This last month...

I've been playing a lot more than I've been blogging even if I did promise myself that I was going to keep my blogging up. Ah well! :)

So what have I've been playing lately. Let me think...

I've got a chance to do a review of "Star Ocean: The Last Hope" for Girl Gamers UK. Check it out here. JRPGs are not really my usual style but I've actually enjoyed playing it on some level. Still not completed it even though I've put a LOT of hours into it. I have a feeling it's one of those games that go on and on. Bought a strategy guide for it the other day at Gamestation (something that I don't usually do), so I'll have a go at making my way closer to the end with some guided instructions from the other side of the sofa. From what I've read it's a game that you'll probably have to play through more than once to complete everything. And I have to complete everything - not that I'm an Xbox achievement whore or anything. ;D

We've also been playing a lot more of Gears of War 1 & 2 and Left 4 Dead. Starting to enjoy being a killer! That's a big step up from my usually puzzle adventure style. Actually really looking forward to the new map pack update for Gears which is being released in July. Never thought I'd here myself say I was looking forward to an FPS.

These last few days I've been playing Gun and I've actually managed to complete it (woohoo!) - on easy, but completed nonetheless. It's fairly quick to play through and you get a lot of achievements along the way without having to try too hard. Now I just need to play it through on Normal, Hard and Insane! Gun is probably not the best game ever released but there's something immensely satisfying about riding around on a horse looking for gold whilst shooting peoples heads off! We're going to be writing a review of Gun for Game People over this next week or so which should be fun. (My other half has just completed the game whilst I've been writing this post). I'll probably end up saying "You're messing with the wrong Hoodoo" a couple of times (AKA a lot!) whilst writing the review, but hey - it makes me laugh for some bizarre reason. It will probably drive him insane before I get tired of saying it, but that's the kind of thing he has had to put up with living with me over these last 10 years so he is used to it by now. :D

Also bought Army of Two, Halo 3 and Overlord on Friday, but not really tried them out properly yet. No doubt my next post will be about those games.

Off to play some more games now.

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Kingdom for Keflings

I downloaded A Kingdom for Keflings a while back on Xbox Arcade. I had heard someone mention it and I thought it sounded a bit like my type of game, so I thought I'd give it a try.

I finally unlocked all 12 achievements today and got my full 200 points. Yay! :) Who would have thought that walking around as a giant in a friendly little town could be so addictive? I also think the happy sounding in game music helps to put you in a good mood. Anyway - it's all very relaxing.

You play as a giant in control of a small town where you have to build buildings to unlock blueprints. These blueprints enable you to build even more buildings until you finally get your own castle and become a king. It all sounds pretty easy, and to be fair it is - but that's the true charm of the game. Every now and then it's nice to just chill out infront of the Xbox and play something that doesn't require too much concentration.

I first played the game back in February and made good progress on my way to world domination - or at least to being in charge of my own town. However (me being me) I didn't save every 10 minutes and of course the Xbox decided to crash on me. I reloaded the game only to discover that my last few hours of gaming had been completely wasted. ;( Typical! Anyway - couldn't make myself rebuild everything again straight away and after that I half forgot about the game. However - started the old save up again today and really enjoyed playing again. I also took some of my old saved up frustration out by kicking a few Keflings to achieve my Big Bully award. I even took part in a few online sessions to get my last 2 missing achievements.

Not sure how much I will be playing the game again in the near future now that I've made it all the way to the end. However I have a sneaky feeling that I might blow the dust off it again later as it is just such a cute little game and you just can't beat the experience of being a giant. :)

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Dusting off the blog

Haven't been blogging a lot lately but I'm feeling inspired again - so here I am. :)

So what's been happening since March? Well - I've been playing a lot of games, mainly on the Xbox and Wii. Never really thought I would get hooked on the Xbox being a Nintendo girl at heart, but I have. I think it's the gamepoints collecting that I'm hooked on. :) I like this extra addition to the games that give you something else to aim for other than just playing through from start to finish. It probably all stems from me being an uber badge whore in City of Heroes.

So I have been trying to learn how to become a first person shooter. I'm still rubbish though, but I guess I'm improving. I've only really tried it co-op and I have to admit that the other person on the team is probably carrying me a bit but hey - it's all just for fun. :) Still never think it will be a natural game for me to play, but I'm actually half enjoying it. The 2 games I've been trying out are Gears of War 2 and Left 4 Dead (both on the Xbox). Out of the two Gears of War 2 is my favourite so far as this is the one I've been playing the most.

I've also been playing a few other "older" games on the Xbox. Started out by playing Overlord. Didn't think that I would like this game as I prefer to be good rather than evil for some stupid reason. (Think I'll need to see a shrink about this lol). I probably play it too nicely but I can't help it - I pretend they're my Pikmins. :) Also had a go at Eternal Sonata. Feels like I've played a lot of it but I'm only just coming up to the end of chapter 2. Guess I'm not really an RPG person... It all just seems a bit slow - too much talk and not enough action, and the repetitive fighting style is boring me a bit. It's not actually a bad game and I'll probably give it another few goes before giving up on it completely.

On the adventure gamefront I've played Secret Files: Tunguska on the Wii. I actually played it all the way through which is not bad for me and I really enjoyed it. Brought back all the old memories of point-and-click adventures. Some of the puzzles are a bit easy when you're still thinking like Monkey Island, but it's a pretty good story and it's not all too obvious what you have to do next. Also currently doing another trip down memory lane on the Wii by playing Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars. Played this on the PC years ago but they have done a nice convertion to the Wii and the new addition to the beginning of the game was pretty good too. Currently only about 25% into the game, but I'm enjoying playing as these old well-known characters and I'm pretty sure this will be another one I will be playing all the way to the end.

Another game I'm enjoying at the moment on the Xbox is Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise. I just love all the little characters that you can collect. It's such a fun and cute game, and really addictive. I have a feeling I'll be playing this a lot over the next few weeks. :)

Been playing a few other games as well, but I can't think of what they are at the moment so I will catch up on them later.

Anyway, I will try to blog a bit more often - at least just to keep a record of what I've been playing. :)

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DS - Trauma Center Under The Knife

Dug out another one of our old DS games - Trauma Center Under The Knife. Never really spent a lot of time playing this game when we first bought it so I thought I would have another go.

You have just finished your internship and have to perform your first procedures as a young male doctor. The game teaches you the variuos steps that have to be performed during surgery and you of course have to do these to the best of your ability - preferably without killing any patients along the way!

The first few levels are fairly easy and I for some bizare reason quite enjoy learning how to pull pieces of glas out of someones heart. As the clock is ticking and the patients vital stats are dropping, I almost find myself getting slightly stressed! I have to say that it's not exactly the most realistic game and will probably not help you save someones life in the real world, but somehow I feel slightly more qualified to administer a Hello Kitty bandage now.

After a few chapters you discover that you have a hidden talent that allows you to slow down time so you can perform more things during your surgeries. This is where the game (at least for me) all of a sudden becomes a lot more difficult. I am currently stuck at a level where I for some reason kill my patient over and over again which is getting really annoying. I might be missing a trick here but I checked the other save games and this the very same level where I got stuck last time. Don't get me wrong - I do prefer to have to use a little bit of skills when playing games, but the jump between the previous level and the current one just seems to be ridicolous.

I will probably have another few goes at getting past this level before I give up and the game returns to the bookshelf upstairs. It will stay there collecting dust for another few years until I again forget why I stopped playing the previous time and have another go at turning into the next Dr McDreamy.

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Wii jOG [2]

Looks like the Wii jOG is being released in April and will be priced around £19.99. If only I knew someone who's birthday was in April... oh hang on - ME! :D Can't wait to actually run around as a little Lego Princess Leia.



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DS - Mystery Case Files MillionHeir

So we bought the Mystery Case Files MillionHeir a couple of weeks ago after seeing it advertised on the TV. I have to admit I had pretty high expectations after the commercial and was hoping for a cool little puzzle game.

The game has both a single player and a multi player option. I have not yet tried out the multi player option so I can't really make any comments on that. The single player option however is made up of a story mode and a quick play. Story mode again has got 3 difficulty levels - Rookie, Detective or Gumshoe. The first time I played the game I went for Detective.

You start the game one year back in time by going to a mansion belonging to Mr Phil T. Rich. You are here given some basic instructions of how the game works and one of your first jobs involves finding a detective badge that you have to clean by rubbing the stylus over the screen and blowing into the microphone. After finding a few more items the game jumps to 6 monts later - Mr Phil T. Rich disappears and you are called in to help find him.

From now on the game is broken into small chapters where you have to investigate various suspects. You do this by finding "hidden" items. You are given a list of objects to find and you scroll across the screen and click it with the stylus once you spot one of them. You usually have a couple of rooms to search through for each suspect with a list for each room. After finding the required number of items from the lists you then have to solve a final puzzle for each suspect. These vary from jigsaws, slide puzzles, memory games and spot the difference plus a few others. All of them a little bit too easy... After investigating all the suspects you are then taken to the next level which is pretty much just repeating the same technique that you have just been using. You are given a list, have to reinvestigate and have to find more objects. A couple of new games are introduced when you get to the final part of the game but these are not really that difficult either.

I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed. The game very quickly becomes a little bit repetitive and you can play through it in a few hours. I tried it again on the Gumshoe setting but this quickly becomes frustrating as you have a very limited amount of time to find the required items. If you run out of time you have to start that level over with a new list of items. I have to admit that at first the time pressure of the Gumshoe level made the game more interesting, but the novelty soon wears off when you are searching the same room for the 5th time...

I think that the whole game could have been done a lot better. I don't really mind the whole search and find scenario that you have to do over and over again, but this is where the game could be improved. A bit of a variety to how you have to investigate the different suspects would have made the whole thing a lot more interesting rather than just a repeat of itself.

I have to say that I am a bit disappointed in the whole game. I know my expectations were probably too high, but it just seems like the developers could have done SO much more with the game. I have a feeling that I will not be spending any of my hard earned cash on a Mystery Case Files 2.

Wii jOG

Just watched Jason try out the Wii jOG on the Gadgetshow and he liked it - so how bad can it be! :) Looks like great fun and gives you a chance to burn off some calories at the same time. It is SO made for the Lego games. Can't wait to try one out. Wonder when the release date is? Can't seem to find it anywhere.

Anyway - I want one :)