A Gaming Diary
Archive for November, 2005
Halo 2
Nov 26th
So tonight was the big uk.games.video.xbox farewell to the Xbox, what with the 360 coming along on Friday.
It was great fun.
It just wasn’t really very organised.
In fact, it consisted of just myself and asktoby killing each other in very nasty ways.
But it was still great fun.
Even though I lost. Heavily. 25-3 when we played shotguns, though I wasn’t so bad with sniper rifles or rocket launchers.
So, just the two of us, but it was actually really good fun.
Highlight of the evening: being thrown across the map by a rocket hit and hitting my chin on a wall. Doesn’t sound like much, but it looked very, very painful.
Mario Kart DS
Nov 26th
Blimey.
That wireless seems to destroy the DS’s battery life. It’s on read already and I can’t have played it for more than four hours today, I don’t think. Well, maybe five.
Mario Kart DS
Nov 26th
I don’t believe in the death penalty.
Except in the following two cases -
a) People who park outisde the chip shop on Upper Stone Street during rush hour.
b) People who quit out of online games when they’re losing.
Mario Kart DS
Nov 26th
Phew, just had my first online tie. Someone called Peter and I were racing each other and he won the first two races and then I won the next two. Intense stuff.
I’ve also done all the 50cc cups (all one-star rankings except one two-star and, ack, an A) which has unlocked a couple of characters. Some of the people online seem to have very special characters though, damn them. It doesn’t seem to unbalance the game, but it makes them seem all cool. Or something.
Mario Kart DS
Nov 26th
And now, after some heavy losses to some random person called Spud, the DS’s battery light is glowing a dangerous red.
Bed time, then.
I need work out the netiquette for these games. Half-way through one round, the little ‘friend looking for game’ icon popped up, but I thought it would be very rude to quit out of my current game and go find my friend. Thoughts?
Mario Kart DS
Nov 25th
My Mario Kart cartridge deleted my single player progress.
::frowns::
Why did it do that, eh?
Actually, the DS didn’t recognise the cartridge at all when I first put it in, so maybe I’ve got a dodgy copy. I hope not. If I had to send it back, all my friends would have to enter a new friend code for me and I’d lose all my stats.
Mind you, as those stats include being beaten handily by deKay this evening, maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing.
I did then go on to win two rounds against a random person called Braveman. It’s odd, I have no idea where he is in the world. Could be three streets away, could be in Australia. Brave new world and such.
Mario Kart DS
Nov 25th
First friends match!
Played two rounds against Chibi.
He won the first set of matches, then I won the second.
And then quit.
That was great fun. Great, great fun. Really could do with some form of communication, though. I mean, beyond slamming shells up each other’s arses.
Mario Kart DS
Nov 25th
Well, my second attempt at playing online was less successful. I tried a Worldwide match and got three opponents, but after the first race only one was left and then he lagged out a couple of races later. I was hoping that it would count it as a win for me in my stats, but no, it didn’t change anything. Ah well.
By the way, my friends code can be found here.
Mario Kart DS
Nov 25th
Brilliant.
Started off with some housekeeping. Designed a rubbish emblem, entered loads of friends codes, all that.
Then I did the first 50cc cup without any difficulty.
Then I decided to test it out online. None of my friends seemed to be on, so I went for a continental match. After a long search, it found a couple of people for me to play against. One person quit out after the first race, leaving just myself and someone called Jenko racing each other. He was, quite frankly, better than me. He could get fast starts, for one thing. I’ve got a couple, but haven’t got the timing down yet. But he wasn’t better than me by too much. I won a couple of races and we went through two complete race series before I decided to quit out.
Oddly, my WFC stats now say I’ve won one and lost two, so I don’t really know how they’re worked out.
But, anyway, that was fantastic fun. Racing one other person is greater than racing seven computer characters, no contest.
Doom RPG
Nov 25th
Played five minutes of Final Fantasy on the loo today, but spent both bus journeys engrossed with Doom RPG. So engrossed that I wasn’t far off missing my stop on the way home.
It’s fantasically enjoyable and addictive, but it’s impossible to explain why. I’m wracking my brains here, but I’m stumped. It doesn’t look too great, it’s not very deep, but it’s just… smooth, I suppose. It just flows, with barely a dull moment. Somehow, the balance of exploration, combat and reading text seems to have been perfectly judged.
I really think everyone with a compatible phone should play it, but I’d have a better chance of convincing people to try it if I could explain why it’s so great.
