Silent Hill 2 - Completed!

Good gracious me! It's hard to believe but on this cold and grey Saturday afternoon I managed to break the habit of a lifetime and complete a game!

The game in question was PS2 spookfest Silent Hill 2, a game I purchased in 2003 but only got around to starting last November thanks to the cajoling of Michelle.

Here's the evidence:


It actually took me about 15 hours to complete as at one point near the start I couldn't find a save point and had to leave the PS2 on for a couple of hours whilst I did something else.

It's certainly an interesting game, much more psychologically-disturbing than Resident Evil. The gameplay was slow and concentrated more on puzzle-solving than combat, no bad thing. The atmosphere was superb, a deserted town shrouded in fog, abandonded locations, lots of rusty things.

The story was a bit confusing, not sure if it lost something in translation from the Japanese, though it was coherent enough to actually get something from it - either that or I'm thick.

It's certainly a game well worth playing if you haven't already. I'm not sure I'll be going for all the endings just yet, maybe in the future.

Right now I'm just enjoying the fact I completed a game, what a feeling.

Scout's Honour

As I type I'm looking forward to a long weekend as I have Thursday and Friday off, and I don't doubt games will be involved at some point.

Since the weekend I've mainly been playing Rock Band 2, both Tour mode on my own and Band Quick Play with Michelle and Dan. Not much has changed, it's still good fun and I'm yet to tire of it.

Today saw the release of the Scout update for Team Fortress 2 on the PC, the latest in the on-going class updates. They tend to breathe a bit of life back into the game, although it's far from dead. So I thought I'd jump on and have a go, release some tension.

Servers were mainly full, but I managed to squeeze onto one and hold on. As you'd expect there were plenty of Scouts about trying to get the new weapons - a bit rubbish but it'll calm back down again soon enough, said he sounding like he is some TF2 vetteran.

This is the thing with me: I sort of know about games, what's going on, how they're played, etc, but I can't really back it up with stacks of experience. It does make me feel a bit of a fraud sometimes - more of that another time.

I may play some more TF2 before I go to bed, I don't have to be up desperately early in the morning.

Weekend Blanks

Another weekend almost over, far too quickly as per usual. Wasn't the best for games, it has to be said. Not really felt it, the pull wasn't there. I can't put my finger on why.

What did I attempt to play?

Rock Band 2 - spent a few hours in Tour mode ploughing on through. Call me thick but I don't understand the setup, I much prefered the old Guitar Hero career, it was a list of songs, you played them, more came along, you played those. You didn't get all that nonsense about hiring staff or 'spice' like Quadruple Or Nothing.

Project Gotham Racing 4 - it's one of those games I can keep going back to for a quick burn, even though I'm shocking at racing games. It's so satisfying, at least when I'm not bouncing off the corners.

Tony Hawk's American Wasteland - on the old Xbox, fancied some uncomplicated fun as I was downing a bottle of wine. Classic mode is still the best, throwing your boarder or skater or whatever about. Reminds me of a few years back when this sort of thing kept me rapt for hours.

Team Fortress 2 - on the PC this time, the game that keeps on giving. I put a few drum & bass mixes into Foobar2000, fired up TF2 and settled down for an hour or two. Next weekend I might just cut my losses and spend Saturday evening doing it, really go for it.

No great insights into the inept gamer this episode, I'm afraid. My twin brother is still here and it would be rude to spend more time than I do playing games.

Move Along Now

My twin brother is visiting me from California, so I've not been playing a great deal, not that I play a great deal generally these days, but certainly less.

What I have been playing though has been Rock Band 2, with Dan and Michelle. The last couple of nights we've managed to get through quite a few songs in Quick Play, me tackling Expert bass with gusto, and not dropping out that much, surprisingly.

Tonight I was torn between Rock Band 2 with my two cohorts and Team Fortress 2 on the 360. Over the last 7 or 8 months I've managed to play this every Thursday with some like-minded people on the RLLMUK forum, and it's been very enjoyable, with none of the bullshit you usually associate with online gaming.

So I interrupted rocking out and went off to char-grill some Heavies (yes, I love being a pyro).

And that's it really, no great shakes, move along.

More Rock Band 2

Got in from work and relaxed playing some Rock Band 2 with my friends Dan and Michelle. Below is our greatest moment this evening (I'm vimster by the way; click for the full pic):



Ah what great fun this game is. It works well online, I kept forgetting to turn my mic off, but it was generally enjoyable, mainly because I was managing to finish songs on Hard (bass) I'd not touched before. With some practice I'll be mashing away on Expert soon enough.

Saturday In a Nutshell

Okay, so it's very early Sunday morning, I've had a bottle of rather good rose wine, and just finished a session on Team Fortress 2 on the PC. The server I was on was slightly odd. They had a nuke that would go off at random points on the map and wipe anyone out nearby, plus when people got shot or died balloons and streamers would fly everywhere - I believe they like to call these party servers. In fact lots of the players were wearing party hats.

This rounded off a not-really-that-bad day of gaming. In the afternoon I played some more Rock Band 2, including a bit of online quick play with my friend Dan who is very very good on guitar. That was enjoyable, I even managed to play more guitar on Hard - satisfying.

In the evening I played a little Earth Defence Force 2017, a gift from a lovely friend of mine (thanks, Michelle). I had the PS2 version on import - yes, I actually imported stuff - and found it the most fun I'd had in years. So he 360 version was almost as much fun, blowing away giant ants and whatnot.

Anyway, it's very late and I need my bed. Goodnight, all.

Give the 360 a Rest

Just finished a marathon session (by my standards) of Rock Band 2, mainly drumming. Still trying to get the kit in the right place, get comfortable, but generally it was much fun indeed.

One problem I'm having is the cymbal on the Guitar Hero kit isn't registering every hit. It acts as the yellow pad in RB2. As I'm just playing on Easy difficulty at the moment it's not big deal, but unless I can sort this out it'll be a right pain on Hard and Expert.

All that aside it was very enjoyable. Giving the 360 a rest for a bit and will probably play some guitar later (the drums do make a noise).

And there's a new version of the online web-based shooter Quake Live out so I'll download and give that a go. I'm useless at it but the simplicity and immediacy of it make it good for just dipping into. And if I turn the chat off I can easily ignore the calls of "n00b" etc, and can pretend everyone who plays online games are thoroughly decent