Phoenix Wright 3: Trials and Tribulations (DS)

Dug up some more evidence, and un-Psylocked Basil at Blue Screens, Inc. Seems Glen was a gambler (which was obvious anyway). Found a CD with the MC Bomber virus on it too, which now means I know for certain both who killed Glen, and why.

Off into the next day of the trial, then, and I'm already about to prove the real killer guilty. If only I can figure out what bit of testimony to press him on, as the judge has decided that he'll penalise me if I press unnecessarily. Pff.

Phoenix Wright 3: Trials and Tribulations (DS)

So the trial consisted of Gumshoe (who wasn't really much use), and then Kudo (the old bloke who likes pigeons). There wasn't anything too difficult to put together, which is good considering at the start of the trial every possible chink in the evidence was patched over by Godot.

There was some confusion over the ear Glen had a radio in, and the hand he used to drink his coffee, neither of which seem that important at the moment (although they're very odd, nonetheless).

After the first day of the trial, I've spent a while back at the restaurant, and have gone to Blue Screens, Inc - the programming company Glen worked for. His boss, Ms Basil, is amazing. The dialogue there was great too, with Ghost in the Shell and "This is Sparta!" references. Also, I think I know now why the real killer killed Glen...

Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS)

I wasn't going to buy this just yet, as I have a mountain of games to work through as it is, but it's £21 at Asda, and being a first party Nintendo game is unlikely to ever be much cheaper than that.

So I bought it, but then I didn't intend on playing it, as I have a mountain of games to work through as it is, but somehow it ended up in my DS.

And it is lovely. As everyone on the planet is probably aware, it's a sequel, of sorts, to The Wind Waker on the Gamecube, and shares the same graphical style. However, you control it all using pretty much only the stylus (which takes some getting used to - especially rolling). So far, I've only obtained a sword, been "trained" on it, and made my way through a cave to the local port. Now I need to find some bloke who owns a ship.

Phoenix Wright 3: Trials and Tribulations (DS)

Forget what I said yesterday about there being no real "characters" in Phoenix Wright 3. Case 3 has already thrown up not one, but TWO amazing people.

First off is Jean Armstrong, camp chef extraordinaire. The way he... minces is quite something. Secondly, is Kudo, who feeds pigeons. Well, throws seeds at pigeons, anyway. He's a regular at Armstrong's restaurant, although he only goes there for the, uh, attractions.

Namely, the attractions of waitress Maggey Byrde (she of previous games, and the accused in this case).

Of course, Kudo is a grumpy old sod so won't speak to me. Or Maya, even when she's dressed up in "revealing" waitress attire. He longs for something with a bit more "plumage". Much like his pigeons, I suppose. The solution? Well, Maya channels Mia of course, since Mia is rather more impressively endowed. Genius.

Anyway, the first day of the trial is about to start. Incidently, I suspect the victim's name is going to cause a twist (literally) in the case somewhere - it's Glen Elg. Which also happens to be a palindrome...

Phoenix Wright 3: Trials and Tribulations (DS)

Case 2 COMPLETE! I still get the feeling something is missing though. Like, not much was made of the broach. But anyway.

I'm finding that PW3 is somewhat more difficult than it's predecessors, but not because the cases are more complicated, more because the obvious conclusions I come to don't manifest as evidence I can present. It's difficult to describe without spoilers, but I knew there was a contradiction regarding the blackmail letter. However, I couldn't present that, as I had to present something else (which didn't make as much sense).

Anyway, the game is still fantastic. It is missing some great characters though. Godot is good with his coffee fetish, but where's the Sal Manela? Where the Moe the Clown?

Ico (PS2)

I've lit all the fires near the gate, and that lets me now light bombs to blow up a blocked path to a cemetery. There, I had to fight a million more shadow things (which I hate having to do). Afterwards, I entered a room where I couldn't reach the door, but finding another route led me to a chain I could jump onto and pull down, which raised the floor. Raised it too high, I might add.

So I spent ages trying to find how to get up (and died twice, and so had to re-do the room) before realising you could swing on chains and so I could swing and jump to get up.

Then there was a windmill, where I had to jump and grab a sail while it went round, jumping off at the top, before getting to a sort of garden with some water and a sewer thing. Took me ages to figure out I could get Yorda out of the sewer by just lifting her through a hole, and i didn't have to push blocks I couldn't get to into the hole instead. Pff.

Then there was a lift, and more shadow things to kill (one of which threw me off a tower so I died, and had to repeat a bit again), and then finally made it to a huge chasm that I could shimmy across, but Yorda had to wait behind. This led to back into the garden, where the blocks I couldn't reach previously I now could, allowing me to reach a new route which led to a chain I could grab and then jump across to a switch to (I assume) let Yorda across.

Except you can't jump from the chain to the switch as you can't jump that far (even with swinging), so I fell, died, and have a good 10 minutes to repeat again. Rubbish.

Phoenix Wright 3: Trials and Tribulations (DS)

So I'm defending DeLite again now, this time for the murder of the CEO of the security company he used to work for. The investigation was slow going as I'd missed showing one person one piece of evidence, so was stuck for a while, but now I'm up and flying again.

I did have to barge into another courtroom (complete with Payne as prosecutor and a different, but surprisingly similar, judge) to stop them sending Atmey down for theft, as he'd been accused of murder.

Yes, all very confusing!

Ico (PS2)

Sssssh! Don't tell anyone, but I played it some more this morning. I mean, if it's really this amazing classic, I can't go giving up after the first hour, can I?

Well, it hasn't really gotten any better, as such. I'm getting used to the controls, which is helping, but yanking Yorda (as he name has been revealed to be) around isn't fun and killing the shadowy things is just plain rubbish. However, the puzzles are pretty ace, even if it did take me faaaar too long trying to figure out how to make a bridge collapse, before realising that not only could you light your stick on fire, but there were bombs around and you can pick stuff up.

Now I've reached the gate, and was about to escape, when it closed and Yorda's mum came and said not to take her away and stuff. Or something.

Phoenix Wright 3: Trials and Tribulations (DS)

Well, I was right. I think. Certainly, Atmey was found to actually be Mask deMasque, but I'm not actually all that convinced any more. But, that was the end of the trial and Ron DeLite was found to be Not Guilty.

However, that wasn't the end of the chapter, as Ron has now been accused of murder! A murder which occurred at exactly the same time as the robbery he didn't commit.

Yoshi's Story (Wii)

Amazing!

This is actually only my third N64 purchase on the Wii Virtual Console. I have Mario 64, Mario Kart 64 and now this, which says something about the sort of N64 games I'm prepared to pay for again (I have them all already on the N64).

Didn't play it for all that long, but did complete the first level three times. And could have done it twenty times more. It's a great game!

Ico (PS2)

About 5 years ago, Ico was the most amazing game ever. Well, it was if you read the right reviews, anyway. Lots of people have told me that I can't be a proper gamer if I've never played it. Almost everyone seems to say it is fantastic, a real experience, and one of the best games ever made.

So today, I played it for the first time ever.

You know, in all the time I'd read about Ico, I never really knew what it was about. Guy with horns needs to escape from castle meets girl puzzles happen... that's it. Oh, and there's no HUD or anything. That's all I knew.

Two of the things I hate most in games are crate puzzles in games that are not crate pushing games (so Sokoban = Good, but in Broken Sword 3 = Bad) and escort missions.

Within ten minutes of starting Ico I had this nasty sinking feeling. I found the girl, and now have to escort her. Everywhere. For the entire game. And, with some crate-pushing (but not puzzles - yet) already, things do not bode well.

Other problems: the combat is meh, the fact the girl can't do anything for herself is annoying as you have to drag her everywhere (and when you have to leave her for a few seconds, she gets nabbed and you can't get back to her quick enough), and there's some strange hazy pixel effect on everything so it looks like an old MegaCD Cinepak FMV game. Yeah, the graphics are great, but you get the feeling the pixelly thing is covering some sort of hardware limitation.

Oh, and when you die, you got back miles and have to do tedious crap again.

So no, I'm not enjoying it. I spent an hour on it and didn't really like any of it. I've been told on rllmuk that if I don't like it yet, I'm not going to, so I'm thinking I might just give up now rather than sit through the rest of the game. Probably.

And triangle for jump just seems wrong.

Every Extend Extra Extreme (360)

Since I don't fancy the "unlimited mode" test of stamina any more (the game gets easier the longer you play, meaning the only way you can die is if you force yourself), I tried some of the timed modes and achieved scores that put me around the middle of my friends leaderboard.

I then thought I'd try the "Wiz Ur Muzik" mode, and set about sampling "Run On The Spot" by Bentley Rhythm Ace. With that done, I then couldn't find a way of actually playing the game with the "sampled" track - it just told me that songs I had chosen hadn't been beat-matched and so won't affect gameplay (or something). What a waste of time.

Phoenix Wright 3: Trials and Tribulations (DS)

OK, so there's a twist already. Basically, Mask deMasque has been "caught", but it's not actually him. It's someone who thinks he's Mask deMasque. Which means that Ace Detective Luke Atmey is still my main suspect - not least because, after searching his "office", I find he's trying to become famous for, well, anything. I'm betting he created this character Mask deMasque so he could then "capture" him, making him famous. Or something.

Apparently one of the treasures stolen by deMasque was the "Jewel of Emanon". Emanon being "No name" backwards. Hmm...

Also, there's been a lot of flashbacks and plot filling relating to Maya, Maya's mother, Pearl, and the Kurain Village in general. I expect some sort of tie-in (aside from the stolen urn) at some point. Perhaps with Misty Fey (Maya's mum) returning? We'll see!

Assorted 360 Demos (360)

Four game demos tested today. Three were new on the downloads and the other has been there a while but I haven't played it until now. Anyway - the games!

Battlestar Galactica:
Crap. It's basically the same game as Wing Commander Arena, which was also crap (and by the same people) with slightly different graphics. Rubbish.

Guitar Hero III:
AMAZING. But then, that was obvious, yes?

Exit:
Would be great if it ran at least three times faster than it does. What idiot thought that making a puzzle (or rather, "pazzle", as the dashboard describes it) game which is against the clock run at a snail's pace would be a good idea? Stupid.

Virtua Fighter 5:
Ooooh! Looks fantastic, plays well, just... I don't know. I've not really played a 3D fighter I've really enjoyed since Soul Calibur 2, and although this seems excellent, I'm not sure I want to bother with it.

Phoenix Wright 3: Trials and Tribulations (DS)

Hurrah! Case 1 WON! I'm surprised, actually, that nothing more was made of the umbrella that Doug was holding, as it was very much like Dollie's... anyway.

So Case 2 then. So far, I'm convinced the Ace Detective bloke ("Luke Atmey" - ha!) is actually the same person as Mask deMasque. The urn (Mystic Ami's urn, from Phoenix Wright 2) has been nicked, and Adrian Andrews is back too. Not a murder then? Well, yet...

Phoenix Wright 3: Trials and Tribulations (DS)

This isn't really a suitable game to play in short bursts. It certainly isn't how I played the previous two in the series, anyway, but for some reason I've only been grabbing 30 minutes here and there. It'll make the game last longer, for sure, but it's also making remembering facts so as to find contradictions somewhat harder. Maybe I need a notebook?

Wait! Make the next game have a built-in notebook like in Hotel Dusk! Genius!

Anyway, I've got Dollie (not Dottie as previously reported) on the run now, having tied her to a previous murder. Can't be long before I've "won" this case then, yes?

MySims (Wii)

Four stars get! After spending some time finishing off the arcade cabinets for Vic Vector (and being disappointed that despite their varying themes, they all only played Plane vs Eye), and providing the sushi chef with a karaoke machine, I was awarded the fourth star. Hurrah!

I could then "unlock" the padlocks on assorted doors, letting me explore some new areas, like the scrap car yard, the beach (where I spent ages fishing) and a few more caves. I managed to find some spiders too, so I could finish the bed that Goth Boy wanted me to build, but then he asked for a bath as well!

Carcassonne (360)

Two more games of this with my wife today, both of which I won. Hurrah for me!

I didn't let her win even though it is her birthday today.

MySims (Wii)

Today's play was a frenzy of building items for people. Lots of items. Lots and lots of items. Sadly, not enough items though, as I still haven't reached a 4 star rating.

It didn't help that I had to go and find a billion octopuseseseseii, and they're pretty rare, coming up out one time in ten when you're fishing in the lake. Anyway, Ms Nicole is fully sorted, and I think (hope!) that Sushi Chef and Vic Vector are both asking for their final items, as I've made fahzands for each already.

Three arcade cabinets, says Vic! WHAT

Bioshock (360)

So I went back to the game to find other stuff. I reloaded the save from just before taking the lift to the final boss, then made my way back through the game. Went to Fort Frolic first of all to spend all my money on the slot machines (although I got it all back when I hit the jackpot, as required for an achievement), and then I set about exploring elsewhere for more "Power to the People" weapon upgrade points. I didn't find any, but did find some areas I'd previously missed.

Bioshock (360): COMPLETED!

I was right - there was very little else to do. I had to assemble the parts of a Big Daddy for reasons I can't really say, and then with the help of a Little Sister I made it into a museum, where Fontaine was waiting for me. Well, once I'd got through the museum, anyway.

Unfortunately, the museum was pretty much an escort mission, which I hate. You have to stop a Little Sister from being killed as she leads you round the museum and through doors only they can open. Thankfully, I could scout ahead and hack some cameras and turrets to be on my side, helping when the splicers attacked. Amazingly, my third (and last possible) photo of the final camera in the game was just enough to get the maximum research for them, and thus the achievement for "PhD Research".

Once through the museum, it was the final showdown with a spliced up Fontaine. A very easy to kill spliced up Fontaine at that. It was soon over, and I'd only used one first aid kit and barely half a "tank" of Eve.

So, that's it. I am tempted to go back round Rapture with an earlier save to get the achievements for Jackpot and Weapons Specialist, though.

Bioshock (360)

With everything done in Olympus Heights, it was off to Apollo Square (the run down part of town) to find some more formula. That wasn't too difficult, but I'm getting a little concerned I'm very close to the end of the game now and haven't taken all the photos I could have done. Managed to get the last shots of the Little Sisters and turrets, but I've hardly taken pictures of the security cameras at all.

Anyway, found Atlas' hideout in Apollo Square, killed some more Big Daddies and rescued Little Sisters, and my plasmids are back to normal again now.

Then I went to Point Prometheus, which is the place where they seem to create Little Sisters and Big Daddies. Haven't done much here yet, aside from kill a couple more Big Daddies and rescue the last Little Sisters (netting me an achievement). I'm really close to the end now - this is the build-up (and power up!) for the final battle!

Phoenix Wright 3: Trials and Tribulations (DS)

Yes, it is going very slow. Partly because I'm not playing for long each sitting, and partly just because that's how the game is.

Still great so far though! Phoenix has been dropped in it a bit by his girlfriend Dottie, who was supposed to be defending him but ended up making it worse. Mind you, I'm with Mia in that she was clearly pretending to cover for him, and now she's lying.

Mia doesn't like her either, as she isn't too keen on the way all the men in the courtroom are fawning over her...

Bioshock (360)

With the bomb in the core, Ryan decided it was best to just completely destroy Rapture. Obviously. Not only that, but when I found him, he made me kill him. Very odd.

Then... a big fat spoiler. Which makes the next bit somewhat hard to mention, really. I got out of Ryan's office, and met up with Tenenbaum and all the Little Sisters. More revelations occurred, and it now seems that Fontaine (who isn't dead after all) is the guy to go after.

I made it to Olympus Heights, killed Cohen (who decided he loved me and wanted me dead as a result - freak) in his apartment, found a formula which has made all my plasmids go nuts, and now I'm off to find some more of it. Of course!

Also managed a few more achievements today, including maxing out all my tonic tracks and some more research, as well as some normal story-progression ones.

Phoenix Wright 3: Trials and Tribulations (DS)

Hurrah! It's Phoenix Wright!

Playing this was very odd. Firstly because it's exactly like the others in the series -the same art, sound and even characters. Secondly, because the first case is set before the first game, with me as Mia Fey (who is killed at the start of the first game) defending a young Phoenix. It feels very strange, to say the least.

I've not played much yet, though, just enough to get through the first two testimonies. I kept failing on the second one, because I forgot to re-press on one statement and choose the other of two options open to me. Tch, eh?

Speedball 2 (Demo) (360)

I always loved Speedball 2. Sadly, I do not love this. I don't know why, as it seems to be pretty much the same game. It plays faster than I recall, and it's harder to punch the other team members to the ground, but I can't see how I've gone from liking it so much to not really ever wanting to play it ever again. Oh well.

Every Extend Extra Extreme (360)

There's been a lot of hype about this around the newsgroups and forums I post in, so I was pretty sure E4 was going to be ace.

And it is. Sort of. The thing is, it's not so much a game - more a test of will, staying power and stamina. The main game mode has a time limit of 3 minutes, which you can extend by collecting power-ups. These power-ups are so common, however, that you can easily time extend indefinitely. Which probably explains my 21,667,000,000,000 score on my first go, putting me 75th in the world. I could have carried on quite easily, but I'd been playing for almost two hours solid as it was and I was getting a little bored so just let the time run out.

Played "Revenge" mode then for a bit. It's very different, being basically a Geometry Wars sort of shooter. It was fun, and I got to Level 20 before I died.

Sonic Rush Adventure (DS)

It would appear that my upgraded water bike thing (that'd be "jetski" then) still isn't nearly fast enough to beat Johnny the Torpedosharkrobot for the remaining Chaos Emeralds.

So, I won't be getting them any time soon then.

Bioshock (360)

So today I was mostly progressing through Hephaestus, which involved killing lots of Big Daddies, and collecting bits for a bomb (many of which were on the Big Daddies - hence their increased prevalence in this areas, it would seem). At one point, I had two Big Daddies in the room at the same time, and I had hoped that the "Hypnotise Big Daddy" plasmid might allow me to get them to fight each other, but it didn't seem to work when there were two in the room at once.

So I killed them using my New Best Favourite Big Daddy Killing Technique instead: fire loads of shock bolts across a corridor between you and the Big Daddy, then shoot him with your pistol. He gets angry, runs through all the bolts (getting injured by each) and, if you've done it right, drops down dead at your feet. It's wise to have a shotgun ready though, just in case...

I think I can stop saying Big Daddy now.

Sonic Rush Adventure (DS): COMPLETED!

Phew! It's about time I completed another game. Haven't completed one in weeks! So there was just one more set of levels (well, aside from repeating a few hidden ones to pick up items I'd seem previously but it wouldn't let me collect) - the pirate's base in the old ruins. It was pretty easy, and the face-off with Captain Whisker and Johnny was alarmingly simple.

Of course, there was a reall boss after that - a giant robot thing - who was also easy.

Now, it'd be nice to go and collect all the Chaos Emeralds, just the last three are plainly impossible. I have, however, upgraded my water bike, so that may help matters.

Bioshock (360)

So, into Fort Frolic I went. It's clearly the "entertainment" area of Rapture, with a casino, a theatre, a record studio and a strip bar. It's also run by Cohen, who is a complete loon and asked me to dispense with four other people around Fort Frolic, take their photos, and add them to "an art" he was creating.

I half expected to have to kill him, but no. I did kill three more Big Daddies and saved the Little Sisters they were protecting. These Big Daddies were like the ones on the box for the game, but were called "Bouncer" and "Elite Bouncer". I don't know what that means.

I've also maxed out some more research and bought some more "slots" for tonics.

Bioshock (360)

Ran through Arcadia, killed a few more Rosies (are they really Big Daddies?) and rescued a couple more Little Sisters. Ryan decided it'd be good to kill all the plants in the area, so I had to find some ingredients with which to create a formula to revive them all.

This meant finding the Farmers Market, and an area past it where there were lots of bees, seaching their nests for stuff, then finding a wine factory where I had to get some distilled water. Made it back to the lab where I could administer the Lazarus formula to bring plants back from the dead, and then moved on to Fort Frolic.

Also managed to upgrade my pistol today, as well as find a chemical gun, make use a loads of "U-Invent" stations to build things, and increase the numbers of slots I have in my tonic "tracks" for more power-ups.

Mario's Super Picross (Wii)

It would appear that Level 7 isn't the final level at all. Far from it. I managed to complete the remaining five puzzles on Level 6, then all the Level 7 puzzles, and Mario unlocked Levels 8, 9 and 10 for me. More!

Not just more either - these are 20x20 puzzles (Levels 4, 5, 6 and 7 are 15x15). The first one was clever too - the was a picross of a picross puzzle!

MySims (Wii)

I got loads done on this today, but my "score" didn't alter at all. I think it only goes up when you're created everything a specific resident has asked you for, that's the only explanation.

So I moved two more people in (the sushi chef and Vic Vector, the arcade guy who is ACE and says "Oh noes!"), built loads of items for Goth Boy, Ms. Nicole, the sushi chef and Vic, explored a bit more (finding chess piece trees!), propected for video games (as you do) and cut down and planted loads of trees.

Mario's Super Picross (Wii)

Completed Level 5 at last! Also completed four Level 6 puzzles without any problems. Still no Nintendo themed pictures, although I did have a monkey.

Puzzle Quest (Demo) (360)

I really enjoyed Puzzle Quest on the DS, but part of what made it so great was the DS itself. It was portable, easy to turn on for just a quest or two, and had touch control which makes a lot of sense with this game.

The XBLA version isn't bad. It can't be - it's almost exactly the same game - but it isn't right. I can't bring myself to buy a game I already have in a form that makes it less fun and less convenient to play.

Yaris (360)

HAHAHAHAHA! Oh my, what a crap game.

It's Stun Runner, only with crap weapons and coins to collect. Oh, and you're driving a Toyota Yaris with on of Doctor Octopus' tentacles sticking out of the bonnet. And there's no accelerator - the game takes care of that bit for you.

Played the first three levels, then played online against some other people. Other people who kept quitting on the finish line because I won. Stupid other people.

I don't even think this game was worth the Free I paid for it. Nasty!

Project Gotham Racing 4 (Demo) (360)

It's Project Gotham, only with better graphics and BIKES. I don't know what else to say, really. It's great, of course, and the bikes add something a little different to it, but I'm slightly concerned by the intro. It shows slips from each city in the game, and loads of them are the same cities as in previous games. In fact, some of the tracks even appear to be the same.

As a result, yes - I'm going to buy it, but I'll wait until the certain price cut. Besides, I still have a ton of Forza 2 to get done...

Conan (Demo) (360)

Hack slash slash slash thrust stab jump slash hack jump stab slash slash hack slash stab throw hack slash slash stab hack hack jump...

Oh, and "pull lever" and "open cage".

Well, it was fun, but I'm not sure I could cope with a whole game of that.

Tetris Splash (360)

People have stopped playing this online already?! It's been out less than a week! Managed to find just one single game, which was in progress. When it finished, the host didn't bother starting another game and one by one all the players gave up waiting and quit. As did I.

So played Marathon Mode, reaching Level 17 (I think) with a score that puts me at around 7000th in the world. Rubbish!

The Simpsons (Demo) (360)

It's a fight against Lard Lad! It has a "par time" of 4 minutes! It took me 28!

It is, however, AMAZING, and I'm almost certainly going to be buying the full game.

Bioshock (360)

As I was leaving Neptune's Bounty on the way to the submarine, I was told I hadn't harvested or rescued all the Little Sisters in the area. I hadn't actually seen any, so I had no idea where they were. I looked around a bit and found a couple more Big Daddies (who were pretty easy to kill with my grenade launcher thing) with Little Sisters in tow. Rescued them both, but forgot to "buy" anything with my Adam. Oh well.

Then it was off to the submarine, which somehow blew up (something to do with Andrew Ryan, I think). Now I've just stepped into Arcadia...

Bioshock (360)

Sometimes a game comes along which is great, but I don't actually play it because I feel I have too many other, shorter, games that I should be getting out of the way so I can play it uninterrupted. In some cases, those great games just never seem to get played at all - I still haven't really started Zelda on the Wii yet, even though I've owned it for the best part of a year.

For some reason, I played Bioshock today. I was going to wait until Sonic Rush Adventure was completed and I'd tired of MySims, but I was in the mood for some shootin' and stuff rather than runnin' and jumpin' and/or buildin' and growin'. So, how did I do?

Well, I died a lot. Of course, technically you never actually die as such - you're regenerated over and over - but you know what I mean. I've killed a couple of "bosses" (if you can call them that), passed through the Medical Facility and into Neptune's Bounty. I found my first Little Sister, and because I'm Nice and Good I saved her rather than harvested her. I hope that doesn't make the game more difficult in the future though.

I've killed a few Big Daddies. Although I think, in fact, only one was actually a Big Daddy as only one had a Little Sister in tow. The rest appeared to be called "Rosie" anyway, and they're all a bit bloody hard. I also had to go on a photographing spree to get into what seemed to be a cold store, where I had to fight a bloke Atlas seemed to think was on my side as well as a million Splicers. And now it's on to the next bit!

MySims (Wii)

Hmm. I really should get round to scanning the box in for this. And adding it to my Museum. But anyway.

Spent about an hour or so mainly just moving new people in. I put everyone (that is, Ms Nicole, Goth Boy and Matt) in the desert, mainly because I'm running out of space in the town. Planted a couple of trees in the desert too.

I then set about pleasing my new residents. Everyone seemed to want beds, so I made lots of beds. Goth Boy also wanted a sofa, so I completely deviated from the blueprint to do an acebest sofa for him, made out of pure sadness. Seriously. Actually, I don't know why he's called "Goth Boy" because he's clearly Emo and not Goth, but you can't expect EA to know the difference, can you?

Carcassonne (360)

Played some games of this with my wife again this evening. The extra features of the recent expansion do make things different, and, in fact, my wife won a game for the first time in ages.

I think I'll be turning that expansion off from now on.

Thrillville: Off The Rails (Demo) (360)

It's The Sims crossed with Rollercoaster Tycoon with added minigames! And it isn't very good! Well, the main game itself isn't very good. Building coasters is great (and you've loads of control over the track route, heights, corner angles, etc.), but most of the minigames (in the demo at least) are dull and the graphics are really quite bad. And, for some reason, the camera just "sticks" when you're controlling your character, meaning you sort of run off into the distance and the camera doesn't follow. Very odd.

However! One of the minigames, Stunt Rider or something, is ACES. OK, so it's just a clone of a Flash-based physics demo from a few years ago, but I had geleventyzwillion times more fun on that than the whole of the rest of the demo. Why not just release that as an XBLA title and not bother with the whole game, yes?

Centipede and Millipede (360)

Wow. It's been ages since I played this. I'd completely forgotten I had it, actually. Played both games for a while today, netting myself a few more achievements in the process, and totally annihilating The Rev's scores. Well, some of his scores anyway.

It seems to be a lot easier than last time I played it - Millipede especially. I don't know why that is.

Carcassonne (360)

The "Kings and Barons" expansion pack for this appeared during the week, but since I'd spent the last points I had on Tetris Splash and my credit card had been stolen by the postman so I couldn't buy any more. Today, however, I had my new card and it was put into immediate service, buying some points.

Played (in single player) a few games with the new expansion (and all the previous ones active too), and it really does change the way you have to think about playing. First of all, there's a few extra tiles available, so some previously unusable configurations are now possible. Secondly, you now have a King and a Baron (who can be the same person): The player who completes the biggest castle (even if they don't ultimately own it) is King, and gets an end-of-game bonus of an extra point for each completed castle (regardless of who owns it). Similarly, the Baron is the person who completes the longest road and gets a point per completed road at the end of game.

It seems to add a bit of Catan-ness to the game, and will effect how I play as I usually don't bother with trying for big castles and roads, instead being content with small castles (but lots of them) and maximum farmage.

Sonic Rush Adventure (DS)

I think I may have done a couple of levels in the wrong order, as the ice level I've just finished was not only much easier than Sky Babylon, but also before it in the Stage Select list. The boss was bizarre - a giant metallic whale you smack on the nose before jumping inside and finding what looks like it could be a huge tonsil and smacking that too. Amazing.

It's also "nice" to see The Laws Of Platform Games in full effect, what with the ice level and all. Now all we need is a mine cart level! Even Super Paper Mario had that.

MySims (Wii)

Didn't move anyone in today, and didn't make much in the way of furniture either. I was far too distracted with growing trees and exploring with the use of my new pickaxe, which allowed me to access new areas, including a cave containing pumpkin, black apple, eyeball and ghost trees (yes, ghosts grow on trees now) as well as the whole desert area.

I did, however, create a sink and a bath for Bee Girl (who does have a real name - Roxie Roads - but I keep forgetting it).

Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (Demo) (360)

Had a single game of this tonight, with me playing France vs Turkey. I never have been a big sports game fan, although Sensible Soccer is amazing and PES4 on the Xbox and FIFA '06 on the DS both got quite a bit of play.

And this is pretty good too. I don't really know the controls (only pass and shoot, and tackle), and I managed to get a red card within five seconds of kickoff, then proceeded to lose 1-0, but I enjoyed it all the same. I don't think I'll be buying it, unless I see it for a tenner.

Tetris Splash (360)

I'm not that huge a fan of Tetris you know. Yeah, it's alright, but I was never one of those people who could sit and play it for hours. I always prefered Columns. Well, until Puyo Puyo existed, anyway. I think it's the combo and/or chaining system of other well-based puzzle games that appeals to me, and Tetris doesn't have one.

But I bought it anyway, even though it has the broke-the-original "additions" of other recent Tetris titles - you can see several blocks in advance, you can rotate blocks forever, there's a "ghost" of the block you're dropping in the bottom of the well, you can hold a piece for later... that sort of thing.

It's OK though. Played a few games of Marathon Mode, gaining a few achievements, and then went online and played (and lost) a few 6-player games there as well. The guys I was playing kept complaining about "the grey line" that kept rising up as other players got rid of lines, and saying how it "ruins the game". I don't understand - that's the point of multiplayer Tetris, isn't it? One of them even suggested the lines should appear in the well of the person who is winning! What!?

Idiots!

Sonic Rush Adventure (DS)

Bumped into Johnny The Torpedo Shark Robot Thing first of all, but couldn't beat him. He gets far too far ahead right away, so launching stuff at him doesn't work (they don't hit him), and I can't boost to catch up as he's too fast. So I gave up on him.

Instead, I explored another couple of islands, and then stumbled across Sky Babylon, which was actually pretty difficult with lots of electro-floor insta-deaths and precision jumping. I found a problem with the jumping too: When you move right, the "viewport" of the screen adjusts to move Sonic further to one side of the screen. This is to allow you to see a bit further ahead when moving at speed. However, if you jump just a little to the right, say, then stop, Sonic appears to jump up, right, then left on his own, before moving to the right again as you stop. Of course, he doesn't, but it makes difficult jumps harder than they need to be as it feels like you're been blown backwards.

But finished it in the end, and the boss was pretty ace too, so it wasn't all bad.

MySims (Wii)

I've spent almost 8 hours on this now, and today reached a Three Star town rating. Hurrah! Moved a few more people in, including Bee Woman (who has a real name, but she is a woman, dressed as a bee) who has an ice cream shop, and Gordon (who looks like Gordon Freeman from Half-Life. He likes books.

Built each of them a few items of furniture, and found in the process of prospecting for Gingerbread Men (for Bee Woman) that the time of day affects what you find.

I also found a ghost! At first, I thought it was just some sort of graphical glitch, but it appeared again and tried to actually scare me. Amazing!

Mario's Super Picross (Wii)

Six more puzzles today, and my first failure. I failed because I made three mistakes, all accidental due to either pressing the wrong button or being unable to count to seven.

Still no Nintendo themed puzzles though.