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A Gaming Diary
Red Faction: Guerilla (360)
Sep 28th
Couldn’t play this on Friday night, because I was out in that London drinking with reprobates.
Couldn’t play on Saturday, because I was too hungover to blow stuff up.
Tried to play on Sunday and managed an hour that was filled with great moments, but somehow I couldn’t get into it. I think the problem was that my heart just wasn’t it. I kept dying because I was more concerned with throwing explosives around than protecting myself. When I actually went on missions and tried to complete them I had a great time, full of tens moments, gut-wrenching losses and hard-won victories, but I was just finding it too easy just to cause mindless destruction and ignore the fact that people were shooting me.
I suspect that I still wasn’t quite right on Sunday, though I didn’t quite have a two-day hangover, thankfully.
Defense Grid: The Awakening Demo (360)
Sep 28th
Tried this out on my netbook at while back, but it didn’t run. Now there’s a 360 version, though, I got to play it. It’s a fixed-path tower defense game, with an interesting approach to lives, some lovely graphics and an amusing voice over from Jim Ward.
If I had a spare 800 points and wasn’t overloaded with good TD games on the iPhone I’d consider a purchase. That’s not meant to be damning with faint praise but… but I suppose it is, whether that was intention or not.
The problem is, I didn’t play it long enough to get any interesting levels – the first two that I played were very limited. I suspect it gets an awful lot better later on.
I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!!1 Demo (360)
Sep 28th
I’m not entirely sure I’ve spelt that correctly.
Anyway, this is a fairly standard – though decent – twin-stick zombie shooter, enlivened by presentation that turns it into as much of a comedy sketch as a game.
I didn’t feel the need to play it again after one play, but I’m glad I played it that once.
Red Faction: Guerilla (360)
Sep 25th
Lovefilm sent me this yesterday, which was nice of them. I loved the demo, so I was very much looking forward to the full game. It doesn’t disappoint. Took ages to install and update it, then there’s a load of cut scenes and tutorial stuff, but once into the game I was having a grand old time.
Basically, although you get to drive around and shoot people, destruction is the key element. (Just as in Crackdown, thinking about it, where jumping was the thing that brought the open-world shooting and driving gameplay to life.) Not that the shooting and driving isn’t fun. The run and gun approach to killing enemies feels a bit wooly, but if you use cover and aim your shots it’s a lot better. (And sneaking up on people and walloping them with a sledgehammer is unlikely to ever get old.) The driving is great fun, with trucks that just love to go flying through the air.
But, yeah, it’s watching buildings fly apart and collapse that’s the real draw here. The game knows this and populates the first area with impressively tall smokestacks that are amazing to bring down – and which you’re rewarded for destroying with the game’s currency. Excellent.
I think I’m going to enjoy this.
I’m only a silver member of Live these days, so I won’t be able to try out the multiplayer, but I’ll try to finish the single player before sending the game back.
Picosaic (iPhone)
Sep 24th
I’m a sucker for a press release. No, really, if someone emails me a press release and I don’t go and buy the game I feel terribly guilty. (I really should open a US iTunes account so I can use promo codes.) Generally I just live with it, but the press release for Picosaic landed in my inbox this morning and it looked nice and was only 59p, so I downloaded it.
I’m glad I did. It’s a fairly slight little game, but it’s also quite lovely. It’s easier to play than explain, but there’s a YouTube video that makes it all clear. So, for the first time ever, I’m going to try and embed a video into my blog. It should be below.
I wonder if that’ll work?
Anyway, I’ve played several levels now – I’ve got to the stages where the picture is split up into four tiles, each of which has to be “solved” separately. There are fifty puzzles in the game, so I doubt it’ll last very long… except for the fact that you can make your own puzzles using pictures on your iPhone. Here’s me solving a puzzle that’s made from a photo of me in my Halloween costume last year.
Sexy, huh?
It’s a toy as much as it is a game, really, but don’t let that put you off. If nothing else, it’s a fun way to show off photos.
Sliding Heroes Lite (iPhone)
Sep 24th
This one’s just odd.
You have little RPG-like characters that you tilt around the level, bashing into monsters to kill them and open the level exit. Clerics are tanks, mages weak but with powerful ranged attacks, etc.
It’s a real strange concept and it doesn’t really work. For example, you can choose how many characters to deploy and having more than one character on a level at once is a recipe for disaster. You can’t have calibrate the neutral state for the tilt, so you have to hunch over a horizontal iPhone to play.
I suspect it’s pretty rubbish, really… but it’s got an indefinable something that makes me want to play it again, despite myself.
Horror Racing Lite (iPhone)
Sep 24th
Top-down racer with weapons. Has a “horror” theme, but it’s more Monsters Inc. than Texas Chainsaw Massacre. (Thinking about it, I’d love a cart racer starring Freddy, Jason, Leatherface, etc.)
Instead of moving left and right you turn the wheel to point where you want to go. Sounds reasonable, but doesn’t work for me. I keep on going the wrong way and end up driving round the track on my own, bashing into everything on the way. A lot of people online seem to be quite happy with the controls, though, so don’t take my word for it.
Lumines Lite (iPhone)
Sep 24th
Tried the demo another couple of times.
The controls simply don’t work properly.
I’ve tried hints and tips from people who say they do, such as only swiping down the right hand side of the screen or whatever, but that doesn’t help.
It’s just broken. So glad I didn’t spend any money on it.
Squareball (iPhone)
Sep 24th
It’s amazing how many games you can fit into a lunchtime when they’re all bite-sized treats like Squareball and the millions of others I got through after eating my sandwich. Not that all of them were treats, but I’m coming to that.
Anyway, I finished level three of Squareball on my last life.
And then finished level four without losing a single life. I rock.
Level five, though, is proving somewhat tricky.
No, I appreciate that doesn’t look hard, but it’s about the only place I felt safe enough to take a screenshot.
By the way, I solved my sound problem. It seems the game uses your ringer volume if the music is turned off, so I just turned the music on and turned the game sound down. Simple…
