Planet Sillicon

Christmas Shopping

By blog on Dec. 20, 2009.

I’m not a fan of crowds, which if you’ve read my blog you’d have been sure to notice by now, but when it’s this time of year, I’m more of a recluse than normal.

It’s so much better shopping online, so long as you know what you’re looking for and the good sites to buy from. Obviously it’s getting awfully close to Christmas now, so you’d have to make sure you can get express postage on anything you order, but this is good advice for any holiday season.

Most of us have a fairly good idea what to buy for the people we get gifts for, and don’t just head into a department store with no idea, but if you are a little stumped there are always lists online of what are considered good presents for men, women, and children.

Lets start then. If you want to get a man something you’ll know he’ll love, make it active! I’m a geek, but pretty much all of the gifts on Into the Blue appeal to me, and I’m guessing men in general as well as many women, making it a really great gift and time out together sharing in something really fun. Seriously, they’ll let you drive a tank… a tank! You can also go jetskiing, bungee jumping, and some old school falconry is available too!

Okay lets see now, often you’ll find yourself somewhat stumped as to what to get as a gift for your mother or such, and that can be annoying, but I like to check sites like this for gifts for women, because they’ll let you know what’s considered a good gift for a lady without you having to watch one jot of day-time TV.

If you’re not a parent, you can really have the same issue when trying to find gifts for any children you’ve got to buy for. I always research gifts for my nephews, it’s best to when buying Christmas presents for kids.

If you’ve no idea, then you can always drop by Amazon, they’ll have something that’s apt for nearly anyone! It’s saved my bacon a couple of times in the past with gifts for my family.

So there’s my shopping round-up, and don’t expect me to do anything like that again!

Unimpressed with Scribblenauts

By blog on Dec. 20, 2009.

For all the hype and brouhaha about this game before it came out, it really didn’t impress people as much as anyone had really expected.

It took quite a while before I actually bought and played the game after it was released back in October, in fact, I’d only played it from around mid November, so there was quite a lot of reviews out there at that point, though I didn’t really take much of a look at them, because I was still down with H1N1 and game reviews didn’t seem very important right then.

Anyway, IGN America gave the game 8.7 and IGN Australia gave it 8.5 but the metacritic score is 80, so in terms of IGN that would be an 8.0. I have to say, though, that even that score is, I think, somewhat overrated. Some sites rated the game as low as 50 (5.0) even though they did have good things to say about it.

The game’s controls are more than a little irritating, no, they are completely frustrating. There is no room for fine movements, you’re either running that little fellow full tilt across the screen, or jumping over the exact spot you want the little blighter to stand on, over and freaking over. It’s really annoying. Also, the range of items in the game is dramatically less than I had thought there was going to be with what developers had said about the game prior to release.

It’s also VERY annoying to type something in, and only have the last part of the word count. For instance, I wanted sleeping gas, so I input it, and rather than telling me that this item too wasn’t available, they gave me a little bit of gas. Hmmm, lame 5th Cell, lame.

Another thing that really bothered me about this game was that it was just way too easy. Ridiculously so in most cases. The only thing that made this game difficult was the poor controls, and that’s not a good thing, that’s a very bad thing.

Scribblenauts was touted as visionary, an extremely new and creative game, however as I played it I felt like I’d done it before. It’s like Crayon Delux but with cartoon visuals and pre-made items instead of being able to draw your own. So if you’ve thought about getting Scribblenauts, save your money and buy Crayon Delux for your PC. You’ll have more fun, more money in your pocket, and won’t want to snarl in frustration at the horrible controls.

But ghosts don’t leave tracks…

By blog on Dec. 20, 2009.

It occurred to me that the name of the new Zelda game, Spirit Tracks, was a little odd… I mean, ghosts don’t leave tracks… they can’t? In terms of the game it does make sense, but it’s also still a little humorous in my opinion.

I know, I know, I’ve got at least one rant around here somewhere about being annoyed with the upcoming Zelda game, that a train felt very limited compared to the boat seen in previous games, and yeah, I’d still prefer something else, but I’m actually enjoying the game nonetheless.

Okay so lets see, where to start… I know that some are frustrated that the controls remained the same and that you still have to control Link via the stylus, and I can see why, but apart from the occasional time where you only want to move a very small amount, I don’t mind the stylus controls. I like being able to tap items rather than have to run up to them and press ‘A’ and also like the sword control, so it doesn’t bother me really.

The story line is good old Zelda style; it’s nice to see that even though their ideas might not be my favourite, they still have the ‘Zelda’ knack of making the game enjoyable. Running around with Princess Zelda makes for a nice change from seeing her for a total of five minutes in the entire game, though she is a ghost the company is still refreshing. It’s a little reminiscent of Twilight Princess in that regard, I suppose. The dungeons are good but they are a little easy. I’d not needed to use either a potion or the ‘Song of Healing’ until the boss fight in the Snow Temple, so I do feel like the difficulty could stand to go up a bit.

The train rides are… well… irritating at times. They can be very tedious, unless you decide you’re going to treat it like the journey is as worthy as getting to the destination. Perhaps that’s an English thing, I’m not sure, but I do find that I have to have a certain mental approach to getting from place to place, lest I find myself becoming frustrated very quickly.

I like that Beedle is running around in a hot air balloon in this iteration, I’d thought he’d be on a train as well, though I can see that being a problem. I can’t stand the stupid ‘bad’ trains that run around in certain areas, purely because you never get the chance to fully blow them up with your cannon. All you can do is slow them down, and if they hit you, you go back to where you began your journey, and VERY irritating occurrence!

All in all it’s still a fun Zelda game, however I think the IGN rating on the game is a tad fanboyish, it’s a really fun game, don’t get me wrong, but I’m not sure if it deserves a 9.3 rating, perhaps a 9.0 would be more fitting? It’s hard to decide because the game really is extremely fun! I mean sure, it’s not that challenging, but it’s no slouch, either. It’s a super fun game and I’m going to stop blabbing about it here and go play the damn thing!

Oh, and I’m going to just say it here and now, I’m hoping there will be a third instalment in this DS series of Zelda games in which we get to travel around in a hot air balloon like Beedle, or perhaps an air ship.