Slitherlink: awful music

Slitherlink is another DS puzzle game, based on real-world counterparts but made much easier by the fact you can easily erase mistakes and you don't have to carry around a huge book of puzzles. The idea is to make a single loop of string fit around a grid, such that numbers on the grid have the correct number of sides filled. So, for example, a '3' on the grid must have string on three sides. Eurogamer has a very good review which describes the concept without giving away too much in terms of hints. It also mentions the awful music, which was muted after around 15 seconds.

As a Japanese import, this is difficult to get on with, and I still don't know what half of the menu options do. As far as I can work out, you can have two named profiles (and the naming of the profiles was my first stumbling block, given that I was just presented with a page of kanji with no indication what it was), and the first item on the menu starts the game. That's all that's needed, really. It's rewarding to work out logic that lets you fit lines onto the grid, and even though there's a fairly comprehensive cheat sheet built in - which I found when randomly pressing some menu buttons - this doesn't cover every eventuality. Occasionally you have to be able to see how a line must fit around four squares in a line, which means a certain amount of planning.

There are four difficulty levels, although the first only has twenty puzzles and lasted a day. I'm working on the second set now, but am worried this could take quite a while ...

Game memories: C

Crackdown (Xbox 360)
A sublime game, where the only fault is a limit on 2-player cooperative play. After years, I recently managed to find my last agility orb, and I'm pretending that the hidden ones don't exist any more. The achievements in the game were great as well, with an appropriate balance of progress, difficulty, and silliness. Harpooning 5 people onto a car was good fun.

Crackdown 2 (Xbox 360)
Not as good as the first, but still great, with the bonus that both John and Kieron can join me to shoot people from rooftops. The radar ability means that orbs are a more realistic prospect as well.

Castle of Illusion (Mega Drive)
Possibly the first 16-bit game that made me go 'wow'. I'd been playing on the CPC for a few years beforehand, and everything about Castle of Illusion was a step up from what I was used to. Not only the graphics, but the tightness of control, scale of the world, and variety of gaming. It's the game that sold me the Mega Drive.

Castle of Illusion (Master System)
A few weeks after I saw Colin's Mega Drive for the first time, I went to visit a friend of the family, who I was told had Castle of Illusion. I was looking forward to playing it. Unfortunately it was the Master System game, which was slow and far too difficult to control accurately.

Card Fighter's Clash (NGPC)
I have played this only once, many years ago. I can't remember anything about it.

Colour Cross (DS)
Bargainous colour picross game, which, despite its awful presentation and the need to guess on two of the puzzles, kept me going for four months of playtime.

Cooking Mama (DS)
I don't see the appeal. It's like a minigame collection with a theme, but minigames are done so much better elsewhere.

Chu Chu Rocket (Dreamcast)
Giving away a free game was typical of the Sega of the early noughties. Not just any free game, but an excellent puzzler which caused many fights amongst my friends. The online mode was amazing, although the second-long lag they introduced to compensate for the Dreamcast's 33.6k modem was tricky to deal with.

Civilization Revolution (DS, iPhone)
Civilization is possibly a bit too complex for me. I like my strategy simple - Populous: the Beginning, say - and this does it really well. For a few games. After that you start to try the higher difficulty levels, and there's just a huge wall to overcome.

Contact (DS)
I found this dull and insipid. I was enticed by the prospect of videogame humour and self-referencing, but gave up after I realised that the script was barely English.

Carnival: Funfair Games (Wii)
Actually pretty good. It's well structured, with a decent system of unlocking new games and items. Possibly the best thing is the coin-pushing machine, which I can play for hours (but not as long as my mum, who has racked up 60 hours on the game, of which 40 is on the coin-pushing machine, and 15 is on the horse racing game earning money for the coin-pushing machine).

Cel Damage (Gamecube)
It's only been played twice, both at multiplayer meets, but it's fun.

Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap: completed!

The end was in sight indeed. I collected the four keys after defeating the knights, and got the big key. After recharging health, again, and filling two bottles with fairies, I went through the big door, to hear Vaati taunting me that I had three chimes of the bell before his plan would be complete. Well, Vaati, sucks to be you, since I had the sound turned off and so bell chimes wouldn't happen.

Sadly, the console didn't accept this as an argument, and hurried me through a few rooms of enemies. The hardest part was after I got to a room with three knights, and my usual tactic of decamping to a corner and waiting for them to swing their swords didn't work since the whole fight was timed. Apparently the third chime sounded.

So, next time through I just tried the whirly blade of doom approach, and though I lost a few hearts of health, it was fine and let me through relatively easily. Which was luck as I had to do it a few more times following deaths on the final bosses.

The first two forms of the final boss were pretty tough, and it took me one death to work out that in the first form you had to use the gust jar to suck up the dark clouds around Vaati's circling eyes. The second form was much harder, having to hit him with arrows from all sides while avoiding spiky balls of death, electric balls of death, and just general death. Once I had turned four of his eight eyes red, I had to split Link into the four on the correct side (not easy when Vaati kept running over the splitting panels) and thwack him. A lot.

But after a couple of attempts, he died, and I went to rescue Zelda. And there was no cutscene; instead the castle started to collapse. So I ran out, Zelda in tow, picking up some more health on the way. The game obviously hadn't ended, so I wanted to stock up on fairies and hearts, just in case.

And it's a good job I did. Vaati claimed to be a god, and appeared once again as a big round enemy with claws for arms. It took me ages to work out that you had to use the cane to flip his arms upside down, and that when you'd done so you could shrink down and run inside them. And then once inside you had to thwack the correct eye monster. And then once both arms had been dispatched, I had to split Link into four again and hit Vaati's electric balls back at him. Lots to do, very little health left at the end.

But there was an end. Ezlo got his human form back, then ran off through the picori portal after saying goodbye. He gave Link a proper cap before he went. Zelda magically made everything better. The stained glass endings reminded me of the opening to The Wind Waker. And that was that.

Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap: collecting keys

I found the other swordmasters, so now my collection of tiger scrolls is complete. By button mashing I can send Link spining all over the screen; a whirly blade of doom.

This doesn't help when your opponents are big knights with seemingly magic shields that stop anything getting through.

After getting stuck on the ground floor of the castle for ages (1F, but the one you enter on, stupid American numbering), I finally worked out that I had to bomb the bottom half of a wall on the other side from a weak point I could see from a different room. Which goes against every bit of logic so far, where walls only disintegrate if they look broken on the side you bomb to start with.

Up on the higher floors, and there are loads of knights who've just appeared, each one guarding a key. Lots of fighting ahead, and each fight lasts far too long since you have to wait for them to swing at you before their guard is down. After each fight, I'm warping outside the castle, sneaking past guards, and going to the fairy fountain for a recharge of health. It's a little tedious, but there's an end in sight, at least.

Game memories: B

Blur (Xbox 360)
Possibly my favourite racing game avec weapons, but opinion on that will flip-flop depending on whether I've played this, Mario Kart Wii, or Wipeout HD most recently. Blur is magnificent though, really well balanced in both single-player and online multi-player. The weapons and their strength have been honed to perfection, and every race is thrilling from start to finish no matter where you end up.

Burnout (Playstation 2)
One of the first racers that showed that it doesn't need to just be a race to the finish line. It seems quite tame now, compared to its sequels, but the seeds were sown.

Burnout 2 (Gamecube)
Not just an evolution but a revolution. Adding so much more content, including the crash junctions and other event types, and the handling was refined so your car felt lighter and more manoeuvrable. Some say it was the highlight of the series. I'd argue they can't have played ...

Burnout Revenge (Xbox 360)
Everything that made Burnout 2 great is here, but with a more defined structure, more cars, content, and with takedowns fully implemented. It's a constant source of fun and mirth.

Burnout Paradise (Xbox 360)
A departure for the series, with multiple routes and hidden events. I've not really explored it much so far, but it's a good game - just not as great as what preceded it.

Bombjack (CPC)
I have fond memories of playing this with my sister. I perfected the lit-bomb runs on the first five screens, and we used to be amazed how colourful and fast it was. We never played the arcade game; I have a feeling that may have spoilt the magic.

Bomberman (DS)
In my eyes, the ultimate version. You will never have ten people and ten Saturn controllers in order to play the full version of Saturn Bomberman, but eight DSs in one room? Easy!

Bonanza Bros (Mega Drive)
Slow, dull, awkward jumps, boring. I always hoped this would be similar to Spy vs Spy, but after finally getting to play it, it wasn't.

Battletoads (Game Boy)
Difficult, smeary, frustrating, dull.

Brick Breaker (Blackberry)
Awful. Really quite awful, in that that ball bounces off your bat at random angles, the icons you collect are difficult to distinguish, it often stutters or slows down when your email downloads, and the levels are badly laid out. But have a colleague challenge your high score, and this can take weeks of your time.

Bust-a-Groove (PS)
One of the first dancing games I ever saw. It's not great nowadays, but back then it was futuristic.

Bust-a-Move (PS)
I never got on with Puzzle Bobble. It always seemed a little random as to when the balls would stick to the side of other balls, or just pass them by.

Bayonetta (Xbox 360)
I want to love this more than I do, because it's good fun, well designed, and is full of amusing touches like the car stereo playing Splash Wave. But I've never got very far into it and then it gets left for months until I can no longer remember the controls and have to start again.

Black (Xbox)
I really enjoyed Black - it had a good story, good range of gameplay, good balance to weapons and enemies. All the way up to the final boss bit, when it got stupidly hard with infinitely respawning enemies. I never completed it.

Beyond Good & Evil (Gamecube)
When this first came out, people were desperately searching for a comparison. It's sort of like Zelda, because you upgrade your craft to give you access to other areas. It's sort of like Pokémon Snap, because you take photos. It's actually a unique game which is perfectly short and sweet, with the best ever text-input system and a cast of amazing characters.

Braid (Xbox 360)
I completed it, thought the puzzles were clever, but the story was trying to be intelligent just a bit too hard. It was fantastic for students desperately trying to prove the worth of games, though.

Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap: a point of no return?

Running headlong into the sparkly tree seemed to make all the leaves drop, and I could shrink down. So I got the book, went to the Temple of Droplets, and have got the last two elements via a place in the clouds. I fused the sword with the two elements, and headed through the new exit - to be confronted with information on the light force and Vaati, who knocked me out. He didn't steal the sword, though, which was a bit stupid of him.

Oh, it's now the Four Sword. I like the way that different elements crop up over and over in Zelda games.

Hyrule Castle is now all dark and foreboding, and even after rescuing the king it remains so. I can exit the castle, but in the town all the people and animals have disappeared into their houses. So it looks like I can no longer move the cats to make way for a new house, or finish off the kinstone collecting (not that I would do so anyway). I'm going to try to remember where all the other swords masters were, so I can learn different fighting techniques, and I hope they're still around.

But it looks like the endgame now. Vaati, I'm coming for you.

Game memories: A

Afterburner Complete (32X)
For years I'd wanted an arcade-perfect version of Afterburner. The CPC version wasn't too bad, but rather slow. The monochrome Spectrum version was awful. The Master System and Mega Drive games were getting there, but they just didn't feel frantic enough. This did. I got a 32X a couple of years after the Saturn came out in Pink Planet in Bristol for, I think, £20, and with it came Afterburner, Virtua Racing Deluxe and Star Wars Arcade. Afterburner was an amazing port, just what I'd wanted since first playing the arcade game years before, but given the competition it was quickly at the bottom of the pile.

Ace Combat 6 (Xbox 360)
Previous Ace Combats (plus Air Combat on the PS) have been OK, but this is great. HD really does add to this game, searching the skies for opponents and with loads of screen set aside to just see how pretty it is.

Animal Crossing Wild World (DS)
I remember once hearing that someone had an 800+ price on turnips on a Thursday, when I had thousands of bells invested. I went and stood outside the pub opposite work, in the rain, so I could use their Cloud wifi and trade my turnips in.

Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap: a book on a bookcase

I got the mole gloves so I can now dig through dirt - and finally worked out what those filled-in cave entrances were about. I've also found power bracelets which let me move objects like bookcases when small but don't appear to let me move little boulders when big. I'm now on a mission to return overdue library books. Don't ask.

I've returned two, and have found the third, but it's on top of a bookcase. There's a note on the table nearby which hints that if there's a problem I should just run headlong into it - but using the pegasus boots and running into the bookcase doesn't do anything. There's another one of the sparkly trees out the back of the house, but other than that nothing. I can't work out what to do.

Burnout Paradise: building up my car collection

But very slowly. I've just got my B licence, which indicates I'm halfway up the progression (since I'm sure it won't stop at A), and I've only found and unlocked 12 cars out of the 57 it claims. The game just feels almost too big - I've not touched on bikes yet, or the Surf Island extra bits. I found the same with Burnout Revenge in the end, that it just seemed a bit never-ending, and at least that had a more rigid progression structure.

Still, this works well as a game, and I'm enjoying the racing aspect. I feel I'm missing out a little from not learning the map in full, but that's just a bit too much of an ask. I do miss the aftertouch takedowns though, and I've heard that every road has a crash junction event but haven't seen how to trigger these as yet ...

Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: big plant down

Finally finished the forest temple, killed the big plant. Now I've been told I've got to go west. It was in red, so it must be important.

I'm getting very confused though, between what's happening in Twilight Princess and what's happening in The Minish Cap. I may need to put one on hold for now!

Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap: not being able to dig

I'm in the Fortress of Winds, and am stuck. I know what I need - something to suck up or dig through or otherwise destroy the big foamy blocks that are strewn across the level - but I've been everywhere I can get to in the dungeon, many times, and there remain a couple of rooms that I just can't access. This is most frustrating.

Phantasy Star Portable: excitement

There's a lot of story I'm wading through. A lot of buttons to learn. A lot of menus and options and items.

But there's a lot in common with Phantasy Star Online. Monomates, sabres, and swords mean that the game has, for me, a shallow learning curve, and the first few missions have reminded me of my exploits back in 2001 on the Dreamcast. Unlike Phantasy Star Zero, the controls work well, and the addition of other members of your party mean that it's an easier game at this early stage. Which is a good thing.

Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap: collecting elements

While Twilight Princess has slightly stalled, I've been playing The Minish Cap on my commute to and from work, and it's been captivating. The storyline is semi-standard, with Zelda being frozen in stone, but it's Vaati who's the enemy rather than Ganandorf, and the world is inhabited by the Picori. Link has a magic hat who used to be a sorcerer, and he can shrink and grow at select portals. Half the trick is working your way around the world as a dot, where you can't mount steps or traverse puddles.

I've made quite a lot of progress; I've mended the Picori sword, and fused it with two elements. Some of the objects collected are pretty innovative - the gust jar which hoovers up dust and grass, the cane which flips objects over - though there are as ever the stables of the boomerang and bow and arrow. The Game Boy Advance suffers from only having two buttons to which you can map objects, so there's frequent breaks to reassign actions.

It's very different from The Wind Waker, Ocarina of Time, and Twilight Princess, and indeed very different from Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks. It reminds me most of Oracle of Ages, which of course is because it's by the same team - but I never finished that so I'm hoping this has a little more staying power ...

Lego Rock Band: hidden orb ... oh, hang on

Lego David Bowie is amazing. What is not amazing is the cramp I'm now suffering in my left-hand little finger.

I was playing a set on the roof of Leg City Skyscraper, and half way through I noticed, at the side of the screen, a pigeon. Except since I was concentrating on the centre of the screen, I didn't. I saw a bright blue, glowing, round thing, and my immediate thought was to go and collect the hidden orb. Which led me to mess up huge sections of the song, and only get three stars.

Damn you Crackdown.

Afterburner Climax: pew pew pew

Or more like BANG BOOM KASPLOOM. Much as Outrun 2 updated a classic arcade game to a modern audience, Afterburner Climax takes the basic gameplay of Afterburner and ramps up the graphics, enemies, movement, and pace. And it's generally a success, although at times it's just a bit too frantic, with smoke from missiles and explosions obstructing the view.

On my first go, I got to the fifth stage. The game then gave me extra continues. On my second go, I got to the thirteenth stage, and the game gave me some extra perks. The more you play, the more options it gives you to fiddle with, ranging from more powerful guns, non-respawning missiles, larger targets and better armour. As you play more, the easier you can make the game. I played through the whole thing five times in the end, but didn't manage to complete all of the emergency instructions in one go, meaning that so far I've only been able to get the 'bad' ending. But that doesn't matter - I'll be playing this again many times over.

Mirror's Edge: completed!

Not the Xbox 360 game, which is still residing on the last level (maybe I'll get around to completing that after Twilight Princess), but the side-scrolling iPhone game. As I said back in October, UGVM bought this en masse in tribute to Owen, and I played a fair few levels at the time. I've now completed it - in that I've completed every level, but will no doubt return to collect more bags and to try speed runs. I'm more likely to do that in this game than in the console version, in fact, due to portability and the fact it's a bit easier.

Mirror's Edge on the iPhone owes a lot to run-and-jump games such as Canabalt, but it's a lot more involved than that, with intricate level designs, enemies to be avoided or attacked, and several instances where you have to reverse direction. One of the later levels sees you running backwards through a former level, which only goes to emphasise how well the jumps and platforms are designed. It's a shame there are only twelve levels (excluding the tutorial) - though the end-of-game message implies more may well be incoming in the future.

What I admire most is the way that the game is designed directly for the interface, and they've made a game that fits in with the main console story, retaining the graphical style and feel, but is almost a different genre. It's fabulous.

Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: freeing monkeys

Still no ability to swap between realms at will - and the story seems to indicate this won't happen, which is a bit of a relief given the thought needed to do so - but last night's game progressed quite a bit. As a wolf, I restored light to the local spring, and met someone who told me I was the chosen one. That's lucky, really, given that it'd be quite a dull game if I wasn't. I've been restored to human form, and have made my way to the Forest Temple, where I've been helped and hindered by a monkey, giving me a pointer to rescue all of her friends. Each time you rescue a new monkey, you're able to cross ever-longer rope bridges, swinging from simian to simian. I've an entourage of four now.

The movement's improved slightly, but it's still not perfect. It's frustrating, because other games show how precise the remote and nunchuk combination can be, but this was obviously designed for a Gamecube pad, with pointer controls added on afterwards. If I wasn't now five hours in, I may have restarted it on the Gamecube.

The old Zelda problem of not being able to save a particular position in a dungeon rears its head again, by the way. I'm half-way through the Forest Temple, but will need to start from the beginning when I resume (although this is partially mitigated by the design of the temple, with a hub room being close to the entrance).

Pac-Man Vs: running in the wrong direction

As it's Christmas, I thought long and hard as to which game I could inflict on my family, as is tradition. And this year I chose Pac-Man Vs, which has had a bit of a renaissance of late since I realised I could run it on the Wii and found my GBA cables. And found in addition that Justine loves it.

So I had myself, Justine, my brother and my mum around the TV yesterday evening shouting at each other and laughing as my mum ran away from Pac-Man when she should have been trying to eat him. Justine was relatively silent since she said she couldn't concentrate on moving and talking at the same time. And I managed to clear two stages.

It's still great.

Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: they've been taken!

It's quite depressing when, after three hours of playing, you stop and look at the instruction manual and realise that you've only just got to the end of the introductory explanation of the game's storyline. Twilight's story is a little more personal than that of many Zeldas, with the emphasis placed not only on the rescue of the kingdom from the forces of darkness (quite literally in this case), but also on the rescue of two children from Link's childhood home.

Getting through the story has been slow to start with because of the controls. Not the 'waggle' - that in itself is intuitive and accurate - but rather the use of the analogue stick on the nunchuk. There's a large turning circle, and there have been quite a few occasions where I've been unable to see the enemies attacking me. Using the Z-lock solves the problem, of course, but it's something I need to get used to.

I've been to the twilight realm and back, and have saved just before I return there. I'm hoping soon to be able to control my shape as well as being able to travel back and forth a little more freely. But before that, I've got to go to the Forest Temple.

Burnout Legends: crash bang wallop

I've been playing the crash mode almost exclusively since my last update - I've now got medals on thirty of the courses. It's pretty hard though, since you have very little aftertouch control and the crashbreakers don't do that much. I've not managed to blow up a single petrol tanker yet.

Splosion Man: zzzzzz

I got bored after about four levels, and stopped playing after ten. There's not much variety, and while occasionally you have to think how the level wants you to get through it, it gets pretty frustrating when your jumps don't go where you're telling them to. Hmm.

Trials HD: breaking bones

Simple controls do not mean it's a simple game. It's anything but. Very good fun indeed.

Blur: destroying Shannon and beating Khan

I really like Blur. You can see the PGR influences, and the more arcade-like feel to the cars, but it's been well put together with the different weapons and event types so it feels very fresh. The visual style is clean and consistent, and actually works a lot better than I was imagining. At times it can be a little difficult to see what's going on, and the controls aren't the most intuitive (why not have three fire buttons, one for each slot?), but overall it's a great game.

The difficulty level could have done with a bit more work though - there are quite a few sudden spikes which almost make me give up on it. In particular, Khan speeds off at the start of his one-on-one race, and one mistake can make him unbeatable. It took me ten tries before I managed to sneak across the line a second before him.

Onto the fan-based challenges now.

Bioshock: mad cosmetic surgeon

Looking at the True Achievements site, I was reminded of the games which I've not played very far through at all. In particular, I've barely touched Bioshock, Bayonetta, Rock Band 2, Dead Rising, or Tomb Raider: Underworld. The whole point of this blog was to keep track of where I was in different games, and to encourage me to play more to completion. It seems to have failed.

But I've tried to rectify this over the last couple of days. I loaded Bioshock, and found that my last save was just over two years ago, about an hour into the game. Of course, this meant that I've now passed all the bits where you learn about controls, and have completely forgotten what to do. It was a good twenty minutes after starting that I realised that you could also use the left trigger to shoot electric things with your hand - needed to get past the robot sentries. After hacking some of those, and rescuing the first little sister, I was plunged into a darkened room with a shotgun and many enemies. The game does 'scary' very well.

I've now got two different left-hand tricks; I would have had three but can't work out how to have a new slot open up. I've found and killed a mad doctor who seemed to like cutting people up for no reason, and called me ugly. And I've now found a Big Daddy who promptly killed me.

It's a very cleverly done game, with a good narrative and setting. The limited use of ghosts and flashbacks adds a lot to the atmosphere. But while I can admire these qualities, it's not huge amounts of fun. I'll play again next time I want something very involving, I'm sure. Maybe in another two years.

Burnout Legends: coupe with no accent

I dusted off my PSP for my recent trip to South Africa, but it wasn't until the way home that I got around to playing anything on it. That thing was Burnout Legends, which is much better and much worse than I remember. It's still a long way from the console games in terms of content, but the way they've taken the tracks from the first couple of games and added takedowns and the later games' mechanics works really well. There's a nice sense of weight to the cars, and it runs at a fair pace.

But the controls on the PSP are awful, and it becomes a matter of luck as to whether you complete a course. Not so much of a problem for the road rage or race events, but the burning laps become really hard.

When I started I was half way through the second car class, and now I'm half way through the third - though I've given up on trying to get golds for everything.

Professor Layton and the Unwound Future: completed!

So, despite the odd plot and the tenuous lock puzzles, I completed the story of the game, then went back in to clear up the ten-or-so puzzles that I'd missed as I went through. This was a particularly long process, since it meant having to talk to everyone again (in some cases more than once), and in the end searching a tree outside the hospital. And then I completed the parrot and toy car games, and the sticker books, and the bonus puzzles, and everything.

At some point I'll download the weekly puzzles and work through those as well.

One thing that I noted as I played through the game was how little I remember of the first two Laytons. It's great as you play through, but it's generally quite forgettable, and there's very little reason to replay. It's a one-off experience, and I look forward to the fourth game already.

Professor Layton and the Unwound Future: plot deviations

A giant moving fortress, built under London. More to the point, built under a city under London.

How odd.

Professor Layton and the Unwound Future: more funny voices

I'm sure that some of the lines spoken by Luke and the Professor are from different actors. They don't sound to be in the same voice at all.

I'm making steady progress through the game, and have been playing for around ten hours now. The story is a little convoluted, but that may be because I'm spending quite a long time chasing down extra puzzles and solving the parrot and toy car minigames. The parrot is odd - when he first appeared, it was hinted that he'd help to sniff out hint coins which remained unfound, but he's done that a whole one time so far. Maybe it's serving me right for naming him Sparrow. It was funny at the time.

The characterisation still feels consistent after two and a half games. Luke is an excellent sidekick to the slightly-stuffy Layton, and it's those two who make the game. Other characters are perhaps a little too odd at times, which throws Luke and Layton into a much more congenial role, along with the few other characters (such as Becky, the hotel girl).

The puzzles are more closely woven into the game, but I can't help but feel they are less well designed than in the first game. There's only been one which I thought was a bit oddly worded though - and that was ambiguous rather than just being wrong.

Professor Layton and the Unwound Future: funny voices

Again, it's the US title - I'm not ruining the look of my Layton collection!

With Colour Cross finally out of the way, I've been able to move onto the third Layton adventure, which is set in London ... while I'm out of the country. Still, it's not as if it's a particularly realistic interpretation, feeling more like Paris or Brussels at times, so the homesickness hasn't kicked in just yet.

I've rarely played DS games with the sound turned up (it's not the done thing on public transport) so I'm not sure if this is the case with previous games in the series - only some of the phrases are spoken, and which are and which are not seems to be relatively random. I must have played at least some of previous games with the sound, since Luke and Layton's voices are familiar, but I don't recall being confused over usage before.

In any case, I've now completed the epilogue and the first chapter, which is about twenty puzzles in. I was disappointed to read that there were only 120 puzzles included, but I've found a hidden puzzle - number 144 - so there must be a few more than in the main story.

And it's an odd story indeed. No spoilers, obviously.

Colour Cross: completed!

Colour Cross is a picross-type game, with a few differences - there are always multiple colours, never any blank spaces, and it's got a fair few annoying aspects to it:

• A few colours on each puzzle are very close to one another (with four shades of red on one puzzle) - this makes it difficult to see what is outstanding to be filled in.
• The backgrounds can be either blue or yellow (with little pictures scrolling diagonally). Some puzzles have both blue and yellow tiles to place. It's really hard to see where bits are missing.
• Each puzzle is timed, with penalties for placing the wrong tile down. This stops you going wrong, but when playing on a bus, I often amassed a hour's worth of penalties just because the squares were too small.
• On larger puzzles, you have to scroll around the play area just to see the clues at the top. You can't do this using the d-pad though.
• The general presentation is pretty awful. You frequently get dumped out to the main menu and have to go back into a submenu, when it would be far easier to have a "next puzzle" button.

It's biggest fault, though, is that there were a few instances where it wasn't possible to complete a level without guessing. And I always guessed wrong.

Despite this, it's all I've been playing on the DS for ages, and I've finally completed it. I feel like I can put it to bed at last - even though, due to an annoying bug, although I've completed every puzzle three of the avatar unlockables remain locked. It's all a bit shoddy really.

Crackdown: end of an era

Ooh, what's that?

I've not seen one of them for a long time. Well, not in the original Pacific City, anyway. It seems to be glowing.

It's not even that high up. It's on the top of a building, yes, but it's only about ten stories up. If that. And I could jump over there easily. Surely the final agility orb isn't just a jump away?

Oh, yes, it is.

500 agility orbs; I thought it would never happen. Now I can play Crackdown 2 with more gusto, without feeling that something's missing. As long as nobody mentions that I've got 272 of 300 hidden orbs.

Angry Birds: completed!

Three stars on all levels, all golden eggs found and starred. I must admit that I had to resort to a search to find out what order to play the sound test in in order to get the star. It was hardly intuitive.

The latest update to the game brought with it Game Center support, and achievements. I've got a fair few, but there are others that require you to get over a certain total score on groups of levels. That just seems too much hard work now - but that doesn't take away from the fact that it's a brilliant game, ideal for wasting time on the commute ... or just about anywhere.

Owen

Last Tuesday evening, I looked at Twitter and Facebook and UGVM after getting my phone to connect to the hotel's WiFi network. The idea was to have an early night, but it was anything but. Dreadful news crept around the Internet, that Owen Allaway had collapsed at home and had been rushed to hospital. Not long after, the news was that he had died.

I've known Owen for over ten years. I never met him, but I know him far better than I know many other people. We were in almost daily contact over that time, via UGVM, via RLLMUK, online gaming on Xbox Live, and even by email. Owen often played games in much the same way I do - in short bursts, looking for a minute's worth of fun at a time. He played about fifty times as many games as I do, admittedly, but we shared many favourites - Peggle, Crazy Taxi, Angry Birds, Bangai-O, Outrun 2, Crackdown, EDF, and most obviously, Mr Driller. We had a number of discussions over the fine points of drilling strategy, and which was the best version. We were pretty evenly matched in terms of high scores, and we even played Mr Driller Online against each other a couple of times, despite the hurdles the game made us overcome to get it working.

Owen was positive about so many things. He would look for the best in games - innovations, clever work-arounds, style - and was forgiving of bugs or glitches (other than developers not implementing an invert look function on the Y-axis). One of the last games he played and was enthusiastic about was Sonic the Hedgehog 4, when he rallied against the RLLMUK hoardes to say that he was having a good time. His enjoyment was infectious - many people relied on his postings in the iPhone games thread to guide their purchases. A number of us bought Mirror's Edge on the iPhone at the weekend, and it's every bit as good as he said.

He will be missed. He touched hundreds of people online in various fora, and made the world better for them, and more specifically for me. A week later, and his legacy is everywhere. Words With Friends has his name listed at the top of my recently completed games. Google Reader is full of his blog postings - it's amazing he managed to play any games at all, given the amount he wrote about them. He'll remain on my Xbox Live friends list, and many of his high scores will never be beaten. Every time I play Peggle Nights I remember how excited he was to see that the Peggle iPhone app had been updated. I completed the adventure mode for him.

Bye Owen. I hope that wherever you are, Mr Driller: Drill Land is available in English.

Colour Cross: fundamentally flawed

Colour Cross is a picross-type game, with numerous colours per puzzle and no blank spaces on the board. You solve one colour at a time, with each building up to help you solve the overall puzzle. It's difficult to explain; given that it cost a whole £4 in HMV, I recommend you try it yourself.

Or don't. One fundamental rule of picross games is that there is no point at which you should have to guess - unless you are able to quickly see if you've gone down the wrong path.  Colour Cross does this all too often, and while at the moment the puzzles are small enough that I am able to return down a path, I fear this may not be the case forever.

Miles Edgeworth Ace Attorney Investigations: completed!

I'm not sure I'll be buying the next Ace Attorney game. This just dragged on far too long, and the story just wasn't long enough to support it.

Still, I suppose I did complete it.

Miles Edgeworth Ace Attorney Investigations: take your pick

I must be coming to the end of this soon, but the last case has just gone on and on and on. I know who the murderers were. I know who the mastermind of the smuggling operation is. But the game is very specific as to what evidence it'll allow me to show and when. It's just a bit too drawn out.

I now have a picture of the ambassadors with flowers, and I can see quite clearly that there's a fake flower missing a petal which is the same as the guitar pick I found outside. But can I present that? Oh no.

Sigh.

Flower: yellow and red

Flower is a lovely ... distraction. it's not realy a game as such, though it does include game elements. But there's no urgency, no failure, no benefits for completion. There is progress, to new fields and new music, but nothing really driving you there.

It's just very relaxing.

Miles Edgeworth Ace Attorney Investigations: plodding around

It's just not the same.

I'm on the third case, and the investigative nature of the game just doesn't fit as well as the courtroom drama of the main Ace Attorney series. All too often you have to fiddle around with the characters to stand dead in front of something to examine it. There are too many ways to examine evidence - connecting logic threads, deducing using evidence on scenes, presenting evidence to others, talking to your partner - and it becomes a bit of an exercise in trial and error to see what the game wants you to do.

The story's not as engaging either. Each of the cases has been stand-alone, but the timeline jumps all over the place and it hints that everything's interconnected. The writing isn't as concise as in the first games, and I'm finding that I'm holding my stylus on the screen in the hope that it'll just hurry up half the time. Edgeworth has a horribly convoluted way of saying some things.

But having said all that, it is an Ace Attorney game, and as such is worth playing through.

Home: what a pointless waste of time

It really, really is.

Wipeout HD Fury: quake!

Yes, I have a PlayStation 3 - it's finally broken the "enough games to own" barrier with Heavy Rain, and I was offered a backwards-compatible model in good condition.

My first game purchase was actually Wipeout. I've been playing through the HD side and while it starts off nice and easy, it quickly becomes trickier. There's little give in the AI, and one mistake can see you at the back of the pack for good.

I also played some online games, and won two of the three. Very pleasing.

World of Goo: nonsense story

There's a story, yes.  No idea what it's meant to be about.  There are balls of goo which stick together and you can make structures with them.  Then other balls of goo will travel along the structures and you can then use them to make more structures.  And then the structure will fall over and the mouse doesn't move quite quickly enough for you to rescue it.

I've finished the first world, but that last point is just a little too irritating to continue.  I can't find an easy way of fixing it, either.

Mirror's Edge: run, fall, run, fall, run ...

I've reached the eighth level now, and things are getting harder. It's trickier to avoid enemies, the time you get to complete certain sections is reduced, and the areas you have to land on are smaller.

It's still a great game though, with a of freedom unlike anything else I've played since Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. And like that game, it's actually really linear.

Bayonetta: what's going on?

It's just a little too much action for me, and it turns into a button-masher.  I shall have to try again one day when I'm more awake.

Portal: completed, again

Steam was released for the Mac in the last week, and as part of the initial offer you can get Portal for free. In fact, I'd get Portal for free anyway, because they're saying that if you bought it for PC, they consider you bought it for Mac as well. Very generous of them.

So I've completed Portal's main story for the fourth time (PC, PC with commentary, Xbox 360, Mac). I didn't buy my Mac as a games machine (I have enough consoles for that), but other than when Time Machine started whirring away the performance was great. As is that game, still.

Street Fighter IV: I hate Seth

I can't beat him.  I've managed to reach him many times, even without losing a bout to any character before him, but I'm lucky to get his health down by half a bar.

He just feels cheap.

Words With Friends: sorry, William

I just laid down ZEBRA, with Z on triple-letter and A on double-word. 74 points. Oops.

Words With Friends: dye

I won!

Words With Friends: qis?

Stupid non-word. Niaz came back with "qis", on a double-word tile. I've put down my "aloft" for 22 points, and I'm 19 points in the lead. Can I hold on?

Words With Friends: come on, Niaz

Words With Friends is a Scrabble-like game, which you play against other people over the Internet. Niaz and I have been playing a game for a couple of weeks now, and it's been quite tense. He built a 50-point lead near the start by making "rezones" on a triple-word score. I've been chipping away at his lead for a while, and finally overtook him a couple of days ago with "thugs" on two triple-letter tiles. Since then he's not played, which is annoying since I have an excellent next word to play which should score 22 points. We're now into the endgame, with scrappy words using up letters, so that could well win me it.

But I need him to have his turn first. Come on ...

Fish Listening to Radio: they've got the radio!

An Xbox Indie game, this has a certain charm to it. It looks hand-drawn, and is just line drawing, but as you progress through eating woms then it slowly colours bits of the game world in. I've had ideas about games being slowly coloured in through progress for ages, so it's good to see something taking the idea and running with it. It's a fairly simplistic game, where hooks descend and ascend and you must eat the worms on descending hooks but avoid the ascending ones. The more worms you eat, the more points you get. The hooks can also attach to the fishes' radio, and if so you must rescue it before it's taken out of the water. You get no points for that.

The single player is OK, but it shines in multiplayer, where you are trying to get the same worms to get more points than the other, but trying to save the same radio. A strange mix of competitive and cooperative play.

Phantasy Star Zero: longing for analogue

Phantasy Star Online is probably my favourite game, ever. I know I've said that about Populous: the Beginning before, and to be honest if I was forced to choose between them I'd have to toss a coin, but bear with me for now.

I've been looking forward to Phantasy Star Zero for ages. It was billed as a return to PSO, with new levels and quests but the same play mechanics, usable items, online gameplay and an upgraded picture chat system. The graphics looked really impressive for the DS - a bit of a drop from the Dreamcast, of course. I've tried Phantasy Star Universe and found the quests to be limiting; I've tried Phantasy Star Portable and the lack of multiplayer and linearity of the game kills it. I had big hopes pinned on PS0.

Oh dear.

The game in general is great. It's not quite like PSO - the levels are separated into discrete blocks rather than being all free-flowing. My dreams of resurrecting Xevious (my PSO character) died when I saw the limited character customisation options; there was no purple, and the main male human looked like a spoiled kid. Swords look like solid swords, rather than the lit-up sabres that I loved. Magic users are a bit too pathetically weak.

But that pales into insignificance when it comes to the controls. I've been spoilt by Zelda, maybe, but this is painful to play for any length. You have to press the buttons down for extended periods, and it's often on a diagonal. Trying to face the enemies is tricky when you can turn only in increments of 45° - and the auto-lock-on doesn't pick up large angles. So you end up battling against the camera, unable to focus on and hit enemies until they move into one of the angles you can turn to. All the time they hover over your character taking energy off of you.

It's a crushing disappointment, but it's still a great game.

Pac-Man Vs: fruit appeared!

We also played this last night. It hasn't aged at all, and had six of us shouting instructions at each other to try to catch Pac-Man. The scoring system's a bit off (subtracting Pac-Man's score seems a little pointless), but the core of the game is still amazing.

Lego Rock Band: or pop band?

One of my birthday presents was Lego Rock Band, which is like all the other Rock Band games except the music selection is a bit more poppy and with fewer swears. And your characters are Lego people, obviously.

We played it quite a lot last night, since I had people round for a party. There's some overlap with Singstar, really, though this also gets people involved who refuse to sing. I have a feeling it may be quite expensive in the long run, given the number of songs on the Rock Band Store ...

Xbox Live: party like it's 2005

Last night I met up online with Kieron and John. We had a plan.

On April 14, Microsoft is turning off the original Xbox Live servers. After that date, it'll no longer be possible to play original Xbox games online - unless you go through some sort of unofficial LAN link. It's the end of countless classic experiences.

Xbox Live was amazing. Online gaming beforehand (at least on consoles) was normally an afterthought, bolted onto a game designed for party play. It was hampered by needing to accommodate for dial-up users, and with a lack of expectation that the console would be permanently connected. That's not to say that great games didn't exist - Phantasy Star Online would argue that - but because of the inconvenience, I didn’t play them that often. Chu Chu Rocket and PSO were about as far as I went. With Live, though, game designers started to exploit the medium properly. Project Gotham Racing 2 was the first Xbox game I played online, and I was amazed by how smoothly it worked. Not only could I join a random game and race against people worldwide, I could also talk to them as I did it. Plus the game downloaded leaderboards and my friends' best times, even when I was playing the single-player game.

Online functionality was increasingly included in games throughout the Xbox's life. It evolved from additional single-event versus modes, through dedicated party modes, to cooperative modes through the single-player game. Rainbow Six 3: Black Arrow was a highpoint of the last of these.

To capture the past for one last time, we met up armed with our copies of Halo 2, PGR2, and Outrun 2. It was odd not being able to carry on chatting as we moved from game to game. It was annoying to have to sit and wait for updates to be installed for each game as we tried to play it - though bearing in mind that my broadband line now is 40 times faster than the one I had when I first got Live, I'm not going to complain too much. Online gaming's come on a long way since, with better options and play modes. But none of this mattered for what we played.

Halo 2 is still great. We played custom games amongst ourselves, since we didn’t all have the expansion maps installed and without these we couldn't join matchmaking. Rockets are great, and much better than their Halo 3 variants. Going back to Halo 2 only served to show how Halo 3 didn't really evolve the game that much, if anything adding too many options. Having said that, Halo 3 is obviously a direct replacement, and the loss of Halo 2's online mode won’t mean that there's nothing similar to play.

That’s the case for all the games we played, really. Project Gotham Racing 4 does effectively make PGR2 online obsolete, though I reckon the range of cars in PGR2 is slightly better. I don’t like the bikes in the later game either. Outrun 2 is obviously replaced by Outrun Online Arcade, though with different courses meaning the game's not identical. OOA has got one thing in common with the earlier game - there's never anyone online.

Farewell, original Xbox Live. You'll be missed. A little.

Angry Birds: going backwards

I now have three stars on only 50% of the levels.

They've just updated the game, and it's gone from three worlds to five. They've given us an extra 42 levels for free. That's very generous indeed.

Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks: completed!

I was right about where I missed stamps - the Goron Village stamp was partially hidden and required the whip to get to it, which is why I missed it before since (I think) I got the whip after exploring the village. The Dune Sanctuary stamp was on an island to the Southeast, which I spent ages trying to get to before realising that all I needed was a chicken. Sigh.

Anyway, stamp book completed, all rabbits collected, all tracks revealed ... I'm never going to get enough treasure to collect all the different train parts, so off to the dark realm I went.

Despite its small size, this game does "epic" very well. The journey up to the final temple looked impressive and daunting, with the green portal pulsing. Half-way up the hill, Zelda hints that once we go through, we can't go back. It's a turning point for the game, but also for Link. He's leaving behind the friends he's made throughout the world - the gorons, the anouki, the flirts in Paparrazi Village; and he's travelling to somewhere evil. The innocence of youth is about to be broken.

Yes, I got all that from a straight bit of rail.

There were a number of final fights, with different play styles. The first of these I found to be quite tricky - planning a route around the rail map to hit light pearls and then the enemy trains shortly after. It was like a verson of Pac-Man where you were able to pretermine your path. The main difficulty came from the placement of the pearls, with two trains in the Northeast corner being too far away from any pearl - until I realised how the warp gates worked.

Then there was a rolling stock fight, versus the Demon Train. Easy enough, particularly given that my train had six units of health rather than the standard four. Zelda (in a guard's body) and I climbed on top of the defeated train and had to make our way to Malladus (in Zelda's body) at the front, with her blocking the laser and me killing off the electric mice. Zelda hit Malladus, and he left her body floating in mid air. She regained it, and that was the end.

Or should have been. The trademark death-blow of a Zelda game can't be omitted, and as such another boss battle was bolted onto the end, which just seemed a little superfluous. It was another battle using Link and Zelda together, but with the two screens showing different viewpoints of the same scene - a view of Zelda readying the bow of light, and a view of Link running around trying to distract and avoid Malladus. When he turned his back on Zelda, you could shoot, knock him down, and Link could attack the top of his head. Repeat three times, and Zelda joined Link to deliver the final blow; that was that.

It was good, but not as good as Phantom Hourglass. It's spurred me on to playing Twilight Princess, though.

Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks: missing stamps

I've got the Compass of Light now - it took two attempts since I couldn't work out how to defeat the three flamethrowing warrior-type enemies, until I fluked on the fact that I could use my whip to grab their shields and then hit them. I was trying to get Zelda to go around the back to attack, but that was easier said than done.

I'm now on my way to the dark realm, but there are two stamps missing in my passport. I reckon I've missed stamps in the Dune Sanctuary and possibly in Goron Village, but for the latter I've no idea how I missed it - plus the Valley Sanctuary stamp might cover that. We shall see.

Angry Birds: three-starring progressing

I have at least two stars on every level of the game. I have three stars on around 85% of the levels. I'm not sure I can go much further.

Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks: slipping away

The desert temple was pretty easy in the end, even the boss (as scary as he looked). I love the new item, which raises the ground up by one level - though it's a shame you can't use it twice to go up twice and so on.

I've caught more rabbits - all of the grass and snow ones now - and have found a couple more force gem ones now. One of the latter opened up a new area in which I could race around an ice rink to get to doors before they closed. It took me lots of attempts at the second course before I realised that you can roll on the non-ice parts to give yourself a speed boost.

I'm not sure what to do next. One annoying thing I've realised is that the DS only thinks it's a new day if you save and quit the game, and turn the machine off and on. I've not been receiving post because I've just been shutting the DS up and putting it to sleep that way. I turned it off properly last night; I'll see if I receive anything later today.

Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks: deserted paths

The goron gave me a force gem after much persuasion, but it didn't open the number of tracks I was hoping for. Bored of searching for rabbits, I went back to the tower and saw the demon king getting into Zelda's body (f'nar) and flying off. Git.

It turns out that the sand by the ocean isn't, as you'd expect, a beach, but is instead a desert. So off to the sand sanctuary I went, collecting four sand rabbits on the way. Great, another type of rabbit for me to not collect all of. I met the fifth wheelchair bloke and he told me riddly things about an eye in a cave, twisty passages, and something else which I've forgotten. Hope it's not important.

Oh, and Mr Wheelchair Man is neither dead nor a man, apparently.

Mirror's Edge: all white

The visual style of this game is marvellous. The use of colours and themes throughout the game - red for highlighting routes, other colours used one at a time for scenery, white used as the main world colour - works really well.

Level six down. The background story continues to be a bit pants, but it drives the game on and gives a sense of urgency.

Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks: hunting rabbits

I've completed the four temples in the four quarters of the map, and Zelda's urging me to hurry to the tower to visit Mr Wheelchair Man* who may, for all we know, be dead. The whole world is hanging in the balance.

So I'm off to hunt rabbits, collect treasures to buy trains, and ferrying people around the world and collecting fish, ice and wood. I've been burnt by this before; I don't want to leave so much of the game incomplete. I want to find all of the rabbits and claim the prizes that Mr Rabbit* promises me. I want to open all the tracks and see what the things on the beach in Ocean World are. I want to find a nice husband for the ugly bint in Paprika Village*. I'm having a great time doing it.

I've just finished motoring around the maze that is the top of the volcano, and notice a large space on the map to the North East. And in the town, a goron wanting to go to the city. I hope to see many more tracks after I've completed this run ...

* names may not be correct

Angry Birds: blowing up the pigs

Angry Birds is like Worms in single player, with lots of additional bits of scenery that you can use to crush the frog/pig hybrids which are your enemies. The projectiles are different sorts of birds, and with some of these you tap the screen again to perform an action. OK, it's not really like Worms at all.

The genius of the game is the star mechanism. It's easy enough to complete every level - by destroying all enemies, but to get three stars you have to achieve a certain number of points - which means not using all your birds, hitting lots of scenery, and generally being overly destructive. I've managed three stars on around 70% of the levels, but there are some that just seem impossible.

Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks: choo choo!

I don't think this is as good as Phantom Hourglass. To be more precise, I don't think the general world is as engaging as that in PH, and the train annoys me a bit compared to the wonderful sense of freedom you got in the boat. Having said that, the boat in PH paled in comparison to sailing in The Wind Waker, so it's all comparative. The story is typical Zelda, though it's a bit more self-aware than normal; the plot as to why Link ends up in standard Hero of Time garb is amusing, and it seems to recognise that the series has become clichéd in some ways.

I've already collected hundreds of rupees, I have a shield which I've used once, and I've been to the forest and snow dungeons. I know the settings.

However, the dungeon puzzles in this game are up there with the best, with inventive use of the boomerang and ice flames to freeze pathways on water, the use of a fan to blow keys around, and clearing snow with fire. The blizzard temple boss was pretty hard, though as ever a bit of cautioness meant that I didn't die. The hardest part of the game, in fact, seems to be avoiding the evil trains on the tracks outside.

The one annoying thing about the game is the extensive use of the microphone to play the pipes, blow the fan, and so on. I play the DS on public transport, which is noisy. As a result, the game thinks the microphone is constantly being blown into, and that makes things pretty tricky at times. A sensitivity option would have been good ...

Peggle: no longer challenged

I've finally, finally completed the challenges in Peggle. I completed most of them months ago, in fact, but there's one - the 750,000 on a single level challenge - which is just ludicrous.

I saw this many times.

On the screenshot above, I came so so close - but not quite. I almost quit forever.

But coming that close just shows you that it's not impossible. Finally, on one game I managed to score around 340,000 off of a single ball after hitting the triple score. It was still touch and go as to whether I'd do it, though, since it was reliant on me either clearing the stage or getting the ball to land in the 100,000 bucket at the end. But, oh no.

Now all I've got to do is 100% every level. Easy. Erm.

Mirror's Edge: keep on running

I'm really enjoying this. I picked it up ages ago when it was £7 somewhere, but never got around to playing it. There's a well-thought out setting, a reasonable back story, and emphasis on non-combative progress through the levels. At times, it reminds me of the puzzley nature of some Tomb Raider levels, or working out how to scale buildings in Crackdown. I like climbing.

There are some places where there's evidently more than one route though a level, but I do get the feeling that it's not quite as liberal a it pretends to be. All too often there are set doors you have to go through, or only one set of pipes you can climb. Although you can theoretically run through levels without fighting or shooting, I'm not sure if that's really possible, since the soldiers or police are often directly in the only path that I can see. Maybe that' just my inexperience.

It took a while to get used to the controls, but now I'm running and jumping like a seasoned veteran. Most of the time. Wall runs can be a bit tricky at times - it seems to be a little random as to whether you'll actually do one or not. The frequent restart points and general fast pace of the game means this doesn't really matter though, and I'm making good progress - having just finished the fourth level.

The Beatles Rock Band: Completed!

Completed the story mode on normal difficulty, that is. This is a fantastic package, put together in a way that really showcases the band. It helps, of course, that the music's superb - but the way that the story mode draws on the live tours and the Abbey Road mythology adds immensely.

I shall be playing this much more in the future.

Broken Sword Director's Cut: completed!

The added story was just as good as the original; it fleshed out characters superbly. The goat puzzle was made easier too, I'm sure of it.

Having said that, the story seems rather tenuous now. Maybe I'm just older and wanting a bit more sophistication.

Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box: completed!

I had this delivered from the US, and have now finished the story along with the majority of the puzzles contained in it - I've missed two somewhere, and searching the town after the end credits hasn't shed any light as to where they are.

It's ... as good as the first. The puzzles may be a little easier in general, but there were a couple that caused me to stop and get stuck - the knight's tour puzzles in particular. I dropped a few picarats due to dodgily-worded puzzles as well; the one that sticks in my mind was the one where it said that New York was three hours earlier than San Francisco, when it actually meant later. Huff.

Thoroughly recommended, though - and I can't wait for the next.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars: completed!

That was a great, great game.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars: missing a sword

I'm astounded by this game. The amount they've managed to pack onto the DS cart is amazing; the game runs smoothly through huge cities, and there's so much to do. The city can at times feel slightly sparse, but not to the extent that GTA Advance or even the original GTA did. There's so much detail in the streets though, with buildings looking distinctive - there are even some with scaffolding on, and builder's bucket pipes down the side.

The game does just about everything right. You can lose the cops who are chasing you by getting them to crash (complete with comedy dying siren sound). The rampages are well thought out and fun; and the way you throw molotov cocktails is an excellent use of the touch screen. The PDA on the lower screen works well too, especially with the use of email to drive the story forwards.

I've worked out you can put the GPS directions on the main game screen, which makes navigating much easier. Having said that, I've found that actually I'm having difficulty navigating normally - I'm not learning the cities like I did with previous GTA games.

The missions are based around a really stong story, and almost every one has a twist to it, making it run not how you'd have expected from the introduction. The people that you're acting for are a varied bunch too - I've acted for three potential leaders of the Triads so far, but I've now heard from an undercover cop. If anything I'm finding the missions too easy, because of the aiming system meaning it's easy to dispatch enemies given a decent gun. That may well change soon.

Mario Kart Wii: on to 150cc

I hadn't played this since the last time I blogged about it - November last year. I've no idea why - limited time in the country can't have helped, and there have been various other things tempting me away. After watching my brother playing it on Saturday, I decided to go back and try to get a gold on all the remaining 100cc grands prix - and did so. Once again, Rainbow Road almost proved to be my undoing, but luckily in the previous race I'd taken out my main opponent on the second-to-last corner with a blue shell, so they had to get seven points more than me in order to win. My slow-but-steady sixth place on Rainbow Road was enough to clinch it.

The 150cc races are hard.

I also played around a bit on the online time trials. There are some rather good players out there.

My Xbox 360 is broken

After around 5 minutes, the screen locks up and I get artefacts all over it. I wanted to play Half-Life 2 as well.

Loco Roco: completed!

A new PSP battery which means I can actually play games again ... and it turns out I had only a couple of levels left to complete. I've not 100% completed every level - as in, there are still some muimuis I've not found, and there are many levels which were completed without 20 loco rocos, but I've explored a lot and I'm more eager to get onto the sequel, with new levels rather than going over the old ones. My tastes in gaming have evidently changed; it's all about the thrill of the new at the moment.

The last few levels weren't that difficult, but trying to keep the loco roco number up on the last stage (and boss battle) was tricky - there were sections where the big loco roco was bobbing up and down in wind, and barriers with spikes were rising and falling, and you had to time tilting the level with the loco roco bobbing down while the barrier was raised. I went from 15 to 9 strength because of that.

Completed, but the songs are still in my head. Any pointers to where I can download them from would be great!

Mr Driller Drill Sprits: to the moon and back

Despite completing 1500m, I can't get down to 1000m on the two 2000m stages, in New York and on the moon. The moon stage is clever, as it introduces items, such as extending the maximum air, filling the air gauge (which can be very handy indeed), providing a shield, speeding Mr Driller up, or slowing the descent of blocks. At times this can be useful, but I find myself trying to get to the items even when it'd be best not to. I need to get better at evaluating when there are too many obstacles in the way - and when I'm likely to kill myself by burrowing under unstable blocks.

Super Monkey Ball Lite: wibbly wobbly

It's impressive for a phone game, sure, but the controls just feel a little too imprecise. There'd be no completion of Expert 7 on this. Not that there was often completion of Expert 7 on the GameCube, but still. It's not a bad game by any means, but it's not convinced me - yet - to go and buy the full game. Maybe one long train journey ...

Sprung: completed!

I was right, I was close to the end of the game. It was frustrating; it was clichéd; it did rely on trial and error in order to work out the correct response since there was normally no indication of what to aim for. I finally got Becky and Brett together (again, playing from Becky's side), and ended with 72% completion on the item collection. Whoopdie-doo. I don't think I'll go for 100%, I might find myself accidentally throwing the DS down the loo.

Ico: take my hand

After the Singstar party, my PS2 was all set up and ready to go. My PS2 game collection is rather poor though, and nothing appealed - until I noticed the special editions of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus sitting on the shelf above. I've played Ico very little, and Shadow not at all. I decided that today should be the day.

Ico starts off slowly, with a long cutscene. You get thrown into a murky world and have to work out the controls. The world's not actually murky, but playing it on my HD TV certainly made it look so. I worked my way through the castle, until I found the girl in white. I knocked the cage down the tower, and rescued her from the shadow monsters. I then couldn't find a way out of the room. Huh.

Never mind, I thought, I'll come back to that later. I'd been playing for 40 minutes or so. I turned the console off, and then thought ... hmm, I wonder if the game does save at checkpoints?

Evidently not.

We're spoilt now, with autosaves and save-anywhere mechanics. The reason it didn't occur to me that the game might not have saved is that when I paused it, there was no way of manually saving. Oh no, it appears that to manually save you've got to sit down on a bench, which at that point I hadn't found. It forces you to play a certain amount at a time. This is a problem for me - gaming tends to be half an hour here and there, and I can't leave the PS2 on all night to pick it up again in the morning, like I used to do with games on the Mega Drive.

After all, I'm paying for the electricity now.

So, at some point I've got to play the entirety of the start of the game again. I hope it's worth it.

Singstar: under the sea

As in, that is where I wish my head could be this morning. Why does Singstar necessitate a vast quantity of alcohol? Why do I wake up the next morning able to talk in a mere whisper, having flashbacks of genius, repulsion and amusement?

Sharon's rendition of Under the Sea from The Little Mermaid will be remembered forever. Partially because I filmed it. Ken and I sang A Little Time by The Beautiful South. Justine videoed that, which is good in a way since I never would have believed just what I did.

The evening brought forwards talents unknown. Justine tied with Helen; the latter part of a choir. Sharon can't rap. An really does feel for Sharon, you could see it in her eyes as she sang Babe. She was Sonny.

But I shall say no more. What happens in Singstar stays in Singstar.

There was one important thing that happened: I thrashed Ken at Wii Tennis. And then refused his fiver which he bet me all those months ago. I am smug.

Until I see the videos again.

Loco Roco: bum dum de daaaaa dum dee diddly dum bum bum

I love the way they sing. I love the way they bounce and slide and coo. I love the expressions on their faces.

I hate the way the battery dies after five minutes.

Drawn to Life: completed!

Nothing particularly hard in the entire game, in fact - the last boss took a few tries to work out how to actually hurt him, but once I'd worked out his weak point to attack for massive damage, the fight didn't last long.

The game had some nice touches in it - drawing in the main levels was great, especially when the later levels started to reuse a large number of designs at once. The end of the credits finishing with my signed name was a pleasant surprise. I've no desire to go back to it to find new palettes or stamps or songs, though. It was a good length as it was.

Drawn to Life: losing the darkness

Not the band.

I'm not sure what to make of this. The actual core game - the platform bits - are pretty good, with some clever level design ideas. The need to fiddle with jumping mechanics in the second world and the addition of underwater sections in the third is a shame, though, as it gives you the impression that the designers weren't confident with their concept. They should have been, since the idea of having to explore levels to find characters and paper bits works well with the way the levels are laid out.

The fact that you design the main character is great, and it really brings the game to life - even if it does rather limit the animation available. Designing blocks and lifts and so on is equally fun, though the limited palettes (and my lack of artistic ability) make my efforts clash with the background something horrendous. For some designs, the drawing's done for you, and instead you're left to colour in. I'm better at those.

The storyline, and endless back-and-forth fetching and talking mechanic that makes up the hub world, however, is rubbish. I don't care why I'm finding little cat-like animals in the levels, I just want to find them. According to the progress screen I've not completed ten of the fifteen levels. Nothing too hard yet, other than the bosses which represent not so much a difficulty curve, but a difficulty cliff. Luckily I've been collecting extra lives like nobody's business.

Burnout Revenge: I am elite

I've not even touched on the level 9 and level 10 events, but I can't rank up any more. Hooray. I don't think I'll ever perfect every event, but I'm aiming to at least get a medal on everything in order to complete this.

Oh, and I played online. I am rubbish.

Mr Driller Drill Spirits: hitting the bottom

I completed the 1500m stage! I broke my last record of 1150m with three lives left, and lost my first life at 1250m. The last 50m were an urgent rush as air ticked down and I wasn't sure I'd make it ... but I did.

So, 2000m? Hmm.

Burnout Revenge: getting there ...

See? That's only six more perfect events and one star from somewhere else ...

Having said that, it's getting a bit tricky now. I'm playing through the level eight stages, and they're making my eyes hurt with their speed.

Invalidity gaming

I've not only played on Burnout Revenge. Other things I've been playing are:

Boom Blox (Wii)

A late Christmas present, due to HMV delivering it late. It's great in multi-player, and some (but not all) of the single-player modes are good fun as well. I'm not too keen on the shooting gallery ones, but the throwing games, in particular the mining games, are very clever. For mining, you're given a set arrangement of blocks, and you have to firstly blow a hole inside using a bomb, then throw a rubber ball to hit as many blocks as possible. Effectively, you've got to use a highly explosive device to blow up as small as hol as you can, then throw the rubber ball into that hole ...

Tomb Raider: Underworld (Xbox 360)

Hmm.

I love Tomb Raider games, in general. I don't ever recall them being quite so fiddly to control though. Maybe it's the 360's control pad, but When I played Legend on the GameCube, I don't recall getting stuck on ledges or not being able to turn around properly.

And as a minor clautrophobe, the fact that this is all set underground, so far, is a bit freaky. Plus it's so dark. The puzzles are clever enough without the designers hiding the switches in the gloom!

Having said all that, it's a good Tomb Raider game, so far. The opening level, teaching the controls, was done well, with Croft Manor being set alight and Lara having to escape. I do like the fact that Lara's house in the games has been redesigned to look like that of the films.

I haven't played Tomb Raider: Anniversary yet, but I did complete the original Tomb Raider on the PlayStation, so I'm not too worried about that ...

Loco Roco (and Loco Roco 2) (PSP)

Another Christmas present was LR2, which I've opened and tried but since I've not completed LR1 I'll not start properly just yet. I've played a few more levels of LR1, now up to 5-4, but the battery in my PSP seems to last no time at all any more so I may need to replace that before I can finish this ...

Mr Driller Drill Spirits (DS)

I still haven't completed the 1500m stage of this.

Mr Driller Online (Xbox 360)

Using the items makes this much easier. I think I've got most of the realistic achievements now.

Pop (iPhone)

It's like the Wii game, but better. I can see me playing this a lot over the next year or so.

Skybound (iPhone)

There's a minigame in WarioWare: Touched where you have to draw a line under a ball to make it bounce upwards constantly. This game is almost the same as that, but with a bit more finesse in the presentation and mechanics. Another ideal hospital waiting room time waster. Something I've needed a lot!

Burnout Revenge: massively overpowered

Since I came back from Australia, I've had a bad problem with my ear, to the extent that I get dizzy if I stand up, feel nauseous if I bend over or move around too much, and therefore can't really do anything except sit and watch TV - or play games. Not so much the Wii games, mind you, since that would be far too much exertion.

I've just finished a session on Burnout Revenge, which, if you remember, I've played quite a bit before. It's not that difficult a game, though my personal goal of perfecting every event makes it a lot harder. In previous posts I complained about the checking traffic system, and while I still think it's a bad idea, it's maybe not the utter disaster I first thought it was. You do slow down by hitting cars a little, enough to cost you time on the hot laps and speed run events. And there's a certain strategy in hitting cars into the path of your rivals to score a takedown.

I'm now the tenth rank, "dominator", which I believe to be the penultimate rank before you complete the game. I've got to collect 122 stars before I do that though. I've completed (fully) the first two ranks, and have only a few stars at most on the next four. I've just started the event on the eighth rank. I've noted that the events I have trouble getting perfects for are those where you're racing the clock, not other cars. I'm obviously a good tactical driver, but not a very fast one.

One thing that has helped my progression was the completion of challenges on one of the locations - I managed to drive an entire race without crashing, which means I've not got one of the game's supercars. The EA racer, in fact, with a boost speed of 209mph, meaning I can catch up to rivals pretty quickly. Maybe too quickly - when you're in sixth with half a lap to go, it shouldn't really be possible to win the race ...

Braid: completed!

As it turns out, there are no new abilities to take back with you, just some very clever puzzles. Like, for example, using the table in one of the jigsaws as a platform in the level, allowing a jump over a massive gap, and getting the monster down onto the ground level, or rewinding time while stood on a time-proof platform so that keys move themselves to other sides of barriers, or using fast rewind to get back somewhere before a platform arrives.

The end of the game is pretty clever. You start at world 1-4 and go backwards to 1-1. The whole world goes backwards in 1-4 to 1-2, and then in 1-1 you see the princess and have to flee a wall of fire. Monsters go backwards but the princess goes forwards. She runs along the top, you run along the bottom, and it's pretty tight to get through some of the gaps before the fire burns you. And then at the end you stand on a time-proof platform and the princess goes to sleep on her bed - and I spent ages trying to work out what to do then. It turns out you have to rewind the entire level. I think I missed some nuance of story.

Sorry if I've spoilt it for you.

Good game, especially for the price, but I won't be going back to get the speed-run achievement, I don't think. There was far too much waiting around in the game (for things to rewind, and so on), which would be frustrating.

Pokémon Pearl: I beat the Elite Four!

And then got beaten by the champion. They never said anything about a champion. Huff.

Pokémon Pearl: j'ai Palkia

My quest up the mountain led me to Team Galactic summoning a legendary pokémon, Palkia. My long trip had left my pokémon weak, and when I was challenged by the two lackies, fighting alongside Jay, I only just defeated them. Luckily, Jay then healed my pokémon (why couldn't he do that in the first place?) before I took on the boss. He was tough, with pokémon around five levels stronger than mine, but I beat him and he ran off with his tail between his legs.

Palkia was sitting there. I healed up, and went to fight. Luxray hit with Thunder first, paralysing Palkia and taking off 25% of its energy. But a heavy hit left him with only 5HP left, and I switched to Infernape (killed in one hit, after throwing a Flame Wheel which caused virtually no damage) and then Gyrados. I threw one ultra ball, which Palkia escaped from, but he didn't kill Gyrados that time. I threw another ultra ball, and he didn't escape. I was amazed.

Maintenant, j'ai une pokémon legendaire.

Pokémon Pearl: erm ...

So much for this gaming diary. I had no idea where I was or what I was doing when I last played Pokémon Pearl, so I looked up the last entry here, which told me I had just beaten a gym leader and had six badges. In the game, I've got seven gym badges and no gym leader in sight.

I've worked out what to do next though, and have just beaten Team Galactic's boss, and freed three pokémon that he was experimenting on. They just disappeared, though - I hope I get to catch them again later ...

Bangai-O Spirits: story and best completed!

There are three main modes in Bangai-O Spirits - the story mode, a group of levels called "Treasure's Best", and a larger bunch of levels which aren't quite as good. The categorisation works quite well.

The story mode acts as a tutorial to the rest of the game, although it gets quite hard towards the end, with quite funny and self-referential story segments interspersed. The reference to taking the game to the second-hand shop when it was finished was most amusing.

The Treasure's Best levels are quite shooty and action-packed. Some of them start with far too many enemies on screen, and an immediate need for a smart bomb. There's a load of slowdown, but it's not clear if that's on purpose or not. I'd guess it is, because on the rare occasion that I've managed a 100x4 (a hundred bullets, at four times the normal size), the screen's paused for a good second before restarting.

I'm still working through the puzzle levels, and I'm probably halfway through. Some take ages to complete; some are over in a couple of seconds. Some are great, others not so.

And I've not even tried to make my own levels yet ...

Mr Driller Drill Spirits: not deep enough

Still nowhere near the bottom of the Egyptian 1500m level, despite loads of tries. I need to not panic so much.

Mario Kart Wii: are you there? Hello?

I can appreciate that, when playing against strangers, a lack of voice chat can be a good thing. The absence of whiney American teenagers screaming in your ear is a blessing. But when you're playing against friends, it becomes a little soulless.

We've found ways around it. When I play Kieron and John at one of the DS's online games, we set up a Halo 3 lobby on Xbox Live, and use that to talk amongst ourselves. In fact, in a couple of days' time that won't be necessary, since Microsoft are finally implementing party chat on their new dashboard.

This evening I played online Mario Kart Wii against George and Marty, and I had to put my mobile on speakerphone just so we could have a conversation during the game. Rubbish. The game wasn't though - a fair smattering of wins from both sides paying testament to Nintendo's balancing policy, with several close finishes. Great fun.

I then went offline and completed two of the 100cc cups. I still can't get better than a silver on the last of the new tracks though - Rainbow Road kills it every time.

Essential Sudoku DS: (picture puzzles) completed!

Wow.

After hours of effort, Essential Sudoku DS is finally over. Well, the picross puzzles - I'm not going to do the sudokus.

So, what do you think the last puzzle was? Well, let's see ...


Last puzzle! How exciting!

Lots of colours. It looks like it'll be quite spectacular. Let's see, where to start? Well, the sixth column sums to 14 plus one blank, so we know how that fits in. We can see the seventh row too. Hmm, this is rather easy ...

Erm, what is this? I was thinking that at least we'd have a picture of a trophy as the last puzzle. I mean, that would have been obvious, yes?

But no. A pie chart. Great.

Essential Sudoku DS: 25 to go

Indeed, I am now on puzzle 975, and the last few have actually been quite easy with one or two exceptions. Some of the pictures are just dire, though. I know I'm not really playing to see the pictures, but rather to just solve the puzzles, but it looks like not everyone at the development studio was a talented artist ...

Bioshock: claustrophobes unite

Brr, it's a bit scary.

Essential Sudoku DS: moving towards a conclusion

I'm now on puzzle 882, which means there's a real possibility that some time in the near future I will actually complete the game. The thought scares me. If puzzles take an average of 5 minutes to solve, then I will have spent over 80 hours playing this game - and that's not including the sudoku puzzles.

I'm disappointed by the current crop of sports pictures. The stick figures look very rough indeed.

Essential Sudoku DS: not impossible after all

I was all set this morning to unleash a torrent of wrath and indignation, complaining that puzzle 788 of Essential Sudoku DS was impossible. I had found a mere five squares which I could be sure about, and in a 15x15 grid that's pretty pathetic.

However, at lunchtime I tried a couple of deterministic paths - considering that this was a monocolour puzzle, I could test to see if certain spaces were on or off - and managed to complete half the puzzle. And then got stuck; I looked for twenty minutes and couldn't find a move.

This added impetus lead me to do a bit of searching - and I found a clever automatic solver which confirmed to me that there was a unique solution, and I'd got the half I was doing right. Then, after a full 5 seconds of looking at the puzzle again, I found the most obvious clue I'd missed (I had a block of five into which I had to fit a four, and I'd only coloured in a single square), and that led to me completing the puzzle.

So, in the hope that I can spare others of the anguish, here are some hints for puzzle 788 of Essential Sudoku DS:

• On the bottom row, you're slightly limited as to where the 4 can go since there must be a maximum of 3 in any one place on the line above.
• Test the top-right corner; see if setting that to 1 causes any contradictory issues.
• The rows and columns with 5 and 4 together need only one square to be lost from the row or column in order for a single square to be coloured.
• If all else fails, the picture is orientated diagonally from top-right to bottom-left.

Samba de Amigo: hey hey, we're not the Sonic Team

And boy, does it show. The Gearbox logo looks dire in the bouncy colourful lively startup sequence, all grey and boring. Where's the cheery voice? Where's the fun background music? Why didn't they just copy the front end from the Dreamcast game, which was perfect?

It's not all bad, though. It was at first; it was an uncontrollable mess, with needless "hustle" sections shoehorned into Tubthumping, destroying the amazing original. After a few songs, though, I started to work out how the game measured things, and by placing a finger along the side of the remote, and "shaking" by jerking the remote sideways towards the screen, I've found something that registers almost all the time, and also sort of feels like I'm playing on the Dreamcast again.

Sort of; almost. If it wasn't for the fact that the Wii version has many more songs, and more play modes, than the Dreamcast version, I'd not see this getting much play. As it is, after a bit of practice it works OK, and I can see myself playing it a bit, and it also coming out at parties. But it's a huge disappointment, to be fair. I can't imagine that many people at parties being willing to commit the time to understanding how to control the game; it should be intuitive and immediate, and it's not. A long way from it.

I hope this sells well, though, so that they can bring out Samba de Amigo v2009 using Wii MotionPlus and get it working properly.