A Gaming Diary
PS2
Guitar Hero 2 (PS2)
Apr 20th
Well, started this up on Easy and five-starred every song up to You Really Got Me first time. Including a Perfect on Woman. I know it’s only Easy, but I’m still proud of a first-time Perfect.
Either Guitar Hero 2 is much easier on Easy than Guitar Hero, or I’m a lot better than I used to be.
I do wish I’d been able to afford the 360 version so I’d have Achievements and Friends Leaderboards and stuff, but there you go.
Guitar Hero (PS2)
Apr 15th
I’m stuck on Medium now. I’ll reluctantly concede that Cowboys from Hell may be possible – in an hour of trying I got as far as 78% – but I’m sure that Crossroads and Bark at the Moon are completely impossible.
Guitar Hero (PS2)
Apr 14th
Two more songs done on medium, both first time, then time to go to Sainsbury’s. Two bottles of Reggae Reggae Sauce bought – result! Although I’m already thinking that maybe we should have stocked up with more.
Anyway, I’ve just been reading more stuff about this whole “politeness in the blogosphere” thing. Blogosphere? Did I get that right? Anyway, there seems to be people saying you should stop people being nasty to people online and others saying that forcing people not to be nasty is even nastier than being nasty. Or something. I think I agree with the latter. Not that I have much experience. Maybe I would have if, instead of listing games I’ve played, that I wrote things about gay rights, abortion and terrorism. (For the record: for, nothing to do with me, against.)
So it struck me that the solution to the problem of online aggression is easy. Everyone should write stuff that nobody else reads. Or at the very most that only three or four other people with similar interests and who broadly agree with the writer read. So, yes, people shouldn’t write about important stuff. Let’s limit the world’s blogs to dealing with specialist and/or trivial issues and let’s also write in long badly contructed sentences that lack necessay punctuation such as commas and hyphens and which go on a bit after they really should have stopped.
Yes, that’s the plan. And if you don’t believe me then you’re a ["silly person" - Ed].
Guitar Hero (PS2)
Apr 11th
Picked this up again.
Playing on Medium and I’m not sure how to do it. I mean, I’m getting through songs, but after multiple tries and by the skin of my teeth. My fingers don’t remember which colour is which – especially when I’m asked to press two at once – and holding the guitar so I can cover four buttons really, really hurts me, from my fingers up to the elbow of my left arm. I’m in quite some pain right now.
And I had to skip More Than A Feeling because it’s just too hard.
I should stick to games that require a thumb and a finger of each hand. More than that seems to be beyond me.
Singstar ’80s (PS2)
Feb 17th
You know, I can’t sing. I really, really can’t sing.
But I can rap.
The Reverend Run would be proud of me.
Gran Turismo 4 (PS2)
Feb 4th
I’m not sure what possessed me to play this after all these years, but it may have had something to do with the double bill of Cars and Talladega Nights that I watched last night. I decided to clear some Beginner Events, as I’d not played in a long time, so ended up spending all 180,000 credits I’d built up to buy and tune three new cars – a Volvo S60, a Ford F-150 and a Lotus Esprit.
The tuned Volvo – which I bought because it’s the nearest thing to my real car, an S40 – ate up the FF championship without a problem.
The F-150 – which I bought because Ford marketing infected my brain when I was living in Houston – didn’t much like going round corners, but was still fun to drive and won every race I put it in. All three of them. I can’t find any more yet.
The Lotus – which I bought because it was the best MR car in the used car showroom – isn’t so good. It’s not as fast as some of the cars it’s competing against and I can’t afford to tune it any more. Oops.
Singstar & Singstar Legends (PS2)
Feb 4th
It took a while, but I found my PS2 component cable, my two Singstar mics and – after a good long search – the little box that goes between the mics and the PS2. I took the blue mic and my better half took the red one. Several hours later we’d exhausted both Singstar Legends and the original Singstar disc.
One thing became very, very apparent over the course of the evening. I can’t sing. I simply cannot sing. Not one bit. Asking me to sing is like asking a blind man to do a paint by numbers. I just don’t understand what I’m meant to do. There’s a bit missing in my brain. I get the right sort of pattern – everything goes up and down at the right time, mostly – but I can only hit notes through pure fluke. I don’t know how to tell what’s correct or what my voice should be doing.
I do have good fun, yes, but it’s somewhat demoralising. Sometimes I wish someone could explain it to me and then I’d be able to do it, like long division. But I think it’s like riding a bike. Either you can learn or if, like me, you’ve got no sense of balance, you’ll never be able to do it.
Best Games Ever
Jan 26th
I did a top ten list last January, so I think I’ll do another.
10. (NE) Dragon Quest VIII (PS2)
I remember it annoying me when I played it. But I also remember loving it. And it gave me my single most satisfying gaming moment ever – killing the final boss after a 45-minute battle.
9. (NE) OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast (XBOX/PSP)
Not really a new entry as OutRun 2 was in the chart last year, at number five. I’m rating it lower this year because I never seem to play it. The Xbox version doesn’t work on the 360, so I never play it, and the PSP version, though lovely, is hampered slightly by the PSP’s analogue nub and a pretty rubbish framerate.
8. (7) World of Warcraft (PC)
It gave me some of my best gaming moments ever. (The trip to the contested area of Booty Bay to buy parrots with two friends! The first time we ganged up to invade Alliance territory!) However, I never got a character beyond level twenty-five and don’t really like teaming up with random strangers so it can’t be higher.
7. (9) Mr Driller: Drill Spirits (DS)
Best (English language) Mr Driller. Drill Land might take the spot if it was out in English. But it’s not. And there’s been no new Driller to challenge this in the last year.
6. (10) Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)
I don’t play it as much as I used to. Probably been a couple of weeks or more since I last had a wander round Venture. But it lasted for hundreds of hours of play and helped cement my relationship with the woman who is now my wife. Thanks Nintendo!
5. (6) ICO (PS2)
Haunting, atmospheric, etc. And unlike Shadow of the Colossus I actually finished ICO.
4. (3) GTA: San Andreas (PS2)
Last year I said, “Best setting, best map, best features, best everything.” Still true when you’re talking about the GTA series, but Saints Row now exists and it does a lot of stuff an awful lot better than GTA does it. GTA IV is going to have to be something very special now.
3. (4) Mario 64 (N64)
Loved it then. Love it still. It was losing ground in my top tens, but the Virtual Console version has reinforced how much fun it still is, so it gains a place here.
2. (NE) Elder Scrolls: Oblivion (360/PC)
Morrowind was in this spot last year. Oblivion doesn’t do everything better, no. It feels a lot smaller, possibly down to the fast travel and quest markers. The land doesn’t have the strangeness of Morrowind. The levelling system isn’t as bad as many make out, but is ever-so-slightly broken. But in other ways it makes many, many improvements. At times it looks breathtakingly beautiful. The combat is much improved, especially the ranged combat. The stealth works brilliantly – so much so that it seemed almost everybody went for a stealth-based character when playing the game. It’s been over a hundred hours of glorious fun, with more to come.
1. (1) Doom (PC/360)
Genius that hasn’t aged in anything but graphics. Gameplay, level design, feel… it’s still all there. And the 360 version has the best controls since pre-Win95 PC keyboards. BEST. GAME. EVER.
Play, Want, Bin
Dec 4th
A fair amount has been going on this week.
PLAY
Oblivion (360) – I finished the downloadable Knights of the Nine quest. Quite short, rewards weren’t great and it wasn’t in the least bit difficult, but it was good fun and it was lovely to go and visit Cyrodiil again for a while. It’s one gorgeous game when it wants to be, is Oblivion. Pity about some of the voices being so damn quiet.
Guitar Hero (PS2) – Finished off Easy and started on Medium. The blue button kills me. When it comes along I completely forget which button is where and end up hitting red instead of green or yellow instead of red for ten or twenty seconds until I recover. Not good. It really is incredibly good fun, though.
Sonic Rivals (PSP) – A good modern Sonic game! Not a great one and it’s as much a ride as a game in many ways – but it’s a ride that works. Even the two boss fights I’ve seen so far have been okay. Sonic bosses I don’t detest? Something’s gone unexpectedly right here.
Capcom Collection Remixed (PSP) – Got this half-price when I bought Sonic. The inclusion of Strider blinded me to the fact that there are no other games here I really care about. That said, of the three I’ve tried so far, two have been hits. Strider is a classic piece of gaming and still incredibly fun. 1941 was a great surprise, much faster and more interesting than I was expecting. Pity about the controls when you flip the screen, though. The miss was Street Fighter, which is incredibly bad. I wasn’t expecting much, but it’s so much worse than I remember. I just can’t get my head around it at all.
Lumines II (PSP) – It’s very, very good. I got my best ever Lumines score – about 113,500 or so. (I know, I’m rubbish.)
Final Fantasy 3 (DS) – It looks nice. It’s Final Fantasy. It’s rock hard. I think I’m going to places I shouldn’t be going to, because I’m dying a lot. I’ll probably stick with it, if I get time.
Yoshi’s Island DS (DS) – Half-way through the first world and having a lot of fun with this one. I can see it getting tedious if taken too quickly, but I think if I do a level or two here and there it’ll remain fun for a good long time. I’m impressed with Artoon so far.
WANT
A Wii, of course. I’ve cancelled my pre-order for Red Steel and gone for Rayman instead, to add to Zelda and Monkey Ball. With Zelda being the big, sit-down-for-hours game on launch, I’m after quick distractions and controller lessons from my other games. I’m really hoping Gameplay get my Wii to me on Friday.
BIN
PSP Firmware Updates (PSP) – Every single time I put a new game into my PSP it tells me I have to install new firmware to play it. Which requires plugging the PSP into its charger. I’m excited when I get a new game! I just want to play it! Gah!
A Dualshock 2 (PS2) – Decided to play Shadow of the Colossus again. Started up the PS2 and the cursor on the menu was going crazy. Turned off, tried again, same thing. Tried an old original grey Dualshock, no response at all. Loaded up Guitar Hero with the guitar plugged in and everything was fine. Got grumpy. Spent ages looking for another Dualshock 2. Not in the controller bin. Not in the cables bin. Not in the misc bin. Not in the cupboard above the fridge where the old consoles live. Not in the mainly-Nintendo cables drawer in the kitchen. Finally I remembered to look in the wine cupboard by the sink in the kitchen, where I, indeed, found one. Must remember that it’s only the mostly-wine cupboard. Anyway, that controller worked, so I threw away the broken Dualshock 2 and settled down to play…
Shadow of the Colossus (PS2) – Oh dear. I don’t know why, but I really couldn’t get into this. I loaded my saved game and went after the ninth colossus, who kept killing me. In the end, though I knew what to do, I gave up. I just couldn’t avoid his attacks. Decided to start a new game, but couldn’t work out what to do to kill the first colossus, so gave up on the game entirely. Just couldn’t click with it. Odd, as last time I played I loved it.
Sonic The Hedgehog Genesis (GBA) – By rights, the person who decided to release this should face criminal charges. I’d read everything about this online and it was still worse than I expected.
Guitar Hero (PS2)
Jul 13th
Blimey.
I’m exactly as awful at the game as I expected to be, but I didn’t realise I’d find it quite so fun and addictive.
A “quick go” ended up meaning ten or so songs and an awful lot of rocking out.
