25 years ago this week, a man named Clive Sinclair unleashed the future into an unsuspecting world. That is, the Sinclair ZX Spectrum was released. The details of the machine and its history have been reported all over the internet already today, so I won’t bother duplicating any of that here. I should, however, point out how much the Spectrum changed my own life. As MJ Hibbett and The Validators so musically sang, my parents bought me a 48K Spectrum+ …
Played through this on single player this evening for a while, finishing off the Traveller course in 8 under par or so. I then had a go at the Explorer course, and finished at 36 over par – not good. Afterwards, I played a few rounds in two player mode with my wife, which was hardly fair as she’d not played it before. That didn’t stop her getting a hole in one on her first shot, though…
Firstly, the problems. Since it uses the Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth 2 engine (or at least, it appears to), most of the camera and user interface issues are replicated here. My main two gripes are the camera angles (you’re too horizontal and and not “birds-eye” enough, and you can’t see your troops unless you zoom right in) and the fact you can’t “draw a box” around a group of units like you can in every other …
The aim of this game is to shoot lots of infinitely respawning zombies, run out of ammo, and then die as you have no useful weapons. What a fun game. Or not.
Either this game is stupidly hard, or I’m missing something obvious. It took loads of attempts to complete the rescue-the-girl mission, but then the run-away mission defeated me several times too (not least because you’re not given any clue as to where you’re supposed to run to. Silly. Anyway. I’ve now just found my “grandma” missing and loads more monsters to kill.
I’ve had this game for aaaaages now. I bought it when it first came out in the US, and was really excited about the possibility of a decent DS RPG with art in the style of Studio Ghibli. It arrived, got put on my shelf, and then… nothing. But I’ve completed all my recent DS games (except Final Fantasy III, but I’ve got the first two to make a start on before that), so I’ve dipped into my pile of …
Last time I played this, I didn’t really like it. It seems that, according to People On The Internet, I’ve been playing it all wrong. I shouldn’t treat it as a GTA clone, but instead as a superhero jumpy-leapy-throwy game. So I did. And it’s WAAAAAAAAY better! In fact, it takes the way I play GTA (try to go where you’re not supposed to) into the actual proper way to play! Aces. I’m converted then.
Hmm. I’m seeing some real problems with this already. Didn’t they bug-test it at all? The ball is forever getting stuck on, in or under things. The worst big today was while I was playing online against someone, and he was winning. Then, on one of the Wild West holes (the one on the train station platform, I think), his ball was launched up in the air and just stopped dead. In mid-air. And stayed there. It kept spinning, but …
GNnnNNnnnnnNNGGggggGGGGGggggH! I reached Stage 15 again. Several times. And those bloody Medusa Heads killed me. Again. Wii controller through the TV screen time!
There were two new games on XBLA today, this and Gyruss. For some reason, I felt compelled to buy this though. It’s good. There are issues with collision detection, ball physics, random acts of gravity, and camera angles, but it’s a reasonably good fun crazy golf game with some totally bizarre holes – like ones set in space. I played a few games online (and lost), and also played “Traveller” mode, coming 4th overall with a score of, erm, 32 …
You know, I don’t think I’ve ever knowingly played Gyruss before. It’s basically Tempest crossed with Galaga, and although pretty good, it isn’t really me. Mind you, I was never all that fond of Galaga, or Time Pilot, and I bought both of those. Hmm.
Gosh. Two rants about speed cameras in a row. How petrolhead of me. There’s a road in Norfolk called the A47. It is, in fact, only one of two major roads in Norfolk, and runs east and west through the middle of the county. It’s a road I drive on almost every single day. The A47 is almost unique in this county, as sections of it are dual carriageway. That’s as close as we get to a motorway round these …
“Jordan” on Expert is impossible. I would just like to make that known. I mean, everything on Hard is impossible (for me) anyway, but I though I’d just have a try of Jordan on Expert as it nets you an achievement if you beat it. 3% complete. 4%. 5%. Then 3% again. Not a chance in hell. So I tried practising it. On the slowest setting. And still I couldn’t really progress without nine out of ten notes being somewhat …
Hurrah! I did it! No, not completed it. That’s a Whole Other Thing, but I did manage to get to and defeat The Creature. And it only took $hlmun attempts! It’s his imp friend that causes all the problems, as The Creature itself doesn’t really do a lot. In the end, I found it easiest to just dodge the imp and his rocks wot he chucks, and just get the occasional hit in to The Creature when possible. When I …
Played through a few more tracks today, mainly on easy but also unlocked Jordan and had a go at that on Medium, which wasn’t too hard. I managed a couple more achievements too.