deKay's Gaming Diary

Six and a half hours in. Now, don’t hit me, but I’m not actually enjoying it. I’ve never completed a 3D Zelda before, but it’s not because I’ve not enjoyed them – it’s just because I’ve…stopped. But this? It’s not bad by any means, but I don’t really like it. In true deKay fashion, lets list the faults, yes?

1) It’s Not Zelda

Well, the Link-as-Link bits are. But since more than half of the game has been Link-as-a-dog, that’s not good enough. Linkwolf’s need to dig everywhere and the stupid using Midna to jump (but only in fixed, predetermined places) is rubbish. The grow-a-circle to kill the baddies attack is a pain in the arse too.

2) My eyes! My beautiful eyes!

As Link, everywhere looks lovely. A bit below what I’m used to for Wii games now, but this is a 4 year old game so it’s excused. However, the purple colour scheme when you’re a wolf in the twilight makes my eyes bleed real blood. It’s even worse when you then switch to Senses mode.

3) Nosenses.

If only. Having to swap every 17 seconds to check for ground to dig or invisible insects or to listen to spirits is crap.

4) “We’ve lost lock-on!”

Either my Z button is broken, or the game is. It seems impossible to stay locked on to any baddie for more than one attack.

5) Wagglelaggle

There’s too big a gap between shake and smack. Which made the Epona vs Warthog Head-On Smashup bit virtually impossible to time, so I had to rely on luck.

6) Camer-where?

If only there was a button to centre the camera behind Link. You know, like tapping Z is supposed to. All too often, when fighting something, I’ve ended up against a wall, or in a corner, and haven’t a clue where what I’m fighting is. Or I’ve entered an area, killed something straight away, then carried on walking only to realise I’ve come out the way I went in because the camera flipped round without me noticing. Gah!

7) Remute

Too many noises from the remote’s speaker, so off it went.

I have to say though, I did like the Forest Temple dungeon. As that’s proper Zelda’ing that is. And revisiting areas as Link/Dog does make me think of Minish Cap (which is a good thing). But as it is, I’m not lovin’ it lovin’ it lovin’ it. Yet at least.

2D Zelda >>>> 3D Zelda.

Many moons ago, when the Wii came out, Twilight Princess was released. And I bought it. Even though I knew I probably would never complete it, as despite my best intentions, I’ve never managed to finish a 3D Zelda game. 2D – fo’ sho. But 3D? For some reason I just… stop playing.

With Twilight Princess, I stopped at an hour in. Not for any real reason – I just never went back. Until now.

I played it, from the start again, tonight. And reached about 10 minutes past the point I’d previously reached, having just saved the little girl (boy?) and the monkey from a cage outside what looks suspiciously like the Deku Tree. Hmm…

BWAAAAAAAAAH!

Today I went through the few remaining levels, picking up the final huge XL item – an entire actual plane. Which didn’t really fit properly in the sewers. And then there was the last cow-stealing level, and it was back to the rubbish pile and off to the moooooooooon!

I really enjoyed Rabbids Go Home. Even though it kept crashing. The levels are varied enough to stay interesting, even if some are graphically repeats of previous levels, and the only real complaint I have is that it’s a bit easy.  I suppose the challenge is in getting all 400 items on every stage, but that’s not going to happen for me as searching every nook and cranny on every level would get tedious – especially if you miss any, as most levels don’t let you go back through the level, so you’d have to start again.

Blimey. What a lot of Wii games I’ve completed this year.

With just one level left, I soon finished this off. The final level was FULL of mutants. Really – every turn, every door, threw another 6 or more at me. I’m glad I’d swapped away from the Magnum and only the SMG, as although it reduces your accuracy and power, it at least allows you to fend off large numbers of mutants without having to reload before you’ve even dazed them.

Still, was pretty hard and I grabbed virtually none of the golden BRANES as it was just so frantic.

The final boss was pretty easy, if a bit time consuming. And disgusting. And what happens after you beat… it?…even more so. Blurgh.

Before – and after – the credits, it clearly shows a sequel is planned. Sadly, since (like The Conduit and MadWorld) HOTD:O only sold three copies, I can’t see it happening, which is a big shame. It’s hilarious, and more is needed!

With Ghost Squad finally out of the way, it was time to turn to working through Sega’s other meatier, lightgun shooter.

It’s hilarious. Really. Not just Isaac’s constant swearing, but the dialogue, the cutscenes, and the fact you steal an ice cream van. Oh yes.

I’m up to what would appear, from the level select screen, to be the final level now.

Finally! I’ve played this over and over and over (it’s very short) since getting it, but haven’t once managed to successfully complete all three missions in the same sitting. It was usually Mission 2’s “single headshot” finale which scuppered me, but today, I was victorious!

Firstly, I should come clean and say that I completed Mega Man 10 on it’s first-for-a-Mega Man-game Easy Mode. It adds barriers to stop you falling down some holes and removes some of the enemies.

Not that it was a walk in the park. There were still a few difficult bosses, tricky sections with spikes to avoid, and some pixel-perfect jumps to manage, but still – it was waaaay easier than Mega Man 9, which I never did complete.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Mega Man 10 was released on Wii Ware yesterday, and having loved the new-retro MM9, I leapt on it. Unsurprisingly, it’s more of the same stuff Mega Man 1 to 9 gave us, but that matters not. It’s great old fashioned platforming, the sort you don’t get any more. Er, except for 9, of course. And Castlevania Rebirth. Um.

After completing it, I went and tried some of the challenges (complete special stages with certain weapons, or with limitations on your abilities), then started the game again as the slightly gimped Proto Man.

I started this a month or so ago, and although it was great, it seemed to crash a lot via the USB Loader I was using. And Mass Effect and Batman came along. And other stuff.

Went back to it this week. It’s a surprisingly long game, actually. Although each level is pretty short (some are longer than others, however), there are LOADS of them. I’ve done about 20 so far, and I’m not even half way to the moon yet.

I’m a little disappointed they’ve started reusing the same level themes (hospital, shopping mall, office, etc.), but thankfully things are pretty varied in terms of how each plays.

Some have said this game is rubbish. They are wrong.

It’s not fantastic, and it has its faults, but it’s a perfectly competent, technically proficient (for the Wii), excellent to control FPS. And I enjoyed it from start to (somewhat sooner than expected) finish, unlike say… Halo, which I hated.

It’s a little short, suffers a bit from room repetition (nowhere near as badlyas Halo though), and the final level feels like there’s a boss fight missing, but the ASE scanning, organic door locks and hidden secrets add enough to the game to bring it above the usual SciFi FPS mire.

I played it online the other day, and although it was fun, some guy called DMX had an invincibility cheat one, which ruined it a bit. Oh well.

3/5 overall, I think!

This is how I want new additions to old 8 and 16-bit game serieses to be made. As if they’re for 8 and 8-bit consoles. Like Megaman 9 was.

Rebirth is a remake (or rather, complete rewrite borrowing nothing but the plot) of The Castlevania Adventure for the Game Boy. A game I played, and completed, almost exactly three years ago. It was rubbish. Rebirth, is not.

It looks like a SNES game, only with more detailed sprites. It plays like a NES Castlevania, only with more responsive, less fiddly controls. And it’s BRILLIANT.

So much so, I started and completed it today. I had it on pause for several hours, as there’s no save, save-state, password, or continue system (except I found later – there is: hold right on the menu screen) so it’s all-in-one-go or nothing. Just like 16-bit games!

More games like this please. Oh, if only Sonic 4 was taking this approach. Cry!

So I’ve completed this seven thousand times now. Or something like that. This time with Knuckles.

But it’s ACE, so that’s OK!

And that’s the 5-part series over and done. Sam & Max Season 2 can’t come soon enough!

Although the final part was great (as always) in terms of story, it was horribly broken in terms of graphics. Many people have commented that the Wii ports of Monkey Island have all been affected by bugs, stuttering, poor sound, and so on, but aside from a bit of judder on Chapter 1 when changing scene, I’d not noticed. In this one, however, it was awful. The first time I went through the rift (as a zombie) onto LeChuck’s ship, I was entirely invisible – aside from my hook. The second time, as a full human, I was visible, but my hook was visible along with the hand it was supposed to be replacing! And the jerking! Stuttering! Pausing! Gah!

Thankfully, it was only cosmetic and didn’t really spoil my enjoyment. An excellent series, overall. More, please!

Finally, after months of waiting (well, two months) Nintendo actually decided to make this available on Wii Ware. Why there was such a huge gap between 4 and 5 when previous chapters were so much closer together, I have no idea.

I’ve played for about an hour and a half so far. I’m dead, following the previous episode, and am trying to get my way out of the afterlife. I’ve just managed to obtain the voodoo spell necessary to achieve this, but I think I need to capture the mini pyrite parrots from the treasure hunt area, and I can’t. They just keep flying away!

With Mass Effect bagged on Monday, my next game to tackle was this. And what an absolutely outstanding game it was!

I didn’t really enjoy the demo when I played that a while back, but now having played the full game I can see why – you miss some of the first part of the game out, and are chucked into a later bit too early. This means you need to use some slightly more advanced techniques too soon. It also doesn’t give you long enough to get used to the basics before you’re ready.

Another thing that concerned me was the fact it was a licenced game, and they’re generally rubbish. Since this is not actually based on a specific Batman comic or film (as far as I’m aware), I think that helps.

Somehow, Batman manages to blend together several games – Tomb Raider, Watchmen, Gears of War, Splinter Cell and even Metroid without losing it’s own identity, even if a few sections (the clambering round near the sewers and caves, and the Botanical Gardens boss in particular) did make me think I’d swapped games for a minute.

Just two things annoyed me: 1) there’s an achievement you can miss if you don’t fight the goons just before the final boss (they don’t attack you, so I didn’t attack them – oops!), and 2) the entire Killer Croc section was utter pants. Thankfully, the former is just an annoyance and the latter didn’t last too long, so all is forgiven.

And replay value? Well, I’ve only got about 65% of The Riddler’s riddles completed, and I haven’t even started the Challenges yet, so there’s plenty still left to do!

Overall, an excellent game! Next?

I’m not adverse to a bit of swearing in games. GTA IV, for example, is full of it and it doesn’t bother me. It’s within context and fits the story. In Prey, however, the swearing seems shoehorned in, just to make the game more “adult”, and I took offence to it.

House of the Dead: Overkill is neither of these two. It has more swearing per square inch than Malcolm from In The Thick Of It. It’s not even necessary. Unlike Prey, though, the over-the-top swearing is perfectly allowable. Why? Because it’s effing hilarious.

Imagine Samuel L Jackson with tourettes. That’s the sort of level – and tone – the swearing takes on. One of the two main characters (who even looks and sounds like “L”) spews forth a constant barrage of after-the-watershed language, and all it makes me do is giggle.

Previous House of the Dead games were funny. They weren’t supposed to be, but the terrible voice acting made them so. This game differs by having decent voice acting but is intentionally funny. And it works!

So far I’ve only completed the first level, but if having a mutated Stephen Hawking as an end of level boss is anything to go by, I think I’ve figured out the “level” the game is going for…

Oh, and having another game to play using the Wii Zapper is always a good thing!

Yes, I bought the same Sonic game AGAIN.

I KNOW.

I’ve completed it a billion times already on every format known to man or beast. But somehow, I felt compelled to buy it again. Perhaps I’m subconsciously trying to tell Sega that more 16-Bit style Sonic games is what I want? Which it is. And which Sonic 4 is shaping up not to be (no shocks there, then).  Anyway.

I’ve completed up to Sandopolis so far. Hurrah!

At almost exactly 22 hours into the story, I completed the game. And it was a very good game too, even if there were lots of things I didn’t like about it (more on them in a minute). I won’t reveal any spoilers, except one: who’d have thought Saren would have turned out to be the Green Goblin? He’s even got the thrown explosives and flying surfboard thingy. I suppose the clue was in his face. See:

Saren?

Green Goblin?

Anyway. The bad bits. Firstly, (and ironically, lastly) there’s the ending. After it, it really is the end – you can’t go back and complete missing missions and assignments. There’s no real plot reason for it either – although not everything goes back to normal after the end, certainly there’s no reason why most of the missions can’t then be completed.

It wouldn’t be so bad if the “point of no return” was well sign posted. It wasn’t, and not only that, it isn’t even the final mission that triggers it. In fact, once you land on Virmire in the game (a good 5 or more hours before the final showdown, on my play through) – that’s it. You’re locked into the ending without being able to complete most of the remaining quests. Yeah, so you might have a save before then, but you’re allowed so few save slots it’s likely you won’t, even if (like me) you were anticipating such an event.

Then there’s the graphics. They’re lovely. Only they jerk around like the whole game is on a bouncy castle. In some of the final sections of the game, there’s horrific slowdown, tearing, and graphical anomalies. Yeah, there’s a lot going on – but it’s supposed to be the nail-biting climax, not a wade through wobbly treacle. Thankfully, this isn’t a problem for most of the game, and it usually only happens in the Mako.

An exception to the graphics being lovely: the geth. Perhaps if they had more than two frames of animation between them, they’d be lovely too. Mind you, they were usually dead before they got close enough to see what they were.

And the lifts! Oh my god. Most tedious part of the game by far. Especially the one on the Citadel that takes you from the docking bay to C-Sec (why? What have C-Sec got to do with the docking?) – it takes AGES and unlike most of the other lifts in the Citadel, it can’t be skipped with a Fast Transport panel.

Item and upgrade management is also a chore. Especially having a limit on how many items you can carry. After every mission I had to sell everything – which takes ages – or lose new stuff, since when your inventory is full, any new items are automatically converted to Omni-gel. Yes – new (and usually, better) items; not old items you would probably sell anyway. Stupid!

Finally, the difficulty. Yes, I know I played it on Normal (I almost always play games on whatever their default setting is) and that there are harder settings. However, for the final 15 or so hours of the game I simply didn’t bother with weapon upgrades, improvements, and that sort of stuff as it was too much of a pain. Which meant I should have found it much harder, only it wasn’t. Every single fight was a pushover – even the final one.

But you know what? None of that really matters. In fact, the only one I can really complain about is the no-way-back ending. Everything else is just a minor irritation. The winning points are the story and the believable, deep universe the game is set in. Bioware have gone all out on making something more watchable (let alone playable) than most science fiction films. The back story, the way you slowly unearth the history of the races and the Protheans, the side missions and overheard conversations. A high point was the reveal of the Keepers’ role in everything – clever how they are there the whole time, but understated and underexposed, then suddenly it all makes sense.

I’m certainly hyped for the sequel now, especially since virtually all of my complaints with the first game have supposedly been dealt with!

There are 16 tracks, which sounds like a lot, but each is only a couple of minutes long so it didn’t take long to nip through them all.

I’ve not S-Ranked them all yet, but they’re all B-or-better, with most being A or S.

This is the game I’ve played most this week. In fact, it’s pretty much the only thing bar Excitebike I’ve played. I’m getting into it now, and really enjoying it. It’s not perfect (the jerking graphics, the difficult to negotiate “bumpy” planets, the stupid lifts, the backtracking, the item and weapon management, etc.) but the story if gripping and the “just another ten minutes” factor is high.

I’m not sure I like having mission after mission thrown at me every 7 seconds, as it makes my journal look almost untouched the whole time and I feel I’m not actually getting anywhere.

I know this post sounds like a huge moan, but they’re all minor points really. It’s just the game isn’t as perfect as I seem to recall the reviews made it out to be.

I haven’t bought a Wii Ware game in a while, but something about Excitebike appealed to me – even though I never really liked the original NES game. I suspect I never really understood how to play it properly.

Seems I was right, since the tutorial in the Wii version revealed that you had an accelerator as well as a turbo, something I genuinely didn’t know – I’d obviously always played with just turbo, assuming the other button was brake. Explains a lot.

Now I know that, I might go back to the original after I’ve finished enjoying this remake. I’ve so far S-ranked all the Bronze tracks, and mostly S-ranked the Silver tracks. I also played online a bit (and was useless), and created a virtually impossibe track with the level editor.

All the excitement surrounding the recent release of Mass Effect 2 made me interested in picking up the original game. After all, I enjoyed Knights of the Old Republic, which is very similar (and by the same people), and it should be mere pennies to buy now.

In fact, it was even less than pennies, as somewhere along the line I’d already bought it. And promptly forgotten about it. It certainly made obtaining it to play much quicker, anyway!

I made a start on it tonight. So far, I’ve completed the first mission on Eden Prime, so am just over an hour in. It’s pretty good – even if the graphics jerk like they’re having a fit a lot of the time, and I got very confused over the seemingly three ways of deciding which weapons and armour your characters have equipped, when in fact only one of those ways actually equips them.

Yes, I could read the manual. But I’d left it on the other side of the room.

I think I’ve completed this today. But since I got no credits or end sequence, I can’t be certain.

I’ve completed all the levels on Earth, and can’t find any more to do, so am I done?

EDIT: It seems, according to GameFAQs, that yes – I’ve completed it. So I’m altering this post to reflect that

There are still lots of gigs to do, and I only have around half of the 1000 possible stars, but I completed the story today.

There’s not a lot else to say about it, really, apart from that the finale track was a bit poor compared to The Final Countdown (which could have the the finale, only they added a bit more game onto the end).

I’d also like to know why every single time I play a random setlist gig, I have to play that Counting Crows track. Every. Single. Time.

This is pretty much all I’ve played since it arrived on Friday. The first thing I’d like to point out is this: Lego Rock Band is 896896347286463 times better than Guitar Hero World Tour. The game’s Story Mode structure is great, it’s funny, and – most importantly – the track list is excellent. World Tour’s is just pants.

Of course, the tracks in Lego Rock Band are more “mainstream”, and not just obscure B-sides from 1970s dinosaurs.

Really enjoying it so far, and have just shy of 300 stars. I’ve mainly been playing guitar, but have done a few vocal tracks (two while trying to play guitar at the same time – it didn’t go well) and a few bass tracks.

Makes my left hand ache somewhat, though.

Turns out I only had a few levels left before the end boss, and they weren’t all that difficult. Neither was the end boss actually, as I defeated him without dying. I was surprised he only took one hit, but never mind.

Of course, it then turns out that he wasn’t the end boss. There were more levels. And a sad thing happens with Blob. Then! An AWESOME thing happens with Blob, and you get to “lay the smack down” (as the common yoof is want to say) on the black blobs. So I did!

And then it was the real end boss. He was a little harder (taking three hits, not one), but he was probably the easiest boss in the whole game.

After that, it was the end sequence. Which, tying in with the rest of the game, was stunningly beautiful. What an excellent game. Lets hope we don’t have to wait another 15 years for another sequel, yes?