Conceptis Puzzles: freemium done right
But yesterday I fancied a bit of a puzzle. As I'm unable to buy Picross E 2 using work's WiFi network, I investigated what was available on the iPhone for my journey home instead. There are, as you'd expect, a lot of picross puzzles, at various prices. There are also slitherlink puzzles, and other such grid games. Some of the best I've found are by Conceptis, who provide a decent number of free puzzles in their (free) apps, with lots of additional puzzles available at a cost. The controls of the puzzles have been well thought out given the limitations of the touch screen - a lack of accuracy in particular.
Investigating their catalogue has introduced me to some new puzzle types as well - link-a-pix and hashi in particular. Hashi is a bit tricky to work out the logic at times, but I'm getting there.
Super Hexagon: ADD
I've managed to last just over 35 seconds on the easiest setting (called 'hard') which is the best of any of my friends on Game Center. I feel as if I'm improving all the time, and as the games only last half a minute each it's a game I'll come back to often.
Fallout 3 (360) & Final Fantasy (iPhone)
I haven’t done a game diary post in aaaaaaages – mostly because I’ve been so busy doing five-minutely status updates via facebook and twitter that there’s been little point. Well, hell – I do still play the occasional game, so I’m gonna make a point of putting the occasional update here, if only to justify having a co-located server hosting the site
So, Fallout 3. Thing is, I seem to have been playing this game (on and off) for years. Which probably isn’t an exaggeration. I mean, the game is HUGE and then there’s expansions on top of that. Despite being about level 10 and completing the Anchorage and Mothership add-ons, I’ve barely scratched the surface. In main quest terms, I’ve only just done the initial ‘slap the dish on top of the Washington Monument’ mission.
Long term Nelefans (and those who have had a wee nose through the past stories archives on this very site) will be aware that I like the Final Fantasy games A Lot(tm). I played through FF1 on the GBA a couple of years back, so why on earth am I doing it again on the iPhone? Because it’s lovely, that’s why. Graphically, it’s a straight port of the PSP version, but the touch controls are a joy to use. Not only that, but it can be nabbed from the app store for a couple of quid. Number 2 is there too. Anyhoo, I’ve only just started playing – formed a party, done a few random encounters, then I’m gonna head north to get my arse handed to me by the bad guy.
Final Fantasy (iPhone)
This is the fourth platform I’ve played FF1 on – others being SNES, PS1 and GBA. I have to say, the iPhone version is easily the best. It seems to be a straight port of the very pretty PSP version but with the added advantage of well thought out touch controls. And it’s only a fiver – considerably less than I paid for the other versions.
‘hang on’, you cry. ‘why are you playing a game you’ve already completed?’
Because it’s awesome and it’s on my phone
So, gabled Garland and I’m heading north on a crystal hunt.