Resident Evil 4 (Wii)

Managed two chapters today. To start with, I had to choose a path - either a giant to kill or a group of something else. I took the giant route. Eventually, I found a barn with the evil bloke who'd almost killed me previously in, and killed him (and the thing he turned into!), and then found a castle with Ashley.

It took many attempts to get through the castle courtyard, as I kept being firebombed or Ashley go kidnapped again, but finally made it inside. And now Ashley has been actually kidnapped again because she ran into a trap. Tch. Looks like I'll have to go and get her again, yes?

Oh, and the castle seems to be run by a midget dressed as a 17th Century French lord or something. As you do.

Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD (360)

Played through X' Arcade Mode with Akuma, and completed it. I'm not classing the game as complete just yet though, as I have X, Y and Z modes to go yet!

Sadly, I missed out on an achievement for finishing Arcade Mode without using a credit, as I underestimated the end of game boss - also Akuma - and he beat me.

Streets of Rage 2 (360)

Hmm. Things are not going so well now. I lost two continues trying to kill the boss that looks like Blanka from Street Fighter II, and so have made it to Level 5 with just two lives (and no more continues, it seems) left.

I then had a go on Versus Mode on Xbox Live. Sadly, it is totally broken. If you host, you win. The reason? If you're not hosting, all of your movements are delayed by almost a second, making it impossible to beat all but the worst opponents.

Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD (360)

Played quite a few games with my wife, winning about as many as I lost. Also had a try at some of the other game modes.

"Y" is more like Columns, in that you have to get lines of three or more rather then groups of gems which you then trigger. It was OK, but not as good as X or X' modes. "Z" is similar to Hexic, sort of, in that you rotate blocks of four to make groups, that you then destroy with a trigger block. All the time the gems are rising up the screen. This mode was just crap, actually.

Oh, and we stumbled across how to play as Akuma, Devildot and Dan. Dan is, of course, crap. The only gems he dumps on his opponent are red ones, making him easy to beat as he basically provides you with a huge pile of ready-grouped gems. Idiot.

Streets of Rage 2 (360)

You know, a lot of people say that Streets of Rage 2 is the pinnacle of 16-bit side-scrolling fighting games. Personally, I prefer both the first and the third games over this, but I don't really know why.

So I bought it (for just 400 points) and am now on Level 3, having died just once - on the end of level 2 boss. I very nearly made it without being killed by him too, which is a shame.

Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD (360)

Who needs a demo version, eh? I just stumped up the 800 points without even trying it first. That's how much I knew it was going to be ace.

And, of course, it is ace. At least as ace as the Saturn version I've been playing recently, but in lovely smooth HD and with online play for up to four players. It's like Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo X ++ Alpha HD really. Or something.

First up, I played three ranked matches, and won the first two. Then I played a few player matches (as everyone seemed to stop bothering with the ranked matches), and won about as many as I lost. After that, I played single player arcade mode, until I lost the 6th fight.

Then I played 9 matches against my wife, winning just 4 of them. Bah.

Hexic 2 (360)

Beck sent me a plea for help while I was playing skate., asking for information on the Battle Mode power-ups. I sent her some instructions (although they're right there when you start Battle Mode anyway - women lol :P), and she said "well if yuo fancy any two player anytime let me know". Who could resist? I "leapt" right into Hexic 2 and invited her to a game.

And she just ignored me! Pff.

So I played Ranked Battle Mode a few times instead, and lost them all. Rubbish.

skate. (Demo) (360)

I decided to just take the board out for a bit and have a skate about. It's a pain having to play through the tutorial every time you play the demo, but then, it is only a demo and it only takes a couple of minutes to complete.

Managed to do a Christ Air, which looked fantastic until I forgot to land it and faceplanted the concrete. Oops.

Resident Evil 4 (Wii)

Stopping Ashley from being killed hasn't been too difficult so far. I tended to leave her at the start of each new area, went ahead clearing a path (of both baddies and mantraps), and then returned for her. Then we came across an old house and lots and lots of baddies outside, and Luis inside to help us dispatch them all.

Then Luis did a runner, and the end of Chapter 2-2 was reached!

Resident Evil 4 (Wii)

Erk. There was a big giant thing that could rip up trees and pound my face! I had no idea how to kill it, and hiding in the nearby huts to shoot at it was a bad idea, as it just pounded through the roof and splatted me. A wolf did appear to help, seemingly paying me back for saving it from a trap near the start of the game, but all it could do was bark at it.

Instead I took a different route and ended up back at the lake, meeting some nasty baddies with tentacles coming out of their heads, and some wolves. I also bought some more upgrades for my guns from the shop keeper freak, and then attempted the giant again. It seems the handgun has actually the best weapon as (having upgraded it a bit) it was quick to fire off enough rounds to knock him down, so I could jump on it's back and slash at the thing in it's neck.

After all that, I made it back to the church, which I could now enter as I had the required item. Solved a (very simple) puzzle, and rescued Ashley. Oh joy - it's now an escort mission. Gah!

Resident Evil 4 (Wii)

Really getting into this now. I'm constantly worried I'm going to get into a situation where I have no ammo and/or health though, so I'm keeping all my saves. Speaking of saves, they're bizarrely spaced out, aren't they? Some are right at the beginning of the chapter, when you've just saved anyway, and others are 30 minutes or more apart. Strange.

Anyway. I've made it back to the village, and killed more baddies there, then entered what I assumed was the church only to find it was actually a secret passageway to the actual church (and there was that dodgy shopkeeper in the tunnel - I bought a bigger attaché case from him), where I solved some puzzle to get a gem. Then it was off through a swampy bit with more baddies, and finally (for Chapter 1 at least) I had to kill a giant fish.

Resident Evil 4 (Wii)

Well, this is something different, isn't it? I've played Resident Evil games before, of course. All of them, to some degree or another (apart from Zero I think), but never very far in as the controls have always killed it for me. That and the horrific loading times on the Saturn version.

I was always intending to buy this for the Gamecube, but for one reason or another never did. The new control scheme (or rather, camera angle - the controls actually remained largely the same) and lack of loading issues made me think about getting back into the series. However, then the Wii came out and, well - here I am with the "updated" RE4.

First impressions then. Graphically, it is quite amazing. Especially when you consider it's little more than a widescreen version of the Gamecube game in that respect. Yeah, there's a lot of grey and brown (which normally makes games look bland), but it still looks great. The controls are... novel. Nothing controls quite how you expect: the pointer doesn't change the direction you look in. The trigger doesn't fire the gun. There's no strafe control. I'm getting used to it, and the new camera angle means the RE tank controls of the past fit much better here, it it's still a little odd.

No scares yet, as I'm in "expect something to try to eat me at every possible opportunity" mode at the moment. I've had a couple of run-ins with "the big cheese" (do people really say that?), but he hasn't killed me as we "share the same blood" or something. I have been injected with some purple stuff and what looked like a very small pill. Oh, and I've had a "Welcome, Stranger!". Ace. Almost two hours in, and I'm only just starting Chapter 1-3. Yeah, I'm probably slow.

Frogger (360)

I noticed the scoreboards had all been reset recently, so took the opportunity to try to make it to the top of my friends leaderboard.

Sadly, I fell short of Robert Hazelby's feeble 13,840 with a slightly less feeble 13,760. Ish.

And I remember my 25k days. Bah.

Hexic 2 (360)

Six games of Battle Mode against my wife, and I won the first four. Then I told her about how you could make your attacks more powerful (just fill the relevant bar up more notches) and then proceeded to lose the next two games.

In future, she will be kept in the dark about such things.

Densetsu no Stafi 2 (GBA): COMPLETED!

World 11 was, in fact, the final world. Dark Castle and all!

As expected of the final world, many of the levels sort of repeated some of the puzzles and routines of previous levels, although obviously mixed up a bit. Thankfully, there was no SuckySuck(TM) bit either. The end boss, however, did do the usual trick of dying, only to change form and regain all his energy - twice. I wasn't too bothered though, as each form was very different, none were especially hard, and if you died (and I did three or four times) you didn't have to start from the beginning again. And you healed fully after each transformation too, making it fair. Hurrah, eh?

And then it was all over. I killed his final form, rescued someone who appeared to be my dad (a previous starfish "hero", it seems), and banished the boss to a pot with a face on. However, my clam friend accidentally dropped the pot during the end of game sequence and let him out again. Tch.

Overall then, it was a great little platformer. It had a few irritations, e.g lots of similar sections - the dragon flying, balloon riding, fish surfing, and koala jumping bits especially - were reused a lot, albeit differently each time. Also, some of the puzzles were impossible to solve due to being in Japanese, but luckily trial-and-error won through. That's not really the game's fault, obviously, but why haven't Nintendo released any of the Stafi series (of which there are four games) over in the UK? Now I just need to find copies of 1 and 3 in the set, and play through 4 on the DS!

Densetsu no Stafi 2 (GBA)

It seems that World 8 (my next "most likely last level") wasn't the final world either, even though it was a castle. It was actually the castle of goodies, not baddies, so clearly there was more to do.

I've got a few more power-ups now too - a double jump (finally!), and a more powerful, and faster, dash-spin-kill attack thing. Of course, the game fights back to negate some of these when it can with stronger water currents, wind, and higher platforms. As is the way with platformers!

World 10 wasn't the final world either, so my Platform Game Senses would dictate that World 12 would be the next likely candidate, but World 11 (which I've reached but not started) is a giant dark castle, seemingly set in space. Double whammy! Pretty much has to be the final world now, yes?

Hexic 2 (360)

Played four Battle Mode games online, in Ranked Matches this evening. I won the first game, but only just, but then failed to win any of the next three even though it appeared my opponents were all crap. Clearly, I was wrong...

Densetsu no Stafi 2 (GBA)

Didn't play this for that long today, although I did manage to get as far as World 6-3. It's still not getting very difficult, but it's slowly getting more complicated, if you see what I mean. The puzzles (and most levels have at least one) are getting more involved, and I've had to solve a couple with trial-and-error simply because I can't understand what it is I'm supposed to be doing.

I was under the impression (although I don't know where I got this idea from) that there are six worlds. Well, World Six is too happy and bouncy to be the last level. One of the Rules of Platform Games is that the final level/world/area is a castle, an enemy base, or set in space. Or a combination of them all - not some sort of garden with smiling flowers. Or something.

skate. (Demo) (360)

I spend a whole hour trying to lay a particular line down. There's a section where there are two rails, in series, with a short gap between them, and I was trying to ollie onto the first one, grind it, ollie off and manual to the next, then ollie on that and grind it.

And, eventually, I did!

Of course, in Tony Hawk that's a real beginner trick, and is stupidly easy to pull off. In skate. however, it's a test of skill, and I was really rather proud of myself for nailing it.

Assorted Xbox 360 Demos (Demo) (360)

As well as skate., which I've posted about already, I had a go at a few other demo games that were made available on the 360 this week.

Street Trace: NYC
It's like some evil cross between the awful Dreamcast game TrickStyle and the awful Playstation 2 game Twisted Metal. And isn't nearly as good as either of them. You have a hoverboard, and some weapons, and it's futuristic. And it's a deathmatch game. Rubbish.

Space Giraffe
Jeff Minter promised us he hasn't spent the last (what seems like) 80 years making this game just to give us another iteration of Tempest. Sadly, that's exactly what he has done. It's Tempest 4000 by another name and with sheep and goat noises. Some people have been saying there's more depth to it, and it is to Tempest 2000 what Pac-Man CE is to Pac-Man, but the problem is, Tempest has never appealed to me, and making it harder to see and more complicated doesn't exactly help.

Ratatouille
I have no idea what I'm supposed to do. Well, I have to get my rat to somewhere whilst avoiding being seen. But I don't know how to hide, and I can't run fast enough. So, after 20 attempts and still unable to progress more than 30 seconds into the game, I gave up.

skate. (Demo) (360)

I really, really want to hate this. I mean, Tony Hawk games are aces, and all other extreme sports games (Matt Hoffman, Kelly Slater, BMX XXX and even the actually pretty brilliant Aggressive Inline) pale in comparison. And now EA (who are like Satan in game publisher form) are trying to muscle in on Tony's sacred domain.

How very dare them.

But... It's good. There. I said it. Quietly, so Tony won't hear. It took a while for the controls to work in my head, and even after 40 minutes play I'm still trying to press Y to grind and letting go of A hoping for an ollie, but skate. (the lowercase "s" and full-stop are mandatory, it seems) is a much more technical game than Tony Hawk. You get far greater control over the minutiae of riding your deck, and more skill is needed to pull off even basic grabs and flips. It's different, and that's somehow unnerving to me, as I feel like I'm cheating on Tony.

Sorry Tony. I'll love you again when Proving Grounds comes out.

Densetsu no Stafi 2 (GBA)

This really is a most excellent platformer, you know, even though I fear I'm missing out on some totally riveting storyline with the amount of Japanese dialogue going on.

Progressed past World 4, killing the Ice/Fire Dragon boss at the end that was somewhat heat bi-polar, and now I'm into Tree Tops World (World 5). Yes, a starfish in the trees, which are conveniently full of water and stuff. I've gained the ability to double-jump now too.

I did have a few bizarre "smack four things in order" puzzles to contend with, and no idea which order to smack them. Managed two by trial and error, and my wife solved the third one for me.

Hexic 2 (360)

You know, this is my 2000th Gaming Diary post. 2000 posts. Amazing.

Played Hexic 2 for a couple of hours this evening. First spent over an hour playing my wife at Battle Mode, but soon had to stop playing as she got good at it and began to win. Tch. It's pretty good, and there's a power-up dynamic to the game which I've not seen in any other puzzle game. Power-ups are only available at certain times, and either of you can nab them, but only if the required bar (filled by matching hexes of its colour) is full enough. So you can spend ages filling your orange bar to ready yourself for the "lock opponent's hexes" power-up, only to have the person you're playing nick it when it appears as you didn't notice.

Picked up a couple of achievements in Battle Mode too, including "Hot Potato" for playing bomb-tennis.

After that, I went after SomethingWitty's high score on Marathon Mode. 100,000-ish to beat, it said when I looked. That shouldn't be hard, I thought. So, after about half an hour I'd managed 110,000, and then my eyes were hurting and it was bed time so I killed myself knowing I'd beaten him.

Except when I looked, there was actually an extra zero in his score, so I was some 900,000 points short. Nooooooo!

My other blog

Since I've done it over there, I thought it best to reciprocate here too.

Thing is, I have two blogs. There's this one, which is a diary of all the games I play, and there's my other one which is full of random stuff. I'm not just about games, you know! There's all sorts of stupid pictures, general geekery, and, uh, yeah - games. Aces, yes?

It's recently come to my attention that I've got two sets of readers. Some people only read (and know about) my Gaming Diary (that's what you're reading now), and others are only aware of my Blog (that's the other thing with random stuff). These posts are to attempt to merge those two groups into some sort of supergroup of readers.

So why not read the blog once in a while, or subscribe to its RSS feed?

Adventures of Lolo (Wii): COMPLETED!

I was so close last night! I was doing 10-4 pretty much how you were supposed to, but I just needed to speed up on my Snakey-pushing. 10-5 (the final level) was way, way easier than I expected, and I did it on my second go.

Overall, it's a great game. It looks crap, and yes, is just a crate pushing game at heart, but it's well executed and the difficulty curve is pitched perfectly, so it's well worth a punt. Ahaha!

Adventures of Lolo (Wii)

A few more levels, although it took me over an hour. I'm now on 10-4, which I'm pretty certain is the penultimate level. I can see how to do 10-4, it's just I don't seem to be quick enough at shunting egged snakeys around.

Yes, that does make sense, if you've played the game...

Adventures of Lolo (Wii)

OK, so I'm going to try to finish this one off. I'm off to a decent start too, having managed to get from 7-4(ish) to 9-3. Yeah, so that's not many levels, but it's really quite hard now and some levels are taking 20+ attempts.

I think Floor 10 is the last one. It certainly implies that the "Demon's room is on the next floor" or something.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (PS2): COMPLETED!

By selecting the best weapon prior to mounting the on-foot attack of the Martinez Building after the chopper assault, I found it much easier this time around. The Spaz shotgun is most excellent when many baddies are in close range as it takes them all out at once.

After that, I had to shoot down another helicopter, and finally there was a three-way showdown on the roof - the remaining Mendez brother, Martinez, and me. And it was easy, they died, and I won. Hurrahs!

After the credits, I spent a while taking over businesses, but that got dull in the end. I've got about 85% of them or something though now.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (PS2)

I'm pretty certain I'm on the last mission now. All the other storylines in the game are getting wrapped up - Phil Collins had his gig (during which I had to run round the lighting rigging and stop people cutting through it - shame), Reni went from he/she to just she and flew back to Europe, Gonzales has left Vice City (and I had to protect him on the way to the airport), and one of the Mendez brothers is dead. And so is someone on "my side" (but I won't say who as it's a spoiler).

So Diaz suggested I go and nick a Hunter (i.e. Apache) helicopter from the army base, so I did. And then I used that to blow up lots of people in "The Martinez Building" (gosh - I wonder who might be there?) but then died on the next bit because the stupid controls prevented me from selecting the right weapon. The fact the mission is called "The Last Stand" kind of implies I'm at the end, yes?

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (PS2)

Done loads today, including: protected Phil Collins (no, really) from gangs, built up more of my empire, found out Lance and Louise have been nicking all the drugs, killed a load of people who wanted to blow up Phil Collins (again, but it's understandable), taken part in more stunt driving (on a jetski) for Reni at the studio, played golf (sort of), collected all the remaining required cars for the impound, chased Lance's helicopter in a hovercraft, saved Louise from Martinez (the army bloke), and all sorts of other things.

It's growing on me now, but I still keep thinking - "It's not as good as San Andreas".

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (PS2)

Eventually, I managed to take down the antennae. It wasn't all that difficult once I'd figured out where the stairs to the roof of each police station were, so I could park my car as close as possible.

However, I then spent the best part of an hour finishing that mission, as I had a 5 Star rating upon escaping from the last station, and to complete the mission I had to drop that down to zero. Whilst being chased by another helicopter which seemed to cause my helicopter to veer all over the place.

I knew where one (and only one!) police bribe pickup was (near the very first safehouse you get), but couldn't remember where any others were. Flying around didn't really help too much either, as low down you get shot at by the police, and high up you can't see any pickups. And I didn't want to land as then the chasing helicopter would shoot me down. Luckily, I remembered there was a bribe outside the golf course, and managed to pick that up, and then remembered there was another near the airport. I snatched that just in time too - my helicopter blew up almost as soon as I landed it and the drop to just two stars and a pipe to hide in meant the police chopper flew off.

Finally, I ran back to my safe house and changed clothes to drop to no stars. Hurrah!

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (PS2)

I now seem to be working for Gonzales, as well as still doing some missions with Lance to try to recover where all the drugs we had have gone. It would appear that they've mostly gone up his nose. Anyway.

Also expanded the "empire" a bit, and now I'm stuck trying to blow up antennae on the tops of police stations. With a rocket launcher.

Hexic 2 (360)

Yes, it's the same as the first game, only with more "industrial" graphics and a few extra bits. And yes, I was pretty crap at the first one.

But, as is often the way with XBLA games, I couldn't resist and bought the full version anyway. And I'm glad I did, because it's actually a bit easier than Hexic HD. There are new power-ups and you can now get rid of hexes with a line of five, both of which make it a bit more possible to get flowers (and ultimately, pearls).

So I played each of the modes (the new Battle Mode is a great addition) and got a few achievements. My eyes are bleeding now though.

Ecco the Dolphin (Demo) (360)

Ecco the Dolphin is, and always has been, crap. There - I said it. The controls need an analogue stick, the jumping out of the water stuff is rubbish, the nose-attack is stupid, and the "find a key!" and "find a whale!" and "find some other thing!" gameplay is dull.

The XBLA version is the same as the Megadrive original. So, in that respect, is still crap. Even more so in that for some reason, having talked to a shark or a whale or something, the level restarted without warning.

Beautiful Katamari (Demo) (360)

Two days and two great Xbox 360 demos? With these you are really spoiling us!

Six times I played through it. Six. OK, so it's not very long (three minutes) but it does show how much I'm looking forward to a new Katamari game. It's more of the same, only in HD and (I'm hoping) no mid-level loading!

Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree (Wii)

Hurrah! I managed a score of over 1400g! Still not as good as some of those people on my list, but certainly better than more than previously. I would have had a slightly higher score if I'd not hit a wrong answer through a mis-pointing of the remote too. Annoying.

Bioshock (Demo) (360)

Oh. My. Word.

This has to be the best looking console game ever made. Nothing I've seen (not even Oblivion) comes even close. The attention to detail, the water and fire effects, the style, the smoothness - everything. Amazing.

And the game? Staggering. It's fantastic. If this isn't voted Game of the Year, then either the demo isn't a representation of the full game at all, or people need their heads seeing to.

The setting (a 1950s underwater city) is genius. The concept is genius. The execution is flawless. I'm really looking forward to the full game now, and I haven't anticipated an Xbox 360 game this much before. Aces.

Carcassonne (360)

I paid for and downloaded the River II expansion pack today. It adds a load more river tiles to the game, allowing the river to have a bit more of an effect on the game - it splits, and there are city-bridges, etc.

Played a couple of games with my wife, both of which ended up with really high scores (due to the extra tiles, I'll bet), but I won both!

Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree (Wii)

I'm not even going to mention today's score, it was that bad.

Thankfully, my multiplayer skillz were amazing, so that's some consolation I suppose.

Adventures of Lolo (Wii)

Haven't played this in ages (I got stuck) and was looking round the games I had on my Wii and decided to try again.

It's getting hard now. Really hard. I managed about another five levels, reaching 7-3 (I think). Not sure how far there is to go though - I'm assuming 10 worlds?

Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree (Wii)

1315g today. I'm really doing badly when compared to the people I'm sharing brain info with, and my wife is beating me too.

I did get my own back on her though, by beating her several times in the multiplayer modes.

Assorted Xbox 360 Demos (360)

Well, I say "assorted", but in fact there were only two:

Stranglehold
It's John Woo, in game form! It's a stylish third-person shooter, with now-clichéd bullet-time (or rather, "Tequila Time". Cue "Tequila, it makes me happy" and "Stop! Tequila Time!" jokes, which I'll refrain from. It looks nice, has some clever bits (like the multi-way showdowns where you must dodge bullets with one stick, and aim your guns with the other), and is full of impressive Woo stunt direction, but I can't help feeling it's going to get very repetitive. Maybe a purchase on the cheap?

Vampire Rain
It's Splintident Evil Cell. Or Sam Fisher in Zombie Vampire World. And it's crap. You have no idea where to go (well, you do, but you have to take a contrived route) and the vampires are zombies not vampires and the camera is crap and the game looks like a PS1 title. But it appears to have Worf (Michael Dorn) providing a voice for your superior. And why is your command vehicle a pizza van? ANyway, not buying.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (PS2)

Much of today's play on this was spent on expanding my empire a bit, to earn a bit more money each day. Sadly, this wasn't easy. In order to take over businesses, you have to destroy the vehicle outside them. But, since you can't manually aim any of your weapons, this means you can only do it by smacking them with something like a baseball bat or golf club (which takes aaaaages), unless you happen to have some (wildly inaccurate) grenades.

Anyway. I did further the story a bit by taking photos of the army bloke and making out he was working with the police, in order to persude some drugs barons that I'm not the reason the drugs went missing. Or something. To be honest, the story is crap.

What isn't crap, though, is the fact that I found a helicopter! Hurrah!

Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree (Wii)

1245g today. Still not my best attempt, and not the 1400g "average" that Professor Condom suggests.

My main problems are with Memorise (especially French-numbers-in-reverse) and not recognising animals quickly enough on Identify.

Track and Field (360)

It would appear that swapping from buttons to stick for the running is a good idea, as my time for the 100m dropped from 12.40-ish to 9.09s, and everything else improved somewhat too.

I even managed to pass the hammer throw, and clear two high jump settings, although faulted too many times and failed the qualifying jump. That puts me ahead of "I'm the bestest ever at Track and Field" Zomoniac from ugvm. So HA.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (PS2)

Gay bikers killed! I'm still not sure why they tried to kill me, but anyway. Then Forbes tried to escape, so I ran him down, then nicked a load more drugs and escaped to... the other island! Hurrah!

Lance, however, has spent all our money (again) on swish apartments. But then, he is an idiot. I'd kill him, but Tommy Vercetti will do that for me in Vice City a few years later.

Track and Field (360)

I said I wasn't going to buy this. But, I bought it anyway, and then spent an hour or so completely destroying my wrist. Button mashing on an Xbox 360 pad == badness.

And I can't do the hammer throw without fluking it, and I can't do the high jump at all. And why can't you just practice individual events? Rubbish.

Spyglass Board Games (Demo) (360)

I downloaded this last week but never got round to playing it, so while waiting for Track and Field was downloading, I had a play.

It's meh. There's not really much wrong with it (aside from the silly 3D camera angle), but there's nothing special about it either. Why, though, is the logo for "Spyglass" not a spyglass at all, but a telescope?

Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree (Wii)

Bah! 1206g today! Hate.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (PS2)

The story in this game really isn't anywhere near as good as other GTA games. Everything you do seems to be for some tenuous reason. Vic isn't into drugs, doesn't want to deal in drugs, and yet almost every mission has him stealing drugs or lining up a drugs heist or something else to do with drugs. And if it isn't drugs, it's guns. All to earn money (which Lance seems to be spending faster than you can get it) on your other brother's hospital care.

Today's missions included kidnapping Forbes (who, it turns out, was a cop) and locking him in a flat tied to a chair. And then I infiltrated a gay bar full of bikers who decided to kill me. Because everyone knows that gay bikers instantly want to kill people who just happen to have entered their bar by mistake. I died a few times on that bit and gave up for the day.

I hope I get to the other island soon.

Densetsu no Stafi 2 (GBA)

After playing Hide and Seek with some small turtles (or whatever they are), it was time to move on to killing the boss at the end of World 3. It was a thing riding a giant moth.

Like the previous bosses, it was pretty easy, and I was soon onto World 4, which is Ice World. So lots of falling ice spikes and slippy floors.

Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree (Wii)

Aces, I thought - I've beaten Daren and Neil with my 1356g brain score.

Sadly, this was not to be, as not only did Daren post an improved score soon afterwards, but two other people joined my record list and both had 1450+ scores. One is even on over 1600g. Kill them both!

Densetsu no Stafi 2 (GBA)

You know, this is a deceptively deep platformer. In between the platforming and swimming, there are puzzles, spikes (and stars to collect) trapped in blocks you destroy, and a pretty large array of moves. Who knew a starfish could be so agile?

I'm up to 3-3 now, and I seem to be hopping around the back of a giant turtle. You know, as you do.

Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree (Wii)

I saw this for cheap in Asda this evening, and as I was going to buy it at some point anyway, I picked it up.

It's the same sort of thing as the DS version I played a fair bit of last year, only with mostly different activities and some over-the-internet stats comparison with other people in your Wii contacts list.

First off, I went straight into a test. I'm really not good at the memorise stuff. Firstly, I can't remember stuff anyway, and secondly, remembering it backwards? Just, no. And then they read out five numbers in French and then asked me to recite them backwards? I think not, monsieur. Total score - 1117g.

A few practices, and then another test, and I was up to 1126. I thought that was pretty good, but then Daren and Neil on my contacts sent me their records and they're both over 1250g. Bah.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (PS2)

You know, with "trails" turned off in the graphics options, suddenly everything is a lot better looking. But sadly, still awful.

Problems I had today:

In one mission, you have to use a fire engine to put out a fire. Controls for the fire engine's water cannon are circle to fire, and the right stick to aim. So you need two right thumbs.

Near the first safehouse you get access to (just south of it, in fact) there's a motorbike. If you get on it, a "collect shiny things" (or something) mini-game starts. But won't actually start the clock until you collect the first shiny thing. However, having gotten on the bike, you can no longer start any other missions, even if you get off again. I found this out having driven miles away, and the only way I could "cancel" the mini-game was to destroy the bike, which was easier said than done. I pushed it into the sea using a taxi in the end.

Louise asked me to take over Marty's business (after Marty became a bit dead), and for a mission I had to go and pick up two goons. Who really were goons, as they did nothing. I couldn't recruit them, speak to them, or anything. They just stood there. So I ran them down and got Mission Failed.

The mission where you pick up Lance from the airport and then escape from the cholos, then get caught in an alley and have to shoot them? Bloody hell. The driving bit was fine (aside from the crap analogue sticks providing no accuracy on the targetting), but the alleyway was almost impossible due to the crap targetting and the way it kept locking on to already dead people instead of those people in my face, kicking my shins. It didn't help that the next bit (get a car and escape the police to get to a hotel) was bloody hard too as the police kept blowing up my car mere inches from the hotel front door.

Aside from all them, though, it was "great".