A Gaming Diary
360
Braid Demo (360)
Aug 7th
Went through this and got all the puzzle pieces in World 2. Took me quite a while to solve all the puzzles, but felt very satisfied when I got them. At 800 points I would have bought the game without question, but 1,200 points is just a bit too much. I will probably buy it – I have the points in my account – but I couldn’t bring myself to spend that much on one game last night.
Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2 (360)
Aug 7th
Some Pacifism while waiting for Braid to download. Didn’t get any good scores at all.
Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2 (360)
Aug 5th
Well, I tried to play this last night, but I was awful. Didn’t get close to any high scores in any of the modes I played.
I did get to 98% of Wax Off before dying, but that was the nearest I came to doing anything useful.
Soul Calibur IV (360)
Aug 3rd
Oh dear. I’ve not even got to floor twenty and the Tower of Souls is getting hard for me. Maybe I need to work out how to play properly, but that sounds like an effort.
Went online for a few ranked matches and lost every single one – though today I did win a few rounds.
Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2 (360)
Aug 3rd
Last time I checked, deKay still hadn’t beaten my Deadline score, I’d got back above him in King, but he was winning everything else.
Got the Treaty Achievement today. Can’t do Wax Off, which is annoying as the status updates are quite distracting when I’m playing Pacifism. Not sure what the others are that I’ve got left to do, except for Smile, which will probably elude me forever.
Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2 (360)
Aug 3rd
It would be nice if people I’d passed in the leaderboards didn’t play again.
It’s a bit soon to making any real judgments, but this game feel special in a very rare way. I think this might be a long-term game.
Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2 (360)
Aug 2nd
When I started playing today deKay was above me on all the leaderboards. By the time I finished, I was ahead on four of them. I’m never going to beat his Pacifism or Sequence scores, though.
Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2 (360)
Aug 1st
LIke the original, but much, much better. Six different modes, no boring minutes at the beginning of a game.
I’m not bottom of my friends list – Turbohat has that position sewn up in almost every mode – but I’m not not doing too well. There seem to be a couple of groups of people in each leaderboard. To borrow deKay’s analogy, they’re like the Premiership and the Championship. I’m doing okay in the Championship, but I doubt I’ll ever get promoted.
Current favourite game mode is easily Pacifism, which is incredibly addictive and fun. All the modes seem to be worth playing, though, which is quite amazing.
Also, top marks for the unlocking system – and for having the next score on your friends list displayed when you’re playing. Although suddenly noticing I’ve overtaken deKay, or whoever, tends to make me die.
Soul Calibur IV (360)
Aug 1st
First thing I did was use Yoda to run through the Story and Arcade modes. Fighting The Apprentice in a Star Destroyer hanger bay was an amazing highlight. Great lightsaber battle. Not really in keeping with the rest of the game, though. Not that I care.
After that, into the character creation mode. Created a green-skinned lady in a witch’s hat called Elphaba. Over the course of the evening I tried out several styles with here. Currently she’s using a rapier. Put her through story mode, then took her to the Tower of Souls, which is a series of events where you can earn new items by completing hidden (and then hinted at) objectives. Most levels require multiple combatants, so I teamed her up with a custom Yoda where necessary. He’s the same as the normal Yoda, but has a fancy lightsaber and rubbish skills. Oh.
Took Elphaba online for a few fights, fighting opponents who’d unlocked far batter skills and items than me. I lost every match. I think I lost every round, even.
Before bed I made a character based on me and one based on the wife, using her choice of weapon and clothing. I’m based on Astaroth, she’s based on Ivy. Did a few levels with that team. We’re a good combination. I do a lot of damage when I hit, but I’m very slow, my wife if is really fast but doesn’t seem to do much damage.
All good fun and stupidly, insanely addictive. I need to read the manual before I play much more. I have no idea what a Soul Gauge is or what relevance it has. I think it might be important.
Also, it threw Achievements at me. I even got one for getting to the main menu – the first Achievement I’ve ever got without pressing a button.
