Playing.Catch-Up

Puzzle Quest Galactrix

noreply@blogger.com (Jaitu) — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:48:00 +0000

You know it's things like this that remind me why restricted internet access during work hours can be a *good* thing. Puzzle Quest Galactrix is the soon to be released follow up to Puzzle Quest. Shifting it's focus from swords and sorcery RPG themes to those of deep space sci-fi. It also departs from the rigid grid based match three game play to a hexagonal matrix. I remember reading an interview months ago where (I think) the guy behind Tetris said "if you want to make a successful puzzle game stay away from hex grids", but then he was also the man behind Hexic.
Although this is only an online demo (the game will eventually be released on all major formats) it's clear that they've managed to infuse the game with the digital equivalent of crack cocaine.

KODU

noreply@blogger.com (Jaitu) — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 08:11:00 +0000

Many years ago now I studied programming at college. The course was focused on business application and although the languages were becoming obsolete even as we learnt it was still useful. During that time I also spent a lot of time playing with AMOS on the Commodore Amiga putting together little bits of code. I then went on to take jobs that didn't have anything to do with writing code and pretty much stopped altogether. My current job has me writing SQL to test a very large database and it's supporting applications but still nothing major.
I have often had ideas for simple games that I would like to prototype but have never had the time (or more accurately the discipline) to devote to learning a new platform. That hasn't stopped me acquiring and installing all sorts of things to try and ultimately give up on.
Microsoft recently announced KODU a game development tool originally designed with the intention of introducing school kids to concepts of programming. Although necessary limited it still seems like a potentially powerful platform for rapid prototyping and the fact that it will be on the XBOX360 means there's a reasonable chance I might actually create something with it.

Gears Of War 2: Half Horde

noreply@blogger.com (Jaitu) — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 17:34:00 +0000

When TechMaster and I finished playing the Halo3 Campaign we agreed that Gears Of War 2 would be our next co-op endeavour. He has been taking his own sweet time finishing up his first lonesome play through though. So in the meantime we have been enjoying the Horde variant of the GOW2 multiplayer options. Horde supports up to five players working together to hold of wave after wave of Locusts. We've been battling it out with just the two of us and it has proven extremely good fun. Simply choose a map (any of the available multiplayer arenas) set your starting wave (anything up to your highest achievement to date) and off you go. Spawning into the map you have a few seconds to choose your battleground and get dug in before the opposition start to appear. There is no time limit per wave and so long as one of you can survive to the finish anyone who fell and wasn't revived will spawn back in before the next wave starts. We played the majority of the first 18 or so waves on the 'Day One' map which is essentially a single city crossroads with each of the four streets blocked with an enormous and un-navigable crater in the middle. This forces you to take the long way around whenever it is necessary to cross the map. Fortunately two opposing corner buildings have balconies accessible via street level staircases and make useful nests that are relatively easy to defend. As we tackled waves in the high-teens these corners became more difficult to defend so we began to explore some other map options. We ended up in 'Jacinto' hiding at the end of a short stone outcropping with a helipad at the end. The entrance to the pier makes for a serviceable killing floor and the mortar that respawns a short dash from cover provides welcome heavy support options. We called an end to the last session having just defeated wave twenty-five of fifty.
Since then TechMaster has finished his first run through the story so our next meeting will be centred around the commencement of an Insane level co-op campaign run.

Gears Of War 2

noreply@blogger.com (Jaitu) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 08:12:00 +0000

Looking for a new co-op title to follow Halo3 I bought Gears Of War 2 last week. It's very much more of the same only bigger. Aside from a couple of vehicle based distractions the game does an excellent job of taking you from one shooting gallery firefight to the next with copious cut scenes and 'plot progression'. Compared to Gears One there is certainly more story in evidence although it is still possible to completely ignore and not lose anything from the experience.
I completed the game on Casual last night having managed to garner 28 of the 50 achievements along the way. A second play through is guaranteed as, just like Dead Space, the hardest difficulty of 'Insane' does not become available until the game has been completed for the first time. Further achievements are available for completion at the remaining three difficulty levels but these 'stack' so beating Insane means picking up any below it. The easiest way to beat Insane will be to team up and co-op with someone else so this will become the next gaming mission for myself and TechMaster to tackle.

Doritos Dash Of Destruction, Puzzle Arcade, Vigilante 8

noreply@blogger.com (Jaitu) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 07:50:00 +0000

After completing Halo3 I turned my attention to some smaller titles.

Doritos Dash Of Destruction.
A shameless Doritos advert was free to download from the XBOX Marketplace so, naturally, I took it. It's a reasonably fun though short-lived affair. The game has two basic modes where you choose to play as either a Doritos delivery driver or a cybernetically enhanced T-Rex. When playing as the delivery van you have to race around a top-down-viewed town hitting checkpoints while avoiding a rampaging T-Rex. When playing as the T-Rex you have to rampage through a top-down-viewed town trying to catch delivery vans. There are online (and maybe(?) local) mulitplayer options which should certainly add some party style fun. Despite playing for probably less than an hour I've already picked up 9 of the 12 achievements which total 155 of the 200 available points. Truthfully, it's a free advert targeted at achievement whores and I'm fine with that.

Puzzle Arcade.
On the surface a straightforward jigsaw game but with some sophisticated details. Puzzle Arcade is a good suppliment to all the twitch based shooters that I've been playing. At it's easiest it's like putting together large-piece wooden puzzles for four-year-olds. This is surprisingly addictive though. There are a number of pictures available (more can be downloaded or captured using the camera) and the number of pieces can be controlled as well as options such as rotation of pieces on screen to reamp up the complexity. One nice little surprise was that the default puzzle set includes two photos from Sam Javanrouh from one of my favourite photo blogs, TopLeftPixel.

Vigilante 8.
Although I've not really played this yet I did buy the full version already. Vigilante 8 (V8) is a car combat game that was born from the Interstate '76 series of games. It's an arena deathmatch style using vehicles with weapons attached. Not a lot more to say than that. There is a story mode which I'll comment on after I've given it a go.

HALO 3: Leg-END-ary

noreply@blogger.com (Jaitu) — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 21:37:00 +0000

Finally the fight is finished. Earlier this week TechMaster and I put in around five hours to finish up the Legendary Halo3 Campaign. From an achievement point of view there are only five points between us (I have one extra achievement). Aside from the remaining 'Skulls' there are very few left to get that do not involve the online multiplayer modes. I intend to go back in on a casual setting to try and pick up the skulls but for now my attention has wandered elsewhere.

POP!

noreply@blogger.com (worthyboy) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 01:44:00 +0000

Price of Persia is "the Bomb" With GAME offering it at the 13th month price of £19.99, the world of cell shading never seemed so great! that is, after Elica' directions take us to; dangerous beasties, ugly concubines and dangerous donkey haunts. For the first few minutes of play it is an achievement whores dream, i am sure that i managed 4 achievement's (trophies for PS3) in the first 5 minutes of tutorial. For me the tutorial was blended into the gameplay too much. After playing for an hour it was still reminding me that if I jumped at a wall, I would wall run! I crashed the game after about two hours soon after the concubines fertile ground, by synchronously getting Elica to boost me and dying in the same manoeuvre i was left with a last grasp screen.

In the same PlayStation bargain basement price drop I bagged Far Cry 2, i will post and play at the same time for the next few days, promise.

Game Swapping, Bully and PS3s

noreply@blogger.com (Jaitu) — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 12:03:00 +0000

With only five achievements remaining to be had from Dead Space I decided to give it a rest and embark on something different. To that end TechMaster and I swapped a of couple titles. He had recently completed Bully so I took that and he took Dead Space.
Bully is essentially Grand Theft Auto set in a private school. Amazingly I've never actually spent any time playing a Grand Theft Auto game since the very first top-down title, which I loved. Bully puts you in the role of Jimmy Hopkins an unloved kid with a string of expulsions who is dumped into Bullworth Academy by his Mother and Step-Father. The game follows the GTA open world format with new areas opening up as you progress. There are a number of missions that must be completed before moving on through the school years as well as side errands that can be taken. Missions range from finding and returning lost or stolen objects, picking lockers, fighting school bullys, defending the nerds (for cash) and putting burning bags of dog feces outside the staff room. I've just completed sophomore year and according to the game stats am about 5% through the game.

On another note entirely I'd like to welcome WorthyBoy to the blog. As a PS3 owner he brings the Sony side of the story. Funnily enough though, despite our many good natured 'discussions' over the relative merits of the Microsoft and Sony platforms, WorthyBoy has recently been contemplating the purchase of an Xbox360 and TechMaster has just had Santa deliver a PS3 into his arsenal.

Doubling P.C-U

noreply@blogger.com (worthyboy) — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 12:49:00 +0000

println("Hello world...");

Good, it is working. In an effort to reduce the amount that I bore those that care to listen to my personal insight about PS3's HW dominance, Jaitu suggested that I "Dump" my joy, feelings and time onto the playing.catch-up blog. This hopefully doubles the content, conjecture, perspective and spelling reereors.

I broadly come across as a PS3 Fanboy and hope to muddy the water with titles released that I have the vaguest opininon about.

To catch up this holiday I will suffer several pulmonary issues playing the PS3 version of Dead Space and collect the final 48% of stickers/items/inane rubish from LittleBigPlanet. My PSN name is worthyboy if you care to Quincy me on Home.

Dead Space: Complete Incompletion

noreply@blogger.com (Jaitu) — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 12:46:00 +0000

I finished Dead Space a couple of days ago and am happy to report that it remained consistently excellent right through to the finish. There are a number of achievements that I have not yet picked up but, as previously detailed, the game does indeed allow you to begin a 'round 2' from the very beginning but with any suit/weapon upgrades carried over. One little additional detail is that the second play through is exactly the same as if you were starting a new game. The opening cinematic must be watched, the control introductions pop up again and despite having the powered up armour, weapon collection, credits and nodes you will not be able to use special abilities such as Stasis or Kenesis until the plot introduces you to them a second time. This can be a little odd at first as techniques that have become second nature are suddenly stripped from you.
I have begun the second run and having completed round one using nothing but the Plasma Cutter (to grab the 'One Gun' achievement) am now trying to dispatch as many biomorph as possible using the two other weapons currently in my inventory. I won't be able to use any of the others that I picked up before until I get to one of the STORE locations and change them out.
I also made a point of beginning an Impossible difficulty campaign and getting the first save point stashed away.

Dead Space: Room To Breath

noreply@blogger.com (Jaitu) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 07:50:00 +0000

I got back to the point I was at on the not-quite-hardest level and have moved on further. Last night I made may way through the hydroponics level and cleared the atmosphere before continuing on to the beginning of chapter seven and calling it a night.
While I'm about it I've decided to playthrough the whole game using nothing but the basic Plasma Cutter in order to pick up yet another achievement. Once I start the second run through I'll start using the other weapons to get their respective points.

A Weekend Of Restarts And Do-Overs: Halo3, Dead Space, Pinball FX

noreply@blogger.com (Jaitu) — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 07:49:00 +0000

This weekend had a definite feeling of 'again-ness' to it. Quite apart from spending a sizable chunk of it putting glass back into places the previous owners of our house had removed it from; re-painting a wall that has seen four different colours in the few years we've been living here; climbing a ladder in the conservatory to tidy paint work (something I have done too many times to count recently); and, finally, scratching myself to pieces while constructing our artificial Christmas Tree for the fourth or fifth time in about as many years. The last couple of days gaming has also been of an 'again' nature.

Dead Space.
In the last post I discovered that the Dead Space achievement for completing the game on the hardest difficulty could not be gained by simply choosing the hardest difficulty and piling in. The truly hardest difficulty is not available as an option until you complete the game for the first time. So having struggled my way to chapter five of twelve I decided to give up on the campaign and begin again on easy. My aim now is to play through to the end, picking up as many achievements as I can along the way. I'm already not far from where I left off. Once I'm given the option for the 'Impossible Mode' I'll start a game of it and save a checkpoint so that I can return later. Then, I'll go back to the last save of the Easy campaign and finish it again. The reason for that is you can then begin the campaign on easy a second time but with all the resources you have collected on the first play through. This is in order to tidy up the other achievements which cannot be done on a single play through. The Impossible mission can wait for a time in the future when I wish to torture myself - a time that may never come.

Halo 3.
Techmaster and I continued our Legendary Halo 3 campaign yesterday. We managed to tick off 'The Ark' but in truth we could probably have completed another chapter as well if we had made better decisions and not suffered some poor luck. Firstly we should not have spent way more than half an hour trying fruitlessly to grab the Famine Skull. Secondly had the game not stuttered to a halt before throwing us out two thirds into the chapter and requiring us restart from the beginning (after more than two hours of play) we would likely have gotten further.

Pinball FX.
Lastly, I've been playing Pinball FX again. I like it because it's a game that allows you to come and go as you please. There are no long scripted missions that you can't walk away from until you reach an arbitrary check point or save location. It's simply an excellently put together pinball game. I say it allows you to walk away, in truth it doesn't. It is so packed to the bumpers with the magic of just-one-more-go that a new ball is being fired into the table as soon as the last of the previous game has disappeared from view.

Dead Space: Harder Than I Thought

noreply@blogger.com (Jaitu) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 07:57:00 +0000

I've been playing Dead Space recently and it's proving to be a fairly excellent third-person-shooter with plenty of tension and more than a few horror surprises.
I decided from the outset to play through on the hardest difficulty setting in order to get the 'Epic Tier 3 Engineer' achievement which is worth a substantial 150 gamer points. The description for the achievement is "Complete the game on the hardest difficulty setting". So I launched myself in and have toiled as far as chapter 5 of 12 so far.
BUT NOW!
Now I have just learned that the 'hardest' difficulty isn't actually available until you complete the game at least once. On completion a hidden option of 'Impossible' becomes available and it's this level of difficulty that'll allow the achievement.
Well, crap. I'm now sorely tempted to restart the whole thing on easy and play through it to get all the other achievements - which in themselves require at least two plays through to accrue.
By all accounts 'easy' is significantly easier than the level I'm currently playing on so I should, at least, be able to get back to where I am in a few hours.

Catching Up: GRID, HALO3, Penny Arcade, Dead Space

noreply@blogger.com (Jaitu) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 18:31:00 +0000

It's been a little while so here's a quick run down of what's been played in the meantime.
In no particular order.

Penny Arcade Adventures : On The Rain-Slick Precipice Of Darkness - Episode Two.
The adventure continues with Tycho and Gabe. Some (very) small tweaks to the controls improve the environment investigation. The story continues on a pace and the humour remains top PA fayre. I had a system crash during the final boss battle but other than that I enjoyed the second installment even more than the first.

Race Driver: GRID.
I haven't actually played this since almost the last post. I think I'm at the top tier of competition now. My only gripe, and it's a pathetic one that I have with all racing games of this nature, is that the rounds become increasingly long and include more races. This makes it harder to pick up and play for a quick gaming hit. I'm at the stage now where to complete a round involves maybe four races that each take ten minutes or more to finish.

HALO 3.
Techmaster and I managed to hook up online long enough to complete another two chapters on Legendary. I'm still peeved that you must complete the whole chapter in one sitting for it to count. We'll have to go back and run one again as despite having gone more than half-way through when we picked it up again from a checkpoint only about a third in the chapter wasn't marked as done when we finished it.

Dead Space.
I picked this up a month or so ago but found it almost impossible to play at the time. I was suffering from flu and the third person viewpoint gave me terrible motion sickness so I put it to one side (and played through Penny Arcade Adventures instead). Returning later I hit a bit of a choke point - I had decided to tackle it on the hardest setting from the get go - but once past that the game picked up some momentum and I've really been enjoying it.

Endless Ocean

noreply@blogger.com (Jaitu) — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 15:47:00 +0000

Endless Ocean was released on the Wii earlier this year. I read the Edge Magazine review of it and thought I'd give it a go. Unfortunately although it was listed at most retailers none of them seemed to have any stock of it. I had all but forgotten obout the title until Doug emailed me saying he had found somewhere that had it and did I still want a copy. At only twenty quid I said yes.
As the IGN video review below says this is almost a non-game. The object is to travel around a fictional sea and catalogue the creatures you discover. Along the way you will receive requests to guide other divers to particular species, supply photographs of a given subject or go hunting for lost relics. The only thing I'd add to the video review is that last night I decided to give it 'a quick first look' and didn't stop playing until more than three hours later and really only then because it was the early hours of a new day and I was in need of a comfort break and some sleep.

GRID: Team Building

noreply@blogger.com (Jaitu) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 14:44:00 +0000

The success of the British based RTDL2 Racing outfit continues. Team
owner/driver Jaitu acquired Class B Licenses in both Europe and Asia and
as a direct result of the step up RTDL2 Racing has now expanded to a two
car team. Jaitu continues to drive the number 75 car and Japanese
Pro-Tuned specialist Eiji Matsuke has been brought in to partner.
With the addition of a second entry and some new sponsors the team funds
are also looking healthy. Successes in the Nissan Cup events and the
Skyline Versus Viper Touge were significant highpoints. Unfortunately
Jaitu's guest drive at Le Mans in a Corvette ended in disappointment
after contact with Tomas Enge's Aston Martin while leading the group
left the car damaged and off the pace. Jaitu ultimately brought the car
home last in group and only second from last overall. Rumours of a
potential RTDL2 team entry in the next Le Mans 24 Hours are yet to be
confirmed and could well depend on the results of the forthcoming
season.

Halo3: A Legendary Coalition On A Legendary Campaign

noreply@blogger.com (Jaitu) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 11:30:00 +0000

With the Locust hordes of Gears Of War conclusively defeated, at least
until GOW2 in November, TechMaster and Myself have move on to dealing
with the Covenant threat.
Playing the Halo3 campaign with a friend fighting alongside me changes
the dynamic of the game somewhat. My natural tendency towards cautious
progress sees me fall in to a supporting role which has so far gelled
nicely with the willingness of TechMaster to act as the pathfinder. In
this instance the role of pathfinder is almost exactly the same as that
of cannon fodder but he seems happy and his numerous and spectacular
deaths allow me to identify and hopefully dispatch the offending
Covenant aggressor.
We have agreed that we'll run through the campaign on the Legendary
difficulty and pickup the hidden Skulls as and when the game allows it.
Any that we miss or prove too much of a chore at this level we will
return for at a later date and with the resistance turned down again.

Gears Of War: War Is Over If You Want It

noreply@blogger.com (Jaitu) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 10:33:00 +0000

Finally.
The Insane campaign is complete. TechMaster and I put in a final push
over the weekend and can now lay another title to rest. We have
completed the campaign on all three difficulty levels and garnered as
many achievement points as either of us can be bothered to. Almost all
the remaining achievements are to be had from online multiplayer and it
just doesn't tempt me. A couple are for things like killing multiple
enemies multiple times but I think I'd rather move on to something else.

Geometry Wars Evolved 2

noreply@blogger.com (Jaitu) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 10:43:00 +0000

I remember playing the original Geometry Wars when it was an arcade
machine in the Project Gotham Racing virtual garage. Back then it was a
simple, though visually arresting, twin-stick shooter that went on for
as long as you could survive.
I played the trial version of the XBLA Geometry Wars Evolved but never
felt compelled to purchase the full game. I had already bought Mutant
Storm from PomPom Software which uses the same twin stick mechanic and
has proven to be inexplicably hard when I'm in control.
Geometry Wars Evolved 2 is now out and I have heard nothing but high
praise for it so yesterday I decided to just go ahead and buy it.
The game has kept the same neon vectors, fragments and particles aesthetic and ramped up the on screen business to a dizzying degree. Building on the original simple mechanic the game has been expanded and
now contains 6 distinct game modes.

Deadline: Played against a strict time limit and with infinite lives.
Just keep going and score as much as possible.

King: There are three circular safe zones randomly positioned on screen.
The enemy shapes cannot enter these zones and you can only fire when
you're inside one. The trouble is that as soon as you enter a safe zone
you have only a few seconds before it diminishes to nothing leaving you
defenceless until you get to the next. As one disappears a new one
spawns elsewhere on screen.

Evolve: Score points to earn extra lives and bombs. Each successive life
requires ten times the points of the previous.

Pacifism: You can move but you cannot fire. As time passes slowly
spinning gates will appear on screen. When you fly through a gate any
enemy shapes nearby will be destroyed.

Waves: Lines of enemy shapes will appear and sweep backwards and
forwards across or up and down the screen. You have to shoot gaps in the
waves as they approach.

Sequence: Twenty timed challenges with thirty seconds to clear each
screen. Success or failure will move you to the next challenge until you
have either completed them all or run out of lives.

Each successive mode is unlocked by playing the previous one three or
four times (your progress towards the next is shown at the game select
screen). The achievements are based around particular challenges within
the game modes. For instance the Wax On achievement requires you to rub
along each wall of the screen during one game of Pacifism. Once you have
rubbed a certain amount the edge begins to light up in segments so you
can see where you need to go and your percentage progress is displayed
at the foot of the screen. The Wax Off achievement requires you to do
this twice in one game. There are also achievements for simply unlocking
all the six game modes and another for scoring at least 1,000,000 points
in each.
I managed to get five of the twelve achievements in a couple of hours
playing. It's an incredibly addictive game with at least the last half
hour of my play session taken up by successive one-more-goes. I'm not
sure how often I'm likely to return to it once all the achievements have
been attained but as a quick blast of fun it will be hard to beat.

GOW: Beginning Of The End Of The Line

noreply@blogger.com (Jaitu) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 11:27:00 +0000

While Wife and Wife's Mother were away for the night I managed to hook
up with TechMaster online to continue our Insane Gears Of War campaign.
TechMaster had taken the bold but sensible decision to complete the
short section that had caused us so much hardship without me, playing
through with three expendable NPCs making for a far easier route. We
picked up from just after the courtyard battle and continued onwards
toward the family home. There were a couple of sections that were in
fact much harder to complete on the easier levels although this may well
be down to knowing what was coming. In all it took us about a hour and
three quarters of play to complete Act IV and arrive at the train
station. It was there that we decided to call time and leave the final
Act V and the fight with Raam for another day.

Burnout Paradise: Cagney

noreply@blogger.com (Jaitu) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 08:40:00 +0000

The Cagney update for Burnout Paradise finally made it out of
certification limbo and to the Xbox360 community at large last night. I
haven't played Paradise for a little while but thought I might as well
get the update while I had some time. Upon booting the game I was
informed that an update was indeed available and chose to download it.
The process completed in approximately four seconds which didn't strike
me as a likely success. In fact when I started the game again there was
a minor cosmetic change only. Trying to view the news feed or start an
online Freeburn session just resulted in a message telling me that I
couldn't go online until I'd taken the latest update. There was no way
to get the update from within the game and I had to drop back to the
dashboard and line up the download through the Marketplace. Once
completed I restarted the game and was welcomed by the new front page
which shows the latest news from Criterion Games along with time and
date information, world ranking, weather info from major cities around
the World and a calendar with special event days highlighted. Within the
game proper the effects are less immediately obvious. There are a number
of new online challenges and game modes and three new vehicles and
liveries. The sound mix has been tweaked such that the soundtrack and
engine noise is noticeably different between the bumper and chase cam
views. It is also now possible to click the left stick when driving the
police cruiser and turn on the blues and two's.
The Davis update is due in around a month and will deliver even more
radical changes.

Gears Of War: Quite Hard

noreply@blogger.com (Jaitu) — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 19:38:00 +0000

TechMaster and I resumed our co-op campaign through Gears Of War on Insane difficulty today. It's been some months since either of us played any GOW and it took a while to re-familiarise ourselves with the controls. I found myself constantly clicking a stick to run a la Bad Company instead of simply pressing the A button. Even after we were back into the swing of things the Insane difficulty level seemed harder than either of us could recall. After spending what seemed like an age trying to complete the split path section in Act 3's Belly Of The Beast we finally picked up a little momentum and made some reasonable progress picking up the final COG Tag to complete another achievement. Then almost immediately reaching the next split path section where one of us battles through courtyards while the other negotiates the first floor hallways of the surrounding buildings and together take on a Seeder. After somewhere in the region of four hours playing and replaying this level we decided to call it a day.

Race Driver GRID: Start Your Engines

noreply@blogger.com (Jaitu) — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 08:29:00 +0000

I began my GRID career last night and managed to collect a handful of
achievements without really trying. In fact a couple of them I was
really trying not to get - the ones for rolling your car or being
involved in a ten car pile up for example.
Like the previous Race Driver and TOCA games GRID is weighted heavily
toward the realistic end of the handling spectrum. This doesn't
instantly sit well with my more arcade-y style of virtual racing which
leaves me able to drive quickly or cleanly but not both at the same
time. Like those previous CodeMasters games I am sure that I'll be
investing a huge number of hours in to this one too.
Graphically the game looks great, shedding the slightly too crisp and
colourful aesthetic of the earlier titles and adopting shaders that give
a more naturalistic effect.
A new Gameplay mechanic that has been added is the ability to
'Flashback' at any point during an event. This gives you the power to
rewind time within a limit and have another go, think Prince Of Persia:
Sands Of Time, very useful having just ploughed into a tyre barrier. The
number of available flashbacks varies depending on your chosen
difficulty level.
Surprisingly, in the races I have completed thus far I have found the
most success in the Japanese Drift events. When I played the demo a
month or to back I was horribly bad at the drifts.
I am now seriously considering getting a racing wheel to go with this
game as I feel it would benefit from the control method. I always
struggle in the more simulation styled racers when relying on
thumbsticks.

Bad Company: Single Player Completely Complete

noreply@blogger.com (Jaitu) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 09:15:00 +0000

I wrapped up the single player achievements for Bad Company last night.
I've found the game to be very entertaining. Overall it has less
diversity to the actual mission content than COD4 but the persistent
game state mechanic allows for a great deal more freedom when choosing
an approach. I actually missed a Gold Crate on what should have been my
final run through the last mission and had to repeat it. Because I had
already got everything else out of the level as far as achievements were
concerned I was able to jump in vehicles and race through to the last
crate in record time.
I then gave the online multiplayer a quick go (literally two games) and
found that to be a fairly frenetic affair. I'll probably keep that as my
go-to online shooter instead of COD4 for the time being. For now though
I have Race Driver GRID ready and waiting to go.

Bad Company: First Run Complete

noreply@blogger.com (Jaitu) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:30:00 +0000

Last night I completed the first run through of Battlefield: Bad
Company. I went through at the hardest difficulty to begin with a plan
to then play through a second time on normal difficulty to clean up the
other achievements. It certainly a good thing that when the end credits
rolled I was more than happy to jump straight back in at the start
without it feeling like a chore to have to play through the whole game a
second time. The only slight frustration I've found so far is that on
the second run only a couple of the cut scenes are skip-able meaning you
have to sit through them again.