A Gaming Diary
iPhone
Madden NFL 10 (iPhone)
Sep 10th
Great fun, Played half a game at lunchtime as the Texans and ended up 7-0 up at half time. Excellent. I felt like I earned those points.
However, this horrible screen popped up as soon as the whistle blew.
I don’t like in-game advertising at the best of times, but a whole screen that’s not even relevant outside the US? Oh dear.
Hey, at least it’s not video though, I suppose…
Madden NFL 10 (iPhone)
Sep 10th
When this post appears in her Google Reader my wife my well roll her eyes.
Yes, it’s an American football game!
I’ve barely played it, but I have had some fun with it, despite not having a clue what I’m actually doing beyond the very basics. The sport I understand at a basic level, Madden, not so much. It’s popping up a lot of tutorial screens when I play, but it’s a lot to take in.
Still, it’s good fun and it’s the first American football game I’ve played in years. The last one was probably Madden 2001 on Xbox or something.
I’ll only be playing quick games until I get my iPhone replaced. I don’t think starting a season right now would be wise.
KenKen (iPhone)
Sep 10th
I’ve lost my save data for this game now, too.
I think I’ll just start again a couple of difficulty levels up once I’ve got an iPhone that actually, you know, works properly.
Words With Friends (iPhone)
Sep 10th
And I’ve had to restore my iPhone “as new” again.
I’ve got an appointment at my closest (i.e. hours away) Apple Store to get it replaced on Saturday.
I am so very, very glad for games that, like Words With Friends, store my details online.
Modern Combat: Sandstorm (iPhone)
Sep 9th
Whoa!
Wait, wait, wait!
I’ve been been back and upped the control sensitivity and it makes a huge difference. Night and day stuff. I’m dying less and having a lot more fun. Hooray!
Still hate the stupid way you look up automatically after a while, though. What is that about? Serious question.
Modern Combat: Sandstorm (iPhone)
Sep 9th
Yes, yes, it’s very impressive. It’s basically Call of Duty 4 on the iPhone, I know. The Internet, generally speaking, seems to love it.
I just don’t think I like it very much.
People are praising the controls, saying they finally make virtual pads work. Well, I’ve been fine with a lot of virtual pads for a while now and I find the controls in Sandstorm slow and clumsy. Not horrible, but I do wish I could move faster. (It may be just that I need to up the sensitivity, which I’ll definitely be trying.)
I’m playing it on Easy, but I’m dying all the time. I bought it and played it a bit when it was released, but that was when I was having a lot of iPhone troubles, so I didn’t write a blog post about it. I restarted it again today and didn’t find it any easier. I just can’t seem to find the enemies before I get shot dead. I understand the use of cover, but enemies seem to rush out at you when you move into an open area and there’s no time to get to cover before you die.
Yeah, I know, I’m probably just rubbish. I’m just finding it more frustrating than fun, like I’m moving in slow-motion while the game runs full speed around me.
And why does my character look up in the air if I stop aiming for a bit? Why doesn’t he just continue aiming where I told him to look? And if it has to reset your view, why doesn’t it reset you facing forwards, instead of skywards? It’s probably the most annoying thing in the whole game for me.
Still, I’m going to play it some more, see if it grows on me, as I’ve got it. Right now, though, I do rather wish I hadn’t bought it.
KenKen (iPhone)
Sep 8th
After saying I wouldn’t, I went and finished off the thirty or forty remaining Apprentice challenges this lunchtime. Most took about ten or twenty seconds.
I’m now on the Amateur challenges.
That’s the first one. Not very difficult, but a bit more interesting.
Animal Crossing: Let’s Go To The City (Wii)
Sep 8th
Nothing very interesting happened last night, but I didn’t play for long.
KenKen (iPhone)
Sep 8th
I decided to put this on my iPhone instead of Str8ts as, despite buying it in the 59p sale a while ago, I hadn’t actually started it, so no save game to lose.
I starts off absurdly simple. So simple it’s almost insulting and definitely not very interesting.
So I’ve been skipping ahead to the Academy and doing the challenges in there to get my rank up. I’ve done all but one level there, but the current 6×6 puzzles it’s giving me are really quite hard. I may go back and do some of the Free Play puzzles, which are the meat of the game, anyway. I just don’t think I’ll bother doing all the 3×3 ones.
Words With Friends (iPhone)
Sep 8th
Still playing this.
I’m glad it stores games online, as I had to restore my phone and set it up as a new device last night, losing all my saved games. Golly.
My phone was crashing at least twice a day, normally within twenty seconds of being unlocked after some time on standby, and showing strange graphical glitches at other times. I’ve been suspecting a hardware fault, but since the reset it’s been behaving perfectly.
I only put six games back on when I set it up again. (Apple said to put no apps on it, but, really, what’s the point of an iPhone with no apps?) They were Mr Driller, KenKen, Run, Orbital, Deer Hunter 3D and Words With Friends. I also shoved on four apps I can’t live without – TweetDeck, Flickster, MLB At Bat and TV Guide.
Anyway, Words With Friends is going along as it always goes. I win some, I lose some.
