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.