deKay's Gaming Diary

With Mass Effect bagged on Monday, my next game to tackle was this. And what an absolutely outstanding game it was!

I didn’t really enjoy the demo when I played that a while back, but now having played the full game I can see why – you miss some of the first part of the game out, and are chucked into a later bit too early. This means you need to use some slightly more advanced techniques too soon. It also doesn’t give you long enough to get used to the basics before you’re ready.

Another thing that concerned me was the fact it was a licenced game, and they’re generally rubbish. Since this is not actually based on a specific Batman comic or film (as far as I’m aware), I think that helps.

Somehow, Batman manages to blend together several games – Tomb Raider, Watchmen, Gears of War, Splinter Cell and even Metroid without losing it’s own identity, even if a few sections (the clambering round near the sewers and caves, and the Botanical Gardens boss in particular) did make me think I’d swapped games for a minute.

Just two things annoyed me: 1) there’s an achievement you can miss if you don’t fight the goons just before the final boss (they don’t attack you, so I didn’t attack them – oops!), and 2) the entire Killer Croc section was utter pants. Thankfully, the former is just an annoyance and the latter didn’t last too long, so all is forgiven.

And replay value? Well, I’ve only got about 65% of The Riddler’s riddles completed, and I haven’t even started the Challenges yet, so there’s plenty still left to do!

Overall, an excellent game! Next?

At almost exactly 22 hours into the story, I completed the game. And it was a very good game too, even if there were lots of things I didn’t like about it (more on them in a minute). I won’t reveal any spoilers, except one: who’d have thought Saren would have turned out to be the Green Goblin? He’s even got the thrown explosives and flying surfboard thingy. I suppose the clue was in his face. See:

Saren?

Green Goblin?

Anyway. The bad bits. Firstly, (and ironically, lastly) there’s the ending. After it, it really is the end – you can’t go back and complete missing missions and assignments. There’s no real plot reason for it either – although not everything goes back to normal after the end, certainly there’s no reason why most of the missions can’t then be completed.

It wouldn’t be so bad if the “point of no return” was well sign posted. It wasn’t, and not only that, it isn’t even the final mission that triggers it. In fact, once you land on Virmire in the game (a good 5 or more hours before the final showdown, on my play through) – that’s it. You’re locked into the ending without being able to complete most of the remaining quests. Yeah, so you might have a save before then, but you’re allowed so few save slots it’s likely you won’t, even if (like me) you were anticipating such an event.

Then there’s the graphics. They’re lovely. Only they jerk around like the whole game is on a bouncy castle. In some of the final sections of the game, there’s horrific slowdown, tearing, and graphical anomalies. Yeah, there’s a lot going on – but it’s supposed to be the nail-biting climax, not a wade through wobbly treacle. Thankfully, this isn’t a problem for most of the game, and it usually only happens in the Mako.

An exception to the graphics being lovely: the geth. Perhaps if they had more than two frames of animation between them, they’d be lovely too. Mind you, they were usually dead before they got close enough to see what they were.

And the lifts! Oh my god. Most tedious part of the game by far. Especially the one on the Citadel that takes you from the docking bay to C-Sec (why? What have C-Sec got to do with the docking?) – it takes AGES and unlike most of the other lifts in the Citadel, it can’t be skipped with a Fast Transport panel.

Item and upgrade management is also a chore. Especially having a limit on how many items you can carry. After every mission I had to sell everything – which takes ages – or lose new stuff, since when your inventory is full, any new items are automatically converted to Omni-gel. Yes – new (and usually, better) items; not old items you would probably sell anyway. Stupid!

Finally, the difficulty. Yes, I know I played it on Normal (I almost always play games on whatever their default setting is) and that there are harder settings. However, for the final 15 or so hours of the game I simply didn’t bother with weapon upgrades, improvements, and that sort of stuff as it was too much of a pain. Which meant I should have found it much harder, only it wasn’t. Every single fight was a pushover – even the final one.

But you know what? None of that really matters. In fact, the only one I can really complain about is the no-way-back ending. Everything else is just a minor irritation. The winning points are the story and the believable, deep universe the game is set in. Bioware have gone all out on making something more watchable (let alone playable) than most science fiction films. The back story, the way you slowly unearth the history of the races and the Protheans, the side missions and overheard conversations. A high point was the reveal of the Keepers’ role in everything – clever how they are there the whole time, but understated and underexposed, then suddenly it all makes sense.

I’m certainly hyped for the sequel now, especially since virtually all of my complaints with the first game have supposedly been dealt with!

This is the game I’ve played most this week. In fact, it’s pretty much the only thing bar Excitebike I’ve played. I’m getting into it now, and really enjoying it. It’s not perfect (the jerking graphics, the difficult to negotiate “bumpy” planets, the stupid lifts, the backtracking, the item and weapon management, etc.) but the story if gripping and the “just another ten minutes” factor is high.

I’m not sure I like having mission after mission thrown at me every 7 seconds, as it makes my journal look almost untouched the whole time and I feel I’m not actually getting anywhere.

I know this post sounds like a huge moan, but they’re all minor points really. It’s just the game isn’t as perfect as I seem to recall the reviews made it out to be.

All the excitement surrounding the recent release of Mass Effect 2 made me interested in picking up the original game. After all, I enjoyed Knights of the Old Republic, which is very similar (and by the same people), and it should be mere pennies to buy now.

In fact, it was even less than pennies, as somewhere along the line I’d already bought it. And promptly forgotten about it. It certainly made obtaining it to play much quicker, anyway!

I made a start on it tonight. So far, I’ve completed the first mission on Eden Prime, so am just over an hour in. It’s pretty good – even if the graphics jerk like they’re having a fit a lot of the time, and I got very confused over the seemingly three ways of deciding which weapons and armour your characters have equipped, when in fact only one of those ways actually equips them.

Yes, I could read the manual. But I’d left it on the other side of the room.

Immediately after completing Broken Steel, I downloaded and started playing Point Lookout. And oh, is it lovely. It’s the best DLC for the game I’ve played so far (and from what I’ve heard, The Pitt and Mothership Zeta, the two I’ve yet to try, aren’t as good) but it’s HUGE. I’ve done pretty much everything I can – all the achievements, all the quests and side quests, and all the incidental stuff I can find along the way. And it’s taken me over 20 hours. 20 hours! For what was about 6 quid! Bargain.

And excellent it was too. I won’t be getting into any of the other DLC for a little while yet, though, for two reasons: 1) there’s a rumour it’ll be getting a 50% price drop just after Christmas, and 2) I will almost certainly be getting other games for Christmas I’ll be wanting to play. So for now, it’s goodbye (again) to The Wasteland.

After around 12 hours play (yes, I got a bit distracted for a few missions, as usual), I completed Broken Steel. The level cap increase is great, and the addition of the new baddies have made the game hard again (only the Deathclaws ever gave me a challenge once I hit level 20 – and even then only in packs). The Feral Ghoul Reavers, though, are more than a bit hard, are they not?! Even with a weapon that does 100 damage, they take a good 15 or more headshots to take down!

I’m now on Level 24, I think, and have already lapsed back into the whole OCDness of The Wasteland. Every item, bar the very useless, but be picked up. As many weapons as possible – even those I’ll never use – must be carried at all times. And now I have a use for the cameras and sensor modules my inventory management has never been such a mammoth task. But yes, I love it.

I felt it was finally time to return to The Wasteland. So I did.

Part of the reason was that I wanted a game to fill the gap before Christmas, and a Fallout expansion fits the bill. Another reason was that I’ve really got into music from the 40s and Fallout is full of it. No, really – I have.

I bought and downloaded Broken Steel, and have so far completed the mission with the satellite linkup thing. Of course, I dragged things out a bit by doing some hunting, walking not warping, and detouring to a few places I’d not visited on the way. I’ve gained a level already too. It’s great to be back!

Seems I was a bit wrong in my stats last time. I was 50% complete at 8 hours. However, I was pretty close to completing the story, with only a handful of missions available. Still, it took me over 12 hours in total before I completed it.

Thankfully, the ending mission was more lighthearted and less back-stabby than both Nico and Jonny’s plotlines. Even if it did turn out to be utterly ridiculous. Fun though.

I’d previously been playing Perfect Dark Zero on my 360, when, after about 6 levels I thought – “Why the hell am I playing this?”. It was rubbish. And I had a billion other better things to play, like this already downloaded ages ago DLC for GTA IV.

Whereas the main story was all over the place, but mainly involved Russians, and The Lost and Damned was all bikers and backstabbing, Gay Tony is overblown silliness involving nightclubs and helicopters and diamonds and helicopters and basejumping AND HELICOPTERS. Lots of helicopters. ENOUGH WITH THE HELICOPTERS ALREADY.

Seriously. 5 missions in a row were helicopter based.

Not that I dislike helicopters, but I don’t want half the game to take place in the sky.

Anyway. The silliness is funny. As always, the characters are great, the acting is amazing, and the story is gripping. If silly. And Yusef Amir is outstanding.

I think, according to the stats, I’m around 60% through now. Past experience says that the end is just around the corner (as 70%-ish complete is normally “story done” in GTA games). Which is a shame as it seems short. Mind you, TLaD only took about 8 hours to do, so it’s on par with that.

Over the last week I’ve been chipping away at two things – getting myself up to Level 50 (I’m not there yet, but I’m up to about 49.5) and to 100% the game on Insane Mode. Which I did today! Excellent!

It also puts me at 709th in the world

It seemed shorter and easier than the previous episode (particularly the walk-over of a final boss), but it was still great. There was less to-ing and fro-ing than last time, which was a big improvement. It seemed to come at the cost of loading times though – it takes TEN MINUTES to load the game, which is utterly ridiculous!

Well, it’s whole week really, not just a weekend. I have recently played these:

Guitar Hero World Tour (360)
Meh. It’s very Meh now. And Meh isn’t good. Some of the tracks are OK, but very few are excellent. And what’s with all the country and western? Pah.

Street Fighter IV (360)
I’m rubbish. Really rubbish. Even on Easy I’m having difficulty beating Seth. And El Fuerte is the most ridiculous to control character ever, Ever!

Scribblenauts (DS)
Still excellent and hilarious. Funny for mainly the wrong reasons when things don’t happen as expected. On World 8 now, I think.

And the return of my (well, someone else’s, it seems) repaired Wii meant a splurge and the purchase of three downloadable games:

Pilotwings (Wii)
It’s not actually great. In fact, it’s a bit pants. What a shame.

Solomon’s Key (Wii)
Fun platformy-puzzle thing. It’s getting very hard very quickly, though.

“Aha! I Got It!” Escape Game (Wii)
HARDEST POINT AND CLICK GAME EVER. FRUSTRATE.

After I dropped off my broken Wii at the post office yesterday, I went next door to Blockbuster and accidentally bought Guitar Hero World Tour and Street Fighter IV in a two for £30 deal.

And? Well, it’s Guitar Hero. Only with a pants setlist. Also, I know that it’s now a full-band title so some tracks will be better for guitar than others, but tracks like No Sleep Til Brooklyn actually allow the guitar player to sleep through.

It’s not that the songs are bad, they’re just not a lot of fun to play. Well, not many of them are, anyway.

Whoever put the Mario and Zelda tracks in the GHTunes store though – genius!

This time on Insane Mode. It was hard, very hard, but the game got much easier towards the end and the final boss was really easy. Now for 100%! Again!

This, aside from a few iPhone games, is pretty much the only thing I’ve played in the last week. Oh, and some Xbox 360 demos. Erm, anyway.

This is mainly due to my Wii being deader than a dead thing, so no Animal Crossing, Super Smash Bros Brawl, or MadWorld for me.

Thankfully, Shadow Complex is still aces. Hard, since I’m still playing it on Insane Mode, but aces. I’m now up to the point just after rescuing Clare and sending her off in the jeep. Now to collect all the suit upgrades!

Bought this earlier in the week. Well, it was rude not to, wasn’t it? I already own it for practically every other format it has ever come out on, so I sort of had to.

It’s actually my least-played 16-bit Sonic game. That’s probably down to it being the last released though, coupled with the fact I usually played it locked-on to Sonic 3. It’s still excellent, however, but does feel a little short without Sonic 3 in there. It’s probably quite a bit shorter than Sonic 3 is too, actually.

So I completed it with Sonic, and all the Chaos Emeralds, then started again as Knuckles and am up to the end of Flying Fortress Act 2.

I’ve not posted a lot here in a while. It’s mainly because I’ve been glued to Shadow Complex. Having completed 100% a few days ago, I started again on Hardcore mode, and today completed it 100% again. And I’m going to go straight back in and start it on Insane next.

Yes, it really is that good.

Here’s me at the top of my friends leaderboard:

Yes, I am best.

Going for the big 100%, but have run into a few rooms I can’t reach, and some now can’t be reached unless I restart. There’s a room that seems to need to foam gun to blast open too, but the gun doesn’t do anything so I think it’s bugged. Bah.

What a great game! It’s just like Metroid or Castlevania in structure, only in a near-future setting and in 2.5D.

It took me just over 6 hours to complete, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Part of the appeal of these sorts of game comes from starting off weak and useless but building your powers and stats up to become unstoppable – defeating with ease the baddies that previously seemed indestructible. Another thing I like is the OCDness of it – collect everything, visit everywhere. Get 100% on your skills and stats. I’ve completed the game, but I’m not there yet so there’s still plenty to be done!

Two of my most favourite games serieseses ever: Castlevania and Metroid. Why do I mention them? Because Shadow Complex is just like them!

OK, so it’s more modern day, and there are no aliens or vampires (yet, at least), but it’s the same mazey, upgradey, shooty platformy aceness! Hurrah!!

It’s Kikstart II! Only new! And shiny!

Absolutely loved this tonight. Managed all Golds so far, and I’m one level from finishing Easy Mode. Addicted already.

I powered up my 360 for the first time in what seems like forever just to download and play this yesterday. I didn’t play for very long, but then today I completed it.

Already.

Not that I really expected any less, though. I mean, it’s a pretty short game. I just didn’t expect it to be quite so easy, that’s all. Inly the final boss was any sort of challenge, and even he wasn’t too difficult.

But it looks amazing, and it plays great too. Like a slicker, quicker, prettier version of the arcade game. Which, of course, is what it is. Well worth the 800 points, I thought.

This “retro week” on ugvm seems to have spilled into a third week for me, as I continued to work through games on the Megadrive Ultimate Collection on the 360.

This week, I’ve been playing Decapattack. And it is so much easier than Kid Chameleon that it isn’t funny.

It still plays well today, and I only really have one minor complaint – and that’s respawning baddies. Lots of games have them, sure, but here they respawn the second you’ve scrolled the screen a few pixels. A bit of a pain, but nothing more.

Really want to play Magical Flying Hat Turbo Adventure now!

Been playing this, in bits, for most of the week. I loved it when it originally came out, and I rated it as one of the best platformers ever made. I still, sort of, stand by my claim. Only with a slight problem – I’d never realised how difficult it is.

In the Megadrive days, it was commonplace for games to have no save points or passwords, and with fairly long games like Kid Chameleon (it’s almost 3 hours long – massive for a 16bit platformer) that’s a real killer, as you have to finish it in one sitting. And I never did.

Until now, of course – helped by save states. And it’s no wonder I never completed it before – it’s very, very difficult. The final quarter of the game has some of the most difficult platforming sections I’ve ever played in any game ever. I did make things a little more difficult for myself by forgetting about diamond powers until the level before the final boss, but even with them it wouldn’t have helped much.

Anyway, it’s completed now. For the first time ever, despite owning it for 15 years or more. Amazing!

Yes, I know I already own this seventygillion times. And yes – Megadrive Ultimate Collection, which contains this game, was even in my 360’s drive at the time. But still I bought it from XBLA, and of course – I completed it.

With all the emeralds (got the last one in Marble Garden 1, if you care) too. And no Tails. He’s rubbish and needs hot metal things rammed through his face.