A Gaming Diary
Archive for June, 2009
The Sims 3 (PC)
Jun 25th
I’m reviewing this – I have an actual free copy from EA and everything – so this post will just be some notes of things I need to remember when I write up the review.
Install takes ages. How much disk space did it take up? I’ll have to check.
Runs like a dog on default settings on my PC, but so did The Sims 2. Taking everything down to low means it runs fine and doesn’t really seem to look any different to my eyes. No different from medium settings, no different from The Sims 2.
Set up a family – Steve and Sasha Beato and their baby daughter, whose name is something like De’Quesha. I let my wife name her and she watches far too much Maury. Steve is evil, Sasha is reasonably good, but not overly so.
Moved them into a small house in town. It’s not a trailer… it just looks like one. I’ve fulfilled a few small wishes for them – a new sofa, a crib for the baby, etc. Steve, though evil, loves his little daughter very much and most of his wishes involve taking care of her.
While he was doing that, Sasha went out to the grocery store – fancy new feature alert! – and bought some food. And a duck. For the bath. The bath they don’t have. Then she came home and got a job on the journalism career track, as she wished. Steve wants to have a criminal career, but I’m keeping him home to look after the baby for now. Global domination can wait.
I experimented with letting my sims get on with their lives themselves and they went to the toilet, ate food, went to bed and went to work without me having to tell them to. That’s an improvement from The Sims 2 right there. I think they were meant to do it in the last game, but they never seemed to actually do it.
When I left, Sasha was still at work – her first day – and Steve was looking after the baby. I think I might get Sasha to invite her co-workers over for a party soon, see some interation.
Steve and Sasha love each other very much and when they can they spend a lot of time talking and canoodling. Sasha wants another baby – they’ve not tried that yet.
Fuel (360)
Jun 25th
Played this for a couple of hours last night while the wife played The Sims 3. Managed to go over half an hour without seeing a road or dirt track as I tried to get the Warrior to climb a mountain with a vista point on the top. Several likely looking slopes proved fruitless, but I got there eventually… then fell off. Another climb and I reached the vista point. That was a good feeling. Then found some more points of interest before trying out a checkpoint race across the top of the Dead Lady’s Lake area. Took me several tries, but I eventually won it, despite not being able to find a shortcut the other cars were using. I like races where I get to drive the General Custer. It may not be the best car I could have used, but I know how to drive it and didn’t want to spend any money on a new vehicle that may have been rubbish.
It’s funny, a few days away from the game and the scale astonished me all over again when I jumped back in. There’s also a lot of variation and character to the different areas, despite the small number of different objects and terrain styles. In a sequel I would dearly love to see many more unique buildings. Could they be generated, as the world is, I wonder?
Animal Crossing: Let’s Go To The City (Wii)
Jun 23rd
Looks like Bella’s finally going to be moving out. She’s been talking about it for ages, but she’s all packed up now. I played for a fair old while last night, but can’t remember anything I did… Wait, I bought a bear shirt for Alli.
Anyway, the lack of hilarious anecdotes and excitement in these posts about Animal Crossing aren’t meant to belittle it. The fact that not much really happens is one of the things I most love about the game. Every night I get home from work, sit down on the sofa and spend ten or fifteen or twenty minutes pottering about in McNulty. It’s the perfect way to wind down and helps to relax me for the evening ahead.
At this stage in its life – over six months now of this game, years and years with the other versions – Animal Crossing is completely comfortable. And that’s the way I like it. Each new version has just enough new stuff to be worth buying, but without making any real difference to the game. That’s not what some people want, but it works for me.
Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers Demo (360)
Jun 22nd
Played the demo of this, which just seems to consist of a tutorial, unless I missed something. That’s all well and good, but I won’t have any idea whether the tutorial took or if I like the game without playing a real match. Judgment deferred.
Animal Crossing: Let’s Go To The City (Wii)
Jun 22nd
Forgot the Bug Off, remembered KK. Bella shows no signs of moving out, despite what she said last week. Lots of gifts yesterday – flowers from the mysterious “Dad”, an espresso maker from Tortimer and a sandcastle from Nintendo. Nice.
Fuel (360)
Jun 22nd
Spent a good a few hours driving to new camps I’d unlocked on the eastern side of the map. Ended up at The Hangar, so did a few races round there, then went back to an area known as Fire Fields, or something. I can’t remember the exact name now. All great stuff, but the only thing that sticks in my mind is doing a bike racing late on Saturday night and being determined to win it before bed, despite it being well past one in the morning. I did it, eventually, but I didn’t get to bed until nearly two. Sometimes you can lave a race unwon though, you know?
Fuel (360)
Jun 19th
Played a couple of hours last night while my wife was off playing with iTunes upstairs. I started off in Drownington Cove, doing various things. I finished off the career races there (on two stars), then did some challenges, collected some liveries, got a couple of Mavericks, etc. Best race was probably a Raid challenge there. It starts off easily enough – you can stay ahead of the AI easily enough on the way to the first checkpoint by ignoring the roads – but the second half of the race is a bit harder, as you have avoid an awful lot of water. There’s a big body of water you have to dogleg past, then the final part of the race sees you picking your way between small pools. I eventually did it, after about four tries, by watching where the AI went, which revealed a path across the shallows at the side of the lake. Then it was just a case of sticking to the roads to avoid the pools, before powering across the grass to the finish line. Excellent stuff.
After that I moved on over to Redrock Bluffs, where I did some more career races. On the way to one of them I had another great Fuel moment. I was driving across the desert at night, when a sudden flash of lightning illuminated all the terrain and great forks of lightning appeared in the sky. It gave me a vivd honeymoon flashback, reminding me of watching storms roll in across the Grand Canyon as night fell. Perfect.
Then, this morning, I played for an hour or so before work, polishing off another two or three career races and unlocking three more areas of the map in the process. Wonderful stuff. I know I keep saying that, but it is.
Tenchu: Shadow Assassins (PSP)
Jun 18th
Hardly played anything last night, but had a quick go of Tenchu. Just did a couple of the short Assignment missions. One was a tuotrial for pushing objects, the other for moving across rafters. I managed to get S ranks on both them without any difficulty. I am an excellent ninja.
The PSP’s analogue nub really doesn’t feel quite right for this game, but it’s not game-breaking. I just wish I was playing with a proper analogue stick sometimes.
Animal Crossing: Let’s Go To The City (Wii)
Jun 18th
Yes, Bella, with some regret, we shall allow you to leave McNulty. We’ll miss you, but not that much.
