Hi, it’s been a while since my last regular blog, so I thought
I’d do an update for you with the games I’ve been playing over the last few
weeks. This isn’t me ‘resuming normal service’ in the usual way; things are
still very up in the air at the moment and I can’t give a timetable to a weekly
blog for another couple of weeks at least, but I can give you an idea of what’s
been happening.
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| Mack the Knife. Also known as Stabby McGee. Thanks Kirsty! |
I’ve cheated a bit with playing new games over the
last few weeks, as most of them were on the Capcom Arcade Classics Collection Volume 2.
This was a disc I bought for the Playstation 2, I think I was still at
University at the time so it would have been anything up to twelve years ago. I
bought it mainly on the strength of the original Street Fighter which was
featured on the disc, and didn’t touch any of the other games on there. That
was a shame, as Street Fighter is arguably one of the weakest games on there,[1]
and I missed out on some gems! A lot of them were old late 80s/early 90s arcade
games, where the arcades where at their peak of featuring scrolling beat-em-ups
you were never going to be able to beat without spending at least £10 on
continues, but I’ve had a lot of fun with them. Kirsty and I got through
Captain Commando, and there’ll be a Backlog Beatdown on that one soon!
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| Well that's a bit presumptuous. I don't remember being friends with Susan and Brian. I'm sure they're very nice people. |
Elsewhere I’ve been playing 8 Ball Pool on my Kindle Fire. This
is a top-down pool game that is played against various people around the world,
including at least two people I know! I’m doing reasonably well with it, I win
about two thirds of my games, although I’d suggest that at least half of those
are to do with the connection going on the other side of the match! Once you
get past the novelty of playing pool on your tablet, it’s an unlock-fest
really, and one that is not shy about advertising its micro transactions, but as
long as you keep your wallet under control it’s possible to have a good time
with games like this!
Also I’ve been trying to get through the original
Castlevania on the WiiU. As anybody who has played this game will tell you,
after a deceptively easy first level, the game becomes brutally difficult, and
the only way I’m making any progress is to scum-save each part of the levels
and hope for the best when I get to the boss. Thankfully, the structure of the
WiiU allows you to do this, or I wouldn’t have a chance. I’ve always really
enjoyed the Castlevania games, but apart from beating Super Castlevania IV in
1997, I’ve never beaten another one. Might be time to play through some more!
I haven’t had much time for hobby gaming over the summer
holidays for various different reasons, but I’ve continued to run Pathfinder’s
Rise of the Runelords for Dave, Victor, Morgan and some of their friends. I’ve
also started to run Dungeons and Dragons again at the Black Country Role
Playing Society, where I’m running the Misty Fortunes and Absent Hearts path
from the D&D Adventurer’s League. I had a starting line-up of players
worryingly similar to the Falcon’s Hollow saga I ran years ago, but I should
have some new players join up next week.
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| I should go to the Nashkel Mines next... |
Perhaps as added inspiration I started a new campaign on
Baldur’s Gate as a Sorcerer. I’ve played through probably the first third of
the game many times, and have never been able to see it through quite until the
end, however this time is different because I allowed Khalid and Jaheira, and
certain other party members to be killed off and will recruit new party members
as I’m going along. I almost never do this as canonically they both survive
until the end of the game, but I thought I’d see how I get along with the core
line-up!
[1]
Yes, I know it paved the way for the massive gaming entity that the Street
Fighter Franchise eventually became, but the first game in the series just
wasn’t there yet.
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