Shadow of the Colossus (PS2)

Two more ColossususuueusuzezZ slaughtered today. First up was a flying one, which although ACE to actually kill, was a real pain to get on the back of. Not because he was hard though - just because he's flying around a lake, and you have to swim to bits that you can stand on before you can attract his attention. Thing is, swimming is slooooooow, so the fight took ages (as I fell off a few times).

Next up was a big beardy baddie, and yes! You climb his beard! Amazing.

Shadow of the Colossus (PS2)

A good thing about this game is that it's perfectly suited for short gaming sessions. I've killed four Colossi now, and none of them have taken very long (as can be seen by my 1h17m play time so far, and 15 minutes of that was trying to find Colossus number 4).

Number 4 had me scratching my head for a while (long enough for Spooky Disembodied Voice to give me a useless clue), but then I realised he would try to look for me in the underground warren bit near where you find him, so I could sneak up behind him and climb his tail. Head stabbage!

The horse riding bits are pretty crap, and the sword-direction "compass" is fantastically vague, but the actual giant slaying bits are pretty epic. I was kind of expecting the colossusususeses to bit much bigger than they actually are though. Hmm.

Shadow of the Colossus (PS2)

Amazingly, this arrived just a few days before I completed Ico, so I thought, while I'm waiting for Super Mario Galaxy to arrive, I'd give it a go. Also, I'm more likely to spot any subtle links between this and Ico if I play it now rather than in six years time...

So far, I've watched the lengthy opening cinematic(s), and killed myself a couple of Colossi (which I'm not certain is the right word for multiple Colossuses but my spellchecker didn't complain and it's what the game calls them, so anyway...). This has put my save at around 40 minutes, so I'm not really that far in yet.

First impressions are, generally, more positive than they were with Ico, but I can see this possibly becoming dull if all the fights are this similar. The graphics are (mostly) of lower quality than Ico too, and although the giants are well animated, the main character jerks around like he's got some sort of muscle disorder. Controlling the horse is a right pain too, and I'm not overly keen on the "use the sword to find where you need to go" thing, but that's a minor point.

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!

Ico (PS2)

Finally managed to get past all of the waterfall section, and then it was all easy for a while. Made it into the West Idol place, where the puzzles to get the reflector working were much easier than in the East Idol place, and then there was a short section before returning back to the main gates.

Yorda opened them, but sadly, our rush for freedom was cut short by the shadow queen woman, and I ended up losing Yorda, my sword, and seemingly fell to my death.

I wasn't dead, of course, but I am stuck. I've made it into a big flooded area where I need to get a block from one side of a river to the other, but I can't seem to figure out how to do this. Worse still, is that I can't save my game at this point, so I had to switch off knowing I need to backtrack somewhat. Bah.

Ico (PS2)

Gnngh! Although it looks amazing, and the puzzles are great, some of it is far too frustrating to be fun. For example, today I reached a waterfall, and there's a door which is locked. Ico can scale a wall and climb over, but Yorda can't, so Ico has to find a way to open the door. So I left Yorda, wandered round looking for a switch, and got so far from her she got nabbed by shadow thingies and Game Over.

So I tried again, and found a switch just the other side of the door hiding off-camera.

It is also annoying that sometimes you can go miles from Yorda and she's fine, and other times you just leave her in one room, then seconds into the next room she's been kidnapped. And you have no way of knowing if she'll be safe or not, or how long for, or how far you can go.

Also at the waterfall, there's a chain you have to jump onto, but the camera means you can't judge when you're in line with it, so you invariably fall to your death. And have to go back miles and try again. And again. And again. Seriously - my saved game progressed from 4 hours to 5 hours today, but I played for more than two hours. ANNOYING.

Ico (PS2)

Having to redo the last bit no less than SEVEN times because I was one millimetre too high or low on the chain I had to jump from didn't really help endear this game to me any further.

However, I will persevere more. After all, it can't be as bad as Kameo, and I completed that.

Thankfully, the next section was much more enjoyable. I came across a tower with a reflector behind it, and had to solve some puzzles to open three huge doors in the tower to allow the light from the reflector through, so as to activate one half of the main gate for the castle. It was a bit of a pain having to leg it back from a switch as Rubbish Yorda had been nabbed by shadow things again, but never mind.

I do have a sword now, though, which makes it easier to kill them! Sadly, it didn't save me from them knocking me off a ledge to my death some ten minutes after the tower was complete and I'd made it back to the room where I'd blown up a bridge earlier in the game. So I'll have to do all that again. Grr.

Ico (PS2)

I've lit all the fires near the gate, and that lets me now light bombs to blow up a blocked path to a cemetery. There, I had to fight a million more shadow things (which I hate having to do). Afterwards, I entered a room where I couldn't reach the door, but finding another route led me to a chain I could jump onto and pull down, which raised the floor. Raised it too high, I might add.

So I spent ages trying to find how to get up (and died twice, and so had to re-do the room) before realising you could swing on chains and so I could swing and jump to get up.

Then there was a windmill, where I had to jump and grab a sail while it went round, jumping off at the top, before getting to a sort of garden with some water and a sewer thing. Took me ages to figure out I could get Yorda out of the sewer by just lifting her through a hole, and i didn't have to push blocks I couldn't get to into the hole instead. Pff.

Then there was a lift, and more shadow things to kill (one of which threw me off a tower so I died, and had to repeat a bit again), and then finally made it to a huge chasm that I could shimmy across, but Yorda had to wait behind. This led to back into the garden, where the blocks I couldn't reach previously I now could, allowing me to reach a new route which led to a chain I could grab and then jump across to a switch to (I assume) let Yorda across.

Except you can't jump from the chain to the switch as you can't jump that far (even with swinging), so I fell, died, and have a good 10 minutes to repeat again. Rubbish.

Ico (PS2)

Sssssh! Don't tell anyone, but I played it some more this morning. I mean, if it's really this amazing classic, I can't go giving up after the first hour, can I?

Well, it hasn't really gotten any better, as such. I'm getting used to the controls, which is helping, but yanking Yorda (as he name has been revealed to be) around isn't fun and killing the shadowy things is just plain rubbish. However, the puzzles are pretty ace, even if it did take me faaaar too long trying to figure out how to make a bridge collapse, before realising that not only could you light your stick on fire, but there were bombs around and you can pick stuff up.

Now I've reached the gate, and was about to escape, when it closed and Yorda's mum came and said not to take her away and stuff. Or something.

Ico (PS2)

About 5 years ago, Ico was the most amazing game ever. Well, it was if you read the right reviews, anyway. Lots of people have told me that I can't be a proper gamer if I've never played it. Almost everyone seems to say it is fantastic, a real experience, and one of the best games ever made.

So today, I played it for the first time ever.

You know, in all the time I'd read about Ico, I never really knew what it was about. Guy with horns needs to escape from castle meets girl puzzles happen... that's it. Oh, and there's no HUD or anything. That's all I knew.

Two of the things I hate most in games are crate puzzles in games that are not crate pushing games (so Sokoban = Good, but in Broken Sword 3 = Bad) and escort missions.

Within ten minutes of starting Ico I had this nasty sinking feeling. I found the girl, and now have to escort her. Everywhere. For the entire game. And, with some crate-pushing (but not puzzles - yet) already, things do not bode well.

Other problems: the combat is meh, the fact the girl can't do anything for herself is annoying as you have to drag her everywhere (and when you have to leave her for a few seconds, she gets nabbed and you can't get back to her quick enough), and there's some strange hazy pixel effect on everything so it looks like an old MegaCD Cinepak FMV game. Yeah, the graphics are great, but you get the feeling the pixelly thing is covering some sort of hardware limitation.

Oh, and when you die, you got back miles and have to do tedious crap again.

So no, I'm not enjoying it. I spent an hour on it and didn't really like any of it. I've been told on rllmuk that if I don't like it yet, I'm not going to, so I'm thinking I might just give up now rather than sit through the rest of the game. Probably.

And triangle for jump just seems wrong.

Sega Classics Collection (PS2)

This was just £10 in HMV today, and as I looked at the back and realised that Tant-R seemed to be, in fact, the western version of 2DO Arukotowa Sandoahru - something I didn't know existed - so I bought it.

Went through most of the games giving each a quick play. They're a real mixed bag, with some (such as Tant-R and Virtua Racing) being little more than ports of the originals, whereas Golden Axe is a full 3D remake (although sadly, crap, as the levels are too long and the baddies repetitive) and Outrun seems to be somewhere between the two.

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.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (PS2)

I'm pretty certain I'm on the last mission now. All the other storylines in the game are getting wrapped up - Phil Collins had his gig (during which I had to run round the lighting rigging and stop people cutting through it - shame), Reni went from he/she to just she and flew back to Europe, Gonzales has left Vice City (and I had to protect him on the way to the airport), and one of the Mendez brothers is dead. And so is someone on "my side" (but I won't say who as it's a spoiler).

So Diaz suggested I go and nick a Hunter (i.e. Apache) helicopter from the army base, so I did. And then I used that to blow up lots of people in "The Martinez Building" (gosh - I wonder who might be there?) but then died on the next bit because the stupid controls prevented me from selecting the right weapon. The fact the mission is called "The Last Stand" kind of implies I'm at the end, yes?

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (PS2)

Done loads today, including: protected Phil Collins (no, really) from gangs, built up more of my empire, found out Lance and Louise have been nicking all the drugs, killed a load of people who wanted to blow up Phil Collins (again, but it's understandable), taken part in more stunt driving (on a jetski) for Reni at the studio, played golf (sort of), collected all the remaining required cars for the impound, chased Lance's helicopter in a hovercraft, saved Louise from Martinez (the army bloke), and all sorts of other things.

It's growing on me now, but I still keep thinking - "It's not as good as San Andreas".

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (PS2)

Eventually, I managed to take down the antennae. It wasn't all that difficult once I'd figured out where the stairs to the roof of each police station were, so I could park my car as close as possible.

However, I then spent the best part of an hour finishing that mission, as I had a 5 Star rating upon escaping from the last station, and to complete the mission I had to drop that down to zero. Whilst being chased by another helicopter which seemed to cause my helicopter to veer all over the place.

I knew where one (and only one!) police bribe pickup was (near the very first safehouse you get), but couldn't remember where any others were. Flying around didn't really help too much either, as low down you get shot at by the police, and high up you can't see any pickups. And I didn't want to land as then the chasing helicopter would shoot me down. Luckily, I remembered there was a bribe outside the golf course, and managed to pick that up, and then remembered there was another near the airport. I snatched that just in time too - my helicopter blew up almost as soon as I landed it and the drop to just two stars and a pipe to hide in meant the police chopper flew off.

Finally, I ran back to my safe house and changed clothes to drop to no stars. Hurrah!

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (PS2)

I now seem to be working for Gonzales, as well as still doing some missions with Lance to try to recover where all the drugs we had have gone. It would appear that they've mostly gone up his nose. Anyway.

Also expanded the "empire" a bit, and now I'm stuck trying to blow up antennae on the tops of police stations. With a rocket launcher.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (PS2)

Much of today's play on this was spent on expanding my empire a bit, to earn a bit more money each day. Sadly, this wasn't easy. In order to take over businesses, you have to destroy the vehicle outside them. But, since you can't manually aim any of your weapons, this means you can only do it by smacking them with something like a baseball bat or golf club (which takes aaaaages), unless you happen to have some (wildly inaccurate) grenades.

Anyway. I did further the story a bit by taking photos of the army bloke and making out he was working with the police, in order to persude some drugs barons that I'm not the reason the drugs went missing. Or something. To be honest, the story is crap.

What isn't crap, though, is the fact that I found a helicopter! Hurrah!

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (PS2)

Gay bikers killed! I'm still not sure why they tried to kill me, but anyway. Then Forbes tried to escape, so I ran him down, then nicked a load more drugs and escaped to... the other island! Hurrah!

Lance, however, has spent all our money (again) on swish apartments. But then, he is an idiot. I'd kill him, but Tommy Vercetti will do that for me in Vice City a few years later.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (PS2)

The story in this game really isn't anywhere near as good as other GTA games. Everything you do seems to be for some tenuous reason. Vic isn't into drugs, doesn't want to deal in drugs, and yet almost every mission has him stealing drugs or lining up a drugs heist or something else to do with drugs. And if it isn't drugs, it's guns. All to earn money (which Lance seems to be spending faster than you can get it) on your other brother's hospital care.

Today's missions included kidnapping Forbes (who, it turns out, was a cop) and locking him in a flat tied to a chair. And then I infiltrated a gay bar full of bikers who decided to kill me. Because everyone knows that gay bikers instantly want to kill people who just happen to have entered their bar by mistake. I died a few times on that bit and gave up for the day.

I hope I get to the other island soon.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (PS2)

You know, with "trails" turned off in the graphics options, suddenly everything is a lot better looking. But sadly, still awful.

Problems I had today:

In one mission, you have to use a fire engine to put out a fire. Controls for the fire engine's water cannon are circle to fire, and the right stick to aim. So you need two right thumbs.

Near the first safehouse you get access to (just south of it, in fact) there's a motorbike. If you get on it, a "collect shiny things" (or something) mini-game starts. But won't actually start the clock until you collect the first shiny thing. However, having gotten on the bike, you can no longer start any other missions, even if you get off again. I found this out having driven miles away, and the only way I could "cancel" the mini-game was to destroy the bike, which was easier said than done. I pushed it into the sea using a taxi in the end.

Louise asked me to take over Marty's business (after Marty became a bit dead), and for a mission I had to go and pick up two goons. Who really were goons, as they did nothing. I couldn't recruit them, speak to them, or anything. They just stood there. So I ran them down and got Mission Failed.

The mission where you pick up Lance from the airport and then escape from the cholos, then get caught in an alley and have to shoot them? Bloody hell. The driving bit was fine (aside from the crap analogue sticks providing no accuracy on the targetting), but the alleyway was almost impossible due to the crap targetting and the way it kept locking on to already dead people instead of those people in my face, kicking my shins. It didn't help that the next bit (get a car and escape the police to get to a hotel) was bloody hard too as the police kept blowing up my car mere inches from the hotel front door.

Aside from all them, though, it was "great".

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (PS2)

Or rather, Vice City Stories of Blur and Brown. The game looks horrific. I mean, Canis Canem Edit didn't look great, but this? Awful. It's like someone took the original Vice City and smeared it with dirty hands. I suppose that's what you get for porting a PSP game back to the PS2. Anyway.

So I'm Vic Vance, Lance Vance's (from the original) brother, and this seems to be set a while before the original. I'm a corporal in the army, or rather, was, until my crack-head sergeant send me on drugs and gun running errands and I got the blame.

I then fell in with a few hicks who sent me off blowing up cholo vans and nicking cars and stuff, and then I won a quad-bike race. Oh, and then I did my usual trick of finding the airport and spending ages doing stoppies and wheelies, and jumping over things.

So far, so GTA. Complete with even worse controls than I recall. Despite being the same game engine as Canis Canem Edit, and being the same sort of game, they've switched the target button from L1 to R1, shoot from R1 to a face button, and taken away the ability to crouch. And the graphics... I'm not usually bothered by graphics, but when they're a step behind previous games in the series, and they're bad to the point where they're affecting gameplay, I do have a right to moan a bit. I've hit a bug already too - all of the vehicles vanished. Every single one, even the moped I'd stashed in my garage - gone. All the people vanished too. Thankfully, starting a mission restored them all.

I'll give it a bit longer, but I think San Andreas and Saints Row may have spoilt it for me already.

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.

Canis Canem Edit (PS2)

With the nerds totally won over (again), we set about taking out the jocks. This mainly involved humiliating them to varying degrees (taking pictures of a cheerleader in the shower, gluing the american footballers to a bench, etc.) and eventually I had to take out the entire team on the field. Which was alarmingly easy.

And then Chapter 5!

And it's all gone wrong. All the gangs hate me (again), and I had to do something to help each one. Johnny Vincent had gone missing (he'd been locked up in a loony bin, and there was a sneak-a-thon to get him out, and I hate them), the gym was on fire and I had to save all the girly jocks, and so on. And I had to trap a teacher in a portaloo and push it down a hill. Nice!

Canis Canem Edit (PS2)

Well, that's all the Greasers dealt with. This chapter seemed somewhat short, but perhaps it's just I found it easier and didn't have to redo any bits.

Now I'm onto Chapter 4 - and time to take down the final clique (which is constantly pronounced as "click" by the characters in the game, much to my irritation - it should be "cleek"), which is the Jocks. Why, then, do I appear to be at war with the nerds again? Tch.

So I smacked them about a lot, broke into the observatory, took down their "leader", aquired a spud gun, and now it's time to team up with them and take the jocks down. As it were.

Canis Canem Edit (PS2)

I seem to have had a huge break from this, as I was a bit lost when I started playing - mainly with the awful controls. However, I soon picked up the plot from where I'd left off.

It's Christmas, and I got a tasteful knitted festive jumper from my mum. I then had a few fights with Greasers, and the rich kids (caused by breaking into their "house" and killing a giant venus fly trap), and have become part of a love triangle (or square, or even hexagonal) with Johnny and Lola and Gord and just about everyone. Dirty girl.

Canis Canem Edit (PS2)

Completed Chapter Two today. This involved lots of punching posh kids, egging their house (with the help of Russell), bike racing, and taking some posh girl out on a date and winning her a teddy at the fair.

The "boss" was another posh kid who kept hiding behind a bar whilst sending minions out to smack me about, but they were weak and easily brushed aside. Gary had been winding them all up with lies about things I'd said about them.

So, now it's almost Christmas and Chapter Three awaits!

Canis Canem Edit (PS2)

Didn't progress the story all that much today, mainly just causing havok (well, as much havok as a catapult and some itching powder can, anyway) and attending classes. I've completed Art and Chemistry completely now, and managed Shop 2 as well. Still having real issues with the PS2 pad, but then, there's nothing new about that.

Canis Canem Edit (PS2)

Russell DEFEATED! I think "blockhead" is the correct term for him. He's a bit stupid, anyway. So I beat him up when Gary went a bit nasty and basically declared war on me (and the school). I'm starting to think Gary might actually be the headteacher's son or something. There's bound to be a twist like that somewhere.

After that, I ran some errands for the cook (opening up the town outside the school), entered a boxing competition and won a lighthouse (no, really), and failed Art 5 and Chemistry 5 (bloody PS2 pad). And got busted when I accidentally punched Beatrice in the face when I meant to kiss her. Again, complaints aimed at the PS2 pad. My detention was to mow some grass.

I've also acquired a camera from the filthy Ms Philips (who teaches Art) and taken and passed my first Photography class. And! I have a BMX now!

Canis Canem Edit (PS2)

Yes. It really has been over a month since I last played this. But, well, Forza 2 happened, and Carcassonne happened, and Retro Week happened and so on...

But anyway. So I've progressed in Art, Chemistry, English and Gym quite a bit. I've got a skateboard, helped a freaky hobo, taken part in some Halloween pranks, beaten lots of people up, raided a locker in the girl's changing rooms, protected some nerds, and assorted other things.

Still not happy with the PS2 pad, but then, I rarely am.

Street Fighter Alpha 3 (PS2)

Hmm. Whereas Alpha 2 was mostly just Alpha with new (or rather, returned) characters and new backgrounds, Alpha 3 is totally new. Totally new fighters, new style, new super combo mechanics, redrawn characters (well, some of them anyway), and new moves.

I played as Ryu, who seems to have gained Ken's super flaming dragon punch super combo and lost his vacuum hurricane kick, and had a pretty tough time of it actually. Too much blocking and countering for my liking.

It didn't help that when I finally reached Bison, I died. And do you get to have another crack at him? No. It's Game Over! Rubbish.

It's a great game and all, but one fail on the end boss and you have to start the whole game again? Tch.

Street Fighter Alpha 2 (PS2): COMPLETED!

Erk. This was waaaaay harder than the first game. Especially when I got to Ryu, who seemed capable of countering just about every single attack I tried. In the end, I only beat him by being somewhat cheap, trapping him in the corner, and dragon punching and uppercutting the hell out of him.

I still only barely managed it though - I even thought the final killing blow was a double-KO, but I must have just had a slither of energy bar left.

After competing it, I played for a while longer with some other characters, and then had a go at Dramatic Battle as Ryu and Ken. It's hard. Way hard. You'd think it wouldn't be as it's a two-on-one session, but both of your team share the same energy bar, and often both get hit with the same blows, doubling your damage. Managed to see off Adon, but Sagat was a no-go.

Street Fighter Alpha Anthology (PS2)

After finishing the first game, I thought I'd have a look through the other titles on the disc. I used to play Alpha 2 a bit a uni too, but not as much as the first one for some reason. It's still great, and yes, it's technically better than Alpha, but I think maybe it's just down to what I knew and loved first. Anyway, I played a few rounds, again as Kenneth for the main part.

And doesn't Dan look like Steven Seagal? He's just as crap too.

Then it was onto Alpha 2 Gold. I'd never played it before. Or even heard of it. And the only difference I can perceive is the fact there's an extra couple of squares on the character select screen to select random characters...

Next up was Alpha 3. Which I've only ever played briefly in the arcade. It looks way more polished than the other games, and has a huuuuge character roster. It also has confusing (I didn't read the manual) "isms" for fighting styles. I have no idea what they do. Ken is still ace.

Finally, it was Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix, which wasn't the Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo sort of game I was expecting it to be. Instead, it's a super-simplified fighter, with power-up gems, only three attack buttons (punch, kick, special) and Super Deformed characters from all over the Capcom Universe. It is nuts.

Street Fighter Alpha (PS2): COMPLETED!

I bought the Street Fighter Alpha Anthology pack for the PS2 yesterday, and put it on today for a quick play. Of course, the "quick play" turned into the completion of Alpha with Kenneth. Who is, naturally, the best of all the animals.

I'd forgotten how much I like this game. I used to play it for hours at university on the Saturn - literally hours playing Ken vs Ryu against a flatmate. HOURS. Of Ken vs Ryu. Good grief.

Canis Canem Edit (PS2)

Tim has been playing this recently, and it reminded me that I'd bought it a while ago but not actually started playing it yet.

So I started playing it. Yet.

Or at least, I tried, but it was a good half an hour between turning the PS2 on (having removed the inch of dust covering it) and actually doing some proper "game" as the intro and chat takes ages.

Anyway. I've started school. My first two lessons were Chemistry and Art, gaining me the abilities to make firecrackers and get kisses from teh laydeez in return for chocolates and/or flowers. I beat up a load of bullies, played the arcade game in the boys' dorm, threw firecrackers at girls, and had a sleep.

The next day, I beat up a prefect (and was busted), took my English class (and passed), and beat up some nerds. I then followed some guy to the "auto shop" which was neither a shop, nor containing any "autos", and was ambushed by some bullies. Beat them up, then chucked bricks in the face of the one I chased, and gained a catapult. Used that to shoot some rats, made some more firecrackers, skived my afternoon lesson, and finished the day in bed.

So far: Not bad. The PS2 pad is making me cry (especially the Chemistry "rhythm game" as I don't know the location of any of the buttons on the pad), and the jaggy graphics actually hurt my eyes a little, but it's not a bad game. Yet. I can see the lessons really getting in the way of things sooner rather than later, though.

Castlevania (PS2)

Hmm. Not really enjoying this a great deal any more. Well, I was never enjoying it loads as it is, but there are just too many things I don't like about it - the camera, the controls, the lack of platforming, the bits where there is platforming being difficult due to the camera or controls, etc. It's all a bit rubbish, really.

So I found the "e" stone to put in the "meth" stone in the Lab level, which brought a golum to life. And then I killed it. Which kind of defies the point, really, doesn't it?

I then moved on to the garden level, and opened up loads of the map, found a power-up to protect me from fire (or something), and couldn't find a door in a room to the right of the map that is marked on the floor plan, but isn't actually in the room. Gah!

So I left, and then went back to the House of Thingie (the churchy level) and tried to reach a high platform in a room near the start. But I can't. Not even double-jumping and whip-grabbing can do it. I gave up for the day.

Castlevania (PS2)

I worked my way through the House of Whatsit (I can't remember it's real name) and found three buttons which seem to activate locks. Or parts of them, anyway. I then got to a door that I need a Yellow Dragon Key to open, and generally ran out of places to go. I warped back to the shop, and bought some stuff, before going back into the castle and trying the Anti-Soul Mysteries "level". No, really. That's what it's called.

It seems a lot easier than the other bit, so perhaps you're supposed to do this first? I made it up to the third floor, but I'm stuck needing a key again. I did, however, find the Yellow Dragon Key, so all wasn't lost. I've found what I think is the boss too, albeit shattered into bits. There's a giant Polo on the wall with a word on it, that I need to find an 'E' for, I think.

Anyway, I warped out, bought stuff, and found a save point.

Castlevania (PS2)

A new Castlevania game for me to play! And my first 3D Castlevania too. Well, aside from about ten minutes with the abortion that is Castlevania 64. I didn't really know what to expect. Incidently, in the UK this game is just called "Castlevania", which kind of makes sense as it's chronologically the very first "episode" in the series, but elsewhere it has the subtitle "Lament of Innocence".

I've not spent long with it yet, having only watched the opening film, explored what I can to start, completed the "training" section, and then moved on to some House of Somethings. I'm not at all sure about Leon Belmont's double jump, nor his blocking. Or his whip-grab-jump move. But it's early days yet.

The camera is already annoying though...

Guitar Hero (PS2)

ROCK ON!

Two player SUPER ROCK OUT this evening, as my friend Chris and I twin-axed through some tracks.

That makes it sound about a million times better than it actually was, but in reality it was crap because I lost every single one. Rubbish.

Guitar Hero (PS2)

I was going to have a go at completing a few songs on hard, but decided against it and and went straight in to Quick Play instead. Improved on my Easy and Medium scores on about 5 tracks, and set scores for the first time on another 5 or so. I even managed Ziggy Stardust on Medium missing just one note (which I don't think, technically, I missed - it just failed to register). Bah!

We Love Katamari (PS2)

Even though I've completed it, I'm still drawn to rolling stuff up. Not least because completing it seems to have unlocked new levels. For starters, there's the roll-people-up-with-the-Sun bit from during the game credits, which I managed 58 on. Slightly better than 1, which I got the other day.

Then there's another where you have to roll up all the countries in the world, starting with the small ones. You actually have to know your geography to do this, as borders are not well marked. I found it best to start with Europe, then Africa, much of Asia, then South America, the rest of Asia, then Australia and then whatever is left. Ace.

We Love Katamari (PS2): COMPLETED!

After much playing of this today, and rolling up piles of animals, some clouds, loads more flowers, a gingerbread house, the sumo bloke again, and entire continents (including volcanoes, some sort of god, and a giant 1km octopus), I completed it.

I finally created enough celestial bodies to allow me to roll up the Earth, into these planets and moons and stuff, and then move on and actually roll up the Sun. No, really.

Excellent. And an excellent game too. I may only have been playing it for three days, but I've played it a lot, and I can see there's a load of replay value too. That's game number 44 for the year then, just in time for the end of 2006!

Guitar Hero (PS2)

DOUBLE PLAYER ROCK ACTION!

Me and my friend Chris played with two guitars on this today. We "won" about as many songs as each other, and it was aces. Slightly confusing due to the way it "splits" the notes up between the two players, as sometimes you play alternate sections, other times you play together, and sometimes you play alternating notes.

But yes, we RAWKED.

I also managed another track (solo) on my Hard Career.

We Love Katamari (PS2)

Still having niggles with the controls, but I'm finding myself avoiding the need to rotate the camera rather than getting used to them, so it isn't so much of an issue any more.

Lots more levels done today, including one where I had to get my katamari to 12m, which was ace, and one where I was rolling (automatically) around a race track, which wasn't so ace. Also had a level where I had to roll a sumo wrestler around to make him eat stuff (mainly food, but in the end, bikes and children too) to make him fat enough to knock another wrestler over, and a more sedate level where I had to build a snowman. Hurrah!

We Love Katamari (PS2)

Two more levels completed today, and I'm still struggling with the controls. In an ideal world, the left stick would move me around, and the right stick would control the camera, but it doesn't work like that. It seems to do the "rotating round the ball as you roll" thing I want to do, I have to hold left on the left stick, and up on the right, or up and right if I want to go the other way. It makes no sense to me at all.

Oh well. It's still pretty lovely though.

Guitar Hero (PS2): COMPLETED!

Hurrah! Many more attempts at "Bark at the Moon" later, and I'd finally done it. The trick, in the end, was to save my Star Power for a difficult section and use it then, so that missed notes matter less and hit notes count double. Aces.

I then went back and did the few tracks I hadn't needed to do, and so Medium is now complete.

After that, I made a start on Hard. And oh my, is it hard. I'd only just got used to using my little finger on the blue fret, but now the orange one exists and I've run out of fingers...

We Love Katamari (PS2)

Oh my. This has to be the most gay game I've played since Ai Cho Aniki. It's great though. Sort of.

I've done the tutorial, and the first level, but I'm having real problems controlling my katamari rolling. I can't seem to "rotate" around the ball as I roll it - I just end up rolling sideways which doesn't help for navigation as you can't see a bloody thing.

And the music is stuck in my head.

Guitar Hero (PS2)

Well, I've managed to get past Pro and now I'm a Guitar Hero. Of course, I still have five more tracks to go, all of which seem completely impossible.

I'd read that "Bark at the Moon" was really somewhat difficult - not surprising since it's the last song on the list, but I hadn't realised how hard. Around ten attempts later, and I was still only 22% through the song. Impossible.

Luckily, I managed to get the other four tracks - eventually. I then went over to Quick Play mode and played a few tracks on Easy instead.

Guitar Hero (PS2)

Started Career Mode this evening, with the intention of unlocking some more tracks, but ended up wading through all the "levels" playing for real. I'm up to "Pro" level now, and the tracks have got really hard. It doesn't help that I'm playing on Medium, and it keeps throwing in a load of blue frets to make things harder and hurt my fingers ever more.

"Ziggy Stardust" for the win, though.

Guitar Hero (PS2)

RAWK ON!

Hurrah! Look what I got for Christmas! Didn't get chance to play on it for long, however, just a few tracks on Quick Play on Easy mode. It's ACES, but bloody hard, even on easy.

Guitar Hero (PS2)

Went round a friend's today as it was his birthday yesterday. One of his presents was Guitar Hero, so I had a go. And I RAWKED, of course. Or not.

It's a bit bloody hard has you have to strum and press frets and waggle the wah-wah thing all together. But it is ACE.