A Gaming Diary
PSP
Powe Stone Collection (PSP)
Feb 18th
Well, I managed to kill the first boss, but the second one kicked me all around without breaking a sweat. Ow.
I tried the original Power Stone for a bit. The arenas are smaller, so the characters stay a bit more visible, but it doesn’t have the excellent item collecting that’s in the second game, so I think I’ll leave it alone.
There are also some mini games, it seems. I’ve only got one open now, an LCD-style flying game. It’s amusing and even almost playable.
Power Stone Collection (PSP)
Feb 18th
Picked this up cheap in Tesco after wanting it for a while. I remember losing an entire weekend to Power Stone 2 on the Dreamcast once. So I decided to leap straight in to that, bypassing the original game for now. Went to Adventure mode to get on with the item collection. It’s still great fun, even if everything’s a touch too small on the PSP. However, the third fight is a boss fight and I just can’t kill the bugger, even with the difficulty set on minimum. I can scratch him a little, but that’s about all. I’ll keep trying until TOCA calls me back.
TOCA Race Driver 3 Challenge (PSP)
Feb 18th
I am stuck. I’ve got to the first championship in Australasia. I’m starting on the grid in second place, but I still can’t make any progress in the first race. The track is normally packed, so I’m being battered around all over the place and damage has really started to matter. With a even yellow engine I seem to get overtaken by other cars very easily. It’s a difficulty spike for sure.
However!
This is not a bad thing. It’s still incredibly good fun, just repeating the same race over and over again. It’s a well-designed track with a nice mixture of different types of corner and the car I’ve been given handles like a dream.
TOCA Race Driver 3 Challenge (PSP)
Feb 17th
Well, I’ve now completed the first two difficulty levels of the World Challenge mode. Mostly Silver awards, with the odd Gold and Silver scattered around.
It’s an excellent, excellent game. A few framerate problems here and there, which is a shame, and the “Drive The Line” challenges are very little fun, but the other challenges are fun and the handling is generally sublime, which makes up for any little niggles.
TOCA Race Driver 3 Challenge (PSP)
Feb 17th
As the demo impressed me so much, I got the full version of the game.
Haven’t had a chance to play much yet – Singstar ’80s and a double bill of eighties movies (The Breakfast Club and Labyrinth) took up my evening – but I’ve attempted the first two challenges. The first was a cone gate lap in a Renault Clio, which I only managed a silver on. I’ll try for a gold later. The second was a braking challenge, where you have to do a lap in under two minutes and thirty seconds while coming to standstill in boxes marked on the road. I’ve not managed any sort of medal on that yet. But I’ll keep trying.
Burnout Legends (PSP)
Feb 15th
I thought I’d try this again. I seem to remember I felt it sucking away my soul last time I tried it, but it now seems pretty good. Nasty slowdown and it doesn’t quite feel precise enough, but it’s pretty good fun. I worked my way all through the Muscle Car series of races happily enough.
However, with TOCA arriving tomorrow (if the Royal Mail do their thing) I doubt it’ll get much play after tonight.
Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max (PSP)
Feb 15th
Being not very good at things is something of a running theme in my gaming life.
Next exhibit: Street Fighter.
I tried arcade mode a fair few times as A-ism Ryu and never got past round three.
Had fun though, and I forgotten what a good-looking game it is. Lovely.
OutRun 2006 Coast 2 Coast (PSP)
Feb 15th
Nope, I can’t do the OutRun 2 SP 15-stage event. I almost always get to the bit of inbetween track just before the Milky Way stage. The stars appear, the time runs out.
I’m just not very good.
OutRun 2006 Coast 2 Coast (PSP)
Feb 14th
Hooray!
I’ve finally completed the 15-stage OutRun 2 route after many, many tries.
Did it with about five seconds to spare in the OutRun class Testarossa in the end.
It feels good.
LocoRoco (PSP)
Feb 11th
Played this for the first time since last July. It really is as good as I remembered. I polished off the fourth world and then wasted all my funds playing the Chuppa Chuppa mini game. I only managed to complete it once and got a very common house part for my trouble. Bother. Then it was off to the Loco House, trying to get the eggs in the huge house. I got one easily enough, but I can’t reach the second one. I’ll go back once I’ve got some more parts.
