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Dead Space – Scream !!

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Yes I'm finally playing it & yes I'm playing it on Easy difficulty. Playing on Easy offers me two advantages, firstly an almost unlimited supply of ammo & med kits. More importantly than that is it lessens the fear factor by 1% & in this game that is very very vital.

Toby suggested I turn the volume off & listen to the Benny Hill tune on repeat, this was my fallback plan in case I needed it.

I love that there is no onscreen HUD, your health is displayed on your body armour in the form of a vertical spine along with a half moon meter for your statis meter. 

Statis is a skill you get early in the game & it let's you slow down time for a brief moment. You can use this to control fast closing doors or slow down running aliens. Kinesis is your other ability & let's you control objects. I've only used this so far to move bookcases revealing hidden loot or moving batteries to operate electrical equipment like elevators.

You start off the game with a simple plasma cutter which lets you slice the aliens limb by limb. The game is gruesome in its display of the violence you can for example take out the legs of an alien & then preform a foot stamp to finish them off.

Later on in the game you will be able to purchase more weapons from a store by collecting the credits you find lying around the USG Ishimura. You can also sell your loot & purchase more ammo if needed. There is a nice animation sequence at the store when you purchase an upgrade to your body armour.

You will also find Power Nodes among the loot & these can either be used to unlock locked doors or via the workbench you can upgrade an attribute of your chosen weapon or body armour.

You are Isaac Clarke a mining engineer part of a group sent to investigate a distress signal. Upon arrival you are attacked by a group of aliens who take out all the soldiers leaving you with Commander Zach & Computer Scientist Kendra. They give you various objectives to complete from activating the tram system to retrieving the mining ship captains RIG code.

Each quest is split out into chapters and you return to the tram system upon completion to advance to the next, currently I have competed two chapters. I have however jumped in my seat about five times & taken a deep breath before advancing on many occasions. It's a scary game but I love a good sci-fi story & so far Dead Space has not disappointed.

Remember in space no-one can hear you ......

Thomas Was Alone: Completed!

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Told you I had nearly finished it.

A few of the puzzles towards the end were a bit tricky, particularly when I was trying to balance two squat blocks on top of a tall thin block, but there was nothing for which I required external help. I was impressed that there were very few repeated puzzles over the 100 levels, and the game finished at pretty much the right time - before it had to introduce too many new gameplay mechanics.

One of the most affecting parts of the game was losing the original cast and being given the grey blocks instead. The narration at this point was a little weak, not expressing the emotion of the change or the bewilderment of the newly introduced blocks in the same way as for previous characters. This was rectified towards the end of the levels where Gray was portrayed as a villain - even though you were controlling both him and all other characters. Seeing each of them in turn eaten by the pixel cloud was daunting (though I can't remember Team Jump's exit).

It's not the most accomplished game ever, but as a story-driven experience it works really well.

Thomas Was Alone: blundering through

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I've nearly finished this, but before I do I must comment on how well designed the game is.  Many of the levels can be solved in numerous ways, whether by design or not.  I just completed level 9.7 by carrying the smallest block (Jo) across the green gravity reversing areas using the other two blocks (Sam and Gray), using Jo to keep the others down and not fly up into spikes.  After completing the level I realised that what I should have done is to get Sam to touch the red area, making him act as a trampoline for Jo.  I'm not sure if that would have been any easier.

MH3U – Heat Exhaustion

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Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate box artOh Good God. That was a bastard. Heat Exhaustion is a five star quest (but fairly early on) which requires a big of thinking to do. Firstly, it’s set in the volcanic area, so naturally you’ll need a good supply of cold drinks. Secondly, it requires carrying burning hot rocks which constantly deplete your health from one end of the map to the other, a bit like the ‘Poached Wyvern Eggs’ quest. Except they don’t break if you drop them – they explode. So you’re going to need a lot of health and a lot of stamina. Thirdly, just to make things fun, there’s a Uragaan on the loose. If it hits you, the powderstone explodes. If the ground shakes when it thumps its tail, the powderstone explodes. If you’re in range when it roars, the powderstone explodes.

It’s a bastard of a quest. Here’s what I did:

First off, take plenty of potions, mega-potions, cool drinks and well done steaks. Most importantly, get a meal made with fresh ingredients and choose the cooking method which will give you Felyne Lander. This will allow you, carrying a stone, to leap from the ledge in area 10 and land safely in area 5, shortcutting half of the map, without the damn thing exploding.

Clear out any mobs you find on your way to 10. Many of them won’t respawn and it’ll make things easier when carrying the stones.

This bit is optional, but makes things more interesting. Hunt down the Uragaan. He does a lot of damage but isn’t mega-tough. That will probably take you about half an hour, leaving you an easy 20 minutes to grab the stones. Pick them up at 10, run like hell off the ledge to 5, then it’s plain sailing. Repeat. Win.

New Super Luigi U (Wii U): COMPLETED!

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weegiucompleteWell, that was easier than I expected. I thought some of the later levels would be hard as nails, but due to being pretty short, they weren’t. Even Bowser wasn’t too difficult, despite the lack of restart points (meaning if you die on the boss, you have to restart the level completely!), taking only two attempts.

Disappointingly, he was the same boss as with Mario, although his attack pattern was slightly different.

With him defeated, I set about completing some of the other levels I’d skipped, missed, or hadn’t unlocked yet. I’ve not done them all, and perhaps won’t – too many other games to play – but I’ll certainly do some more at least.