The N-Europe Blog

I’ve never been so glad to see the grey skies of Ireland as I was this morning. The past 24 hours have been a madcap frenzy of travelling, bank card problems, hunting for money to get home, wandering around in the Berlin dark, running to make check-in in time and dying of exhaustion on the plane.

I might have mentioned this before, but I’m not very organised.

Still, home now. Good tea, and my wonderful bed. Loads of notes to get onto the laptop, so expect hands-on reports online over the next couple of days.

(here’s a sneak peek: Galaxy is amazing. But you probably already knew that)

I’ve been into Pokémon since I was 8 years old, ever since I got my first ever Nintendo console, a Game Boy Color with Croc and Pokémon Yellow.  I loved that game, I’m fairly certain I racked up 200 hours on it aswell and completed the majority of my Pokédex, bar Mew, and did the same with Pokémon Gold (once again bar Mew and Celebi due to those stupid events that were basically a screwing over from Nintendo to anyone who bought the games and wanted to complete them fully without travelling to Japan or America just to get that last Pokédex entry).

 Then came the period where Pokémon was ‘out of fashion’ and you’d be bullied at school if you were ever revealed to be secretly training up your ‘mon or making contact with the cards or anime.  Now I’m glad to say that I’ve gotten past that, as have the majority of my DS-owning friends and we’re now all training up to be the very best (like no one ever was) with Diamond and Pearl (Pearl for me).

 Except I’m taking it to a different level this generation.  I am not content with an incomplete Pokédex this time.  I will see and catch every goddamned Pokémon in Sinnoh, Kanto, Johto and all the other Pokémon lands that end with ‘o’!  This is my new goal.  By god, I will catch every last Pokémon if it kills me!

 I’ll take my medication now.

No-one seems to be able to make a good cup of tea.

I brought my own teabags (don’t laugh) but even then it tastes off. I think they use milk that’s a bit too heavy.

….Or maybe I’m just ridiculous and anal.

- enjoyed Rayman Raving Rabbits 2 more than I thought I would.
- played Ubisoft’s Games For Everyone range, which included a horse game… called Horse.
- tried to access the secret Mario Galaxy levels but was scorned by a Nintendo crew member.
- was a bee.
- sucked at Wii Fit (honestly)
- took a surprising shining to Sega’s Ghost Squad.
- didn’t find Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games interesting at all.
- sung my bleeding little heart out with Nik Wouters. “Everybody hurts” indeed.
- distinctly did not rock at Guitar Hero III.
- was so thankful for comfortable trainers.

Going to Germany for a press trip is probably second nature for most games journalists: for me, it’s something of a logistical nightmare. At home, I find a shopping trip to Tescos stressful enough, never mind going by myself to a foreign country for the first time, where I can’t speak the language (I tried to learn how to speak German last week, the result being me simply saying German words with a soft French accent, because I’m so meek I find the pronunciation too aggressive and intimidating).

Everything makes me nervous here. Do I have my passport? Where is my damn passport? I’ve lost the directions to my hostel, I need help! Is this stop Leipzig, or is it the next one? What do you mean I’m on the private train and this ticket is for the public one? My camera has stopped working, again! My phone’s run out of money, and the signal card won’t top up here! I don’t know what these signs mean! It is tiring being this inept.

I am a rambling, shambling mess of a man. I only have a day and a half left, and I’ve managed to not accidentally wander into a sensitive crime area and cause an international incident though, so things are going better than expected.

Just letting you guys/girls know that I have a new review up if you are interested in reading it.

http://uk.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/swordofthenewworld/player_review.html?id=487650

So I’m sure many of you have bought Mario Strikers for the Wii and played it online. Of course it is a great game to play online as long as you are playing a friend or get matched up with someone who plays a good game (ie: not overusing *cough*spam*cough* certain moves). But of course sooner or later you’ll get paired with a person who just can’t accept defeat and needs to spam to make it as hard for you to win as possible (and potentially removing the enjoyment of the game and driving players away).

However with some practice you can of course stand up to these bullies, and many when facing defeat will run and disconnect. Oddly though you just might come up against one of the few who like to spam and don’t disconnect when they lose.

I thought I’d record a game I played online, I was hoping to find someone who’d give me a good game of course, but I got a little more, I found a rare spammer who stayed till the end.

Haven’t let you known for a while what I’ve been up to since the last update. Well I have managed to finished more games, and also play a lot of games, but not actually finish them. Don’t you just hate it when that happens? It’s mainly when you are enjoying a game, then a new one arrives in the post and it’s one of them that you just have to play as soon as you get it. So you decide to start it and then forget about the last game you were playing and ended up never finishing it. I’ve done that… a lot of times, heh.

So the games I’ve finished since the last update are as follows:

Resident Evil 4 Wii

This is certainly the best version of the game. I have finished it on the Gamecube and decided that a Wii controlled version would be interesting to test out. I can say that it works really well with the controls. It’s much easier to aim and blow those Spanish trouble makers heads clean off than ever before. I’d certainly celebrate if the rumours of older Resident Evil games getting a makeover with the RE4 Wii control method, I’d cream most likely.

Colin Mcrae: Dirt

Great racing game, although it feels more arcady than the past versions of the series. None the less it’s still a great mud racing game and easily recommended to racing fans. I manage to get 975 gamer score from this game, guess which achievement was left over?

Rule of Rose

I was in a mood to play some horror games over the past few weeks, so I get my hands into this game. Wasn’t the greatest horror game I’ve played, but certainly interesting, if a little slow paced as well. One for the fans I think.

Project Zero

Having played and finished the second game, I thought it be only fair to go back and finish the first game. Excellent and creepy, it’s one of the spookiest games I’ve ever played.

Fight Night: Round 3

I had this game since release but ended up missing one achievement as I played through it. I decided to restart it over and finally get that achievement, woo 1000 points from this game.

So as you can see I’m now at the total of 20/50, still somewhat of a way to go, but I still never give up! Never!

The past week or so I’ve been playing Dragon Quest VIII, Pokemon Diamond, Ninja Gaiden: Sigma and Forza 2. I hope I can manage to finish one of these off, I need to!