the site of uk.games.video.misc
Once upon a time, I was editor of a fabulous free video gaming magazine called ugvm. It was ace. But, due to to the amount of work it involved I ended up giving it up. However, the back issues are now on this site in a lovely read-on-your-screen format! Hurrah!
You can see them on the ugvm page.
Crumbs! I doubt very much if Blizzard are weeping into their cornflakes at this one, but they probably should be. This is pretty similar to the Lego [Star Wars|Indiana jones|Batman] games, with one subtle difference. It’s an MMO. Yes, a bit like World of Warcraft. But with one major difference. It’s a lot of fun. Rather than spending all your time pointlessly grinding Instance Dungeons in the vain hope that some particular part of epic loot drops, Lego Universe is all about imagination and creativity. You can build just about anything you like. You can go adventuring on your own or as a team. Forget priests, mages and warriors – in this you get to be a ninja, or a pirate, or something equally awesome. And did I mention it’s a lot of fun?
Don’t let the 8-12 target age range fool you – I’m a 40 year old RPG fan and I’m having a blast. As are my teenage ‘twitch-shooter’ addict sons and my ten year old daughter. Everyone is getting something out of it.
So, while Blizzard needn’t be worried about losing subscribers to LU, they could take the lesson from it that mindlessly grinding 500 raptors in the hope that ten of them will drop a head (!) is less entertaining than building ‘poofy’ the giraffe out of lego and charging around the landscape on him.
Been stuck at the mid-level boss fight with Butthead, Elvis, and Barf, for about six months – not because it’s especially difficult, but because I hadn’t levelled sufficiently before entering the mission. Once in there, of course, it’s win or game over. No backing out. Anyway, I worked out a technique this afternoon, that enabled me to beat them, but was left with such a small amount of health that the bug swarm immediately afterwards ganked me, making me do it all over again. Honestly, Sonic Team, there are such a thing as save points you know.
Anyhoo, Chapter 6 is finally complete and I’ve learned my lesson – time to get levelling in earnest before continuing story mode. Don’t know what I was thinking – I’d never have done anything so daft in a final fantasy game (or I’d have at least kept more than one save).
I haven’t done a game diary post in aaaaaaages – mostly because I’ve been so busy doing five-minutely status updates via facebook and twitter that there’s been little point. Well, hell – I do still play the occasional game, so I’m gonna make a point of putting the occasional update here, if only to justify having a co-located server hosting the site 
So, Fallout 3. Thing is, I seem to have been playing this game (on and off) for years. Which probably isn’t an exaggeration. I mean, the game is HUGE and then there’s expansions on top of that. Despite being about level 10 and completing the Anchorage and Mothership add-ons, I’ve barely scratched the surface. In main quest terms, I’ve only just done the initial ‘slap the dish on top of the Washington Monument’ mission.
Long term Nelefans (and those who have had a wee nose through the past stories archives on this very site) will be aware that I like the Final Fantasy games A Lot(tm). I played through FF1 on the GBA a couple of years back, so why on earth am I doing it again on the iPhone? Because it’s lovely, that’s why. Graphically, it’s a straight port of the PSP version, but the touch controls are a joy to use. Not only that, but it can be nabbed from the app store for a couple of quid. Number 2 is there too. Anyhoo, I’ve only just started playing – formed a party, done a few random encounters, then I’m gonna head north to get my arse handed to me by the bad guy.
Still plugging away at Prime. The game should have had these controls since the very beginning. I’ve only just ganked the boss guarding the morphball bomb (the sentry thing that shoots flames at the war wasp nest) and I took it down in a fraction of the time it took first time round on the cube – mostly because of the added ability to circle-straff while independently shooting other things.
Awesomeness.