A few games I've played lately

I'm very aware that no-one reads this blog, but decided that in the interests of my future self I should make an effort to record some of the things that go through my head while I'm playing certain games. Actually these are more like the thoughts that go through my head shortly after I've finished playing games, seeing as I'm writing them now and not while I have a joypad in my hands...

I recently bought a Wii, and along with it a raft of new games to play. Also, having just finished university, I figured now was a good time to buy a new PC in order to do more "work", and of course by work I mean play new games at their most beautiful.

On the Wii side of things I have really enjoyed Mario Galaxy 2, Zack and Wiki, and Red Steel 2.


I'm not going to say anything that hasn't already been said 100 times about Galaxy 2.

• It's probably the best platformer I've ever played
• The variety of the levels is outstanding, and even if something is repeated later in the game, it still feels fresh
• The worlds you get to explore are amazing, and the way gravity is used is inspirational.

Zack and Wiki is a great puzzle adventure to play though. It has elements of the old Lucas-Arts games, with the point/click and the humour, but at the same time feels brand new and original. It's quite unlike anything else on the Wii, and while the later puzzles are fiendishly difficult, at no point did I feel like giving up as solving them was too much fun. It may look like it's for kids, but the puzzles are certainly geared more towards teenagers and up.

It's a while since I played a puzzle game that really made solving it so enjoyable. If you can avoid looking at walkthroughs and persist in solving the puzzles yourself, it's one of the most satisfying games you'll play in a long time.

I probably enjoyed this game as much as I did because it was so different to the two above. After spending hours bopping Goombas and solving puzzles, running around with a Katana and a pistol, killing ninjas, was a nice change. The story was fairly poor, but as a means to an end it worked fine, and was more than made up for by the motion controlled sword fighting. While the sword fighting is a long way from 1:1 action, and rather substitutes gestures for buttons, it's still a great way to play, and you do get out of breath after a long battle. I enjoyed the exploration aspect, and while the upgrade system is fairly basic, learning new moves and techniques certainly kept the game feeling fresh even after hours of combat. 

Handpainted Mill

I decided that I needed to improve my texturing, without using photographs as a base like I usually do.

Having recently played through Torchlight I had a good idea of what I wanted to make, a building in the same style as you see in that game.

After a bit of googling I thought it would be fun to make a small fantasy mill with a water-wheel on the side, so I did.

I did all the textures in Photoshop using my tablet and the model is about 600 polygons. I'm pleased with it, and have certainly improved by doing it.