Referring back to what I said at the end of the last entry, I killed the guy I was supposed to be helping and (after a few attempts) killed the guard who I found waiting for me at the local Inn.
The fight with the guard had moved upstairs by the time I finished him off and when I went back down again the barmaid squealed in fright but when I engaged her in conversation she immediately spoke amiably to me and was quickly won round to quite liking me, despite the dead guard on the landing. This is pretty typical of the game but does not spoil it.
Another anomaly is that all trades-people can tell at a glance which items in my pack are stolen, even if I stole them in another town. Guards also have this power.
I've played the game quite a bit now and have been enjoying it. My character has developed a bit and I can just about take on a single guard first time. That applies to a normal guard, anyway. I have entered the realms of madness (I think that's what they're called). I went through the door marked Mania (forgive me if you don't know what this means) and entered a new land. After some travelling and coming up against some new and curious types of enemy I reached the main city. The female guard on the door asked me to relinquish my stolen goods and pay a fine and I decided to resist. She assured me that I would pay with my blood. "I don't think so" I thought, wrongly. I don't think I scratched her before she put me down. I Immediately realised that I had not saved for ages.
On reflection, I'm surprised that law and order is such a big issue in Mania.
I am now taking a break from Oblivion to play a bit of Need for Speed: Pro Street.
This was released in 2007 but the graphics are pretty good considering its age. I've not played very much but the career mode has so far involved racedays, where you race in several events of different kinds. Grip races are basic races against other cars and are probably the most fun. Drag is a short race changing up through the gears and covering a straight section of track in the fastest time possible. Time Attack is clocking the fastest lap and Drift...you're not idiots, you know what drifting is.
I've switched off most of the assists. It's not because I'm brilliant, I'm not, I just don't feel like I'm really doing it myself if I'm being helped with the steering and breaking and if the racing line is marked out on the track. All I've left on is the mini map and the arrow which appears and shows you the direction of the next turn.
The lack of assistance means I'm pretty often getting the corners wrong and this means repairs have to be paid for between races. When you do well you win prizes which are a lucky dip and can include markers for getting repairs done.
In any given raceday you can win with a certain number of points, or dominate with a larger number of points. Races can be repeated if you've not done well, or even if you have, and points seem to be cumulative so if you keep going you will dominate eventually and there are more rewards if you do.
I know this game is going to take up quite a lot of my time for a while. A strong recommend but I'll write more about it next time.
Incidentally, you will probably want to turn off the voice of the raceday announcer.
Wednesday 30 May 2012
Friday 25 May 2012
Oblivious
Since giving up on Dragon Age Origins through boredom I have been reluctant to start another fantasy RPG, but I have now taken the plunge with Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.
I have played some of Morrowind in the past but found it to be a visually uninspiring slog, but I read a review of Oblivion which said that it was a big leap forward so I thought I would give it a go.
From the start I wondered if I was making a mistake. I started off in jail and everything looked familiarly dull but I did like the fact that the character creation was broken up by periods of gameplay so that you only chose your race and appearance at first and character class and birth sign (which is significant) could be decided at later times after a few fights. What I liked less was that these early stages all happened in basements and tunnels and I am not into dungeon trawling and was dying to get out into the genuinely "open world".
I have now done that and been able to explore the Imperial City and am heading out in to the countryside.
One thing I learned in the city is that it is a bad idea to break the law there. I stole a silver bowl at the King and Queen Inn and then went upstairs and failed to pick the lock of a bedroom door. When I got back downstairs there was a guard waiting for me. Given a choice of paying a fine, going to jail or resisting arrest I tried resisting and in the fight which followed it became clear that he was pretty tough so I tried running away through the inn door and things only got worse as other guards started firing arrows at me and I soon went down. This process was repeated several times so I tried escaping from the city and this worked until I got to the nearby docks. When I saw a guard he did not attack me straight away so I thought maybe the slate had been wiped clean but when I tried taking to him he offered me the same choices as before and this time I thought maybe paying a fine would not be the worst thing that could happen.
I am trying to be a bad character and it goes against the grain. I agreed to help some peasant guy by catching fish for him but he told me he had been saving up some money and I am going to try to kill him and steel his gold. We'll see how it goes.
I think, despite my misgivings, that I am starting to feel engaged by the game and will probably play quite a lot of it, though I will definitely not finish it in the next few weeks.
I have played some of Morrowind in the past but found it to be a visually uninspiring slog, but I read a review of Oblivion which said that it was a big leap forward so I thought I would give it a go.
From the start I wondered if I was making a mistake. I started off in jail and everything looked familiarly dull but I did like the fact that the character creation was broken up by periods of gameplay so that you only chose your race and appearance at first and character class and birth sign (which is significant) could be decided at later times after a few fights. What I liked less was that these early stages all happened in basements and tunnels and I am not into dungeon trawling and was dying to get out into the genuinely "open world".
 |
| The Imperial City as seen from lake Rumare |
I have now done that and been able to explore the Imperial City and am heading out in to the countryside.
One thing I learned in the city is that it is a bad idea to break the law there. I stole a silver bowl at the King and Queen Inn and then went upstairs and failed to pick the lock of a bedroom door. When I got back downstairs there was a guard waiting for me. Given a choice of paying a fine, going to jail or resisting arrest I tried resisting and in the fight which followed it became clear that he was pretty tough so I tried running away through the inn door and things only got worse as other guards started firing arrows at me and I soon went down. This process was repeated several times so I tried escaping from the city and this worked until I got to the nearby docks. When I saw a guard he did not attack me straight away so I thought maybe the slate had been wiped clean but when I tried taking to him he offered me the same choices as before and this time I thought maybe paying a fine would not be the worst thing that could happen.
I am trying to be a bad character and it goes against the grain. I agreed to help some peasant guy by catching fish for him but he told me he had been saving up some money and I am going to try to kill him and steel his gold. We'll see how it goes.
I think, despite my misgivings, that I am starting to feel engaged by the game and will probably play quite a lot of it, though I will definitely not finish it in the next few weeks.
Monday 21 May 2012
My Hand Was Made Strong
After two previous, halting attempts to get into this Red Dead Redemption, each of which only lasted for a couple of days, I have at last made a start on it in earnest and I am properly hooked.
You play John Marston, the reformed outlaw who is seeking revenge on his former gang members for betraying him. Marston's movements when he runs are a bit awkward and he jumps like a horse trying to jump on the spot, only getting about a foot off the ground. Marston's personality is a bit variable. Sometimes he seems a nasty piece of work and bullying towards some of the people he meets but at other times he is a bit of a pushover and runs errands for them no questions asked and with no guarantee that they will do what he wants in return.
I enjoy the shooting mechanic (reminiscent of COD 4) where if you are nearly aiming at an enemy you can pull L2 to bring the reticule onto the target. Modern Warfare is all in first person, of course, but here the standard view is third person and L2 pulls it in to being more over the shoulder.
As you move around the wild west world of RDR you can run into minor side quests, marked as a blue dot on the map and you can chose to ignore them or intervene. often it will be chasing down a thief or rescuing someone who is about to be unjustly hanged. Occasionally there will be no blue dot but apparently dramatic events will happen around you and it is initially tempting to dismiss these as wallpaper designed to make the world look more interesting but even here you can react to what you see and be rewarded if you do. Your Fame and Honor (spelt wrongly) go up if you respond in the right way. It is not yet clear to me what the consequences of this are but I think crimes are more likely to be overlooked as one of them improves (I'm not sure which one).
The boxed version of Red Dead Redemption includes a large fold out map / poster of Bonnie (one of the games main NPCs) and a substantial, informative and colourful manual. Why anyone would pay more for the download and get less I don't know.
You play John Marston, the reformed outlaw who is seeking revenge on his former gang members for betraying him. Marston's movements when he runs are a bit awkward and he jumps like a horse trying to jump on the spot, only getting about a foot off the ground. Marston's personality is a bit variable. Sometimes he seems a nasty piece of work and bullying towards some of the people he meets but at other times he is a bit of a pushover and runs errands for them no questions asked and with no guarantee that they will do what he wants in return.
I enjoy the shooting mechanic (reminiscent of COD 4) where if you are nearly aiming at an enemy you can pull L2 to bring the reticule onto the target. Modern Warfare is all in first person, of course, but here the standard view is third person and L2 pulls it in to being more over the shoulder.
As you move around the wild west world of RDR you can run into minor side quests, marked as a blue dot on the map and you can chose to ignore them or intervene. often it will be chasing down a thief or rescuing someone who is about to be unjustly hanged. Occasionally there will be no blue dot but apparently dramatic events will happen around you and it is initially tempting to dismiss these as wallpaper designed to make the world look more interesting but even here you can react to what you see and be rewarded if you do. Your Fame and Honor (spelt wrongly) go up if you respond in the right way. It is not yet clear to me what the consequences of this are but I think crimes are more likely to be overlooked as one of them improves (I'm not sure which one).
 |
| Bonnie's face is a bit distorted here because the pisture is not lying flat - she's actually quite a looker. |
The boxed version of Red Dead Redemption includes a large fold out map / poster of Bonnie (one of the games main NPCs) and a substantial, informative and colourful manual. Why anyone would pay more for the download and get less I don't know.
Wednesday 16 May 2012
The Legend of Battlefield: Bad Hourglass
I've been really enjoying this game today.
I got the hourglass and I did a section of the game where you have to go into the Temple of the Ocean King and get the North-West section of the sea chart before the 10 minutes in the hourglass runs out. I had to go back outside and top up the hourglass twice because of my slowness (it needs sunlight to be replenished) and this did mean I had to do some parts again which was a bit of a pain but the game is so well made and works so beautifully that it's generally a pleasure to play.
I am now seeking out a cannon (on Cannon Island) before venturing into that North West region. There are exploding plants which can be carried a certain distance before they explode but I have some blocks that need blowing out of my path and the plants do not have a long enough fuse for me to reach them and I have not yet worked out how to get around this.
One thing I especially like is the use of the microphone. Sometimes it is necessary to blow out candles and at one point dust had to be removed from the map and these things were done by blowing into the microphone which I thought was an imaginative device though maybe it is common and I'm only impressed because I've played so few DS games. Still, I liked it.
I have also now finished Battlefield: Bad Company. I think the game played well and it got more challenging as the game went on which is a positive, but the terrain was not very varied and it was all outdoors, with a bit of moving in and out of small buildings, but no extended indoor or underground sequences.
I liked the fact that there was constant moving from on foot to in vehicle travel rather than an infantry mission then a tank mission and so on. It gave a feeling of freedom of action. There was one prescribed helicopter mission but you could set the chopper down and have a scout around when you wanted to or if you needed to do repairs.
The game was not too short but I might be only thinking that because my expectation for game length have been lowered by my recently playing COD 4. I did not actually time the game but it is worth noting that while I usually put games down and take them up again after a few weeks or months I finished this in one go so maybe it was short.
I was rubbish at finding the gold scattered around the map. Each section of the game had 4 or 5 caches of gold in and the were about 6 sections or maybe more so there were probably between 25 and 30 to find and I found either 2 or 3 I'm not sure. I do not really see why our team was supposed to be finding these when a) we were on foot for long periods and so had no way of carrying it and b) the point of the story was that we were trying to reach a boat which had so much gold on that what we were picking up on the way would be insignificant.
Nevertheless this was a great game with variety, sound mechanics and good shooting action so play it if you haven't already.
Also there was a very satisfying noise when you collected ammo!
I got the hourglass and I did a section of the game where you have to go into the Temple of the Ocean King and get the North-West section of the sea chart before the 10 minutes in the hourglass runs out. I had to go back outside and top up the hourglass twice because of my slowness (it needs sunlight to be replenished) and this did mean I had to do some parts again which was a bit of a pain but the game is so well made and works so beautifully that it's generally a pleasure to play.
I am now seeking out a cannon (on Cannon Island) before venturing into that North West region. There are exploding plants which can be carried a certain distance before they explode but I have some blocks that need blowing out of my path and the plants do not have a long enough fuse for me to reach them and I have not yet worked out how to get around this.
One thing I especially like is the use of the microphone. Sometimes it is necessary to blow out candles and at one point dust had to be removed from the map and these things were done by blowing into the microphone which I thought was an imaginative device though maybe it is common and I'm only impressed because I've played so few DS games. Still, I liked it.
I have also now finished Battlefield: Bad Company. I think the game played well and it got more challenging as the game went on which is a positive, but the terrain was not very varied and it was all outdoors, with a bit of moving in and out of small buildings, but no extended indoor or underground sequences.
I liked the fact that there was constant moving from on foot to in vehicle travel rather than an infantry mission then a tank mission and so on. It gave a feeling of freedom of action. There was one prescribed helicopter mission but you could set the chopper down and have a scout around when you wanted to or if you needed to do repairs.
The game was not too short but I might be only thinking that because my expectation for game length have been lowered by my recently playing COD 4. I did not actually time the game but it is worth noting that while I usually put games down and take them up again after a few weeks or months I finished this in one go so maybe it was short.
I was rubbish at finding the gold scattered around the map. Each section of the game had 4 or 5 caches of gold in and the were about 6 sections or maybe more so there were probably between 25 and 30 to find and I found either 2 or 3 I'm not sure. I do not really see why our team was supposed to be finding these when a) we were on foot for long periods and so had no way of carrying it and b) the point of the story was that we were trying to reach a boat which had so much gold on that what we were picking up on the way would be insignificant.
Nevertheless this was a great game with variety, sound mechanics and good shooting action so play it if you haven't already.
Also there was a very satisfying noise when you collected ammo!
Sunday 13 May 2012
Small Gripe
Well, I have made a bit more progress with both Battlefield: Bad Company and Split/Second Velocity.
Bad Company is getting a bit tougher but is still not too hard. The one thing I am failing to do is find any the gold. I am in the 3rd area and should have found about 12 cases of it by now but have only got 2. I don't really mind, it is not what I would regard as the purpose of the game and is in fact a bit of a distraction from the main business, which is killing guys who are trying to kill me.
I have recently been on the golf course area and could not resist a drive in one of the golf carts. It seemed prudent to trade it in for a tank when the opportunity arose, though.
Now for my complaint. I have found that the areas which you are allowed to go into during any one mission are not always accurately marked on the mini map. The way the game lets you know your are straying outside the permitted boundaries is to give a radio call telling you that you are within range of enemy artillery. If you do not leave the area fast you suddenly find yourself dead. The regions into which you should not stray are usually marked red on the mini map but sometimes you get the radio warning when you are comfortably outside the red area. Usually the marking is spot on but sometimes it is badly wrong.
The is not much to report about Split/Second. I have been moving through the episodes, still unable to do the Air Strike events. Air revenge has now been introduced where you can redirect rockets back towards the helicopter which is trying to take you out. There is no limit on the number of lives you get, you just have to take the chopper out faster than your opponents did. It is very satisfying but I'm still not great at it.
Bad Company is getting a bit tougher but is still not too hard. The one thing I am failing to do is find any the gold. I am in the 3rd area and should have found about 12 cases of it by now but have only got 2. I don't really mind, it is not what I would regard as the purpose of the game and is in fact a bit of a distraction from the main business, which is killing guys who are trying to kill me.
I have recently been on the golf course area and could not resist a drive in one of the golf carts. It seemed prudent to trade it in for a tank when the opportunity arose, though.
Now for my complaint. I have found that the areas which you are allowed to go into during any one mission are not always accurately marked on the mini map. The way the game lets you know your are straying outside the permitted boundaries is to give a radio call telling you that you are within range of enemy artillery. If you do not leave the area fast you suddenly find yourself dead. The regions into which you should not stray are usually marked red on the mini map but sometimes you get the radio warning when you are comfortably outside the red area. Usually the marking is spot on but sometimes it is badly wrong.
The is not much to report about Split/Second. I have been moving through the episodes, still unable to do the Air Strike events. Air revenge has now been introduced where you can redirect rockets back towards the helicopter which is trying to take you out. There is no limit on the number of lives you get, you just have to take the chopper out faster than your opponents did. It is very satisfying but I'm still not great at it.
Wednesday 9 May 2012
'Til the day I die
Well, I was a lot closer to the end of Batman Arkham Asylum than I realised and I've now finished. I haven't done all of the challenges or even unlocked them all but the main adventure is done with.
There were rather a lot of boss fights in the run up to the end but they were not totally frustrating ones, and the final one against the Joker was surprisingly doable.
I have now started on Battlefield, Bad Company. Everything I'm going to write here applies to the single player campaign.
The game is really effective. There are probably fewer enemies to kill in each section than in COD 4 which I wrote about recently. The combat areas are generally quite wide and you can choose which direction to attack from. It usually pays not to go in head-on but to sneak around the sides.
You get an infinite number of health packs, and they restore your health completely with just a short cooldown period, but that has not stopped me from dying through simply forgetting to use them. The small number of enemies and wide area does mean that there is no real need to die (playing on medium of 3 difficulty levels as I am), you can just take out one or two and then hide while you heal yourself. I have already received the Hypochondriac trophy which I think was for using health packs when I still had more than half of my health.
The game so far has taken place outdoors and moving in and out of small, highly destructible buildings. Walls, trees and sandbags can also be blow aside to reveal the enemy and this is an important strategy.
Though there have not been crowded, intense battles yet there is always a lot of tension as you creep towards the enemy's location, only knowing roughly where they are. The game works brilliantly and has better characters than any military FPS I've played so far and I'm really looking forwarding to continuing it.
There were rather a lot of boss fights in the run up to the end but they were not totally frustrating ones, and the final one against the Joker was surprisingly doable.
I have now started on Battlefield, Bad Company. Everything I'm going to write here applies to the single player campaign.
The game is really effective. There are probably fewer enemies to kill in each section than in COD 4 which I wrote about recently. The combat areas are generally quite wide and you can choose which direction to attack from. It usually pays not to go in head-on but to sneak around the sides.
You get an infinite number of health packs, and they restore your health completely with just a short cooldown period, but that has not stopped me from dying through simply forgetting to use them. The small number of enemies and wide area does mean that there is no real need to die (playing on medium of 3 difficulty levels as I am), you can just take out one or two and then hide while you heal yourself. I have already received the Hypochondriac trophy which I think was for using health packs when I still had more than half of my health.
The game so far has taken place outdoors and moving in and out of small, highly destructible buildings. Walls, trees and sandbags can also be blow aside to reveal the enemy and this is an important strategy.
Though there have not been crowded, intense battles yet there is always a lot of tension as you creep towards the enemy's location, only knowing roughly where they are. The game works brilliantly and has better characters than any military FPS I've played so far and I'm really looking forwarding to continuing it.
Monday 7 May 2012
At Last
After a brief holiday I can now report that I have actually finished Assassin's Creed II. I've completed the story (including the two extra sequences) I've found all the glyphs and unlocked all the parts of The Truth, I've been to all the secret locations and opened the vault to Altair's Armour and have found all the treasure (this part was a pain and I was disappointed that there was no trophy for completing it). I have not collected all the feathers but that would take forever so I'm letting myself off.
I took my DSi when I went away and though I did not play it much I made a little bit of progress with The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. It is not really my sort of thing but it is clearly a good little game and I will definitely play more. The characters are great.
I have now returned to Arkham Asylum (it's the best place for me) and I'm enjoying the game more than I remember doing. I have been playing AC2 for so long that differences in the controls for Arkham Asylum are confusing me and the angle at which you look over Batman's shoulder is also off-putting initially.
I am currently trying to foil Poison Ivy's attempts to intoxicate the people of Gotham. If I say so myself, I think my fighting has improved slightly and I am making slightly better use of dodging and concussing enemies. I'm still pretty bad, though.
I have also recently started playing Split/Second Velocity. It is great! It is easy to get into and the early races are quite easy, but it quickly becomes more challenging. It is one of few racing games where, if you are in the lead half way through you can easily be pegged back and find yourself finishing fourth. This is because of the power-plays that can be triggered to take you out. You can, of course, do the same to other racers which is highly satisfying when you get it right.
The game is very well made and the power plays work really well. They have to be used with caution as it is quite possible to take yourself out with them.
Unfortunately, the speed with which things happen on the screen is so hectic that I have to limit the time for which I play the game as it gives me a headache.
Racing games have been my favourites and I still love them but the more I played ACII the move I felt immersed in it and I am already really enjoying Arkham Asylum again. I know that these two games are seen as really good examples and that there is plenty of rubbish out there but I think adventure games might be winning me round.
I took my DSi when I went away and though I did not play it much I made a little bit of progress with The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. It is not really my sort of thing but it is clearly a good little game and I will definitely play more. The characters are great.
I have now returned to Arkham Asylum (it's the best place for me) and I'm enjoying the game more than I remember doing. I have been playing AC2 for so long that differences in the controls for Arkham Asylum are confusing me and the angle at which you look over Batman's shoulder is also off-putting initially.
I am currently trying to foil Poison Ivy's attempts to intoxicate the people of Gotham. If I say so myself, I think my fighting has improved slightly and I am making slightly better use of dodging and concussing enemies. I'm still pretty bad, though.
I have also recently started playing Split/Second Velocity. It is great! It is easy to get into and the early races are quite easy, but it quickly becomes more challenging. It is one of few racing games where, if you are in the lead half way through you can easily be pegged back and find yourself finishing fourth. This is because of the power-plays that can be triggered to take you out. You can, of course, do the same to other racers which is highly satisfying when you get it right.
The game is very well made and the power plays work really well. They have to be used with caution as it is quite possible to take yourself out with them.
Unfortunately, the speed with which things happen on the screen is so hectic that I have to limit the time for which I play the game as it gives me a headache.
Racing games have been my favourites and I still love them but the more I played ACII the move I felt immersed in it and I am already really enjoying Arkham Asylum again. I know that these two games are seen as really good examples and that there is plenty of rubbish out there but I think adventure games might be winning me round.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)