I’m still struggling to get games working online. I can’t even join lobbies half the time. Tch. It’s a good job, then, that the offline mode is so great. Played through twice this evening, once on Easy and then again on Moderate, winning both times. I avoided the can’t-make-roads problems of previous games by ensuring I had access to a steady supply of bricks and lumber from the off, but in the Moderate game my opponents kept putting the soldier …
Aha! Mr The Rev is DEFEATORIZED on the Centipede score table! Only just, though. My new score of 32,000-ish also puts me 81st in the world. Which isn’t too shabby. Had a go on “Throttle Monkey” mode then, which is basically the same, only you need 15,000 points to get an extra life instead of 12,000. Oh, and the game plays 6000% faster, making my score of 5,600 hard fought. Things did not go well for me on Millipede either. …
But mainly Centipede. There’s not a huge difference in one game to the other, with Millipede offering more baddie types, but the same basic game. I don’t really know why I bought this. I don’t really like shooters (as I keep saying, but then, look at Geometry Wars, Mutant Storm, Time Pilot, Galaga, et al…), but I have fond memories of an old Spectrum clone of Centipede called, predictably, Spectipede. And it was on XBLA at that magic I’ll Buy …
Had another run through on Easy today, and won without much difficulty – even if Ore cards were somewhat had to come by (only one player could actually pick them up, and only if an 11 was rolled). Unlocked a couple of achievements along the way as well. I was going to try playing online, but didn’t bother in the end as for some reason everyone on my friends list who was playing Catan stopped the moment before I was …
I spent very many minutes trying to actually get online and play this today. Someone on my friends list invited me, but it wouldn’t let me join. I invited him, but he didn’t get the invite. I found someone else I knew hosting, and it wouldn’t let me join. I hosted, and people joined, but it wouldn’t let me start the game. I joined random people’s games, and it wouldn’t let them start either, and on the one occasion when …
Due to technical reasons (that allow you to unlock the full game for free), the trial version of Catan (which I really should stop mentally adding “The Forever Man” to the end of) wasn’t available to download today. So I thought, bugger it – it’s only money! And bought it anyway. And I’m glad I did, as it’s great! Imagine a cross between Civilisation and the card game Rummy, with added board game Hotel. No, I’m serious. You have a …
Played this two-player with my wife for a bit, until my DS battery started to run out. First up was 301 darts, which ended in quittage as neither of us could hit the required finisher. Then, dominoes in “5 Up” mode. I won, but although I was miles ahead when I reached 35-ish points, somehow by 50 there was nothing much in it.
It seems I hadn’t actually completed this previously. I thought I had, but it seems I’d only reached level 60-something. Obviously, I then had to do something about that! So I did, and lo, I completed it. Level 87 seemed to be the hardest one in the whole game (I died completely there several times), with 89 being mercifully easy (I didn’t have any spare bombs or lives at that point). What aceness. I even managed to net two more …
Back in the day, I completed this zeventyfazillion times. I could do it with my eyes closed. I could do it upside down in a bucket of water. I could do it by shouting instructions over the phone to someone else holding the controller. Now? I can’t get from 8-1 to 8-4 without losing at least two lives, can’t get past the water bit on 8-4 at all, and am generally just crap at it. Clearly, Nintendo have hardified it …
I have decided that this is officially the Hardest Game Ever (except for Game Over on the Spectrum). I’m still getting trounced by the axe armour and medusa head combo en-route to Death. Which is ironic, don’t you think? I did actually make it to Death. Once. But I only had one notch of energy left and one of his sickles materialised exactly on my head, so I lasted less than a second.
This morning at work, we had a Year 9 SAT exam in ICT. This involved two classes logging on to some bespoke RM-powered piece of software, which I have spent the best part of a week setting up. We did it last year too, and it was a mess. The software was horribly flaky and slow, kids got confused that the word processor “emulator” wasn’t an exact replica of Word, and the 50 minute exam took almost two hours. This …
Saw my brother was online playing this, so thought I’d join him. Sadly, although you can play online with the demo, you can’t pick who you’re going to play against. Naturally, I was then randomly paired up against someone who actually knew the controls, and could group units together, and well, was generally capable of playing it without appearing to be a monkey at the helm. He beat me in under two minutes, defeating me with just a commando unit. …
I have no idea why I decided to play this tonight, but I did. Started out on Yellow Belt difficulty, and Level 1, and just played. I’d forgotten just how good Mutant Storm is, you know. It’s great. But I soon died too many times and so stopped. Highest score today? 600,000. Rubbish.
Hmm. I’m not really sure if I’m enjoying this or not. The premise is great – draw shapes to cast spells – but the fights are too difficult as a result. You’re under two much pressure to draw quickly and accurately, and your mana bar (which you use for spells) drains much too fast. Even the faux-RTS element with controllable monsters that you’ve captured is clumsy and hit-and-miss. There’s just too much to keep an eye on at once. Anyway. …
Ta da! All 123 levels complete! Not only that, but I went back and made sure I had beaten the target scores and par times on those I’d missed, and now I’m ranked 34th in the world. Excellent! That netted me two more achievements too, which was nice. Slightly less ace news on the Marsho Madness front though – I’ve dropped quite a few places in the rankings (although am still top of my friends leaderboard) and failed to improve …