A Gaming Diary
360
The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion (360)
Mar 31st
Did some housekeeping when I started up. Conjured up some zombies to harvest their souls to replenish the charge my magical weapons, wandered over to a blacksmith to have my armor repaired, that sort of thing.
Then, finally, into the Shivering Isles. Started off well enough, but then things went a bit weird.
I tried talking to people at the beginning who should have died, except the monster that was meant to kill them ran and jumped into a lake instead. So when I talked to them I got a (console window?) line at the top of the screen and a “I HAVE NO GREETING” message where their subtitles should be. After wandering around for a few hours of game time wondering what to do I got a message saying all the guys who should have been killed had been and I could continue with my quest. Which I did, until the game locked up when I tried looting a corpse.
Earth Defence Force 2017 (360)
Mar 30th
Nope, all vehicles suffer from the y-axis problem. Being able to invert the y-axis is important to me, hence the name of this blog.
Apart from that problem I’m having a blast. I’m up to level fifteen now. I died a couple of times, but should be able to beat it with the correct weapon choice.
Earth Defence Force 2017 (360)
Mar 30th
Right, Earth Defence Force 2017 first impressions, based on a 90 minute session.
It’s really quite good. Frantic alien-blasting fun. Lots and lots of enemies, lots of weapons, nice clean graphics, exploding buildings, seemingly endless levels, atmospheric lighting and fellow soldiers whose b-movie shouts, while repetitive, really add to the experience.
You really haven’t lived until you’ve seen a tower block crawling with giant ants, levelled said tower block with a rocket and then switched to a machine gun to exterminate the ants.
Definitely seems to be worth the £17.99 Play are asking so far.
There are a three problems, though.
The first is that, like the PS2 version, the game’s full of both slowdown and framerate problems. It doesn’t spoil the fun and it’s better than the PS2 version was, but there’s a lot of it.
The second problem is, for me, rather more serious. There’s an option to invert the controls and it picks up the player’s setting from the 360, as it should… but then doesn’t seem to apply it to the tanks. (Possibly other vehicles, too, but I’ve only tried the tank so far.) Makes the tank pretty much useless to me in battle. This will be a pretty big problem if the vehicles turn out to be necessary.
The third problem is the most serious for me, but less serious for most other people – there’s a lot of stuff I miss from Chikyuu Boueigun 2. I love having the game English, but I miss London and I really, really miss the lady with the jetpack. It was great fun to go zooming about the levels instead of trudging around on foot. If you’ve not played Chikyuu Boueigun 2 you won’t miss her, but I do.
None of those problems make me regret buying the game, but I can’t ignore them.
Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution (PS3)
Mar 29th
Just out of curiousity. It really does look dated compared to VF5, with a distinct lack of polygons, lighting and texture quality. It’s fair bit harder, too. No kyus put up much of a fight in VF5, but I was having trouble with the 10th and 9th kyus in this version.
Tried out the Tutorial, which is incredibly comprehensive. I got as far as having to learn how to juggle opponents and left. I wish there was a similar mode in VF5. Learning in VF4 is all very well, but some things will have changed.
Jetpac Refuelled (360)
Mar 29th
With Resistance finished I’m free! Free! So I downloaded this before setting my Shivering Isles download going.
Fun factor: Good
Nostalgia Factor: Infinite
I’m third on my Friends leaderboard in the Retro section after one go. Not too shabby. I’m rubbish at the new Refuelled mode, though.
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (360)
Mar 22nd
Beat the boss who is me, got the Soul of Wolf, then died a long way into the Long Library, making me gah and gnash and turn the game off.
I wasn’t enjoying it that much anyway. Any illness that can stop me enjoying Castlevania is evil. Evil!
Virtua Tennis 3 Demo (360)
Mar 22nd
Off work sick, remembered about this, tried it out.
Now, either it’s because my head is all messed up with purest ill or it’s because the difficulty level is insane, but in four matches I managed to score a grand total of two points.
I don’t think I’ll be buying this.
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (360)
Mar 21st
Yes, I have the Playstation version. But it’s on a disc and therefore not the future, so I used some points to get the 360 version. (There’s also the fact that I have no idea where a Playstation memory card might be.) It’s just as I remember it… almost. I don’t remember the mirror-me being so bloody annoying. I’ve left it for a bit.
(If you don’t know what “just as I remember it” means it translates to “one of the best games ever made”. The graphics aren’t as good as I remember and the endless GBA and DS versions mean it’s slightly over familiar, but it’s still wonderful.)
Worms (360)
Mar 10th
As far as it goes, this actually is very good. (Ignore what I said about it playing like it was underwater, I seem to have been on crack.) It’s just a pity it doesn’t go further. Challenges are getting quite hard now.
Hitman Blood Money (360)
Mar 10th
Completed!
Final two levels completed today. They were pretty good, though I didn’t like being forced into a couple of gunfights. I did the final mission very badly indeed, having to kill eleven security guards in a huge gunfight at the beginning. Still, the job got done.
I’ve still only got 185 achievement points, though. And finishing on Expert didn’t give me the points for finishing on Rookie and Normal. Darn.
