A Gaming Diary
Archive for March, 2007
GripShift (PS3)
Mar 31st
Did a few more levels, for want of anything else to do. My net connection’s very flaky today, so I can’t sign into Live or the PSN any more.
It’s not been the best gaming day ever.
flOw (PS3)
Mar 31st
Blimey. There’s not much to flOw, is there? Took a couple of levels to work out how things worked, then the next four were completed easily, then instead of brand new creatures, end credits. Took game time less than an hour. I enjoyed it while it lasted but I do feel slightly ripped off, even though it was only £3.49. I can’t see it having much replay value, for me at least.
The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion (360)
Mar 31st
Did some housekeeping when I started up. Conjured up some zombies to harvest their souls to replenish the charge my magical weapons, wandered over to a blacksmith to have my armor repaired, that sort of thing.
Then, finally, into the Shivering Isles. Started off well enough, but then things went a bit weird.
I tried talking to people at the beginning who should have died, except the monster that was meant to kill them ran and jumped into a lake instead. So when I talked to them I got a (console window?) line at the top of the screen and a “I HAVE NO GREETING” message where their subtitles should be. After wandering around for a few hours of game time wondering what to do I got a message saying all the guys who should have been killed had been and I could continue with my quest. Which I did, until the game locked up when I tried looting a corpse.
Slitherlink (DS)
Mar 30th
My wife’s got back into this and got stuck on a puzzle so I tried to help, but couldn’t. (She got it later on.)
Earth Defence Force 2017 (360)
Mar 30th
Nope, all vehicles suffer from the y-axis problem. Being able to invert the y-axis is important to me, hence the name of this blog.
Apart from that problem I’m having a blast. I’m up to level fifteen now. I died a couple of times, but should be able to beat it with the correct weapon choice.
Earth Defence Force 2017 (360)
Mar 30th
Right, Earth Defence Force 2017 first impressions, based on a 90 minute session.
It’s really quite good. Frantic alien-blasting fun. Lots and lots of enemies, lots of weapons, nice clean graphics, exploding buildings, seemingly endless levels, atmospheric lighting and fellow soldiers whose b-movie shouts, while repetitive, really add to the experience.
You really haven’t lived until you’ve seen a tower block crawling with giant ants, levelled said tower block with a rocket and then switched to a machine gun to exterminate the ants.
Definitely seems to be worth the £17.99 Play are asking so far.
There are a three problems, though.
The first is that, like the PS2 version, the game’s full of both slowdown and framerate problems. It doesn’t spoil the fun and it’s better than the PS2 version was, but there’s a lot of it.
The second problem is, for me, rather more serious. There’s an option to invert the controls and it picks up the player’s setting from the 360, as it should… but then doesn’t seem to apply it to the tanks. (Possibly other vehicles, too, but I’ve only tried the tank so far.) Makes the tank pretty much useless to me in battle. This will be a pretty big problem if the vehicles turn out to be necessary.
The third problem is the most serious for me, but less serious for most other people – there’s a lot of stuff I miss from Chikyuu Boueigun 2. I love having the game English, but I miss London and I really, really miss the lady with the jetpack. It was great fun to go zooming about the levels instead of trudging around on foot. If you’ve not played Chikyuu Boueigun 2 you won’t miss her, but I do.
None of those problems make me regret buying the game, but I can’t ignore them.
Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution (PS3)
Mar 29th
Just out of curiousity. It really does look dated compared to VF5, with a distinct lack of polygons, lighting and texture quality. It’s fair bit harder, too. No kyus put up much of a fight in VF5, but I was having trouble with the 10th and 9th kyus in this version.
Tried out the Tutorial, which is incredibly comprehensive. I got as far as having to learn how to juggle opponents and left. I wish there was a similar mode in VF5. Learning in VF4 is all very well, but some things will have changed.
Virtua Fighter 5 (PS3)
Mar 29th
Started over in Quest mode with a new charfacter, Lei Fei, just for the hell of it, really. And I want the cool blindfold he can get.
Went up a few ranks and won the annoyingly prize-free Beginners Tournament.
Jetpac Refuelled (360)
Mar 29th
With Resistance finished I’m free! Free! So I downloaded this before setting my Shivering Isles download going.
Fun factor: Good
Nostalgia Factor: Infinite
I’m third on my Friends leaderboard in the Retro section after one go. Not too shabby. I’m rubbish at the new Refuelled mode, though.
Resistance: Fall of Man (PS3)
Mar 28th
Yeah, okay, I lied.
I put the game back on again, stopped dying and saved the world. Well, Britain. Good enough for me!