A Gaming Diary
Archive for April, 2009
Animal Crossing: Let’s Go To The City (Wii)
Apr 30th
Nintendo sent me a flamenco hat. Thanks Nintendo!
Burnout Paradise (360)
Apr 30th
Had a quick twenty minutes on this last night. Bombed around, jumped through some billboards, failed a Road Rage event, had a great time. (Even though it kept popping up messages telling me how good Dimrill is at the game at every opportunity.)
Tomb Raider Anniversary (360)
Apr 30th
Hmm. If you’re going to release a game on the 360 that looks like an upscaled PS2 game, then surely it would be possible to get a stable framerate? No? Oh, okay then.
Anyway, despite looking significantly worse than Tomb Raider Legend, this seems to play nicely and does what it sets out to do – it feels like the original Tomb Raider, but with the controls and checkpointing that we except in this day and age. As such, I think I’m going to enjoy it when I sit down and play it properly.
Goozex is lovely, but I’ve got far too many games over the last few days.
Burnout Paradise (360)
Apr 29th
I traded this in over a year ago, then missed it greatly. Only now has it become cheap enough for me to get a new copy. I downloaded the 1.7 update during the day, so it was ready for me to go in the evening. It felt great to be back, it really did. I tried out the bikes – which I think I love – then jumped back into a car and did a few races. Won a few, then lost one after the AI shunted me down a side road going completely the wrong way.
I wish I understood Burning Routes better. I get the concept, but I’m never sure what the point of them is, or the exact difference between online and offline times are. I’m sure it’s very simple, but I’m not very bright.
Also, the moment it started up it gave me an Achievement called “Watt?” before I’d even started playing, so I need to go and check what that was about.
Trivial Pursuit (360)
Apr 29th
Got this to play with my wife. It beats the board game version we played last week handily, simply due to having questions from after 1983. Hooray! We played the Facts and Family mode, or whatever it’s called, which is a lovely variation on the normal game. You share a puck and any wedges you win become lives in a final face-off at the end of the game. Works very well indeed, especially as most questions only give you a few points towards getting a wedge. You can also bet on whether you think your opponent knows the answer to a question – get the bet right and you also get some points towards the wedge. Honestly, it makes sense when you play.
We originally played with the UK set-up, but found it was fairer to everybody if we selected the USA set-up. (My wife’s American and has only been living here about three years.) Unfortunately, it seems that you can only change this by going back to the dashboard and then reloading the game.
Still, it seems that for the eight quid we played, this is a great way to play Trivial Pursuit if you don’t have the room or inclination to get the board game out. We’re going to have to limit our games to try and stop question repetition, but hopefully there are enough to last us a little while.
Also, for those that care, it pumped Achievements out at us like they were going out of fashion.
Everybody’s Golf: World Tour (PS3)
Apr 29th
Another game from Goozex that I had to test out before leaving feedback. The install was lengthy, I played an “Advanced Shots” tournament, which I won by miles, then I went to the online section to get the latest updates. Left it on overnight, got up at half five to feed the cat, checked the download had completed, which it had – but then it started another one, which was, luckily, done by the time I got up for good at eight o’clock. Hey ho. Anyway, from what I played it seems just as good as I’d expect.
Animal Crossing: Let’s Go To The City (Wii)
Apr 29th
Wendell gave me a flamenco dress pattern, seemingly for no reason. Also, I played and won hide and seek.
Animal Crossing: Let’s Go To The City (Wii)
Apr 28th
After a week away, logged in briefly last night. Checked my mail and met our new resident, a duck called Pate. My wife had picked weeds and watered flowers, so I didn’t have any chores to do. Thanks wife!
Super Paper Mario (Wii)
Apr 28th
Arrived via the lovely Goozex service yesterday. (That’s my own referral link, by the way. Sign up and I’ll get a trade token, worth one euro.) I didn’t play long – yesterday evening was all about tiding the house – but I had to test it out, so went through the first few minutes. Didn’t actually play an awful lot, as there’s a whole lot of talking to get through, but I like what I’ve seen so far. Looks pretty lovely and I love games that don’t need the nunchuk, because it moves around the house of its own accord during the night and is never where I think I left it. Mischevious little bugger, it is.
Pokemon Platinum (DS)
Apr 26th
Hooray! Got back home, connected to wifi and some nice Japanese person had sent me a Pikachu in exchange for my spare Shieldon. Also, I beat the third gym. Go me!
