Journal Entries
NaJoPoMo day 18 Mags - Do It Yourself
Posted Nov 18, 2013
Over the last few years I've broken a lot of gaming equipment, Playstaions, PS2s the occasional Xbox 360 and a whole hill full of controllers.
The Playststations were quite easy to fix at the time, you just popped 'em open, found where the fault was, gave a dmaned good clean and wee bit of solder and you were away. The PS2's were similar, but if you broke the ribbon attaching the top to the bottom, it was time to get a new one (and keep the old one for spares) the same thing is true of the controllers. Once one them will not hold it's battery in place or starts to stick it goes into a little plastic bag where it can be taken apart in future. My son's official Halo contoller was playing up the other week, so we needed to replace one of the triggers and a bumper. The back was also rather badly damaged. The only problem was that the backs that we had were white nad his back was a lovely silver colour. It just happened that I had a 'Platemail Metal Colour Primer' that I use for some of my Warhammer bits. It was a perfect colour match and I could 'remove' bits of it so it looked as worn in places as the front. You can't see the join as Eric Morcambe used to say.
The Xbox is another story and needs professional help. One day maybe...
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Latest reply: Nov 18, 2013
NaJoPoMo day 17 Mags - The Joy of Roleplay
Posted Nov 17, 2013
In about of nostalgia, I went back to Tales of Vesperia yesterday. Gods, I'd missed honest to goodness RPG. Characters with big eyes and even bigger swords 
I initially rented it and had it for weeks, you couldn't buy a copy at the time for less than £50 and it was quite old then (it was released in 2008) Hubby eventually found me a copy for a reasonable price, although the dead tree guide is rarer than unicorn poop and still very expensive.
In typical RPG stylee you gather together a rag-tag band of miscreants, royalty (one of them is a princess 
) and a dog called Repede who is really rather cool and fights with daggers. You have to save the world (what else?) from a shadowy plot to use the ancient technology that the planet relies on for it's own ends. There are some rather bizarre side quests, like Repede 'marking his territory' while another dog tries to do the same and there's the fairly usual learning of recipes which can help in battle.
I've played it for well in excess of 120 hours and still not finished my first playthrough, although I am nearing the end.
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Latest reply: Nov 17, 2013
NaJoPoMO day sixteen Mags - Tomb
Posted Nov 17, 2013
Who can remember their first foray onto the Playstation? I can. Tomb raider was *the* reason I bought one. It was marvellous, trying to find out where you were going in the snow, shooting bats, finding med packs, jumping to a horrible death where Lara looked liked she'd broken every bone in her body. Super stuff.
I've followed Lara through most of her incarnations, the premise was simple. Go somewhrere, kill a bunch of enemies, solve a huge puzzle, get yer prize, move on to the next area. Each area contained another clue.
The 'areas' were different countries.
THe latest Tomb Raider is a 'revistation' Going back to her roots.
It's not a bad game, it's not a really good one either (think Far Cry).
I'll finish it, one day...
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Latest reply: Nov 17, 2013
NaJoPoMo Day 15 Mags - Lego of me game
Posted Nov 15, 2013
Lego has been around forever and for several years have has been ported over to consoles in the form of 'film tie -ins'. Starting with Lego Star Wars back in 2005 the series has just got better and better. At first the characters merely grunted or sounded like something from Micheal Bentine's Potty Time, but now they talk. I've played all the ones that are available on the Xbox 360 and thouroghly enjoyed them.
You start with only a basic list of characters which can be added to by eithre unlocking them in game by completing levels oo challenges and some of them can be found secret areas. In order to fully complete the game you will need to unlock a certain number. In the earlier levels there will be areas you can't reach so you will have to go back to them later when you have a charcter that can, for eg jump higher or is small enough to be able to crawl through holes. All the while you're breaking up the scenery and collecting lego studs that be used to pay for upgrades and more characters. There are several 'special' blocks that you can find in the levels that build vehicles and artifacts and these in turn canbe used in some of the levels to reach places you couldn't before.
There is only one Lego game in recent years that didn't follow this format and that was Lego Rock Band, you need at least a Rock Band or Guitar Hero guitar to play it. Oddly, we have a few of those as well. It was one of the best (and funniest) of that type of game even if some of the songs you had to play were not very good, The Final Countdown anyone?
Today is Lego Marvel Super Heroes day. Let's see how many Stan Lee's we can save today 
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Latest reply: Nov 15, 2013
NaJoPoMo day 14 Mags - A puzzling situation
Posted Nov 15, 2013
In all my (mumble) years of gaming I've loved a good puzzler. Devil Dice on Playstaion was very basic and highly addictive, many an eveing was spent playing the game on inifinite time and trying to beat my hubby's score. I'd go to bed with muticoloured dice falling before my eyes. A slightly different version of it was brought out for PS2 called Bombastic, but it wasn't the same and didn't have the charm of the original.
The beauty and simplicity of a good puzzler is that generally speaking there is only one (or maybe two) ways of completeng the level and trail and error are sometimes the best way to deal with them. XBox Live Arcade is littered with Puzzle Games and some are pure brilliance. Axel and Pixel is a point and click, beautifully handrawn game based in the Dream World, you have to overcome obstacles and beat surreal beasts to complete a picture - very good indeed. Then there's Ilomilo, two cute little thumb-like creatures that you have to reunite in each level, overcoming traps, travelling on platforms and teleporting. All this to the music of a Primary school orchestra. I loved this game and even bought the add on for it to extend it's life. I also have to small espresso cups one called Ilo and one called Milo (yes, I know).
Which brings me to The Bridge (sorry 2legs, the princess game *was* rather 
but a new puzzler is always welcome) The demo levels were rather easy, the game itself is a different thing entirely. It's pencil drawn and quite charming, but gods it makes you think. Changing the gravity, manipulating huge balls, changing colour from grey to white I may be at it some time. When I've completed the game there's an additional mode where all the areas are 'mirrored' (that's going to be fun).
As an aside, I forgot to post this yesterday so there will be a double dose...
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Latest reply: Nov 15, 2013
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