This arrived today, so my wife and I played it a lot this evening. It’s very easy to unlock achievements, isn’t it? I got 200-odd points in the first game! It’s much better than I recall the demo being, but it’s no Mario Party. Still fun though, especially as I won every game. Then it crashed and told me there was no disc in the drive. Pff.
It’s odd, but I seem to start new games on Sunday evenings more often than at any other time. So today, in this strange tradition, I started Tomb Raider Anniversary. It has been a long time since I played the Saturn original, but it certainly is different. Of course, it has the Tomb Raider Legend engine behind it now, and the graphics are much improved, but so far it isn’t really all that familar. The grid-based areas are much less …
Right. This is now getting too hard. It’s not fun any more, and every level is becoming a million-attempt slog because you have to be pixel-perfect with every jump and micro-second accurate to avoid baddies. It’s a shame, as I’m only half-way through the game. I can’t see me liking the rest at all if it keeps this up.
Eh? The game had forgotten that I’ve played Episodes 5, 9, 11, 12, 13 and 14. Even though I still had leaderboard entries for them, and I only played them in order. How very odd. So I played them all again, and as before, got stuck on the final level of Episode 14. It’s very, very hard. I died so many times, I got the “You’ve died 1000 times!” achievement. I did manage it, finally, however, and quickly got through …
A few games appeared on this new section of XBLA this week. I downloaded them all and played each for a bit this evening. Culture:Simple minigame with two WTF minigames. Jellycar:Good idea, far too hard to control. Little Gamers:Looks nice, plays like crap. ProximityHD:Decent multiplayer puzzley strategy game. Rocketball:Awful. The Dishwasher:Excellent, although loading after every screen? WHAT TriLinea:Meh.
I tried the demo, was instantly hooked, so bought the full game. I’d played the Flash version a few months ago, but was slightly put off by the controls – keys don’t seem to work well with it. No such problems with the 360 pad though! It’s brilliant. I’ve done up to Episode 5 and most of the Tutorial mode so far, and haven’t foundany particularly hard levels yet. Mind you, there are about 375 left to do…
Up to mission 8 now. This really is very good, especially when, like on mission 6, I completely obliterated the enemy using a million tanks and light artillery, finishing the mission without losing a single unit and with full health. Aces! Mission 7 was a “stay alive for X rounds” mission, and the first to have enemy aircraft. My advisor recommended I use anti-air units, but they were really underpowered and could be destroyed by a gunship in one turn. …
After several more attempts, I finally figured out that using the woman as the CO for Mission 3 was a bad idea and Alex was far better, especially if I kept all my units close. As a result, on my first attempt with him, I beat it without losing a single unit. Mission 4 was easy, and Mission 5 started off badly but I won in the end. Hurrahs!
Another week, another dull soldier game. This one tries to be different by having the concept of a “front line” (hence the name), which you push forward by taking ground, and lose by, well, having ground taken back. Sadly, this doesn’t really mean a lot, as you still have your (yawn) same types of unit – sniper, gunner, etc. – as every other dull and boring soldier game, and it plays much the same as the others. It looks OK, …
Whatwhatwhat? It’s less than five hours long? Those people telling me it’s 8 or 9 hours are bloody liars. Mind you, they also said Episode One was 5 hours and I did it in three and a half. Anyway. But what an amazing five hours it was. Better in every way than Episode One, improving on even Half Life 2 itself – partly graphically, but mainly because of the number of quality, epic set pieces. The ambush in the village, …
So I came out of the bit I was in, found a car (which required completion of a see-saw puzzle – a HUGE see-saw puzzle), and then Alyx and I set off for The White Forest again, without the Vortigaunt. I was worried the car bit was going to be like the car bit from Half Life 2, but thankfully was far less annoying. Partly because I can run zombies down in it. Ace! Then I found an old building …
Gah, dammit. The perils of leaving games you don’t want to play yet in your console. I saw it there, on the 360 dashboard, and couldn’t help myself and started playing it. So far: very good. It’s different to both Half-Life 2 and Episode One, mainly because you’re not in or around the city. It’s also improved graphically a little too, especially character models. The HUD has had a few tweaks as well, and the flashlight and oxygen meters are …
Cripes. It got very hard very quickly, didn’t it? I’m only on Mission 3, and I’ve tried it four times now and still can’t manage it. I was under the impression that the artillery unit you come across was pretty much the only real danger, and after finally dispatching of it (leaving me with just some heavy infantry units) I thought there was just a couple of light infantry left to kill. Easy! Or not, as I turned a corner …
I don’t know why I returned to this today, but I did. No online play, however, for two reasons: 1) they haven’t patched it yet, so I would assume it’s as crap and impossible to play as it was previously, and 2) no-one is playing online any more, presumably because of point 1. So I played lots of friendlies offline, won a lot (playing as Parma), then completed a few leagues coaching “London Reds”, eventually winning the Premier League. Aces!
Tried the demo, thought “OMG! It’s Advance Wars!”, and bought the full game. Played the training and first mission again once I’d bought it, and it really is very nice indeed. I think the points system (you can attack twice if you move less) and the few other differences to Advance Wars will take some getting used to, but it’s easing me in slowly so it shouldn’t be a problem.