I’ve missed the last few weeks of this! Sorry about that…
In the last few weeks, I’ve played and beaten a couple of
games. One of them was Fire Warrior on the PC, and I’ve posted the review for
it here. I have a few additional remarks to make here: Many of you will have
noticed by now that I really enjoy games based in the Warhammer / Warhammer 40K
universe. However, I rarely make the argument that they’re good games, and Fire
Warrior is no exception. A lot of what eventually became first person shooters
were being standardised during the period where Fire Warrior was released, and
in many respects, the game fell short of the mark.
 |
Wouldn't it be great to order one of
your squad-mates to cover you? |
It is also worth remembering that the Tau were in their
infancy in the 40K universe when this game was released, and with almost two
decades under their belt, they have become quite a distinctive force in their
own right, rather than the “new kids on the block,” so to speak. I don’t know
how well they work in the most recent edition of Warhammer 40K, but certainly
as far as 7
th edition, they relied on their squads working together
more than almost any other army in the game. That got me thinking: What if a 40K
game was made with Tau as the player characters, but instead of a standard FPS
game, it became more of a squad-based game like SOCOM and Star Wars: Republic
Commando? A rather odd comparison for me to make, since I’ve played neither,
but I understand the general premise of those games and having an FPS game with
a team of Fire Warriors with different abilities could be something very
special indeed. Could it happen? Let’s hope so…
 |
Get used to the game telling you you're dead
'cause you'll be seeing it a lot! |
I also played Hotline Miami on the PC, getting to the end of
it. I’ve got a review for that coming out on Friday, but I might as well tell
you now, I really enjoyed the game. It takes a certain rhythm to get into it
but once you have, you can have a lot of fun with the trial-and-error gameplay
– as long as you don’t take it too seriously. There’s a lot to be said for
being good at what you do. By the time I reached the end of the game, I was
still having fun and wasn’t quite ready to get off my crazy horse quite yet, so
I downloaded Hotline Miami 2 and I’m playing my way through that now.
 |
These will go down in one hit if you
know what you're doing... |
On the Xbox 360, I’ve been once again getting some enjoyment
out of the Sega Megadrive Ultimate Collection. I’ve often spoken about my
fondness for Streets of Rage 2, but funnily enough I didn’t even touch that
this time. I came back to my old sparring partner Shinobi 3, running, chopping
and, er, shuriken-ing my way though the seven stages, and even though some of
the platforming is frustratingly difficult, it is always a fun game to play.
The furthest I managed was the final level on the flying airship, because as
with many platforming games I died to falling off it more than anything else!
 |
The platform sections of Golden Axe
were never great... |
I also played Golden Axe with my daughter. This is one of
the first games I ever played on the Megadrive, and some of you may remember I
beat it several years ago. I had no intention to return to it, but I thought it
was a simple-enough game to explain to Jessie, so we gave it a go! It went
reasonably well until Jess forgot what button she had to press to continue the
game when she died and locked herself out of the game. I managed to reach the
end of the game but lost to the final boss.
 |
| Everyone loves cute pandas. |
Finally, me and Kirsty played Takenoko – a board game where
you must grow a garden and feed a hungry panda. Kirsty will play just about
anything with cute animals in it, and she managed to win it this time by taking
a lot of the panda-feeding cards and scoring points that way. It’s a great
little game, about the right balance of luck and skill for us, and I’m sure
we’ll come back to it again soon!
