Dragon Quest VIII

Well, I'm home on New Year's Eve as a result of plans falling through and the Tube strike, but I don't really mind because it's given me more time to play Dragon Quest VIII, which is quite incredibly excellent for no obvious reason.

I mean, the music is superb and the graphics are lovely, but as far as I can tell it's not doing anything more than millions of other RPGs. In fact, the story is actually weaker than most RPGs. So why's it so playable, joyous and addictive?

I have no idea whatsoever. It's very strange. Must be secret herbs and spices, or something.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

Tortimer gave me some party poppers.

Woo. Great.

New animal's moved into town. He's an aging, grey-haired bear called Curt. Name and nature, like.

Fishing's rubbish today. No hint of anything good.

And I got a terrible new haircut that makes me look like a old Etonian fop.

Tony Hawk's American Sk8land

Well, deKay set up a 'skate crew' today, so I've sent in a request to join.

As my stats were utterly humiliating I decided to play it for a while to improve my scores. Now they're only very humilating.

Result!

Dragon Quest VIII

I cannot think of a single thing to stay about this game...

Um...

It looks very nice...

And...

Monster designs in particular are wonderful...

Er...

It's very playable...

And...

Very traditional...

And...

Um...

Nope, there's really nothing to say about it at all. Except maybe to moan about having to go back to town to find a save point. But that's less of an issue now I have spells that let me teleport around. (Not that I've used them much, unless one of the party's dead I tend to run everywhere so I can get some more of that lovely, lovely XP.)

Dragon Quest VIII

Popped it in for a 'quick go' that lasted well over three hours.

Seems like a decent RPG, if nothing very special yet, but the almost complete lack of save points is an act of utterly idiocy which may well mean I don't play it much once I'm back into a normal routine and not sat on holiday.

Why can't we at least have a suspend option if there are any actual reasons for us not saving anywhere we want?

Quake 4 Demo

Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.

Just downloaded this demo for the 360. Now, it seems like it might be a nice straight up blaster, but it's difficult to tell.

The single player doesn't seem to allow saving and doesn't feature check points. Which means that every time you die you have to do back to the beginning of the game... and watch the lengthy, unskippable, deeeply boring cut scene again. I sat through it twice before I just couldn't stand it any more.

So I tried multiplayer. Jumped straight into a game, which took a while to set up and seemed to be over in seconds, but which was fun enough for a first go. And then the demo refused to connect to any more games and came up with annoying error messages which, helpfully, said "There has been an error" without giving any details.

So I quit out and turned the 360 off. As I said, then, Quake 4 might be decent, but the demo's bloody rubbish.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

Seems Apollo from Cheese has moved into Teacozy. I've introduced myself, but haven't really talked to him yet.

Kody's left Venture now, but nobody's moved in to replace him yet.

Joe and Dusty came to visit today, as well as p'anther, so we had a full four-person town and the game didn't crash. Incredible.

Condemned Demo

Found out online that this was available to download, so I started up the 360 and downloaded it while I watched Cheers.

By the time it had finished, the demo was ready to play. Live Marketplace is great, it really is.

But is Condemned?

Well, it seems rather good, actually. Quite spooky, very dirty and nicely violent. My only concern is that I'm not sure how long it would stay spooky - the effect of strange noises and things moving in the shadows was starting to wear off by the end of the demo, even. Still, I was impressed.

Demo hasn't persuaded me to spend fifty quid on it, but once it reaches twenty quid I may well pick it up.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

So, I was excited this morning because Nook's has been upgraded and now has a hair salon. I got a nice everyday cut. Nothing to fancy or difficult to manage.

Then I bought all of Nook's flowers and planted them around town.

And I can't wait to visit Teacozy today because I've got two spare apato fossils and I know Wolfgang is collecting them.

So, I'd like to know, WHAT IS THIS GAME DOING TO ME?!?

Need For Speed: Most Wanted

Another boss down.

Only got a paltry ten gamer points for defeating her.

Ah well, it's the winning that counts, not the prize.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

Not much going on today, what with Nook's being shut both here and Teacozy. But I popped over and chatted to the Teacozy animals and then came home and entertained P'anther for a while.

Really not much to report, just the same old village life.

Tomorrow's task will be to try and improve the state of Deena's house. It's horrible.

Xbox 360

Well, I download the FIFA 360 demo earlier, so thought I'd give it a go. Very disappointing, in that it doesn't seem to be as amusing crap as I'd expected. Didn't give me enough time to work out how good it was before dumping me back to the menu, but it seemed to be somewhere between just about acceptable and sort of all right. Depends on whether it's possible to get through the CPU defence, which I seemed to be unable to do.

Then I played a couple of games of Geometry Wars 2, but didn't even get half-way towards my high score. Gah.

Then a couple of games of Mutant Storm Reloaded. The first game was a disaster, but my second game saw me increase my high score, but I died annoyingly close to getting a cool million points. Still, stretched my lead at the top of my Friends leaderboard, so I can't complain. I am the Mutant Storm king!

Need For Speed: Most Wanted

Okay.

It really does have a terrible framerate which actually makes it harder to play than it should be.

But despite that it really is a very good game indeed.

When you get into a proper police chase it's bloody marvellous. Like a slightly more refined but less funny GTA, or something.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

Went to Teacozy for a visit and then p'anther from Teacozy came to visit me. Dinsdale and deKay popped in, too, which was nice.

However, I've spent all day fishing without catching anything decent and Dinsdale wandered in and within a couple of minutes had grabbed a fossil fish. Argh!

I seem to be too slow for the fishing. I lose quite a few that seem to swim off before I can hit the button. Gah. Reactions too slow.

Kody's leaving. Can't say I'm too bothered. He was all right, but a bit annoying at times.

Was going to visit Teacozy again when p'anther left, but my DS told me the battery was dying, so I've had to stop playing for the day. Ah well.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

Only three stars?

But my house is great! Great!

Bloody animals.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

I've just remembered that I've got Dotty come round at seven for a visit.

I'd completely forgotten until just now. Good thing I remembered in time.

Gah! This game is taking over my life!

Animal Crossing: Wild World

I've finally sent Robin a letter asking her politely if she wouldn't mind moving out. I'm also pressuring Big Top for information about his past. Why won't he take his mask off? Why's he moved here? What dark secrets is he hiding, in short?

Lots of fruit-selling and fishing today and I still haven't got enough to pay off ten percent of my new mortgage.

Nook really is a crook.

Christmas Gaming

Well, my brother brought his PS2 home for Christmas, so I watched him play Need for Speed: Most Wanted. Looked much nastier than the 360 version, but it did seem smoother, oddly. It seemed to have a lower framerate, but not as weird-looking. Maybe. So I've no idea what's wrong with the 360 version. Maybe it's frame-skipping or something. I just know it looks odd. I'm just very confused.

Other than that, I just played the Gameboy Micro and DS. On the DS it was Animal Crossing all the way. Got the next house upgrade, but didn't buy any turnips this week.

On the Micro I played Final Fantasy... and completed it! Yes! My first ever completed Final Fantasy. A little over twenty hours in total, I think. I missed out a whole optional dungeon and some optional bosses and there was at least one side quest I didn't complete. But it's finished. World saved and all that.

Then I moved on to Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. I tried it before and got about three and a half hours in, but the distance between save points and controls annoyed me too much. It's got such a good reputation that I thought I'd try again... and I'm only a couple of hours in, but I don't like the controls and the save points are annoying me again. So I might not stick with it this time, either.

Game Boy Micro

I bought a silver one.

Came with a free copy of Banjo Pilot which, er, might not be completely awful. You never know.

Does it look nice? Well, yeah. I think it looks about 54% as nice as the Famicom one.

It's funny. When I bought the Famicom one I was basically buying a fetish item. I was unconvinced of the actual utility, but in love with the look of thing. Since it arrived, though, it's become an essential item. Even if I don't play it on a certain day, I'm glad it's in my pocket. It's just something that's there if you need it.

It's like a mobile phone.

Or maybe a torch.

Or deodorant.

You know.

Game Boy Micro

I stepped on it.

It broke.

I am... unhappy.

It needs replacing. Now. However, all the UK colours are rubbish. Oh well, I guess I'll have to suck it up and get one from Game this afternoon, even if it won't look as nice as the Famicom one there. Assuming I can afford it. This is a bad time of year for things to break.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

Dotty and Robin are now both wearing deKay's "I LOVE ANAL" design. I despair.

On a happier note, writing letters in this game is a joy. Not to actual people, but to the animals. You know they don't actually understand it on a code level, but Animal Crossing is as much about the attitude you bring to the game as anything Nintendo have created. So it's possible to create great storylines just in your head, using the tiny scraps of information actually generated by the game. But my letters this evening weren't about any great overarching story - I write letters in Sausages for that sort of thing - but just playing around with short tails and odd forms in the four line format. I wasn't exactly creating art or poetry - "Down, deep, beneath this town an ancient evil lurks. No! Not Tom Nook! Gah!" and "ONE - DISEASE.. TWO - DEATH. THREE - FAMINE. FOUR - MOTHS." aren't anything to, er, write home about - but I was having fun. And that's probably the important thing, don't you think? And now those letters are probably lost forever. There's a small chance an animal might show one off to a visitor, but it's unlikely. They're just like, I dunno, tears in the rain, or something. Just little random thoughts gone and then left behind.

Mind you, I might develop the idea of ancient evil sleeping under the town... waiting for its time to rise once more...

No! Not Tom Nook! Gah!

(Phyllis. Obviously.)

Animal Crossing: Wild World

I really shouldn't have sold my turnips this morning.

I really, really should have kept my nerve.

I could be rich right now. Rich!

(I assume. Bangaio is open specifically so people can sell turnips there. I didn't dare ask how much the actual price was. I just sent sinister letters to Tim's animals instead.)

Animal Crossing: Wild World

I've just been round my village and I've collected and sold all my fruit.

Wasn't actually much left after last night - at least, not much of any value - but it still took a good few minutes to cart everything of to Nook's. Six or seven trips, I guess.

Sold my turnips this morning, for a tiny profit, but I thought that was safer than waiting for the big score. I've now got 70,000b saved up to pay off my 120,000b mortgage. Should have the upgrade a day or two after Christmas, then, I guess.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

I started Animal Crossing when I got home from work four hours ago and have just turned it off.

First off I went over to Midpoint, where the huge new Nook's had opened and sold some stuff and got myself a haircut. The poodle who did my hair asked me a few a questions and then surprised me with... very short pink hair. Well, oookay.

Anyway, then I went over to Teacozy to visit my girlfriend P'anther and said hello to a few people. Then she decided she wanted to come and see me, so I went back to venture and opened my gates. Lots of people came and went. By the end I didn't have much fruit left.

Highlight of the evening was quite possibly deKay telling my girlfriend he wanted to watch her go to the toilet... You probably had to be there.

Lowlight was finding out that Rasher is leaving Venture. Nooooooo! Why is he leaving and not Robin or Monique or Frobert or, well, anyone? Rasher I saw as something of a kindred spirit in town and now he's upping sticks and leaving. He doesn't seem to think much of it, either. I know he was seeing Monique (which really doesn't make sense) so I guess they broke up. Ah well.

Much higher turnover of residents than in my old town of Ikaruga, but I'm having more visitors and going to more places now. It's just a bigger world.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

So, I dug up a fossil this morning that I already had and after talking to Patty for ages until she mentioned she wanted one, I whipped it out and gave it to her.

She rewarded me with ...a rare item? Nope! ...a ton of cash? Nope! a rubbish 500 bells? Yes! Even Nook would give me more than that, I reckon. (If he wasn't shut today.)

You know, I've been thinking about why Animal Crossing has the hold on otherwise relatively normal people and what makes two thirty-something men plan to meet up online to return a kitten to her lost mother... but I'm having real trouble finding an answer. If I do, I'll let you know.

And talking of runaway kittens, Kaitlin's back in town. Her kitten is in Sausages, apparently, so it looks like I'll have to make more plans for a reunion. And it's the kitten-end of things that gets the thank you, not me. I just get the mother out of my town for a while, which I suppose is a blessing in itself.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

I've just been playing this online with my girlfriend, who is currently far, far away, while talking to her on the phone.

I love Nintendo.

No crashes, either, which was a bonus.

It would be nice if you could filter your friends list when opening your gates, though.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

Argh!

Adrian was over and I'd dug up a fossil and it was one I'd got before, so I took it to Patty and she was so excited because I was making her lifetime dream come true when... BOOM! ...the game crashed, kicking me out without saving.

So I reloaded offline, took the fossil to Blathers again and this time it was something different, one the museum didn't have already. So poor old Patty is going to have a wait a while longer before getting her fossil.

Tried to go out, too, but nobody had their gate open. I've not been out for days, only had visitors.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

So, I walk up to Patty and she's wearing one of my designs. "Hooray!" I think, until she tells me it's hideous and storms off.

And this on the morning that I got a nice leaving letter from Maple, saying that she'll miss me.

And Nook's only buying turnips for 72b.

I shouldn't have got out of bed.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

So, Kody came round to visit. He let me set the time, which was nice, and turned up on the dot. I like punctuality.

He wandered round, checking the place out, and then gave me a measly score of three stars out of five. Apparently, I don't have enough stuff. What? The place is full. Maybe I need a bigger house.

Still, at least he said he "had a killer time, yo."

Animal Crossing: Wild World

I have a fishing trophy.

I'm so proud.

Would have been nice to have a proper ceremony and not just get it in the post, though.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

I've just conducted a hate campaign against Olivia in Sausages. I do hope the animals show Rich my letters, or at least run her out of town.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

Well, it seems I won the fishing tournament, but there was no presentation or anything at six. Where's my trophy, eh?

And - sob! - Maple, one of the few people in town I like, is leaving. Something about a family crisis. Probably a bad break up, I reckon.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

Oh glorious day!

I built a perfect snowman!

What a day to be alive!

Animal Crossing: Wild World

Tortimer took my tuna!

My very first tuna. I caught it during the fishing tournament and showed it to the mayor and he took it, the bastard! I needed to donate that to the museum. Oh well, he did give me a boxing barricade for my trouble. Yeah, great. Still, the tuna should win the tournament, I hope. And I'm sure I'll catch another one day...

Other than that, things have been quite succesful today. Big Top sold me his old arcade machine, which looks to be a fighter of some sort. It's unplayable, but it looks cool. I bought 200 turnips at 98b each, so I'm going to have to check turnip prices all week. My house was upgraded this morning, so I've shoved a load of new stuff to fill it up. Found a wardrobe in the recycling, so I now have storage space. Nook finally had an axe in store, so I bought that. And my first non-native fruit trees were fully grown today, so I made a quick 10,000b selling the fruits to Nook.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

Menial taskes. Fruit-picking, shell-collecting, fish-er-fishing. But I now have 10K towards turnips, assuming I'm awake tomorrow morning.

Robin and Patty had a couple of arguments. Robin's very patronising and snooty, Patty is enthusiastic but not very self-aware. The second argument ended in jazz-hands and near bloodshed. One of them needs to leave town. Soon.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

Good. After some confusion, Steve and I teamed up and reunited Kaitlin with her kitten. (Okay, in the end it wasn't much of a team-up. It's the kitten end of things that has to do most of the work.)

Dusty popped in for a visit and left saying he'd open his gate, but he didn't. Or something odd happened. So I ended up in Sausages, Rich's town, again. Paid Olivia a visit to show I hadn't forgotten her. She wasn't quaking in fear, so I guess she's not got my letter yet.

Then I popped into Hoomage and was proud to see one of my constellations in the night sky. Good stuff. I like the viral stuff when it works. When it doesn't, it's annoying. I got my bottle message back today. Grr.

Just went to see K.K. Slider play. Odd how Nintendo explicitly promote piracy at the end of his performances...

Animal Crossing: Wild World

That was fun. Adrian and Richard came over to play in my town and Rich was happy because he bough a shovel and Ade was happy because Rich gave him a slingshot and it was all nice.

Then we all went over to Rich's town and I visited some of my friends there and sent Olivia a threatening letter. I hope she pays attention.

But all that pales compared to what happened when I got back to Venture. I bumped into Rasher on the way home to save and he told me that Maple and Big Top are in a relationship. That's just wrong on so many levels. So many, many levels.

It's always the quiet ones.

Robotron 2084

This has now appeared on Xbox Live Arcade.

And I am currently the 358th best person in the world at it, which is a good 200 places above Gerplex. Ha!

It gets incredibly difficult after a few waves, more than my brain can handle. Still stunningly playable after all these years. Retro gaming doesn't have to mean ruined memories and thirty seconds of boredom.

Need For Speed: Most Wanted

I still don't know why I'm playing it.

There's so many things wrong with it and yet it just remains fun.

Why? Why? Why?

Animal Crossing: Wild World

Hooray!

After some intensive fishing, I just paid off my first mortgage and tomorrow I will have a larger house with a purple roof.

Came across Rasher and Patty storming away from each other. They'd obviously had an argument, but they wouldn't talk about it. I'm too surprised, though. I'm just surprised Rasher hasn't killed anyone yet.

We've got a new resident today, a cute little blue bear. I'll have to get to know him, but he seems all right from first impressions. Don't like yesterday's new arrival Robin much. She's a bit of a Monique. Patty remarked on how they had an odd relationship because they were both so self-centred.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

Hah, Rasher just showed me a letter deKay wrote him.

It says it makes him feel queasy... but that's why he likes it.

Given that the letter said that deKay wanted to eat him, I'm quite worried.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

Oh, it's not Monique who's lost her kitten, it's another cat I've not met before.

All these felines look the same at half seven in the morning.

My inventory is full, but bloody Nook is shut today. How I hate him.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

Oh bloody hell.

Monique's only gone and lost her daughter in Jackton. So I'll have to see if I can get there over the weekend and fetch her.

I hate Monique. She's so obsessed with pink furniture and the love lives of the other residents that it's no wonder her daughter can run off without her noticing.

Need For Speed: Most Wanted

So I'd finally decided that I did like it despite it's horrible, horrible graphical horribleness... and then it went and froze up on me at the exact moment a police chase ended. Obviously a software rather than a hardware problem, but it did lock up the whole Xbox.

Oh EA, how do you manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory like that, eh?

Wik: Fable of Souls

Never heard of it until today, but it's appeared on Live Arcade.

It's a 2D platform game, where you swing around collecting grubs before the enemies kidnap them, all within a time limit.

A little brown and with graphics that are a little bit too small to see when sat back on the sofa - I believe it's a PC port - but still good and playable and, um, bought. I had the points and they're far too easy to spend. Still, should be something I'll dip and out of for a good long time, so probably worth it.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

I have a new resident, a weird circus elephant called Big Top. Not sure what to make of him as yet, haven't done more than introduce myself.

Richard and deKay came to play and somebody dug a million holes, which I had to run around filling in. Grr. He's a bad, bad man! But it was fun. Then deKay and I went to Rich's town, but it crashed as soon as deKay left. Luckily it saved as he was leaving, so I still had the cherries I'd picked up. I need to go back soon, though, because I was writing a letter to Pee-Wee when it crashed and I need to deliver it.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

I just got a letter from Goose saying he thought I needed a treat from Cockland.

I was slightly disturbed.

Turns out that the treat was a steel floor for my house, which isn't exactly colourful, but which does seem to go well with my new gas mask.

Yes, new gas mask. It's great.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

Damn.

Some of my trees are growing, but not all. About half of them, it seems, have taken.

Annoyingly, it doesn't look like either pear tree is going to grow.

Oh well, I'm sure I can visit Cocktown again some time.

Also had a letter from home waiting when I left the house. Mum had sent me a shiny red apple. Yeah, thanks for that. It's not as if I'm swimming in the buggers already or anything.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

Well, it's been a big day.

Okay, no, it hasn't really. It's been another day.

I've planted a lot of trees - peaches, pears and oranges - which will hopefully grow and provide me with fruit that's worth a lot of money.

Someone had dumped a melon chair and a widescreen TV in the recycling, so I had them and rearranged my house to fit.

I found a note in the bottle on the beach, someone asking me to visit their village, but without telling me where they lived.

Patty and Rasher are still bugging me about fossils. Monique's still bugging me about pink furniture. Frobert gave me a shirt and then told me to work on my abs. A nice, sweet bear called Maple has just moved. She'll problem take one look at the horrorshow that it is this town and leg it back out, but I hope she stays. If she's as sane as she seems then we really need her.

I then went to visit my good friend Gerplex in, er, Cocktown. I replaced a couple of the boring designs in the tailors shop and met his animals. I'm jealous, because he has Cube, who I want to live with me. I've sent Cube a letter inviting him to move over and enclosing a globe as a bribe. I bet he stays put, though. I also left my customary warning on the notice board. And I got the pears I mentioned earlier. I took two I found on the ground. I do hope they grow.

I've had no post all day, most odd. I'm looking forward to checking the trees tomorrow and seeing if they're taking. I fear I may have placed them too close together.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

Well, I went over to deKay's town of Cheese and got some lovely new fruit and a nice new shirt and an excellent hat. Sent one of his neighbours a letter and then wrote a warning on his bulletin board.

Everybody has better neighbours than me, it's not fair. As soon as I was back in my town that nice, if strange, Stitches bear sent me a letter saying that he missed me. Well, if he misses me that much he's welcome to move here.

Anyway, after I left Cheese I opened my gates and deKay came to visit, as did a procession of other people, until my battery light starting flashing red and the game suggested I might like to save before the DS died.

So the planting of fruit trees I wanted to do will have to wait until tomorrow. I better not forget.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

That bastard Nook didn't have any shovels in stock. I hate him and the hold he has over village life. Tortimer may be the mayor, but we know who holds the real power.

New neighbour today. Frobert has moved in. He's into power drinks and exercise, it seems. He's no Walt Jr., more a Bill. Anyway, he chucked me out of his house telling me it wasn't ready. Well, it was full of cardboard boxes.

Had a quick chat with Patty - who still won't shut up about bloody fossils - but Monique and Rasher seemed to be missing. They had notices on their doors saying they were out, but I couldn't find either of them anywhere. Odd.

None of the animals in my town have replied to my letter, but Dotty in the town I visited last night sent me a nice letter. Well, sort of nice. She said I scared her, but that next time we met I'd see the real her... or something along those lines.

It is a very odd game.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

Tested out the online stuff.

Caveman from ugvh came to visit and the game lagged out and disconnected without saving after about a minute.

Then I went to visit Dinsdale's town (from rllmukforum.com) and everything was fine, even with a full four people there. I didn't do much, but I talked to some of his townspeople and generally nosed around. Nook's was shut, though, which was annoying. He might have had a shovel.

If I can get a decent friends list and Nintendo can someone sort out the crashing (not sure how possible that is - is it the service or the code on the cart?) then the online stuff could really open things out.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

Well, I used to live in the town of Ikaruga on the Gamecube, now I live in Venture on the DS.

(I wanted to call the town Summerisle, but that's too long. Grr.)

Tom Nook once again gave me a house and made me do some odd jobs for him. Nothing too taxing.

I've met my new neighbours, all three of them. Rasher, a pig who calls me a swine, Monique, a slightly snobby cat and Patty, a friendly, er, cow or something. I forget. Both Rasher and Patty want me to give them fossils, which is annoying, as any fossils I do find will be going to the museum before anywhere else and I haven't even got a shovel yet, anyway. Nook only had a net and fishing rod in stock. I've done a lot of fishing, but they've all gone to the museum. I've paid 200b for a cup of coffee (must be fair trade stuff) and donated 1b to charity. I've designed a couple of constellations - 'Fisherman' and 'Scorpion'. And I made a new design and then spammed it everywhere before deciding it was rubbish and putting my old floor and wallpaper back. I'm stilling wearing it, though.

Before leaving I wrote all my new friends letters and attached apples to them as presents. I mentioned to Rasher that pork and apple sauce is a very tasty meal and that now he had an apple he might like to make himself ready. I bet he'll claim not to have understood my letter tomorrow.

I need wifi friends, I think.

Need For Speed: Most Wanted

I can't decide whether this is good but flawed, yet still fun or whether it's utter rubbish, yet still fun.

Need For Speed: Most Wanted

Hmm.

Hmm indeed.

See, Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 was a fantastic game and people on forums and reviews have suggested that this was a return to form for the series. So I downloaded the demo and it seemed like great fun, except for having a horrific framerate. But on forums people said the full game didn't suffer from the same issues and reviews didn't mention it.

Which just goes to show that people are LIARS, because the framerate is rubbish. It doesn't fluctuate too much, but it's very low indeed. Well, if it's not the framerate there's something that makes the game look terribly bitty. It just doesn't look smooth.

But I got used to that after an hour or so. Well, an hour and a half. I even almost got used to it.

The other odd thing is the colour scheme. It's an autumnal look, giving everything a sepia tinge, which makes shortcuts and obstacles more difficult to spot than they should be. Very odd decision. I mean, it looks nice and fancy, but there's something to be said for big bright colours, especially as it would help the actual driving.

So, is there anything good about the game at all?

Well, yes. The cut scenes are terrible, but amuse me greatly and are more entertaining than merely competent cut scenes would be. So that's okay. And it's structured nicely, with a certain amount of challenges to be done (in any order) before you can take on each boss. Excellently, you can either cruise round the city looking for the challenges or just bring up a quick menu and jump to any one you want. And there's massive product placement for a brand that doesn't even exist in this country, which is excellent.

Oh, yes, the driving/racing? It's the very model of simple arcade handling. Pretty much spot on... except that, at least at this early stage, it lacks any sort of real character. It's not like Project Gotham or OutRun 2, where the driving has some sort of soul to it, these cars just react like, well, old school video game cars, really. It's not that the driving's bad - it's not - it's just soulless. (Well, it is an EA game, I suppose.)

I mean it's good, competent fun. But it hasn't got my pulse racing yet and the graphical badness, in terms of smoothness and everything, take away some of fun. I'll give it more time, but on first impressions, it's looking like this isn't anywhere near as good as Hot Pursuit 2.

Call Of Duty 2

Well, I did that last level again and it still refused to believe I'd completed it. And it was still showing the Russian campaign as unplayed.

So I've deleted my save game and I'm going to have to start again. I think I can get away with doing the Russian cmapaign on Hardened difficulty, but everything else I'm going to have to do on Veteran.

I think the problem is that you can get to the main menus before you sign in to Live, so it got confused somehow. But it's still very odd and not a little annoying. At least it's good.

Call Of Duty 2

GAH!

What the...?

I thought something was odd when I started playing today and it had reset the y-axis to univerted, but I played through to the end of The Battle of El Alamein. But it didn't give me the achievement for completing it and then dumped me back to the start of the Russian campaign.

I turned off the console and turned it back on and my save game is completely knackered. It's showing The Battle of El Alamein as uncompleted and apparently I've done none of the Russian campaign. The Russian campaign that took me many, many hours and which I have achievements for, to show I finished it on the hardest difficulty level.

Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid bloody game.

Xbox 360

Well, played a bit more of Call of Duty 2. Another level done. Had one tricky part, but apart from that was the easiest since the first training mission.

Then I tried out Gauntlet, but it really isn't much fun in single player. At all.

And finally I rounded the session off with a game of Joust. Didn't do too badly, but didn't get near my high score. Oh well.

Call Of Duty 2

Hooray! Thanks to some good advice from a chap on the rllmuk (no idea, frankly) forum I manged to get past the sticking point and managed to complete the Russian campaign. I'm quite proud of myself, even if it was little more than dogged persistence that got me through.

Done the first level of the first mission in the Brit campaign. It's always nice to play a game with the word 'wanker' in it.

Geometry Wars 2

So, there I was watching a DVD of The Jacket, which finished, so I reached over, grabbed my controller and leapt straight from there into a game of Geometry Wars 2, which is a nice thing to be able to do.

Didn't get a new high score, but I probably got my second best score ever, I think. The trouble is, after about 100,000 it just seems to get stupid and there's no way to survive beyond blind instinct and subconscious control. It just gets too much for the conscious brain, but it's not easy to just let go and let the dark parts of the mind take over.

The zone has to be somewhere you find yourself in, not somewhere you can go and search out.

Grasshopper.

Beetle Adventure Racing

Beetle Adventure Racing?

The Nintendo 64 game?

Not an Xbox 360 game?

Quite right. I was waiting for a tumble drier to arrive, so I was waiting in my bedroom, which is next to the front door, because my flat is upside-down, so I was playing the N64, because it's in the bedroom. Clear?

Anyway, it's aged badly. The frame-rate is horrible, the PAL conversion is horrible, but I did have some sort of fun... for all of one race and then the tumble drier turned up. I'd have had longer, but I'd read Bubba Ho-Tep first.

Call of Duty 2

Okay, now it's just got stupidly difficult and annoying.

I'm in a building that I've got to defend. I'm a sniper. But every time I pop my head out of the window to try and, you know, snipe, it gets blown off.

And if by some miracle it doesn't, then the enemy soldiers in the building shoot me from behind with no warning, because my fellow soldiers all seem to be staring out the windows, which, strangely, they're able to do without dying instantly.

The trouble is, I'm really, really near the end of this section - only two attack waves left to go - but I just can't do it. It's too much.

Bah.

Call of Duty 2

Well, the next level didn't take as long.

Bloody excellent it was, too. We had to retake a railway station from those nasty Nazis, then defend it, then blow up and tank and clear the rest of the Nazis out from the area around the station. Great fun. It took a while and my deaths were well into three figures, of course, but it's not (yet) so hard that it becomes annoying. I just actually have to take care and think and - yes - learn where the bad guys are likely to be. (They're often not in exactly the same place each time, or they don't always advance when they did before, but there's definitely an element of learning what's going on.)

Call of Duty 2

Check the time of this entry.

Now check the time of the last entry.

That's how long it took me to do one level on Veteran difficulty. Yes, one level. Not even a whole mission, just one level.

It's really, really hard. Yet the checkpoints on that level were placed in just the right places, so I never felt I was having to redo something I'd already completed.

Call of Duty 2

Hmpf. My Sabre Wulf guy icon isn't showing up on the web. It's fine on the 360. Hopefully they'll sort it out soon.

Anyway, I started Call of Duty 2 today. On Veteran (i.e. hardest) difficulty. This may turn out to be a mistake, but I've been pressured into it by all the big boys saying it's the only way to play and it's so intense and stuff.

And it is intense. I can't argue there. I've done the training and the first mission and I've died. A lot. But I've been learning, too. And working things out. It's partly about the speed you can move the crosshairs over a target, yes, but it's also about position