Last Week's Games: The Elder Scrolls: Area, Super Castlevania IV, Fire Pro Wrestling World

Now that I've seen this, I've got Medusa and Hemlock
by Cradle of Filth buzzing around my head...

This week I’ve been playing a bit of The Elder Scrolls: Arena. This was the first Elder Scrolls game released in 1994; I’ve had a dalliance with some of the Elder Scrolls games that have been released since then but have never seen one through to the end. While a lot of the ideas that ended up in the later games were there from the beginning, the interface shows its age! I’ve had a reasonably good time having a go with the different character races and classes, which is easier to do in Arena than it was in Morrowind, Oblivion or Skyrim because the first dungeon (in which you start as a prisoner, so it’s good to see the Elder Scrolls series started as it meant to go on) can kill you quite quickly if you’re not careful! I got to know the area very well; where all the loot drops and enemies were, as I explored it multiple times with different characters. I eventually settled on a Wood Elf mage; I’m aware that the stats of a Wood Elf don’t necessarily support the Mage class, but I found that it had enough physical power to outlast a lot of the other classes I’d been playing. I guess this is one of the areas where video games differ from table top RPGs; when there’s only one player character, you must be able to handle more than the situations your class would normally deal with! I eventually managed to get to the end of the dungeon but then emerged into the town in the middle of the night and got killed by the enemies hanging around the town; often before I even knew they were there! Thank goodness I thought to save the game. It was also amusing to see that the Khajit were originally human in appearance, rather than the feline appearance they later acquired. 

Tricky though this bit is, it's nothing
compared to the next bit...

I also tried Super Castlevania IV on my WiiU again. I played the level where some of the old music from the previous games had been remixed for the 4^th iteration of the game – including a track that was involved in one of Jim Sterling’s “F**Konami News” gags, so that raised a smile from me! That level has some very tough platforming segments, so I didn’t get very far, but my three-year-old daughter noticed what I was doing and wanted a go. I set her off on the first level; she hasn’t quite got the dexterity to handle platforming yet, but she was having a fine time making Simon Belmont walk up and down the stairs on the first screen! She enjoyed the results of whipping the skeletons too, though she hadn’t got the reaction times to do it quickly, so I often ended up doing it. But it’s all good; at this point she just enjoys doing things with her Daddy!

Alright mate, put it down; you'll get DQ'd!

Finally, I had a go with a game I’ve left far too long without trying: Fire Pro Wrestling World. It’s been a while since I had a wrestling game to play with, and the WWE series that started with Smackdown has, if I understand the commentary on it correctly, disappeared into its own bottom trying to make the best and most comprehensive creation mode while forgetting to make the gameplay itself any good. Fire Pro Wrestling, free from the shackles of having to use licensed wrestlers or keep up with constantly-evolving graphics engines, has certainly put a lot of thought into the gameplay. The controls are more of a timing-based system than WWE’s button-mashing, and you have to balance light and strong attacks, or you will very easily be countered. I’m currentlyplaying through the mission mode, where you have to achieve a certain condition by the end of the match (not always a win!) This is a great way for me to get used to the different wrestlers in the game, and to learn the mechanics. I even streamed some of it earlier today and put on a rather embarrassing show, but the one person watching it sat through most of it so I’m not complaining! I’ve really enjoyed Fire Pro Wrestling World so far, and I hope I’ll continue to do so!

Last Week's Games: Wolfenstein 3D, Beneath a Steel Sky, Super Castlevania IV, Torchlight, Horus Heresy: Legions

I’ve been playing quite a few games this week, many of which I’ve never played before; let’s hope I’ve got the space to write about them all:

As with the later Doom, the chaingun eats up
a lot of ammo...

The first one was Wolfenstein 3D on my laptop. This one is often regarded as the Grandfather of first-person shooters, and while it might have been the first game that kicked off a huge part of what mainstream video games eventually became, it hasn’t aged particularly well. You run through the halls and rooms of a grey castle, shooting Nazis and collecting treasure. It works, and it is fun. The level design has a certain “Dungeons and Dragons” sensibility to it, and it’s challenging enough on the right level. But when all the levels look the same with very little variety in what you’re doing, it’s hard to think of a part of the game I’ve played that I would classify as “memorable.”

Robert Foster and Joey.

I’ve also been playing Beneath a Steel Sky. This was a game that I got for free on my GOG account, for some reason, and had never touched it in that time. From the occasional coverage from Jim Sterling, I knew that it was a Point and Click adventure, but unsure as to whether I had the patience, I didn’t bother with it for the longest time. But I’m playing it now, and it’s a pretty good adventure; it was developed by Revolution who also did Broken Sword, so it was interesting to see the contextual mouse system being developed, even if it was in its infancy back then. It’s pretty good, amusing in the right places, but it has the same problem that most games of its time had – if you can’t work out the puzzle, the whole game grinds to a halt. This has happened to me at least once, where I had to use a guide to figure out what to do next, only to find I had to talk to a character I had no practical reason to talk to at that point. Nonetheless, I hope I get to the end of it!

Hands up who remembers THAT music...

On the WiiU, I’ve been playing Super Castlevania IV. This is a game I played a while ago, as my mate Matt had it on the Super Nintendo; it’s arguably as good as the Castlevania series ever achieved and certainly an entertaining game after all this time. A nice variety of enemies, tricky platforming sections, and bosses that you should never be able to beat makes for a fun time, marred only slightly by some cheap deaths and odd checkpoint placement. It works especially well with the WiiU’s internal saving system, and I’m enjoying playing through it again, if only to give myself some ideas on what I might develop in my own DnD campaigns in future!

Spiders. It had to be spiders, didn't it?

I also played Torchlight on the Xbox 360. This was a free download with Games with Gold, and while I’d already bought it on the PC I thought the Xbox would be a more convenient platform to give it a go. It’s a dungeon-basher, with a lot of things to loot, an interesting “Pet” mechanic and a linear and standard storyline. It’s been fun so far, but it hasn’t got the depth of many of the RPGs I play, and it doesn’t look like I’ll be doing much more than getting through to the end of the game. I’ll stick at it for a bit, but I don’t know, I might have wanted a bit more than this. Still, I didn’t pay for this version of it, so I guess it’s OK!

Custodes. A pain in the bum to run or fight.

Finally, I’ve been playing The Horus Heresy: Legions on my phone. It took me a while to get back in to it, but I got there in the end! I’ve joined a new lodge as well – emperors Finest. The reason for this was that my previous lodge, the Emperor’s Daggers, was full of dead accounts. I’d love to be able to win some points for the team in the events, but the Adeptus Custodes cards are very fiddly and I’m not sure yet how I can use them effectively.

Let’s see what next week brings, and whether I can finish some of these games!