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!