Thursday 26 June 2008

A few more from the IOCT

So, in preparation for tomorrow's open day, I had a run through a few of the games the IOCT has for its other consoles.

Wii:
Super Mario Galaxy: So, other than a bit of Super Mario 64 back in he day, this is the first proper Mario game I've ever played (honestly, I was always more of a Sonic fan). I've gotta say this is one of the most fun games I've ever played. The controls feel really natural and it's a lot more comfortable than holding a standard controller. The concept of the game is great too. It really does interesting things with the concept of a platform game in a 3D environment. The changes in direction/orientation can get confusing at times, but it's still fun. Definitely a game that makes me wish I owned a Wii.

Xbox 360:

Ridge Racer 6: This game is horrible. While I'm not so great at racing games, I still usually find them enjoyable. This one isn't. The cars feel annoyingly slow. My car was apparently doing over 100mph, but it mostly felt more like I was doing 30. The handling is bad too. The slightest nudge of the analogue stick would just send my car into a skid. The music was horribly annoying and repetitive as well, with no way to change what was playing. All this annoyed me so much, I couldn't even be bothered to finish one race.

Perfect Dark Zero: As I've said before, I'm not a big fan of FPS games and this is no exception. My main gripe is the way the movement/camera controls work on a console. Somehow I always end up having no idea what I'm looking at or what direction I should be going in, etc. I much prefer a third-person view, as it means that when I need to be close to something, I don't have my view completely obscured. Other than my standard gripes about FPS games, it was quite a good game. The visuals on the 360 were great and the storyline was interesting. If it had been more of Tomb Raider style third-person game, I probably would've really enjoyed it.