No time for love, Dr Jones
Review: Lego Indiana Jones, The Original Adventures
So it’s finally time for me to deliver on the game review promised. Not of GTA4 tho, as my Xbox broke. I’m not going to talk about what the game is about or how you control the characters yada yada yada, instead i’m going to cut to my opinion of it directly. I’m around 50% into this game, and yet to play my favorite movie, The Last Crusade. I do so hope Sean Connery is well represented!
LEGO Indiana Jones is one of the most directly fun games i’ve played, especially in multiplayer. It appeals to my sense of playfulness, exploration and finding secrets/rewards. It is in my opinion a game that is an evolved form of the good old platformer games like Mario & or all of it’s hellish offspring. As i see it this game is meant to be enjoyed with a friend. It’s fun on my own but much more so when you are two, as most of the riddles and secrets need to players to find. Also, the game features full friendly fire, and when you kill your friend he drops a little of his money which you can also pick up.
It’s hard to define what makes things fun, or what fun is. If i would be to compare it with any other product, i would compare it with kids toys or Viva Pinata. It has the same appeal, and also a lot of great humour. There simply something satisfying with smashing everything in a room with a shovel, making it explode into lots and lots of coins. Also, this game features a little asian boy doing a lot of manual labor and heavy lifting while a well dressed american man is chasing him with a whip, and a character whos special move is screaming very loud.
You’d think that you can’t do so much graphics-wise with lego bricks, but this game proves that wrong. I’m playing the PC version, and the graphics could be described as PS2 models with X360 shaders. The game works very well with motion blur and distance blur (simulating what the eye focus on) and the whole bunch… Not once have i been bothered by the low polly of backgrounds or anyting, on the contrary, i was impressed several times with how well the technology is used to create a good visual experience.
I am yet to try any other version than that of the PC , but i think that this games is perfectly fit for the Wii, it has the direct fun appeal that Nintendo are trying to promote. I’m probably going to check how the game is on my Ds, that might be interesting as well, but i’m afraid that the graphics will loose a lot of it’s appeal. The PC version might be a little bit hard to control, so i connected my Xbox controler to it and now it’s no problems 🙂
The game is really cheap too so i can recommend you to check it out. If you like casual gaming and have a friend nearby to play with, i’m pretty sure you will not regret it.
Double Fail
On the contrary to what has been suggested in my comments, i haven’t been taking time off from writing the blog or anything for that matter. I just haven’t had the time to sit down and write properly for a while. It’s surprising how busy i am when in face i’m supposed to be free and taking some time off! I’ve been working for my dad amongst other things. I think this job will be put into the ‘I don’t want to get stuck doing this for the rest of my life’ cabinet.
But that’s besides the point. What i wanted to write about is two things that happened to me this week, both having to do with delivery. Both are rather… irritating or at least very silly. I have made two stories out of them, trying to remain as neutral as possible no to seem like a bad person, but you will probably be able to imagine my reaction to both.
Story One: UPS
As you know my Xbox broke recently. I’ve sent it away to Microsofts repair center in Germany with UPS; Microsoft covering all the shipping costs and repairs, which is nice in a way. Sure, much can be said about releasing a product that notoriously breaks, but by the way they handle it was quite ok. Of course, i lost some respect for the product, but never mind.
I got to track the whole process over the Internet, and the shipping and repair took much less than two weeks. Unfortunately, i didn’t get my Xbox back until Tuesday this week, thanks to my pal the UPS.
First they arrived at my door last Monday around noon and left a note that they will try again tomorrow at the same time. I had school and work that week, so i called them up and told them that i won’t be available at that time this weeks, so could they please deliver it after 16 at which time my roommates are home. After some grumping they agreed.
Unfortunately, the next day after returning home i found the same note wedged into the door. We were here at noon, no one was home, tomorrow will be our last try. So i figured the delivery man didn’t get the information in time, and called again making sure that they make him come another time. Which worked, unfortunately not the way i wanted it to. Upon returning home on Wednesday, i found a note saying that they were here at 10.15 (which was 10 minutes after i left for whatever i was doing that day), and since they tried 3 times, they will not try again and i have to go up and pick the package up myself.
So i decided to call them. It was a busy week, so i put it off until Monday (they’re closed during the weekends). The nice telephonist lady there told me that if i wish i could go and pick it up at Sturup Airport, where the package is located. After a couple of seconds of silence from me she picked up on my negative emotions forwards this, and said that otherwise they can come by with the package again. I gladly accepted that alternative and told the lady to send a delivery man on Wednesday, since i would be home the whole day and he couldn’t come at a wrong time even if he tried to.
But i was outsmarted and bested by the UPS delivery man yet again. Tuesday morning, when i was getting ready to go out, someone rang the doorbell. To my big surprisese it was a UPS deliveryman with my Xbox. At that point the only thing i could say was ‘…You were supposed to come tomorrow.’ Then the UPS man said something which i will have to retell in Swedish, otherwise it would loos oh so much of it’s subtle information ‘JassÃ¥? Nu ska vi se…’ At this point the man started turning around the package as if he was looking for something. On the side he turned upwards, which was in fact the top of the package he held upside down until now, was a a very big piece of paper with huge lettering ‘DELIVER ON WEDNESDAY’. Upon noticing this apparently for the first time, he statet ‘Nä men där ser man! Du hade faktist rätt!’.
I just took the box, signed it, and haven’t touched the damned thing ever since.
Story 2: Spelbutiken
This one will be much shorter. My old PS2 controller broke, and since i want to play Lego Indiana Jones with my friend Patrik, i had to get a new one. In the stores the thing costs around 500 kr, but on the Internet i found it for 200 kr with delivery at a store called Spelbutiken.se. Yes please remember the name, that’s not the first time these people messed something up with me. Last time i ordered something there, i waited until a week after it was supposed to be deliver to call them, only to hear that they don’t acctualy have what i want, would i like some other game instead? But never mind that…
Anyway, i ordered on Monday evening, and they sent the controller out on Tuesday morning, which was promising. It acctualy got here on Wednesday, but i did not noticed the delivery slip which my roommates left at the kitchen table. I’m never there since i like to eat alone in my room, so i only found it today when we were cleaning.
To cut to the point – after returning home from the postal office, i opened the packaged and found very nice new and shiny Playstation 3 Controller. Yes, something which is at least three times as expensive as what i ordered, but ironically is completely useless to me. Draw your own conclusions how this makes me feel.
FIN
I had something very nice to say to end this post, but i totally forgot. I’ll just add, then, that the PS3 controller will be sold off to a friend of mine for the price i got it for, and i hope it will bring him much joy. A lot of joy acctualy, because i could have sold it for much over the net 😛
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