A Gaming Diary
Archive for March, 2006
Ecco The Dolphin: Defender Of The Future
Mar 19th
Very pretty, even after six years. Nobody else has really done anything similar that I’ve seen, so it’s not got any competition.
However, after the first training area I got completely lost. I just didn’t know what to do. I did a race, which didn’t seem to get me very far. I got told that I should catch a big fish, but couldn’t see one anyone. I tried fighting some sharks, but kept dying. In the end I just gave up.
Cannon Spike
Mar 19th
Yes!
I set my Dreamcast back up after tearing my flat apart looking for its s-video cable. I finally found it in the last place I looked… the Dreamcast box. Oops. Most of VMUs seem to be missing, but I did find a NEW! SEALED! VMU and an equally NEW! SEALED! vibration pack, so that’s nice.
Anyway, I put Powerstone 2 to check it worked, then when it booted I turned off and went and had a bath. After that I dug out all my old games. Annoyingly, I couldn’t find my boot disc, so I can’t play any of my UK or JAP games. No Ikaruga, Cosmic Smash, etc. Hmpf.
Not there’s a shortage of DC games for me to play. But the one I was gagging to play was Cannon Spike. Not sure why, but it always comes to mind when I think about the DC. I don’t think I even played it that much. Anyway, I’ve just been back and played a game with each of the characters (including the barely secret Megaman and B. B. Hood)… And then I played another game as Cammy, just for good measure.
It’s rather good and still looks good. Not state of the art, but good. No glaringly horrible textures, no jagged lines, no framerate issues. And it’s nice and simple to play, despite using all four face buttons for various attacks, the left trigger for a special attack and the right trigger to lock on.
I didn’t use any continues. You’d think I’d myself now after all these years, but I’m still playing them the hardcore way.
Animal Crossing: Wild World
Mar 19th
My entry for the fishing tournament is a 42.0 inch sea bass.
Also caught a barred knifejaw for the first time, so that went to the museum.
Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter
Mar 18th
Excellent.
Finally completed the first co-op campaign mission. Two of us finally managed to do it without dying and unlocked the achievement. It didn’t seem that hard when we finally did it, which was odd as it took us ages. The trick in the end was to split up, so we could come at the enemy from different angles. Very tense stuff. And very, very good stuff, even if some of the advanced features of the singleplayer game aren’t present.
The Outfit
Mar 18th
No, I’m really rubbish at this.
I can’t seem to win at all. Or even come close.
But my rank is currently 1337, which is excellent. And also means that not many people are playing this online.
The Outfit
Mar 18th
Well, I’ve got the full version now.
Single player seems okay. Nothing inspiring in the first couple of missions, but it’s quite good fun.
Really got it for the multiplayer, though. So I’ve tried it online. First four matches I tried to play all ended in immediate disconnections after loading. They were all against the same player. As soon as I got matched with somebody else everything was fine.
Except I seem to be rubbish. I was good the demo, but I guess I was playing against people who didn’t know what they were doing. Everybody online with the full game does know what they’re doing. And they’re better than me. Mainly, it seems, because they know how to do two things I don’t.
1) Do a melee attack.
2) Destroy any gun emplacements I build within seconds of them being built.
Number one can probably be sorted out by me opening the manual. Number two might take some doing. First I need to work out how they’re destroying my guns so quickly and then I’ve got to do it myself.
Xbox 360
Mar 16th
There’s a new game on Live Arcade called Feeding Frenzy. You steer a fish around eating small fish and avoiding big ones. Seems okay, actually. I played through a couple of times. Would have bought for 400 points, but 800 seems a little much.
Then I flicked between Morrowind (see previous post) and Crystal Quest all evening. I beat my previous best score. And James’s best score. I am once again king.
Elder Scrolls: Morrowind
Mar 16th
So, it all started because I got stuck in some scenery.
Well, no, it started because I was wondering what type of character to play in Oblivion when it comes out. In Morrowind both my characters where pretty much straight fighters, but I was thinking a sneaky, stealthy character might be fun. So I used an a web page to plot out a custom class in Oblivion. Wasn’t sure how it would play… and then realised I could make a very similar character in Morrowind as a test.
So I did. I made a custom class called the “Facilitator’. Basically, it’s a sweet-talker who’s sneaky enough to be a thief and not bad with a short blade when required. Made myself one of the cat people for the extra agility and the night vision. So, ignoring deaths and restarts, this is what happened in my evening’s play…
In the starting town I managed to get stuck on some scenery. That’s never happened to me before. Luckily, I’d bought a scroll that magics me back to the nearest temple, which happened to be in Vivec. Now I wouldn’t have thought to go to Vivec so soon, but as I was there I popped through a doorway and found myself in some woman’s home. She was home. I checked her stuff to see if it was worth killing her for her stuff. She had some nice expensive clothes and she looked weak, so I decided it would be. She took a while to go down, but she wasn’t much of a fighter and didn’t even leave a scratch on me. As she fell the floor she used her last breath to exhale the word “stupid”. I don’t know if she meant her or me, but it was unsettling and somehow reminded me that my first act of note in this world was the cold-blooded murder of someone for their clothes.
Wandering outside and up some stairs I found myself in the commercial quarter of this area of the city. I talked to a woman who asked me to steal some valuable cups and bowls from a ship in Ebonheart. I said I’d do it, but I didn’t mean it. It’s been a while since I’d been to Ebonheart with my other characters, so I couldn’t remember where it was.
Wandering around some more, an invisible man came up and begged me to help him. Turned out he’d been cursed by a wizard and everybody was thinking he was a ghost. So I went and found the wizard, who told a slightly different story. The guy had begged to be made invisible, so the wizard had obliged. However, the man hadn’t then paid the fee so the wizard refused to make him visible again. I didn’t have the money to pay the debt and I probably wouldn’t have anyway, so I wandered back to the guy to tell him so. Unfortunately he didn’t seem to be able to understand that fact. As he was invisisble and complaining everyone thought he was a ghost I wondered if anyone would mind if I killed him. So I took a swipe and a guard ran over and arrested me. Rather than pay a fine, I chose to go to prison.
Turned out that the nearest prison was in Ebonheart. Stroke of luck, eh? I found the ship I needed to steal pulled out my lockpick. Getting into the ship was easy, but on the first level were two imperial guards. I walked past them and they didn’t bat an eyelid. Once I was at the other end of the ship I hid myself in the shadowsk, unlocked the next door and climbed down to the bottom level of the ship. Found the goods I needed and exited. If the guards noticed me walking out of a supposedly locked and secure area of the ship they didn’t indicate it. Odd behaviour indeed, but I’d successfully used my thieving skills – lock-picking and sneaking – to complete a mission. Hooray!
So I took the goods to their new owner. She paid me 1,500 for the lot. A fraction of the full price, but possibly more than I could get elsewhere. And I’d said I’d get them, so I’m a thief with honor.
So I had a fortune. That amount of money is incredible to have so soon. I decided to pop over to Balmora to spend a bit. Walked there without incident. I would have taken public transport, but I couldn’t find it. The fog that blankets Morrowind isn’t helpful when it comes to locating things.
In Balmora I bought a full set of Netch leather armour, before remembering that being a big cat I couldn’t wear shoes. So I sold them back to the armorer. Went and bought a couple of daggers and a bow. Unfortunately I couldn’t find anywhere selling arrows, which is annoying. But I got everything for slightly less than list price using my silver-tongued negotiating skills.
And after that I went over to the guy on the east side of town I was meant to see and handed him a package, finishing off the first proper story mission. And I then fell into bed for a good eighteen hours of sleep.
Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter
Mar 15th
Single player completed!
Overall, that was a most excellent game. Really, really excellent. A few difficulty spikes and the odd mission objective bug, but nothing too bad. Just one of those games that feels right.
Overall it took me 13 hours and 18 minutes, which seems to be a fair amount of time longer than most people.
Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter
Mar 14th
Encountered my first proper bug today. After dying my objective didn’t appear when I respawned, so I had to restart the mission I was on. Ah well, I was only one checkpoint in. And it was an excellent mission, so no real harm done.
