More Brain Training (DS)

25.

Bah.

More Brain Training (DS)

Back to 22 today :)

Viva Pinata Party Animals (360)

Well, we played it for a bit, at least. Got a couple of competitions done (I won both), but then it crashed. And that was it. It no longer plays at all. I put the disc in, the screen goes black, and the 360 freezes.

When I take the disc out, it's marked. If I clean the marks off and try again, exactly the same thing happens and the disc gets marked again. Gah!

I think my 360 is knackered.

More Brain Training (DS)

Bah. 23 today. I don't know what went wrong.

Viva Pinata Party Animals (360)

This arrived today, so my wife and I played it a lot this evening. It's very easy to unlock achievements, isn't it? I got 200-odd points in the first game!

It's much better than I recall the demo being, but it's no Mario Party. Still fun though, especially as I won every game.

Then it crashed and told me there was no disc in the drive. Pff.

More Brain Training (DS)

22 again! Wooo!

Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland (DS)

Really getting into this now, even though it is almost entirely guesswork. I think it's the high rating it scores on the Quirkometer. And I do like games with high quirkery.

My bodyguard died, and I hired another (a clown) who was totally useless. Hurrah! And I found a load of pearls, sold them, and made loads of money. And paid the Village People construction worker bloke to fix a bridge. And mapped some stuff.

Amazing scenes!

Tomb Raider Anniversary (360)

It's odd, but I seem to start new games on Sunday evenings more often than at any other time. So today, in this strange tradition, I started Tomb Raider Anniversary.

It has been a long time since I played the Saturn original, but it certainly is different. Of course, it has the Tomb Raider Legend engine behind it now, and the graphics are much improved, but so far it isn't really all that familar. The grid-based areas are much less grid-based, and the initial snowy area seemed awfully short, but it could just be my mind playing tricks.

It's good though. Not as good as Legend, but I'm enjoying it. I've managed to get about an hour in so far, past the first water puzzle and the giant door with two weights.

More Brain Training (DS)

The confusion continues! I did worse on all three tests than I did yesterday, and got an age of 22 - one year better than yesterday.

I think the maths in this game is up the spout. OH! THE IRONING!

N+ (360)

Right. This is now getting too hard. It's not fun any more, and every level is becoming a million-attempt slog because you have to be pixel-perfect with every jump and micro-second accurate to avoid baddies.

It's a shame, as I'm only half-way through the game. I can't see me liking the rest at all if it keeps this up.

More Brain Training (DS)

I'm even more confused now. I did worse than yesterday, only ended up with an improved age: 23. I seem to recall similar anomalies in the first game too. How odd.

I then played Hard Mode of Germ Buster for a bit. It's very hard - not least because you have three "pills" dropping at once.

N+ (360)

Eh? The game had forgotten that I've played Episodes 5, 9, 11, 12, 13 and 14. Even though I still had leaderboard entries for them, and I only played them in order. How very odd.

So I played them all again, and as before, got stuck on the final level of Episode 14. It's very, very hard. I died so many times, I got the "You've died 1000 times!" achievement. I did manage it, finally, however, and quickly got through 15, 16 and 17.

I then played online for a while, on ranked mode, playing random people on Race and Survival games. It was pretty good, and, unlike 95% of all ranked modes in all other games I've ever played ever, I wasn't completely crap!

XNA Creators Club Demos (Demo) (360)

A few games appeared on this new section of XBLA this week. I downloaded them all and played each for a bit this evening.

Culture:
Simple minigame with two WTF minigames.

Jellycar:
Good idea, far too hard to control.

Little Gamers:
Looks nice, plays like crap.

ProximityHD:
Decent multiplayer puzzley strategy game.

Rocketball:
Awful.

The Dishwasher:
Excellent, although loading after every screen? WHAT

TriLinea:
Meh.

More Brain Training (DS)

Today's age was 26, even though I did better on two tests than yesterday, and was only very slightly (less than a second) over on the other one. Very odd.

It would seem that, like the older Brain Age (the US version of the first Brain Training game) the minimum brain age possible is actually 20. Bah.

More Brain Training (DS)

25!

I can't see how to actually improve that though. Is 25 the minimum for this game? It was 20 for the original.

N+ (360)

Right. That's all the tutorial and the first 13 episodes (each with five levels) now completed. However, I am stuck. The 4th level on the 14th episode is a million times harder than anything I've yet come across. It has three missile launchers in the middle, which prevent me from progressing at all, let alone hitting the three impossible-to-reach switches needed. Grr!

N+ (360)

I tried the demo, was instantly hooked, so bought the full game. I'd played the Flash version a few months ago, but was slightly put off by the controls - keys don't seem to work well with it. No such problems with the 360 pad though!

It's brilliant. I've done up to Episode 5 and most of the Tutorial mode so far, and haven't foundany particularly hard levels yet. Mind you, there are about 375 left to do...

More Brain Training (DS)

Hmm. 27.

It's a small slide, but a slide nonetheless. Badness!

Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland (DS)

With the first boss dead, I went over to the pool near my house and chucked pretty much all my rupees in. This made the pool rise into the air, as a tower, and the bloke-in-a-nappy reappeared - now in a suit. Hmm. Get the impression he's making you work for him?

The tower allowed me to access the next area (or continent, as the game calls it, although they're a bit small for that, I'd say). I wandered round there for a bit, hired another bodyguard, and beat some baddies up with him. I'm out of money (well, almost) now, so can't do anything else until I do some cooking and selling.

More Brain Training (DS)

25 today. Improving!

Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland (DS)

I had some time before bed, and my DS was out anyway (for the brain games), and so I thought I'd have a quick go. So I've done the first dungeon, along with a bodyguard I had to pay (twice!) which was pretty easy. I'm not sure I like the combat (run into baddies, hammer the screen), but the dungeon puzzles - and sound effects - are suitably Zelda-esque. Which is good!

The boss was pretty good, if a little simple. Tingle gets his balloons (from Link's Awakening!) and has to drop bombs on a giant slug-thing's eyes. Aces!

More Brain Training (DS)

27! Woo!

More Brain Training (DS)

My age is down to 38 today. Still rubbish, but better than 45!

Commanders: Attack (360)

Up to mission 8 now. This really is very good, especially when, like on mission 6, I completely obliterated the enemy using a million tanks and light artillery, finishing the mission without losing a single unit and with full health. Aces!

Mission 7 was a "stay alive for X rounds" mission, and the first to have enemy aircraft. My advisor recommended I use anti-air units, but they were really underpowered and could be destroyed by a gunship in one turn. Heavy infantry was the way to go!

Commanders: Attack (360)

After several more attempts, I finally figured out that using the woman as the CO for Mission 3 was a bad idea and Alex was far better, especially if I kept all my units close. As a result, on my first attempt with him, I beat it without losing a single unit.

Mission 4 was easy, and Mission 5 started off badly but I won in the end. Hurrahs!

Frontlines: Fuel of War (Demo) (360)

Another week, another dull soldier game. This one tries to be different by having the concept of a "front line" (hence the name), which you push forward by taking ground, and lose by, well, having ground taken back.

Sadly, this doesn't really mean a lot, as you still have your (yawn) same types of unit - sniper, gunner, etc. - as every other dull and boring soldier game, and it plays much the same as the others.

It looks OK, although the texture and shadow draw-in is rubbish.

Overall verdict: Meh.

Some Brain Games (DS)

Maths Training and More Brain Training both arrived today, so I gave them both a go.

The former seems a bit shallow. Yeah, I know they're not supposed to be game-games, but still - there's only really variations on simple sums. Surely they could have been more creative, and it remain maths-based?

The latter is much better. Aside from the return of the Sudoku puzzles, it's all new since the first Brain Training game. There's a rock-paper-scissors game, a "count the change" game, and even a "hidden" version of Dr Mario.

Both games, however, are having problems recognising my 8s. I draw them the opposite way to how the game expects, so it keeps thinking they're 6s or 0s. I had this problem with the older title too, but I don't remember it being so profound.

Half-Life 2: Episode Two (360): COMPLETED!

Whatwhatwhat? It's less than five hours long? Those people telling me it's 8 or 9 hours are bloody liars. Mind you, they also said Episode One was 5 hours and I did it in three and a half. Anyway.

But what an amazing five hours it was. Better in every way than Episode One, improving on even Half Life 2 itself - partly graphically, but mainly because of the number of quality, epic set pieces. The ambush in the village, the Hunter attack, and, especially, the final fight.

At the end of Episode One, there was a fight against a single Strider in an enclosed space. It was pretty poor, to be honest, not to mention easy. The end of Episode Two, however? How about 10 Striders and a swarm of Hunters, with a new weapon to take them down? Epic!

Now Valve - let us have Episode Three nice and quick, yes?

Half-Life 2: Episode Two (360)

So I came out of the bit I was in, found a car (which required completion of a see-saw puzzle - a HUGE see-saw puzzle), and then Alyx and I set off for The White Forest again, without the Vortigaunt. I was worried the car bit was going to be like the car bit from Half Life 2, but thankfully was far less annoying.

Partly because I can run zombies down in it. Ace! Then I found an old building with a radio transmitter, but in the process of exploring it some Hunters attacked. They're a bit like a cross between a Strider and an Ant-lion, sort of, with electric shooty wires. The best way to kill them was to throw heavy objects at them - aceness!

So a helicopter started chasing me, and I took cover in a train yard, where some rebels were stationed. I helped them take down the chopper (by chucking its bombs back at it), and then had to navigate a junk yard full of zombies and soldiers to take out some autoguns. With that done, it was back on the road, looking for Lambda weapons caches on the way.

Half-Life 2: Episode Two (360)

Gah, dammit. The perils of leaving games you don't want to play yet in your console. I saw it there, on the 360 dashboard, and couldn't help myself and started playing it.

So far: very good. It's different to both Half-Life 2 and Episode One, mainly because you're not in or around the city. It's also improved graphically a little too, especially character models. The HUD has had a few tweaks as well, and the flashlight and oxygen meters are no longer one and the same.

Most of the play so far has been in and around some mines and ant-lion tunnels, mostly accompanied by a Vortigaunt who is either overly praising of my endeavors, or is incredibly sarcastic. I fell through a hole into a pit, and he said something like "The Freeman is very thorough in his exploration".

I then came out of the mines and found myself having to kill not one, but two ant-lion guardians. Thankfully, I had cover and help from the Vortigaunt. Now I'm in some sort of warehouse full of zombies and headcrabs, while Alyx and the alien cover me using a sniper rifle. Woo!

NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams (Wii)

Hmm. I don't know what to think. On the up side, it's more varied than the original game, with several missions for each level (such as save the Nightopians, a boating mission, and so on). On the down side, they're not great.

I think if this had been a Dreamcast game, it would have been a winner. Sadly, games have now moved on from collecting things as you steer a boat.

Anyway, I've done all of the first set of missions for Will, tried (and failed to beat the boss at the end of) the first mission on the second level for Will, and done the first mission and boss on the first level for Helen.

Adventures of Lolo 2 (Wii)

It would seem that this game has one power-up over the original - a hammer to smash rocks. Possibly this was in the first game too, but I don't recall it.

Anyway, I'm not on Floor 5. Woo!

Commanders: Attack (360)

Cripes. It got very hard very quickly, didn't it? I'm only on Mission 3, and I've tried it four times now and still can't manage it.

I was under the impression that the artillery unit you come across was pretty much the only real danger, and after finally dispatching of it (leaving me with just some heavy infantry units) I thought there was just a couple of light infantry left to kill. Easy!

Or not, as I turned a corner and there was the Genos CO complete with reinforcements. Splat!

Sensible World of Soccer (360)

I don't know why I returned to this today, but I did. No online play, however, for two reasons: 1) they haven't patched it yet, so I would assume it's as crap and impossible to play as it was previously, and 2) no-one is playing online any more, presumably because of point 1.

So I played lots of friendlies offline, won a lot (playing as Parma), then completed a few leagues coaching "London Reds", eventually winning the Premier League. Aces!

Commanders: Attack (360)

Tried the demo, thought "OMG! It's Advance Wars!", and bought the full game. Played the training and first mission again once I'd bought it, and it really is very nice indeed.

I think the points system (you can attack twice if you move less) and the few other differences to Advance Wars will take some getting used to, but it's easing me in slowly so it shouldn't be a problem.

Adventures of Lolo 2 (Wii)

I bought and downloaded this for the VC at the weekend, but for reasons explained elsewhere, didn't really get a chance to play it. But today, I did. And very lovely it is to.

Basically, it's the same as the first game, which I played (and enjoyed) last year. If you don't recall, it's a Sokoban type game, where you have to collect hearts, then some treasure, then escape the room. However, you have to push blocks and take certain routes and avoid baddies (and, often, line of sight with baddies) to progress.

So far, I've made it half-way through Floor 3.

NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams (Wii)

I played the original Saturn NiGHTS last year when I was having a Saturn Game Playing Phase, and was shocked at how badly it had aged. I could forgive the graphics, but the gameplay was dull, shallow, repetitive and simply not fun.

Which meant I was sceptical about a new Wii version. And, sadly, it seems I was right to be. It's the same. Of course, I shouldn't really have expected anything else, should I? What I did expect, however, was some lovely graphics. Unfortunately, those on the Journey of Dreams, so far at least, have been sub-Dreamcast standard.

Seriously - Sonic Adventure looks a generation ahead of this. The "Dream Gate" area (new to this version) is especially poor quality, with dreary textures and jagged edges. Oh Sega, once again you have broken my heart!

Of course, I have only played the tutorial, the Dream Gate, and the first level (and boss), so things may improve, but this isn't the way to get me interested...

Half-Life 2: Episode One (360)

Erm, that was very quick. I know the game is meant to be short, but I'd heard around 5-6 hours. Imagine my surprise, then, when I killed the game's one and only Strider and then the game finished, just three and a half hours in.

So yes, it was good, but as well as it's length it didn't do anything new. The whole episode was made up of bits from Half-Life 2, only in a different order.

Time for another break before I play Episode Two, now. Maybe by the time I get round to completing that, there'll be an Episode Three ready to play. Besides, NiGHTS just popped through my letterbox...

Half-Life 2: Episode One (360)

With a few games since Half-Life 2 was completed, I felt it time to return to the story. I'd heard Episode One was pretty short too, so it'll be good for a quick play before starting something else.

So far, it's more of the same. Sort of. No crowbar though! There was a bit at the start getting back into the Citadel, stablising the core, then getting the hell out. Then a train crash, then a bit in a multistory car park, and then some running through the streets with ant-lions and snipers.

It's good and all, but I haven't got much in the way of weaponry (unlike the previous outing), and there haven't been any "OH! WOW!" moments yet either. Having Alyx follow round all the time isn't actually annoying (it's not an escort mission - I hate them), as she does help take out baddies for me, so that's OK.

Rez HD (360)

Gah! I swear this is harder than when I played it on the PS2. Or even on the Dreamcast. I just can't beat the Level 2 boss.

In fact, this time, I didn't even manage to reach it with better than just the starting "form" of your player. Rubbish.

Geometry Wars Galaxies (Wii): COMPLETED!

With two earlier levels completed on Silver (actually one was Silver, the other Gold), I had enough geoms to unlock the final planet. Which was really easy - I even got Gold on it!

So that's it - all done. Apart from going back and bettering my scores and leveling up the other drone states I'd not used much. Sweep and Turret are at max, Attack is almost there, but pretty much everything else is untouched.

After completing the game, I went back to Retro Evolved mode, and totally failed to beat my high score. Pff.

But what an excellent, excellent game. And for £17? Bargainlicious!

Geometry Wars Galaxies (Wii)

I've done all the levels now, bar the final planet on the final galaxy. I've got 140,000 geoms, and need 200,000 to unlock it - that's two more Bronze-to-Silver improvements.

I've just realised - why is each galaxy a galaxy? They're clearly solar systems. Hmm.

Poker Smash (Demo) (360)

Meh.

Geometry Wars Galaxies (Wii)

All these Geoms I've been collecting - hundreds of thousands of them - were all used up by the last few planets in the penultimate galaxy. Meaning I didn't have enough to open the final galaxy. So I went back to some earlier levels and managed Gold where previously, I'd only managed Bronze. That let me in, and with the first three planets there all Gold'ed, I'm back in huge credit!

Sadly, it costs LOADS to unlock each planet, so it looks like I'll need to get golds on them all in order to continue. Bah!

Geometry Wars Galaxies (Wii)

Right, I'm on the penultimate galaxy, and I've done three of the planets there. Not many left now! They're all getting a bit hard though, and I haven't managed a Silver rank in ages.

Geometry Wars Galaxies (Wii)

I don't really know what to write. I really love the game, but it's just "shoot stuff", so there's no real way of making an interesting diary post out of that...

I'm over halfway through unlocking the galaxies, though.

Geometry Wars Galaxies (Wii)

This just gets better! Every planet has a different "quirk", like you've only got one life, or you have huge splitting baddies, or there's no break from the action at all, or the "grid" is a maze with walls.

I've been powering up my Turret, which seems great for taking down huge swarms, especially on the more open levels. I had plenty of opportunity to power it up too, considering the number of times I had to attempt a level that needed 30 million points - just for Bronze!

Dewy's Adventure (Wii)

My Wii has had a quiet time of things recently (Eternal Sonata, Tony Hawk and Assassin's Creed saw to that), but with both Geometry Wars and Dewy arriving today, it's had a bit of a renaissance.

First impressions are... confused. The opening sequence is exactly the same graphical style as Eledees, with the same boy in it, and the same voice actor. The game itself, however, is totally different. It lies somewhere between Mercury Meltdown and, erm, something else. You tilt the controller to direct Dewy (a dew drop, hence his name) around the levels, collecting mushroom people. You can turn into ice or steam for a short period, allowing attacks and other moves.

So far, I've only spent about 40 minutes on it, completing the first four levels, and beating the first boss. It seems pretty good!

Geometry Wars Galaxies (Wii/DS)

That's right - Wii and DS. The Wii game arrived today, and, to my surprise, it lets you send a copy of a port of Retro Evolved to your DS. Hurrah!

First up was the Wii "Galaxies" mode. It is ACE. I was expecting a slight drop in clarity of visuals (over the 360 Retro Evolved) but there isn't really. It's just not HD, that's all. The level-based nature is a big difference to the game, but it works really well. I've worked through the first set of planets, and then two from the second set.

After that I had a go at the included Retro Evolved game, managing a feeble 300,000-ish points, ranking me 212th in the world. Ste Parker, of posting-in-ugvm "fame" is at 7th or 8th! Pff.

Finally, I played the DS version for a while, getting 360,000 points, even though it seemed much harder. How odd.

Assassin's Creed (360): COMPLETED!

That's right. Completed. Although I was only about half the way through yesterday, I played it rather a lot this afternoon. And this evening. Yeah, so pretty much all day. Oops.

Naturally, I assassinated the last few targets, leaving me with Robert - the guy who I ran from at the start of the game. However, he'd left a decoy in his place, so I had to go off to meet King Richard on the battlefield to tell him of Robert's treachery. This involved lots of tedious multi-participant fighting, which was just long rather than hard. In fact, most of the fights towards the end of the game turned into "block-and-counterattack" confrontations, making it all a bit samey.

After bumping off Robert, I learned something I'd suspected for a while - the real baddie, the guy behind everything to do with "the new world order" that was being set up, was none other than Al Maulim. The old guy in Masyaf. My teacher.

So I won't spoil the rest of the ending, but it finishes up in the lab having bumped Al Maulim off (finally - he was bloody hard!), and some truths are discovered. Oh, and exploring the lab and siderooms is a must afterwards too...

The verdict then. The good points are the story, the graphics, and the free-running across the rooftops. The down points are the annoyingly repetitive fighting (especially later in the game when you have to block every attack and can't just wade in) and the dodgy sensitivity of the wall running and ledge-grabbing when sometimes you can't climb up even though you know you can - it just won't let you, you have to climb down and back up the exact same bit to make it "work". The way the save points work is irritating too, since it saves for you, but sometimes you still have to go back a fair way if you quit and reload.

Having said all that, it's not a bad game at all, and is worth far more than the 5/10 scores some magazines (like EGM) seem to be giving it. I won't be going back to it to get all the flags, though - that'd just be silly.

Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland (DS)

It's the campest game in the world! And that's before you even open the box! Amazing scenes.

So, needing a break from Assassin's Creed, that I've played rather a lot today, I've gone for Something Completely Different. I wasn't really 100% sure what to expect of Tingle, assuming it'd be some sort of Zelda-lite. Well, it isn't. So far, it's been mostly about giving money away to dodgy geezers.

You see, the aim is to earn an unspecified amount of rupees, and chuck them into a pond. To earn rupees, you have to kill things, collect things, cook things, and do things for people. However, to get to talk to people, you mostly have to give them an unspecified amount of rupees. Then, they'll give you things to do, advice, and sell you things for an unspecified amount of rupees. Sometimes, you'll sell things to them, for an unspecified number of rupees.

Yes, that is a lot of unspecified numbers of rupees. In fact, so far, the game has been mostly giving people a random amounts of rupees, and often more rupees until they decide to do what you're after. Guesswork. It would appear that most of the gae is just guessing.

But... I'm still loving it. It's camp, and it's great. Um.

Assassin's Creed (360)

So I've killed the bloke in Jerusalem, and then it was off (via Massaf) to Damascus again, to kill a fat, and overtly gay, businessman who was holding a party just so he could poison all the guests. Amazing.

He was the easiest kill so far, and with him bumped off I went up a rank and got some more items, and then set off for Acre again. I've not done anything there yet, though.

So I'm enjoying the game, trying to avoid the annoying bits, but the thing which is actually holding my attention more is the hated-by-most "meta-story". That's the science-fictiony bit set in either the present day or near-future that's supposed to be a secret but the powars of the intarnets have ruined it, so it's not. Of course, the actual plot hasn't been given away (at least, I've not seen it), so it doesn't really matter. Besides, the secret is let out as soon as you leave the title screen.

Some preditions: the old guy who is head of the Assassins is going to be the end of game baddie. At some point, I'll escape the lab that I'm trapped in. And Desmond and Lucy will, well, you know. Tune in later for the results!

Turning Point: Fall of Liberty (Demo) (360)

What a pile of crap.

Assassin's Creed (360)

"Thez bin a mudder!"

If only the game was all in Taggart-speak. Imagine how ace it'd be then! Not that it's bad - it's just... varied. The running over the rooftops is excellent, and the fighting isn't too bad. I like some of the "investigation" things, but others are tedious. The horse riding from city to city is also pretty tedious.

The actual assassinations (so far - I've only done two) have been great, but the running away afterwards has mostly been luck-based. You can't really plan a route, as the leaps are too hit and miss and the guards sometimes give chase, other times don't.