A Gaming Diary
Archive for September, 2006
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team (DS)
Sep 20th
Well, I can now recruit new members for my rescue team. At least, I can in theory. Apart from the one given to me as part of the story I’ve not managed to find any more.
It’s got a bit tiring to be honest, so far there’s not enough meat to the dungeon crawling and the crawls are too short compared to the time spent buggering around in town sorting out items and getting new jobs and such.
Hopefully just a problem in the initial stages.
Oh, and there’s a surprising amount of story in the game, too. Not very interesting story, but it’s there.
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team (DS)
Sep 19th
My first roguelike.
No, it’s not my first roguelike, that’s what it should be subtitled. (Except making the name of the game any longer might cause something to collapse.)
Anyway, you’re not an adventurer, you’re a Pokemon. You don’t find scrolls and swords, you find berries and gummies.
The levels are not huge and sprawling, just small and compact.
But it’s fun enough and I’m sure it’ll get more complicated later on. And it gave me an interview at the beginning and told me I was bulbasaur. Fair enough, I guess. I chose Pikachu to my companion, because, well, he’s Pikachu, I guess. (I’m sure I should have thought about which type of Pokemon would be best complement my grass type Pokemon and all that, but, you know, come on.)
Anyway: fun.
Lego Star Wars 2 (DS)
Sep 18th
Oh dear.
This just doesn’t really work on the DS.
And I’m not sure if it isn’t the fault of the DS Lite’s d-pad.
Test Drive Unlimited (360)
Sep 17th
It’s too easy to buy cars you don’t want.
Well, it’s too easy for me, at any rate. After you test drive a car the car it shows is the first in the garage’s list, not the one you just drove. So I now have an Audi A3 3.3 quattro DSG that I didn’t want. Seems nice enough and I’ve sold my Alfa so I don’t have two Group F cars.
I’ve also moved up into Group E and have bought myself a Nissan 350Z Nismo S-Tune. Which seemed great on the test drive, but a bit twitchy in real racing conditions. I’ve crashed a bit and spun out a couple of times. Hmm.
Test Drive Unlimited (360)
Sep 14th
So, the full game is here and it’s excellent.
The demos really don’t do it justice.
I started off by buying an Alfa GT 3.2 V6 24v, which seems to go nicely enough, though it pales in comparison to the Elise I rented when I first got off the plane.
After earning some money I found a classic cars showroom by accident – was looking for a race – and fell in love with a Chevrolet Camaro Z-28. It’s gorgeous and the engine sound is perfect. It’s relatively slow and a tad undriveable, but I love it to bits anyway.
And I got invited to Club Cosmic and accepted. Yay.
Saints Row (360)
Sep 13th
Ah, back playing this for an evening.
A few missions done, bit of buggering about, the usual.
I’ve pimped my Raycaster out good, in purple and brass. I’m so cool.
Oooh, look at me, using the word “pimped” without thinking about it.
Test Drive Unlimited Demo (360)
Sep 13th
With all the talk on the Internet about how great this game is, I decided to have another go.
This time I turned the driving aids off and turned the steering sensitivity down a bit. It’s like a whole different game. Much better handling, though the Ferrari I tried kept spinning out. I felt it was my fault, though, and cursed myself rather than the game. Infinitely better.
Anyway, full game now ordered.
Scramble (360)
Sep 13th
Surprisingly entertaining.
And I’ve got to level four already. I never got off level two when I was a kid.
I AM NOW MAN, FEAR ME.
Lego Star Wars 2 (360)
Sep 12th
Bloody great fun for my wife and I WHEN IT’S NOT GLITCHING OUT BY NOT OPENING A FORCE FIELD AND THEREFORE MEANING WE HAVE TO QUIT AND MISS OUT ON OUR FIRST TRUE JEDI STATUS SINCE THE FIRST LEVEL.
Bastard, bastard, bastard game.
Plus, I spent a good 45 minutes hunting around trying to see what I was missing until finally going online a finding deep in the Internet – the GameFAQs board for the PC version of the game – that it’s a glitch and I’m not the only one to find it.
Grrrrrr.
Lego Star Wars 2 (360)
Sep 11th
Brilliant.
Just spent an evening playing this with my wife. She doesn’t like the flying sections much, but loves the rest. Me, I like all of it.
We got through A New Hope and are now half-way through The Empire Strikes Back. We’re not doing too well at being True Jedi or finding secrets yet.
Anyway, it’s excellent.
