A Gaming Diary
PS2
Dragon Quest VIII
Feb 5th
Oh hooray.
A lengthy dungeon followed by a boss battle far harder than anything else ever seen. And when you die you start off from a church in the nearest town, so I’m going to have go through the dungeon every time I want to try to kill the boss again.
I have no idea if I’ll even be able to at this level, or whether my tactics are at fault or whether I just need better equipment.
Suffice to say, I did hundreds of hit points in damage to the boss without it blinking while it used its three goes per turn to stamp me into the ground.
Dragon Quest VIII
Feb 5th
I’ve just met the most intentionally annoying character in RPG history.
No, make that gaming history.
No, make that plain, simple history.
Luckily, I doubt I’ve got to put up with him for too long.
Dragon Quest VIII
Feb 4th
Thirty hours in now without any sign of the game coming to an end. It’s just huge. Good thing it’s such great fun.
There’s nothing I can really say about it that’s not full of spoilers, though. Even if I said I’d just got access to a… no, better not. Or that there’s a… yeah, better keep quiet about that.
Dragon Quest VIII
Feb 1st
Well, after an hour or so picking fruit and arranging furniture in Venture I decided to play some Dragon Quest VIII. I played it rather longer than I’d meant to, because it took me about an hour to get to a save point after I decided I wanted one. Partly my fault – going to where I thought there’d be one, not where I knew there was one – but still.
Phew. I’m exhausted. By the time I finally found a church and inn I was on my last legs. My health wasn’t too bad, but my magic points were pretty much exhausted, which was making fights much more tense. Under normal circumstances I’d have used to Zoom spell to get straight to a save point – I wasn’t in a dungeon – but I’ve just got a new mode of transport and I’m not sure how that reacts to the use of Zoom spells. I guess I’ve got to find out some time, why not tonight? I don’t know. Maybe I subconsciously wanted to play for as long as possible.
Anyway, I’m safe for now, but I’ve got a long journey into the unknown next time I play.
Dragon Quest VIII
Jan 25th
Another couple of hours.
It’s a really great game and tonight the time between saves was pretty much perfect. I wouldn’t turn it on if I had less than two hours to play, though.
Anyway, I got past the sticky bit and went through a ‘dungeon’ and – because of my wrongness last night – I think I know exactly what to do when I restart tomorrow. So everything’s worked out okay.
Dragon Quest VIII
Jan 24th
Well, Boling Point and Ridge Racer 6 arrived today. I was trying to decide which to play first when I remembered how many unfinished games I have. And not games that are unfinished because they’re too rubbish or too hard, but games I love but have stopped playing.
So I leapt back into Dragon Quest VIII, which was dangerously close to being left forever for no reason. Played it for another hour and a half, but now I’m stuck. I’ve got to go somewhere, but I’ve no idea how to get there. I don’t think I got any clues when I last played a few weeks ago that I’ve forgotten, but it’s a possibility.
I think I may have missed an entrance to a passage somewhere I was a while back. I’ll go back and check, but the game’s stupid save system means I haven’t got time to investigate properly tonight. I wish there was just a quicksave option you could use at any time.
Best Games Ever
Jan 13th
I just had to make a list of my top ten favourite games of all time. It looks like this -
10. Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)
Online and girlfriend loves it and we can play it together. Which makes it special. And I’ve played it every day since I got it.
9. Mr Driller: Drill Spirits (DS)
Best (English language) Mr Driller. Drill Land might take the spot if it was out in English.
8. Resident Evil 4 (GC)
Well, just because it’s ace. It’s as good as all the other RE games are bad. Put together. Which is very good indeed.
7. World of Warcraft (PC)
Because it’s given me some of my best gaming moments ever… And I just realised today how much I love the graphics.
6. ICO (PS2)
Haunting, atmospheric, etc. Colossus might challenge it, but I’ve not finished that yet. Maybe next year.
5. OutRun 2 (XBOX)
I hope this will be chucked out of the top ten soon when Coast to Coast is released. But for now, this is the best racing game in the world… by a fairly long way. (It was a very long way before PGR3 came out.)
4. Mario 64 (N64)
Loved it then. Love it still. But it’s losing a place a year (roughly) because it’s not aging very well.
3. GTA: San Andreas (PS2)
Best setting, best map, best features, best everything.
2. Elder Scrolls: Morrowind GOTY (PC)
Life eater.Played the Xbox version a lot, too, but the PC version is better. Could be another game to be replaced soon by a sequel. But Oblivion could be broken and shite, so maybe not.
1. Doom (PC)
Genius that hasn’t aged in anything but graphics. Gameplay, level design, feel… it’s still all there. BEST. GAME. EVER.
Right yes. Something like that… maybe. But I want Giga Wing in there, too. And Halo 2. And a Castlevania… And the GC 1080. And KOTOR… And…
Dragon Quest VIII
Jan 1st
I’ve just played for four hours or so without doing any story stuff at all, just exploring.
I’ve actually got ahead of myself, I think, and visited places I’m going to have to return to when the story requires it.
I’ve just got to where I should be, story-wise, though, and I’ve saved. I’ll dig in a bit later, after my eyes have had time to recover from extended screen-staring.
And I hate being really proud of a reciepe I’ve made up only to find it written down somewhere five minutes later.
Dragon Quest VIII
Dec 31st
Well, I’m home on New Year’s Eve as a result of plans falling through and the Tube strike, but I don’t really mind because it’s given me more time to play Dragon Quest VIII, which is quite incredibly excellent for no obvious reason.
I mean, the music is superb and the graphics are lovely, but as far as I can tell it’s not doing anything more than millions of other RPGs. In fact, the story is actually weaker than most RPGs. So why’s it so playable, joyous and addictive?
I have no idea whatsoever. It’s very strange. Must be secret herbs and spices, or something.
Dragon Quest VIII
Dec 30th
I cannot think of a single thing to stay about this game…
Um…
It looks very nice…
And…
Monster designs in particular are wonderful…
Er…
It’s very playable…
And…
Very traditional…
And…
Um…
Nope, there’s really nothing to say about it at all. Except maybe to moan about having to go back to town to find a save point. But that’s less of an issue now I have spells that let me teleport around. (Not that I’ve used them much, unless one of the party’s dead I tend to run everywhere so I can get some more of that lovely, lovely XP.)
