Mondaily Update

For the flock!

This weekend was a busy one in gaming and out. I played a bunch on my Windows Phone to get the weekend started. Mostly Angry Birds, for the reasons I stated in the last Fridaily Update. I've managed to get halfway through the second episode while three starring each level. It's been going smoothly enough, seeing as I've been using Youtube videos to guide me through each level and get those coveted stars. As I've mentioned before Angry Birds was never something that I found incredibly entertaining. While it's fun enough to play a level or two, after that I get bored and increasingly annoyed with trying over and over to get a 3 star score. The fact that you don't even have any idea if the way you're approaching the level can result in three stars or not isn't my idea of a good time.

After having enough of Angry Birds I put some time in with iStunt 2 again. These games are quite different yet I get a very similar experience from them both. I think it's because of the achievements I'm aiming for at the moment in both, getting 3 star ratings in the first 3 Angry Birds episodes and collecting all the stars in the first two iStunt 2 packs. Both require multiple trial and error runs before finding out how you're able to achieve all the stars. iStunt 2 is a very different game however, with you tilting your phone left and right to rotate your snowboarder in order to land jumps and other stunts. I'm enjoying iStunt 2 slightly more than Angry Birds, but I'll be very happy when I finally finish both of them.

After spending most of my Saturday gaming on my Windows Phone and it subsequently whinging about having a low battery, I turned to my trusty Xbox 360 once more. After scrolling through my slowly diminishing XBLA games list Zeit² caught my eye. Zeit² has been sitting there quietly at the end of my games list for a while now. I'm not the biggest fan of these types of shooters but it had been discounted to a very reasonable price a while back and I couldn't help myself. I have seen a bunch of friends complete it relatively easily so I decided I'd tackle it myself.

Zeit² throws a hell of a lot your way, and quick too!

Zeit² has a trick up it's sleeve, you can rewind time, and the game requires you to use this and use it often. It took me a little while before I wrapped my head around the tactics  something like this opens up to you but eventually I felt like I had a decent grasp of them. I was wrong, Zeit² keeps adding and adding features right up until the final boss, barely giving you time to come to grips with any of them. Eventually I muddled my way through it, only barely knowing what I was doing at any given time. The achievements and game are easy to get through, but if you want to spend the time I think there is a lot here you could master.

After Zeit², I was contacted about playing some Zombie Apocalypse: Never Die Alone by a couple of friends. As I have been looking for a group to get the Epic Run 4 player achievement for a long while now so I jumped at the chance. Everything went smoothly and about an hour later everyone grabbed their achievement and thanks to King Plug, The Dark Liege and Chilli Thunder I have one more completion! You can expect reviews covering Zeit² and Zombie Apocalypse: NDA in coming weeks.

That's the weekend in gaming, this update is long enough already but I'll continue for just a little longer. Friday night we went to see Oblivion, the new Tom Cruise science fiction epic, and I have to say I quite enjoyed it. The group I saw it with had a different opinion but I thought this was the first time I had seen a real Sci-Fi movie in what seems like forever. Most Sci-Fi these days seems like it's just there as a setting for an action film but this one seemed different. It had some action to be sure but most of it was just good old fashioned, I hesitate to use the word but, slowburn Sci-Fi. Then came Saturday and the girlfriend had signed me up to run the 5 km Stampede fun run event in Perth. I wasn't exactly thrilled at the idea but it was a fun and messy time. After sloshing through mud and maneuvering through obstacles I was dead tired, but wouldn't hesitate to do it again.