Since my last entry I…

*Played "Metal Gear Online" not very well and got excoriated for it on this here Multiplayer blog. For revenge, I used my magic powers to get the beta delayed.

*Reached the 80-Star count in "Super Mario Galaxy." Are there any good, new power-ups in this otherwise wonderful game? Because most of the ones I've found so far, including the bouncy one (I'm trying not to spoil!) aren't very fun. Well, I do like ice-walking. But that's a side-effect of just one.

*Played through all three missions of "Ghost Squad," the light-gun arcade-shooter ported to the Wii. It's ridiculous and ridiculously short.  Unlocked a ninja mode, which let me hurl throwing stars at ninjas on Air Force One. Fun while it lasted.

*Gave up on the campaign mode of "Universe At War," as I got myself in a bit of a jam halfway through the Hierarchy set of missions. Decided the world conquest mode would be fun, since it lets you play skirmishes on sectors of the globe and then claim that land like it's a game of "Risk."I got crushed in under five minutes in a match for part of South America. In my second,a battle over the American mid-west, my every-shaky Internet failed. So even though I think I'd like playing this game online, my set-up makes that impossible.

*Played one and only one mission of "Army of Two" with Joystiq's Chris Grant. The game looks nice, but the enemy AI is for the birds, as is the melee, the flow of the action and the existence on my screen of Chris' health bar but not mine. This game feels like a very rough draft. Maybe they'll get it right if there's a second one.

*Had a torturous time playing "N+" with Chris. Pro-tip: never play a game's multiplayer before you've played its single-player. I was dragging the man down.

*Grinded a few missions in "Crisis Core."

*Played a few demos on my PSP, but can I hold off confessing about that for one more day?

Next: I will play more "Crisis Core," more "Mario" and hope "The World Ends With You" arrives soon. 

Over the weekend I…

• Finished "Kane & Lynch," making the complete scumbag decision at the end. I believe it cost me the chance to play an extra bonus level, but I did what Kane would do. I can't compromise his morals for mine, can I? Now that I'm done, I can re-consider Jeff Gerstmann's review. He described it as "a revenge tale where you don't actually care if anyone actually gets their revenge." That's a pretty good assessment.

But good gameplay can compensate for any flaws in a game story, right? "K&L" had some fun set pieces: man vs. dumptruck; jeep vs. taxiing plane. But the cover system and the friendly squad AI were inferior to what I've experienced in other games. I can't say I'm shocked at the content of his review. At least now I know for myself.

• Battled through a couple more levels of "Universe At War." In the middle of the three campaigns, the framereate finally got bad. I pushed through it and just love controlling the Hierarchy race's walking battlestations and walking factories. Commanding them really is a 2008 must-play experience. 
   
• Got closer to the end of "God of War: Chains Of Olympus," a game that continues to sell me on something I never thought was possible: epic grandeur on a handheld. I know that the idea of PSP as portable PS2 led to some poor development choices, but I do hope that we will not only get PSP games that feel small in the future. The PSP can render spectacle. I'd love to see more.

Read more...

Over the weekend I …

• Tried -- and failed -- to beat a game while wearing gloves. This failure occurred on Sunday while my wife was running a half-marathon around Central Park. During one such lap I sat on a bench, bundled up and determined to defeat the final boss of "Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword."

I had failed earlier in the weekend and now faced the added challenge of having to do this thing while wearing gloves.

I could have let my hands freeze that chilly Sunday morning. But I realized that I might be able to accomplish something special. Had I yet completed a game while made fat-fingered by handwear? No.

To conquer "Dragon Sword," I would wield the stylus while wearing wool gloves. The only button I would need to press was the shoulder button. The stylus fit fine in my enlargened hands. So I tried to beat this thing. So I failed a dozen times or more. This boss was tough. At home, in warmer confines and without gloves, I beat the boss on my first try.

• Reached a highly agitated state while playing "Kane & Lynch." Read more...

On Thursday I …

• I got past a tricky part of "Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword" by cheating. Forgot I had the power to create fire, which is needed to light some torches in the game's fourth chapter. (Hey, it's easy to forget these things when yu're playing a game in 30 minute sessions, divided by hours or days.) Need to let Diary reader Russ Frushtick know that I'm past it. But, Russ, my DS battery died while I was on the home. Kind of hard to get around that.

• Completed the Novus campaign in "Universe At War" on my still-alive launch 360. Began the Hierarchy campaign, which I must highly recommend. Old fulfilled real-time-strategy fantasy: commanding an army of alien soldiers to swarm an enemy base. New "UaW"-fulfilled real-time-strategy fantasy: commanding a massive walking alien base outfitted with half a dozen configurable turrets and troop-generators to trample enemy soldiers. Should let diary reader Hans Dannik know that the game does have some control bugs -- sometimes units don't respond to commands -- but the game has run smoothly enough in the heat of battle and is orchestrated by some efficiently-mapped controls. Definitely a rental, at least.

Next: A weekend with a big spring Xbox 360 game...

On Wednesday I …

• Experienced something extraordinary. I was playing “Professor Layton” on the subway. I had just finished the main storyline (people who felt the end of "Uncharted" was anti-climactic  would hate the shockingly uninvolved almost-auto-pilot handling of "Layton"'s last hour). I was on my subway ride home, trying out some of the bonus puzzles I unlocked.

Halfway home, I noticed that the person sitting next to me was playing a DS. Mine was black. Hers was white. And on her screen…. she was also playing "Professor Layton"! This has never happened to me before. Another person, an Asian woman with dyed red hair, was playing the same game, right next to me. I tilted my DS toward her and said, "same game." She chuckled and went back to playing.

Then I began feeling weird. I wasn’t interested in solving these final "Layton" puzzles. They were harder variations of puzzles I had already solved. Figuring them out would require some tedious trial and error. I could pass. But, of all moments in my "Layton"-playing, I wasn't sure I could quit. Not with someone next to me playing the same game. Would she see me quit and think me a quitter? Would she not know that I had only cheated once in the game, that I was brainy enough to solve 120 puzzles all by myself? But why did this matter? Why should I force myself to keep playing -- just for pride?

Mild mental torment gave way to sanity. I turned off "Layton," probably forever. I inserted "Ninja Gaiden DS" and tried to figure my way out of a dead end in Chapter Four.

• At home, I played the disappointing fifth mission in "Universe At War" and then a really challenging, climactic one -- the sixth Novus mission. In this mission I use my Anime-inspired Novus robot warriors (who beam around the map on power lines!) to defend part of earth against two giant, walking mobile battle stations. The walkers are  kicking my butt. But tonight I hope to kick theirs.

Next: Butt-kicking. As mentioned.

On Monday I …

• Was reminded just how special it can feel to play an Xbox 360 game that others aren't playing. None of my Xbox Live friends were playing "Universe At War" last night, but some of them saw that I was. So they asked me about it.

Messages started coming in. "How is that game?" I was asked. Pretty good, I replied. Better than I expected, especially for a console real-time-strategy game. I played one mission and then wrapped it up for the night. But it got me thinking about what else I should play on the 360, just to get a reaction. The 360 has made us all ambassadors of our tastes -- unpaid viral marketers, as it were.

• Inched toward the end of "Professor Layton, with just 20 puzzles to go, I think.

• Read the three most recent issues of "100 Bullets." But that's not a video game. It was going to be, but…

Next: Tuesdays are my busiest days. Just "Layton" today, I think. Though with my PSP back from Chile I will soon be back to "God of War." 

Over the weekend I …• Played the first four levels of "Kane & Lynch"…and liked it??? Gotta re-read that Gerstmann review.

• Tackled 11 more puzzles in "Professor Layton," approaching the conclusion.

• Collected 20 or so more stars in "Super Mario Galaxy" and reached the first part of the game that I disliked: Freezeflame Galaxy. Also discovered a great new enemy-based power-up, the Boo Bomb. Proof that Nintendo's Tokyo development team plays "God of War"? Maybe. Mario can spin explosive ghosts by their tongues, mace-like, until the boo bombs hit something and explode. It's Kratos-esque and a lot of fun.

• Played one level of "Turning Point: Fall of Liberty" and was intrigued by the concept of defending New York City from Nazis. But even my game-filled life is too short to play what feels like an average entry in a genre so rich with sterling greats. One level is all I can give this game.

• Became transfixed by "Universe At War," the first real-time strategy game with readable text that I've played on a console since I completed one of my all-time favorites, 2004's "Pikmin 2." I'm four missions into the campaign and am having a fun time controlling the first of the game's three distinct, warring alien races. But reviews I've read about this game claim the campaign is lackluster. Am I settling? I'll continue to play "Universe At War" until someone can convince me there's a better RTS for me on the 360. I wonder…

Next: Monday will likely bring more "Universe At War," or more "Mario." That is, if my wife and I don't spend the evening continuing to try to catch up on "In Treatment."

On Thursday I…

• Got stuck in "Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword," even though I interviewed the game's producer in the middle of the day and got a tip from him. When I talked Yosuke Hayashi I was not yet stuck, but he still spontaneously offered me the tip to daze the floating eyeball enemies in the game by blowing into the DS mic. We laughed about how embarrassing this would be for me on the subway. Then, during my ride home, I got stuck. I'm in Chapter 4 and don't know where to go. So what did I do? I went into each of four or five rooms that I keep wandering through and tried blowing into the mic. Now this was embarrassing, because it was futile. So, since I am stuck, I went back to…

• One puzzle played in "Professor Layton," right before the end of my ride home. As I predicted earlier in the week, I would be returning to Layton and sticking with it to the end. Only 35 or so puzzles to go, I think.

• Found a famous Nintendo character in "Super Mario Galaxy" while hunting down another yellow star. This character now hangs out in the hub area, offering me tips about stars that I missed. But the tips are so vague as to not be helpful. So I missed a star in the Good Egg Galaxy, but in which part? Am I the only person who gets really stressed by games that indicate when you miss things but don't then guide you to the right places to search? I know questing is supposed to be fun, but I need a map of some sort.

• Ended my day playing games I can't talk about in a diary that might be read by the public -- though later this afternoon, my lips will be unsealed.

Next: I hope my weekend is filled with "Mario." It will also feature me trying to see if "Universe At War" is finally an RTS that actually displays okay on my standard definition set. I'm holding out hope, even though all others have failed this generation...