A Gaming Diary
360
Mercenaries 2: World In Flames (360)
Sep 7th
A botched attempt to quietly kidnap a Universal Petroleum led to them hating my guts, so I had to destroy buildings occupied by the Venezuelan army to get them back on side. Then I attempted to kidnap an army general for the guerillas, which nearly went okay, but the helicopter I called in to come and collect him got shot down and fell on his head. Oops. I took a photo of the corpse to prove he was dead, so passed the mission, but only got half the cash. Ah well.
Mercenaries 2: World In Flames (360)
Sep 6th
Do you miss the halcyon days of 2005, when every 360 game looked like an upscaled PS2 game? Well then rejoice! You can relive that era with Mercenaries 2, now available in shops!
I’m glad I’m not a reviewer, because objectively and technically the game’s all a bit rubbish. Looks like an upscaled PS2 game, has about five lines of dialogue, enemy AI is… limited, etc.
However, despite all that stuff, it’s completely awesome and kept me completely enthralled for a six-hour session today. Stuff goes BOOM! and people fall over and jeeps fly through the sky and buildings collapse and it’s amazing. Also, the lack of challenge doesn’t hurt it for me. I like it being easy, so I can just storm through like a terminator – and I’ve failed missions now and again, so it’s not like you’re completely invincible.
And I think I just used up my entire year’s quota of “WHOA! DID YOU SEE THAT?!” moments.
Think Just Cause hollowed out and stuffed with the spirit of EDF, or something.
Viva Pinata: Trouble In Paradise (360)
Sep 5th
What was intended to be a quick go turned into a five and a half hour session. So, yes, it’s just as addictive as the first.
However, Professor Pester seems to come around every five minutes. I got a load of pinatas from cards and he killed them all. Which is especially nice as the game is refusing to let me scan the cards in again. So they’re gone forever.
Sigh. Why are so many games ruined by one stupid decision? Ruined may be a strong word, but I was getting more and more annoyed as pinata after pinata died until I just had to stop playing.
And looking at the web, it seems that there may not even be an item that stops him coming into your garden any more, meaning you’re going to have to put up with him forever, buying decoy after decoy. (Not that I can even buy a decoy yet, I’ve just seen my wife buy them. She’s much at a higher level than I am.)
It’s no fun having your favourite pinata killed like that, no fun at all.
Pure Demo (360)
Sep 5th
ATV racing game with huge tracks and fun handling. What could go wrong?
Well, it’s got an annoying trick system and it keeps showing me a crash animation without actually giving me any idea of why I just crashed.
Still, the rest of the Internet seems to love it, so I guess I should play it some more and see what I’m missing.
Viva Pinata: Trouble In Paradise (360)
Sep 5th
Or Viva Pinata: The Director’s Cut, as it probably should be known. It’s the same as the first, just more so. Which, when a game is as good as Viva Pinata, isn’t much of a problem. Incredibly, the card reading stuff actually seems to work – though it’s very fiddly. I very much enjoyed my limited time spent with it yesterday.
Bionic Commando Rearmed (360)
Aug 30th
I tried the Tunnels, but they seemed too hard and I really wasn’t in the mood for a real challenge this morning.
Castle Crashers (360)
Aug 30th
Points spent.
Game played.
Fun had.
I’m currently leveling up the orange knight, who I picked more or less at random. I’ve found a few weapons, a couple of animal friends and am currently having a hard time getting through a cave. The game really needs better instructions – there’s no explanation I can find for a lot of icons you see on weapon stat pages, for example – but apart from that I don’t have any complaints. It looks good and it plays well. That’s enough for me.
Galaga (360)
Aug 27th
Not sure why I played this. It hates me and I’m not overly fond of it.
Should probably have played the Galaga Legions demo again instead.
Fable 2 Pub Games Demo (360)
Aug 26th
I decided to play this, given I got sent a code to download it and all.
I entered a Spinner tournament, which consisted of pressing the A button one hundred times. Not in a rhythm, not with any timing, just whenever I felt like it I could press A. Once I’d done that a hundred times and the random numbers had been generated the tournament was over. As it happens, luck was with me and I won some money and a special apple pie for Fable 2.
I mean, what?
