Happy Birthday to one of the greatest games of all time, Elite. (slightly belated)
BBC article
If only modern games which claim to have huge free-roaming worlds to explore could stand up to you. If only modern games that claim you can choose to play as you'd like and form your own destiny were truly as wide open to play as you were.
I played the C64 version, and I played it a lot! I didn't get too far in rank, I think it was because I shot down a weird ship, and then got to a base, saved my game, and was given a mission to shoot it down. I couldn't, so I was unable to get a new rank. I carried on playing though. Still plenty to do, plenty to explore, upgrades to make, trading and mining and pirates and notoriety...
I played the sequels on PC too. They were pretty good. :)
Nowadays... I probably wouldn't even be able to dock without a docking computer...
Tuesday, 22 September 2009
Sunday, 20 September 2009
Arrrrr!
Yesterday was talk like a pirate day, so I decided to play some pirate-centric games. Steam has a special offer this weekend for the remade "Secret Of Monkey Island" special edition point and click adventure for only £3.49, so I bought it, and Telltale Games had a special on their new Monkey Island spin off games, where you could have the first episode of Tales Of Monkey Island for free. So I grabbed that too. I also decided to play some Sid Meier's Pirates! because it's my all time favourite pirate game.
So, here are my thoughts:
* Tales Of Monkey Island pt 1
It runs pretty badly on my computer, I know my PC is a bit old but lowering the graphical quality didn't seem to help that much and is it really necessary for this kind of game? The game is no longer 2D and I don't like the movement /looking round / item using interfaces - I didn't like having to drag the mouse to navigate a 3D plane, and I didn't like the way that objects would move on a boat so that you'd end up clicking on the wrong thing and have to go through a dialogue scene again.
I think, at least from what I've seen at the start of the game, the script could really use some tidying up. i.e. it could do with them removing all the jokes that aren't funny, even if that means cutting the jokes down to one per paragraph. It's no good trying rapid-fire comedy if most of your jokes miss the target.
Also, I could tell that in some places they were just being self-referential in place of there being a joke - so lines are delivered like they're funny but it's really just repetition out of context of something that was amusing elsewhere. It just fell flat, reminding me of the recent Red Dwarf "Back To Earth" special I watched an episode of (and didn't go back for more).
I didn't play very far into the game though. I think I should replay an earlier game and return to this later.
* Sid Meier's Pirates!
Did you know that if you play this game on Talk Like A Pirate day, all the menus and stuff are displayed in pirate speak? :D
I have loved this game since the C64 version; this game and Elite both gave the player a sense of having a huge amount of space to explore, traverse and profit from. I also played the PC version from around 15 years ago. The version I played yesterday was a newer version for PC (it's still a few years old now!), which I bought in a bundle on Steam a few weeks ago. A lot of games really suffer when it comes to remakes or spin-offs; someone who doesn't quite underatand certain aspects of the original game decide to "improve" it by tweaking things... [sighs at the Katamari games, and some game franchises with large numbers at the end of the titles...] This remake is spot on though, and the new features and enhancements do work really well. I really got back into this game!
* Secret Of Monkey Island Special Edition
For some reason, this game is over 1GB to download! (Compared with under 200MB for the episode of the new spinoff game) So, I haven't played this yet. I'm hoping I've forgotten enough of it so that I don't whiz through the game! :D
As an aside:
The game One Piece Unlimited Cruise (PAL version) for Wii is the rarest Wii game I know of. It's a multi-part adventure based on the pirate anime/manga series. As far as I know it's available as subtitled Japanese only (which I see as a good thing!). The first part came out in June and I have not seen a single copy in shops. It is sold out / out of stock everywhere, and copies are selling for very high prices on ebay - roughly twice the original price, sometimes more. The second part is due out now or in the near future, and I placed an order for it at £17.99 on Amazon (I thought I might as well), but they say it's now out of stock and aren't sure if they'll get it - though this was a preorder! Copies of the 2nd part are on ebay for £30 already, which is about £20 less than the 1st part. It's stupid, the fact that they have totally underestimated the demand for these games, and aren't observing the market to see that they need to get more copies made!
Much as I prefer to have a solid copy of the games that I own, I have to admit, at least they can never run out of copies to sell!
So, there you go, my games-about-pirates day is done.
So, here are my thoughts:
* Tales Of Monkey Island pt 1
It runs pretty badly on my computer, I know my PC is a bit old but lowering the graphical quality didn't seem to help that much and is it really necessary for this kind of game? The game is no longer 2D and I don't like the movement /looking round / item using interfaces - I didn't like having to drag the mouse to navigate a 3D plane, and I didn't like the way that objects would move on a boat so that you'd end up clicking on the wrong thing and have to go through a dialogue scene again.
I think, at least from what I've seen at the start of the game, the script could really use some tidying up. i.e. it could do with them removing all the jokes that aren't funny, even if that means cutting the jokes down to one per paragraph. It's no good trying rapid-fire comedy if most of your jokes miss the target.
Also, I could tell that in some places they were just being self-referential in place of there being a joke - so lines are delivered like they're funny but it's really just repetition out of context of something that was amusing elsewhere. It just fell flat, reminding me of the recent Red Dwarf "Back To Earth" special I watched an episode of (and didn't go back for more).
I didn't play very far into the game though. I think I should replay an earlier game and return to this later.
* Sid Meier's Pirates!
Did you know that if you play this game on Talk Like A Pirate day, all the menus and stuff are displayed in pirate speak? :D
I have loved this game since the C64 version; this game and Elite both gave the player a sense of having a huge amount of space to explore, traverse and profit from. I also played the PC version from around 15 years ago. The version I played yesterday was a newer version for PC (it's still a few years old now!), which I bought in a bundle on Steam a few weeks ago. A lot of games really suffer when it comes to remakes or spin-offs; someone who doesn't quite underatand certain aspects of the original game decide to "improve" it by tweaking things... [sighs at the Katamari games, and some game franchises with large numbers at the end of the titles...] This remake is spot on though, and the new features and enhancements do work really well. I really got back into this game!
* Secret Of Monkey Island Special Edition
For some reason, this game is over 1GB to download! (Compared with under 200MB for the episode of the new spinoff game) So, I haven't played this yet. I'm hoping I've forgotten enough of it so that I don't whiz through the game! :D
As an aside:
The game One Piece Unlimited Cruise (PAL version) for Wii is the rarest Wii game I know of. It's a multi-part adventure based on the pirate anime/manga series. As far as I know it's available as subtitled Japanese only (which I see as a good thing!). The first part came out in June and I have not seen a single copy in shops. It is sold out / out of stock everywhere, and copies are selling for very high prices on ebay - roughly twice the original price, sometimes more. The second part is due out now or in the near future, and I placed an order for it at £17.99 on Amazon (I thought I might as well), but they say it's now out of stock and aren't sure if they'll get it - though this was a preorder! Copies of the 2nd part are on ebay for £30 already, which is about £20 less than the 1st part. It's stupid, the fact that they have totally underestimated the demand for these games, and aren't observing the market to see that they need to get more copies made!
Much as I prefer to have a solid copy of the games that I own, I have to admit, at least they can never run out of copies to sell!
So, there you go, my games-about-pirates day is done.
Saturday, 19 September 2009
I love Splosion Man! (2)
Well, the competition event came and went on Splosion Man last weekend. I am not normally a person who tries speed runs, but I thought I would give this a go. I managed a time of 2:52:11 which put me just outside the top 100 when I got it, and 135 when the competition ended. I retried the level so many times, but could not beat that time. I don't think I did too badly; the par time for the level is 3:30:00, so I beat that by over 30 seconds.
The top time was something like 2:10, which is an amazing time.
The person who was 2nd overall with a time of 2:11 posted a video of their best run on youtube, and it was truly breathtaking to watch. I have total respect for this player!
I hadn't worked out how to avoid the spikes at the end like that; if I had, I would have been able to shave more off of my time, but there were still a lot of points where I just couldn't make it through quickly enough.
Overall it was a fun event. More games should feature this knd of worldwide competition event! :)
A few days later, I beat HARDCORE MODE, which I think of as being a great achievement.
Some levels did give me a lot of trouble, and I played them again and again to complete them... other levels which I dreaded after spending ages on them the first time round, I beat on my first or second go, surprising myself. The last boss took me about an hour to defeat the first time I played it, but only took me about 3 attempts on hardcore mode! I guess I levelled up as a player. :)
The only thing left for me in the game is to improve my scores and times (but I am already in the top 150 worldwide for overall game time), and to finish multiplayer and get all the cakes... but multiplayer isn't working out for me.
So, online multimplayer is not for me. :(
I still love this game though. I think it might well be "Game of the year" for me. :)
The top time was something like 2:10, which is an amazing time.
The person who was 2nd overall with a time of 2:11 posted a video of their best run on youtube, and it was truly breathtaking to watch. I have total respect for this player!
I hadn't worked out how to avoid the spikes at the end like that; if I had, I would have been able to shave more off of my time, but there were still a lot of points where I just couldn't make it through quickly enough.
Overall it was a fun event. More games should feature this knd of worldwide competition event! :)
A few days later, I beat HARDCORE MODE, which I think of as being a great achievement.
Some levels did give me a lot of trouble, and I played them again and again to complete them... other levels which I dreaded after spending ages on them the first time round, I beat on my first or second go, surprising myself. The last boss took me about an hour to defeat the first time I played it, but only took me about 3 attempts on hardcore mode! I guess I levelled up as a player. :)
The only thing left for me in the game is to improve my scores and times (but I am already in the top 150 worldwide for overall game time), and to finish multiplayer and get all the cakes... but multiplayer isn't working out for me.
- There's too much lag. I have talked to other people who have much faster internet connections, and they still experience the same out-of-sync problems that I experienced.
- It seems that most other players I have found aren't very good and it's impossible to get them to cooperate on in game puzzles and sploding simultaneously.
- I was playing with several people, they kept jumping off of a ledge into a vat of acid... making the level incompletable unless everyone suicides as well, so after a large number of times, the dreaded "you can take the Way Of The Coward to skip this level" popped up. Someone immediately selected it and skipped the level, even though I was hosting the game. I quit out of it immediately but I now have that level skipped on my scores, and that annoys me. I have never ever chosen the way of the coward. It's not my way of playing. >:(
So, online multimplayer is not for me. :(
I still love this game though. I think it might well be "Game of the year" for me. :)
Tuesday, 1 September 2009
I love Splosion Man!
Over the last month or so, I've been playing a game I bought on Xbox Live Arcade called Splosion Man.
It's a simple, fast paced, colourful 2D platformer. The premise is simple, you are a little orange guy who was some kind of science experiment and wants to get to the exit of each level or defeat one of the game's three bosses. Splosion Man's natural state is on fire, and he can run left and right, and "splode" (explode). That's all he can do. Every face button on the joypad is mapped to "splode", and Splosion Man uses his explosions to jump, blow up scientists and furniture, to deflect bullets, set animals free, and throw switches.
There are naturally lots of obstacles, scientists throwing switches to make barriers, robots and guns attacking you, etc, as you try and make your way through each level. Also, Splosion Man can only "splode" three times before he needs to charge up again (either by standing on the ground or holding a wall for a while). So, the game can be quite tricky.
There is also a bonus item on each level - a huge cake - for people to hunt down and collect, if they like doing that sort of thing. I made it my mission to collect every single one on single-player mode before finishing the game!
The game to me is just pure fun. I really do love this game, to me it seems the perfect 2D platformer.
Things I like:
I'm still battling through Hardcore Mode on single player, I'm on level 2-6 as of this evening.
I've hardly made a dent in multiplayer mode really, I'm only on level 1-11; the game goes really weird if a player is suffering lag; the platforms appear in different places for each player and it seems really glitchy. Fortunately there's local multiplayer! ^_^
When I finished the game, as well as the end credits, it told me about a competition which the developers (Twisted Pixel) are setting - whoever gets the best time on level 3-8 between September the 6th to the 12th will get a trophy and a signed poster. :) I like the sound of that! I don't think I'll be anywhere near good enough to win though, I'm in the thousands on most of the leaderboards.
It's a simple, fast paced, colourful 2D platformer. The premise is simple, you are a little orange guy who was some kind of science experiment and wants to get to the exit of each level or defeat one of the game's three bosses. Splosion Man's natural state is on fire, and he can run left and right, and "splode" (explode). That's all he can do. Every face button on the joypad is mapped to "splode", and Splosion Man uses his explosions to jump, blow up scientists and furniture, to deflect bullets, set animals free, and throw switches.
There are naturally lots of obstacles, scientists throwing switches to make barriers, robots and guns attacking you, etc, as you try and make your way through each level. Also, Splosion Man can only "splode" three times before he needs to charge up again (either by standing on the ground or holding a wall for a while). So, the game can be quite tricky.
There is also a bonus item on each level - a huge cake - for people to hunt down and collect, if they like doing that sort of thing. I made it my mission to collect every single one on single-player mode before finishing the game!
The game to me is just pure fun. I really do love this game, to me it seems the perfect 2D platformer.
Things I like:
- Only one button! It's as though I'm back in the days of the arcade with a joystick and one button, or grasping an Atari 2600 joystick in my hands. It's so simple and even though the one button performs so many roles, I never have contextual use issues. All it does is "splode", and the objects in the world interpret that however they see fit.
- The controls are friendly. You tend to only need wide movements to move, platforms are laid out generously so that jumping isn't so difficult that you won't get things nailed before you give up out of frustration.
- Timed sections aren't really timed. Sometimes you'll have a level containing ever rising cold water - instant death for Splosion Man! So you need to run through these levels.... but I did notice that sometimes the water will seem to "wait for you" before getting higher, in certain parts. It's just friendly like that.
- The graphics are nice and bright, platforms and switches are nice and clear, there are never any foreground / background visual problems for me. It looks great. Splosion Man does cute little animations when he's moving or standing as well. He seems such a sweet little kid as well as a complete psycho blowing up scientists everywhere.
- The game makes me laugh. Splosion Man's cute little animations are funny, the way scientists blow up into pieces of cooked meat that look like they're from a delicatessen counter is funny, Splosion Man's erratic speech - muttering weird things about meat between levels is also kind of funny. The ending credits segment was hilarious!
- The sound is great. The soundtrack for the single player and multi player modes were written by two different composers but both suit the game well. There's also a funny song about eating doughnuts. The soundtrack is available for free download on the official website, which is a nice gesture. I like the jazzy tracks, they sound like they're from a 1960s spy film or something by Henry Mancini.
- There are loads of levels. 50 in single player mode spanning three whole worlds, then the same again in multi player mode. (NB: entirely different levels, 100 in total)
- Loads of Leaderboards. Each level has a best time leaderboard and a best score leaderboard. There are also the overall best score and best time leaderboards, so there's always reason to retry levels to try and better your scores, if you like that sort of competition.
- Level design is really tight. You usually know where to go, and the levels seem really well thought out.
- Hardcore Mode. When you finish the single player game, you unlock Hardcore Mode, whereby you can go through the game again, but this time there are no in-level checkpoints and enemies / lasers kill you in one shot. I like that, because it's not a case of "we made the game harder by adding more enemies", it's just a case of "the game was perfect as you played it, we're not going to change it - to prove your mastery, you have to go through playing a perfect game".
I'm still battling through Hardcore Mode on single player, I'm on level 2-6 as of this evening.
I've hardly made a dent in multiplayer mode really, I'm only on level 1-11; the game goes really weird if a player is suffering lag; the platforms appear in different places for each player and it seems really glitchy. Fortunately there's local multiplayer! ^_^
When I finished the game, as well as the end credits, it told me about a competition which the developers (Twisted Pixel) are setting - whoever gets the best time on level 3-8 between September the 6th to the 12th will get a trophy and a signed poster. :) I like the sound of that! I don't think I'll be anywhere near good enough to win though, I'm in the thousands on most of the leaderboards.
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