Actually found myself watching a lot more Olympics than I expected to. I was especially happy to see Andy Murray beat Roger Federer in the men’s tennis singles.
Before, during, and after I played a few games of my own.
First off is Catapult King on the iPad – this was free when I got my hands on it and is very impressive. It works along the same lines as Angry Birds but in three dimensions and with excellent graphics. I remembered playing the most basic of catapult games on a BBC Micro when I was at school in the early 80s and thinking it was brillant. Amazing how things have moved on. A great game, I give it 9/10
For Xbox I got hold of Halo Anniversary from a second-hand store. I had played this game on an old PC when it came out and while the hardware was a little better than a BBC Micro it really struggled when the Flood came on the scene – far too much to render for my poor old graphics card. So it was nice to revisit the game and compare the old graphics to the new graphics (which you can do in-game – it’s a bit clumsy burt worth taking the time to appreciate the work that has gone into revamping the game).
The sound is also excellent and I think that a few extra cut-scenes have been put in (?). The game play was still quite taxing on later levels and I am embarassed to admit I had to put it on easy just to get through to the end of the game – something I would never normally do, but it was either that or throwing my controller through the TV screen. I give it 7/10
Also on Xbox I am about 77% done on Lego Pirates of the Carribean. I got this because when I went to get Lego Batman 2: DC Heroes, the shop was out of stock. As with all the Lego games I have played I really enjoyed this one. There are enough cute new features / abilities in comparison to other games in the Lego franchise to keep things interesting and the crucial key feature of repeat gameplay with Freeplay is as usual very engaging – with sub-levels / puzzles that can only be accessed by certain characters. My only gripe is that some of the Gamerscore achievements are virtually impossible to achieve and a couple of mini-kit locations are so evilly placed that you would have to replay a whole level for instance if you missed one crucial jump – I am refering here to a minikit which you have to jump up to get while rolling down a hill on a broken water wheel. For a kid’s game it can be quite taxing on the old noggin. I had to resort to a walkthrough at one point early on because I hadn’t figured out how to use Captain Jack Sparrow’s magical compass… I give it 8/10
couchmagpie 