InvertY.com
A Gaming Diary
Boiling Point: Road To Hell (PC)
Aug 28th
This time I hit the quick save button a few times and didn’t kill anybody. I drove arolund the jungle a bit, then swam across some water and got eaten, met some guerillas – who thought I was their new recruit – and some government troops – who thought I was their new recruit – and learned how to drive a boat.
And then I jumped around some houses and managed to fall on to a balcony I couldn’t jump off, so I turned the game off.
Madden 07 Demo (360)
Aug 28th
Tried it again and worked out the controls a bit more. Enjoyed myself and even scored a touchdown. Still not entirely comfortable with it, but I’m sure I could be if I bought the full game.
Alas, there are too many games coming out soon, so there’s no way I can get this one, too. Sorry EA.
Texas Hold ‘Em (360)
Aug 28th
Won a couple of hundred bucks on a low stakes table, but my cards were rubbish so it wasn’t much fun. Just a lot of folding.
Boiling Point: Road To Hell (PC)
Aug 28th
Infamously buggy free-roaming FPS/adventure/RPG thing.
And it is buggy, oh yes. Subtitles don’t match dialogue, dialogue often doesn’t play, game crashed after half an hour or so of play. I’m not too bothered. I’d killed a woman in the starting town, so all the civilians either ran away from me or shot me, which was getting annoying. And I’d made enemies of the government by killing an informer in protective custody, so the police were shooting me every time I wandered into town, too. The bandits liked me, but who cares about them? And I kept dying and losing guns and stuff, which was annoying. Combat seemed to be all about the head shots, which would be fine if I could ever get any.
And, boy, it’s ugly. I’m sure technically it’s nice and clever and everything, but on normal settings everything looks horrible close up.
Galaga (360)
Aug 28th
Nice. Upped my high score to 42,390 from around 28,000. Still rubbish, but I jumped up my friends leaderboard a fair way. I’m now on the first page, which is pleasing.
Game actually gets quite fun when you get further in, too. Pity I can’t normally survive that long.
Madden 07 Demo (360)
Aug 28th
Might be a decent game, but the demo’s quarters are so short it’s impossible to tell. And it needs a tutorial – not in American football, just in the game mechanics. Annoyingly, I’m impressed despite the demo. I think there could be a fun game there, under the EA menus, if they’ve not got annoying “get fifty times better in the last quarter” AI in there again.
Half-Life 2 Episode One (PC)
Aug 28th
Oh.
An annoying boss fight.
Great.
That’s enough of that, then.
Amped 3 (360)
Aug 27th
“Gary’s just this guy I know. He’s really fast.”
Just finished story mode. Took eight hours and forty-six minutes according to the stats page. About eight hours then, if we forget about the extra messing around I did. Just about the perfect length. Excellent game. Lots of variety, in both cut scenes and tasks. Some – like the snowmobile – would be horrible for a whole game, but for single levels here and there the worked well. I’d have liked some actually racing against people, or even just timed tasks without marked paths, but apart from that, very good stuff.
If it wasn’t a launch title and didn’t have the Amped name – it’s nothing like the original Amped, as far as I remember – then I think reviews would have been much kinder.
Well worth £17.99 from Play. And there’s still an awful lot to do now the story’s over – that just opens up all the levels, doesn’t complete them.
A very nice surprise this game. I give a curt nod of the head in appreciation.
Amped 3 (360)
Aug 27th
Actually, I’m really enjoying this. It’s nothing like Amped – apart from being a snowboarding game, obviously – and the story presentation is probably a bit Marmite – personally, I like the inventiveness even when it’s being incomprehensible or falling flat on its face trying to be funny – but it’s great. It’s just a silly snowboarding arcade game with lots to do and an excellent difficulty curve. (So far.) I’m on the second mountain and am in one of the “build respect” bits, which I don’t seem to be doing. Instead I’m just showing off and having fun.
Amped 3 (360)
Aug 26th
Seems okay, but I’ve not played it much yet. Just did a couple of story missions and then got told to go forth and conquer, or something. It hasn’t even told me all the controls yet!
