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Sonic CD: completed!

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Stardust Speedway remains a low point for the game, I think, which is a shame because the ornamentation (of the brass instruments in the present, and overgrown pipework in the past) is evocative of the Starlight Zone, probably my favourite levels of the original Sonic game. The route to find the generator, and get to it in the past, is overly convoluted and seems to require luck as well as skill. I did explore a lot to find the route that worked for me, but maybe I was missing something.

It’s taken a while, but I’ve now completed this, getting the good future in every zone, and even destroying the Metal Sonic holograms hidden throughout. The game is very different to Sonics 1 and 2, rewarding exploration as well as speed, finding the best places and routes to run along, rather than just always moving to the right. Maybe this is why I found it oppressive; it was just too different, while looking the same. Having explored everything, though, and now with a better knowledge of routes, its become much more like classic Sonic, and I feel like it has the same sort of replay value.

In fact, I know it does, because having completed the game on the PS3, I immediately restarted it on the Xbox 360 (well, the 360 version running on the Xbox One), to unlock some long-standing achievements. I played through it all the way to Stardust Speedway Act 2, where I found I couldn’t remember how to find the generator and I had to look it up. Having done that, I proceeded through and completed it again.

The game is full of surprises, like Mini Sonic, endless loops, and Amy Rose being kept in a dungeon.

It’s not perfect by any stretch. The final boss battle is a bit of an anticlimax, especially when you compare it to the iconic Sonic 2 last stage. Metal Sonic’s race is a bit too much of a difficulty spike. Some of the level design, especially in the present, is a bit confusing, where they have tried to vary the routes in the past, but leaving rings in the same places. The special stages, even though I now know what to do, are rubbish and uncontrollable; I managed to get four time stones at most. And yet, despite all this, it’s a really good solid game, well up with the best platformers I’ve played.

Having completed the main game, I then looked at the time trials, which are more traditional Sonic material with the time travel removed, and the sole aim is to get through the present version of the level as quickly as possible. I hadn’t explored looking for the most efficient route; maybe that’s something to do in the future.

APB: twitchy siren

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Maybe it’s the conversion to the Xbox pad, but APB is incredibly difficult to control. In order to arrest someone you have to have your cursor over them and press the siren, because obviously criminals are only going to pay attention to a police car which is an exact distance away from them. The thing is that the cursor is not at a set distance from your car, but instead varies with the speed you’re going. In order to have enough of a gap between your car and the cursor to be able to arrest someone, you have to be going quite fast, certainly faster than the criminals you are chasing. For littering this isn’t so much of an issue, since you need to signal to them once. By the time you get to chasing down dopers, it’s much more difficult because you have to signal on them three times, meaning you are almost guaranteed to crash; too many crashes and you’re out.

I’ll have to see if there’s an original cabinet next time I go to somewhere like Arcade Club, because the concept of the game – a semi-open world, different criminals to find, extending time through fuel and doughnuts – is quite attractive. It’s just the controls which frustrate.

Test Drive Unlimited: a quieter Horizon Festival

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I found TDU in a box in the loft a couple of weeks ago, and since I now have a new Xbox 360 set up (replacing my old one which didn’t have HDMI output) so can play games which are not compatible with the Xbox One, I thought I’d revisit the game. Unfortunately my save wasn’t in the cloud, and wasn’t transferred while I had both consoles set up, so I needed to start from the beginning. Looking at my page on TrueAchievements, that’s not a huge issue, since my previous playtime (in 2007 and 2011) saw me get to the point of owning four cars and two houses, as well as getting ten gold trophies. I’ve already surpassed that on my new save.

At the time, TDU was a revelation – an open world to drive around, and enter races and time trials and other events at certain locations. As a concept, it’s very similar to the Forza Horizon games, but it feels a lot more sparse, without things to find in the world and with emptier roads. The scenery is pretty similar across the island (one of the Hawai’i islands), although as I’ve been driving I’m starting to notice some landmarks. I feel as if I’m fighting the car more than in the Forza games though; the driving model is a bit less forgiving, and the lack of a rewind function means it feels more difficult than it actually is.

Zuma: still struggling

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I can’t remember when I first played Zuma, but suffice to say it was in the early days of the Xbox 360. In the years since then, I have completed five of the twelve levels.

I don’t know why I find it so hard. Playing it yesterday I think I understood some of the mechanics better than I had before – the ways in which higher points can give you a quicker completion with balls stopping spawning earlier, and how to best use explosions and other power-ups. I also remembered to swap the balls I was firing sometimes, trying to set up combos. And yet I still failed at level 6-4, losing all three lives.

Kieron is unfeasibly good.

Maybe one day I’ll get to level 7. I have Zuma’s Revenge sitting mockingly on my Xbox, ready to be played when the first game is completed.

Assassin’s Creed Revelations: completed!

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I actually completed this a while ago, but it's taken me ages to get around to writing about it - and getting the screenshots off my capture box.  Plus, you know, there were some after-game parts I wanted to get around to, including an achievement for catching the taxman which occurs once in a blue moon.  I may write about those separately.

The main game first, then.  The storyline, pulling together the missing parts of Altäir's life with the later years of Ezio, was probably the most coherent yet, although the modern-day parts, with Desmond in some sort of coma, were less successful.  The story missions seemed more varied and tighter than in previous games, but the amount of extraneous guff seemed too high - the tower defence games and constant need to send assassins to the Mediterranean were not optional enough and felt entirely superfluous.

The city of Constantinople wasn't as interesting as Rome, partially due to a lack of countryside and ancient ruins.  There was possibly more variety in buildings, but I found myself constantly having the refer to the map to work out where I was, whereas navigating Brotherhood's city was second nature by the time I finished the game.  The poor draw distance from viewpoints didn't help.


Having said that, the game on the ground is stunning to look at, and I enjoyed the parkour more than before, largely due to the hookblade which allows you to make large jumps with little fear of damage. I noticed I played the game slightly differently as well - making more use of the hiding places and running from enemies, rather than simply engaging in the fight until they were all dead.



The one weak point in the story was the involvement of Sofia Sartor, who came across as naïve and hopeless at several points throughout the game.  Her kidnapping was a cliche too far.  It wasn't made clear why she was so interested in Ezio's books, and the limited involvement the two of them had didn't establish any sort of relationship.  Ezio continued to ignore her and hide away throughout, which makes the idea that there would have been any sort of romance extremely unlikely.


But she helped him find random books, so that's alright.

The end credits went on for hours, over a dull background of the destroyed animus hub.  Which was then rebuilt, so you could continue to play and find stuff.


Which I did.