A Gaming Diary
Archive for September, 2008
N+ (DS)
Sep 6th
Level 29-0, which I spent five or six hours on without success, just took me about ten minutes after leaving the game for a week or so.
Um, fair enough.
I didn’t even do anything different – well, except the whole “not dying” thing.
Mercenaries 2: World In Flames (360)
Sep 6th
Do you miss the halcyon days of 2005, when every 360 game looked like an upscaled PS2 game? Well then rejoice! You can relive that era with Mercenaries 2, now available in shops!
I’m glad I’m not a reviewer, because objectively and technically the game’s all a bit rubbish. Looks like an upscaled PS2 game, has about five lines of dialogue, enemy AI is… limited, etc.
However, despite all that stuff, it’s completely awesome and kept me completely enthralled for a six-hour session today. Stuff goes BOOM! and people fall over and jeeps fly through the sky and buildings collapse and it’s amazing. Also, the lack of challenge doesn’t hurt it for me. I like it being easy, so I can just storm through like a terminator – and I’ve failed missions now and again, so it’s not like you’re completely invincible.
And I think I just used up my entire year’s quota of “WHOA! DID YOU SEE THAT?!” moments.
Think Just Cause hollowed out and stuffed with the spirit of EDF, or something.
Spore (PC)
Sep 6th
Please tell me there’s a way to invert the y-axis in the Creature stage! Please!
(Apart from that, I’m enjoying it.)
Viva Pinata: Trouble In Paradise (360)
Sep 5th
What was intended to be a quick go turned into a five and a half hour session. So, yes, it’s just as addictive as the first.
However, Professor Pester seems to come around every five minutes. I got a load of pinatas from cards and he killed them all. Which is especially nice as the game is refusing to let me scan the cards in again. So they’re gone forever.
Sigh. Why are so many games ruined by one stupid decision? Ruined may be a strong word, but I was getting more and more annoyed as pinata after pinata died until I just had to stop playing.
And looking at the web, it seems that there may not even be an item that stops him coming into your garden any more, meaning you’re going to have to put up with him forever, buying decoy after decoy. (Not that I can even buy a decoy yet, I’ve just seen my wife buy them. She’s much at a higher level than I am.)
It’s no fun having your favourite pinata killed like that, no fun at all.
Pure Demo (360)
Sep 5th
ATV racing game with huge tracks and fun handling. What could go wrong?
Well, it’s got an annoying trick system and it keeps showing me a crash animation without actually giving me any idea of why I just crashed.
Still, the rest of the Internet seems to love it, so I guess I should play it some more and see what I’m missing.
Viva Pinata: Pocket Paradise (DS)
Sep 5th
Just did the tutorial missions last night. Interface seems nice. That’s about all I can say right now. The wife seems to like it an awful lot.
Viva Pinata: Trouble In Paradise (360)
Sep 5th
Or Viva Pinata: The Director’s Cut, as it probably should be known. It’s the same as the first, just more so. Which, when a game is as good as Viva Pinata, isn’t much of a problem. Incredibly, the card reading stuff actually seems to work – though it’s very fiddly. I very much enjoyed my limited time spent with it yesterday.
Sega Rally (PSP)
Sep 3rd
DS charger broken, so I’m having to use the PSP until a replacement arrives. Normally wouldn’t be an issue, but I’ve got N+ and Bangai-O on the go. Anyway, Sega Rally is a good alternative. It’s really not as nice as the 360 version, but it’s still very good indeed. I’m getting better now, too and have been winning some Expert races.
