Tom Fotherby’s Blog

XBox360, FPS,9/10 - September 2007

I waited for Edge Magazine to review Halo 3 and was surprised they gave it a 10/10 which only 5 other games have got since it was first published in 1993. An Edge 10/10 basically dictated I had to play it. so, we bought an XBox 360 (i.e. Basically Halo 3 cost me £300) and it was worth every penny.

There’s constant action that builds and builds throughout the game. There’s no waiting for loading and the graphics are the best I’ve ever seen. The events that happen and the scale they happen on are breathtaking.

I wouldn’t say it feels different to Halo 1 or 2 but at the same time, I’m not sure it should be called Halo 3 - it should be called Halo 5 because the developers seem to have put MUCH more work into it than merits a single increment version change. I’m trying to imagine what would happen if Halo 1 and 2 had never come out and this was the first Halo game. I think everyone would worship it like nothing before, however it has to lose a point for not feeling all that original.

Some of my favourite additions since Halo 2: Grunts with Jet packs, new vehicles, being able to use the grunt hammer, the flame thrower, deployable cover, marines being able to drive you about, Even better enemy AI, larger playing fields, being able to shoot down covenant spaceships.

I’m not really into games that much any more, but Halo 3 is an exception. How could anyone not be into it?

I’m a fan of happy endings

Wii,Microgame,5/10 - March 2007
This crazy game is perfectly suited for getting to know the Wii. It is designed around thinking of all the different ways the Wiimote can be used. Each level is split into 5 second long microgames which begin with asking you hold the Wiimote in a certain way. The main challenge of each minigame is to figure out what you are supposed to do within the time frame. For example: your asked to hold the Wiimote like a pencil, then shown a picture of a pencil and a sharper and the clock starts ticking - You have to work out that your supposed to twissle the Wiimote around to sharpen the pencil. If successfull, you’re quickly moved onto the next challenge.

Other microgame examples include flying a paper airplane, driving a car, slicing a piece of bamboo, balancing a stick, sorting objects into piles, etc. The image shows a game where you have to balance a stick by moving the Wiimote forwards or backwards or side to side.

Beware, the storyline is totally nuts.

Wii,Sports,7/10 - April 2007

Wii Sports comes bundled with the Wii console - It has Tennis, Bowling, Boxing, Baseball and Golf.

It is completely amazing how intuitive it is to use the Wiimote to play the game. You really don’t need to explain the controls to a new-comer, whether they are 6 or 56.

I’m not a fan of the boxing, golf or baseball but the bowling and tennis are ace. Playing 4 player tennis is hilarious. You don’t control the movement of the players, instead you have to master your swing. Timing is most important, then the angle of the bat when you hit the ball. Hit early to play cross court, or wait till the ball is almost past you to push it down the line. Becoming accurate takes practice because the play is quite subtle. For example, you can even put spin on the ball by twisting the wiimote as you hit the ball.

Good exercise? No, but better than other tennis games I guess.

Game Cube,Bongo Rythm,8/10 - February 2007

An excellent game where you have to drum to the beat of on-screen music. A yellow dot means left, a red dot means right, a pink dot means both and a splash mark means clap. There’s 3 difficulty levels which have the same songs but different beat speeds. It’s a fun game and really fulfilling when you realise your improving enough to complete levels that seemed impossible when you first tried. It’s definitely an active and noisy game - can be quite tiring and gives you sore hands after clapping for ages.

Favourite song: 99 Red Balloons.

DS,Battle Racing,9/10 - January 2006

This is my first WIFI game. What this means is I can play 3 other REAL people from anywhere in my house. They might be in America, Europe, Mongolia, it doesn’t matter, what matters is that they are a so much more worthy and fun opponent than a AI simulation. It’s totally magic and doesn’t cost a penny. Admittedly, I have played against a few people who switch their gameboy off if they are about to lose - a pox on their character.

As for the single player part, I don’t think any Mario Kart fan could be disappointed, it’s exactly want you’d expect. There are the normal three engine sizes (50cc, 100cc and 150cc) with 16 new race tracks and 16 classic race tracks from the previous Mario kart games (SNES, N64 and the Gamecube). Nintendo brought back the ability to make your kart ‘hop’ when power-sliding round corners (or to get more height from jumps). Plus there’s the spark-boost from the Gamecube version where you can boost from staying in someone’s slipstream long enough. It’s a must have DS game.

Toms Killer App Award! - The reason to own a DS

XBox,FPS,6/10 - September 2005

Good simple FPS fun. I say simple because you can’t jump, not a bad thing but a bit old-fashioned. There is a entertaining selection of characters (ninja monkey anyone?) including brilliant undead creatures to mess around with. On the character selection screen, each character performs a move when they are selected and I liked going through each one and seeing what they did. Extra characters are unlocked as you complete levels (one of the reasons why I completed the game).

Jumping around time allows for great variety of levels and weapons and cool storylines involving having to protect your past-self or working together with different instances of yourself. Cortez is a dude. multi-player and co-op mode help the game to tick the box’s you expect from £35 now-a-days.

DS,Platform,5/10 - July 2005

This game is a classic platform beat-em-up. Same old formula, mass-produced so it comes out at the same time as the films. But it is quite well done, with a good use of buttons, a bit of character progression, interesting moves and a nice level of difficulty. It also has a few bonus levels of mildly entertaining spaceship flying and two different game paths for Jedi and Sith. Unfortunately the game didn’t explore any of the DS’s features such as microphone, dual screen or stylus.

DS,Puzzle,5/10 - June 2005

The control mechanism relies purely on the stylus and so demonstrates how quirky and different the DS is from other handhelds. It’s a fresh and original game (if-by-game-I-mean two mini games). The first game see’s baby Mario falling from the sky on the top screen and you have to draw a line of clouds on the bottom screen which, when he gets to them, will guide him down a safe path and earn maximum points. The second game involves you protecting Yoshi while he carries baby Mario home over wasp swarms, crevasses and mine fields etc.

One cool feature is that to dissipate any clouds that you have drawn you can blow into the microphone. YOU CAN LITTERALY BLOW CLOUDS AWAY! Another cool feature is that you can draw circles and, if they are circular enough, create bubbles to capture objects.
The game feels like a DS technology demo. It interested and assumed me but I wasn’t addicted.

XBox,Strategy Combat,7/10 - April 2005

Think pokemon meets street fighter. This is strategy combat where it’s tactics and planning that win a battle rather than button mashing. Collect mana orbs, cast creature spells, magic spells, enhancement spells; try to do all of this and still evade your opponent’s attacks.

I got to the pen-ultimate level and found it just too hard. The single player mode is just a long tutorial really but I’ve never felt good enough to try battleing online players (I imagine it’d be awesome). It’s a bit of a cult game but my girlfriends little brother and I love quoting Magic monsters at each other, we take it in turn to call out “Goblin sky ranger”, “Giant Growth”, “Magma Giant”, “Rushwood Elemental”, etc.

XBox,Adventure,9/10 - January 2005

This game has the most flexibility and scope that I’ve ever come across. To give you a clue about how varied the objects in the game are, you can buy “tofu”. Have you ever seen tofu in a game before? You can get married and divorced, dig, fish, get haircuts, tatoos, all sorts. It’s a lush environment that brings about the desire to explore and mess around as much as clocking the levels. My favourite bit was the gladiators arena which was filled with atmosphere. I thought the length was a perfect 10 hours but the storyline failed to deliver after a promising start.

XBox,First Person Shooter,7/10 - September 2004

Friends ask me what’s the difference between Halo 1 and 2. Halo 2 has more vehicles and the marines can now drive them, you can hold 2 weapons, you get to be a Covernent soldier and thats about it. Except that the multiplayer mode has been boasted with XBox LIVE which looks like fun. With all the hype about Halo 2, I can’t understand why there’s such major graphics glitches in all the cut-scenes? Textures pop-in about a second after many of the scenes start!

XBox,Battle Racing,9/10 - July 2004

Go Fast and Hit Stuff. This game introduced a great form of driving combat which I first saw in “destruction derby”. You get to knock opponent cars off the track! The levels manage to vary greatly and the game gives the best impression of speed that I’ve seen so far. I played 50 hours of this game, it’s just Fab!

GBA,Turn-based strategy,9/10 - March 2004

This is a tweeked version of Advanced Wars 1 with the introduction of interesting defensive buildings such as canons, missles and lasers. There is also the new NeoTank which expains why the strong tanks of AW1 were only called “Medium” Tanks.

The game is set at a perfect level of difficulty even though the setting is fixed (meaning I don’t have to feel like a wuss for setting it on “easy”). I must admit finding the tips you get when you are defeated quite helpful (I sometimes purposly yield just to get the tips). The enemy AI is well balanced so you get the rewarding feeling that your outsmarting it (but I get the impression it could kick my arse if it really tried). There’s quite a few times in the game where you get overwhelmed but manage to win the battle by sneeking round the back and destroying the objective. One variable which helps give the game flexiblity is the CO powers allowing for different tactics to try out. Great game.

XBox,Rally Driving,7/10 - January 2004

I’m into racing games like burnout and as a consequence I initially found Colin Mcrae impossibly slow and difficult due to it’s realism - It simulates the driving of a real rally car so well that you have to be an expert rally driver.

The reason I stuck at it was because codemasters were running a competition to win a 10000 pound Citroen Xsara car. Australia Stage 1 is now ingrained in my brain. I must have played the track 500 times to get my time of 258.333, sliding over the bridge in the Peugeot 205 using manual gearbox and the analog stick for gradual acceleration and breaking. Brake as late as possible but don’t floor it half way through a corner . Get the power on gently, any sideways driving or wheelspinning might look cool but it slows you down dramatically. Keep the back of the car under control and avoid wheelspin whenever possible. I could dictate the co-drivers comments. Competing for the prize was an awesome experience even if I only ended up 20th. I got a pretty good glimpse of the games depth but can you imagine how deep the competition winners went? I’ll answer for you - No - this game has depth that only hundreds of hours of play reveal.

XBox,Flight shoot-em-up,4/10 - December 2003

This game reminded me of “star fox” on the N64 but with considerably more complex controls and hugely stunning visuals. The graphics are why I got this game, I wanted to see what an XBox was capable of and the weird alien landscapes provide a good jaw dropping demonstration.

The game is a typical battle-your-way-to-the-boss-and then-find-the-bosses-weakness type of game but to avoid health reduction you need to understand a view things. Firstly you need to learn that you can boost backwards and forwards to circle around a boss so when his weapon faces you, you boost to a different side. Then your need to learn how to morph to the correct dragoon depending on whether you need speed, firepower or the lock-on ability. I can appreciate the depth the game has on it’s gendre but I didn’t find it very engaging. I managed to get to level 10 and kill the final 3 bosses but I didn’t follow the trippy storyline and I won’t play it again.