Normally I keep these blogs to 700 words; that’s roughly a
side of A4 and about as much time as anyone’s got for anything I have to say
about video games! However, as this blog has to cover two weeks rather than
one, this will be a little longer.
Mordheim Mercenaries. |
My new game for this week was supposed to be N3: Ninety-Nine
Nights, a game I’d bought for £1 from CEX a few months before. Having tried it,
I’m not sure they checked the game when it was traded in. My Xbox 360 wouldn’t
read the disc, and when I took it out of the machine to find out why, I noticed
a white ring burned into the silver side. Knowing it would never work in a
million years, and not having had the foresight to keep the receipt, I put it
in the bin. CEX, you done messed up.
A typical action scene... |
So the new game that was actually my new game was a game I’d
bought in the same purchase, funnily enough: Wet on the Xbox 360. I know that it
hasn’t got great reviews, but I bought this one on the strength of it appearing
in one of Metal Jesus’ Hidden Gems videos. He admitted it wasn’t great but
there was some fun to be found in it, and I was pleasantly surprised to find he
was right! It is a third-person action adventure, with an emphasis on combo
kills and style. For example, you get more points for taking out an enemy while
sliding on your knees, which is brilliant. Not the standard for games these
days, but it’s always nice to see games doing things just a little bit
different. I had a decent time with the arena battles particularly, where the
enemies constantly respawn until you shut down the respawn points. I also
really enjoyed the section where there’s a big car chase and you’re combining
precision-shooting with quick-time events; the latter are rarely welcome but
I’d have enjoyed actually having to jump between cars a lot less.
Unfortunately the game is let down by slightly wobbly
controls; in certain situations the buttons take the lead character, Ruby, in
unexpected directions. This is rarely a problem in the main section of the
game, because I don’t mind having to figure out which jumps you can make and which
you can’t. It takes me back to the old Tomb Raider games! But I don’t like it
on the Assault Course stages in-between the levels, because you’re on a timer
and can ill-afford to make mistakes because the controls are letting you down.
Nonetheless, I enjoyed the game, and saw it through to the end. A Backlog
Beatdown review is on its way!
New enemies, new character models, new gameplay mechanics... |
I had a go through Streets of Rage 3; the only game from the
main series I never beat. I’d played it before and never seemed to like it
quite as much as Streets of Rage 2. Nonetheless, I’ve been having some fun with
the game, although it’s an interesting new take on the mechanics. Some of the
moves were re-balanced, throws do a lot more damage, Max has been replaced
completely by Zan, and there are environmental hazards to contend with as well.
Also Blaze had a re-vamp; her character is better than ever! I’m finding her a
lot easier to control than I did in SOR 2. My quest for all the achievement
points is going to be a tough one, since the game contains a system where you
have to max out your Blitz attack, and the only way to do it is to score
120,000 without dying even once. This is ferociously difficult and I’m going to
run in to a lot of problems doing it but apparently there is a cheap trick you
can employ on level 6 to make it happen. I haven’t got there yet though!
Puzzling... |
My new game for the second week is Roll the Ball, something
I downloaded on to my phone. It’s a puzzle game where you have to arrange tiles
to roll a ball into a target square. There’s usually some parameters; a certain
set of squares you have to go through, a target number of moves, and even a
mode where the ball is moving as you complete the puzzle and you have to move
the squares – often with the ball in it. It’s a nice distraction when I have a
few moments to kill, and there’s a lot of levels so it will keep me going for
ages.
The tile they're standing on is what I use as a pallet, by the way, |
Finally, I completed a hobby project: I finished painting my
Chaos Cultists. I had the flesh and the base left to do, and once I’d done that
and tidied it up a little bit they actually ended up looking quite good. I
haven’t done a massive amount of justice to them with my camera phone but they
are looking OK at the moment. I started my next project, a Dark Apostle, and
I’d forgotten how much I dislike building resin models, as they barely hold
together and fall apart if you so much as breathe on them too hard. I only
managed to get the undercoat on before I dropped it and the leg fell off! But
I’ll fix it and try again in the week.
A reminder – no Last Week’s Games blog next week; I’m on
holiday. But I’ll try and do a blog covering both weeks for the week after.