InvertY.com
A Gaming Diary
Pokemon Diamond (DS)
Apr 25th
So, I choose the little penguin guy as my first Pokemon and I’m quite happy with the choice. Though I am currently wanting to evolve a Magikarp, which means I’ll have two water-based Pokemon in my main team, which isn’t a very good idea. Hmm. I am musing.
It’s just Pokemon… again. But it’s also just better enough to not feel like a waste.
Guitar Hero 2 (PS2)
Apr 21st
In one four and a half hour sitting I’ve just polished off Easy mode and completed Medium – without failing a single track. No, not even Freebird. I rock.
Guitar Hero 2 (PS2)
Apr 20th
Well, started this up on Easy and five-starred every song up to You Really Got Me first time. Including a Perfect on Woman. I know it’s only Easy, but I’m still proud of a first-time Perfect.
Either Guitar Hero 2 is much easier on Easy than Guitar Hero, or I’m a lot better than I used to be.
I do wish I’d been able to afford the 360 version so I’d have Achievements and Friends Leaderboards and stuff, but there you go.
Lylat Wars (Wii)
Apr 20th
Ah, thank goodness!
I was so worried that Lylat Wars wouldn’t stand up today and I’d be horribly disappointed, but, no, it’s still an excellent game today. The mothership level is, if not quite as awesome as I remember, due to horrifically dated graphics, still quite impressive and great fun.
Odd difficulty curve, though. Breezed through the first three levels without any problems, then lost all my lives on level four’s boss. Stupid lava creature with shoulders that aren’t part of its arms. Grr.
MLB 2K7 (PS3)
Apr 19th
Ah, but I love this game. I’ve taken the difficulty down to Rookie from Pro and decided to play against the Pirates, rather than the Giants. (The Pirates aren’t quite as good as the Giants, to put it nicely.) I won 7-1, which was nice. Six of those runs came in the 6th inning, from three home runs. In fact, all my runs came from homers, now I think about it. Ah well, I’m not complaining. I earned enough Tokens to unlock a classic team. The 1946 Red Sox, I think.
I’ve not got the hang of baserunning yet – last time I tried it I wanted to send a man to second, but he carried on and tried to run for third and I’m not sure why. And fielding really seems to be clumsy compared to the rest of the game. Not sure if I’m just rubbish at it and maybe missing something, or if it really isn’t as good as the rest of the game. Sometimes my fielders just don’t seem to want to pick up the ball.
But, still, I love the game. The presentation is just wonderful and really helps me get my fix on those evenings when NASN is just showing stinky old ice hockey.
And once this season is over – eep! – I’m sure I’ll treasure it even more.
Sony may have made mistakes lately – many, many mistakes – but making the PS3 region-free was not one of them.
Gyruss Demo (360)
Apr 19th
Quite like this. So much so that I nearly bought it, but I don’t really want to spend any points until Microsoft get back to me about unlocking the Arcade games I’ve already bought.
3D Ultra Minigolf Adventures Demo (360)
Apr 19th
Very short demo. Didn’t really convince me to spend any points on the full game, though I do like the idea of designing my own holes.
Earth Defence Force 2017 (360)
Apr 17th
I downloaded some demos that had come out while I was without a 360 and they were all rubbish, so I really can’t be arsed to create separate entries for each once.
Anyway, once they were dealt with and I’d sent Microsoft a list of things that were wrong I played some EDF. I hadn’t missed it nearly as much as I should have done. it’s pretty much glorious. I’ve restarted on Easy to go through the game gathering weapons and health before jumping back to Normal.
Incidentally, the fans on this 360 seem noisier than my old 360, but the disc access is much, much quieter.
Xbox 360 Support Request
Apr 17th
1033740430 for my reference, ignore -
Gamertag: That Rev Chap
I sent my console to you for repair and have received a refurbished unit back from you. I kept the hard drive so have all the old games, but now when my wife logs in under her profile (Gamertag: Pantherbun) she cannot play the full versions of our Live Arcade games. This is obviously a problem.
The Live Arcade games we have bought are -
Alien Hominid HD
Assault Heroes
Castlevania: SOTN
Cloning Clyde
Contra
Crystal Quest
DOOM
Feeding Frenzy
Frogger
Galaga
Gauntlet
Geometry Wars
Hardwood Hearts
Hexic HD
Jetpac Refuelled
Jewel Quest
Joust
LUMINES LIVE!
Marble Blast Ultra
Mutant Storm Reloaded
PAC-MAN
Robotron: 2084
Scramble
Smash TV
Street Fighter II’ HF
Texas Hold ‘em
Time Pilot
Uno
Wik: Fable of Souls
Worms
Zuma
In addition, we have also purchased extra content for some games. I haven’t yet checked if this works for Oblivion and Viva Pinata as these are not Live Arcade games, but as they were purchased under my Gamertag then I’m worried they won’t work either.
The extra content we have purchased is -
Crystal Quest: Xtreme
LUMINES LIVE!: Advance Challenge Pack, Heavenly Star Pack, Base Pack, VS CPU Pack
Oblivion: Knights of the Nine, Mehrune’s Razor, Shivering Isles, Wizard’s Tower
Viva Pinata: Accessory Pack 1, Accessory Pack 2, Accessory Pack 3, Accessory Pack 4, Accessory Pack 5, Accessory Pack 6
Please let me know how we can get this new 360 working properly as soon as possible. All these were bought under my account but many were for my wife as much as me – and some were more for her.
MLB 2K7 (PS3)
Apr 16th
Okay, a note for anyone searching Google: the US (or USA) version of MLB 2K7, also known as Major League Baseball 2K7, on the Playstation 3 video games console does work fine on a UK console. I know there have been conflicting reports online. General opinion seemed to lead to the conclusion that it would work, but I could find no confirmation. And some people were assuming that 2K Sports would lock it, as they did with the 360 version. So, if you’re searching Google looking for confirmation, here (probably on page 132 of your results) is that confirmation. It’ll probably only work if you’re using HD, so anyone stuck with an old standard-definition set might be out of luck, but anyone with an HD-Ready television is all set.
Right, okay, that’s my good deed done for the day. It’s very good indeed, too, by the way. Changed a bit from the demo. Seems to look a bit nicer, some options that were on by default in the demo are off in the full game, but it’s basically the same. Which should be pretty obvious, I suppose.
Anyway, I set up a profile and set my options. Played as the Astros against the Giants. I lost, badly. 15-0, I believe. Oddly, my pitcher, who pitched until he was nearly dead because I forgot to warm up anyone to relieve him, never got tense like all the pitchers did in the demo. I wonder if that’s something I need to turn on? But I wasn’t so bad at pitching really. Fielding was more the problem there. I just kept stepping over the ball and throwing to the wrong base. But I was okay. Batting was where I was really awful. One base hit in the whole game. One. In fact, I was so bad at hitting the ball that I thought I might be missing something, so after the game I tried a couple of home run derbys. I didn’t have any trouble hitting the ball there, even with Astros players.
I think I might need to turn the difficulty down a bit.
Anyway, the game’s great (apart from an odd lack of autosave and a million different save files – profile, options, game, even a separate save for the bloody music settings! – that all have to be dealt with in different places) and I’m very glad I can play it. I know the 360 version got (slightly) better reviews, but that’s not region free, so for UK baseball fans PS3 1 – Xbox 360 0.
