First Impressions – GTA: Chinatown Wars

1) Tricky. Getting rid of the cops is really difficult so far. The ability to get rid of your rating by smashing up cop cars sounds like it’ll be fun in the long run, but at the moment it’s been hard to judge when you can smack them and it’s fast enough to actually take them out. More often than not, in a chase I’m left with a burning car that I can get out of, but as soon as I try to get into another the police pull me out and arrest me – mission failed

2) Technically incredible. It really does have a nice vibe, and it’s very impressive for a DS game. The scale is there, the layout seems very similar to the 360 version, to the point that I sort of know where I am at a given moment. The main tricky thing is that you can’t change the scale on the minimap, which would be handy for getting your bearings in a pinch.

3) Fun. I Spent 3 hours playing it last night, all of them with a grin on my face, even when things were getting frustrating with the first drugs bust!

Microgames on the Micro

Having a couple of hours to kill on a train without being able to use my DS led me to the resurrection of 2 things: my GBA flash cart and my Gameboy micro. I’d completely forgotten that the micro is so bright it should have a health warning plastered on it; my god the screen is exquisite. I got to play quite a lot of the original warioware, and it’s still the best fun on my GBA by miles. Everything just works so well, it’s so intuitive and funny, and it offers a challenge without being ridiculously hard or engaging.

I also tried out Jet grind radio on the GBA, and whilst being impressed with the presentation, the way that left is sometimes right due to the rotational way the controls worked really didn’t mesh well with what I was used to. That said, the first level is a perfect isometric copy of the original, which coloured me impressed. Thirdly, I played some GT: Advanced. This was the game I bought at launch on my GBA, and I had a ton of fun with it till Mario kart came along and kicked it in the teeth, it was a fun nostalgia trip, but hardly a stellar game.

Sunday went back to breeding Duskulls, after some irritating complications with the Pokemon day care erasing some moves put me back a couple of hours and 20 eggs. I’ve got a box of 15 duskulls with the right nature, I’m hoping that one will have a decent iv in HP and attack, else it’s back to the day care for me…

Catchup

Well, a few days without posting, mainly due to the fact that i’ve played almost nothing for any length of time. So to catch up:

Stuntman: 5*ed one more spy level
Yoshis Island DS: Played some of this on the train on the way to london, got to thrid world. Great platforming, i very much enjoyed this.
Rock Band: Nothing new, just more playing
Pokemon: Jynx is pretty much finished, just level grinding a bit more. Decided i want a Dusknoir, so currently breeding duskulls till they come out of my ears.
Portal: out of the main testing lab, into the back end as it were…