I finished the remaining game-parody levels in The Game Engine today. I loved the Gauntlet and Joust sections of NeverQuest. “Save keys to open doors!” was amazing. Medal of Homer was better than I was anticipating too, especially the way they called the French “cheese eating surrender monkeys”. Then it was into Matt Groening’s mansion. Oh my. It was a boss battle, but was amazing! From his dig at Seth “Family Guy” MacFarlane, to the way he kept drawing Bender …
Four games against my wife today, with three wins for me. I also got the “underachiever” achievement, for playing 10 games without getting an achievement. What a strange achievement to get.
Started, played, and completed the Grand Theft Scratchy level. It was OK, although a little repetitive. Once again however, the references improve things tenfold. There’s the way the level starts in a close-enough replica of Grove Street from GTA San Andreas. Then there’s the Missile Command subgame. And the fact that Poochy is the end of level boss. And, of course, Marge yelling “all my bitches” and stuff. Amaze.
I bought this yesterday, in a deal where I got this and Mass Effect for £22.50, which was pretty good. It’s also the only thing I’ve played (so far) this weekend. First of all, I should point out that as a game, it’s nothing new. It suffers from the same irritations as most cheap and crap platformers (wonky camera, dodgy controls, item collection, and so on). However, it knows this. It even takes the michael out of itself as a …
GAAAAAaaAGH! Hate hate hate! I spent ages making more planets and suns and stuff, so I had plenty in the sky to roll up to make the 1,500,000km Katamari. And guess what? Fail! Again! Once more, I ended up with a 1,250,000km-ish Katamari, and an accidental fall into the black hole. So! Annoying!
There were three new games on XBLA today, and I tried the demos of them all. Oh, what a bad week… Shred NebulaRubbish shooter with wonky controls. Pirates vs Ninjas DodgeballRubbish fighting game (well, it is!) with stupid too-far-away camera. Gin RummyRubbish card game. Well, OK – it isn’t rubbish, but it’s not very exciting.
I’ve been playing this a bit for the last few days. It’s very good, but I can’t help thinking the GBA Tactics game is better. I keep getting frustrated with the default camera angle, and the way I have to adjust the field rotation every couple of moves. But it’s a more-than-decent SRPG, and the story is already full of twists and betrayals and all sorts. I’m slightly concerned that, after 9 hours play, I’m still only on level 8 …
Played a few things this weekend: Beautiful Katamari (360)Me am cry. If I play the final level on Eternal mode, and collect absolutely everything (including The King), I can only get my Katamari up to 1,450,000km. Meaning 1,500,000 is, in fact, impossible – black hole or no black hole. With this revelation, I set about redoing levels again, making more and more planets so that I’ll have some more to collect next time I try. Assuming the black hole doesn’t …
CONTROLLER SMASH! It is completely impossible to complete the Astronomic Katamari achievement. Once you hit around 1,200,000km, you’re automatically sucked into the black hole, regardless of where you seem to on the level. Most annoying thing ever!
Played for an hour or so this evening, attempting the 1,500,000km Katamari where you have to avoid falling into the black hole. And failed, having fallen in at 1,300,000km. Grr! I then played several levels in Time Attack mode, although didn’t do especially well.
It’s Guardian Heroes in cartoon form! Almost! I played through to the boss (where the demo ends) and enjoyed it very much. It’s very slick, very pretty, and lots of fun. But it’s also 1200 points, and I’m not sure I can fork out that much for it. Yes, I realise that I paid the same for Braid, but that seemed… special somehow. Maybe another time I’ll rethink it.
Aaaand done! Well, sort of. I’ve now completed the game as every single nation at least once, and in every possible way at least three times. So it’s complete. In terms of outstanding achievements, I have a few “do X on Deity difficulty” ones which simply are not going to happen, and the “win before 1000AD on King” which is plainly impossible. There’s also a “don’t change governments, and win on King” which should be possible, so I might give …
More victolys today, leaving just 3 leaders to complete the game as. The majority of my victolys so far have been via domination (because it’s usually the first you get to) or tecnological (as it’s the only way to win on the Lightning Round scenario. Really am loving the game, though. Yeah, it’s cut-down Civ. But it’s also made-more-fun Civ.
And another one down! This time I played as the Spanish, with the intention of playing for as long as possible and becoming as cultured as possible to coax more Great People to appear (there’s an achievement for having seen all 48 of them). Sadly, although I won, I still have 8 missing people from the portrait gallery.
I finally managed to get a city with more than 200 production per turn! Turns out the best way is to be the Americans, build a city next to as many mountains as possible, and then when you hit the Modern Era you build all the Wonders and buildings that bump up your production, then switch your people to only produce. Hurrah! And then I won as the Americans too. 9 left!