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Pix the Cat (PS4): COMPLETED!

Posted on 08/11/2015 Written by deKay

Well, completed one of the modes anyway. The main mode, Arcade, seems to be just a score attack and as a result, can’t be completed. However, there’s a pretty large (70 level!) mode called Nostalgia, which certainly is completable. I know this, because I did it.

Unlike Arcade mode, Nostalgia Mode in Pix the Cat is more a set of puzzle and reaction based challenges. In each level, presented in awesome black and white old-timey animation visuals, you have to collect a number of eggs without trapping yourself in a corner or hitting spikes or a baddie. Sometimes you have 90+ chicks all following you, so route planning is important!

There are a few gimmicks to help or hinder you – owls that collect up then spit out your chicks essentially resetting your tail, mushrooms that reverse your chain so you’re warped to the back, and so on. Some levels have multiple cats, adding to the confusion. It’s a lot of fun, and I actually prefer it to Arcade Mode.

After struggling with a level around the 50-odd mark for aaaaaages, I managed to beat it today, and then went on to complete the rest of the 70 missions. Woo! I’d recommend Pix the Cat just for this one mode, actually. It’s the best of all of them.

Oh, and here’s a video of me finishing the impossible level (at the start) then mopping up the rest:

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Lego The Hobbit (Wii U): COMPLETED!

Posted on 01/11/2015 Written by deKay

And that’s another Lego game done. Not 100%, yet, but the story is complete. Like Lego Marvel Super Heroes, I completed it in co-op with my daughter, but we found it somewhat shorter than that game. There’s obviously a lot to do still, not least with the new mechanic of finding “loot” (like ingots and wood) with which to make stuff. This time round, there’s even more reason to smash all the things.

The plot was sort of how I remember the book to be (I’ve not seen either Hobbit film), but sadly ended abruptly at the point where I assume the second film finishes. Since there’s no third film yet, it’s not included in the game – and I’ve heard they’re not making another Lego title to continue it even when it’s out. Shame.

Similar to Lego Marvel, Lego The Hobbit has a massive overworld to explore with lots of errands to run and characters to help. Unlike Lego Marvel, none of your characters can fly (at least, none I have yet) so it’s not as much fun to get around. You can use warps where birds carry you to set points, but it’s still often a trek – higgledy piggledy o’er hill and dale – to get to where you want to be. There’s clearly a lot of characters, but a tiny amount in comparison to Lego Marvel. They’re all easily confused too, with SO MANY DWARVES all with different skills but they all look the same. Gah!

All that said, and the bugs taken into account (It’s a Lego game – of course it has bugs), it was still a lot of fun. I think we’re down to just three Lego games now – Lord of the Rings, Jurassic World, and Dimensions. Best get on them, then.

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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.

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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:

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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

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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:

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Life is Strange: Episode 5 (PS4): COMPLETED!

Posted on 20/10/2015 Written by deKay

It is impossible to talk about this. As well as spoilers, not least the MASSIVE CHOICE necessary at the end, there’s also the fact that the choices I’ve made throughout the series slightly change how Life is Strange: Episode 5 panned out for me. So I won’t talk about the story any more than to say this: I was not disappointed, the decision at the end was hard to make, and although I saw some of it coming, it played out totally differently to how I expected. The chapter’s title is “Polarised” (sorry, “Polarized”, urgh), and the “what everyone else did” stats at the end could not agree more.

What I will talk about is how fantastic the series has been as a whole. The twists and turns, the excellent story that draws on themes from the likes of The X-Files, The Butterfly Effect, Final Destination, and Donnie Darko. The amazing voice acting. The dreamy soundtrack. The fantastic graphics and gorgeous sunsets. Some fantastic characters – Victoria and Samuel especially, in my opinion. Everything comes together to produce a game experience unlike any other I’ve played.

Since finished Episode 4, I’ve found it difficult to wait it out until Episode 5. Hype built over that time, with so many thoughts and theories in my head. I was so worried that Dontnod would do something to mess it up. I was also worried that someone would leak a spoiler, and as soon as it was on PSN this morning I went internet blind in case anyone finished it before I had a chance to. I went in pensive and completed it in a single, almost three hour, sitting. I had to – spoilers tomorrow would abound, I was sure. And what an experience.

Even though Fallout 4 is still to come next month, it’d take something pretty special from Bethesda to beat Life is Strange as my Game of the Year. Who’d have thought that having bought it mainly on a whim? Excellent stuff, and I’m sad it’s over.

If you want to see my playthrough of the finale – I’ve a video here. Be warned though: there are spoilers. If you’ve already finished the game, then you might want to watch it (or at least the final bit) if you made the

Spoiler Inside	Select Show
right hand

choice – I did the opposite.

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