Last Week's Games: Sonic Transformed, Catan, Exploding Kittens, Eternal Crusade and 911 Operator...

This week was busier than I expected!

Let's not worry too much about why a Hedgehog who is
the fastest thing alive needs a car...

My new game for this week was Sonic All-Stars Racing Transformed, recently downloaded for the Xbox360. This is a kart racing game with the usual line-up of Sonic characters, plus another several characters from Sega’s other properties such as Alex Kidd, Super Monkey Ball, Shinobi and, bizarrely, Wreck-it Ralph. I was expecting to play a few rounds of this and then put it to bed, but I was astonished and delighted by how much fun this game is! I’m working through the World Tour at the moment, which is great for introducing the game’s modes – racing, battles, time trials, drift challenges, that sort of thing. The races are pretty easy – you don’t need to win the race to beat the level; you only need to come third – but some of the other challenges are pretty tough. The drifts, in particular, require a lot of precision. I initially chose Sonic for my play through, because you don’t buy a Sonic the Hedgehog game not wanting to play as Sonic, but when I’d levelled him up as high as he’ll go and couldn’t progress him any further, I tried playing as Danica Patrick, who handles very well. I wondered what Sega game she was from and was surprised to discover that she is, in fact, a real person! I’ve got to the end of the World Tour – just the Bonus levels to do now – but the game still has a lot to offer and I’m nowhere near fed up with it yet, so I’ll keep going for a bit longer!

It’s a little strange how that works out as I tend to prefer games with storylines. Or, at least, I think I do. But a competently-designed racing game has a very addictive “just one more go” mentality that is proving every bit as fun as an engaging plot. I enjoy having a nice balance between the two.

A mixture of non-sequitur and smarmy self-reference
often mistaken for comedy by the same sort of people
who describe themselves as "random..."

Later in the week I had a Wednesday afternoon in Warlords and Wizards, and played an enjoyable game of Catan with a couple of the lads in there which I was very pleased to win! I also had a go with Exploding Kittens; it’s a card game where you have to avoid picking up certain cards from a blind draw. The art is amusing, though very much “of its time,” and the game mechanics work even though it is based on luck. But to be honest I didn’t think much of it. It’s far too reliant on luck for me, and the theme doesn’t lend itself to a compelling plot or reason to be doing what you’re doing. The kids in the shop enjoyed it, and if someone got it out at a party I’d join in, but I won’t be spending any money on Exploding Kittens. A change of schedule means that my regular visits to Warlords and Wizards on Wednesdays have now come to an end, but I will still pop in when I can. It’s a great little shop!

I had a few rounds of Eternal Crusade; what I’ve started doing with that is trying to progress with one character until I’ve reached a Requisition Points Bonus; there are usually three available bonuses worth 1500 points each, and once I’ve achieved one I’ll move on to the next character. The reason for this is that the one you’ve won takes a while to be replaced, and could be replaced with something you could have been working on while you were playing. It also lets me have a go with some of the other factions, which is always nice.

The level I'm stuck on, funnily enough.

Finally, I continued playing 911 Operator, which I originally tried way back in February (I had to go back through my blog to find that out.) It’s odd to play games about going to work, but I really enjoy the core gameplay loop! I think the campaign could have done with fewer cities and a bit more time to develop in each city, as the improvements you make usually only occur once before you have to move on. The map doesn’t make much difference to what’s going on.

Let’s see what I’ve got time for next week…

Last Week's Games: New Super Mario Bros, Mordheim: City of the Damned, 911 Operator

Since I’ve been trying to play a new game every week this year, I tend to play the new game for the week on Mondays. I found that while I was playing through Far Cry 2, I was so heavily invested in that game it became difficult to justify playing a new one for its own sake. So these days I give myself some time to play a new game on one of my days off, so that my obligation is out of the way and I’ve got time to do whatever I want later in the week, whether it’s playing the new game if it’s engaged me enough, or continue with whatever game I was trying to beat before. I haven’t been so invested in a long-form game since Far Cry 2, I enjoyed Theme Hospital of course but most of that had been done roughly a year before.

I'm enjoying the shell power up.

So my new game for this week was New Super Mario Bros for the Nintendo DS, as this is a great pick-up-and-play game. It’s always interesting to experience the new gameplay mechanics that run across the different Super Mario games – new for me anyway, as up until Super Mario 3D World, I hadn’t play a Super Mario game for any significant amount of time since Super Mario World for the SNES. I had a lot of fun with the Blue Shell, even when I accidentally used it and ran in to something that killed me. The giant mushroom is fun as well, though I suspect that as you can destroy Warp Pipes with them, you’re closing off secret areas that could contain the giant coins you’re supposed to be picking up. I’ve not got very far in the game yet, but the point of my DS is that I can play it for a little while when it’s convenient for me to play a handheld system, so I’m not expecting to make rapid progress through this one. It’s there when I need it!

I did mine in Red, funnily enough...

I also had a go at one of my favourite games: Mordheim: City of the Damned. I downloaded it for my laptop a few years ago and, after a bit of faffing around with the graphics card, found the strategy experience hugely enjoyable. I’ve definitely put more hours in to this than any other PC game I own! Unfortunately the game is a little buggy, and some game-breaking bugs coupled with an ironman saving system has meant that I haven’t beaten it yet. I might do this time though. I’ve started a Possessed warband called The Red Death; we’ll see how it pans out.

Assigning units, taking calls... the life of a 911 Operator!

As you’ll see from the Pickups and Trades blog I’m putting out on the last Wednesday of every month I’ve gone a little mad with downloading games off Steam, and with the school holidays on at the moment, I thought I’d take the little more time that afforded me to play one or two of them. I started with 911 Operator. This was a game I think I heard about over the releases section of the Co-Optional Podcast, and I’m enjoying games that are doing things a little bit differently. From what I heard, I was expecting an L.A. Noire style negotiating style of gameplay as you desperately tried to sort out what was wrong before it was too late. That’s in there, certainly, but a lot of it is an “assign your units” point and click strategy game. You assign police, fire fighters and paramedics to various vehicles with different strengths and weaknesses, and purchase equipment for them. You then go into deployment mode, where you assign those units to various emergencies that crop up over the cities in the game.

I’m in Miami at the moment, and brilliantly there’s a team of veteran cops in a sports car apparently referencing Miami Vice, an 80s cop show I’ve never actually seen. They can usually get to an emergency quicker than any squad car, but you need to assign another car to the emergency if they need to take any criminals in. It’s a great game so far and I’m enjoying playing it, I’m looking forward to seeing how it all plays out.