deKay's Gaming Diary

This is progress. All red bricks got, 400/450 gold bricks got, and 8 of the 15 main “levels” 100%ed. Almost 52 hours on the clock.

The important question is, even though there’s no story left and I’m basically just wandering round looking for things, is it still fun? Hell yes. It doesn’t get dull or repetitive. There are still loads of funny things, like conversations I stumbled across and places I hadn’t been. There’s just so much to see and do – every corner of the game has something to discover.

The story is done! The day has been saved! There’s still many, many hours of game left as I’m only about 35% finished!

I won’t say much about the ending, because, well, spoilers. What I must say, however, is that it was actually genuinely properly epic. Like nothing before from any other Lego game. For a short time, there’s some of the usual funny silly stuff, then a fight between you in a giant robot suit and Rex Fury riding a robot dinosaur, but after that there’s a bit of dramatic from-space skyfalling which is absolutely fantastic. The music, the Earth below you, and the countdown timer all combine to bring something to a Lego game that no other Lego game has even approached.

It outdoes Halo and Gears of War and Dead Space. No, really.

And that was it! Now to begin the post-game mop-up.

And finally, all the puzzles are solved. Phew!

According to the stats, I played it for over 21 hours, which is about 5 hours longer than its predecessor. Which is pretty much what I expected.

And, erm, that’s it. It’s great Picross game, just like the first one only bigger. In terms of value for money, £7 for over 20 hours play is pretty good going. It’s a shame there are no bigger puzzles as 15×15 is a bit small, but still – minor complaint.

I think I’m getting close to the end of the story now. Sure, I’m still “only” 23-ish hours in and 34-ish percent done, but the story missions are coming to a climax. Not least that I think there are 15 of them and I’ve done 13 or 14.

The game is still amazing fun, and still keeps giving new stuff even this late in the plot. Only a couple of game hours ago I got the final “character” ability (the construction worker), but today I got a jetpack – which has opened up a load more areas I can reach. And still I can’t pull open those things with the glowing orange handle so I know there’s more to come.

The construction worker level was fantastic, and the foreman on the building site was hilarious. He’s clearly Arnold Schwarzenegger, as he sounds just like him. Oh yes, and he keeps coming out with Arnie catchphrases and shoe-horns Arnie film titles into every conversation. It’s very silly.

After that I had to steal a huge telescope, and infiltrate a secret base, where it went a bit Goldeneye and I got a UFO. Yes, a UFO.

I’m a big fan of Lego games. A massive fan. I own nearly all of them, and of those I own I’ve 100%ed all bar two. People moan that they’re repetitive and shallow, but that really doesn’t matter as they’re fun, funny, and fantastic at rubbing the OCD Collector Receptors.

This game marks the first one I’ve bought on a console besides the Xbox 360. For several reasons – it’s nice to have new games on a new console, it uses the Wii U’s controller in interesting ways, but most importantly, it’s Wii U exclusive.

It’s also the only mainstream Lego game (of this style) not to have a major licence, aside from Lego itself, attached. No Star Wars or Batman or Indiana Jones here – it only has the Lego City sets to work with. You’d think that would be enough to put you off, but actually, it’s great. Instead of being restrictive, it’s freeing. It can be anything, without having to be structured around a film or comic. This adds variety, but also allows the story and dialogue to be completely new, unexpected, and bizarre. Which it is.

But that’s nothing compared to what Traveller’s Tales have done with the formula. Despite the different themes of each previous Lego game, they’re all pretty much the same – several levels per “chapter”, sometimes broken up with a boss fight or a vehicle sections, and usually with some sort of “hub” between levels. The hubs, Lego Batman 2 aside, were pretty small in scope. They had a few hidden items, characters, or bricks which you could find with some of your abilities, and in some cases had puzzles and stuff like bonus levels to complete too, but they hubs made up a tiny part of the overall game.

Lego City turns that upside down and makes the hub the focus, with levels more like short missions within it. I say short, but they’re not really. They just happen to be tiny in comparison to the open world of the rest of the game. Lego City itself is a huge GTA-in-Lego style area, with obvious nods to New York, San Francisco, Venice, London, and Miami (or should I say, Vice City!), with other areas in between, like a farm, some docks, and an airport. Oh yeah, this game got helicopters and ting.

Outside of the “normal” Lego levels, there’s so much to do. Places to explore, things to smash, cars to steal, bricks to collect, puzzles to solve, people to find, secrets to stumble across, conversations to overhear, Super Builds (big objects like ramps and stuff) to build, pigs to chase, and – oh yeah – criminals to catch. None of which is even part of the story.

The story! There’s a story! And, being all new, it’s not one you’ve heard. It’s silly, it’s all over the place, and it’s full of puns, lunacy, tropes, cliches and utter nonsense, and it’s all brilliant. Besides the game being more fun than it’s probably legal to have with your clothes still on (even when, or perhaps, especially if, you’re not playing it “properly”), the script is genuinely laugh-out-loud hilarious. It’s frequently littered with groan-worthy (in a good way) jokes and film and TV references, and some of the set pieces – in particular those containing your sidekick Honey – are utterly ridiculous. If the game doesn’t win a BAFTA or something for the script and humour then something is wrong with the world.

At the moment, I’m 18 hours in, having played it almost every day for over a week, but am only 20% complete with everything necessary to do. Sure, I’m pretty close to the end in terms of the story (I assume, given the counters for things I need to collect), but frankly the story is incidental to the playground of Lego City and I’m probably having more fun find all its secrets than working through the levels and checkpoints.

Highlights so far have been Honey crashing the police truck (“Waffles?!”), Honey and the farmer talking about combine harvesters, the giant robot T-Rex skeleton ride, and building a rollercoaster.

So. Many. Puzzles!

I’m over half way through, I think – but that’s only in terms of the number of puzzles left. They’re bigger now. And take longer to complete. The first few I could do in 15 seconds, now some are 15 minutes. And that’s assuming I don’t mess it up and have to restart.

I decided I would push on with replaying all the events on 2 or 3 star.

This consisted mainly of me playing events on 3 star, failing $hlmun times, then having to play it on 2 star (failing not quite as many times), before repeating the sequence on another event. And doing this lots.

Net gain? I now have 68 stars. I need 95 to get onto the next tier in the World Tour.

Thankfully, I can see I’ll open a few more events (that I haven’t even got one star for yet) at 70 stars, and some more at 80, so hopefully I can get to 95 without replaying many more events.

However, I heard two terrible facts this week regarding this game:

1. There’s another unavoidable gate later in the game that needs 145 stars (!), and
2. There’s a 4 Star difficulty setting unlockable.

Oh my.

Do you like Guardian Heroes? Of course you do. Everyone with any sort of soul does.

As a direct consequence of liking Guardian Heroes, you also (even if you haven’t played it) like Code of Princess. It’s a sequel that never was, with no link to the original. Save for playing out very similarly and being awesome. I won’t describe how to play Code of Princess because you already know (and if you don’t, go away and read about Guardian Heroes).

Six hours in, and I’ve fought wave after wave of various monsters, soldiers, boss characters, dragons, trees and robots. Over and over. Yet, somehow, the repetition wasn’t repetitious. I know! It sounds impossible, but still – fighting everything, repeatedly, remains fun! Even when you replay the same level multiple times to gain XP!

But six hours, and I’ve completed it. Pretty short, yes?

Not when you consider that I’ve only completed the main story. With one character (the titular Princess, in all her nudeness, with her massive sword). I’ve only just started to play through as a second character (there are four). And then there’s the quest mode, with piles more levels and loads more characters to play as (that you unlock during the main game). And then there’s the Free Play mode where you can play levels as any character – including all the minions and monsters and useless peasants and overpowered superbosses. YES.

AND!

Then there’s online co-op! And online vs modes!

Six hours was a lie. That’s how long it took to get to the credits. I’m actually 13 hours in, and I’ve barely touched the content. Fantastic!

Well, I’m glad I didn’t spoil the ending for myself before getting to it at least. Not nearly as bad as people had made out though. There may be spoilers to follow…

I didn’t like the final two “boss” fights. Haytham’s was complete rubbish and different to any other fight in the game, and Charles Lee’s was basically a chase followed by a cutscene. You don’t actually get to properly assassinate either of them – it’s done for you by the game.

There’s no way I’m going back to the game to do everything it suggests I can do. I’m not going hunting, collecting things for the homestead, doing naval battles, collecting feathers or doing any liberation missions or assassination contracts. Unlike similar things in previous games, all these things seem completely superfluous to the narrative. Sure, they weren’t essential before, but they’re an unnecessary chore here – not a fun character and/or money building task.

Speaking of money, there is literally no point to it in Assassin’s Creed III. You gain enough from simply following the story to unlock all of the extra weapons like rope darts and poison, and you never need to restock any as people you kill replenish them easily enough. As a result, I ended the game having only spent about £2000 on such unlockables, with a good £70,000 still in my pocket. At least in other AC games you could buy better swords and things, but here you don’t even need a sword and I never used one, intentionally at least (there’s a bug where you sometimes automatically get equipped with one for no reason), at any point in the game.

What I did do, however, following the end of the game, was find all the pivot points to get the “animus hacks”. Which was fun for a bit, although Fast Travel stopped working again so I had to go everywhere à pied. Sadly, these hacks were not as fantastic as they sounded (invincible, unlimited ammo, fast reload) as when applied you can’t save your game. Tch.

Overall thoughts on Assassin’s Creed III? Yeah, it’s aight.

And so the neck-stabbing continues.

Well, I say that, but in fact it doesn’t. One major issue I have with this version of Assassin’s Creed is that you have no way of telling when you’re supposed to press Y to assassinate anyone. You have to guess, whereas previously it would appear as a prompt on-screen. Which means that most of the time you either miss, or worse, miss and everyone notices you.

As a result, picking off guards one by one is rarely possible, and you instead have to go for the all-out fight. That’s fine, as the fighting is excellent (I especially like the slow-mo attack reversals), but it’s not usually the best option. Far better to wipe out as many redcoats as possible in secret first – especially if they’re the harder to kill types who you don’t really want to take on in open combat. Yet another reason why it doesn’t feel like Assassin’s Creed.

So yeah, less neck-and-back stabbing, more chest and face slicing. Mmm.

Plotwise, I’ve just met up with Daddy and am “bonding” with him. We did some missions together and did a terrible naval battle thing. He berated me a lot, and I told him he was a bad man. Then we stabbed all the men.

Now here’s a thing. I’m not a fan of F-Zero. I never completed it (or ever really played it that much) on the SNES, didn’t like the N64 version, and F-Zero GX was pretty meh.  Yes, I know! Everyone else loves them! Not me.

Having said that, I was somewhat drawn in. The controls are rubbish (mainly because I keep trying to press L to drift round corners) and the cars are too floaty. They don’t steer properly (as in, they don’t turn) until you get hit ever so slightly and then suddenly you’re 100 degrees round. The jump on White City II was impossible until MiiVerse helped – you press down to jump further? What? That’s not in the manual (really – it isn’t).

But I won all the races and now it’s over. It wasn’t as bad as I thought at first, but I don’t think I’ll ever play it again.

About 18 months ago, I played a game called DLC Quest on Xbox Live Indie Games. It was one of very few XBLIG games I’d bought. It was short and funny, and well worth the pence it cost.

This week, the sequel came out. Yay!

So I played and completed that too. It’s still good, and still funny (and still short), and although it’s filled with DLC (which you again pay for with coins you collect in-game, rather than with real money) it’s a bit less silly. For example, you don’t need to get DLC in order to move left or jump this time around.

One of the hidden DLC packs had me searching for ages (almost half of the two-and-a-half-hours playtime, in fact), but aside from that it’s very easy and even though you can actually die this time around, it only causes you to return to a nearby checkpoint.

Certainly worth 80 Microsoft Moon Points.

I played this for a couple of hours a few weeks ago, as I snapped it up for a tenner. I didn’t want to play it much more as I was still in the middle of Batman: Arkham City, and they’re reasonably similar game styles (hide-and-seek-and-punch), but the controls are very different, so going from one game to the other was going to be confusing.

With Batman out of the way last week, I was back to Assassin’s Creed III.

Now, there has been much said about the game. Disappointment in the direction, the lack of freedom in the assassinations, the lack of proper assassinations, the bugs, Connor being a dull character, etc. etc. Of course, I have my own thoughts.

Firstly, bugs. Lots of bugs. A few of the silly variety (like guards getting stuck on windows on roofs), a few of the annoying variety (like when I ran up a tree and then for no reason the camera flipped 90 degrees and I leapt off, clipped through a cliff wall, and fell into nothingness), but mostly of the JUST NO variety (like the game crashes every hour or so, and most times when I’m loading it up). Still, I can live with that for now – after all, I’ve played Assassin’s Creed games before, so they’re hardly one of III’s new features.

At the moment, I’ve played through Haytham Kenway’s section, been child Connor, and have just officially joined the Brotherhood. I was really quite disappointed they purposefully forwent the ceremony and the branding on the finger thing. Shame. Connor isn’t quite the dull character many have made him out to be – he’s just a bit wet and naïve. At least at the moment. The story is pulling me in, although several times now the characters seem to just know things without being told. How did Achilles know Connor was Haytham’s son, for example? Cut scenes are disjointed, and dialogue is stunted, almost like there’s bits missing or I’ve pressed the “skip scene” button – it doesn’t help create a believable coherent world, anyway. Yes, it’s only a game, and so on. But still.

What was good, and what I didn’t see coming at all, was the reveal that Haytham…

I mean, well done Ubisoft. That was a stroke of genius. You told the story so well up until then that I didn’t even consider it, and nothing was said that suggested it. I actually said, out loud, in sync with Desmond in the game, “Wait, what?!”.

Other aspects of the game I like include (to my surprise) the hunting. At the moment, it’s completely pointless, but it’s a fun distraction. The actual Assassining around Boston is as good as ever too, although the roads are wider than they were in Rome or Constantinople, so jumping from one side to the other doesn’t happen so much making rooftop chases a bit of a pain.

What I don’t like, aside from bugs and cutscenes, include driving the ship (and the first naval battle), it taking forever to get anywhere (although Connor now has a horse, so that’ll help), the snow (you move sooooooo slooooowly in it), and all the “building up the homestead” stuff. In Assassin’s Creed II this seemed to benefit you, and was achieved mostly as a side effect of other things you were doing, but here it’s just a chore. Currently, of course. Everything is subject to change at this early (ten hours-ish) stage. Oh yes, and reloading your pistol. If Altaïr could have an almost-instantly-reloading pistol 600 years prior, seems odd that Haytham and Connor can’t.

The main thing I’m getting from the game, though, is this: it simply isn’t Assassin’s Creed (yet). It’s one part Skyrim, one part Red Dead Redemption, with Assassin’s Creed undertones. I’m sort of OK with that right now, but I think those expecting “more Assassin’s Creed” are probably those not enjoying the game all that much.

Firstly, shush. It’s not a proper Sonic game even by Sega’s standards. It’s a racing game that has Sonic in it. Big difference. In fact, I’m making a protest by not playing as Sonic or any of his idiot chums, instead working my way through Grand Prix mode as former Sega poster boy Alex Kidd.

Alex Kidd who has grown up to be quite an angry, violent young man. I’m sure it’s down to how his parents (Mr and Mrs Sega) dumped him at a young age. In one battle race, the commentator shouted “YOU HIT AMY!” to which Alex responded “I’M GREAT!”. You big man, Alex! Also, the amount of swearing that comes from his filthy mouth when he bumps into rocks and stuff is quite 15 certificate. PEGI 7? I think not.

But what about the game? Is it good?

Oh yes, it is. It’s very good. The best thing Sonic has been in since… ooh, Sonic Rush? Yes – lets randomly pick that. But Sonic is just in it, remember. This is not a Sonic game. After all, Sonic doesn’t need a car.

He might need a boat though. Or an aeroplane. As both those are present in the game, hence the title Transformed. Your car periodically morphs into a different vehicle depending on the bit of the course you’re on. You know, just like in Mario Kart. Oh no! I said Mario Kart! And I was doing so well.

Progress so far as been mainly one starring all the available events in GP mode, unlocking what I’m able to in the process, and reaching an impasse – I need (I think) 90 stars to get through to what seems to be the final event, but since I’ve only been one (and occasionally two) starring everything, I’ve scraped a meagre 46 together. Bumholes.

And so begins the replaying of virtually every event, only on a harder setting. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? At the moment… myuhnuh?

Completed: More.

As in, I competed the Harley’s Revenge story. It was DLC in other versions of the game, and if I’d bought it as a separate purchase I’d count it as a separate completion (like I did with Fallout New Vegas and Bioshock 2 DLC), but as it’s on the disc, I’m not sure I can do that here. Either way, it’s done.

It was pretty short, and the actual map you play on was tiny (and reused over and over and over), but at least it wasn’t the Steel Mill again (well, aside from a short bit as previously mentioned). Harley was a complete pushover at the end, and the bomb defusing against the clock was annoying as you didn’t really know where they were and the “detector” to tell you wasn’t a lot of help.

Still, it was fun, and although playing as Robin was sadly over too quickly it was well worth playing.

Well, look at that. It turns out the final 15% of the main story takes less than 20 minutes to do. I literally just had to make it to a cinema, then have two fights inside with the end of game boss. Two very, very easy fights. I have to say, the difficulty, and quantity, of the “big” fights in Arkham City both fall way short of those in Arkham Asylum. I think there’s only been one I didn’t beat first time.

So, yeah. Done.

That slight downer aside, I did really enjoy the game. It’s not as Metroidvania-y as Asylum was, and considering the size of the map you seem to spend half your time in the same few locations (particularly the Steel Mill and Museum), but it is still lots of fun. Finding ways to take out all the baddies in a room or area, in secret, is still the “big win” for the game, and the combat is truly glorious.

After finishing the main story, and trying to stay awake during the 76 minutes of credits at the end, I played the next chapter with Catwoman, finding (in the Museum… again) Two-Face and taking him down. Now she has to take down random guys across the city, but I’m not sure if that’s just a side mission now I’m done, or actually something that needs to be done to “finish” her story.

I also made a start on the used-to-be-DLC but is-included-in-the-Wii-U-version epilogue story – Harley’s Revenge. After a quick jaunt as Robin (who is pretty awesome with his sticks and shield), you play as Batman for a bit again. In the Steel Mill. Again. Sigh. It’s great, but there’s so much map you could use! It also plays host to another blood trace detective mode scan trail thing too, which I’m sure happened a lot more in the first game. Detective Mode in Arkham City is very much underused in the main story (and possibly side missions – I’ve not done many), which is a bit of a shame.

Dinner dinner dinner dinner fightman! Dinner dinner dinner dinner hideman! Dinner dinner dinner dinner glideman! Climbman! Batman!

85% done now. With the story, at least. It would appear that only equates to about 30% of the overall game, which presumably includes all the side missions, Riddler trophies and after-game fun. Of which there is clearly a lot for the maths to work.

Having beaten up Mr Freeze and found his wife for him, lost the cure for Batman’s poisoning, and punched the Joker a lot – too much, I’d say, given his weak and spindly frame, yet still he walks – I set off to rearrange Strange’s face. Which was all too easy, and I did wonder what exactly he was playing at to make it so easy and then… SPOILER! I genuinely didn’t see that twist coming. I was expecting something, but not involving that particular character. Clever girl.

Er, by which I mean the game, not the character.

What next? Well, off to punch the Joker again it seems. For a painted twig, he’s remarkably resilient.

Well, that was an anticlimax. The end of game sequence was a rather rubbish level with a virtually non-existent fight with Voldemort. At least other fights in the game required you to fling things at the baddie, or do a wand duel or something – in this you just wander round as other characters doing normal Lego things, and then it flicks back to Harry and Hairless and you just hammer A or X. You don’t even have to select the spell.

In fact, it was such a simple final level that I didn’t even realise it was the final level, being certain something more suitably epic was just around the corner. After all, Little Boy Scarface has just spent the entirety of his formative years building up to this point – you’d have thought some massive battle would ensue or something. But no. Hammer A, Win, Credits. Tch!

Not that it matters, of course. I didn’t play for the story (and none of it makes any sense to me anyway) – I played for the Lego and smashing things. Which I got right back on, going back and doing the first few levels in Free Play as well as wander round Hogwarts and Diagon Alley unlocking some more characters and red bricks. Now the real game begins!

I have a lot of games on the go at the moment so in an effort to resolve that I made a concerted effort to not play anything else until I’d finished some. It didn’t work as I accidentally started playing Assassin’s Creed III.

I did, however, manage to finish The Cave. It’s not a big game, having clocked in at about 7 hours, but it was very funny and quite clever. The three characters I’d chosen were Hillbilly, Time Traveller, and the best of the lot – the Twins.

Oh my was The Twins’ story dark.

It was all pretty good as well. Some of the puzzles were a bit annoying due to all the to-ing and fro-ing (like the prospector bit) with items and characters, but overall it was well designed. I also loved the “commentary” from the Cave itself – very dry.

Yes, I’ll probably run through with three different characters, but not for a while.

Yep. Another one of those. You love them really. So, here are things I’ve been playing recently:

Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7 (360)

I’m now, I dunno, half way into the first of the two year 7 films? I have no idea. Things seem to have hit the fan though, as the beardyman has died and the moon has turned into a Lego skull and everything was on fire.

Literally no idea.

Skylanders (360)

My daughter is able to play this really well now, so we play in co-op and she pretty much manages by herself without me needing to control her or anything. She even goes and collects keys and things, and knows to hang back when there’s a load of baddies to dispatch. Awesome. We’ve done a few more levels, and redone some earlier ones again, but I’m not sure how far from the end we are now.

Batman: Arkham City (Wii U)

It’s fantastic. I’m now almost 9 hours in, and have just completed the Demon Trials bit, which is how far I got on the PC version before giving the PC version up because it’s the PC version and who plays PC games? Eh? I’m surprised I’d played it for that long on the PC though. In fact, I probably played it a lot longer, as I recall a lot of aimless wandering, side quests, and Riddler Trophy hunting – none of which I’ve really done in the Wii U version yet.

The Wii U Game Pad makes it a lot easier to manage gadgets and stuff too, and it doesn’t look any worse than the PC version did on my machine, so it’s better overall. Nice.

The Cave (Wii U)

Still on my first runthrough. I don’t know how long the game is, but I’m now doing the third “individual” puzzle section – for the Time Traveller – having already done the Hillbilly and the Twins bits. The Twins one was hilarious. And dark. The controls have clicked now too, which is great. It’s a shame there’s no Game Pad Only mode, though.

Zen Pinball 2 (Wii U)

I still only have the Marvel Infinity Pack of tables (I think that’s what it’s called, anyway – Avengers, Infinity Gauntlet, World War Hulk and Fear Itself), but they’re all great. I’m at the top of my friends list on all the high score tables now, and have broken the top 50 in the world on a couple of them – and 5th in the UK on one!

F-Zero (Wii U)

The SNES game for 30p. I’m not a fan of F-Zero (and never really have been, actually), but at that price, you can’t say no. So I didn’t say no.

It’s as good (or “average”) as I remember it. Quite good fun, but the tracks with the 90 degree “square” corners are too hard, the “cars” are too floaty, and the collision detection, particularly with walls, too ropey, to really enjoy properly. At least it’s in 60Hz. Miiverse would explode if it wasn’t…

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (Demo) (Wii U)

It’s Monster Hunter Tri, only in HD. And with more bits. But basically, that. It looks utterly fantastic, plays well, and I really want it, but… the controls! Oh my!

They were terrible on the Wii, but you’dathunk on the Wii U, with more buttons and a touch screen for easy item access, they’re be easier? Right? Wrong. You still have to hold L and press Y and A to cycle through your inventory. Why?! Madness.

Tank! Tank! Tank! (Wii U)

This is now free. At least, being able to play one of the multiplayer game modes up to three times a day is free. Rude not to download it, really.

It plays like EDF 2017, only with big happy cartoon graphics, Japanese photobooth style silly photo avatars, and tanks. It’s fun, but it’s Story Mode I think I’d get most out of, and that’s not free. Sure, it’s only £7.99, but I’ve a lot of other games on at the moment and it’s likely the disc version will be nearer that price (with all the other content included) soon. I’ve seen it for £15 so it’s only a matter of time.

2 Fast 4 Gnomz (Demo) (3DS)

I played another game in this series on the Wii U. It was terrible. This, however, is… good? It’s a simple autorunning platformer, but it was fun. Fun enough to buy when there are a billion similar cheaper-or-free alternatives? Not so sure.

Fractured Soul (Demo) (3DS)

Erm. I’m pretty sure I’ve played an almost identical game to this before. Maybe on the Wii. It’s a “two planes” game, where you swap from one to the other (one on each screen) to progress – as enemies, switches, platforms and lasers only appear on one or the other. It’s a bit like Mighty Switch Force, but not even one tenth as good. I won’t be buying this.

escapeVektor (3DS)

Another few levels into this. Still great.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow: Mirror of Fate: Demo of Game: Sub of Title (3DS)

It’s a 2.5D Castlevania, that looks like the 360 “reboot” graphically, plays a bit like it in terms of combat, but have the classic Metroidvania blue-map-filling thing going on. I hated the 360 game (it just wasn’t Castlevania), but this… this is awesome. It’s now on the list!

Lego games are awesome. All of them. Awesome. AWE. SOME. And Harry Potter is awful. All of it. AW. FUL.

Who will win?

Lego. Obviously. Just like the previous game. I’ve said this all before. In fact, Years 5-7 is very much the same. Sure, you get one new spell (water jet thing), and new levels, but Hogwarts is the same place and the assets are all copied across. It feels more like DLC than a new game. I suppose that’s to be expected.

Not that it matters, as despite my hatred for all things Harry Potter, it’s still fun. Just like every other Lego game. At the moment I’m part way through Film #6. I don’t know what it’s called, or even what I’m supposed to be doing, as I’m just completing the levels and following the ghost round the school. Plot is irrelevant.

With about 15 hours on the clock, I’m done. Woo!

As previously posted, once I got the controls sorted, I was well away and really enjoyed it. Sure, there are a few puzzles which I appeared to fudge or break in order to complete them (I don’t think I did them any of the accepted “correct” ways), but that didn’t seem to matter.

A very pretty game, and well worth a play through. I don’t think I’ll go through again to get all the collectables, though – I don’t think it’s worth a second run. Especially not since Batman has arrived and I’ve just bought The Cave…

However pretty it is, for some reason I didn’t quite gel with Trine 2 at first. The controls were fiddly, having to swap character and weapon and use all the buttons and the touch screen, and as much as I wanted to love it, I didn’t.

Then, when I realised it’s the only Wii U game I have that I haven’t completed (aside from Nintendo Land, which I’m not sure counts? That’s a debate for another time, perhaps), I got back on it.

After a couple of hours, I was hooked. The controls suddenly worked, and I went through the whole of the rest of the game having fun. Or so I thought, since the end of the game, the final chapter (called “The Final Chapter”), referenced online as the final chapter, isn’t actually the final chapter. There was more. A lot more.

You see, I’d not read anywhere (and still haven’t seen it mentioned anywhere) that the Wii U version of Trine 2 actually includes the DLC episode “The Goblin Menace” from the other platforms. Which, it seems, is about half as long as the main game. Bonus!

So I’m now about an hour into that. Awesome.

What a stylish platformer-with-shooty-bits!

It’s like it’s made from sketches on aged paper, bound up like a flick book. But it plays somewhere between Mega Man and Sunset Riders, sort of. You’re a cowboy with a gun, and there’s platforming afoot! And it’s very hard.

At least, I found it very hard. Looking back now, I realised that for the most part, once you’d learned the rooms and where baddies appear from, it’s perhaps not really that difficult. Except for two of the bosses. Oh my yes. They were hard.

When it’s over (and it is pretty short), you unlock Duck Mode, where you play again as a weaponless duck. It’s impossible, as I found when I tried it.

Well worth the £2 it costs. On the 3DS anyway – the iOS version must surely be a nightmare with touch screen controls!

I was pretty sure I’d posted on my diary about this already, back in November when I started playing it, but it seems not. Back then, I got to around half-way into the story, and aside from occasionally popping back on to do the latest downloadable puzzles, I hadn’t touched it once my Wii U arrived.

After completing (and boy, did I complete it) New Super Mario Bros 2, I went back to Layton. It took me a few minutes to recall exactly what I was supposed to be doing, but as soon as I triggered the next bit of story I was into it again. So much so, that for a few days it was the main thing I played, completing it today.

It’s certainly the biggest Layton so far – all the others I’ve 100%ed in under 15 hours, and this one I’ve only done 102 puzzles (of 160, I think) but I’ve clocked 19 hours so far. There are also way more downloadable puzzles too – 360-odd instead of 50-odd.

I really enjoyed it, but the exploration of the ruins chapter was too much of a departure for me and I didn’t like it that much. Also, despite the utterly ridiculous “epic final battles” of the previous games, the lack of one for this left it feeling unfinished. Even after the credits, and the cut scene following it, I was still expecting another chapter or something. Sure, it’s the second part of a trilogy, but that hasn’t stopped them in the past.

Anyway, overall, it was great. Having the tap-to-examine stuff on the top screen was a bit jarring, but I got used to it. Even the 3D models I complained about earlier have grown on me – not least because they’re not as bad as they were when I played this at Eurogamer. Not sure why – was that an old build?