InvertY.com
A Gaming Diary
Burnout Paradise (360)
Feb 2nd
This is great, but I’m having trouble with the online side of things. I’ve not even tried to play online yet, but the leaderboards seem to take an age to update, I can’t seem to find world-wide boards (just friends only), I’ve had several “Can’t connect to Burnout Paradise server” messages and once the game just got stuck on a “Connecting to Burnout Paradise server” screen and I had to leap back to the dashboard and restart.
Other than that it’s almost all good. The only real problem with the single player mode is navigation. The only reason I ever lose a race is because I’ve taken a wrong turn, which is very easy to do at high speed. Also, I miss Crash mode. Showtime is fun (and I soundly beat SomethingWitty on one road), but it’s no substitute.
So, it’s a new Burnout, then. Which means having a whole host of complaints about things they’ve changed and EA’s servers. Give it a while and everyone will consider it a classic… just in name for the next Burnout out to come along and start the cycle over again.
Ghost Squad (Wii)
Feb 2nd
This is great.
It’s a lightgun game, where the Wiimote acts just like a gun in the arcade. You can keep the aiming sight on the screen if you like, but I found it more fun to turn it off. After a test game with the sight on, that I soon abandoned, I played through the entire game. Normally I don’t use continues, but Ghost Squad is all about repetition, going through the game time and again, unlocking new things, improving scores and having fun.
It’s too soon yet to say if I will play through it enough to unlock everything, but the game I had today was incredibly good fun.
I limited myself to one play through for two reasons. One, I don’t want to gorge myself and get bored of the game too quickly. Two, it makes my hand hurt a lot, probably something to do with the unnatural twisting and turning motions my hands have to make. A Zapper would probably improve that and I can’t help but think that the game would be even more fun pulling a trigger on a gun than it is just using the Wiimote.
Ace Combat 6 (360)
Feb 1st
Got this free and decided I should try it out before trading it in. I didn’t think I’d like it for two reasons. One, I don’t like games in which you fly planes. Two, I didn’t like the demo.
Still, I did the tutorial and the first mission (which is the demo mission), didn’t enjoy myself and turned off the 360. The problem is that I’m rubbish. I never feel like I’m in an exciting aerial dogfight, I just feel like I’m flailing around.
Rez HD (360)
Feb 1st
Hooray! My site’s back up after going down because the entire Internet decided to look at my fake album covers page and I used my entire monthly bandwidth limit in about twelve hours.
Anyway, over the last couple of days I’ve been playing Rez HD, which is one of the best games ever… in HD. It hasn’t lost any of its magic over the years.
I just need a headphone extension cable now, so I can play it straight into my brane.
Off-Road Velociraptor Safari (Web)
Jan 30th
Yep, you read that right. This is a free, web-based 3D driving game, in which you drive into raptors. Requires the download of a seemingly harmless and very common plug-in before you can play and the framerate on my iMac is pretty atrocious, but it’s good fun.
Worth a look, and not just because it’s got a silly name.
Play it here.
Call of Juarez (360)
Jan 27th
I’m on the fence with this right now. I’m really not if I like it or not. Shooting people if fun – when you can see the enemies. Sneaking is fun – when you don’t get seen seemingly at random. Moving around is acceptable – except when you fall down a tiny gap and die. It looks kind of okay – except that everything’s too dark and it’s all the same colour. (There’s a brightness setting, but that just washes everything out.)
I don’t know. When it’s good, it’s good, but far, far, far too much of my time is spent moving the crosshair around the screen waiting for it to go red, simply so I can find out where the enemies are. They’re too small and blend in far too much the surrounding scenery. It’s very, very annoying indeed and I think it’s going to kill the game for me. It may have already, actually – I’m not at all sure that I’ll ever go back to this game.
It’s such a shame, as I love the setting and I’ve been really trying to like it. I guess it’s just a half-decent PC game that’s been thoughtlessly ported across to 360. (The unreadably small text at the start of levels is more evidence of this.)
Burnout 3 (360)
Jan 27th
Compact Grand Prix done, I’ve worked my way through Muscle class and now I’m in the Coupé class. And then a few Crash events to polish off the session. Dessert, I guess. I’ve said it before, but it needs saying again – this game is so much better when you know what you’re getting beforehand. The racing is tight and exciting, takedowns are always satisfying and Crash mode is compulsive, despite being slightly more science than art.
The Club Demo (360)
Jan 27th
Tried the mode I didn’t try when I first played the demo. I can’t remember what it was called, but you’ve got to do laps of a course, trying to earn as many points as possible along the way. Interesting idea and well-executed. Certainly raised my interest in the game another notch. I’m definitely interested now, if I ever see it cheap enough.
Turning Point: Fall of Liberty Demo (360)
Jan 27th
An FPS based in an alternate 1953, where the Nazis are still around and have just launched an attack on America. Nice chunky graphics, lots of things wooshing by, slightly dodgy controls and, of course, Nazis to shoot in the face. I rather liked it, though I seem to be the only person on the Internet not to hate it.
I’m very tolerant of games where you can actually see what you’re doing.
Undertow (360)
Jan 27th
I can’t imagine why anyone would pay for this; I’m not really satisfied with it and I got it free.
It isn’t as bad as I thought it was when I played the demo, I’ll give it that, and maybe the fun lies in the multi-player mode, but in single player it’s repetitive and seemingly random.
