It’s an “away” week for me – I’m currently sitting in my Significant Other’s kitchen in Sydney, air-conditioner thankfully tempering the 36 degrees outside – which means that I’m (somewhat self-)limited to mobile gaming. Sure, she’s got a Wii (and PS4) here, but – with the exception of some Skyward Sword practise a few months ago, I’ve not really tinkered with consoles here… it’s very much her (or rather, her kids’) hardware.
I have tried to make a bit of an effort to clean up the iOS section of The List a bit in the last few months, playing a few games pretty heavily, but my inability to Complete anything (just one good run needed for Monotaur, a 1000 Nagoya Attack game for Space Invaders Infinity Gene, a defined endpoint for Super Tiny Leap, and a lifetime of skill for Pilot Winds) left me a little… well, mopey. In an effort to liven up my interest a bit, I decided to have a little taste of all the games that I’d acquired for that platform that I’d never played before… and there were a few.
Hundreds impressed early, with a beautifully clean aesthetic and smooth gameplay. Forty levels on one plane ride was perhaps an overdose, in retrospect, though I yearn to return to it… if only to figure out what the mysterious messages embedded in the game mean (I hope I can get them re-displayed!). Pivvot was an interesting followup, with relatively swift gameplay making me feel completely cack-handed. I haven’t quite figured out my Completion requirements for that one yet – unlocking everything is a bare minimum – but I’m sure I’ll return to that one soon. Great music, too. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective certainly looks great, but it appears that the DLC Chapters are unavailable (again, apparently), so I’m unsure what I’ll do about that.
But the bulk of my playtime this week has (unfortunately) been with Nihilumbra. I can’t recall when I snaffled this game, or on whose recommendation I decided to acquire it, but it has been one of the most frustrating experiences I’ve had in years. The last level of the game’s Story Mode conjure more ill-tempered profanity from me than anything in recent memory, with unclear mechanics and twitchy controls getting in the way (hah!) of a heavy-handed monologue that seems like it’s been translated to English from a depressing East-European fable (via a dissimilar African language). I’m determined to Complete this one as quickly as possible, but the Void Mode – super-difficult remixes of the Story levels – is almost tedious in its aggressive hate for the player.
So… I’m not liking it much.
I’ve got another week here, banging my head against Nihilumbra‘s obstinance and (hopefully) some cheerier DS-ing, before returning to Adelaide for a couple of weeks… and I’ve already got a plan-of-attack for my console-time: Dark Souls.
Apparently, I like torturing myself.
Good luck with Dark Souls Pete. If you need any tips please ask.
Dark Souls, eh? It’s a wonderful game… from what I’ve played of it, which is about four hours, as is my norm. It’s brutal though… have fun with it!
Hi Pete, just to let you know google just flagged this up as a “deceptive site” and urged me not to come here as I could be a victim of phishing. Obviously I knew that was rubbish but I thought I better let you know that google has flagged this particular website of yours. Hope your well. Tom.
Cheers, lads :)
Dark Souls is progressing slowly, mainly because I’m spending so little time near my 360 at the moment… and I’ve got other, more time-constrained things to do first (like write about the 167 shows I saw in the Fringe this year… 79 to go!). But I think I’ve got over the “hating it” stage of the game… I just nabbed the LordVessel, and am currently grinding to level up a bit – Soul Level 90 at the moment.
And yes – Google has flagged this site as a nasty one because… well… I believe the technical term is “it got hacked to fuck.” Suspect it was through the (rather old, but I liked it) theme, so excuse the plain look for now :) Nice clean install, though, so everything should be safe!