deKay

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.

The post Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist (Mac): COMPLETED! appeared first on deKay's Gaming Diary.

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.

The post Things I’ve been playing recently appeared first on deKay's Gaming Diary.

Things I’ve been playing recently

Posted on 17/11/2015 Written by deKay

Lazy round-up time!

Puzzle & Dragons Z (3DS)

Lego The Hobbit (Wii U)

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)

Chibi-Robo: Zip Lash Demo (3DS)

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

Badge Arcade (3DS)

Fallout 4 (PS4)

Oh yeah, this arrived.

The post Things I’ve been playing recently appeared first on deKay's Gaming Diary.

Broken Age (PS4): COMPLETED!

Posted on 08/11/2015 Written by deKay

I like point and click adventure games, and it was only a matter of time before I went and bought Broken Age anyway. Then, of course, it appeared on PS+ so I didn’t need to. I sort of feel like I should do anyway, because I enjoyed it a lot and PS+ always feels like renting and renting is Bad. Probably.

Without giving too much away, Broken Age is a game of two halves played out as two seemingly separate stories. On one side, there’s Vella – a young girl chosen to be sacrificed to the monster Mog Chothra in order to protect her village in a ceremony that happens in every village every 14 years. On the other side, there’s Shay – a young boy who lives apparently alone on a spaceship and does nothing but terrible and childish “simulations” where he rescues woollen creatures from fake harm every day.

Naturally, their two stories are not only linked, but become one later on. That’s not really a spoiler as it’s pretty obvious; otherwise why not just have two separate games, eh?

I assumed that you had to play one story then the other, but it became apparent that you can actually flit between both at will. In fact, in Act 2, you have to do this in order to solve some puzzles (and it’s at this point I realised you could). Near the start of the game I guessed what the end of Act 2 twist (and the reveal about Shay’s spaceship) would be, although maybe I got lucky.

As far as the gameplay goes, it’s a streamlined point and click game. Streamlined in that gone are the days of choosing “give”, “go”, “use” etc., instead everything is context sensitive and this reduces annoyance greatly. I know Broken Age isn’t the first to do this, but it’s appreciated anyway. The puzzles are mostly straightforward, with actual simple logic to them, meaning they’re generally not frustrating as they can often be in these games. However, in the final half an hour or so of the game (or almost two hours as I played it…) there are some real head scratchers: It was too easy to seemingly get things right but them not actually work. Also, the less said about the hexapal wiring puzzles the better. Oh god did they annoy me.

Click to view slideshow.

Broken Age was funny just as you’d expect from Tim Schafer, had a wonderful story and a cast of great characters (almost all with some excellent voice acting too). It was pretty long for a game of this type too, not accounting for my lack of skill in the latter part, it was well over 8 hours. I can definitely recommend it to fans of the genre too.

Here’s my entire playthrough. If you’ve the stamina!

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