deKay's Gaming Diary

Mainly to just show the in-laws it today. Didn’t do particularly well, either. Bah.

Well, sort of. I didn’t play it as such, I just used my wife as a joystick while she stood on the board, and we played the ball heading game. 299 points (50 more than the previous high score!) says this is the way to play it!

Only a few minutes on this today (yes, I know – I’ve not been on it in ages), mainly just to try my hand, or legs, at the Ski Jump again. Best I could manage was 343, which puts me 8th on the table. Rubbish. Also did the body test too.

Another busy week (it was my birthday!) so I’ve got a bit of catching up to do.

Wii Fit (Wii)
Haven’t played this much since Tuesday, but did fit in a couple of sessions in the week. Mainly just played step and ski jump, though.

Link’s Crossbow Training (Wii)
Excellent! I got this for my birthday, which was pretty amazing in itself since it’s impossible to buy pretty much everywhere. It’s pretty simplistic (it is basically “just” a lightgun game) but is brilliantly well done and the “Wii Zapper”, despite being a bit of a faff to assemble, works really well. I’ve completed it already, but that’s not really the point, so I’m not going to consider it finished just yet. I think you have to get a piece of Triforce on every level? Anyway, I have at least a Silver on every level bar one, with a couple of Golds and a Platinum too.

Sega Superstars Tennis (Wii)
In two-player mode. It’s pretty good fun, actually, although NiGHTS is rubbish (as I found out having picked him and then losing without scoring a single point). I need to unlock more minigames too, as none of the ones currently available are particularly good.

Race Driver GRID Demo (360)
Played this today. First impressions are: it’s very quick, the damage models are amazing, and it looks fantastic. But it’s too hard. I do like the rewind facility though.

Some Dragonball Z Thing Demo (360)
It looks great. But I’m not into Dragonball Z and I had no idea what I was doing. Not that it seemed to matter, as the demo is really easy and I completed both two levels with no problems at all simply by mashing buttons.

Grand Theft Auto IV (360)
And this is what I’ve played most this week. I’m now around 23 or 24 hours in, and the mission I’ve most recently completed is the one where you save Roman from the Russians. Again. I’ve spent a while taking Roman and Little Jacob out, completed a couple more missions (and my first race) for Brucie, and completed the first task for the paper company. Oh, and a job for Packie and another for the policeman guy who Niko seemed to know well but it was the first time I’d come across him. Very odd. I still have an outstanding mission for Dwayne but it’s too hard.

On Friday night I played online for the first time. First up was a game of Deathmatch with random people, and I’m just pleased I didn’t come last. After that, it was Turf War which I didn’t really like very much. Then, someone on my friends list invited me to a co-op game and we went and completed the three co-op missions together, which was pretty good.

GTA Glitch Watch
This morning, as I left my room in the flat in South Bohan, I managed to run up the flight of stairs before the stairs had been drawn-in. Very odd.

Also, every time I load the game, the door leading out of the flat flashes white briefly. Also very odd.

Just 24 minutes on this today, and almost exclusively on Ski Jump, trying to beat my beat jump. I didn’t. I did, however, complete both advanced and super advanced on Tightrope, and did a couple of yoga and muscle exercises.

FORTY-FIVE MINUTES today! And mostly the energetic stuff too: Advanced Step, 10 Minute Free Step, both Hula Hoop games, Island Lap jogging, Super Advanced Rhythm Boxing, and the warrior and lunge yoga/muscle combo. And some other bits too.

I was absolutely knackered afterwards. Which was ace!

15 more minutes tonight, almost entirely on the Ski Jump game. My highest score today was just 358, which was rubbish compared to the 376 I already have set.

I’m guessing 400 is the maximum?

Just 15 minutes tonight, mostly on the bubble game and step game, but also attempted to beat the Ski Jump and Slalom records (and didn’t).

Oh, and was just 9 seconds off a flawless Arse-Sit. Gah.

Another 34 minutes on this today. I even managed the 10 minute Rhythm Boxing game, although I’m still struggling to get it to register “weave” movements.

I didn’t play this yesterday. It made me feel suitably guilty for not playing it yesterday too. Evil thing. I did, however, manage 34 minutes today.

About 10 of those minutes were doing the Muscle things. They’re like the Yoga ones, only involve you moving. Those I tried were actually pretty easy. Spent about 10 minutes on Yoga too, and the rest was on Rhythm Boxing (I’ve just unlocked a 10 minute version too!), Step, and assorted balance games.

32 minutes today! Although the final two hardly count – as they were from the final balance “game”: sit on your arse. No, really.

The other 30 minutes were mostly from the long Rhythm Boxing, the whole island lap jogging, and the Step game, bolstered by more snowboarding and some of the shorter games.

Oh! And I ran up a MASSIVE 376m on the Ski Jump!

30 minutes! Gasp!

And it was mostly on the energetic stuff too – jogging, Advanced Hula Hoop, Step Plus (which is really pretty difficult) and Advanced Rhythm Boxing, as well as a few goes on Snowboarding, Advanced Slalom, Penguin Feeding Thing (88 points!) and Ski Jump (matching my best of 338).

I did feel throughly worked out afterwards. Which is the point, really.

Only 15 minutes tonight, but I did mainly stick to energetic games (like Rhythm Boxing and Step), and Advanced versions of other games (like Slalom). I unlocked Snowboarding today too, which is just like Slalom, only side-on.

Managed a HUGE 338 on the Ski Jump too. Aces!

Another 20 minutes today. I’ve unlocked a couple more games today too – the penguin-feeding one and the fantastic Rhythm Boxing.

Another 20-odd minutes on this tonight. I didn’t get a chance to play yesterday, so should really have made a bit more effort today, but anyway.

Did the jogging thing again, this time chasing after the dog what runs past you. This altered the course a little, but was a nice touch. Also beat my previous scores on Hula Hooping and That Game Where You Tilt Balls Into Holes. The new Yoga pose I’d unlocked (Palm Tree) was hard, as I kept almost falling over.

And I was rubbish at skiing today.

Yay! I managed to ace the Step Aerobics game! Well, not ace as such, but I did only get one miss. And I scraped a few more seconds off my Tightrope time, and improved on my Ski Jump score – but still can’t beat my wife. I did, however, thrash her football score of 100 with my amazing score of 234. Ha!

Racked up another 24 minutes today (same amount as yesterday), but spent less time on the Yoga and more on the aerobic and balance exercises. I’m finding the tightrope walking easy, the ski jump impossible to break 300 on, and the jogging on the spot was actually quite good fun. Yes, fun. Amazing.

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.