AKA Pinball. The original arcade machine that never really made the transition to home systems.
Apart from Peggle. Ignore that. But apart from Peggle, Pinball has never really made the transition to home systems. Balls of Steel? Shut up!
Possibly the lst time controller1.com posts about god damned Banjo Kazooie Nuts and Bolts. We’ve reviewed it. We’ve focus tested it and now we bury it. I post about it because it its now gone. The spectre of playing it any more has lifted and now we can concentrate on the road ahead.
So I guess I’ve been dividing my game playing time between CoD WaW on 360 and CoD4 MW again on PC. Yes, I’ve got back to playing Modern Warfare. This is about the 6th time I’ve resumed playing it. Through a set of circumstances too circumspect to subscribe to in order to circumvent the circumference of, er, um. Basically, on PC, I’ve had to restart several times, so I’ve never reached level 55. I think the highest I got was about level 40 on 360 but on the current PC install, I’m at 35. I still don’t have any of the fancy guns like the Barret 50 cal or the P90 or the G3K. I still don’t have the three frag grenades perk which makes Wet Work such a ‘nade fest. I also don’t have my favourite perk, overkill- which gives you two primary weapons.
I’ve written way too many times about CoD so here’s some Peggle. Peggle
I am still playing Peggle. I’ve barely touched World of Goo so far and I’d like to play more of it. How do I break the Peggle hold? Are there Peggle interventions? Peggle Exorcists? Peggaholics Anonymous?
“Hello my name is George and I’m a unicorn.”
Prince of Persia is the last 2008 single player game on my pile. It sits worryingly unplayed. The little I have played was good, but not enough to suck me in. Maybe over Easter. Maybe not.
We have a look at Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, Puzzle Quest: Galactrix and Peggle.
updated so missing audio file is present
Its one of those weeks. I just don’t feel like playing Single player games (Peggle aside) right now. So I’ve been playing a variety of multiplayer games online. Killzone 2 was not enthralling enough to keep hooked so I went back to a few old standbys. Its pretty barren for new games over the next few months so its a good time to indulge in MP shenanigans.
Firstly on 360, I picked up the map pack for CoD WaW, which offers three multiplayer maps and one new map for the awesome zombie Nazi mode. The maps are very nice and are a blast to play. No tanks which means one of the more common complaints is not as much of an issue as is in the main game. For a game that supposedly meant to be from Activisions ‘B’ shooter team, CoD WaW manages to offer very playable maps.
I’ve been playing a bit more PC CoD 4 Modern Warfare multiplayer and alternatively getting frustrated and enjoying myself. It basically sucks enjoyment out of a game if you just want to have some fun and you play with serious players. Apparently its considered cheating to use either the rifle grenade or the Juggernaut (extra strength) perk. The Last Stand and Martyrdom are also often frowned upon. Its not cheating children, its not even a ‘sploit. Its just that people who have level up can’t stand being killed by anyone with a lower ranking. I even dipped my toe into some Hardcore and found I played better that normal servers. Is it because I’ve been playing a lot of Day of Defeat as well?
Day of Defeat Source is such an old game with such little depth. I am still intrigued why updates to TF2 also mean updates to DoD:S but either way this is a game that has a grip on a select few who play every day. You don’t level up but choose a class and yet the in game chat isn’t full of cries of noobs with rifle grenades and rocket launchers. I mean, yes people complain about being owned by snipers and machine gunners but it’s generally restrained. There’s so much anger in CoD 4 players.
And I’ve been playing Peggle. I like Peggle. It is fun. You should play Peggle on whatever platform you have access to.
I’ve just bought World of Goo as part of MacHeist so I expect to give that a spin over the weekend. Also, there’s the Modern Warfare 2 (note no CoD) teaser and even cooler, the original Call of Duty is coming to PSN and XBLA soon. Day 1 purchase! It will be really cool to have access to all of the major Call of Duty games on Xbox 360 (since I also have CoD, 3, 4, and WaW on 360)- and 1, 2, 4 and WaW on PC as well. That’s nothing, I have one colleague who has CD 4 on PC, PS3 and PC.
CoD be praised!
Well, its the saviour of the PS3 and very pretty but how is it as a game? Very good. Before I started this, I had the last level and a half of Mirror’s Edge to complete since my backflip. That done, it was time for some Killzone. Being sceptical of the lacklustre original, I was very pleasantly surprised (I knew the positive critical reaction wasn’t down to people being blind fans of the original but the first one didn’t leave me with much hope the sequel would play well).
So in essence:
The Good: Looks great. It does lighting and particle effects very well, even if the textures aren’t always that crisp (apart from when they want to show off something in extreme closeup in a cutscene. It makes the flat-looking mess that Resistance 2 look like a PS2 game. Oh wait, Insomniac already did that. Sound is phenomenal. Online is very smooth.
The OK: The gameplay is very, er “tried and true.” That means its not only familiar, but a little too familiar and unadventurous. Large parts of the game consist of two standbys-
STANDBY 1: Kill X number of enemies (sometimes its X number within a timeframe) to progress
STANDBY 2: Infinitely respawning enemies until you reach a certain point on the map
We will give grief to a licensed game for using the rinse-and-repeat level design cliches so its appropriate to mention it here. The game is still fun, you just realise that it doesn’t change very much while you play. Its not full of gimmicky tech like the god awful mess that is Resistance 2 (Yes, I went there).
Multiplayer was very good apart from one gripe. The gameplay mode would constantly change from simple Team Deathmatch to Control points to Assassination, etc, making it hard to get a rhythm on one mode before it changed again. I’d rather have shorter rounds.
The Bad:
Control is not particularly tight. It is rather loose and hard to target (If R2 and Battlefield can do it on PS3- why not this?). The field of view is rather narrow, meaning enemies are right on top of you before you know it. Story is barely there and makes the criticism of Gears 2′s story and dialogue seem as bad. The dialogue is just as macho cheesy. One character looks familiar though…
His name is Farcus Menix.
One thing KZ2 did was make me wish I was playing CoD WaW. So after going about halfway through the single player campaign and a few rounds of MP, I popped this into the 360, patched it, DLed a free map and hopped online. Yes, I still get stuck on servers where everyobne else is in North America, which kinda kills my ping, but it didn’t seem as bad as it used to be. I hope to play a bit more of this before I put it away. I think the world has to live with the fact that I seem to respond to CoD multiplayer more than anything else, console or PC.
Before KZ2 was begun, I finished Mirror’s Edge (PS3 version). I had to add parts to my original review since I felt the break from it made me want to finish it so much. Game has problems to be sure but it was a worthwhile experience.
Lastly I bought Peggle for $3. Popgame games website, coupon code blitz1. That is all.
