Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

My wife came over to Cheese briefly to add Lyzzy's paintings to her catalogue and talk to the animals. I dug up some more gyroids (which I couldn't physically put in my house, so had to get rid of some furniture) and two more fossils, both of which I already had. Fossils seen a bit thin on (or rather, in) the ground at the moment.

Also sent some letters to some of my animals, to try and be "best friends" with them and get some pictures. Margie the Elephant, who only moved in this morning, has already declared us best friends, so I'm well in there. On the other hand, Pierce is trying to move out. Again. He can go for all I care.

I have another new resident today too - Wolfgang. He looks like Lobo, only keeps going on about make-up, and how we should go watering flowers together. I think he might be gay.

Brain Age (DS)

20! BEST! EVAR!!

Even though Dr. Kahunamatata (or whatever his name is) almost caused me to smash my DS by telling me it was 72, before explaining he'd made a mistake. I hate him.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (360)

After today's playing, I'm very nearly 24 hours into Oblivion. And, I'm still nowhere near properly beginning the game, let alone completing it!

All of today's action took place in Bruma. I've talked to just about everyone, and bumped up my Speechcraft skills by persuding them all. I've opened up (and/or furthered) loads of quests, including one where I now need to get myself arrested, another involving a vampire hunter, and all sorts.

In the Mage's Guild, I was asked to find a mage who had gone missing. I had thought "great - a repeat of the missing mage quest in Chorral", but no - it was quite, quite different. I won't explain it here, for fear of spoiling it for anyone else, but lets just say he's not so much "missing"...

Other things I did today included taking all of the retorts, alembics, and other alchemy kit from the Mage's Guild and selling it (uh, in the shop inside the guild), making loads of potions and selling them, and lots of lurking to boost my Sneak stats.

P.N.03 (GC): COMPLETED!

It seems I had only one level left to do, and it was pretty simple as well. I did think, for a minute, that there was going to be a SuckySuck(TM) bit right near the end, as I had to fight a previous boss. Luckily (for the game, anyway), the boss had an extra final form, and then after that there was the actual end of game boss, different to any of the other bosses I'd met already. And, although I died once on it, it was really quite easy, especially when i used my suit's shield power thing a few times.

And then, game over. And Vanessa danced around in various suits as the credits rolled past.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Spent a good hour or so making just over 200,000 bells by selling fruit this morning, and then immediately spent them all (and about 400,000 more from my savings) on 92 bell each turnips. I bought 6,300 in the end - enough to cover all of the "paved area" in front of both my house, and the one in front of Nook's. Cripes. Lets hope for another 600+ bell sale price later this week, yes?

Aside from all that, I have been online looking for Lyzzy. Found Talisker instead, and had supposedly just missed her there. Didn't bump into her again at all then for the rest of the time I was playing, so no new paintings today (aside from the one I ordered from Nook yesterday that arrived today).

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Visited K.K. Slider to listen to this week's song - K.K. D&B (which I assume is "Drum and Bass" - I'm not that down, dog). After that, I went and sold a load of fruit (around 45,000 bells worth), and shook loads out of trees but havn't collected yet since I didn't really have time as it was getting somewhat late.

Oh yes, and best turnip price today (for Those That Need To Know) was a whopping 376 bells. Not as good as 633 from yesterday, and only for the short while I was playing this morning, but still - not bad.

Oekaki Puzzle Battle (DS)

Completed another four Hard puzzles. That makes 14 of them complete (out of 30), but obviously I still have a stack of Super Hard ones left.

One of those that I completed today was really, really easy - four of the nine "puzzles" were completely filled in!

Brain Age (DS)

Had some real problems with the games today. I couldn't really concentrate and so my times and scores were pretty much all down a bit on yesterday. Luckily, my Brain Age tests were all pretty good, and I ended up with an age of 27!

I'm a bit concerned about the Reading Aloud test though. I have to force myself to read more slowly, as the game keeps saying I'm reading too fast for it to record the speed, but then I get a worse result than I do the previous day.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Went online to try and take Lyzzy the paintings she'd ordered that arrived today, but she wasn't about. Red was, though, so popped over to Tequila to see him. He was also waiting for Lyzzy to swap paintings, so we swapped paintings between ourselves to open up more in our catalogues. I then bought everything in his Nook's, and took his Link Shirt design, which is ACE.

Came back to Cheese then, and found Caroline the Squirrel has moved out! No warning or nothing! Rubbish. I'm actually quite sad.

House of the Dead 4 (Arcade)

I went to Hunstanton today, and in one of the arcades was a House of the Dead 4 cabinet.

I put in a pound. 25 seconds later, I was dead. Hurrah!

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (360)

Spent about 45 minutes just exploring Bruma this evening. Went in most of the shops, and sold some stuff I didn't need (including a somewhat heavy Blades katana, which I'd forgotten I had a spare of). Also built up my Speechcraft skill a bit, and talked to lots of people.

I'm not sure what I fancy doing next. Probably not more of the main quest, though. I might do a bit of exploration of the environs of Bruma. Perhaps. Or just spend a few more hours leaping about like a loon.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

After visits from Lyzzy and Jim, as well as at least one other person who came, took some items and left while I wasn't watching, I finally closed my gates.

I've ordered some paintings for Lyzzy, and she has done the same for me, so I'll need to visit her again at some point after they've arrived. Sold some fruit to make a bit of money, and bought everything in Nook's again, before watering my red turnip and visiting a few animals. New dog Goldie has moved out already, which is fine because I only spoke to her (or him) once.

Zuma (360)

Still can't complete Stage 5. HATRED.

Geometry Wars Evolved (360)

210,000 points on my first attempt today. That beats my previous 190,000-ish one, but still doesn't get me another achievement, nor much of a higher ranking.

Successive scores dropped in turn, ending at around 40,000. How disappointing.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

OH. MY. GOD. In a complete turnaround of every other week I've had this game, my highest turnipage of the week was in fact on a Friday. I can say this with some conviction that it will not be beaten tomorrow, as the price today was 633 bells each!

I was about to pop over and see Red in Tequila, who said he had 599 bells, but checked my Nook before I left, and found the mammoth buying price. Sold all 5400 turnips, making almost 3,500,000 bells. Ace! I now have 7,800,000 in my post office account.

I've left my gates open now for anyone who happens to have turnips to sell...

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (360)

Didn't play all that much today, although my game time is now at 20.5 hours. I took Martin and Jauffre the last bit from Bruma to Cloud Ruler Temple, and then, after joining the Blades (which didn't give me an achievement, sadly) I was allowed access to the Blades armoury. Couldn't carry any of it, so went back to Bruma, sold all my iron and steel armour, and then returned (naked) to Cloud Ruler Temple to tool up. Also raided the food and made a load more potions.

Finally, I went to sleep and gained a level. I'm now Level 4. Yay!

Brain Age (DS)

Still no new games today, and generally, I didn't do so great on those already there. I have been playing for 7 days now, though, so could design my own stamp for the calendar. I made it say "ACE". I'm great, me.

Although my age for today was 35. RUBBISH. The game is clearly broken.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Sold around another 80,000 bells worth of fruit today, meaning the money I spent on turnips on Sunday has almost been made up again with fruit selling, and I haven't sold my turnips yet. And didn't today either - 70 bells was what Nook was offering for them. The git.

Just to teach him a proper lesson, I bought all his stock again. That'll learn him.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (360)

With Sean, uh, Martin found, it was time to head back to Weynon Priory to see Jauffre. Off we set then, on the long, long road back, via Skingrad and past the Imperial City.

The trip took the best part of an hour (real time), and was pretty uneventful. The few things that attacked me were quickly dispatched by Sharpe Martin before I even had a chance to draw my sword. Eventually, I reached Skingrad (where I made a load of sheep follow me for a bit), but didn't stay for long, setting off for Weynon Priory.

As I neared the Priory, the stable boy ran out towards me, saying the place was under attack! Nice timing, eh? Martin and I (well, mainly Martin, actually) set about dispatching the heavily armed foes, who turned out not to be heavily armed at all due to dome kind of spell of alteration they were under. Or something. Some of the monks were dead, but I found Jauffre safe. The Amulet of Kings, however, was gone.

Jauffre said we needed to get Martin to somewhere safe - Cloud Ruler Temple, to the north, near Bruma. He and Martin mounted horses (mine is off near Imperial City somewhere, so I had to walk), and off we set. As we approached Bruma, the sky started to go red... another Oblivion Gate! I ignored it (as it was off the path a bit) and carried on. Soon the sky returned to normal, and the ground became snow-covered do to the altitude we were then traveling at.

Finally, we reached Bruma, and I saved the game for now. For a bit of fun, and since it was 2am in the game, I decided to try and murder everyone in their beds. Sadly, I was caught breaking into a house by a guard, so my career as a serial killer ended before it even started. Pah.

Brain Age (DS)

Today's brain Age: 22! Hurrah!

I also got my first Rocket Speed completion on a task. I didn't think it went past Jet Speed. Obviously it does!

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Another poor showing for turnips today - 87 bells again. Bizarre. Made up for it by selling 120,000 bells worth of fruit, though.

Did all the usual stuff then - talking to animals, cleaning out Nook's, etc.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (360)

Into the Plane of Oblivion! I didn't bother with the gate to Kvatch this time, and instead headed through the Oblivion Gate and into the Plane of Oblivion. There were a few pretty easy-to-kill baddies inside, and a soldier on my side, who tried to run away. I convinced him to stay and help, but he managed to get himself killed fairly quickly anyway. Tch.

There was a huge tower to enter, and more baddies inside - some of which were pretty difficult, especially when they attacked in threes. It was all a bit dark inside too, making it hard to see where I was supposed to go, and the map wasn't much use as the "go here" marker doesn't explain which floor you're supposed to be on.

Luckily, it was quite a short trip to some sort of torture chamber, where there was a guy who told me "your flesh is mine!" before attacking me. After killing him, and taking a key from his body, one of the prisoners told me I had to get to the top of the tower and release the Sigil Stone to close the Oblivion Gate. So off there I headed. I then, however, got a bit stuck, as I had a few baddies to kill but my sword broke. So no sword. And my arraz are not 1337, so using my bow was out of the question too. I ended up using my Bind Gauntlets spell and punched them all in the face. Go me!

Thankfully, I then found a few repair hammers to get my sword back up and running (although my armour was feeling a little, uh, worn too, but there was nothing I could do about that). I finally reached the top of the tower, killed a few more nasties, and grabbed the stone. Everything melted, and I was back outside the Kvatch gates, with the door to Oblivion closed. Hurrah! And 50 more gamerpoints for another achievement!

Went back to the camp outside Kvatch and got my stuff repaired a bit, then returned to the gate to storm Kvatch with some other soldiers, wiping out more daedra, and reaching some survivors hiding in the chapel. One of the survivors being Martin - the Emporer's son. Played by Sean Bean, in fact. ACE.

Brain Age (DS)

No real problems with the puzzles today (although I made three mistakes on an easy suduko entirely by accident). No new puzzles yet though, even though at least two are still there to be unlocked.

My Brain Age for today is... 27! Hurrah!

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Another day, another fruit selling frenzy. Managed about 80,000 bells today, but 10,000 went to Crazy Redd for a hifi and a Calm Painting (which wasn't a fake!), and 35,000 went to Nook as I cleaned him out again. I sell almost everything back, but that doesn't return me much of my initial outlay, sadly.

Caroline the Squirrel was after pink furniture again, but I'd bought a Lovely Loveseat from Nook, so she was pleased with that. I wasn't pleased with her though, when I saw her staring at a tree. I realised it must be an insect that she was looking at, so got out my net, and then she ran away scaring the insect off. Gah!

Oh, and turnips were a rubbish 81 bells today.

Marble Blast Ultra (360): COMPLETED!

Hooray! I went back to this today, determined to complete the two levels on Advanced that I was stuck on ("Schadenfreud" and "King of the Mountain"), and after $hlmun of goes (especially on Schadenfreud), I finally did it. OK, so they both have completion times of 20+ minutes, but still. So that means all the levels are done, and the game is complete! I also got a measly 25 gamerpoints for my trouble.

After that, I went and finished the two remaining non-under-par Intermediate levels in under-par times. Another 25 gamerpoints, ta very much! That makes 270 overall. Which is crap, I know.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Turnips were a disappointing 87 bells today. That seems an awfully common number, doesn't it? I'm sure it has been 87 more often than anything else.

Made about 40,000 bells from fruit, although I didn't get round to harvesting and selling all that was available. I spent most of that money in Nook's buying everything.

The most important event of the day, however, was getting my Fishing Tournament Trophy in the post from Tortimer! I'm Winner!

Brain Age (DS)

No new "events" today, and in the existing ones I did worse in most, but slightly better in the "House Party" and "Low to High" games. Thankfully, then, I managed to get a Brain Age of 30 in the final test - that's better than previously, and not far off what it really should be!

I then did a couple of sudoku puzzles as a sort of mental "warm down". Or something.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Hurrah! A 46.7 inch sea bass (just) put me into the lead in the fishing tournement! And, as the competition closed, I was still winning!

Just as well, as every subsequent fish I caught was actually a tyre. All twelve of them.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (360)

First thing today was to go up to the cave north-west of Skingrad and find the mage who has been missing for some time. Didn't take long to find the cave, but once inside there were loads of zombies! And they were pretty difficult to beat too. Luckily, there weren't too many of them, and so I'd soon found the mage and brought him back to the guild. After a quick sleep (Level 3 now!), and having sold a load of stuff and repaired my weapons and armour (I bought some new armour too), it was time to head west again, towards Kvatch and (hopefully) Martin.

The road was long, and filled with bandits and camps. Nothing too hard to kill, though. I found the Wayshrine of Tibus Septim (or something) along the way too, which has unlocked another Altar of the Nine in the chapels around the world.

Upon approaching Kvatch, I found a guy running away somewhat quickly. At first, I thought he was just being chased by a wolf (which I killed), but in fact he was running from Kvatch itself. When I caught up to him, he explained that the city was in ruins, a gate to Oblivion had been opened, and everyone was dead. Erk.

As I got closer to the city gates, I found a camp full of survivors. They didn't have good news to tell me, and no-one knows where Martin is. I saved the game and headed up the hill to the city. The sky was red with fire, and upon turning a corner, there was the Oblivion Gate. I went past it, and into the city itself, where I was killed by a daedra. Bah.

Brain Age (DS)

I had another new test added to the roster today. You start with a number of people in a house, and then some arrive, and some leave. You can't see how many are inside, so you have to keep track of it yourself. It was pretty simple until they started arriving and leaving at the same time, so I only managed to get 3/5 for it. Also did all the existing tests, scoring slightly higher or slightly lower than yesterday on each.

Then it was time for today's Brain Age, which came out at 35. I've aged a year in a day. Bah.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Turnip day today, and after finding Joan (who kept going missing throughout the morning) I bought 5500 turnips for 110 bells each. This was mostly funded from my savings, but I also sold 150,000 bells of fruit too.

After that, I stripped Nook of all his wares again, and then it hit noon, so the Fishing Tournement began. I caught loads of fish (including a clown fish, which I hadn't previously added to the museum), but none of the ten or so sea bass, nor the three red snappers were big enough to beat Friga's 46.6 inch sea bass, which is currently leading the competition. The biggest I could get was 44.4.

Rosie the Cat came and talked to me today, and said I was her best friend. I'm not really sure why, as I haven't paid special attention to her or anything much (certainly not as much as I did with Tangy, who moved out!), but she gave me a photo of herself anyway.

Blazing Angels (Demo) (360)

Hmm. The last flying game I really enjoyed was on the Acorn, so I wasn't expecting much from this. Thankfully, it was pretty good.

I completed the first two missions, and most of the third (until I crashed into a German bomber by accident), and so far it has been enjoyable. Graphics are reasonable, although there's quite a bit of shearing going on, and draw distance isn't that great either. And buildings, when up close, seem too small and undetailed.

So perhaps they're not reasonable, after all.

Voice acting is pretty good, in a "chocks away!" and "tally-ho!" sort of way, although why they decided to make the main character an American, I have no idea.

Controls are better than most other flight games I've played, with both sticks making it simple to turn, roll, climb and dive, and the "look at target" button nakes it much easier to find enemies than any radar I've seen (although your have to fight your brain over which way to turn sometimes).

I don't think I'll be buying it, but not a terrible game, judging from what I've played.

Brain Age (DS)

My Brain Age today is 34. Hurrah! That's somewhat better than 78, don't you think?

Today's test involved two new "events" - one counting the number of numbers of a certain colour, or ones moving in a certain way, or of a certain value, in a group of numbers, and the other drawing lines from circles containing letters and numbers, in the order A-1-B-2-C-3, etc.

Amped 3 (Demo) (360)

I've never really got on with snowboarding games, which is odd, as I really like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. I think the main problem is the you-can't-go-back thing resulting from hurtling down the hill. Amped 3 is the first in its series that I've played, and it's a bit, well, odd. In some ways, it's like SSX, but without the silly wind-up to trick control, and in other ways it's just completely unreal and off the wall with it's character bizarreness.

So I played it for a bit. And, I'm disappointed again. Another 360 demo that doesn't offer anything the Xbox (or, in this case the Dreamcast even) couldn't do. The only fancy thing it does is on the "level select" screen, where you can zoom in on the 3D map of the mountain and actually see individual trees and jumps and rails and stuff.

Overall, it plays well, but isn't my thing.

Zuma (360)

Gah. I'm not as good at this as I thought I was. Although a lot of it is down to random factors and luck, I think.

I'm still on Stage 5, although I did manage to get up to 5-6 (the last one before Stage 6, I think), and even down to just three balls left, but no further. Rubbish.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Another 100,000 bells in the bank thanks to fruit sellage today. That makes 4,800,000 bells in there in total. It could have been a lot more by now, but I've been buying everything in Nook's almost every day for the last few weeks, and I had a couple of bad turnip weeks where I didn't make much of a profit.

I wonder if you get anything from the Post Office for 5 million bells?

Goldie the Dog (no, not the one from Blue Peter - I'm pretty sure he's dead), from "Vatican" moved in to Cheese today. Found him/her when wandering round talking to the residents. Pierce is keen to move out too, but I don't really care if he does or not so didn't really make much of an effort at trying to convince him to stay.

Although I've sold all my turnips, I thought I'd check prices. Before noon they were 264 bells each, and afterwards, just 69. So Saturday was my "best price" day this week, with Thursday and Friday being the two worst.

Brain Age (DS)

I've completed a few more sudoku puzzles now, all of the training on Easy and Intermediate, and five easy and one intermediate puzzles.

I went through the training this morning again too (well, you are supposed to do it every day, after all). Another training type was added too - count the syllables. I'm doing quite well, but the game keeps recognising my 8s as 6s, meaning I keep getting things marked as wrong when they're not.

Forgot to actually test my brain age though.

Brain Age (DS)

This came today, so it was rude not to have a go.

First of all, you have to do a few preliminary tests to give an initial estimate of you "brain age". It suggested mine had an age of 78. When 20 is good, and higher is bad. Oops.

Went ahead and played the training properly, then. There were quick-fire arithmatic questions, a Stroop Test (say the colour of a word, when the word is a colour), and some reading aloud. It charts your scores too.

Also had a go at the sudoku training puzzles, and then the first of the easier "full" puzzles, which took me about 9 1/2 minutes to complete.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Received a letter from Tangy today. She's moved out. After I was so nice to her every day for a couple of weeks. Well, sod her. I hope she gets hit by a bus.

With just today and tomorrow left to flog my turnips for a profit, I was a little concerned that I was (once again) running out of time. Even more so when Nook's best price for the day was 54 bells each, second lowest ever, I think. My highest price this week has been just 87 bells so far then.

Thank god for Lyzzy (again) then! She posted on ugvh that turnips in scotton were being bought for a whopping 568 bells each. With 5500 turnips, that'd net me over 3 million bells (over 2.5 million of which would be profit)! Over I went. It took four trips to carry the lot, and I gave my skull hat to other visitor Myrtle while I was there as she liked it. Also left 150,000 bells for Lyzzy as a thank you.

Sold a bit of fruit in Cheese when I got back, and watered my red turnip. Spoke to a couple of animals, but didn't do much else.

Oekaki Puzzle Battle (DS)

Finished another two Hard puzzles this evening. By my reckoning, I've completed about 70% of the actual puzzles, but only around 15% of the game (due to the increasing size of Hard and Super Hard puzzles). That's somewhat daunting, yes?

Geometry Wars Evolved (360)

Also rubbish was my set of scores on this today. First couple of goes were up around the 175,000 mark (not good, but not far off my current best of 192,000). Sadly, each successive game had a lower and lower score. After about 8 tries, I was getting under 50,000. So gave up. My eyes have gone screwy anyway.

Zuma (360)

Worked through Adventure mode a bit more, reaching level 5-5 before losing my last life. At least all of level 4 is done now, I suppose.

Played Gauntlet mode then, scoring really poorly. So poorly, in fact, I'm at the bottom of my friend's list leaderboard for it. Rubbish.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Once again, despite Tim Miller's insistance that the best turnip prices of the week are on Thursday and Friday, I get a lousy 64 bells each offered to me today by Nook. Obviously, I didn't bother.

I did, however, make just over 100,000 more bells selling fruit. Also found four gyroids, and put them in my house. They're great for boosting HRA points, apparently. I also caught a fly, which wasn't buzzing round near the rubbish I left out, but that doesn't matter.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (360)

Sold up almost everything I could find of worth in the Mage's Guild. They're clearly not as rich as the one in Chorral though - no silver plates and stuff. They're even less rich now...

I decided to meet up with Glarthir, the guy who asked me to meet him behind the chapel at midnight. He said he was being watched, and asked me to follow some woman and find out what she was up to, and why she was watching him. So I did, for an entire game day. She went out to the vineyards, hoe'd a bit (during which time I boosted my Illusion skill by Commanding some sheep with a spell), ate lunch, went to her back yard, hoe'd some more, then went home. Great.

Glarthir was surprised by this, but gave me 150 gold anyway. He's now asked me to watch some bloke next time.

Aside from all that, I make loads of potions today, raised my Acrobatics, Athletics and Sneak stats a bit, and spoke to someone about a Nirmroot I found. He wants me to collect 10 of them to make teh ultimart powar potion. Or something.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

The best turnip price Nook would give me today was 87 bells, and in my wife's town, 137. No turnip sellage for me then.

I did, however, finally bump into Wendell. I've been saving up (grown) red turnips to give to him, and when I did, he gave me a turban. I was hoping I could give him another one, but no.

Sold around 35,000 bells worth of fruit too, and talked to a few animals. Forgot to buy everything from Nooks though, purchasing only a Modern Bed for my Modern Room.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (360)

I thought I'd reached Kvatch for a minute, until I realised I'd actually reached Skingrad. Tch.

Spent a while exploring it, and meeting a resident who was keep for me to "meet with him" behind the chapel. One of the guards immediately warned me off him.

Found both Mage's and Fighter's guilds, and set about taking stuff of any value ready to sell at a shop, as soon as I find one. I also took a room and a bed in an inn, where I decided to sleep for the first time in the game. Imagine my surprise when this prompted me to level up! I'm now Level 2! I had the chance of upgrading some stats, so chose strength as one of them, so I can carry a bit more stuff.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (360)

I'm now almost 12 hours in, and, yes, I've don't nothing.

Technically, that isn't actually completely true. There's a lot of stuff I have done, just most of it isn't relevant to the main quest. Take today, for instance. I set off from the inn just west of Imperial City, and headed across the water towards the city, and dumped my horse off at the stables there. I want to walk most places to bump up my stats, you see. Then I turned round, and went back to the inn, and then headed west-ish towards Kvatch.

On the way, I found and killed some wolves and crabs, found a Waypoint (which I think has activated something in all the temples around the place), harvested loads of mushrooms, plants, lilies and other stuff, found another set of ruins (guarded by some sort-of goblins that shoot fire), found a mage who seemed to have killed a traveler (so I killed him), cut down some flying imps, and concocted loads of potions.

And I still haven't made it even half-way to Kvatch...

Oekaki Puzzle Battle (DS)

Just one more puzzle this afternoon. It's a bit of a slow-going thing now all the Easy and Normal levels are finished. Completed a Hard (3x3) puzzle, which turned out to be a pteradactyl.

Of course.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Sold another 80,000 bells worth of fruit today, which is pretty good going considering the amount I sold yesterday. There's none left on the trees now (aside from oranges (which are native so only net me 100 bells each) and a few coconuts.

Caroline has (finally) decided to stay in Cheese. Hurrah! She was badgering me for pink furniture today too, so I gave her a Lovely Bed that I'd bought from Nook when doing my daily "buy everything" run. She was very impressed.

I forgot to mention yesterday that I met Dr. Shrink again for the first time in ages last night. He gave me another "emotion" to use - "happiness". Basically, I whistle.

Oekaki Puzzle Battle (DS)

Just one more puzzle completed today - a Super Hard one (which turned out to be a bunch of flowers). It was actually pretty difficult too - lots of patterns like "3-1-1-1" and "2-1-1" which, when both horizontal and vertical, make it hard to figure out.

That's another 16 "squares" off the total, though.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Back on the lookout for decent turnip prices today, but was disappointed to find that 84 bells was the best Nook was going to offer me.

Made up for it a little by selling 150,000 bells-worth of fruit (and there's still quite a lot left on the trees). Planted a couple of sacks of 10,000 bells too, and they've sprouted.

Caroline the Squirrel is still in Cheese, but she threatened to leave again today. I think I may have convinced her to stay as she seemed quite upset about leaving me when I told her I didn't want her to go. Friga has decided to stay - for a while, at least.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (360)

After a couple more hours play today, I'm now about ten and a half hours in. And still, I have don't almost nothing (so far as the main quest is concerned, anyway). I'm still Level 1, and I still haven't progressed past the talk-to-Jauffre main quest waypoint.

What I did do, however, is trudge up the mountain north of Chorral, and find a book about fingers and mountains or something. I had a choice of either giving it to the strange woman in green (which seemed bad) or passing it on to the head of the Chorral Mage's Guild (which didn't seem all that much better, actually). I did the latter, and the woman in green was not happy - especially when I turned down her suggestion I go and nick it for her.

Whilst still in Chorral, I cleaned out the Mage's and Fighter's guilds of all items of worth, and sold them. Also found loads of food (stealing some of it from a house when no-one was around), and make loads of potions. My alchemy skillz are improving all the time as a result.

Trained up a couple of times today too - firstly with the lizard woman in one of the shops, which boosted my Mercantile skill, and secondly with one of the mages to increase my Conjuration skill. Bought a couple of spells too.

After all that, I decided it was time to (finally) head for Kvatch. I left, on the borrowed horse, and headed mainly back to Imperial City. On the way, I stopped off at the farm where I slayed the goblins (the bodies were still there!) and nicked all the crops, made more potions, and carried on. Reached a fort that I'd previously ignored, and explored that for a bit. It was all above-ground, and all the goblins there were already dead, but I did find a few lockpicks, items of food, and several gemstones.

Just before reaching the small town just west of Imperial City, I found another ruined fort, and went inside. A load of marauders were fighting lizard people, so I joined in and helped. Then they all turned on me! Had to kill them all.

Finally, made it to the town, and stopped off at the inn. The innkeeper gave me a sub-quest to do - find 6 bottles of rare wine hidden in forts across the entire world. I don't think I'll be doing that, somehow. Saved my game then.

Oekaki Puzzle Battle (DS)

Worked my way through even more puzzles this evening. I've now completed all of Normal, as well as 4 on Hard and one on Super Hard. Not that the difficulty has anything to do with the actual difficulty, of course - it's just how long it takes to finish it, that's all.

Still about 700 "squares" to go, though.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Went over to my wife's town and gave her some more fruit, as well as some money to buy any paintings she might have that I don't. After that, she came over to my town and we had a quick fishing competition, which I lost.

Did catch loads of other fish later though, including a Zebra Turkey Fish (which are possibly made from Quorn Turkey Ham), which I donated to the museum. Caroline the Squirrel is trying to move out now. Rubbish. Sent her loads of letters begging her to stay.

Speaking of letters - my requests for "bonsai" from Friga resulted in a letter from her containing a Holly Bonsai. Hurrah!

Then Skidz turned up over WTC. I warned him not to nick any of my turnips (they won't fit in my house, so they're all over the floor at the moment). I let him have a pick through loads of wallpaper and flooring that I don't need, and said he can help himself to oranges. He left after about 20 minutes or so.

I've left a boot outside too, in the hope it'll attract a fly.

Oekaki Puzzle Battle (DS)

I've now completed all of the Easy Mode levels, have done about three on Normal, and four on Hard. Of course, that still barely makes a dent into the grand scheme of things, but at least it's progress. Almost.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

I bought 5500 turnips this morning from Joan. They were 104 bells each, which means I spent, er, lots on them.

I'd better get a decent price for them this week, or I'll actually cry. Real actual tears too.

Fire Emblem (GBA)

Finally! I made it back to Fire Emblem for long enough to progress the story a little!

I've now played, and completed, the surprisingly simple Chapter 19. Strangely, at the beginning of the fight, one of my characters says "This looks like the final battle!", when of course, it isn't. And there I was thinking I was about to complete another game.

In the course of the battle, Lucius the Monk powered up to become Lucius the Bishop. Which basically means he has attack and heal magic now. Or at least he would, if it wasn't for the fact I used all his Lightning power up, and don't have any more. Tch.

I also seemed to miss doing something with a thief called Legault (or something similar). He was on the baddie's side, but nicked everything from a load of chests and disappeared before I got near him. I suspect I've missed out on either gaining him as a character, or side-stepped a side-quest. Or something. I'm not really bothered though.

Oekaki Puzzle Battle (DS)

Notice I called it "Puzzle" and not "Logic". I realised the kana read "puzzle" (literally), and so the website I bought the game from was wrong. Anyway.

I've not completed all bar four of the Easy Mode puzzles, of which there are 30. Of course, each Normal Mode puzzle is made up of a grid of 2x2 "easy" puzzles, Hard is 3x3, and Super Hard is 4x4. That means that, in total, there are essentially 900 puzzles to complete. And I've done 26.

When you look at it like that, I've barely begun...

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Had a bit of a mammoth fruit-selling session, making about 150,000 bells in total. This is because Joan will be about tomorrow morning selling turnips (I hope, anyway).

Friga didn't move out, which is good. I'm trying to be friends with her so she gives me a picture of herself. Sent letters to lots of my animals to get them to like me more too. I used the word "bonsai" lots in letters to Friga in the hope she'll send me one of the many bonsai she has in her house.

Also popped in to listen to K.K. Slider, who played "Only Me" for me. Had a coffee from Brewster too, who asked if I wanted pigeon milk in it. Eww.

FIFA Soccer 06 (DS)

I gave this quite a bit of play today. So much so, in fact, that I've now finished the whole of the first season of Career Mode, without losing a single match (of which there were about 50), coming top of the Championship, winning the England Cup, and the Community Shield (or Cup or Trophy, or whatever). Disappointingly, the Cup Final was (unrealistically) against Yeovil. Tch. I was expecting Liverpool or Arsenal or something.

I'm now in the Premiership. I played two games (Wigan and Birmingham), and beat them both by at least 4 goals. That puts me at the top of the league already.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Mostly just sold fruit and cleaned Nook out again today. The latter has finally gained my Silver Member Status in his shop, getting me a whopping 5% off everything. Great. That'll make getting Gold status a little harder.

Friga is trying to move out again too. I talked to her and sent her presents, so hopefully she'll stay.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (360)

This game is amazing. No, really. The sheer epicness of the thing is so impressive, and I feel somewhat lost. I've still done virtually nothing, even though I'm now coming up to 8 hours in - that's longer than many games are in total.

I went on a bit of a selling spree today, once I'd returned the sons to Chorral, and then went taking food from barrels and such, making potions to try and boost my alchemy skills. I saw another piece of alchemy kit in the Countess' rooms, so nicked it, only to find that there was a Mage's Guild in Chorrel, and, upon joining (unlocking another 10 gamerpoints and an ahievement in the process), I could have had as many as I wanted for free. I hope no-one notices it was me. I feel a bit guilty about it, actually.

Once in the Mage's Guild, I took all the equipment for alchemy I could find, and made tons of potions with the food I found upstairs. I reached Alchemy Level 25, taking me from Novice to Apprentice, and opening up the range of potions I can create.

I've also started another sub-quest, involving a book about Fingering a Mountain (or something) and a strange woman in green who doesn't like talking to me, and who hates the leader of the Mage's Guild. Ace.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Didn't play for all that long this evening, just for long enough to clean Nook out again, order some painting from him (for my wife), sell some fruit, and try to convince Friga (again) that she should stay. Walker has gone now too. Bah.

I did have a new animal move in, however - Lobo, who I have stolen from Bangaio. He's rubbish.

Briefly visited Rev in Venture, but my battery started to run out instantly, so I bought everything in Nook's in his town, and left.