Mystery Dungeon: Shiren The Wanderer (DS)

Woke up this morning to an email from 1:18am last night from my wife, telling me she'd sent me a rescue request.

So I spent my lunchtime on a quest to rescue her from the marshes. Didn't have any anti-drain armlets and my sword wasn't plated so I rushed through the final coupe of floors, but I managed to save her without mishap.

NetHack (DS)

Oh, for goodness sake. Twice this lunchtime I died because I hadn't noticed I was hungry and fainted during fights with gnomes.

NetHack (DS)

I drank from a fountain, because I've just discovered the drink command.

It unleashed a water demon, who killed me dead.

Oh.

Mystery Dungeon: Shiren The Wanderer (DS)

Rescued my wife a few times and built up a good set of equipment for my next attempt to free the golden condor, or whatever I'm meant to be doing. I've not paid much attention to the story.

Also spent a good long time sorting out my warehouse, which is now full of storage jars full of weapons, shields, scrolls and staffs.

NetHack (DS)

There are two versions of this out for the DS. One is unplayable due to using a tiny, unreadable font, but the other works very well. Can't seem to name my pet, but not had any problems apart from that.

Keep dying very early though, oddly. Once because my pet dog tripped a bouder release switch, squishing me. Thanks for that, puppy.

Mystery Dungeon: Shiren The Wanderer (DS)

I got to level twenty-eight today, by some way the best I've ever done. Things had got silly by that point. My weapon and shield had disappeared somehow - I missed any message because so much happened at once - and I was just using all my precious scrolls trying to stay alive. Eventually things just got too much.

That was the only proper run I did today. Did a lot of rescue runs and quite a few puzzles.

Mystery Dungeon: Shiren The Wanderer (DS)

More rescuing. I now have a warehouse full of equipment. Rescuing people is great.

Mystery Dungeon: Shiren The Wanderer (DS)

In normal games I didn't do too well today, but I picked up loads of good stuff rescuing my wife a couple of times.

Sega Superstars Tennis (360)

I'm not sure if it's just me, but Beat seems to be the best character in the game by far. If I'm playing as him, I win. If I'm someone else playing against him, I lose.

It's probably just luck or something, but that's the way it's been for me so far.

I'm really hoping for a sequel with more characters in it. There's nobody from Shenmue or Virtua Fighter, to name just two, which is a missed opportunity when you consider some of the characters that made it in.

Mystery Dungeon: Shiren The Wanderer (DS)

Sometimes, just sometimes this game hates me.

My wife died on level eight. I tried to rescue her three times and failed each time. I can't fail to reach level eight three times in a row!

But I did.

Sega Superstars Tennis (360)

So I was playing tennis as Beat, of Jet Set Radio fame, against Amy Rose, of Sonic The Hedgehog fame on a court based on House of the Dead, surrounded by cheering zombies.

And I thought, "This is a bit odd."

Good, though.

Pain (PS3)

Nothing to it, really. A single level with a few target variations. You fire your character into scaffolding, walls and exploding crates and that's about it.

It really, really needs more levels. Feels more like a demo than a game right now.

Able to eat a surpisingly large amount of time, though.

Mystery Dungeon: Shiren The Wanderer (DS)

This lunchtime I got to level sixteen. I knew I was going to die around there because I'd rushed through a few levels before Mountaintop Top so I could reunite a lost girl with her parents. Consequently I was rather under-levelled and I left most of my good stuff in storage, then, basically, wandered off into the marshes to die.

Still, that was my second-best game ever, which ain't bad.

Mystery Dungeon: Shiren The Wanderer (DS)

I died on level seventeen last night. That's the furthest I've ever got. I'll do that again, though, one day. I might even get as far as level eighteen!

After that, my wife needed rescuing. She'd died on level three but had already found some cool stuff, so wanted reviving. She sent me a request using the DS wireless connection and I went off in search of her. Found her limp body surrounded by monsters, but managed to kill them all and revive her. That done, it was back to the main menu to send her a revival scroll. Job done.

Later, though, she died on level thirteen, again with a whole bunch of cool items, and asked my help again. That's a long way down, so I grabbed all the items from my warehouse and set off. I didn't find a single weapon until level eight, but I was doing okay, until I reached level twelve. Went down the stairs and found myself in a tiny room surrounded by monsters. Five of them. I killed three, but a couple of tanks brought me down. Dead.

It doesn't sound like much, but it was one of the most intense bits of gaming I've ever had. Just knowing that death lurked around every corner, having to use every item at my disposal to make it to the next floor and then - bam! - dead.

You get three tries to rescue someone. So all was not lost.

On my second try I died on level one. Level one! That never happens!

And on my third try... I died on level one. Again. The game obviously had it in for me.

Oh well, I did my best to try and rescue the damsel in distress. I guess it was not to be.

NetHack (Mac)

Inspired by Shiren I decided to play NetHack. I've played enough ZAngbandTk to make it easy enough to step into, but it's quite different. No town, for starters. And you start with a pet - which inevitably dies or goes missing, leaving you feeling guilt-ridden and sad for the rest of the game. Hooray? I've also been killed twice for kicking down doors - once by some watchmen and once by an irate shop keeper. I didn't know it was a shop door! Harumph.

Great fun, anyway - even it did take me about fifteen minutes of Google searching just to work out how to blow a whistle.

Mystery Dungeon: Shiren The Wanderer (DS)

This lunchtime's adventure saw me fail to find a weapon. Any weapon. At all. I got to Pegasus Ridge 6 and did not find a single weapon. Gah.

Ended up getting turned into a rice ball - yes, turned into a rice ball - and killed while trying to run away. Apparently, rice balls can run.

Mystery Dungeon: Shiren The Wanderer (DS)

My DS arrived back from repair yesterday, so I decided to play this, as it's been waiting for me for weeks.

I was slightly worried, I must admit. I very much enjoy roguelike games, but the only one I've tried from this developer was Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, which I found tedious in the extreme. Luckily, this one is a lot better. It's a proper roguelike, in that when you die you lose all your items and experience and get sent back to the beginning of the game. I like that. You can store items and weapons in special storage areas and people in towns remember you, but everything else is reset.

In my last run last night I was carrying around two really good weapons, just hoping to bump into a courier who could take one of them back to the warehouse, but died, thus losing them both. (I was really hungry and had no food, so I wasn't being as careful as normal and ran into a couple of hard enemies who proceeded to kill me quickly.) My lovely Katana + 2 is now gone forever. I've got nothing in the warehouse in the starting town now, so it's going to be hard getting started again. But good hard.

I played for about three hours, so it's getting things right, even if it isn't as deep as many PC-based roguelikes.

DJ Max Portable 2 (PSP)

After playing a few songs this seems to be gaming equivalent of rubbing your stomach while patting your head... while on fire... in a car that's plummeting off a cliff... onto a spikes. Or something.

It's impossible for me. I can't seem to divide the left hand and right hand actions up properly. Everything's a horrible mess and I just keep getting lost in it.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (PSP)

I didn't mean to play this, you know. I really didn't. I just wanted to see if it ran better with the CPU at 333Mhz. The answer is yes. No framerate issues at all. It's probably the smoothest GTA has ever been for me.

So, yeah, the idea was just to test out the framerate. Instead I played all weekend. Hours and hours and hours. I've got thriving criminal empire, but I've still not unlocked the Eastern half of the city. It's very good. The "humour" isn't up there with the other GTAs - this just feels a bit grubby and nasty - but the game is very well designed on the whole. There have only been a few annoying missions so far and I love being able to buy back all your weapons after you die or get busted.
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I've only stopped playing now because if I see the words "Mission Failed: Lance Has Died" one more time I'm going to snap my PSP in half.

Space Invaders Extreme (PSP)

I forced myself to stop playing this because I fear for my PSP's X button. Also: my thumb. But mainly the X button.

Space Invaders Extreme (PSP)

You know what Pac-Man CE did for Pac-Man?

This does the same for Space Invaders.

PSP Adventures (PSP)

I finally hit my breaking point with The Show. Those load times of over a minute a game got too much. So I got myself a tool battery and followed a guide to putting custom firmware on my PSP. The instructions were nice and clear and after one delay caused by having to check that the EasyInstaller software wasn't really a virus and another caused by having to wait for my tool battery to charge I was up and running.

I spent a lunchtime ripping UMDs to my PC's hard drive while reading Edge's excellent article on Grand Theft Auto, then copying the ISO files from the UMDs back to my PSP. All a bit of an effort, but it's been worth it. Very, very worth it.

The Show's game load times have gone down from over a minute to ten seconds. That's much, much better.

Setting the CPU to run at its maximum speed - rather than at Sony's battery-saving standard limit - gets rid of all the framerate issues in OutRun 2006. Not so long I said I'd buy the game again if they'd done nothing else but fix the framerate - now I don't have to.

It's marvellous. I have six games sitting on my memory stick now. There's Disgaea, for strategy-based fun. There's Football Manager Handheld 2008 for when I want to finally get back to my Ebbsfleet game. There's The Show, for excellent baseball action. And three racing games - OutRun 2006, Sega Rally and Flatout: Head On. Only Flatout was new to me, conveniently being released yesterday. It feels an awful lot like the PSP's Sega Rally - same dev team, perhaps? - but it's basically Flatout Ultimate Carnage squeezed into the PSP. Obviously it doesn't look as nice as the 360 version and on the small screen there's less of a "whoa!" factor when scenery flies everywhere, but they've done a very, very good job with it.

I'd like to have had ripped my discs of Wipeout Pulse, Street Fighter Alpha 3, etc. to save carrying them around and to cut the loading times, but PSP games use up an awful lot of space. The Show is 1.5GB, give or take, and I've "only" got a four gigabyte memory stick.

MLB 08: The Show (PSP)

Just the one game this lunchtime. Got two hits from four at bats and was named player of the game, which was nice.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2)

I've spent the last hour and half trying and failing to do a mission called "n.o.e". It's very annoying indeed, especially because there's no good reason why I'm failing all the time - it's just flying a plane - but something always go wrong every single time I try it. Gah.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2)

Hooray, I stole the helicopter without cheating or anything. Parachuted in out of a cropduster, grabbed it, escaped. After that the mission got awkward, but I did it first time. Then I managed to get the key card I needed from a girlfriend. Then had to turn off the console because there wasn't time for another mission before America's Next Top Model.

Singstar (PS3)

New songs! Old songs! Fun for all!

I seem to have no voice left now. Ow.

MLB 08: The Show (PSP)

Wow, now I'm down in AA things have got a lot easier. I'm batting not far off .400, for starters. Looks like I'm going to fail my advancement goals, though, because I can't get the number of walks I need.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2)

No, I can't steal that helicopter.

Stupid game.

MLB 08: The Show (PS3)

Started a Road to the Show game. The player I made looks nothing like me, but that's okay. It's all very similar to the PSP game, but with extra shiny. After a few games I decided to play some team stuff, so started a season as the Astros. Didn't even finish the first game of spring training, but at least I could save it.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2)

A good few more missions done.

I was having fun until I got to an annoying one that involves stealing a helicopter from a military base, which made me growl.

Still, I seem to have played for five hours since I restarted the game last night, which is quite something.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2)

The wait for GTA IV got too much this evening, so I had to start this up for the first time since 2006. Three things shocked me most -

1) The graphics look jaw-droppingly horrible for the first two minutes. This new generation of HD gaming has spoiled me. Luckily, within a few minutes I'd forgotten the technical deficiencies entirely.

2) The aiming on the Dual Shock stick is completely awful. Didn't really notice until I tried a shooting mini game in an Ammunation, but, ugh.

3) I can remember huge amounts of the map. Gun locations, safe houses, Cluckin' Bells, etc. I don't know all the map, but I'm sure I shouldn't remember the layout quite so well two years after I last played.

Anyway, it still plays brilliantly, it's great and while the aiming was never good and the years haven't been kind to the graphics, everything else has stood the test of time immensely well. I was worried I was going to destroy some precious memories, but I didn't. Yay.

And I completed the mission I'd been stuck on when I last played. Hooray!

MLB 08: The Show (PSP)

Spring training over and a final batting average of .226.

Based on that the Angels offered me a one-year AA contract at $98,750. Yes please!

MLB 08: The Show (PSP)

I've recovered from another slump and am now performing better than expected with a .242 batting average. Still a week or two of spring training for me to completely mess up, though.

Last game was great, in that I was brought in as a pinch hitter and managed to hit a ball down the line past first base, which meant the two runners on the bases could score to tie the game. We eventually lost in extra innings, but that was a great, game-changing moment for me.

MLB 08: The Show (PSP)

I might be starting to get the hang of this. In the last couple of games I've dragged my batting average up to .167 and I'm grounding out more often than I'm striking out. Let's hope this is a real sign of improvement and not a false dawn.

MLB 08: The Show (PS3)

Gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous. Some of the faces are a bit off - Pedroia of the Red Sox looks very scary indeed, like he's not quite human, possibly some shark DNA in there - but others are just spot on. Sound is perfect, with easily the best commentary I've ever heard. Presentation is brilliant, with it highlighting exactly what it should and a superb atmosphere.

I am having trouble hitting the ball, though, as I am in the PSP version. I think I just need practice - and to train my thumb not to slam itself down on the X button as soon as I see the ball leave the pitcher's hand. I've only played four or five innings so far, as the Red Sox against the Astros, so it's early days. Really wish you could save in the middle of Exhibition games, but the option to do that is only in the season type modes. Not quite sure why, but there you go.

Slight disappointment is that "Allaway" isn't in the huge list of surnames that the commentators can say, so when I make myself as a player I think I'll settle on "Wolverine", which I suppose is pretty cool.

MLB 08: The Show (PSP)

I started a new Road to the Show game with a roster update and put myself on the Angels, as a second baseman again.

I'm having a really hard hitting the ball on Veteran mode, still, but I've not played much yet. If I'm still batting 0.010 in a few days I think I'm either going to have to adjust some sliders or even fall back to Rookie mode.

MLB 08: The Show (PSP)

First impressions, then.

Argh! The load times are the same as last year! Noooooooo!

Hmm, same commentary and grahics.

Oooh, nice new presentation including much clearer explanations for the training points you're awarded.

Ah ha, lots of new types of plays to deal with as a second baseman.

Bah, why won't the game find my music from my memory stick? There are loads of files on there you silly thing!

Basically, based on a few games, it's the same game, but improved in a lot of ways, just not the most important one.

MLB 07: The Show (PSP)

So, after a few games with the Boston Red Sox Owen Allaway retired from baseball.

Those few people that noticed wondered why a young and promising player would retire just as he seemed to be getting somewhere, but he didn't say.

MLB 07: The Show (PSP)

Wow.

The Red Sox just offered me a two-year contract for $500,000. Five hundred thousand dollars.

My last contract was one year for $30,500 - which I negotiated up from $30,000.

I don't think I'm going to negotiate this one, just accept it before they change their minds.

Wow.

Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 (360)

My wife's been playing this a lot, so while she was in the bath last night I started my own game, as the 360 was on and the disc was in the drive. I chose to be Kasumi because... well, because I'm always Kasumi. I bought her a hat, bought some presents for Ayane and Lisa, got to be good friends with them, played some volleyball, took some photos and did an awful lot of jet ski racing. (Which made me long for some Waverace action on the Gamecube, but I've got the US version and no way to play US Gamecube games at the moment.)

It's quietly compulsive, which is all down to the freedom of choice. If I don't want to do pool-hopping - which I don't - then I don't have to. It's all a bit strange - especially how certain parts of the characters' bodies move - and no one element is outstanding, but it's more than the sum of its parts.

Hardest game ever to get an achievement on, though. I didn't get one in the couple of hours I played last night and my wife, who's played a lot more than that, still hasn't got any.

MLB 07: The Show (PSP)

I did get back into the majors with the Royals, but they didn't seem to be interested in extending my contract, so I'm in spring training with the Red Sox. I'm doing all right. I think I've got the best batting average in the club, but I'm a bit down on RBIs compared to some of the other guys. I must admit, I get a silly, giddy thrill from getting emails from Mike Lowell and Coco Crisp in my Inbox after a game. I'm hoping to finish spring training today and see if I get a spot in the majors. I won't be playing this game for much longer, so it would be nice to finish on a high.

MLB 07: The Show (PSP)

Well, at the end of the season I was busted back down to the minors by the manager of the Braves, despite my .359 batting average being the best at the club - and by a comfortable margin

So I threw my toys out of the pram and walked out. Next season I tried out for the Royals, who put me in their AAA minor team, the Omaha Royals. I've been playing there for the last month and a half and I'm doing pretty well, but there's no sign getting back into the major league.

Ah well.