InvertY.com
A Gaming Diary
Elder Scrolls: Oblivion
Apr 1st
Lots of Dark Brotherhood quests today. Much fun and one moment of extreme rubbishness when a quest broke and the game structure fell apart for a few minutes until I managed to pull things back on track.
Also got very distracted for a couple hours trying to kill things. I really am a wimp in outright combat. Sneaking, I’m a good. But my dagger against a minotaur or a goblin shaman… I die. I’m fast enough to run rings around most foes firing off arrows, but they take ages and ages to kill anyone. I really need to find more ingredients for some Damage Health potions I can mix up and poison my arrows with. That helps a lot.
I did try turning the difficulty level down a quarter of the way, but that just felt wrong. I could whip my dagger out, stand toe to toe with a heavily armoured barbarian and take him down without even losing half my health. I shouldn’t be able to do that. That’s not what my character is. I need to be luring enemies into traps of my own devising or using poison or running away. That’s who I am.
Elder Scrolls: Oblivion
Apr 1st
Mainly Dark Brotherhood missions this evening. Good stuff.
Unfortunately I had to kill a guard when I forgot to take off my costume and change back to my civilian identity before wandering into Imperial City. He saw, decided killing me would give a fast track promotion and followed me all the way to my bedroom, so I had to kill him there, meaning I’m left with a naked corpse in a corner of the room. I’ve tried to hide him as much as possible, but I can still see him scrunched up between some crates. Annoying.
I’m having real trouble finding places to sell stuff I find. I used to sell all my weapons at the Smash ‘n’ Slash – the orc there loves me now – but I can only get a maximum of 800G for everything there, which is a bit rubbish when something’s worth 3,000G.
I’ve not turned the difficulty level down yet, but I might at some point. I ran into some ice giant today and my arrows just bounced off him. But I suppose I did choose to be a thief. I’m not meant to be going toe-to-toe with giants. So maybe I shouldn’t complain… except that means there’s a lot of stuff I can’t do. I guess I need to wait for cover of night and sneak past, or lure it away and then run until I lose it and then try to beat it back to where it started if it’s somewhere I need to go…
We’ll see.
Animal Crossing: Wild World
Mar 31st
I’ve been a bit lost this week, as p’anther lost her Animal Crossing cartridge.
It hasn’t been found, but she’s got a new one. No longer is she p’anther in Teacozy. Now she’s now P’anther in Vatican. (Yes, she capitalised her name this time.)
I’ve been helping her get set up this evening and I was pleased to see that one of my old animals that she liked has already moved to her town… wearing deKay’s “I LOVE ANAL” t-shirt design. Tsk. I don’t know why they all love that one so much.
OutRun 2006 Coast 2 Coast
Mar 31st
Got online with the PSP version earlier. Had a lot of waiting for people to finish a long race only to get kicked out before they did, but I did manage to get one race in. It was good fun and I very nearly won, but a crash between my main rival and me right at the end let the guy in third come through for a win. I felt a bit bad because everyone else was using novice cars and I was in my Testarossa, but I’m not sure what the etiquette is there.
And I’ve tried the Xbox version now.
The bad first… The new grainy look doesn’t agree with my LCD TV at all. Xbox stuff generally looks worse than anything else. The original OutRun 2 was an exception, but this new version looks pretty bad. Water Falls suffers most, looking like the singal’s coming from the other side of the English channel via a broken set-top ariel. Or something. Need perfect 360 compatibility now. I might even buy a rip-off slightly-enhanced 360 port, but this isn’t EA we’re dealing with.
Some of the sound’s a bit odd, too, especially the passing car noises.
Okay, that’s the bad. The good is everything else. it handles perfectly, it plays perfectly. On my first run down the SP easy route I beat my best PSP time by about ten seconds, using a less good car. And I’ve managed to unlock the 328 GTS, which is as lovely as it was in OutRun 2. I put it on for a quick five minute check befiore bed and ended up with forty five minutes of drive time under my belt.
OutRun 2006 Coast 2 Coast
Mar 31st
Not only did I play it on the bus this morning, but I also played it at home before I left for work, which is pretty much unheard of.
OutRun 2006 Coast 2 Coast
Mar 30th
ARGH!
So I’ve been playing more of this on the PSP and saving up my miles to buy the 328 GTS, because it was my very favourite car on OutRun 2 on the Xbox.
I finally get enough miles and run off to the showroom, choose the car and… a message pops up saying “Sorry, you must unlock this car on the PS2.”
Fuck’s sake.
Elder Scrolls: Oblivion
Mar 30th
Hooray!
I’ve become a master sneak.
That’s my first skill maxed out.
(I got my agility up to 100 before any buffs earlier, too.)
OutRun 2006 Coast 2 Coast
Mar 30th
Hooray!
On my fourth go and with the office clock clicking closer and closer to one o’clock I finally finished the SP easy route for the first time. Go me!
I now have 10,001 OutRun miles. I need 13,500 to buy the 328 GTS. Would have enough if I’d not bought the F50 earlier.
OutRun 2006 Coast 2 Coast
Mar 30th
Played it on the bus to work.
Yes, I played OutRun 2 on the bus to work.
I love how that sounds.
I played OutRun 2 on the bus to work.
I still can’t quite finish the easiest route on the SP stages, but it’s really starting to feel like it’s my fault, not the controls. Getting used to digital braking and accelerating has been the biggest challenge. I can’t ease off the gas to get round bends anymore and it’s really changed the way I’m having to play the game. Anyone who went all or nothing on the triggers in the Xbox game will probably find it easier to adjust.
But it’s so good. It is OutRun 2 in the palm of my hand. It’s not perfect, but it’s more than a handheld approximation of the real game. It is the real game.
It’s Magical Sound Shower played through a decent all-in-one stereo instead of an expensive separates system with gold-plated double-thick speaker wires. Or something.
Elder Scrolls: Oblivion
Mar 29th
Oh dear.
I was trying to prove that it’s possible to kill people for no reason and get no bounty for doing so. So I snuck into a house in Bravil and slaughtered the woman I found inside eating breakfast.
I then went out and talked to a guard, who didn’t arrest me. And my stats screen showed no bounty. So, the perfect crime.
I wasn’t going to save after this, not being the murdering type. But the game had autosaved when I left the dead woman’s house and my last maunal save was right before the tricky bit of a mission I did a while ago.
So I’m stuck as a murderer. Oh well, I might as well embrace my new calling. There’s a man called Rufio…
