A Gaming Diary
PS3
Killzone 2 Demo (PS3)
Feb 11th
Another run through the demo last night. It was awesome again. Loved it.
Such a turnaround.
Maybe more people would be wanting to buy this if they’d made the demo longer, because it certainly seems to need some play before it clicks.
Killzone 2 Demo (PS3)
Feb 10th
Blimey.
This clicked last night. Like, properly clicked. I put the sensitivity options up one notch each, which may have helped, but I don’t really know why last night it clicked when it hadn’t before. But I loved it. I was using tactics, taking headshots, spraying fire for control purposes, using grenades to flush enemies out of hiding and everything just worked.
Immensely fun and satisfying fights, like nothing I’d ever had before. The only comparison I can really think of is Halo. Which, from me, is high praise indeed. But it may – may – even have felt… better.
Seriously, I was astounded by how much I enjoyed myself.
I need to play the demo again, to see if the fun has stuck, or if this was some crazy aberration.
But, no, somehow I found an incredible game in what had previously been a standard shooter with awful controls.
No idea what happened there, no idea at all.
Killzone 2 Demo (PS3)
Feb 8th
Tried this again. Upped the sensitivity of the controls a bit, which made it feel a little nicer. What’s up with that dead zone, though? It’s huge!
Anyway, I got to the beach landing, which I did first time on my first play through and died about twenty times before giving up. No idea what the problem was.
Killzone 2 Demo (PS3)
Feb 6th
Took about six hours to download, so had to play it this morning before work. Good thing it’s short. I like almost everything about it. The guns feel right, enemies aren’t bullet sponges, good feedback for showing how close to death you are and it looks good (if a bit dismal and dull). The one bad thing is that I can’t seem to aim. I think it might be a problem with the SIXAxis dead zones. The cursor simply doesn’t seem to move as it should, in a way I can’t quite put my finger on. Led me to rely on grenades more than guns in the second part of the demo. Might be a case of just getting used to it, but I don’t know.
Savage Moon (PS3)
Jan 20th
I’ve played tower defence games on the web. I’ve played them on my iPod. Now I’ve played one on my PS3. It doesn’t do anything amazing to the formula, based on the first few levels, but it’s slick, playable and reasonably addictive. Which may sound like faint praise, but it’s really not. If you’ve a hankering for a traditional tower defence game – I’m not sure PixelJunk Monsters counts – then this comes highly recommended.
Also helps if you’re a fan of the Starship Troopers movie, because it’s very clear where the inspiration for the insectoid enemies came from.
(I said “movie”, yes. I’ve not seen any of the sequels and am not sure if they’d count.)
Little Big Planet (PS3)
Dec 22nd
Story mode has been completed! Well, in a way. I mean, I’ve done every level, but there’s still stuff to collect. And then there are all the community levels. There was a superb level based on Spirited Away, a fun lost temple, a tricky homage to Ico, a couple of Mario-themed levels, etc. Wonderful stuff.
Little Big Planet (PS3)
Dec 17th
My wife handed my the controller when I got in from work and told me that I had to complete the Meerkat Kingdom level without dying. Which was surprisingly easy. And the reason she told me to do it? Because doing it won me a big top hat and a monocle, two Sackboy accessories I’d said I wanted. Hooray!
Namco Museum Beta (PS3)
Dec 15th
Downloaded this from the Japanese store. Played some Pac-Man, did terribly. Then played some Dig Dug. Didn’t do too well, but did unlock a nice model of one of the enemies to put in my apartment in Home. Very nice to have something in there that doesn’t look it came from Ikea.
And talking of Home, during the closed beta I had an excellent hat. In one of the updates it got removed. Now it is for sale for 59p in the Threads store. Um…. no.
Little Big Planet (PS3)
Dec 15th
Spent many hours on Saturday playing this with my wife. We’re near the end of story mode now. Only a few more levels to go. We got stuck on a huge wheel full of platforms, or maybe just after it. It was 3:30am by the time we quit, so I’m having trouble remembering details.
Awesome, awesome game, by the way.
Little Big Planet (PS3)
Dec 8th
The current king of games.
It is wonderful.
I’ve been going through story mode, sometimes alone, more often with my wife by my side. Either way, it’s superb. From the reviews, I’d got the impression that story mode was nothing more than an extended tutorial, but it’s a full game. Levels are very replayable, each new level throws up new surprises and challenges and it’s given us hours of pleasure already. We’re near the end, but there’s a fair amount we’ve not found yet. And, oh, for those of us who love unlocking little things in games, this is heaven. New costume parts, new objects, new stickers, new decorations, new mini score attack levels. Every level is absolutely full of new things to get.
And it’s fun. It’s not just a collector’s dream, jumping, running, swinging and flying are all great fun. Every level in story mode is designed with love and care, the physics, graphics and sound add charm by the bucket loads and it’s just an absolute joy.
I really can’t speak of it highly enough.
And that’s without mentioning the hours I spent on Sunday morning making my own level. I haven’t published it, because it’s not very good, but I loved making it. First, a football with a face, sombrero and fine moustache welcomes you to the level. I mde that character. Then a heart-shaped multi-legged creature takes fright when you come close and jumps away. I made that creature, too. Then you find a a spotlighted area with some prizes in it. Then you come to a bit with some flaming mountains (which I made) and some very tricky jumps past some bats. (I didn’t make the bats, I just used some I’d picked up in one of the story levels.) That’s hard, though I have made it easier. At one point during the jumps it takes your photo and adds it to your Photo Booth photos. And then there’s a short race over some spikes. You have to grab a balloon and fly over. And then the level ends. You unlock some nice photos for completing it. And if you somehow manage to do it without losing any lives, you win the creatures and mountains I designed for the level to use in your own levels.
As I said, it’s not very good, but it’s a proper, working level that I had great fun messing around with.
And I still haven’t gone back and finished the user-made Castling level I downloaded a few days ago, or gone looking for any more levels.
Now, after all the gushing praise, we come to the problem. There’s only really one and it’s not a big one, but it’s a problem.
Little Big Planet is more-or-less 2D in gameplay terms, but takes place over three planes. You can manually move between the three planes, but the game is intelligent enough to work out where you’re jumping and automatically adjust your plane as you go through levels. At least, that’s the idea. And it works for me. I can move planes when I need to and let the game take care of it for the rest of the time. It’s fine. My wife, however, has terrible problems moving between planes and we can’t work out why it works fine for me, but not for her. It doesn’t spoil the game for her at all, but adds some extra frustration that I don’t have.