A Gaming Diary
360
Carcassonne (360)
Jul 4th
Had a quick game against the 360. Won very, very easily despite managing to complete a monastery for it by mistake. Might have to take the difficulty up a notch… or, you know, just enjoy winning.
Flatout Ultimate Carnage (360)
Jul 3rd
Well, I got second on a cup that was giving me trouble at the weekend and went to the next one, but only came seventh. No matter. This is one of those games that’s so fun that repetition is not a problem at all. Glorious.
Flatout Ultimate Carnage (360)
Jun 30th
Well, Blockbuster gave me lots of store credit so I picked up a few new games, including this. I didn’t like the first one, ignored the second, but this one has been getting lots of good feedback online. With good reason, it seems. The handling is massively improved and the framerate, though very inconsistent, is much, much better. The first game had sim leanings that I don’t think worked too well; this is an out and out arcade racer and really, really good.
Tony Hawk’s Project 8 (360)
Jun 30th
Well, I didn’t trade this in and played it a bit today. I am so rubbish. So, so rubbish. Not quite as rubbish as I was last night, though. I’ve not really found any missions I can do, given my rubbishness, but my best combo score is now about 60,000, which is an improvement, at least.
Tony Hawk’s Project 8 (360)
Jun 29th
So, got a free copy of this and decided to test it, out as I’m taking a load of games up to Blockbuster to trade in. Wondered if this should go with them.
After forty-five minutes, I was ready to set the disc on fire and rocket it into orbit. I can’t do the tutorial. You heard me. I can’t do the bloody tutorial. After much frustration I got to the sixth tutorial, about combos, but couldn’t do the first part of that.
So I gave up and started the game. I’m rubbish. Really rubbish. Best combo is current about 25,000 points. That’s nothing, in this over-complicated day of reverts and manuals and everything. I miss the old days when everything was so much simpler.
But, the thing is, I’ve started to have fun. The Nail The Trick thing is excellent, the game’s letting me progress just by hitting the ultra-simple amateur goals (which I can just about do) and it’s got Jason Lee in it.
So I think I’ll be keeping it after all.
Carcassonne (360)
Jun 27th
Okay, I’m bad at Retro Week. But this is an old board game, so it counts, right?
Anyway, I like it much better than that Catan thing with its confusing trading. In this game you make maps, and I do like to do that. My wife doesn’t like it, though. It fits in the same part of her brain as the much-loathed Risk.
The computer seems a bit easy to beat on default settings, though, due to not using farmers. (Who aren’t mentioned in the tutorial, oddly enough. I’m a bit confused and pleased I read a manual online before playing.)
Worms (360)
Jun 24th
Challenge 13 seems to be impossible, but at least the AI worms don’t take as long to think about their turns as they did before the game got updated.
Band of Bugs Demo (360)
Jun 24th
I like this. I like this a lot. (Apart from the graphics, which seem to make things needlessly confusing.) Trouble is, it took me several goes to do level four, the last level in the demo, so I’m not sure if it would be worth getting the full version. I’ve got the points ready, but I think I might save them up for new Lumines skins or something.
Eets: Chowdown (360)
Jun 24th
Haven’t played this for a while, but it was surprisingly easy to get back into. Just did a few levels to get myself up to the end of the second world. Didn’t find any amazing shortcuts and didn’t think any of my solutions were very elegant, but they got the job done.
Pac-Man Championship Edition (360)
Jun 24th
I’ve finally stopped playing the main mode and I dipped into Challenge One. I can’t survive for the full ten minutes yet, but I’m already better than some of my terrible, terrible friends.
