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A Gaming Diary
Hills and Rivers Remain Lite (iPhone)
Nov 30th
I’ve put hours into this now. Hours. It’s probably one of my most-played iPhone games and I’ve not even got the full version yet. I spent a long, long time trying to get a medal on the fifth Free Play mission, which requires you to capture every base within thirty turns. Winning the game wasn’t hard, but doing it within thirty turns – and making sure I’d captured all the neutral bases before finishing off the enemy – was very tough. I kept finishing in thirty-two or thirty-three turns, but couldn’t get it down any further.
Until, somehow, I managed it twenty-three turns. I think I shouted out in my victory and may have punched the air. I seem to remember having to explain to the wife why I’d startled here.
The most important thing to do when you need speed is to make sure you’re constantly moving troops around. On a time limit you can’t afford to keep troops in reserve behind your front lines, no matter how tempting it is to leave some defenders just in case the enemy breaks through. Also, if you know you’re going to lose a base to the enemy, you’re better off retreating before they arrive, so you’ve got more men available for a counter attack. And you really have to make good use of the power ups that you’ve been given and not leave them in reserve until it’s too late.
It’s brilliant game and I’m definitely going to get the full version. I’ve been planning on finishing off all there is to do in the Lite before buying it, but I’m not sure that’s wise. It seems sensible on the surface, but the Lite version is getting very hard indeed now and I really don’t want to find the full game a pushover when I get to it. It might be better to have both and swap between the two. (The Lite version features content not in the full version, by the way. I think the Free Play mode in the full version may be closer to a Skirmish mode than the mission-based structure of the Lite, but I’m not sure.)
Assassin’s Creed 2 (360)
Nov 30th
Yes! A non-iPhone game! I went out on Saturday morning and used up the credit on my Blockbuster account on a copy of Assassin’s Creed 2. In these heady App Store days, spending forty pounds – forty pounds! – on a game seems ludicrous, so however much I wanted this game I’d not have got it if I didn’t have the store credit sitting there waiting for me.
I bought AC2 over all the other recent releases (Modern Warfare 2, New Super Mario Bros, etc.) because I loved and adored the first game and had heard this one was the same, but bigger and better. I’d heard right. It’s Assassin’s Creed taken to a whole new level, with a better structure and lots, lots more to do. It’s simply glorious.
I’m tempted to list all the cool things I did over the weekend, but I don’t really want to take away the surprise from people who haven’t played it. I’ve mostly avoided reviews and forum chat, so was constantly being surprised by new gameplay elements. I’m not sure that the story’s really up to much – it seems to be a fairly confusing conspiracy tale, not unlike the first game – but individual lines and scenes are well-scripted, with a surprising amount of humour.
I played for five or six hours the weekend, I think, and I’m itching to get back for more.
MiniSquadron (iPhone)
Nov 30th
Excellent 2D shooter, with tons of unlockables, excellent presentation, great controls and lots of enemies to blow out of the sky. Get in your plane, fly around a small level, kill everyone who stands in your way. A great shooter and offhand I can’t think of a single bad thing to say about it.
Hope you enjoy the screenshot there. As you might suspect from the angle of my plane, taking my thumbs off the controls to capture the screen killed me.
Words With Friends (iPhone)
Nov 30th
I wasn’t wrong about going through a bad patch in Words With Friends. I checked my game history at the weekend and I’d lost seven out of my last ten games – with six losses in a row at the bottom of the list. I do seem to be clawing my way out now, though, with a few more victories coming my way.
Hills and Rivers Remain Lite (iPhone)
Nov 27th
I was a bit sniffy about this yesterday and didn’t intend to take a second look, but something drew me back and I’ve ended up playing it for ages. As well as the story level I played yesterday, there are a good selection of Skirmish type levels included in the Lite version, albeit all on the same map. (At least, they’ve all been on the same map so far.)
It’s an odd game in that it moves slowly but forces you to move very quickly, constantly changing your headquarters so troops are generated where you need them most. I think I may have already played this for longer than I’ve played Galcon, mainly due to each battle lasting fifteen minutes or so, rather than thirty seconds.
At this rate I might even have to buy the full version.
Rogue Touch (iPhone)
Nov 27th
I love me a roguelike and you can’t get much more roguelike than, er, Rogue. It being… well, you see what I’m getting at here. Anyway, this version has a great interface, runs well and basically just does the job it’s meant to do.
Only played one game so far and was doing really well until a monster rusted away my armour. I tried to take it off to put on a new set, but it was cursed, so I couldn’t remove it. So there I was, a few rusty patches of plate armour all that stood between enemy attacks and my sensitive fleshy parts. Death was pretty much inevitable from that point, but I struggled along for a while until a centaur killed me on level eleven.
SimCity (iPhone)
Nov 26th
The tutorial’s horribly fiddly, but don’t let that put you off. I bought this yesterday as it was on sale and for a few minutes thought I’d made a terrible mistake. Never fear, though, because after a few frustrating minutes it all starts feeling a lot more natural. It’s always going to be a little awkward, fitting all those functions on to a touch screen, but it works better than you might expect.
Seems to be pretty complete, too. A few animations might be missing – the big versions do show trains on the railway tracks, don’t they? – and I’d like some clearer feedback about what improvements are most urgent, but other than that, it’s all good. Certainly kept me occupied for a fair while yesterday evening.
I’ve just been messing around in the tutorial city so far, might take the plunge into a brand new city soon.
Hills and Rivers Remain Lite (iPhone)
Nov 26th
Love the name of the game, am slightly unconvinced by the gameplay, which seems to be a slightly slower and more structured version of Galcon, all done up with the typical Square-Enix polish. Though the main character is called Alan and the big enemy appears to be called Herbet, which makes the whole thing seem a bit less epic than usual.
Words With Friends (iPhone)
Nov 26th
Having a lot more fun with this now, after my sticky patch. Lots of very close games going on at the moment.
Anyway, I’d just like to wish any American readers (are there any, apart from my wife?) a very happy Thanksgiving. May all your turkeys be strong and fleshy, or something.
Ground Effect (iPhone)
Nov 25th
Very, very nearly came third on race twelve this lunchtime, but I kept on buggering up the final lap, once I realised I was in with a chance. I hate it when that happens. I wonder if on some level I’m deliberately mucking it up to make the game last longer. I thoroughly enjoy every single attempt at this race, so maybe my subconscious won’t let me win until I start getting bored of it.
Nah, it’ll just be me being rubbish, as usual.
Apologies for taking the worst screenshot of the game I’ve ever seen, by the way. Click the “ground effect” link below to see my other posts on the game if you want some better shots.
