Earthbound and Dune 27.02.17

The Order:1886 (PS4) I've played through the majority of this game this week. With a new Zelda game on the horizon I wanted something not too time consuming and simple enough to get into and it met both these requirements. It's very much like a Gears of War game, in gameplay and in terms of technical achievement, I remember the first time I played Gears of War and thinking that it really did look like a new generation of game, while this game isn't as great a leap it still uses some nifty tricks (like a slight letterbox to the picture and gating where I could go quite severely) to make it look very nice. The premise of the game is the knights of old have hung around to shoot werewolves in London, leading to some lovely looking environments. Such as lavish houses, old hospitals and underground stations. Traversing the environment is cool, and while I felt I was being pushed down corridors most of the time its still nice how the game ties together winding streets and old houses. Moments where I was jumping out of windows or climbing along walls were highlights. The game gets a bit more imaginative with its weaponry, instead of sticking to technology of the time guns are spruced up and a lot of fun to play around with. My personal favourite was the concrete gun (or whatever its called) which blasts a cloud of dust at enemies and then with the other trigger the dust is ignited to create an explosion. There are a couple of novel weapons like this, indeed I thought the game really hit its stride when I was introduced the "Q" type character at my headquarters. At times it uses other forgotten parts of the Playstation 4, like tapping out morse code on the touchpad which was a nice little gimmick. The plot is fairly basic but moves at such a pace that its kept me interested and after a pretty dull first boss battle, which involves repeating the same trick a few too many times the other encounters with werewolves are a lot more tense affairs which mix up the more basic QTE's with an element of skill. Overall I like the game quite a bit, by being a more refined and shorter experience it was perfect for what I was looking for.

If they can condense this duel screen nonsense to a single screen

for the Switch i'll be there day one.

I also indulged in a farewell of sorts to my 3DS, with the Switch inbound hopefully that will be my handheld console for commuting so I played a bit of Super Mario Land, I say a bit I completed it three times. The virtual console has presented me with the shocking revelation that Super Mario Land is a very short and very odd Mario game. Few enemies are familiar and even the ones that are now blow up instead of abandoning they're shells. Beyond the Goomba's and Koopa's that are now explosive, theres weird flying mice, easter island heads and zombie humans that jump about. The setting or location of this land is hard to pin down, it could be earth I guess. Theres certainly more elements of our planet I recognise than the Mushroom Kingdom. Its such a brief little game that i've got no issue at all playing it a couple of times in a day, I can get it done in about the fifty minutes or so it takes me to get home. Finally I think I like the 1-1 theme music more than the standard Mario tune. I also returned to my stable of poorly named horses to play a bit of Pocket Card Jockey once more. Time has been kind to this game, it's still exceptional, time had also been kind to my young horse Red Rum 2. Such a fine young filly that she got me to bits of the game I didn't know existed, I now have a rival who was pretty impressed with my ride, and flew a few insults at me. Basically this horse wouldn't stop winning races, incredibly lucky and was winning me so much money I could be frivolous in the shop, buying gloves and carrots to keep the winning run going. It all came crashing down though when she went into mature mode. Once she'd passed her peak of three years old she was pretty much useless. I might put her out to stud now or whatever you do with a really good horse. I really, really hope that games like this find there way onto the Switch eventually, its such a fun and unexpected game. 

Earthbound and Dune 21.02.17

This is my life again. For now.

I knew, like with any addiction it wouldn't take much to get me using again, and the introduction of over 80 new Pokemon in Pokemon Go (iOs) made me feel dirty, used and not as satisfied as the first time I experienced the game. There was a initial hit when I woke up and saw shadows of four new creatures all within walking distance and my first encounter was with the utterly adorable Hoothoot (yep, pretty much just an Owl). What I soon found was that the most consistent thing about this update is how much nicer generation two of Pokemon look compared to the first batch. Some are lazy, the aforementioned Hoothoot or Ledyba (a ladybird) aren't he most original but they all look so much nicer. If I was being cynical I'd suggest that by the time this batch of creatures came out the Pokemon Company may have realised the millions to be made out of soft toys and keychains but for now its nice to have a variation on the Raata's and Pidgey's that still litter the world. My biggest regret beyond the fact i'm playing this game still, I never got the Hitmonlee or Tangela to complete my generation one and that looks less likely with all the new monsters popping up. There are things I really didn't miss about playing this game also, like looking like a moron standing outside Cannon Street Station at 6am trying to catch a Noctowl before I jump on the tube or the fact my battery is depleted after a 90 minute commute. Changes for the better have happened to the game, it now doesn't dim the audio of music or podcasts while playing, so the game can take its place as a secondary task once again, there are more ways to customise my avatars look and not all cost real world money which is nice. Also new items from Pokestops such as purple bananas and rarer items to evolve Pokemon have been added and refreshingly it continues to avoid the trappings of a free to play game and there is no option just to flat out buy these items.

This additional content is essential for this seven month old game to continue to be played and relevant, I'm not too sure how long I'll play it now I've returned, almost certainly it won't be as long as those balmy days of generation one. While I'm also a massive fan of this new batch of monsters, i'm not sure its going to be the sweeping success it was this time round, most people would be able to identify a Pikachu or Charizard and I can't see the Piloswines and Woopers of the world appealing to the masses, however cute they are. The sad truth is though I'm still an addict and once the shine of these 80 new creatures wears off all it will take for me to bounce back in is the offer of a couple of new monsters, which for the time being they have plenty of.

Continuing on the seedy theme I played a bit more of Yakuza 0 (PS4) as well. After finishing up on The Last Guardian last week I wasn't looking for too much story stuff so instead I wandered the streets for a good while, enjoying the random fights an tasks that pop up at a regular pace. The fighting continues to be great fun, balancing its ernest tone with stupidity, whacking people with Pachinko signs never grows old. I've gone down the path of upgrading and got a flying kick which fails to connect more often than not, but the animation of failing to hit the target is also really amusing. Side activities are really varied in both content and quality, I can't see myself returning to the toy car racing any time soon and the watch a girl in a bikini take a bath videos are a real low point of the game, it really doesn't need to lower itself to the BMXXX audience and even taking it for what it is, its not erotic. Other side activities are wonderful, I happened upon a nightclub in the middle of the day, and upon speaking to the DJ a dancing mini game starts, which is as much fun as the Karaoke game I played earlier, again this lack of seriousness is where the game shines. Along with this just the density of what to do in the streets is great, attempting to track down a students girlfriend (who he is accusing of prostitution with little evidence) I stumbled across baseball batting cages which again had a fun little mini game inside. I've yet to find the students girlfriend, i'm in no hurry as I don't think she's in any danger and he struck me as a bit of an idiot.

 

Earthbound and Dune 16.02.17

Not a Hero (PS4) Played quite a bit of this fun little 2D shooter this week. From the makers of Olli Olli (and its sequel) its quite a drastic departure in terms of subject but in terms of look and gameplay in places theres similarities. The setup from the game is to aide a character called BunnyLord rise to political power through shooting, stealing and turning on billboards. The levels are small and set up a main objective at the start with bonuses for completing other things, such as getting to the end of the level without being shot a number of times or completing it under a set time. There is where the challenge tends to lie, and I found it fun to attempt these, especially when they were more obscure things like stealing a hidden item or meeting with some news reporters before a timer ran out. It took me a bit of time to get to grips with the controls, even though they are fairly simplistic. Ducking behind cover is essential to succeeding in the game as most of the enemies do the same and reloading isn't automatic which has taken me some time to get to grips with, using cover or breaks in the frantic shootouts to do this is really important and health regenerates in this downtime too. It's a very British affair, the first two characters unlocked have been Scottish and Welsh and played a bit to these stereotypes, hopefully as I unlock more there will be a bit more depth to the humour. Beyond a new accent I've not really seen the appeal of playing as the new characters i've unlocked, the cockney dude I've started as is balanced enough that he seems the easiest way to get through the game. Broforce is a game that springs to mind when I'm playing this mostly aesthetically, I don't think this comparison is helping at the moment as in Broforce I loved the anticipation of a new character unlocking as well as the humour. Not a Hero seems like it might be the better game though and i'm looking forward to playing more of it.

What has been more of a chore though has been finishing the last few hours of The Last Guardian (PS4). I don't think I've ever played a game that can be so varied in quality, and this is consistent throughout. After an impressive and tense boss fight near the end and helping Trico recover with one of the more interesting collecting barrels bits of the game the game then moved me across impressive vistas atop of Trico, it was almost a highlights reel of the game so far, jumping up buildings and darting up staircases as we ascended to the top of the games world. I forgave Trico's lack of compliance to my orders and waited it out as he saw where to go and when to take run ups for his leaps. When we reached our goal, a gleaming white tower which has been on the horizon for the entire game, it then descended to everything thats bad about this game. Waves of enemies attacked us, and combat is at best easy and at worst completely random in this game. Trico will pretty much trash any enemy with ease, so its more a case of waiting it out on his back until an enemy type he cant do anything about appear and then either attempting to shoot them with the shield. A pretty much fruitless task when your on his back because the button prompt to shoot is the same as to stroke Trico, so instead of laying waste to the bad guys I tended to give Trico a reassuring pat on the back. Using the sheild as a weapon on the ground is pointless 9 times out of 10 as it takes way to long to charge and I got picked up by an enemy, which then becomes a frustrating button mash to escape they're grip. The best tactic therefore I found to be rolling into this last wave of enemy type and rely on chance, a small window of time before they pick up the weapon Trico hates so much again where Trico can stamp on them. Once getting through this I was presented with a coliseum like room, daunting because it seemed like the place where waves of enemies would attack me but surely so soon after completing a section which does just this it wouldn't repeat the trick (especially as its the least fun thing the game does) but nope, waves of enemies attacked me an Trico, I waited until the last wave and repeated my rolling trick to finish them off. Its just not fun. Then the game did something completely unexpected, it found a task even less fun, removing Trico from a combat section, where I ran around in circles escaping the grip of enemies (by button mashing) pressing a stupid amount of buttons. Once I got through these tasks the game reached its conclusion, the final sequence is fantastic. A genuinely fun puzzle, followed by some harrowing moments and a satisfying finale while also presenting a glorious reminder of the hours i've put into the game. 

Throughout the game there is an emphasis on stubborn mechanics, whether it be a creature that barely responds to me, combat which is complete luck or puzzles which are roadblocked by chance. I do really like the game and am really pleased to have played through it but its certainly something which I'd rather have been removed from the gameplay more often. 

Stockton never really pulled his weight in this game. In fact I

blame him for the result.

I played a truely heartbreaking but epic game of NBA Jam (Megadrive) in my shed this week. It played out like this, the first quarter was the standard see-saw of points as I got used to playing the game again and what the buttons are, it seemed a bit odd that the turbo button is mapped to the B button, but once I got round this I managed to end the first quarter level with my opponents.  My computer AI teammate was offering no support, and as I started to build up a lead in the second half all he seemed to be doing was holding me back with his misplaced passes and ambitious shots. I was on fire and he was blasting water at me. Half time came around and the reason for our slender lead was my partners input, we led 18-17 and he'd supplied a paltry 2points to our score. The half time show was underwhelming and the third quarter saw me build up a more healthy lead. I gave up on passing the ball and by the end of the third I was 12 points ahead 33-21. I don't know if fatigue is factored into the game, but the weight of carrying our duo for three quarters of a match strained and came tumbling down as the game reached its conclusion. I could only watch as my opponents caught my lead and then ran of into the distance with the game, basketball on fire. They won the match 47-35 and I was cursing AI.

I finally got round to playing something more contemporary this week, a game set in the 1980s and part of a 12 year old series, Yakuza 0 (PS4). New to the series though I was immediately into the aesthetic and tone, which balances overly serious gangster stuff with stupidity really well. One moment theres a serious story about real estate going on the next I'm bashing skulls with bins. The initial appeal of the game to me was the idea of playing old Sega titles in the arcades and messing about in the world, now I'm (albeit not far) getting into the game the combat is the most fun element. Its a slight button mashing affair, being able to switch between a strong or speedy style on the fly but all the combat feels weighty and fun. Whenever a goon is taken down theres a satisfying chuck of money thrown at the screen emphasised by an even more satisfying sound effect. The few actual missions I've done have been nice little detours into buildings where I fight through waves of enemies, not allowing progress until the floor or room is cleared. To me it feels like the natural progression of Streets of Rage and thats not a bad thing. Side quests and activities open to me are almost overwhelming. Introduced with a bit of Karaoke in a dive bar, after selecting one of a few songs its then onto short rhythm game which defines how well the song is sung. I returned to this mini game later and instead found myself singing along and clapping to a young lady as she sang a song, I'm struggling to decide on which version of the mini game I preferred, they both had there merits and ultimately were as silly as each other. Other things to do, such as darts and pool are cool options. I'm not sure about leering over women in the gentlemen's clubs, in something i've not partaken in yet and don't imagine I will unless the story forces me to. I've tried a couple of claw games to win toys to now avail and found Space Harrier and Outrun in arcades, which are pretty decent ports of the arcade games and a cool addition. Beyond all of these activities side quests pop up regularly, normally involving beating up some people extorting money. Theres one dude I've bumped into though who's f**king massive and strong to boot. He beat me up with ease, which was refreshing because at this early point most people are pretty easy to take down. Once he did beat me up though he offered the challenge of fighting up again if I see him about to retake the money he's stolen from me, this is a cool little task which I'll take up when I feel more prepared.  

The game suffers a bit from feeling dated with some of its UI, saving is restricted to phone boxes for starters and autosaving is restricted to the conclusion of story chapters (I think). This was a bit frustrating after the lengthy opening of the game which doesn't have a save prompt, I was cautious to check that it had saved after about an hour of playing it and was surprised to find it hadn't. The game itself takes no time at all to load and feels smooth moving between areas, so maybe theres some benefit there. I'm really liking what I've played to far, the sheer amount of things to do is a bit overwhelming but I'll keep dropping in when I can. 

I also indulged in the happy chime of a Gamecube being booted up to play a bit of Donkey Konga (Gamecube). The clumsy controls of a lot of the Wii games Nintendo published (such as Wii Music) made me forget how good it feels to play a really well constructed Nintendo rhythm game with a solid piece of hardware in the controller. Even navigating the menus feels good. The song selecting is really strong, from Nintendo classics such as the Mario Theme to my personal favourite 99 Red Balloons, tapping and clapping away at the bongos is just a lot of fun. Not much more to say about this game, except i'm now trawling through auctions to find its sequel at a good price. 

Earthbound and Dune 30.01.17

Bird Week, despite its breezy artwork its actually a harsh and unforgiving

game.

I continued to brave a cold shed for the greater good of playing through some old games this week. Starting off with Bird Week (NES/Famicom) a fairly low key import title in which the goal is to collect butterflies to feed to your chicks so they can get big and strong and fly the nest. In the way are bigger birds, who presumably want to take me (the smaller bird) to feed to they're chicks. The game doesn't get much more varied than that, once the first set of chicks have fledged the nest it moves onto a new season, my tree is a vibrant pink blossom but the world no less brutal. New enemies are thrown into the mix, strange hopping creatures, like rabbits without ears. Anyway they want to eat me too, again presumably to feed they're young. It's a pretty nasty game, with the playable character sitting slap bang in the middle of the food chain. At its harshest I found myself dying after killing a butterfly and leaving my own young to starve with my corpse at the base of the tree they nest in. Gameplay wise its well ahead of its time, Flappy Bird owes a lot to this title, the controls are strikingly similar, if only that titular bird had a family to fend for I may have been more invested in that title. Graphics and sound aren't really much to write home about, especially as to play this import title i'm forced to play it on a 7" screen. The music is catchy though.

I then moved onto Shadows of the Empire (N64) challenging myself to start after its impressive Battle of Hoth opening (and probably the only bit of the game most people remember. What comes after this level is some FPS platforming, which isn't as bad as I recalled, It can be quite brutal with its failed jumps leading to falling into a foggy abyss but with a bit of switching of the camera it works. It's an odd choice not to have a gun on the screen with a FPS, gunfire instead reduced to a big red line emitting from around where my hand is. It makes some of the boss fights a bit harder than they should be. The boss fights themselves range from pretty cool iconic Star Wars baddies to the more obscure, a fight against a "loader droid" who's only power is to flail his long arms about felt almost cruel. Sections of the game fell completely flat, the battle in the gun turret early on was almost impossible to see anything and the speeder bike chase was as bad to look at as it was to control. On top of this it went on for an eternity of me bashing into walls chasing after countless bounty hunters who were thankfully going about there buisness about as quickly as I was. I did play a lot more of the game than I intended though. A mixture of nostagia from when I bought the game (it was the game I got with my N64 around its launch) and trying to convince myself it was a good game and it actually not being that bad, its ambitious with a lot of its scope, the music is especially strong. It falls flat on a few things that because of its early release it may well have done better but on the whole the game it more than not that bad, its quite good. 

Earthbound and Dune 24.01.17

I've spent a few months investing and foraging screens, machines and games and now find myself in the blissful state where I have a space at the end of my garden where I can play old games whenever life allows me. The cold winter hasn't made this the most inviting prospect lately but this week I popped down there to play a couple of old N64 titles. First up was Doom 64, at the time of its release this title seemed dated, it still used sprites,had fixed aiming and lacked any form of multiplayer. Now though this title strangely has held up a lot better than the Turoks or even dare I say Goldeneyes of the era. By sticking with sprites it still looks pretty decent and has all the grim sounds you'd expect from a Doom game. I got through four levels, which are typical Doom fare, secrets and red and blue keys and a range of demons to shoot. Its also pretty tricky in places, it all came to a head when I basically couldn't be bothered to think out the solution to a puzzle and got crushed by falling celling's. 

I moved onto Rogue Squadron, and spent more time with this game than I thought I would. With the bit more power the expansion pack offers the N64 it looks alright, the controls still feel a touch more sensitive than other flight games on the N64. Dogfights are a bit more chance than skill, with the dreaded fogging the console seems to excel in making Tie Fighters pop up out of nowhere. Apart from these small issues its more fun than I remembered, the levels are brisk with simple enough tasks. Sometimes they rely a bit too much on dubious AI as most of the early levels involve protecting something. All the levels played avoided space combat, rather taking place on some generic looking terrain I guess this helps with making it a more linear experience but hopefully at some point it delivers on the promised "star wars". Beyond all this is cool to play an N64 title with a lot of dialogue and voice acting.

Finally I played the Star Cup in Mario Kart 64. In my opinion the perfect selection of Mario Kart courses, opening with the epic Wario Stadium a lengthy course which weaves and bumps and has the bastard jump near the end which a well timed lightening bolt can ruin everything. Then Sherbet Land, with its abundance of penguins. One in particular with cabin fever, just walking in circles on an iceberg. Besides penguins its got corners that can be cut with well timed jumps adding a risk/reward as if and when I mess up i'm sent into the icy ocean. Then onto Royal Raceway, a proper racers race, lush green fields and a few corners which can lead into falling into a lake, near the end theres a massive jump which can be used (albeit rarely) to cut off a massive section of the race. It all comes to a head with Bowsers Castle, which thwomps still cause mayhem and a few looping sections near the end complemented by some tricky jumps and staircases. Mario Kart has progressed massively, the courses have got bigger and look amazing these days but I don't think the balance of these four has been matched. 

Earthbound and Dune 14.01.17

I'm almost at the end of my time with Pokemon Moon (3DS) I've finished up the main story, it certainly goes places, then conquered the elite four. Some cutscenes are way too long for a portable game (one in particular lasted the duration of my commute) and at times it confused me a bit, I'm taking challenges to become a trainer while at the same time theres a bunch of punk kids making mischief and a creepy corporation pretending to be conversing Pokemon. Its a long way from the first generation of the game, most of the time this departure from its previous iterations is a blessing though, in fact its not until the last part of the main story that I encountered a traditional cave, Zubats and all. The final "boss" of the game (at least before I face the Elite four) was a pretty breezy affair, in fact I didn't switch from my Toucannon to defeat it but I was pleased to find at the end the story was tied up as best it could be. The more traditional fight against the elite four and the trainer which appears after is much more tricky, once again there is not healing between fighting each trainer so I went into it with a lot of preparation, two pages of notes in fact. I bought a ton of revives and max potions and finally utilised all my rare candy i'd been squirrelling away. I'm pretty sure as I've found this conclusion to previous games such a ball-ache that I'd been overly cautious throughout this game mindful that this final fight is way harder than anything I'd experience in the game. I got through it though in one attempt, my planning certainly helped, utilising tactics such as my Klefki opening my battle, sucking up a few turns and dropping spikes to mess with the changeover of my opponents Pokemon, once this odd bunch of keys had taken a beating I'd then send in my heavy hitters, like the wonderfully named Crabominable (a mixture of a Yeti and a crab). I'd always fall back on my notes which detailed how this expanded game of rock, paper, scissors would go down. It all concluded with my opponents Bearware throwing an almost fatal punch at my Mudsadle, which in turn caused a devastating earthquake which then triggered victory and a cutscene which even for this game seemed overly long.

There seems to be a lot more post game things to do this time round, I'm now going around visiting spots which the story didn't take me and levelling up some of the monsters that stood of the periphery of my top six. The game itself was a shorter affair than I was expecting, coming in at around 30 hours and weirdly thats enticing me to maybe one day start again, trying it out with a different selection of beasts. I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it again, its all nonsense. In its construction though, from the design of the creatures, the music and most importantly gameplay, there is more to Pokemon games than I was expecting. They're not just prolonged adverts for soft toys and keychains. The message which is sometimes not so subtly forced into this games story about raising and nurturing (told through the perspective of a pretty awful mother) was something I wasn't expecting and the "Gotta Catch 'Em All" attitude seemed to be replaced with "Gotta Care for 'Em All" and thats no bad thing.

The Last Guardian (PS4) is not a leisurely experience at all. I'm pretty sure I'm near the end of the game and while I'm really happy that i've played it I don't think I'd ever play it again. My frustration was at it peak when doing a particular platforming section ascending one of the many towers, simple jumps were made harder with a really twitchy camera and my character deciding that now was the time to stop reaching out for ledges. What was most frustrating about this ordeal was that it was coming off the back of one of the games many spectacular setpeices, one moment i'm dashing up a crumbling building with my trusty monster, him plucking me out of the air when I make a mistake then seconds later it all comes sputtering to a halt. Thats been the story of this flawed game for me, every time that I'm really enjoying it it throws a control or camera shaped spanner in the works. Had this game had the tight platforming of Uncharted 4 for example it would be an absolutely amazing experience but too often it falls short. Theres a bit more to the story now, which I wasn't expecting and while its not completely unexpected I like the way it ties back to the start of the game.