Earthbound and Dune 22.12.16

Beasts of Balance (iOs/Physical) I kickstarted this game a while back and was really pleased when it firstly met its goal and secondly turned out to be such a lovely object. The object of the game is to stack physical objects onto a base and the bigger your tower the higher your score on an app attached to a phone or ipad. The objects are really nice looking creatures. This menagerie includes a bear, toucan, octopus amongst others and with each comes quirks to how they stack depending on the height, appendages and balance of them. Along with the animals there are other blocks to add to your tower which can increase your score, be it crossing species or adding elemental pieces to match the creatures placed in the tower (water for the shark for example) this all marries up to the app on the phone with a little world populating with beasts, becoming more fantastical as they get crossed in more bizarre ways. I've not paid that much attention to the app as the actual practice of stacking these objects is mesmerising, my first intention was to get my three year old daughter involved but I soon politely moved her to one side so I could optimise how my tower was constructed, I'm sure its a lot of fun as a multiplayer experience but I'm loving it on my own, methodically comparing how things will stack. I've got a very modest high score, back to the app when it all comes tumbling down it tally's up how your world has fared, if you gave enough earth to the boar for example. This is a nice way to make me want to keep returning to the game and i'm really appreciating how the app doesn't take too much attention away from my building. Everything is packaged and designed beautifully, the objects themselves I'd happily have on a shelf to look at, the fact they are part of such a lovely and addictive game is a bonus.

Mario Run (iOs) came out this week also and its a really strange thing. After being used to Mario in his guise of a portly Italian plumber who moves in a very specific way for so long this game is a bit of shock, he looks the same (its almost exactly as I expect the New Super Mario games to look) but it feels very different. Its this contrast that I'm struggling to get to grips with, instead of holding down the run button to get more distance I'm now expected to hold my thumb down for longer in order to get more height on my jump thats the biggest one so far. He's always running, thats another one, but I appreciate that they've made it feel more optimised for an iPhone. He's not always running though, he pauses at specific blocks for a breather and changes direction when making contact with other blocks. The levels are fairly quick to get through and for the most part fun enough, I really disliked the ghost houses though. Something about trying to work out the fairly basic puzzles when the biggest issue is that I'm constantly moving just irritated me. The game goes a long way to redemption though with the addition of the Rally mode, here you compete against other players on courses to get an audience of toads on side. Through collecting coins, beating enemies and doing simple tricks a little crowd of toads cheer you on, the winner is the person who gets the higher number of toads supporting them, and this mode i've found addictive and a lot of fun. 

Earthbound and Dune 11.12.16 My Games of 2016

On top of the below five games, I played a bit (around 3 hours) of The Last Guardian (PS4) this week, and I'm really into what I've played so far. Its a very strange game, absolutely beautiful, both the characters and the world its set in, sort of like Mysterious Cities of Gold if it was a bit more muddy. The gameplay is really squirrelly, its nailed the feeling of darting about as a child, platforming feels more luck that skill. The main task in the game is guiding around the giant cat-bird-dog Trico, which despite my reservations is adorable and it guiding it around it acts as both a weapon and a platform for navigating the environment. Its a lot less frustrating that I expected, the beast does have a mind of its own, but i've found that quite endearing and twice its got so bored of my botched attempts of working out puzzles that its pretty much picked me up and moved me onto the next section. I'm not too sure how much of the game I can take, i'm playing it in very small chunks and can't see much variety in what i'm doing, hopefully it will go places and I'm liking a lot about it. 

Anyway below is my top five games of 2016:

05.Pocket Card Jockey (3DS) Such an unusual game, constructed of so many ill fitting parts that it really shouldn't work. Somehow an RPG where you spend your time on horseback playing solitaire is the most addictive game i've played this year. Theres a sense of ownership of the horses through breeding and naming them, it all looks impossibly cute and has a great sense of humour. I'm sure I'll be playing it well into next year.

04.Pokemon Moon (3DS) the sharp hooks of Pokemon games were firmly in my back by the point this game came out. For the first time though I am playing a Pokemon game without forgiving it its flaws. Its a lot of fun and I struggle to convey how great it looks. The game has developed way beyond the simple task of taking a gym leader on to a more interesting set of tasks to complete before inevitably fighting an equivalent gym leader or strong Pokemon and theres also a world dotted with NPCs offering rewards for side quests which also show a nice variety. The basic premise of rock, paper, scissors in these games is helped by a varied cast so I no longer have to put a grass Pokemon in my party to get through a section, theres plenty of Pokemon to catch so I'm finding ones that are atheistically pleasing. At the end of everything a game which has me wander about islands with a dolled up seal, horse with dreadlocks, stuffed bear, boxing crab, magnet and an Easter Island head is pretty cool in my book. 

03.DOOM (PS4) I've a fondness for the Doom franchise which is higher than any other first person shooter and this game certainly didn't disappoint. Moving away from the horror aspects of Doom 3 and toward the big guy with a big gun shoots bad monsters. At times it felt like a remake of the original Doom, some of the action sequences felt pleasingly similar and the return to hell in the middle section was as happy an event as a return to hell could be. The nods toward older games continue with some more interesting takes on the iconic demons than in Doom 3 and some inventive use of the coloured key cards. There is some drastic changes to gameplay, which feel a lot more natural than I feared, clearing sections before moving forward, severely limiting chainsaw fuel and brutal finishing moves on monsters never gets boring or repetitive. The end of the game introduced further monsters that were familiar and it's open ended nature left me really excited to see where it goes next.

02.Uncharted 4 (PS4) I was dubious about playing this game, I'd not played any of the previous games in the series and more than anything was worried I needed some context. Luckily I played in anyway as it was an absolute blast throughout. Everything I was expecting from what I'd heard was there, great dialogue and acting, amazing action sequences and some great toys to play with throughout the game. It peaked about two thirds of the way through, but thats not to say that the rest of a game was a slog.  The only, thing I disliked about the game is quite a big thing, I hated the final boss fight in the game, had that been better I'd have struggled to find any faults in what is a game I still really, really liked.

01.Inside (PS4) I don't think I can say a bad thing about this game. It looks amazing, is so intricately designed that every moment feels right and is spot on with its duration. The only thing I am wary of saying about this game is too much, as the most delightful thing about the game was discovering and trying to decipher what is occurring in this game. Like all great puzzle games it made me feel cleaver when I found the solution to what I was doing and as the tasks become more ingenious it continued to impress me. On top of all of this nothing is overused and it's the perfect duration. An absolutely wonderful game.

Earthbound and Dune 05.12.16 My Games of 2016

While my passion for games this year have dwindled at points and I don't think there have been as many games I've enjoyed, I still think 2016 has been a really solid year. As ever there are games I not enjoyed because of my own incompetence like Hitman, really wanted to like others but really disappointed with, I'm looking at you Starfox Zero! and other games which in my heart of hearts knew I wouldn't get so didn't invest in them, like Titanfall 2 and The Witness. Also a few games which came close to making my list like Pony Island, Streetfighter V, Worms WMD, No Mans Sky (which for all its flaws I really liked my time with), Pacman CE 2 and Paper Mario Color Splash (which I really wanted to get into but was too much of a time investment).

Honorable Mention

This year has me change my opinion on adventure games and also Pokemon games. I finally played Pokemon Yellow (3DS) and it led me down a dark path of the franchise. I must have spent a good chunk of my summer commute playing this lovable little RPG familiarizing myself with the original 151 Pokemon, getting frustrated with legendary Pokemon and killing them rather than catching them, looking up what TMs and HMs are and working out the best combination of Pokemon types to take into battle and realizing the selection I'd chosen was useless. There are games on my list that came out earlier than 2016 but this game seemed like it would be a stretch to add to my list and also other Pokemon games have forced there way into my life this year too.

10. Abzu (PS4) Sharing a lot of the same DNA as Journey it looks gorgeous and was a joy to play. It took no time at all to drift through the ambiguous story but it was broken up by stopping every once in a while to admire the look of the game and the spectacular eco system that the game contains. It doesn't really build on mechanics, at the end of the game I was doing the same thing as the start but it's worth it just for the few spectacular set pieces in its short duration, the encounter with a pod of whales in particular was awesome.

09.100ft Robot Golf (PS4) I liked this game quite a bit, easily the best story mode in any golf game I've played and it was refreshing how each character in the game took a different approach to swinging a golf club. A different approach is the best way to describe this game, instead of taking turns most modes is a race of destruction toward getting the ball in the hole. Not everything about the game worked, but when all the chaos hit the right spot it was a lot of fun.

08.Life is Strange (PS4) bit of a technicality this one as it was released last year, but I got the complete collection early in the year, like a good TV show this is how I'd rather consume games, knowing that all the pieces are there to complete it rather than waiting around for the next instalment. I took a big break between a section of the game and i've no idea why as once I returned to it it was moving,gripping and one of the best storylines in a game I've played. The choices and character interactions all felt meaningful the only thing, sadly this is quite a big thing, that let the game down was when it decided it wanted to be a video game and forced elements like stealth into the game and that didn't work most of the time. Still its a wonderful thing all the way to its powerful conclusion.

07.Firewatch (PS4). There are a couple of games on my list this year that I'd rather watch than actually play the game, in a good way. The story of this game was so strong and unusual for a video game that it had me gripped from start to finish. I loved the feeling of ownership I had to the main character I had through the early decisions I made and it instantly got me hooked on the game. What transpires is unexpected because its an understated game which goes in directions which I genuinely didn't see coming. It's choice of a cartoony look contrasts with what is a very adult story, dealing with grief, responsibility and depression. Its good fun though. Honest.

06.Pokemon Go (iOs) For time spent with a video game this year or miles walked with a game this would be hands down number one. Stripping back to the series core concept of "Catch 'Em All" theres a battling/gym thing going on but I couldn't care less. For me its about the 82 miles that I walked to evolve a Charizard or when I happened upon a Primeape while walking home. Steady updates have reeled me back into playing it every time I thought I was out and the most unusual thing is its a free to play game with little incentive for me to put money into it. A real guilty pleasure of mine.

Earthbound and Dune 27.11.16

I'm only hours into Pokemon Moon (3DS) but I can already say its one of the most pleasing things I've played in a long time, perhaps ever. The ingredients were there when I played Pokemon Yellow earlier in the year, some lovely character design, a deeper story than I was expecting and a combat system that I found more enriching the more I played. Sadly with the first of the series it lacked a lot of the things I've come to expect from a video game, such as objectives or at least clarity on what objects do. The latest game now adds a lot of the features, along with some quality of life things like making Pokeball's easier to navigate to on the menu and pointers to which attacks are stronger against the current opponent and it just feels really good to play. I didn't have any issue going through a very similar opening few hours. Pick a starter monster from an adorable lineup of a clown seal, fire cat or dapper owl, I went with the seal who becomes a lot less adorable when he/she evolves for the first time. Then standard catching of 'em all, the world seems much more littered with variety of catches and they mostly are lovely to look at. I'm taking a lot more care in building a team, or at least treating it all a lot more seriously, building a group which is balanced to a variety of types, meaning I've sacrificed some Pokemon I really like, like the Wingull and Diglett but the additions to the game being as charming as Pikipek and Mudbray so far its been a lot more fun selecting the monsters to take with me. Combat is now a lot more pleasing to the eye with animations which makes the game seem much more alive. On the subject of the look of the game, as with most 3DS titles its only when I'm playing it that I really appreciate how nice it looks, as i've gone with Moon over Sun the evening setting of most of the game has a sheen to it not unlike the Twilight Princess on the Wii. As a large proportion of my time in video games this year has been playing Pokemon games I really appreciate that generation 1 creatures all make the same noises after all this time, the sound of a Drowzee appearing frustrates me so much as I show no remorse beating them to a pulp. On top of everything I'm liking about this game is theres a Pokemon Snap variation added, various beasts to ride about on and so far the progression has been expanded from the standard beat trainers at a gym of the first game. 

I'm still relatively new to these games, and I'm not planning to tackle any of the other games any time soon but this is everything i've ever wanted from a Pokemon game, to the hundreds of wonderfully designed pocket monsters its now added a video game which is a ton of fun to play.  

Earthbound and 21.11.16

Pokemon Go (iOs) Ran a Halloween event a few weeks back which got me more involved in it than I've been in recent weeks. By increasing the currency earn't from the few things you do in the game (walk and throw balls) it was a small window of time to bulk up on precious candies, which can evolve all the pocket monsters. I resisted the temptation of evolving all the Pokemon I had on the cusp of evolution and went for the big one. I started off with a Charmander with 11 candies, and through a lot of waking I now have a Charmeleon with 97 candies, another way of quantifying this is in just over a week I've walked 130.7 kilometres with my Pokemon. Especially during the event, which ended middle of last week, I was planning my commute so that I could walk further, lunchbreaks would forgo eating and instead I'd focus on distance I could cover. The downside to all this is that the themed Pokemon dispersed around the environment were mostly bats, ghosts and cats so the variety wasn't great.  Since the return to normality in the game the selection of pocket monsters in the world has been freshened up a bit with different types appearing and I've now reached a point where I've got Pocket monsters evolving regularly and I can almost see an end to this first round of collecting them. I've mentioned that there isn't much to the game and its certainly not for everyone but I find it really appealing, more as an attachment to tracking my footsteps. I don't do any of the gyms or fighting so the reality is i'm walking for miles and throwing balls purely to get an image of a monster and the satisfaction of knowing it resides in my phone. 

I tied up all the loose ends in Life is Strange (PS4) and got to the games conclusion. Which, without spoiling anything, I found really satisfying. The end to the penultimate chapter is really strong and provided a twist I genuinely didn't see coming. In fact I'd say the only downside to a game I loved was that the final part wasn't as strong as the part it followed, a problem a lot of TV shows have these days too. In the fourth part the choices became much more dramatic and to see a real consequence to my messing with time start to creep into the game (and by the end be drastic) wasn't something I was expecting. A character I had rooted for throughout the game stood up near the end and became heroic which made my play-through seem customized to my choices and despite an awful stealth sequence very close to the stories close I was gripped until the dramatic last choice of the game. The story is the real reason to play the game, hence why I'm being so ambiguous with details, I would have been just as if not more happy to play the game without any of the searching about for clues or stealth and just be presented with the choices, saying that the games relatively short and never outstays its welcome. 

Finally I got my NES Classic and played fleeting games of most of the games on there to fall back to Punch Out, which is still great. Excitebike which remains pretty awesome and Techmo Super Bowl which I'd never played but is pretty cool, really hard and took some getting used to purely because I'd played so much NFL Blitz lately. The console itself is a really nice looking thing, I'm not so bothered about the length of the cables on the controllers as much as I am the weight of the machine, its impossibly light and feels more plasticky for it, if they'd just put some sand or something to make it a bit more weighty that would have pleased me. 

I got through Jazzpunk: Directors Cut (PS4) over the course of a couple of boozy nights, 

and while some of the things that happened seem a bit fuzzy I'm content with the idea 

that slight intoxication might be the best way to enjoy the game. It's an adventure game 

which is really heavy on jokes and simple to play, no puzzle was too taxing to the point of 

there not being a fail state or game over throughout the game. The humour is very much 

Naked Gun meets Ren and Stimpy and the jokes are so constant there are some that fall flat 

but many more that made me laugh. I was initially concerned that it would all revolve around 

the noire spoof mixed with a few robot jokes but it wasn't long before my concerns were 

erased, any meeting with the boss who sends you out on missions was especially funny. 

The joke with him which concludes the whole game is one of the best.  A few times tasks 

went on a couple of beats too long, escaping the hotel and a collection of sporting events in 

particular but it's hard to get too angry when while rooting around for one solution I 

accidentally created some penis topiary. Its nothing special graphics wise, although at 

points the mixture of 3D and flat sprites works really well and all the sounds, music and voice 

acting really helps to build the odd world that I inhabited for a fleeting, drunken time. I'm not 

too up on how the game came about but it feels like a game where the makers may have 

been a little unhinged or at least they left all there inhibitions at the door before making 

this wonderful strange thing and that's great because none of the gags I was bombarded 

with felt strained or that they'd been through some sort of think tank. It might not be for 

everyone but I liked it. 

I soldiered on with another adventure game too, Life is Strange (PS4). I really want to get 

it finished before the year is up, I loved the first chapter and then for some unknown reason 

I failed to carry on. I've now got through to the end of the penultimate chapter and am really 

excited to see where it goes next. Forgiving some dubious dialogue at times "I'm going 

to take a dump. You coming with me?" It feels like a really good tv show most of the time 

I'm content to watch the cutscenes rather than play the game, the  effect my choices have on 

the world also seem really poignant, in chapter 3 I made a few choices which really seemed 

bad but I'm sticking to my guns and seeing where I end up. I've taken to one character 

in particular and am starting to think my defending of them may well be a bad road to go 

down. Hopefully I'll be done with it by next week, not because I want to rush through it but 

because I want to see how it ends.  

Earthbound and Dune 19.10.16

I wanted to love Hitman (PS4), so much so that I forgot to ask the question is it the sort of game I like or am good at? The answer is a resounding no. I admire all the parts that construct the game, its simply amazing how many characters are walking about doing they're set routine and the choice of approach to the two missions I've attempted are overwhelming. I knew I was struggling though in the training mission, even being told what to do I just didn't have the patience to get the most out of it. In a rather clumsy fashion I found myself in a room alone with my target, shot him and ran away and while I achieved my goals I felt I was missing out. This feeling only got worse when I took on the next full training mission, this time I disguised myself as a mechanic, found myself sort of alone with my target, strangled him and then ran away, but my fleeing this time involved shuffling along a lot of windows. Now I was a certified Hitman through my ineptitude at killing people or rather my ability to kill people and then run away I got to the part which has stumped me, killing two targets in a place packed with guards and people. There are parts I really like to the Paris mission, I spent way too long tailing a model to disguise myself as him and I've poisoned a lot of Sushi hoping that it will find its way to one of my targets, the problem remains though that I'm not good at the game. I've got as far as finding myself in the same room as one of the people i'm meant to kill but also with a bunch of eagle eyed security, ready to shoot me the second I put some rat poison in a Champagne glass. I can see that the game requires a lot of patience and tailing people, working out the perfect time to strike but thats not for me and while I like the premise I just can't get into the game. 

By some weird premonition or coincidence I played a bit of Rampage (PS2) which led me to playing Rampage World Tour (N64) both fun games, I can see the uproar about the N64 game now, for a couple of quid off eBay it's fun, if I'd invested £40-50 back when it was released I'm not too sure how I would have felt. The weird thing is though that playing both of these games was a great introduction to 100ft Robot Golf (PS4) a game which is the perfect balance of stupidity and gameplay. It knows the joke, but isn't so involved in it to forget that it needs to feel good to play at the same time. The idea is that in a giant mech you play golf, the advantages of this is that you can smash up or shoot or throw hoverboards at obstacles in your way, which can vary from asteroids to buildings or whales. Beyond that it adds some interesting ideas to a golf game, you have to physically run (or walk) to where the ball lands and each machine has a variation on how to play a shot, some are more traditional power bars others involve timed button inputs each has its own advantages and disadvantages and its a lot of fun getting used to. The feature I've liked the most is the addition of a campaign which via the language of Manga tries to make sense of the insanity of whats going on. It's a fantastic way of learning how to play the game and I've loved it. The story doesn't take too long, around 2 hours and there are the usual incentives of customisation items win during the time spent going through it. I really, really like what I've played of it so far and am excited to try out the multiplayer which looks like its got a lot going on. 

Earthbound and Dune 12.10.16

The Pac Man CE series so far in my opinion has been the best example of making an old video games character relevant in the modern age. Pac Man CE 2 does something really nobel in attempting to continue to evolve the format and in doing that making sure the series still feels like its moving forward. The safe bet would have been to update the game minimally adding a few maps and some new skins for the characters what this game feels like though is a complete reevaluation of the game. Gone are clearing left and right sections to collect fruit as well as to move onto the next string of dots you don't always have to eat all the existing dots but more drastically you can now bump into ghosts a number of times before hitting them becomes fatal (thats a big deal) also jump pads and a bomb which restarts you at the centre of the map I believe are additions (might be wrong though). Some of these features don't always work, the jump pads confuse things a bit too much for me for example. What I found relieving though was that once I unlocked new music and maps I found the same old addictive arcade feel of the first two games.  I'm loving it the same way I love the earlier games, short bursts of score attacking gameplay. Certainly I wouldn't play it for hours, but it does have that addictive "just one more go" feel when everything clicks into place. 

I also played more than I should have of NFL Blitz (N64). It does for American Football what NBA Jam does for basketball, making it more accessible by striping out a lot of the more complicated features of a more simulation based sports game. Thats perfect for me, the games are quick paced and simple to get into (at its most basic around 9 plays are available for both offence and defence) it's even so unafraid of getting away from reality that it has a depleting boost bar. Once I'd got around the complicated process of clearing a N64 memory card, something I'd completely forgotten, I started a league and am really getting into it. It's a real shame that these sorts of sports games have gone by the wayside in the modern day but at the same time I'm really pleased this game holds up so well. The only downside is that the CRT i've got hooked up at the moment refuses to play NTSC games in colour, so I'm missing out a little on the graphics!

Earthbound and Dune 22.09.16

Luckily Inside (PS4) didn't stay exclusive to the Xbox One for too long, I'd managed to avoid any coverage or story details for the few months it was exclusive and was delighted that it is a game which benefits from ambiguity. Much like it's predecessor Limbo it's a physics heavy platformer which doesn't give much away. Where its been improved though is that each section and puzzle is perfectly utilised so that actions don't become repetitive or mechanics become too fiddly. More like Journey it's a game which is exceptionally good at constraining ideas to just the right length. The moment one of the many puzzles got just hard enough was invariably where it ended. The game is truly surprising in places and it's awesome how much the game gets out of a side scrolling platformer, with only two button inputs as well! Every once in a while I had a tendency to overthink what I should be doing and the answer would be right in front of me, what's remarkable is that in the short space of the game I never got frustrated or bored. Especially with the section of clockwork machinery near the end, it felt extremely rewarding when completing this bit. The story is pretty ambiguous like the game itself, but I took quite a bit from it, even without doing that it's an exciting crescendo toward what happens at the end with lots of clues toward what's actually going on. 

It looks as good as anything I've played in the last year, the subtitle use of colour and light throughout is great, and where it's built on Limbo is adding an array of characters and beasts which move as fluidly as the protagonist.  On top of a short story, about three hours, there are secrets to find with the promise of an alternative ending. On my first play through I found two of them so am excited to explore for some more. I've found writing this without going into the specifics of the game as hard as some of the puzzles later on, it is though the most pleasing game I've played in a long time and one I'm sure I'll return to soon.

Apart from that a cheap copy of Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games (DS) stopped me playing Pokémon Go on my commute this week. It's okay, some of the sports are fun, especially the archery and shooting but others rely too much of the stylus inputs (I assume later handheld versions calmed down on this) which range from being no fun to making my frantic swiping of the screen make me look like the sort of person to avoid sitting next to on a train. I broke the 100m world record as Sonic though, that was appropriate.  

Earthbound and Dune 14.09.16

Playing sports games that are no good is a problem of mine. I dug into Rugby 15 (PS4) and despite it looking pretty ropey, playing pretty poorly and being buggy as hell I played a bit too much of it. I understand the basics of Ruby so I felt a little bit prepared, aided by some really bad AI opponents, who would panic if I zig zagged across the field. That's a blessing as passing the ball to create space in the game isn't really an option as its all over the place, kicking it seems to really confuse to opposition too, so there's lots of chances to score points. Rucks and scrums are controlled with a lock picking mini game which is also really easy, which helps because throw ins and kicking penalties are as much as a chance to look like a moron as they are to relinquish possession. For all the faults I've played two tournaments, the first ending at the final where I made the mistake of ramping up the difficulty and not having a good time. The second tournament ended when my international teams where all replaced with club teams at the quarter finals, certainly an interesting bug! I enjoy playing the less conventional sports sims and who knows it might be better than Casey Powell Lacrosse 16.

Knocking that one on the head I also played a little bit of Super Bomberman 3 (snes). I didn't have a copy of Bomberman it turns out and was happy to stump up for the Japanese version of the game, a lot more affordable than the PAL release. It's an odd formula for a game in that it's not really been updated or copied with any success. The bits that this version add are not that dramatic, I think it's the first instance of the kangaroos to ride about and there are some character choices beyond colour. That's the issue though, I think Bomberman works best at its most basic, the more added the worse the experience gets or at least confusing. There are stages with see saws and igloos but the best time guaranteed is the vanilla green stage and that's a great time. The cowboy suit for Bomberman is pretty cool too.

Finally Pokemon Go (iOS) got its claws into me again as I am working around central London at the moment. Having a stretch of the Thames to wander along and catch Magikarps by the bucketload is still a fun thing. I've found the game in there, it's all about storing up a bunch of monsters to evolve, planning a long walk over lunch and busting open a lucky egg to double the XP. There's also a short passage of my train journey in, between London Bridge and Waterloo where it passes through about 10 Pokestops, that's always handy. I'm not that pleased about the mechanic where the higher I get level wise the harder Pokemon are to catch but it's not put me off it yet. I've yet to fight my Pokemon, I'm not a monster.

Earthbound and Dune 06.09.16

I think allowing for duplicates and versions of the same game on different platforms I own more Worms games than any other franchise. If I was to allow for Mario's various forays into Sports, RPGs and Parties that might not be the case, but in its purest form of worms taking turns to knock the tar out of each other without counting I've got a lot of Worms. I like the games a lot but I never really bought into the redesign of the Worms themselves after the first game (which I own 3 copies of on different platforms alone) so was really pleased when I started to see more of Worms WMD (PS4) before its release, ignoring all the new features added to the gameplay it looks great, sort of hand drawn environments and the late 90s/early 2000s look of the worms has gone, replaced by dead eyed simpler looking invertebrates. The very British humour of the voices has continued down the same path, some of the speech banks are irritating but then with the rappers and action hero samples it won me back. In essence the game hasn't changed much from its early release, attempts at 3D environments never really worked, and while I really liked the whole Forts diversion the games took I can't see that returning any time soon. This is more of the same, turn based attacks with grenades, uzis, bazookas, sheep and donkeys. Luckily customisation has been focused on the weapons available in a match thus limiting armageddon (literally). A neat thing added, crafting, means that between turns there is now the capacity to build additional weapons manufactured from pickups around the environment, once I'd got my head around this addition it adds more interest to the downtime between turns. Its not too much of a game changer as for a long time there has been additional weapons scattered about the map so its just altering the collection of weapons (and there are also weapon pickups still too). Also added are tanks, helicopters, sniper points and mech suits, my initial thoughts on these was that they would be either too overpowered or pointless, I couldn't see how they'd fit into the game. The good news its that I think they add another level too it, there are quirks to using each, the tank has an ark to its gunfire, the helicopters machine gun is swayed heavily by the flight of the helicopter etc. The finesse to each of these new additions make them fit nicely into the game, Worms has always been a lot of trial and error and at its best its those moments where a simple grenade toss backfires or I've lucked out with a bazooka shot across the map, the new machines, even the sniper rifle (which gives a line of shot) each offer a new unique way of messing up or making the perfect shot. For a game which is iterated upon so often its weird to be talking about even more new additions when so little has been added previously but its also added the ability to enter and exit areas of the maps, such as Aztec ruins or buildings. I've always enjoyed blowtorching deep into the terrain, making my Worms hard to hit,to paraphrase Predator its fun to dig my Worm in like an Alabama tic. Adding buildings helps expand this tactic and I'm loving the end of most matches i've played being the total destruction of maps trying to whittle away the remnants of the opposing final worms health. 

It's got a bunch of tutorials and campaign type things to go through, loosing the story of the last console release. The campaign itself I found a good way to get accustomed to the new features and weapons. It also adds objectives on a few levels which vary from kill all the enemy worms, I'd have liked a bit more variety but its still a good entry to getting used to all thats been added. My only slight grumble about the whole package is the frame-rate has hitched a bit at points and I don't normally care about such things but with a game I've played for about 20 years and seemingly so little going on compared to other games on my PS4 it annoyed me more than it should on the few occasions it happened. 

All in all its the best Worms game I've played in probably forever, it's added loads of new stuff (i've not really even got into the new weapons) and lost the outdated look of the previous games which I felt always held it back a bit. If I was so inclined I could strip a match back to almost how it would have been in 1995 but with so much lovingly added to it I've had a lot of fun getting to know all the bits added in this version. Maybe I'll stop purchasing games from the series now, or at least slow down a bit!

Earthbound and Dune 31.08.16

No Mans Sky (PS4) is a game which scale is inconceivably large to me. Beyond the concept of quintillions of planets the scale of the planets themselves is spectacular. Early on I set about walking from my spaceship and wandered for a good hour or so, I then found myself and hours walk to return to my ship, its hard to tell how far I could of walked by the distance on the planet alone seemed vast. The feeling I get whenever I play it is that i'm an insignificant blip, alone in the galaxy, before the game was released I expected that I would encounter worlds and creatures discovered by other players (and given humorous names no doubt) but this hasn't happened once for me, the places I'm visiting and sometimes bizarre creatures i'm seeing I can only assume will be exclusive to my game. This concept of scale and loneliness is at the same time everything I like and dislike about the game. I love the idea of being insignificant in a massive environment but would also like the chance to say to other players "here's a cool planet or creature I've seen check it out" I don't need to have them drop into my game, but some sort of coordinates or map would just make the countless hours i'm spending renaming flowers more worthwhile. The other problem with the game, is that just below the massive galaxy of worlds unrivalled by any game i've ever played is the fact its still a video game and in concept a lot like a lot of other games. The nature of it being a game, and to become playable through the formulas that create it is that every planet needs the right amount of resources to get off it. So every planet I've visited, while atheistically sometimes drastically different has been the same. I completely understand the reasoning for this, if it had been a game where I could conceivably land on a desolate planet with little or no chance of escape it would break and probably end my game. I'm sure I'm not in the majority but I wouldn't mind being completely stranded, if there was some sort of risk system where I was told the chances of landing on a planet and getting off it I'd be cool with that. Instead I know whatever planet I land on they'll be enough carbon, plutonium or whatever I need to get off it. 

Whats exciting about the game though is the feeling of discovery, the planet I started on was perfectly crazy, in fact the first thing I saw was a stupid T Rex looking creature sat by a tree inanimate and glum, I snuck by him looking for resources there was little point as by some quirk of the game he'd become moulded into the environment. The rest of the planet was teaming with life, all kinds of weird animals darting about the place mocking the giant beast stuck in a rock looking at a tree. The next few planets I visited had little or no life at all, I questioned if I should have left that first planet at all. Eventually I found a planet almost completely covered in oceans, with small rock formations every once in a while just big enough to land my ship, this planet was also filled with crazed robot police ready to attack me whenever I attempted to gather resources, or as I found out defended myself from ravenous fish that filled the sea. This planet was harsh and unforgiving but also filled with jewels which are worth a high price when trading, gathering these was an arduous task, involving diving to the bottom of the ocean, fighting off attacking fish, picking up as many of the jewels that my limited storage would allow then hightailing it back to my ship with the mad robot police gunning me down. These are the worlds where the game shines, too often is the planet I land on either baron of any interest or just a variation on colour from another i've visited. 

Space flight itself feels more like a loading screen between planets rather than a tuned element of the game. In that I never felt too far from a planet and could easily ramp up the speed of my ship to get to far off world with a tap of a button(s). It never really delivers on the idea of piloting a ship between worlds, although I guess the mechanic of piloting a spaceship through an endless void is a hard thing to make interesting. When combat is initiated in space (guaranteed to happen when I've got any valuable cargo) its more of a grind than something I enjoy, and the risks of loosing are non existent as I just return to the point of my death to gather my lost cargo. 

The story in the game is all fairly basic stuff so far (i'm not rushing through it though so maybe more will happen) and the species of characters have interacted with to trade and converse are interesting, the learning of languages through exploration is a neat mechanic. 

After saying quite a bit of negative stuff about the game I actually like it much more than I thought I would, I was convinced it wouldn't live up to the sheer scale of game that was muted in all the publicity. It's hard not to look in wonder at massive planets which sprawl on for miles and would take countless hours to traverse. Assuming that the game is updated as the months go by as promised I'll be really interested to see where it ends up, it's got a lot going for it.

Earthbound and Dune 22.08.16

I've been really slack updating over the last couple of weeks, being weighed down by a new baby and a balmy summer but it's not stopped me playing some games. 

First up I finished Uncharted 4 (PS4) it wasn't the longest of games, but it still felt a bit drawn out toward the end and the final boss fight was needlessly frustrating, more so because the antagonist was such a dick throughout the game I wanted better playing way to finally take him down. At its best though it was a pretty much unparalleled experience, amazing to look at and the mechanics worked really smoothly, jumping of ledges or balconies during gunfights and shooting enemies never got boring (it became a lot more fun once I turned on auto-aiming). Some of the puzzles were really neat and involved me taking pictures with my phone to work them out, they weren't the most taxing but made me feel cleaver for a brief period of time. I don't feel the urge to play any of the other games, I'm not too sure whether it would be too much and taking away some of the cool stuff added in this game may limit them a bit. That's nothing against the game, in time it took me to complete it I really enjoyed what I played and special mention to Sully who is one of the coolest characters I've come across in video games in a long time.

I also got through Abzu (PS4) in a sitting. A peaceful game which looks and feels a lot like the fantastic Journey, helped by the fact it's some of the same team who made that game. It's a diving game, but shorn of pretty much any simulation, air is infinite and the areas of the ocean explored, while spectacular, are pretty condensed packages. The graceful way the game has been compacted into a short experience though is not to its detriment, I always had an idea where I was going but would hold back to watch sometimes hundreds of fish milling about in an amazing eco system. That was the wonder of this experience for me, along with a couple of set pieces involving whales it is an awesome game to look at. Controlling the character felt really intuitive and fun the only negative thing I could say about the game is that it didn't have the emotional impact on me that I think it was going for, the narrative in the game seemed  pretty abstract so when it got to the closing chapters I was a bit lost to what was going on. This is probably because the little world the game creates is so easy to get distracted by. 

Earthbound and Dune 28.07.16

Pokemon Go (iOs) has been the most talked about thing on the internet lately, I picked it up on its UK release and I like it. The question of whether its a game, or if it is how good a game is it comes up every time I start the application, its certainly more of a game than Miitomo but what I'm actually doing while playing it is all fairly basic, toss balls at Pokemon, hope they stay in the ball and walk about a bit. Whats extraordinary about the whole experience is how its become such a massive thing in such a short period of time, walking around London's Southbank I can now tell the Pokemon go players, there's a certain way they carry they're phone, however much they try to pretend to be taking a photo or texting a friend I know that there aiming at a level 15 Magicarp. It's not uncommon to see numbers of people with they're phones out at a bench or piece of street art gathering supplies and the amount of bizarre news stories from robbing's to discoveries of dead bodies is fascinating. As most people I know have an idea that i'm into video games people are happy to tell me they've got the game and sometimes ask for advice, while i'm not an expert this dialogue is really refreshing and its great to see that the game has captured the attention of so many people. I'm reaching around the level were I think I might stop playing or at least play it less attention. Some bits like server issues and especially its erratic nature in counting my distance walked (and this being a key component of what i'm doing in the game) can be really frustrating. I allow it a lot of these faults as its cost nothing to play and its not in my face at all with ways to pay actual money.  I'm interested to see where this game goes from here, especially due to the success of it, it feels like the start of what could be with some improvements a really amazing thing.

I'd been against the idea of playing Uncharted 4 (PS4) purely because I'd not played the first three games, but seeing it come up in a sale I couldn't resist and am pleased to find that without little knowledge of the franchise I'm still getting a lot from it. To me it feels like Tomb Raider mixed with Mario 64, the way that Nathan Drake bounces around the levels doesn't feel human and at points I don't know how much I'm doing but the way the game pushes me into cool set pieces and down paths without being to obvious about it is really well designed. The whole section in Madagascar from driving across the plains to the climax has been the highlight of the game so far, sometimes my own ineptitude has broken up some of the dramatic tension, either by falling off a cliff or running round in circles but this hasn't been too often. The puzzle sections are about the right level of tricky for me to get my head around and aren't too often. I'd have loved some narrative reason to be added for the rope that can be so handy in places being forgotten about in others and also the whole section playing an older video game I didn't get, at first I thought it was saying the game was set in the mid to late 90's but all the other technology seems to be from this era, it threw me a bit and seemed like a chance to throw some in jokes in and little else. These are both really minor issues though on whats been so far a great game, and perhaps the best looking game I've ever played.

Earthbound and Dune 13.07.16

Streetfighter V (PS4) came back onto my radar when it released its story mode a couple of weeks back. It was a chance to play a game which I had enjoyed the feel of quite a bit, with more purpose. The story itself is fairly silly stuff, giant mechanical moons crashing into the earth and a god demon thing which wants to eat fighters. I'm not too up on my Streetfighter lore and don't know where this all sits in the greater timeline but saying this I found it all satisfying, despite the fact it retains the single round fights of the underwhelming character stories included in the original release. At the start of the 3 hours or so it took me to get through it was simple stuff and while I wasn't having to retry fights until the last three or four in the game the challenge did have a subtile gradient to it. Also by forcing me to play as a variety of fighters throughout some fights were harder purely because I didn't know the characters moveset, any time I controlled M.Bison for example was not a good time. I really liked how it introduced either characters to be released as DLC or named background characters to mix things up a bit. Certainly with the limited roster of 20 characters at the moment it needed this to make the story seem a bit bigger the only complaint about this is that the Dolls soon became like Fire Emblem characters in Smash Bros, there were a few too many of them. It's finale was cool and over the top but for me it needed a hint of a returning character in the league of E Honda or Blanka, again though i'm not too up on the world of these characters and a few of the surprises fell short on me simply because I didn't recognise who was being introduced. All in all it was a fun couple of hours, encouraging me to play a few online matches after it was all over, I really like the new feature of rematches with your opponent which has been added since I last played. Everything added recently has made it seem closer to a full game, its a shame it wasn't there at release!

As well as this I played a bit of Furi (PS4) I say a bit, I played a few hours, but didn't get very far, mostly due to my incompetence at games like this. Guided by a rabbit through a series of boss fights as you sort've break out of jail is the basic premise of the game. The boss fights themselves have played out so far as a combination of duel stick shooting sections followed by hand to hand combat which is more timing based (and theres a handy health refresh for a successful parry) the neat thing, which has kept me playing despite how bad I am at it is that there is a three attempt system to each fight which is refreshed when you knock off a full bar of your opponents health. Meaning that there is ample time for me to get used to the waves of attacks thrown at me. It feels very much like a boss fight from Bloodborne to me, which is an impressive scope to aim for from an indie game. It all looks very stylish and the voice acting is strong so far. I'm certainly enjoying it more than I thought I would initially and despite how terrible I am at it!

Pocket Card Jockey (3DS) continues to sap away most of my time, I've now got a stable of horses with variable success on the track. I bred a horse, Tinopener, who wasn't as good as I was hoping, very quick but then I realised the speed of your horse effects the amount of time you have to play solitaire, so a quick horse isn't necessarily a good thing. I then took another ride, Paul Ross, who wasn't great but I've been working purely on levelling him up, not too bothered about winning the initial races, instead getting the little horseshoes and lightbulbs to make him a high level horse with lots of skills, time will tell. The game is a dark path of simulation and cards which continues to be the most fun I'm having with video games at the moment.

Earthbound and Dune 06.07.16

I bought two racing games on the 3DS this week and the first, Mario Kart 7, was everything I was expecting it to be. I came in from the wrong angle of having played its successor Mario Kart 8 already so a lot of the new features added had been improved upon along with the better tracks from this game being recreated for the WiiU version. That's not to say I was downbeat about my time with the game, its a lot of fun and a couple of the tracks added are great, I especially like the tracks which are split into sections rather than the conventional laps. Flight (or air-gliding) being one of the features added for this iteration is used much better than its successor, I felt that short cuts and speed boosts were a lot of fun to find with this technique. The roster, which has been expanded and chopped and changed so much by this stage, is one of the weaker for my tastes. Obviously this is a minor thing, bearing in mind how most are just skin changes for your racer, I found myself sticking to the predictable Toad and Koopa Trooper throughout. On my loose scale of this series, being a rare thing that I've played and finished every one released, I'd place it somewhere between Super Circuit and Super Mario Kart, I certainly got more out of Mario Kart DS. For the record here's my uninformed Mario Kart Chart.

8. Mario Kart Wii 

7. Mario Kart 64

6. Mario Kart: Super Circuit

5. Mario Kart 7

4. Super Mario Kart

3. Mario Kart 8

2. Mario Kart DS

1. Mario Kart: Double Dash!!

So with that cleared up I played a lot of a game that would probably go straight to the top of my horse racing crossed with solitaire games list. Pocket Card Jockey (3DS) it's as addictive a game as I've played in a long time. Tasked with controlling a resurrected jockey, who's not great at racing horses but enjoys playing cards the game then goes on to explain the at first daunting combination of solitaire and horse racing. It goes something like this; 1) race starts and you play a bit of speed solitaire to determine how quick out of the blocks you are and where you place early on 2) you play a bit of solitaire (for a varying amount of rounds during the race) the better you do at this the more energy your horse has and more injections of pace you get at the end of the race. 3) You physically mark out where your horse goes on the track, areas which will slow down expend more energy are shown, along with areas which will retain energy 4) depending on the distance of the race you then enter the home stretch and here the game seems to weigh up how you've done for how quick your horse is but also placement of the horse and the amount of boosts you have at this point can be really important. On top of all this the game has a levelling system to your horse, which includes certain skills they learn and the temperament of the creature, oh and there's a shop which sells special one time items for races along with puzzle pieces which when complete I think they boost a horse or something? At times, especially early on I found it all rather overwhelming but quickly a seemingly complex random assortment of mechanics became clear and more importantly a lot of fun. There's a massive element of chance, on numerous occasions my ride would be undone by an AI mishap or a bad hand of cards but weirdly I don't find it frustrating. The races are short enough to always have me ready to have one more go and on top of all this its got a lovely aesthetic to the whole experience only made better by some genuinely funny characters and some awesome music. I absolutely adore this game, its everything I want from a handheld game and possibly the best thing I've played on a handheld since Tetris.  

Earthbound and Dune 27.06.16

On name alone Dangerous Golf (PS4) seems like a winner and the sort of game i'd like to play. It looks really nice too the only things I found hold it back are a complete lack of instruction on what to do and some really horrible bugs. The concept is golf in the loosest terms, my target was still a hole but in one of four constrained environments, the attraction though is that each is filled with items to destroy, this destruction fills up a meter which once filled gives me more control of my next shot. Failure to fill the meter tends to mean replaying the hole. All of this is pretty sketchy because from the outset your given a loading screen of the controls and that's it. I played the first few holes quickly and got decent scores but wasn't too sure what I was doing to get these scores. It hit a big bump in the road when it came to a timed hole, I had to get through it quickly, it was only once I'd learn't through trial and error that the time consuming smashbreaker can be stopped in its flow that I worked out how to get past this level. I then got through a few more levels and the game started to hit its stride, nuances with placement of shots and feathering the slow motion destructive controls felt like I was actually using skill to achieve scores. Especially the holes which involve multiple targets in a brief time period. Then a few hard crashes happened, something my Playstation hadn't ever done. It was really disappointing because it was at the point where I was starting to enjoy the game. I've gone back to it a couple of times and chipped away a few more levels and i'm not disliking it, in fact I think with a few patches or updates it could be something as good as its name deserves. 

I had fun with NBA 2K16 (PS4) for all the wrong reasons, hoping for something more like NBA Jam I knew it was way too technical for my slight knowledge of basketball as soon as I play a match as the sizeable full game installed. When it finally installed though I got into a bit of the the Spike Lee directed story mode, starting as a play of sorts, which the directed interrupts a rehearsal and then requested that I enjoy the experience which was coming up. Mine was made more light hearted by my earlier decision to mould a loose interpretation of what I looked like into the character I played. Ginger, bearded, Caucasian, skinny and as short as a basketball video game would allow me. He was then thrust into the streets of Harlem playing basketball with his two African American friends, nothing untoward at all, but then one of the friends announced herself as my sister, for the role of the story I was happy to assume I was adopted, but as it developed she became my twin sister and I met my equally confusing parents. That my character was nicknamed "Freq" by everyone would have seemed an intentional joke but its all told in such a serious tone, I'm sure as the story developed it would have told something interesting but I couldn't get past how silly it seemed by my own accidental design. The story seemed to me to be something I was being told, rather than something I had any influence over. That played into the basketball games themselves, I was announced as the brightest prospect in the sport early on and despite my failings at it initially the path of my character seemed set in stone. I was playing shots from all over the court in no time and I started to realise this wasn't because I was especially good at the game, rather the story dictated that I had to be good at it. I got as far a routine of interviews which saw me decide on which college to play for, problem with these being that they're entwined with games of basketball so by the point where I had to decide who to play for I'd forgotten what every college had said. I'm sure there's a fantastic basketball game in there somewhere but its a bit too simulation for my tastes.

Gone Home (PS4) Had been on my radar for a while, so I was pleased to see it release on PS Plus. Its everything I thought it would be, having read about it in the context of other games I've enjoyed such as Firewatch and Everyones Gone to the Rapture. Its very narrative focused, and short to play through, without saying to much I was really pleased to see how it worked with my assumptions to what was going to happen. I had a strange moment in the game where in a burst of silliness I decided to though items around my sisters room and generally make a mess, I walked out of the room and down the hall and had a pang of guilt, I went back and cleaned up as best I could. I guess that's a testament to the immersion of the game.

 

Earthbound and Dune 22.06.16

I've found Fallout 4: Far Harbour (PS4) both a fantastic and frustrating piece of add on content which while it seems great value goes in some weird directions it didn't need to. The main quest takes place on a big island north of the area which the body of the game has taken place so far, but that's not after a bit on detective work first. I opted to take Nick Valentine along as my companion (the game not so subtly pointed me in that direction straight away) the initial work I needed to do to get to Far Harbour is fairly simple but its a cool angle on the synth subject which is covered a lot in the game. As soon as I got to Far Harbour though it got a lot more difficult, soon introduced to a number of new creatures in a fight not too dissimilar than the early fight against a Deathclaw in the main game. The only difference is I opted to tackle it without power armour so it was a lot more tricky and my ammunition and health restoring resources which I'd squirrelled away for hours were depleting at an alarming rate. I then made the mistake of taking on a new companion and sending Nick back to Sanctuary, this new companions gruff nature and seeming alcoholism was funny at first but the joke wears thin after an hour or so travelling with him. On top of this it seems like there would be a lot more story which would unfold with Nick at my side, especially when you meet up with the synth commune which has a big part to play in the story. The plot has seen me reintroduced to the children of the Atom, who are just as dislikeable as when I met them in the main story. In fact I had to resist the temptation of gunning them down as soon as I met them, the only thing stopping me being the slog through toxic marshes littered with weird angler fish mutants to get there. I'm glad I did though as it went in some interesting places at this point and getting deeper into the weird cult was interesting and well written. Sadly it was soon after that the weakest part of the new content reared its head, a sequence of puzzles involving the construction mechanics which at first was a fresh idea but by the end (it took me over an hour to get through them, I'm not great at puzzles) was just boring and frustrating, I was unsure whether leaving the sequence would erase my progress especially without the option to save while your working through it. Along with this it all involves fiddly placement of items and tricky platforming in first person (which is rarely much fun). I've worked through this now, which is a massive relief and hopefully it will become more of the reasons I play a Fallout game again soon. 

Like I say I've enjoyed a lot of it, the combat steps up a level in challenge on the island. Most of the factions are littered about the habitat and at least one new one, who introduce a fun new nautical themed weapon. I like the way the stories going too especially the reasons for the abundance of radiation on the island, I'm just not too sure once I get through the main content that I'll be as keen to root about for other things to do, which is a shame because it looks like there is plenty on offer.

Played a bit of Downwell (PS4) too as it came out sneakily on the console. I was a bit caught out because I was so used to touch controls, it certainly wasn't as easy as I expected, but after a couple of tumbles down the well I was getting further than I had playing on an iPhone. The other benefit of playing on the PlayStation I found was I was chasing trophies more than I had with other games, and the trophies themselves were cool ways to attempt playing the game. Such as get to the bottom of a stage without firing a shot or killing an enemy or even landing, basically it added a new way to play the game. Its really cheap too, so well worth it!