What makes you happy ?

Finally got around to buying a HDMI cable for the PS3. The TV we have – Toshiba 37X3030D – gave a great picture (I thought) when playing games, and Casino Royale looked good. I’d see the images in HD in the shops and knew it would be better but this is gobsmackingly good. Ridge Racer 7 is awesomely great, Stardust is amazing, GT HD is superb. I was sitting playing Ridge Racer and hardly looking at the road because the scenery was just so damn perfect (I still won). The picture quality is phenomenal. Jawdropping.

Wii Bowling – Power throws – Platinum medal.

(It’s time to start practising. Just need to work on the Tennis thing..)

I have a NetgearDG834PN – a wireless modem/router. It’s okay, it works, doesn’t get overly hot (unlike the Belkins I’ve owned) and at some point since getting the PS3 I’d read that they don’t play nice. I was being signed out of the PSN constantly and the download speeds were terrible. Couple of days ago I was having more connection problems than I wanted so I rang Zen. Turned out my wiring was slightly off and in the end the wired and wireless experience was almost identical.
After watching Casino Royale (on Blu-ray, so the PS3) I sat back with the laptop. Same distance from the Netgear as when I talked to Zen. I could barely ping the router. Rebooted router, restarted machine, network settings, renewed lease – did everything. Then I saw the disconnected PS3 controller. So I hooked that back to the PS3 and instantly the signal improved. I could get the net but it wasn’t that quick. So I turned the PS3 off – and it all got even better. I tried several settings in the PS3 Network menu and nothing would improve matters. Checking the Sony forums found lots of people with the same situation and both Netgear and Sony were doing nothing. So, some choices:
- stick with what I have
- buy a long cable to wire it up (about 20ft)
- buy something that does not have “Netgear” written on it.

At the end of January Linksys will be getting some of my money. I’ll stick until then and cable doesn’t appeal so much (why are the necessary sockets always on the other side of a room and there is a doorway involved?). I can’t game online unless I’ve got a better connection and the problems would explain some (but not all) of the Ridge Racer problems I’ve had). Actually, I’ll post to the Zen forums and see what is recommended there – it may well not be Linksys. I’ll not be buying a Netgear again though.

I have an xbox. Links 2004 is good. Forza? Hardly played. Fable, hardly played. Simpsons, girls played it. I was not impressed by any games – oh yes, I have Halo. What a bag of crap that is. So it sits pretty much unused. I had no plans for it save maybe one day sling MAME onto it.

But then I find out that Rez HD is coming to the XB360. I have no idea what other XB games I might like, I know I looked at Live and didn’t like their pricing model and I have no loyalty to the XB brand – as opposed to Sega, Nintendo and Sony. In fact I’m surprised that the XB is getting the game over Sony. But this does mean I’m looking a lot harder at getting one. The problem will be their pricing.
The PS3 costs me nothing to race others in Ridge racer, to download demos, extra content. As far as I know Microsoft want their slice of cash each month regardless. That is not something I like purely because I can’t justify the time online to cash needed. It’s like WoW – unless you are going to play a lot, why bother?

But Rez HD … it’s looking good.

The last fps I played was Doom. Before that it was Wolfenstein. I have a memory of playing Half Life on something somewhere but not pursuing it for some reason. I mentioned this compilation to the girls before Christmas and the mention worked just perfectly.
So far it’s excellent. I’m a fair way into Half Life 2 and I started Portal – the real reason for wanting the whole thing. I’ll be starting Portal again just to heard the wacky female voice – sounded vaguely like the female robot in Bicentennial Man. Puzzle games I love and this seems to have that edge according to the many blog posts about it. In the main game (maybe it’s not in the first game?) I have yet to hit the apparent slowing down mentioned in many reviews, but the amount of loading and the loading times are bad. Early on I was being pursued, I had no ammo, my health was dropping as the bullets hit – and then the whole thing stopped to reload. That’s one great way to ruin the atmosphere that the game is generating. Had some wacky behaviour too – shooting some barrels some distance away and behind a fence and when they explode I died, plus controlling a machine gun and the controls reversed. Very odd. Appears to need more than 1 headshot to down a bad guy – Bond only needed one in Goldeneye (remember the Dam? the guards patrolling the tunnels and towers?) Still, 4 games at a tenner each. Not bad.

Apparently I’m 12863rd on the scoreboard for the first planet in Stardust on the PS3. My Wipeout Pulse times are as yet nothing to boast about and until I get hold of a Pikes Peak I’ll not stand a chance in Colin McRae DiRT. I’ve not looked at Tiger Woods 08 yet but as I’m several dozen over I’m more in danger of last place. Gone are the days where I could think I’d done the perfect lap, that I could maybe, just maybe, edge another tenth off my time. Now I can just login and stare with a “How in hell did they do that?” expression. Which is okay as it becomes a goal and goals are good but setting a goal that is persistently out of reach becomes a frustration. But then even on Ridge Racer there is always a corner to be done tighter (see Top Gear last night with the apple? very funny), a better moment to hit the nitro, a better plugin to use.

Super Mario 64, Super Mario Kart, Super Mario 3, Zelda: Link to the Past, Toejam & Earl. So why keep the wires, the controllers, the games and the associated clutter and dust around when i can download those into the Wii? Which I did. Good stuff. Do I mind buying again what I already own? No – I bought the Taito collection on PS2 to get Rainbow Islands which I had on the MD anyway. Having used MAME I recognise that some memories of games should not be disturbed by re-visiting them – so the NES games can stay just where they are. I’m hoping for the TurboGfx version of Parodius. And the MD version of Hellfire. And J wants Castle of Illusion.
I downloaded the original WipEout into the PS3 a few days ago. Now from what I have played of SM64, the colours are clear and sharp. It almost looks like it has had a mini-makeover. Not so WipEout. It looks rough. It’s not just that technology has moved on, it really does look rough. But the main problem seems to be speed. It was always a fast game but the first class of race was quick but workable. And the controller hasn’t changed so that cannot be to blame. But it’s really fast out of the gate first go. Too fast in fact. I’ve given up on that couple of quid I paid. Again, a memory that should not have been disturbed. Wipeout Pulse is out next Friday for the PSP so that’s an essential and the HD version for the PS3 should be not so far behind.
And SM64 still kicks Galaxy’s butt.

Super Mario World – I’d forgotten that one. If you played it, do you remember having to fly under the finish posts in Cheese Bridge to find a hidden level? That was really hard to do. Just.one.more.go stuff.

It’s the longest I’ve sat and played a game in months, RR7 included. But right now I can’t find all the love for Mario.
The levels are short, too short.
Camera. I really dislike walking toward the screen in any game, even more so where you have to negotiate your way past hazards. It smacks of laziness. It slows the game. It makes me realise I’m playing a game because it forces me to work around it’s shortcomings. And SMG has more than it’s fair share of this camera style.
Returning to the hub. Every star and you get to go back to the main start location. Given that most people will play through each galaxy it should have been an option. Each galaxy should have had a start instead with an option return.
The design seems lazy too. Some levels have those pull stars and some of those have coins between them. That alone is lazy but being able to miss those coins and then needing to backtrack is lazier.
Faith. So you can walk around all angles of a level unless you can’t and you fall to the ever-present blackhole. And you only know you can’t walk around when you do in fact die. There is no indicator on some levels and Nintendo really shouldn’t be letting us die like this.
Loading times. Watching him go through space the first couple of times was fun, then it got tedious. Like Resident Evil back on PS1 and the door opening it starts good and there is anticipation, but then we fall to “hurry up and get there”. Skipping should be there as a button press.
Camera 2. Looking. Why can I only look in so few places? I want to see routes, grab gems, appreciate the environment but I can’t, I’m not allowed.

And are there any extra stars? Mario 64 and Mario Sunshine there were extra stars for getting everything, getting 100 stars. Do they exist here? I’ve read no reviews other than the Metacritic raves so they may well be but I hope so for longevity.

And part of me feels the above all adds up to less gameplay. I can’t pin down just what it is but there’s a certain something not there this time. Eye candy is one thing but gameplay is something entirely different. Maybe they designed this one to be easier. Nothing wrong in that but for me there is something missing.

But compared to metacritic I am on my own :)

Early evening last night I realised that Metroid 3 for the Wii was out. And I had forgotten (see, I get so wrapped up in work!) and I said to J that tomorrow I would be going town to buy it. I then tuned back into work mode.
Some years ago I read a book called “Why men don’t listen and women can’t read maps‘. This really is an amazing book. So much so that if you see it, buy it. Just get it. I promise you will not feel the money is wasted. It has saved so many arguments and given us (this includes my daughters) so much insight into how we (Man/Woman) operate that the book is gold. One such thing explained is called “The butter is in the fridge”. I will ask where something is and I’ll be told (for instance) it’s in the fridge. I’ll look and say it’s not there. I’ll be told that yes, it is and I should look properly. Again I look and yet again I state categorically that the item is not, repeat not, in the fridge. As this point one of the ladies in the house will open the fridge in front of me and take out the item – which could well have been on the front of a shelf. This used to irritate them hugely. “Are you blind or what” (No) “Why don’t you look properly?” (I did!) “You just wanted to annoy me by making me get up and come this way to get it for you didn’t you” (No, I really don’t need the grief) and this book explains that this is typical Man behaviour. It’s not my fault. It’s The Way It Is.
Now J used to come in from work and would then rabbit on and on and on about her day, who did what, when they did it, what someone didn’t do, what was said to who about who etc etc. Used to drive me nuts – every day this happened and I never did this. Work was work, it happened elsewhere and stayed elsewhere. In the end when she walked in, I tuned out. Later she could say “Remember I told you..” to which I would have to reply “Yes of course my dear!….” though she eventually realised I was not listening and that irritated her. Another thing that still drives me nuts is ‘Woman Speak”. Example: Man is out and he damages the car. He enters the house and says “I damaged the car, bloody idiots on the road, if I could catch him, it’ll cost me a packet”. This succinctly conveys that the car is damaged, it was not his fault, he is angry at the other person and he didn’t want to have to spend the money. Now, here is the Woman version: She enters the house, “You’ll never guess what happened. I’d just come out of the shop and – did I say I met so-and-so in there? haven’t seen her for ages. Well she’s dumped the guy she was with and she’s hooked up with that guy you used to play football with – why don’t you play any more? You really should you know – anyway, where was I? Oh yes, I wish you would out the mirror back as I like it in the car after you have used it. I got to the car ……” and sometime later she mentions that the car hit something. When J did this it used to really drive me crackers. Inside of me there would be a little person screaming “Get to the point dammit!!”. But because of that book I know understand that this is a Woman thing and She Cannot Help It. So I take deep breaths. I tried saying “Yes yes but what’s the end of this? What’s the point” Where is the result?” to which she would say “No, you won’t understand, you need to know all this”. Like hell I did.
Back to the droning on she used to do when she came back from work. The book mentioned trigger words that would cause the Man to stop ignoring and immediately tune in. Like when in a room someone whispers your name. We worked out that I had at least one trigger word – sex. If J said that I was all ears. This was very effective. No matter how tuned in to the task I was, the mention of that word get her attention. It was that effective that the girls would use that word when I seemed to be ignoring them – which I wasn’t, it was a tuning thing. Metroid. So I’d said to J that I’d be going town and I was soon back reading, replying and fixing. At some point while talking to P (who has just had her hair straightened and she looks fab) J said “Tesco”. I have no idea why but that word tuned me back in. I leant back to look around the corner and said that it was open 24 hours and that we should go there right now because they sell Wii games. This was about 10pm. I then tuned back into work again thinking my words would be useless. But P then said she needed some “hair stuff” and J wanted some Jelly babies. So off we went.
Tesco is a sane place at 11:15pm. Hardly anyone around, no rushing, no distractions, security are too busy watching some drunk lads coming into buy beer and I could actually go in straight lines between the parts of the store I needed. Very nice. Last year we started shopping in the very late/early hours because of this. Saves so much hassle. So I bought Metroid, P got hair bobbles and bread to take to feed the ducks today and J got her Jelly babies.

(I have News 24 streaming on the PC. Has anyone noticed they are using a sample of Bejewelled music in the summaries?)

Go buy that book. And I will hope that Tesco has not replaced sex in my life.

Love it.
Music. I’ve not really noticed which either means it’s not so good, it fits perfectly or I’m concentrating too much. I think it’s the latter but the former is probably true too.
Graphics. The PS3 is part of my master plan to get a bigger better TV so they can only improve. I love the helicopters, planes taking off and various other touches that have distracted me enough to wobble.
Structure. It’s not quite as linear as others in the series but there is much repetition built-in (see below).
Controls. Fast, faster, look behind. There is probably a brake but I (a) have no idea which button it is (b) have no intention of finding out and (c) it’s Ridge Racer – no need for brakes.

The gameplay is exactly what I expected. I have played Micro Machines through to Gran Turismo and while realism is the selling point of things like GT, Forza, Colin McRae the fact is that while these games demand a level of attention so does RR. In Forza you need to get the right line, adjust speed and turn, hit the apex, stay on the right line and accelerate correctly around a hairpin. It’s exactly the same in RR – only heaps more fun. It might look like there is less skill but it’s a different skill. In all previous RR incarnations there has been the Devil cars which take some awesome driving to beat and I look forward to finding the ones hidden in here.
The repetition is no bad thing. I prefer the dynamic cars so I can sling them around so trying to drive a mild car is very different experience and one I don’t like as much but to completely complete the game I have to. And even so, it’s 3 laps at less than 2 mins a per lap so the amount of my life lost to the game isn’t so great. The shorts bursts in playing are also suited to a few mins away from work to chill.

One thing I am really looking forward to trying to beat are lap times from others online. I will try and beat my own times anyway – get a great start, right line on every segment, drift at the right time and absolutely not if not needed, only just miss the sides of the track, accelerate at the right time, no fishtailing, use nitros in the perfect position – so with the added challenge of real people to play against it should keep me busy for a long time.