River Rapids

Given that Soren's high score on Brickbreaker is increasing at a rate of knots, I've decided to try some of the other games available for download on the Blackberry. River Rapids is a simulation of white-water canoeing, and it works so much better than Brickbreaker in terms of the controls. The scroll wheel turns your canoe, and you've also got boost and brake buttons Other than that, though, you're at the mercy of the water.

It's not easy, but I've progressed a fair bit, unlocking three new courses and setting some good times. The trick is to not incur any penalties, even if that means going back upstream to pass through a missed gate. On the first course I found a good course which meant that I didn't miss any gates at all, but it's not so easy on the other courses.

Midweek Challenges - 27/09/2006

Much the same as last week ...

One
Earn enough to buy a laser gun (in Skure), gloves (in Skure), a light sabre (in Uzo), a laser sheild (in Abion) and a wand (in Skure) in Phantasy Star.

Two
Complete the Pro class of Touch Golf.

Three
Complete the first two stages of River Rapids.

Touch Golf: dragging on

No, I've not completed the professional class, but that's mainly because it seems to have 24,196 tournaments to complete before you can progress. I'm winning about 75% of them, and coming 2nd or 3rd in the rest. I'll keep going.

Phantasy Star: flying around the galaxy

Now I remember where I was. I was trying to earn money in order to buy new equipment for everyone from the new towns I can now get to.

It's a little monotonous having to fight over and over again to get mesatas though.

Wipeout Pure: unlocking stuff

It still seems hit-or-miss as to whether things unlock or not, but I've just completed the Ascension tournament on the Vector difficulty, and came second overall, and that's unlocked the next difficulty level up. Flash, I seem to recall.

No idea how I can get the other tournaments to be available in Venom though. They're all available in Vector, but even completing them there doesn't seem to unlock anything.

Brickbreaker: unfunniness and funniness

Soren has just got a score of over 25,000. Unfunny.

In the next couple of weeks, they'll be installing a new Blackberry server system at work, which will reset all data on all devices. Funny.

Tetris DS: puzzle mode

It's a welcome break from the franticness of the normal gameplay, but I'm not convinced it's entirely great. For some reason I can never remember the rule that you must always clear at least one line each time, and so get very frustrated when the piece doesn't drop in the correct place.

I'm not sure how many puzzle levels there are, but I'm looking forward to completing it.

Midweek Challenges - 20/09/2006

No, no updates for ages! Shock, horror!

Well, I have been on holiday. I think I'm allowed that.

One
Complete the Pro class of Touch Golf.

Two
Unlock the Ascension tournament in Wipeout Pure's Venom class.

Three
Get back into Phantasy Star. I sort of forgot where I was while on holiday.

Phantasy Star: Dr Luveno and the spaceship

I've rescued Noah, and he told me to go and find a Dr Luveno. He, apparently, could build me a spaceship. I seem to recall from the opening sequence that there were are three planets in the system - maybe it's almost time for me to go to the last one.

Noah's presence somehow allowed me to go down a manhole cover that I couldn't before, and I've found a new little town on the other side of the river. It's pretty desolte, full of ruined houses and beggars. One of them send me south to find the prison where Dr Luveno was locked up.

Monsters around here are scary and powerful. Luckily I've upgraded all my kit.

I managed to rescue Dr Luveno from the prison, and went back to the village (Gothic) where he built me a spaceship in 20 seconds flat. Rather impressive. Now I just need to find a pilot. I have no idea where ...

Midweek Challenges - 06/09/2006

I'm off on holiday at the end of the week, and won't be playing much ...

One
Get to the third planet in Phantasy Star.

Two
Clear another twenty levels in Tetris DS's puzzle mode.

Phantasy Star: Nuala caves

Far surpassed the challenge, and I'm getting into this game quite a lot. After the initial difficult stage, where any monster had a fair chance of killing Alis, I've now got a party of three characters who are relatively powerful and can at least put up a decent fight. Plus Alis has learnt a heal spell which allows her to replenish the health of anyone on the team when needed.

It's been hinted that I need to see the governor, and it's been further hinted that he likes sweets. And finally someone in Scion's told me there's a cake shop in the caves of Nuala. I can now appreciate the history behind the cake mission in Phantasy Star Online!

So I set off to Nuala, meeting werebats along the way (they put up a bit of a fight, but they give loads of mesata when killed). I save just outside the cave, and enter. I light a flash, and can see the dungeons spreading out ahead of me. I use my newly-discovered dungeon key and go through the door. I'm attacked by five Goldlenses, and fight them off like a champ.

It's good fun, though I resort to drawing a map as I go since it's a bit sprawling. I get some odd looks from the people on the train, balancing a pad on my knee, playing a game. Only because they're bored. They ought to buy a Game Boy Micro.

I finall make my way down four floors, and find the cake merchant. He sells me some shortbread for 1000 mesatas - rather expensive confectionary! - and then I realise that I'm going to have to go through the caves to get out again, since there's no teleporting here. I'm a bit low on health, so I drink loads of cola and set off.

After a long slog out I emerge into the sunlight. Excellent. Save ... and the game crashes. Without saving.

I'm going to have to do it all over again.

Bollocks.

At least I've got my map.

Doom RPG: completed!

I wasn't that near the end, as it turns out. I'd just survived a massive explosion and Junction was ruined, but I still had to fight my way through the red reactor section before getting to the portal. Oh, and on the way, kill Kronos.

In fact, killing Kronos was easy. One hit with a rocket and one from the BFG and he went down.

I regretted that later though. Tim's Top Tip - save your BFG cells for the cyberdemon. He's a bit mean. I died a couple of times when I first met him - the problem is that you have to destroy two power couplings while monsters get spewed from the portal every couple of turns. And some of these monsters can revive others. I worked out the trick is to destroy the power couplings as quickly as possible, then just kill the cyberdemon quickly before other monsters are revived and get in your way.

And then escape.

The game's hinted there's more to find and I've been placed back at the beginning with all my weapons and passkeys, but I'm not sure I can be bothered to carry on right now. Maybe soon.

Midweek Challenges - 30/08/2006

Having moved all of my stuff into the new house, it's now all in boxes.

One
Complete Doom RPG. I've played it a fair bit over the past few days since it's been available. It's a really good game, and although the story's a bit lightweight it does add to the atmosphere. I think I'm probably near the end now.

Two
Get Alis to level 5 of Phantasy Star. It's an RPG game that starts off with the painful levelling that most RPGs finish with. It should be outlawed.

Midweek Challenges - 23/08/2006

Very simply, one challenge this week:

One
Move house

I think that might just cover it. If I get a chance, I'll play some Tetris, and some Wipeout Pure. But it's unlikely.

Tetris DS: online

Hmm. It's hard. I lost my first game dreadfully. I then played a four-player game, which I came second on, then fourth, then third twice. Then I played someone called "Kerri" who beat me twice, before I beat them three times.

That felt good.

Wipeout Pure: downloading stuff

I've spent the last hour or so downloading all the extra tracks and racers for Wipeout Pure. It all seems a bit of a hasty addition, with nothing to tell you which ones you've already go and so on. Anyway, I've now got a huge number of competitions to try out before I need to worry about unlocking the others.

Which is probably a good thing. I've had a look at a guide and it seems that to unlock the next tournament I need to get all golds on the current tournaments. I'm sure I could do that; I'm just not sure I can be bothered to sit through the same races again only for the AI racers to overtake me on the last corner.

Midweek Challenges - 16/08/2006

One
Win a game of Tetris DS online.

Two
Work out how to unlock the next lot of stuff on Wipeout Pure.

Three
Complete three more intermediate sudoku puzzles in Brain Training.

Touch Golf: the first 'level'

I'm no longer a rookie, I'm now a professional.

The prize money hasn't gone up much, but the competition's much harder.

I don't think that's a fair trade.

Tetris DS: marathon mode completed

On my third go, no less - I've completed 200 lines and so have unlocked the "endless" mode. I must admit, the old-school Tetris theme was nice to hear as the blocks were just appearing at the bottom of the screen. That God for the everlasting rotation stuff that the Tetris Company made Nintendo put in - it gives you a chance to move.

Some of the other modes are very clever. Puzzle suits the DS very well, although it can be solved by trial and error if needed. Touch puzzle is a little more difficult, but again there has been one level which I've 'solved' by randomly moving pieces around. The touch mode is fun, if not frantic enough. And the mission mode is inspired.

The less said about the catch mode the better, though. I'm not entirely sure I understand it anyway, but it does seem largely uncontrollable and just not fun.

Dr Kawashima's Brain Training: drawing pictures

I'm no artist, but Dr Kawashima's just shown me Tamsyn's attempts at drawing a shark and a swordfish. Mine are works of art compared to hers.

I feel allowed to mock, though, since she's got all the high scores on Calculation x100. Boo.