So, as February levels up into March, I peek my head out of the trenches and survey the battlefield that is gaming.
Unnecessary metaphors aside, I've been playing two games recently. Both of them quite heavily feature plants. Let's go!
Eufloria is an indie game by two developers, Rudolf Kremers and Alex May, and is a sort of exploration/RTS hybrid. It's very much as describe on it's site, an ambient game. The goal is to send your seedlings to other asteroids and plant them, so that they can create new seedlings. You encounter opposition in the form of rival seedlings and have to fight them off using defensive trees and the seedlings themselves. One rather cool feature is the ability to zoom in and out of the battlefield using the scroll wheel. From far away, you can view all of your asteroids, with dots representing your seedlings, but you can zoom right down to the level where you can see all of your seedlings firing at the enemy. It's a neat feature.
Plants Vs. Zombies... It feels weird typing this, since originally I was not a big fan of the whole concept of tower defence where your towers can be destroyed by the enemy. But PvZ has really grown on me. It's a fun game with a fair amount of longevity, since you can replay the adventure mode again with a slightly harder difficulty level. The games sense of humour is fantastic, and the final boss fight in the adventure mode is a good laugh. The achievements give the game a real sense of depth and give you something to aim for.
I take it all back, Plants Vs. Zombies. You're alright.
I started this post on Wednesday evening. So much has happened in terms of gaming since then. Grr.
See y'all in the garden!
Showing posts with label apple. Show all posts
Showing posts with label apple. Show all posts
7 Mar 2010
14 Jun 2009
Hardware Heartache
It has NOT been my weekend...
Apart from feeling physically lousy from hayfever, and mind numbingly bored from revision, all my tech stuff has been going to pieces recently.
My iPod was crapping out on me all over the places yesterday evening. I couldn't establish a connection at all, although it turned out that the wireless router wasn't working, so I reset that. Then Twitterrific stopped working, which sucked, so I deleted it and reinstalled it, and it kept telling me I was entering it wrong... *breath in* Then I uninstalled it again, and went to reinstall it, and I saw it had caught something called the Twitpocalypse bug, which I assumed was bad, so I got annoyed and put my iPod away.
Today, perusing the Interweb, I found this article on engadget, rumouring the "new" Xbox, with Natal being the corner stone of its tech. I was in response to an article from 1UP, who seemed pretty damn confident, despite not actually citing any sources. This gives me mixed views. As is probably clear now, I am in the (long, drawn-out) process of buying an Xbox 360, and I don't want it to become last generation a year after I get it. Recently, I read somewhere that Xbox was going for a 10-year life cycle, which is neat, but it would really annoy me if it did become slightly outdated... Some how, I think this isn't the case. It doesn't seem like Microsoft's style...
Wii HD may be a reality in 2010, according to this pre-E3 news article on Gamespot. Again, mixed feelings. It links into a What They Play article from last year, which suggests Wii HD is a brand new console. That'd really piss me off. I've had a Wii from the very start... I'd prefer it if the Wii HD was some kind of add-on to the existing console... I don't see Nintendo killing off their golden goose though. According to the Gamespot article, there won't be any new consoles till around 2013. Works for me.
But the biggest annoyance for me was finally learning about what the iPhone 3GS was/is. I don't have an iPhone and I particularly wan one. I don't understand what tethering is. I do, however, have an iPod Touch, which is essentially an iPhone without a phone and a camera. And mobile internet. This latest development means something quite important. Because this new iPhone has a better processor (insert long string of numbers and letters as appropriate) it means it can handle better games, in terms of visuals and gameplay. I'm really tired of the iPod Touch playing second fiddle to the iPhone. Okay so it's not as good, I get that. But Apple need to give it some love. The new software is out on the 17th of June, and I'm probably gonna buy it. Don't know what it will do though. I'll check before hand to see if it's worth it.
If Apple released a new iPod Touch with, for example, a camera and a better processor I might buy it. My iPod Touch has had a pretty good run of it... Meh. I'll play it as it comes.
This is me signing off. I won't be doing a blog on Wednesday, because I have three exams this week, and I'd like to ace them, please. I'm not sure I'll manage one on Saturday either, since I'm at a wedding, but it's worth a try.
This has been the blog post that I've done the most research for. Good for me.
Peace out y'all.
Apart from feeling physically lousy from hayfever, and mind numbingly bored from revision, all my tech stuff has been going to pieces recently.
My iPod was crapping out on me all over the places yesterday evening. I couldn't establish a connection at all, although it turned out that the wireless router wasn't working, so I reset that. Then Twitterrific stopped working, which sucked, so I deleted it and reinstalled it, and it kept telling me I was entering it wrong... *breath in* Then I uninstalled it again, and went to reinstall it, and I saw it had caught something called the Twitpocalypse bug, which I assumed was bad, so I got annoyed and put my iPod away.
Today, perusing the Interweb, I found this article on engadget, rumouring the "new" Xbox, with Natal being the corner stone of its tech. I was in response to an article from 1UP, who seemed pretty damn confident, despite not actually citing any sources. This gives me mixed views. As is probably clear now, I am in the (long, drawn-out) process of buying an Xbox 360, and I don't want it to become last generation a year after I get it. Recently, I read somewhere that Xbox was going for a 10-year life cycle, which is neat, but it would really annoy me if it did become slightly outdated... Some how, I think this isn't the case. It doesn't seem like Microsoft's style...
Wii HD may be a reality in 2010, according to this pre-E3 news article on Gamespot. Again, mixed feelings. It links into a What They Play article from last year, which suggests Wii HD is a brand new console. That'd really piss me off. I've had a Wii from the very start... I'd prefer it if the Wii HD was some kind of add-on to the existing console... I don't see Nintendo killing off their golden goose though. According to the Gamespot article, there won't be any new consoles till around 2013. Works for me.
But the biggest annoyance for me was finally learning about what the iPhone 3GS was/is. I don't have an iPhone and I particularly wan one. I don't understand what tethering is. I do, however, have an iPod Touch, which is essentially an iPhone without a phone and a camera. And mobile internet. This latest development means something quite important. Because this new iPhone has a better processor (insert long string of numbers and letters as appropriate) it means it can handle better games, in terms of visuals and gameplay. I'm really tired of the iPod Touch playing second fiddle to the iPhone. Okay so it's not as good, I get that. But Apple need to give it some love. The new software is out on the 17th of June, and I'm probably gonna buy it. Don't know what it will do though. I'll check before hand to see if it's worth it.
If Apple released a new iPod Touch with, for example, a camera and a better processor I might buy it. My iPod Touch has had a pretty good run of it... Meh. I'll play it as it comes.
This is me signing off. I won't be doing a blog on Wednesday, because I have three exams this week, and I'd like to ace them, please. I'm not sure I'll manage one on Saturday either, since I'm at a wedding, but it's worth a try.
This has been the blog post that I've done the most research for. Good for me.
Peace out y'all.
30 Mar 2009
Like a tilting iPod...
What's the best way to overcome a Monday back at work?
Spend most of it playing your new iPod game.
I bought "Rolando" at the weekend, for only £2.99. I'm pretty sure that it used to be £5.99, but I assume no-one was buying it for that much. So... yeah, three quid, ch-ching and all that.
Rolando is actually pretty good. Dunno why I say actually, I was expecting it to be good, it got 9 out of 10 on IGN for christ sake. But I'm enjoying it so far. The graphic style is very nice, although it's kinda annoying it looks a bit like Loco Rocco, cause people will think that it's a cheap knock off, which I can safely say that it isn't. The controls are some of the best I've seen on the iPod, with the tilt controls working really well. The little Rolandos who can stick to walls have a strange control method but once you get past that, it works really well. The variety of puzzles I've tackled so far have been pretty challenging, but nothing impossible. Still got three worlds to go though, so things can only get better. Or worse. Obviously.
Makes me wonder though, if the iPod touch gets a wave of good games like this, could it come to be considered a "proper" games console? I got Spore: Origins, and well... it was pretty crap. de Blob was alright for about 10 minutes, and the tilt didn't work. But those were early games, and now, maybe it's time for the iPod touch to mature. It just needs its killer app, which is a term incredibly appropriate for the context.
GREAT NEWS! I've completed Phantom Hourglass! So no more blogs about Zelda! I really enjoyed the last boss, although his final form really had me stumped for a while. Here was me trying out all my availiable weapons, and it never occured to me to USE THE BLOODY SWORD I SPENT THE ENTIRE SECOND HALF OF THE GAME GETTING! I really am a grade A Noob. Or is that grade F? I dunno.
The ending was alright. I felt a bit cheated by it if I'm honest. I won't ruin it for anyone who wants to actually play it, but, you know, ever played Link's Awakening?
Actually it reminds me of a comic I saw once... Hold on, lemme just trawl the net for it... Heh trawl, that works cause it's about the sea... Okay, it's dreadful...
Ah-ha! I didn't do this clearly. But if you ignore the weird "art" and the slightly surrealness of it all, it's vaguely borderline humourous. Also, it won't make a lick of sense unless you've played Link's Awakening;
http://ganonstower.com/comics/eponacomic14.jpg
Enjoy!
And with this I bid you adieu, farewell, and other goodbyes until Thursday cometh.
Spend most of it playing your new iPod game.
I bought "Rolando" at the weekend, for only £2.99. I'm pretty sure that it used to be £5.99, but I assume no-one was buying it for that much. So... yeah, three quid, ch-ching and all that.
Rolando is actually pretty good. Dunno why I say actually, I was expecting it to be good, it got 9 out of 10 on IGN for christ sake. But I'm enjoying it so far. The graphic style is very nice, although it's kinda annoying it looks a bit like Loco Rocco, cause people will think that it's a cheap knock off, which I can safely say that it isn't. The controls are some of the best I've seen on the iPod, with the tilt controls working really well. The little Rolandos who can stick to walls have a strange control method but once you get past that, it works really well. The variety of puzzles I've tackled so far have been pretty challenging, but nothing impossible. Still got three worlds to go though, so things can only get better. Or worse. Obviously.
Makes me wonder though, if the iPod touch gets a wave of good games like this, could it come to be considered a "proper" games console? I got Spore: Origins, and well... it was pretty crap. de Blob was alright for about 10 minutes, and the tilt didn't work. But those were early games, and now, maybe it's time for the iPod touch to mature. It just needs its killer app, which is a term incredibly appropriate for the context.
GREAT NEWS! I've completed Phantom Hourglass! So no more blogs about Zelda! I really enjoyed the last boss, although his final form really had me stumped for a while. Here was me trying out all my availiable weapons, and it never occured to me to USE THE BLOODY SWORD I SPENT THE ENTIRE SECOND HALF OF THE GAME GETTING! I really am a grade A Noob. Or is that grade F? I dunno.
The ending was alright. I felt a bit cheated by it if I'm honest. I won't ruin it for anyone who wants to actually play it, but, you know, ever played Link's Awakening?
Actually it reminds me of a comic I saw once... Hold on, lemme just trawl the net for it... Heh trawl, that works cause it's about the sea... Okay, it's dreadful...
Ah-ha! I didn't do this clearly. But if you ignore the weird "art" and the slightly surrealness of it all, it's vaguely borderline humourous. Also, it won't make a lick of sense unless you've played Link's Awakening;
http://ganonstower.com/comics/eponacomic14.jpg
Enjoy!
And with this I bid you adieu, farewell, and other goodbyes until Thursday cometh.
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