A Gaming Diary
PS3
Jumping Flash (PS3/PSP)
Jun 23rd
There are now some classic Playstation games available to download from the Playstation Store. Three so far, in fact. WipEout, Crash Bandicoot and Jumping Flash. I’m tempted to give Crash a go, as I never did play more than the demo, back in the day. WipEout is quite tempting, too, but I fear it will have aged very, very badly.
Jumping Flash, though, I like. I grabbed a second hand copy a couple of years ago and enjoyed it, so I knew it still stood up today. Graphically, it’s really quite nasty technically, though there’s some charm to the design. The controls could do with some updating now we have two sticks. But the core jumping gameplay still stands up pretty well.
There aren’t many first-person platform games and jumping bits in first person shooters tend to be rubbish, so this still feels different, twelve years later.
I wish I’d known that to save my game I had to create a virtual memory card before playing, though. Didn’t take me very long to do World 1 a second time, though.
After playing it on the PS3, I decided to try it on the PSP. Took a while to get it copied across – you need to use a cable and I had to update my PSP’s firmware – but I got there in the end. Looks much nicer on the small PSP screen, but the d-pad isn’t quite as good, which meant I had to do some readjusting.
Also, there doesn’t seem to be any way to keep save files in sync between PS3 and PSP, which is odd. I thought the idea was that you could play the game on your PS3 and then take it with you when you’re gallivanting about town, so I might be missing something.
Anyway, hopefully more people will discover Jumping Flash now it’s on the Playstation Store. I’m not sure it quite deserves full “lost classic” status, but it is an interesting and entertaining trip down one of gaming’s evolutionary cul-de-sacs.
Go! Puzzle Demo (PS3)
Jun 23rd
Time to start up the old PS3 for something other than watching DVDs and see what’s come to the Playstation Store recently. First up, the demo of Go! Puzzle, which packages three puzzle games together.
Swizzle Blocks is a game where you rotate groups of blocks to make squares. It hurts my head a bit, but seems fun.
Aquatica is a block-dropping, field-clearing type of game with a twist – the twist being that it’s the worst one I’ve ever played. Puyo Pop, Lumines, Tetris, Columns, Puzzle Fighter, etc., etc., etc. are all better than this, based on what I’ve seen. Of course, it could get much better if I give it a bit more time and I’m probably being horribly unfair, but the quick little go I had didn’t grab me at all.
Skyscrapers seems to be the best of the lot. You have to jump across playing fields using only – and all – squares of one colour, in a strict time limit. I started to enjoy this one before the demo ran out.
The trouble is, that you only get five minutes before the demo kicks you out. That’s not even enough time to get through the tuorial for Skyscrapers – I had to start it up twice before actually getting to play the game. Anyway, the price is okay. £1.99 per game, or all three for £3.99. That seems reasonable to me. I shall mull things over.
Everybody’s Golf 5 Demo (PS3)
Jun 10th
I’d like the full game now, please. Or at least an English demo.
Gran Turismo HD (PS3)
Jun 10th
A few minutes to kill between end of DVD and TV show starting, PS3′s already on, what to do?
Well, first up, a quick, annoying lap in Drift mode on GT HD. I don’t like it much.
MLB 2K7 (PS3)
May 25th
Played two excellent games.
First up, I played an exhibition game as the 1946 Red Sox against the current Astros lineup and won 4-2.
After that I decided I should start a season. Might take a while, as there are 162 games in the standard season and each game takes over an hour to play. And that’s ignoring all the time spent doing all the managerial things I’ve not worked out yet. I’ve set it to automate as much as possible, as I just want to play to ball.
Anyway, I’m playing as the Astos and I’ve played one game so far this season. A win at home against the Pirates, 6-4. Was looking bad until a three-run homer in the sixth and then a solo homer in the eighth to take a two-run lead going in to the ninth.
Gran Turismo HD (PS3)
May 25th
I went through and did all the basic Time Trials, unlocking all the cars and the different modes along the way. Wish there were more persistant leaderboards – on the daily leaderboards my highest position is 4 and lowest is 71, which basically just shows roughly how many people have tried each challenge, rather than my own quality. If you see what I mean.
Ninja Gaiden Sigma Demo (PS3)
Apr 26th
Hang on!
The original was on the Xbox not the 360!
So I suppose it must look better… but I guess it’s the same relative standard, given present expectations, or something.
Excuse the brain fart there.
Gibber.
Ninja Gaiden Sigma Demo (PS3)
Apr 26th
Happily, though I downloaded this from the Japanese store it displayed itself entirely in English, which was nice.
Appears to be the same as the 360 demo I played several hundred years ago. Though I died before getting to a boss in this one, which I’m not sure happened back then. No idea if it looks any better or worse than the 360 version, it just looks quite lovely.
Nice, lovely, odd words to be using for a game where you’re a Flash-speed ninja killing hundreds of people, but that’s about what it is. Nice, lovely, with hints of the famous difficulty level of the full game.
Oh, and a camera from hell, obviously. High speed fighting and tight corridors and box rooms really don’t mix.
MLB 2K7 (PS3)
Apr 19th
Ah, but I love this game. I’ve taken the difficulty down to Rookie from Pro and decided to play against the Pirates, rather than the Giants. (The Pirates aren’t quite as good as the Giants, to put it nicely.) I won 7-1, which was nice. Six of those runs came in the 6th inning, from three home runs. In fact, all my runs came from homers, now I think about it. Ah well, I’m not complaining. I earned enough Tokens to unlock a classic team. The 1946 Red Sox, I think.
I’ve not got the hang of baserunning yet – last time I tried it I wanted to send a man to second, but he carried on and tried to run for third and I’m not sure why. And fielding really seems to be clumsy compared to the rest of the game. Not sure if I’m just rubbish at it and maybe missing something, or if it really isn’t as good as the rest of the game. Sometimes my fielders just don’t seem to want to pick up the ball.
But, still, I love the game. The presentation is just wonderful and really helps me get my fix on those evenings when NASN is just showing stinky old ice hockey.
And once this season is over – eep! – I’m sure I’ll treasure it even more.
Sony may have made mistakes lately – many, many mistakes – but making the PS3 region-free was not one of them.
