Tag Archives: Games

Arse-assins Creed

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Well, I *was* really enjoying Assasin’s Creed…

… until I discovered a few minutes into the last Assassination mission that they’ve apparently decided that you’ve been doing rather well to get this far and now they need to make it challenging. They obviously decided the most elegant way to to so was so not so much ramp the difficulty level so much as make a step change about at steep at the cliffs at dover.

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They’ve not even been subtle about it. All of a sudden the streets are populated by twice as many people, in particular the annoying beggers and loonies that insist on bumping you into everyone else. Even when fully ‘synchronised’ (i.e. in stealth mode) people will suddenly start fighting you for no apparent reason. And it seems that all of a sudden the enemy guards got steroid injections because the same guards I was just fighting in the last mission and really enjoying the combat suddenly turned into uber-ninjas that can kill me in one blow but just don’t want to die themselves, and they became a lot more sociable, insisting on bringing ALL their friends along for the party, EVERY TIME. Cheap. Come on guys, way to spoil a lovely game.

Oh, another thing, the game is supposed to be about stealth and encourages you to clear an area of guards with stealth kills before you move on to a main target. Ok, right, so how about you let me do that then rather than letting me spend *ages* diligently cleaning the area of all potential threats only to SPAWN ALL THE FUCKERS RIGHT BACK when I turn a corner. At one point, it did the totally unacceptable and spawend a bunch of guards right in front of my eyes just because it looked like I was in with a fighting chance of catching up with someone. Double cheap. Cunts.

It’s a real shame as it was actually quite nice up to this point, nothing to write home about gameplay wise but visually stunning and I’ve enjoyed it a lot over the past couple of weeks but now that it’s committed the one big sin of an unjustified and cheap feeling difficulty ramp right at the end I can’t help but feel cheated.

Shame that.

Having a bit of a gaming renaissance…

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I made myself a bit of a resolution over xmas that I really needed to play more games. As in *properly* play them and stick at it rather than an odd hour here and there on random games.

I pick up loads of cheapies in the second hand section of Game and have something like 40+ bpxed games for the 360, not to mention a load of XBLA stuff too. That means I’m often a bit like a kid in a sweet shop and keep nipping from one to the other without ever really taking the time to enjoy any of them properly. That also means it’s easy to dismiss a game as less than great as you’ve not really given it enough time to settle in or watered down the experience with the muscle memory from whatever you’ve played last etc.

So, I’ve been making a concerted effort to focus on playing just one or two games at a time, and also not to play two games of the same genre in quick succession (with the exception of CoD4 and 5 as the controls are the same).

Definitely the right decision as I’m now having something of a gaming renaissance and really enjoying my games again.

We got Callum a 360 for xmas to and subsequently he’s been proper obsessed with CoD4. He’s on there every spare minute that he’s allowed to and suffice to say it’s had a noticeably positive result on his behaviour both at home and at school. He’s been really good at school and earned himself some rewards for that and now he knows that there’s no gaming before he’s done his homework etc. he’s just getting home and getting on with it without being told. Result!

So, suffice to say loads of CoD4 with Callum, plus I bought the full band pack of GH4 which has been fun. Kel quite likes the drums and Callum’s been getting into singing too so it makes for some comedy evenings. Personally I’m a bit disappointed with the drums. Thing is I played the drums for years and so I’m finding anything less than expert to be pretty boring and even then on expert mode it’s not ideal as my ‘real’ drummers muscle memory is wanting to play what I’m hearing on the music and of course the game is missing out a lot of those notes so it feels really awkward in places. It would honestly be a lot easier to just play the real drum parts than the watered down game version..

Of the latest crop of games I’ve got I loved Mirror’s Edge. True it was very short but the couple of days play I got out of it was *lovely* and I’m really looking forward to the promised free running / time trial DLC that’s coming soon as it looks bonkers, “No guns, no cops and no city” somewhat like the bonus levels in Mario Sunshine :)

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http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/56213

Also completed the new Prince of Persia game, which was a good example of where my renewed perseverance paid off. Initially I was thinking “ooh it’s very pretty” shortly followed by “hmm, is that all it does?”. After an hour or so I nearly gave up on it but a combination of my new resolve and a friends recommendation persuaded me to stick with it and I’m really glad I did. Another couple of hours in and I’d clicked with seeing it for what it was, just a really nice puzzle-platformer. I’m not super-impressed with the button mashing combat but the platforming and the frankly stunning visual style far outweighed the minor gripes with the combat. Nice twist at the end BTW, looking forward to the next one now.

Currently playing Assassin’s Creed, yeah I know I’m a bit late to the party on that one but it’s definitely ticking a lot of boxes for me. Again, visually stunning and although the story is cliche-tastic it provides enough variety to keep me engaged. It does get properly hard in places and you literally find yourself running across a whole city with a whole crowd of bad guys chasing you but when (if) you finally get away it’s worth it :)

The other game that’s really grabbed me at the mo is Racedriver: GRID. it’s definitely the best racer I’ve ever played and has loads of different racing modes from the usual circuits to stock cars and mad Japanese drift racing. The drifting took a while to get into but I seem to have the hang of it now as the score below demonstrates :)

3.5m Drift Score!

Definitely the double thumbs up for this one, highly recommended!

Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Lizard, Spock?

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Nice little interview with Jeff on the Rock, Paper, Shotgun site yesterday. They were both pretty complimentary about Space Giraffe and obviously looking forward to Gridrunner coming out on the PC in April.

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Well who wouldn’t be? It’s going to be ace :)

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/01/22/unknown-pleasures-2009-gridrunner

Space Giraffe – 92% in PC Gamer!

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Copied from Jeff’s Blog just to spread the word… :)

PCG Feb 2009 coverBritain’s top PC gaming magazine PC Gamer has reviewed Space Giraffe PC in its February 2009 edition and given the game an overall rating of 92% and the accolade “***** MUST BUY”, making Space Giraffe one of the most highly rated games of the month. They say:

“It balances the risk, the reward and the signals so perfectly that it’s either sheer luck or complete genius”… “Space Giraffe offers experiences and enemies that are actually, honestly new”…”if you give Space Giraffe a few hours and some patience you will find an immersive world unlike any other, an unforgettable one”.

The February edition of PCG is in shops now, we can only recommend that you pick up a copy and read this splendid 2-page review of Space Giraffe PC for yourself.

This excellent press reception of the PC version of Space Giraffe is a testament to the effort we have put into refining and improving the game since its initial Xbox 360 release. We listened to criticism from those who found the original experience a bit too intense for comfort, and created an entirely new set of 100 more chilled-out levels which make the game more approachable for beginners – whilst retaining the original level set for those who enjoy the full-on hardcore psychedelia of the initial release. Reaction to the updated version has been universally favourable and attests to the underlying excellence of the original game design.

In developing the new levels we have also developed a much-improved shader library making possible effects which are more intricate and beautiful than before yet without being overwhelming. This shader library – and the underlying Neon engine which drives it – has already been deployed to create the beautiful background visualisations in the upcoming Xbox Live Arcade game “Space Invaders Extreme”.

This library will be extended further and deployed to maximum effect in our upcoming release “Gridrunner+++” (working title; the final title will likely involve less plusses). This game has already been mentioned in EDGE Magazine’s “Most Wanted” section, and is a fast-paced extrapolation of the oldschool single-screen shooter, brought brilliantly into the 21st century with beautiful abstract visuals and intense, challenging but fair gameplay accessible on a variety of levels from novice to twitch-shooter expert.

Gridrunner+++ will be released at the end of April.

PCG Feb 2009 coverSpace Giraffe PC is available here and now from the Llamasoft website:

http://www.llamasoft.co.uk/downloads/SpaceGiraffe.exe

– and will soon be available from a selection of the better PC gaming portal sites.

Space Giraffe PC is out in the wild!

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It’s been a long old journey but I’m rather pleased to say that Space Giraffe has finally been released for the PC!

All you need to know about SG: http://www.llamasoft.co.uk/games/space-giraffe

This new release isn’t just a straight port of the 360 version either, Yak has updated his Neon graphics engine and come up with a whole new set of levels for the PC release. Here’s his take on it.

This is more than just a copy of the Xbox 360 game!

In the intervening time the development of the Neon engine has continued, and we now have a lovely new shader library. These new shaders have been used to create a NUXX mix of Space Giraffe which is at once much nicer-looking than the original, and also less intensely psychedelic (one criticism of SG 360 was that some of the effects were *too* intense; accordingly the new mix is beautiful and abstract without being quite so overwhelming).

For those who do enjoy the full-on psychedelia of the original, that is still available, because SG PC comes with two packs of 100 levels each – the NUXX smoother mix and the Acid Mix which is the levels from SG 360.

We also added the capability for us to make available further level packs – which can be completely new levels rather than simply remixes – should there be sufficient interest. We could make chillout level packs, ultra-intense packs, shorter game packs (maybe 20 levels instead of 100 for those who want a shorter game), special themed packs to celebrate Christmas or L. Ron Hubbard’s birthday – whatever people would like.

This is the game that Jonathan Blow (creator of the awesome Braid) compared to Ulysses and said was the best game on the Xbox360! Can’t say fairer than that!

Anyways, you can download a demo of the game from the Llamasoft site: http://www.llamasoft.co.uk/downloads/SpaceGiraffe.exe and you can buy it (and other games) from the Llamasoft shop here: https://www.llamasoft.co.uk/shop

Fook Mii – Braid has done nearly $2.5m

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According to the latest figures on VGChartz Braid has done about 164k units, which equates to nearly $2.5m in revenue to date.

I think that speaks volumes about the fact there *is* still room for small independents making unique niche games.

With braid doing 164k units it just goes to prove that you can still shift volumes even with another 150 games on there and at the highest price on the marketplace too.

6d 16h 19m

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Six days, sixteen hours and nineteen minute.

That’s how long I’ve played Call of Duty for to date, and I’m still nowhere even close to getting tired of it yet.

It’s just the gift that keeps on giving isn’t it.