The gaming diary

[James]

More Viva Pinata. I've been sucked in to this game now. It's not often these days that I can play a game for more than an hour without my mind wandering onto other things.

[Tan]

Downloaded both the Colin McRae: Dirt and the Viva Pinata demo. Haven't played the Viva yet but I found the Dirt demo to be a bit underwhelming. It really isn't a big leap over CM 2005 or Rallisport 2 and the control feels a bit more arcadey than I would have liked.

[Tynstar]

I have heard nothing but good things about Viva Pinata. James you should write a review of Viva Pinata.

[phoenix1967]

I have heard nothing but good things about Viva Pinata. James you should write a review of Viva Pinata.

I second that!

[Tondog]

I love Viva Pinata! I've only played it at a store demo, but I loved every second of it. If I ever get a 360, it will be one of the first games I get for it.

[James]

When it first came out I thought "Cool concept, mostly an original idea, definitely an original style... but not for me." I'm glad I bought it, actually. I say "mostly original" because it seems to be like Harvest Moon in that the aim is to grow plants and animals for money or just to have a nice garden.

I think I've spent too much time trying to get as many different pinatas as possible and not enough time concentrating on "Romancing" the ones I have to make more of that species. I found out you can feed different plants to the pinatas to make a variant or an evolved pinata, so there's actually more to it than I thought. A variant is a different colour and an evolve is a different species.

At level 15 you start getting missions to make a pinata for a party. If you accept the missions you're given around two and a half days to get those pinata.

I've found the easiest way to make money after a while is to plant lots of pumpkin seeds worth 13 chocolate coins then give them three doses of orange fertiliser at 3 chocolate coins per dose. The pumpkins grow big and fast then you can sell them for 240 chocolate coins each. There's a character called Bart who can transform objects into different things. A pumpkin can be changed to a jack-o-lantern which can then be used to tame the Sour Sherbat.

Sour pinatas are evil and come to the garden to cause havoc, making pinatas ill, starting fights and damaging property. Once you tame each type of pinata they become sweet and keep their sour counterparts away using a Sour Tower. This is a totem pole with each segment being given after a type of Sour is tamed. A new type of sour appears at certain levels.

There are fifty achievements, all twenty points each. I'm up to about ten achievements. Twenty are shown on the xbox.com website and the other thirty are secret.

[The Metamorphosing Leon]

o.0

[two_scoop_steve]

rush 2 and even more zelda oot

[phoenix1967]

Played the XBLA demos for Jetpack:Refueled an Rush 'n' Attack. Jetpack was pretty cool, each level consists of you flying around to find parts of your rocket and obtain fuel to leave the planet, all the while being attacked by an assortment of aliens. Basic, but fun. Rush 'n' Attack is an arcade port (I think), and was a little dated imo regarding the graphics and gameplay. Jetpack was definitely jazzed up with new graphics and the gameplay seened pretty tight as well.

Also played Guitar Hero II (currently stuck on Laid to Rest and Psychobilly Freakout on Hard) and the Halo 3 Beta.

[two_scoop_steve]

rush 'n' attack, i played the hell out the on the nes when i was younger. i need to pop it back in and see how it is after all these years.

[The Metamorphosing Leon]

I tried to play some second life. I was bored and felt like griefing furries but I found that it is sooooo hella gay that I couldn't even take it.

So now I will play WoW.

[Tondog]

Hotel Dusk: Room 215

DS is bringing point and click adventures back! Between Phoenix Wright, Hotel Dusk, Touch Detective, and Trace Memory, DS is doing very well in that department. I hope this trend continues.

[phoenix1967]

At den's yesterday for some multiplayer.

Played Guitar Hero I and II (both versions), and Far Cry: Instincts Evolution.

[The Metamorphosing Leon]

Played some MoH: European Assault, it was annoyingly different from other MoH games and I kept dying.

[James]

I started playing Gears of War again but thought "Sod it" and chose casual. It seems quite easy now. Hardcore wasn't too bad except there were two points I had a lot of trouble getting past on Act 1. Those points put me off it but it's ok on casual. I don't need to be stressed by a game.


I also played the DiRT demo. It was ok as far as rally games go but it could have done without the nerdy sounding American guy.