April 2018 PS Plus Goodies!

I have to admit I'm finding it hard to be excited about this month's offerings, which is partly why it has taken me so long to blog about it.  There are a few family friendly ones here (and Mad Max, which I am more excited about, because I'm a sucker for post-apocalyptic stuff).  The two that are probably best for family fun are Toy Home and Trackmania.

Toy Home (PEGI-3) has the dubious honour of being the '83rd best game of 2007' on Metacritic (there are 95 games reviewed from that year).  It looks like a PS2 game in places, which is perhaps unsurprising since it's an early release PS3 game.  But there are far better looking games that were released that year, like Motorstorm and Dirt (and that's if we're only thinking of racing games).  I'm confused as to why, out of all the PS3 games that exist, Sony are giving this away!  Ok, so it's kind of fun for a bit (you drive with Sixaxis), but it's not amazing.

I might be being more negative than I need to be (Seb did seem to be enjoying this for a few minutes) , but when thinking about games where you're a toy car driving around in various rooms I measure all things against Micro Machines on the Amiga.  :-)

The other racing game then is Trackmania.  Although this is rated PEGI-3, it is HARD.  Fun but horribly HARD.  I doubt any 3 year old would cope with it - and despite my negativity, they WOULD cope with Toy Home.  (Incidentally Metacritic says it was the 56th best game of 2016, though they have 357 games in the list for 2016, so that's better than it sounds.)  Something Seb might enjoy, though we haven't tried it yet, is the track editor.  He loves games where you can build levels.

This month there's also In Space We Brawl (PEGI-7), 99Vidas (PEGI-12) and Q*Bert Rebooted (PEGI-3).

Fast internet is here!!!

We upgraded our broadband, much excitement in the house!  :-D

I'm just perplexed as to how Plusnet are charging us less per month for the privilege..!! 

A Boy Made of Blocks

Just thought I'd mention that this book by Keith Stuart, A Boy Made of Blocks, is currently only 99p on Kindle.  It's a fantastic story about a boy, his dad, Minecraft and Autism.  Generally described as 'heartwarming', I heartily recommend it!

Just started watching - Paul Soares Jr

This guy's a recent edition to our evening family YouTube watching - Paul Soares Jr.  Apparently he started in 2010 with Minecraft tutorial videos (he was one of the first Minecraft YouTubers).  He certainly has impressive Minecraft credentials - he even co-wrote the official Minecraft: Essential Handbook.  

These days he plays lots of games (such as Stardew Valley, PixArk and Subnautica).  I like him because he's professional, grown up and completely clean, language wise.  So though his videos may not be about typical kids games, they're great for watching as a family.  I wonder if it's because he's older?  Plus he's a Dad who plays games with his son, so perhaps the family side of things led him to make 'clean' videos.  I know I harp on about the language side of things, but I wish more YouTubers could be like this!

Recently he started a series on a game called PC Building Simulator.  This should probably be the most boring thing to watch in the world (you're basically watching someone fix broken PCs in a game - blowing dust out of computer cases, connecting cables, buying RAM and fitting it), but I find it strangely compelling.  I'm not sure Seb and Dad like it as much, but they watch it with me!  Dad likes to criticise the game since he worked in IT for years.  Likewise Paul Soares seems to be enjoying it partly because it brings back memories of fixing other people's PCs for a job.

Anyway, this guy's definitely worth a watch.  Entertaining viewing for the whole family and no nasty surprises...

Ramble - Problems with old mobile games!

I don't know about you, but I find it hard to discover great mobile games.  Perhaps this is one of the reasons we've been going back to old mobile games like 'Where's my Water?' (2011), and more recently 'Plants vs. Zombies' (2009).  I don't know if there's a way app stores can be improved to make discoverability better.  To be honest the PS Store is not great, either...  Anyway, since we've been introducing Seb to 'old' mobile games, this set me thinking.

There was an article in April's Edge Magazine (issue 317) about the topic of old iOS games.  These days we don't play iOS games.  We used to have an iPod Touch; these days we're all Samsung Galaxies.  But Android games have the same issues, and indeed different ones (there are so many different spec phones/tablets you could be using, for instance, even before you take into account the version of Android it has).

The article says that in the year 2010 Edge published a list of the top 50 mobile games on iPhone and iPod Touch.  Of those 50, only 10 can still be bought or downloaded today.  Considering that this is the 50 best games available then, you might think that those would be more likely to survive.  If they're that good, there's no reason people wouldn't still be downloading them today.  A lot of people have never played them; a lot of people have grown up in those 8 years!  The disappeared games involve big hitters like Bejeweled 2 (released 2004).  If giant companies are unable to 'fix' their games there's little hope for the Indie people.

According to Edge, another issue with iOS is not only the OS changing, but the increased number of iOS devices that need to be supported (still less than the Android problem, but not good if you went into iOS because it was simpler).  And big technology jumps like the move to 64-bit can be a massive problem.

Obviously games being incompatible with things is not a new thing.  I remember loving my Amiga because things always worked, the same with my PlayStations.  With PCs you had all sorts of daft issues like games being incompatible with graphics/sound cards.  (A veritable minefield!)  But now with Steam and modern Windows games do seem to work better and survive longer.  I look back at games like  Blade Runner (released 1997), now lost to the mists of time, with sadness.  Boy, I loved that game.  And thankfully many of the old classics are coming back.  (Though I hate rebuying things for the millionth time - and I have issues with PlayStations not being backwards compatible.  I guess I'll get over it one day.)

We'll keep playing the old mobile games, as long as they're available.  The only one  that Seb has been sad about is Sandra Boynton's 'Blue Hat, Green Hat'.  We bought a bunch of those Boynton books and this is the only one that has stopped working, after the Android Lollipop update c.2015.  I e-mailed the company, but no reply.  And they're still selling it, years after it stopped working.  There are loads of sad people reviewing it on Google Play.  I don't know why it's still on the store.  Investigation reveals the app's maker 'Loud Crow' last tweeted 3 years ago, so I suspect they're no longer around to support their apps.  The money must be going somewhere though, presumably!

In conclusion, this is the issue - either people leave stuff on the app store and it stops working and makes people grumpy, or they wholesale remove stuff that might not work any more.  And that makes people grumpy too.  Perhaps some way to flag which devices/version of Android apps will work on, generated by users, would be good.  It would be horribly complicated, though.  The current compatibility flag appears to be configured by the app maker.  Which isn't so useful if they've disappeared.

I don't know what the answer is.  But the situation doesn't make me very happy.

Game Review: Where's my Water?

I know this isn't a new game (it was originally released in 2011), but Where's my Water? is a classic mobile puzzler and it's new to Seb, so I'm going to talk about it!  Seb's been playing this a lot this week, and I have to admit I played it a lot in the middle of the night when he was a tiny baby.  It's really fun!

The general idea is that Swampy the alligator wants to take a bath but Cranky keeps disrupting the water supply.  You have to dig through the soil using your finger to trace the route, in order to get the water to the inflow to his bathroom.  On the way you can find hidden treasures that unlock bonus levels and collect a number of ducks by soaking them with water.

There are various hazards, such as poison, slime, bombs and strange algae that grows when it gets wet.  There are pumps that, when you let water into them, move platforms.  There are so many levels with different mechanics to master, it's a brilliant mobile game (and it can be hard to find those amongst all the awful mobile games...).

Seb says his favourite thing about it is the puzzles.  As a 6 year old he concentrates very hard and works them out himself, but his friend doesn't seem to have quite the same motivation.  He also loves collecting the 'treasures' to unlock bonus levels, which introduce new things like using the accelerometer in the phone to move the water.

I know there was a sequel, and various spin-offs, but I think the original is the best.  The game is £1.79 on Google Play and you can add it to your family library.  There is a free version, but believe me, £1.79 isn't a lot of money for all the fun you'll have...

[We have been playing using a Samsung Galaxy S7 and a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge]

Article - Valley Forged: How One Man Made the Indie Video Game Sensation Stardew Valley

Stumbled across this article on the creator of Stardew Valley today in my lunchtime reading.  A strangely touching read!  Stardew Valley is a charming game like all those Japanese farming/giving presents/mining games (such as Harvest Moon), but it's put together so well.  I can't really think of a bad thing to say about it, other than it might take up a lot of hours of your life if you start playing it!  (Very glossy article, incidentally, lots of moody pictures.  I guess that's what you get in GQ magazine!)

Game Review: Overcooked

A warning before we start - Overcooked has the potential to make you very angry with everyone you play it with!  Choose your companions well!

We bought this game having seen it round someone else's house.  (At the time it was on offer on the PS Store for a good price including the two DLCs.)  It's a co-op game for up to 4 players, and you can share controllers (so for 4 players you can play with 2 controllers, with each player using half the controller).

The game begins with the Ever Peckish (think the Flying Spaghetti Monster) attempting to destroy the world.  The only way to defeat him is to sate his appetite.  Alas!  Your cooking skills are pathetic!  There is no way to win...  And so the Onion King sends you back in time, to learn to cook, in the hope that when the time comes you will be able to vanquish the pasta-based villain.  (The game doesn't really need a plot, but Seb loved it and has left drawings of the Ever Peckish all over the house.)

Throughout the game you learn various recipes that are split into tasks.  For example, burgers:
Chop meat, fry meat
Chop lettuce (depends on customer choice)
Chop tomato (depends on customer choice)
Put onto burger bun
Plate it up
Serve!
Wash up...

You're given a list of orders at the top of the screen and you have to fulfil them, the quicker the better.  There is a time limit.  If you fail to do so or deliver an order no-body wanted you lose points.

You really have to work together to get the job done.  Depending on the layout of the kitchen, sometimes you have to have one person assigned to chopping, one to cooking, etc.  Sometimes that's impossible. You might think it sounds easy but the kitchens are a COMPLETE NIGHTMARE.  I don't know how any of them pass inspection!  Some have conveyor belts, some have counters moved around by ghosts periodically, some keep having earthquakes that raise one level higher than the other, some are on icebergs, galleons, there are ones where rats steal your ingredients...  We're currently stuck on one in space where the ingredients and sink are all in an airlock that goes between two workstation areas.  (Aargh!)

Oh, and if you leave something on the stove too long it will catch fire, and you have to use the fire extinguisher or it spreads across your kitchen.

The more players you have the higher the score has to be to pass the level.  This might be fine if you're playing with three players who are pulling their weight, but if one of them's a six year old who's spinning around in circles spraying the fire extinguisher continually it's a bit of a problem!

My brother came up with an approach that worked really well but it's very unhygenic - basically he kept throwing all the ingredients needed on the floor near the chef who needed it.  This does work well on a lot of levels where the ingredients keep being separated from the workstations, but I would NOT want to eat at his restaurant.

All in all, this is a brilliantly done co-op game.  Highly recommended!  But heed my earlier warning - it might cause some rage...

Overcooked is rated PEGI-3 and is currently £12.99 on the PS Store.

Still watching - Stampy

A week ago Stampy started a new series where he plays minigames in his Funland.  If you watch YouTube videos with your kids and haven't heard of Stampy I don't know where you've been.  (I'd actually be happy watching him without my kid, he's one of the best YouTubers out there!)  He was primarily a Minecraft YouTuber to start with, though he has branched out into all sorts of things lately.

His very early videos are not so child friendly, and not so polished, but his later ones are all 100% clean and child suitable.  He's incredibly professional and a good role model for all those aspiring young YouTubers.  He's used his fame to talk about internet safety - and if you're his target audience and you don't listen to him, I doubt you'll listen to anyone else.  He did a talk on internet safety on his channel, which you can view here.  He's also been on BBC Newsround and other BBC news programmes.  I have a lot of respect for him!

His new Funland series sees him replaying games he's made in his Lovely World.  Often once he's built them you don't see them much ever again, so this is a fun series to watch (plus it has other 'friends' in it, like Sqaishey).  A particular hit with Seb was the first one (there have only been two so far) where he plays crazy golf.  Seb's a bit of a fan of crazy golf.  You might be thinking 'how do you play golf in Minecraft?!', and you're right, you can't really.  But you can thrown an object such as an emerald over some ice so it slides into a hole...

After watching this Seb decided he wanted to build his own golf course, so he's been busily doing that on and off through the week.  He got Dad to build a minecart timer system to control some pistons on his castle hole, since he was attempting to copy Stampy's course.  He's putting his own spin on it though.

I love Minecraft, it encourages kids to be so creative.  :-D

Article - Fortnite - a parent's guide to the most popular video game in schools

Saw this come up on my Twitter feed yesterday and felt it was worth posting about it - definitely worth a look if you have a kid in the Fortnite age range (the article says this is 8-18).  Keith Stuart's a great journalist and knows his stuff!  Check it out on the Guardian website.  Fortnite is rated PEGI-12 for 'non realistic violence towards human characters' and is available on PC, PS4 and Xbox One.

March 2018 PS Plus Goodies!

This month's PS Plus games aren't the best, since the 'big'titles are ones that have been around for a while (you probably already have them if they appeal to you) and the other 'indie' type titles aren't ones I've heard of.  But one of the games is Rachet & Clank.  The game's rated PEGI 7 and that's because it has 'non realistic violence towards fantasy characters'.  I do have a problem with that as a reason for the rating, since kids watch plenty of cartoons on the TV that have the same violence in them.  *sigh*

If you don't have Rachet & Clank you should definitely download it.  Having said that, I haven't completed it.  So I don't know why you should listen to me.  I have completed other Rachet & Clank games, though I can't remember which ones.  Ones on the PS3, but I can't remember which.  It may even have been more than one.  It was a while ago...  There's a guy at work who LOVES Rachet & Clank the most out of all of the games in the world.  It's a bit strange, but he really really does love it.  He has replayed it so many times.  He lent it (or them?!) to me.  And it was good.  I wouldn't say it's the best game ever, but it was good.  Hehe.

The PS4 game is famous for being 'the game of the movie of the game', and was released at the same time as the film.  I believe it features some of the same cartoon sequences, which is why you can't record a lot of it with the PS4's sharing functions.  (It's blocked.)  The film does not rate as highly as the game...

The plot is basically this: Rachet & Clank have to save the universe from the evil Chairman Drek.  You play some of the game as Ratchet and some as Clank, who's a totally excellent sidekick (who doesn't love robots?!).  But one of the best things in the game is the weaponry.  There are some fantastic weapons such as the Groovitron, a disco ball that forces enemies near it to dance until they die.  (Now I come to type that it sounds like a horrible way to die..!!)

If Seb gets around to playing it (he has other games on his mind at the moment!) I will let you know what he thinks...