Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Hurrah! Jim in Beanton was online this evening, and so I managed eight trips over to his town to sell my turnips for 460 bells each. ACES!

Just as well, too, as my Nook offered me just 117 for them. I swear he hates me. One of these days he's going to wake up with the severed heads of Timmy and Tommy beside him...

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

You may have noticed I've not really played much in the way of games in the last few days. That's because my PC's hard drive has some bad sectors and I've been making sure everything is backed up before I take the plunge with a new hard drive and reinstall everything.

Anyway. Turnips were 122 bells today, which was (quite frankly) obscene, so I didn't sell. Gave Margie yet another shirt, but still don't have an aurura knit for Nan. No skull shirt yet either, but I've completely forgotten who it was who wanted one now, and I haven't been asked for one again.

Popped over to see Red briefly, who had turnip prices at about 192 bells, but didn't sell there either. He also insisted I saw his shark. Nice.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (360)

After a bit of a hunt, I found the other spy (there was a load of caverns under the other spy's house, but I had to wait for a specific time of day for him to appear) and killed him until he be dead.

After that, I went back to see Sean Bean and he sent me of on another quest - to find a daedric artifact. Before starting off on that, however, I went back to my house in Bravil and dumped a load of stuff there. Also made a few potions (although nothing very exciting), and organised my inventory.

Oh, and then I went and killed all the Bravil guards. As you do. They loved it.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Still no decent turnip price in Cheese this week, with Nook offering me 72 bells today. I don't know why I bother - it is hardly ever worth selling them "at home".

Bunnie has decided to stay, it seems, as she was unpacked again today. Oh well. Jay is still ill. That's over a week now. Maybe he'll die? Or she. It is hard to tell with some of the animals. I mean, Margie turned out to be a boy, and clearly-male Robin is a girl!

Animals were after clothes I didn't have again. I've ordered Margie a blue grid shirt, but I still haven't seen an aurora knit or a skull shirt.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Rubbish bellage offers again today, with Nook suggesting 84 bells per turnip is a good price. My heart shirt arrived, so I gave that to Margie, and made a half-hearted attempt to convince Bunnie to stay in Cheese.

Also found four fossils, and sold them. I have all the fossils in the museum now, so they're only worth collecting for the bells. Crazy Redd was about, but had nothing in stock that I wanted. Didn't do much else, aside from talk to the animals.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (360)

Played "properly" today, rather than kill everyone in sight. I loaded a pre-slaughter save, you see.

So, first task was to visit the woman in the Mystic Archives again, and she told me to come back later. I decided to wait around, and Amusei found me and told me I needed to see the Grey Fox in Cheydenhal. Off I went, and started the next Thieves Guild quest - to find the boots of Springheel Jak. Except he's dead, and was buried in them.

His tomb was under a house in the Imperial City, and was guarded by a load of vampires who kept infecting me with vampirism, so many reloaded were required. Once I got the boots, [spoiler] happened, and then I returned to the Grey Fox.

By now the Mystic Archives woman could offer me more information on where to find the Mystic Dawn, but I'd already figured out the "puzzle" by myself. Soon found the location of their cave, and off in I went. Slaughtered everyone inside (my sword of Shock helping somewhat!) and nicked a book that took to Sean B...uh, Martin in Cloud Ruler Temple. I was then told there were spies in Bruma. Found one, and killed her, and now have information on where a second one is...

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Didn't play for too long tonight, just long enough to check turnip prices (just 74 bells) and to visit a load of my animals. Didn't have any clothes to give them (again), but did order a heart shirt for Margie. Bunnie wants to move out too, it seems. She can go, I suppose. I have her picture now!

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (360)

The first thing I did today, was go to Anvil's castle to see the smithy and sell the few stolen items I had. I bought some cheap, crap, light armour from him, and then went outside and repeatedly summoned a demon, had it attack me, and then repaired the damage. The reason? To boost my armory skills. I'm now a Journeyman, which lets me repair enchanted items - just as well, as all my armour and some of my weapons are enchanted.

I then decided it was about time I did the next part of the main quest. It has been some 45 hours play since I last did anything on it. I had to find four volumes of a book on daedra worship (or something). Books one and two were easy enough to come across, and three was obtained from daedric cult member who I "turned" to the light. The fourth, however, required delving into the sewers of the Imperial City, meeting someone else from the cult, and killing him. Book get!

After popping back to see the librarian at the Arcane University regarding the books, I then decided to enchant my sword (seeing as I can now repair it!). I can now inflict 18 points of Shock Damage with each blow (in addition to the strike), and make the recipient susceptible to Shock by 25% for 8 seconds, which is enough time to get another strike in for MASSIVE DAMAGE.

In order to test this, I saved my game, and went into the university grounds. And slaughtered EVERYONE - mages, apprentices, battlemages, everyone. All dead. Best. Sword. Ever. Hilariously, I was booted out of the Mage's Guild (the organisation, not the building) for killing a mage, and so couldn't open any doors in the university due to them taking my key. Which meant I couldn't leave. ACES.

The Outfit (Demo) (360)

RUBBISH.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Today, I spent 1,100,000 bells on turnips, which cost 108 bells each. I have left them on almost every space of "hard" ground in Cheese, aside from where Crazy Redd pitches his tent. Turnipariffic!

It was also thunder and lightninging today, so I went fishing. I was hoping to get something good, like a shark or something, but no - instead, I got a pirhana, and loads of fish I already had. Rubbish.

Noodle Miner (Web)

Yes, it's an advert for Pot Noodle, but it passed the time for five minutes: Noodle Miner

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Hmm. Kody has moved out (with no warning whatsoever), Lobo has moved back in from my wife's town (although he's moaning that I haven't seen him in six weeks, even though it's his bloody fault), and I got letters from animals from all over the place. ACE.

Still no sign of the knit that Nan wants. In fact, no sign of Nan either. Her house is there, and she's "out for a walk", but I can't bloody find her anywhere.

Visited K.K. Slider, and he played me K.K. Marathon, which was completely pants.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (360)

Another half an hour of searching later, and I finally found one of the tears. The thing about the tears, you see, is they're pale blue and the size of a pea. The thing about the floor of Frostfire Glade, is it's pale blue. So basically, you can't see them unless you walk around randomly, looking at the floor the whole time. After finding the first, I managed to find the other four within about 20 minutes or so.

After that, I went back to Leyawiin to see the mage who wanted the tears, then went to Bravil to drop more stuff off in my house. From there, I town-hopped looking for someone to train me in Armory (as I have loads of enchanted items now, and I can't repair those myself until I'm a Journeyman of Armory). When I found someone (in Chorral), I found I'd already been trained to my maximum for the level I was on, so went and slept in a bed in the Mage's Guild taking me to Level 12. I boosted the same three stats as always. Did 5 lots of training, and then set off to find a cave south of Chorral to further another quest involving the twins at Weatherleah.

Basically, a Dark Elf had told me their father was a thief and had stolen a sword from the Count of Chorral. That in turn had been stolen by ogres at Weatherleah, and was now hidden in a cave. Found the cave, killed the ogres, and returned to Chorral. Didn't give the sword to the elf, though - instead (as it was hinted to do so), I took it to the castle, and gave it to someone there. They were very relieved to have it back, and gave me a powerful enchanted shield in return. ACEBEST!

Went back to my house in Bravil again, and dumped some stuff - unneeded ingredients, my alchemy stuff (I don't need to use them "on the road"), some old armour and my old shield. I'm much lighter now!

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (360)

Started off with a few "housekeeping" tasks - emptying my pockets and putting stuff in my house. I then went round a few towns trying to find somewhere that'll buy a bit of jewellry that I have, but since it's worth 6,000 gold, and no-one will offer me more than 1,200, I gave up.

Decided then to do the Frostfire Glade quest, which involved walking to a cave north og the Imperial City, wandering through it, and then finding an area all frozen. I had some phials of frost protection, which was just as well as the frost slowly kills you otherwise. There was a bit ice guardian bloke to kill too, but with the 100% frost protection I had, his attacks did minimal damage. With him dead, I then stumbled across two people fighting, frozen in ice. I have to find some of "Garridan's Tears", which are crystals or something. I spent an hour looking for them and can't find them anywhere. Bah.

Burnout Revenge (Demo) (360)

Uh, it's just like Burnout Takedown on the Xbox, isn't it? Well, the demo is at least. Yeah, so it looks a bit prettier, but it's still in speedyfastblur-o-vision. I played the demo twice, and the level you play seems to have a few bits where the road branches a little (more so than just either-side-of-a-barrier like in older Burnout games), and the idea is to keep extending your time by causing takedowns. It was fun and everything, but I'm not sure it's that much of an improvement over Takedown. Or Burnout 3, in fact.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Salvation! ar106 in on-sea (yes, I know that's a stupid name :P) posted in the ugvh newsgroup that he had turnips being bought for 560 bells. So I popped over, and in five trips made around 5.5 million bells. ACE!

Gave ar106 200,000 bells for his time, as well as about 30 lots of fruit. Also met Bruce, Lyzzy and Red there, as they were flogging turnips too.

When I came home, I then popped out to visit my wife's town, gave her some paintings and some money, and said hello to some of her animals.

Brain Age (DS)

Completed two more sudoku puzzles today, without making any mistakes on either. Both were Basic puzzles though. My times were both in the region of 10 minutes, which isn't too bad, I suppose.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Yet again I'm left at the end of the week with a big pile of turnips to sell and Nook offering a laughably low price for them - 67 bells each today. Stupid racoon.

Didn't sell. I can't do much worse than that. Instead, I talked to my animals, handed out more furniture and clothing (although I still don't have a skull shirt or the knit thing Nan wants), and bumped into Wendell. I gave him another red turnip, and he gave me another turban.

Brain Age (DS)

Yes, I'm playing again, but I'm no longer doing the daily training. Notice I didn't play yesterday at all.

Anyway, I just did one (intermediate) sudoku today. And it took me 35 minutes. To add insult to that, I made two mistakes, making the overall time 75 minutes. Bah.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Still no show for the furniture and clothes that my animals keep begging me for - the arura knit for Nan, and the skull shirt for Kody, in particular. Nook was being stingy with 111 bells for turnips too, which although better than my buying price, is nowhere near what I'm prepared to sell for.

Found a few gyroids (which I had to sell due to house fillage), and some fossils too, as well as do the daily animal chatting.

Condemned (Demo) (360)

It's dark and it's scary and it's by Sega. The first two don't really go with the third one, do they? It's pretty impressive, with all the lighting effects and stuff, but the evidence collections seems a little shallow and the police going "oh, we'll just be popping out of this fire escape, be a good chap and wander round in the dark, will you?" was a bit of a crap plot device, but overall it was good. It reminds me a lot of Manhunt, actually, which isn't a great thing. I won't be buying it as it isn't my sort of thing (I don't like games this dark and "gritty"), but I can see it plays well and stuff.

Buzz!: The Music Quiz (PS2)

And we also played this straight afterwards. Didn't do especially well on this game either, as I kept being absolutely certain that certain songs were things that they were not. However, I won (again), but didn't make the leaderboard for the first time in all 16 played games. Rubbish.

Buzz!: The Big Quiz (PS2)

Played one full game this eveing with my wife, and we both did pretty poorly. I won though, but did especially badly on the first round. Clearly my general knowledge skillz are not as 1337 as my music ones...

Geometry Wars Evolved (360)

440,000! Yeah, I know it's still low in the grand scheme of things, but I'm now beating some two-thirds of the people on my friend's list. Which is all that really matters.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Didn't spent long playing this tonight, just enough to slap Nook for not offering more than 82 bells for my turnips, and bought some more medicine for Jay who is still ill. Animals are after items I don't have yet too, so that is annoying, and a crocodile called Alfonzo has moved in. He looks rubbish.

Perfect Dark Zero (Demo) (360)

Awful. Really, really poor. Almost every single FPS I've played since Goldeneye is better. Rubbish.

Hitman: Blood Money (Demo) (360)

There are plenty of new-ish demos available to download on Xbox Live at the moment, and Hitman: Blood Money was the first I downloaded. I loved the first Hitman game on the PC, and have the second one for the Gamecube but never really got on with it. I wasn't sure what to make of this, as a result.

Good: Uh. Lots of nice ways to kill people.
Bad: You might as well just shoot everyone, as the AI is so crap that killing some guy with a sub-machinegun doesn't alert his mate stood next to him to your presence.

Good: You can shoot seagulls.
Bad: Which is more fun than the overly hand-holdy mission.

Good: Graphics are functional.
Bad: But that's it. Looks just like the GC game.

Good: I don't know. It's a free demo?
Bad: The full game costs money.

Brain Age (DS)

I'm considering retiring from Brain Age now. I've done more than two months and have getting an Age of 20 down pat. I got another one today.

Of course, I'll still be doing the sudoku puzzles (maybe one of them a day instead of the training). We'll see...

Zuma (360)

Haven't played this in aaaaaaaaaages. I have, however, improved it seems. On my first go I managed to progress from 5-1 to 6-3, whereas I was previously not capable of passing 5-6. Excellence.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Seeing as it was raining in Cheese, I thought I'd take the opportunity to go fishing. I haven't in a while, and was hoping to catch a shark or something. But no. The gods conspired against me and gave me nothing but squid and clown fish. Rubbish.

Jay is sick. I have him/her some medicine, but it can die for all I care. Margie still won't give me her picture, even though I've now given her NINE bits of furniture for her house, and Nan is still after some sort of knit that I don't have access to.

Redd was about today, but I already had the opulent painting he was selling. Did buy a plant from him, however, that I didn't think I had in my catalogue. Nook got a slap because he wanted to give me 80 bells for my turnips.

Top Spin 2 (Demo) (360)

After taking about fifty million billion years to download, I finally got to play this. It's pretty good too, although I have no idea what the bar next to the player's name with the buttons on does. You don't seem to have a lot of control over where you hit the ball to, which is a pain when there's an open bit of court and you want to whack it there so your opponent can't get to it in time. The game seems to decide for itself. Oh well.

The camera seems to be a bit too low as well, which makes controlling the back player a bit harder than it really needs to be. For a tennis game, though, it is still quite enjoyable. It's no Virtua Tennis, however.

Metroid Prime Hunters (DS)

So now I'm on some sort of lava world. What's the betting there's also an ice world to contend with later, eh?

Anyway. I've gone through a few rooms, found a few artifacts, killed another hunter (some yellow bloke who has spikes when in ball form), navigated a morph ball maze, and then killed a load of baddie-generating thingies, and finally warped back to my ship to save. Getting used to the controls now, but still not quite there...

Brain Age (DS)

Today marks the end of the first two months of daily play on this game. Over that time, I really feel I've improved my brain - especially with mental arithmetic.

To celebrate, after completing some of the tests, I managed yet another Brain Age of 20. ACES.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

My stupid animals. They keep asking for clothes that I don't have, and then I order them from my catalogue, but when they arrive the animal in question never asks for them again. Or worse, they ask for something else entirely, which (again) I don't have. Bah. Now they're asking for clothes I don't even have in my catalogue. HATE THEM ALL.

Hate props also go out to Nook, who offered me just 70 bells for my turnips.

Geometry Wars Evolved (360)

391,000!!!!!! ACES.

And then the rest of my attempts were crap. I lost a life at 1,200 points on one of them. RUBBISH.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

This afternoon it was the "Bug-Off" competition. I had, of course, missed it, but due to the Power of Time Changing on my DS, I set the clock to 4pm and took part anyway.

I shouldn't have bothered. Robin got a peacock butterfly with a length of 107mm, which I matched with a tiger butterfly, but that didn't beat him. No other long insects were forthcoming. Bah.

All my animals wanted to give me or sell me stuff too. Got loads of wall decorations, floorings, and a picture of Bunnie (from, er, Bunnie). Hurrah!

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (360)

Another extensive play session today, as shown by my game save's time of over 64 hours. Again, I did far too much to go into everything, but I managed to gain three ranks in the Mage's Guild (I'm now a Conjurer), and another rank in the Thieves' Guild.

The Thieves' Guild task was pretty simple, involving taking a secret passage from Bravil Castle to a tower, to obtain a special arrowhead for the Grey Fox. The passage was partly flooded with water, and had plenty of conjurers and fiery baddies in it. Got to the mage I was supposed to nick the stuff from, and killed him (the Grey Fox had given me special permission). Sadly, this conflicted with the rules of the Mage's Guild, of which he was a member. Reloaded an earlier save, and sneaked past him instead, using invisibility, and took what I needed from his chest instead.

One of the Mage's Guild quests was a little strange - I had to find some underground ruins, solve a puzzle on a pillar, fight a load of ghosts, and get an artifact. I'm now about to set off and find out more about the bloke from Cheydenhal Mage's Guild who was practising necromancy...

Oh yes, and I bought the haunted house in Anvil. I haven't figured out what I'm supposed to do with it yet, though, but I've found a mystic seal in the basement.

Big Brain Academy (DS)

Just the test again today, and again my (usually most proficiant) skills in Calculate were somewhat depleted again, with it being the weak link in the overall score. I got 1350g (or thereabouts) which was good, but not as good as yesterday!

Brain Age (DS)

Did quite a bit better in my tests today, compared to yesterday, but still not up to my usual level (except in the Calculations ones - did quite well there). Again, my Brain Age was yet another 20. That makes 20 days of consecutive 20s. I'm only a few days off two months worth of daily training too!

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Turnip day once again today, and I bought 860,000 bells-ish worth of them for 102 bells each. Again, I filled the space outside my house, Nook's, the museum, and had to drop some outside the town hall.

Aside from that, I gave out more shirts to animals that wanted them, and spoke to most of the residents of Cheese. Bought a couple of items from the shop that I hadn't seen before, just to add to my catalogue, and caught a red and blue butterfly as well.

Big Brain Academy (DS)

Only did the Test on this today, and since I haven't done it in a few days, I was worried I might mess it up.

I didn't, though, and got a weight of 1513g - my highest so far! That netted me a B+ grade too. Excellent.

Brain Age (DS)

Did really badly at the tests today - 24 seconds for Calculations x20, 3/5 for Head Count, 10.2 for Syllable Count. Rubbish.

Did, however, get my 19th consecutive Age of 20 though. Hurrah!

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Time to see K.K. Slider, who played me K.K. Jazz. Also sold all my turnips, as it was my last chance to do so, to Nook for just 50 bells each. Oh well. At least I still made a hefty one million bell profit overall!

Visited a few animals too, but they didn't want me to do anything for them.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (360)

Far too much done today to write about here. I've now been playing for over 60 hours!

Most of my quests today were to do with the Thieves' Guild. I was "promoted" once along the way, and did lots of walking through the countryside. Found another 4 Oblivion Gates along the way too.

Had to sleep to progress one mission, which raised me to level 11. Boosted stats for more magicka, higher strength, and Armory skills. I really need to become the next rank of Armorer, as I can't repair any of my enchanted stuff at the moment.

Oh, and killing the blind monks was ACES.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Last day for selling my remaining turnips today, and Nook was doing me no favours this morning by offering me just 52 bells each for them. Spent a while visiting animals and giving them stuff they wanted (mostly clothes), and Frobert came up to me and gave me his picture.

Bunnie was about, and not dead, although she doesn't seem to want to ask me for any clothes, furniture or anything else, so I don't know quite how to progress there.

Got a load of post today. Most of it was from Lyle, with more fall-down money, but some was from my wife. I now finally have citrus floor as a result! Hurrah! Stupidly, however, I bought then accidently sold the fruit chair in Nook's that I'm missing to complete the set. Duh.

Geometry Wars Evolved (360)

Ubarpowaz! On my second attempt today (after a long break from the game) I managed about 340,000 points! OK, so compared to others it is still pretty crap (although I went up about 10 places in my friend list leaderboard), but it's a big improvement on the 240,000-odd previous best. And it got me another two achievements - 250,000 Points, and Survived 250,000 Points - the latter as I'd not died until after 300,000. And then lost all five lives in quick succession. Bah.

Super Xbox 360 Demo Fighter II (360)

I've downloaded a few demos over the last week or two, so decided to have a go at them this evening.

I started with MotoGP '06. I have a demo of a previous MotoGP game on my Xbox, and this is, well, exactly the same. OK, so it's a bit shinier, but the track is the same demo track, the rider is the same rider, and the everything is basically the same. Only with a bit of gloss. I can't see why anyone would buy this if they already have the Xbox game, unless the full version has a stackload of extra tracks over it. It was OK, but I'm not into superbikes stuff, so I'll be giving it a miss.

There there was Rumble Roses XX (or "kiss kiss", as I call it, as opposed to "double-X"). It's a wrestling game, with scantily clad "ladies" fighting each other. I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing and ended up in "photo mode" which looked far to pervy for my eyes. Finally figured out how to get into a fight, and lost. I had no idea of the controls, and the demo doesn't tell you. I'd worked out how to slap in the face, although sometimes the slap turned into a drop-kick for no discernable reason.

Finally, I played Lost Planet again briefly. I attempted the mech level again, but was napalmed like before. Three times. I have no idea how to get near enough to the mech to actually get in it.

Metroid Prime Hunters (DS)

Worked my way through to another area today, and had to fight a huge boss thing. There were blue lights on this big pillar thing that I had to shoot, while lasers were fired at me. After a few hits, a crystal thing pops out of the top for a bit and shoots me, and then it starts over with a different laser pattern. Luckily, it was pretty easy.

After killing it, I then had to leg it to my ship as a timer ran down, but couldn't use the warp shortcut on the way. I was almost back when I was attacked by a load of baddies that leapt around a lot and shot at me, and couldn't progress until they were dead. Thankfully, I dispatched them and made it to the ship with just 12 seconds to spare! Saved the game then.

Tried to play online, but no-one was about. Bah.

Brain Age (DS)

Ta-dah! 20 again!

Did really poorly at the Reading Aloud (10.7! Rubbish!) and wasn't so hot on a couple of other tests, but it's the Brain Age that counts, and on that I was ACES. So there.

New Super Mario Bros (DS)

Still working through World 4 collecting coins. Although I only completed two levels with all three coins, I have collected one or two in each of the other levels. I'm completely lost as to how to get the third coin in the Ghost House, as well as a couple of other coins that I can't even see, let alone get to.

Well done to Nintendo for making a game that's easy and bloody hard with only one difficulty setting!

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Stupid Frobert! I've got a Jester shirt now, but will he ask for it? Will he hell! Almost gave it to Nan instead when she asked for it in return for "IT", whatever that was. Resisted, though. Kody asked for a Fresh shirt, so I gave him that, and then he wanted a New Spring shirt, which I had to order.

Loads of letters from Lyle today, with 100 bells for each time my King Tut wig made me fall over yesterday. Still no fossils, I see, and I forgot to go and see Bunnie again, so she's probably at Death's door. Didn't sell the rest of my turnips today either, as Nook only offered 55 bells for them. Hate him.

Brain Age (DS)

An overall Brain Age of 4x5 today. Or 5x4, if you prefer. There's not really much of a challenge left to the game now, it seems.

Managed another top 3 score for one the Brain Age tests - the Maze one.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Turnip sellage! Fatality! Sort of! Skipai was online with his Nook's buying for 513 bells each. I managed two trips, selling enough turnips to make over 1.5 million bells. Sadly, Skipai's town was so busy it was hard to get back in, and he soon gave up with the resultant connection crashes. I still have a pile of turnips to sell, but I might get a decent price "locally" yet.

While out visiting, I gained a jester shirt from Talisker, which was great - now I can please Frobert, finally!

Metroid Prime Hunters (DS)

So it seems that I was about a minute away from a save point. Well, actually I was less than a minute from a warp back to my ship, which is a save point. Anyway. Warped and saved.

Then decided to play a couple of multiplayer games online. Just played against random people, and on my first game the host quit. On the second game, however, I came second. Which is pretty good, I thought. The trick seems to be to stay in morph ball form and drop bombs constantly.

Metroid Prime Hunters (DS)

I absolutely hated the demo, you know. Controls were rubbish. There was no lock-on. It all looked a bit "meh". It just wasn't Metroid, basically. And now look at what I've gone and bought! Tch, eh?

And, well. The controls seem much the same. The graphics have improved quite a bit, though, but there's still no lock-on and it still doesn't feel quite right. It's also a bit difficult to hold the DS in one hand, operate the d-pad, and use the touch screen all at the same time. Thank god I have a DS Lite - if I had a normal DS my wrists would have snapped in the 40-minutes or so I played it today.

Haven't actually done all that much yet, it seems. I've worked my way through the Celestial Archive place a bit, killed some things, beat another Hunter that turns into a caterpillar, and then had to put my DS to sleep as I needed to go out and there's no save point yet. I've picked up another energy tank and a missile expansion already too.

Impressions so far then: it's better than I expected, but I really need to get used to these controls. Oh, and plug my rumble pack in as well!

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Had an opportunity to play on a weekday morning today. Not that I would have missed much. Gave out a few shirts to animals that asked for them, and got a present in the post from Nan for letting her visit my house yesterday. One of my animals gave me a King Tut Wig, which looks ACE, but appears to be cursed, since I keep falling over when I wear it.

There seems to be a complete lack of fossils around at the moment. I haven't found one in days. No gyroids either, but then, it hasn't rained in a week or so, so that's to be expected.

Turnips were 67 bells today. I told Nook where to go.

Buzz!: The Big Quiz (PS2)

With the music quiz starting to become repetitive, it was time to move on to a new set of questions. So, as this arrived today, my wife and I played it tonight.

Basically, it's the same game as before, but with general knowledge questions instead of music ones. You get pictures to look at now, as well as sounds, which mixes things up a bit. There's a new round too - Hitman, which is a bit pants.

Anyway. We played a long game, and I won. Hurrah!

Brain Age (DS)

Got a new record in Calculations x100, completing it in 1:43, three seconds lower than the previous best. Didn't do too badly in the other tests either, and bumped my run of Brain Age 20s up to 16 in a row too.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Nan's old-school furniture (a classic desk) arrived in the post, but she wouldn't let me give it to her. Instead, she demanded to come and see my house, so I let her. While waiting for her to arrive, I sold some fruit, gave Kody a new shirt, completely failed to find a Jester shirt for Frobert again, and couldn't give Margie any more white furniture as she said her house was full. Bah.

New Super Mario Bros (DS)

After several attempts, I managed to get the final coin in the castle in World 6. It was where I expected it to be, but I obviously hadn't tried hard enough. Anyway, that's World 6 completed now.

Moved on to World 4. Yes, I realise I'm not doing them in order. Got the missing Star Coins in one level, and then unlocked and completed (without one of the coins) another level.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Didn't have a particularly successful day in Cheese today. Bunnie is still ill (although i did give her more medicine), I still can't find a Jester shirt for Frobert, Nan wanted more old-school furniture (of which I had none, so had to order it from Nook), turnips were just 33 bells each, Redd's paining was a fake, and I found no fossils or anything good.

I did, however, manage to give Margie more white furniture (still no picture, though), and had a chat will the rest of my animals.

Brain Age (DS)

Most of the results were an improvement over yesterday, although I didn't set any more records or anything. Overall, another 20. That's 15 in a row now.

New Super Mario Bros (DS)

Played through most of World 6 picking up Star Coins. I have all of them on that world now, bar the final one on the last castle. I'm pretty sure I know where it is, but can't seem to jump high enough to get to it. I think I need to do some sort of triple jump, but there isn't the space to do it.

Super Monkey Ball: Touch and Roll (DS)

Since today is Munkie Day (no really - it is), I thought I should honour it with an inaugoral play of Super Monkey Ball. And, since my DS is the consol de moment, what better than Touch and Roll?

Which, as I now recall, is too sodding hard. I have the Volcano World, on which I get stuck on level 7 or 8, and then Ice World where I got to level 9 or 10, and lost 16 lives. It's the one where you have a few straight bits, some humps, moving platforms, bumps, then a straight bit, then some bumpers, then a really thin curve, and finally a straight, thin, dip-then-hill. 12 of the lives were lost on that end bit. HATE.

Also played Monkey Fight, and won against the CPU. Ph33r my fist.

Big Brain Academy (DS)

Just the test today, and I managed 1304g. The distribution chart gave me the brain of a decorator (or something equally stupid), and I went up a grade from B- to B. Brain the size of a planet, me. Or is that plant?