A Gaming Diary
iPhone
Words With Friends (iPhone)
Aug 18th
Oh come on! I need better letters than this!
I know, I know, a bad workman blames his tools, but seriously, that’s just rubbish.
Not as rubbish as a tray full of consonants or vowels alone, no, but it’s quite poor.
Str8ts (iPhone)
Aug 18th
Yes, I’m definitely getting a lot better at this. When I started, I’d take about half an hour (or more!) to do a puzzle, then get it wrong and have to use the Check feature to see which of my numbers were incorrect.
Now, though, I can often get through a puzzle in ten minutes or so without any backtracking or mistakes. I’m going to continue doing the easy puzzles until I’ve finished them, but I’m hoping I’m good enough for the next level up when I get to that point.
TowerMadness: 3D Tower Defense (iPhone)
Aug 17th
Whoa!
Hang on a second!
I started this up to give it another chance, finished the (incredibly easy) Medium map, which unlocked loads of new towers and new enemies. It also unlocked the Hard map, which is very difficult indeed.
Now, I still have concerns. The different enemy types and your own weapons all look way too similar to each other, which is a major problem. And it’s still far too easy to sell a tower by mistake. But this is now looking more interesting.
Doom Resurrection (iPhone)
Aug 17th
An update to this game came out at the weekend. It added forty challenges – e.g. get a high score on a level, do a level in a certain time, etc. – and a brand new map.
Golly.
I’m not sure why iPhone games get all these bonus updates after release, but I’m not complaining. Anyone who thought that this game was low on content when it was released – a claim I refute – has less cause for complaint now.
It’s also, as I type, still £1.79 instead of the normal price of £5.99. Given that it’s easily worth six quid, if you don’t buy it when it’s on sale… well, you’re being a bit silly.
I finished off the story at the weekend, then tried the extra content. The challenges seem to be aptly named, as I failed the first one, despite only mucking up in one spot. Also, though it’s really nice having these challenges, would it not have been possible to strip the story sequences out of the levels? It’s very odd for a challenge to be interrupted by out-of-context dialogue.
I also tried out the new map.
It’s excellent. Enemies always appear in the same places but, unlike the main game maps, it’s random which enemy types appear in which spots. So on one go you can have imps flinging fireballs at you and on another zombies might be firing assault rifles. It makes a bit difference and it’s pretty great.
It’s also very hard – I’ve hardly managed to get anywhere, even on the easiest difficulty setting.
So, yes, all in all, though the challenges don’t appear to be perfect, one of the best games on the App Store just got better.
Wolfenstein RPG (iPhone)
Aug 17th
This game gets rather difficult after the first level or so.
Survival now seems to depend on scouring the levels for health kits, using syringes and trying not to get cornered by multiple enemies – though that’s much easier said than done.
This is not, I don’t think, a game for hoarders. I think I’m going to have to save often and make good use of my inventory in order to progress.
Where I am now, I’m out of anti-fire syringes, I’m surrounded by a lot of enemies and I’m scared. Very, very scared.
That screenshot above reminds me of happier, simpler times.
Words With Friends (iPhone)
Aug 17th
As usual, I have nothing much to say. I played this a lot over the weekend and I lost some games and won others. I can’t remember any amusing words that were allowed, nor any that were disallowed seemingly at random.
This is the problem with a gaming diary. I have to blog about this game, otherwise it will seem like I have stopped playing and if there’s any point at all to this thing, it’s to show what I play over time – which games get one day of play, then disappear, which games keep on giving over weeks or months – but that doesn’t mean I have anything to say about them.
Str8ts (iPhone)
Aug 17th
Nothing further to report.
This is still an excellent puzzle game and I still seem to be improving.
That’s pretty much all there is to say, I’m afraid.
TowerMadness: 3D Tower Defense (iPhone)
Aug 17th
Yet another game that was free for a while over the weekend.
The title pretty much says it all. It’s a tower defense game in 3D. Which means you can zoom in, so it looks like this.
That, however, isn’t the most useful view, so you’ll no doubt be playing it like this.
I haven’t played this much. I went through the Easy level and didn’t have any problems, then a day or so later tried the Medium level. I placed some towers in the wrong place, which wasn’t too annoying, but I when I sold a powered-up tower by mistake I got angry and quit out. I’m not sure how I manage to sell towers by mistake, but I did it several times.
Also, I can’t find a way to find out about my towers after I’ve placed them. Maybe I’m missing something. I just feel that there’s a bit of a barrier between the game and me – and that it might not be a very interesting game even if I could get past that.
As I said, though, these are very much first impressions based on very limited play. I’ll have to try again, see I can get comfortable enough with it to see inside.
Dropship (iPhone)
Aug 17th
Another game that is/was free for a bit to drum up interest from a community baffled by the huge amount of games available for the iPhone.
This one I very much enjoyed. It’s all 2D, despite what the graphics might suggest, and you have to fly down to green box and then fly back up with it dangling and swinging beneath you. Along the way you have to shoot enemy gun emplacements and rescue little people named after the contacts you have on your phone.
Here’s me rescuing Richard “Too Rude For Live” Gaywood.
That one touch adds a huge amount of life into a simple game. It’s a fun game, which I plan to play again. I’d think that regardless, but being able to rescue friends and family just adds an extra incentive to the game – who will you find next?
Saucelifter (iPhone)
Aug 17th
This is just like that old game, er, you know… ::coughs into sleeve::
Yeah, that one.
Okay, I can’t remember the name. But it’s just like an old game where you were, I think, a helicopter, and had to shoot things and rescue little chaps. This is the same, but you’re a flying saucer.
Normally it costs money, but as part of the App Store implosion event, it was free over the weekend.
I’m not sure how much I like it.
The problem is, it starts off being very easy to survive, but my lack of steering skills means it takes me ages to rescue the little guys, so it’s several minutes before there’s any real danger (i.e. ground-mounted guns) – and then I die almost immediately, as I’m rubbish.
Honestly, I’m not sure the game’s at fault. If I could get better, it would get more interesting more quickly. If I didn’t have five pages of games on my iPhone, I’d be more likely to get the practice I needed, but as it is, I can see this being ignored. Which, I think, is probably a shame, overall.
I really do like the look of it, though, except I’m not quite sure why it keeps going widescreen on me. I think it means there are people to rescue nearby, but I’m not sure.
Also, I really, really, really overuse commas.
