Monthly Blog Post

Looking back at my last few posts, they seem to be no more frequent than about once a month. Since it's the end of January, I guess I'm due. Thing is, not much has changed since the last time I wrote. I'm still making my way through a bunch of those games, and haven't started anything new or finished any of them. I was on the beach for a week last week, which would make you think I played a lot of 3DS, but that wasn't really the case. Bright sun and bad battery life had something to do with that I suppose. I rediscovered a lot of books I've been meaning to get to, whether in actual paper (useful on a plane when they make you turn everything off or on a beach where I'd rather not risk an iPad) or on the Kindle app. I guess I did pick up the 3D version of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and made my way through a bit of it, enough to get the bow and arrow anyway. The re-release looks pretty good, and still holds up well in 2012.

I've been making my way through Sword and Sworcery on the iPad. Remember how I said that the bigger screen makes it easier for games? Well, since the art style of this is all pixelated it would probably look fine on the smaller screen. But that's not been my problem with it. For a mobile game, it really demands a good solid 20-30 min. per chapter. And don't even think about app switching over to the browser to get you out of a jam. You tend to lose progress. I'll get through it eventually if only for the great atmosphere and humor.

Game Over(load) continued

I usually like to post here after I finish a game. I've been starting a ton of games but have only finished one. Even if I don't write about every game, I try to keep the list to the left current for what I'm playing (click through if reading through Google Reader).

For mobile games, Mario 3D Land is still pretty cool, but gets fairly tough after the first "ending." Mario Kart 7 is a great upgrade from the last DS game, and our DS Lunch group has been playing it for a couple weeks now. The only big complaint is that multiplayer matches are divided up into sets of 4 races. The last game let you play as many as we wanted and tallied the points as we went. Now we have to keep an eye on how many "sets" of 4 we think we can get in over lunch, and don't know who's the overall winner because we'll probably forget to keep track of who won the most of the 4 sets. My wife asked me how I did the first week we played and I didn't have a clear answer because of this. Did I "win" or not? Yes and no. (Also, yes, I realize she probably didn't care and was mocking me for playing a game over lunch anyway.)

Speaking of mobile games, I guess I could mention a couple iOS games I took for a spin. I say iOS when I really mean iPad; I find an iPod/iPhone too small to really see much of anything. For instance, I tried Jetpack Joyride on the smallscreen and thought it was dumb. On the iPad though, it's oddly addictive. Also, Mirror's Edge was pretty well done and is completely worth the 0.99 it's on sale for now. It makes good use of tablet controls like swipe and tap and doesn't make you deal with a stupid onscreen joystick.

I did finish one game, like I mentioned at the top. That was Rage for 360. It looked great and was a pure shooter. There was a story and some side stuff to do, sure, but it really shone when you were blasting through a bunch of crazy dudes with the fluid controls. I had a lot of problems keeping stocked with my preferred kinds of ammo, especially on levels where you only fought mutants, who don't drop anything. I had heard it was short, around 12 hours or so. Well I was about that far in, but only on disc 2 of 3. I got to what I realized was the end and was a bit confused. So after the credits rolled I popped in disc 3. Oh that's where they keep the multiplayer stuff. No thanks, I don't have XBL Gold and I had enough trouble with the computer controlled crazies.

No if you'll excuse me, I have to go spend more time with Skyrim. Or maybe Zelda. No, Skyrim...

Game Over(load)

About this time every year, every publisher on every platform decides they need to release every game they have in development. So we go from the summer doldrums to the fall overload. In the past few weeks I've picked up Rage, Skyrim, Gears of War 3, Zelda, and Mario 3D. And I'll be back to get Mario Kart 7 in less than a week.

Skyrim and Zelda were the ones I've been looking forward to for more than a year and they certainly haven't disappointed so far. The reviews of those two have been near perfect and from what I can tell, they've earned the praise. Zelda starts off extreeeeeeemly slow and assumes you've never played a videogame before, let alone a Zelda game. Also that you like reading lots of stupid unecessary dialogue. But once they introduce the controls, it seems to pick up speed. Skyrim builds on the great foundation that Oblivion built. The worst stuff is fixed and the best stuff is improved.It's an MMO without all those other pesky people.

Rage and GoW3 I picked up because they seemed like good games and they've been entertaining. Rage, in particular, is a lot of fun, moves quickly, and looks gorgeous.

Mario 3D Land should have been a launch title to really show off the 3DS' capabilities. It's pretty entertaining and finally gives me something to do with that system. I'm looking forward to next week when DS Lunch gets an upgrade to the new version of Mario Kart. Should be fun.

Zelda: Four Swords

Some of us took a very rare break from Mario Kart DS at yesterday's DS Lunch to play Zelda: Four Swords Adventures. Four of us, actually. Nice how that worked out. This was either free for everyone to download or part of the 3DS shambassador program, I don't remember which. Anyway, there were four of us with 3DS's today and that's what we played.

I had played through it on my own, beating each of the three levels to get a key that unlocks the last palace thing. It was basically a lobotomized version of Zelda when you play it this way. Sure you run around as Link with a sword and collect all the familiar items. But you can only have one at a time, and the whole goal was to get enough money so some chick (Zelda, I assume) will like you. That was about it for story, which made it kind of boring. Where it becomes a bit more fun is when you add 3 other live people, all racing to get the same rupees as you, while hacking at you and tossing each other off cliffs.

This was chaotic and sort of fun, but not very satisfying from a control standpoint. You move Link around like a slow tank and hope you get to the treasure first. It's not nearly as fun/chaotic as New Super Mario Bros. Wii, but it also came out much earlier than that game originally. Anyway, I didn't win any rounds and we can all agree that Kyle is a rupee-stealing jerk.

Rochard (PSN)

I picked up Rochard based on this review. And I haven't been disappointed at all. Also, when family walked by and asked what I was playing, I got to say that it was a game where you're sort of a "space trucker." Think Lonestar and Barf from Spaceballs flying around in their space Winnebago and you pretty much have the opening scene.

Once you actually get down to it, it's a sidescrolling platformer with physics-based puzzles. Really fun ones.