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A Gaming Diary
Valkyrie Profile Lenneth (PSP)
Mar 11th
I’ve had this RPG for quite some time, but today was the first day that I felt I was in the right frame of mind to give it the patience I was sure it would deserve. I was right, it does require patience at the beginning. There’s about an hour or so of very limited interaction before you really get to do anything. (It’s one of those games with save points during cut scenes.)
But now I have got to play it I’m very impressed. I’m four hours in and I’ve worked out what’s going on mostly, I think. I can heal during battle, I’ve worked out how learn new skills and level them, all that. Haven’t been able to use an item during battle yet, but maybe I’ve not got any yet. A lot of this isn’t explained very well, or at all. But it’s great fun, with a lovely battle system and enemies visible in the (side-scrolling) dungeons before you fight.
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (DS)
Mar 11th
The Creature nearly got me.
Well, The Creature did get me. About twenty times, until I trekked back to the shop and got some potions.
Now he’s dead.
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (DS)
Mar 10th
Oh.
It’s got to hard again now. I got one of Castlevania’s trademark fake endings, then worked out how to avoid stopping at that point. Now I’ve got to go through lots more paitnings, only this time their far too hard.
It doesn’t help that I made a terrible mistake and sold half the really good stuff I was wearing and I didn’t notice until after I saved. I’m stuck miles into one painting, short on cash and out of potions. It’s not fun.
I may pretend the bad ending was the real ending and leave this now.
Worms (360)
Mar 10th
As far as it goes, this actually is very good. (Ignore what I said about it playing like it was underwater, I seem to have been on crack.) It’s just a pity it doesn’t go further. Challenges are getting quite hard now.
Hitman Blood Money (360)
Mar 10th
Completed!
Final two levels completed today. They were pretty good, though I didn’t like being forced into a couple of gunfights. I did the final mission very badly indeed, having to kill eleven security guards in a huge gunfight at the beginning. Still, the job got done.
I’ve still only got 185 achievement points, though. And finishing on Expert didn’t give me the points for finishing on Rookie and Normal. Darn.
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (DS)
Mar 10th
After a long break I’ve come back to this refreshed and I’m finding it so much easier than I did before. Bosses have been dropping all over the place and I found a great new weapon called Nebula, that’s sort of a slow homing whip. Sort of.
I still hate Medusa Heads though. Oh yes I do.
Hitman Blood Money (360)
Mar 10th
I’m being very sloppy now. I’m not trying to be, it’s just the silent methods really aren’t obvious any more. I had to kill a sheik earlier and simply couldn’t find a disguise to get me into his private area. In the end I set off a bomb nearby to distract the guards, got in without being seen, killed my target, but then couldn’t get out without being spotted and had a really quie uncool run to the parked car waiting to take me to safety. Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy.
Worms (360)
Mar 8th
Sigh.
I honestly, honestly want to like it, want to love it, but the more I play the more disappointed I am.
I don’t know if it’s my memory or the game, but the physics don’t feel right. It feels like everything’s too heavy, or that the game’s playing out underwater, or something. It’s just slightly off, but things just don’t seem to behave as they should. The ninja rope doesn’t feel quite right, either. I don’t know if it’s me or the game, but I can’t seem to hook myself over things, it’s like the length changes a little too slowly. Thinking back, though, I don’t think I’ve ever got on with the ninja rope on any console version before.
And the selection of weapons seems ever more stingy and drab.
Why couldn’t this have been the first 150MB Live Arcade game? Packed with all the customisation and weapons we could ever want? Why couldn’t it be Ultimate Worms instead of Worms Lite?
It’s a missed opportunity and it’s a crying shame.
Worms (360)
Mar 7th
Despite the name, it’s not Worms. Not really. It’s some sort of Worms Lite.
The core gameplay is there, unquestionably. The game just works fine and is good old Worms… what there is of it. It’s what there isn’t that’s the problem. There’s just so much missing. The crates don’t explode properly. There’s no petrol bomb, no baseball bat, no drill. Customisation options are sorely lacking. I’ve not yet seen a mine fizzle out, nor seen any weapons apart from the standard ones come out of crates.
And the first time I played I did a load of challenges and while it saved progress in those – I was the 92nd fastest player in the world on Challenge 2, last I checked – it didn’t save my team stats. I thought the delays were to get rid of bugs?
It’s a real shame, because there’s an engine here with so much potential. There are people who can look at this game and be very proud of what they’ve created. But it’s just the skeleton, there’s no meat. I am genuinely missing things. I’ve wanted to use the baseball bat a couple of times. I’ve wanted Worms to dance around on beds of fire. I’ve wanted to drill down on to a Worm positioned directly below me.
It is a very, very good Worms Lite. It’s just not the real thing.
(And can I delete the foreign language Worm voices, please? I really don’t want to hear them when playing.)
Hitman Blood Money (360)
Mar 6th
So, after not wholly-botching the You Better Watch Out… mission, I was off for some Death On The Mississippi. Haven’t cracked it yet, after a few tries. Managed a cleanish kill (by which I mean the target died and so did any civilian witnesses) or two, but there are seven targets on this level and I’ve not seen most of them.
Had quite a disturbing moment when I threw a body into a furnace to dispose of it, only for the “Target Killed” icon to come up aftwerwards. It was then that I remembered I’d only knocked them out when I’d attacked them. Oops.
