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.