deKay

Japanese Rail Sim 3D: Journey to Kyoto (3DS): COMPLETED!

Posted on 24/12/2015 Written by deKay

Trains! Yay for trains! Well, one train. Which only does one, relatively short route. But trains!

In Japanese Rail Sim 3D: Journey to Kyoto, it’s your job to drive the electric train to, yep, Kyoto. You control the power and the brakes, and the aim is to arrive both on time, and stop at the correct point at each station. Some sections of track, like points and curves, have speed limits, and you have to take account of hills and stuff to maintain your speed without speeding. It’s actually quite simple to control, but getting an A rank for each station (you have to be pretty exact with stopping and timing!) is pretty difficult.

Click to view slideshow.

I’ve played through and reached the end, hence “completed”, but there are more variant modes to unlock yet if I can do it with enough A ranks – night mode for example. I can’t say that for the normal eShop price of £12.99 this was a great buy, but it’s on offer right this moment for just ONE POUND, and for that it’s a bargain.

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Lego Jurassic World (PS4): COMPLETED!

Posted on 23/12/2015 Written by deKay

My daughter loves Lego games and loves dinosaurs, so it was an obvious choice to get Lego Jurassic World at some point. Even if I do keep calling it Lego Jurassic Park.

She’d not seen the films, but the game did mean she could watch the films without being too scared, and we have watched the first one now. One thing I hadn’t realised until we played this is how the T-Rex, rather than being the frightening terror she appears to be, is actually the hero of all four stories. In Jurassic Park, she provides an escape from the gallimimus stampede and rescues Alan, Ellie and the kids from the velociraptors at the end. In The Lost World, she’s only trying to save her baby and goes at great lengths to do so. In Jurassic Park III she sees off the spinosaurus helping everyone get away, and in Jurassic World she defeats the Indominus Rex. Uh, that might be a spoiler.

Click to view slideshow.

As for the game itself, it’s more of the same sort of thing you get in any Lego game. No surprises there, but you can be actual dinosaurs! Ace. Obviously, we’ve only finished the main game (albeit all four films), but we’re working through the extra gold bricks and so on. It’s more fun than Lego The Hobbit, so we’ll probably stick at Jurassic World a bit longer.

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Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist (Mac): COMPLETED!

Posted on 12/12/2015 Written by deKay

You know,”Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist” takes almost as long to say as the game does to play. On my first playthrough, I clocking in at just 23 minutes, and it would seem that’s pretty slow.

The title is also somewhat trolling. “Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist” contains exactly none of these things, except perhaps a tiger (although you never see it), since it’s actually set in a sort of behind the scenes area, backstage as if the game in the title is actually being played out for real by someone else (and you can’t play because they’re busy playing themselves).

Which sets you up for one of those mostly puzzle free “walking simulators” which are a thing now and have a terrible genre title. Simon Amstell talks you through the events as they unfold in his usual sarcastic and seemingly inept style, while you assist in the runthrough of the game itself – pressing buttons and so on.

Not a lot happens, although replaying it is on the cards to nab some achievements (which are, after two updates, still bugged and I can’t get most of them) and listen to some actually properly funny cassette tapes purporting to be a developer’s commentary (but… aren’t). The current most recent update added a load of pretzels to find, for no discernible reason, too.

Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist is free, humourous, and definitely worth a play. I do get the impression, however, that it’s a setup for the actual game in the title though, which may or may not appear at some point.

And here’s a video of me completing it, so, you know, spoilers and that.

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Things I’ve been playing recently

Posted on 17/11/2015 Written by deKay

Lazy round-up time!

Puzzle & Dragons Z (3DS)

I think this might be in my top three most played 3DS games now, and I’ve not even touched the Mario themed option. I got stuck on a boss, then powered through a few more levels, then got stuck on the previous boss again when she cropped up later with another monster at her side. Too hard. I’ve been trying lots of dragon combinations and came close once to besting them, but then one of the two baddies almost completely healed both of them and that was it. Maybe some grinding is in order. Or some different dragons again.

Lego The Hobbit (Wii U)

We completed it, but since then we’ve been mopping up stuff. It’s pretty slow going though, and we haven’t even revisited any of the levels yet. Daddy Pig seems to voice half the characters in this, which is slightly absurd. Especially the blacksmith’s wife. With her beard. Hmm.

Ninja Usagimaru: The Gem of Blessings Demo (3DS)

A not very good puzzle game. I got bored before the demo even finished, to be honest.

Fairune Demo (3DS)

There’s a game called Witch & Hero on the 3DS which is the most ridiculous concept ever. You walk into baddies to kill them, but when you do, you take damage – meaning you’re inevitably going to die. It was rubbish.

Fairune seems to be by the same people and has the same mechanic, only instead of protecting a static character on a single screen, it’s a flip-screen RPG of sorts. And somehow, I’ve gotten a bit hooked on it. I’ve finished the demo and now will almost certainly buy the full game. This surprised me.

Chibi-Robo: Zip Lash Demo (3DS)

Everyone loves Chibi-Robo, right? And taking pictures of real things to include in the game and collecting junk just to tidy up because he’s a cute robot that does that? Awesome, right? Then why is this a slightly crap platformer instead of any of that? How disappointing.

The Legend of Zelda: Tri-Force Heroes Demo (3DS)

Well, I tried to play it. But it said no. I was in some sort of lobby and there were a couple of people to talk to and I found if I ran into a wall a ball fell from the sky and I could play keepy-uppies with it for a while but then that was it. I assume I needed some friends online to play with.

Badge Arcade (3DS)

No way am I giving money to this, but so far, I’ve not needed to. I’ve done well enough in the practise crane games to rack up a few free plays, and so far I’ve bagged about 12 badges. Not that I can use the badges because I’ve barely any space left on my home screen. I was hoping it would expand again, as it does when you hit about 80% full, but not this time. Boo.

Fallout 4 (PS4)

Oh yeah, this arrived.

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