Guitar Hero 3 (360)

Thanks to the magic of Christmas I now have this game.

I can't really write much about it as I also have a kitten who seems to be fascinated by my typing. I will say that I completed Easy last night, can't work out how to play non-career songs in a way that posts a score online, am baffled by them locking some of the best songs away in co-op where I'll never get them, love the wireless guitar and also I rock.

I also have a new 120GB hard drive. The transfer from my old one is taking ages.

Geometry Wars Retro Evolved (360)

I turned it on for the first time in a long, long time and got about 130,000, which I thought was all right after such a long break.

On my next go I got about 29,000. And then I switched it off and went back to SWOS.

Every Extend Extra Extreme (360)

Just one game of Unlimited mode, but that one game took a while. I was wondering how I could ever actually die, when I pushed things too far, lost a life and then hardly got any more Time Extends and had to watch as my time dwindled away.

Sensible World of Soccer (360)

It's finally here!

And it's great!

There is a problem, though. It's very, very, very, very, very difficult. I can win a match if I pick a decent Premiership team and play a team in the third division (as it was in '96), but even that's a fight. When I'm playing a team on or near my own level I just can't win. I just can't seem to get into scoring positions very often and find it hard to score when I do.

Despite that, though, it's just great. One of those games I turn off in a huff and then come back to five minutes later. One day, I shall be good. (Mind you, that's what I said back in the mid-nineties when I was playing the PC version.)

Football Manager Handheld 2008 (PSP)

And the final score...

Ebbsfleet 2 - Shrewsbury 0.

Woo, and indeed, hoo.

It could be seen as a slightly unfair score line, as we just had two shots, both of which went in, against Shrewbury's fifteen shots, of which eleven were on target. But you can't argue with the result.

Football Manager Handheld 2008 (PSP)

This is my Christmas present to myself, as it got cheap recently. I was meant to be keeping it for Christmas Day, but I had a horrible morning involving a broken car, the AA and and a garage, so I thought I'd cheer myself up by starting this.

I've not done too much so far. I've taken over at Ebbsfleet United. I seem to be lacking a bit on the left of midfield, but the paltry £3K transfer budget and strict wage limits mean I've not been able to get any new blood into the club yet. I set myself up with a nice attacking 4-4-2 formation, as my best midfielders seems to be of the attacking variety.

After all the set up, I went into my first friendly, against Shrewsbury. (It's not very glamourous down in the arse end of professional football.) I'm 1-0 up, after a nice goal from Mark de Bolla (if I'm remembering the name correctly) just before half time. I've been very lucky, though. That was my only shot, I think, whereas Shrewsbury have had about eight shots, most of which have been on target. My goalkeeper's really been saving us.

I definitely need to have a look at moving back to a more traditional 4-4-2, I think, given how many chances the opposition are getting, but I'm not sure if it'll suit my players.

I've got a feeling it's going to be a tough season ahead.

Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness (PSP)

So, last night I played for an hour or two, ducking into a weapon to go and get some specialists. Good fun stuff and I managed to get my Bonus Gauge up to level nine for the first in the PSP version on one level. So I was happy.

This morning, though, I realised I went and sold the weapon I'd gone into before moving the unlocked specialists out of it. D'oh and bother, I say. D'oh and bother.

Also, the Dark Assembly hate me. And here I am able to find a fault with the game. Why can't you bribe with items from your warehouse?

Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness (PSP)

Hooray! I finally found time to squeeze a quick ten minute session this lunchtime. I just did a quick replay of a story level, but it was good fun and my guys will have earned some experience. Nobody seemed to level up, which was a shame, but the levels are starting to come more slowly now I'm in double-digits and haven't done any power levelling yet.

Contra 4 (DS)

Games that are harder than this, a complete list. Super Ghosts 'n' Ghouls... Um... That's it, I think. I can, just about, get to the level one boss if I use all my continues, but I can't beat him. (And if you die and have to use a continue, you start a long, long way back.) On Easy I can defeat it, but somehow Easy doesn't feel satisfying, despite it being incredibly hard itself. Something about it keeps me plugging away, though. I'm sure I will give it up eventually - I can't see that boss ever going down - but for now I'm happy enough with the game. I'm just not sure if I could recommend it to anyone but the most hardcore of the hardcore. But it's a Contra game, so that's who it's for I suppose.

Kula World (PSP)

I'm stuck. There's a level - an early level judging by the graph on the game over screen - that I just can't do. Except, once I did it without a problem and it all seemed to fit together. I don't remember how I did it, though, and I've never got past it since. Still, it's a fun little game to play while South Park's on.

Singstar (PS3)

Another game I played with my wife. It's wonderful. The Singstore is great, letting us populate the song list with songs we love, not just what's on the disc. And I seem to be getting better. You know, at singing. I'm actually learning to control my voice and I'm starting, just starting, to be able to get roughly in the right place without having to rely on the blue line. I'm still awful, though. X-Factor audition awful, even, but I am improving. It feels good.

Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)

Played this for while with my wife. It's getting very difficult now and I'm seeing the Game Over screen a lot more. (Shut up, deKay.) The Daredevil Comet in Deep Dark Galaxy took me about fifteen tries and when I died deep into a mission on the dreadnought I decided I'd had enough for the day. Not because I hate the game, but just because it requires so much concentration. It's joyful and wondrous and easily the best game of this year - at least - but when it's hard, it's draining.

Assassin's Creed (360)

This is the game I spent most time on this weekend. At least five or six hours of it. It's repetitive, yes, but that doesn't matter at all, as the mechanics are so much fun. Run, jump, fight, run, jump, fight, run, jump... Repeat for hour after hour without getting bored. I've done six assassinations now and there's been a big jump in difficulty. Not so much in combat, where I still feel very hard done by if I die, but in the "stealth" - which is less about not being seen and more about not being noticed.

Some people, I'm sure, must get very angry with the game when a lunatic pushes them into a guard during a stealth kills mission, ruining a few minutes of careful stalking and stabbing. I can understand that. To me, though, it always feels like it's my fault. I need to allow for them, to stay away form guards when they're around, make sure to stay back, work out where the guards are and how to get past. The stealth missions now tend to have time limits, but they're not so tight that you need to power through and get lucky. You have time. Failure is caused by overconfidence, impatience and, yes, some luck.

Anyway, I'm loving it. I'm finding it more difficult to lose pursuers - and running away is the better option than fighting now, for the most part, as a heap of dead bodies left lying around near a mission starting point is a very good way to make things more difficult.

It takes a while to work out the rules of the game - and it is a game with simple rules rather than anything approaching reality - but once you do there's a brilliant game in a brilliant world. Taking things slowly, refusing to "teleport", doing everything you can, exploring and just running across rooftops for the sheer joy of it, it's a wonderful world.

(Being pulled out of the game for lengthy cut scenes full of exposition still grates, though. I don't care about the plot at all and would be quite happy without any.)

Passage (Mac)

I've just played this and you should, too.

I'm not going to say any more, as you need to play it yourself, without knowing anything about it at all before you do.

It's a small download, only lasts five minutes and is available for Windows, OSX and Linux.

Download here -

http://hcsoftware.sourceforge.net/passage/

Mario Kart DS (DS)

This seems to be my default "I'm bored and I want to play something but I don't really want to concentrate on anything" game.

Assassin's Creed (360)

I spent a long time playing this over the weekend and got two more assassinations done. One was slightly annoying in that it forced me to fight some minions in an arena-style setting before moving on the main target, but the second was much more fun. I didn't get a stealth kill, but there's something very satisfying about the way I managed to leap and run after the target as he fled through the streets before jumping on him with my hidden blade. I've now explored all of the south-west section of Acre, so when I next play I'll be straight to the big castle in the south to kill William. I've not being much attention to the story, so I'm not entirely sure why I've got to kill him, but the reasons aren't important as the execution.

SingStar (PS3)

Played every song on the disc once last night (in Duet mode) and then downloaded seven (!) more from the SingStore, which we've not tried yet. I really wish I could actually sing. Or at least sing well enough for SingStar. Though I actually did okay on Feel Good Inc., No Surprises and Lovefool. And didn't totally suck on Hey Ya, either. And I got to do the "give me some sugar, I am your neighbor" bit, which pleased me and disappointed the wife.

As for the question of how good it is, well, it's SingStar again, so it's great. I have no interest in uploading any performances, as public humiliation isn't my thing, but the SingStore is going to be great.

Assassin's Creed (360)

Played this for quite a while last night and - apart from the last ten minutes or so - I didn't set foot in one of the major cities. I roamed around the kingdom for quite a while, fighting Templars, collecting flags and climbing Eagle Points, found a few more flags in the starting village and then made my way to Jerusalem, where I found the Assassins Guild and saved.

I throughly enjoyed it all, too. The more I play this game the more I like it. I'm still expecting it to get too hard and/or annoying later, but I've played for hours now and only done two of the assassinations. I think I'm having a completely different experience to people - especially reviewers - who decided to go through it s quickly as possible. It's a game that gets better the more you breathe and the more you just mess around, I think.

Psychonauts (360)

Well, this finally downloaded and installed itself, but that wasn't the end of the trouble. When I started it up it told me there was an update available which I should download. So I sat and watched the progress bar move across the screen, only to then be told that there was an error and the update couldn't be installed. Then I got kicked back to the dashboard. Starting up the game after that worked fine, though, and after much stuttering on the intro movies the game's worked fine, with only the most minor graphical problems since. (Mainly one-pixel-wide black lines appearing on the screen now and again.)

As for the game, it's exactly what I remember from way back when. The script, voice acting and graphical design are very, very good, but the platforming is merely quite good. I've not yet got to any of the controller-smashingly frustrating sections, so we'll see how far I get through the game this time.

Half-Life 2 (360)

While waiting for Psychonauts to download I decided to play some Half-Life 2, as it was in the drive. Really was the best and worst of the game in one small sitting. Some excellent fights against the Combine, some fun head crab shooting and then some really annoying bits with stupid physics puzzles and annoying jumping. Also, everything involving ladders is horrible.

I tried to play some Sonic, too, but the kitten wouldn't let me. She kept trying to claw the rings out of the screen, which wasn't a good idea at all, so I had to stop.

And Psychonauts didn't finish downloading until after I went to bed, anyway.

Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness (PSP)

Same as yesterday. Same level, same team, one Prinny died again, two characters levelled up.

It's like Groundhog Day round here.

Team Fortress 2 (360)

Again, a friends match turned into a no-friends match, so I had to leap into a random game. (After going through the final bit of the commentary I'd not heard yet.) This time I knew my limits and wasn't as awful as I had been the other night. As the Pyro I got a few kills, as a Medic I did some useful healing.

Our team was utterly outclassed, though, and we lost every game heavily.

Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness (PSP)

Only had ten minutes spare this lunchtime, so just replayed a story level with some of my low-level characters. One of my Prinnies got killed, which was a shame, but I did level a couple of other characters up, so it was worth doing.

Bite-sized chunk gameplay at its very best.

PixelJunk Racers (PS3)

We came to an understanding this weekend. Previously bitter enemies, I no longer think that the game's completely broken. I can even see that it hits all the unambitious targets that it aims for. However, it doesn't work with my brain and I don't think I'm ever going to get any fun out of it.

Kula World (PSP)

A great lost Playstation game, that has apparently been fetching massive amounts on eBay over the last few years. It's a 3D, rolling-ball puzzle game and it's quite good fun, though I've seen nothing yet to suggest that it's some amazing lost classic.

Unless I'm missing some camera controls you need to memorise the layout of the levels as you sometimes have to jump to places you can't see and only know about because you saw them earlier in the game. Which seems a little unfair to me.

Beats (PSP)

A download from the PSP store. It's a pain the rear to use if you've got a Mac, as you have to use special PC-only software to download stuff which is, obviously, impossible. Luckily, things you buy appear in your download list in the PS3 version of the store, even if you can't buy them there, so I was able to buy the game on my Mac, then download it on to my PS3 and then transfer it from that to the PSP. Phew.

Was it worth it? Yeah, probably. It's a rhythm action game that uses your own music (so I guess it's similar to that iPod game that came out recently that I can't remember the name of and can't play). I've tried it with Johnny Cash, Gretchen Wilson and CSS, to name a few, and while I never really felt the connection between the game and the music I did have fun. It's pretty frantic, even on Normal, but not stupidly hard.

World Series of Poker 2008: Battle for the Bracelets (DS)

I guess it does what it says on the tin, but it's really, really dull. Matches take hours and hours to play - I spent all of Saturday afternoon plugging away - and it's really, really easy to win. It's just a test of patience and forcing yourself not to go all in on ridiculous hands just to try and make things slightly more exciting.

Still, I got to play against Jennifer Tilly, which is something.