Weekend Catchup

Played a few things this weekend:

Beautiful Katamari (360)
Me am cry. If I play the final level on Eternal mode, and collect absolutely everything (including The King), I can only get my Katamari up to 1,450,000km. Meaning 1,500,000 is, in fact, impossible - black hole or no black hole. With this revelation, I set about redoing levels again, making more and more planets so that I'll have some more to collect next time I try. Assuming the black hole doesn't eat me.

Galaga Legions (360)
I'm getting worse at this. I can barely make it as far as Level 3 now, let alone complete it. And I still can't complete Area 1 or 2 without losing a life. In more positive news, I'm still at the top of my leaderboard, but that probably just reinforces how difficult the game is.

Geometry Wars Evolved 2 (360)
Thankfully, nobody on my "to beat" list (that's parm, SomethingWitty, That Rev Chap, Lufferov and Zomoniac) has managed to overtake me on any of the scoreboards. I had a go at improving my standings on the Sequence and Pacifism tables, but didn't.

Ticket to Ride (360)
Four games against my wife, two won each.

Mr Driller Online (360)
Attempted Russia (3000m). Managed to reach 1800m. Rubbish.

Tiger Woods '09 Demo (360)
Golf: Tee it Up has better camera controls, and the speech and between-hole golfer animations just get in the way. PGA Tour hasn't been the same since it left the Amiga, and I won't be buying this when other, better, golf games exist.

Beautiful Katamari (360)

CONTROLLER SMASH!

It is completely impossible to complete the Astronomic Katamari achievement. Once you hit around 1,200,000km, you're automatically sucked into the black hole, regardless of where you seem to on the level. Most annoying thing ever!

Beautiful Katamari (360)

Played for an hour or so this evening, attempting the 1,500,000km Katamari where you have to avoid falling into the black hole. And failed, having fallen in at 1,300,000km. Grr!

I then played several levels in Time Attack mode, although didn't do especially well.

Castle Crashers Demo (360)

It's Guardian Heroes in cartoon form! Almost!

I played through to the boss (where the demo ends) and enjoyed it very much. It's very slick, very pretty, and lots of fun. But it's also 1200 points, and I'm not sure I can fork out that much for it. Yes, I realise that I paid the same for Braid, but that seemed... special somehow. Maybe another time I'll rethink it.

Civilisation Revolution (360): COMPLETED!

Aaaand done! Well, sort of. I've now completed the game as every single nation at least once, and in every possible way at least three times. So it's complete.

In terms of outstanding achievements, I have a few "do X on Deity difficulty" ones which simply are not going to happen, and the "win before 1000AD on King" which is plainly impossible. There's also a "don't change governments, and win on King" which should be possible, so I might give that a go.

Civilisation Revolution (360)

More victolys today, leaving just 3 leaders to complete the game as. The majority of my victolys so far have been via domination (because it's usually the first you get to) or tecnological (as it's the only way to win on the Lightning Round scenario.

Really am loving the game, though. Yeah, it's cut-down Civ. But it's also made-more-fun Civ.

Civilisation Revolution (360)

And another one down! This time I played as the Spanish, with the intention of playing for as long as possible and becoming as cultured as possible to coax more Great People to appear (there's an achievement for having seen all 48 of them). Sadly, although I won, I still have 8 missing people from the portrait gallery.

Civilisation Revolution (360)

I finally managed to get a city with more than 200 production per turn! Turns out the best way is to be the Americans, build a city next to as many mountains as possible, and then when you hit the Modern Era you build all the Wonders and buildings that bump up your production, then switch your people to only produce. Hurrah!

And then I won as the Americans too. 9 left!

Galaga Legions (360)

Well, having sorted out the multiplier issues I've been having (it would appear that "1G" is actually "16" and therefore the multiplier and not something else), I managed to get a score of just over 2.2 million. This takes me back to the top of my (now extended) friends list, but I still can't complete Area 3.

Civilisation Revolution (360)

Getting the achievement for building a city up to create over 200 resources per turn is impossible. Even on the easiest setting, using the Egyptians (as they get a production bonus), and focussing solely on developing a city for resource creation, I still ran out of moves before any of my cities passed 90 per turn.

Bah.

Assorted Xbox Demos (360)

Yes! It's the Irregular Xbox Demo Roundup Post!

Alone in the Dark
Oh my. How bad is this? From having to press a button to blink, to having to be positioned pixel-perfect in order to pick stuff up or open doors, to the stupid indestructible baddies who can only be defeated for good if you drag them to a fire. And it's too dark to see anything half the time. Awful.

SBK08
Supposedly, this is all about realism and simulation, whereas MotoGP isn't. I'd have a hard time telling the two apart. It isn't bad, but it wasn't really fun.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Seems pretty good, but needs some camera faults sorting out. I presume you can invert the look axes in the full game, and increase the sensitivity? As it stands, the "force throw" moves are mostly useless as you can't aim quickly enough. But reasonable. I would probably buy it if I were a fan of Star Wars and it was cheap.

Soul Calibur IV
Excellent, even if it does only last 45 seconds. I got up to Yoda and then it told me to buy the full game.

Civilisation Revolution (360)

Yeah, sorry. I'm addicted now. Played tonight and last night, but haven't had time to post about it.

Anyway, the game is ACE, I've completed it about 8 times now, played some of the Scenarios (Lightning Round is amazing), and generally been sucked into the game totally.

Again. Civ always does this, which is why I never bought Civ III or IV. Curses!

Galaga Legions (360)

I've said it before, and I'll say it again - I don't like shooters. Except Defender. And Geometry Wars. And Smash TV. And Side Arms. And Parodius. And Sol Feace. And Space Invaders. And Galaga. And Dominator.

But generally, I don't like shooters. So why did I buy this? Because it's BIG and SHOOTY and makes my eyes bleed, only bleed slightly less than GWE2 does. And it was by the Pac-man CE team, and that was amazing.

This is less amazing. But I'm enjoying it. I think I may be missing some basic game mechanic, though, as people on the 'muk are posting about multipliers and stuff I haven't even seen. I've managed to reach Area 3, though, and I'm top of my friends list - without thinking about multipliers, so I must be playing it half-way competently.

Civilisation Revolution (360)

I started a new game this evening, thinking I'd have a go at the "Win on King before 1000AD" achievement. Sadly, I didn't even meet any of the other countries before 500BC, as they were all across the sea from me, so I gave up as there's no way I could do it that attempt.

So I decided to give one of the scenarios a go instead, choosing "Beta Centuri". You start off with all the technologies, and you're attacked every turn by loads of barbarians. It's very odd. Anyway, I was the Zulus, and very quickly managed to get a nuke, which I used to wipe out Moscow. However, I have since learnt that you only get one nuke per game, and I really need another one now Greece are trying to bomb my capital. Tch.

Civilisation Revolution (360)

Hurrah for killing the French and Italians! ;)

Got myself some achievements - for Domination on King, and for winning as the Germans. I then went back to an earlier save (reincarnating everyone bar the Zulus) and got an Economic victory, before reloading an earlier one again and getting a Cultural one. I can't reload for a Technology victory, as there aren't enough moves left in the game to get everything built. I didn't realise there was a move limit!

Civilisation Revolution (360)

This arrived on Friday, and it's all I've played all weekend.

First off, I on Chieftain level, as the Russians. Played four times, getting each of the four victories. It seemed very, very easy, so I bumped it up to Warlord level, and completed it (with a Domination victory) as the Aztecs. Their heal-every-win power is excellent! That seemed awfully easy to win too.

So I started again, on King difficulty, as the Germans. I quickly wiped out the Zulus, and then started getting attacked by the Romans, so set up a peace treaty with them. I then started to close in on the French, only the English got in the way and when I attacked them, the Americans joined in.

You know, it was terribly familiar.

Anyway, the English are gone now (I captured their capital, and the rest of their cities converted to other cultures), and the Americans now consist of only a tiny city on an island in the middle of nowhere. The French are being a real pain though - how come their pikemen can destroy my veteran Ninja Cannon army, complete with General? It was a 37.5 vs 3 fight, and they won?! How?!

A bit of a catchup

I haven't posted in a few days, but I have been playing things. Just been a bit busy and tired and stuff. Anyway, here's what I've been up to this week:

Fable II Pub Games Demo (360)
Marginally entertaining collection of gambling games. If I was interested in buying Fable II (I'm not), and it was 400 points, I'd buy it. So I'm not, then.

Bionic Commando Rearmed Demo (360)
Quite good fun, although I can't get used to having no jump button. Had the same problem with the original though. Looks good, and the "This is a demo! Buy the full game!" messages are excellent. Again, if it was 400 points, I'd get it, but at 800 I don't think I'm tempted. Besides, I have no points because I spent them all on...

Beautiful Katamari (360)
...DLC for this. I've bought all the levels now, and played it quite a lot. I've mainly been trying to get the achievement for an Astronomic Katamari, but that involves not falling in the black hole too soon. And it takes 20 minutes to redo the level! Gah!

Ticket to Ride (360)
About time the next expansion for this was released, yes? Not that we're bored of Europe - far from it - it's just we want the next one now. Managed another achievement in this during the week too.

Geometry Wars Evolved 2 (360)

Many, many, many attempts to beat my Pacifism score this evening, but I only managed a feeble 27 million.

Of course, 27 million is higher than certain other people's scores. People I have mentioned here before. But, it's nowhere near the 373 million the guy at the top of my friends leaderboard has.

Wall-E (Demo) (360)

Oh. My. Word.

What an awful, awful game. I mean, I know licences can be bad, but this... oh my.

Ticket to Ride (360)

Three games tonight against my wife, and three wins. I finished two of the three games using all my trains too.

Also managed my highest score so far - 176, which included 10 destinations!

Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions (PSP)

I was away for the weekend, and this is the only game I thought to take with me. And it's very good. Sadly, it isn't quite as good as its predecessor, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, mainly for menu and display reasons, but a decent SRPG is a decent SRPG, and very soon I'd plowed over 6 hours into it.

Difficulty is all over the place at the moment. The first couple of battles were reasonably easy, and all of the random battles have been stupidly simple. I've just beaten the woman who is part of the Corpse Brigade, and that fight was trivial - I don't even think I took a hit. However, the mission where you're fighting in the slums tok at least 6 attempts.

Braid (360): COMPLETED!

Well, I don't know what happened, but everything I was struggling with last night clicked today, and bar a couple of head-scratchers, I didn't have any real problems completing the rest of the game.

It was very lovely, and there is some "find the stars" thing I could still do which is completely impossible without a guide, but at just over two hours long it wasn't really the epic puzzler I was expecting.

But is it art? Oh yes, definitely.

Braid (360)

Brane! Hurting! So... very... confusing.

Braid is a 3D platform puzzle game. Only instead of depth being the third dimension, time is. So you go left and right, up and down, and forwards and backwards in time. But not just that - each world changes the rules a little.

F'r'instance, on one world, when you reverse time a shadow of yourself re-does whatever it was you just reversed. Example: You need to get through a door, but the switch to open it is too far away and by the time you've pulled the switch and legged it to the door, it's shut again. So you go and pull the switch, then reverse time. Your shadow then goes and pulls the switch as you did, leaving you free to make it to the door.

In another world, time flows forwards as you walk right, and backwards when you walk left.

Anyway. The point is to collect jigsaw pieces along the way. Which is too hard and my brain is now bent the wrong way. Pff.

Assorted Xbox 360 Demos (360)

Yes, it's demo time again!

Dark Sector
You move too slow and can't jump, and the dual-wielding doesn't feel right, and the weapons you can only use for 10 seconds is stupid and the Y-axis needs inverting and the sensitivity is way off (although both these things are adjustable) and I got to a dead end and have no idea where to go next.

But. I sort of enjoyed it. It reminded me a lot of Resident Evil 4.

NFL '09
American Football = BORING.

Geometry Wars Evolved 2 (360)

I AM WINNER!

After another billion attempts, I finally managed to beat The Rev's score on Deadline! By around 750k, I think. I even leapfrogged the next person up the list too!

GLOAT.

Geometry Wars Evolved 2 (360)

Once more, The Rev thought he could beat my scores. In fact, he'd only beaten my King score (although his cheat-obtained Deadline score still stands), but not by a huge amount.

After a few (say, 30) goes I'd beaten him by around a million points. Hurrah!

Sadly, the news was not so good for Deadline. I beat my own score by another 300,000 or so, but didn't manage to topple The Rev from his perch. Yet.

Geometry Wars Evolved 2 (360)

Several attempts at Deadline, Sequence and Pacifism to try and beat the scores I had set already, but unfortunately failed on all three. I think, in order to beat The Rev's 4.5 million-ish on Deadline, I have to be up to around 600k after one minute, and 2 million after two minutes - and I just can't do it.

Geometry Wars Evolved 2 (360)

So The Rev thought he could beat four of my scores, eh? Of course, they didn't last long. I'd soon overtaken three of them again, and then went and improved even further on the two he couldn't beat anyway (Pacifism and Sequence). I'm nice like that. Oh, and his Deadline score? He cheated. I've reported him for it.

I was also nice to Something Witty, mainly by sending him messages while he was trying to beat my scores.

Ticket to Ride (360)

Four more games against my wife on the Europe map today, and, in a reverse of last night, four wins for me.

I haven't needed to use any stations yet though.

Halo (Xbox)

Have I mentioned how tedious it is playing this? How little fun I'm getting out of it? How I can't wait until it's all over? No? Well, I am now.

Today was spent working through the same three areas over and over again. First, there's The Big Almost Circular Room (with smaller circular room within it). Then, there's One Of Three Styles of Tunnel, and finally Jesus Christ Not Another Bloody Bridge. Intersperse these with Boring Lift Journeys, and you have what can only be described as the worst part of any FPS I've ever played.

Finally, though, I made it out into the open again. Lets hope that was all the crap for a while, yes?

Ticket to Ride (360)

The Europe map was available for download today, at a slightly expensive 600 points. But I bought it, and it is pretty aces.

Played four games with my wife, and she won all four. Of course, we were both totally thrown by the added new rules - the ferries, the tunnels, and the stations. They all make it a bit more complicated!

Geometry Wars Evolved 2 (360)

Hah! So That Rev Chap thought he could take me on today! Only his scores were thwarted with ease, and once again I was Champion. Champion of, erm, some, anyway.

Later, I played again and almost completed Sequence mode. I can do the first 10 levels, without dying or using bombs, but not all in the same go. Which is a shame, as if I could do it, I'm pretty much guaranteed to complete the other 10 with the 5 lives and 5 bombs I'd have remaining.

Later still, I played again to get the Wax Off achievement. There was a bit of trauma when, after about 100 attempts, I managed to get all bar 1%. The final 1% of wall to touch couldn't be found anywhere - for a good 30 seconds. All that dodging and looking made me a bit panicky. And then, when I finally spotted it, it took another 30 seconds (an absolute age in this game) or so to actually reach it!

After that, I tried to boost by scores for Pacifism mode, managing to leapfrog two people on my list, making me 5th on there in total. It's the only mode I've managed to stand a chance against the "pros" in!