I'm Back!

Heya all!

I know I’ve been rather absent from this little blog, but I’m going to try to keep at least a small flow of posts coming through here if possible.
I’ve decided that, rather than writing full blown reviews for games, which frankly can get tedious at times, I’m gonna give you a quick sum-up of my thoughts on a handful of games that I’ve been spending my spare time with over the last month or so.

Enjoy!

Alan Wake

While this game is quite old, I’ve only recently had the chance to play on it, having only recently invested in an Xbox 360. It’s unlikely that I can give you any new revelations about this game, so I’ll sum up quickly.
It’s a very enjoyable game. Gameplay is fairly simplistic. Shine a light on an enemy until its killable and then kill it with whatever weapon you’ve got handy. Where this game shines however is the story, which is an intricate part of the game itself. Telling the story of writer Alan Wake on holiday with his wife, after losing a week of his memory, and with a strong feeling that his wife is in danger, he goes on a desperate hunt though the rural forest of the Maine countryside, while dodging axes, knives and various other things that fly at you, as a relentless evil tries to find anyway it can to end your life.
The story is where this game shines, and if you can overlook the little gameplay niggles to get absorbed by it, you’ll have a really good time.

Final Fantasy 13

Having been a longstanding fan of the Final Fantasy series, this was one of the first games I got when I got myself a 360. Of course, with the game having been out for over a year now, most people will have already formed their opinions of the game. After playing it myself, I can say that I’m actually very surprised. I’ll get right down to it and say that yes, the game is very linear. While everyone else sees this as being a bad thing, I can say that it honestly doesn’t bother me in the slightest. In fact, I actually enjoyed a game that focused more on the story and characters then trying to ‘wow’ us with expansive areas and branching gameplay. Without getting too much off topic, I sometimes find that games like Fallout 3 or Mass Effect, while both being great games in their own right, often sacrifice the focus on the story for the ability to explore wherever you wish. Final Fantasy 13 doesn’t have this problem, the linear gameplay allowing us time to get to know the characters and delve deeply into the story. In fact, a lot of things feel simplified and a lot more straightforward in this game. Rather than giving you an endless stream of stats that you need to juggle, you only get 3 you need to work with. Even levelling up those stats is simplified. That’s not to say there’s no depth to the game, but because everything is simple and easy to grab a hold of, it allows you more time to play the game rather than spending all your time trying to manage it.
While I’ll admit that the linear nature of the game may be off-putting to some people, I personally like a game that tries to go against convention and do things its own way. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable game that no RPG fan should be without.

From Dust

Can a game be made purely to show off a great physics engine? Why, yes. Yes it can.
For those who don’t know, From Dust is a ‘God Game’ when you control a glowing…snake…thing. Yeah, ok, that part isn’t exactly made clear, but basically you play this glowy-snake-thing with the aim of keeping a small group of tribal people alive as they move through several areas with increasingly problematic landscapes. While this does beg the question of why they’re doing this in the first place, the game focusses on you and your ability to move around Sand, Water and Lava, being able to pick up large section of the stuff and dump it elsewhere in the level, the aim of which being to redirect a river or lava flow so that the tiny little people can populate all the villages in the area. By and large, you’ll barely even remember that there are tiny little people running around the landscape as you mess about with the frankly awesome physics used to allow the water and lava to ooze and flow over the landscape. While not a huge game, I think that it chose wisely not to be too expansive as it does fell like it’s tried all the tricks it can on you by the time you reach the end of the game. It’s a great little game to pass the time with and while the AI on the little people isn’t really the best, if you can put up with them, you should enjoy the game a lot.

The Tiny Bang Story

I got this little gem in the Steam Summer sale. While I was originally expected an average point-n-click game along the lines of Myst or The Longest Journey, I was actually pleasantly surprised to see that it takes a new approach to the point-n-click genre. Taking a form similar to a treasure hunt, you have to scour the area, collecting all the items to complete puzzles. To give a more direct example, at the beginning of the game you find a broken ladder, which need 6 rungs in order to fix. After clicking it, it’s added to your ‘search list’ on the side of the screen, and you then have to search through the map to find them, hidden in various places, some more obvious than others. Mixing these items quests into with a variety of other puzzles, it creates a short but very sweet and stylised trip to fix Tiny Planet.
The game isn’t perfect, and I personally felt that it could have gone on for longer, but what’s there is very sweet and real good fun, and certainly worth a look.

Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale

This game was a very pleasant surprise. Another little game that I acquired in the Steam Summer Sale (I do like it when Steam has a sale on); this surprise hit of a game was very enjoyable. Combining the running of an item shop with simple RPG gameplay, it’s creates a fun and surprisingly addictive little game that’ll easily swallow your spare time. Taking the role of Recette, you’re thrown into the world of owning an item shop when your father leaves and you’re left holding the bill of his hefty mortgage. With the help of Tear, a small fairy from the loan company, you have to supply and run a successful business in order to stop yourself becoming homeless. While this may seem a rather silly excuse for a game, the game itself is very well structured. Being able to choose between staying in your shop to buy/sell goods, head into town to buy/sell items from the various markets, or hiring an adventurer to accompany you into the wild world to explore, fight enemies and gather items to sell, it invokes a feeling of Pikmin as you have to manage your time carefully and make sure you’ve gained enough money before the debt collectors come calling.
While being far from perfect game, it’s a great little pastime and is really just good harmless fun. While some might argue that the RPG element to the game is rather minimal when compared to big-name RPGs such as Final Fantasy, as it only encompasses one half of the game, and for those who’ve always wanted to run an Item Shop, your dream will come true.

Minecraft

Somehow, I doubt I can really tell you anything new or amazing about Minecraft that you don’t already know. Having swept across the internet, its sandbox building gameplay has made it one of the most played games in the last year. For those who don’t know, Minecraft is a game where you play in a totally cuboid world. There’s no aim or goals for you to compete, (or at least not yet) which makes your aim whatever you want it to be. Most people use it for building various buildings, citadels or even pictures.
Of course, it’s worth mentioning that the game is still in Beta, and is getting updated every once in a while. It’s also worth giving yourself an idea or project to work on before delving into that game, and have the Wiki on standby for when you need to work something out.
Basically, Minecraft is a great little game for killing some time and while it can sometimes feel a little unfocussed, it’s certainly worth looking into.

Also, only a slight side-note, if you’re interested in looking at some of my Minecraft Creations, you can have a look here:

http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/507334-hourglass/
http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/516355-i-got-mugged/

That’s all for now.

See you around!