Completed 001 – Game Dev Story

My first game that I’m marking down as completed for 2011 is the fantastic “Game Dev Story” on the iPhone. Straight off the bat this game reminds me of the old school “Theme” games from the legendary publisher “Bullfrog.”

The premise of the game is simple, you have to micro-manage a team of developers in order to make big money producing games. It sounds quite easy, bit you start with a lowly office with just a few workers and a handful of resources, it’s until you start getting the big sellers churning out does this game truly shine.

I finished the game at Year 26 (the game itself stops tracking the high scores at the end of year 20 but it pays to play on with your franchises!) At year 26 I finally became a billion dollar company, with 70 titles under my belt, most of which were Hall of fame/Award winning sequels. That’s when I hung up my hat knowing that whoever takes over from my “EAesq” empire would treat my titles with respect.

This game is great in small doses but addictive enough to lose hours on end on. I would say that until Kairosoft decides to create a sequel this will go down as one of the defining simulation games on the iPhone. Well worth a couple of quid of anyones money.

Playstation security hacked

So the hackers have finally ripped the Sony digital signing feature apart, this could be potentially huge in the wrong hands. For those not aware basically what’s happened is it is now possible to run homebrew and illegal copies through a non custom firmware system. Sure some tweaks are needed before it is operational, but if you can fool the system into thinking the content has been digitally signed then you could in theory get the Kinect hardware working with the PS3.

Sure Sony have been fighting a losing battle with the PSP modders over the year, personally I like being able to run ScummVM on my PSP, but if they can’t put a lid on it soon then before long both consoles will become a free for all in the eyes of the pirates. It’ll be devastating to a brand that are only just recovering from years of unease and unfulfilling investments.

Any comments?

Currently Playing – 3/1/2011

Here’s a rundown of what’s filling up my disc drives
currently. Dead Rising 2 – Xbox
360 –
Co-op, first off, I’ll have to say
this, Dead Rising 1 was rubbish, the save points were horribly
inconvenient, the bosses were too tough, the game forces you to
grind and the stereotypes! Well Dead Rising 2 didn’t really deal
with these problems and added multiplayer! The bosses are still
fucking annoying and will destroy your soul, the savepoints are not
as badly placed as before, but still annoying in co-op, it’ll throw
your buddy out and then get shirty if I want to re-add him! I’m
slowly grinding along, getting some enjoyment from the combo
weapons, the story seems to be utter tripe again and the lengthy
load screens become quite tedious.

Super Meat Boy – XBLA, I
FUCKING LOVE SUPER MEAT BOY! There I said it, it’s out of my system
now, when I first saw all the hype for this the first thing that
came to mind was, “oh dear, another N+ clone,” but alas this is so
much better, the story is charming, the platforming is innovative
yet frustrating, it’s the kind of game where you will eventually
break a controller at some point, but it’s so satisfying when you
do complete that level finally or get in the top 100 on the
leaderboards! :p Game
Dev Story – iPhone,
Theme hospital meets the game development industry, I find myself
losing several hours at a time to this, and loving every moment,
from getting the perfect score for a convenience store game I
called Clerks 2, to having well over $250million in capital.
Micromanaging a company has never been so rewarding.

My top 10 iPhone games

As you may, or may not know I play a ton of games, and write the occasional review for the odd blog site or two, I noticed a lot of you are now getting iPhones, let me run you down my top 10 games which are all worth picking up!

1) Game Dev Story – A great micro sim game where you run your own little game development studio, easy to understand, difficult to master. Reminds me a lot of a simplified version of Theme Hospital.

 

 

2) Secret of Monkey Island 1 and 2 – Albiet two games are mentioned, they are both retro classics given the next generation treatments, many gamers are unaware of these two titles, yet they are seminal in the history of the Lucas Art franchise, they created legends like Ron Gilbert and Tim Schafer (who went on to eventually make titles like Grim Fandango and Brutal Legend) These point and click masterpieces need to be seen and enjoyed by all, admittedly they are a million times better on their native format (the PC/Amiga) but they are equally enjoyable on the smaller formats, especially now with added Dominic Armato (Voices Guybrush Threepwood)

 

 

3) Infinity Blade – This game is more of a benchmark of what the iPhone is actually capable of, but it is fucking impressive, the animations are amazing for such a relatively underpowered phone (in comparison to the HTC Desire) This is more a window showing what the future will look like.

 

 

4) Plants Vs Zombies – Simple concept, you need to stop the Zombies getting to your house by using different plants and strategies, tower defence at it’s finest.

 

 

5) RageHD – Again 1 part game, 1 part amazing graphics, made by the same innovators behind the doom franchise, this on rails shooter is great fun in small doses, in vain similar to house of the dead.

 

 

6) Angry Birds – You fire birds into a castle to destroy the enemies, again simplistic in design but perfect for pick up and go gaming. I can see the franchise being run into the ground now that EA own the rights to it, but Angry Birds is worth 59p of anyones money!

 

 

7) Doodle Jump, Simple platforming game, where you need to get to the highest point you can without falling and/or dying, pick up and play style which features tilt controls.

 

 

8 ) Chaos Rings – Quite possibly one of the most expensive games on the phone (pre sale prices have it listed @ £7) It’s made by the same team that made Final Fantasy, so expect epic storytelling, intuitive combat and vast sections of your life disappearing. This game features some high production values which can be seen on any YouTube video of the gameplay featured.

 

 

9) Football Manager – A condensed down version of the PC top seller, stupidly addictive football strategy simulator which will leave you wondering where those 7 hours went, or why you have ended up in Cardiff.

 

 

10) Flick Kick Football, simplistic game where you (yeah you got it!) flick the football! again simplistic in its approach, and playable by practically everyone including your gran!

I’ll still here world!

Hey all, I have been a little busy getting this site up and running, I have been working on some original content to try and keep the place fresh and have asked a few friends to help with the design aspects.

The wait is nearly over!

Currently Playing

I am currently switching through a few games at the moment, all of which I have taken a liking to.

Left for Dead 2 – Xbox 360 – Been playing this on co-op for a few days now, when you get the right team this can be brilliant, but that never happens! Everyone knows a gamer in their friends list who just storms right ahead assuming they can handle themselves, and 10 seconds later wonders why we don’t save him from the tank! (Yes I am talking about you Pete!)

The Saboteur – I was put off buying this at launch due to the hit and miss reviews, I believe EDGE gave this a 5 (out of 10) I hope that reviewer was thrown from the tower of London. I’m not going to declare that it’s some kind of masterpiece that is worthy of the highest awards and recognition, but it’s not too bad at all. The jist of the game is, you’re an Irish boyracer, in Nazi occupied France, who has been handed a pretty outrageous task of pretty much overthrowing the Third Reich single-handedly. The game itself borrows heavily on ideas from Grand Theft Auto, Assassins Creed and Red Faction, but is that really a bad thing? I would recommend checking it out if you are a fan of either game mentioned, especially now since it’s hitting about £15 online now!

I’m also playing Angry Birds on the iPhone, the gameplay to this is simple enough, just fling birds into wobbly structures to try to destroy the pigs, and as you progress you unlock different birds that launch in different ways, it’s pretty good in small bursts, although it can get stupidly frustrating at times!

Hello world!

This is my first post here, be gentle, this blog will mainly be a gaming orientated one, with a little bit of recent movie and music news. I will be posting some reviews here and there, as you may or may not already know, I am not a wordsmith, I won’t dazzle you with funky connotations of words that only exist if you say them backwards, I try to be a straight shooter, if I like it I’ll say! (And vice versa)