A Gaming Diary
360
Pinball FX (360)
Dec 3rd
Haven’t played this in ages, but the urge took me last night. Played the Buccaneer table for a bit, then downloaded the Street Fighter 2 table, which is a lot less busy. Disappointing at first, but I soon found myself enjoying it. One day I’ll actually work out how these tables work, instead of just throwing the balls at targets and ramps that look interesting.
And how comes sometimes lights stay on between balls and sometimes they don’t?
Fracture Demo (360)
Dec 3rd
Looks nice, in that standard shiny HD way that’s everywhere these days. Controls work. Is reasonably fun to play. I enjoyed raising and lowering terrain. Didn’t so much enjoy having to fire six hundred bullets from a pea shooter at every enemy.
Seems utterly average, really, but not in an especially bad way. If a copy landed in my 360 I think I’d have fun playing it, but I don’t think I’m going go out and get a copy, unless I see it for £4.97 or something.
Lego Indiana Jones (360)
Nov 29th
Made a start on The Last Crusade today, doing the first two or three levels, which were excellent.
Street Fighter II’ Hyper Fighting (360)
Nov 28th
Instead of paying 1200 points for HD Street Fighter 2, we decided to play some of this old version.
However, it too is broken, because my wife won every match on this version, too.
She was very pleased.
She said, “Shall we never talk of this again?” Then there was pause and she said, “Because I want to talk of it again.”
Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix Demo (360)
Nov 28th
Well, it looks nice – no, it does, even if the number of frames of animation is the same as ever – but it’s very broken. My wife won our match. Which is obviously wrong, as I’ve been playing Street Fighter games for well over a decade and this is the first time she’s ever played one.
Lego Indiana Jones (360)
Nov 28th
Temple of Doom completed! Willie got somewhere she shouldn’t on the last level and the game went mad, vibrating the controller to an insane extent, but it sorted itself out after my wife dropped out and came back in.
I don’t care what people say, this is great fun. If annoying at times.
Lego Indiana Jones (360)
Nov 22nd
This is thoroughly enjoyable stuff with a co-op partner. Even when the game glitches and you have to restart a level.
Today my wife and I did the first couple of levels of the Temple of Doom. It was all as enjoyably bashy as the Lego games are meant to be.
Fallout 3 (360)
Nov 22nd
Today I finished Moira’s book. Annoyingly, I didn’t have the correct skills to do the optional part of the final mission. I’d done all the optional stuff up to that point, so it was a bit annoying. Still, Achievement unlocked! And stuff.
That was about it, really, apart from dropping off a book at the library and shooting somebody in the face after they tried to rob me.
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts Demo (360)
Nov 22nd
I… it… I… um… it…
…what?
I have no idea what I just played. It’s a third-person running, jumping and driving game where you go around completely random environments while characters spout nonsensical “instructions” at you and every now and again you find something that actually resembles some sort of actual game. Okay, maybe the “game” part will only involve driving your cart into a ball so it rolls down a hill and you win, but at least it’s something with rules (that aren’t explained, mind) and actual objectives (that aren’t properly explained, either).
And then add in some interface that lets you build vehicles from bits you find. Which fall apart as soon as you leave the garage.
And then there are millions of pauses to load stuff. And a robotic skull witch. And something with Pong for a face. And clockwork birds. And things that look a bit like mice and a bit like foxes, but not much like either. And lots of different things to collect, though I’ve no idea why I was collecting them. (I’m sure it was explained, but it was explained using words that in turn required an explanation that never came.)
Completely baffling and, given the seeming reliance on fairly poor mini games, probably not very good. But I really can’t tell for sure.
Left 4 Dead Demo (360)
Nov 22nd
The cardinal rule is ALWAYS STICK TOGETHER.
How comes one person on the team never seems to know that?
Still, that’s one of the things that makes it fun.
And it is fun. Oh yes.
A little laggy this evening, but still good fun.
