A Quadruple Whammy
That's right, lots of things!
Red Dwarf : Back to Earth
So. Having correctly guessed pretty much what happens by reading the plot synopsis (Key thoughts were "It'll be all Metahumour, breaking the 5th wall and they'll end up going to meet Craig Charles the actor, and then it'll all turn out to be the Despair Squid or an Artificial Reality Game like BTL"), was it still any good?
It wasn't too bad.
Without the laughter track it was missing the humerous pauses as they ride the laughter, which gave it a bit more of a serious, bigger-budgeted-than-it-is appeal but at the expense of the comedy. There were a large amount of Guest Actors as well, the most amount of secondary characters in a RD thing ever. Anyway, here's a run down
- The Fanservice was ok. There were a thousand and 1 references to previous Red Dwarf episodes new and old that should keep the fans happy.
- The plot was weird.
- What was the point of the crazy Russian Holagram woman?
- The scene with the Creator had some good and terrible bits in it.
- Some genuinely funny gags, some outright terrible ones
- The whole Corination Street thing was just... silly.
- ...As was the "They named a TV Station after you!"
- It felt quite rushed in places. Like, "I have 3 hours worth of plot and I need to split it into 3 half hour episodes"
- The CG was charming... A bit below that of Doctor Who.
So not brilliant, but not terrible. Disappointed it spent so long off the Ship (Always thought the ones were they go to somewhere that looks suspiciously like London to be the weaker ones)
Rock Band 2
Exactly the same as RB1 except unlocking all the songs requires you to play through tour mode where you have to play the same song seven times. Failsauce.
Populous DS
Faithful in its portyness, except it's got all fancy CG animations when you fire off miracles.
Flock
Gruargh...
Imagine one of those Rolling Ball mazes where you tilt the maze to guide the ball towards its destination. Now imagine there are 10 balls instead of 1, and they all like to veer off in random directions. Now imagine that instead of tilting the maze you used a circular magnet that repels the balls.
If that sounds like an absolutely nightmare to control then yes, you've hit on one of the cruical issues I have with Flock. In a game that apparantly demands speed and precision (Being timed and offering medals based on time) it has the most imprecise method of play I've ever seen. The other main one is the constant illusion to the word "Fuck". Even the title screen has a large sheep acting as the "o", obscuring the "L" so it *could* be a "u". And the mothership's called a "MotherFlocker".... Oh dear.
Still, it's not the big things that bug me, you eventually get used to that and the Game does give you more animals than you need to Gold the levels so watching them fall to their doom is theraputic and possibly encouraged (They missed a mode out there). The little things are the ones that hurt the most.
Like the fences.
Get a sheep wet, and it shrinks down small enough to sneak under a Fence - In theory. In actuality they get stuck on the legs of the fence, and require much jiggling to get them through, at which point they're going the wrong direction. What would be wrong in just disabling collision against fences when they're that small? Sure you lose maybe some realism in the integrity but you'd save thousands against frustration. The Fences strike again when you have to get Bulls to stampede through them, tumbling them around with all the fury of a modern physics engine and than laughing as your sheep still can't get across the now downed Fence. A perfect argument against including physics in a game that does not require it.
Pick up a movabable fence with the tractor beam to get it out the way, and then drop it in the water to get rid of it? OH NO YOU DON'T! It'll reappear right back where you picked it up, still blocking progress and mocking you for having achieved nothing.
While it looks gorgeous, sounds decent enough and is very well presented, all the little niggles and stupid design decisions that seem to back up Yahtzee's theory of "Minimum Shitiness Quantity" for Xbox Live submission. Add to those a control system that's very difficult to get the hang of and it becomes the most annoying game ever made. The only hope I have for it is if you unlock some kind of super-hyper-easy-beam or power at some point that makes the game 100% more enjoyable.
Or at the very least, destroys fences.
If not, well... I can't recommend it.
Don't have much to say on Doctor Who. Was pretty good
And I'm ill again :)
Red Dwarf : Back to Earth
So. Having correctly guessed pretty much what happens by reading the plot synopsis (Key thoughts were "It'll be all Metahumour, breaking the 5th wall and they'll end up going to meet Craig Charles the actor, and then it'll all turn out to be the Despair Squid or an Artificial Reality Game like BTL"), was it still any good?
It wasn't too bad.
Without the laughter track it was missing the humerous pauses as they ride the laughter, which gave it a bit more of a serious, bigger-budgeted-than-it-is appeal but at the expense of the comedy. There were a large amount of Guest Actors as well, the most amount of secondary characters in a RD thing ever. Anyway, here's a run down
- The Fanservice was ok. There were a thousand and 1 references to previous Red Dwarf episodes new and old that should keep the fans happy.
- The plot was weird.
- What was the point of the crazy Russian Holagram woman?
- The scene with the Creator had some good and terrible bits in it.
- Some genuinely funny gags, some outright terrible ones
- The whole Corination Street thing was just... silly.
- ...As was the "They named a TV Station after you!"
- It felt quite rushed in places. Like, "I have 3 hours worth of plot and I need to split it into 3 half hour episodes"
- The CG was charming... A bit below that of Doctor Who.
So not brilliant, but not terrible. Disappointed it spent so long off the Ship (Always thought the ones were they go to somewhere that looks suspiciously like London to be the weaker ones)
Rock Band 2
Exactly the same as RB1 except unlocking all the songs requires you to play through tour mode where you have to play the same song seven times. Failsauce.
Populous DS
Faithful in its portyness, except it's got all fancy CG animations when you fire off miracles.
Flock
Gruargh...
Imagine one of those Rolling Ball mazes where you tilt the maze to guide the ball towards its destination. Now imagine there are 10 balls instead of 1, and they all like to veer off in random directions. Now imagine that instead of tilting the maze you used a circular magnet that repels the balls.
If that sounds like an absolutely nightmare to control then yes, you've hit on one of the cruical issues I have with Flock. In a game that apparantly demands speed and precision (Being timed and offering medals based on time) it has the most imprecise method of play I've ever seen. The other main one is the constant illusion to the word "Fuck". Even the title screen has a large sheep acting as the "o", obscuring the "L" so it *could* be a "u". And the mothership's called a "MotherFlocker".... Oh dear.
Still, it's not the big things that bug me, you eventually get used to that and the Game does give you more animals than you need to Gold the levels so watching them fall to their doom is theraputic and possibly encouraged (They missed a mode out there). The little things are the ones that hurt the most.
Like the fences.
Get a sheep wet, and it shrinks down small enough to sneak under a Fence - In theory. In actuality they get stuck on the legs of the fence, and require much jiggling to get them through, at which point they're going the wrong direction. What would be wrong in just disabling collision against fences when they're that small? Sure you lose maybe some realism in the integrity but you'd save thousands against frustration. The Fences strike again when you have to get Bulls to stampede through them, tumbling them around with all the fury of a modern physics engine and than laughing as your sheep still can't get across the now downed Fence. A perfect argument against including physics in a game that does not require it.
Pick up a movabable fence with the tractor beam to get it out the way, and then drop it in the water to get rid of it? OH NO YOU DON'T! It'll reappear right back where you picked it up, still blocking progress and mocking you for having achieved nothing.
While it looks gorgeous, sounds decent enough and is very well presented, all the little niggles and stupid design decisions that seem to back up Yahtzee's theory of "Minimum Shitiness Quantity" for Xbox Live submission. Add to those a control system that's very difficult to get the hang of and it becomes the most annoying game ever made. The only hope I have for it is if you unlock some kind of super-hyper-easy-beam or power at some point that makes the game 100% more enjoyable.
Or at the very least, destroys fences.
If not, well... I can't recommend it.
Don't have much to say on Doctor Who. Was pretty good
And I'm ill again :)