires concentration. It’s a very good game at its core.
Unfortunately, it’s got a few problems.
The first is that it doesn’t seem to save your best scores for courses, but I’ve only played the first mode which might just be some sort of practice mode. I’ll have to see if the other modes offer records.
The second is that a boulder actual managed to push my ball into the level architecture and I had to skip the hole because I couldn’t get it out.
The biggest problem, though, is that it doesn’t have any camera controls, so until you learn a hole, you’ve got no real idea where you should be hitting the ball. On some holes it’s pretty obvious, on others I really, really wanted to look around to see what I needed to do. It’s a big problem, but it doesn’t kill the game.
(Also, bear in mind I’ve not even tried the majority of the game modes or played online yet.)
Sketch Hop (iPhone)
Sep 14th
So, on Friday night I rescued my wife from Cambridge at half one in the morning. Blame Tori Amos for that one. Still, I earned several million husband points and it wasn’t a bad drive at that time of night, so I was happy enough. Put on some music, zoom up the M11, job done.
Anyway, on Saturday I was knackered, but had my appointment at the Apple Store in Bluewater. Drove up there, thinking it would take ages, but the there wasn’t much traffic and I found a parking space easily enough, ended up in Bluewater over an hour early.
So I walked round it four times. Twice on the bottom level, twice on the top. There aren’t too many shops for me there. There are sixteen million pairs of shoes for sale, but not a single copy of The Guardian. Bah. Apple Store was incredibly busy, to the point of being unpleasant, but the staff still managed to be smiling and helpful, when you could get their attention. Not sure how they managed that, but top marks to them. Anyway, saw a very nice young lady who looked at my iPhone, saw me fail to run Sketch Hop and swapped my iPhone over for another one.
Got it home and the first thing I did was try out Sketch Hop on the new phone.
It worked!
It’s not much of a game, really, but it’s not meant to be. It’s just a playable tech demo and as such it does its job well. You touch the screen to bonus and try not to hit the floor. Simple, time-wasting stuff, but it’ll always have a special place in my heart now.
Madden NFL 10 (iPhone)
Sep 11th
So I won my first game 20-7, I think. (I didn’t get a chance at having a kick for an extra point after my final touchdown as the game ended. I didn’t miss one.)
So I’ve started a new game, still playing as the Texans, but against a slightly better team than last time.
Whether I’ll ever get to finish it or not, I don’t know. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll get myself a new iPhone. I’ll lose all my save games again, but hopefully this one will work properly.
