A Gaming Diary
iPhone
My Brute (iPhone)
Jul 30th
Here’s a picture of me defeating someone in a fight. Enjoy it, it doesn’t happen often.
I’m actually quite excited about this game, even though the way it encourages you to spam codes around means it’s a big festering pile of crap. Why? Well, since I started playing the web version I’ve been wanting a dog. Or a wolf. Or a bear. An animal companion, anyway.
Last night I leveled up and – guess what? – got a dog. Hooray!
Unfortunately, I leveled up after my last fight of the day, so I’ve not had a chance to see my pooch in action yet. I think I’ll call him Dexter. All pets get called Dexter these days, it seems to be a new law.
Space Invaders Infinity Gene (iPhone)
Jul 30th
I know why I’m not playing this as much as I feel I should be. It’s because it’s a much better game with the sound on and I mostly play my iPhone games with the sound either off or on the lowest volume setting. I love the main levels, but my favourite part of the game is generating levels from songs and trying to get through them.
I think that’s Dead Ringer For Love by Meat Loaf, but I’m not sure.
Confession time. I’ve never got through an entire song when I’ve been playing this game. Not one. I think I probably need to choose shorter songs… or get better at the game, I suppose.
Real Racing (iPhone)
Jul 30th
I’ve turned the braking assistance off. Completely.
This now means I do very well on tracks I know well, pretty well on tracks I’m somewhat familiar with and really, really badly on tracks I don’t know at all. The actual driving mechanics and controls I’m pretty comfortable with now, so it’s all about driving well. Which is how it should be, of course.
This really is a very, very good game. I’m not sure why I’m not playing it more than I am.
Resident Evil 4 (iPhone)
Jul 29th
Success! I played level three of the Mercenaries mode again, which gave me enough money to buy the rifle and a big stock of ammunition. Then I took it out and did the level pretty easily by finding safe spots and using the zoom.
I got surprised once or twice – just enough to make it fun! – and had to heal myself at one point, but it wasn’t too hard.
Look, I got my first S rank. Pretty good, eh?
I have to say, I am really, really enjoying this. I can see all the faults, but it’s just excellent fun. I think you should be cautious before buying it, because the controls and tiny, tiny arena-style levels will put people off, but don’t dismiss it out of hand.
Words With Friends (iPhone)
Jul 29th
Yes, I’ve been playing more of this since I last posted. A fair amount more. It’s very nice, being able to play a move or two, then ignore it for a while.
But why does it use the ringer volume, rather than the separate app volume? That’s quite annoying. I don’t want to turn off my ringer just so I don’t annoy people in the office.
iPhone Home Screens
Jul 29th
In this post my online chum deKay asked to see other people’s iPhone Home screens, so here are mine. It feels rather like inviting someone round to my house when I’ve not tidied up, but here we go.
Real Racing (iPhone)
Jul 29th
Gave this a try last night after downloading it a couple of days ago. It’s really very good, based on first impressions. At the beginning of the game I was swerving all over the shop, but changing to the in-car view and getting used to the controls helped a lot. Now I just need to decide on where to put the auto-brake slider. I’ve got it about half-way down at the moment and I’m trying to train myself to brake manually before tight corners.
I haven’t played it a huge amount yet, so I can’t talk about it in detail. I’m not sure it’s the second coming or anything, but I can already see that it’s definitely one of the best games on the iPhone and is just in a completely different class to that Ferrari GT game I tried the other day. Mind you, it should be given that it costs ten times more than the Ferrari game.
Resident Evil 4 (iPhone)
Jul 29th
I’ve been playing a lot more of this. I still haven’t got past the third level.
That screen shot is me, on the third level, about to die. I’d made a very good go of things, but that last enemy got me.
I’ve decided on a plan, though. I’m going to play the third level of Mercenaries mode through a few times and buy myself a rifle. It’s fun to use in Mercenaries mode and will be a great help in the story. In effect, then, I’m going to be grinding, like in an RPG. It doesn’t bother me, though, because whatever mode I play, I have fun. I’ve not got tired of any of the levels yet.
Words With Friends (iPhone)
Jul 29th
I’ve been playing an awful lot of this. I’ve got several games on the go. It’s really fantastic, but it’s hard to know which words the dictionary will let me use.
At least you’re not penalised for trying to play a word it doesn’t like.
I’ve finished a couple of games now, too, both wins.
That win there was very lucky. I was trailing the whole game, but near the end I managed to get 105 points for the word ZAPS. (The Z was on a triple letter square, the whole thing was on a triple word.)
Racer (iPhone)
Jul 29th
I tried to take a picture of a bit of the game that had lots of cars on the screen. Unfortunately, it all moves a bit too quickly, so I ended up with this:
D’oh.
