Now I'm back in London, I've gained access to that most wondrous of new devices, the 3DS. The media gave it a relatively good response but I didn't hear any cries of "greatest gadget ever" from the journalist masses, so I was willing to wait. After having the thing for almost a month now, I've decided to compile my thoughts on the thing;
Showing posts with label link's awakening. Show all posts
Showing posts with label link's awakening. Show all posts
25 Apr 2011
21 Apr 2011
The Big Ten; My Favourite Games of All Time
It's a ritual every games writer must go through at some point; the traditional run down of his or her top ten favourite games.
After scribbling down a shortlist and then using an advanced method of moving bits of paper about on my desk, I decided on an order. I'm still not a hundred percent sure about the order of the bottom five, but the games that matter are all there. So let's begin;
10; Wario Land 3, GBC, 2000
Probably the least known game on the list, but one that has always stuck with me, WL3 is a 2D platformer in a similar vein to the other Wario games. The game features a linear upgrade system where Wario's powers develop over the course of the game. This allowed for an element of the game which probably is the main reason for it sticking in my top ten; after gaining new abilities, you would go back to older levels and unlock new routes through them, resulting in new levels unlocking. A night and day cycle that altered the enemies and layout of certain levels was a clever feature, as well as some fantastically ridiculous boss fights and an ingenious power up system that beautifully exploited Wario's invincibility. Wario Land 3 showed me that small cartridge games didn't have to be small in vision.
After scribbling down a shortlist and then using an advanced method of moving bits of paper about on my desk, I decided on an order. I'm still not a hundred percent sure about the order of the bottom five, but the games that matter are all there. So let's begin;
10; Wario Land 3, GBC, 2000
Probably the least known game on the list, but one that has always stuck with me, WL3 is a 2D platformer in a similar vein to the other Wario games. The game features a linear upgrade system where Wario's powers develop over the course of the game. This allowed for an element of the game which probably is the main reason for it sticking in my top ten; after gaining new abilities, you would go back to older levels and unlock new routes through them, resulting in new levels unlocking. A night and day cycle that altered the enemies and layout of certain levels was a clever feature, as well as some fantastically ridiculous boss fights and an ingenious power up system that beautifully exploited Wario's invincibility. Wario Land 3 showed me that small cartridge games didn't have to be small in vision.
1 Apr 2011
No Fooling. This is an Update
Seriously. There's no joke to be found here, just posting an update. I figure I can still keep this blog active if I do at least one post a month.
So the Minecraft post I've been working on is somewhat dead in the water. I know exactly what I want to say and I have some great images to go with it but unfortunately I don't have the motivation to get the damn thing written. So for the time being I'm sticking on hold. Minecraft isn't going anywhere. In fact I booted up the single player again the other day to try and find a wolf, but after running around for a while carrying a bone, I didn't find any.
Echo Bazaar has been making up most of my gaming in the past few weeks. I've really been enjoying the developing narrative and have been trying to role-play the character as much as possible. The new profile page (and you can find mine here) really encourages the development of a journal, and I've been trying to create a really character to portray. I recently built up my Casing quality so that I could rob from the Bazaar itself, which would have been incredibly risky if I'd have failed. Chronicling the plans I was laying down in the Journal really made the whole experience feel more visceral and also exists as a nice record of my activities.
I've been catching up on my TF2 recently. I bought one of the hats for Japan, as it seemed like the right thing to do. It's a great thing when the gaming community can rack up three hundred thousand dollars over about six days. I think charity and games really go well together. Giving players virtual items in exchange for donations is really the way forward. People are far more inclined to donate when they get something out of it, and virtual items don't actually cost anything to produce, so everybody wins.
TF2 game-wise, I've been getting slightly better! Sure, I still die a lot, but I've been staying alive for longer. As a sniper, I've actually surprised myself by getting a few headshots. As an engineer, I've got far better at placement of sentry guns, and feel far more useful now that I actually build teleports. As a medic, I'm getting far better, although there is nothing as depressing as when you are paired with a Heavy and he turns into giblets in front of your eyes, despite being fully over healed.
Way back in late January, I pre-ordered a 3DS with the full intention of cancelling it a few weeks before launch. Unfortunately, I totally forgot to do that, and so whilst I was still deciding what to do about it, I got an email saying that my order had been dispatched, so that decision was very nicely removed from my hands, along with two hundred pounds from my bank account. The 3DS actually arrived a day early, but for some reason still unbeknownst to me, it was delivered to my home address, as opposed to my student digs. Overall, I'm not that upset about the entire thing. There's nothing on the handheld I'm particularly clamouring for, and until either Link's Awakening or Ocarina of Time come out, I think I can manage without.
Finally, Tom of Newb Review fame very kindly posted me a copy of Left 4 Dead 2 that he picked up cheap from EA Headquarters recently, which I am incredibly appreciative of. Expect a post about that soon.
But not next time. Oh no, next post is my one hundredth blog post, and I'm celebrating by creating my definitive Top 10 Games of All Time. It's gonna be a big one.
See y'all next time.
So the Minecraft post I've been working on is somewhat dead in the water. I know exactly what I want to say and I have some great images to go with it but unfortunately I don't have the motivation to get the damn thing written. So for the time being I'm sticking on hold. Minecraft isn't going anywhere. In fact I booted up the single player again the other day to try and find a wolf, but after running around for a while carrying a bone, I didn't find any.
Echo Bazaar has been making up most of my gaming in the past few weeks. I've really been enjoying the developing narrative and have been trying to role-play the character as much as possible. The new profile page (and you can find mine here) really encourages the development of a journal, and I've been trying to create a really character to portray. I recently built up my Casing quality so that I could rob from the Bazaar itself, which would have been incredibly risky if I'd have failed. Chronicling the plans I was laying down in the Journal really made the whole experience feel more visceral and also exists as a nice record of my activities.
I've been catching up on my TF2 recently. I bought one of the hats for Japan, as it seemed like the right thing to do. It's a great thing when the gaming community can rack up three hundred thousand dollars over about six days. I think charity and games really go well together. Giving players virtual items in exchange for donations is really the way forward. People are far more inclined to donate when they get something out of it, and virtual items don't actually cost anything to produce, so everybody wins.
TF2 game-wise, I've been getting slightly better! Sure, I still die a lot, but I've been staying alive for longer. As a sniper, I've actually surprised myself by getting a few headshots. As an engineer, I've got far better at placement of sentry guns, and feel far more useful now that I actually build teleports. As a medic, I'm getting far better, although there is nothing as depressing as when you are paired with a Heavy and he turns into giblets in front of your eyes, despite being fully over healed.
Way back in late January, I pre-ordered a 3DS with the full intention of cancelling it a few weeks before launch. Unfortunately, I totally forgot to do that, and so whilst I was still deciding what to do about it, I got an email saying that my order had been dispatched, so that decision was very nicely removed from my hands, along with two hundred pounds from my bank account. The 3DS actually arrived a day early, but for some reason still unbeknownst to me, it was delivered to my home address, as opposed to my student digs. Overall, I'm not that upset about the entire thing. There's nothing on the handheld I'm particularly clamouring for, and until either Link's Awakening or Ocarina of Time come out, I think I can manage without.
Finally, Tom of Newb Review fame very kindly posted me a copy of Left 4 Dead 2 that he picked up cheap from EA Headquarters recently, which I am incredibly appreciative of. Expect a post about that soon.
But not next time. Oh no, next post is my one hundredth blog post, and I'm celebrating by creating my definitive Top 10 Games of All Time. It's gonna be a big one.
See y'all next time.
29 Apr 2009
G4M3 H4XZ0R5... Or something
So as previously mentioned at the weekend, I got Uplink and Darwinia at the weekend off Steam for a low low price of only 6 quid, which works for me. I've been playing them all this week, all though not as much as I'd liked to, having to fit it around revision, but I've given it my best shot. Although I've only played Darwinia once. But I'm entitled to my opinion, so there.
Uplink is a hacking game, which I had no idea about prior to download, except it was a hacking game. Set in some kind of bizarre future where hacking has become so prominent, it qualifies as employment, you take on the role of an "Uplink Agent", whose job it is to, unsurprisingly, hack things. Right from the outset, you really buy into this illusion that it is REAL hacking. The game asks you to put in a username and password, and asks you to wait to connect to the network. It's all very nice.
Visually, there's not a whole lot to see, but it's not really necessary. It reminded me a little bit of text based adventures which I've never played. It is fun to hack computers though as the trace tracker makes you really impatient for the password to be cracked before you get traced and fined and OH MY GOD IT'S SO STRESSFUL!
Onto more relaxed things, Darwinia. I had no idea about this game either, cept it was a sort of real time strategy in a virtual world. Which is sort of what it is, but also sort of not... If that made any sense.
Set in "the world's first virtual theme park", Darwinia is a strategy game with a difference. You don't build troops, you run programs. You don't research upgrades, you get upgrades by collecting Research. You don't collect resources, you collect DNA spirits... Okay several differences. It's a nice change from your average strategy game. The visual design is very good, and does sort of look like what the internet might look like if it were visualised.
The only bad thing about Darwinia is that I feel I'm playing it in the wrong way, although I guess that's my fault, not the game itself. My strategy is to shoot everything, then send my little Engineers in to scoop up the DNA so they don't get hurt. But this strategy doesn't work, since the DNA fades away quite quickly. Ergo, I need to be braver. Actually that's true in real life =)
So that's my take on the first two Introversion games. I'll be playing them for a while yet, so expect to hear more about them.
Three things to cover, very swiftly, since this is already way too long;
1. My iPod has some how fixed itself. It seems to do that a lot. I think it has a learning chip in it.
2. I've been eyeing up the classic Fallout games in preparation for getting Fallout 3 on the XBox (that I don't have yet) Only 6 quid for all three on Amazon? Yes please.
3. View this for me;
This is what I've made using Word and Paint. I know it's not funny, but that's not the point. The point is that I did it. I desperately wanna do a Link's Awakening webcomic but ComicGenesis doesn't like breach of copyright, and I'm worried it wouldn't work.
Meh. What happens happens I guess.
Anyway, I've wasted too much of your time already. Catch you at the weekend.
6 Apr 2009
Some kind of Zelda pun...
I am actually going to have to stop this blog soon, since all I'm bloody ever playing is Zelda. I mean, I like it but I'm not an effing fanboy. Me and a gaming friend of mine were chatting about it a lot the other day, and I was saying how I didn't really enjoy it that much. He argued that it was a lot better than Twilight Princess because there was so much to do, but I said I found it really dull. I promised him that I would go back to play it, and so yesterday, I started it up on the Wii.
Don't get me wrong I don't think that it's a crap game. I can see how at the time it would have been the best thing since... well since "A Link to the Past" got released. No-one had ever seen Hyrule in 3D, and I'll be honest, Nintendo did a pretty decent job of it. But I just don't really get it. When I played Twilight Princess (which I really enjoyed, by the way) I always felt really driven to get to the next area. Even when I would arrive at a new area, I'd still storm straight through it on Epona, because I actually felt that if I didn't get to where I was supposed to be, the thing I was trying to stop might actually happen. But in Ocarina of Time, I don't feel driven to do anything. There's no sense of urgency. It's partly because the storyline is really dull, but partly because Link walks so bloody slowly. How I am I supposed to be motivated and rushing when I don't have a horse? I went to Lon Lon Ranch, there's like twelve of them there! I could really easily steal one but no, the game won't let me. Damn Nintendo with all their wholesome values.
I'm sure the game will eventually pick up for me. I know that about half way through the game you do the whole Master Sword thing and you become Adult Link and so on, but that seems like an age away... That’s totally an unintended pun right there.
In other news, I'm still playing Rolando. It's still good, if not a tad samey. But I'm still enjoying it, which is the important thing. Good to know that my £3 wasn't wasted.
I've been thinking about retro games a lot recently. I did a random Google images search the other day for Monkey Island, which if you don't know about, you don't deserve the Internet, frankly. I found a really cool fan-made image of what the Monkey Island DS box might look like;
http://vgboxart.com/view/11547/the.secret.of.monkey.island.ds/?replies=20
Remember, people, FAN-MADE. Not official. Probably never gonna happen. Might, but probably won't.
If anyone is interested, I'm learning to play the harmonica at the moment. I can now play "Blowin' in The Wind" pretty well, so there we go.
Oh, and Majora's Mask is available now on VC, which is annoying since I only have 100 Wii Points, and I really want it. You might be thinking this is a tad hypocritical after my dislike of OoT, but you have to understand that this is my Holy Grail of games. Link's Awakening got me into gaming, and at the time, Majora's Mask was just coming out. The concept of playing Zelda in three dimensions blew my seven year-old mind right out the window. So that's why I want it so much. Oh, and fish bone guitar FTW.
Finally, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 looks awesome. But more about that on Thursday.
End Communication, y'all.
Don't get me wrong I don't think that it's a crap game. I can see how at the time it would have been the best thing since... well since "A Link to the Past" got released. No-one had ever seen Hyrule in 3D, and I'll be honest, Nintendo did a pretty decent job of it. But I just don't really get it. When I played Twilight Princess (which I really enjoyed, by the way) I always felt really driven to get to the next area. Even when I would arrive at a new area, I'd still storm straight through it on Epona, because I actually felt that if I didn't get to where I was supposed to be, the thing I was trying to stop might actually happen. But in Ocarina of Time, I don't feel driven to do anything. There's no sense of urgency. It's partly because the storyline is really dull, but partly because Link walks so bloody slowly. How I am I supposed to be motivated and rushing when I don't have a horse? I went to Lon Lon Ranch, there's like twelve of them there! I could really easily steal one but no, the game won't let me. Damn Nintendo with all their wholesome values.
I'm sure the game will eventually pick up for me. I know that about half way through the game you do the whole Master Sword thing and you become Adult Link and so on, but that seems like an age away... That’s totally an unintended pun right there.
In other news, I'm still playing Rolando. It's still good, if not a tad samey. But I'm still enjoying it, which is the important thing. Good to know that my £3 wasn't wasted.
I've been thinking about retro games a lot recently. I did a random Google images search the other day for Monkey Island, which if you don't know about, you don't deserve the Internet, frankly. I found a really cool fan-made image of what the Monkey Island DS box might look like;
http://vgboxart.com/view/11547/the.secret.of.monkey.island.ds/?replies=20
Remember, people, FAN-MADE. Not official. Probably never gonna happen. Might, but probably won't.
If anyone is interested, I'm learning to play the harmonica at the moment. I can now play "Blowin' in The Wind" pretty well, so there we go.
Oh, and Majora's Mask is available now on VC, which is annoying since I only have 100 Wii Points, and I really want it. You might be thinking this is a tad hypocritical after my dislike of OoT, but you have to understand that this is my Holy Grail of games. Link's Awakening got me into gaming, and at the time, Majora's Mask was just coming out. The concept of playing Zelda in three dimensions blew my seven year-old mind right out the window. So that's why I want it so much. Oh, and fish bone guitar FTW.
Finally, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 looks awesome. But more about that on Thursday.
End Communication, y'all.
2 Apr 2009
Welcome any newcomers!
I guess this is slightly odd but what the hey.
If you are visiting this blog for the first time because of its being mentioned on Gamespot UK, I bid you a hearty hello! I don't usually talk like that, but I thought I might as well go all out. I'm really grateful to the guys over at Gamespot for mentioning me, and I hoping that it will lead to an increase in my followers... An increase from zero =) But I update every Monday and Thursday (hopefully) and talk about games, games and occasionally my boring personal life. But it'll be mainly games, thankfully
Right, back to our regularly scheduled blog. What have I been playing recently? Well I'll tell you what it isn't. It's definately not a game about a green-tuniced young boy washing up on a mysterious island and fighting hordes of monsters to get to a giant egg. Definately not.
I'm still doing a bit of Rolando, and I've been getting quite aggrivated with it, but in a good way, if that's not an oxymoron. The puzzles are tough, which is good as it provides a challenge. I can't just roll my way through it HAR HAR HAR.
I read today on Gamespot that a new Jak and Daxter game is on the horizon, which made me a little sad. The original "Jak and Daxter" was the game that begun my love affair with the platform genre. Jak 2 taught me the best word in the English language (renegade) and was also brilliant. And Jak 3 had confusing time paradoxes and gladiatoral battles, a winning combination in anyone's book. But then I gave up my PS2 (well it broke actually, but same thing in essence) and I left Jak and Daxter behind. It wasn't that I didn't like it any more, simply I didn't have the resources to play them. When Daxter came out on the PSP I flirted breiefly with the idea of getting it and the console, but this was back in my simple Nintendo fanboy days, and I would never have considered lowering myself to the "evil men" of SONY.
But now Jak's back (baby) and he has a new game coming out on the PS2 and PSP. It's being made by High Impact Games as opposed to Naughty Dog, so it should be interesting to see where they go with it. The subtitle "Lost Frontier" suggests a new big explorable world for you to... uh, explore. I would love to get this game, but alas, I do not have the capability to play it... Unless I buy either a PSP or a PS2, which I guess isn't entirely out of the question... You never know.
My laptop's interent is awful tonight, I'm really gonna have to sort it out. Or just get a MacBook. Yeah, that's a better option, a MacBook...
Ah, webcomics. If only I knew how to make one... NO, BAD EDD! DON'T GET INVOLVED IN ANOTHER HALF BAKED INTERNET PROJECT LIKE WHEN YOU DID ALL THOSE VLOGS ON YOUTUBE!!!
Pretend I didn't say that...
If you are visiting this blog for the first time because of its being mentioned on Gamespot UK, I bid you a hearty hello! I don't usually talk like that, but I thought I might as well go all out. I'm really grateful to the guys over at Gamespot for mentioning me, and I hoping that it will lead to an increase in my followers... An increase from zero =) But I update every Monday and Thursday (hopefully) and talk about games, games and occasionally my boring personal life. But it'll be mainly games, thankfully
Right, back to our regularly scheduled blog. What have I been playing recently? Well I'll tell you what it isn't. It's definately not a game about a green-tuniced young boy washing up on a mysterious island and fighting hordes of monsters to get to a giant egg. Definately not.
I'm still doing a bit of Rolando, and I've been getting quite aggrivated with it, but in a good way, if that's not an oxymoron. The puzzles are tough, which is good as it provides a challenge. I can't just roll my way through it HAR HAR HAR.
I read today on Gamespot that a new Jak and Daxter game is on the horizon, which made me a little sad. The original "Jak and Daxter" was the game that begun my love affair with the platform genre. Jak 2 taught me the best word in the English language (renegade) and was also brilliant. And Jak 3 had confusing time paradoxes and gladiatoral battles, a winning combination in anyone's book. But then I gave up my PS2 (well it broke actually, but same thing in essence) and I left Jak and Daxter behind. It wasn't that I didn't like it any more, simply I didn't have the resources to play them. When Daxter came out on the PSP I flirted breiefly with the idea of getting it and the console, but this was back in my simple Nintendo fanboy days, and I would never have considered lowering myself to the "evil men" of SONY.
But now Jak's back (baby) and he has a new game coming out on the PS2 and PSP. It's being made by High Impact Games as opposed to Naughty Dog, so it should be interesting to see where they go with it. The subtitle "Lost Frontier" suggests a new big explorable world for you to... uh, explore. I would love to get this game, but alas, I do not have the capability to play it... Unless I buy either a PSP or a PS2, which I guess isn't entirely out of the question... You never know.
My laptop's interent is awful tonight, I'm really gonna have to sort it out. Or just get a MacBook. Yeah, that's a better option, a MacBook...
Ah, webcomics. If only I knew how to make one... NO, BAD EDD! DON'T GET INVOLVED IN ANOTHER HALF BAKED INTERNET PROJECT LIKE WHEN YOU DID ALL THOSE VLOGS ON YOUTUBE!!!
Pretend I didn't say that...
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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