Banjo-Kazooie (360): COMPLETED!

Played this a lot yesterday and today, culminating in a 100% completion this afternoon. Although I've played it a few times before (on the N64), I never, ever, managed to defeat the final boss. Today, however, I did - and after only 4 or 5 attempts!

She was still hard, but for some reason I found it very easy on my successful attempt, losing hardly any life at all (and none until the final Jinjonator bit). So, complete!

I still have two jiggys left that I don't know what to do with, and also need to finish Bottles' puzzles. I eventually found the jigsaw puzzles - but have only done two, since the hand moves by itself making picking up and dropping pieces difficult.

I also went hunting for items - the ice key for one - but can't get to them yet. In the original game, it was a planned "Stop and Swop" feature for linking the game with the sequel, but that didn't happen. No idea what you're supposed to do here, but the end sequence mentions Nuts & Bolts, which is crap and I probably won't be buying, so the Stop and Swop won't be happening.

World of Goo (Wii): COMPLETED!

It took about 5 or 6 hours in total, but I've completed World of Goo. And what a lovely game it was too - clever, original, fun and funny. The levels were varied, some were incredibly difficult, and the "narration" by the mysterious sign painter was often hilarious.

And it was weird. Really weird. Especially the bit in the Information Superhighway.

Dash of Destruction (360): COMPLETED!

It's a good job this awful, awful game was free, as it took me just 20 minutes to complete both game modes and rack up all 200 gamerpoints.

Stupid.

A Kingdom for Keflings (360): COMPLETED!

Well, there's no ending as such, but you get a message saying you've built a castle and now all that remains is to customise your kingdom. Since customising it doesn't achieve anything, and I've now got all the single-player (and one of the multiplayer) achievements, I can call this "done".

Seven and a half hours of stress-free, dangerless gaming. Yay!

Fallout 3 (360): COMPLETED!

To my regular readers, it may appear I've taken a break from gaming for the last week or so. This is not quite the case. In fact, I've probably squeezed more gaming hours into the last seven days than any other seven days in the last 15 years or more. Yes, that's a lot of gaming.

All of it (bar a 10 minute Lego Batman demo blip) on Fallout 3.

Today, I completed the main story after a total recorded time of 38 and a half hours. In reality, this figure is actually closer to 45 hours, as I spent a lot of time Doing Things I Wouldn't Normally Do Just To See What Happens. Such as Fat Man everyone in Megaton into the aether. Yes, that makes no sense to anyone who hasn't obtained a Fat Man in the game.

I won't even begin to describe the wonders of the game so far (yes, I'm not done with it yet), but there are so many amazing bits. The reveal in Vault 87. Liberty Prime's dialogue. The kids in the caverns. Eulogy Jones and His Pimp Hat of Small Guns Power. Mercs, fire ants, and all sorts. Fantastic!

Alien Crush Returns (Wii): COMPLETED!

Bought, downloaded, played, and completed all in the space of 30 minutes.

That's not to say it's rubbish, as it isn't. It has issues (mainly in that some areas of some of the "tables" are too difficult to reach, and the swooping camera is sometimes too slow to keep up with the ball), and is short, but it's fun. And pinball games aren't all about the story mode, are they? No - it's all score-chasing!

Sadly, the online high score leaderboards aren't active for the Story Mode, so I can't compare my aceness with other people. Boo!

de Blob (Wii): COMPLETED!

I've played this a lot today. Which is evidenced by the fact I've completed the final four levels (and hence the game), getting a gold on each, and each taking (on average) an hour. Yes, so I played it a lot.

It started to get really tricky near the end, especially as it threw loads of tanks and turrets and inky walls and bottomless drops and all sorts at you. The final level, on a space ship, also had a boss - something there hasn't really been previously in the game.

So it's now complete, albeit missing the bonus missions I've unlocked along the way. Those I have completed there, though, have been much shorter than main levels however - around 5 minutes or less each - which is good for going back to and dipping in, I suppose.

Final thoughts? It's an excellent game. It's quite long, doesn't get boring like you might expect it to (after all, you do little other than colour stuff), appeals to people like me with Gamer's OCD, and has fantastic jazz funk music. My only minor complaint is lack of mid-level save points, which is a pain when the level might take 90 minutes to finish. but, as I said, a minor complaint.

Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People - Episode 2 (Wii): COMPLETED!

And quickly, too. It seems that reading the Help that comes with the board game thing actually helps, as it tells you that a fight that results in a draw means the opposing side can't move. With this, I used The Cheat to prevent Strong Mad from moving, Homsar to ground Strong Sad, Coach Z to distract Homestar, and The Poopsmith to hide The King of Town every move.

In 9 moves, I'd won both the battle, and the game. Hurrah!

Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People - Episode 1 (Wii): COMPLETED!

Um, yes. I would say "already", but it did take about 5 hours. It's just I've played it a lot.

And excellent it was too. I finally figured out how to beat Pompom, and the section in the castle was all sorts of amaze. And the snake game is fantastic in its crapness.

Guitar Hero: On Tour (DS): COMPLETED!

Well, hand cramp or no, I completed it this afternoon. It had to be done in three sittings as it hurt so much, but eventually I managed it.

So, yeah. Not a bad game, just not really suited for the DS. And the track list is, aside from a few songs, somewhat worse than other Guitar Hero games. But I only paid £12 for it, so I'm not going to complain too much.

The Simpsons Game (360): COMPLETED!

After yesterday's play, there was actually just one level remaining: Heaven. And oh. My.

If the previous levels were funny, this was twice that. Or more. From having to beat God at Dance Dance Revolution, to God saying "Oh f--", to God saying he'll do anything to get his Oblivion save game back as he was on the end boss.

I don't think I've ever played a game as funny as this. Yeah, there are nasty control and camera issues, and yeah, it's nothing new, and yeah - a few levels are just crap. But the writing and the presentation and the characters and all that are astounding.

Civilisation Revolution (360): COMPLETED!

Aaaand done! Well, sort of. I've now completed the game as every single nation at least once, and in every possible way at least three times. So it's complete.

In terms of outstanding achievements, I have a few "do X on Deity difficulty" ones which simply are not going to happen, and the "win before 1000AD on King" which is plainly impossible. There's also a "don't change governments, and win on King" which should be possible, so I might give that a go.

Braid (360): COMPLETED!

Well, I don't know what happened, but everything I was struggling with last night clicked today, and bar a couple of head-scratchers, I didn't have any real problems completing the rest of the game.

It was very lovely, and there is some "find the stars" thing I could still do which is completely impossible without a guide, but at just over two hours long it wasn't really the epic puzzler I was expecting.

But is it art? Oh yes, definitely.

Golf: Tee It Up! (360): COMPLETED!

Played this again for quite a while today. I've now managed to come first (and under par) on both courses - hence the "completed". The Scottish course, complete with Stone Henge, is by far the harder of the two. It seems to have much stronger winds, smaller patches of fairway, and larger (and more) trees.

On the other hand, the Caribbean course has lots of water. Which I ended up in for the first time playing my wife. I thought I'd take a shortcut on one of the holes, only to have my ball bounce off a tree and into the sea. Pff.

Yoshi's Story (Wii): COMPLETED!

N64 on Wii, of course. Even though I have it on the N64 too. Tch.

But I completed it for the first time ever! I know it isn't a hard game, and the main point is to use it as a sort of Score Attack thing, but still. It really was very good too. And I finished up with three non-dead Yoshis!

Zack and Wiki (Wii): COMPLETED!

It took over an hour to finish off the boss, as I had several failures, but eventually he was defeated. There were then four (or five?) "Game Over" sequences, including two more after it declared "Fin", and then it was finally over. Now there are some extra challenges to complete, but I haven't a clue how to go about accessing them. The books on the bookshelf are mostly empty still too.

Total play time: 12 hours 27 minutes.

Assault Heroes (360): COMPLETED!

I was going through my list of downloaded content, re-licencing stuff to my new 360, when I realised I'd bought this but barely played it. I'd not even managed the spider boss at the end of the first stage.

So I gave it another go, and, if you've read the title of this post already you'll already know, I completed it. It wasn't actually that hard, so I'm not really sure how I managed to fail so badly on previous attempts. The only time I actually lost all my lives was actually on the section after the end of game boss! Luckily, you can continue from there, and so I soon finished it off.

Netted quite a few achievements in the process too. Aces!

Link's Crossbow Training (Wii): COMPLETED!

Or at least, completed to the point I will consider it so: I've managed a Silver or better on every level, and killed the bosses. In fact, I have only three Silvers, I think - two Platinums and the rest are all Gold. Not bad!

I also amazed myself by getting over 65,000 on just Zora's River - which gave me a Gold without even adding the other two scenarios on that level. Ace!

Grand Theft Auto IV (360): COMPLETED!

At 57 hours game time, and on my third attempt, I completed the final mission and killed Dimitri. Game over! And around 20 minutes of credits too - they even name the office receptionist...

But I wasn't happy with the outcome. Someone dies, and I didn't like it. So I went back to a previous save and chose to kill Dimitri then rather than work with him. The result? Another death. A different death, sure, but one that was a bit easier to take in, even though I still didn't like it. Then the "new" final mission, which was much like the other one to begin with, but with a different chase sequence and a different "boss" - who was much easier to kill once he was on foot.

And then the end again.

I decided to "keep" this ending, and carry on playing from it rather than return to the other one. I then spent ages taking friends out eating, drinking, going to see shows, going to strip clubs and playing darts. It's going to be a long process getting them all up to 100% though - most are still less than 40% even after the wining and dining.

It didn't help that I simply can't do Jacob's package deliveries, and his Like for me drops every time I fail.

Nodame Cantabile (DS): COMPLETED!

Erm, yeah. Already.

After just another half and hour's play, I reached the final performance, in which it was revealed that virtually all the other characters in the game are, in fact, the orchestra. I imagine you'd know that if you'd seen the anime the game is based on, or can read Japanese. And then there were the credits.

After that, racoonhamsterbear thing played a Special Stage (the game's theme tune), and it was all over. And! Shock! Racoonhamsterbear was just someone in a suit! OMG!

So, a game that's excellent fun, but very short. However, Ouendan is also very short (albeit a lot harder than this), so I can't really hold that against it. And it was only four quid. It's gone up in price a bit now, but Play Asia still have it pretty cheap if you want it.

LocoRoco (PSP): COMPLETED!

Yay! That's PSP Game #2 completed! And very good it was too. Even if the last level was pretty tricky (in comparison to the previous levels, anyway).

I only had three levels left to complete today, and with them done the overly-cute and ten minute long end sequence played. All the LocoRocos of assorted colours sang together! Aces.

Me and My Katamari (PSP): COMPLETED!

Completed in that I've done all the main levels and the end of game sequence and bonus game, at least. I think there are a few more animals to sort out on Volcano Island, although I've done most of them too.

It's a shame that the levels are all the same and it's too easy (I haven't failed a single level), but it's still rollyball fun like the others in the series - it just happens to be the weakest in that series.

Oh! And this would be my first completed PSP game! Hurrah!

skate. (360): COMPLETED!

Well, I didn't think I'd ever get there, but today I managed it. Unlike many other games, I really feel my skill within the game had actually improved, and it feels like a much more realisitic skill progression than the Tony Hawk style of stats and levelling up. In skate., it's me that improves, not my skater.

That's not to say everything is better than Tony Hawk, though. The Pro Skater games are more arcadey and less realistic, but big, ridiculous tricks are fun and impressive. skate., however, is a simulation. A real skater's moves and actions have real control analogues, and the flick-it system is intentionally hard to master - just like a real skateboard. You have to actually try tricks, not just remember the button you have to press. Lining up, shifting your body and reacting quickly is more important here than in Pro Skater.

So I enjoyed it. A lot. However, the actual goals of the game were those parts I liked least. Some of the final ones (the 360 flip and then the 360 flip-to-FS crooked) were just frustrating and not fun at all. Thankfully, I managed them - the Rob and Big one taking three hours of attempts in the end, but I have the proof:



After that, I went on to complete some more Thrasher goals, getting the front page of the magazine (although I didn't get the achievement - must be a bug?) and unlocked the final area of the map and another jam session, which I easily won. So that's me then, a skate. Icon!

I have four goals (two Thrasher, two The Skateboard Mag) left to do now, but I've done the final events and reached the highest status in the game, so I'm considering it completed. I'll probably play it a bit more, though.

And, for fun, here's a bizarre glitch that launched me like a pinwheel for no reason:

Beautiful Katamari (360): COMPLETED!

I had a little splurge this morning, and somehow ended up buying a new Xbox 360 Elite for £260, with three free games. I didn't have a say in the games (Halo 3, Lost Odyssey, Assassin's Creed) which was a pain as I didn't want Halo 3 and I already have Assassin's Creed. And Lost Odyssey was out of stock so I had to choose something else.

So I chose Beautiful Katamari! And I'm glad I did, as it's amazing! It's just like the PS2 version, of course, but with different levels and targets, and no loading when you grow.

Unfortunately, it seems quite a bit shorter than We Love Katamari, as I managed to finish it this afternoon. Oops.

Undertow (360): COMPLETED!

I have no idea why I decided to play this today. But I did. And yes, it's still crap, but something made me want to see the end.

And I saw the end, as I completed it. What a waste of time.

Lets never play this again, OK?

Commanders: Attack (360): COMPLETED!

And it didn't take very long, either. Turned out where I'd left it saved last night was just before killing three Super Units, the enemy commander, and a Heavy Artillery unit. Since I had a Super unit and six Heavy Artillery units of my own, placed out of reach thanks to my commander's additional artillery range power, I took the lot out in just two rounds with only minor scratches to my Super Unit's bodywork. That left me with just having to capture the enemy capital, and it was all over!

Game WIN!

After the credits, I had a go at the first battle map and lost horribly. Pff.

Tomb Raider Anniversary (360): COMPLETED!

And it's about time! I've not completed anything in aaaaages.

As usual, I won't spoil the last few bits of the game. I will say, however, there's lots of precision jumping, at speed, requiring lightning reactions. And lots of giant bat things that shoot fireballs.

And lava. Lots of lava.

But the end boss was pretty easy, and I beat it on my first attempt (although it did take ages). I didn't get the achievement for doing it without dying though, so I don't know what happened there. Anyway, the game is complete, on Hard Mode. It's the first game in years I've done on Hard Mode, probably the only game ever I've started on Hard and completed (rather than completing it on an easier mode and replaying it on Hard). It wasn't especially hard though, I don't think. Easy must be a complete walkover.

So the verdict: Not as good as Legend, better than I expected, too many collect-all-these bits, but generally pretty great.

Half-Life 2: Episode Two (360): COMPLETED!

Whatwhatwhat? It's less than five hours long? Those people telling me it's 8 or 9 hours are bloody liars. Mind you, they also said Episode One was 5 hours and I did it in three and a half. Anyway.

But what an amazing five hours it was. Better in every way than Episode One, improving on even Half Life 2 itself - partly graphically, but mainly because of the number of quality, epic set pieces. The ambush in the village, the Hunter attack, and, especially, the final fight.

At the end of Episode One, there was a fight against a single Strider in an enclosed space. It was pretty poor, to be honest, not to mention easy. The end of Episode Two, however? How about 10 Striders and a swarm of Hunters, with a new weapon to take them down? Epic!

Now Valve - let us have Episode Three nice and quick, yes?

Half-Life 2: Episode One (360)

Erm, that was very quick. I know the game is meant to be short, but I'd heard around 5-6 hours. Imagine my surprise, then, when I killed the game's one and only Strider and then the game finished, just three and a half hours in.

So yes, it was good, but as well as it's length it didn't do anything new. The whole episode was made up of bits from Half-Life 2, only in a different order.

Time for another break before I play Episode Two, now. Maybe by the time I get round to completing that, there'll be an Episode Three ready to play. Besides, NiGHTS just popped through my letterbox...

Geometry Wars Galaxies (Wii): COMPLETED!

With two earlier levels completed on Silver (actually one was Silver, the other Gold), I had enough geoms to unlock the final planet. Which was really easy - I even got Gold on it!

So that's it - all done. Apart from going back and bettering my scores and leveling up the other drone states I'd not used much. Sweep and Turret are at max, Attack is almost there, but pretty much everything else is untouched.

After completing the game, I went back to Retro Evolved mode, and totally failed to beat my high score. Pff.

But what an excellent, excellent game. And for £17? Bargainlicious!

Assassin's Creed (360): COMPLETED!

That's right. Completed. Although I was only about half the way through yesterday, I played it rather a lot this afternoon. And this evening. Yeah, so pretty much all day. Oops.

Naturally, I assassinated the last few targets, leaving me with Robert - the guy who I ran from at the start of the game. However, he'd left a decoy in his place, so I had to go off to meet King Richard on the battlefield to tell him of Robert's treachery. This involved lots of tedious multi-participant fighting, which was just long rather than hard. In fact, most of the fights towards the end of the game turned into "block-and-counterattack" confrontations, making it all a bit samey.

After bumping off Robert, I learned something I'd suspected for a while - the real baddie, the guy behind everything to do with "the new world order" that was being set up, was none other than Al Maulim. The old guy in Masyaf. My teacher.

So I won't spoil the rest of the ending, but it finishes up in the lab having bumped Al Maulim off (finally - he was bloody hard!), and some truths are discovered. Oh, and exploring the lab and siderooms is a must afterwards too...

The verdict then. The good points are the story, the graphics, and the free-running across the rooftops. The down points are the annoyingly repetitive fighting (especially later in the game when you have to block every attack and can't just wade in) and the dodgy sensitivity of the wall running and ledge-grabbing when sometimes you can't climb up even though you know you can - it just won't let you, you have to climb down and back up the exact same bit to make it "work". The way the save points work is irritating too, since it saves for you, but sometimes you still have to go back a fair way if you quit and reload.

Having said all that, it's not a bad game at all, and is worth far more than the 5/10 scores some magazines (like EGM) seem to be giving it. I won't be going back to it to get all the flags, though - that'd just be silly.

Tony Hawk's Proving Ground (360): COMPLETED!

So it would seem that in order to complete the game, you just have to do X many goals, and then impress Y many pros, then do the final video with the pros in.

So I did! Hurrah!

I still have most of the Rigger stuff to go, and loads more street challenges, but the actual Story is now complete, and I got the credits and stuff. So an excellent game by all accounts. I'd sit it a little behind THP8, but ahead of THUG, THUG2 and THAW. I really should place the whole series in order of aceness at some point.

Eternal Sonata (360): COMPLETED!

I was right about how close to the end of the game I was, but still there was another chapter after Chapter 7. It was very short, though.

Before that, though, I had some more previous bosses to kill again (adding to the SuckySuck(TM)-ness of the end of game proceedings), and then, with the Xylophone Tower completed, it was time to kill the big dragon baddie thing that Legano (I think that's his name) turned into. He was actually pretty easy, though.

Then, the game crashed. Again, and again, and again. I couldn't progress any further, as although I'd saved my game after killing the boss, it wouldn't let me start the final chapter. I cleaned the cache and physically cleaned the disc, and finally it let me progress. Where I had to kill, well, a bloody great spoiler, actually.

And that was it. The end sequence was almost an hour long, with cut scenes and story, and then some strange "life lessons" from the characters, then the credits, and then a strange little bonus cartoon about Mr Snail and Mr Caterpillar. No, really.

My "game completed" save says 24 hours, 2 minutes. That's a bit shorter than I was expecting, but still puts it in the realm of "long game" - in my book, anyway. Overall, it was a great RPG. I loved it from start to finish, and the only frustrations I had were with the crashing in the latter half of the game - which seemed to get worse and worse the further in I got.

So that's the first game of 2008 I've completed. Hurrah!

Half-Life 2 (360): COMPLETED!

Well, I wasn't expecting to complete it tonight, but the last two chapters were very short and so I did. Erm, hurrah!

I won't spoil it for anyone else who hasn't played it yet, but the last few hours were mostly filled with huge battles with striders and gunships, and hordes of baddies. Luckily, you're accompanied by a team of other people for much of it, until you reach the Citadel, anyway.

The end boss was a bit easy, although I did die on him once. And the ending clearly leaves everything wide open again. At least I know there's Episodes One and Two to follow!

Overall then... really good. As I said before, however, it isn't a proper sequel to Half-Life, and there have been so many FPS alien invasion games in recent years that even the story isn't as great as it could be, but if you just take it for what it is, then you won't mind. 4/5, probably.

Peggle (iPod): COMPLETED!

I think this would be my very first completed iPod game. Hurrah! The last five levels were indeed somewhat hard, with the moving helix on the last one being a pain especially, but they're all pretty tough.

And that's it! Well, except all the Challenge Levels. Ace!

Guitar Hero III (360): COMPLETED!

"Lou" was totally impossible yesterday. I couldn't even come close to beating him. And yet, for some reason, I managed it on my first try today without realising I was almost there. Amazing.

You have to "finish him" after that (which is basically just finishing the song), and then it was credits time - complete with another track to play over (or, more literally, under) them. With that all done, I went and bought all the rest of the bonus tracks, and played a few, then went back and played the few tracks I'd missed in Career Mode.

Finally, I played a few tracks on Easy, and then tried to play randoms on Xbox Live Ranked Mode, but the game crashed every time it said "Joining Game...". Pff.

Portal (360): COMPLETED!

That's two games in one day! Amazing!

After test 18, you managed to escape from the testing chambers, although I won't say how or what happens afterwards, but when you finally defeat the end of game boss (with hilarious running commentary from the boss itself), you get the credits.

Credits with the best ending song ever. Which I can't say as it's a spoiler. But AMAZING.

And! CAKE! Yay!

Super Mario Galaxy (Wii): COMPLETED!

You might say "What? Already? What a short and/or easy game!", and you'd be wrong. You see, like Mario 64 and Mario Sunshine before it (in fact, like virtually every Mario game, actually) just beating Bowser at the end is The End as such. You only need 60 stars to do that, "win" the game and see the credits. So with that many, I beat the boss and completed the game.

But that's only half the stars! Now there's the task of mopping up the rest of them, mainly from alternate goals in galaxies I've already completed, and also some more in galaxies not yet unlocked. I went back and did some more (including collecting 100 purple coins on an ocean level, which took aaaages as I kept killing myself accidently...) and now I have 66 stars.

Ico (PS2): COMPLETED!

Having redone the bit after losing Yorda, I found there wasn't much of the game left. There were some more platformy bits (oh, and I figured that you can pull the block around while you swim with the O button), and then I found a new sword that gave me the statue-moving powers of Yorda. Then, I ended up back in the room you start the game in, with loads of shadow things to kill.

It was then that I realised something - the shadows are all horned too - just like Ico. And they all came from the "pods" like the one Ico was in at the start. So they must be all the previous horned boys from times past!

Killed them all anyway (one swipe of this new sword does it) and then it was off to kill the queen, who was pretty easy (once I'd figured out what was going on, anyway) and that was the end of the game! Well, except for the bit after the credits which I won't mention as it's a spoiler. My completed save says 7 and a half hours, but redoing sections means it's nearer 10.

What did I think overall then? Well... it was good. Much better than I expected, and certainly better than it started. I didn't like having to drag Yorda round all the time, there are problems with the controls, fighting, camera and such, but the story and atmosphere and the actual puzzles and platforming make up for it.

Now, if they'd make a game without all the annoying bits and more of the good bits, that'd be ace!

Phoenix Wright 3: Trials and Tribulations (DS): COMPLETED!

Stunning. Absolutely stunning. There was about an hour of game left, and it really did feel like the end of an epic story. I can't really say much else, in case I spoil it for you, the reader of my diary.

I will say this though: I'm really excited for Apollo Justice - the next game in the series, and the start of what I hope will be an equally amazing trilogy.

Bioshock (360): COMPLETED!

I was right - there was very little else to do. I had to assemble the parts of a Big Daddy for reasons I can't really say, and then with the help of a Little Sister I made it into a museum, where Fontaine was waiting for me. Well, once I'd got through the museum, anyway.

Unfortunately, the museum was pretty much an escort mission, which I hate. You have to stop a Little Sister from being killed as she leads you round the museum and through doors only they can open. Thankfully, I could scout ahead and hack some cameras and turrets to be on my side, helping when the splicers attacked. Amazingly, my third (and last possible) photo of the final camera in the game was just enough to get the maximum research for them, and thus the achievement for "PhD Research".

Once through the museum, it was the final showdown with a spliced up Fontaine. A very easy to kill spliced up Fontaine at that. It was soon over, and I'd only used one first aid kit and barely half a "tank" of Eve.

So, that's it. I am tempted to go back round Rapture with an earlier save to get the achievements for Jackpot and Weapons Specialist, though.

Sonic Rush Adventure (DS): COMPLETED!

Phew! It's about time I completed another game. Haven't completed one in weeks! So there was just one more set of levels (well, aside from repeating a few hidden ones to pick up items I'd seem previously but it wouldn't let me collect) - the pirate's base in the old ruins. It was pretty easy, and the face-off with Captain Whisker and Johnny was alarmingly simple.

Of course, there was a reall boss after that - a giant robot thing - who was also easy.

Now, it'd be nice to go and collect all the Chaos Emeralds, just the last three are plainly impossible. I have, however, upgraded my water bike, so that may help matters.

Super Paper Mario (Wii): COMPLETED!

I've played a lot of games. And, in recent years, I've completed loads too - more than 150 in less than three years, in fact. That's all well and good, but plot twists and end boss "surprises" are becoming less and less, well, surprising. It's no real spoiler to say that the end boss, isn't actually the end boss as there's another boss afterwards. This is now The Done Thing with games these days, it seems.

Not that there's anything bad or wrong about this, it's just, well, expected now.

So Chapter 8 then. It's all (well, not quite all - see below) set in Count Bleck's castle, as you'd expect. A castle that throws pretty much everything at you. It wasn't difficult, but you do have pretty much every single puzzle and baddie in the game making a return. You also have a need for every character and almost every Pixl too, so it does give you that Nintendo feeling of "now use what you have learned!".

Sadly, there is The Great Big No of games. That's right - a SuckySuck(TM) bit. You have to fight several previous mini-bosses again. This is RUBBISH and LAZY and should be banned. In fact, it gets worse - there's also a SuckySuckPlus(TM) bit. That's a new term for something that happens in Super Paper Mario and a few other games (including, if I recall correctly, Paper Mario 2) - whole previous sections of the game are repeated, not just bosses. There's a rerun of a bit of almost every world in Chapter 8-3. For no reason!

DEAR GAME MAKERS: DO NOT DO THIS.

But, save that couple of irritations, Chapter 8 was good. There's a twist at the end (actually, two, but one was obvious from some point in Chapter 2), and the final boss was suitably bizarre. In all, the whole game was fantastic, with a few slight dips although nothing to ever ruin it. And certainly no "slide into crap" like some people have been suggesting.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (Wii): COMPLETED!

Picked up the final Chaos Emerald on the first Marble Garden level, and then went on to complete the game!

I only died once, and annoyingly it was a completely avoidable crusher on the very last level. How irritating!

Resident Evil 4 (Wii): COMPLETED!

Seems the truck bit wasn't so difficult in the end, although I had virtually no ammo by the end of the first part of the run, so the second bit was done almost entirely with my knife. Soon, Ashley got kidnapped for the 26536th time, and I had to fight with "It" in some caves.

With almost no ammo.

Then there was another "boss" fight: Krauser - who I'm guessing made an appearance in another Resident Evil game that I haven't progressed very far in. This fight took almost an hour on its own, as he seemed to have stacks of health. Although I'd picked up a pile of ammo before reaching him, I used almost all of it up on him, and so when I reached a stronghold full of infecteds I had none left. Thankfully, Mike in his chopper showed up to give me a hand.

Eventually, I found Ashley again (but not much more ammo), and had to kill two of those huge armoured blokes with big axes using a knife and some flash grenades. Amazing. Then... Saddler! The end of game boss, who was actually pretty easy. Partly because I had so many health items (6 sprays, 6 G+Y+R herb combos, and loads of green herbs, as well as a few eggs), and partly because I'd wisely kept my Broken Butterfly ammo. Oh, and Ada's rocket launcher helped a little, of course.

Game winned! And very ace it was too.

Densetsu no Stafi 2 (GBA): COMPLETED!

World 11 was, in fact, the final world. Dark Castle and all!

As expected of the final world, many of the levels sort of repeated some of the puzzles and routines of previous levels, although obviously mixed up a bit. Thankfully, there was no SuckySuck(TM) bit either. The end boss, however, did do the usual trick of dying, only to change form and regain all his energy - twice. I wasn't too bothered though, as each form was very different, none were especially hard, and if you died (and I did three or four times) you didn't have to start from the beginning again. And you healed fully after each transformation too, making it fair. Hurrah, eh?

And then it was all over. I killed his final form, rescued someone who appeared to be my dad (a previous starfish "hero", it seems), and banished the boss to a pot with a face on. However, my clam friend accidentally dropped the pot during the end of game sequence and let him out again. Tch.

Overall then, it was a great little platformer. It had a few irritations, e.g lots of similar sections - the dragon flying, balloon riding, fish surfing, and koala jumping bits especially - were reused a lot, albeit differently each time. Also, some of the puzzles were impossible to solve due to being in Japanese, but luckily trial-and-error won through. That's not really the game's fault, obviously, but why haven't Nintendo released any of the Stafi series (of which there are four games) over in the UK? Now I just need to find copies of 1 and 3 in the set, and play through 4 on the DS!

Adventures of Lolo (Wii): COMPLETED!

I was so close last night! I was doing 10-4 pretty much how you were supposed to, but I just needed to speed up on my Snakey-pushing. 10-5 (the final level) was way, way easier than I expected, and I did it on my second go.

Overall, it's a great game. It looks crap, and yes, is just a crate pushing game at heart, but it's well executed and the difficulty curve is pitched perfectly, so it's well worth a punt. Ahaha!

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (PS2): COMPLETED!

By selecting the best weapon prior to mounting the on-foot attack of the Martinez Building after the chopper assault, I found it much easier this time around. The Spaz shotgun is most excellent when many baddies are in close range as it takes them all out at once.

After that, I had to shoot down another helicopter, and finally there was a three-way showdown on the roof - the remaining Mendez brother, Martinez, and me. And it was easy, they died, and I won. Hurrahs!

After the credits, I spent a while taking over businesses, but that got dull in the end. I've got about 85% of them or something though now.

Canis Canem Edit (PS2): COMPLETED!

I won't go into too much detail of the remainder of the game in case I spoil it for anyone reading, but most of the last hour or so involved beating up, then working with, the townies. I also had to vandalise the house of a teacher, and then there was a huge school-wide punchup, which almost became a SuckySuck(TM) bit as I had to take down all the clique leaders again.

Finally, there was the inevitable showdown with Gary, who had be strangely absent since Chapter 2 or 3. He was very, very easy to beat - I didn't even take a hit - and then the game was over. Of course, there's a Chapter 6, which exists solely to finish any remaining tasks, but the story is complete.

Oh, and I was wrong about Gary being the head's son. Bah.