Another 360-bound week has passed – I seem to have completely forgotten about Jet Set Radio for the moment (apart from the obvious comment in passing) – but at least I haven’t bought anything new. The release of Suda51’s Flower, Sun, and Rain is pretty much a must-buy, and I might as well snaffle Soul Bubbles while I’m at it. More DS goodness that, unfortunately, is going to push The List dangerously close to 70 – SEVENTY! – unfinished games.
I used to think that completing – that’s PeteComplete, of course – one game a month was a pretty reasonable goal. After all, my normal “working” week permits a lazy twenty-odd hours of gaming, so that’s eighty hours a month – surely enough for most games, save longer RPGs. But then there’s games that actually require skill and skill (in my case) requires practise… so what am I to do? Even at a game a month, there’s nearly six years worth of gaming on The List!
Case in point: two of the games I played this week I’ve had since the Australian launch of the Xbox 360 (March 23, 2006). Geometry Wars still kicks my arse and, despite my commitment to improve my skills through regular practise late last year, has remained obstinate in giving me a fair go. That’s what I reckon, anyway. Likewise, my skill level in Robotron hasn’t got much better in two-and-a-half years, although I did manage to score a surprise Achievement whilst searching for Ranked matches during the week – the lag associated with my adversary’s host across the Pacific allowed me to jerk my way to Wave 11. Up popped the Achievement, surprising me so much I died thrice in quick succession. Yes, I’ll blame the Achievement Toast… yes ;)
Finally, though, Mercenaries 2 continues to delight with its co-op multiplayer goodness. My co-op buddy in Perth joined me to tackle the PMC challenges (which must be literally impossible in single player mode) and we managed to unlock all the additional costumes for all three characters… Mattias’ suit is a chuckle, and Jennifer’s catsuit is delicious, but nothing – and I mean nothing – can top the Chicken Suit.
No, ma’am, I’m a chicken
Two men, firmly ensconced in middle age, separated by thousands of kilometres, controlling characters running around Venezuela in chicken suits, raining heavy ordinance all over the country and punching army chaps in the head. Seriously, if this is as good as it gets, then I’m pretty bloody happy with the state of gaming :)
I don’t know who was more surprised, really.
Out of interest, what, if anything, is holding you back from getting better at Geometry Wars do you think?
I personally found that I would reach a high point with the game which then became my average and I would not beat that for some time. Then, suddenly, I would beat it (by a fair margin too) and that new score then became my average. Rinse, repeat, rinse again and it eventually led to the 200/200 I have now. If there is something in particular holding you back, I may* be able to help but otherwise all I can say is keep on playing it because you will get to the desired point eventually. Another possible suggestion is (if you haven’t already) to get Geo Wars 2 because I found that the original game was a walk in the park after playing that…
* I hope that those tags work the way I intend them to.
I really reckon my Geommie Wars roadblock is practise, that’s all. I still reckon my 37-year-old reflexes are up to the challenge ;)
I’m also experimenting with the environment in which I play, too – I think I’m too close to the screen at the moment, which may mean that I’m unconsciously moving my eyes to see all the action. Then again, maybe I’m just not actually able to be that good?
At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter – I still do enjoy a romp around in Geommie Wars (moreso than its sequel, which seems a little try-hard OTT to me), so I don’t mind practising. As opposed to, say, AstroPop – which is an utter shitpig of a game that I’ve only played because it appeared on my GamerCard & ruined my percentage in the days when you couldn’t remove 0-pt games & demos from your card ;)
(BTW, on WordPress blogs – such as this one – you can use plain ol’ HTML for formatting – so rather than using the phpBB-ish square brackets, use lessthan / greaterthan signs instead:
I fixed the tags in your comment :)
Do you do the trick that’s not really a trick in Geo Wars and that is circle around the map (space – whatever it’s supposed to be) so that various shapes follow you allowing you to only shoot in front at the shapes you need to? If not (I’m going to assume to you do though so ignore this) then I would recommend watching some Youtube videos.
Otherwise yes, practise will get you there in the end.
As for the 0-point games I believe that with the new dashboard that comes next week we will be able to finally delete them although I can’t confirm that just yet. I certainly hope so though.
Thanks for the tag code clarification too.
Yep, I know the trick – I’m just rubbish at executing ;)
And yes – the NXE is providing the ability to remove 0-point games, providing you don’t have any Achievements for them. Should improve your percentage somewhat! (…but does nothing for me :)