Sunday, December 25, 2011

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...