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A Gaming Diary
Just Cause 2 (360)
May 5th
Did the third story mission over the weekend. Yes, an actual story mission!
(The reason I’m only updating the blog now with weekend gaming is that Monday was a Bank Holiday and yesterday I went to London and ended up standing on a street singing – on camera, mind you – for the BBC. But that’s another, rather shameful story.)
Very long it was, too. (The story mission, not the singing.) Had to rescue someone from a drug den, then there was a motorcycle chase, more fighting, a helicopter ride and then I completely destroyed an ancient temple complex. All the killing I can handle with ease, but destroying buildings of great historical worth? That made me feel a bit ill.
Apart from that, though, it was just the usual messing about and making things blow up. BOOM and suchlike.
Trials HD (360)
May 5th
Finally got round to getting the game when it was on offer for 800 points last week. It’s just as great as the demo suggests. Sometimes frustrating, yes, but the controls feel so natural on the 360 that it’s a completely different game from the fiddling, mildly-hateful PC version.
I’ve done the Beginner levels with gold medals, but now I’m on Easy I’m just concentrating on getting through each track – I’ll go and try to improve my times when (if…) I manage to complete them all.
As an aside, the first achievement I managed to get in the game was the one for breaking every bone in my body, which must say something about my play style.
FIFA 10 (iPhone)
Apr 30th
The new World Cup edition of the game came out last night, so I played some of FIFA 10 to see if it was actually any good. And, yes, it is. I don’t think I managed to score a goal, but it felt good under my thumbs. It’s got a bit of a reputation online, but I’m not too sure why. On the field, where it counts, it’s a very decent game.
I never touched him!
So, yes, in the early hours of the morning, still mostly asleep, I opened up the App Store and bought the World Cup game. Impressions next week.
Chaos Rings (iPhone)
Apr 30th
Went through the first dungeon at the second difficulty level and didn’t die! Hooray for me!
Die weird bird thing, die!
Partly because I’m stronger than I was, but mostly because I didn’t make any stupid mistakes. Also, there aren’t any bosses, so I was able to use magic in standard fights and not worry.
It’s a slog, this game, but it’s a good slog.
MotorHEAT Demo (360)
Apr 29th
One of those odd indie games hidden away in the 360′s weird interface.
It’s an avoidance-based driving game rather like Racer on the iPhone. You only have to move left and right to avoid cars (and sometimes press a button to boost), but it’s incredibly fast and looks good, if obviously not as polished as properly commercial 360 games.
I may well buy it. You should at least give it a download.
Just Cause 2 (360)
Apr 29th
I love that you can just go for a drive and stuff to do just finds you.
Last night I was driving, saw the icon for a colonel pop up and drove into a base. Was soon being shot from all sides, clicked the trigger – nothing. All out of SMG ammo. A few bullets left in my pistol. A mere twenty bullets in my assault rifle. Ran through the base using my last ammo, firing almost randomly. Ran round a corner, almost hit my face on a fire engine, jumped in, turned around, accelerated, turned the colonel into meaty chunks under my tyres, open my parachute, turned around, grappled on to a weaponless helicopter, started to fly away, got shot by a combat helicopter that had flown up behind me, leapt out of my burning chopper, grappled on to the one that had been shooting me, hijacked it, saw bullets slam into me, wheeled around, shot up another helicopter that had turned up, sent it crashing into the trees below, then flew away to safety trailing thick, black smoke.
All of which took a couple of minutes.
I love this game.
I also swam down to the bottom of the sea to collect a drug drop, found a strange, stormy island filled with bizarre towers and, well, generally just buggered about.
Skate 3 Demo (360)
Apr 29th
Instead of just skating round randomly, I did some challenges last night. I learned how to break lots of bones and then tried out some tasks set me from some character I cannot remember in any detail. He may or may not have called me “bro”, but he sounded like he should, either way.
It was quite easy, though also slightly buggy. I completed a “don’t touch the stairs” challenge by, er, riding down the stairs. Huh.
Still, I’m sure that things like that won’t happen in the full game. Oh, wait… no I’m not.
Dwarf Fortress (Mac)
Apr 28th
I'm really starting to see the fortress, not the ASCII.
I’m doing well. The terrible famine and slayings of earlier years is past – and left me with loads of spare clothes to trade with when merchants appear. I’ve got an underground farm going, finally, and I’m brewing alcoholic drinks, cooking food, making weapons and all sorts of amazing things.
I’m even in the process of building a throne room.
I’ve had a bit of trouble with rhesus macaques, but the dogs tend to chase them down and kill them, so they’re not a major nuisance.
It’s all going really, really well. Which means something’s bound to go horribly, horribly wrong soon.
Tilt To Live (iPhone)
Apr 28th
One of the best just got better, with two new game modes added in an update yesterday. And not as paid-for DLC, either – these came for free.
Gauntlet mode. The green orbs give you extra time.
The first new mode is Gauntlet, in which obstacles come from right to left and you have to avoid them for as long as possible. No combos or scoring, it’s all about survival time. A nice change from the standard gameplay.
Code Red. It is to standard mode what Yorkie is to Galaxy.
The other new mode is Code Red, which is the same as the standard game, but misses of the boring bits at the beginning. This makes an absolutely brilliant game even more absolutely brilliant and makes me want to give the developers big, manly hugs and buy them beer. And then have them buy me beer, because, after all, I’ve already given them my money.
Mmmm… beer.
