As you can see in the past week and a half, it’s not been a big one for points. The vast bulk of the points came from Halo 3 which we finished on Legendary the other night. It was brilliant fun, a true testament to how a relatively average game can become something special when you play it with friends. If it wasn’t for the fact Bungie upped the game’s points a few days ago, I’d have a fairly respectable 760/1000 but as it stands, 760/1750 is a bit poor. I doubt I’ll play much multiplayer though, just not my thing, I much prefer CoD4 online. I’ll keep Halo 3 in the hope for the rumoured expansion pack though and our team of four can return to it then!

In somewhat shocking news, I’ve sold (yes sold, NOT bought) 14 games! I had a bit of a clearout of games that I keep intending to go back to, but never actually do. This also included Infinite Undiscovery which I realised I just wouldn’t get round to properly completing, so figured I’d cut my losses and sell it while it still had some value to it. Not like it cost me anything in the first place anyhow. Didn’t get much for many of the other games but I should now have enough set back to be able to fulfill my pre-orders of Fable 2: CE (despite its lack of figurine, fate cards and fancy box anymore ), Gears of War 2: CE and Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts (with a free copy of the original on XBLA).

I did however somewhat impulsively buy Fifa 09. The first football game I’ve bought since buying PES6 for about £10 two years ago when I first got my 360, and possibly the first football game I’ve ever bought in the first week of launch (I can’t remember any others at least). I mainly bought it on the strength of its demo, a few forum threads and Nokkon raving about it, and I’m glad I did. The tides really have turned in Fifa’s favour rather than PES. It’s truly the full package with manager mode, be a pro and updated stats for the year. I love Be a Pro, it’s a feature I’ve wanted for years in football games and it’s finally been realised! And I love it Plus the achievements aren’t bad to achieve either. The game’s definitely going to take some practice but it’s very rewarding to score an impressive goal.

The only other noteworthy game I’ve been playing is Viva Pinata. I returned to this as after playing Viva Pinata:TIP I felt like going back to the original until I have a vision cam. It’s at a nice and relaxed pace so far but the micromanagement hasn’t kicked in full time yet so I’m sure that’ll change things a bit. I still feel pangs of guilt when I have to sacrifice my Bunnycomb to attract a Pretztail to my garden…..I’m sure that makes so much sense to someone who’s never played it

Birthday Thursday, and I’m fairly certain I’ve got either Too Human or Brothers In Arms:Hell’s Highway. Either will be good by me I think, I love WW2 FPSes and BiA has had some ok reviews. Too Human is a little hit and miss but hoping my RPG loving nature will convert me to the ‘liking it’ side.

Operation Find the Dog that makes me and my Mum think we must have it (catchy title eh?) isn’t going brilliantly. Just not found the one yet. We are pretty exact with what we want. We want a rescue dog, young dog (well, under 5 but not a puppy), reasonably active but not crazy active, good with kids and cats and small to medium but not too small as my Mum wants to feel safe walking it on her own. Bit like Goldilocks isn’t it?
We’re regularly looking on a few sites and visiting our local RSPCA so fingers crossed we get lucky soon We’re not rushing into a dog that’s ‘ok’, it just seems like something that instinctively we’ll know when the dog is right (even if half the things I just listed aren’t the case, the only true essential is being ok with the cat), but it’s just not happened yet!

Gaming wise, it’s been a bit bitty. Not really sunk my teeth into anything other than the two review games (which doesn’t really count as I had to do that!). I’ve played a bit of Halo 3 on Legendary with friends, started with just one friend but it was getting hard and tedious so now there’s four of us which has made it much quicker and more enjoyable. Got the first three levels done last night, and doing more tonight. Not overly impressed with the game but it’s ok, worth it for a laugh with friends but I doubt I’d play it single player. It was the same with the first two. I played the first one with my ex a few years ago, we played it solidly for the day and it was great fun. But when I had a chance to play it in single player, I really wasn’t interested. We started on Halo 2 but broke up before we finished it so I’ll probably never get that done now. I hope Halo 3 doesn’t have an annoying library part like in Halo 1, that was sooooooo dull! Halo 3 online doesn’t appeal to me at all so doubt I’ll get any multiplayer achievements but I might give it a go.

Played through Prince Caspian slowly. It’s a total Lego Star Wars clone but without the charm. Identical game engine and identical bugs (such as not being able to pick up an item because it’s sticking halfway into a wall), it’s just not overly fun. It’s ok, it passed the time and I stuck by it to 1k it. That’s my only real score whoring I think, otherwise I’ve played purely for fun and gained a few achievements on the way.

I’m still liking Forza 2 but it is getting a bit boring now. The tracks are repeating themselves over and over again, so it’s getting a bit predictable. I love the RPG like elements of collecting all the cars (like Pokemon for petrolheads!) though so I’ll keep working on it. I’m over half way anyway now at level 35ish.

I picked up Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise for £25 when Morrisons were doing a week of cheap games. Paid for it by also buying Guitar Hero on the DS and ebaying it! Selling the review games has also helped me nicely. It’s just like the first game, so if you liked that, you’ll like this. It’s encouraged me to go back to the first game, which I suppose slightly ruins the point!

Birthday’s coming up fast and I keep being asked what game I want….and I don’t actually know! Lots of reasonable games about, but they all look like rentals to me, like Mercs 2 and Force Unleashed. Fable 2 comes out a couple of weeks after my birthday and I’ve got it pre-ordered anyway so that’s no good.

Not bad going that I mentioned in my last entry that I wanted both Viva Pinata:TIP and Infinite Undiscovery and now I have them both! At least I didn’t pay for one of them and hardly paid for the other in the end

More entries to come eventually….

Forza 2 has certainly been my surprise hit of late. I’ve put off purchasing it for a long time. I’ve never been very good at racing games, I get by usually, but I don’t tend to have the patience to hone my skills at them so generally I just don’t bother. The last racing game I played was probably PGR3, again I kept meaning to buy PGR4 but never got round to it. So as the Forza 2:Collector’s Edition was available at the same time as I was purchasing SW2:Empires in the 2 for £20 range, I thought it was worth a go. I’m very glad I did, I’m hooked! Nokkon sent me a ridiculous number of cars to get me started and I’ve been having a great time, it’s probably not quite the correct way of doing it as I’ve got so many good cars to start with but I’m enjoying it which has to be the main thing. Looks like it’ll last me a good long while too

Both Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise and Infinite Undiscovery come out Friday and I really wish I could buy one or both. But unless money magically appears in front of me, it won’t be happening I’m going on holiday Monday-Friday to Center Parcs with friends (arranged before my Dad died and when I was still working so could afford it) and it’s going to cost me a fortune so no chance. I’d trade something in but there’s nothing I’ve completed that I can trade in, which means that really I have plenty of games to play anyhow so I should get on with that first!

Hoping to have more chance to write while I’m away so fingers crossed for some more interesting discussion soon. Oh and a Space Siege review for the PC has just been uploaded, feel free to read, just don’t buy the game! A STALKER:Clear Sky review will be up in the next week or so too as my copy’s arriving tomorrow hopefully.