Belgium tomorrow and some Harvest Moon DS grinding!

I'm going on a school trip to Belgium tomorrow! I am going there to visit a town called Ypres (pronounced "Eeep!") to learn about World War I and visit the cemeteries etc. where they all died and even get to visit some real, preserved WWI trenches!

I''m really looking forward to it and am taking loads of sweets to eat on the 5 hour coach journey (as we're going on the Eurostar thingy across the English Channel, through France to Belgium) and my old DS Lite and a copy of Harvest Moon DS, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 days, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars and i would have taken Dragon Quest IX, but i don't want to lose it!

Recently i've returned to Harvest Moon DS as i never actually got married on it and lived a happy farm family life! That's what the main aim of the game is so i hope to achieve it soon! I have to get any girl's affection points to 60,000 and then propose to her. But i also need to get 60 Harvest Sprites before i can propose. I only have 51...

Anyway, got to go as i have to get up at 5am and i'm back at gone 12am the next day!!!

1 Metroid game, 3 years, completed!

My brother purchased Metroid Prime: Hunters for the Nintendo DS about 3 years ago, maybe a bit less. He doesn't really play it and  hasn't got very far so i thought i'd have a little go on it. I plowed through it, killing hunters and obtaining new weapons... then he found out i'd stolen it from his room and nicked it back!

I usually play multiplayer with him (and beat him!) and be Samus because she rocks, and she's the only character you can play as without a game card.

Anyway, a couple of days ago i stole the game card again and have playing it ever since. I got to the last boss, Gorea, and i have to say...

He was pathetically easy. All you have to do is run a bit, stand still and should his shoulders a couple of times. Then he turns upside down and you shoot him again till he dies... there really wasn't too much thought process whilst battling him apart from the fact that he changes weapons a lot. Your normal power beam is affective against him 100% of the time so there's no reason to switch.

I finished the game with 50 deaths, 83 hunter and guardians killed and 1300 enemies killed! I thought that was pretty good for 11 hours 10 mins gameplay.

Another game off my Pile Of Shame!

It was fun!

I'm also currently making a game with RPG Maker VX... but more on that next time!

Powerup #2 - The Wii Wheel

The Wii Wheel

Primarily designed for Mario Kart Wii, the wii wheel came bundled with it. By placing your Wii remote in the hole in the top the sensor could pick it up and by holding the wheel vertically you could easily control the vehicle on the screen, no hassle!

I first got 2 wheels when i bought Mario Kart Wii. Of course, they take some time to get used to and suprisingly are very light and can be easily stored unlike other items for the Wii.... (the massive Wii Board)!

Many other models have been made of the Wii wheel, most are cheaper, but very ugly. I like the original the most as it has the nice logo on the back and i'll always remember getting it. The price when they first came out was a little steep (£10 - £15 if i remember rightly) for what it is, but it's a nice piece of equipment for racing games on the Wii and worthy of my collection!

I rate the Wii Wheel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8/10

Powerup #1 - The Overshotgun

This is my new little section called powerups. Basically it's just me listing a load of hardware that can help you with your gaming! The first one is...

Powerup #1: The Overshotgun

Holy Crap! This baby is HUGE! I picked up one of these in Game for no more than £15. They take a lot of getting used to and i'd say they're more for the novelty when with friends rather than playing online on your own.

Basically, you open the top section and put the Wii remote in side. Upon closing the compartment you slide the little nobble on the side of the gun forwards and the integrated nunchuck will fix into the bottom of the Wii remote. Neat! Then you're ready to go, load up Call Of Duty 5 and get killing those enemies!

The only problems i found were that the (-) and (+) buttons were both on the Wii remote inside the gun, so when you want to throw a grenade you have to open it up! But, then i found out you can change the control settings, lol! Also, this i found quite dissapointing, the pump-action is not needed to reload in the gameplay, it just activates the A button which is rarely used in most FPS' i play.

Overall i have enjoyed playing with it through the campaign modes but when playing multiplayer i prefer to have more control over what i'm doing.

I rate the Overshotgun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/10

Let's hunt some clay!

Today i went to my friends 14th birthday party, the main event was... Clay Pigeon Shooting! I'd never actually done it before so, a little nervous, we all followed the instructor down a boggy field in our wellington boots until we came to a land-rover jeep. He taught us all about the shotguns (we were using the smallest, a 410) and how the cartridges worked and so on. I was last in the line of fire and had 4 shots... no pressure, i shot down 2, skimmed 1 and missed the other. Not bad for my first go! We turned it into a competition and took turns firing 4 cartridges each. In the end there was 3 rounds, the last one being a 'Joker' round. If you called 'Joker' before the clay pigeon was fired and you hit it you'd get 2 points... BUT, if you missed a Joker, you'd lose 2 points! In the end i was 1 above everyone else on 6 and i called no jokers, hitting 1 meaning i finished with a score of 7/12. The birthday boy scored 6, my brother scored 2 (he missed a joker), and my other friend hit a few but missed all his jokers and ended up with a big fat 0!

So I won a gold medal... cheap rubbish, but i still won it! After we finished we all went down to the field and gathered any clay pigeons we found and any used cartridges.

The picture shows the exact same brand we used in the 410.

We also got to fire a 12 bore shotgun which would of blown our arms off with the recoil had we not been provided with the protective shoulder padding.

Oh, yes... and of course we wore ear protectors! When we got back we had some fish and chips and then let all hell use with a couple of Nerf guns and a massive heap of bullets.

It was a great day!