deKay's Gaming Diary

Many years ago, I played the original Assassin’s Creed. I mostly enjoyed it. It was very good. But, as I said back then:

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.

Thankfully, the sequel fixes all that. There are more ways to prevent fights (better assassination moves), more moves within fights, fewer fights in general, and it’s easier to get away from them – partly because the wall running and ledge-grabbing is mostly fixed. There are more checkpoints too, so saving is less of an issue.

And it’s fun. More varied than the previous game. The cities seem bigger and better designed. Getting from one city to another is streamlined. And it looks even more impressive. Even the story is better. The Assassin’s Tomb raiding is fun. Looking for glyphs is fun. It’s all just brilliant. And fun – but I think I said that.

In terms of story, I’m part way through sequence 9 (of, I think, 14), and it’s taken easily 20 hours to get here. However, much of that time has been glyph, tomb, treasure and codex hunting. I have all the best armour and nearly all the weapons, and have upgraded the villa as far as I can, so I no longer need money, and can just get on with doing the missions for the most part. I’ve still a few codex pages and glyphs though, but nowhere to look for them just yet.

Only had two bugs so far – one where two guards on a boat didn’t appear (a pain since I was supposed to kill them), so I had to kill myself (the only time I’ve died so far!) to make them reappear. It’s a common bug, apparently. The other one was when I fell off a building, and landed under the floor. I stood up and my knees down were underneath the floor as I walked around. Once I’d climbed up something it was fine again though.

There was a demo for this a few months ago. It wasn’t very good. It was “classic” Sonic in a re-imagined Green Hill Zone, ruined by awful physics, jerky scrolling and not being able to see anything as the graphics were too “busy”. Oh, and Sonic was about one tenth the size he should have been in relation to all the other objects and baddies.

This demo improves on the previous one greatly, by fixing much was wrong with the physics (although they’re still not correct), and then makes it over fourteen billion times worse by not fixing anything else, and adding speaking Chaos who you can’t kill, feed into a mincer, or set on fire, and being quite frankly, insulting.

Then it added a “modern” Sonic Green Hill Zone level, which, like most “modern” Sonic games was a test of how long you could hold the same direction for whilst sometimes pressing a button to jump, duck, or activate the real-life Childhood Memory Eraser. The latter of which sadly doesn’t exist. Instead, grinding rails, having no control over Sonic for large portions of the level, and being unable to see what is coming in those sections where you do have some control, all combine to form the greatest Sonic gaming experience since, oooh, Sonic The Hedgehog: Stabby Eyeball Adventure.

Still. There’s always the 3DS version, right?

That’s it! That’s the entire set of New Vegas stories completed. Sure, there are still some sidequests, and yeah, I have a few unvisited markers on my Mojave map, but that’s pretty much the game sewn up. Aces.

I was really close to the end of Lonesome Road, needing only to work through a few rooms and then meet up with the other courier. I think perhaps fighting him was on the cards, but I talked him round and now we’re friends. Or something. There was a big fight with a load of Marked Men instead, though, and then it was over.

Of course, I still have a few warheads to find and explode, but not as many as I was expecting to have left due to the huge number just lying around the “temple” at the end. And I’ve all the Gun Runners achievements (bar one) to mop up as well, so it’s not like I’m “done” yet.

It would appear my time in the Mojave Wasteland is coming to an end. Lonesome Road is the final story-based DLC for New Vegas, and the two other DLC packs (Courier’s Stash and Gun Runner’s Arsenal) don’t add a great deal. I’m also now a Level 48 character, with all bar Unarmed and Melee stats at max, and SPECIAL pretty much all 8/9/10, I’m almost done.

Having said that, I’ve still the Gun Runner’s achievements to do, and I’ve got to do a Hardcore Mode runthrough for a further achievement (I’ll be following gospvg’s guide for that one, I suspect), so maybe I’ve a while yet.

Anyhoo. Back to Lonesome Road.

The story follows your trip into the Divide, a massive crack in the world created by nuclear explosions. Explosions it would appear I had something to do with. The original Courier Six – the guy who refused to deliver the Platinum Chip that forms the plot point of the main game story – knows about my past, and I’m there to find him.

I’m almost there, too, having just reached his temple. Why he has a temple, I don’t yet know.

The route was pretty hard, considering my high level. Mainly due to an abundance of Deathclaws, and loads of a new foe – Tunnellers, which the other courier says can take down a Deathclaw. And they hunt in packs. And literally come out of the walls. Nice.

I think I’m going to need to do a fair bit of back-tracking though soon – I’ve missed loads of warheads I can explode, and there’s an achievement for them all!

Although this is, in theory, supposed to be played before Old World Blues, I played it afterwards. The main reason being, lots of people have been saying it’s terrible, and the worst of all the New Vegas DLC. I wasn’t really looking forwards to it as a result.

But guess what? Everyone is wrong except me. It was excellent. Sure, it’s shorter than some other DLC (about 6 hours or so), but I can’t really fault it. The story was good, the return of some enemies I’d not seen for aaaages in the game (Yao Guai, giant mantises, giant venus flytraps), and there was a link to the fate of the inhabitants of Vault 22 which was nice.

If I had to find fault, it would be only that navigating the map, with the big canyons and hard to reach high places was a bit of a pain, and The Burned Man wasn’t really the psycho I was expecting him to be, but really – nothing important.

I’ve not posted in a while, aside from to mention Yakuza 3 and Old World Blues, but I have still been playing games. Here’s a round-up of what’s been going down over the last few weeks:

Professor Layton and the Lost Future (DS)

I actually completed this at the start of the year, but as I did with the previous two games once the story was done I left the remaining puzzles until near the release of the following game. So, with that due in November, I went back to Lost Future. I’ve already mopped up all the story puzzles, the sticker book, the parrot delivery puzzles, and the toy car, and have done most of the bonus extra puzzles too.

As usual, the puzzles I struggle with are the slide-a-block-through-other-blocks ones, one of which (having checked online afterwards to see how poorly I did) can be completed in just 9 moves. Took me almost 3500. Yes.

Urban Champion 3D (3DS)

It’s a weak title, sure. It’s certainly not a “NES classic”, but somehow, it’s addictive. I’ve made it up to (I think) Area Champion, but then died. You don’t seem to lose your rank when you die though – you just have to start from the first round again.

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (3DS)

The only 2D Zelda game I’ve not completed. In fact, I’ve barely played it. But I put some time in and once you forget it’s a Zelda game and look at it as a Metroidvania game with an overworld and semi-random, realtime battles, it makes a lot more sense. It’s brutally hard though!

Metroid (3DS)

Another one of the NES games us 3DS “ambassadors” got for free. It’s hard. Like, really hard. And there’s no map. I sort of like it, but the difficulty is really putting me off.

Balloon Fight / Mario & Yoshi / NES Open / Wrecking Crew (3DS)

Other NES games that I’ve played for an hour or so each, but not really invested too much time in yet. Wrecking Crew is ace, and NES Open is still a pretty competent golf game.

Let’s Golf 3D (3DS)

Enjoying this. The 3D is pointless (as in, it barely has any effect at all), but it doesn’t really matter. I’m about 35% through Career Mode now, and am starting to get used to the courses. The arctic and aztec ones are particularly difficult! I like the different game modes too, like Closest To The Pin and such.

10 Second Run (3DS)

It’s actually DSiWare, but I don’t have a DSi so it falls under 3DS. So there. Loved it at first, with its super-quick runny-jumpiness, but sadly – just like other games of its ilk (N+, Super Meat Boy) – it became far too hard to be enjoyable. I’ve completed about 38 of the 50 levels, and although I know there are 5 or 6 more I could probably manage with perseverance, some just seem completely beyond me. Boo!

Bomberman Live! (360)

I was online this evening at the same time as some ugvm/BETEO people who were playing this, and I thought I’d join in hoping my useless “broadband” connection could take the pace. It held up for the first few rounds, but by the end of the first tournament the lag was causing me to blow myself up far too frequently, and by the end of the second tournament I was been told over the headset that I’d died before I actually noticed on-screen. Rubbish.

And I’d have beaten all-comers if it wasn’t for Sky! *shakes fist*

Kirby’s Fun Pak (Wii)

The SNES game on the Wii, to be more accurate. Mainly played because my daughter sometimes tells me to play Kirby games, and so this appeases her, but it is good anyway. Only one game mode left to complete, I think, though.

Is that everything I’ve played recently? Probably. Except for stuff I’ve played briefly. Like, but not limited to: Outrun Online Arcade (360), Sonic the Hedgehog (360), Super Mario All-Stars (Wii), Muscle March (Wii), and various iPad “room escape” games. And the usual Words With Friends, Hanging With Friends and Carcassonne matches too, of course.

What a fantastic return to the bombed out future of America this was!

I had a hankering for some more Fallout, perhaps spurred by news about the next DLC which is out soon, combined with the hype of the impending Skyrim release. I decided on this add-on rather than Honest Hearts as reviews have been more favourable for Old World Blues, and it also seemed less dreary and downbeat.

And it was AWESOME.

It’s hilarious, for a start. Dr Klein commenting on your anatomy. Other “scientists” with bizarre fetishes and neuroses. The silly feud between the two “factions”. The psychopathic toaster, jealous light switches, and other incredible inanimate objects. The dog-gun that barks. Everything is silly, humourous, and excellent. Loved it!

With Back to the Future out of the way, I really needed to do more Telltale point-and-clicky stuff. I’ve been after Season 2 of Sam & Max for the Wii for ages, but it was delayed and delayed, and then when it finally did come out, immediately went out of stock everywhere never to return. So I sucked it up and got it on XBLA instead.

It follows on pretty much from the end of the last episode of the first season, with Sam’s office in much the same, perhaps worse, state. Unlike Back to the Future, it’s a proper point and click, so the controls actually work here. Unlike Back to the Future, and just like the first season of Sam & Max, the puzzles are bizarre and the solutions obscure, so although it wasn’t exactly a long game, saving Christmas from a possessed Santa (yeah, that’s the plot) did take a fair while due to getting stuck a few times.

Thought I’d have a quick go on this, and actually ended up finding all of the remaining keys and “beat” the boss. If it wasn’t that the game seemed so empty, and the stupid trivia questions exist, this would be a fantastic little platformer rather than just a very good one.

Still, for what – 60p? – it was well worth the play.

With Back to the Future out of the way (at least until Telltale decide to actually release the next one) I returned to de Blob 2, which I was previously about a quarter of the way through.

It’s really very good. It improves over the first game in several areas, mainly with fewer required “paint these building specific colours” missions, and some great 2D platforming sections. The fact that you can save after any checkpoint is a big improvement too, as although it still means that you can still go aaaaages between checkpoints (which is a pain if you want to stop playing, but can’t), you don’t have to do entire levels in one sitting like in the first game. Just as well – some of them took two hours!

The final level was also much easier than the final level in the first game. Still not a complete pushover (and almost a clone of Super Mario Galaxy!), but far less frustrating. The boss, however, was much too easy. Actually, the bosses in general were pretty poor, which most of them actually being the same wheel ‘o turrets over and over.

Still, it was a super happy fun game with blue skies and excellent music, which you just don’t get enough of these days. I mean, I like the greyness of Fallout as much as the next man, but sometimes you just need something with more colours than your eyes can take, and de Blob 2 fits that hole nicely.

Haven’t had an update post in a while, and I’ve been trying out lots of different games over the last couple of weeks and not made mention of them here, so here’s a roundup:

Say What You See (iOS)
A series of pictures with hidden clues to game titles, films, etc. Like a cross between Where’s Wally? and a cryptic crossword. There are number of “canvases”, and I’ve been playing the Arcade Games one. Completed it, but some of them were a complete pig. Like, which arcade game is denoted by a picture of a goat’s head on a piece of paper? No idea? Exactly.

Super Mario All-Stars (Wii)
I got this for my birthday. Yeah, it’s a bit cheeky being nothing more than the SNES Mario All-Stars cartridge on a Wii disc, but it is a collection of some of the best platformers ever. So there.

Little Big Planet (PS3)
One of the free “Sorry our security was crap, everyone – here, have some old games for free ‘cos everyone has stopped buying them now anyway” games from Sony. It took three thousand years to download, and I’ve played the tutorial level and a couple of other levels. Thoughts: it looks nice, but controls horribly. The into and out-of the screen moving (especially when jumping up) is rubbish. Sackboy’s physics feel wrong. The pop-up menu to access stickers and stuff is annoying, particularly when the camera zooms into your face meaning you can’t see where on the playfield you’re putting your stickers. I might get used to it all, but, y’know, I still have the woeful PS3 controller to contend with.

James Pond 2: Robocod (PS1 on PS3)
Free for the duration of my free month’s worth of PS+. And an utterly horrible, bastardised version of one of my favourite platformers ever – it’s even worse than the DS version. I never want to play it again.

Street Gangs (NES on Wii)
It’s like playing a retro version of Scott Pilgrim! Lovely game. Not far in though.

Muscle March (Wii)
Why didn’t I get this not-gay, manly game for manly men a long time ago? It’s like Hole in the Wall, only less camp! Amazing.

Lasercat (360)
The ugvm people recommended this Indie game as a sort of Jet Set Willy-alike. I can see what they mean, but the sparseness of the rooms (many of which are completely devoid of, well, anything) and the lack of things to collect (only 20 keys), in addition to the silly trivia questions, put me off a bit. I think I’d have enjoyed it more if JSW hadn’t been mentioned. It’s not bad, but not what I wanted.

Contra (360)
This XBLA game was on offer at 200 Microsoft Moon Points a few weeks ago, so I bought it. Never really was a fan of Contra (or “Probotector”, as I always knew it), but it’s fun, if totally impossible. Managed to get to the boss of level 3 before I ran out of credits.

It’s more Lego!

First, the bad stuff. It has crashed on me already – my console froze just 10 minutes in. However, it did the same on Lego Harry Potter last week, so it might be my 360. Then, on the first boss fight, it bugged out meaning Barbosa just stood there, indestructible, and I couldn’t progress. Finally, it seems so small!

You see, Harry Potter was huge. The levels were big, but more than that – 4 books with 6 levels in each, lessons, story events, and one small (Diagon Alley) and one immense (Hogwarts) hub. I mean, there were 200 Gold Bricks in total to collect!

In Pirates, that number is down to 85. The levels seem the same size or smaller, there’s only 5 per film, and the hub is tiny – just three small areas and a couple of rooms off those. Of course, I may unlock more later on (I’ve only done the first film and two levels of the second), but still – it feels small.

The good stuff: it’s shiny. OH SO SHINY. And, being Lego, it’s OCD-terrific. So lovely. It’s also easier to “get”, for me at least, than Harry Potter because I know the films. Well, some of them. It also helps that 95% of the characters don’t look so goddamn the same. Jack’s treasure hunting stuff is pretty good too, and new to the series.

Overall, the game feels like Lego Indiana Jones 3. Yes, I know it’s pierats and not spelunking, but the types of character, weapon, and environment you get are more like Indy than Harry. Not a bad thing, of course, just an observation.

Oh! And minikits are back! \o/

100%ed! That means everything done, collected, found, and achieved, with 1000/1000 gamer score and everything. Yay!

Now I have to give it a verdict. I said at the start that I wasn’t a fan of Harry Potter. I’m still not, but somehow I now hate the series less. The game, despite the painful not-knowing-which-house issues, was excellent. And huge. MASSIVELY huge. Aside from the Star Wars Complete Saga “two-games-in-one” title, this is by far the biggest Lego game I’ve played. Finding everything took ages. In fact, finding the last Gold Brick took almost two hours by itself!

In the end, Lego won out over Harry Potter, and I really enjoyed it. And guess what turned up in the post for me today from my wife? Lego Pirates of the Caribbean! Yay!

Completed, but just 48% done.

Well, actually 72% done now, but 48% when I completed it. But that’s normal for Lego games – the bulk is done after you complete the game. And what have I done? I’ve been scouring the levels and hub for a character who can do Dark Magic (turns out someone called Lucius can) and then going everywhere in Hogwarts to open up and access things I couldn’t before I got a dark magic character or the ability to zap metal items.

Did the same in Diagon Alley too (which I realised was “Diagonally” – facepalm.jpg – see also: Knock Turn Alley), and then went and completed all of the remaining bonus levels. I’ve got 145-ish gold bricks (out of 200), 16 red bricks (20) and just ONE house crest (out of 24). I also have about 30 more characters to unlock as well!

I hate Harry Potter.

I’ve said this before, but it’s worth saying again. I’m not a fan at all. It doesn’t appeal, I don’t like how it steals ideas from so many other things then claims them as its own, and I can’t stand J K Rowling’s stupid smug face.

I love Lego games.

I’ve said this before, but it’s worth saying again. They’re simple, sure, but they’re huge, funny and tick all the OCD boxes that make me go a bit gooey and warm. And, just 6 months after release, they’re incredibly cheap.

So there you have it: unstoppable force/immovable object. Fight?

This game is, as the title suggests, based on the first four books of the series. Like Lego games before, each of these is then split into 6 levels, making 24 levels in total. Then, also like other Lego games, there’s a “hub world” of sorts in the form of Hogwarts – which is way bigger than any previous Lego game hub. In addition, there are also some minor story sections (which don’t count to the level total), and quite a few magic lessons too, as well as the usual bonus levels, making the game probably the biggest Lego title of all, bar perhaps the really-two-games Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga.

Mind you, the levels in Harry Potter are often massive, and seemingly more so than previous Lego titles, so it feels even longer.

This evening, I completed the first level of Year 4, meaning I have 5 of 24 levels left. Of course, that’s barely half the game – there’s still all the OCD red and gold brick collecting, the saving all the “students in peril”, the finding the school crests, doing the bonus levels (I’ve only done 5, for reasons I’ll mention in a minute) and unlocking everything. Which may take some time.

So far, so Lego. What upsets things somewhat is the Harry Potterness of it all. OK, so I don’t know enough about the Harry Potter universe for it to completely sicken me, but this also causes problems. In Lego Star Wars, at no point did it matter that I’d not seen the first three films, here I can’t complete certain bonus levels or do certain things in the hub simply because I don’t know which colour corresponds to which house, or (worse) which characters are in each house. Or even who anyone is.

I was stuck for an hour on a 3 minute bonus level because I needed to wave my arms in front of a green and white flag for a door to open. I guessed it wanted a character from a particular house, but I didn’t know which was green and white, so tried every single one of my 43 unlocked characters (you have to traverse the entire level to change to the next character, then walk to the flag, then back, each time) on the door only to find it didn’t open for anyone at all. Rubbish.

In summary: it’s a great game but better without the wizards.

Yes. That is the image for Final Fight: Double Impact right there. There’s a reason for that! Final Fight: Double Impact is actually two games – Final Fight and Magic Sword. I assume the arcade machines use the same hardware or something, as there’s no other way these are connected.

Whereas Final Fight was great compared to Burning Fight, I suppose Magic Sword is similar, but better than, Magician Lord. I mean, the names even rhyme. Magic Sword is still pretty pants though, sadly.

All the better then that it was completed quickly and now I don’t have to play it any more!

Since I’m on a smacking-things-in-the-face spree at the moment, and this was on offer on XBLA recently, I played it and completed it today.

My word, is it a billion times better than Burning Fight. It’s so much smoother. So much, I don’t know – less old and creaky and more responsive and just better.

Played it from start to finish with Cody, missing out on the achievement for completing it using 18 or fewer credits, by using 19 credits. The last of which was on the final boss. When he had a mere sliver of health left. Bah.

A week or so ago, or maybe longer – I can’t remember – both this and Crazy Taxi were on sale on XBLA. X-Men, a release of the 6-player scrolling beat-em-up from yesteryear was reduced to an Almost Free cost of just 200 Microsoft Moon Dollars, something like £1.70. Hell, I’d probably have put more than that into the original arcade machine.

I played it today, and, what with it being rather short, completed it. Six times. Once with each character.

Things that I liked included the brainless punching and kicking, and things that I disliked included the length (30 minutes or so to complete) and the lack of baddie variety: there are 5. And some bosses, but they then have a SuckySuck(TM) bit at the end so that positive is negated. Oh, and some of the achievements are broken. Example: I should have the “kill Magneto with each character” one, but haven’t.

Overall: sort of fun, worth £1.70, probably won’t play again.

This was on offer a little while back on XBLA, for 400 points. I decided, even though it’s a poor port and doesn’t have any Offspring music (TEEEEEN TWEEENNNTY TEEEEN!!!) I’d take a punt anyway for that price.

And it’s actually pretty good. Sure, it’s rough looking, and yeah, I miss the music. Worst of all, I keep getting stuck inside things – trees, signs, walls… but it is still fun. So far I’ve C-Ranked Arcade Mode, A-Ranked Original Mode, and completed 1-1, 1-2 and 1-3 of Crazy Box. 1-S is, of course, impossible.

It’s also a pain that there are achievements for getting Rank S, A, B and C, but getting a higher rank doesn’t unlock the lower ones too. This means, in order to get the B and C rank achievements for Original Mode, I have to purposefully play badly, which is utterly stupid.

I don’t know. I really don’t. Do I like this? Do I hate it? Probably not hate it, no. It’s repetitive, annoying, and having no ammo half the time makes it hard. You can’t step off your horse for more than 3 seconds or you die, and having all the towns constantly get over-run with the undead again is a right pain in the posterior.

But, there’s enough there to make me want to carry on. I think I’m about to travel to Mexico, but I hope there isn’t much of the game left now. I’d rather it be over and done with so it can stop confusing me.

My eyes! My beautiful, burning eyes! The neon! So bright and hurty!

I’ve been a little addicted to this for the last few days. So much so, that I’ve managed to both complete each and every one of the 100+ game modes, come top of my friend’s leaderboard (by quite some way) and get ranked in the top 1.5% of all players in the world. And got all the achievements. Completed!

All this came at a cost, though. My eyes. Burning like fire. Everything is so fast and reckless and glowy and constantly changing. And I love it.

I bought this DLC pack over Christmas when it was on offer. Some time before actually buying the main game, in fact – so interested in playing it I was.

And now I’ve played it for a couple of hours or so. Sadly, I’m not really enjoying it all that much. I don’t know why – the story is funny and it’s still RDR – but it’s just not all there. Maybe it’s the headshot-to-kill issue (if you don’t shoot them in the head, then, as we all know, zombies just rise again), or the frequently rubbish controls making zombie swarm control impossible. The gunplay controls were poor in the main game, but gunplay is more in-your-face now, with no hiding behind rocks and crates like before.

Instead, I’m relying more on the run-away-from-the-pack then pick-off-the-stragglers with a torch-in-the-eye takedown method. It works well, but is slow and frustrating.

I’m also not liking my current mission, which is picking daisies (or sage or summat). Fine in the main game, but here? The millisecond you’re off your horse, the Horde decends and eats your brainz. Not frustrating at all.

Maybe I’ll like it more further in. Or not. We’ll see!

I wasn’t going to go for the 100% Completed achievement on this, and although that statement still stands, I found myself playing the game a lot more over the last few days to get closer.

I ticked off a pile of achievements, such as Expert Headshot, clearing out all the hideouts, and bagging 18 bears. I finished all the Stranger missions, earned myself $10,000, bought some rare weapons, visited every place on the map, and maxed out my Fame meter. I also notched the Ambient Challenges up a bit, but I can’t see myself finishing them – the Survival one in particular isn’t really fun, and I think I’ve killed enough bears now for the Hunting one. Also, killing cougars with just a knife? Er, no.

So I’m done with it now, at around 40 hours, I think. Very enjoyable it was, and (as expected) my control niggles were just that by the end – niggles. Undead Nightmare next? Yeah, I think so.

Well. That was a twist.

Sort of. I suppose if I’d read the signs I’d have realised the game couldn’t really end any other way. Dutch pretty much tells you what’s going to happen anyway.

But it was more the stuff after that which I’d not expected at all. Yes, this is very vague if you’ve not completed it. Let me just say that the dialogue logic for all the stranger and random encounters must have been one hell of a headache for the developers.

If you want to know why, I’ll spoiler it for you:

With the story done, I’m now off to mop up some loose ends. I’ve a stranger mission or two to finish (one to find too, actually), and I want to get my Fame up to the maximum, which will involve more hunting and some random encounters.

I did some hunting last night for beavers (needed for a stranger mission), only to keep getting mauled by bears. Tch.

Had a bit of a marathon session of this over the last few days – not least 6 hours straight on Friday. Not done that sort of gaming run in years! Ended up having real-world RDR encounters (saw some flowers that looked like wild fever-few – fought the urge to pick them, saw crows – wanted to shoot them) like I used to with Tony Hawk games.

I think I’m nearing the end now. I’ve reached Blackwater, found where the guy I’m after is, and completed a few missions around the area. There can’t be too much more now, surely? I’m about 28 hours in, I think!