Banjo-Kazooie (360): COMPLETED!

Played this a lot yesterday and today, culminating in a 100% completion this afternoon. Although I’ve played it a few times before (on the N64), I never, ever, managed to defeat the final boss. Today, however, I did – and after only 4 or 5 attempts! She was still hard, but for some reason I found it very easy on my successful attempt, losing hardly any life at all (and none until the final Jinjonator bit). So, complete! I still …

Banjo-Kazooie (360)

Unlocked, found, started, played and completed all of Clanker’s Cavern today. That took the best part of an hour! I also found another jiggy in Gruntilda’s Lair, and then made a start (and an almost-finish) of the swamp level – finding 9 of the 10 jiggies. I think I know where the 10th is too, so that shouldn’t take long.

Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 Demo (360)

As much as I liked the previous C&C games on the PC, and the best RTS game ever made ever Dune II, I can’t get on with them on consoles. The controls have never fitted a controller, and I found the C&C 3 demo last year too fiddly and complicated. Since this is based on the same engine, I expected the same problems. And, yes, I struggled my way through the training and the demo Russian mission. I enjoyed it, …

Super Demotastic Game Demo Roundup (360)

Since Fallout 3 and A Kingdom for Keflings, I’ve not really made a proper start on any other games. I’ve downloaded a played a fair few demos this week, however: Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?Apparently not, as I failed at £25,000. Even though my 5th Grader helper didn’t get the answer either, so therefore she was as thick as me. The question was about baseball, so it isn’t surprising I didn’t know what the answer was. And what …

Sonic Unleashed Demo (360)

Oh Sega, how I once loved thee. Your happy Sonic games with their speed and platformingness and fun. Why hast thou forsaken me with this swill? Sonic Unleashed, like other recent Sonic games, is crap. Well, the demo is crap at least. Really crap. And there isn’t even a werehog stage to play, and the werehog stages haven’t exactly been top of reviewers’ lists of Ace Things About Sonic Unleashed. It’s like they took all the worst bits of all …

A Kingdom for Keflings (360): COMPLETED!

Well, there’s no ending as such, but you get a message saying you’ve built a castle and now all that remains is to customise your kingdom. Since customising it doesn’t achieve anything, and I’ve now got all the single-player (and one of the multiplayer) achievements, I can call this “done”. Seven and a half hours of stress-free, dangerless gaming. Yay!

A Kingdom for Keflings (360)

I played a demo of this a couple of weeks ago, and quite enjoyed it. I didn’t bother buying it though, as Fallout 3 was the only game in existence at the time. Today, I stumped up the points for it and spend about 4 or 5 hours on it. It’s lovely! It’s a bit like Settlers, and a bit like Doshin the Giant. Sort of. You (or in this case, me – it uses the 360’s Miis) order villagers …

Fallout 3 (360)

That’s it. I’m retiring from Fallout 3 for a while – probably until the downloadable content arrives, anyway. I’m not bored with it, there are still things left to see and do, but I’ve hit 1000 achievement points and 100 hours play, so it seems like a natural place to pause and move on to other games. And what an amazing 100 hours it was. I loved every minute, was totally engrossed in the world, and so long as there’s …

Fallout 3 (360)

Yeah, yeah – another week, another 7 days of emptiness on this diary. It’s not my fault – it’s Fallout 3. Because Fallout 3 is the greatest game ever made ever. Possibly. Well, since the last greatest game ever, anyway. I am now more than 77 hours in. 77 hours. That’s a long, long time. It’s more than three whole actual days. And am I bored yet? Of course not. Having said that, I am starting to run out of …

Fallout 3 (360)

The clock ticked past 60 hours play this evening. Very few games ever get to this point. GTA IV did. Oblivion did. Both Viva Pinatas did. But most games are over and done with before they even get to 25 hours. 60+ is for something special. And Fallout 3 is special. It’s everything I hoped for, and more. It’s Oblivion, without being Oblivion. And I’m still nowhere near done. Today I found Oasis. Not the band, but a… place. A …

Banjo-Kazooie (360)

Hey, Rare! You can keep your Nuts & Bolts rubbish. THIS is what you need to be doing. Proper, decent, fun platformers. Not confused drivey/flyey/jumpy/mini-gamey RUBBISH. Using the Super Secret Link to Xbox.com, I managed to buy this in advance of the real release date (the Wednesday after next, I think), and played it today. What is good: It’s the N64 game all over again. Only with slightly better graphics, no fogging, and a few nice Xbox 360 features like …

Fallout 3 (360)

Yes, look. I know I haven’t updated this diary again for several days, but the thing is, I’ve only really been playing Fallout 3. A lot. And more. 58 and a half hours elapsed, says my saved game. That’s a lot of hours. And I’m still not done with it. I’ve a fair few quests yet to even find, let alone start, and loads of locations yet to see. I picked the “Explorer” perk as the final one upon reaching …

Pinball FX (360)

Been a while since I last played this, but the Street Fighter II table for it was released recently and, in an attempt to break free from the evil clutches of Fallout 3, I gave it a go. It’s a pretty good table, actually. Better than most of the others in Pinball FX, anyway. It’s difficult to light the lights above the top-left bumpers as they’re hidden, but aside from that it’s very nice. Except Trousers is already above me …