LocoRoco (PSP)

World three is finished and world four beckons.

Chrome Hounds Demo (360)

Well...

A single-player demo of an online game might not be the best idea ever. I've just played the first of the two included missions.

PRO: The mech(a) feels nicely stompy. Weapon power and reload rates feel about right. (Though I hope there's some chain gun type of thing in the full game.) It looks nice and clean in hi-def. Explosions are nice. The online stuff still sounds really interesting.

CONS: Apart from the mech(a), the graphics are all a bit dull and look rather like an original Xbox game being played in hi-def. The mission design is absolutely terrible. You have to pick out tiny ant-sized men in a group of buildings and the demo won't end until you kill every single one. It's very, very tedious. My legs died completely - health bar down to nothing - and all that happened was that I walked a bit more slowly. Hmm. Debris flies into the air and disappears - I know most games do that sort of thing, but surely in this day and age it could stay lying around the level?

So, overall, it seems to feel good, but it's nothing special to look at, but not offensive at all. And it still feels like an online game - so why release a tedious single-player demo? I'm still hopeful it'll work well on Live, but if people get put off by the demo - which they seem to be - will there be many people to play with? If it's just me and the ultra-hardcore then I'm not going to have much fun.

I don't think I'll cancel my preorder... but there's a fairly good chance it'll go back after a week and be swapped for Prey.

LocoRoco (PSP)

Nearly at the end of world three now. Not tired of it yet.

LocoRoco (PSP)

I just unlocked the second mini game, played it eighteen times and only managed to win it and get a new house part once.

I'm rubbish.

LocoRoco (PSP)

Lunchtime LocoRoco is the new lunchtime Guardian Quick Crossword.

LocoRoco (PSP)

And a quick lunchtime level to raise my mood from the floor...

LocoRoco (PSP)

It's practically medicinal.

I was just feeling the usual Monday morning gloom, then realised that I had enough time to play a level before getting the bus to work.

I am now full of happiness and joy... Well, okay, I'm still knackered and wishing I could crawl back in to bed, but I'm not as gloomy.

LocoRoco (PSP)

I bought a new four-way extension lead so I could plug my PSP charger in by the sofa, instead of the kitchen.

This game is... just... love.

Super Princess Peach (DS)

My fiancée, P'anther, is playing through this but got stuck on the first boss, so I had a few goes and managed to kill it.

We've decided to play through the game as a team.

LocoRoco (PSP)

Oh my.

This is so good.

And it may be easy getting to the end of stages (so far), but finding all the fruit and secrets is proving to be... well, I've not done it on any of the levels so far.

Tamagotchi (MOB)

Two days later. It's still asleep and its stats haven't changed.

I'm guessing time only counts when the game is running, rather than it looking at the clock to see how much time has passed since the last play session.

Which makes the thing absolutely worthless, then.

But it's such an odd design decision to have made that I feel I must be missing something... Especially as you can display the time in the game, so it knows what it is.

Weird.

LocoRoco (PSP)

We've seen the demos, now we have the real game.

It's lovely. Very, very lovely.

Played through the first level a couple of times and then quit, because people round the office were threatening me with violence. I love the soundtrack, but I seem to be in a minority...

Half-Life 2: Episode One (PC)

A few more minutes of this during an enforced period of being awake due to the evil that is hayfever. Ugh. I'm going to be dead again in work tomorrow. I hate hayfever so, so, so, so much. I fell asleep okay and then woke just after midnight with...

Oh, yeah, the game. It's good fun. I like it. I shoot things and they fall over.

Tamagotchi (MOB)

Nothing was happening, so I reset my Tamagotchi and started again on the Fast speed setting. It was so quick that I couldn't keep with it and then it fell asleep.

Ah.

I think maybe this game needs a middle speed setting.

Tamagotchi (MOB)

The guy still doesn't need any more feeding or cleaning or treating or healing or, well, anything.

This is very odd.

I just start it up, see my little blob doesn't need anything and shut it down again.

Not very interactive, really.

Gripshift (PSP)

Second impressions also suggest goodness, though I only played for a few minutes during half time.

Tamagotchi (MOB)

It's a Tamagotchi... on a mobile. My mobile, in fact.

It being on a mobile means two things:

1) It can't call out and annoy you, you have to load the game to check how the little guy's doing.

2) It can look a bit nicer than a low-res LCD display.

Other than that, well, it's a Tamagotchi. More advanced than the original ones, less advanced that the current ones.

Gripshift (PSP)

Very much first impressions, but this might be a hidden gem. Picked it up for a tenner in a sale and it's a bit like Trackmania, for a quick and easy reference. Multiple goals and targets per level. Time, collection, that sort of thing.

2006 FIFA World Cup (PSP)

Progressed to the semi-finals without any trouble at all, then suddenly came up against the mighty, er, Israel, who treated me as if I were a Conference South team, or something. I lost, anyway.

I suppose that's the oddness and madness of the beautiful game. Whatever, I've found my receipt.

2006 FIFA World Cup (PSP)

Well, England have qualified for the World Cup. The group were in consists of Togo, Ecuador and Japan. Should be simple enough, even if Togo turn up.

Another annoyance: Michael Owen seems to run at exactly the same speed as the Austrian defenders. Hmm.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Sod it.

Forbert and his bloody mutant 120mm peacock butterfly can bloody go and win the tourny.

See if I care.

Super Monkey Ball: Touch & Roll (DS)

Okay, there's this level called Starfish and I've got no idea how to do it. Pardon the language, but it's pissing me off something chronic.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2)

Ten months since I last visited. I've just spent a good couple of hours doing bugger all. Mainly just cruising round the map listening to K-ROSE. Killed a few people and got wasted a few times, but that's to be expected.

It really does look a bit a shit these days, but who really cares?

2006 FIFA World Cup (PSP)

I've had to stop playing because my PSP's battery died. Bah.

There are several annoyances. There's the weird behaviour of bad teams, who just run the ball off the field for no reason, or run back into their own half when they really shouldn't, or kick the ball in weird directions. The game sometimes doesn't check the strips of opposing teams properly and if I also forget I can find myself having to tell the teams apart by the colour of the shorts - which makes things difficult. The game shows facts on the loading screens... well, I assume there's more than the one fact I've seen during the loading of every single game I've played so far.

So, annoyances. But none of them stop the game from being really good fun to play.

Super Monkey Ball: Touch & Roll (DS)

The controls, I like a lot.

The levels, I mostly like.

The credits are incredibly, incredibly annoying.

Geometry Wars Retro Evolved (360)

I thought as I was adding the "(360)" that I might as well change the name.

I just don't play enough to get as good as I was. And that wasn't great.

Joust (360)

Lots of games nearly at my high score, but none quite there.

A tad annoying, actually.

2006 FIFA World Cup (PSP)

Yes, I'm really enjoying this.

I'm taking England through the qualifying matches. Two so far. Lost 1-0 to Poland and won 2-1 against Austria.

It's not perfect - the main fault being that the AI sometimes just runs balls back down the field or off the sides of the pitch for no reason - but it's been great fun.

I bought it from Game as I thought it might be rubbish, but I think I'm going to keep it.

2006 FIFA World Cup (PSP)

Very early first impressions after one game are good.

I didn't read the manual, so just jumped in and tried to work out the controls as I played. Got the basics down easily. Played as England against Hungary, which should have been easy. It was eventually, but at 70 minutes we were a goal down and down to 10 men after Rio Ferdinand got sent off for another sliding tackle from behind. (Square button.)

But then Rooney slammed two home and Owen got the third and all ended happily.

FIFA 2005 (GBA)

Oh! So close!

Should have won another Villa vs Birmingham 'friendly' 1-0, but a stupidly placed goal kick let them qualise right near the end of the game.

My fault entirely.

I.Q. (MOB)

Cubes roll down the stage.
I try to dispose of them.
But I fall and die.

FIFA 2005 (GBA)

Yes, it really would be easier if I put the format in my post titles. So I shall from now on.

Anyway, I dug this out of it's barely-played grave and have just given it a quick go. Maybe it's just because I'm not using a phone keypad, but it seems quite lovely in comparison to Real Football.

However, I played as Villa and lost 2-0 to Birmingham, so I hate it.

2006 Real Football

A worthy attempt at a mobile phone football game, sadly let down by the phone keypad.

GBA version, please.

Joust

I just played one game got my highest score ever.

That was unexpected, given that I'm knackered and can't focus.

Geometry Wars 2

63,350.

Rubbish, but it is only quarter to seven in the morning.

Groo.

Lumines Mobile

It's good.

Really.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

Not posted about this lately, but I've still played every day since I got it. Anywhere from five minutes to two hours, averaging about half or three-quarters of an hour a day, I guess.

That's a lot of play time.

Uno

Just half a game or so before P'anther came in and played instead.

Rumble Roses Demo

Very confusing.

Not sure whether I need to know the controls or whether it's just shit.

Super Monkey Ball: Touch & Roll

In honour of Mukie Day I've played through the first set of levels. Seems good, but the credits go on a bit.

New Super Mario Bros

I've finally progressed in World Seven after finding the secret exit in level 7-6.

Can't do the last level, though. I am growling.

Half-Life 2: Episode One

Too hot to sleep and the PC has headphones, so I can play without worrying about disturbing P'anther sleeping upstairs.

It's great fun, though a little hazy due to tiredness.

Hitman Blood Money

A New Life was finished almost cleanly. Couple of people saw my final act before escaping, though. Had to pay to get notoriety down after that.

Now to New Orleans, which is looking tricky. Nice piano, though.

Half-Life 2: Episode One

Stupid confusingl-named games. This comes after Half-Life 2 and is the first episode of a continuing series of smaller chunks of gaming.

Just had an hour with it, of which half was spent decrypting and updating game files. Slightl annoying, but I've learned to live with these things.

And it's really good so far. The best stuff from Half-Life 2 without any of the boring bits. But it was only the first half hour.

Hitman Blood Money

Well, I finished the mission I was on at the rehab clinic. Not very clean and I didn't do the bonus, but I did it okay.

Having trouble with the next one so far.