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A Gaming Diary
360 Catch Up (360)
Nov 15th
Last night I caught up on a load of Live Arcade demos. They were all rubbish, I’m afraid to say. Okay, I don’t want to spend points, so I was going in with an attitude, but still. Screwjumper: rubbish. Shrek and Roll: less rubbish, but not worth money. Mutant Storm Empire: like the last one, but zoomed in and somehow rubbish. Etc.
I also tried the Two Worlds demo. It’s Oblivion, but rubbish. It’s too hard, the interface is impossible to read and the wolves look like pigs.
So I went back to Pinball FX, because it had a new table to download – for free! Pretty good table, too, though the game’s still too fast and I can’t work out what’s going on most of the time. Fun enough, though.
Then it was time for some Carcassonne. I’m slightly grumpy about it now being free after I paid 800 points for it, but I’ve had fun with it. Last night I got the final single player achievement, which was nice. Not sure if I’ll bother with multiplayer.
I also deleted a load of old Live Arcade games because I never play them and they were taking up space. I can always download them again if I miss them. Prince of Persia: bye! Castlevania: Symphony of the Night: I have you on PSP now, bye! Cloning Clyde: I’ve not looked at you in months, bye! Alien Hominid: you’re way too hard, see ya! Assualt Heroes: you’re not as good as I thought! Gauntlet: have I played you since launch week? Etc.
Halo 3 (360)
Nov 13th
Last night was the first round of the ugvm knockout tournament, a duel against DBSnappa on Epitaph. It was close until the last thirty seconds or so, when I got a quick run of kills to win 10-7. Go me!
Before that I’d played a bit of single player. I’m really struggling to get through the first level on Heroic (I know, I’m rubbish) but it’s incredibly good fun. Best bit was the game checkpointing me while a huge alien git was charging towards me with a gravity hammer. Took me a few tries and some lucky grenade throws to survive that.
Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness (PSP)
Nov 13th
There’s really not much to say about this.
I did a few battles to get Laharl’s mana up and then created an average Warrior. I’ve called him Chopper, because I had a spare axe in my inventory, which I wanted him to use.
And that’s it.
Uncharted Demo (PS3)
Nov 12th
Tomb Raider meets Gears of War, or something. Jungle exploration and jumping, punctuated with gunfights where taking cover is of paramount importance.
Luckily for my wallet, I didn’t much like it. Yes, it looks nice. Yes, it seems to have a nice balance of combat and exploration. Yes, it’s got some loevely touches. But the aiming controls are horrible. I didn’t have any troubles using the PS3 controller for Resistance, but it’s taking far, far too long in this game to get the cursor over my enemies. In the time it takes me to pop out of cover and actually get my cursor over an enemy I’ve been shot to ribbons. Give me some sort of aim assistance or a 360 controller and I’d probably enjoy it, but as it is I just found it too frustrating to play for long.
Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness (PSP)
Nov 12th
In many ways, I don’t understand why Disgaea is fun. It shouldn’t be. Spending half an hour revisiting the tutorial map so that my brawler can learn some ice magic from his Ice Mage pupil (you know, just in case) shouldn’t be fun. Yet somehow it is, despite being repetitive and ultimately pointless. (He hates ice, doesn’t do much damage with it, can’t use it much and is fast enough so that he can normally get into range of an enemy for a direct attack.)
So that was about half an hour of the six hours I’ve spent on the game so far. Apart from that I’ve taught my cleric some fire magic, taught Laharl to heal, gone into Item World a couple of times to get some specialists out of rare gum, created a few characters and, oh yes, finished the first chapter in the story.
I think the appeal of Disgaea lies in the team. It’s not about getting to the end of the story, but about creating and moulding characters to reflect your vision. It’s a reversal of the RPG norm, where you level and customise your team to enable you to get through the story. Here you go through the story to help you level and customise your team.
Or maybe the appeal lies in something more direct, in the way that battles are always fun, with the puzzle-type levels that often populate SPRGs kept to a minimum so that you always have tactical freedom.
Let’s not forget, also, that the player decides how difficult these battles are. The focus on levelling means that you can decide where to go, what level enemies to face and therefore how hard you want the game to be.
It’s less of a traditional RPG and more of a tactical, character-building sandbox, where choice and customisation are far more important than the (fairly funny but emotionally unengaging) story. It’s not a Final Fantasy style game trying to be an epic movie, it’s just trying to be a bedroom floor littered with toy soldiers.
So here we are, with the sorely underrated PSP playing host to three great SRPGs in as many months. Jeanne D’Arc’s got the looks. Final Fantasy Tactics has the brains. And Disgaea’s got the soul.
Go team!
Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness (PSP)
Nov 9th
Has it really been over three years since I was playing the PS2 version of this game? (Yes. It has. I’ve checked.)
Anyway, the PSP version is finally here. (I paid for it in August, I think, so it’s nice to get it at last.) First impressions, based on about nintety minutes of play – and, remember, that’s a blink of an eye in Disgaea-time – is that it’s the same game as the PS2 version, so therefore full of greatness.
It looks lovely shrunk down on the PSP screen, though the stats can be a bit tricky to read at times. There seems to be a new person in the castle, who just gives you a list of items you’ve owned, or something. (And there is a brand new story, but I’ve yet to unlock that.)
I’ve not done much yet. Just the tutorials and the first couple of missions. I’ve created a cleric and got Laharl up to rank one in the assembly and now I’m wondering whether I should make a red mage or a green skull for my next character.
I’ve looked back online and one of the last things I wrote when I was playing it in 2004 was about the difficulty I was having levelling up my cleric. And that’s the problem I’m already having right now.
It’s good to be back.
Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles (PSP)
Nov 4th
I won’t bore you with the details. Online reviews will give all the details about what this release contains. Rondo… 2.5D… etc.
What do I think about it all? Well, the main game is very hard. It’s good, but it’s harder than any modern Castlevania and, I think, harder than Super Castlevania IV.
I’ve unlocked Symphony of the Night now, though, so I’m playing that instead. You unlock it in a really stupid way (you have to find a certain item on Level 3′ (not to be confused with Level 3) but I’ve done it now, so I can’t complain too much.
Dungeon Making: Hunting Ground (PSP)
Nov 4th
Well, level two’s boss has come to live in my dungeon. Defeat him, and I get access to level three.
I’m not ready for that yet, though. Level two is unfinished and I want to finish it off before starting the next one. I can come back to live two any time I want – I still visit level one every day – but I want to take things slow. Also, I need to get some more magic points. I’m running out far too quickly.
Scrabble Interactive 2007 Edition (DS)
Nov 4th
Career mode gets annnoyingly hard annoyingly quickly. That’s all I have to say. I will, however, growl for a bit.
Grrrrrrr.
Grrrrrrr.
Grrrrrrr.
Grrrrrrr.
Slitherlink (DS)
Nov 4th
I went back to this for a few puzzles. It takes a lot more thinking than Nurikabe, square for square, but it’s probably more satisfying when a puzzle is finally completed.
