A Gaming Diary
Archive for August, 2007
Jeanne D’Arc (PSP)
Aug 30th
Another story mission completed. I lost Liane again, though, which meant she missed out on a ton of XP again, which means it’ll be even harder to keep her alive next time around. Healers are such a pain. I think I need to Free Battle for a while.
Bioshock (360)
Aug 28th
Lots of BIG! IMPORTANT! plot tonight. Was a struggle to turn off, actually.
Oh, and I casually decided to use a fruit machine when I was walking past and got the jackpot-getting achievement, which was nice.
Jeanne D’Arc (PSP)
Aug 28th
I tried a story mission tonight and Jeanne died. I made a really stupid mistake, a cocky mistake. I thought it would be easy, so I could just run Jeanne in without worrying, but she died. Horribly. I wish there was a quick reload option, instead of having to go all the back to the main menu.
Quake 2 (PC)
Aug 28th
Ah, I remember back in the day when Quake 2 came out and the single player mode seemed like a huge step up from the first Quake. Looking back now, I don’t see that. They’re really very similar indeed. Still, Quake is great fun, so Quake 2 is too. I’m not complaining.
Jeanne D’Arc (PSP)
Aug 27th
Haven’t been advancing the story today. I just took some time out on one of the old levels to work out everything that was confusing me and test out powers and tactics. It’s really very enjoyable and I love the Unified Guard system, which means it’s good to keep your party together.
Bioshock (360)
Aug 27th
Looking at the Achievements list and the blanks in the list of locations I reckon I’m about a third of the way through this now.
It’s great. Every time it seems to threaten to become mundane I turn off the game for a while and when I come back I’m amazed again.
It’s also a game that my wife loves to watch me play.
Jeanne D’Arc (PSP)
Aug 26th
This SPRG seems to have slipped under the radar somewhat. Possibly because it’s on the PSP. If it was on the DS, it wouldn’t look as gorgeous, wouldn’t have such lovely anime cut scenes, but it might be getting some attention.
I’ve played it for a little over two hours now and it’s rather good. Not worth buying a PSP for, but worth dusting one off for.
Equipping skills is a little confusing still, but the only real trouble is that the lovely anime cut scenes aren’t subtitlted, which is very annoying as I tend to play handheld games with the sound off. I’m sure I’m not alone in that.
Sega Genesis Collection (PSP)
Aug 25th
On the face of it, twenty-odd Sega classics for ten quid sounds like a remarkable deal. However…
Alex Kidd – Bad graphics, horrible one hit deaths. Quite fun for five minutes.
Columns – Seems to get too fast too quickly. Quite fun for ten minutes.
Comix Zone – Incredible graphics, basic but reasonable beat-em-up fun. Quite fun for five minutes.
Flicky – Can’t work out how to shoot. I’m sure I used to be able to play this, but right now this not fun for two minutes.
Gain Ground – Too hard for my twenty-first century, molly-coddled gaming brain. Quite fun, though, for about a minute and a half, until level two appears and kicks you in the crotch.
Kid Chameleon – Annoying graphical glitch means backgrounds become a slightly different colour when scrolling. Still, kept my attention for an entire game and was quite fun for ten or fifteen minutes I played.
Ristar – Looks lovely, feels a little clunky. Quite fun for ten minutes.
Shinobi III – Most enemies no challenge, then a boss comes along which is impossble. A small about of fun, followed by frustration.
Sonic The Hedehog 2 – It’s Sonic 2, which means I still can’t do the Casino Zone boss. I’m rubbish like that. Good fun up until that point, though.
VectorMan – Looks lovely, but is too hard. Quite fun for five minutes.
Okay, there are a lot more games on there, but it’s not been too great so far. Nothing’s grabbed my attention.
Bioshock (360)
Aug 24th
I’ve put a good few hours into this now. I find that two hours or so is my limit for a single session. I don’t get bored, as such, I just seem to start to finding it very difficult to keep track of things and to kill enemies. A break of half an hour sorts that out, then I’m ready to jump back in.
It really is excellent. The setting is wonderfully atmospheric, but the main focus is the combat, which I think is superb. You really have to think fast, to choose which plasmids and weapons to use on a split-second basis. I’m dying a lot and I think some enemies have a touch too much health, but that’s about the only criticism I have right now.
