January
1. Uncharted 3: Drake’s Tedium (PS3)
A ripping yarn in the best traditions of Indiana Jones and Tomb Raider that is really spoilt by controls and mechanics that are starting to feel decidedly old. Clumsy fighting, shooting and jumping are the start, but by the time you are running away from something by travelling towards the camera yet again I really started to hate the experience.
2. Dizzy (iOS)
A bad version of the console Dizzy game. Very short and far too easy with the puzzles being reduced down to being told what to do next at each stage. The controls are a bit rubbish and the graphical style means that it’s hard to tell where the platforms end. When you do jump a strange hanging on mechanic can fire which seems to serve no purpose as you can’t pull yourself up. What’s more it fires in mid air sometimes. Overall it’s a bad remake that diminishes the franchise and means that we’ll probably never see another game.
3. Game Dev Story (iOS)
Really simple game in which you have a team of developers and make games, unlocking new genres and game types along the way. It has no business being as addictive as it is as you build up a fan base and get better by training your staff and earn more until you can finally launch your own console and… And the 20 years pass and the game says you’ve won but can keep playing if you want.
4. Mass Effect
I’ve been meaning to do another playthrough of Mass Effect 1 for a few years and the upcoming release of the 3rd game seemed like the perfect opportunity. A lot of what made ME1 an RPG was dropped for two and I don’t think the game suffered for it after going back to the first one. In this run through I avoided a lot of the side missions and just got on with the job at hand of stopping Saren. Some things are really annoying like the lack of useful autosaves (stop punishing me for having so much fun that I forget to save!) and the useless inventory system, but I think that others like the infinite ammo was better than in 2. I have a few weeks to play the second game again now before 3 comes out, and then I have to make my mind up as to whether I play that as good or bad depending on what save I use.
5. The Darkness 2
The first game was one that I bounced off of hard when I first played it and then when I tried it again I loved it. The second game was the same, but I didn’t wait as long before coming back as I just took a few days off in Mass Effect. The reason I bounced off this time was a really bad boss fight against a wrecking ball and the game really doesn’t need those boss fights. The rest of the game is well written with an interesting story and some really nice mechanics with the quad wielding (two guns and two demon testicle arms) that makes the gun play go from above average to quite good. Much like in the first game there’s an interesting digression into another location that works really well and just felt like a really nice location.
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