As always, I have a not so timely review for something that has been available for sometime, but then again I like to review things in my own time.
The long dark is a game about survival, nothing original there I hear you say, survival games are everywhere, Minecraft, Ark, Rust to name a few. The long Dark is different. It starts the same as most, waking up alone not sure where you are or what to do but it soon becomes clear that that’s where the similarities end. You have a few items of clothing and a few scraps of food in your back pack and that’s it. Starting location can be chosen or randomised and the difficulty ranges from “What did I do to deserve this?” To “Tell my wife I love her..”
Before we get into the game lets get the business talk out the way, this is, at time of publish, an unfinished game. Developed and published byHinterland Gamesan alpha version was released through Steam Early Access on September 22, 2014. Development…
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When I recently visited a local Game retailer, I was pleasantly surprised to see that there was a copy of Diddy Kong Racing DS on the shelf. I played the original on the N64, and it was one of my favourite games for the console, the original premise being a kart racer with the option to choose to race as a kart, a hovercraft or a plane around the courses. It also had an interesting and colourful hubworld, which could be explored, and additional collectables within racecourses that could be found by changing to a different vehicle or by going off the beaten path. Remembering the original so fondly, I had no choice really but to pick it up!
I found myself some free time, and began to play; immediately, I began to miss the original. I was greeted by some story that Wizpig (a wizard pig, he was in the original) was terrorizing “the island”, and the inhabitants (other racers) had called for the Kongs. I didn’t much care for it, but then it’s a racing game, it’s not about the story.
So, I selected my racer and began to race. The first race, set in Dino Domain, wasn’t 100% as I had remembered it, but it wasn’t bad. The powerups were there, the speed seemed a little slow (I figured that it was a handheld device, so that’s acceptable), but around the course was dotted small coins. I picked up a few of these on the way around, and finished the course.
Here’s where the first of my major gripes reared it’s head. Once the course is complete, you cannot re-enter. If you want to re-enter, you have to clear all of the other races, and then beat the area boss, who will then set the second of my major-gripes as a challenge. He sets the coin challenge, where you are taken around the stage on a rail-style tour, and the goal is to use the stylus to tap balloons to pop them, and drag coins into a small bag (purse?) in the bottom corner of the screen, changing the way you are facing by more stylus-swiping.
Firstly, this style of level has always irritated me, but the execution is what infuriated me with this game. These are racing courses, for multiple vehicles, and as such have tight corners and blindspots – this is not an environment suited for a stylus-based collectathon. I persevered, completed the levels and was invited to re-challenge the boss to a “tougher rematch”. This was an absolute garbage race, as this needed you to trace around the touchscreen to steer your kart, and to swipe a wheel that appeared to retain speed. This is a horrible, horrible implementation of touch controls, it was literally shoe-horned in, and it shows.
Graphically, this game has been downgraded from the original. Unlike Super Mario 64, which was given beautiful polish for the DS release, this game is very granular and pixelated, however it does run very smoothly with minimal lag.
The main game is infuriating, and to a fan of the original it really does feel like a bastardization, but the main draw has and will always be multiplayer. The saving grace for this game is that it does offer single-kart download play, and so if you choose to pick this up you only need one copy to play with friends.
Verdict: This game is flawed. Like most early games for the DS/Wii, they added gimicky sections just for the sake of adding them. This fad has died off now, but it could return at any time… If you want to play Diddy Kong Racing at its best, avoid the DS version and hunt down the N64 copy, it has all of the gameplay we love with none of the tacked-on touchscreen hoop-jumping.
For those of you who have followed my seemingly random (and probably random, actually) exploits, thank you for following me this far.
Now, I know a blog post that advises someone to read something else is a little unusual, but here’s the thing – I’m going to be writing a lot that is very personal to me.
So, as always, where to begin with this update? Well, firstly I would like to announce that I am still working on Scrap Metal TCG – along with this, I have several other projects open that I am trying to divide my time between. Currently, I am actually looking to put together a “plan” on what needs to be completed and a rough date of when. It sounds ridiculously structured compared to my usual “I think I’ll do this bit next” attitude, right? But the thing is, in actuality, that I have bursts of creativity followed by nothing. So, the idea is to give myself a goal, targets to achieve, so that maybe someday I will be able to publish any of my works.
It’s incredibly frustrating to have creativity that comes in waves like this, to be honest. I could, for example, be heading into work for the day, and have one of those cartoon-style light bulb moments where everything makes sense, but for the following week I would just be staring at the work already completed trying to understand where I am in this chaos.
I also have other matters to contend to regarding works, which include my full-time job, babysitting of the balls of energy that are my niece and nephew, and on top of that I also suffer from depression. For those of you reading, you may think I buried the lead a little, there. But it is a difficult subject to talk about, and it is incredibly personal. Some days, I just sit and stare endlessly into nothing, my brain whirring away to come up with various reasons why I suck. There have been some very dark thoughts running through my mind over the last few months, but I will not discuss those further – they don’t deserve my attention or yours.
So what is the point of this post? Well, that’s just it – “what is the point”? It’s a question that I have asked myself so many times. But the point is to continue, and I know this. I need something structured to use for support, and working on projects and trying to become involved in “the world” once again. My tweets have dried up recently, and I’m no longer in a place (physically, and probably mentally) where I can make YouTube videos any further, and I’m in a job that drives me insane (but I’m surrounded by people that are amazing).
This is not a goodbye note, or a cry for help – this in my eyes is an explanation, but more than that it is me. I am rallying myself, collecting all of the pieces that are me, the thin end of the wedge that will pry apart this shell that has formed around me. I want to continue, and to be a success, as do millions of others in similar positions, so why should I let a few misplaced chemicals in my brain tell me what to do? Fuck those guys, they suck.
– Odd
Hyrule Warriors. Made by Koei Tecmo, the developers behind the Dynasty Warriors series, is a hack and slash battlefield-action game. So, it’s the same as Dynasty Warriors, but with a Legend of Zelda skin, right? Actually, no…
Admittedly, I haven’t played a Dynasty Warriors game for a few years, the last I played being Dynasty Warriors 6 Empires. It’s very similar in the base-game, being that you are given a map to fight in with several strategic properties, “keeps”, to capture as you advance towards the main objective of the map, which is usually to lure out and defeat a particular enemy. So, what’s the big deal? Continue Reading