My recent leap in gamerscore can be attributed to finishing Half Life 2, HL2 Episode 1 and HL2 Episode 2 recently. I also managed to pick up some of the more outrageous achievements, like completing Episode 1 while only firing one bullet and completing Ravenholm using the gravity gun only.
I will attempt to play Team Fortress 2 for the first time this weekend.
Friday, 29 August 2008
Wednesday, 20 August 2008
Braid Speed Run
Managed to snatch the final achievement in Braid yesterday - finishing the entire game within 45 minutes. My time makes me currently 101st fastest out of anyone who has attempted it so far. Pretty good!
Monday, 18 August 2008
Braid
Braid is an incredible clash of arty sentiment, old-school platforming and mind-bending temporal logic puzzles. It starts off lulling you into a false sense of primitive-gaming security, negotiating ledges, bridges and gaps, before throwing some simple time-sensitive puzzles at you.
But rewinding time isn't the whole pudding. Here are some other elements that make this game so unique:
* The narrative, and the method of delivery. Piecemeal snippets of seemingly arbitrary text are presented to you at the beginning of each "world" (of which there are 6), through green books nestles on pedestals; the last level and epliogue are a huge reveal and twist rolled into one, with a very surprising message hidden just deep enough to be out-of-reach to the casual player. (The story is about the creation of the atomic bomb, essentially.)
* Green items are not affected by time. Green keys once used cannot be used again even if you rewind time to before you used it. Green enemies will soldier on regardless of your mashing of the X button. Green platforms and switches will remain in their current state.
* Purple items can be manipulated by a temporal echo of yourself. You can do something, rewind, and your shadowy alter-ego will perform the action again, allowing for tag-team interaction with the environment. Personally, these levels are some of the most innovative, taxing gameplay elements introduced in a very, very long time. Clever.
* The time-ring, which is a small golden ring dropped using the Y button, incorporating a time bubble around it. At the centre of the ring time stops dead; as you approach it form the outside, time slows down the nearer you are to it. This provides many memorable gameplay conundrums such as slowing down the firing rate of a canon, slowing down a platform's speed or a ladder's rate of decent, or even altering the rate of Mario-inspired potted plant traps to let an enemy through.
Braid took three years to make and $180,000 of creator Jonathan Blow's hard-erned cash to conceive. You owe it to yourself to buy this game. Now. This is the first time i've bought a game from XBLA and it is worth every penny.
But rewinding time isn't the whole pudding. Here are some other elements that make this game so unique:
* The narrative, and the method of delivery. Piecemeal snippets of seemingly arbitrary text are presented to you at the beginning of each "world" (of which there are 6), through green books nestles on pedestals; the last level and epliogue are a huge reveal and twist rolled into one, with a very surprising message hidden just deep enough to be out-of-reach to the casual player. (The story is about the creation of the atomic bomb, essentially.)
* Green items are not affected by time. Green keys once used cannot be used again even if you rewind time to before you used it. Green enemies will soldier on regardless of your mashing of the X button. Green platforms and switches will remain in their current state.
* Purple items can be manipulated by a temporal echo of yourself. You can do something, rewind, and your shadowy alter-ego will perform the action again, allowing for tag-team interaction with the environment. Personally, these levels are some of the most innovative, taxing gameplay elements introduced in a very, very long time. Clever.
* The time-ring, which is a small golden ring dropped using the Y button, incorporating a time bubble around it. At the centre of the ring time stops dead; as you approach it form the outside, time slows down the nearer you are to it. This provides many memorable gameplay conundrums such as slowing down the firing rate of a canon, slowing down a platform's speed or a ladder's rate of decent, or even altering the rate of Mario-inspired potted plant traps to let an enemy through.
Braid took three years to make and $180,000 of creator Jonathan Blow's hard-erned cash to conceive. You owe it to yourself to buy this game. Now. This is the first time i've bought a game from XBLA and it is worth every penny.
Tuesday, 12 August 2008
A Link To The Past
Started playing through this beast of a game yesterday on my lunch breaks. It's easy to forget how addictive and fun this game is, and how many times i've played through it - i'm not sure if there's any part of the game i've forgotten.
Two lunch breaks have taken me to the 3rd pendant castle on Death Mountain already. Got the flippers, the super boomerang, 999 rupees and 7 heart containers. Not bad!
At home I've been playing through Half Life 2 again, this time via the Orange Box on 360. This is my third time through the game too, so I'm racking up achievements like nobody's business.
Two lunch breaks have taken me to the 3rd pendant castle on Death Mountain already. Got the flippers, the super boomerang, 999 rupees and 7 heart containers. Not bad!
At home I've been playing through Half Life 2 again, this time via the Orange Box on 360. This is my third time through the game too, so I'm racking up achievements like nobody's business.
Friday, 1 August 2008
Procrastilamer
Really struggling to find time to play these days, bizarrely after the wedding organisation has gone. I think I'm going through a stage of gamer apathy. Might have a bash at some old school games this weekend, relive the glory days.
FFIV is still holding my attention during the daily commute. Cecil is now a Paladin, which I think is as far as I reached playing the game eons ago on an emulator.
FFIV is still holding my attention during the daily commute. Cecil is now a Paladin, which I think is as far as I reached playing the game eons ago on an emulator.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)