The Clan of the Cave Bague

Just one more go, I thought. Just to convince myself that it’s really really dull. Three hours later and I’m still at it. Gaaaaah – it has me hooked just as badly as first time around. I’m going to have to ration time very carefully, methinks, because I just don’t have that kinda of time to devote to gaming these days.

It seems a lot darker and a lot more ambiguous this time around (which can only be a good thing – I felt like a boy scout in the first game). There’s a far wider range of force powers available fairly early on as well – even a level five character with force shock can do a fair bit of damage.

The plot is worrying me a little though – it’s the old “I suspect I was über once but I’ve lost my memory and need to learn it all again” type, which I personally find rather dull, but we’ll see how it goes.

Still, no matter how slowly it’s started off, nothing can ever be as bad as that gawdawful trawl through the first planet in the first game.

This one’s been sitting unopened on the shelf for ages and thought I’d give it a go. It’s fab – just as good as the first one, although I am being mildly irritated by the sluggishness of the inventory/journal/etc pages. Probably another post-RE4 hangup.

It’s been such a long time since a game came along which was so obviously head-and-shoulders above the rest that it coloured my impressions of everything else. Even here – when I’m supposed to by writing about KOTOR2 – I’m still ranting on about RE4.

Anyway – I’m just trying to get off the asteroid at the start just now. Couple of hours in and not much happening. Still, I’ve just met the psycho robot bloke, so that should introduce some humour into the proceedings.

As it happens, I decided on Final Fantasy VII, in the end. I haven’t given this game anywhere near the time it deserves, so I’ve decided to take my time and trawl through the whole thing. It is looking a little dated, of course, but it doesn’t seem to matter. I’ve only just sailed across the ocean to the Costa del Sol and as soon as the music kicked in I got all goosepimply.

So, off I go up the mountain to see what lies in store

I’ve just remembered! I have sealed copies of Final Fantasy VII, VIII, and IX here…..

……and I’ve only played about the first hour of VII and none of the rest.

Could this be that rainy day I’ve been putting off for ages?

It may just be me, or that I’m particularly tired (I am – the kids had a disturbe night last night through illness) but this game is the most irritating and frustrating thing I’ve played in ages. It may, of course, just be fall out from the joy of Resident Evil 4.

Anyway, I’m in no mood to toy with it for now so I think I may do something I’ve been meaning to do for ages.

I missed out so much on the first play through this and, with the release of the GameCube never really had time to go back to it. So, with the aid of Prima’s magnificent as-spoiler-free-as-you-want-it-to-be strategy guide, I’m going to languish in the joy of Spira again

What an ending! The final boss is….. disturbing, but not nearly as disturbing as the closing titles are. Anyhoo, I appear to have unlocked two subgames, playing through bits of the game as characters who wander in and out of the story from time to time as well as some new buyable goodies (infinite rocket launcher! yum!) and professional mode. Those were the ones on the 2nd disk menu – haven’t looked at the first.

All these fine things notwithstanding, I was fully intending starting again anyway – partly to do all the stuff I missed out on in the first half of the game due to running around being scared and partly because it’s just great. I also have a score to beat. 19 hours, 921 kills (respectable for a resident evil game) and (shudder) 74 deaths. Not great

So – on first play through – game of the year, hands down, no doubts whatsoever.

This is my current mobile game. I’ve clocked an insane amount of hours on it in the past, but it’s so good that – inspired by the rich and luscious visuals provided by my DS, I’ve started again.

(Ignore the Japanese visuals, above). It never ceases to amaze me that a fully fledged turn based RPG in the vein of Final Fantasy can sit quite happily on a handheld, but Golden Sun does it in spades. You have massive spells and powerups, a (very) long and convoluted plot, and awesome stat and combat system, expository cutscenes, the whole sooting match. All in a teensy wee cart. What’s more, the nice backlit screen on the DS makes the whole thing much more vibrant and colourful. It’s fab.

This is my daytime game at the moment – playable when the kids are up and about without giving them the screaming habdabs. It seems to be that the blokes who do the oddworld series can do no wrong – consistently turning out beautiful, original, and fiendishly tough games, and Strangers Wrath is no exception.

Essentially, you play a weird mumbling bounty hunter and have to go around capturing various bad guys by firing various types of “live” ammo from your wrist mounted crossbow. The ammo various from wee bugs which wrap the baddies up in webs, to flappy thuddy things that knock em out. One particular highlight is the little squirrel like annoying things which are so intensely irritating that they can be used as lures as the baddies are unable to resist running across and stomping on them. One particularly nice touch is the way these little chaps blether and chat away to you as they’re loaded into the crossbow.

The game is played both from First Person (for the shooty bits) and third person (for the scampering about like a loony platformy bits). It works surprisingly well. I’m just a short way in at the moment, but enjoying every second. There seems to be a huge amount to do, as well, and given that it’s taken me ages to catch the first couple of bad guys – hunting for ammo in the wilderness, getting to the bad guy’s lair, and then working out how best to use my limited ammo to overcome the massively numerically superior enemies kinda indicates that this one could take quite some time.

So – summation of my experience to date: It’s beautiful, it’s funny, it’s poignant (no, really!), and it has a fantastic game mechanic. I think this one will happily remain my daytime game once I’ve finished RE4 and started it again from the start

Poor hitm4n – you posted a comment asking if I’d sell – the short answer is NO WAY ON GOD’S EARTH – RE4 is easily the game of the year and worth 30 of anyones notes

About that facially applied rocket launcher – I do feel very very bad about it but then you really did bring it upon yourself by being an incredibly annoying mutant-alien-thingy. I have to confess that the immense satisfaction caused by turning you into tomato puree has more than justified the stress, grief, and anguish you’ve caused me over the past few days.

Love

Choobs

Because he’s the most annoying person in the universe. He really is. I gave up in exasperation last night.

I shall beat him, though. Oh yes. I shall.