A Gaming Diary
Archive for June, 2009
Fuel (360)
Jun 9th
Went into another new area, even though I hadn’t completely finished the last one. Yeah, I’m breaking that habit. I’m going to be doing races and anything else I come across along the way, because I want to see every zone before too long and if I try to do everything in a zone before moving on it’ll take forever. I’m a rebel… and I play by my own rules.
Anyway, this evening was grand. I did a couple of career races – an excellent bike race and a reasonable monster trucks race – and then did an Endurance challenge, a race of over twenty miles. The first time I tried I lost by about 150 yards. That was an… interesting feeling. But Fuel is one of those games where I never mind losing too much, because I don’t mind trying again. So, indeed, I tried again and won by about four miles.
And then I fell into a lake a lot.
Animal Crossing: Let’s Go To The City (Wii)
Jun 9th
I talked to Alli about interior decoration, then there weren’t any scallops.
Animal Crossing: Let’s Go To The City (Wii)
Jun 8th
Mott now greets me with a cheery cry of, “Hello sailor!”
Fuel (360)
Jun 8th
I absolutely adore this game now. And I loved it from the beginning. I love the balance I’ve found between exploring and racing and it’s full of great gaming moments – picking my way through the shallows at a lake edge at night, hitting a bump and flying into the air and sailing between a gap between two trees barely wider than my bike, driving through the night without knowing where I was going and as sun rises seeing the whole world spread out below me, jumping into first place in a race with a perfectly timed jump off a mountain side and a slide on the dirt path below, buying a new bike that turns out to be much, much faster than anything I’ve driven before – and then having to take it at full speed down a winding road full of wrecked cars and vans… etc.
And that’s just in a fairly brief session this evening.
Also, I got even more Achievements today. It’s throwing them at me.
Fuel (360)
Jun 8th
Fourteen hours player. Seven hundred miles driven. Three zones explored, with a short detour into a locked zone to pick up a Vista Point I’d seen from the border.
I love it. Online’s a bit rubbish, I’ve heard, but I’ve not tried it myself. People are complaining about running out of Fuel to buy new cars, but I’ve got 80,000 in the bank right now. I’ve seen the odd disappearing truck, but haven’t encountered any real bugs at all. Even the Achievements seem to work properly so far.
It won’t be for everyone, I know, but it works for me. For a while now I’ve had an idea in my head. A huge expanse of hills and trees, having a target in the distance and finding my own way there, barreling down hills, splashing through streams, just driving. And it turns out that Fuel matches this ideal perfectly. It’s just exactly what I’ve been wanting.
(And I’m very pleased that the 360 supports streaming from iPods for custom soundtracks. Wouldn’t have been the same without my country songs playing as I drove.)
OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast (PSP)
Jun 8th
Just been playing the old OutRun 2 tracks, no SP tracks for me this weekend. Didn’t get any new high scores, but after the first couple of races I seemed to get back up to my old skill level, or thereabouts.
Animal Crossing: Let’s Go To The City (Wii)
Jun 8th
Gala has left. Who will replace her? Nobody for ages, I know that much.
Fuel (360)
Jun 6th
Very, very enjoyable stuff. I’m eight or nine hours in now. After six hours I crossed over into the second zone and was soon bouncing over sand dunes in a buggy, happy as anything. I’ve done races, I’ve done challenges and I’ve driven around in search of liveries and vista points… and I’ve just driven for the joy of driving. The handling model is great fun and the game looks ropey at times, but absolutely stunningly beautiful at others. Looking east at sunrise towards a forest fire, everything black and red… mindblowing.
Some events are better than others. The buggy events are always highlights, there’s a downhill bike race near the starting camp that’s just amazing, the monster truck events are fairly dull. But nothing’s broken, the structured “game” stuff varies between amazing and competent enough and the world is just awesome.
I know a lot of people online are laying into this left right and centre, but if you wasted hours and hours cruising round San Andreas listening to the country station, just for the love of driving through the countryside, this is the game for you. Just remember to supply your own country music – the 360′s support for iPods has come in very handy this weekend.
Trash Panic (PS3)
Jun 6th
Tetris, but with rubbish instead of blocks. Basically. It’s hard to explain, partly because I don’t think I quite understand it yet. You can smash stuff, burn stuff (bad for the environment) and, um, rot stuff… or something. You need to dispose of the rubbish without letting your bin overflow and, er, that’s it. It’s great fun and will either be much better when I understand it fully or just lose some of its mad charm. I think the £3.99 price is probably very fair.
MySims Kingdom (Wii)
Jun 6th
Finished stuff off for the rocket launch, then helped set up a music festival which, of course, involved building a log cabin and herding crabs. My previous impressions still stand – great graphics, great writing, great fun, some collection parts are just a little tedious, but not so much that they spoil the game.
