A Gaming Diary
360
Grand Theft Auto IV (360)
Jan 29th
Haven’t played this in a long, long time, but felt the need yesterday. I didn’t actually do much. I walked around for a while, marvelling at how lovely it all looks, found some pigeons, got into some fire fights with the police, delivered a few more cars for Stevie, took Carmen to a strip club, that sort of thing.
I’d forgotten just how good it looks and how much it feels like a solid world. As others have noted, though, the extra realism and weight to everything makes rampages a little less fun, a little more uncomfortable. That’s a minor nit, though, compared to everything good in the game. And, hey, if I just want to run around at stupid speeds setting people on fire, I’ve got Saints Row 2.
Lord of the Rings: Conquest Demo (360)
Jan 27th
I like the Star Wars Battlefront games, but this (it’s the same game, different licence) doesn’t work. Everything about it is ridiculous, especially the comical voice over man. I think the game works with Star Wars, because that’s always been capable of being a bit silly and light. Lord of the Rings is a more serious work and putting in special powers and respawning just feels wrong. Also, the controls don’t seem to work very well, you’re stuck in tiny areas while the dance scene from the Matrix sequel plays out in the background and it’s all just a bit clunky and rubbish.
Despite its general air of rushed rubbishness, if someone gave it to me, I think I could get some fun out of it. I’m just not going to spend money on it.
Resident Evil 5 Demo (360)
Jan 27th
I had great fun with this. It’s basically Resident Evil 4 2, if you see what I mean. Some wonderful gunplay and panicky moments. I am a bit concerned about the whole thing being co-op with an AI companion, though. That doesn’t often work. She didn’t seem bad in the demo, actually, but I’m still worried.
The rest of the Internet seems to hate it, but that’s not unusual. The Internet hates everything.
Sega Rally (360)
Jan 27th
Testing out different cars. It’s a shame that the first car seems to be the easiest to get good results in. In later cars, the pack just pulls away from me when I think I’m driving well.
Oh, and did I mention that this game is astoundingly good? Because it is.
Sega Rally (360)
Jan 26th
Looking at my Achievements list, it seems I’ve not played this since October 2007. That’s far too long, because this is a brilliant game. It’s rock hard, but brilliant. I’ve been getting enough points to unlock new series, but I’m not troubling the winning cars. It’s exhausting, because there’s absolutely no time to relax, even on the straights, which are few and far between. The feedback is amazing. The graphics, sound and – crucially, the rumble all come together to let you know exactly what’s going on. And talking of the graphics, it still looks very lovely indeed. And it handles wonderfully, with the different cars all feeling very different. It’s a great, great, great, great, great game.
Just rock hard.
Online, though, is a different story. There were no ranked matches being played, but I found a player match. Had to sit in the lobby for ages waiting for more people to join, but once we got five people together it was brilliant. Just like single player, but with cars that made mistakes and reacted to me. Also, I wasn’t awful. I came second in most of the races, behind someone called Landofspring, who came first every time – but not by miles. It was even fun when I crashed into a wall near a jump and had the cars behind me land on my roof and zoom off into the distance.
Every Extend Extra Extreme (360)
Jan 26th
1 min: Best game ever! Why don’t I play this more!
10 min: This a bit easy. Where’s the danger?
20 min: This is going on a bit.
30 min: I think I’ll just stop collecting the time extending power ups and let myself die.
32 min: Right, what other games do I have here?
FEAR 2 Demo (360)
Jan 26th
F.E.A.R. 2? First Something Assault Recon 2? I don’t know. Let’s just call it FEAR 2, eh?
From what I remember of the original – which I had on the PC but didn’t play very much – this seems fairly similar, but with a slightly borked slo-mo mode. Fighting enemies is still fun, the spooky atmosphere is appropriately spooky and atmospheric and the big stompy robot bit at the end of the demo is actually a really nice change of pace.
I like it. I won’t be digging out things to trade in to get it all full price on release, but I like it.
Rock Band (360)
Jan 20th
Picked this up after a long hiatus. Played a lot of the solo career, but the real fun came in World Tour mode. Team BB are back on the road! We played Seattle, London and Los Angeles, winning many new fans now we’ve put the difficulty up to Medium.
The best thing about the whole weekend, though, was finally managing to do Enter Sandman on Medium. That killed me last time I played.
Worst thing about the weekend? Having to play Highway Star – twice. Horrible.
Fable II (360)
Jan 15th
Completed this last night, in terms of story. Lots of Achievements and some gargoyles left, but life’s too short to go hunting for them.
The Hero of Skill – You were there when the Hero of Skill was recruited. The Hero of Skill isn’t very heroic, but he is voiced by Stephen Fry, so I think I can forgive him.
The Family – The Needs of The Few’ has condemned thousands to death so that loved ones might live. As a good hero, I probably should have chosen to restore the lives of all those who had died during The Spire’s construction, but, well, I couldn’t leave my dog dead. Rufus was my friend and constant companion on the journey, I couldn’t leave him behind.
I did, however, start a new game once I’d finished, which means I’ll never see Rufus again. But the story ended with the hero triumphant and his faithful dog by his side. I can live with that. I’ve now started a new game as an evil character. I scare people, kick chickens, assassinate people, all that. I’ll probably just rush through this game, seeing what differences there are when you choose to be a bad guy.
Fable II (360)
Jan 14th
I now have glowing red eyes. I thought that was a trait for bad guys, but I guess not. Also, I have eaten too many pies and my gut is pretty large. I’m not sure how to lose weight in this game. Maybe it’ll disappear after a while if I stick to potions for my healing needs.
Did one story quest last night, returning a seal to some folks in the Wraithmarsh. After that it warned me that I should finish quests before proceeding, so that’s what I did. I did all the Archaeologist quests I could, but soon there weren’t any more scrolls to go and give up, despite me not having finished that quest line. I guess you have to finish it after the story, or something.
I’ve also lost my zombie girlfriend. She was there at the end of one quest, then disappeared before I could marry her. I assumed that the Graveyard Mansion mission would bring her back, so I saved up the 100,000 gold I needed to start that quest, but it was nothing to do with her. I’m slightly annoyed by this turn of events. I wonder if she’s ever coming back?
Anyway, I guess I’ll get on with the story when I next play. I think I’m pretty much done with the side quests.
One Achievement last night.
The Sharpshooter – You, or a friend, hit three targets with one shot. Reaver himself would be envious. A pure fluke.
