Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates: I am a Selkie!

Further through the game, after a key character has died, I've now got a party of four traipsing around, including one of each tribe. The king's apparently under the spell of an evil yuke, who's pretending to be one of my party. I'm now battling through a flooded complex after finding my lilty friend, and have found a big fish who I wish to be rid of. He is killing me lots.

Rainbow Six Vegas: completed!

I was pretty close to the end, in fact. A coupe more of those hateful hacking sequences, which I got past with liberal use of smoke grenades (one of which was really easy with the use of the smoke, since the enemies rappelled down, couldn't see us, so just stood there while we shot them one by one with thermal vision on), and then we found Irene, who went down in a hail of bullets. As with all evil genius candidates, she let us know what was happening just before she snuffed it, so I knew I had to get to the roof to disarm the missile. Well, not disarm it as such; Michael stuck some C4 on it and then after it launched it blew up. Bad luck terrorists!

Then came the twist; there's a mole in Rainbow, who stole the helicopter after gloating about his success in duping us all ... luckily I managed to shoot the helicopter down so it crashed into the lake. Hooray, game over.

Well, this game is. The final words in the game were "this isn't over, not by a long way". Part of the radio extracts at the end told of how the pilot's body was recovered from the helicopter, but not the mole's. And, in case you weren't convinced by that, there's a big black and red "to be continued" screen.

That'll be Rainbow Six Vegas 2 then. I may play something else first ...

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates: I want to be a Selkie!

It plays much as FFCC did, but with only one character on screen - although apparently that one character represents two, since both appear in the cutscenes. The dialogue is dreadful; the pictorial representations of the characters are abysmal and without the charm of their 3D counterparts. Despite this, the story's holding together quite well, with sufficient intrigue to keep me playing despite the obvious need for tedious levelling up and item collection that'll come later.

To be honest, this was bought merely so I could play online with John and Kieron; I want to be a Selkie again and see Kieron running around with a bucket on his head. I'm concerned, however, that a lack of miasma keeping us together will see Kieron lost in the midst of a sixteen-enemy fight somewhere while John and I explore carefully ...

Global Defence Force: they've taken London

On Steve's recommendation, I've set up my PS2, dug out a memory card, and tried Global Defence Force, the predecessor to EDF2017. I've cleared ten or so stages now, and ... well, it's pretty much the same game. The menu structure is the same, the lack of autosave, the categories of weapons, the ability to play cooperatively. The "Hard" difficulty level is perhaps slightly easier. There's a much greater variety of locations, with the very first being set in London, and travelling the world, going into the subway, to Tokyo ...

Maybe it's the lack of teammates, maybe it's the lack of voiceover, maybe it's the fuzzyness of the graphics compared to the shininess of EDF's baddies, but it's not quite as immediate fun as EDF was, to me. That may be, of course, because of the weapons I've picked up - I've only just got a reasonable homing missile launcher which can fire off 10 missiles a second, with a reasonable degree of accuracy.

I think the obvious fault is with the controls. I feel like I'm continually fighting to control my soldier, and the vehicles are an absolute nightmare to control - it's far easier to just run around on the ground. This is a shame, since you get the feeling that using the tank or helicopter would add something to the game, but as it is I'll never use them enough to get used to controlling them.

I will, of course, continue to play GDF, but more concurrently with EDF, and not as a replacement.

Now, interestingly, GDF is actually the second in the series, with the first being released over here under the name Monster Attack. I may need to track that one down.

Pop: the bubbles, I see them everywhere

This is a very clever game indeed.

It's easy to play it as a relaxing experience, watching the bubbles scrolling up (or down, or across) the screen, and popping ones that you want to. There's a deep game hidden within, though, with the combo structure being the only way to reach the really high scores. In order to make a combo, you must hit only those bubbles of the same colour, not popping anything else. This becomes more and more difficult, with bubbles overlapping, and you're then left to try and get the smaller bubbles which get more points but give you less time and are more difficult to hit meaning that you're more likely to end your combo ... it get quite frantic indeed.

My only complaint is that on some of the stages two of the four colours are quite similar, which is something you don't want when you're starting to panic ...

Earth Defence Force 2017: I want to cry

There was one mission that my brother and I just couldn't do on the hard difficulty level yesterday, but I thought I'd give it a go by myself. It involves three waves of giant ants, before two UFOs arrive and drop a load more and you have to bring down the UFOs while avoiding being overrun. The first two times I tried, I died after the UFOs appeared. There were too many ants. But on the third go, something clicked. I ran towards the bugs at the start, and joined up with my colleagues before they died - and then led them away while missiling the big group of ants until they were gone. I did this again with the second group of soldiers, and the third. By the time the UFOs appeared, I had a big group who were all killing the ants that came down while I was able to spend time shooting inside the UFO. Mission completed!

What's more, because of the huge numbers of enemies, I got loads of new weapons. Hooray!

I then went onto the beach landing level, which was pretty easy with my FORK missiles (20 homing missiles launched at the same time), and got another 5 new weapons. Hooray again!

And then I decided to try the level where the walkers are going through the city. It was all very hectic, but by concentrating on one walker at a time I got them down to two last enemies, with my soldiers firing constantly ... and then the screen went black.

No, I hadn't sat on my controller. My Xbox had decided to overheat, cutting the game off and also deciding it wasn't going to let me turn it off either. I had to pull out the plug. It's now sitting on the floor, all by itself, cooling down - it was burning to the touch at first.

So I want to cry. Due to EDF not having an autosave (WHY NOT?) and Microsoft making the most unreliable console in the history of anything (WHY?), my evening of playing has been turned sour. Bah.

Earth Defence Force 2017: they're spitting acid at us!

My brother came to visit last night, and for some reason among playing Samba de Amigo, FIFA 08, Beijing 2008, Ghost Squad and Virtua Tennis, I suggested we put on EDF2017. I bought it almost a year ago, and had never played it.

I wish I had. It is superb. Well, no, it's crap, in a funky skillo sort of way. It's the closest videogame I've ever seen to a B-movie, with giant ants and spiders, absurdly powerful weapons, and bad dialogue.

We played it for an hour and a half, until we turned it off and realised there was no autosave. And then we played it for two and a half hours more, frequently dying when we put it on harder difficulties in an attempt to gain better weapons. I think we've cleared around 4% of the game.

Apollo Justice Ace Attorney: completed!

So, in the end, it turns out that everything is even more interlinked than first thought, with many key characters being related. It does feel a little odd when it all tied up quite so neatly, really. Certainly it's not the best-written story of all time.

I think that I still consider the original Phoenix Wright to be the best of the series, before the magatama was introduced. Apollo's bracelet was quite a clever idea, which affected the court scenes rather than the investigation, but it was very limited in its use - and it could get quite difficult to actually work out what you were meant to be seeing and when. Better signposting would have been good. This game probably comes a close second.

But, of my, the end of the game didn't half drag on. I had to present a whole three things during the last part of the trail, and there was just far too much talking. Not quite Metal Gear Solid 4 standards of 90 minute cutscenes, but still. I wish to play the game, not read it.

And so ends the current Ace Attorney series. Take that!

Rainbow Six Vegas: smoke everywhere!

Finally managed to get past the theatre, with lots of smoke, and setting Michael up beforehand behind the box with the turret. And they're trying to blow up the Nevada Dam. No idea why. Anyway, it looks like it's bye bye to Vegas ...

Rainbow Six Vegas: big empty theatre!

Or not empty, in fact, which was the problem.

I've come a long way, rescuing scientists and diffusing a large bomb. As I suspected, I've come across my two colleagues who were kidnapped in the opening stages. One died in a firefight, which really annoyed me. I saw him sitting there, so I kept my distance and killed all the enemies I could see using a silenced pistol, with only the last two returning fire at all (and they were nowhere near Kan). And yet, because the game was scripted so, he died anyway - but not before telling me that Vegas is just a cover and the terrorists are planing something bigger elsewhere. Hmm.

I'm now trying to hack into the terrorist's data hub to find out where that is. It's taken me fifteen attempts to get to the stage of the theatre, since there were loads of enemies running through every door once I got down to the stalls. I finally worked out that I could make them appear by going to ground level on an outside corridor and using my snake cam under the door, then go back up to the gods and kill them from there. It still wasn't easy, mind.

Now I'm on stage, and when I order Jung to hack the computer a lod more enemies come through the doors and abseil down from the of. The latter I can understnad, but the I've cleared out all the entrances already; where are they coming from?

In any case, I generally last about 20 seconds before they destroy the computer that Jung's working on. It's a laptop, so why he can't hide behind a crate with it, I don't know. I'll have to try deploying some smoke grenades in front of him so they can't see him to shoot it.

Apollo Justice Ace Attorney: complex relations

So, Magnifi is Trucy's grandfather, and they share a sort of mindreading power that's been passed down. Evidently through her mother. But Apollo also has that power ... does that make him related? A half-brother?

I've finished investigation of the past now, so I'm trying to clear up the present. Everything's interlinked, even more so than normal ...

Apollo Justice Ace Attorney: from the flames, he arises ...

Phoenix is back! And it looks like he didn't do it, but he did present it, and so there's a travesty of justice here that happened seven years ago. And I'm back to controlling Phoenix, flicking between the present and the past, looking to put right what once went wrong, and hoping each time that my next leap will be the leap home ...

Erm, wrong series. It's all a bit complicated now. I was very pleased with myself for working out the two guns and rifling marks puzzles, though.

Rainbow Six Vegas: overturned cars!

And so to Vegas itself, leaving my teammates captured and half dead. I very much doubt that's the last I'll see of them though.

It's lovely to have a bit of colour after the browns and greys of the opening arenas. I may have joked in the past about how the C64 could cope with many shades of brown, but the current trend for all action games to be set in dusty grimy locales makes everything look rather samey and dull. Vegas may be grey at times, but it makes all the difference having bright blues and reds inside the casinos.

I've fought through one of the casinos, in order to get to the security room. The layout of the casino is a nightmare for being able to keep track of where the terrorists are hiding; they ought to do something about that.

Apollo Justice Ace Attorney: a startling admission

"I'm a lawyer, I'm not supposed to be nice."

Ghost Squad: leave no trace!

Well, of course I'll leave no trace. The enemies' bodies disappear after three seconds.

I've not played a proper lightgun game for years - ever since, in fact, my last TV (the 28" widescreen CRT) was 100Hz only so my Dreamcast guns wouldn't work on it. Ghost Squad uses the Wii remote as a gun, and it's great. It's surprisingly accurate, and I get the feeling the software's been tweaked to allow for some slightly wayward shots.

It's a well structured game, with multiple choices at different stages through the levels, meaning that each game has the potential to be different. I've played mission 1 four times so far, and the best I've done was to get 40% clear ... yes, I finished all three missions, but I'm not going to claim that I've completed the game just yet!

I get the feeling it'll be a while before I get good rankings on the online leaderboards.

Samba de Amigo: go to the next stage

Well, when you've just set up your new high-definition LCD TV, what better way to celebrate than plug the Dreamcast in and shake maracas?

I wasn't great at it, though. I didn't manage to get a single entry on the high score table, and even got a B ranking on one turn. Hang my head in shame. Still, now that I've been reminded how great it is, I have every incentive to play more to get better!

Rainbow Six Vegas: snake cam!

For my birthday back in March I got this and Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (although receipt of the latter was delayed). Now I've got the chance, I've started playing through this.

I've not got to Vegas yet. It's pretty hard, though I'm slowly learning how to hide away and just peep around corners. I was learning the best way to control my team mates as well, until they get taken away from me ...

Unfortunately, that's not the only thing I'm learning. I'm also learning where the enemy starts and their routes, so that every time I die I no longer sneak around every corner but instead just run to where I can kill the enemies easily, over and over again. The checkpoints are rather far apart, and I'm dying far too frequently.

Apollo Justice Ace Attorney: Trucy's real dad

Finally, it makes sense.  I was trying to work out how Phoenix had a kid of 15 when, from what I can gather, this game is only set eight years after Trials and Tribulations.  I thought I'd have remembered seeing a kid running around.  Hopefully this case (the third) might provide more detail as to what exactly led to Phoenix giving up law ... it's all off on a bit of a weird tangent at the moment though.

Apollo Justice Ace Attorney: what a state

Phoenix, what happened? You look a complete state! And yet seven years later you've got far more confidence than you ever had as a defence attorney. Nice sting operation, too.

Apollo's a bit of a wet blanket at the moment, but so was Phoenix at the start of the first game. I'm looking forward to finding out what happened seven years previous, which meant that Phoenix lost his attorney badge. For now, though, I've just finished the first case, and it was lovely and concise, with some great DS features included - examining bottles, moving cupboards, and so on.

But Phoenix has a daughter?

Wii Fit: tentative steps

I've had a few goes on this now, but given the hassle of setting up the Wii and the lack of available TV, I'm putting off the daily exercise regime until I've moved into my new flat. For now, though, I'm impressed. The exercises I've tried do seem to give a good workout, and some of the aerobic games are good fun - though heading the footballs can get rather tricky.

Plus it gave me a Wii Fit age of 26 when I tried it at John's, so I won't hear a bad thing about it.