A Gaming Diary
Archive for May, 2009
Animal Crossing: Let’s Go To The City (Wii)
May 14th
No new resident to replace duck. I am hoping for Frobert or Big Top, my favourite animals in the DS version. Found some gyroids last night, which was nice. Redd sold me a fake painting AGAIN.
Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce (PSP)
May 13th
Should there be a colon in that title? I don’t know. It’s not important. After all, I think I technically should be calling Infamous inFamous every time I write about it, but that’s just silly.
Anyway, Strikeforce. It’s Monster Hunter, only not as complicated. And instead of hunting monsters you’re hammering the square and triangle buttons to kill hundreds and hundreds of enemy people. After a couple of hours play, I can say that I think I enjoy this more than Monster Hunter. Not that it’s a better game – I really don’t think it is – just that it suits me better. Monster Hunter is an awful lot of work, Strikeforce is just (almost) mindless killing. There are fewer things to worry about in your village and quests are much shorter. (Also, so far, they’re much, much easier. I’ve not come close to dying yet.)
I can see this thing getting pretty stinky reviews, but if you like the Dynasty Warriors style of play and just think that Monster Hunter is too much like hard work, then you might find a good fit here. It’s also a better game than Phantasy Star Portable, which uses the same sort of model, simply because there aren’t a million pages of tedious dialogue to sit through.
Infamous Demo (PS3)
May 13th
Played through this again last night. Took about an hour, which is very generous for a demo these days.
I enjoyed it a lot more than I did last time. There’s still the odd annoyance, the main one being being killed without being able to do anything about it – but the checkpoints are generous enough that it’s not a huge issue. My issues with the controls are a thing of the past now, mostly, though sometimes I still find myself clinging on to things when I’m trying to jump down to the ground. Better, though, that way round than thinking you’re going to grab a ledge and then find yourself falling back down to earth.
It does seem to be doing an awful lot right. I just hope the unexpected deaths don’t become an issue in the full version. I don’t think it’s shaping up to be a classic – though I could be wrong – but I don’t think anyone who buys it will be disappointed with their purchase. I’m going to try and get hold of a copy of the full game sometime, for sure. It just might well be behind Prototype and Red Faction: Guerilla on the list.
Animal Crossing: Let’s Go To The City (Wii)
May 12th
Look, duck, if you’re going to move out, do it. Don’t hang around in a house full of empty boxes telling us you’re going.
Animal Crossing: Let’s Go To The City (Wii)
May 11th
Forgot to play on Saturday. D’oh. Played yesterday, but didn’t get on until after nine, so Nook’s was shut. Bother.
What’s interesting and slightly worrying is that Pate is moving out. She twice asked my wife if she should move and my wife said no; she never mentioned moving to me. So, unlike the DS version, it looks like there’s no sure why to prevent your neighbours from moving out. That’s not good at all. If either of the pandas decide to go, I shall be very upset.
Pokemon Platinum (DS)
May 11th
Played huge amounts of this over the weekend. Two more gyms done, lots of exploring and levelling, evolved my Buneary and a Chancy (that I got as en egg by trading with my wife), stuff like that. Ate hours and hours of my life.
Infamous Demo (PS3)
May 11th
Short version: It’s a bit like Crackdown, but something stops it being OMG BEST!
Long version: An open world superhero game, where you climb buildings and shoot folks. It’s a generous demo and it seems like a good game, but there’s something lacking for me. I’m not sure quite what, though. It might be that the controls feel just a touch clumsy, or it might be that the enemies are hard to see, or it might be that enemy fire is too hard to avoid, or it might be that it’s really quite tough, even on easy, or… I’m really not sure. However, I played the demo for a long, long time, then started it again when it finished, so it must have something.
And let’s not forget the first impressions I had of Killzone 2 were very similar and that turned out to be brilliant. Right now I’m interested, but not convinced. It seems like a good, solid game, but not a must have.
Plants Vs Zombies (PC/Mac)
May 8th
Adventure, puzzles and mini games completed. Am now dividing my time between a second tun through the adventure (it seems quite a bit harder this time round), the survival games and tending to my zen garden.
No, it’s not as good as Peggle. Why there don’t seem to be any high score modes when some of the game types are crying out for scores I don’t know. But it’s still ace.
Pokemon Platinum (DS)
May 8th
Played this last night for a bit. First I went into the underground tunnels and dug for spheres with my wife. (And I stole her flag. She was annnoyed, I was amused. I’m a bad husband.) Then we went up top and did some trading to evolve some guys. And then I did a few fights to try and level up to beat the gym leader I’m stuck on.
