Ben – Page 16 – This is a Game Blog

Hunter Hunted

Far Cry 3 • PlayStation 3

Not a lot of time for achievement hunting this morning, so I picked up FC3 with the hope that maybe I would be able to quickly score the ‘Rebel with a Cause’ trophy for liberating three outposts (I’ve already done one!), or the ‘Fearless or Stupid’ trophy for diving 60m (sounds easy enough, right?). Instead, I quickly thought I’d be able to knock a mission or two on the head, and I went off hunting for a woman and her lover somewhere just outside the starting village. Sure enough, her partner had been mauled to death by a Komodo dragon, and me with only a few bullets left, had to run to the nearby car to mow-down the dragons. Shortly after, this trophy popped, which was a pleasant surprise – and helped me meet quota for an otherwise flat-out Tuesday!

Apprentice Cashier

Crazy Market • PlayStation Vita

Other than the monthly free games you get with PlayStation Plus, I was a bit surprised to find this little arcade romp in the PlayStation Store for the princely sun of $0.

The idea? Take an item from the conveyer belt, scan it, place it back on the conveyer belt. It’s a fairly simple little game, and the first few levels are easy enough to obtain the ‘Perfect’ score.

If you paid more than a dollar for this game on your smart phone, you’d probably be OK with it, but to charge for this on something as powerful as the Vita would be offensive. Well done to Sony for pitching this at the right level, sucking it up, and giving us all a little something for nothing.

1st Division

Flick Kick Football • iOS

Take one ball, one finger, and half a soccer team, then there’s a strong likelihood that someone is gonna get lucky! The alternative, of course, is that you’re playing Flick Kick Football, which is what I did this morning. A great little mindless game, which probably wouldn’t work on a train ride, but on a lazy Sunday when you can keep fairly still, this is a treasure trove of quick-and-dirty achievements.

Certified Pilot

Flight Control Rocket • iOS

I enjoyed the first Flight Control, it was a great little game that made me feel patriotic when you saw the Flying Doctor level, and it was good, mindless fun.

Flight Control Rocket kind of takes that theme, ramps it up a few notches and then throws you in the deep end, with a fresh sci-fi coat of paint. I have found it much harder to get into than the original, but I am sure that there are lovers of the concept who will be thankful this game doesn’t move in baby steps.

I also seemed to have picked up an achievement for inviting three Origin friends to play. I don’t think I’ve even got three Origin friends, so I have no idea how that works, but thankfully there are enough real achievements to keep you going for a little while.

Pro

Flow Free • iOS

I did a hunt around my iPhone’s Game Centre last night, looking for a few quick-and-dirty games that I could play in the middle of the night or when it was socially inappropriate to whip-out the Vita. I found a few (which all had achievements), so you will probably see them pop-up on here over the next few weeks.

The first game I tackled was called Free Flow, and involves essentially connecting multiple sets of two dots together over a square grid, using all the spaces in the grid along the way. It’s a fun, mindless game, but it wasn’t until I hit the 7×7 boards that I hit some stumbling blocks, but none that couldn’t be quickly resolved by a few restarts.

Microtransactions aren’t as in-your-face as what, say, EA tends to do, but they appear to be an added option for extra gameplay levels. If the game was hard enough perhaps, then this would add some better depth, but considering I’ve finished 100 levels in about 20 minutes playing time, I think I’ll keep my money where it is, thanks.

I Smell A Rat

Jak 3 • PlayStation Vita

I finished Rayman Origins this morning and endured a lengthy credits session in the hope that I would get a ‘Game Complete’ trophy, but nothing popped up and I was left a little unsatisfied. I think achievements and trophies should have a nice mix of easy, average and hard, but, most certainly, you should get something for knocking a game on the head. I understand there is a trophy for battling some final boss that pops up once you get all the skeleton teeth, but the game was dragging on a bit and my enthusiasm was wearing thin.

So, with Rayman over, I was a bit stumped with what to play. I didn’t really have anything new downloaded onto the Vita, and that New Little Kings story just makes me want to punch myself in the face, so I launched the third of the Jak and Daxter series to see if Naughty Dog could entertain me.

While I moderately enjoyed the first Jak game (‘The Precursor Legacy’) the second game left me pretty frustrated wandering around town, so I was fairly annoyed to see the same environment – albeit in the desert – at the start of this game. The open-ended gameplay doesn’t really work in this series, and I quickly get lost, frustrated and bored trying to navigate my way around the map.

I figured that this is the first trophy for the game, running around on the back of a llama-type creature and collecting seven rats around the desert town. It wasn’t fun, and I struggled to get to the end of the challenge, but I did it because I had nothing else lined up on my trophy to-do list. Jak 3 isn’t great, but I may pursue it a little longer, hoping that there is some redeeming qualities about the game further down the track.

First Blood

Far Cry 3 • PlayStation 3

I did a play through of FC3 Blood Dragon a few months ago and loved it, so I had fairly mixed emotions about starting Far Cry 3. For all-intents-and-purposes, I thought FC2 was a shambles. Characters felt clunky, the story didn’t quite hit the Joseph Conrad level of mastery that they were shooting for, and the gun play was frustrating at best (and just downright crap the other 99% of the time), so I wanted to see where on the spectrum this third instalment fell.

It’s only early days yet, but already it feels better. Character controls feel heavier (which is a good thing) and the environment and character development/story already has me hooked. This trophy popped about 20 minutes into the game, which was about all the time I had for today, but that was enough to whet my appetite for more!

TP Industries Arms Race

Grand Theft Auto V • PlayStation 3

I am a little bit spoilt for choice at the moment, with Far Cry 3 lined up to play, along with Flight Control Rocket on my phone – both with easy first-level achievements, so I am chipping away at some of the ancillary jobs in GTA V, along with my commute with Rayman Origins. Both have no real ‘easy reach’ achievements for me at this stage, so when one comes along I’m going to post about it.

I had played some of Trevor’s ‘arms race’ missions in the middle of my story game, simply because I love flying. I missed planes in GTA IV, instead making regular trips to the Helitours pad, stealing a chopper and heading a few blocks north to take the armed police equivalent. It’s been a bit the same in GTA V – this time with the military base, as I try, repeatedly, to steal a fighter jet. I’ve managed it a couple of times, but by-and-large I am usually consumed by a blazing inferno of military justice (read: a tank) when I get within a couple of feet. It looks like the military in San Andreas have a ‘spare no expense’ approach when it comes to preventing the theft of your $50 million aircraft.

This morning I polished off what looked to be the last of these ‘arms race’ missions, though the plane was still available to deliver guns after I had finished, so I assume that this is an option for cash-strapped players in the end-game. I tried to steal the plane just so I could go for a quick joy flight before work, but it looks like I’ll have to settle for a trophy instead.

Criss Cross

Assassins Creed III • PlayStation 3

Now that I’ve got my gaming life back, I’ve returned to one of the Assassins Creed series and what I believe to be the final in the Desmond Miles trilogy (I can’t confirm that – I’m still only in the early stages of the game). This morning’s trophy was for the first in the ‘modern day’ chapters, which saw Desmond, essentially, climb a building under construction in New York and then … jump off it.

I’ve been a big fan of AC since I first stepped into Altair’s shoes six years ago, yet I couldn’t really connect with Ezio during AC2 and the subsequent expansions. A bit frustrating, given Ubisoft dedicated so much time to the Ezio story, but I am finding the same equal lack of connection with Conner in AC3 – the difference is that I don’t have another two titles with the Conner story to wade through.

The upgraded engine makes AC3 a much ‘richer’ (?) game to play, and the fantastic opening with Haytham is a lead that future game storytelling should take. I have another ‘three’ title sitting in my to-do list in Far Cry 3, so there should be a bit of variety in my gameplay coming up … interspliced with a bit of Grand Theft Auto V, of course.

To Live or Die in Los Santos

Grand Theft Auto V • PlayStation 3

Finishing a game is always satisfying. Finishing Grand Theft Auto V (the story at least) is life-changing. I mean that. Since September 17 I have tried to squeeze in some GTA whenever I had the chance, now it just all seems like I have my life back and I can return to Los Santos whenever the mood grabs me.

The other day, I talked about earning a trophy just after midnight with Rayman. I didn’t even have to pad the game out, as I finished the final mission overlooking the Blaine County scenery as the clock struck twelve. I’m paying for it in an unsettled night with the baby. For the record, it’s totally worth it. I went with the commonly accepted ‘C’ ending, as I wanted to continue my Los Santos journey with all three of my main characters (for those who haven’t played – endings A and B end with Michael or Trevor dead, respectively).

I am not sure if the trophy relies on system time, or if it ‘pings’ a server for the correct time, so there’s a possibility that this one might be in my trophy list at a little after 11pm Saturday thanks to daylight savings time. I don’t care … I have ‘finished’ the latest in the GTA franchise and I’m feeling pretty darn good about it too. But just in case you aren’t happy with that, I went and picked up an easy achievement in Thomas Was Alone on PC as well (I’ve got them all on the Vita anyway).