Xexyz

Blur: being hopeless

Posted on 07/11/2013 Written by Xexyz

I still haven't worked out what an X5 multiplier is, so I skipped onto the next set of challenges and got bronzes and silvers on them all, but still didn't unlock the one-on-one challenge. I have a feeling that the career of this game is going to be easier to complete by unlocking as much as possible, replaying events to gain more fans, unlocking faster and better cars, and going back to previous events to unlock the bosses. That's fine other than the fact that some of the events are pretty difficult in themselves.

I'm seriously thinking about knocking the difficulty down to 'easy'.

The main reason I was playing this tonight was for multiplayer, though. RLLMUK was organising a Blur revival night, but it never happened. Instead I played a few races against randoms, which I comprehensively lost. It wasn't until later on in the evening that I worked out how to use the handbrake to stop myself piling straight into barriers.

Red Dead Redemption: to Mexico!

Posted on 04/11/2013 Written by Xexyz

Use of the in-game satnav has helped with the cliff issue, but I've now reached a point in the story where this is no longer an issue. After a fraught crossing of the river by raft (during which I probably shot half the population of Mexico, I'm now running around areas of Spanish speakers and being attacked by bobcats. I don't think there's a way at the moment for me to get back to the US side of the river, so I hope there's noting that I've missed out on over there.

The game is just a bit too expansive, really, and I'm slightly put off by the amount of side missions and other bits and pieces that I know I'm not going to find and complete. I've decided to not worry about this, though, and my primary aim is to complete the story, ignoring the trophy list and multitudes of icons on the map. I do keep getting distracted by the strangers and herbs, though.

According to the Rockstar Social Club, I've now completed 36.8% of the game. I'm not sure if that's just the main missions or everything. Still some way to go, whatever.

Tomb Raider 3: awkward

Posted on 01/11/2013 Written by Xexyz

I bought the entire Tomb Raider series on Steam a while ago, and I was inspired to play something after a short conversation with Sue on Twitter.

@suekitchen But which game? Looks like TR2 or TR3. Not angular enough though!
— Tim Miller (@Xexyzx) October 31, 2013

I never completed Tomb Raider 3, despite loving the first two, so this was an obvious thing to try. It took quite a while to get it working on my work laptop, and then configuring it to use the Xbox 360 pad took even longer. I eventually settled an a scheme which meant I only needed to use the keyboard for crouching and walking slowly, and set off the the jungle.

The game looks a little rough nowadays, but that's not necessarily a bad thing given the paltry processing power of my laptop. Rendering at 1280 x 800 meant that the game ran really smoothly; the cumbersome controls were a much bigger hindrance. This was only part due to my inability to configure the 360 pad properly; the absence of a second stick to look around really hurts a game based around exploration.

It took a while to come across the first enemies. I shot a monkey because I was convinced that he was looking at me funny; later on i realised that the monkeys only attack if attacked first.

That's not true of the tigers. These took quite a few bullets to finish off, and bounded towards me very quickly. Lara's not really a conservationist.

I got stuck on this bit for ages, mainly because the controls just weren't responsive enough for me to be able to pull the switch, turn around, and jump into the wall cavity before the big spiky wall killed me.

Despite the issues, it was fun to revisit the game. As there doesn't seem to be a plan to remake TR2 and TR3 in the same way as Tomb Raider Anniversary, I may need to dig out my original PlayStation TR3 disc and play it on the PS3, which will overcome at least some of the control issues - plus, of course, in a month's time I'll be handing back this work laptop and have no idea if Steam will run on the next one.

DLC Quest – Live Freemium or Die: Completed!

Posted on 31/10/2013 Written by Xexyz

I started this a while ago, but unwisely didn't complete it at the time. While waiting for The Typing of the Dead Overkill to download, I had to rediscover the whole map, talk to everyone again, and spend ages wandering around trying to find out my current objective.

Live Freemium isn't as biting a satire as the first game (not that that was particularly vicious anyway), but instead looks to send up many aspects of gaming culture. The comedian simply parrots out lines from games; towards the end of the came there's a collectathon fetch quest just to get hold of a certain item; the most difficult enemies are zombies. As with the first game, the primary objective is to collect coins in order to buy new abilities or optional random stuff. I was amused by the high-def pack, which turned everything brown, and the DLC NPC, which just generated a new character called "DLC MAN" who complained that he couldn't have a central role to the plot since he was an optional extra.

Again, the writing was clever and funny.

I'm guessing this wasn't the same shepherd that I killed at the end of the first game. Or maybe it was, and I'm the baddie ...

The village elder was senile.

This was another of my favourite DLC packs. Many games are being patched in this way now, which is incredibly annoying for those of us with monthly bandwidth caps ...

I was surprised there wasn't a DLC pack to restore the colour here.

This one annoyed me a bit. It made the text more annoying to read and I couldn't find a way of turning it off.

There's a whole area which is missing until you unlock it via DLC.

My heart fell at this point. Yes, collecting flags is funny since it shows the pointlessness of the original Assassin's Creed achievements, but do I really have to fetch so many?

Yes, it turns out, but they're all in one box.

Battling against the wind and snow reminded me of the last part of Journey.

Again, annoyingly this couldn't be turned off once applied.

And it turns out the shopkeeper is the overall baddie ...

... who sells you the swords to kill him with.

To buy the swords, you have to collect coins that he throws out, while avoiding other rubbish. I found that by standing on the far right, nothing could hurt me and I could just pop out to pick up coins when he stopped throwing.

RLLMUK’s top 100: 40 – 31

Posted on 22/10/2013 Written by Xexyz

40	Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (Xbox)
39	Grim Fandango (PC)
38	Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe (Amiga/PC/Archimedes)
37	The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (PC/Xbox 360)
36	Civilization II (PC)
35	Elite (BBC/CPC/Commodore 64/Spectrum/Atari ST/Amiga)
34	Phantasy Star Online (including v2) (Dreamcast)
33	Grand Theft Auto 3 (PS2)
32	Perfect Dark (N64)
31	Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan (DS)

Comments on the games I've played:

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (Xbox)

I never got very far in this. It was just a bit boring, and took ages for the game's story to kick in. By the time I found out what was going to happen, I could tell that I'd never get anywhere near the end of the game without devoting weeks to it, and I had many more enjoyable things to do instead.

Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe (Amiga)

Another game where I never quite got what everyone raved about. It all seemed a bit clunky, with the ball lacking momentum and the playing area being just the wrong size for the number of goals. I used to play this at friends' houses, on the Amiga and on the Mega Drive, and despite winning a large proportion of the time, I was never convinced I was entirely in control. The team management bits seemed pretty pointless as well.

Elite (BBC, CPC), Elite: The New Kind (PC)
I have played this game for hundreds of hours. It's aged pretty badly, really, in that modern games do everything it does but better, but they add other games over the top. Maybe that's why I still like Elite - it's pure, clean, and easy to play. I've learnt profitable trade routes, I've earnt the title of Elite, I've jumped into witchspace and survived.

Phantasy Star Online (including v2) (Dreamcast, Gamecube, Xbox)

One of the best gaming experiences of my life - although not necessarily the best game ever. This was the first time I played anything online with friends, and I spent many hours building up my character by running through the forests, caves, mines and ruins. I can still remember the first time I battled Dark Falz with online assistance, drawing attention away from others, healing, whittling down his health. The final blow leading to a poignant animation of a red ring, showing the fate of the hunter who had left us messages through the world. I've killed Dark Falz many times since.

Grand Theft Auto 3 (PS2, Xbox)

I completed this, which is saying something given the difficulty of the final mission - chasing a helicopter to a dam, not getting killed while running to the control room, shooting someone who seemed to be wearing a full kevlar bodysuit. Is this the best of the 3D iterations? Vice City had less interesting missions but possibly a better world; GTA IV got boring very quickly due to hassles from characters calling your mobiles; the PSP games were great but a bit limited in terms of out-of-mission havoc. I've not played San Andreas of the latest instalment yet, but will one day. GTA3 remains great fun to mess around in, and I can still recognise landmarks in the city when I watch videos today.

Perfect Dark (N64)

I played very little of this, as I came to it late and the FPS genre had evolved considerably. It's dated far more than Goldeneye.

Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan (DS)

Great fun, but I prefer Elite Beat Agents.