A Gaming Diary
Archive for June, 2008
World of Warcraft (PC/Mac)
Jun 8th
Time spent downloading and installing updates:16 hours. (It’s been a long time since I last played on the PC here.)
Time spent playing: 15 minutes, just to show my wife what it looks like.
Civilization Revolution Demo (360)
Jun 6th
ARGH!
Turn limit kicked in during an epic war with Greece!
This is horrible.
Civilization Revolution Demo (360)
Jun 6th
Wonderful demo. It’s turn-limited, but otherwise seems pretty complete. (I didn’t get any “You can’t build this in the demo” messages or anything.) It’s really, truly Civilization, but streamlined nicely. It plays quickly and feels right. I was doing really well in the demo and I’m very upset that it ended before I got to see what happened in my war against the Egyptians. I wanted this game before the demo, now I want more than anything else in the world. (Possibly.)
Great stuff.
Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee 2 (PSP)
Jun 6th
See, it’s exciting to play. Few games have me shouting at the PSP screen and I don’t think any others have me scratching at the screen trying to stop a ball from rolling down into a pond.
But it’s golf, so there’s nothing interesting to say about it. Um, I unlocked a fat caddy last night. Will that do?
World of Warcraft (PC/Mac)
Jun 5th
I spent the first few minutes of today’s session dying over and over again, then didn’t die for the rest of the day. Odd.
Anyway, I killed some monsters, assassinated a dwarf, turned some guys into giant pig things and learned skinning and leather working so I could make myself some decent new armor. All looks a bit homemade but, well, it is.
Very good day overall. Tomorrow I’m going to try and hit level ten so I can finally dual wield some daggers.
Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee 2 (PSP)
Jun 5th
Sequel to one of the best – if not the best – PS games? Yes please!
Completely forgot this was coming out until a few days ago, which is nice. Waiting for games is a terrible experience for someone as impatient for me, so it was nice only have to wait three or four days for my copy.
Anyway, it’s the same again, there’s just more of it. Which is fine by me. Still stupidly addictive, still great.
World of Warcraft (PC/Mac)
Jun 4th
Started a new character this lunchtime. Catwhisper, a Blood Elf rogue on Daggerspine. I feel a bit dirty playing as an elf, but at least they’re Horde elves. There’s no way I could ever play an Alliance character, I don’t think.
Anyway, after some confusion over combo points, I managed to get him up to level five and out of the starting area. I think I like playing as a rogue. Stealth is nice and there doesn’t seem to be much downtime at all. Bit early to judge, but he seems fun.
Ninja Gaiden 2 Demo (360)
Jun 4th
Oh! I like this. Unexpectedly. I like this a lot.
There’s not an awful lot to it, but the thrill of slicing ninjas into bloody chunks didn’t get old for the duration of the demo. It’s fast, fluid and just plain old fun to play.
And the camera, while being a bit silly, wasn’t as awful as I’d heard.
Trouble is, I’m not sure if I’d like the full game or not. The demo seems to send you against early enemies with late-game weapons, I think, and doesn’t have any boss fights in it. So as a judge for annoying the full game will be, this demo does a bad job. As a piece of entertainment in and of itself though, it’s excellent.
Call of Duty 4 (360)
Jun 4th
I’ve had this sitting around for a while now, but only started it last night.
You know how most shooters have you running around corridors, with a few memorable set pieces thrown in? This is the opposite. Huge firefights and amazing scenes linked by short runs from place to place. One moment you’re escaping a sinking ship, then you’re sniping some Russians, then running for your life across a town square filled with burning cars, then fighting it out in a TV station in the Middle East. All those things happen in the first hour, with more besides.
It’s really very good indeed. So intense, though, that after an hour or so I had to stop playing because I was completely worn out.
I’d make a rubbish soldier.
World of Warcraft (PC/Mac)
Jun 2nd
Picked up a load of quests, delivered some meat, destroyed a fire altar with a stone and ran all the way to Thunderbluff from The Crossroads to see if the trainer there could get my staff skill about sixty. Which they couldn’t. Still, it was a nice run and I only killed once by loading pauses.
