Simple Gamer

Storage Inc., Dodge These Balls & Zombies 2.0 (XBox Live Indie Games)

There has been a serious lack of updates here! Unfortunately, I’ve been pretty busy with work and haven’t had the time to update the blog, however, that doesn’t mean I haven’t been playing anything. I always browse around on XBox Live and see what’s new and available for download, so for this post and the new few, I’ll talk about a few of the things I’ve downloaded and tried on my XBox.

First up, are a few indie games I’ve tried. For those who aren’t aware, indie games are effectively low budget games made by the enthusiastic developer by himself or herself. Usually, the developers will be making the game on their own, or they’ll be in a group of a few people. Indie games have changed over the years, but I think the core indie game developer has stayed the same. Don’t take my words as the definition of indie gamer however, since it’s almost open to interpretation. I hope you get the general idea!

So anyway, these games are much cheaper than normal titles, or the arcade games on XBox Live. Quick note, all these indie games I tried were the trial versions, since I wasn’t really prepared to shell out any money on them!

The first I tried was called Dodge These Balls. This is a very simple game, where you control one red ball amongst a group of bouncing black balls in a 2D plane, and you just need to avoid all the black balls for as long as you can. In the trial version, you first move your red ball around avoiding three black balls, and they increase the number of black balls. There’s a sudden jump however in the trial version to 15 balls, which I’m sure is for demonstration purposes! A sudden jump like that isn’t quite reasonable! It’s a gimmicky little game but not something I would purchase at all.

I also tried Zombies 2.0, which is basically a tower defence game. Your goal is to battle off a horde of zombies, and also rats and dogs, which I assume are of course zombie rats and zombie dogs. You must defend your base, and you can place stuff like tower lights and turrets as you progress. Each level earns you money which you then spend on upgrades on yourself as well, since you need some weapons on your character. The game is played in a birds-eye view perspective, and your character has a flash light on him so you can only see what’s approaching in a certain direction at a time. This makes it more difficult and ensures that you have to keep moving. I’m not really a tower defence guy, so I didn’t find this game that enjoyable but I’m sure others would.

Finally, Storage Inc. caught my eye and I thought I’d give it a try. At first it looked complicated, but looks can be deceiving. It turned out to be a very simple game where you control a forklift, again from a birds-eye perspective, and you have to carry crates to designated gates. There are time periods to carry certain crates in, which makes the game test your organisation ability! Out of the indie games I’ve tried, this would have been one that I would be tempted to purchase, if I had the Microsoft Points.

So those were the first three indie games I’ve tried, I’ll be playing some more and also various demos and stuff and write my thoughts on them too in the coming days.

The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena

I remember watching the movie Pitch Black years ago on DVD after borrowing from a friend, and thought back then that it’s a pretty cool concept about having eyesight where you can only see in the dark. Vin Diesel played the main role, and seeing he has a great interest in video games, he also used that character to create a gaming franchise, known as The Chronicles of Riddick. I’m not sure which came first, Pitch Black or the games.

Assault on Dark Athena is a new iteration of the game, made for modern consoles. I saw the demo on Xbox Live and thought I’d give it a go, since I heard the guys from 1UP talking about it on their podcasts and it sounded quite good. It reminded me of something like Deus Ex and Syphon Filter, at least by description. When I actually tried the game myself, it was a different story.

Let’s get the graphics and stuff out of the way, all of it is pretty much on par with the current standards for graphics. It doesn’t do anything special in any way, but it’s solid. At times it can be a little dark, however that is the intended look to utilise stealth in the game. The game encourages the player to use stealth to progress and to take down opponents, although you can go for a more FPS approach when you gain guns.

It’s set in a futuristic universe, where you can control drones from a pod. Drones are just like soldiers, but using a pod, which looks like a motorbike, you can navigate the drone from safe distance wherever you wish and take out opponents this way. Or use them as pawns for certain puzzles in the game.

What I found disappointing about Assault on Dark Athena is the level design. I found it quite un-intuitive where to go, and felt like I was playing an FPS game from about 5 years ago where not much thought is given into the level design and you spend more time running down every hallway and backtracking to find out where you’re really supposed to go. The doors have no obvious button to open, they just either are open or closed.

Since it was a demo, I wasn’t willing to spare it any lifelines and packed up at that point, unwilling to explore further. It wasn’t a title that I had been anticipating or investing interest in, it was just something I’d heard of and thought about giving it a try. I guess it just wasn’t my type of game.

Metal Gear Solid Touch on iPhone

I recently downloaded MGS Touch Lite on the iPhone, a spin-off title based on Metal Gear Solid 4 on the PlayStation 3. I wasn’t expecting much at first at all, since all I’ve heard is that it’s a pretty poor game, and just an attempt to cash in on the popular MGS franchise by making an on-rails shooter.

When I first tried the game, it began taking me through an explanation of the controls. Fair enough, I thought, I guess I’ll need to know how to play the game even though I’m usually the type of person to jump in and play around myself. However, it kept throwing pages of explanations at me, and I just got frustrated and exited the application there and then! I didn’t get to the actual game until later.

So once I skimmed through the controls, I started the game. For starters, it’s an on-rails shooter like I mentioned. This means you don’t control any movement of your character, you are simply put in an environment and enemies pop out from places and it’s your job to shoot them. That’s probably not what a lot of MGS fans were hoping for, since movement was a key aspect of the MGS series on the PlayStation. You would go around, stealthily, take out your opponents tactically and move on. Over here, it really is just like the infamous Duck Hunt back on the NES.

The controls have been the centre of debate when it comes to discussing iPhone games. With MGS Touch, I wasn’t sure at first – maybe the lengthy explanation made me feel like it may just be too complicated. However, once I got into the game, it was actually very enjoyable to play around with. By default, your character, Snake, is crouched and hidden so he cannot be shot at. You can move your finger around the screen which will make him pop up, and aim around at your enemies. Tapping the screen will shoot, while using two fingers and pinching outwards will cause you to use your sniper. It’s something that you need to try yourself to get the hang off, but it doesn’t take long to get used to at all and feels very intuitive.

I played through the Lite version (demo) of the game. It plays through the first few levels, which are pretty short. During each level, you are given an objective, and these are typically to kill a certain number of enemies before you can move on to the next level. In the Lite version, these were simple enough and very short, however I’m assuming in the full version they’ll be a lot harder.

The game has nice graphics which remind me of MGS4 as the environments are similar, and the game is based on that anyway. It doesn’t do anything special however, as you would probably expect it. It just uses 3D objects and moves them around a static environment, but does a good job at making them appear 3D. I’m not sure if this is worth a full purchase though, since it really is just an on-rails shooter just like Duck Hunt. If the game was about 2 or 3 punds, then I think a purchase would be justifiable but for 5 pounds, it’s pricing itself as a higher end game which I don’t really think it is.

So in conclusion, it’s a nice enjoyable little game, but nothing special and doesn’t justify the price. I hope maybe in the future the price will drop, as they do on a lot of games.

Operation Anchorage Available Outside your Window (UK Only)

For those living in the UK, it’s been pretty hard not to have noticed the downpour of snow and sleet early on this week. It’s expected to return later this evening and possibly tomorrow too. However, this is the first time it has snowed this much in 10 yeas, and it certainly has been a while since I’ve seen the ground covered in not just a thin layer of snow, but up to 10cm!

But anyway, as the title of this blog post may suggest, I’ve had a chance to go about a couple of hours into the Fallout 3 DLC, Operation Anchorage. Just to give a little background to what the DLC is, the Brotherhood of Steel have discovered some sort of bunker or storage depot, however to get inside a simulation must be completed. You as the player are the only one to do this, since you have the Pip-Boy machine on your arm that, for some reason, allows you to enter the simulation.

The simulation itselfs places you into the past, but still future for us. The setting is that you’re in Canada, where the Chinese are attempting to take over the country. Specifically at a point called Anchorage (full of snow and cliffs), you must go through a set of missions, almost Call of Duty style, to attempt to defend yourselves against the Chinese.

At first, it seems like a normal part of the game, with set missions to follow. However, a little further into the DLC, the game opens up and lets you choose between three different sub-missions, each relating to separate locations. You also get to fight in a small squad of units that you choose, which doesn’t happen elsewhere in the game as far as I know.

It’s still early to give my full impressions of the DLC. So far it’s been enjoyable, however the environment at the bit I am up to is pretty diverse, and overwhelming in the sense that it’s not always clear where to go and what to do despite having access to the Pip-Boy.

Mirror’s Edge & Street Fighter II HD Remix Demos

Going with the gaming spirit (it does feel good to play a few games after such a long time!) I also played the demos for Mirror’s Edge and Street Fighter II HD Remix.

The Mirror’s Edge demo takes you through the training, and then a pretty short first segment of the game itself. The game focuses on parkour, which is the art of running around jumping like a lunatic! It’s an interesting game concept and does work pretty well, but the demo feels tailored to sell you into the game. I’ve heard a lot of negative criticism about the game too and many flaws regarding combat, and certain parts of the game being frustratingly difficult. So play the game and make your own opinion!

As for Street Fighter II HD Remix, SF2 was one of my favourite games of all time, let alone fighting game. So to see Capcom revisit such a great classic and redo it with HD graphics is awesome! There are problems with this trial though, firstly no single player… You can only play with another person, so forget about trying it on your own. Secondly, you can only play as Ryu or Ken. So it’s a very limited trial, but the game does seem to play as good as it did back in the day!

Left 4 Dead Demo

Wow, feels like ages, and indeed it has been ages. A full month to be almost precise! Unfortunately, I’ve firstly been busy with university, but after that when it came around to my Christmas holidays, I become ill with the flu, fever, sore throat, cough, etc. combination. That has kept me in bed for a while and the cough has been very persistent too, so I’m finally recovering now.

So, I would firstly like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, and/or a Happy Holiday! Either way, I hope you got the chance to relax and enjoy yourself a bit and get away from studies or work or whatever plagues your usual everyday existence! Oh, and I honestly hope you didn’t spend it being ill like me, because that sucks!

I finally got around to playing Left 4 Dead. I downloaded the demo… not sure how long. Probably the last time I turned on my XBox 360… again I don’t know how long ago that was. But yesterday I bought a new controller for my 360, a wireless one since the wired one is a bit inconvenient. With the new controller, I set it up this morning and was browsing around and saw the demo, so I fired it up.

My very first impressions was: nice graphics, smooth gameplay, good FPS elements. And all of those were true throughout. L4D plays extremely well. It isn’t your typical zombie survival game like Resident Evil. It puts 4 survivors together (so you can play co-op with up to 4 players or just single player) in an area and you have to work your way through and survive.

It’s a pretty addictive game and a very fun concept. Having hordes of zombies running at you when you least expect it and shooting the crap out of them with an assault rifle or even two pistols is pretty satisfying! I really enjoyed the demo and I’m very tempted to purchase the full game. If you haven’t tried it, I definitely recommend giving it a go if you’re into FPS, action or survival games.

Star Wars: Force Unleashed Demo

The Star Wars franchise has been full of video games, some good, majority… not so good. When it comes to action games, the notable titles that stand up are Jedi Knight and Jedi Academy. Both games used force powers a fair amount, however Force Unleashed makes it much more easily accessible.

The game plays very much like Jedi Academy and Jedi Knight if my memory serves me right, plenty of action and some puzzles. The demo is really short, so it’s hard to tell if it’s a true reflection of the overall game. But from the amount in the demo, it’s fair to say puzzles are light and easy (can you call them puzzles?) and there’s plenty of fun to be had.

Using the force powers, just Force Push, Force Lightning & Force Grip, at will is a lot of fun. In fact, when you play the demo, that’s pretty much all you’ll done. You’ll just look for more ways to interact with the environment and kill your foes, whether it’s flinging your opponents off the edge of a platform into some bottomless pit, or smashing away at them with your lightsaber. It’s all fun!

The demo weighs in at about 15-20 minutes of gameplay. The graphics are top notch, looked great on my fake-HD (that’s what I’m calling my VGA setup now!) display. Very shiny indeed, I guess those droids do a good job at cleaning around empty hallways. Unfortunately the one thing about the demo was that it didn’t display enough of the game – it’s just one environment. The few teaser shots at the end of the demo is what I really would’ve liked to see more of.

I guess we’ll have to wait and see. It’s scheduled for a 22nd September release date here in the UK. I’m 50/50 about picking it up considering I still have other games to play!

Braid and Bionic Commando: Rearmed (XBox Live Arcade)

Two new pretty high profile games were released recently onto XBox Live Arcade: Braid and Bionic Commando: Rearmed. I downloaded the trials of both games and gave them a go.

Braid is a platformer, however it certainly doesn’t feel like a normal platformer. The art style is completely different and it uses a mechanic that allows you to go back in time at any point in the game by just pressing X. So if you’re running across the landscape, pressing X will show your character moving backwards through time. You can do this at any point in the game and it certain makes for an interesting game play technique.

The art of Briad is different from regular platformers. Usually they are very cartoony and colourful. While Braid is both, the style is just, well, different. It feels a lot more serious and gritty and doesn’t have the vibrant feel of say a typical Super Mario game. This particular style means that you’ll either like it or dislike it (not quite as far as hating it). Since it runs through the entire game, it could potentially put you off from playing – which is why I’m sticking to just the trial version and nothing more.

Now as for Bionic Commando, I remember playing one of the games back on my classic chunk GameBoy! Boy, I remember that it was definitely a hard game, and there were no saves, which used to annoy the hell out of me. It’s now made a return on XBLA completely redone; It has fresh graphics and sound. It plays just like the old game, where you are a soldier with a bionic arm that can extend and grapple onto things.

Therefore, you’ll be spending a large amount of time swinging from places, a bit like Spider-Man would! It’s a nice side scrolling action platformer to play also, and is enjoyable. The trial is extremely short but will probably made you want to play more since there are all sorts of humorous little jokes here and there, and a nice conclusion.

Fallout 3 So Early It’s Premature Opinions

I played Fallout 3 for just about half an hour. For those who know about the game, I’m still inside the Vault at the beginning. I’m assuming I’m at a certain bit just before leaving the Vault to go to the Wastelands, but I won’t say more since I don’t want to spoil the game to anyone.

So far I’ve really enjoyed that half an hour! I really love the beginning of the game since your character customisation is done in a very unique and original manner, which makes it even more enjoyable!

I will definitely dive into a bit more probably this weekend, but I’ve been prioritising my work and trying to get on top of that, so I’m going to have to leave my blog post here I’m afraid!