Games Demand Time

Driver SF makes interesting use of its limited palette of game experience (I was sincerely shocked...

Sat, 24 Sep 2011 00:00:35 +0100

Driver SF makes interesting use of its limited palette of game experience (I was sincerely shocked to see Tanner leave his car in a cut scene, I had started to think of him as some kind of Darlek).

While under shift attack attack for example the gameplay is reversed from that required for escaping from police pursuit. A subtle twist on skills already learnt.

Dungeon Siege 3: First impressions

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 23:31:00 +0100

I had the time to have a quick bash at Dungeon Siege 3. I loved the first game but couldn’t get into the second. The third is quite a radical departure with a Steampunk rather than high fantasy feel.

The new control mix of block - tumble - attack is also quite new compared to more familiar click and special attack.

Really not sure how I feel about it at the moment. I did enjoy the burning mansion level though.

Dawn of War II - Retribution

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 22:54:45 +0000

I’ve got a real weak spot for DoW and actually liked the change to be focussed on heroes. So far Retribution is looking like an enjoyable addition to the series. I’ve started an Ork and Space Marine campaign. The Orks voiceover is a zany mixture of Irish, Jamaican and West Country that suits the general freewheeling feel of the units.

The Marine campaign continues the story of the Blood Ravens although it’s hard to see whether any conclusion is going to be reached now.

Scott Pilgrim Multiplayer

Thu, 13 Jan 2011 23:42:01 +0000

I bought a second PS3 controller (no USB cable! how cheap is that!) and this week when some friends came over we had the chance to play two-player Scott Pilgrim. What a revelation! The game is a lot more fun with two people and much faster paced as well. You can actually just brawl through the level rather than grinding for money and experience.

GTAIV: Snowstorm

Thu, 13 Jan 2011 08:57:32 +0000

I have struggled for months to get through this mission (which involves fighting your way out of a SWAT bust). While getting in and fighting on the way out was relatively easy losing your wanted status seemed impossible.

In the end I used the following tactics: travelling to the mission I had the chance to get a Range Rover style chunky SUV, this was handy when escaping because they can take an extreme amount of abuse.

I also tried to avoid killing the gangsters, instead sneaking around the back of the building and climbing up the ladder at the back before sneaking into the room with the drugs. This means the gangsters and the SWAT will be shooting one another and will avoid pushing up your wanted level.

When escaping I started off with a shotgun and tried to leave the building very rapidly, switching to the SMG when entering the entrance building. This was to avoid more beat cops arriving to join the raid.

Jumping into the SUV and weaving out of the car park I turned left back onto the overpass to the city. This seems to be the key to losing the police as the SUV is slower over the straight than the police cars so you need to be using the grid system to make lots of turns and twists to avoid pursuit. Once the helicopters have lost you (zipping around tall buildings helps) this becomes the same job as losing any pursuit.

WoW Cataclysm: The new races

Mon, 03 Jan 2011 14:23:09 +0000

I am possibly the worst WoW player who continues to pay a subscription. After six years (I was there at the start!) I have managed the grand rank of 73 on my most consistent character.

To make sure that minimal progress continues I decided to create alternate Goblin and Worgen characters over the holidays and play through their new starting levels (Gnome and Troll characters must also be done at some point).

I started with the Worgen first, the ambience is dark, gothic and spooky. It is also an extremely compelling storyline with a nation under siege and on the run. The conflict with the Horde is believable and hopefully the tie-in to the Night Elves (which worked for me) means places like Darnassus might be a bit more lively than they have been.

The Goblin storyline meanwhile is a riot with all manner of computer game spoofs embellishing the main storyline of comedic disaster. I liked the GTA, SimCity and Left4Dead references; all of which were balanced by the epic Horde events the goblins are swept into.

However ultimately the alliance between the goblins and the Horde worked less well from a narrative perspective as motivation was not clearly defined. Also the free-wheeling fun of the Goblin adventures definitely made going to Ogrimmar feel like a bit of a come down whereas the Worgen’s darker tone fed into the destruction of Auberdine and the coming of Deathwing a lot better.

A holiday gift? For me?

Mon, 25 Oct 2010 22:24:24 +0100

I just got a Jack o’ Lantern bag drop! I think this is the first random holiday item I have ever received and it is actually useful as it is two slots bigger than my smallest bag.

Goddammit it’s actually made me happy.

Iron Man MMORPG

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 00:25:30 +0100

One of the cool things that Lotro does is give out titles if you are not defeated in battle. Now in most MMORPGs I’ve played dying is something that seems to happen within minutes of leaving the newbie area. Either something spawns in behind you, you mis-judge the required power combinations or you just plain have an interface fail.

With my first Middle Earth character I got through 15 levels without dying and all the way the game was rewarding me and encouraging me to actually try to engage with the game rather than just trying a quest, failing and respawning.

However that level of careful investment led to a weird experience. When the character was defeated, it felt like a cheat to go back and play them. I’d ended up playing a kind of Iron Man MMORPG where if the character dies, that’s it it’s alt-time.

I even felt cheated that the character had died because I had not been able to find a group to complete the main questline. Which brings up a question of game design. Most MMORPGs seem to minimise dying as a way of avoiding having to perfect the game balance, and that’s an immersion killer.

Bioware's rogue problem

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 00:16:22 +0100

Bioware seem addicted to cancelling stealth in all of their games, completely throwing away one of the key aspects of the roguish class. Any cutscene? Cancel stealth. Any conversation? Cancel stealth.

One of the most annoying examples is when your stealth gets cancelled by the boss of the other side giving some “I will destroy you!” speech. Well yes you probably will now that I’m just a poor man’s fighter.

The optimum plot-following character in Bioware would appear to be a kind of Charisma tank, good enough to pass the Skill checks but armoured enough to handle the aggro of a conversation tree that is going to always end with the other side attacking the speaker.

Red Dead Redemption: Water so strong it can kill a horse

Mon, 24 May 2010 23:35:24 +0100

Ouch, this is a beautiful but unforgiving game. During my first ten minutes I accidentally stole a horse. By steal I mean mount a horse that was not, apparently, my designated horse. Even though that horse was tied to the rail of the shack my character lives in.

So having incorrectly mounted the horse I have a $20 bounty on my head and two “lawmen” after me. Lawman who apparently want to arrest me by filling me so full of lead I can no longer walk under the weight of bullets embedded in my character’s body.

Having only played one mission I don’t know how to make my stolen horse go faster to outrun the pursuit so we end up racing through a town at the far end of the map where a bridge is out (the GTA influence really is that strong) and I get a brilliant idea for escaping the law. I spur my horse on and get it to leap into the water.

What I have forgotten though is that water is the most vicious horse-solvent known to man or equine. The horse dies instantly and my tough guy character drowns in a scum of dissolved horse.

Dead; reads the screen completely killing any engagement with the atmosphere I might have been feeling. Restarting back at the shack I find that despite being dead I still owe the law $20 for theft. Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?

Dragon Age: Excuses

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 00:10:15 +0100

You know how I said I would help you with your werewolf problem? Well you know I got to this castle and this dragon appeared and completely owned me, like four times. Not only that but I don’t seem to be able to persuade anyone of anything at the moment. So I’m going to go and deliver some messages and see if I can’t get some crowd control and tanking going on. Then I’ll see if I can’t help you with that disease that you said is going to kill your people in a couple of days.

Dragon Age has that annoying flaw of many Bioware games where the appearance of an open world is superficial and the narrative flow and sense of urgency is entirely secondary to the “game” aspect and therefore immersion is utterly wrecked.

Free Trials a real pain in the ass

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 23:35:42 +0000

PC Gamer this month came with Age of Conan on the disk. Magic I thought, I’ll install the client and give the endless trial a go. OMG! What a mess. I have Funcom account from the old Anarchy Online trial. Can I use that for Conan? No, can I use the same account name? No. Surely a pre-existing registration should make things easier?

Having created a new account and linked it to the old one I find out that the client is apparently not a free trial client but a full client, please uninstall and reinstall? That client downloaded 2G of data. If it goes I doubt it is going to come back quite frankly.

Oh well, never mind. What about that Warhammer Endless Trial? Oh, if you have a full Warhammer Europe account then you can’t associate it with a trial key.

Crazy. If you’ve ever played with us before, please don’t both trying to do it again.

Uncharted 2: Himalayas

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 14:56:27 +0000

I got Uncharted 2 for Christmas and while admiring the flashback structure of the opening of the game the sucky console combat was a bit of a blocker for me for quite a while. However at the point that you are climbing the ruined hotel the experience was something else.

The game really felt like playing an action film, only a few cronky control moments over jumps detracted from the experience. The train sequence was equally cinematic but technically I loved the fact that there is so much variety in the scenery and that the transitions (bar the train tunnel) are so subtle. It’s an amazing feat of engineering.

Mass Effect

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 14:51:06 +0000

With the release of Mass Effect 2 I thought I should try and finish Mass Effect. I decided to buy the game on Steam and was quite impressed to discover that it could find my retail saves and load them. Rather than the rather generic Cpt. Shepherd my character is female, red hair, green eyes and a hip-hop shaved eyebrow that always makes me laugh in the closeups.

I hadn’t got very far through the game at it turns out. Still mimbling around the Citadel. The game actually sucked me in when I discovered that actually I could freely fly round space and investigate things. I was pleasantly surprised; I had been expecting a Knights of the Old Republic style experience.

Driving around planets in the buggy was also quite entertaining although frustrating as the exit vehicle button doesn’t seem to be documented anywhere (it’s Q on my machine).

Stalker: Call of Pripyat

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 22:23:38 +0000

It felt deliciously scary, slipping once again into the murky world of Stalker. The barking in the distance, the careful examination of approaching figures through the gun sights. The click of the Geiger counter.

I’ve only got as far as the Stalker camp in the grounded ship, even so I did manage to spend a couple of seconds suspiciously surveying croaking frogs.

Save games in the Cloud

Sun, 14 Feb 2010 22:53:05 +0000

So after a clean Windows 7 install (firstly unintentional, second time intentional) I have been seeing how has a sensible saved games policy and who has stuff I’m prepared to play again just to get back to where I was.

Firstly, and it shocked me, Windows Live for Games did actually save all my Dawn of War II details. Finally I get some value out of the service I was ambushed into joining.

Dragon Age merely required a directory copy from my old user directory but it did then require an age to download and install the DLC that was associated with the save game.

Machinarium was a scrub and no files to be found. Apparently it saves games in the Windows Registry. Ahem, yes, that makes… no sense whatsoever.

It also seems that I hadn’t saved my Torchlight game after the Cloud update so I had to restart, fortunately I hadn’t got that far.

So all in all I am very much in favour of being able to hook up games to a Cloud service to retrieve save game data. The question is: who do you trust to do that for you?

L4D2: Dark Carnival

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 22:42:14 +0000

I have been trying to complete Dark Carnival in Single Player but it’s frustratingly hard. The bots don’t use thrown weapons or shot trap objects. I’ve managed to get far enough that the helicopter appears, however it wasn’t clear how to get onto the copter and I was swarmed to death.

I know it’s meant to be a multiplayer game but it would be nice if the game was a bit more playable offline as well.

Thanks Steam, Windows...

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 11:27:05 +0000

I really wanted to play Left For Dead 2 last night. So coming home I fire up the PC, let Steam do some updating and then, bam!, a blue screen. Not uncommon, so I restart and then try to restart Steam. Then the problems begin…

Steam will not compete its update because the downloaded file is missing. Downloading the latest version from the website fails to repair the existing install so the only option is to uninstall Steam before reloading it.

Now when I uninstall Steam I will obviously be asked if I want to retain my downloaded data files or not. So one uninstall later I am 150Gb lighter in the hard drive but I can install the new version of Steam.

If the games saved their data to my User directory I might even have retained my save games.

Thanks Steam! Thanks Windows!

Now to start downloading those games again…

Champions Online: The Return

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:01:53 +0000

I decided to return to Champions for a bit on the weekend but found myself dying three times in succession. Combat is really confusing in the game and now the tutorial is a distant memory I am really struggling. I am also at the point where you are having to group and there weren’t that many people around when I logged in.

Machinarium: Tic Tac Toe

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:59:25 +0000

This puzzle really ruined my enjoyment of the game for a while. Partly the number of locations you have to traverse to get the various bits and pieces is too big but also there is no real logic to winning the game.

As the computer goes first, technically it should never lose. I had to read some advice on a forum about using a chequerboard pattern (basically trying to form a loose grid of x shapes) before I could get past it. Sure enough if you use the pattern and you play long enough and block any three in a row lines it forms the AI starts making some mistakes that allow to get five in a row.

It’s a shame because so much of this game is beautifully formed.