A journey through marriage, publishing, motorracing and gaming… The adventures of Lofty and Stumpy
Posted on February 26, 2010 by jonners99No Comments
A couple of weeks ago I announced the games that I am looking forward to over the next six months, well Nintendo being the cheeky people they are have announced that a game I thought was coming out near Christmas 2010 is actually coming out this May and so makes this list…
Super Mario Galaxy 2 – Wii – 28th May 2010 (wouldn’t be released on a Sunday like in US so picked the next Friday)
Posted on January 26, 2010 by jonners99No Comments
This is a list of the games that have already been announced that I am excited about in the next five months. The fact is that it appears that most of the good games coming out this year are coming in this period due to the Modern Warfare 2 effect experienced at the end of last year.
In relative chronological order then:
Mass Effect 2 – Xbox 360 – 29th January 2010
Filed Under: Daily Diary, Gaming, Musings, Wii, Xbox
Posted on January 22, 2010 by jonners99No Comments
This is a game that leading up to its release I could not have been less excited about playing. this is partly because before August I was not paying any attention to 360 games due to not owning the console myself but partly because super hero movies tend to be daft. The one exception I have played to this rule being Spiderman 2 which was fun for web-swinging aimlessly around New York city.
Then the game came out though and I got to watch more footage of the game, the way it controlled and the cut scenes and I changed my mind.
Posted on January 3, 2010 by jonners99No Comments
2009 has not been the best of years for video games in my opinion. Modern Warfare 2 seems largely to blame for this in that it gave developers an excuse to postpone and tighten their news games. Therefore the first three months of 2010 are going to be pretty manic. That being said though, there have been plenty of very good games this year and now that I have an Xbox 360 I have experienced my first taste of HD gaming… and it is good.
Filed Under: Awards, Daily Diary, Gaming, Musings
Posted on December 31, 2009 by jonners991 Comment
This has been a decade when gaming technology has come on leaps and bounds. While the 1990’s were the decade of the third dimension the 2000’s have been about innovative control and high definition. That being said, a lot of the best games I have played came out towards the beginning of the decade. This list is largely comprising the games into which I have sunk and will continue to sink a large amount of my time due to their excellence in either single or multiplayer.
Posted on October 27, 2009 by jonners99No Comments
The majority of games tend to follow the same idea. Go from a to b using specific items that the developer has decided to give you. In many ways Scribblenauts turns this logic on its head. A team of staff went through the dictionary and added huge chunks of it into a database describing what it is and how it should act. They then created a puzzle game around this database whereby you receive a challenge and have to work out how to complete it by summoning any items you can think of that may be able to help. So the overused example that makes the first level goes thus:
Posted on June 5, 2009 by jonners992 Comments
The first Boom Blox was a hit taking the simple idea of knocking blocks over with balls and making that concept even more fun. You wonder how much Steven Spielberg contributed to the idea beyond the basic idea but that man is a genius. A year has passed since that game was released and EA have released a sequel again with the great Spielberg stamping his name on it.
Posted on May 23, 2009 by jonners99No Comments
I am not a fan of horror. Usually the plots are too daft to justify the scares from people running past a window or being hacked up in very bloody ways and therefore I stay well clear. This logic applies to both films and games. I also tend to stay away from light gun games because you don’t get very much control and often the controls (especially on wii) don’t tend to feel that good.
Posted on December 1, 2008 by jonners99No Comments
It was with some apprehension that I go hold of De Blob. This game is third party in every way and by and large that style of game does not succeed on Wii at all. Happily De Blob exceeded any possible expectations I had about it. The evil Inkt corporation has drained the colour out of the colourful world of Chroma City. You play as Blob who is… a blob of paint. Genius. You are tasked with restoring colour to Chroma City to rescue its inhabitants. This involves bouncing around hitting the buildings while destroing the Inkt army.
The game itself plays well with the control stick being used to move the character around and a quick flick of the wrist making blob jump. It has its moments of pure frustration however, as when multiple enemies attack at once it often will not register all the wrist waggle causing blob just to land near his enemies and be contaminated. This is frustrating when you have done nothing to cause your own demise. If the developer had just moved jump onto a button instead of a motion the game would improve a lot. Other than this the game controls well and it is easy to make the camera point to where you want it to.
The game world is gorgeous in de blob, certainly it looks a bit funky when you have things painted in different colours but this is possibly the best game I have ever played for artistic style. The city is amazing and truly helps the game in every way with no faults whatsoever. Sound design is coupled to this as well with the music depending on what colour blob is and also on the musical style selected at the start of the level.
The game revolves around high scores once the game is completed you are encouraged to go back through and aim for bigger scores in each area. Points are gained from buildings painted and challenges completed. Challenges are set for you by other members of the resistance and include races, battles, converting landmarks and painting things in a theme. It is easy enough to complete a level with a bronze rating as you do not even necesarily have to take on the INKT fortress at the end of each level to complete it but that would mean missing out on some of the best parts of the game.
There are many colours you can make blob that all come from the primary colours (blue, red and yellow) with these you can make him orange, green, purple and brown some challenges require you to be a certain colour to complete them but there is always plenty of paint dotted around the levels for you to use.
The game will take about 10 hours to complete the first time around but there is definitely replay value to be found here. There is also a multiplayer mode which feels a little tacked on. It could be broader and have more modes but it is a fun game to play if you are having friends over.
In conclusion then, De Blob is definitely one of the top third party efforts on the wii console. It brings a very unique and brilliant artistic style and some very fitting music. The game falls down slightly on the control front thanks to an underactive bit of jump waggle that should have just seen the function placed on a button. This is a minor gripe, however, in a game that I generally loved. The lack of depth in the multiplayer is not a big problem either as lets be honest you wouldn’t buy it for the multiplayer but for an amazing experience with a perfect and unique artistic style
Posted on October 20, 2008 by jonners99No Comments
Mass Effect on XBOX360 was one of the big releases of 2007. In May 2008 the game was released on PC with better graphics and bugs from the original fixed. The game see’s you traversing the galaxy as Commander Shephard of the Alliance military. Being an RPG he/she can look how you want them to look and have a set of attibutes you can work towards. The game hinges on choices made in dialogue and in battle and can often provide quite a challenge as you seek to take out the threat to the galaxy.
