A Gaming Diary
Archive for November, 2005
The Movies
Nov 13th
Just a quick session. (By which I mean about an hour and a half.)
It’s become less interesting now that I know what’s going on, but it’s still compulsive. I just had what could have been my first three star movie get let down by a bad script and an overused set. Grrr.
And I still haven’t got any of my stars have any sort of friendships yet. Some of them have know each thirty years, for pity’s sake!
I’ve just written my own sci-fi epic, but the people I want in it are either working on a cheapo action flick I’m making to introduce a new star or so stressed out after the last movie that I daren’t put them to work. Time for some relaxation time for my stars. I wish they’d stop complaining about their bloody trailers. I’m doing what I can, damn it!
Apart from the odd script design, I’m definitely concentrating on the management game, rather than the movie-making tools right now, which is slightly unexpected.
The Movies
Nov 12th
May I present to you my sweeping epic love story… Tenderspirit.
So beautiful. I believe it may forever remain my masterpiece.
The Movies
Nov 12th
I didn’t mean to buy this today…
I think I’m glad I did. It just made three and a half hours disappear like nothing, though. When a game does that I’m really not sure if it’s very, very good or very, very bad.
I’ve basically been doing things at random, feeling my way through the game. The management aspects I’ve got down, more or less, but the movie-making aspects I’m still learning. I only just unlocked the post-production tools and haven’t tested them out yet. But I’ve also unlocked some sort of colour film, which is cool.
I’m currently taking a break in the middle of trying to change my studio from one which churns out tons and tons of crap to one which actually makes half-decent movies. Not sure if that’s possible yet, but I’m going to give my actors and directors time to calm down between films and relax a bit. They’ve been throwing tantrums a lot lately, but new trailers and some pay raises seem to have helped. I’ve got a script that I worked on myself – it’s a sci-fi epic! – ready to go when everyone’s recovered a bit from the frenzied bought of low-budget film-making I’ve put them through.
So, anyway, the latest movie to be released by my studio, Romero Pictures, is The Quiet Gun – and if you click on the name you should be able to watch it. It even works on my Mac!
Gunstar Super Heroes
Nov 11th
Moon 2.
There’s a vertically scrolling shooter section.
Normally, that’s my favourite style of game IN THE WORLD EVER.
But I just can’t get past this bit. Grr.
Halo 2
Nov 10th
I was updating my card details on my Xbox Live account (the card I used ran out in September and I want everything set up properly for the 360 transfer next month) and while the Xbox was on for the first time in weeks I thought I might as well play some Halo 2.
Oh Lord, I’d forgotten how much fun it is. I mean, I’m not good. I normally come one place from the bottom in any match I play, seemingly. I’m a bit rubbish. But it’s still so much fun. SO. MUCH. FUN. IN CAPS AND EVERYTHING.
I even did a round on my least favourite map (the one with the train) with my least favourite weapons (sniper rifles) and I still had massive amounts of fun. It’s nothing complicated. I just do Quick Match Rumble Pit games which are generally just about running around shooting everyone else. I don’t do team games or anything with people I don’t know. I just run around the same old places doing the same old thing. Over and over again.
And it’s great.
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories
Nov 9th
Another half hour or so of pissing about.
Fun, but very familiar fun. So much so that I found myself driving to the old GTA3 save point just now.
The two hidden packages I can see but not get are annoying me greatly.
I should do some missions at some point, I suppose.
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories
Nov 8th
It’s a GTA game.
But it doesn’t look quite as good.
And the controls aren’t quite as good.
And a lot of the post-GTA3 improvements have been brought over, but not quite all of them. It’s annoying not being able to jump up and grab the tops of walls and fences, for example.
I only did the first mission and then buggered about exploring for a while, trying to get used to the controls. It’s not easy, but I don’t think it’ll hurt the game too much, Certainly, the familiarity of the map is going to be the main hinderance to long-term enjoyment. It’s similar enough to GTA3 to be annoying, while being different enough to be, er, annoying. Haven’t found any hidden packages yet. If they exist. I think I may have seen one, but it seems to be somewhere impossible to get.
And I wanted the garage to have a Banshee in it, damn it!
It’s certainly a worthy achievement and I tip my hat to all the guys and girls that worked on it, but I’m not quite sure if I want a handheld GTA3. Maybe if I travelled more.
Oh, and having subtitles off by default is an odd choice, especially as I don’t think you can put them on during the first cut scene. How many people always have sound on when playing a handheld, eh?
Doom
Nov 8th
Well, I put the Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories in the PSP, then realised I’d need to update the firmware to play it, which would mean getting up and plugging it in to the wall, which seem like far too much effort.
So I took my final chance to play some Doom on the PSP. The controls are shite and it’s horribly, horribly blurry… but it’s still Doom, and therefore great.
Just not as great as it is on a PC without those new-fangled annoying Windows keys that get in the way so badly when playing Doom.
World of Warcraft
Nov 6th
My first mission into contested territory. That’s where enemy players are free to kill me. I didn’t see any, but I died anyway. I wasn’t ready. I’ll need to find some more missions in The Barrens or Silverpine before going back there.
For one thing, Donkey is only up to level 14. Quite impressive, in a way, but it means he’s still pretty useless.
