deKay's Gaming Diary

My first completed PS3 game! Oh wait – you didn’t know I had a PS3? Uh, one fell into my house. I’m keeping hold of it for a friend. I won it. $random_excuse['PS3Owner'].

Er, anyway. So Katamari Forever then.

It’s another Katamari game. Like all the others I’ve played. In fact, in many ways, it is all the others I’ve played. The game is split in half, with The King of All Cosmos giving you requests that are basically remakes of previous game levels, and RoboKing giving you requests that are similar to previous game levels (that is, they use the same areas, but you’re a different size, collect different things, or whatever). There are a few totally new levels, but not many.

It doesn’t matter though, as it’s Katamari only with much shorter load times and new fancy graphics filters. And a crap controller to play it with. I managed though, and so it is complete! Hurrah!

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

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

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

GAAAAAaaAGH!

Hate hate hate! I spent ages making more planets and suns and stuff, so I had plenty in the sky to roll up to make the 1,500,000km Katamari. And guess what? Fail! Again!

Once more, I ended up with a 1,250,000km-ish Katamari, and an accidental fall into the black hole. So! Annoying!

Played a few things this weekend:

Beautiful Katamari (360)
Me am cry. If I play the final level on Eternal mode, and collect absolutely everything (including The King), I can only get my Katamari up to 1,450,000km. Meaning 1,500,000 is, in fact, impossible – black hole or no black hole. With this revelation, I set about redoing levels again, making more and more planets so that I’ll have some more to collect next time I try. Assuming the black hole doesn’t eat me.

Galaga Legions (360)
I’m getting worse at this. I can barely make it as far as Level 3 now, let alone complete it. And I still can’t complete Area 1 or 2 without losing a life. In more positive news, I’m still at the top of my leaderboard, but that probably just reinforces how difficult the game is.

Geometry Wars Evolved 2 (360)
Thankfully, nobody on my “to beat” list (that’s parm, SomethingWitty, That Rev Chap, Lufferov and Zomoniac) has managed to overtake me on any of the scoreboards. I had a go at improving my standings on the Sequence and Pacifism tables, but didn’t.

Ticket to Ride (360)
Four games against my wife, two won each.

Mr Driller Online (360)
Attempted Russia (3000m). Managed to reach 1800m. Rubbish.

Tiger Woods ’09 Demo (360)
Golf: Tee it Up has better camera controls, and the speech and between-hole golfer animations just get in the way. PGA Tour hasn’t been the same since it left the Amiga, and I won’t be buying this when other, better, golf games exist.

CONTROLLER SMASH!

It is completely impossible to complete the Astronomic Katamari achievement. Once you hit around 1,200,000km, you’re automatically sucked into the black hole, regardless of where you seem to on the level. Most annoying thing ever!

Played for an hour or so this evening, attempting the 1,500,000km Katamari where you have to avoid falling into the black hole. And failed, having fallen in at 1,300,000km. Grr!

I then played several levels in Time Attack mode, although didn’t do especially well.

I haven’t posted in a few days, but I have been playing things. Just been a bit busy and tired and stuff. Anyway, here’s what I’ve been up to this week:

Fable II Pub Games Demo (360)
Marginally entertaining collection of gambling games. If I was interested in buying Fable II (I’m not), and it was 400 points, I’d buy it. So I’m not, then.

Bionic Commando Rearmed Demo (360)
Quite good fun, although I can’t get used to having no jump button. Had the same problem with the original though. Looks good, and the “This is a demo! Buy the full game!” messages are excellent. Again, if it was 400 points, I’d get it, but at 800 I don’t think I’m tempted. Besides, I have no points because I spent them all on…

Beautiful Katamari (360)
…DLC for this. I’ve bought all the levels now, and played it quite a lot. I’ve mainly been trying to get the achievement for an Astronomic Katamari, but that involves not falling in the black hole too soon. And it takes 20 minutes to redo the level! Gah!

Ticket to Ride (360)
About time the next expansion for this was released, yes? Not that we’re bored of Europe – far from it – it’s just we want the next one now. Managed another achievement in this during the week too.

So… that’s pretty much it. I’ve completed the few remaining levels (all of which were Volcano Island “strange request” levels), and on every level I’ve managed a reasonable-or-better score, with many levels having a score of 100. I don’t really fancy playing it again for better scores, as each level was almost the same as the last, so I feel I’ve been playing the same level over and over and over already.

Besides, the 360 is easier to control, so I could just play that if I fancied a bit more rollyball “action”.

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!

I’ve been a bit busy this week so haven’t had time to fill in my diary. So here’s a brief rundown of what I’ve been playing:

Me and My Katamari (PSP)
It’s been this for most of the week. It is good and all, but I’m finding it a bit limiting. There are so few locations in the game (even fewer than the 360 version, in fact) that almost every level is a repeat of the last, with a different – or not – arrangement of objects. The controls are very fiddly too, with going straight and large turns being easy enough, but minor adjustments are difficult.

There’s also the dual problems of pop-up (so bad that you sometimes collect items before they’ve even been drawn on the screen) and slowdown, marring enjoyment somewhat. There’s another strange thing too – I actually kept running out of things to roll up. I’d reach the target size, and have so much time left over I could not only roll up every single remaining item, but also have another minute or more left in which there was nothing to do.

Thankfully, it’s still fun, and it’s still Katamari. I think if I’d played the other games after this one, perhaps I’d not be so bothered by the problems.

Sega Superstar Tennis (Wii)
This was £15 in Asda, and as it had had some reasonable reviews, I thought I’d get it. Even though common sense dictates that because it’s a Sega game, there’s a good chance it’ll be crap. But it isn’t! OK, so it isn’t fantastic, and the Wii swinging controls are a little unresponsive, but it’s more fun than Top Spin 2 on the 360. Some of the mini-games are pretty ace too – especially the House of the Dead one.

Wii Fit (Wii)
This arrived this week too, and it’s brilliant. I don’t go in for it being an actual tool for really actually getting you fit, but if it makes me more active at least, that’d be good. It’s also a great novelty too, using your entire body as a controller. And it’s worth the price for the skiing and ski jump games alone. Almost.

I won’t be posting my BMI and weight and stuff here, just my progress. Which so far, hasn’t happened. I’ve played most of the unlocked Yoga poses (one of which my body simply rejects), all the balance games, and a couple of aerobic exercises. I’m not planning on even touching the muscle exercises though. Press-ups? No.

Hurrah for new games arriving in the post! Boo that this should have arrived last Monday and my local post is crap. Hurrah for it being aces! Boo for it having really difficult controls (no dual analogue sticks). Hurrah for that not really mattering all that much.

And most important of all, hurrah for the King of all Cosmos: Swimsuit Edition! Amaze!

I’ve only completed two levels (and the training) so far, and it feels much more like the PS2 version than the 360 version. the mid-level loading is there (which is a shame, but not a deal-breaker), and the graphics do look a lot worse than on the 360 – something I didn’t think would be the case, as on the 360 they didn’t seem that much better than the PS2 version. None of this matters, as it’s Katamari! Yay!

Once more I played to try and improve my scores/times/ratings/whatever. I think I have to re-roll all the planets and stuff, having dumped them all in the black hole to complete the game first time around, but there’s no way of telling which planets I have left to do, so I keep doing the same ones again not realising.

Not that I mind, of course. I just wish my brain would remember those I’d done again. Perhaps using the Power of Pen and Paper I might be able to keep track…

Erm, well. More of the same, really! Rolled up more planets, improving my scores on some (but not many) of them. And that’s about all.

Not that I’m saying I didn’t play it much – I did – it’s just there’s not much else to report.

Didn’t do anything new on this today, instead just playing and replaying levels. It’s a shame all the levels are basically the same game “world”, unlike those on We Love Katamari where there were things like the flower collecting and the gingerbread house.

It’s still great though.

Yeah, I know I completed it yesterday already, but there’s still loads to do. I have all the presents and cousins to find, and higher scores, faster times and online play to do as well.

Much of today was spent trying to get my first 100 point score. I finally managed it (on Delightful Dirigible) after 20 or so attempts. And even then, only just. And it seems there’s a 120 point score to go for now? WHAT

I also played online a bit, but was disappointed to find it isn’t what I thought it would be. I was under the impression it was going to be a race-to-get-biggest or something, but in fact it’s more like a fight, where you collection items but can knock items off the other players. You barely change in size at all. Shame.

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.

Two days and two great Xbox 360 demos? With these you are really spoiling us!

Six times I played through it. Six. OK, so it’s not very long (three minutes) but it does show how much I’m looking forward to a new Katamari game. It’s more of the same, only in HD and (I’m hoping) no mid-level loading!

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.

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!

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!

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.

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.