Castlevania: Lords of Shadow: Mirror of Fate (3DS)

A game with a sub-subtitle? Amazing. First things first. This is not quite like the Metroidvania Castlevanias that I love so much (like Dawn of Sorrow or Symphony of the Night). It’s also not quite like the “original”, more linear Castlevanias like those on the NES and SNES. And it’s not even quite like the new “reimagined” Lords of Shadow game for the Xbox 360, despite the title and the fact it follows on from that game’s story. It is, …

Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins (3DS): COMPLETED!

Story done! It is substantially smaller than the Wii U version, as I completed the story (without much in the way of wandering round) with just over 7 hours on the clock. There’s clearly a lot left to do, but I’m expecting around 25 hours to 100% it. It’s a great game. It really is. The only reason it isn’t fantastic is that the Wii U version exists. Still, lots of fun and I’m going for the 100%. Just a …

Stuff I’ve been playing recently

Or the “can’t be bothered with lots of posts” post. Woo! Super Mario World (Wii U) Bought this on the Wii U VC as an upgrade to the Wii VC version I have. It is, as it always was, fantastic. But much harder than I recall. Losing it in my old age! I have managed to clear the forest though, so I’m what, half way? A bit further than half way? Something like that. Kirby’s Adventure (Wii U) Oh no! …

Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins (3DS)

With the Wii U version all done and dusted (well, done at least – even with 100% it’s still fun to play), it was time to start the 3DS prequel. Although I knew it wasn’t going to be as good, I hoped it would still be well worth playing. And it is! Hurrah! Sure, it’s cut down. There’s a much shorter draw distance, sections of the main map load in rather than stream fluidly, the controls aren’t quite as good …

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (Wii U)

I’ve had this for a little while now, but for some reason I’ve not made any posts about it. I’d decided to buy the game, expensive as it was (£50!) directly from the Nintendo eShop. I thought it would benefit from always being installed rather than having to find the disc when I wanted to play, and given how much time I ploughed into the Wii version (Monster Hunter Tri) I thought £50 was still going to be value for …

Lego City Undercover (Wii U)

100% Complete! Just 61 hours! Phew! I’m not really sure why there’s a big lock symbol in the middle of the bottom row, though. It’s supposed to show I’ve completed all of the Free Run challenges (which I have done), but sometimes it comes up with a lock and sometimes it doesn’t. I suspect it’s a bug. Anyway. What an utterly fantastic game. So much so I’ve plugged another five hours in since completing it!

Who’s looking at my SQL server?

Putting this here mainly for my own benefit, but it may help others. If you want to find out which NT users are connected to your MS SQL (2005 or 2008) server, and which computer they’re using – simply use this query (which you could run in SQL Server Management Studio): select hostname,nt_username from sys.sysprocesses For added excitement, if you do use Management Studio, you can display the result as text or a grid to take into Excel and filter …

Sonic 3 & Knuckles speed run

I found this video recently, which I watched in disbelief. The number of times I’ve played this game. The hours put in. And yet, I never stumbled across any of the massive game breaking bugs exploited here to get such an incredibly quick completion time. I think I’d struggle to do just Sonic 3 in 45 minutes, let alone Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Mind you, I’d struggle to contain my lunch if I was forced to play as Tails…

Lego City Undercover (Wii U)

This is progress. All red bricks got, 400/450 gold bricks got, and 8 of the 15 main “levels” 100%ed. Almost 52 hours on the clock. The important question is, even though there’s no story left and I’m basically just wandering round looking for things, is it still fun? Hell yes. It doesn’t get dull or repetitive. There are still loads of funny things, like conversations I stumbled across and places I hadn’t been. There’s just so much to see and …

Lego City Undercover (Wii U): COMPLETED!

The story is done! The day has been saved! There’s still many, many hours of game left as I’m only about 35% finished! I won’t say much about the ending, because, well, spoilers. What I must say, however, is that it was actually genuinely properly epic. Like nothing before from any other Lego game. For a short time, there’s some of the usual funny silly stuff, then a fight between you in a giant robot suit and Rex Fury riding …

Picross e2 (3DS): COMPLETED!

And finally, all the puzzles are solved. Phew! According to the stats, I played it for over 21 hours, which is about 5 hours longer than its predecessor. Which is pretty much what I expected. And, erm, that’s it. It’s great Picross game, just like the first one only bigger. In terms of value for money, £7 for over 20 hours play is pretty good going. It’s a shame there are no bigger puzzles as 15×15 is a bit small, …

Lego City Undercover (Wii U)

I think I’m getting close to the end of the story now. Sure, I’m still “only” 23-ish hours in and 34-ish percent done, but the story missions are coming to a climax. Not least that I think there are 15 of them and I’ve done 13 or 14. The game is still amazing fun, and still keeps giving new stuff even this late in the plot. Only a couple of game hours ago I got the final “character” ability (the …

Lego City Undercover (Wii U)

I’m a big fan of Lego games. A massive fan. I own nearly all of them, and of those I own I’ve 100%ed all bar two. People moan that they’re repetitive and shallow, but that really doesn’t matter as they’re fun, funny, and fantastic at rubbing the OCD Collector Receptors. This game marks the first one I’ve bought on a console besides the Xbox 360. For several reasons – it’s nice to have new games on a new console, it …