Gaming Diary

This is a great game! The graphics have that bizarre shiny-sticky-plastic look to them that plagued Kameo, but it doesn’t matter here. People have likened Marble Blast to Super Monkey Ball, but they’re not really all that similar. Marble Blast‘s levels are more maze-like, with jumps and power-ups, whereas Monkey Ball is all skill and speed. There’s no time limits here, although levels have a “par time” to beat. Some levels have gems to collect, and gravity direction switches too …

Crap. Completely. Admittedly, it isn’t my sort of game, and I didn’t play it for very long, so it could be reasonable if soldier games are your “bag”. Graphics are OK, but no better than Xbox games like Rainbow Six 3 and Ghost Recon: Island Thunder, although that could be down to the uninspired map you can play on in the demo. I’ll be giving this a miss, I think.

Hmm. I think I’ve pretty much exhausted the demo now. Won a few more fights (all exactly the same as the others as you only have the two boxers), getting knocked down only once. The “crowd” are hilarious though, as they all do exactly the same animation, in sync with each other. As a result, they look like fat male cheerleaders.

Plowed through some more Career Mode matches, facing Luton, Leicester, Leeds and some others. Still haven’t lost any matches, although somehow one of my two (bizarrely, consecutive) matches with Leicester ended up as a 0-0 draw. It was especially strange as I’d already beaten them 6-0 with ease.

Dire. Although perhaps I should start off with the good points: It isn’t a cheap Rare collect-a-thon. That’s about it. Graphics are good, but aside from having quite a bit going on (some of the time), they’re not very impressive for a supposedly “next-gen” machine. Like the other demos I’ve played, this might change with other levels, but you’d think they’d try and make the demo look good, yes? All of the textures look wrong somehow – too shiny, or …

Normally, I wouldn’t be interested in playing a boxing game, but after the graphical disappointment of PGR3, I downloaded the demo to see what the 360 can really do. Well, based on reviews of it and everything anyway. And it’s nice. Looks great, plays well. But, it’s not quite right. Considering the faces are supposed to be “photorealistic”, they’re not really even close. Part of the problem is that you have to pay close attention to the boxers’ faces to …

Turnips were 103 bells this morning, so I bought about 300,000 bells worth of them. I’ve left them all outside my house, so I hope no-one steals them. I also bought another red turnip, planted it, and watered it. Went and spoke to most of my animals. Walker has decided to start calling me “D-bot”, to I hit him with my spade. He should be spayed for that, I think. Friga finally isn’t ill. Bought all of the stuff from …

Well, completed Survival Mode anyway. All 50 levels of it. It took about an hour and 20 minutes, and now my brain (and eyes) hurt somewhat from all the hexagons. I’m not sure if the other modes can be completed or not, as once you reach level 7 you’re told it’s the final level. Besides, you can’t clear the screen in those modes. Hurrah for my first completed Xbox 360 game!

Did loads of stuff this evening. Visited Choobs, who is new to Animal Crossing having only bought it this week. Took him all the fruit I could carry. His branch of Nook’s was buying bells for just 95 bells, so no chance of getting rich there either. He came to visit me then, and I sold all the rest of my turnips at my Nook’s for 120 bells each. I’ve made almost 120,000 bells this week, which is good, but …

Hmm. I’m glad I tried this demo before buying it. It looked great in screenshots and stuff, but, well, isn’t great. I don’t like the controls, and the game just seems to be three types of game at the same time (a platformer, a game like Lilypads on the Atari 2600, and a collect-em-up) and it just doesn’t work.

It took most of the day (when I wasn’t playing other things) to download, and I was a bit disappointed at there only being two “tracks” (both in Tokyo), but well, it is a demo. And it’s great. I played the two tracks, one was a race, and the other a timed run. Finished both with ease. It’s just like PGR2, only with nicer graphics. Not all that much nicer, though, which was a bit disappointing. It’s just like, well, …

A few more goes, on Marathon and also on Timed. Timed is just the same as Marathon, only with a timer that ticks down. You add more seconds to it by matching tiles. Didn’t score so well this time. Also, how the hell are you supposed to manage to get six flower tiles in a flower shape? And then get six of the pearls they create together? Madness!

Yes, I know. Playing Hexic requires the purchase of an Xbox 360. Which I bought this morning. And I bought no games for it, as I wanted Oblivion, but wasn’t prepared to pay the £50 everywhere wanted for it (except most places didn’t actually have any copies at all in). I did get a 2100 point card for spending on XBLA games, but before spending that, I had just Hexic to amuse me. It is nice, and all, and quite …

Turnips were 122 bells this morning. I sold about one fifth of all I had, to ensure I made at least some of my money back. The rest I’ll leave until this afternoon for a better price. Today was also two things – Fleamarket Day (I couldn’t buy anything as only one animal would let me their the house – Friga – and she was ill), and Cherry Blossom day (some of the trees have blossom on them).

Three more missions completed this evening, including an irritating one where I had to kill two bosses (one of which was the train again), and then escape from the complex in five minutes. It would have been easy, except that there were loads of baddies in the way, and if you die you have to start the whole escape run again (rather than just the room again, like you would normally). Managed it eventually. There was another repeat boss later …