InvertY.com
A Gaming Diary
Pokemon Diamond (DS)
May 7th
Failed a gym battle this evening. Bother.
I was five or six levels before the gym leader’s Pokemon and managed to beat the first two, but the third one went before all my Pokemon and killed them in one hit. Not much I could do about that.
Test Drive Unlimited (PSP)
May 7th
This is excellent. I’ve played for a while this morning and driven over a hundred miles in my first car – a Ford Mustang – and I’ve had a very good time. It is Test Drive Unlimited as it was on the 360, pretty much. There’s an obvious downgrade in the graphics and sound, of course. It’s very, very impressive, but obviously the PSP isn’t going to have high-def, high-poly graphics and booming surround sound. So no dashboard view, for one thing. Apart from that, the only other major difference I’ve seen so far is the handling. It seems much, much easier to get round corners in the PSP version and it’s consequently a lot more fun. There’s not the same feeling as learning your car and constantly driving on the edge, but I think the fun to be had screaming round corners as soon as you get in a car makes up for that.
There’s also a nice feature I don’t remember from the 360 version, which is that the GPS automatically points you towards the next race after you finish an event. Makes it a lot easier to find things to do. And if you decide to go somewhere else then once you’ve been there the GPS will set tiself back to te next race. Lovely. But, you know, a few days ago I thought Ninja Gaiden was a 360 game, so my memory’s not to be trusted.
There are also a lot of (to me) minor downgrades. No bikes, no delivery missions, that sort of thing. I think there might be fewer cars too. I can’t say I’m too bothered. My main wish for the game would be for the sun to come out. It’s awfully grey for Hawaii at the moment.
The Legend of the Mystical Ninja (Wii)
May 6th
This is fun, but I keep losing to the first boss, even though I know how to damage her. I hate bosses.
Pokemon Diamond (DS)
May 6th
Well, that’s the fourth gym done. No mention yet of being able to use traded Pokemon above level thirty though. I’ve now got a team of Pokemon I’ve caught myself.
Rainbow Islands (XBOX)
May 6th
There are people in this gaming subculture who think that some games, mainly fighting games, can’t be played with a pad, but require an arcade stick. I’ve never been convinced by this and I’m quite happy playing Street Fighter and its children with a standard controller.
However, there is one game that I can’t seem to play using a normal controller. As the title of this post might suggest, that game is Rainbow Islands. I tried the Taito Legends and the MAME version on my Xbox today and I couldn’t play either of them. Random jumping, rainbows flying everywhere, it wasn’t pretty. It’s because I need to use my thumb and not my fingers for the jumping and firing.
(Well, either that or I’m just rubbish these days. But that can’t be the explanation, can it?)
Spider-Man 2 (XBOX)
May 6th
As I’ve not got the shiny new Spider-Man 3, I decided to revisit this old thing.
The camera is rubbish, the graphics have dated horribly and it generally doesn’t feel nearly as good as I remember. Swinging around is still fun when it works properly, though, so I did some of that.
Jetpac Refeulled (360)
May 5th
Ah, now this is better than I thought it was. I may even put some time in and try to make my score slightly more respectable. I’m not bottom of my Friends Leaderboard, but I’m down there.
Lumines Live (360)
May 5th
I’d like slightly shorter games, I think. Playing for half an hour and not getting close to a high score isn’t much fun. Well, the playing part is fun, but I tend to get a little disgruntled when I die.
Earth Defence Force 2017 (360)
May 5th
Best played in half hour chunks. Bear that in mind.
It’s awesome.
