Civilization Revolution (360)

Hooray! Third time lucky on King difficulty!

I managed to get an Economic victory as the Zulu, three turns before Japan's space ship was due to reach Alpha Centauri. I was completely surrounded and down to only two cities, but I managed to hold on for the win. Epic stuff.

Civilization Revolution (360)

Upped the difficulty to King. Ouch. The French and I fought each other for millennia, with no real advantage on either side and then the Egyptians launched a spaceship and won.

Civilization Revolution (360)

Started a game as the Spanish. Aimed for a domination victory, but the Russians and Japanese were way too strong and I ended up having to go for a cultural victory instead.

Metal Gear Soild: Portable Ops (PSP)

Ah, excellent, you can go to the hospital, beat nurses unconscious and then keep them prisoner until they agree to work for you...

...what?

World of Warcraft (PC/Mac)

Rogue poisons quest - finished! Hooray!

Also, I desecrated another bonfire.

World of Warcraft (PC/Mac)

Oh for pity's sake!

I tried my rogue poisons mission and this time I managed to get all the way to the top of the tower and by some sort of fluke I managed to kill the boss. I had no visible health left when he was died, it was that close.

So all that was left was to open the chest and remove the MacGuffin inside. Except - gnnnnnng - apparently my lock-picking skills are too low to even let me attempt to open the chest. Nothing I could do. I had to leave. So near, yet so far.

Sometimes I really, really hate this game. Now I have to remember where I found some locked chests so I can grind my lock-picking skills. Sounds like fun, eh?

And will I ever manage to beat that boss again? Doesn't seem likely, at least not for a while.

World of Warcraft (PC/Mac)

I did quite a lot today, but my abiding memories will be of desecrating an Alliance bonfire and catching torches.

Happy Midsummer Fire Festival everyone!

Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops (PSP)

I'm slightly confused.

I need to cross a bridge, so was told to blow up a truck at the supply depot as a diversion. I did that, but I still can't get over the bridge. It seems I need to blow something else up as another distraction, or something, but the only way to find out what I can blow up is by stationing a spy in a level where something can be blown up, who will then tell me about it. Except there are many levels and I only have a single spy.

So I think I'm stuck now until I put my spy in the correct place. Meanwhile, I just have to go to other levels and scavenge items and new recruits from them, while I hope to get lucky.

A bit odd, that. But I am throughly enjoying playing the game still, so it's not all bad. I'm finally starting to get more comfortable with the controls, too.

World of Warcraft (PC/Mac)

Still can't do the poisons quest. I can't even kill one enemy in the tower. Not a single one. I can't sneak up on them. They see me if I get within six feet of them. It's highly annoying.

Went to Ashenvale to deliver some reports. Got ganked several times. Made a night elf run away though by attacking him while he was having some food, though, so that was nice. Ended up only delivering one report then called it a day.

Too. Much. Running.

Civilization Revolution (360)

Another game last night. I was the Americans and achieved an economic victory. I could easily have got a domination victory centuries before that, but I left the Indians alive just so I could build up my funds. Now I've got all the victory types it's going to be very difficult not just to pay each game for a domination victory.

I want to be peaceful, but the other civilizations keep declaring war on me, which means I have to defend myself.

World of Warcraft (PC/Mac)

A quick go at lunchtime. Indulged in some Summer Festival activities, then went and stole some plans from some goblins up in Windshear Crag. Also reached level twenty-two, but I don't think there's any point flying off to get my new skills until I've completed the poisons quest in The Barrens. The enemies are all level twenty-five, so I'm not sure I'm quite ready even now, despite it being a quest you're meant to do at level twenty.

Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops (PSP)

Didn't actually play this today, just wandered round the centre of the village at lunchtime looking for wifi signals to try and generate new soldiers. Got three, which wasn't bad. A couple of technicians and someone for the sneaking unit.

Civilization Revolution (360)

Three epic games today. I upped the difficulty to Warlord, which fits me well. There's no danger of actually losing the game, but the other civs can annoy you and interfere with your plans.

The first two games I played today were normal random games and I got a domination victory and then a cultural victory. (I was going for a cultural victory in the first, but everyone kept annoying me and I had to kill them.)

Then I tried the Game of the Week. Took me a long time to win as the first few millennia of human history were just one huge war between my Egyptian civilization and the Russians to the west and the Japanese to east. The story of the whole game was war, really, with me defending for year after year and taking any opportunities for offensive when I saw them. I think I only built one settler during the course of the game - all my other cities were captured from other civs. I finally won a domination victory in the late 21st century. I was 51st in the leaderboards for Warlord difficulty, which I fear means the game's not sold too well.

Metal Gear Soild: Portable Ops (PSP)

Ack, it doesn't autosave!

Despite telling you it does at the beginning of the game.

All of yesterday's progress lost.

I must like it, though, because I've started again.

Metal Gear Soild: Portable Ops (PSP)

I've had this sitting around for months, if not years, after a fit of weakness saw me order it from vgp.ca after reading about how it's great online because you don't have to play it, you just send your team off to fight for you. Er... or something.

Anyway, I just decided to try the single player game, as I'm too poor to afford the new and shiny Metal Gear Solid 4. It's surprisingly great, but the PSP's controls try their very hardest to ruin it. Still, I've played a fair few levels, recruited some new soldiers and have created a doctor from my wifi connection, so that's nice.

I'm slightly concerned that the game will get too hard, too quickly. Due to the control problems there's a lot of muddling through to do and most sneaky situations end in cack-handed gun fights, often with off screen enemies. I've died a few times already and I fear the first boss fight. Maybe there won't be bosses in this version. Maybe?

Sid Meier's SimGolf (PC)

A blast from the past. All the Civilization stuff lately has got me thinking about other Sid Meier games, so I dug this out and played it for an hour so. It was fun and I designed some nice holes, but money comes in far too slowly for my liking.

World of Warcraft (PC/Mac)

So I was wandering around Silvermoon when a Tauren gave me a quest, which was win a match in Warsong Gulch. So I decided to give it a try. All I knew was that it was some sort of PvP thing. Turns out it's a Capture the Flag gam, played between teams of Alliance and Horde. Jumped into a match that we lost within a couple of minutes of me joining. Then I joined another match from the start. I couldn't do much, as I'm only level 21 and everyone else was 28/29, but I helped on quite a few kills. We won that match and I completed my quest and got a lot of honor points. Not quite sure what they are or what they do, but I think it might be something to do with the guys I've seen in cities with blue question marks over their heads. Not sure. Anyway, it's good fun, if appallingly laggy.

Oh, and I got up to Exalted status in Tranquillien and got my posh cloak.

World of Warcraft (PC/Mac)

Right, yes.

Today I spent most of lunchtime travelling or dead. I did get a couple of quests done in Deatholme, but it was a highly frustrating hour or so.

I only seem to have two quests left in Tranquilien, both of which require groups, so I won't be doing them. Annoyingly, I'm only 750 points off reaching Exalted status and being able to buy a special cloak. Maybe I need to farm some more rotting hearts and spinal dust.

Not sure what to do next. My rogue poisons quest seems to be impossible to do at my level and the only other quest I've got takes me from The Barrens into contested territory, where I'm sure to be ganked every couple of steps.

Spore Creature Creator (Mac)

My creations so far.

If you want to see any of them in greater detail, just save them into your "My Spore Creations\Creatures" folder or just drag the PNG files into the editing window of the Creature Creator software.

Various Live Arcade Demos (360)

Lost Cities - Might be a good game somewhere in there, but the presentation is awful and very hard to read. I got fed up with having to squint to work out what all the numbers were. Deleted.

Battlezone - I love the new look, but the demo is too short to give me any indication of whether the gameplay stands up. Seriously, it lasts about thirty seconds. Deleted.

Sea Life Safari - Actually seems okay and I think my wife would like it. It's a lightweight Pokemon Snap with an Endless Ocean skin. Basically. I'd spend 400 points on it, but not 800. Not bought, but not deleted.

Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee 2 (PSP)

Lat night I unlocked a new character and, even better, got 129ft chip-in Eagle. Hooray!

World of Warcraft (PC/Mac)

A somewhat frustrating lunchtime spent teamed up with someone who didn't speak English and didn't share a quest.

Still, I got one of my quests done and got up to level twenty, so it wasn't wasted time at all.

Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max (PSP)

Gave this a quick go when I got bored of playing golf.

Oh dear.

My skills are gone. Not that I had many to begin with. But even my d-pad manipulation skills have gone. Last time I played I could pull off a fireball any time I wanted to, but I was having a lot of trouble last night.

Gave up in shame and frustration in the end.

Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee 2 (PSP)

There's really not much to say. I almost got a hole in one last night but, er, didn't. I unlocked some more clothing options and, um, that's it, really.

It's golf. What can I say?

Spore Creature Creator Trial (Mac)

Let's get this straight. EA are releasing - for money - the creature creation part of the game Spore, that's coming out at the end of the summer. But they've also released a demo of this small part of the game, for free. Right.

You drag and drop eyes and limbs and things to make a weird-looking monster, then watch it wander around. And that's about it. Somehow, despite being quite pointless, it's great fun and I've already ordered the full version. Well, it's only a fiver.

Kept me away from World of Warcraft at lunchtime, anyway.

Civilization Revolution (360)

Just got a Space Race victory as the Arabs.

I think I need to up the difficulty, though. I had to actively avoid all the other victory types to get to space.

World of Warcraft (PC/Mac)

This lunchtime I killed a lot of trolls. And then poisoned their food for good measure.

But they were bad trolls, so that's okay.

Civilization Revolution (360)

Just the one game so far.

I was the Zulu and rampaged around the world, winning a domination victory in 1450AD. Would have been earlier, but I couldn't find the last couple of civs.

Excellent game.

Civilization IV (PC)

I certainly didn't mean to play this until half past three in the morning. But the Americans needed conquering and then the Egyptians got in the way and I couldn't find their final city and then it was so near the end of the game that it didn't make sense stopping...

I won a Time Victory in the end. That seems to be based on who has the most points in 2050AD. Hurrah, I guess.

(Culture seems to be a bit different in this game compared to Civ 3. I only had two small cities revolt and join my civilization due to culture and I'd been pumping out wonders and temples and libraries like nobody's business.)

World of Warcraft (PC/Mac)

Somehow, logging on to check my auctions saw me run around Silverpine Forest for an hour or so completing a couple of quests. That wasn't meant to happen.

World of Warcraft (PC/Mac)

Quick session today got me sent off to the Undercity to deliver a necklace.

Now I have the choice of going back and doing missions in Tranquillien or doing some quests in the Forsaken areas.

The Forsaken quests look a bit too easy - i.e. will get me no XP - but I'm struggling with the Blood Elf quests I've got left. Tricky.

Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee 2 (PSP)

I lost a match! For the first time.

So I went back and tried again and it was on a much easier course and romped to victory. Odd.

World of Warcraft (PC/Mac)

This lunchtime my rogue teamed up with someone for the first time. I got to a quest destination at the same time as a Warlock and, as we were both obviously doing the same thing, he invited me into a group. So we ran around together killing night elves, completed the quest and then I left the group because it was time to stop playing games and get back to work.

Quite nice, was that.

Civilization IV (PC)

Installed this last night. Then installed the patch. Then went hunting round the Internet for the solution to the DirectX error that occurred once the patch was installed.

Finally got to play for an hour or so before bed. I chose a random civilization and ended up as the Malinese. Not an empire I know much about, but that's no problem. I'm playing on the easiest difficulty and pretty much choosing tech and build orders at random, but generally going for culture above everything else. I've founded several religions, built many wonders and build the city of Spoiler just to cut the American empire in half. Unless they've got boats, they're not going to be able to get between their cities. (I never agree to Open Border requests. Get off my land!)

Civilization IV Demo (Mac)

Unexpectedly, the game runs fine on this Mac.

I wish I didn't know that.

SingStar (PS3)

Used up the final dregs of credit with the Playstation store to get some new songs. Then had fun singing them.

Oddly, I did really well for the first few songs, then was worse than ever for the last few. I hardly hit a note in Total Eclipse of the Heart and the playback had my wife and I in stitches. Do I really sound like that?

Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness Demo (360)

Nice long demo. So long I didn't bother finishing it. Seems all right, maybe even quite good, but I don't think I want to pay 1600 points for it. Also, oddly, while it was genuinely funny in places, the dialogue I saw between Tycho and Gabe fell completely flat for me. I was expecting that to be the highlight.

Call of Duty 4 (360)

Pew pew! Pew pew!

This seems to be fundamentally different from most first person shooters, where the aim is to kill everyone and move on. In Call of Duty 4 I do shoot people, sure, but it's more about staying alive under heavy fire than clearing the areas of enemies. It's a fundamentally different style of game, which is probably what makes it feel so fresh.

Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee 2 (PSP)

Unlocked a new character - an incredibly annoying nine-year-old boy - and am now a Pro, apparently. Still lots of fun, still golf.

World of Warcraft (PC/Mac)

My rogue is now level fourteen and has some fun powers. I especially like Garrote, which makes the "Kill X of Y" quests much quicker. Had a lot of trouble stealing some plans from a Dark Elf ship yesterday, but got there in the end.

World of Warcraft (PC/Mac)

Time spent downloading and installing updates:16 hours. (It's been a long time since I last played on the PC here.)

Time spent playing: 15 minutes, just to show my wife what it looks like.

Civilization Revolution Demo (360)

ARGH!

Turn limit kicked in during an epic war with Greece!

This is horrible.

Civilization Revolution Demo (360)

Wonderful demo. It's turn-limited, but otherwise seems pretty complete. (I didn't get any "You can't build this in the demo" messages or anything.) It's really, truly Civilization, but streamlined nicely. It plays quickly and feels right. I was doing really well in the demo and I'm very upset that it ended before I got to see what happened in my war against the Egyptians. I wanted this game before the demo, now I want more than anything else in the world. (Possibly.)

Great stuff.

Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee 2 (PSP)

See, it's exciting to play. Few games have me shouting at the PSP screen and I don't think any others have me scratching at the screen trying to stop a ball from rolling down into a pond.

But it's golf, so there's nothing interesting to say about it. Um, I unlocked a fat caddy last night. Will that do?

World of Warcraft (PC/Mac)

I spent the first few minutes of today's session dying over and over again, then didn't die for the rest of the day. Odd.

Anyway, I killed some monsters, assassinated a dwarf, turned some guys into giant pig things and learned skinning and leather working so I could make myself some decent new armor. All looks a bit homemade but, well, it is.

Very good day overall. Tomorrow I'm going to try and hit level ten so I can finally dual wield some daggers.

Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee 2 (PSP)

Sequel to one of the best - if not the best - PS games? Yes please!

Completely forgot this was coming out until a few days ago, which is nice. Waiting for games is a terrible experience for someone as impatient for me, so it was nice only have to wait three or four days for my copy.

Anyway, it's the same again, there's just more of it. Which is fine by me. Still stupidly addictive, still great.

World of Warcraft (PC/Mac)

Started a new character this lunchtime. Catwhisper, a Blood Elf rogue on Daggerspine. I feel a bit dirty playing as an elf, but at least they're Horde elves. There's no way I could ever play an Alliance character, I don't think.

Anyway, after some confusion over combo points, I managed to get him up to level five and out of the starting area. I think I like playing as a rogue. Stealth is nice and there doesn't seem to be much downtime at all. Bit early to judge, but he seems fun.

Ninja Gaiden 2 Demo (360)

Oh! I like this. Unexpectedly. I like this a lot.

There's not an awful lot to it, but the thrill of slicing ninjas into bloody chunks didn't get old for the duration of the demo. It's fast, fluid and just plain old fun to play.

And the camera, while being a bit silly, wasn't as awful as I'd heard.

Trouble is, I'm not sure if I'd like the full game or not. The demo seems to send you against early enemies with late-game weapons, I think, and doesn't have any boss fights in it. So as a judge for annoying the full game will be, this demo does a bad job. As a piece of entertainment in and of itself though, it's excellent.

Call of Duty 4 (360)

I've had this sitting around for a while now, but only started it last night.

You know how most shooters have you running around corridors, with a few memorable set pieces thrown in? This is the opposite. Huge firefights and amazing scenes linked by short runs from place to place. One moment you're escaping a sinking ship, then you're sniping some Russians, then running for your life across a town square filled with burning cars, then fighting it out in a TV station in the Middle East. All those things happen in the first hour, with more besides.

It's really very good indeed. So intense, though, that after an hour or so I had to stop playing because I was completely worn out.

I'd make a rubbish soldier.

World of Warcraft (PC/Mac)

Picked up a load of quests, delivered some meat, destroyed a fire altar with a stone and ran all the way to Thunderbluff from The Crossroads to see if the trainer there could get my staff skill about sixty. Which they couldn't. Still, it was a nice run and I only killed once by loading pauses.

World of Warcraft (PC/Mac)

I've been playing a fair bit of this over the last week. My old account is tied to an inactive email address and the requirements for changing it are silly, so I started a new account, which meant I could download the trial and play for free. Hooray!

Much as I wanted to see some new stuff I couldn't bring myself to play as the Alliance - I just can't, they're the enemy! - so I played three new Horde characters. An orc warrior, who I got up to level ten before deciding that warriors are quite astoundingly boring to play, an orc warlock, who's up to level eleven and is now my main character, and an undead mage, who I started simply because the game was crashing when I tried to play as either of my other characters. I played him for a short while, then tried my warlock again, who loaded without a hitch. (Seems like the trial has big problems with its dynamic loading system when you zeppelin across to a new area.)

I had a lot of trouble doing my voidwalker quest solo - going up against loads of opponents with voidwalkers when you don't have one is tough - but my Fear and Curse of Agony spells got me through in the end. Now I've been sent to The Crossroads, where there seem to be about a billion quests waiting for me to do.

Which is nice.

Rock Band (360)

I finally started up a console after a long break and decided to play some Rock Band solo.

Except after about three songs my back was hurting enough to make me stop. D'oh.

Still, it was fun for a while.