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A Gaming Diary
Hitman Blood Money (360)
Mar 5th
One thing about going through old games and throwing out those you’ll never play again is that you’re reminded of games you never finished and do want to play again. Like, obviously, the excellent Hitman Blood Money.
I did the tutorial again to remind myself how things worked, then started the first Mission on Normal difficulty. It was so hard that I gave up and loaded my old save, which was set on Expert difficulty. There doesn’t seem to much difference, really. When I last played I’d got stuck on the mission “A Murder of Crows”, but after some experimentation and some less-than-clean kills I managed to complete it. I only got a Gangster rating and left four witnesses alive, but I didn’t do badly enough to make me go back and do it again.
Now on to the next mission, where I have to kill a porn baron. I’ve not got very far yet, just a couple of badly-botched and fatal excursions.
Crackdown (360)
Mar 4th
Now my stats can’t go down I decided to kill lots of civilians and cops today. It was fun for a while, but the cops are never any real challenge so it wasn’t as much fun as it is in other sandbox games.
Playstation 3 Plans
Mar 4th
I went into Gamestation today and put down £20 on a Playstation 3. Probably won’t get one on launch day, they don’t reckon, but I’m not overly bothered. The reason I’ve gone there – when Game and many online stores still have preorders for launch day open – is that I want to trade in games against the cost of the console, given that it costs an obscene amount of money in this country, and Gamestation give the best prices in town.
To that end I went through all my PS2, Xbox, 360 and Gamecube games and asked a series of questions.
1) Is it a UK game? If no, leave on shelf, if yes, proceed to next question.
2) Will I, thinking realistically, ever play it again in my life? If yes, leave on shelf, if no, proceed to next question.
3) Is it something that, even if it won’t get played, will still be loved? If yes, leave on shelf, if no, put in “to be traded” pile.
I’ve ended with about two hundred games to trade in and the vast majority of the games that I’m keeping are only staying because they’re foreign. They’re mostly very old PS and Xbox games that I picked up very cheaply several years ago, so I doubt I’d get more than a quid or two each. And I’m guessing the likes of Pro Evolution Soccer 2 and Dave Mirra BMX 2 won’t even be taken. Even the most recent stuff I’m getting rid of – 360 launch titles – won’t be worth anything much by now. I’m not going to take everything in at once, but some time in the next couple of weeks I’ll be taking the first hundred or so up to Gamestation. I’ll see what happens.
The person behind the counter is going to hate me, I’m sure.
(Actually, I’m pretty sure my Dave Mirra 2 is a US copy, so I shouldn’t have put it in the bag. I’ll find out in Gamestation, I guess. And I’m already regretting not keeping Mario Golf on the Gamecube, so I think I’ll take that back, too.)
Kororinpa (Wii)
Mar 4th
Well, that’s the forty-five main levels done.
Got some secret levels to do and, I assume, more to unlock. Then there’s Mirror Mode and trying to improve completion times. (This is where the Wii really needs Friends Lists and Leaderboards.)
Super Mario World (Wii)
Mar 4th
Ack!
I forgot you couldn’t save after every level in this version. I’m never going to be able to finish this. I’ve done the easy stuff and now I’m into the sections where every level is a killer.
Kororinpa (Wii)
Mar 4th
This is good fun, but I’m in the mid-twenties now and the levels have become really quite tricky. Also, after a session I find my forearm really aches, which I’ve never heard anyone else mention. Maybe I’m doing it wrong.
Super Mario World (Wii)
Mar 3rd
Yeah, I spent some more points. At least it was on a good game this time. A classic game, in fact.
Despite playing it a million times before, though, I managed to get completely stuck in first Ghost House for ages and ages. Gah.
Sonic and the Secret Rings (Wii)
Mar 3rd
Put another hour or so into this. It’s really quite good. It doesn’t flow as nicely as I’d like it to, but that says as much about my skills as the game itself. I’m at the stage now, though, where I’m not sure when I reach a hard challenge whether I’m being rubbish or whether I need to level up a bit before attempting it.
Crackdown (360)
Mar 3rd
I’m a bit lost now I’ve found all the agility orbs.
There are the hidden orbs, but they’re in such odd places I don’t think I could find them all without some amazing luck or several weeks of daily play. There are car stunts to do, but I find the driving a bit too clumsy when it comes to trying to hit ramps cleanly and such. There are rooftop and road races, but I’m too keen on them, really. I might try out the road races some time, but I’m not sure I want to do rooftop races up The Keep, achievements or not.
Talking of which, I got myself the Master Agent and Global Impact achievements today. I was disappointed there wasn’t any sort of in-game reward for reaching Master Agent status. I’d have enjoyed having immunity from Agency reprisals for killing civilians, or something.
Crackdown (360)
Mar 3rd
500 AGILITY ORBS GET!!!!
I found them all by myself. The final was on top of the big geodesic dome that I’d tried scaling a few times before, but which I thought was impossible to get up. In desperation I tried a final time just before I was going to turn the 360 off and go to bed, caught a beam at the correct angle and – bang! – up I went. Never have five glowing green orbs stacked on top of each other looked so sweet.
Also tonight I found a ton of hidden orbs – I’ve now got 232 of the 300 – and a few car-stunt-based achievements.
