A Gaming Diary
Archive for April, 2008
Mr Driller: Drill Spirits (DS)
Apr 7th
Several rubbish attempts at the 1500m stage. Mercifully, I was stopped from trying too many times by the Red Light of Battery Doom.
Mr Driller: Drill Spirits (DS)
Apr 7th
A quick couple of goes in bed. Controls felt slightly clunky, but at least they didn’t kill me.
Mr Driller Online (360)
Apr 7th
Haven’t taken this online yet – which sounds like a good thing, as it’s apparently horribly broken – but I did have another quick go at the India stage between Mad Men and bed. Didn’t do awfully well and lost one life simply because the controller didn’t seem to want me to drill upwards. Gah. That’s the funny thing, when the controls are working they feel more fluid and responsive than just about any other version of the game, but when the stick refuses to go in quite the direction you want it to, it’s horrible.
Gran Turismo 5 Prologue (PS3)
Apr 7th
Had a wonderful few hours with this on Sunday morning. It just clicked. Throwing the Integra round that windy, hilly countryside track was a definite highlight. I wasn’t suddenly get golds in everything, mind. I did, however, finish of the C-class stages with a mixture of bronzes and golds. (No silvers, oddly.) I also went online. My RX-8 couldn’t really compete with all the concept cars everyone else seemed to be fielding, but I did okay. Apart from one race where I smashed into the wall on the last corner I managed to end each race in the middle of the rankings and, more importantly, I wasn’t an awful driver. Maybe I was a little too safe, but I didn’t smash into people or go spinning off the track, so that was lovely. Infuriating and addictive in equal measure, once I get a decent car or two I think I’ll be okay. (Either that or the extra power will prove to be completely uncontrollable and I’ll be awful.) Shame about the lag – cars jump around a bit and don’t become insubstantial quickly enough for my liking – but it’s still great.
The Simpsons Game (360)
Apr 4th
First impressions are that it’s a standard platform game, elevated by fantastic Simpsonsness but then let down again by an atrocious camera. Still good fun so far. I just try not to think about Mario Galaxy when the camera moves 180 degrees during jumps and I fall to the floor AGAIN.
Mr Driller Online (360)
Apr 2nd
The 360 controller’s killed me a few times, but other that…
::happy sigh::
I love Mr Driler.
Gran Turismo 5 Prologue (PS3)
Apr 2nd
Sony really don’t make this easy to love. Bought it from the store, waited a couple of hours for it to download… then had to try for three hours for to download an update. Progress bar was going up incredibly slowly and it kept failing. I thought I was going to have to leave it overnight, but just as I was going to bed I checked the PS3 and the update had finished, so I actually managed to get two quick races in before sleep.
Leapt it and bought an RX-8 and took it to London in arcade mode, with everything set to the defaults. Hit many barriers and didn’t do very well at all.
Then I went to the first C-class event and played with physics on professional and traction control turned down to 1. Still kept it on automatic gears because I can’t do manual. Not in games, not in real life. Came first by a long way, despite spinning out in the same place both laps.
It was excellent and all the installation nonsense was forgiven as soon as I was driving. Looks very nice, though London stuttered a bit here and there.
Pity there’s no way to turn the music off during a race.
