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Friday, August 12, 2005

Random Gaming Comments 1

Yesterday, despite a mountain of more important things to be doing, I found myself flitting between several games. I bought the heavily recommended Darwinia when it released a while back, aware that I wouldn’t be able to play it for a while but wanting to give Introversion my cash straight away. I finally installed it last night, still with no time to properly play it but I couldn’t resist firing it up. Loved the intro sequence, especially the SID-style music. A nice “world map” and gentle intro level as well.

I also got my hands on a copy of Star Trek: Birth Of The Federation, which is a five year old turn based strategy game in the mould of Imperium Galactica II. I was quite a big Star Trek fan as a young teenager and this was one game that always appealed to me, even after I’d gone through that phase. As with IGII, BOTF (abbreviation frenzy!) takes a while to get used to all the details of basic operations. I started playing as the Federation and then spent hundreds of turns with only three systems under my control as the empire borders hugged close to my home planet. It took me quite some time to relearn the basic principle of games likes this – build up your production facilities first so that building things doesn’t take you an entire evening! I also seem to be rather inept at the basics of diplomacy, but never mind.

In stark contrast to the two strategy titles I found myself knocking about with Marvel vrs Capcom 2 and Burnout 3 on my Xbox. I needed to unlock as much as possible for Friday evening (tonight) in anticipation of some multiplayering. Long story short, I finally found myself able to enjoy MvC2 as I gradually got used to the insane controls & tactics required to actually win. Burnout 3 continues to bring me joy, though races are tending to be a bit more fun than crashes at the moment. As pointed out in the latest Edge magazine’s preview of Burnout: Revenge, the power-ups tend to make crash junctions a join-the-dots affair, with run after run engaged in to try and hit all the best points. Oh well, let the carnage continue.

Posted by Alex Hopkinson @ 1:59 PM

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