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 …
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 …
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.
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 …
Phew! I’m on the final run now, with just 16 of the levels remaining. Currently, my rank in the main game stands at 68th in the world – not bad considering I haven’t even finished the game yet! It’s getting very hard now though.
Hmm. I didn’t like all the in-the-dark stuff of some of the levels today. I know it just adds another element to the puzzles, but it made my brane hurt. Anyway, I’m about a third of the way through the penultimate zone (or world, or planet, or whatever) now, and things are getting really brain-warpy now, with gravity flippers and levitation thingies. I have managed the “10 levels with two items remaining” achievement though, which is ace. And I’m 99th …
That’s Zone Three all done and dusted now too. Go me! Managed par for most levels, and had quite a few “one item left” successes, as well as a couple of “two items left” and one “three items left”. I should be on line for an achievement for those now, I think. Had another go at Marsho Madness too, but only got 120,000-ish. It does put me back into top-400 territory though, as I’d been bumped down to around 600 …
Most of this evening’s pinballing was spent trying to improve my feeble score on the Agents table. I did, of course, but not to any great amount. I’m up to around 34 million now, a 12 million improvement, but I’m still quite low down on my friends leaderboard. I did get an achievement though, but I don’t know what it was for.
I’ve now finished all of the second zone, and a few on the third. It’s getting quite hard now, but I seem to be finding plenty of “wrong” ways of completing levels – mainly using fewer items than necessary. One level was completed with a single item instead of the four provided, and the time it took was under three seconds, compared to the 30 that par time was set at. Ace! I then had another go at the brain-hurty …
And this was the other new XBLA title today. There’s something very wrong with the ball, in that it sounds heavy and metallic, but it moves like it’s a floaty ping pong ball or something. You soon get used to it though. Pinball FX is no Pinball Fantasies or Digital Pinball, but it isn’t bad at all. Even the so-bad-it’s-good Extreme table with the faux-gangsta soundbites is reasonable. The scores on the boards then: 56,000,000, 52,000,000 and 20,000,000-ish on the …
Two new games on XBLA again today, and I bought both of them. First up was this platformy puzzley game which reminded me a bit of Bills Tomato Game on the Amiga. Game ideas are never new, you see, they just hibernate sometimes. I’ve completed all of the first “zone”, having no problems (although I don’t have a faster than par time on one level), and I’m now half way through the second zone. I have four achievements already too!
Had much better luck with on the Explorer course today, managing to finish with 7 under par. I was actually 15 under par way through the first day, but that stupid carnival level with the card suits that flash over a hole messed up on me, as I kept rebounding off the hole, or got stuck in it only to be launched over the course entirely. Rubbish. Having done that, I moved on to Adventurer, which is two days of …