New Super Mario Bros

Unlocked World Seven this evening. Not very difficult, really, after unlocking World Four.

Some lovely levels in there, and I'm only half-way through. I've not been managing to get all the coins, either.

New Super Mario Bros

World 4 is a bit trickier than the rest of the game, I think. Unless it's just that I'm out of practice after a week or so off.

There was one jump in World 4-A that I really couldn't do and ended up just fluking.

Hitman Blood Money

On to the Faultline mission. I'm making some progress, but I'm finding it hard to find the space to perform my misdeeds away from prying eyes. There's not a really obvious way in like there was in the last mission.

This game is excellent.

Hitman: Blood Money

Right, it's 1:04am, but I've finished the 'Curtains Down' mission.

Not only did I finish it, but I got a Silent Assassin rating for it. That netted me two Achievements - one for getting a Silent Assassin rating and the other for doing a kill that looked like an accident.

A wonderful night at the opera, then. I wonder where I'm going next?

Hitman: Blood Money

Been playing "Curtains Down", the second proper mission. Just trying things out. Not close to finishing it yet. I've got an idea of a couple of times that I could kill one of the targets, but the second target is proving tricky to get near.

Geometry Wars 2

Well, I was really tired so I told myself I was just going to have one game before bed.

So I did.

I scored 16,775 points.

Which is possibly my worst score ever.

I guess I'm tired.

Hitman: Blood Money

I finally finished the first proper mission! Yay!

However, the newspaper headline after my mission was "Hoodlum Massacres 18!", which shows that I didn't quite manage to become the silent assassin that I was going for...

F.E.A.R.

Just a quick go. I've taken my PC off my TV and put it back on a monitor and instad of speakers I've plugged headphones in. It's improved the experience greatly. With the sounds so loud and close the scary bits are more unnerving and the fighting bits are just immense.

Good stuff.

Really is bed time now, though.

Hitman: Blood Money

So, I started it on Expert difficulty, which is the third of four difficulty levels. (Unlike the second of three as it is in Contracts.)

Uses a slightly different control system to Contracts, which threw me. Looks much, much nicer, though.

I died doing the tutorial. Twice. Right at the end. That was annoying. And should have been a sign to me to change the difficulty level, I guess. But I didn't.

I've been playing around in the first real mission today. It's not going too well, but I think I've got a plan on how to dispose of my first target. I've tried it once and missed, but I think it'll work.

Tomorrow.

Table Tennis

Phew. I can now play online again. Unfortunately, the lack of lag exposes my rubbishness. I've lost all my matches this evening.

I just had an epic best-of-five match against some random person. My best rally won was 85, his was 87. It was that sort of game and must have gone for at least 45 minutes.

I notice that I've had some "unsporting" feedback left me in the last couple of days. Eh? How can someone be unsporting when it comes to Table Tennis? Unless I was somehow unsporting by having a rubbish connection last night. People, eh? Bastards, the lot of them.

Lumines Mobile

It's Lumines!

On a mobile!

And it only costs €3 from Gameloft.

I've just tried a quick go at Arcade mode so far, which challenged me with making a certain number of blocks in the shortest time possible. Seventy, then one hundred, I believe. Got a silver medal both times.

The only skin available was Shinin', the same first skin as the PSP version. It doesn't sound quite the same on my mobile, though the attempt to replicate the song is... endearing. (Or a horrific travesty if you're one of those grumpy people.)

Anyway, it's basically the same game, more or less. Less in the way of graphical effects and music. Control's not as good. But there seems to be a ton of stuff to do and unlock.

Anyway, it's a great game, so to have a handheld version I can carry around with me is great, even if it is cut down...

Er...

Hang on...

Table Tennis

Well, I've confirmed with Telewest that there's a problem with their network so no online gaming for me until it's been fixed.

Harumph, I say!

But that gave me a chance to do the first single player tournament, which I won. Wasn't easy, but by the gods it was fun. The gameplay mechanics are brilliant. Everything feels right. The use of rumble in particular is inspired - take that PS3!

Oh, and it's right stick rather than buttons all the way for me.

Table Tennis

The new 360 game from Rockstar. It plays brilliantly and I'm having fun online, even though I can't find anybody with a non-red connection to play. Bah.

I just won a couple of matches, too. Well, someone dropped out before I'd even served and I got credited with a win and then I actually won a game, which gave me 10 gamerpoints. Hoorah!

Hitman Contracts

Hooray!

I just finished Beldingfield Manor and got a Silent Assassin rating.

Kill a guard near the start, take his uniform and gun. Walk to the front of the house, up the ladder, in the window. Pick up poison. Save. Syringe the weird woman wearing underwear in the shower (could have turned it off, I found out later), smother the old guy with a pillow. Downstairs, to the basement, poison the cask of whisky. Save. Wait for target to be served and to drink whisky. Out the front doors, over to the stables, poison the horses, turn off the telly, steal the key, free the academic bloke, run straight back out the level.

Died quite a few times and it took about two hours in total, but got there in the end. And dying's good too, because you get fun shootouts beforehand. As the colour bleeds away and the speed falls I always try to get the man that killed me.

Excellent stuff.

New Super Mario Bros

Hooray! I opened World Four!

And I wasn't told how to do it... Though enough people have been talking around the subject for me to be able to work out how it was probably done and indeed it was.

Now to play it!

Hitman Contracts

Finally finished the third mission, the one I started yesterday. That's two evenings play it's taken me.

I had a great idea of catching my two targets in an explosion, but it kept only killing one of them. The survivor would then go and sit in a car in fulll view of about eight guards, meaning that killing him was impossible. Eventually I just had to run to where the targets were when I'd saved, gun them down and then run out of the level.

Got a mass murderer rating from that level, not quite the silent assassin that I was hoping to be. Oh well, job done, however messy.

Only having two save points per level is a bugger when you get them. That level seemed to take ages to do, but the total time (not including reloads after deaths) was only twenty minutes. A few hours actually including those retries, of course.

Phew. Maybe I should have swallowed my pride and played on Normal difficulty, but I don't want the game to be easier, I want to be better.

Uno

Managed a couple of ranked games, but all the custom games I found had red or orange ping bars. Is my Live connection fucked or is this a common problem? This is something I feel might be worth putting somewhere someone might read it, so off to the forum I trot to ask about how well other people are faring online. I suppose I could also try another Live-enabled game, but... meh.

Hitman Contracts

I started it again tonight, this time on Expert difficulty, when I noticed it was on the backwards compatibility list. Plays fine on the 360, though there is some very slight graphical glitching here and there. Very, very slight.

I'm currently having a very, very hard time doing The Bjarkhov Bomb mission after a really, really sloppy Meat King's Party. Can I find a radiation suit? Can I fuck. (Though my Asylum Escape was textbook.)

And I'm glad nobody reads this diary, because I noticed tonight that Contracts does have a suspicion meter. A big one, right next to health meter. Yes, it has one of those things I was praising Blood Money for introducing. I'm an idiot. Like I said, I'm glad nobody reads this. This is where I write the stuff I assume nobody wants to read - but it's stuff I somehow have an insane need to make public record. The Internet does weird things to a man sometimes.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

Another trophy is mine!

Hoo-rah!

Hitman Contracts

For no reason at all I decided to stop playing on Normal difficulty and restart the game on Professional difficulty, the highest setting. Well, I say for no reason, but it's because I was annoyed about being able to get away with too much. It's too easy on Normal to start blowing people away when things go wrong. On Professional, if a gun fight starts then I'm basically dead. Much better.

There's also less information on the map - which I like - and no mid-level saves, which I'm not too keen on. But as things tend to go differently each time I play a mission, it's not so bad.

I did the first level after a few goes. Had to kill a few cops, but I did it. The second mission - The Meat King's Party - took a lot longer. I almost did it cleanly, though. I would have done, too, if Sturrock hadn't been too fat to strange. I had to run off and find a knife, all the while listening to him shout for his guards. Good thing he's too fat to move, really. The other two targets I took care of very quietly, though.

I nearly got out all right, too, but the guards decided I was suspicious as I left, so I had to run through the last few rooms. Still got a Professional rating for it, though. I'm proud of myself. Though whether I should be proud of being a very good killer is another matter. Given how many times I died before getting it right, I don't think I'll be changing career paths soon, though. Being a programmer is a much safer occupation.

The game's not without oddities. Sometimes the enemy AI seems to fall apart and I'm surprised none of the people searching me cared that I had a severed arm under my jacket, but it's generally all works well.

I'm really looking forward to Blood Money now, as it should refine everything.

Hitman Contracts

If it wasn't for the times that it suddenly says "Your cover has been blown" without me knowing why I'd really love it.

As it is, I just really like it.

I'm trying to do "The Meat King's Party" cleanly and I just got quite a way in and then a few seconds after talking to somebody it popped up the message about blown cover and everything went to hell.

New Super Mario Bros

I am now the winner.

Sort of.

I worked out how to open up the cannon on World One, and the one on World Two. I've completely unlocked both of them and got all the special coins.

But I still can't get to World Four.

New Super Mario Bros

I woke up (very late) this morning with Lithuania's Eurovision entry in my head.

After going out I spent ages trying to find a way to unlock the cannon on World One of New Super Mario Bros. Failed.

I am not the winner.

I've moved on to World Two for now, but there's a fairly early coin I just can't see how to get to.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

A 43.4" sea bass is my entry in today's fishing tourney.

Will it be enough?

New Super Mario Bros

Well, I've gone back and explored World 1 thoroughly. I've collected all the coins and opened all the coin doors... but I can't find out how to get to World Two. There's a cannon-looking thing on the map, but I can't work out how to get to it. There's a suspicious horizontal pipe in a nearby castle, but I can't seem to enter it.

:;strokes beard::

New Super Mario Bros

Well, I got to the end this afternoon. Need to go back and fill in the gaps now.

BUY THIS GAME.

New Super Mario Bros

Oh, this is such a lovely game.

May be relatively short-lived, but it's going to be replayable and it just feels, looks and sounds so good.

New Super Mario Bros

Two levels played on the bus, then I ran back to a gate near the beginning of the world to spend some coins and save. I suppose I should trust the sleep feature, but I just don't yet.

New Super Mario Bros

I really don't want to complain about such a lovely, lovely game... but the fact it only lets you save every few levels until you've completed it is really rather rubbish.

Ouendan

I tried Ready, Steady, Go.

Just once.

Oh my.

This might take some time.

New Super Mario Bros

Is love.

Ouendan

Tried this (in my old DS due to screen-scartching worries) before work.

Tried to save a girl from a giant blue mouse. Managed it on my last possible go.

Next it will be time to tackle the infamous Ready, Steady, Go. I'm scared.

Tomb Raider: Legend

And that's the story mode done! For the first time, anyway.

Marvellous game, that. Really nice. Very rushed at the end and a fairly annoying final boss, but generally just a great game.

Not huge, no, but as a statement of intent it can't be beaten.

Lara's back!

Animal Crossing: Wild World

I don't like Deena.

She invited herself round, so I had to hang around for half an hour while she got herself ready. Then when she arrived she kept asking me if I like hamsters, refused to rate my room and left after about thirty seconds.

Bloody duck.

Tomb Raider: Legend

I don't like Lara Croft.

She made me miss the first twenty minutes of the Champions League Final because she couldn't see a blindingly obvious solution to a problem getting between two poles.

Bloody woman.

Super Mario World

Excellent.

Through the Forest of Illusion and a couple of levels into Chocolate Island. I'm in an area where the coins I collect or the time I take changes which exit I get to. Well, er, thanks Nintendo. How am I meant to find the secret exit there without resorting to a FAQ, eh?

Super Smash Bros Melee

Quick run through Classic with Young Link before work. Not one of the best characters based on first impressions.

Super Smash Bros Melee

Started this up for the first time about five years or so. My TV refuses to believe it's not widescreen, but it looks okay anyway.

Started as Yoshi because I remember liking him. Ran through the Classic single player mode on Very Easy, which lived up to its name once I'd remembered how to control the game.

Tried the Home Run mini-game, but only got 42 feet. Which is a bit less than my record of 1,539 feet. No idea how that game works any more.

Noticed I didn't seem to have the Marth trophy yet, so leapt in and did Classic mode with him... and then unlocked a new character, Roy, at the end of it!

That was unexpectedly productive. Cool.

It's great fun, too. Well worth digging out from the back of the games cupboard.

Super Mario World

Hooray!

I found the secret exit I was missing in the Forest of Illusion.

A productive lunchtime, then.

Super Mario World

I forgot to save last time I played so I spent my lunchtime getting a few exits that I'd previously done.

Oh well, it's Super Mario World, so it's not much of a chore, really.

Tomb Raider: Legend

This is actually a really nice game, you know.

The levels are nicely designed, both in theme for platforming fun, and the characters are interesting. There's constant banter between Lara and her team back at base which is really, really well done. It could have been incredibly irritating, but instead it provides information and light relief in otherwise empty tombs.

I'm really impressed, actually. Even the bosses and vehicle sections aren't too annoying!

Animal Crossing: Wild World

Ack.

Had terrible wifi trouble this evening. I went over to Vatican okay, but then the game got stuck on save screen when I left. Eventually I just had to turn off the DS because it wasn't going anywhere and got Resetti shouting at me for my troubles.

Then P'anther tried coming to Venture, but after about five seconds we blue screened. We tried again, same deal. Then she tried opening her gates and couldn't connected to Nintendo WFC for ages. When she finally did, when I tried to look for a list of open towns her game crashed as soon as I connected.

Not the best night, then.

Rise of Legends Demo

Decided to download and install this. It's been a very long time since I got into an RTS. Hated it at first, but then I remembered it was an RTS, not a shooter and readjusted my expectations of how long things should take. Once I'd got back into the right mindset - build base, gather forces, then venture forth - I started to really enjoy it. Especially as I won, despite my hero having been killed at the start. It's a rather generous demo, too, as there was another level after that one. Unfortunately, I didn't do so well and a giant salamander wiped out my whole army. So I quit.

You know, if this was available for less than twenty quid, like most PC games, I might be tempted. But it's one of those odd expensive PC games, so I don't think I'll buying it.

Runs really smoothly on my PC, too, though it doesn't really look anything like the screenshots I've seen. PC games, eh?

Tetris DS

I just more than doubled my score to 186,945 and got to level 16.

The target's level 20, not sure how long it'll take me to get there.

I wish I knew which Nintendo games it showed while I was playing. After a few levels it becomes impossible to find time to sneak a look.

Tomb Raider: Legend

Argh! Too addictive!

I put it on for a quick go three hours and - apart from a quick game of Uno when I got an invite from a friend - I've been playing it since. Finally managed to drag myself away after getting to the end of the level.

Every now and again Lara jumps at a wrong angle and I die, the boss battles are a bit annoying and it really, really needs to provide a checkpoint when you get a secret treasure, but apart from that it's just ace.

Brain Age

My brain age is 22!

That's almost best!

Tomb Raider: Legend

Finally got the full game.

Oh dear.

It's not got worse since the demo, but I'm not going to enjoy this unless I can force myself to not scour every level for treasures. I really need to do a A-Z run through first, before I spend hours looking in corners for stuff.

I spent over half of my time on the first level just trying to get a treasure I couldn't reach and getting increasingly annoyed. Got it in the end, with the help of GameFAQs. (I was sort of doing the right thing... but not quite.) I never use GameFAQs, except for bosses!

Tetris DS

New Standard/Marathon best of 92,287 and got up to level 12.

Lots of people say this is too easy. I'd have to disagree. All the extras just give me something to grab on to, not invicibility.

Pokemon Trozei

What better thing to do when waiting for the Cup Final to kick off than beat the final boss in a Pokemon-themed puzzle game?

Well, not so final as I've now unlocked a hard mode.

The Guardian reviewed this game today and completely slagged it off. Extreme wrongness there.

Brain Age

Thirty-four today. It didn't recognise some of my "red"s and gave me the bloody word memory game again, so that's not too bad.

SiN Episodes: Emergence

Finished!

Took maybe five hours. Round about that long, anyway. Maybe a touch less.

Yeah, it works for me. Five hours of great entertainment, without any game-extending rubbish tacked on, for a budget price. It's my kind of game.

The next episode preview at the end looks a bit rubbish, actually, but I'll definitely give it a go.

SiN Episodes: Emergence

Well, I've spent an hour and a half or so with this evening after some Crossing action with P'anther. Which reminds me, I haven't done my brain training yet and today is now yesterday, technically. Or today's tomorrow. I'm not sure. Anyway, I've missed a day's brain training according to the clock. Oops.

Anyway, sorry, Sin Episodes: Emergence. I'm trying to think of a way to describe how good it is without going overboard and definitely without damning with faint praise. It's a very traditional, linear first person shooter. Some nice physics and a nicely accurate weapon in the pistol and enemies that don't take millions of hits to kill. It seems to be very finely tuned and it's definitely very playable.

It's not jaw-dropping or amazing or the best thing ever, but it is very good fun. I don't feel like asking for any more than that.

Panzer Elite Action Demo

Competent but uninspiring tank based action.

Hitman: Blood Money Demo

Ah ha!

A few days ago I was saying that I couldn't quite connect with the Hitman games as they didn't give me the feedback I wanted and didn't quite understand why some things work and some don't. Well, Blood Money looks to improve on that by quite a long way, due to a couple of relatively small changes.

Firstly, there's a proper tutorial, which is the demo. This takes you through a linear hit step by step. Incredibly annoying for people who've played all the other games in the series to death, no doubt, but incredibly useful to me. Should even be good if I go back to playing Contracts.

It's possible to get things wrong in the demo, despite it being a tutorial.

The first time I played I jumped down a hole before I should have done and alerted a load of people I was meant to sneak past, prompting a gun fight. (The demo is perfectly able to carry on when you bugger things up, which is nice.) Later, I had to take someone as a human shield and take down some guards in a room. I got my gun out, grabbed the human shield and walked him into the next room. Everything was going fine until I pulled the trigger and my gun made an empty clicking noise. Oh. Oh dear. That extra gunfight had used up all my ammo. I died and had to restart, but it was a great way to go. Sometimes it's when things go wrong that you real start to fall for games. And that was one of those times.

So, yes, the tutorial is the first change. The second is the addition of two extra bars. One shows how visible you are, one shows how suspicious people are of you. Okay, so sometimes you might not be sure why someone sees through your disguise, but you'll get a warning as you walk closer to them. Times when things go wrong won't come out of nowhere quite as much.

Sometimes it's still difficult to see why characters react the way they do, mind. I, in disguise, had to walk past a guard. He didn't bat an eyelid as I walked past, opened a door and walked through. However, as soon as I shut the door behind me he decided I was up to no good and rushed in, guns blazing. Very odd. If the door had been open before I walked through that would make some sense as it would like I was hiding something. Still, in a game like this I suppose you've got to expect a few moments of that sort here and there. In fact, testing those sort of reactions is part of the whole game. It'll make more sense when I can save mid-mission.

Anyway, I'm thoroughly looking forward to Blood Money now and would preorder it right now if, er, I hadn't already preordered. Having to do the demo again will be a pain, but it'll give me a nice way to compare the Xbox graphics in this demo to the 360 graphics in the full game.

Sensible Soccer Demo

Bought the Official Xbox mag just for this.

I'm not disappointed. Well, if it's final code, I'll be slightly disappointed. The sound effects need some work - bigger roar when goal goes in! - and the automatic player switching goes mental at some points when it can't decide who to pick.

But it's simple, fast and I can actually play it! The demo must be set on the easiest difficulty, because I was booting goal after goal in. Makes a pleasant change from the FIFAs and Pro Evos of the world, where I seem to have to play for five hours before I even get a shot on target.

Hooray!

SiN Episodes: Emergence

Well, I defragged overnight and installed new video drivers this morning and it's fine now. Only had time to shoot about eight nasty men with guns and then get twatted round the head by a girder, but it seemed okay.

Uno

Another ranked match win - that's two now! - and I'm up to about 1500 in the rankings.

Think I should go to bed now.

Excellent game online, this... when it works. I played against a friend earlier and after a couple of hands I suddenly noticed he'd turned into an AI player... odd.

Brain Age

My Calculations x 100 score was so bad I didn't even bother testing my brain age.

Uno

Nope, I can't find any games.

I played a match and won.

I then jumped in and played another match.

I then filed a complaint against one of the players I played against.

I then tried to play another match, but it won't find any.

I've switch the Xbox on and off and everything.

I know there are games, because my ranking's dropping all the time, so it's not like the whole thing's gone down.

Ack! Why isn't anything working today?

Uno

Weird.

I've just played a couple of ranked games (one win, one loss) and suddenly I can't find any games. I'm sitting here in a lobby empty except for me and nobody's joining.

What's happened?

Moto GP Demo

I am bloody awful at it.

Can't stay on the road for more than ten second... at best.

I took it online to see if other people were having problems.

They weren't.

The game session ended before I could even finish the race.

SiN Episodes: Emergence

It stutters.

It loops.

It's completely unplayable.

Odd, because Half-Life 2 is fine. This just seems to die down to one frame per second whenever it has to play a new sound effect at the same time as moving things on the screen, or something.

Loco Roco Demo

A free UMD with MCV this week containing a Loco Roco demo.

It's not the same demo, though.

It's even not the same level as the other demo but in English.

It's a completely different level. Best!

Well, actually, I'm not sure if it's quite as good as the downloadable demo - fewer secrets, no singing - but it's still a free level of Loco Roco excellence so I really won't be complaining.

Lost Planet Demo

This is really, really good.

Tried the second level this evening, against humans rather than bugs. Lots of enemies, fairly open areas, big guns.

Brain Age

Forty today.

BAD.

I had a new game today. I had to memorise lots of words from a list. I remembered eight, which was better than I thought. I've always sucked at memory type games.

Uno

It's apparently a popular real life card game. P'anther knew of it. I think I've vaguely heard of it, but I've never played it. So I cautiously downloaded the trial version of the game. After a few hands getting used to the rules and filling in the blanks in the slightly rubbish online help I realised it was ace and bought the full version. (It's a 400 point game, which seems fair.) No idea what makes it so compelling, but it is.

I've played a few single player games and one match online. Unfotunately, there don't seem to be that many people playing so that match had only one other human player and two AIs making up the numbers. The other human won. I lost. I've lost all my matches so far.

At least one achievement you're meant to get for winning a game got given to me for winning a hand. So that's okay.

Lost Planet Demo

It's available now on Live Marketplace and from a brief (failed) go at one of the levels on offer it seems really very good indeed. It's a very satsifying third person shooter with old-school Gauntlet-style generators, all wrapped up in a next-gen coat of impressively shiny graphics.

Almost made me forget about the Wii for a few minutes.

Brain Age

Thirty today. Acceptable.

I'm very surprised I did that well, givent that my head's full of Wii.

Brain Age

Fifty today. Oh dear.

I just froze up a couple of times and got some horrible scores.

Test Drive Unlimited Demo

Hmm.

Server wasn't up when I tried it, so I couldn't go online.

Seemed okay, if hard for me to control, but I really, really hate demos that time out.

Elder Scrolls: Oblivion

I've just been looking for a statue called The Sentinel. Didn't find it. All I know is that it's west of Dragonclaw Rock. Trouble is, there's an awful lot west of Dragonclaw Rock. Trees, rocks, bears and ogres, mostly.

OutRun 2006 Coast 2 Coast

One day I will turn on my PSP and I will do the OutRun 2 15-stage continuous route.

It will happen.

One day.

Just not today.