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Dear Gaming Diary

I've been reading through Arne's Gaming Diary and thought I'd throw my thoughts here. This last 3 weeks have been my most active gaming in many years so it's worth throwing down some comments. I'll go in reverse order so I remember easily

Nov 17:
Call of Duty 5: World at War: I finally got the Xbox to update the game (silly Xbox) so I was allowed into the multi-player area. Non of my friends were playing so I just jumped into Death Match. I was quickly matched to a big group (why does GOW2 take so long if this is almost instant). There were 37,000 people online at this time which is impressive.

After 1hr I had progressed to rank 5 and died 12X more than I had killed. I'll blame lag but it seems that everyone knows the secret on killing and I just luck into it. The unlocking new weapons and perks is what will get me coming back.

I had the headphones on but for some reason no one was speaking. I made sure to complain about every time I was killed throwing in crass and also left field curse words but I didn't get much from the audience.

The XBOX live connection then shate itself at the same time Ervi rang to say come home. It was time to say goodbye.

Nov 16:
Call of Duty 5: World at War: OK so the Xbox wont update the game so It's single player only. Luckily this is actually pretty good. I got stuck on that first ambush thing for about 5 turns but felt good getting through it. This game is tough, no sniper shots from 100 mtrs like in GOW2 you have to take these guys down properly. I would like to be able to take cover and lean around like in many of the new games. The movement still feels a little puppet like without it. GTA4 added this nicely why not COD?

I never played COD4 Modern Warfare but I think I missed out. I like modern weapons with their automatic firing, scopes that go red when you lock on :)

Gears of War 2: Well with the UFC a no go in Australia I put myself down for some Gears of War 2. Chris and Asahdi made it online so we opted to go private Horde. We started at our save point of Wave 18 and tried on the First Day map. "Get to the stairs" was my solution but at this level you're getting your ass pumped by big baddies right away.

We tried Ashadi's solution of staying on the ground and lasted even less time.

We changed maps. We got to my fav map with the cornered stairs and did OK. Wave 19 achieved. But then we got our ass kicked.

Ashadi dropped out (lame effort) and Chris and I had no hope in Horde by ourselves so we went public horde. The match making took less time than usually but still took a good 2-3 min. That's been my biggest gripe. It just takes so long! I timed it once and it took me 6 minutes to find a "anything" online battle.

Nov 15:
Gears of War 2 Played with Matt Co-op. I felt bad that I didn't continue my co-op game with Ashadi but his weak form lately meant I'd finish this game in 2009. Matt was cool to skip right into act 4 on co-op.

A bunch of lag issues (was it me) affected the game with Matt freezing at one point and another he had no textures or walls at all. Just floating enemies. But after a couple of hours we did OK.

Previously:

Far Cry 2: I had seen this game but had no idea it was so much fun. All games need to start you with a bazooka. It just makes sense. Once I realised you could take out those guard areas and they don't come back it was easier travelling around. The game is a 50x50 sq/km sandbox game and this means lots of exploration. I also snuck in some multiplayer but I preferred Gears of War or COD over the multi player here.

I also tried my hand at the map editor and built one out of cars. You would really need to spend some time to make a good level.

This is definitely one of the most fun games I've played in a while and that's why I had to cut myself off from it. I can see myself spending (wasting?) a good 40+ hrs on this bad boy. Gears of War I know is a short term relationship of maybe 6-8 hrs and that I can fathom. Also no co-op in far Cry really hurts. Why!! Co-op is the best feature to all these games? It really makes these games more fun. I understand the open nature of the game makes it harder...

Brothers In Arms: Hells Highway:
I'm going to have to circle round and play this again. My quick stint ove rlunch didn't do it justice. I love the destructible cover and the cover system. The suppress fire on enemies is a great idea.

Even with all this gaming I have still missed GH4, Mirrors Edge demo, Dead Space, Left for Dead and Resistance 2. I think I need to just ween myself off games again as It's too easy to spent the entire weekend (sorry Ervi) just playing.

Me & My Katanari
After playing the Beautiful Katamari demo on XBOX360 ( a last minute effort to show Ervi not all games are killing) I was hooked. The PSP version was $30 AUD so that's a bargain. I couldnt find a XBOX360 version for less than $90 which is more than I paid for GOW2?!??!

The PSP sucks for this game as my thumbs bloody hurt. The 360 dual sticks works so much better. Anyway it's still fun but control is what it's all about and it's annoying with a 4 way Dpad and a small analogue stick :(

Ipod Touch Games:
I've played a bunch of iPod touch games lately and it really shows how bad the App store is when you actually want to find something good. 1700 games and the worst interface to browse. Apple should split games into their own store let's call it "game store" and then provide genre splitting and categories for just games.

The iPod touch has been a breeding ground for shit games. It's like you're now expected to pay $1 to play some shitty flash game you'd normally ignore.

Anyway here's the games I've played. I've been testing heaps lately

Toople: Great little stack game, great art and worth the couple of $
Ice Cream Stack thing: Pretty lame ass. Not sure why this was "featured" it's like you're paying for a "banner game".
Field Runners: This is great. A tower defence game that really looks and plays well. I finished it on medium after being shown a few things from Mike
Dinner Dash: Damn I'm shit ot these games. Ervi is playign this every night on my iPod.
Aqua Hoops: My current score of 169 is now the current top. Ervi's previous 164 was smashed!!! I think we'll use this game ti settle arguments.
Hamster Ball for Bolt movie: This was 94MB when I downloaded it. Cure monkey ball rip off but then I lose interest
Galcon: Whoa this is the first iPod game I really enjoyed and hadn't played something like it before.

I'm just waiting for Peggle on the iPhone to fill my public transport times to joy.