InvertY.com
A Gaming Diary
OutRun 2006 Coast 2 Coast (PSP)
Feb 4th
I may not be able to ride a bike in real life, but I can drive a car. (As long as it’s an automatic – yes, in many ways I am utterly pathetic.) OutRun 2006 isn’t much like driving a real car. That surge of joy, freedom and control you get for about twelve seconds in the average three hour drive through Britain is present a lot more often in OutRun. It’s not there all the time – especially in the PSP version, which is slightly hampered by the analogue nub and a dodgy framerate – but it’s still great, great fun and when the drifting is going right and you make a few turns in a row there’s not a driving game in the world that can touch it.
I’ve still not been able to finish the OutRun 2 15-stage continuous mode, but I’ve done some Heart Attack mode and unlocked an OutRun class car now, so I might be able to do it soon. Maybe.
Singstar & Singstar Legends (PS2)
Feb 4th
It took a while, but I found my PS2 component cable, my two Singstar mics and – after a good long search – the little box that goes between the mics and the PS2. I took the blue mic and my better half took the red one. Several hours later we’d exhausted both Singstar Legends and the original Singstar disc.
One thing became very, very apparent over the course of the evening. I can’t sing. I simply cannot sing. Not one bit. Asking me to sing is like asking a blind man to do a paint by numbers. I just don’t understand what I’m meant to do. There’s a bit missing in my brain. I get the right sort of pattern – everything goes up and down at the right time, mostly – but I can only hit notes through pure fluke. I don’t know how to tell what’s correct or what my voice should be doing.
I do have good fun, yes, but it’s somewhat demoralising. Sometimes I wish someone could explain it to me and then I’d be able to do it, like long division. But I think it’s like riding a bike. Either you can learn or if, like me, you’ve got no sense of balance, you’ll never be able to do it.
Best Games Ever
Jan 26th
I did a top ten list last January, so I think I’ll do another.
10. (NE) Dragon Quest VIII (PS2)
I remember it annoying me when I played it. But I also remember loving it. And it gave me my single most satisfying gaming moment ever – killing the final boss after a 45-minute battle.
9. (NE) OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast (XBOX/PSP)
Not really a new entry as OutRun 2 was in the chart last year, at number five. I’m rating it lower this year because I never seem to play it. The Xbox version doesn’t work on the 360, so I never play it, and the PSP version, though lovely, is hampered slightly by the PSP’s analogue nub and a pretty rubbish framerate.
8. (7) World of Warcraft (PC)
It gave me some of my best gaming moments ever. (The trip to the contested area of Booty Bay to buy parrots with two friends! The first time we ganged up to invade Alliance territory!) However, I never got a character beyond level twenty-five and don’t really like teaming up with random strangers so it can’t be higher.
7. (9) Mr Driller: Drill Spirits (DS)
Best (English language) Mr Driller. Drill Land might take the spot if it was out in English. But it’s not. And there’s been no new Driller to challenge this in the last year.
6. (10) Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)
I don’t play it as much as I used to. Probably been a couple of weeks or more since I last had a wander round Venture. But it lasted for hundreds of hours of play and helped cement my relationship with the woman who is now my wife. Thanks Nintendo!
5. (6) ICO (PS2)
Haunting, atmospheric, etc. And unlike Shadow of the Colossus I actually finished ICO.
4. (3) GTA: San Andreas (PS2)
Last year I said, “Best setting, best map, best features, best everything.” Still true when you’re talking about the GTA series, but Saints Row now exists and it does a lot of stuff an awful lot better than GTA does it. GTA IV is going to have to be something very special now.
3. (4) Mario 64 (N64)
Loved it then. Love it still. It was losing ground in my top tens, but the Virtual Console version has reinforced how much fun it still is, so it gains a place here.
2. (NE) Elder Scrolls: Oblivion (360/PC)
Morrowind was in this spot last year. Oblivion doesn’t do everything better, no. It feels a lot smaller, possibly down to the fast travel and quest markers. The land doesn’t have the strangeness of Morrowind. The levelling system isn’t as bad as many make out, but is ever-so-slightly broken. But in other ways it makes many, many improvements. At times it looks breathtakingly beautiful. The combat is much improved, especially the ranged combat. The stealth works brilliantly – so much so that it seemed almost everybody went for a stealth-based character when playing the game. It’s been over a hundred hours of glorious fun, with more to come.
1. (1) Doom (PC/360)
Genius that hasn’t aged in anything but graphics. Gameplay, level design, feel… it’s still all there. And the 360 version has the best controls since pre-Win95 PC keyboards. BEST. GAME. EVER.
Play, Want, Bin
Jan 8th
PLAY
Viva Pinata (360) – I’ve either been playing this or watching my wife play it. Between us I think we’ve got all but three of the pinatas, though I may have missed some. Yesterday I finally got Parrybos and she got Roarios. Our entire style of play changed over the weekend. She sent me a crate and it wouldn’t let me unpack it my garden. So I started a new one as she couldn’t remember what was in it and we were curious. Turned out to be Mike Tyson, a fourheads. (Think as he was wearing a crown I’d reached my accessories limit for the garden, as everything else was very low.) Anyway, as I’d started a second garden I decided to go with it and turned it into a watery wonderland for all the water-loving creatures in the game. So, then, we moved to a multi-garden model. We also became farmers, specifically raising pinata to fulfill certain criteria and then selling them once they’d served their purpose, with no goodbyes or regrets. I still have pinata I love, from early in the game, but the majority of my new pinatas are just means to an end. Next, unless my wife gets one this afternoon, comes the great Galagoogoo hunt. Oh – and thanks to this game my wife now has Xbox Live friends, yay!
Super Mario Bros (NES) – Oh, yes, I played this too. Warped as far as World 5-2, but couldn’t remember any further warps… and died, anyway. Feels a bit off to me, somehow. Still fun, but the controls aren’t as invisible as they normally are when I play Mario.
WANT
Viva Pinata 2 (360) – More, more, more pinata, more items, bigger gardens, slopes so streams can run downhill, real bridges, more crossbreeding, variant colours being passed on (full gene-based model possible?), better pathfinding, bigger garden limits, fish, BUG FIXES, more responsive controls, ability to select sick/new animal from alert, ability to visit other gardens online, no bad guys, multi-item crates, proper online auction houses, Leafos not to lie so fucking much and/or Leafos to be dead, etc.
Marvel Ultimate Alliance (360) – Well, I’ve got it. But I want to play it. After Viva Pinata, whenever that turns out to be.
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops (PSP) – Well, I’ve got it. But I want to be good when I get round to playing it, whenever that turns out to be.
Crackdown (360) – Otherwise known as “that game that comes free with the Halo 3 beta”. I’m hoping for Hulk-style goodness. Luckily there’s a demo coming out in time for the pre-order to be cancelled if it’s rubbish.
BIN
Viva Pinata (TV) – The cartoon. Downloaded an episode (“Candiosity”) on the 360. Very annoying characters and not saved by a handful of pop-culture references and one slightly funny moment.
Viva Pinata (360) – Well, the noise the disc makes in the 360. It’s really starting to grind and I’m not entirely happy about it.
2006 Awards
Jan 2nd
GAME OF THE YEAR
The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion – It probably wasn’t as good as I was hoping for, the difficulty curve is all over the place and it feels a lot smaller and more constrained than Morrowind did to me, but it’s still one of the greatest games I’ve ever played, if not the very greatest. It’s a shame that there are few surprises after the first few hours – random loot seems to max out and become useless very early – but it’s always fun to wander the land seeing the sights and doing the odd quest. If they can release a couple of big expansions with less traditional landscapes and more to do for high level characters then the full package could be great beyond words.
HARDWARE OF THE YEAR
Nintendo Wii Remote – Yeah, surprise. It’s a controller with a speaker! And you can plug extra controllers in the borrom! Ace! But mainly this award is for the motion-sensing, obviously enough, which works wonderfully when used well (and when the sensitivity is set right in the options). In any other year the DS Lite would have walked it, but 2006 was special.
CONSOLE OF THE YEAR
Xbox 360 – Firstly: profiles. Having completely separate saved games and records based on who’s logged in to the machine is absolutely perfect. (Why in God’s name Nintendo didn’t do something similar for the Wii I do not know. It’s an absolute pain, especially when it comes to the saved states on VC games.) Live Arcade is brilliant, as is the Marketplace in general. Yes, some of the items for sale take the piss and hopefully they’ll fail dismally – I’m looking at you Godfather – but downloading demos and trailers is wonderful. Then there’s the fact this is the only current console to offer 720p as standard on all games. No longer do we have to suffer games that aren’t even widescreen or have shoddy PAL ports. The wireless controller is a thing of beauty, too, rubbish d-pad aside. And then there were the games. With the likes of Oblivion, Dead Rising, Ridge Racer 6, Gears of War, Viva Pinata, Saints Row, Test Drive Unlimited and GRAW the 360 had the best line-up of any console this yearm as well as the best versions of multi-platform titles like Tomb Raider: Legend and Hitman: Blood Money. And it had Doom.
MOST UNDERRATED THING OF THE YEAR
Sony PSP – Constantly dismissed by just about everybody, but it does have an excellent library of games now. You want names, I assume. Okay, here go: Tekken: Dark Resurrection, Football Manager Handheld, Loco Roco, Lumines II, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, Mega Man Powered Up, OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast, Hot Shots Golf, Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX, Monster Hunter Freedom, Ridge Racer, Sonic Rivals. And those are just games I’ve played – there’s a load more I’ve got queued up at home and even more I’d buy if I had the time and money. There have been long dry spells in the release list and I’m not sure what the long term prospects for the machine are, but it really shouldn’t be dismissed. Shame about the analogue nub and the battery life, though.
WEAPONRY OF THE YEAR
Dead Rising – There’s the katana, simple, elegant, deadly. Possibly the single best weapon of the year. Then there’s the shotgun, too, one of the best since Doom. And then there were dumbbells, knives, frying pans, drink cans, chainsaws, hammers, golf clubs, vehicles…
BEST SURPRISE OF THE YEAR
Saints Row – Should, by rights, have been an appalling GTA clone. But then the demo came along and throwing pipe bombs at cars was fun enough to make the full game a required purchase. It didn’t disappoint. Tons to do and far friendlier than GTA, with a great many improvements to the game structure and controls. In fact, in terms of pure core game mechanics it stomped over GTA with big, heavy boots. If only the general gangsta vibe had been handled with a bit more wit. It wasn’t always unfunny, but the humour mostly fell flat and sometimes seemed to be attempting to be serious. It was hard to tell.
NEGLECTED GEM OF THE YEAR
Company of Heroes – It’s absolutely exceptional. Stressful, epic, exciting, explosive, etc. The superbly designed from the ground up and executed with amazing skill. But it’s on the PC and so I’ve only played it for one weekend. Oops. And not many other people seemed to play it, either. PC gaming just seems to take place in a parallel to console gaming at the moment, more so than ever.
FRANCHISE OF THE YEAR
Lumines – Superb on both the 360 and the PSP, I can never get enough of this game. Block rockin’ beats, and stuff.
DEMO OF THE YEAR
Lost Planet – This demo has been on my 360 since E3 and still gets player. It’s brilliant… but I’ve still not completed either level, so I won’t be buying the full game. This demo is game enough for me. Sorry, Capcom. For demos that do what they’re meant to do (i.e. make me buy the game) it’s a toss up between Dead Rising and Saints Row.
MOST SORELY MISSED CHARACTER OF THE YEAR
Mr Driller – Putting him in Pac-Man World Rally really doesn’t count, Namco. If nothing else, now the Wii’s out, please just translate Mr Driller Drill Land for us. Better yet, a whole new Driller game would be nice… but let us use traditional controls.
IDIOCY OF THE YEAR
OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast – It’s a fantastic game. It’s a brilliant game. It’s a wonderful game. It reminds me why games exist and why I love them, even. However, it came out on the Xbox, not the 360. And it’s not backwardly compatible. That’s idiotic. But even more idiotic is making some of the cars in the PSP unlockable only if you connect your PSP up to the PS2 version of the game. Especially as one of those cars is my favourite car, which I now can’t use in the PSP game. Hooray.
DISAPPOINTMENT OF THE YEAR
Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (360) – Not the worst game released by any means. It should have been one of the best games of the year, in fact, but it was ruined by bugs. I never even finished it in the end.
MOST UTTERLY, COMPLETELY HORRIBLE GAMING THING OF THE YEAR
Sonic The Hedgehog Demo – I played this a lot. Just because I couldn’t believe it was as bad as I thought it was. But it was. It was just a pitiful mess and broken beyond belief. And it was Sonic. Our Sonic!
Play, Want, Bin
Dec 18th
PLAY
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (DS) – It’s very good and I’m now enjoying the two-character mechanics more than I was initially, but I’m finding the bosses deeply annoying. I’ve not found a fun one yet, but I’ve found several whose difficulty is way out of line with the rest of the game and I’ve had to make some cash and stock up on potions and tonics to get past them.
Naked War (PC) – I won a game a few days ago! Yay! I’ve got a couple of games on the go right now, but I’m winding down for Christmas. I’ll probably be firing off some more challenges in the new year.
Assault Heroes (360) – It’s a shooter and it’s clean and crisp and very playable without being particularly inspiring. Not sure yet if I should have paid 800 points for it, but I when I got to the end of the demo I really wanted more.
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (WII) – Got a good few hours in yesterday, after about a week off. I made a fair amount of progress, but got stuck on one boss for an hour or so before tripping over the solution. I’m currently in the, I think, third dungeon and I am utterly, completely, super-glue stuck. Still, RGB cable arrived this morning so maybe next time I play I’ll see something I missed.
Gunstar Heroes (WII) – I love this game. Since last playing it, though, I seem to have lost any skills I once had, as I haven’t managed to get past the Pink Roader yet.
Alien Crush (WII) – Argh! It’s a great pinball game and well worth a download, but on my first ever go I got 1,750,000 points and since then my best has been 1,112,000. I hate it when my first go at a game is my best ever.
Bonk’s Adventure (WII) – I’ve got to level 2-6, but that’s my best. It’s really, really difficult. Or I’m rubbish. Or both. I’ll keep trying, though it may be years before I make any progress.
Super Mario 64 (WII) – Played quite a lot of this. I’ve lost my cap and I can’t get it back. It fell down into quicksand when I tried to steal it back from the talons of the big bird. I’m sad. I love my cap. Also: this game is much more difficult than it was back in ’96 or ’97 or whenever it was I first played it.
WANT
Friday The 13th (360/DS) – I’ve recently been watching all the Friday The 13th films and I’ve been wondering how they could be turned into a game. (Yes, I know about the Spectrum version.) Should you be Jason, or run from Jason, or what? Anyway, inspiration hit in bed last night after The New Blood and my wife and I sketched out a plan for a game. You prepare a camp/house (depending on level), populate it with teen stereotypes and then trigger the arrival of Jason. You then control your characters RTS-style in order to either get them killed as quickly as possible, survive as long as possible, or disable Jason, thus winning the level. Setting time records unlock extras, such as lovely fluffy teddy-bear suit for Jason. Characters have “Jason attraction” circles round them that increase when they indulge in drug taking, skinny dipping or pre-marital sex. And stuff. It’s The Sims, with a Sim City-style disaster, with a movie-based level structure. Sort of. And if the interface worked and it could be balanced properly it could be brilliant. I want it very much.
BIN
Donkey Kong (WII) – Meh, I think. Either the NES version is a bit rubbish or I just don’t like Donkey Kong as much as I think I do. I know it’s missing a level, but the levels that are there don’t feel as fun as I remember. I still love the “jumping over barrels” sound, though.
Roboblitz (360) – Found it impressive for the size, but clunky and dull. Turned it off before completing the demo, which isn’t a good sign.
Getting old and worse at games. Bah.
Play, Want, Bin
Dec 11th
PLAY
Wii (WII) – Regardless of any, you know, games, the Wii itself is a fun toy. When first starting it up I did the boring stuff of entering settings, getting it online, learning how to use the pointer, downloading Super Mario 64 and Donkey Kong, etc. (Pointer was all over the place at first, but became more natural very quickly. Both familiarity and clearing the coffee table that’s between the Wiimote and sensor did their part.) Then it was into the Mii Channel. I handed my wife the Wiimote and she made her Mii, then I made mine. Over the course of the weekend my wife and I made a lot of celebrity Miis, some better than others. Jason Voorhees didn’t look right, but was great nonetheless. I did a pretty good Asajj Ventress, given the parts available and my Count Dooku is okay. Wasn’t very happy with my Earl Hickey. Wife’s Marilyn Monroe and Sadako were ace. Also tried out the photo channel with a couple of photos we’d emailed over to the Wii. They didn’t look too great and I wasn’t sure what the point was, really. (Doesn’t handle GIFs, either.) Exchanged a few messages with friends, which was nice, but won’t replace email. And all the time I marvelled at how nice the image looked, despite being on a rubbish composite connection. Not sure how they’ve done it, but it’s really very impressive and much, much better than I was expecting. Anyway – games!
Wii Play (WII) – This was the first game we tried. Two player all the way. Games are simple and some are better others, but we had great fun and it was a nice introduction to the ways of the Wiimote. Wife really didn’t enjoy the cow-steering game. The best ones were probably laser hockey and fishing for us. Not sure which of them would be good in single player mode, if any. Maybe tanks and billiards. Charging full price for this would be a joke, for a fiver it’s excellent as an introduction.
Wii Sports (WII) – I tried golf in single player first, while my wife tended to her Pony Island ponies online. Took me twenty-eight shots to do the three easy holes first time I tried, took twelve the second time. That’s some improvement. Then – yay! – back to two players for the rest of the game. Bowling first. It’s awesome, really awesome. A bit too easy, maybe, but great fun. And suddenly spotting a Mii representation of one of my friends standing watching was a great moment. Tennis was okay, but we didn’t play long. Baseball was great fun and, after bowling, probably my favourite. Finally, boxing. It’s hard and tiring and wife beat me in both bouts and enjoyed the experience far more than I thought she should have done. And that was it. We played Wii Sports that once and haven’t since. Not because it was bad, but because other games took over. We keep telling each other that we need to play it more, we’ve just not got round to it. (It would be helpful if it was built into the console, instead of being on a disc. Moon, stick, I know.)
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz (WII) – This is superb. Absolutely superb. The levels are very well designed without any of the rubbish gimmicks of Super Monkey Ball 2, the jump mechanic fits in surprisingly well, it’s nicely presented, the bosses are quite fun, the credits are skippable and, most of all, the controls are perfect. Some people say they take a while to get to grips with, but I didn’t find that. Don’t know if it was my Wii Play and Wii Sports training or what, but I felt comfortable with them from the beginning. I’m not very good, but that’s my fault, not the control’s.
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (WII) – The big game of the launch. The solid, sit-down epic. Didn’t dare start it up until 9pm on Saturday, but by the end of Sunday I’d put in eleven hours. It eats time. And it’s brilliant. I’m not the world’s biggest Zelda fan by any means, but this is just superb. I love the using hand motions for swordplay, fishing and aiming. The game, even through the Wii’s default composite connection, looks gorgeous. (I’d love to see it in 720p using upgraded textures, yes, and I really, really want my RGB SCART cable to arrive, but even as it is it looks wonderful.) It’s just captivating, with fun combat mechanics and puzzles that have stumped me just long enough, but not too long. (Though I had to leave the second dungeon with two chests unclaimed. No idea how to get to them.) I’ve just finished the second dungeon now with, as I said, eleven hours on the clock. I think this will be a big one.
And then there’s the virtual console games.
Super Mario 64 (WII) – Well, I can’t think of anything new to say about this. Though I will say that despite being pretty happy with d-pad controls on the original DS, having the analogue stick back is glorious.
Donkey Kong (WII) – Seems too easy to me. I had to leave my first game unfinished as it was taking so long and come back to lose my last life later. (At least the Wii saves the game when you quit out.)
Super Star Soldier (WII) – Not sure if it’s a great vertical shooter, but it’s a vertical shooter, which is enough.
Bonk’s Adventure (WII) – It’s a fun platform game. Not earth-shattering, but worth a look.
WANT
Rayman Raving Rabbids (WII) – Short, I’ve heard. I’ve also heard that not all the games are much fun. And it’s not in widescreen, incredibly. But I still want it. And since seeing the trailer, so does my wife.
Gunstar Heroes (WII) – Being added to the virtual console this Friday, according to a list I saw of upcoming releases. Don’t know how accurate it was, but I live in hope. Castlevania IV was shown as coming before the end of the month, too.
BIN
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz (WII) – Yes, the main game is amazing, but the mini-games are appalling. Okay, not all of them. Monkey Wars is a nice tech demo and there’s a fairly fun flying game in there, with you flying a bird through glowing rings. The others I tried ranged from the boring to the broken. A lot of the one that relied on a pointer just didn’t seem to work at all and really should have been removed from the game. I’m sure they were there just so the back of the box could say “50 mini games!” because they’re just awful, terrible, broken things.
Wii (WII) – Some minor complaints. Using IR technology at all is annoying, meaning the remote has to have line-of-sight for pointing games. Not sure what else they could have done, but it’s annoying. Channels take longer to load than I’d like. Waiting for the Mii channel to load is painful, despite only being on a black screen for about five seconds. Very odd that it should be so annoying, but it feels wrong. And my Wiimote turned itself off when the channel was loading once, which was odd. The lack of better video cables at launch is very annoying, as are the supply issues generally. Apart from that, I can’t really think of anything to complain about.
Play, Want, Bin
Dec 4th
A fair amount has been going on this week.
PLAY
Oblivion (360) – I finished the downloadable Knights of the Nine quest. Quite short, rewards weren’t great and it wasn’t in the least bit difficult, but it was good fun and it was lovely to go and visit Cyrodiil again for a while. It’s one gorgeous game when it wants to be, is Oblivion. Pity about some of the voices being so damn quiet.
Guitar Hero (PS2) – Finished off Easy and started on Medium. The blue button kills me. When it comes along I completely forget which button is where and end up hitting red instead of green or yellow instead of red for ten or twenty seconds until I recover. Not good. It really is incredibly good fun, though.
Sonic Rivals (PSP) – A good modern Sonic game! Not a great one and it’s as much a ride as a game in many ways – but it’s a ride that works. Even the two boss fights I’ve seen so far have been okay. Sonic bosses I don’t detest? Something’s gone unexpectedly right here.
Capcom Collection Remixed (PSP) – Got this half-price when I bought Sonic. The inclusion of Strider blinded me to the fact that there are no other games here I really care about. That said, of the three I’ve tried so far, two have been hits. Strider is a classic piece of gaming and still incredibly fun. 1941 was a great surprise, much faster and more interesting than I was expecting. Pity about the controls when you flip the screen, though. The miss was Street Fighter, which is incredibly bad. I wasn’t expecting much, but it’s so much worse than I remember. I just can’t get my head around it at all.
Lumines II (PSP) – It’s very, very good. I got my best ever Lumines score – about 113,500 or so. (I know, I’m rubbish.)
Final Fantasy 3 (DS) – It looks nice. It’s Final Fantasy. It’s rock hard. I think I’m going to places I shouldn’t be going to, because I’m dying a lot. I’ll probably stick with it, if I get time.
Yoshi’s Island DS (DS) – Half-way through the first world and having a lot of fun with this one. I can see it getting tedious if taken too quickly, but I think if I do a level or two here and there it’ll remain fun for a good long time. I’m impressed with Artoon so far.
WANT
A Wii, of course. I’ve cancelled my pre-order for Red Steel and gone for Rayman instead, to add to Zelda and Monkey Ball. With Zelda being the big, sit-down-for-hours game on launch, I’m after quick distractions and controller lessons from my other games. I’m really hoping Gameplay get my Wii to me on Friday.
BIN
PSP Firmware Updates (PSP) – Every single time I put a new game into my PSP it tells me I have to install new firmware to play it. Which requires plugging the PSP into its charger. I’m excited when I get a new game! I just want to play it! Gah!
A Dualshock 2 (PS2) – Decided to play Shadow of the Colossus again. Started up the PS2 and the cursor on the menu was going crazy. Turned off, tried again, same thing. Tried an old original grey Dualshock, no response at all. Loaded up Guitar Hero with the guitar plugged in and everything was fine. Got grumpy. Spent ages looking for another Dualshock 2. Not in the controller bin. Not in the cables bin. Not in the misc bin. Not in the cupboard above the fridge where the old consoles live. Not in the mainly-Nintendo cables drawer in the kitchen. Finally I remembered to look in the wine cupboard by the sink in the kitchen, where I, indeed, found one. Must remember that it’s only the mostly-wine cupboard. Anyway, that controller worked, so I threw away the broken Dualshock 2 and settled down to play…
Shadow of the Colossus (PS2) – Oh dear. I don’t know why, but I really couldn’t get into this. I loaded my saved game and went after the ninth colossus, who kept killing me. In the end, though I knew what to do, I gave up. I just couldn’t avoid his attacks. Decided to start a new game, but couldn’t work out what to do to kill the first colossus, so gave up on the game entirely. Just couldn’t click with it. Odd, as last time I played I loved it.
Sonic The Hedgehog Genesis (GBA) – By rights, the person who decided to release this should face criminal charges. I’d read everything about this online and it was still worse than I expected.
Little Savages 2
Nov 22nd
I just want to record this, the time I was second on the scoreboard.
I doubt I’ll hold the spot for long and then it’s down, down, down…
Gears of War (360)
Nov 17th
Not first impressions, this is second impressions.
The first impressions, you see, weren’t that great. Oh, they were good, very good, but there was no sense that this was a great game, a future classic or a system seller. It looked nice, yes, but the controls felt clunky and the gruff space marine voice-overs, while providing much amusement, made me feel about twenty years too old for the game. First up, as is usual, I played through the tutorial. I died several times in the process, but I did have it set on the “Hardcore” difficulty setting so I don’t feel too bad about that. I then played through a bit more of the early game, taking cover, shooting aliens, dying a lot and wishing the controls let me do what I wanted to do, instead of sending me off in odd directions.
When I turned off the game to make dinner my wife asked me if it was good and I said “yes”. She then asked if it was as good as I’d hoped it would be and I said “no”. I felt satisfied with the game, but disappointed. I’d expected that, though, as my expectations had been stupidly high.
A pause for dinner, then back into the action. It immediately seemed to make more sense. Not just to my brain, but to my hands. I wasn’t rolling instead of taking cover, I wasn’t moving out of cover seemingly at random… or at least, not as often and not randomly. I could quickly do what I needed to do and everything just felt smoother. I guess it was partly down to being more comfortable with the controls, but it was at least partly down to getting into the right mindset for the game, knowing what I wanted to do and how the game would process my inputs.
Take cover. Don’t move out of cover blindly. Don’t aim unless it’s safe. Just keep down. And, for God’s sake, look for flanking opportunities. That’s the most important thing. Flank those bastards.
I was still dying over and over again. But I didn’t mind. This is Halo again, combat evolved, where every fire fight is a set piece and the fun comes from the playing, not the progressing. This isn’t a sight-seeing tour through a virtual world, this is a game. (Which isn’t to say it doesn’t look great – it really does – but the progression isn’t the point, the fighting is the point.)
The greatest moment in the game so far? Crouching down behind a wall in a ruined room in what was once a grand old building as an enemy turret fired just over my head and hearing a piano explode behind me as the bullets meant for me slammed into and through it…
…But that’s a lie. Sorry. That was just the greatest single player moment. I tried multiplayer as well. I jumped into a quick ranked match and chose to be on the side of the locusts. (As is the way of things, they look much, much cooler than the good guys. Less armour, more cloth, great big teeth and terrible skin. I think I want to be one when I grow up.) We started off outside an old house that had seen better days. The kind of spooky, ruined house kids would dare their friends to walk up to and just touch – because entering would be unthinkable, even in daylight.
And it was raining. And somehow, despite being almost devoid of colour, the house, the cloth flapping from my teammates’ waists and the rain all added up to one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen in a videogame.
It was – and I really don’t say this lightly – it was up there with leaving the castle in the Ico demo and walking out into the sunlight.
Then we were off, running towards the house. I followed a teammate, but lost him, found myself alone. Using cover, moving slowly, hearing firefights far off, inside the house. Unintentionally, I’d come up to the enemy from behind. Not sure if I killed anyone that first round, but I helped.
Soon I’d discovered I had a shotgun and I’d learned the layout of the small but perfectly-formed map. Two very important things.
I worked with a teammate to take down a sniper crouching behind an old sofa at the top of some stairs. I didn’t have my headset, so I couldn’t speak, but it’s one of those games where you don’t really need to. You know what needs to be done and you do it, instinctively working together.
The sides were evenly matched in numbers, but not skill, and my team won the match, getting to five wins first. I was the worst player on my team, but not by a lot and I got enough kills and downs to feel pretty pleased with myself.
It was glorious. I want to remember that match for ever.
The second match couldn’t and didn’t live up to it. Firstly, it took me about five minutes to get into another match. Then it was two against four and I was one of the two, which really showed up my weaknesses – the primary one being a weakness to chainsaws being forced into the back of my head. It was still great fun – the one kill I did get felt like a real victory – but it didn’t reach the same heights. It was a first-to-ten wins match and after the first couple of rounds it was obvious how each round was going to go. I did feel some comradeship with my single teammate, though, and by the last couple of rounds we were really working well together. (The map wasn’t as good, either, for the record. Just a square room with spawn points either end and various bits of cover lying around.)
You may have noticed that I’ve not mentioned lag. Simple reason – there wasn’t any that was visible to me in either match. End of story.
After the multiplayer it was back for a bit more single player and then and end to the night’s play.
So, then, that’s Gears of War. On turning off for the night I told my wife that I’d changed my mind: it was as good as I hoped it would be.
And I’ve not even tried campaign co-op yet… or got tired of putting on a silly voice and saying, “Hey, I’m big gruff space marine. Shit.”
