The gaming diary

[Tynstar]

Full Auto. We are almost done with it.

[phoenix1967]

Updated my 360 to see how well Morrowind GOTY edition works, works perfectly. Created a character and did some looting just to doubly make sure. 

What do you mean by "Updated my 360"?

[Tan]

Updated my 360 to see how well Morrowind GOTY edition works, works perfectly. Created a character and did some looting just to doubly make sure. 

What do you mean by "Updated my 360"?

Here's the link: Check out the front page more often 

[James]

Played a bit more Gears of War, went for tea then spent the rest of the evening watching my ebay listings.

I get distracted very easily these days. I'm also excited about my ebay auctions, so I'm going to be mentioning them all the time for a week.

[Tan]

Played a bit of the Burget King games, FF X and Hot Pursuit 2 (PS2)

[atari_wizard]

Started playing Tony Hawk Project 8 for the XBox.

[phoenix1967]

Got a copy of Stubbs the Zombie so I tried it out. Made it past the first 10 or so checkpoints before stopping.

Finished the Hard tour on Guitar Hero 1.

Also tried demos for Sonic the Hedgehog and Golden Axe from XBLA. And downloaded & played game demos for Surf's Up!, Stuntman: Ignition, and Blue Dragon.

Surf's Up! seems to be an ok kids/party game. Stuntman: Ignition was somewhat frustrating; you're a stunt driver that has to get a scene "right" and has 5 strikes to do so before the director yells "cut", the frustrating thing is that if you screw up you have to do the whole thing over from the start so it seemed somewhat boring in that respect.

Blue Dragon is excellent! They give you an hour of demo time and in that time I got into a lot of combat. Unfortunately, that short a timeframe doesn't allow for a lot of exploration or the ability to delve into what all the spells, abilities and items really can do. While it's a straightforward turn-based RPG, you can tell they put a lot into it in terms of presentation, graphics, and story. And the combat engine definitely has depth to it, I just didn't play around with it much. Another plus is that it's from the same group that made Chrono Trigger. I'll be getting this one.

[James]

Gears of War: Act 3

This game is really frustrating. I got to a bit in the factory where I have to walk across some wooden planks and they break if I choose the wrong path, making me fall into a room with glowing wretches. It slows you right down to walking speed so it's a very slow section. I got the cog tags and made it to the next room but my partner Baird/Cole/Whoever wasn't following me. I went back into the room and he was floating in a gap where the planks had already fallen. I called him over then he fell through the hole and got injured by the wretches. I tried to go down the hole to save him but it locks the hole so you can't fall down again. I had to walk very slowly back to the other side of the room to climb down the ladder and revive him. He stood up and did nothing while I got killed.

[cverz2]

Smart Bomb for PSP while watching my Cubbies kickin butt

[phoenix1967]

Gears of War: Act 3

This game is really frustrating. I got to a bit in the factory where I have to walk across some wooden planks and they break if I choose the wrong path, making me fall into a room with glowing wretches. It slows you right down to walking speed so it's a very slow section. I got the cog tags and made it to the next room but my partner Baird/Cole/Whoever wasn't following me. I went back into the room and he was floating in a gap where the planks had already fallen. I called him over then he fell through the hole and got injured by the wretches. I tried to go down the hole to save him but it locks the hole so you can't fall down again. I had to walk very slowly back to the other side of the room to climb down the ladder and revive him. He stood up and did nothing while I got killed.

That is probably the most frustrating part of the game. I don't remember how many wretches I had to kill before I even FOUND the ladder in that room. And then it's tricky to get Santiago to follow across the loose boards room so he doesn't fall in.

[Tondog]

Got a copy of Stubbs the Zombie so I tried it out. Made it past the first 10 or so checkpoints before stopping.

Did you like it? I haven't tried it but I've heard some good things about it.

Mainly I've been playing Yoshi's Island DS lately

[James]

Gears of War: Act 3

This game is really frustrating. I got to a bit in the factory where I have to walk across some wooden planks and they break if I choose the wrong path, making me fall into a room with glowing wretches. It slows you right down to walking speed so it's a very slow section. I got the cog tags and made it to the next room but my partner Baird/Cole/Whoever wasn't following me. I went back into the room and he was floating in a gap where the planks had already fallen. I called him over then he fell through the hole and got injured by the wretches. I tried to go down the hole to save him but it locks the hole so you can't fall down again. I had to walk very slowly back to the other side of the room to climb down the ladder and revive him. He stood up and did nothing while I got killed.

That is probably the most frustrating part of the game. I don't remember how many wretches I had to kill before I even FOUND the ladder in that room. And then it's tricky to get Santiago to follow across the loose boards room so he doesn't fall in.

I tried again knowing which path to take but the same thing happened. He walked across loose boards and hovered in midair until i walked into him, and ended up dying again. I tried a second time and it went perfectly. I'm down into the mine now and have just killed the giant enemy crab thing. I'm really no good with names in games and movies.

I still don't know if I like it or not. It has good graphics and I'm drawn into the story. Gameplay is good too. But those are also bad points - Textures take a while to load sometimes, after the cutscenes have started. There isn't a strong story to it. Gameplay can be very frustrating because of the AI, bugs and randomness of how much damage is inflicted. I know it's probably different levels of damage depending on where on the body is hit but even so it doesn't seem consisitent.

I played it online with someone on my friends list a month ago but it wasn't much good with just the two of us. As you can imagine, we spent half an hour looking for each other then just pranced around in front of each other trying to shoot the other one. I don't feel like playing ranked matches because people get too wound up about it. From what people have said there are people like the Halo crew on there. i.e. are only playing to get a "leet" status, rather than playing for fun.

And that brings me to the achievements. How come nearly all of them are online and the few that aren't are pathetic? I refuse to attempt to get an achievement called "Nub Pwn3r".

[phoenix1967]

Overall, I really enjoyed the Gears of War campaign, even though I only played it on "Casual". I haven't experienced any bugs or slowdown in the game...maybe you got a bad copy?

I agree that the multiplayer seemed a little watered down. You're pretty much forced into playing squad/team-based matches. And offline I haven't played a system link yet to know how well it flows in a 2 vs 2 game to say how it performs. Online, they also needed a ranking/match-up system...there seems to be no way to filter players by playing ability. If you match up with some decent people, it can be fun, but I think that they really needed a Deathmatch mode. If I were to rate the game, I'd give the campaign a 95% and multiplayer an 85% for an overall of 90%.

Got a copy of Stubbs the Zombie so I tried it out. Made it past the first 10 or so checkpoints before stopping.

Did you like it? I haven't tried it but I've heard some good things about it.

It's a lot of fun. It seems that there's a lot of empty space, though. Overall, I was drawn into it right from the start. I stopped playing after about an hour(hour and a half) when I got wiped out at the 1st big battle at the Police station. It also has a lot of humor to it. Worth picking up since it's a discount bin game...but it's hard to find a CIB copy, though!

[captain_nintendo]

More PSU.

[Tynstar]

More PSU.

Shocking!

Madden 06- Xbox 360