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A Gaming Diary
Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition (Wii)
Jun 30th
These new controls are great. Wiggling the remote is far superior to hammering a button in QTEs, apart from the pointer shooting. Anyway, first boss encounter is over now and wasn’t very hard at all.
Flatout Ultimate Carnage (360)
Jun 30th
Well, Blockbuster gave me lots of store credit so I picked up a few new games, including this. I didn’t like the first one, ignored the second, but this one has been getting lots of good feedback online. With good reason, it seems. The handling is massively improved and the framerate, though very inconsistent, is much, much better. The first game had sim leanings that I don’t think worked too well; this is an out and out arcade racer and really, really good.
Tony Hawk’s Project 8 (360)
Jun 30th
Well, I didn’t trade this in and played it a bit today. I am so rubbish. So, so rubbish. Not quite as rubbish as I was last night, though. I’ve not really found any missions I can do, given my rubbishness, but my best combo score is now about 60,000, which is an improvement, at least.
Tony Hawk’s Project 8 (360)
Jun 29th
So, got a free copy of this and decided to test it, out as I’m taking a load of games up to Blockbuster to trade in. Wondered if this should go with them.
After forty-five minutes, I was ready to set the disc on fire and rocket it into orbit. I can’t do the tutorial. You heard me. I can’t do the bloody tutorial. After much frustration I got to the sixth tutorial, about combos, but couldn’t do the first part of that.
So I gave up and started the game. I’m rubbish. Really rubbish. Best combo is current about 25,000 points. That’s nothing, in this over-complicated day of reverts and manuals and everything. I miss the old days when everything was so much simpler.
But, the thing is, I’ve started to have fun. The Nail The Trick thing is excellent, the game’s letting me progress just by hitting the ultra-simple amateur goals (which I can just about do) and it’s got Jason Lee in it.
So I think I’ll be keeping it after all.
Sega Presents Touch Darts (DS)
Jun 29th
It’s very good, but it wears thin after a while. About half an hour at a time is my limit, before throwing darts starts to get very, very boring. Doesn’t help that it’s so incredibly easy right now. I’m not very good, but the computer players are just awful right now. Must unlock the higher difficulties.
Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition (Wii)
Jun 28th
This is qite an old game in a new edition, so it counts for Retro Week, right?
Yeah, okay, I give up.
Anyway, it’s the same old RE4, but with pointer controls for aiming. And, er, that’s it. And, er, that’s enough.
Carcassonne (360)
Jun 27th
Okay, I’m bad at Retro Week. But this is an old board game, so it counts, right?
Anyway, I like it much better than that Catan thing with its confusing trading. In this game you make maps, and I do like to do that. My wife doesn’t like it, though. It fits in the same part of her brain as the much-loathed Risk.
The computer seems a bit easy to beat on default settings, though, due to not using farmers. (Who aren’t mentioned in the tutorial, oddly enough. I’m a bit confused and pleased I read a manual online before playing.)
Sega Presents Touch Darts (DS)
Jun 25th
It’s the first day of Retro Week, so I started off with this, as you can’t get much more retro than darts… Okay, okay, I had new game excitement and forgot it was Retro Week. My wife’s been playing this and raving about it and I got to have a go today and it’s really good. It’s just darts, yes, but it’s good just darts. Won a couple of tournaments and then played some single-DS multiplayer against the wife. I won 2-1. Go me!
Now, hopefully, the rest of this week will feature real retro games, at least until Friday when I see what I’ve got left in the trading pile that I can swap for all the new releases coming out this week. And there are loads of them. Resident Evil 4, The Darkness, Overlord, Harry Potter… gulp!
F-Zero X (Wii)
Jun 24th
Well, I was going to leave this until the official start of retro week tomorrow, but as it seems to be Futuristic Racer Day, I thought I’d give it a go.
Unlike WipEout, it’s not stupidly hard. I nearly didn’t finish the first cup after losing all my spare lives on the last track, but I pulled it together in the end and came first. Go me.
It’s very fast and very fun, but the Classic controller is really bloody uncomfortable.
Worms (360)
Jun 24th
Challenge 13 seems to be impossible, but at least the AI worms don’t take as long to think about their turns as they did before the game got updated.
