Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 (360)

I hate Harry Potter. I’ve said this before, but it’s worth saying again. I’m not a fan at all. It doesn’t appeal, I don’t like how it steals ideas from so many other things then claims them as its own, and I can’t stand J K Rowling’s stupid smug face. I love Lego games. I’ve said this before, but it’s worth saying again. They’re simple, sure, but they’re huge, funny and tick all the OCD boxes that make me go …

Magic Sword (360): COMPLETED!

Yes. That is the image for Final Fight: Double Impact right there. There’s a reason for that! Final Fight: Double Impact is actually two games – Final Fight and Magic Sword. I assume the arcade machines use the same hardware or something, as there’s no other way these are connected. Whereas Final Fight was great compared to Burning Fight, I suppose Magic Sword is similar, but better than, Magician Lord. I mean, the names even rhyme. Magic Sword is still …

Final Fight (360): COMPLETED!

Since I’m on a smacking-things-in-the-face spree at the moment, and this was on offer on XBLA recently, I played it and completed it today. My word, is it a billion times better than Burning Fight. It’s so much smoother. So much, I don’t know – less old and creaky and more responsive and just better. Played it from start to finish with Cody, missing out on the achievement for completing it using 18 or fewer credits, by using 19 credits. …

X-Men (360): COMPLETED!

A week or so ago, or maybe longer – I can’t remember – both this and Crazy Taxi were on sale on XBLA. X-Men, a release of the 6-player scrolling beat-em-up from yesteryear was reduced to an Almost Free cost of just 200 Microsoft Moon Dollars, something like £1.70. Hell, I’d probably have put more than that into the original arcade machine. I played it today, and, what with it being rather short, completed it. Six times. Once with each …

Crazy Taxi (360)

This was on offer a little while back on XBLA, for 400 points. I decided, even though it’s a poor port and doesn’t have any Offspring music (TEEEEEN TWEEENNNTY TEEEEN!!!) I’d take a punt anyway for that price. And it’s actually pretty good. Sure, it’s rough looking, and yeah, I miss the music. Worst of all, I keep getting stuck inside things – trees, signs, walls… but it is still fun. So far I’ve C-Ranked Arcade Mode, A-Ranked Original Mode, …

Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare

I don’t know. I really don’t. Do I like this? Do I hate it? Probably not hate it, no. It’s repetitive, annoying, and having no ammo half the time makes it hard. You can’t step off your horse for more than 3 seconds or you die, and having all the towns constantly get over-run with the undead again is a right pain in the posterior. But, there’s enough there to make me want to carry on. I think I’m about …

Pac-Man Championship Edition DX (360): COMPLETED!

My eyes! My beautiful, burning eyes! The neon! So bright and hurty! I’ve been a little addicted to this for the last few days. So much so, that I’ve managed to both complete each and every one of the 100+ game modes, come top of my friend’s leaderboard (by quite some way) and get ranked in the top 1.5% of all players in the world. And got all the achievements. Completed! All this came at a cost, though. My eyes. …

Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare (360)

I bought this DLC pack over Christmas when it was on offer. Some time before actually buying the main game, in fact – so interested in playing it I was. And now I’ve played it for a couple of hours or so. Sadly, I’m not really enjoying it all that much. I don’t know why – the story is funny and it’s still RDR – but it’s just not all there. Maybe it’s the headshot-to-kill issue (if you don’t shoot …

Red Dead Redemption (360)

I wasn’t going to go for the 100% Completed achievement on this, and although that statement still stands, I found myself playing the game a lot more over the last few days to get closer. I ticked off a pile of achievements, such as Expert Headshot, clearing out all the hideouts, and bagging 18 bears. I finished all the Stranger missions, earned myself $10,000, bought some rare weapons, visited every place on the map, and maxed out my Fame meter. …

Red Dead Redemption (360): COMPLETED!

Well. That was a twist. Sort of. I suppose if I’d read the signs I’d have realised the game couldn’t really end any other way. Dutch pretty much tells you what’s going to happen anyway. But it was more the stuff after that which I’d not expected at all. Yes, this is very vague if you’ve not completed it. Let me just say that the dialogue logic for all the stranger and random encounters must have been one hell of …

Red Dead Redemption (360)

Had a bit of a marathon session of this over the last few days – not least 6 hours straight on Friday. Not done that sort of gaming run in years! Ended up having real-world RDR encounters (saw some flowers that looked like wild fever-few – fought the urge to pick them, saw crows – wanted to shoot them) like I used to with Tony Hawk games. I think I’m nearing the end now. I’ve reached Blackwater, found where the …

Red Dead Redemption (360)

Er, so Henry Hatsworth got too hard. The Captain Boss and his nurse are impossible. I’ve put it to one side (code for “probably never play again”) and started something new. Or old, but new to me. Now, I hate westerns. And I hate cowboys. And I even hated Sunset Riders which lots of people think is ace. But I love (at least, I do now – didn’t like it at first) GTA IV and this is, pretty much, a …

Detana!! TwinBee (360): COMPLETED!

Yeah, so I bought a Game Room game. I said I wouldn’t because it would mean that, due to the games costing 240 points each, I’d end up with a number of Microsoft Points that wasn’t a multiple of 100. Which, due to OCD, makes me uncomfortable. But I did need Detana!! TwinBee. So I had to buy 5 games at 240 points each to “fix” the points. Aha, yes, I’m mentally ill. First off, I played in Ranked Mode, …

Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga (360)

900/1000 points GET! That’s just one achievement left now – 100% the game. I’m at just under 90%, and to 100% it I need to do at least two things: 1) Replay every level in Super Story Mode, completing each chapter in under an hour. 2) Replay every level in Challenge Mode, where I have to collect all of the blue minikits, which are hidden, in under 10 minutes per level. So, being positive and assuming I do all that …