‘Twas Brillig*

I’ve just stumbled across google’s embeddable maps feature - so I have to give it a go

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I haven’t mentioned what I’m playing recently, mainly because it’s all been a bit too obsessive. The main obsession is More Brain Training, but Civ fever has also reasserted itself.

I know I’m doing it wrong, but on the brain training front I’ve been switching on and doing a training task just to play Germ Buster (a stylus controlled version of Dr Mario). I’ve basically finished germ buster on hard - a point is reached where the pills are coming down so fast it seems pointless trying to control them. Now that’s over with I may get back to playing it more normally. The new training games in this version are pretty good, but I wish someone had thought about supplying different high score tables/graphs for the different modes with easy and hard modes - my graph for missing symbols looks ridiculous.

Civ is an odd experience, I love playing the game and can lose hours to it, but I am rubbish. I’ve yet to win a game, consistently coming second and being rated as having the leadership ability of Dan Quayle.

In the last few days I’ve started playing Stranger’s Wrath, a game that’s been in the “to play” pile for nearly two years. Gameplay wise it seems quite good, but I’m not convinced it will hold my attention for too long. What I really want is a good RPG.

Pokémon Diamond is going to be the game of choice on holiday; the eldest two are very excited about this, but I’ve never played any pokémon before - I helped one of them through parts of mystery dungeon, but that’s not the same. I’ve read some good reviews and this may provide my RPG fix - what I really would like is a DS equivalent of Baldur’s Gate, but I haven’t seen anything that fits the bill.

There is something pointless about playing Gauntlet when, instead of a pocketful of change, all that is needed to keep your character in good health is to keep pumping the Y button, but this was just what I wanted this evening. Mindless hack and slash at its best.

Robotron 2084 is one of the few games I ever spent serious money on at the arcade and the dual analogue sticks seem to make this a faithful emulation. When I was young a friend Mark Cowan had the daft idea that I ought to try writing a version of this on the BBC B. Since I didn’t know assembler and only knew BBC BASIC I didn’t try, but I sometimes wonder if I should have put the effort into learning 6502 assembly language - the most I ever wrote in assembly language was a dice rolling routine called by my version of Risk for the BBC B.

The plan was to go to bed after my last post, but Lucas followed Carla and another guy down into some tunnels and into a secret base of the homeless who have been keeping tabs on the Orange and Purple clans - the purple clan is a new clan consisting of AIs. Apparently Lucas has chroma powers (hence his visions) which came from an alien artifact on the secret base he was born and grew up on.

Lucas and Carla went to bed together - even though Carla must have known Lucas was dead (no breath, icy lips etc) - Eww! Flashback to the base and Lucas overheard a conversation with his parents and found out he was irradiated by the Chroma source when he was in the womb. Lucas and Carla went to the base - Lucas battled through the snow into the hanger, fought the AI (which was holding Jade), the Oracle turned up with Carla (threatening to kill her if Lucas didn’t hand over Jade), Lucas said no, Carla quickly overpowered the Oracle, grabbed his gun and shot him. Lucas, Carla and Jade enter the chroma source.

Finally an epilogue where we discover that Carla is pregnant and obviously the unborn child has been irradiated by the chroma source.

I’ve really enjoyed this game, but boy is it short. I feel it has some replay value since there are several points in the game where I felt I could have changed things - the cafe waitress could have made a better identikit, Tyler could have danced better with Sam (his girlfriend), Tyler could have let Sam go to Florida on her own and in loads of conversations I could have made other choices.

Carla controlled her fears and escaped the asylum. Lucas, pretending to be a freelance journalist, met a Mayan professor and found out about the Oracle and his own role as an executor. Some how the professor dies and the Oracle took Lucas to the Other World where he had to run away from a black panther - only to be saved by Agatha. There was then a scene with the Orange clan followed by Lucas trying to escape from Carla and Tyler whilst informing Markus that the Oracle was in his church and he needed to hide. Lucas then received a phone call from the Oracle leading him to attempt rescueing Tiffany from the top of a roller coaster.

Next up was a sequence where Lucas and Markus sneak into the Hanger on the military base to find it’s secret although what the secret is wasn’t revealed. More exposition from the Oracle and the clan. At some point Tyler left with his girlfriend on a train to Florida. Carla and Lucas then met by Tiffany’s grave and go together to find Jade (the Indigo Child - who apparently has the next ten thousand years of human history resting on her shoulders). Lucas escaped the Oracle only to eventually hand Jade over to Agatha - who turned out to be something nasty…

Lucas managed to get into the warehouse and save Markus and two of his friends. Carla and Tyler had a fight in the gym’s ring. Carla tried to find a file in the basement and Tyler went searching for clues in a very strange bookshop. Lucas went to the house of a strange old lady called Agatha. Carla had a go on the shooting range trying to pump a cop for information. Tyler thrashed a fellow cop Jeffrey at one on one basketball. Lucas had a bizarre experience where is flat broke apart and he had to avoid the pieces (of course it was all in his head).

Tyler and Carla worked out that a scrap of paper found in a book came from Lucas’s bank. Tyler interrogated Lucas at the bank (Lucas didn’t do too well at this). Lucas went back to Agatha’s house and discovered she had been killed and the police are on the way. Tyler had a dance with his SO and Carla linked some clues to Lucas. A murder with the same MO happened at a laundry. Lucas had to fight his way from police at his apartment, including dodging bullets, hanging onto a helicopter and an incredible jump onto a tanker. Carla and Tyler then calmed down their captain. Lucas, hiding out at his brother’s church, had an encounter with some angel like figures and had to escape (again it was all in his head). Carla and Tyler investigated the laundry murder. Lucas sneaked into his girlfriends apartment, had some food, talked to his girlfriend and hid in the wardrobe while the police searched the place.

Carla has visited a murderer called Janos with the same MO in an asylum and the electricity has just gone out…

I know I really need to finish some games instead of starting another one, but Fahrenheit was six quid in Asda and I just had to buy it . The idea was I’d just put it in to have a quick look and leave it for later, but so far it is really good.

The basic premise is I am filming a movie and have to direct a selection of characters - so far a murderer and two police officers. The murderer is trying to find out why he did it and the police are trying to catch him (surprisingly ). Along the way I have to pick up clues and keep everybody sane. A lot of the time the way of keeping people from getting too depressed is by performing seemingly simple tasks, for instance quickly pressing L and R alternately or performing simon like games with the two thumbsticks.

I’m not really sure where the story is going yet, but the murderer seems to have some sought of pregognitive ability and at the moment I am trying to sneak onto an army base to save his brother when he was a child.

Psychonauts has been on my wishlist for ages now and at only £7.99 in Morrisons I had to buy it. I’ve only just started but so far it looks good.

Now the Xbox is working again I can continue with fable, in the last couple of days I have completed the following missions:

Kill the White Balverine

Frankly this wasn’t to hard, lots of button mashing.

Fight in the Arena

Wow, amazingly hard - I didn’t need any resurrection vials, but I did need huge numbers of health potions.

Break the Siege

Killing lots of bandits - not that hard.

Marry Lady Grey

I doubt this was necessary, but my character is now married to Lady Grey - I had to buy a house and then…

Defeat Thunder

…which wasn’t very difficult either.

Hobbe Cave

Ventured into a cave to rescue a lost boy, along the way I rescued a bandit who helped me get the though the mass of Hobbes - thankfully they didn’t seem to like my fire spells.

Find the Lost Trader

Easy

Rescue the Archaeologist

Ouch this was hard - particularly the finish a section in five minutes at the end.