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A Gaming Diary
Tron Demo (360)
Jan 10th
This week’s other Xbox Live Arcade game.
After a minute or so of trying to play it I switched off the 360, turned to my wife and said, “Let us never talk of this again.”
Omega Five (360)
Jan 10th
This is great. Had a few goes before unlocking it, because I wasn’t sure about it, but I finally took the plunge and I’m glad I did. It’s fantastic stuff, now I understand exactly whaut the buttons and attacks actually do. (At least for the first character, Ruby. Couldn’t work out how the other guy worked in the brief go I had with him.)
I was worried from screenshots that your character would just be too large and make the game impossible to play, but that’s not the case.
My one complaint is that you can’t turn off the continues. I never use them and I’d like to get rid of the ten seconds of waiting at the end of a game.
Oh, and I don’t really like the way that there are attacks that are only avoidable by luck or fore-knowledge. Every now and again a huge enemy appears on the screen and if you happen to be in the wrong place you lose health with no chance to get out of the way. It’s not a major problems, given that shooters like this are very much about learning the levels, but it seems slightly unfair the first time you get somewhere and get hit without a chance to react.
Football Manager Handheld 2008 (PSP)
Jan 9th
And so to a home match against Grays, one place below us in the league table. I was hopeful of a good result and things seemed to be going well until the 27th minute, when Opinel, in his first match back after suspension for his red card, decided to slide in with a terrible two-footed tackle, getting himself sent off and leading to us conceding a goal from the resulting penalty. I rejigged the formation and moved people around to try stop us from conceding any more, but five minutes later Grays scored again.
That was my cue to tell the team to attack more. That may seem like the height of idiocy, being down to ten men and with only a lone striker upfront, but I really wanted to try and narrow the gap. It didn’t work. We didn’t have a single shot on goal (and only one off target) and near the end of the game Oli scored again, completing his hat trick and leading to us losing by three goals.
I’m really going to have to have words with Opinel. He’s been a cornerstone of the team, but if he’s going to get himself sent off all the time then he’s simply a liability. I’m going to give one more chance. After that, the reserves beckon.
To add to my woes, Waterhouse, who did so much in the first twenty minutes of his first game with us, was completely anonymous today.
Metal Slug 3 Demo (360)
Jan 9th
Metal Slug 3, only with a horrible filter effect and annoying controls that are far too twitchy. I wasn’t going to buy it, having a perfectly good version on the PSP, but I was surprised by the 360 version.
I didn’t think the filter would bother me at all and was sitting around thinking “Tch! Those Internet nerds are way too fussy!”, but changed my mind when playing the game. It does look really quite awful.
The analogue stick seemed pretty awful for the game, too, constantly sending me stepping in directions I didn’t want to go – and there was no way I was going to try using the d-pad.
Overall: fail.
The Club Demo (360)
Jan 9th
I like the idea of this a lot. Shooter as racing game, where levels are “tracks” that you play over and over again to perfect.
However, the execution seems to be lacking something. To start with, it’s a third-person shooter, where first-person would seem to be a better fit. It seems so obvious that there must be a very good reason for it being in third-person, but I can’t see it for the life of me. I also think the controls are lacking something. The game feels like it should feel Doom-like, but the controls are off to one side of that, more in the standard military third-person shooter camp. Consequently, what should feel fluid just ends up feeling a little cumbersome. That, though, could change with practice, I guess.
The biggest problem for me, though – and it’s a problem nobody else online has mentioned as far as I can tell – is that I found it very hard to pick the brown/grey enemies out from the brown/grey levels. Several times I was looking round to see where I was being shot from, only to realise that someone was standing right next to me and I just hadn’t seen them.
Overall, it’s interesting enough to keep an eye on, but as a full-price release I’ll be skipping it. If I can ever get it for less than a tenner, I might be tempted.
Football Manager Handheld 2008 (PSP)
Jan 9th
We lost the game against Torquay, as expected. It wasn’t a total disaster, though. We only lost 2-0 and it gave some other members of my squad a chance to show me what they’ve got. No individuals messed up horribly, so I don’t think I’ll be dropping any into the reserves quite yet. I’ll keep an eye on that, though, because players are probably better off getting some games there rather than rotting away in the first team but never playing a match.
(Incidentally, playing against Torquay was an odd experience because they’re the team I managed in the original Football Manager Handheld and some of the players were ones I was using back then. I had a great “yeeessssss!” surge when Bedeau scored, only to realise that he wasn’t actually one of my players in this game and I’d just conceded, not scored, a goal. Oops.)
The next match, against Droylsden, was incredibly frustrating. In the first minute, Opinel decided in his infinite wisdom to kick the ball away after he’d been given a yellow card and was sent off. We duly conceded a goal from the free kick. Opinel had been very tired and I’d been working him way too hard, so I’m not going to hold it against him. I had to pull Nadé back to play in midfield with a single striker upfront and play Stacy Long out of position on the left, where he actually acquitted himself very well. (Opinel was my only – only! – uninjured left midfielder in the squad for this game.) The rest of the game saw me raining shots down on the Droylsden goal, only to see them all saved. (I need to work on my corners. Of my twelve corners, I don’t think a single one reached one of my own players.) And, then, completely against the run of play, they scored another. So that was a loss.
Before the next game I managed to loan a left midfielder named Joey Waterhouse. His stats didn’t look too great, but he was at Wigan, so I thought there must be something to him. Indeed, in the next game he was instrumental in getting us three early goals, before his lack of fitness showed and he hardly had a touch for the next hour. Indeed, the tiredness of the squad as a whole really showed, with us conceding two goals in the second half. We did, however, managed to hang on for a win. It should probably have been more convincing, but my strikers had a terrible time of it. Even the usually reliable Ebrienne ended the match with a 5 out of 10 rating after coming on as a sub early in the second half.
We’re currently in tenth place in the table. I’m going to have to see if I can get any more loan players in to cover the weak spots and I might have a look at training, see if I can improve my squad’s fitness levels. If we start matches in good condition I think we might be able to make the playoffs this season.
Football Manager Handheld 2008 (PSP)
Jan 8th
Two games this lunchtime. Luxury!
We won one and drew one, which isn’t bad. We were losing the second until the 87th minute, so that was a very welcome draw.
Also, I was runner-up for the Blue Square Premier Manager of the Month award. I felt very proud.
The biggest news, though, is that Purcell has broken his toe and will be out for at least three weeks. That’s quite a major problem, as he’s one of my top players. Still, could be worse. Three weeks isn’t so bad in the long run.
I hope we get a long break between matches soon. My players are absolutely knackered and many are starting games with condition percentages in the low nineties. McPhee finished the last game with his condition down in the sixties, which is dangerously low.
Right, I’ve checked, and the next match is only a few days later. No break. It’s against Torquay, who I’d probably not be able to beat with my best team, so I’ve decided that I’m going to rest every player I can who’s tired and field what’s not far off being a b-team for the next match. (I actually have a reserve team and I’d dearly love to promote someone from that team into the main squad, but they’re all greyed out, so I can’t.) I’m still stuck with knackered players on the left in both midfield and defence, though, as that’s where my injuries are right now. It’s a hard life.
Football Manager Handheld 2008 (PSP)
Jan 7th
You know you’ve had a good match when you win 2-0 and the opposition keeper is Man of the Match.
A good away win at Kidderminister, then, which takes up to fourth in the table.
I’d like to play more, but each match lasts about twenty minutes and now lunchtime is over.
It’s amazing how exciting the game is, given that you’re just reading text and looking at numbers for twenty minutes, with a bare minimum of interactivity. I’m still not quite sure how they do it.
Football Manager Handheld 2008 (PSP)
Jan 6th
Hmm, not so bad then.
Three games, a win, a draw and a loss.
Injuries are already becoming a problem, though. In some areas I’m very thinly spread. I haven’t been able to buy a single player, so I’m having to go the loan route.
Football Manager Handheld 2008 (PSP)
Jan 5th
Two more friendlies down, a win and a loss. This does not bode well. Every time I’ve played a Football Manager game before I’ve struggled badly if I’ve not won all the pre-season friendlies.
Still, I’ll give it a go and see what happens.
