A Gaming Diary
Archive for June, 2009
Tenchu: Shadow Assassins (PSP)
Jun 17th
Right, I’ve given this a bit of play now. Some last night, some at lunch time today. I’ve been through the first level a few times and done some of the mini missions. It took me a while to get used to things – when you keep failing what’s effectively the tutorial level of a game you know there’s a problem – but I think I like it now. And, apart from one area with a pond and a load of guards, I can kill everyone in the game using stealth. I think I may have worked out a path through the pond area that will let me kill everyone, so I need to try that some time. I’d like to be able to get a decent ranking on that one before moving on – though my last ranking was “Elite Ninja”, which isn’t bad.
Anyway, it’s a proper ninja stealth game, with hiding in shadows and shuriken and dropping down off the rafters to break people’s necks. That sort of thing.
I can’t really recommend it yet, but it’s looking decent.
Animal Crossing: Let’s Go To The City (Wii)
Jun 17th
I found Wisp’s lamp and gave it back to him, so he gave me a low screen. Fair enough. Had to play twice to do that, because when I found the lamp after work Wisp wasn’t around, so I had to play just before bed to find him.
Animal Crossing: Let’s Go To The City (Wii)
Jun 16th
Lost Hide and Seek last night. Where the heck was Rocco? I wish it had told me where he’d been at the end of the game.
Fuel (360)
Jun 16th
Did a few races last night, but by far the best was Tornado Warning, which, as the name implies, features a tornado or two. It’s incredibly impressive stuff, with some real “woah!” moments as cars fly past your head and barns get pulled from the ground. An exceptionally fun bit of racing, with the fight against the other races, the fight against the road itself and the fight against the tornados themselves. I did a few other races and had great fun, but everything else paled in comparison to that race. Awesome stuff.
(And it didn’t hurt that I’d watched Twister earlier in the evening before playing.)
Fuel (360)
Jun 14th
This evening was set aside for an adventure – driving from Tsunami Reef in the top north-west corner of the map down to Redrock Bluffs (i.e. the Grand Canyon) in the bottom south-east corner. There’s a secret Achievement for doing it, but the best reason to do it is just because you can. I didn’t turn on my GPS for the journey and instead pointed myself south-east and drove, mostly on the Dirtgrinder bike, but I also used the Spider Wraith buggy for a while.
You start off on sand dunes, then you reach the grass, then the forest. Gentle rolling terrain becomes mountains, where I couldn’t quite go in a straight line and drive through narrow valleys, which luckily pointed in roughly the right direction. Then more hills and forests, until they give way to red desert. Driving the last few miles reminded me strongly of the drive through southern Utah and northern Arizona on my honeymoon – which was also a drive to the Grand Canyon. My wife was sitting next to me on the sofa, as she had done in the car on that drive and we talked about the music that had playing on the radio. (Shakira and the Stone Roses, if you’re interested.)
Shortly after that I reached the base camp in Redrock Bluffs, after a drive of one hour and forty minutes and ninety miles.
I didn’t celebrate for long, instead jumping into the Career race that takes you round the Skywalk, which is really quite scary. Of course, once I’d won that race, I drove straight off it and fell to my expected doom. Fun!
That was almost it, but I grabbed a nearby livery and vista point, then raced against a helicopter, which was great fun. And then I noticed my mileage was on 1,491, so I drove another nine miles and marked hitting the 1,500 mile mark by driving into a fence.
Fantastic stuff all round.
Animal Crossing: Let’s Go To The City (Wii)
Jun 14th
Points sale day! Bought a load of stuff and got about 1,000 points, which unlocked a hat and two shirts in the reward catalogue.
Yggdra Union (PSP)
Jun 14th
As part of my digging up of old games I’ve barely played – or never played, in this case – I started this, an odd turn-based strategy thing from the chaps who made Riviera. I’ve played for over three hours this weekend, but don’t really understand it. The are skills, but I can’t use them yet and, um, it’s all a bit confusing. I understand all the basics, haven’t died yet, but I’m never sure I’m really doing it properly. Also, the talky bits are dull as dishwater. I’m sure it’s a lovely game – it certainly looks gorgeous – but I’m not sure it’s for me.
I might just go and play Riviera again, because I don’t remember that being quite so confusing.
Fuel (360)
Jun 14th
On Friday night I had my first taste of the online multiplayer, after being invited into a group of friends. We had a good time, but I saw a lot more glitches than I’ve seen in the single player game. And not having persistent sessions is an absolutely baffling design decision. I didn’t win any races, unfortunately, but I didn’t do too badly. If jochta hadn’t been playing, I might have had a chance of finishing first now and again.
The rest of the weekend has been spent in single player. I’ve done a lot of races down in the south-west of the map. Going from the Ashtray to Stagazers’ Peak and Pinwheel Ridge, just doing the career races with an occasional detour if I found myself near something of interest. It’s odd how, speaking very generally, the career races in fuel aren’t nearly as interesting as the challenges. They’re great fun, but they don’t have that little extra that makes the challenges so special.
Sega Genesis Collection (PSP)
Jun 12th
Some lunchtime… fun?
Gain Ground – This isn’t too bad, but it’s very clunky indeed.
Shadow Dancer – You’re a ninja! With a dog! Shame it’s instadeath hell.
Sword of Vermillion – Ack! This seems to be an RPG! Run away!
Super Thunderblade – Sort of like Space Harrier, but you’re a helicopter. Horrible frame rate, but it is at least fast and frantic. I had three goes, which is this lunchtime’s record. Or was, until I played…
Alex Kidd In The Enchanted Castle – You can punch cars to death, but try to punch a ball of poo and you die. Valuable life lesson there. Thanks Alex Kidd! Actually, though rock hard, this is actually really good and held my attention for a good twenty minutes. I even discovered a secret area under the ground. Finally – fun!
Fuel (360)
Jun 12th
Had two half-hour sessions last night and an hour this morning.
The first session last night was simply free roaming around. Had a wonderful time finding my way up and around mountains to reach some liveries and vista spots. Great stuff, including a heart-in-mouth drive across a very narrow ridge.
The second session saw me find a challenge that I couldn’t do (of which more later). And then, for some reason I don’t understand, just before shutting down, I spent all my money. I went to the car list and chose random cars and bought them. I went down from over 100,000 Fuel to just over a thousand in seconds. Why did I do that? I’m not sure, honestly, but I think it was because I’ve been finding the currency a bit pointless, having so much stored up. I think I just wanted to get back to the beginning of the game, where every barrel found sitting in a forest or by a farm house was worth finding. I think I’m going to regret it, but we’ll see.
This morning I went to find the challenge I couldn’t do last night. It wasn’t the challenge marker I thought it was, so I went and did a nearby career race instead. I won on two-star difficulty on my first go without any problems. Then, though, the challenge was bothering me. Instead of driving to it, I just chose it from the menu. That’s the first time I’ve done that, but probably won’t be the last. You see, I have nothing against using the menus to go to races and challenges, it’s just not normally how I want to play, but this morning I just wanted to try the challenge again – so I did.
And what a challenge!
It’s a checkpoint race against nine other cars. You’re forced to use a particular car – one that goes incredibly fast in a straight line on asphalt, but which hates corners and which slows down to nothing the moment it hits dirt or grass. So, the tactics for the race are very simple – go fast on the straights and STAY ON THE ROAD. Yes, that deserves the capital letters. Coming off the road in this race is fatal. And it’s not easy to stay on the asphalt. You’ve got a car that doesn’t like corners. You’ve got nine other racers, all driving heavier cars that send you flying off the road the moment you touch them. Oh, and this all takes place in the middle of a huge storm, which reduces visibility quite significantly.
So, yeah, it’s hard. Luckily, the course you drive on, either by luck or genius design, is perfectly set up. It starts with two long straights, with a 90-degree corner in the middle. This does two things. It tells you as soon as you start the race for the first time everything you need to know – stay on the road, respect corners, go fast on straights. It also gives you, if you manage to stay on the road, a chance to get past most or all of the cars in your way. The next third of the race is the tricky part. If you’ve got out in front by the time you reach it – which you really need to do – it’s terrifying, full of sharp turns, climbs and drops. Taking it slow enough to stay on course, but not so slow that you fall behind, requires complete concentration. It’s very stressful, in the best way possible. Then comes the final third of the race, which is flatter, faster and actually quite easy. You can’t relax, as such, but it’s certainly less stressful.
It’s one of the best races I’ve ever done in a game. That track, combined with the opponents and the car you’re made to drive makes for a thrilling, difficult, rewarding race. When I finally won it – on my last try, no really, this one’s the last one before work – an Achievement popped up (for winning thirty challenges). I really felt like I’d earned it.
So there you are, one of the best races ever, either by luck or design. The interesting thing is, though, that if taken out of context – as a demo, say – the race would completely put people off the game. It works because you’re not always stuck using cars that can’t go off-road and refuse to go round corners, but because this is a special event. I’m never going to free roam in that car. For all I know, that’s the only challenge that will use it. But it’s brilliant.