Why is Arkham Asylum apparently not available new for any platform. There is a plethora of them available second hand on ebay at the moment but new ones don't seem to be in stock at any of the reliable online stores.
I don't get this. It seemed to start around time that Arkham City came out and at the time I thought that maybe it had been taken off the market so that peoples mums didn't get the wrong thing in the run up to Christmas.
It was a popular game which went classics / platinum pretty quickly, so why this.
This fairly mild rant is reminding me that I have still not finished Arkham Asylum so I will do so soon and write more on that subject. However, it is Mirrors Edge that is really calling me at the moment, so I'll dig that out some time in the next week and be writing about it soon - though that won't be my next entry.
Tuesday, 31 January 2012
Thursday, 26 January 2012
WWE Road to WrestleMania x8
My attempts to play Road to Wrestlemania x8 on the GBA SP have not yet gone beyond the laughably incompetent. This was my first ever attempt at a wrestling game and fighting games are not really my thing, so it was likely to end badly.
I tried the championship mode to start off with, and playing as Kane (because he has a sinister looking mask) my record so far is Fought 3 Won 0.
It did not help that I only had the cartridge and no booklet so did not initially know the controls. The basic punch and throw moves were simple to discover. Sometimes I persuaded Kane to follow up a throw with a slam but it was basic mashing which made it happen.
At different times I managed to get him to hold the opponent in the air or pull back his lower leg while he was on the ground (there's probably a name for this move, but I don't know what it is), and all this seemed to help my cause, judging by the movement of the bar at the to of the screen, but my not knowing how to pin the other guy down for a count was always going to be a problem.
The most entertainingly useless thing that Kane would sometimes do was slam and miss, after which he would lie face down, seemingly ignorant of the goings on around him for what seemed a ridiculous length of time, like the shy kid at school who retreated into the hood of his parker when he felt insecure.
After my three defeats I was informed that I was not worthy to compete for the championship. I have to say I concur.
I've now looked up the controls for this game on line and I'm amazed at the different moves it's apparently possible to do. Will I ever get round to doing them? We'll see.
I tried the championship mode to start off with, and playing as Kane (because he has a sinister looking mask) my record so far is Fought 3 Won 0.
It did not help that I only had the cartridge and no booklet so did not initially know the controls. The basic punch and throw moves were simple to discover. Sometimes I persuaded Kane to follow up a throw with a slam but it was basic mashing which made it happen.
At different times I managed to get him to hold the opponent in the air or pull back his lower leg while he was on the ground (there's probably a name for this move, but I don't know what it is), and all this seemed to help my cause, judging by the movement of the bar at the to of the screen, but my not knowing how to pin the other guy down for a count was always going to be a problem.
The most entertainingly useless thing that Kane would sometimes do was slam and miss, after which he would lie face down, seemingly ignorant of the goings on around him for what seemed a ridiculous length of time, like the shy kid at school who retreated into the hood of his parker when he felt insecure.
After my three defeats I was informed that I was not worthy to compete for the championship. I have to say I concur.
I've now looked up the controls for this game on line and I'm amazed at the different moves it's apparently possible to do. Will I ever get round to doing them? We'll see.
Tuesday, 24 January 2012
Old Vegas; New Revolution
I've bought and played Rainbow Six: Vegas for the first time, recently and found it to be a game ahead of it's time.
There's no sign of the health bars and medkits favoured by many of it's contemporaries. Instead being shot produces a blurred and brightened screen which fades, provided it doesn't happen again too soon.
Most striking of all is the cover and shoot system. Almost exactly the same as the one in Deus Ex: Human Revolution, with the view slipping seemlessly to third person if L1 is pressed when you are near cover. It works pretty robustly, too, though on one or two occasions my guy walked out from behind his cover when I had been wanting him to turn and shoot. Perhaps this was not the first game to feature such a system but it's the earliest one I've ever played.
Sadly, despite these excellent aspects, I find the long, corridory sections (which have to be repeated if you die), a bit frustrating. As a result I have not got too far with this yet but I will come back to it.
As for Human Revolution, I am yet to finish it but I went back to it last night after a dew days away and went to bed late as a result. I defy anyone to stop playing this game at the time they mean to stop playing it. The more I play it the better it gets and I know that no other games are going to get played for at least the next two days.
There's no sign of the health bars and medkits favoured by many of it's contemporaries. Instead being shot produces a blurred and brightened screen which fades, provided it doesn't happen again too soon.
Most striking of all is the cover and shoot system. Almost exactly the same as the one in Deus Ex: Human Revolution, with the view slipping seemlessly to third person if L1 is pressed when you are near cover. It works pretty robustly, too, though on one or two occasions my guy walked out from behind his cover when I had been wanting him to turn and shoot. Perhaps this was not the first game to feature such a system but it's the earliest one I've ever played.
Sadly, despite these excellent aspects, I find the long, corridory sections (which have to be repeated if you die), a bit frustrating. As a result I have not got too far with this yet but I will come back to it.
As for Human Revolution, I am yet to finish it but I went back to it last night after a dew days away and went to bed late as a result. I defy anyone to stop playing this game at the time they mean to stop playing it. The more I play it the better it gets and I know that no other games are going to get played for at least the next two days.
Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts
Just a simple skirmish. Me as the Nazis; the AI as the Americans on normal difficulty, what could possibly go wrong?
I actually started quite well and took several of the strategic points on my half of the map, but in concentrating on that I neglected development and found that when the Americans came poking around I still only had the most basic units to call on.
The story of the battle from that point on was of me defending my base and the Yanks pinning me back. I managed to get buildings up to provide me with infantry and light and heavy armour and tried to fight back but the enemy was always a step ahead of me in development.
After I had been struggling for a while the Americans brought forward their Sherman Tank with rocket launchers mounted on top. The rockets came in a barrage and seemed both incendiary and explosive and damaged buildings and units alike. They could fire at my structures from a reasonable distance so from this point on I was compelled, whenever I managed to get a heavy tank built to send it forward into areas I did not control to attack the fiery monster and my armour would soon get taken out.
Manpower was short, though fuel and munitions were plentiful, so when I lost my infantry producing building it was a mistake to rebuild it as the units it produced were manpower hungry relative to their strength. I should have stuck to using resources to build vehicles, especially as I repeatedly produced basic infantry and sent them out into the increasingly empty field in front of my base to man mortars left behind by long-dead soldiers; they would be vulnerable and quickly die.
The building which produces light armour was next to be destroyed and by now the American forces so seriously outnumbered the occasional units that I produced that the end was inevitable.
It came soon, my base being the last building to fall. Total annihilation. Total humiliation.
I actually started quite well and took several of the strategic points on my half of the map, but in concentrating on that I neglected development and found that when the Americans came poking around I still only had the most basic units to call on.
The story of the battle from that point on was of me defending my base and the Yanks pinning me back. I managed to get buildings up to provide me with infantry and light and heavy armour and tried to fight back but the enemy was always a step ahead of me in development.
After I had been struggling for a while the Americans brought forward their Sherman Tank with rocket launchers mounted on top. The rockets came in a barrage and seemed both incendiary and explosive and damaged buildings and units alike. They could fire at my structures from a reasonable distance so from this point on I was compelled, whenever I managed to get a heavy tank built to send it forward into areas I did not control to attack the fiery monster and my armour would soon get taken out.
Manpower was short, though fuel and munitions were plentiful, so when I lost my infantry producing building it was a mistake to rebuild it as the units it produced were manpower hungry relative to their strength. I should have stuck to using resources to build vehicles, especially as I repeatedly produced basic infantry and sent them out into the increasingly empty field in front of my base to man mortars left behind by long-dead soldiers; they would be vulnerable and quickly die.
The building which produces light armour was next to be destroyed and by now the American forces so seriously outnumbered the occasional units that I produced that the end was inevitable.
It came soon, my base being the last building to fall. Total annihilation. Total humiliation.
James Pond Codename: Robocod
I'm not all that experienced in platform gaming and perhaps my inexperience
partly explains my poor performances at this game. But perhaps
not.
James moves around his confined environments in pretty much the way you would expect. The A button (on the Gameboy Advance SP) makes him jump and the right shoulder button makes him duck. His fairly unique move is that he stretches up from the ground, when B is held, for an infinite distance and if he reaches a ceiling he will grab it and cling on and when B is released he contracts and is left hanging. He can then shimmy left and right and drop where you want him to.
As he goes about his business, James collects food and drink items which are transformed into points. He encounters various enemies including what looks like duck with playing cards for wings and a cross between a Michelin Man and a policeman, either of which have to be bounced on twice to be defeated, and a car which requires four bounces. Sometimes he gets his own car to drive and that can destroy an enemy car with a single head on collision.
If James does especially well in a level he gets a short period to explore an area which is a smorgasbord of points to be won without enemies to trouble him.
When you die for the last time, you are not shown how many points you got! You start again from the same place and play through the same levels in the same order.
The trouble with Agent Pond is that he was a bit historical even when he came out (2004). When I recently bought a Gameboy Advance SP on eBay I got five free games including this one plus Sonic Advance and Rayman Tenth Anniversary and James Pond does not stand up as their contemporary. Sonic moves quickly and has more subtle mechanics. Rayman is infinitely better graphically.
Sorry, James. I'm afraid you're the Timothy Dalton of platformers.
James moves around his confined environments in pretty much the way you would expect. The A button (on the Gameboy Advance SP) makes him jump and the right shoulder button makes him duck. His fairly unique move is that he stretches up from the ground, when B is held, for an infinite distance and if he reaches a ceiling he will grab it and cling on and when B is released he contracts and is left hanging. He can then shimmy left and right and drop where you want him to.
As he goes about his business, James collects food and drink items which are transformed into points. He encounters various enemies including what looks like duck with playing cards for wings and a cross between a Michelin Man and a policeman, either of which have to be bounced on twice to be defeated, and a car which requires four bounces. Sometimes he gets his own car to drive and that can destroy an enemy car with a single head on collision.
If James does especially well in a level he gets a short period to explore an area which is a smorgasbord of points to be won without enemies to trouble him.
When you die for the last time, you are not shown how many points you got! You start again from the same place and play through the same levels in the same order.
The trouble with Agent Pond is that he was a bit historical even when he came out (2004). When I recently bought a Gameboy Advance SP on eBay I got five free games including this one plus Sonic Advance and Rayman Tenth Anniversary and James Pond does not stand up as their contemporary. Sonic moves quickly and has more subtle mechanics. Rayman is infinitely better graphically.
Sorry, James. I'm afraid you're the Timothy Dalton of platformers.
Colin McRae Rally 2005
I think it's safe to say that I have spent / wasted more of my life playing this game than any other.
Repeatedly driving the same stage to try to improve your best time until you are familiar with not only every corner but every bump and patch of dust in the road is great - but the career stage is what makes the game.
If you've only played the Dirt games, then please go back and at least try this one and you'll find out what it's really all about. In the first Dirt game the career progression is nonsensical. You just drive individual, unrelated stages and are given points for each one you are successful in and so unlock others. In 2005 you drive a series of related stages in the same vehicle, fixing it in between, and get career progression points if you do well in the overall event. There can be a lot of stages in an event and if it's a close call, you can throw away 45 minutes of driving by sliding off at a corner near the end of the last stage and hitting a tree head on. It's tense and serious and never trivialised by truck racing (though that can be fun).
Before each stage (or sometimes, each pair of stages) you have to set up the car. You choose the tires and set other parameters, too. Getting the right tires is imperative and the other stuff can be a real help. One plus here is that there is a bit of detail but not too much. If you are a bit useless like me you can gear the car low so that you don't go so fast that you lose control and you can recover quickly if you make a mistake.
There are 76 stages to try in 9 different countries and a good variety of cars of differing specs including some classics like the VW Beetle and Mini Cooper. The different road surfaces are what really keeps it interesting, though. Sweden's ice and snow being the most novel but the different grades of gravel being the most fun.
Since we must waste out lives playing games, lets waste them playing this one.
Repeatedly driving the same stage to try to improve your best time until you are familiar with not only every corner but every bump and patch of dust in the road is great - but the career stage is what makes the game.
A car, yesterday.
If you've only played the Dirt games, then please go back and at least try this one and you'll find out what it's really all about. In the first Dirt game the career progression is nonsensical. You just drive individual, unrelated stages and are given points for each one you are successful in and so unlock others. In 2005 you drive a series of related stages in the same vehicle, fixing it in between, and get career progression points if you do well in the overall event. There can be a lot of stages in an event and if it's a close call, you can throw away 45 minutes of driving by sliding off at a corner near the end of the last stage and hitting a tree head on. It's tense and serious and never trivialised by truck racing (though that can be fun).
Before each stage (or sometimes, each pair of stages) you have to set up the car. You choose the tires and set other parameters, too. Getting the right tires is imperative and the other stuff can be a real help. One plus here is that there is a bit of detail but not too much. If you are a bit useless like me you can gear the car low so that you don't go so fast that you lose control and you can recover quickly if you make a mistake.
There are 76 stages to try in 9 different countries and a good variety of cars of differing specs including some classics like the VW Beetle and Mini Cooper. The different road surfaces are what really keeps it interesting, though. Sweden's ice and snow being the most novel but the different grades of gravel being the most fun.
Since we must waste out lives playing games, lets waste them playing this one.
Saturday, 21 January 2012
Need For Speed: Shift
The vibration of the controller is never so sickening as it is when playing Need For Speed: Shift.
It means that once again, I’ve got on the break too late and am trundling through the gravel trap while cars fly past: turning my third place into eighth.
Obviously, the corners are the hard bits. It is possible to lose it on a long straight, especially in the high powered supercars available in this game, but I tend to reserve my most enraging errors for the tight turns.
Playing the game on “hard” it is quite easy to win some types of race if you maintain control. You don’t have to go mad. I was surprised that at this difficulty your hand is still held by “breaking assist” and “steering assist” unless you turn those functions off. Hard is by no means the hardest difficulty but there are two easier ones so I expected to have to drive the car for myself, rather than let the machine do it while I go and make a cup tea.
One part of the game I looked forward to was the drift competitions, but I just can’t do it! I think I once failed to finish last in one stage, but it was a not to be repeated fluke.
Like most games, I’ve suffered much frustration at the hands of NFS Shift, but getting a stage right, or sometimes just getting a corner right, makes it all worthwhile.
Note to self: buy Shift 2 Unleashed and play until arthritis sets in.
Saturday, 14 January 2012
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Well, I thought, when I come up against the first enemy it'll probably be an easy one to break me in and to give me a chance to get used to the controls.
After all, I'm only playing on the medium difficulty "give me a challenge" as it is called. It's a challenge, alright! I didn't come up against the first enemy, I came up against the first three enemies and was killed several times.
After I'd eventually overcome the situation I noticed there was an exploding canister I could have shot at to make things easier, but the fighting continued to be a tough.
What about the plot. Well, his girlfriend is dead - or is she - I still don't know so I can't spoil it - but there is clearly a mystery to be solved there, and heroic deeds to be done. The serious corporate / political stuff is reasonably intriguing, too, but it's the gameplay, and becoming a bionic man, that are the real draw.
The stealth stuff is well done. About as realistic as in any game. The only small problem is that if enemies see one of their friends dead they will get excited but if you then move the body when they're not looking they will start to relax after a while and go back to normality. The game has to work, though, so this is not too unreasonable.
One thing that's best is that you can save any time - even when there are hostile enemies around.
I shouldn't be writing about trivialities like that, though. This game is bigger than that.
The game is a world in itself in which the player becomes immersed. Augmenting Adam Jensen and upgrading those augmentation is both an interesting way to keep the game fresh and a means to an end within the game. When playing the Human Revolution, continuing to play is just the obvious thing to do.
One final, curious observation about the DE: HR is that it is one of few games that could be called an FPS - there is plenty of that kind of thing - or could be called an RPG because there is interaction with NPC's which effect the outcome and character progression - but probably could not be called an Action Adventure game because Adam Jensen has no moves. He cannot kick or punch or block. You press O when you're told to and sit back and watch Adam - without fail - take out the bad guy. Okay, so Borderlands is similar - but it's mostly shooting and there is at least a basic melee attack which the player has to execute.
Please excuse me. I have to hide behind something and shoot someone.
After all, I'm only playing on the medium difficulty "give me a challenge" as it is called. It's a challenge, alright! I didn't come up against the first enemy, I came up against the first three enemies and was killed several times.
 |
| The view from a Detroit lift - in the future. |
What about the plot. Well, his girlfriend is dead - or is she - I still don't know so I can't spoil it - but there is clearly a mystery to be solved there, and heroic deeds to be done. The serious corporate / political stuff is reasonably intriguing, too, but it's the gameplay, and becoming a bionic man, that are the real draw.
The stealth stuff is well done. About as realistic as in any game. The only small problem is that if enemies see one of their friends dead they will get excited but if you then move the body when they're not looking they will start to relax after a while and go back to normality. The game has to work, though, so this is not too unreasonable.
One thing that's best is that you can save any time - even when there are hostile enemies around.
I shouldn't be writing about trivialities like that, though. This game is bigger than that.
The game is a world in itself in which the player becomes immersed. Augmenting Adam Jensen and upgrading those augmentation is both an interesting way to keep the game fresh and a means to an end within the game. When playing the Human Revolution, continuing to play is just the obvious thing to do.
One final, curious observation about the DE: HR is that it is one of few games that could be called an FPS - there is plenty of that kind of thing - or could be called an RPG because there is interaction with NPC's which effect the outcome and character progression - but probably could not be called an Action Adventure game because Adam Jensen has no moves. He cannot kick or punch or block. You press O when you're told to and sit back and watch Adam - without fail - take out the bad guy. Okay, so Borderlands is similar - but it's mostly shooting and there is at least a basic melee attack which the player has to execute.
Please excuse me. I have to hide behind something and shoot someone.
Tuesday, 10 January 2012
Call Of Duty 3
When I think of Call of Duty 3 I imagine it to be a forgotten COD, between the breakthrough title Call of Duty 2 and the blockbuster COD 4: Modern Warfare. The evidence would suggest that I've got it wrong.
According the to figures in Edge 233, COD 3 outsold COD 2 and COD 2: The Big Red One put together.
I only played COD 3 for the first time very recently. For all it's sales it does seem like an extension of COD 2 with some of the magic taken away. The gameplay is undeniably great, though.
There are a few tank sections, a few jeep driving sections (I managed to get lost for quite a while during one of these) and one anti-tank gun section. Happily though, the infantry sections are the meat and drink of the game and are as intense as ever.
I played the game on Hard difficulty (which is not the hardest) and found it a real challenge. Often my own stupidity was the problem. I might be able to see three guys cowering behind furniture up ahead of me and be unconcerned because they weren't shooting at me, yet I'd be oblivious to the indicator lighting up red on the left hand side because the shooter was outside my field of vision. I died this way and in similarly stupid ways many times.
For all the enjoyment in the game I was always relieved to get to the end of a mission. Having to start again from the beginning of one was always a killer. There was an assault on a house in one of the British sections. I felt as if I got out of that jeep and walked up that road 100 times...
If anyone reading this has not played Call of Duty 3 then I strongly recommend a quick trip back in time.
According the to figures in Edge 233, COD 3 outsold COD 2 and COD 2: The Big Red One put together.
I only played COD 3 for the first time very recently. For all it's sales it does seem like an extension of COD 2 with some of the magic taken away. The gameplay is undeniably great, though.
There are a few tank sections, a few jeep driving sections (I managed to get lost for quite a while during one of these) and one anti-tank gun section. Happily though, the infantry sections are the meat and drink of the game and are as intense as ever.
I played the game on Hard difficulty (which is not the hardest) and found it a real challenge. Often my own stupidity was the problem. I might be able to see three guys cowering behind furniture up ahead of me and be unconcerned because they weren't shooting at me, yet I'd be oblivious to the indicator lighting up red on the left hand side because the shooter was outside my field of vision. I died this way and in similarly stupid ways many times.
For all the enjoyment in the game I was always relieved to get to the end of a mission. Having to start again from the beginning of one was always a killer. There was an assault on a house in one of the British sections. I felt as if I got out of that jeep and walked up that road 100 times...
If anyone reading this has not played Call of Duty 3 then I strongly recommend a quick trip back in time.
Thursday, 5 January 2012
Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit
If you enjoy fun, stop reading and play NFS Hot Pursuit.
I remember playing NFS Most Wanted on the PC and this is clearly it's direct descendant. Similarities: the game is forgiving when you crash and if you get a corner wrong the barriers will guide you round it. Differences: This is more turbo charged and more of an arcade racer in which free driving plays a lesser role. The tools you are given for taking out the cops or your opponents are also a massive leap forward.
I haven't played ProStreet or Undercover or any of the earlier ones, so I can't compare it to them, but I cannot remember enjoying a game as much as this one.
Of course, being a bit clumsy I am often frustrated. There are short cuts to be taken all over the game map which can get you a serious time advantage if used well but the road is usually narrower so my chances of getting round tight turns on these cut-throughs without bashing into the barriers and getting slowed down, thus defeating the object, are pretty slim. Still. I intend to put in a lot of practise so I hope to improve.
If you are still reading - go and play!
I remember playing NFS Most Wanted on the PC and this is clearly it's direct descendant. Similarities: the game is forgiving when you crash and if you get a corner wrong the barriers will guide you round it. Differences: This is more turbo charged and more of an arcade racer in which free driving plays a lesser role. The tools you are given for taking out the cops or your opponents are also a massive leap forward.
I can't remember which car this is - a fast one.
Of course, being a bit clumsy I am often frustrated. There are short cuts to be taken all over the game map which can get you a serious time advantage if used well but the road is usually narrower so my chances of getting round tight turns on these cut-throughs without bashing into the barriers and getting slowed down, thus defeating the object, are pretty slim. Still. I intend to put in a lot of practise so I hope to improve.
If you are still reading - go and play!
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