A Gaming Diary
Archive for April, 2009
Monster Hunter Freedom 2 (PSP)
Apr 6th
Hmm. Well.
I’ve completed all the basic weapons training now. If bowguns had a better range, I might stick with those, but they don’t. So I’ve settled on dual-wielding small swords/daggers for now.
I got an “urgent” quest from the village elder to go kill a big monster, the same one that I had to kill in the last of the general basic training missions I tried. The one I was stuck on, remember? I did it first time without any issues. Now, the monster in question wasn’t any easier, I don’t think, so the only conclusion is that I’ve got a lot better at the game in the last few hours. Which I find somewhat surprising, as I don’t really feel any better.
A lot of things are still a mystery. Can the cooks in my kitchen do anything other than cook my raw meat? Is it worth keeping all these items I find, or should I sell them if I don’t think I need them right now? What’s the better upgrade for my (very neglected) farm – another row to grow seeds in or a mushroom tree? Why do I have to visit the mountains with a quest, why can’t I just pop over to farm myself some items? Etc.
Still no closer to deciding whether or not I actually like this game, but it’s certainly got something.
Wartech: Senko no Ronde (360)
Apr 6th
I completed Story mode with the second character and then tried the third character. She gets a completely different final boss to the other two characters I’ve tried and it’s much, much harder. I finally managed to work out how to do its first form (though not without taking a lot of damage every time), but the second form seems to spam out attacks that are completely unavoidable. I can reflect some of them, but don’t have enough power to shield myself for very long and soon die. I gave up in the end. There must be a way to do it, probably by just using the shield for the shortest possible amount of time, but it felt a bit too hard to me last night.
Wartech: Senko no Ronde (360)
Apr 5th
I’ve been intrigued by this game for a while, it being a collision between bullet hell shooters and fighting games. It’s a one-on-one fighter, viewed from above and you spend most time firing missiles and glowing bullets at the enemy than attacking them from close quarters. Oh, and you can transform into a giant shooter boss during the fight.
Anyway, it cost me 98p and is a definite bargain for that price. I’ve not spent much time with it, but I went through Story mode with the default character and then played some Score Attack. All thoroughly enjoyable.
Nobody was online to play against, though.
NextWar: The Quest for Earth Demo (360)
Apr 5th
Tower Defense for the 360. Seems decent, but it just reminded me that I need to play more Savage Moon on the PS3. Unfair, yes, but I’ve already paid for Savage Moon.
Philip Muwanga’s Hexy Trench Demo (360)
Apr 5th
How to explain this community game? It’s sort of real time strategy, with you laying trenches on hexes and sending enemies to defeat your opponent, or something. I was starting to get into it when the trial ran out but I’m definitely going to try it again and may buy it.
The Dishwasher Demo (360)
Apr 5th
I remember when this was a community game. It’s now a fully-fledged arcade game. Good-looking, smooth, but not for me. I would explain why, but I don’t know myself. There’s nothing wrong, but I just couldn’t be bothered to try again when a boss killed me.
I hating writing blog posts like this, because I feel like I’m being unfair and that I should be able to be clearer about my reasoning, but I just wasn’t feeling it and that’s about all there is to it.
SingStar (PS3)
Apr 5th
Spent a fun Saturday evening with SingStar, my wife and a bottle of Jack Daniels. We only spent five pounds in the store – a very tight limit, as there were about twelve songs we felt we really needed – but that was five pounds well spent. It turns out I can’t sing The Ramones, but I rock at Pull Shapes by The Pipettes. Well, as much as I rock anything.
Since we last played, those nice chaps at Sony have added the ability to swap in PS2 SingStar discs, so we had fun going through the old 90s and Rock Ballads discs. They fit in seamlessly, it’s just a shame that you can’t copy the tracks into the library on your hard disc. There’s a very obvious reason for that limitation, though.
Monster Hunter Freedom 2 (PSP)
Apr 5th
Right, I’m not about five hours into this and I still haven’t decided if I like it or not. I think that the base mechanics might be too simple, but the number of items (and their uses) might be too complex for me. Or something.
I’ve done a few quests for the village chief and improved some of my weapons and armour and made some new gloves and trousers.
Right now, though, I’m going through the weapons section of basic training, trying to find a weapon that fits me. I think I like dual wielding best so far, but I’ve not tried any projectile weapons yet.
Animal Crossing: Let’s Go To The City (Wii)
Apr 5th
I dug up the final fossil! Just down on the beach. The stego tail we’ve been needing to finish everything off. Excellent!
Peggle (Mac)
Apr 2nd
Keep forgetting to post about this, but it’s my lunchtime choice at the moment. I’m going through trying to 100% every level, having completed Adventure mode and all the challenges. I’ve done all but the last set of levels. Yes, yesterday I managed to 100% Frog Helix. I’m proud of that. (For reference, I used the flippers as my power up of choice.)
