InvertY.com
A Gaming Diary
Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (DS)
Jul 9th
A surprisingly decent 3D beat-em-up based on the most excellent movie.
Rather better and rather trickier than the reviews I’ve seen would suggest.
Chromehounds (360)
Jul 8th
Well, hmm.
The mission design is a bit… rubbish… but driving/piloting the hounds is fun.
And I got just enough parts to design my own hound, which was amazing fun, even if it turned out to be useless. It spat machine gun death in huge amounts – one quick press of the trigger button created an attack lasting several seconds – but it couldn’t take any damage and ran out of ammo in no time at all.
However, it was very stompy, so at P’anther’s suggestion I called it Rooney.
ZangbandTK (PC)
Jul 6th
The Giles clan were Vampire Mindcrafters. The first seven didn’t make it past level one, often perishing at the hands of the first enemy they came across.
Then came Giles VIII. He didn’t seem to be any stronger or wiser than the rest, but somehow he won a few fights and found himself progressing to level two. That small step seemed to make things easier and he grew in strength and confidence, gaining new powers.
He could send psychic attacks across thin air, wiping out the fragile minds of lesser beasts.
He could stop and sense the enemies around him.
He could open his mouth, bare his fangs and launch himself at the monsters in the dungeon, clamp on to their necks and drink their blood.
He could even teleport himself across thin air. He couldn’t choose where to go, but the power saved him on a number of occasions.
That was until he met the novice warriors. He was a level four character on level two of the dungeon. He was being careful, because he knew there were dangers. Entering a room, bruised and bleeding after a fight with a monster, he saw a sleeping priest. He crept up, ready to pounce, ready to feed. Which was when the novice fighters entered from his left. Knowing he couldn’t take them on, he teleported himself away. It wasn’t far, just behind them in the room they’d obviously just left. He started to run… and slammed straight into a dead end. The two novice warriors approached…
Giles VIII tried teleporting again. He didn’t have enough SP left for the task, but he tried anyway. It was a desperate final act and it failed. He fell to the floor, paralysed, his mind damaged beyond repair. One novice warrior got within striking distance and showed no mercy to his fallen foe. The other warrior was now also close enough to attack. Their weapons flashed in the half-light of the tunnel as they came down and cut through the flesh of the vampire’s neck.
It was over.
Giles VIII the Vampire Mindcrafter, Level 4
Killed by a Novice warrior on Dungeon Level 2
(User 0, Date 07/06/06, Gold 421, Turn 142830).
(There’s not many games that make me write such utter rubbish. Let’s see if, say, Chrome Hounds leads me to write such painful prose about painful deaths.)
ZangbandTK (PC)
Jul 5th
Bow your heads in memory of Jeremy, the Nibelung Monk.
He did well up to level eight, his bare fists and feet making mincemeat of foes… until he got swarmed by several thousand (ish) cave spiders and succumbed to their bites while trying to run.
I need to learn how recall spells work. I tried a recall scroll, but nothing seemed to happen, except the word “Recall” came and stayed on the screen.
ZangbandTK (PC)
Jul 5th
Oh, for pity’s sake!
I was doing so well. I’d been sensible, I was up to level seven and back in town, selling stuff and buying new supplies. I was doing really well. Then I decided to try my unidentified scrolls in the relative safety of town. One of blessing… good… one of strength…. good… one of summon monster… eek!
It’s name is a LIE. A dirty, filthy LIE. It doesn’t summon monster, it summons monsters. Lots and lots of horrible monsters. Well, at least three. More than I could handle, at any rate. My health diminishing rapidly, I read a phase door scroll and found myself halfway across town.
I tried to run, but I wasn’t fast enough, and so Nigel the Skeleton Chaos Warrior dies, killed by a Culverin in the town.
Hitman Blood Money (360)
Jul 2nd
Just abit of playing around in the A Murder Of Crows mission. Haven’t really got anywhere, but I’m getting a better mental image of the map in my head.
Chrome Hounds Demo (360)
Jul 2nd
Tried the sniper mission.
I failed.
The reload time on the sniper gun is incredibly long.
It wasn’t really much fun.
Prey Demo (360)
Jul 2nd
A 3D shooter whose gimmick is that it uses 3D. Okay, so you can walk on walls and ceilings sometimes, when it lets you. A bit of a headfuck. It wasn’t absolutely amazing, but it did keep me entertained and interested and I was annoyed when it ended. So, yes, I want to play the full game.
Kept getting an error when I tried to connect to Live games, so no idea what the multiplayer is like.
