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A Gaming Diary
Sniper Vs Sniper: Online (iPhone)
Oct 22nd
From the chaps that brought us Baseball Slugger (or Homerun Battle, as I think they renamed it), comes this sniper game. I’ve not tried the online part yet – I’m only on GPRS here, which I don’t think would be very good for online gaming – but I’ve played through the first three levels of the single player game. It’s probably easier to show, rather than tell.
You look at a scene. Somewhere in it are snipers.
You look for them through your binoculars, moving your view by tilting your iPhone.
When you spot a bad guy, you change to the view down your rifle scope.
And then you shoot him.
It’s easy to pick up, but it’s going to be hard to master. Getting head shots isn’t as simple as you might think and it’s very tense stuff. I suspect it’s only really going to come alive online, though.
33rd Division (iPhone)
Oct 22nd
Do you like line drawing games like Flight Control and Harbor Master, but wish they were a bit more manly? Are you worried that you’re somehow dicing with your testosterone levels by playing games with little boats and planes? Do you only like games that feature Nazis or other evil foreign types? Then 33rd Division might look appealing, being a line drawing game with a rugged World War Two theme.
But – ha! – the joke’s on you, because it still looks quite cute. And – oh no! – all your soldiers have forgotten to bring their guns to the war. Frankly, you might just as well buy the America’s Next Top Model game and be done with it. Fierce.
Yeah, sorry, I’ve been spending too much time on forums populated by teenagers who are in that appalling stage of their lives where everything has to be serious and grown up and definitely not for children. Luckily, I’ve outgrown that phase, though I can still remember only wanting to read graphic novels and not comics. Teenage boys are idiots. All of them.
Um, right, where was I? Oh, yes, 33rd Division is a line drawing game. Like the others, your units (in this case tiny soldiers) come in from the sides of the screen and you have to direct them home. The difference here – apart from the WW2 skin – is that you’re not trying to keep your units from hitting each other, but to get them home without enemies seeing them. Enemy soldiers patrol around the screen and have vision cones. If they see you, you’re dead. You can lie down to stay out of sight, even when an enemy’s in range, but you can’t move and dogs can still spot you.
Basically, it’s the world’s first stealth line drawing game. (The first one that I’ve seen, at least.)
I’ve only had one very quick go so far, but it seems like a nice twist to the standard formula and I think I’m going to enjoy it.
Baseball Superstars 2010 Free (iPhone)
Oct 22nd
This is the sequel to one of my favourite games, but I haven’t bought the full version. Mostly because it didn’t look like it was enough of an upgrade to be worth the vast sum of £3.49.
Luckily, there’s now a demo version, which I played for a while last night. As expected, it’s rather unexciting. It’s better, don’t get me wrong. The graphics are nicer, I like choosing a goal at the start of a season and it’s good to have touchscreen menus. It just doesn’t quite feel different enough. As soon as they drop the price I’ll probably jump on it, but for now I’ll stick with the 2009 version, unless further play of the demo brings out any hidden depths.
iDrop Dead: Flower Edition (iPhone)
Oct 22nd
Unlocked the final world last night. It’s all bouncy. Not quite sure how to deal with it, to be honest, and I’m not getting great scores so far. Nice to have something new, though.
The picture below isn’t of the new world, it’s from an earlier world. Those pink circles are bombs that are triggered if something hits them. One of them has just started to explode.
Things might get messy. Hopefully. Messy = points.
Words With Friends (iPhone)
Oct 22nd
I managed to get rid of all seven of my letters last night – and make quite a rude word with them to boot. Very satisfying.
Unfortunately, when I woke up this morning, the game had an update. That’s not usually a bad thing and this adds push notifications and ways to spam social networking sites with adverts for the game (or something), but it’s also has given the game a new icon. Now, it might look fine sitting with all the other icons on one of your Home screen, but I’ve got the game in the dock and it looks horrible.
Yuck. I think I may write to my MP about this outrage.
Minigore (iPhone)
Oct 21st
Another day, another Minigore update. This one’s mainly to fix the terrible bugs in the last version, but also adds some extended music and adds power-ups to the radar.
You see that picture? I risked life and limb to take that. You see the little icon on the right of the screen there? The one with the yellow circle around it? It shows that there’s a crate over in that direction.
So, nothing very new then, but Minigore remains a fantastic piece of shooting action that should probably come preinstalled on every iPhone to prove to people that virtual controls can work.
iDrop Dead: Flower Edition (iPhone)
Oct 21st
Was a little bit grumbly with this game at lunchtime, being convinced that the target times for some of the goals had been tightened up since the last version, making the game much harder.
So I went back to the old version and checked. Nope, the times are exactly the same. The game’s just harder than I remember it. Fair enough. That just means it’ll last me longer. Hooray!
Words With Friends (iPhone)
Oct 21st
I see this screen a lot. Come on people, make your moves! (Says the man who often doesn’t check for new moves for five hours or more, even during the day.)
Wheelman (360)
Oct 21st
Only had about twenty minutes to play this last night, but managed to get in one brilliantly fun mission. I had to escape from a pursuing car, then turn around and destroy two other cars before they reached a casino. I’m not quite sure why, something to do with finding someone called Paulo, or something. I think I might want a job from him, but I’m not sure.
Anyway, I only managed the one mission, then just had time to discover that Vin Diesel likes standing in fountains and can duck, but cannot jump. Then it was time for Stargate Universe, so I had to stop playing.
iDrop Dead: Flower Edition (iPhone)
Oct 21st
Effectively, this is the latest version of iDrop Dead. However, the latest update to that game got rejected by Apple for being too gory. The earlier versions were fine, the new version with extra levels and characters was rejected. This may be down to having a more sensitive app reviewer, or might be because the new characters are more human-like than the teddy bears and worms that were in the earlier versions. Whatever the reason, the app was rejected.
So the developer decided to leave iDrop Dead alone, for people who still want blood, bones and brains, but make a new version of the game, with the extra content, but with flowers and candy canes instead of gore. Got that?
So that people who’d already bought iDrop Dead didn’t have to pay for the new version, it was put up for free, which was a nice gesture. (At the time of writing it’s still free, but may cost 59p by the time you read this.)
This all also means that I’ve had to start the game again from the beginning to get to the new content. This is not a problem. In fact, it feels exciting. I get to play it all again with a clean slate – hooray!
You see, iDrop Dead is an excellent game and a graphical makeover doesn’t change that simple fact. It’s a brilliant physics-based puzzle game in any incarnation and I’ll always choose to play the version with the most content. Go get it.
