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Scribblenauts Unlimited (Wii U)

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Did_someone_call_the_WaaaambulanceStill working through all the remaining shards puzzles. I’ve about 60 left to do, having finished just over half of them.

I’m finding that while playing the main game I’ve accidentally being completing some of the object shard puzzles, which had made the sheer number of things left to do seem slightly less daunting. Or not. 60 is a lot.

Assassin’s Creed 4 – Ahoy !!

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I am sailing across the Bahamas with the crew singing “Drunken Sailor”, looking through my spyglass I see a Spanish Brig in the distance which is carrying some Metal. Full speed ahead to chase it down, I fire off the chase cannons to grab it’s attention & launch a few chain shots at the mast. Pull up alongside & pummel it with two shots from the broadside cannons. Time to board but before I do a quick use of the swivel gun to take out some soldiers, then swing across for some sword based combat. Defeating the crew I send the Brig to join my fleet & return to the Jackdaw.

Ubisoft have jam packed this game with side missions, collectibles, assassin contracts, hunting & treasure maps that I have not progressed much in the main story. I have spent the majority of my time just looking at the map picking a location & sailing to that destination whilst getting distracted along the way by many ship battles to loot materials required for upgrading the Jackdaw or getting another ship to join my fleet. Kenways Fleet is a mini game which has you controlling a fleet of ships to send to various locations across the oceans. You mainly sell goods to gain money but you will also discover various items like treasure maps, ornaments & new routes The companion app that comes with this game you can use to control your fleet, check your treasure map & whilst playing the game doubles up nicely with a game world map.

Through the main mission the game slowly introduces tutorials explaining a new distraction for you, I have not yet taken on any of the various forts on the world map or any harpooning. I also do not know what else the game has hidden to surprise me with but for now I am just happy being a pirate. The Jolly Roger is waving in the wind, time to drink back some rum & set sail for my next adventure.

Scribblenauts Unlimited (Wii U)

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I_need_your_clothes__your_boots__and_your_motorcycleI feel compelled to complete this 100%. Like properly 100%, with all the shards and stuff. So that’s what I’m doing!

I’ve been back to every level and done all the puzzles there, and now I have a million “object” shards. These are very simple, usually wordplay related, puzzles which can be completed anywhere. Like “Cat-Toast Paradox” where you have to create something that fits the two “rules” that cats always land on their feet, and toast always lands butter side down. Create a cat, combine it with some toast, and you get – obviously – a black hole.

I’ve about 200 of these left to get through!

LA Noire: am I a robot?

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I knew this was lauded for its facial animation, but I wasn't expecting it to be quite so accomplished.  The characters don't suffer from the plastic faces of most games, and the lip-syncing is almost eerie in its accuracy.  Of course, Rockstar claimed this was needed so that players could assess whether the characters in the game were lying or telling the truth, but in reality it's made much more obvious through shifting eyes, stuttering responses, and finding evidence beforehand.

Having said that, I'm doing particularly badly at this, finding it difficult to work out which evidence to present and even if the people are telling lies, much more than when I play Phoenix Wright.  There are quite a few differences between the games, of course, but the idea of solving crimes with an evidence-based approach means that they feel very similar at times - particularly where I'm playing the two at the same time and starting to confuse which bits of evidence I've got in which game.


The other thing I'm bad at is driving in a sensible and law-abiding manner.  I am forever crashing into civilians, almost running them over on the pavements, and bringing down lampposts.  As a result I'm not scoring particularly highly overall, and have had a couple of tellings off from my superiors.  I don't know if the end-of-missions cut scenes do change depending on how well you do, but if not it's a bit of a coincidence that the chief is generally unhappy with me when I've failed to ask the right questions.

Asking the right questions is tricky in itself.  You are given three options - accept a statement as the truth, indicate that you doubt it, or present evidence that it's a lie.  Often if you choose the 'doubt' option, because (say) you don't think that someone can be sure of what they're claiming, your character blunders in and shouts louder than if you were accusing them of the murder itself.  The interviewees get offended and you've failed the questioning session.




So, I'm not doing too well, making me doubt if I have any human empathy at all.  But I am enjoying it a lot, and the world in which it's set is really solid and well designed.  I've been promoted from a rank-and-file policeman to the traffic desk, and then on to the homicide desk.  Most of the murders have been very similar, but with apparently different perpetrators.  I'm hoping that the story doesn't twist to show that I've send a number of innocents to their executions.