A Gaming Diary
DS
Korg DS-10 (DS)
Jul 29th
Back in about 1990, a friend of mine bought a second hand Roland SH-101 synth for £45. I was very jealous, despite the fact that I have no musical talent and wouldn’t have had a clue what to do with it.
Now, I’m never going to get an SH-101 (have you seen the prices these days?) but I do now have the Korg DS-10. Okay, so you tap away with the stylus instead of physically moving knobs and switches. And the sound quality isn’t as good. But, you know what? It’s £30 imported from Japan and it makes me feel good. It’s very limited in sequencing terms and seems to be designed as a live tool, but what you’ve got works very well and there’s lots of stuff to play around with. I don’t know the terms, I don’t know what I’m doing, I can only seem to make a horrible repeating racket, but it makes me happy.
It’s a toy, but it’s had a lot of thought put into it. It gives me a lovely feeling of being musical and creative even when I’m just making horrible noise. And, most of all, unlike homebrew music apps, it’s official. It’s an official Korg synth. This makes a world of difference to me, though I’m not sure why.
(It’s also all in English. Well, if you can call baffling acronyms and abbreviations English.)
Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)
Jul 29th
So many weeds. So many that the town actually featured a huge corpse flower, which I didn’t know you get in Crossing and my wife had heard about but considered a myth.
My wife popped over from her new town of Arkham and we managed to pick them all. Saw all my old chums. Went over to Arkham to meet new people and see a couple of animals from my town of Venture who had moved in there.
Alfonso was very fussy about what he considered to be a rare fish, but at least I got a Kitchen Tile floor out of it.
It was nice to be back after so long, especially with my wife. Before we lived in the same country we used to play Animal Crossing over wifi all the time. We’d sit on the phone talking why pottering about in each other’s towns. Definitely helped us feel closer, so I have a strong emotional attachment to the game.
I’m not sure how long I’ll be playing it again for, but it is good to come back for visit. And it would be very nice to pay off my final loan some time, too.
Final Fantasy Tactics A2 (DS)
Jul 21st
I’m about thirty hours in now and it’s all I seem to be playing.
Strange how things change, eh?
Final Fantasy Tactics A2 (DS)
Jul 19th
Wife and I are having Final Fantasy Tactics weekend. We’re quite the addicts right now.
Final Fantasy Tactics A2 (DS)
Jul 15th
This lunchtime I had to stop some antlions getting to a tree. It was very easy indeed, especially as they all ran around at the other end of the level and didn’t even try to move towards the tree.
Final Fantasy Tactics A2 (DS)
Jul 15th
Didn’t play much last night, as I was too busy watching beard-stroking documentaries on Channel 4 and quiz shows that make me feel stupid on BBC2, but I did defeat a boss. First time. Okay, so I deliberately broke the law to do it, but I did it.
I also nearly, nearly have a ninja now.
Final Fantasy Tactics A2 (DS)
Jul 13th
I’ve played this an awful lot today for a game I’ve given up on in disgust…
First auctions. First failed normal mission. Clan Lando got several new titles. First multi-person dispatch quest. And stuff.
Final Fantasy Tactics A2 (DS)
Jul 12th
My wife persuaded me to give this another go. I’m still slightly wary of it and think that the game would be much improved by the removal of the laws system, but I’ve been cautiously enjoying it again. I did the clan trial I’d been stuck on before without any hint of trouble today, too.
Maybe I’ll play until I get myself an Assassin, at least…
Final Fantasy Tactics A2 (DS)
Jul 9th
Oh, I’ve just had it with this game.
I was doing a “No Ranged Attacks” clan trial for about the fourth time, because it’s against monsters that charm you and then use ranged attacks, which counts as you breaking the law.
But not this time.
This time, though, I failed because – get this – my normal attack randomly knocked back my target. How does that count? HOW. DOES. THAT. COUNT?
Anyway, this is the single stupidest, most unfair game in the history of gaming and I’ve had it.
Kill it. Kill it with fire.
Final Fantasy Tactics A2 (DS)
Jul 9th
WAIT!
I AM OFFICIALLY AN IDIOT!
I read the law description again, in the Clan Info, for the law about not using MP.
It was a law against not using MP. So all abilities that didn’t use MP were banned. Hence using Moogle Lance, which doesn’t use MP, broke the law.
So the games not broken, my eyes and brain are.
D’oh.
Forget I said anything.
