Chime

The boss had a nice game recommendation for me this week: Chime, which he referred to as a cross between Tetris and Lumines.. something I’ve not played, but which a friend described as “crack for the PSP”.

The game involves placing puzzle pieces on a grid to form quad shapes, but it’s set to music which actually changes a little as you fill up the grid.

There’s a rather cheesy achievement too: Fairy Godmother, earned for simply starting up the game.  Chime was developed by Zoë Mode for a charity called OneBigGame, which raises funds for childrens’ charities.. so I guess I have done something good by buying the game 😉

With the boss watching my first attempt, I didn’t bother to read the instructions and just jumped in.   It’s very easy to pick up, but on the first try I didn’t get a great score as it turns out to be a little more complicated than just slotting blocks in together..

Once you’ve made the required quad shape, you can add more blocks to the side to make it grow.. this also increases your multiplier.  Stray blocks disappear from the grid over time, though, and when they disappear they take away your multiplier!  It’s rather addictive, and there are scoreboards, so it could well get a little competitive too..

Tonight, with the internet finally up and running here, I’ve been able to get some more time in and have unlocked all six tracks, including the awesome final track: ‘Still Alive’! 🙂

It seems from the developers’ blog that this last track and grid were created for the move to PC.. and initially they were trying to make the grid represent something from Portal!  This made for too-difficult levels though, so it ended up as above.

On the subject of Portal.. I just saw the co-op trailer for Portal 2 this evening.. Ohhh yes <3

Online at home, at last

One month after moving in, we’re finally back online!

In the days before i40, I was too busy sorting boxes, cleaning things and generally being excited about LAN to mind too much, but after coming home.. yeah..

We set my computer desk up after coming back.. I now have a gaming room, though for the next few weeks I’m going to be sharing with some unpacked boxes.. they’re hidden off to the left 😉

The garden came in useful for sorting the tent out after i40 as well..
I’m going to admit to a little bit of smugness at the size of the garden as well as the fact it gets the sun all day 🙂

The house still needs work.. lots and lots of work.. and it doesn’t feel like home yet.. but things might start to feel a bit more normal here now.

i40, a little bit late

This post was supposed to make an appearance one week ago, after returning from i40.
However, we still have no internet at home (it’s coming up on four weeks now), and some personal stuff too which meant I wanted to spend the week curled in a small ball, not interacting with anything.

Enough of that, though – i40!

We arrived just before the rain.. a fantastic start to a weekend where the sleeping is mostly done outside 😉

That wasn’t the end of the ‘fantastic start’, however, as we were then excluded from taking our machines in till way after 6pm because the temporary structure wasn’t ready.. and then when we were finally able to get in, there was no internet.  With no internet, there was also no Steam..

The first game played, then, was Warcraft III, as it was one of the few games available which didn’t need an internet connection or updates.

In amongst those games was a go at the “Run, Kitty, Run” map: you have to run along a spiral path to the centre, avoiding the ‘dogs’ which kill you on touch.  It gets harder as you progress, as the paths are narrower, until there’s barely room to get past.. for the first time in many, many attempts, we actually managed to get to the end, where it seems the reward for success is.. to start again with even more dogs on the paths!

I was also introduced to Beat Hazard, thanks to another friend.  This takes any music track you own and turns it into a simple space shooter, very like Geometry Wars.. and it makes very bright, pretty colours.. *gazes*

You start off with space-trash to shoot, but as the track progresses you face stronger enemies which shoot back.  Fortunately, you collect power-ups as you go, which makes your weapons a little more useful.. as well as more colourful.. and there are also power-ups which increase the volume of the track too.

It’s another ‘unblinking’ game which probably shouldn’t be played in a dark room at LAN 😉

After playing this, Audiosurf made another appearance, and with it, a little competition going on in terms of the scoreboard.

Minecraft became a slight obsession for one friend..  this is a 3D sandbox crafting game, with a variety of types of block: wood, coal, etc, and strange blocky life-forms, the most interesting being zombies!  I had a brief go at the game a while back, but after spending two day cycles building, and two night cycles hiding in my buildings from the zombies, I then found my trial of the game didn’t have zombies.. durrrp!
It was admittedly quite fun watching huge piles of TNT go up, though, especially when it resulted in framerates of 1 or 2, or crashed the PC :3

In the run-up to i40, we picked up Borderlands, thanks to another Steam offer.  Oh, Steam.. what would I do with all my money if not for you?

Borderlands has 4 player co-op, which is great as I do like playing with friends.. but I have to say that I found myself confused by the weapons, as per usual in this type of game.   Having to pick up ammo for the weapon I was using, while leaving other ammo for my team just added another layer of trouble.. if I don’t know the guns, I’m really not going to know what ammo they use.

Despite this, I love the game, though I want to complete the game in single-player so I know what I’m doing, and don’t feel like I’m holding my friends back next time.

We also got a couple of games of Dawn of War 2: Chaos Rising in.. trying out the Free-For-All mode which I really enjoyed, especially with high resources allowing me to just pump out units.  I think I’m improving on my tactics now, using the Techmarine to fit with my defensive playstyle.  FFA made a nice change, but I think co-op is still going to remain my favourite.

The last night of i40 turned into an all-nighter, with a foxy puppet, fits of giggles, a brief foray onto the rather disappointing Omegle, and later fits of shivers.. the temporary structure really wasn’t draught-proof and by 4am I was glad of fleecy blankets and two friends to hide between for warmth.  Next time I think I’ll be voting for a warmer and quieter hall, maybe in with the WoW players.. lalala 😉

LAN wouldn’t be LAN without a massive TF2 battle between CantFitMyN and Crazy/Inv, and so on the last morning we duly had our game, though there was no victory for CFMN this time.  Next time, maybe! 🙂

The World of Borrowed Internets

When we moved house, we expected a short period of time where there would be no internet.
What we didn’t expect was that the miserable ex-owner of our house would leave her phone and broadband service active – meaning we had to do a line takeover with BT.  We still have another week to wait for a phone line, never mind broadband.  We’re on borrowed internets, from wherever we can get it.

So.. offline games?  Well, that was the plan, but it just hasn’t happened.  I started recreating the house in the Left 4 Dead 2 Authoring Tools, but that’s about it.

I made cookies, though! 🙂

It’s i-40 tomorrow, so there’ll be plenty of internets and gaming for a few days 🙂

Privates

Privates is a really funny game from indie outfit Zombie Cow Studios, all about sex and all the wonderful diseases you can get if you’re not too picky about your partners.

It’s a platform shooter where you and your troop of dim-witted marines go deep into the interesting parts of people who clearly weren’t picky enough about their partners, and shoot the diseases you find there.

I wouldn’t rely on this game for sex ed purposes though – if you think that wearing a condom on your head and shooting at diseases will save you, then you’re in for a horrible surprise somewhere down the line 😉

Spying and Engineering

We went for a bit of a change and played some TF2 this weekend!
Usually I play soldier as I find it the easiest class, but it’s good to try something else from time to time..

First up was the spy..

Disguises were easy enough to use, as was the cloak, but I had to learn to choose my battles.. my normal style of play involves firing at the first enemy I see!

After I’d had a bit of a mess around, we started sneaking into the other team’s base.. this meant lots of waiting to get past enemies in the doorways, or hiding under stairs hoping for engineers to leave their sentries for us to sap 😉

The cloak frustrated me a few times as I’d find myself in a great position to attack someone, but by the time the cloak was off and I could attack, my target had turned around.

The Engineer Update was released recently, and I joined some friends when they went to play with his new toys: Frontier Justice, a new shotgun; the Wrangler, a pistol/remote control for the sentry, and the Gunslinger which looks like a robotic hand, and even better, drops awesome mini-sentries!
Gamecrit have a great video with these new items in action on their YouTube channel here.

Again I had a friend give me some tips, such as building and upgrading sentries just outside the base, and then once finished, moving them closer to the frontline.   Moving buildings is a new ability, and it really allows the engineer to do more than simply defend.. for me this makes him a much more fun class to play.

The Wrathgate and Beyond

After moving on to Northrend, the quests have been more grouped together, and following a rather more clear plot.  Moving on to Dragonblight, we got even more impressive plot line, with an increased use of vehicles and flight.

We failed one mission in amazing style: we were escorting some Taunka refugees who just couldn’t keep up with the Rocket..  we turned around to find they had stopped following us and died on the path.  We went a lot slower the second time, and managed to get them to safety 😉

I loved the look of the Forsaken buildings at Venomspite..

More quests involved playing with Blight specimens, including a particularly fun quest with some blight spreader vehicles.  After figuring out how to drive these, firing Blight bombs at the undead was quite satisfying 🙂

The very impressive Wrathgate was the last place to approach..

Outside the Wrathgate, there was a huge battle, which gave us a pretty epic cutscene to watch..

Horde and Alliance forces working together to call out the Lich King, only to be attacked from behind by the Forsaken!  Wait.. I thought they were on our side?

The Forsaken were driven back by the dragons, but only after plenty of death and destruction.  Oh, and fire!

Saurfang the Younger was killed by the Lich King, and so we headed back to Warsong Hold to tell his father, then to Orgrimmar.

Here we found many changes, with refugees camped out everywhere, and some unhappy shopkeepers..
In Thrall’s room, there were visitors: Sylvanas Windrunner, who had fled the Undercity, and Jaina Proudmoore, who had come to ask what the hell was going on..

I found this more motivating than the normal quests, with a bit more story to it.  The large scale battles were part of the draw too..

We headed to Undercity to take it back and kill those responsible for the backstabbing!  Here we were seriously buffed up, and for once I didn’t need to worry about my health bar 🙂

The bigger mobs were especially fun to hit while in this state, as were the large packs of mobs which I hit with AOE spell Mind Sear for lots of damage 🙂
Again, a nice change from normal as I normally heal team-mates rather than smack mobs.

The flying doomguards were harder to target as they were flying in and out of range.  Still, they eventually went down too..

Varimathras had been taunting us while we made our way through the Undercity, destroying the lift and later blocking off the corridor to the Royal Quarter.

We eventually got to him though, and started on him as he attempted to summon demons from portals around the room.
There was also another mysterious voice, telling Varimathras he has failed him.  Possible future quest line?

Ravenholm

We don’t go to Ravenholm.  Well, except for when the Combine attack, and it’s the only way out, that is..

Ravenholm is the part of the game I remembered long after my first playthrough of HL2; creepily atmospheric with plenty of scares, but also featuring some neat puzzles and traps.

There’s also the sawblade, which is lethal in the right hands 🙂

The rotor-blades are fun too..

What freaks me out, though, are the black headcrabs, or Poison Headcrab.

I know the neurotoxin they hit you with is only temporary, but there’s something about the skittering, screeching, spider-like creatures that really sets me on edge.

So what’s worse than one black headcrab?

Lots of black headcrabs, being thrown at me..

At least I’ve got guns, right? 😉

Half Life 2

I was looking at the mods for Half Life 2, and realised I’ve not actually played Half Life 2 since Valve added a pile of achievements to the game.

Might as well run through and grab them, right?  I liked the excuse, anyway..

I wanted to explore a bit, but Mr Combine objected to me straying from the path.

These two could be a set-up for a comic sketch, but I don’t have the time or energy at the moment 😉

There are many things I love about this game.

This is one:

And this is another.  Dog is just awesome! 🙂

On my run through, I also tracked down the All-Knowing Vortigaunt.
He’s hiding in a small cave down the end of a drainage pipe at the end of the Water Hazard level.  I also got an achievement for finding him 🙂

I wouldn’t actually have known about him if not for this video from GameCrit: cheers! 😀

Amazing Flying Carpet

So I thought the X-53 Touring Rocket was awesome.. there was more to come!

For a quest in Northrend we were placed on these beauties! 😀