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A Gaming Diary
geoDefense Swarm (iPhone)
Sep 18th
Well, it seems level two was a blip. I’ve now beaten all the Easy levels with, well, with ease.
All except the final level, but that’s because it’s an endless level and thus unbeatable. I’ll be trying it for high scores, but the OpenFeint system used for scores seems to be amazingly flaky. It keeps logging me in when I start the game, but then fails to upload my scores. I’m not sure why, as I can go into the system and I seem to be logged in. It’s a pain.
Great game, though, even with the problems with the leaderboards. It’s one of those “everyone with an iPhone should own this” titles.
Words With Friends (iPhone)
Sep 18th
I won a game!
Yeah, I know, it’s not that unusual, but I’ve been doing badly in more games than normal recently. I think it’s definitely the letters’ fault, not mine. Yes, that must be it.
Katamari Forever Demo (PS3)
Sep 18th
So, this is the demo of the new Katamari game on the PS3. The full game is compilation of old and new levels done up with various new graphics filters, I believe. A bit like a remastered greatest hits album with a couple of new tracks.
The demo features two levels. The first has you rolling around a water-covered Katamari, bringing life back to the desert. It’s absolutely wonderful. I love seeing flowers and plants spring up where I roll. The second level is a traditional level, set in a house, where you have to roll up small objects to get to 20cm. As always, it’s throughly enjoyable stuff.
I love Katamari and this looks like being a great game. The series lost its novelty factor long ago, so it’s a good job the charm and the fun still remain.
Batman Arkham Asylum (PS3)
Sep 18th
Well, this is strange.
I actually think I’ve started enjoying the combat challenges more than the stealth challenges. There’s just something so satisfying about getting a big combo going – and almost always knowing exactly what you’ve done wrong when you lose it. I’m really getting a lot better, too. I managed my first perfect flow combo last night and have got two “bats” on the first of the combat challenges. Some way to go, but I love a game where I can feel myself getting better and better.
Scribblenauts (DS)
Sep 17th
Wasn’t in the mood today. I went to the next puzzle level after the one with the bully. There was a flower. It needed to grow. So, that level took about five seconds, then. Then there was one with a girl on a diving board and nothing I tried worked until I fluked it by accident. And then there’s one with a pirate and crocodile and some spurious chests and it was just fiddly and awkward and I couldn’t be bothered at all.
geoDefense Swarm (iPhone)
Sep 17th
Forget what I said about the difficulty.
I did complete level three last night, even though I thought I didn’t. I must have, because I was on level four when I started the game today.
Did that first time.
Then went to level five, which I did first time.
Haven’t tried level six yet.
Lovely game, though. Only problem right now is that it’s not publishing to Twitter. It says it is and there’s no error, but it’s only ever published one event to my Twitter feed, all the others have silently failed. Odd.
i Love Katamari (iPhone)
Sep 17th
So, this is currently on sale for £1.79, reduced from £4.99. I had the credit sitting in my account, so I downloaded it without hesitation.
Which may have been a mistake.
It’s not that it’s a small version of the game – that’s understandable and okay by me, given the price.
It’s not the framerate, which though slightly alarming never stops the game being playable on my 3GS.
It’s not the tilt controls as such, they work fine.
It’s that you can’t calibrate the controls, as far as I can see. The game is set up with a neutral angle that makes no allowances for being slumped on the sofa or lying in bed. If you’re not sitting up, almost hunched over the phone, you can’t play it. Bah.
(Also, I apologise for managing to take such a bland, grey screen shot of the game.)
geoDefense Swarm (iPhone)
Sep 17th
I finally beat level two! Go me!
I also almost beat level three, but didn’t. Not sure why. It was getting late and my memory is hazy.
I love the difficulty level in this game. I’m very much up for a challenge. I just wish that some of the difficulty didn’t come from my towers being completely idiotic when it comes to choosing targets. So many times enemies amble past my final defenses on tiny slivers of health while my towers decide to fire at enemies that are miles away from the exit. It’s very frustrating, but I guess it’s just something you need to allow for.
Orbital (iPhone)
Sep 17th
So, I decided to try and play Pure mode last night, in an attempt to beat my previous high score of 26.
That’s a picture of me just starting my first game of Pure mode on the new iPhone, full of hope and expectation.
My best score ended up being, er, five.
I’ve got some work to do.
