Barbelith Underground > Games & Gameplay > What (video) games are you playing at the moment

How are you getting on with Amped, Paleface? I bought it months ago, but seemed to hit the roof of my abilities pretty quickly (got up to about 90 on the world rankings, which was fucking pathetic). I've been trying to get back into it over the last couple of days and, while I'm slowly getting better, I'm still having problems. Pulling tricks feels a little random, I can never remember which facia button pulls which grab, hitting the diagonals on the control stick seems more like a matter of luck than skill...

Still think N64 1080 is the best snowboarding title out there, to be honest, but there's something about Amped that makes me want to improve.

Fridge> I've got to admit, I abandoned GBA Final Fantasy Tactics in disgust after getting fed up with continually having to do battle with the terrible menu system. If I want to buy a new weapon for any of my party I have to go to the map screen to get to the shop, then select the weapon, then enter a menu to see which character classes can equip it, then remember its stats as I exit the shop and return to the map screen in order to enter the party screen, then select the character I want, then check out hir stats, then go back to the map in order to return to the shop, then buy the item, then go back to the map and back to the party screen, reselect the character and go through another couple of menus in order to actually equip the damn thing. Fun! Why Square couldn't have given us all the relevant information on one screen will forever be a mystery - other, similar games manange to do this without any problems. It's been a while since I last saw such a fundamental problem completely destroy an otherwise decent game.

Two recent purchases: Viewtiful Joe and Gregory Horror Show. Anyone else noticed how Capcom have performed a complete change of direction since the 32/64 bit days? There was a time when all they'd ever release were yet more Street Fighter sequels/clones, then as soon as the Dreamcast came out they seemed to become infected with Sega's pioneering spirit and went a bit loopy.

VJ is the shiznit. It all came together when I figured out how to beat that first helicopter boss; don't think I've ever played a game that allows you(r on-screen avatar) to look so graceful - wait until the helicopter starts its run down the screen, front-mounted guns firing into the floor, run away from it for a bit then suddenly backflip over it and land on its tail. Run down the tail then, just before you reach the end, whack the slow-motion button and drop off the end in bullet time, with the helicopter follwing just behind you. Spin around mid-fall and start laying into it - again in slow-motion - the moment it hits the floor. Fantastic.

Bloody difficult, though, in a way that games haven't been for years. That's a good thing - reminds me of Probotector's punishing difficulty level, where the game was so enjoyable that you never cared about having to play through the same sections time after time.

Gregory Horror Show is also really good, but they've managed to mess it up slightly. Running round the hotel, peeking into rooms through keyholes and spying on the residents to take notes about their daily schedules is wonderful. The whole scheduling thing is similar to the way Majora's Mask's Clock Town worked. Other clever nods to recent games: Resident Evil herbs all over the place, Silent Hill's basic plot premise. It all works, because they've imbued each character with so much personality.

Problem is, they nearly ruin everything by hammering you with totally unnecessary restrictions. You've got an Eternal Darkness-style sanity meter, wheich runs down gradually over time or suddenly if you get attacked. That's fine. You replenish it by returning to your room and sleeping. That's also fine. What isn't fine is that you also have to keep an eye on how long your character's been awake for. You get tired after a certain amount of time. Stay up past that and you get a headache. Next comes panic, then confusion, etc. Each of these status changes requires its own medicine. It's confusing and confused, almost like it was a last-minute addition to the game design (and, as is increasingly the case with UK releases, it's not properly explained in the manual). Thankfully, the rest of the game is strong enough that you put up with it.