Civilisation V (Mac)

You know how I don’t play computer games? WRONG. A couple of weeks ago I blagged a copy of Civilisation V (note “s”) from someone who had a spare copy on Steam. He said I could only have it if I promised to actually play it, so I did. In actuality, I’d already bought it. Stupidly, I’d tied it to a Steam account I couldn’t access, so got it refunded, but I still wanted the game. The price then went …

How to get rid of inaccessible extra mailboxes in Outlook 2010

It’s pretty common in an Exchange environment for users to have access to other users mailboxes. Permission can be given via the Exchange Management Console for users to access another mailbox from within Outlook (File > Open > Other User’s Folder), and, in theory, permission can be removed using the EMC as well. Unfortunately, even though permission is seemingly removed, it often leaves the now unnecessary mailbox in Outlook where it can’t be deleted, accessed, or even hidden from sight. …

Art of Balance: Touch! (3DS): COMPLETED!

Of course, I haven’t completed every single level, but I have unlocked all the worlds, and completed a “route” on each world through from the start to the finish. So yeah – it’s “completed”. I’ve only actually got about another 40 (of 200-odd) levels left to finish, so I may still do that. It’s certainly a fun game to play for 10 minutes here and there so that’s quite likely!

Games I’ve Been Playing Recently

Yes! Another lazy round-up post 🙂 Skylanders (360) With my daughter. We’re up to world/level/mission/event/chapter 9-ish now. Whichever is the one just after the cyclopseseses. It’s a fun game, but play is disrupted when your co-pilot wants to change characters every 45 seconds. Art of Balance: Touch! (3DS) This was never really on my radar, but a demo was released last week which I really enjoyed. Then it was deal of the week on the eShop so I couldn’t resist. …

Rayman Origins (3DS): COMPLETED!

A delight from start to finish. I’ve never been a fan of Rayman games, really. I had the one on the Jaguar, a few of the 3D ones on various consoles, and have played several others. They just seemed more on the Bubsy/Gex level of platforming dullness than Sonic/Mario. Rayman Origins somehow won me over, though. Maybe it’s a combination of nostalgia, quirkiness, and inventiveness. Who knows. Today, I completed it. Like most games, completed isn’t the end, and Rayman …

Name that Tune

I’m not a piano player.  I can barely read music. But in the process of testing Cubase today, I came up with this. Can you tell what it is yet? [audio:https://lofi-gaming.org.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/untitled1.mp3] Answers on a postcard (or in the comments).

Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars (360)

Well, that took a little while, didn’t it? Thankfully, that’s mainly because I haven’t played it rather than because it’s all I’ve played. In fact, it’s only really been the concerted effort over the last week that’s done it, finally getting the last gold brick and then mopping up the remaining achievements this evening. Like all the other Lego games, it’s an OCD fest, but also like all the other Lego games, it’s great fun and (two achievements aside) never …

Mad Dog McCree (3DS)

Well, why not? I loved it in the arcade 20 years ago. What could possibly go wrong with a 3DS conversion? Nothing! As it turns out, actually, surprisingly little went wrong. And it’s still a pretty good game. Unlike every other home version I’ve ever played, the full motion video is clear and good quality. Unfortunately, it’s a bit small and that did make one of the bits hard to play as it was virtually impossible to see a bandit …

Tokyo Jungle (PS3)

Progress! After $hlmun attempts, I finally unlocked Beagle with my Cat. For the first time, I managed to get as far as the Beagle Boss without being eaten by some animal bigger and hungrier than me, and took him down. Hurrah! I also succeeded in unlocking the Rabbit by touching the Rabbit Boss with a chick. A chick! What a useless animal. With the Beagle, I’ve been merrily slaughtering the Retriever population of Shibuya, but have yet to encounter the …

Hana Samurai (3DS)

I’ve been looking forward to this for quite a while, and it seems to have been months – maybe even a year – since it’s release elsewhere in the world as Sakura Samurai. It was released last Thursday, and I eagerly downloaded it. Sadly, it’s not that great. Sure, it’s not terrible, but there’s not really very much to it. I’m only at the first boss, so things may yet change, but so far the whole game has been dodge-and-parry …

Liberation Maiden (3DS): COMPLETED!

It’s a short game, sure. The reviews all seem to centre on that fact. It doesn’t matter, as it’s utterly fantastic. Five levels (well, four as the fifth plays a bit differently) of Kid Icarus Uprising/Rez hybrid gameplay, with lovely graphics and nonsense plot: You’re a female president of Japan who must save the country from an unknown enemy by piloting a flying transformer whilst wearing a tight fitting catsuit. Obviously. Took me about two hours to complete, but I’ve …

Tokyo Jungle (PS3)

Now see here: I’m not happy about this being a PS3 exclusive, and worse – download only, but in times like this, I have no choice. Sure, I have to brave the PS3 controller, and yeah, it took three days to download on my terrible connection, but having seen it at Eurogamer it was a NEED. And it is totally nuts. It’s set in Tokyo after an as-yet unknown event whereby humankind were wiped out. You take control of an …

Eurogamer 2012

I haven’t been to a proper games show since, ooh, 2001? 2002? Whenever it was I went to ECTS, anyway. Ah, ECTS. Games show for people who like Gran Turismo 3 and steering wheels, and not much else. Good times. What did I think of the games? Well, a quick run through: New Super Mario Bros U (Wii U) Awesome. Going to be excellent playing this with my daughter on the screen. Sure, it’s mostly more of the same as …