Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee (PSP)

This is just as enjoyable as I remembered it, which isn't bad after two (yes, two) years. I've started using the old guy to get his loyalty up. Sometime I need to find out how you get medals. There's a space for them all, but I haven't got any yet.

ZAngbandTk (PC)

So I've gone back to this. Tried some spectre characters with no success. Currently have a chaos warror who started off as a beastman, but got turned into a nie... nib... nil... nieblu... type of dwarf by a Chaos God. Fair enough. At least he can see in the dark now.

I wish this ran on OSX.

CastlevaniaRL (PC)

Okay, I think that's it. I can't work out how to heal in the church, with is annoying me more than it should, but, more than that, I keep dying very early and doing the initial forest stuff over and over gets tiring.

Pac-Man Championship Edition (360)

This may be my last chance to play proper console games for a while, as my consoles are being packed to be moved tomorrow evening. So what did I choose to play to mark this occassion? Well, obviously, Pac-Man C.E., of course. Unfortunately, I was awful and didn't come close to any sort of achievement or Achievement.

(And then I played Rush'n Attack, but lost all my three lives because I forgot which button was the special weapon button three times, so I'm going to ignore that and not post about it.)

CastlevaniaRL (PC)

Not an official Castlevania game, but a roguelike in a Castlevania skin. At first it was annoying because I kept dying really early, but then I discovered I should be attacking (a) with my weapon and not firing (f) my weapon. Then it was annoying because I kept falling into a lake from which there seems to be no way out. But I discovered the jump (j) key and all was well. Now it's annoying because I'm in a town, I need to heal myself at the church, but nobody will tell me where it is and I can't find it. And some people say I need to heal by shouting outside the church, some by resting inside the church, but there's no church and no key to rest and no key to shout and I'm getting very annoyed indeed.

I'm probably being really stupid, but I just can't tell what I'm meant to do.

Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee (PSP)

The PS3 version of this is out in Japan and my lust for it is wild, but I'm not going to buy it. For it costs money and is in Japanese. So I loaded up the PSP version for the first time in many a moon. Or "months" as I sometimes like to call them. My save file is, I'm sure, a long way behind where it should be - I think some backing up went wrong somewhere - but never mind. I started it up and got my "best ever" (i.e. best on this save) score on an event (a lovely minus five over nine holes), which made me happy.

Flatout Ultimate Carnage (360)

I finished the first set of events and moved up to Race Class.

There's a reason that this hasn't moved from my 360 in weeks, and it's not just my lack of gaming time recently. It's a simply fantastic game.

Super Contra Demo (360)

I was burnt by Contra, Super Contra seems to be the same, but even harder. No thank you.

Wing Commander Arena Demo (360)

It's another car combat game in a different skin. A spaceship skin. And it's absolutely rubbish. I can't be bothered to even write about it, quite frankly.

Heavenly Sword Demo (PS3)

My wife looked up from her knitting and said, "Well, it looks very pretty." And it does.

Not sure about the, you know, game, though. It's a hack and slash that seems like it might have a nice, deep system behind it, but I can't really tell - it's hard to tell exactly what's going on under the fireworks or which enemy the game's going to focus on when you hit an attack button - and enemies spawn for far too long in each area.

Of course, it might easier to tell if it was any good or not if the ONE GIGABYTE demo lasted more than FIVE MINUTES.

Worms (360)

Challenge 13 is impossible.

Impossible!

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Last night I had my first ever lost connection during local wireless play. Odd, as my DS was only a foot ot so away from the other DS. Anyway, I got back in and everything was okay after that. Visited Vatican for the first time in ages and ages - hardly any of my old friends still live there. Agent S and Kid Kat seem like good additions, though.

In other news, my own town, Venture, is now pretty much weed-free after my months of neglect.

Mr Driller: Drill Spirits (DS)

No nearer to the 1,500m mark. In fact, my skills were very weak and I don't think I made 650m this session.

Rush'n Attack (360)

Got further than ever before. I survived the first wave of end-of-level enemies on level two, only for the second wave to come in from the right, where I was standing, killing me instantly. Argh. New high score of 74,200, too.

Lumines Live (360)

Played a few of the different Challenge packs today and unlocked quite a few new skins. Which would be really nice if I ever used Skin Edit mode.

Carcassonne (360)

Tried playing without using The River expansion today and still lost about as many games as I won. I guess Medium is just about the right level for me, then.

Mr Driller: Drill Spirits (DS)

Hooray! Well, it ate my day, but I've finished the 1000m stage. The 1500m stage hasn't fallen yet, my best being 1075m.

Yes, but this is definitely worth a place in my all time top ten.

Assault Heroes (360)

Haven't played this for a while, so I thought I'd give it a go. I was going to try and get some more Achievements - I've only got ten points right now - but it's so plodding that I really couldn't be bothered.

Lumines Live (360)

My second best ever score, but no new skins unlocked or anything. Hey ho.

Rush'n Attack (360)

Well, I got to the end of the second level again. Twice. But I die so quickly that I've not yet been able to work out what to do. I'll keep trying, though. After all, this is now officially my tenth favourite game of all time.

Carcassonne (360)

Ha.

After all my big talk yesterday, the AI was killing me on Medium today. The only difference between today and yesterday is that I was using The River expansion today, but that shouldn't have made any difference, I wouldn't have thought.

Mr Driller: Drill Spirits (DS)

It's still got it. Nothing was holding my attention last night, until I fell back to this old favourite. Tried the 1000m challenge that I've never completed and didn't do too badly, but couldn't get there.

Metal Gear Ac!d 2 (PSP)

Essentially, this is the same as its predecessor, based on an hour or so of play. It's a great idea, but there's too much text to wade through before you get to the meat of the game and it's too hard for my poor, tiny brain.

The only real change I noticed is in the graphics, which are cel-shaded and, optionally, in 3D. The 3D thing works fairly well, but it cuts in half the amount of screen space and makes you hunch over the PSP looking through a weird card contraption. It's not really worth the effort.

Which probably sums up my thoughts on the whole thing, right now. If I could just get my head round the sneaking and - most especially - STOP CHOOSING MOVE INSTEAD OF USE WHEN TRYING TO SHOOT PEOPLE, then I might get somewhere.

Pinball FX (360)

You know, I wish I knew what I was doing on these tables. I've been playing Agent and I have no idea where to hit to, say, meet the informant and my score at the end of each game seems completely random.

There are too many flashing lights - it needs to make it clearer what's going on.

Lumines Live (360)

I downloaded the new charity pack, which consists of four very nice skins.

I then went back to the Base pack to try and improve my score, but failed. I'm never going to see all the skins and get the achievements. Bah.

Doom (360)

Completed the level I'd left it on months ago, but didn't make any headway into the one after that. Cacodemons and those flying skulls are the worst things ever.

Still, best game ever? Yes.

Joust (360)

I'm so rubbish at this. Didn't even get half of my own best score - and that score's rubbish, anyway.

Still, it's good fun, which is what matters.

Super Stardust HD (PS3)

Geometry Wars meets Asteroids, basically. It's all very well done, but games take too long to ramp up. That's a failing of many shooters, the mighty Geometry Wars included, and it's not a deal breaker, but it's a shame. Best score is just a touch over three million right now. I need to be getting over ten million to be considered even half decent.

Flatout Ultimate Carnage (360)

I'm doing quite well now. I got a silver in the next Derby cup and have got golds in a couple of events. The fun doesn't seem to be wearing off yet.

Rush'n Attack (360)

Didn't get off level two, didn't beat my high score, but I didn't do too badly, either. After a decent game, though, my timing went and I couldn't even get to the trucks on the first level, so had to turn off.

Annoyingly, I'm still the only person on my Friends List with this game. Why? It's great. Possibly even Top Ten of All Time great.

Carcassonne (360)

AI doesn't seem to be much of a challenge on Medium, either. I've lost the odd game, but not many. I'll try Hard, but that'll probably kill me dead.

Flatout Ultimate Carnage (360)

Two more cups down. One bronze, one silver. I'll go back and get golds some time.

had a great moment where I slammed into another car on a ram. He went spinning into the distance and I did the biggest jump I've ever done. It was glorious. It was one of those moments where I turn to my wife and ask her if she saw it. She had, and agreed it was sweet. Icing on the cake was the Achievement Unlocked message that popped up as I landed, in this case for getting more than 10m high in a race.

Missile Command Demo (360)

Had three goes to make sure, but I really don't like this. The pointer is far too twitchy for my tastes and having to work out which base to fire from has always made my head hurt. Deleted.

Carcassonne (360)

Had a quick game against the 360. Won very, very easily despite managing to complete a monastery for it by mistake. Might have to take the difficulty up a notch... or, you know, just enjoy winning.

Flatout Ultimate Carnage (360)

Well, I got second on a cup that was giving me trouble at the weekend and went to the next one, but only came seventh. No matter. This is one of those games that's so fun that repetition is not a problem at all. Glorious.

Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition (Wii)

I had a great evening with this. Lots of villager-killing, with one big boss and one major set piece. That seige with Luis in the house is so, so good. I was a bit sad that I didn't die, because I'd have quite liked to do it again.