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A Gaming Diary
Alive 4-ever (iPhone)
Oct 5th
I hadn’t played this since getting my new iPhone because I’d lost my save file and didn’t feel like restarting.
On Saturday morning, though, the game updated to version 1.1, which adds some excellent new stuff.
First off there’s a survival mode, where the aim is simply to go as long as possible without dying. You get a special gun if you last ten minutes – I’ve managed about four and a half so far.
Then there’s Horde mode, where you have to survive waves of zombies, with guns being given out for surviving a certain number of waves.
They’re both good additions, making leveling up a lot more interesting than simply going back and playing early levels.
The best new feature, though, is a lot more simple – there’s now an icon next to a level that appears when you’ve completed that level’s bonus challenge. No longer do I have to try and remember which levels I’ve completed fully, hooray!
So I played a lot of this at the weekend. The first seven levels are pretty simple, but there’s a big jump in difficulty at level eight. I managed it after a few tries, but I’m now having quite a lot of trouble on level nine. Great fun, though, and the update has made the game a lot more enjoyable.
FIFA 10 (iPhone)
Oct 5th
Been very much enjoying this. I even started a game in Manager mode. It’s not a full management game, by any means, but it’ll let me go through a few seasons with a team instead of just playing one-off games and doing the odd cup.
I started with Torquay, as I’ve played them in Football Manager. Their £15M transfer budget seemed a bit high. You know, just a little. (I tried to buy David Beckham, because he’s only worth £14M, but he refused to come to the club, saying he was too good for us. More importantly, their name breaks the score display at the top of the screen.
I couldn’t live with that, so I started another game as Aston Villa, which gets nicely shortened to AV and looks fine. So far we’ve played three games and won two. Interestingly, the game doesn’t seem to randomise fixtures – I’m just playing through the Premier League in alphabetical order.
So, yes, the game’s a bit rough around the edges, but on the pitch I’ve got no complaints, and that’s where it counts.
BaDaBoo (iPhone)
Oct 5th
Free game supported by some non-intrusive ads that appear at the top of the screen now and again. I’m not sure how often, or what they’re for, because I barely noticed them. One asked me to enter my email address, I remember that much. Guess what? I didn’t.
Anyway, the game. You flick the big blob around the screen and send the smaller ones flying. The small ones change colour when they hit the big one. You get points for collisions and for any blobs that are the same colour as the big blob when everything settles back down.
The game description says you can use strategy or luck, but I’ve been entirely unsuccessful when trying to use any strategy. I’ve had a lot more fun just flicking the big blob as hard as I can and watching everything bounce around. In that way it’s a limited success – well presented, nicely tactile and fun for a couple of minutes here and there – but it’s not a great game by any means.
Words With Friends (iPhone)
Oct 5th
Played quite a lot of this over the weekend. Got quite a few games on the go.
My best move of the weekend was this one.
Annoying to not quite get up to triple figures, but at least that way it doesn’t break the little score bubble.
Canabalt (iPhone)
Oct 2nd
This one’s been stirring up some controversy today.
Not about the quality of the game – pretty much everyone agrees that it’s excellent – but about the price.
It’s £1.79.
Out of context, that doesn’t sound like much. It’s about the price of half a pint of beer for an exceptional game.
However, there are two important bits of context.
Firstly, you can play the game for free on the web HERE.
Secondly, it feels very much like the sort of game that would sit with Mr.AahH!, Run and Skybound at the 59p price point. You can get all three of those excellent games for the price of Canabalt on its own.
A lot of people, therefore, aren’t buying it, either because they think it’s simply not worth the cost, or because they believe the developer will be forced to slash the price before long.
So why did I buy it, then?
Simply because it’s an excellent game. It looks gorgeous, it sounds brilliant and it’s fast, addictive and exciting. I’ve played the web game a lot and now I can carry it around with me and play it wherever I am. And that’s worth £1.79 of my iTunes credit balance.
FIFA 10 (iPhone)
Oct 2nd
Wow. I’m drained. I’ve just spent my lunchtime taking Aston Villa through the FA Cup. We beat such amazing teams as Colchester, Aldershot and Preston on the way through to a final against the mighty Grimsby.
One all after normal time, Carew scored in the first half of extra time to put us ahead and we carried that lead through to the end.
Hooray!
We’re winners!
Anyway, it’s a good game, though not perfect. The AI can do some very strange things at times. I’m not sure if that’s because of the difficulty level or just because it’s a bit rubbish. The highlights sometimes show completely the wrong thing. And I have honestly never heard such a repetitive commentary.
But the controls work well, it looks nice, it’s full of content and you get a fun, tense game of footie out of it. I can’t compare it to any other iPhone football games, because I’ve not played them, but I like this one.
Here’s a picture of the first goal I ever scored.
Beautiful, ain’t it?
iDrop Dead (iPhone)
Oct 2nd
Right, I want you to do me a favour today if you own an iPod Touch or an iPhone.
I want you to download the Lite version of iDrop Dead.
I’ll even give you a direct link to the game on the iTunes Store.
Got that?
Okay.
Now I want you to play it.
If you enjoy it, the full game is only 59p and is full of lots of levels and modes and characters and blood colours and everything.
Thank you.
I appreciate that this sounds a bit like an advert, but I only downloaded the game on a whim and was very surprised by how good it was. I think a lot of people are just thinking it’s some gory cartoon toy, when in fact it’s an excellent puzzle game. I really just think it deserves a wider exposure than it’s got and I honestly think most people who try it out will be surprised by how good it is.
It’s not perfect, no, but it’s very, very good and any criticisms I might have – some weirdly difficult goals now and again, random placement of saw blades on one of the level means you have to keep playing to get a good layout – don’t amount to much against the good stuff.
4×4 Jam (iPhone)
Oct 2nd
Just played this after Squareball sessions when I needed to wind down and relax.
Not that losing a race after bouncing off the road just before the finish line felt particularly relaxing at the time, mind you.
Squareball (iPhone)
Oct 2nd
Take that! Ha!
Level eight, The Lava Temple, seemed impossible at first.
No, really – I honestly thought I’d never get through it.
Somehow, though, I did. I’m still not quite sure how.
Level nine, though, maybe this will be the one to finally break me…
Words With Friends (iPhone)
Oct 2nd
Oof. I just lost a game. We were level, I had a single U left, I couldn’t see a single place I could go.
I had to pass my turn.
My opponent won.
It turns out, though, that there was a move I could have made to win the game. It seems so very obvious now, but I just couldn’t see it.
Can you?
