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FIFA 13: loss after loss

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I'm rubbish at this.  I'm rubbish at most football games (with the possible exception of International Sensible Soccer on the Mega Drive), but this is harder than most.  As well as the standard controls to battle with - in particular, I can never remember which is shoot and which is a high pass - EA have included a number of touch-screen controls on this.  You can tap a player to pass to him, except by the time you've tapped there he's probably moved and you'd be better off passing with the B button.  You can tap on an area of the screen to shoot in the goal (tap top-left to shoot top-left), but by the time you've looked down at the pad to accurately aim, you've missed your chance.

I do like playing football games, but that enjoyment mostly comes in the five seconds of the match when I manage to score a goal.  That happened only once.


The thing is, as hopeless as I am at this, and as much as I find real-life football boring, there's an attraction about videogame football that I can't ignore.  This is one of the better versions I've played, and I'm sure I'll get used to the touch controls at some point.

Tearaway: lots of bugs

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On the way home last night, the majority of people got off the train two stops before me.  I saw my chance to progress in Tearaway, so got the Vita out and turned it on; it's great that I can be back in the game within a couple of seconds, something we've taken for granted since the DS and PSP.

I pressed Y to record a sound, called "hello" into the microphone, and nothing happened.  Surely it can't actually recognise a roar?  I pressed Y again and growled into the mic.  Again, nothing.  No matter what i did, the game didn't recognise that I'd made a sound.

I wondered if there was too much background noise.  I waited until I got into the car, and tried again.  No luck.  Nothing I did let me either cancel the request for a sound or record anything.  Searching the Internet today, it seems that there's a bug in the game, which should theoretically be solved by completely turning off the system and then restarting.  I'll try that tonight.

Tomb Raider: sighteeing

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I've been through quite a few spectacular sections in this now - running through burning buildings with things collapsing as I go, jumping across a bridge as it was being demolished, ziplining from the top of a mountain down to the beach.




In some ways it's similar to a Metroid structure of game, where as you progress you're given new upgrades which allow you to access parts of the world which were previously hidden away.  The main difference here is that there is very little back-tracking, and I can only think of a couple of places where I went past a room or entrance without getting the ability to enter it very soon afterwards.


Having said that, there may well have been a number of hidden areas that I didn't notice.  A few hours into the game you're given the ability to upgrade your pick, which allows you to climb walls like the above.  The indicators of where you can use upgrades are generally well hidden until you know what to look for - bundles of white cloth, ropes wound around timbers, chalky walls.
 

 After escaping the burning monastery, Lara has to avoid several machine gun emplacements and make her way down the mountain.  After the first descent, you find a stunning area with a ship suspended by ropes.  This ship is huge - and you have to zipline down onto its surface.  By the end of the sequence, the ship's hanging by a single rope and Lara's no longer on board ...




Then down to the sea, and meeting up with the survivors.  They want to repair a boat to escape the island, but we know that's not going to happen - Lara wants to take the boat inland.  Before that can happen, Lara's off to explore shipwrecks to pick up a pulley system and play around on the masts.




Stunning game, and fun with it.  I hope it throws in some new ideas soon, though, or even finishes - it's starting to get a little samey in terms of gameplay, even if the location changes.

Tearaway: lots of idiocy

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The PS Vita is a portable system - just about, admittedly, since it's bigger than a PSP and won't fit into a normal pocket.  Still, it's got an integrated screen and headphone socket, so it's ideal to play on the train during my commute.  With Tearaway you do look a bit daft from time to time when you start to prod the back of the console and use the touchscreen, but nobody looks at you on the train so that's fine.

People can, however, hear you.  I'm sure I'm not the only person to play Tearaway on the train - in fact, I'm sure some of the developers of the game must get a train from time to time and play their 3DS or Vita on board.  Did nobody at any point in the development process think that it might not be such a great idea to include a bit in the game where you have to shout into your console?


There's no way to skip this and use a default noise, you have to record yourself (and it won't accept just background noise, either).  Needless to say, I'm not going to do that on the train, and as I can hardly do it in the office either I'm not going to be able to play the game on my way home either.

Idiots.

Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies: Turnabout Reclaimed: completed!

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Let's just deconstruct that headline.  I've completed the game!  The game in question is the additional case for the 3DS Phoenix Wright game; this additional downloadable case was called 'Turnabout Reclaimed'.  It involved two court cases, in fact, first defending an orca from a murder charge, and then defending her trainer.  In that second court case, I called the orca as a witness.

Yes, an orca.


Having the case split into two worked quite well, as otherwise it could have become a little excessive in length.  Towards the end of the second case there were a number of clever twists which referred right back to the initial investigations, and the cast of characters was exactly the right size to avoid confusion.  The only story-related point which did seem a little off was the marginalisation of Prosecutor Blackquill, whose role seemed to only consist of taunting Phoenix from time to time.

As ever, there were some excellent bits of writing in the game, spoilt only by the occasional typo.  The judge in particular was well written, with his amazement over the orca (and distraction by the penguins) well thought out.  His constant mistake over hip-hop music was the most amusing though.

The case-specific characters were a mixed bunch.  Initially I couldn't stand Dr Crab, but I warmed to him towards the end of the game, although I'm annoyed by the way that characters flat-out lie with quite flimsy reasoning at times.  Some of the later parts of the case revolved around the system he ran (which was "illegal" - I think there was a bit of an error in translation here, I think it was probably meant to simply by unapproved), which had one of the most awkward abbreviations ever.


Sasha' on the other hand, I immediately liked as a character, but she very quickly revealed herself to just be a bit shallow and whiny. Her constant fish puns tailed off in the middle of the game, only to see a resurgence at the end.


Finally, Marlon Rimes ... amusing and unlikable, and an obvious villain from the start. He made me laugh many a time, particularly when his solid evidence revolves around him rapping that he didn't do it.


No more Phoenix Wright for a while - this makes me sad.