Resident Evil 4: panic!

I wish I hadn't been quite so jumpy. I'd almost got to the end of the village on stilts, and then heard a groaning noise. I span around, and was impaled immediately by a pitchfork. Ouch. Five groaning Spaniards stood there, waiting for their turn to kill me. So I flailed wildly with my knife, bringing two down ... but as I continued to flail I was still locked on to those two, meaning the other three had an easy job of killing me.

So back to the start.

I hate limited save structures.

RLLMUK's top 100: 70 - 61

70	Project Gotham Racing 2 (Xbox)
69	Tony Hawks' Pro Skater 2 (PlayStation/Dreamcast/Xbox)
68	Pokémon Green/Blue/Red/Yellow (Game Boy) and LeafGreen/FireRed (Game Boy Advance)
67	Daytona (all variants) (Arcade)
66	Jet Set Radio (Dreamcast)
65	Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge (PC)
64	Metal Gear Solid 3 (PlayStation 2)
63	Banjo-Kazooie (Nintendo 64)
62	System Shock 2 (PC)
61	Super Metroid (SNES)

Comments on the games I've played:

Project Gotham Racing 2 (Xbox)

PGR2 was the first game I ever played on Live, and it was a revelation. I mean, it was only the third game I'd ever played online (after Quake 3 and PSO on the Dreamcast), and even compared to the sublime PSO everything was so well organised. The online side of the game was so well integrated - seeing all your friends' times when you went into a time trial event, for example, gave you a real benchmark to aim for, making even the single-player game a community event. And even without that, the game was great fun - loads of different game types, with the kudos system refined from MSR and PGR making it much more fun to replay stages over and over.

Tony Hawks' Pro Skater 2 (Dreamcast)

My brother had a copy of the first Tony Hawks game when it came out on the PlayStation, and initially I dismissed it, thinking it was only for the sk8rbois (or whatever the trendy word is). I was so wrong. The Tony Hawks games are an evolution of the 3D platformer, containing elements of Tomb Raider (particularly when trying to work out how to get to high-up ramps and the hidden tapes) and the Sonic 3D games, in terms of speed and accurate landing of jumps. But there's so much more, in the trick system. I believe it's THPS2 that introduced the manuals, which link together countless tricks and enable stupidly high scores.

I'm not sure I'd say that 2 was the best Tony Hawks game, though. American Sk8land on the DS is probably my favourite.

Pokémon Yellow (Game Boy), Pokémon LeafGreen (Game Boy Advance)

Pokémon games are just immense. There's so much to do, with a relatively strong storyline to follow initially, guiding the trainer to the elite four, and apparently loads to do after that. I say apparently, because I've never actually beaten them, despite playing through Yellow, LeafGreen and Sapphire and getting to Victory Road each time. There's just such a huge difficulty leap from the previous gyms to the elite four, and by the time I get there I'm starting to get a bit bored of grinding my team to get them to a high-enough level. Hopefully Pearl's different.

Daytona USA (Arcade and Saturn), Daytona 2001 (Dreamcast)

Let's roll away! Daytona is a pure fun arcade racer, with over-the-top physics and car control. Each of the three tracks is almost a different game - the easy oval track with forty opponents, the curvy mountain track ... this is really the game that invented powersliding. No home conversion has matched the arcade, though the Dreamcast version comes close once you've turned down the sensitivity of the controls.

Jet Set Radio (Dreamcast)

I never got very far with this, mainly because of the time limits running alongside the police chases and the rivals making it just too frantic. I got so frustrated when I was close to finishing an area and then got chased off by the police and ran out of time. Apart from those annoyances, though, the game's lovely - stylish, in both playing style and visuals, and it has that all-important rhythm running through it.

RLLMUK's top 100: 80 - 71

80	Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (Nintendo DS)
79	Bubble Bobble (Arcade)
78	Wipeout 2097 (PlayStation/Saturn/PC)
77	Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PlayStation/Xbox 360)
76	Killer 7 (GameCube/PlayStation 2)
75	Metal Gear Solid 2 (PlayStation 2/Xbox)
74	Super Smash Bros Melee (GameCube)
73	Resident Evil (PlayStation/Saturn/PC/GameCube)
72	Lylat Wars (Nintendo 64)
71	Burnout 2: Point of Impact (PlayStation 2/Xbox/GameCube)

Comments on the games I've played:

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (Nintendo DS)

While I didn't find it as pant-wettingly hilarious as some, the dialogue and characterisation in this game are superb. One thing I especially liked was the way that, while each case is indeed separate, some themes flow between the cases, and in the fourth case there are references to the first, and so on. The story was frustratingly linear, though, and there were times when I knew what I wanted to show and present but wasn't allowed to at that point, until I'd finished another track of argument. I've just bought the sequel, so we'll see how that pans out.

Bubble Bobble (Arcade)

Until a few years ago, I'd only ever played the CPC version of this, and now I can make the comparison I'm amazed how close they got it to the arcade. Having said that, I've never really enjoyed the game too much, feeling it takes an overly simple concept and over-complicates it with powerups and letter collection and so on.

Wipeout 2097 (PlayStation)

Not as good as Wipeout 3: SE, I feel, mainly because of the analogue control that sequel offered. 2097 is certainly an evolution from the first game in the series, with better tracks, better handling, and better weapons balance. But the best tracks from 2097 were carried forward into 3SE, and the game was further refined by then. I hope 3SE appears higher up.

Metal Gear Solid 2 (Xbox)

Metal Gear SNORElid, more like. The MGS games frustrate me a lot, to the point that I just find them really boring doing the same thing over and over again until I pass a section, then doing something new over and over again. I'm no good at them, obviously. Despite not enjoying the original, I bought the second on the Xbox expecting a different game - and found it was even more frustrating. So, no.

Super Smash Bros Melee (GameCube)

It's an accessible fighting game, so I like it. It's a spiritual sibling to Powerstone, really, but with a lot more depth to the fighting mechanic. As with all fighters, it's best played with other people, and you will progressively evolve your game this way. Your opponent learns Pikachu's thundershock move, you have to learn ways of countering it. You have to learn ways of staying out of the way while attacking, using the items, and the value of a low-power hit when your opponent is close to the edge. Yes, the single-player game is decent, with hundreds of trophies to obtain and the adventure mode to complete, but this game's all about beating your friend and seeing him sliding down the glass of the TV screen.

Resident Evil (GameCube)

Something I wrote a few days ago, which I'll reprint here: I've never really got on with Resident Evil games before - I've played the first on the PlayStation and the remake on the GameCube, and Code: Veronica on the Dreamcast, but never played them for more than a few hours. The main reason for this is the control scheme - it's always seemed too clunky and inhibits me from enjoying the games.

The artificially slow pace, the annoying item management system, the painful save process ... I don't like it.

Lylat Wars (Wii)

I've only played this on the Wii, but have played it quite a few times because it's just huge amounts of fun. And it's arcadey, in that you can get to the end quickly, with multiple routes and goals ... it's the Outrun of the shooter world. I'm still having some difficulties with the controls in that they're not as intuitive as I expect, but at the same time I've never felt it's the game's fault when I die, rather my ineptitude.

Burnout 2: Point of Impact (GameCube)

Amazing, amazing game. I do actually like the sequels, including Revenge with its traffic checking, but Burnout 2 is the high point of the series to me, with a well-designed difficulty curve, the right number of event types and some really well-designed levels. Playing it with the GameCube force feedback wheel is just great as well.

Pokémon Pearl: one-hit wonders

The third gym turned out to be not the gym I thought it was. That gym leader's still missing. Instead, it was run by a young girl who specialises in fighting pokémon, which would normally involve some vicious battles except for my level-30 Kadabra, who killed every opponent in one hit using psywave. For once I earnt the ability to use an HM before I had the HM itself, but that was soon rectified with a trip to the Team Galactic warehouse, where I got hold of Fly.

And then realised I had no pokémon capable of learning it. So I've now added Staravia to my lineup, replacing Happiny who had grown to level 20 and still not evolved. I suspect she'll need a moonstone or something like that.

I've flown back to visit my mum, then went to Jubilife City to go to the global trading place. I've put on offer my Misdreavus, because I know I can go and get another one of those but Diamond players can't. We'll see what turns up.

Then on this morning's train, on my brand new DS Lite, I've found the big Pokémon Mansion, and am trying to get inside while being thwarted by rich boys and ladies. Not very ladylike if you ask me.

RLLMUK's top 100: 90 - 81

90	Tomb Raider (Saturn/PlayStation)
89	Katamari Damacy (PlayStation 2)
88	Guitar Hero (PlayStation 2)
86	Ninja Gaiden (including Black) (Xbox)
86	Super Mario Bros. (NES)
85	Street Fighter 3 (all variants) (Arcade)
84	Skies of Arcadia (Dreamcast)
83	Counterstrike (PC)
82	Sensible Soccer (Amiga)
81	Chrono Trigger (SNES)

Comments on the games I've played:

Tomb Raider (PlayStation)

I won't win any friends by saying this, but I actually preferred Tomb Raider 2. Admittedly, TR2 was the first game I played on my new PlayStation, and as such it was the first game to usher in proper 3D worlds and exploration, which may colour my judgement. But I preferred the action-based gameplay slightly more. That's not to say that Tomb Raider was bad - far from it. It's a really well designed game, at times really claustrophobic, at times really open. The level design still holds up today, as can be seen from Tomb Raider Anniversary. I'll be interested to see if Tomb Raider Legend appears in the list, as I feel that's the one TR game that's surpassed the original.

Guitar Hero (PlayStation 2)

It's clever and all, but it's not as much fun as Samba de Amigo, or even Dancing Stage.

Super Mario Bros (Game Boy Colour)

As a Sega boy when I was younger (there was none of this "owning all the consoles" back in my day), I never got to experience SMB the first time around. Indeed, it wasn't until the release of the Game Boy Colour and Super Mario Bros Deluxe that I actually played the game. And you know, it's not bad at all. Some of the level design is pure genius, and while I still prefer Sonic's speed, the difficulty of the later levels in Mario show that there's a lot to be said for taking things slowly. Until the time starts to run out.

Street Fighter 3 (Arcade)

I had difficulty enough with Super Street Fighter 2. It just got too complicated and too daunting and I couldn't be bothered.

Skies of Arcadia (Dreamcast)

Skies of Arcadia's biggest crime was being available on the Dreamcast when HMV were selling all the games off for £3. I bought it, played it for around three hours, and then never went back because I had 20 other games to play. And that's a shame, because what I did play I really liked. The characters are great, the story (that what I experienced) is great ... I'll have to set my Dreamcast up again soon and play this properly.

Counterstrike (PC)

I enjoyed playing this for a while, when I had a group of friends and we all played together. The community in general was just a little too serious, and we never really liked playing with randoms because ... well, we were crap and often got kicked out of games for being crap.

Sensible Soccer (Amiga)

I preferred the Mega Drive version, in fact - it was so much easier when the ball stuck to your feet a bit more - but whichever way you look at it, this is a great game, chiefly because it recognises itself to be a videogame and doesn't try to replicate real life too accurately. I played this so much during one school holiday, creating countless teams on the MD cartridge ... and the last time I looked they were still there.

RLLMUK's top 100: 100 - 91

100	Panzer Dragoon Saga (Saturn)
99	Frequency (PlayStation 2)
97	Championship Manager 01/02 (PC)
97	Wave Race 64 (Nintendo 64)
96	Animal Crossing: Wild World (Nintendo DS)
95	Day of the Tentacle (PC)
93	Crazy Taxi (Dreamcast)
93	Broken Sword: Shadow of The Templars (PC)
92	Mario Kart 64 (Nintendo 64)
91	F-Zero X (Nintendo 64)

Comments on the games I've played:

Championship Manager 01/02 (PC)

I really can't quite understand why football management games are so addictive to me, and I'm not even all that interested in football! I only played this iteration for a short time, though, it was around then that it started to get all just a little too complicated and over-the-top. I'm actually happier now with Football Manager Handheld, because of the limitations on what you have to concentrate on.

Wave Race 64 (Nintendo 64)

Although I didn't play this until just after the GameCube came out, it was still quite amazing with its physics engine reacting to waves on the water. I think Blue Storm was better though.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (Nintendo DS)

I dread to think how many hours I put into this. The fact that it's portable, and you can simply close the DS and carry it off with you, makes it far more accessible than the N64 or GameCube originals. Interestingly, while watching The Simpsons on TV yesterday I saw that they continue to advertise this, more than a year after it was released. Everyone has their own stories about villagers and events, and the online aspect is just amazing.

Crazy Taxi (Dreamcast)

The arcade game wasn't as good, really – much harder to pull off the special moves that made the game fun. Barrelling down that first hill was always great fun, stopping by sliding at 50mph into a wall ... pure joy.

Broken Sword: Shadow of The Templars (PC)

I almost gave up on this before it had really started, thanks to that really annoying bit where you had to identify that the four red pixels in the sewer were actually an item. Once I'd found that, though, the story really captivated me, and while the game was fairly linear you never really wanted to deviate outside the path anyway.

Oh, and avoid the PlayStation version. Once you've got to the desert market, it slows down to unbearable levels, and you'll never want to play it again.

Mario Kart 64 (Nintendo 64)

My second-favourite Mario Kart, after DS. Again, I got this late, but multiplayer's a genius, particularly with the catchup and item levelling which means that every race is a close one.

F Zero X (Nintendo 64)

I've never really got on with F-Zero, in any of its incarnations.

Pokémon Pearl: it's raining

This is bad news for Monferno.

However, my egg finally hatched into Happiny, and I've been levelling her up by including her as the starter in battles. After the first battle she increased from level 1 to level 4; she's now at level 11. Of course, I'll probably regret it once my proper team is underpowered ...

Still looking for the third gym leader. Quite frustrating, really.

Resident Evil 4: into the village

Since this seems almost sure to come top of rllmuk's top 100 games, I thought I ought to see what I've missed out on. I've never really got on with Resident Evil games before - I've played the first on the PlayStation and the remake on the GameCube, and Code: Veronica on the Dreamcast, but never played them for more than a few hours. The main reason for this is the control scheme - it's always seemed too clunky and inhibits me from enjoying the games.

RE4 keeps the same sort of control scheme, in terms of moving forwards and backwards and rotating, but it's done from behind the character which means it makes a lot more sense. Having said that, it still feels really clunky, and there's no way of, say, leaning around corners to see what's there, or even sidestepping. I came across a hut earlier at the side of the path, and could see there was an enemy inside. I had to run forward level with the door, then turn round to face the enemy before he could attack me. Clunky. It just keeps you detached from the game, which is a shame.

The Wii version uses the remote to aim and fire, which is probably a lot easier than the GameCube and PlayStation 2 versions, and this part works really well.

I'm about one and a half hours in now, having got through the first half of the village. I've met a non-infected Spaniard, and then we were captured and injected with something which appears to have had no effect. Very odd. I've found out that the president's daughter may well be inside a church, which I've already seen but for some reason I've got to go around the long way to get there. The next part of the village seems to be built over a valley on stilts, which is a bit annoying because the enemies keep falling over the edge when they die, meaning I can't pick up the bonuses they leave behind.

It's a videogame that tries to be nothing else, but that's no bad thing.

Crackdown: completed!

Completed to an extent, anyway. I'm now rid of all three gangs, and the city is quiet. I've maxed out three of the skill types, and I've seen the end cinematic, which includes a completely obvious twist. Of course, now that I've cleared all the gangs it's not going to be that easy to gain extra points - you get loads of driving points for running over gang members compared to doing stunts, for example - but I believe there's a way of turning the gang members back on so I can fill the driving and explosives meters. I'll get around to that soon.

The last boss was great fun. He was off on an oil rig, which I swam out to rather than going through the obvious path. I then climbed up on the outside, as much as possible, avoiding other enemies, and found him on his own at the very top of the platform. I beat him up, maxing out my strenght meter in the process, and that was it.

Really great game.

Pokémon Pearl: up the Lost Tower

I've found the third gym, but not the third gym leader. The man in the gym is no help - he just says I need to go other places first. So I am doing so. I've put a keystone in a well-type thing, and found the lost tower, inside which I caught a ghastly. I've found some ruins and caught two unowns - they're different shapes but I don't know if that's important or not. Inside the ruins are odd stones which look like they do something but I have no idea what; there's also odd writing on the wall, so I'm now looking for somthing to translate it.

I got distracted, though, by two things. Firstly, the local newspaper needed me to find a kricketune, before the end of the day. I assumed they wanted one to keep, so I went off into the wild to find one (rather than given them mine), and after a few fights one turned up. I reduced his energy to virtually nothing, put him to sleep, and threw ball after ball - and he kept on escaping. I ran out of balls in the end. Over the course of my train journey I encountered five kricketunes, and must have used at least 30 balls of varying kinds trying to catch one, before I finally managed it. I went to the pokémon centre and carefully stored my kricketune away, so I was left only with the newly captured one (which I'd named Paininarse). I then went to the newspaper and they just looked at Paininarse and didn't take it off of me. They just gave me three great balls instead.

Argh.

The other thing that distracted me was that I was running in a patch of grass and a wild chansey appeared. I failed to capture him, though, because Luxio chose that time to have a critical hit with fury swipes. So I've been running around in the same piece of grass, encountering ponyta and kricketune over and over again, in the hope that a chancey will appear again.

Crackdown: bye bye Shei Gen

Another evening, another gang falls. The last mission this time was quite a lot harder, since the bossman was at the top of a massive skyscraper, and there wasn't really a way of getting to him save going up inside. And then I got to the roof garden, was hit by a rocket launcher, and thrown over the edge to plummet to my death. On the fourth attempt I just ran to the other side of the garden to be safe, and killed loads of people before using a rocket launcher and knocking the boss off the edge of the building, in an amusing about-face.

I don't really want to go to bed, but I've got work in the morning ...

Crackdown: bye bye Los Muertos

This is amazingly fantastic.

Crackdown is a sandboxy game, Grand Theft Auto alike but played theoretically from the side of the law. You can still kill many innocent people, but it's much easier to kill the criminals since you can lock onto them from great distances. Superb accuracy is only one of the powers you have - throughout the game I've been developing my agility (meaning that I can now jump absurdly high), strength (I can now pick up small cars and throw them at gang members) and explosives, as well as the aforementioned firing accuracy. The last of these is what I've made the most progress on, and I can now stand at the top of a twenty-story building, take aim, and kill a gang member with a headshot.

The one skill I've not developed so much is driving, and that's mainly because running and jumping around is just so much fun. So much is hidden on the rooftops, such as the orbs that increase your agility and the resupply points, that it almost seems a waste pootling around on the streets below.

There is so much that this game gets right. One thing that's always been criticised regarding the 3D GTAs is the combat system. This game uses a clever lock-on system which gives you absolute control over who you're shooting and when. The only time that you feel slightly panicked is when you're ambushed and you have to resort to hand-to-hand combat, at which point you have to try very hard just to stay facing an enemy unless you can get a lock-on.

On the default level, the game's quite easy. I've now 'completed' one of the three islands - firstly unlocking all the resupply points, and then killing all the gang's generals so that I could then go and kill the big bossman more easily. While the game does offer you obvious ways to get to all of the generals, you're not limited to following those. I found that skirting around the outskirts of the compunds usually found a good high position from which you could kill most of the guards, and then you could run through just killing the silly respawning enemies until you got to the boss.

The easiness isn't really a problem, though. It makes the game just really fun to play. I have died a fair few times, especially when I first got hold of the rocket launcher, but you can simply regenerate at a nearby resupply point and go back to try again. Not all the enemies will have been replaced, but enough will to continue giving you a challenge.

This is the first game in ages that has made me play so compulsively for hours. It's great fun, it looks great, and it maks you feel great. Great.

Pokémon Pearl: going the long way around

I put some honey on a tree, then went into Eterna City. The bicycle shop owner had been taken into the Team Galactic building, but the entrance was blocked by trees - so I went down to the gym instead. All plant/grass pokémon, which crumbled before the might of Monferno. I then learnt to use cut outside of battles, went to the Team Galactic building, rescued the bike shop owner, then went and got a bike.

Then I wanted to go back and check my tree, but someone kept on blocking me from going back along the path. I had to instead go all the way down cycling road, to Mount Coronet, then West and North to go back up to the Valley Windworks. I didn't mean to go there, actually, but I got lost ...

Lucky I did, in fact, because outside the windworks was Drifloon, who appears once a week according to someone just down the path. Huzzah!

Seen 45, caught 26.

Bomberman LIVE: cheats online

Microsoft say that cheaters aren't able to play online.

I was playing this tonight when Andy invited me to a game. I did appallingly, although the final score of 4-3 to him is overly generous to my performance. I'm sure he must have been cheating, making me blow myself up over and over again somehow.

Great fun, though.

Pokémon Pearl: I want to ride my bicycle

Yet I can't. I've been told the location of the next gym; I've looked at my map and worked out where I need to go. But in order to get there, I've got to go through a cave and jump over some rocks on my bike. I don't have a bike. Now I'm going the long way around, and have been distracted by Team Galactic taking over the wind farm. I've beaten them, and they've disappeared, so the path's clear to continue.

There are a lot of distractions along the way though. I met a man in a field of flowers who gave me some honey and told me to smear it on a tree, which I did. I returned later to find the tree shaking - approaching it led me into battle with an odd Christmas-tree-shaped pokémon. I whittled down his health, as always, and threw a pokéball. He escaped from it, used the move 'struggle', and knocked himself out. I need to find some more honey now.

Another distraction is the day/night cycle. On the way to work I go through long grass to catch new pokémon. On the way home I go through the same patches of grass and there are different pokémon to catch. My brother tells me that there are further changes in the afternoon and night. I'm going to have to play at weekends for the afternoon ones ...

So, I'm not making rapid progress along the story, but you know what? I don't care.

Pokémon Pearl: down t'pit

I'm getting tired of encountering geodudes now. I chose Chimchar as my starter, which means I have a very cool pokémon other then the fact that he's a bit rubbish against rock-types. Luckily, I've levelled him up to the point now that he's learnt Mach Punch, so he's at least partially effective, and Shinx and Machop can help him out. So I've got the coal badge, after hassling the gym leader in the mine, and am now trying to battle my way through a big cave thing to get to the next city. I hate caves; finding your way around a maze is OK but when you're being interrupted every now and then for a random battle, it's a little tiring.

Anyway, Pokémon Pearl is great, really. The game mechanics are pretty similar to the previous games, of course, but it's so much prettier and the touch screen is generally well used for the copious menus, particularly in battles. Outside, though, the traditional controls seem to be the focus, which is a bit odd, particularly given the depth of some of the items menus. I'm sure it'll make sense in time ...

Essential Sudoku DS: a brick wall

And it's not my fault.

There's a puzzle (around #585) which requires guesswork, I'm sure of it. I've tried three possible methods and they've all failed. I can't be bothered any more.

Plus I bought Pokémon Pearl at lunchtime. Yes, I know, I've not completed Sapphire yet. Whatever.

Bomberman LIVE: red bomber, one more!

I tried out the demo last week, and last night I bought the full game. And played it a lot.

It has two main drawbacks. Firstly, the Xbox 360's d-pad is a bit spongy and inaccurate, so it can be tricky to control your character. This isn't helped by the faux 3D perspective which means your character's head overlaps with the row of the playing field above where you're standing - making it a bit tricky to work out when you're in the path of a bomb and when you're not.

The second drawback is common with almost all games on Live. American teenagers who disconnect when they lose. Last night I played in six tournaments, and finished two. And two of them didn't get past the first game, when the host lost.

I wasn't too down though. I won a tournament, 5-3-1-1, which was very pleasing indeed.

Essential Sudoku DS: 500!

It's about all I play on the train now. I'm well beyond puzzle 500 now, and progressing faster and faster.

I bought Me and My Katamari for the PSP when I was in Bahrain, and haven't even opened it yet.

Burnout Revenge: checking traffic

I'm in two minds about this.

In Burnout Revenge (and, I believe, its predecessor, though I've not played that) you're able to hit most traffic going the same way as you without it triggering a crash. In previous games, any contact would lead to the game resetting you on the road and you losing time. You had to choose between driving on the correct side of the road and being able to more easily avoid cars while missing out on building up your boost bar, and driving on the wrong side of the road, getting bonuses to build up boost but at the same time having traffic madly dashing towards you. In this game there's no choice to be made. Hitting other cars up the backside gives you just as much boost bonus, and hardly slows you down at all - certainly not enough to offset one or two crashes.

This makes the game a lot easier. I've already unlocked up to level seven of ten (although I'm trying to complete each level, so I've only raced a little beyond level four). But it's a lot more fun, in a mindless immediate rush way.

And it's fantastic in high-definition. Really, really fantastic.

Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter: fighting in Mexico

It's a bit tricky.

Having said that, I've made some good progress, and haven't killed off my entire team too many times. The future setting gives you some fun gadgets to play with, including a head-up display which identifies friends and foes. But there are still some limits ... how come I can heal my team, or can instruct them to heal each other, but if I get shot they can't heal me? Why can't I swap guns with others? And why are they happy to run through a hail of bullets just because I told them so?

I've rescued the Mexican president now, though we're not out of the danger area completely. I suspect something else is about to happen given my team's apprehension ...

Forza Motorsport 2: like Gran Turismo, but fun

Although I got this along with my Xbox 360, I've been rather daunted about starting it. It's a huge game, with countles cars and tracks, and the career mode just seemed to require a lot of commitment. Even online is just full of people taking the game too seriously, as evidenced by the posts on Internet message boards.

But, you know, I'm glad I at least started to play the game. It's another racing game on the 360, yes, but it's probably even better looking than Test Drive Unlimited, and it's got a far better driving model. The structure of the game's not as innovative, granted, but this is a serious driving simulator, and it plays like one.

Paper Mario: the whole castle's been kidnapped

What a surprise. Peach has been kidnapped. Again. Mario must rescue her. Again.

The roots of Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga are evident here, from the action-based turn-based battles to the item system. It's probably about as funny, possibly more clever, and the paper-thin characters are really quite clever.

I'm worried this'll get lost among all my other games and other stuff that's happening. I might have to put it on the front page of my Wii Channels to encourage me to play it.

Test Drive Unlimited: silver shame

A whole bunch of surprises here, indeed.

Yes, I have an Xbox 360. I bought it last Friday, before I went to the Dome for an evening out, and before our games day on Saturday. I'd just been paid for the first time in my new job - indeed, the same new job that's left me rather busy and with a lack of games diary updating time - so I took the leaving present from my old job (HMV gift vouchers), plus the pay I got for the day of holiday I didn't take before I left, and got the premium version of the console, along with Forza 2 and Spiderman 3 plus a remote control thingie, for £280. I traded Spiderman 3 in straight away in the Gamestation in Orpington for Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter and Burnout Revenge.

All of these games are great - although Forza may be just a little too realistic for me to get good at. And Burnout has just too much locked at the start, which was very frustrating when we tried to play it multiplayer on Saturday.

But the star of the show so far for me is Test Drive Unlimited. Playing through an HDTV, it looks stunning, and the whole game's really well structured. I've now got two cars - an Audi TT and an E-Type - and have been driving around the island competing in races and speed tests. Last night for the first time I got a silver instead of a gold in one of the latter - I'll have to retry it later with a car with better acceleration. I've already found where you can buy a Caterham.

The way it's tied in with Xbox Live is marvellous. Driving around to get to events, you see other player just driving their own way. You can challenge them at any time - but given my current slow transport I've not done so. But you can knock them off the road. Of course, I only do so when provoked ...

Loco Roco: oh my god, the racism

I found this for £15, and bought it on the spot. Why is Gamestation still charging £35 for it?

It's got so much charm. It's one of the few games I'll bother using my headphones for, because the music is sublime, with the locorocos singing along in a gibberish voice.

I've just about finished world four now, and have met a number of different locoroco types - different colours, and they sing differently. The black ones are a bit gollywog-like, and sing rappy music. Stereotypical!

Jungle Strike: completed!

The penultimate level was rather hard, but I managed to get through it with only a few restarts. Possibly the most frustrating aspect was the limited fuel supplies, and a few missions which didn't tell you where they were located. For those I had to fly around for ages until I found them, then restart from the end of the previous mission to fly directly there. Not in the spirit of the game, maybe, but I don't care.

So I captured the drug lord, and the madman, and all was well. I went to Washington and met the president, and then it all went wrong ... despite the US's amazingly paranoid immigration policies, somehow someone had managed to sneak 40-odd tanks into the country in their suitcase, and the two enemies had escaped custody.

So I had to protect Air Force One ... well, that's what it was called, but it was a helicopter ... as it fled the city, then go around and clean all the enemies up. And it wasn't actually that hard. The hardest part was not crashing into buildings. Destroyed the armoured transports, then the coach stolen by the drug lord, and the oil tanker stolen by the madman. How daft. Knowing that there's a big helicopter with big guns searching for you, surely the last thing you'll steal is a large, slow moving lorry with a big barrel of oil on the back.

It's a shame that EA Replay doesn't include Urban Strike. I've been led to believe that the third game in the trilogy was set in 2001 and involved terrorists crashing planes into buildings in US cities. I suppose its lack of rerelease is sort of understandable ...

Essential Sudoku: 200%!

I've finished the second batch of puzzles now, all of which were to do with scientific or medical equipment. Generally they were all a bit easier, apart from a few which were generally blank with a diagonally-orientated picture, like a chromosome. I just couldn't work out where to start there ...

Essential Sudoku: 100%!

100%, that is, on the first set of 100. I'm now 12.6% through the entire game. I have so far come across one puzzle which I think was a bit ambiguous in one area - I think there could have been two solutions depending on how you solved a block of six - it could have looked like a S or a Z and would have still been correct. I could be wrong, though.

It's a bit boring to read about, though.

Canis Canem Edit: greasy burgers

40% through, and I've just started chapter four. If anything the game's a little easier now, since most of the groups around the school have 100% respect for me, and so don't try to beat me up all the time. It's only the athletes that cause me hassle.

I've also finished photography classes, and have only one workshop class still to go. I've tried it a few times and filed, and unfortunately it feels like it was the game's fault for not picking up my inputs correctly which makes it more frustrating.

Essential Sudoku: not essential

Travelling home on Saturday night after Matt's Eurovision party (at which, unlike the rest of the world, Serbia didn't win - because their song was rubbish), I opened up the DS to carry on with my picross games. I completed the one I was on, number 93, and then decided to try a sudoku puzzle instead - so I quit out of the picture puzzle section.

"The data is unreadable or corrupted. All save data will be deleted."




Luckily I enjoy these puzzles, and have now redone the first 40-odd (quite quickly, since I've worked out a few new techniques to use) and done around 20 in the second set of 100. But still.

Essential Sudoku: a bigger challenge

Rather worryingly, I've now read that there are not just 200 picross puzzles, but 1000 of them.

I've done 69.

Essential Sudoku: not sudoku

The game's called Essential Sudoku, but the first item on the menu isn't the number puzzle, but the picture puzzle. This is the first time I've played picross, and I don't know why it's taken me so long, because this is brilliant.

The idea behind picross is that you have to work out which spaces are coloured and which are not, having been told the pattern that occurs in each row and column. For example, you'll be told that in a row there's a line of five blacks, then a red, then two blues. There may, however, be gaps between these blocks - and that's what you've got to work out.

Over the weekend I've played loads of this, which is rather surprising given that I've not really had that much free time. I'm hoping that the game itself wears the battery of the DS down quickly, since I've had the DS die on me twice - both times at around 3am. It's horribly addictive. There appear to be 200 puzzles, and I've done around 45 so far - and they're getting harder - so it should last me a few weeks at least. Luckily, there's another picross game coming out for the DS on Friday ...

Oh, and I've completed two of the sudoku puzzles. Two.

Games by the coast

Over the back holiday, I went down to the coast with Matt, Gaby and Andrew, for a break away from London. We walked along the beach; we visited a vineyard; but most importantly, we played games.

We would have played Wii Sports, but when I opened the box I realised that it was still in my parents' Wii. Horror. We had plenty to get on with, though.

We played Buzz!: the BIG Quiz and Buzz!: the Sports Quiz. I did better on the former, due in no small part to my lack of sports knowledge. Quite a fun game, though the presentation started to grate after a bit. Mr Buzz sounded very little like Jason Donovan.

We played Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz. I pointed out the three or four minigames worth playing. We were in hysterics at the hurdles.

We played Wii Play. Andrew beat Matt quite comprehensively at pool.

We played Singstar. Oh, did we play Singstar. Waking up on Monday morning, I could barely manage a whisper. We did get Matt singing. We got Andrew singing to pop songs that he claimed he'd never heard. He claimed to have never heard "I Think We're Alone Now". That was the point that we knew he was fibbing. Gaby and I did some fabulous duets. I think we were both out of key to the same extent. We drank wine and whisky - not together, obviously.

We played Guitar Hero the next morning. I really am quite rubbish.

Pokémon Sapphire: aimless wandering again

My main team's all at around level 40 or just above now, and I very much doubt that's good enough to face the Elite Four. So instead I've been exploring, clearing the sea routes of trainers and so on. Then I went around the map to the daycare centre, to see how the poochyena I'd left there was getting on. It had gone up to level 20, so I took it out and battled with it to level it up once more so it would evolve. Which it did.

I really don't know what to do now. I don't want to go to the Elite Four and fail over and over again like I did in LeafGreen. But it's a bit dull with no aim. I did think of trying out the pokémon contests, but I can never do very well at those. I really don't understand what goes on, and I think that pokémon who are good for the battles may not be the best for the contests.

I get the feeling that there's loads around to do - I've heard about breeding, for a start - but really I'm going to have to go and get stuck again, aren't I?

Pokémon Sapphire: what's a shell bell?

I finally caught a relicanth, and then my adventures took me to a cave just off of Route 125. Inside was a man who told me that if I found four salts and four bells in the cave, he'd make me something. So I went exploring. All through the cave were staircases that started halfway up the cliff face, and I couldn't find any way of getting to them. I looked around and found four salt piles, and a few other goodies, but I was sure I'd missed something since there was no way of getting to the blue ball things (which I assumed were the shells). I explored loads, made more annoying by the frequency of pokémon attacks.

In the end, after a long time of looking, I gave up and went back out of the cave. And then I had a change of heart, and went back in to check the old man wouldn't just accept the salt. For some reason the cave was flooded. I have no idea why.

But this meant I could just walk up the top staircases and collect the shells, and on giving them to the old man he made me a shell bell. Whatever one of those is.

Canis Canem Edit: tasks in town

I'm now doing tasks in and around the town, not confined to the school. Since I've now completed art, English, chemistry and gym, I get two days off of lessons and then the third day has both photography and workshop in it. Workshop's hard. The problem is that I'm always losing track of which day it is, so have to wait around to see if I should have lessons before leaving - reducing my time in town. It was worse before I completed English, because then I had to wait until after lunch ...

Anyway, the posh kids don't like me, and all the missions I'm doing at the moment seem designed to piss them off. Interesting survival technique. On the other hand, the posh girl does like me, and she's almost as nice as the redhead. I managed to get them to have a catfight over me by snogging them both in turn in front of each other. Much fun.

Singstar: we'll get Matt playing this

After all, I need someone to be worse than me. And that takes some doing.

Pokémon Sapphire: to the Pokémon League

Maybe not yet.

Sootopolis City gym offered little resistance to Manectric, with a little help from Gyrados and Kyogre, so I've now completed the gyms and can control any pokémon going. And I can walk up waterfalls, which apparently will be very useful in getting to the Pokémon League.

But I'm not going there yet. My pokédex stands at 80 owned, 126 seen, and there are some big gaps. I've been exploring the sea routes (some of which have changed since the storm, I think) and fighting the swimming trainers. Again, Manectric can take things down in one hit, but I've instead been using Gyrados in order to beef him up. Combusken had the Exp Share, and he evolved into Blaziken this morning.

As well as the sea routes, I've been exploring the sea bed. I've caught a few pokémon there, but at the moment I'm on the hunt for a relicanth. I've seen one a couple of times but both times was unable to catch it. It's pretty rare, it seems, and I'm having to fight loads of clamperls in my hunt.

Still, at least Gyrados (and Blaziken) are getting experience from it.

Canis Canem Edit: I like the redhead

There are, it seems, no blonde girls at Bullworth Academy. But the redhead is lovely.

I'm now 15.63% through the game (it helpfully tells me) and ... well, it's good. It's not amazingly great, but it's very playable, with a good sense of humour, and nicely put together. There are some annoying aspects, like the fact that the bully gang just tries to beat you up all the time, and when you first start seemingly nobody likes you at all. There's the rigid lesson structure, which at first I found a bit constraining but now it's actually suiting the game a lot more - partially because I've realised that trying to complete the lessons gives you more spare time in which to do the missions.

I also like the timed aspect - the way that Hallowe'en came around and there were special themed missions. I've no idea whether it would have stayed Hallowe'en until you completed those missions, mind - whether it's properly timed in terms of number of days played, or if it's based on mission completion rates. But anyway.

I've completed the chemistry and gym classes, and have unlocked the photography and workshop classes. I'm really bad at English - making words out of random letters (those who've played Scrabble against me in the past can confirm that) - and I've failed the last art class once, so it should be possible. Other than that I've run one errand into town, and lots of errands for nerdy type people. And I've got the redhead to snog me. Several times.

Pokémon Sapphire: Kyogre owned

As in, I own him. He didn't give up without a struggle, though. I stated off with Manectric, and spark, which not only took off around a fifth of his energy each hit but also paralysed him. Kyogre had a few tricks of his own, including hydro pump which killed any pokémon faced with it - even when it wasn't very effective. Ouch. After a few turns I had Kyogre down to a tiny bit of energy, paralysed, with low attack levels. And I threw ultra ball after ultra ball at him, alternating that with reviving another of my pokémon so the battle didn't end. And the seventh ultra ball captured him.

Hoorah!

So it's stopped raining, and all is well. Now I can go to the Sootopolis gym.

Pokémon Sapphire: it's raining!

Since Diamond and Pearl have just come out in the US, it won't be too long before Nintendo of Europe decides that they might want to think about starting to localise them. So I've gone back to Sapphire to try and actually get to the end of a pokémon game. It was a choice of this or LeafGreen, and LeafGreen is currently unaccessible .. and I still can't bear to face the final four again.

So, I picked up after beating Norman; five gym badges down. I've completed two more gyms now (one against bird pokémon and one against psychics), and chased Team Aqua around the world a bit. I've caught a Manectric, and he's great - his spark attack one-hit-kills loads of enemies. Combined with Gyrados's surf, and we're an unbeatable team. I've been around the safari park a bit, and caught some very odd pokémon. I've dived to the bottom of the ocean and found Team Aqua's hideout.

And then everything went funny. Team Aqua had a red orb; I had a blue one. It started to pour with rain. Everything flooded. Now I'm on the way to an undersea city where it still rains. Gulp.

New Super Mario Bros: completed!

Well, to all intent and purpose. I've not only got to the end of the game, but have also unlocked worlds 4 and 7, and completed each of the levels in those. I've not got three coins for every level yet, but some of them just seem pretty impossible. And I think I've missed some exits, since some bonuses like the warp cannons remain locked off.

I love the game, but I think I've played it too much now. Maybe sometime I'll go back to it and find the other secrets. Not yet, though.

Unexpected absences

I've not been posting here, I know - real life stuff had me not in the mood to do so. But I'm getting on with it now, and as a result I've got lots of stuff to update. I'll try and write more on each of these over the next few days, whenever I next play them, but for now:

• I've completed New Super Mario Bros - unlocking all worlds at least.
• I'm completed a few more levels of Jungle Strike, even a level set in the pitch black.
• I've completed the bronze levels of Excite Truck.
• I've made nearly six million dollars in my US Theme Park.
  
• I'm on the fourth world of Sonic and the Secret Rings.
• I've gained the sixth badge in Pokémon Sapphire and got rid of Team Aqua from a research institute.
• I've attained a fitness age of 22 ... once.
  

Theme Park: Americans are easy to please

After losing quite a lot of money in Japan, I sold my park an moved instead to the US, where business has been brisk. I've made over two million dollars now, and have a huge park with an awesome roller coaster. And lots of people being sick.

Sonic & the Secret Rings: following the pterodactyl

Onto Dinosaur Jungle now, which is a lovely stage with cacti everywhere and some strangely Starfox-Adventures-alike dinosaurs. Really pretty though, perhaps more so than the desert. I've still got qquite a few stages locked on both the tutorial level and Sand Oasis, but I'm going for the storyline now and will come back to those later.

The storyboarding is really well done - the artwork harks back to Sonics of old (not quite the chubby Sonic 1, more Sonic 3 era) and Sonic always looks better drawn in 2D. The story's really quite cliched and dreadful, to be honest, but that's hardly why I wanted the game in the first place ...

Am enjoying this indeed, whatever deKay may say.

Theme Park: trouble in Japan

Oooh, I'm near bankruptcy in Japan. Visitor numbers are dropping, and my rides are all starting to blow up, despite me having loads of mechanics. I'm able to place a few things around that I couldn't in England, which seem to be drawing in more crowds, but they're expensive and I'm really constrained for funds. I might have to go for a few years not buying anything just to get out of debt.

But even though it's much harder than before, it's still the best version of Theme Park ever.

Sonic & the Secret Rings: phew, just made it

Gosh.

It's a Sonic game, in 3D, that's not got the word "Adventure" in its title, and it's, well, good.

Really good, in fact.

It started off a bit iffy, with an overly-long story board, and then some tutorial missions which were meant to be in the pages of a book but instead just look brown and really really boring. they only took 20 minutes to get through, though, and I've now finished most of the Sand Oasis stage, which is very pretty indeed.

The developers have realised that the whole fun of Sonic is that you're barely in control, going fast and just missing obstacles, and this game's essentially an on-rails into-the-screen running game, where you can move left and right across the track but can't really choose your path. And it works really well with the remote controls, tilting to move and pressing the button to jump. Although I do wish you jumped when you pressed the button, and not when you let go of it.

I've now built up a nice library of special skills, though it took me a while to realise that you have to equip them in your skill ring before you can actually use them. I was doing the mini-turbo move like an idiot and getting nowhere for ages before I actually turned the skill on.

I'm getting bronze medals on most of the stages (resulting in the "phew" line in the title - oddly, when you don't get a medal at all, Sonic says "no problem", which is rather more upbeat), though I expect I'll be able to get the silvers later once I've got more skills available. In the meantime, I'm working my way through the levels.

Theme Park: no blurgh yet

The DS has been out for over two years now. How can it possibly have taken this long for EA to realise the potential of releasing Theme Park for it? It's an obvious application for using the stylus and twin screens. It's be really hard for it to go wrong, you'd think.

And you'd be right.

This is the best version of Theme Park ever made. Everything's just so intuitive. You can see the stats for all the rides on one screen while still seeing what's around the ride on the other screen. You can just drag the stylus across the screen to lay a path and a queue. Setting the handyman's zones is really simple, something which always seemed a chore before. You can instantly see what your visitors are thinnking by tapping them. Tapping your mechanics makes them work faster!

I went through the tutorial first, and didn't have to be told how to do what was being asked of me. It just all works. And it works on the train, or even on the sofa while watching something on TV.

I've not made anyone vomit yet. But given the amount of litter on the ground, it can't be far off.

Yoshi's Island DS: Completed!

On the way home my train was delayed, and I managed to complete the main story line of the game. The last few levels were really hard, and I ended up with only 50 lives left. That being said, though, the final boss was disappointingly easy. In retrospect, all of the bosses were easy to defeat once you understood what you had to do. With the final boss - or rather, the final three bosses, as is traditional in Nintendo platformers it seems - it was immediately apparent what to do.

I'm not sure I'll go back to complete the secret levels I've unlocked now - I ought to give the game back to Stewart after all! - but there seems to be a fair amount of content I've left locked. Certainly a worthwhile game, but I'm not going to buy it for myself ... I don't fancy playing through the whole thing again to get to the same stage! Memory cards are such a good idea ...

Yoshi's Island DS: baby Bowser

Baby Wario's gimmick of having a magnet was bad, especially since it often didn't actually work. Baby Bowser's gimmick of being able to fire fireballs is pretty good, apart from the fact that I keep on melting the platforms I want to stand on.

And the fact that he's used in an ice world, which involves slippy platforms and lots of deaths. I lost 25 lives on one level section alone. Not fun in the slightest.

I'm on to world five now.

Yoshi's Island DS

I've been away for the last week, and my friend Stewart lent me Yoshi's Island DS to take away with me. Actually, shouldn't that be Yoshis' Island, given that there's more than one Yoshi? Hmm.

I completed the first three worlds while away, and the fourth is full of some very nasty levels indeed. It uses the two screens well, it's lovely to look at and some of the platforming puzzles are really tricky. I've died loads, but have over 90 lives in reserve at the moment, and never have I thought that dying wasn't my fault. It's really great.

Which is surprising, given the poor reviews it's been given, and the fact that it's not an in-house Nintendo production. It's by Artoon, who are a bit of a mixed bag. This must be one of their best, though.

It's not all good, though. The most used button is B - for jumping. So why when you get to a menu screen, does B cancel the selection? Stupid. The multi-baby switching which gives you different skills is used in some places to good effect, but often you need to choose your baby before you see what's ahead. Daft.

Other than that, it's a really good game, definitely a worthy sequel to the SNES original (and GBA port). After I finish it and give it back, I'll be back onto New Super Mario Bros.

Jungle Strike: my goodness, it's difficult

The first level's harder than the last level of Desert Strike. I'm dying all the time. Ouch.

Desert Strike: completed!

The last level was rather hard, with big gun things all over the place, and I died lots. Well, I say died, but whenever my helicopter started to explode, I'd reload the last save, so as to keep playing. A few clever missions, with blowing up a nuclear weapons factory being a little bit dubious in terms of safety. I dropped my copilot off to capture the madman (not Saddam at all, oh no), but instead he got captured and somehow transported to the runway in the northeast corner of the map, where he was loaded onto the bomber.

I went up there and blew a big hole in the side of the bomber, and he ran out to be rescued. Then the bomber started to roll down the runway. Now, I may not be an aeronautical engineer, but surely taking off in an aeroplane with a hole in the side isn't such a good idea?

I didn't give him a chance to find out though; I hit the plane with hellfires and hydras, and just as it started to explode I got hit by a tank and my helicopter started to fall from the sky ... but too late, as the final cutscene came up.

Rah rah rah go America aren't we great.

King Kong: completed!

I was right. I found my way out of the dead end, and we ran past a chapter end to arrive at the wall. Ann climbed up to let the bridge down, but got caught. Then, as Kong I run through the village and rescued her, then ran out of the cave and got caught. You are meant to, of course.

And then to New York - escaping from the theatre, running through the street avoiding the army's cannons, and finally carrying Ann to the top of the Empire State Building. I think I did rather well, bringing down six planes before they killed me. End of the game. Apparently, if you unlock all the extras you can actually win the last chapter, keeping Kong alive - but I'm a long way off of that.

So. It wasn't as good as Beyond Good & Evil, which isn't that much of a surprise, but it's certainly one of the best film licences I've played. The two-character dynamic worked really well, and that really captures the way the film works too, with an uncertain line between which is the right and wrong side, survival and exploitation. It was a little too simple, with many of Kong's battles relying on running away, hammering on Y to turn him into a fury, and then hammering A to attack the enemies. I liked the limited ammo (but unlimited bones spears) of the human game, although it was rare that I ran out before the next gun presented itself.

The motion and voice acting was great, and the character models were really recognisable, especially Carl. The story differed a lot from the film, but was the better for it. It's a game based around the licence, not based around the film.

King Kong: we're almost at the wall!

Ann says it as if it's a good thing, but this probably means I'm near the end of the game, which is a shame because I've really enjoyed it. I've done loads tonight - fought 3 V-Rexes as Kong while protecting Ann, seen Hayes die, sent Jimmy off on the plane, rescued Ann, and am now on the run from Kong while also being chased by villagers with burning spears. I seem to have come to a dead end at the moment, which is why I've taken the first break for three hours ... so much for every 15 minutes. Really I ought to go to bed now, but, well, we're almost at the wall!

Desert Strike: the madman's getting away!

Well, that was a waste of a load of Hydras. I should have guessed that you couldn't destroy his speedboat, since that would rather ruin the next level ...

Level 3 completed. Level 4 is nighttime, and the objectives aren't set out, other than the first two. Let's save those oil fields.

Hotel Dusk: Room 215: completed!

My hunch was partially right, partially wrong. It's a bit of an unsatisfying ending, really, with lots left up in the air, concerning Grace and Bradley and Evans. I almost wish I hadn't completed it, so that I could at least imagine that the ending was more final. Still, I suppose that it's more realistic this way. Life's not perfect.

Hotel Dusk: Room 215: thwonk

Chapter 10 starts off in an interesting way. Ouch, indeed.

On the chapter title screen, the time is listed as "2am - " ... this may well be the last chapter.

Hotel Dusk: Room 215: getting ahead of myself

Halfway through chapter 9 now. Someone fainted, and I was blowing like a pillock into the microphone to resuscitate her, when I realised that Kyle's face was on the other screen and it was just another 'close the DS' puzzle.

Previous to this I've finally got access to room 111, and have been finding all the apple paintings just like I did in my first half an hour in the game - of course, then I wasn't allowed to look at them closely enough. I'd even noticed that there wasn't a painting with just one apple on it anywhere.

And I think I've guessed one of the big overarching storylines - let's just say that one character is the same person as another character who Ive not met yet. If I'm right, it's been very clever, but it's going to be increasingly frustrating watching Kyle be spoon-fed clues until I want to just shout "Get on with it, man!" at the DS.

Hotel Dusk: Room 215: I've been here for days ...

The in-game timer's broken. It records how long you've been playing, but it doesn't pause the timer when you close the DS, which is what I've been doing, instead of saving and quitting.

So, apparently, it's taken me 330 hours to get to midway through chapter 8.

Wii Sports: once, twice a pro

After a tense tennis match this morning, I'm now a pro at tennis - with a skill score of 1071 - as well as at bowling - with a skill score of 1070. Indeed, last night I got a new bowling record, of 204. Very pleasing.

I think I'm going to start concentrating on baseball now. I can't consistently hit it in any particular direction, which is very annoying.

Hotel Dusk: Room 215: chronological inconsistency

I'm on Chapter 6 now, and have tied up a few storylines - Martin Summer's deception, and Jeff Angel/Damon. The game still feels a little contrived in places, with Kyle being interested in really off things that don't matter. And I can't see why he has an issue with Iris. I certainly don't.

It's pretty well scripted, though the fact that you can't skip the text forward really annoys. It scrolls just a bit too slow, and tapping the screen or pushing in the d-pad does nothing. As a result, conversations seem a little too long-winded, even when they're not. There's one iffy bit that just sticks out:

• Helen stayed at the hotel ten years ago, and not since.
• Dunning bought the hotel five years ago.
• Rosa was hired by Dunning some time after this.
• Rosa claims to have spoken to Helen last time she was at the hotel.

Maybe I'm being too clever for my own good and this'll be explained later. We'll see ...

King Kong: down the rapids

I've just finished a long section of this where I had to run up a valley, avoiding brontosaurus legs, and killing carnivores in order to get some fire to burn through some bushes. Getting up there was fine, but on the way back for some reason the dinosaurs weren't moving, which made it a lot easier. When I got back to Hayes and Carl, they were shouting at me to be careful, with two massive brontosauri just standing there, looking perplexed. I threw lots of flaming bones at them, which all got wedged in their side, and they still didn't move. Most amusing.

We found Jimmy, and got on some rafts down the river ... and now we're being chased by two or three T-Rexes, who don't die no matter how many times you shoot them. It's just a case of trying to distract them by killing other things for them to eat, and hitting them with spears so they hesitate and your raft can get out of the way.

I've not managed it yet.

King Kong: hear me roar

It's really odd that I seem to be able to control this almost OK. Even when it comes to running around firing, I'm only slightly inept. Able enough to get through, in any case.

I seem to have died quite a lot, but luckily deaths don't put you back too far. It's an enjoyable game, with a good mix of action and puzzly bits. One part in particular had me confused for ages. There was a door and I had to find two levers to open it. In front of the door was a clearing, in which two dinosaurs were eating. I had to lure the dinosaurs away by throwing dead meat one way, then run through where they'd moved from to set fire to some bushes to find one of the levers. The other lever was covered by spiders which, again, I had to lure away by spearing a giant fly and throwing it to the other side of the room.

I've also played as Kong, chasing Ann through the jungle and fighting dinosaurs and big flying bat things. He's in third-person and it's much easier to control him.

29% done now.

King Kong: the movie

Not the game of the movie, just the movie. I watched it this evening, see?

Erm, it's got a completely different plot to the game. How odd. Rather good, though, I thought.

King Kong: Skull Island

Raaaaaaaaaaaggggghhhhh! RooooooooooooorrrrggghhhhhhH!

No, that's not my King Kong impression, that's my anger at finding out that this is another first person game with non-customisable controls. Why? Why can't developers recognise that some of us want to look with the left stick and move with the right? Imbeciles. I expected better of Michel Ancel too - after all, he gave us Beyond Good and Evil.

For some reason, maybe because this isn't really a shooty game but more of an exploratory one, I'm coping better with the controls than normal - though it's still not ideal, and I keep on finding myself running into walls or so on. Anyway.

I've landed the boat, skirted around some cliffs, and then was attacked by giant enemy crabs. Luckily I was able to target their weak spot for maximum damage. I made my way through the jungle and ancient villages with Ann, and was then captured by tribesmen and tied to a stake. I came too just in time to see Ann being taken off by Kong. Carl the director rescued me, we ran off and now I'm being attacked by dinosaurs, apparently 14% through the game.

It's a very pretty game, if a little dark. The other characters tell me to look "up there", don't point where they mean, and then after I've looked around they've disappeared. That might be the controls' fault though.

Hotel Dusk: Room 215: clever mechanics

There's not too much I can write about this without giving the story away. What I can say it that's it's great to have a different story to the usual videogame cliches, although this does seem to be a bit convoluted. I'm now well into the third chapter (6pm - 7pm) and there's a bit too much going on - concurrent storylines - which I hope will all get pulled together at the end.

One thing I do want to comment on, though, is a really clever use of the DS. Having done a jigsaw puzzle, Kyle remembered that on the back of one piece of the jigsaw before was some writing. He wants to see the other side of the completed jigsaw, but he needs to turn it over without it falling apart. The game shows you the completed jigsaw on the 'top' screen and a blank table on the touch screen.

It took me a bit of thinking before I realised that you had to close the DS up, and then open it again. Very clever.

Desert Strike: massive difficulty spike

Some would have a fit over the fact that I'm not playing it the way it was designed, but I'm really enjoying being able to save after every part of each mission, rather than having to complete a whole mission at once. I only ever reached the third level of the original Mega Drive game, so I'm hoping to do better on this.

I probably won't though, given my current idiocy. I got to a point on level 2 where I had to attack the chemical plant - but when I went near it, I got bombarded with bullets and missiles, all of which seemed to do about twice the normal damage. There was a danger zone around the plant, and I was struggling.

On my tenth or elevent attempt, I managed to complete the mission by shooting and running, unloading hellfires into the plant (and hydras when I ran out of hellfires) and then running away before the mobile guns found me. It wasn't easy.

Then halfway through the next mission (finding and capturing SCUD commanders) I realised I hadn't destroyed the power plant. Destroying this would have killed the power around the chemical plant, removing the danger zone and making it muc easier.

Dur.

I've finished level 2 now, and will be starting level 3 soon. It's set more in a city. Hoorah!

Playing US GameCube games on a PAL Wii

Oooh, this is exciting. No need for Freeloader, just a bit of good timing:

• Put a PAL GameCube game into the disc slot
• Enter the Disc Channel screen
• Point at the start button - but don't press anything yet
• Press the eject button
• Press A on the start button as late as possible, just before the button's disabled
• Take the PAL disc out and put the US disc in as quickly as possible
• The US (or, indeed, Japanese) GameCube disc should then load
  

Courtesy of Dolqube. No idea yet as to how this affects memory cards - bear in mind that with the GameCube you needed separate memory cards for Japanese and Roman characters.

Desert Strike: rescuing the secret agent

At lunchtime today I had a go of Desert Strike, and completed the first level. It's harder than I remember, or maybe that's just the PSP's crappy D-pad. It's great fun, though, and there's a lot of strategy there within the shooting - having to plan out a route to collect fuel on the way's a regular occurrence.

It did get me thinking about the time at which this game was released, though. Desert Strike sits more comfortably in history just after the 1991 rout of Iraq, where the US-led forces invaded in order to dispel Saddam's attack on Kuwait. The military operation was neat and powerful. For years afterwards, Iraq was kept in check through military restrictions and economic sanctions. It's all a far cry from the current situation, following the second war in Iraq. The country's hardly being governed at all, and the US can't keep control. It's a mess, and a game like Desert Strike probably wouldn't fit as well today. Even Conflict: Desert Storm wouldn't work as well today - it relies on the idea that your side will win in the end. And there's no real winner out there.

Road Rash: is Natasha supposed to be attractive?

Honest question. I'm halfway through level 2 now, with three 1st places under my belt. This bike is much better.

Hotel Dusk: Room 215: what's going on?

I've got a lot to say about this game, so you'll have to bear with me.

Firstly, the style of it is just amazing. Very few games have gone down the film noir path, and certainly none have combined film noir with Aha's Take on Me video. Even when the game's standing still, the characters shimmer in their pencil-drawn state. Combined with the well-modelled backgrounds and clever 3D exploratory bits, it's really good to look at. Sort of. The shimmering didn't half give me a headache after a while.

The story's really different from most videogames too. You're really thrown in at the deep end not knowing too much about where you are or what you're meant to be doing. So far I've established that I'm playing an ex-cop, whose partner went missing three years previously after being shot. I now work as a salesman and with a bit of private detection stuff on the side. I have to find things that have gone missing.

The game's split into chapters, which cover 30 minutes of real time. I've found out that some things are due to happen in the future - like the TV will be on between 7pm and 9pm. I've completed chapter 1 (5:00pm - 5:30pm) and I was impressed with the roundup at the end - Kyle Hyde (the character I play) gave a rundown of all that had happened so far and asked me questions to make sure I understood.

I also like the notepad on which you can write notes with the stylus. Unfortunately it's only available at certain times - I wish there was the option to write something down in the middle of a conversation. Maybe it's not really needed yet, though.

The way conversation's handled is a bit odd. Annoyingly, you can't skip the text scrolling, so it takes ages to read. As you go through, if something raises a question in Kyle's head, that question scrolls above his head - but while conversation continues on the other screen. So you have to read both at the same time - or, more accurately, the question first, since that scrolls past and doesn't reappear. But the question relates to something being said on the other screen, so you'll be reading it out of order.

Overall, I'm intrigued by the story and game, and will of course be continuing. I'll try not to spoil the story too much ... I'm sure Kieron will want to play it himself!

Road Rash

This morning I got EA Classics through the post, and so at lunchtime I had a quick go at Road Rash. It's still great. Well, the gameplay mechanic is. But it's got an appalingly low framerate, and on the PSP screen it's massively pixellated. There also seems to be a bit of a lag on the punch button, but then again I have a feeling it was like that on the Mega Drive as well.

I managed to complete the first set of five races easily enough, but I then stupidly bought the third bike which isn't fast enough to really compete at the second set of five. I had to come 2nd or 3rd a few times until I could afford to upgrade my bike again. I've now got a much better bike - the Kamakaze 750 - so am ready to win again.

The EA Replay packaging's bright orange. The copy from VideogamesPlus comes with the normal English manual inside, and a French translation cellophane wrapped onto the side of the box. But the French translation of the manual's bigger than the English one, so it won't actually fit inside the box.

Nothing

I've not played a game all day today. It's the first day since launch that my Wii hasn't got a "today's playtime" message on the message board. How sad.

Kororinpa: green crystals got

I've now got all the green crystals on the main 45 levels of the game. I can't see any crystals on the secret levels, so I presume that's it, unless there are an extra five main levels like the selection grid hints at.

I enjoyed getting these - some are pretty well hidden and require a leap of faith. It's a good job I found out about the view map option!

Super Mario World: Donut Plains passed

Nothing too taxing, and I think I found all the hidden exits too - I found two exits from every level with a red dot. The only bit that had me confused was the ghost house, which had me stuck in a loop for ages - until I realised I didn't need to push the button to go out of the first door.

Tomb Raider Legend: completed!

I killed the big monster, and then got out of the crypt despite being shot at by lots of gunmen. On the way I found a gold reward - my first, I believe. A short trip to Croft Manor, and then I was off to Nepal. While the story's a little bit convoluted, I felt a little sad for Lara having to go back to the plane crash which she lived through when she was 9. Nepal was quite a short level really, though it wasn't too straightforward - one section in particular had me wishing for a Prince-of-Persia-style time rewind function. Having to jump off of four slides in succession isn't easy.

So, I completed Nepal and found Lara's mum's brooch, which turned out to be the key to fitting Excalibur back together. It wouldn't fit into the stone in Nepal, however, so I had to go back to Bolivia. Not really a level, more a final fight. It was made all the more difficult since I only had Excalibur, no guns, and I couldn't get the hang of using the magic it threw out. Luckily I found a gun emplacement which made my job easier. And then onto the final boss, Amanda in her demonic form.

She died, I pushed the sword into the stone, I saw Lara's mum on the other side of a portal, and then Amanda told us that Lara's mum wasn't dead, she'd gone to Avalon. And that was the end of the game.

I did some more exploring in Croft Manor afterwards, and found a series of inscriptions ... which led me to the gold reward. I think my save file says 90% now ... I've not done any levels as a time trial, or collected all the rewards. I may well do so at some point, since this is an excellent game.

Kororinpa: main levels completed?

Kororinpa is a tray maze game, where you have to guide the ball through the maze by tilting the level. Obviously, towards the end the protective walls disappear and the walkways get thinner.

I've played this for a total of two hours and 39 minutes, and I've already gone through the 45 main levels, and then played through the 12 secret levels I'd unlocked. I have a feeling I've not unlocked levels 46-50, and secret levels 13-15, since there are blocks on the board.

Still, this isn't a game where the objective is to get through the levels. I've set a few best times on some levels, with five or six gold cups and a smattering of silvers. I've collected most of the green gems (which unlock secrets), and unlocked a lot of different balls to use. Some of these are really hard to use - like the planets or the galaxy, and especially the rugby ball. Ouch.

The levels are really well designed. Unlike Super Monkey Ball, there's no limit as to the amount you can tilt the stage - although if it's upside-down then it goes a bit glitchy. As long as you can control your movements, you can rescue just about anything. Consider, for example, Advanced 15 on the original Super Monkey Ball. If the monkey went too far down the zig-zag, and didn't take the corner tightly enough, then there was no way of recovering it. That wouldn't happen here. Indeed, one of the earlier levels is set on a semi-circular cake, and you can effectively travel along the side if you're careful enough.

This lack of consistent gravity leads to some really clever mazes, where you must use a corner to get onto a different side and keep the controller tilted that way for the next part of the level. Some of the later levels get really complex like this, with frequent jumps having to be landed by twisting the controller. I had a job keeping track of where I was sometimes; I dread to think how hard it was for the level designers.

It's not a perfect game, by any means. It does seem really short, although the fact that any level can be replayed as a time trial, and there are a number of secrets to unlock, does extend it somewhat. My save file is on 62%, and I think it'll be a lot harder to get it above that than it was to get it there - gold cups in particular are tricky to get. I've found most of the green crystals though.

Oh, and one last annoying thing - it doesn't use the pointer functionality of the Wii remote at all. No, not even for the menus.

How annoying.

Super Mario World: first level cleared

I've now got a classic controller, and it makes the game great. I've completed the first world - beaten the boss, hit the yellow switch palace - and am now looking around the first level in the second world which apparently has more than one exit.

One annoying thing is that I can't see any indication on the map screen as to whether I've collected all five Yoshi coins on any one level. It's good fun other than that.

It may have to go on hold for a while, though - Kororinpa's arrived.

Tomb Raider Legend: England

Coincidentally, a King Arthur museum was built on top of King Arthur's actual grave. Shock! The run-down museum was a great setting for the start of this level, with interactive displays in a state of decay telling you all about the Arthurian legend. I can understand the point of the game's subtitle now - it's regarding the fact that the same legend exists all over the world, with swords in stones and round daises (yes, that is the plural, I've checked!) and magic and mystical swords. Excalibur in this case. This was revealed through the narration provided by Lara's helpers sitting in the van outside. Ever helpful.

The level itself was pretty varied. After climbing down below the collapsed floor, I got to shift some boxes around with a fork-lift truck, drive the fork-lift through some shooty spear bits (breaking them in the process) and ram a wall to break it. Then I had to make my way down a staircase where half the steps had already fallen down and the rest were crumbing. I had to use some boxes to get through spinny blades of death by jamming them, then use the same boxes to climb over some fire. In the end, after surfing on some coffins, I found a massive underground temple, and inside ...

King Arthur. No, really him.

In order to get the sword which was encased with Arthur in a piece of Amber, I had to ring a bell. The bell was on the ground. I had to move half a tomb to next to a broken pillar, then get a chandelier swinging, climb up into the pillar and then jump onto a counterweight to raise the bell up. It took ages to work that out. After all that, the door opened and there was a big monster outside. My support outside has gone dead - I suspect others have turned up.

The big monster killed me. Next time, I shall kill it.

Tomb Raider Legend: Kazakhstan

It's freezing cold, and Lara's actually dressing sensibly for once. I've explored the complex, and have found the remains of magnetism experiments which could be turned on and played with. I tracked Amanda through the complex and fought a lot - it was another shooty level with not too much exploration - and then I got to the big boss battle. The big demon enemy from the flashback in Peru!

It took me a few deaths before I realised that I didn't really have to kill the boss - not that you could, because the only way to attack it is to push it back into one of the electricity arcs, at which point it loses 90% of its energy and disappears to recuperate. Instead I had to run around the room and flick four switches on, which brought a big contraption down from the ceiling. I then had to use the big magnetic gun in the middle of the room to push conducting orbs into the paths of the electric arcs, and then jump out of the gun and grab the sword fragment without being killed by the demon. I kind of missed what happened to it, and to Amanda, after that.

I'm now off to Cornwall, following a map that was found on the back of an ancient shield.

Tomb Raider Legend: Peru, Japan and Ghana

I finished in Peru, finding another dais and information about the civilisation that had lived there. Then I went to Tokyo to meet with a yakuza boss, in order to get part of the sword that Rutland had. This level took place at a cocktail party, which was a pleasant change of scenery. I met with and defeated the boss, then was sent to Ghana where Rutland was seen to be heading. Found my way through to the end of the level and killed him, but not before he revealed that Amanda was still alive. So I'm off to Kazakhstan to find her.

I'm really enjoying this. It's a really pretty game, and you get to absorb all of that when looking around for the path to the next checkpoint. There are some small invisible walls, unfortunately - stopping you walking all the way along a clifftop, for example, but generally it's well structured. It's a shame that Lara can apparently run through plants without touching them.

It reminds me of a slightly slower-paced Prince of Persia. Lara's not quite as athletic - she can't jump as high, not run along walls and so on - but the basic idea of working out a route is the same.