Gaming Diary — Page 237

Lifeline (iOS): COMPLETED!

Posted on 28/10/2015 Written by deKay

Look at this. I have not only completed a telephone game, but it was a telephone game that I had to buy with actual money. How rare. So rare, in fact, I don’t think I’ve done that in years. I gave up on the whole iOS game market ages ago as it was full of clones, IAPs and rubbish. Lifeline was recommended by the Midnight Resistance podcast, and sounded interesting. So I bought it.

Remember text adventures? It’s a simple one of those, but integrates into your phone. It starts with you getting a notification (a real actual app notification too) from Taylor, a student scientist onboard a spaceship. Well, they were onboard. It crashed and somehow you’re the person Taylor’s communication device contacted.

They tell you whats happening, and periodically they ask for advice or a decision. Sometimes they’ll disappear for (real life) hours at a time while they’re busy, for example hiking or sleeping, and then you’ll get another notification when they’re ready for another conversation.

Your aim is to keep Taylor alive by choosing the best option for them (I keep saying them and they – Taylor’s gender is never given) and ultimately leading them to rescue. They can be directed to explore the not-as-barren-as-first-thought moon, and decisions are as simple as go east or west, or as stressful as fight or run. Yeah, they’re not exactly alone. Minor spoiler.

I managed to kill Taylor a couple of times, but bar that it took maybe three days to beat the game and get them rescued. There’s not a huge amount of game there, but it’s spaced out (no pun intended) and somehow feels more real due to the phone integration and the way in-game things take real actual time to complete. An interesting diversion with an original concept, if not as great as I was hoping for. The writing is OK (and the story is right out of the sci-fi books I’d read as a kid), but Taylor’s humour doesn’t really fit with their situation. Still, you can spend 79p on much worse.

The post Lifeline (iOS): COMPLETED! appeared first on deKay's Gaming Diary.

Gone Home (PC): COMPLETED!

Posted on 26/10/2015 Written by deKay

Gone Home, the game I kept writing “Grow Home” as over and over again, was in my Steam wishlist ever since I completed Dear Esther. Then, one day not so long ago, it was on sale and when I went to buy it, I discovered I’d owned it for months. Tch, eh?

Like Dear Esther, you walk around and discover what’s going on by reading things and looking at things. Gone Home includes minor puzzle elements, but for the most part, you’re exploring a slightly spooky house during a thunderstorm reading notes and letters left strewn around the rooms. The plot goes that you’re returning home after a backpacking trip round Europe, to a house left to your father by his “psychopath” Uncle. Only your family have vanished.

Reading journal scraps and messages left by your sister, you uncover secret rooms and compartments in the house; catching up with her explorations through her kept record of what she’s found. There’s a suggestion Uncle Oscar is haunting the house, and all was not well in the bedroom between your father and mother. No doubt her new job, with long hours, and his failed novels have contributed to this.

Eventually, you discover what has happened to your sister, but nothing conclusive about the rest of your family is shown. At least, I couldn’t find it if there was something. It’s a massive spoiler, but here’s what I think has happened:

Spoiler Inside	Select Show
Your sister has run off with her girlfriend. This much is clear. It’s also apparent that your parents – your father especially, it seems – is not very accepting of your sister coming out. Your mother has been having an affair with who I think is her boss, or at least a co-worker. It seems she’s been ignored a lot by your father recently, and despite attempts to rekindle the relationship (in the bedroom at least), she appears to have left your dad for her fancy man. Your father, however, I’m not sure. He’s struggled with his writing, both in his failed novels and his What Hifi? reviews, and will now have found his wife gone and his daughter turned out to be gay. I don’t know where he’s gone, but I suspect he’s killed himself. Nice.

Spoiler Inside

Select Show

Anyway. It wasn’t as good as Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture (but then, very little is), it was perhaps on a par with Dear Esther, and waaay better than Proteus.

Here’s my full (and so spoiler-filled) complete playthrough:

The post Gone Home (PC): COMPLETED! appeared first on deKay's Gaming Diary.

UGVM Rocket League Season 2 – Results

Posted on 26/10/2015 Written by gospvg

Tuesday 3rd November 9pm

Players

gos

actionabbas

cooltag

gus

evildaz

hakk
HarpingOn

Format is 3 v 3 in a best of three format (which should take around 15 to 20 mins to play). All I need is the best of three result & not the individual matches scores. The winning team is awarded one point the team with the most points will win.

Teams
Krazy Khan Krashers - gos, abbas & mo
Claptrap Boys - cooltag, gus & bot
Keystone Cops - hakk, evildaz & harpingon

9pm Match 1
Keystone Cops vs Claptrap Boys (Keystone Cops Win)

9:20 Match 2
Krazy Khan Krashers vs Keystone Cops (Krazy Khan Krashers Win)

9:40 Match 3
Krazy Khan Krashers vs Claptrap Boys (Krazy Khan Krashers Win)

Krazy Khan Krashers are the winners again.

Next Season Tuesday 8th December 9pm

Just Cause: just about playable

Posted on 24/10/2015 Written by Xexyz

I have had Just Cause sitting in a variety of places for a while - in the PS2 games box in the loft, in my Steam library on my PC, and on my Xbox 360 shelves - but despite the fact that I've heard it to be great fun and the sequel is an amazing sandbox experience, I've never played it. Until now.

I decided to play the PS2 version, since my PS3 (which is backwards-compatible) was set up and my 360 wasn't (due to the Wii being plugged in to the component inputs for Luigi's Mansion; yes, it's complicated). The opening cinematics looked pretty awful, but once I got control of my character I was quite impressed by the scale of the game and its vision. Parachuting down to the island was a pretty spectacular start, and once I transitioned into running along the beach and stealing a car, I could see that there were clear open-world GTA influences at play.

Unfortunately, the PS2 was a bit underpowered for such a grand vision. The framerate was, at times, awful - to the extent that I actually had to run away and stand still for the console to catch up. This was not helped by the controls which were not nearly customisable enough, and felt very imprecise.

That's not to say I didn't have fun. After a while I was given a grappling hook, with which I could grab onto cars and paraglide behind them. That was good fun for a while, and useful on a mission where I had to destroy a car and take the place of the now-dead dignitary. The main issue with the game was a lack of a sense of urgency; you are going to kill a dictator and free the island, sure, but there was little spurring you on to do this, and the game was almost too non-linear with no clear sense of direction.

If I go back to it it would be on the 360, but I may skip to the sequel.

Score Hero – I hate them both !!

Posted on 21/10/2015 Written by gospvg

At the start of season 7 you have to choose another team to join and the options are Manchester United or Chelsea.

Pah!

I was tempted to delete the app but I went with Chelski.

Currently on stage 155 in which you have to score 4 goals & I can't quite complete all four.