I just finished the shower scene in Heavy Rain. Never before as furiously beating the joypad up and down to towel off felt so good.

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Now the 3 roaming legendary 'Mons in Heartgold and Soulsilver are Entei, Raikou and Latias/Latios (depending on which colour game you have). Suicune who was once a roaming legendary beast in the original Gold and Silver is now fixed and appears much later in the game.

Preparation

The most important part on catching these 3 buggers is preparation. First and foremost you need a Haunter or a Gengar. This ghostmon is almost perfect for the task at hand because it can learn both Mean Look and Hypnosis. Your Haunter/Gengar NEEDS to be faster than the Pokemon you're after so pump it full of Carbos vitamins or simply level it up.

Having a second 'Mon with False Swipe is very very handy (though not essential). I'd recommend Scyther for this since you can catch it early in the game at the Bug Catching Contest. Alternatively if you have a phobia of giant green bugs you can just buy the False Swipe TM54 at the Goldenrod store.

Finding them

Actually finding them isn't to difficult but it can become a bit of a time sink with Entei and Raikou constantly running off early in encounter. The clue in what they do is in the title. They roam... randomly jumping from route to route. The only thing you can do is fly to various towns and cities and as soon as you land check your map to see if one is near (have a 'Mon in your team that knows Cut for those pesky tree blocks). If not fly again to another random location. Repeat and rinse. The 'Mons will always be in a patch of grass on the route.

Gotta catch 'em all

The troublesome bit. Keeping the frustrating buggers in the damn balls. I'll just explain what these moves do I mentioned in Preparation. Mean Look, all 3 Roamers will flee as soon as they can. Mean Look simply prevents this from happening (assuming Gengar is always facing them). Hypnosis, now the problem with Entei and Raikou is they have an extremely annoying move called Roar. All roar does it swaps out your current 'Mon for another in your team. The problem with this is Mean Look will no longer be active so they simply flee once Gengar as gone bye-bye. Hypnosis puts them to sleep so they can't use roar and of course makes them easier to catch.

False Swipe, one big difference between the roamers and the other 'Mons and Legenaries is that their stats are saved. So for example if in your first encounter with Raikou you get its HP down to 50% then the next time you bump into it its HP will still be at 50%. Same with status effects so I'd recommend not using any moves that might paralyse them. With this in mind your first few encounters with the Roamers you should be concentrated on getting their HP to 1 which is exact what False Swipe does. HP will be reduced to 1 but never any lower.

Use Dusk balls AT NIGHT! Using Dusk balls during night time is almost twice as effecive as Ultra balls. They're also 200 bucks cheaper than ultras.

In A Nutshell

Have your Gengar out has your first 'Mon. With your Legendary down to 1 HP (from previous encounters) immediately use Mean Look to prevent fleeing. Then bang out Hypnosis untill it's asleep and throw as many Dusk balls at it as you can while it's snoozing. When it wakes use Hypnosis once more.

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... well actually I can and have. Untill Cataclysm comes out that is.

A combination of Wrath of the Lich King being incredibly easy and most of my friends leaving resulted in boredom for me. It's such a shame the end game content is so laughably accessible to everyone and you're showered with so called 'epic' items. There is no sense of achievement anymore when you down a raid boss for the first time or winning some so called amazing weapon. You know next week you can do the exact samething with the same amount of (little) effort.

There is so much that Blizzard got right with WotLK. The beautiful contient of Northrend, imaginative and fun quests and enough lore to give all Warcraft 3 fans regular changes of underwear. It made me realise what an arsehat The Burning Crusade expansion was and how Blizzard learned from their mistakes. But oh why did developers decide to have Mrs Daniels aged 48 from Great Yarmouth who plays 4 hours a week access to end game stuff?!?! I guess her  9 a month is as good as any.

So another year untill the next expansion comes out and even then I'll make a judgement call whether to get it. I'm not really on the look out for a replacement MMO at the moment. None of Lord of the Rings, Conan, Warhammer or Aion scratch my itchy mouse finger. Star Trek Online however does look interesting with the starships and planet hopping. Although my expectations is rather low so I'm hoping to be pleasantly surprised when it comes out in Febuary.

Now if you excuse me time to watch the trailer to Star Wars Old Republic again. The drool on my chin is still wet from the last viewing.

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E3 has got my juices following again for video games, I have been in a state of 'mild interest' since about February but owning a PS3 that refuses to connect to the internet and a PSP will do that to a person.

Looks moodily into the distance

During the Microsoft conference the first thing that made my ears prick up like a squirrel in a Nutella factory was Halo 3: ODST (not sure of the need to call it Halo 3) but more so the teaser trailer for Halo Reach. It made the fanboy in me cry out with unrivaled joyous tears! I'd happily marry Master Chief so long as he took off his MJOLNIR armour off in bed. Notice though it isn't called Halo 3: Reach? Perhaps this is a sequel to Halo Wars or something new altogether. My excuses for not getting a 360 are running thin now with 4 Halo titles.

Next up was Nintendo. I'll sum up their whole conference this this sentence. "Waffle, waffle, Mario, waffle, waffle, non-gamers, waffle, waffle, sales".

Sack Boy, the greatest video game mascot?

Now Sony's was the one I was looking forward to the most. 2009 already had a very strong line up for the PSP. I always felt the PSP was Sony's bastard child which they neglected. At least now they're feeling guilty about missing all of the Portables birthdays and only visiting one weekend a month. We knew Little Big Planet was coming but seeing it action was believing. Also Assassins Creed and MGS: Peace Walker (the true sequel to MGS 3 *suspicious glare*) were the surprises that made me drool the most.

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Now this is a work of art. I'm very jealous of other countries having a rainbow selection of colours to choose from. In Britain we have black, white and silver. And I'm sure I've never ever seen white or silver in the shops. This lilac colour gets my juices flowing. First time I've been tempted to import a 2nd PSP. I am of course assuming this will never be released in the UK (which it won't).

Ok, ok, lets gloss over the fact it will be bundled with a Hannah Montana rhythm game *shudders* and some Hannah Montana TV show UMD. Mere details. I can discreetly hide them in my sock draw along side my pink Gameboy and deny all knowledge.

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Nice hat....

Now I have Pokemon Diamond perminately slotted into my DS. I seem to be hell bent on catching every Pokemon in the game. I've even caught all 26 Unown which opened a cave where I could catch the ! and ? Unown. They don't do anything... just sit there in a PC. But I had to have them. I am now planning on getting Pokemon Pearl so I can get the unique Pokemon from that game. And after a little research on the net I discovered that having LeafGreen or FireRed in the GBA slot unlocks previously unavailable Pokemon. Oh will it ever end?! Nintendo are offically the Devils spawn.

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The rise of the console. Well it was for me anyways. I hadn't played any video games outside of the arcades for a couple of years when '88 came around. A friend of mine had this mysterious computer called a 'Sega'. I was amazed when I played it. I remember 2 of the games he had were Wonder Boy and R-Type and as far as I was concerned this was arcade gaming in the home.

I promptly nagged my mum for a Sega Master System and a 1 single game. It had to be just the one game because the price of a new cart was a whopping  30! I mean 30 quid back in 88/89, I wouldn't pay thirty notes today for a brand new PSP or DS game.

The marketing boys for Sega really didn't have a clue... who drew these a 6 year old?

In Britain at least the SMS was king and had very little competition. The 8-bit computer era was coming to an end, no one wanted an Atari 7800 and no one had even heard of the NES.

Unbeknown to me at the time was Nintendos attempt at monopoly by threatening all the major 3rd party game makers with death and torture. Sega had to rely on converting there own coin-ops. Out Run, After Burner, Space Harrier and Wonder Boy all graced Segas 8-bit with graphics and sound other consoles couldn't live with.

A closer look at some of my fave games later.

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On reflection reducing the level for a mount isn't much in itself. I could see it being rather helpful actually for alts and new players. Blizzard needs to try and keep players from getting bored and going to Conan or Warhammer. It's just the whole disregard for Azeroth saddens me. All those unexplored areas, all those excellent level 60 raids, all those story driven quests.

What next with Wrath of the Lich King expansion? The ability to create level 60 characters and just bypass Azeroth all together? How about throwing in some epic gear and a flying mount?

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I once felt like a social outcast because I played World of Warcraft. Even on this very site, a gaming site, every piece of WoW or MMO news is met with replies of "ug... snort... people who play Warcraft have no lives".

Whenever the topic arises in conversation with my friends I get jibed with "have you been playing with you Pixie again?". My angry retort of "they're Gnomes godammit, not Pixies!" would fall on deaf ears. Shunning away from any mention of WoW in the company of strangers for fear of ridicule, but no more! The line must be drawn here! This far, no farther!

I now embrace my inner-geek I freely admit having a Borg Cube in my bedroom, a signed R2-D2 figure (mint on card) hanging on my wall and I can name all the Constructicons. My Green Linen Shirt (armor 3) is often adorned when I go out in the hope that fellow geeks will see it and we will unite. No longer shall I shun discussing Black Temple raids or the trouble of farming mote of air on a pvp realm with friends and strangers alike.

A day may come when the courage of Geekdom fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day!

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It looks just like the first two Diablo games and thats no bad thing. It's a hack 'n' slash series! I don't want amazing graphics that takes a super-computer to run. I don't want any 'innovation' that gets in the way of me sinking my sword into hordes of zombies.

Just give me huge areas to explore, bigger baddies to slay and lots of annoying 12 year old brats to humiliate. And perhaps more importantly the continuation of Diablo universe storyline.

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Llamas are llovely!

I replayed all of these games through emulation and Revenge was the only one that disappointed. The last 25 years have not been kind to Llamasofts most famous game but when I was a kid I loved it.

You play a camel (I assume a mutant one thats feeling vengeful) and whilst scrolling slowly from left to right you shoot down a variaty of crazy things. When telephone booths, alpine skiers and cigerettes come crashing into your furry hump you start to question the makers (the famous Jeff Minter) sanity.

Sheep In Space

Another Llamasoft game by Jeff Minter. You play a flying, lazer-shooting sheep... in space (try not to think about it to much). It was actually an excellent clone of Defender with the same free roaming and warping about. You had the novel ability to refuel by landing and eating grass which were dotted around. Failure to do so and you starved to death which is never a good way die.

Even the first level required some perfectly timed jumps

This is a platform game in its purist form. Just 3 buttons needed, left, right and jump. Created by the demi-god Mathew Smith (who also done Jet Set Willy), Manic Miner was a revolution in those early 8-bit computer days. The premise of each, single screen level was to simpley collect the flashing keys and make your way to the exit. Every level demanded that you learn the correct route, where to jump, how to avoid the crazy baddies and the evil spikes and death weeds. The slightest touch of any of these was instant death and with just 3 lives a steady hand and nerve was needed. Here's to games where you get chased by toilets!

I think Rockford meets a sticky end in the next frame

Not content with being a camel and a sheep Boulder Dash lets you play the role of Rockford the Ant (I swear it's purely coincidental). Your aim is to dig through the dirt collecting a set amount of diamonds and then finding the exit. The levels are littered with boulders which will fall on your head if you remove the earth from under them. Not only do you have to watch every step but there is the 'deadly shapes' (usually a square) that zoom around the passages you've just created. However this is where the boulder becomes your friend by pushing or dropping them on the 'deadly shapes' (this is a necessity on some levels as they explode into diamonds).

There was a few sequels and many homebrews and remakes through out the years including Boulder Dash Rocks on the DS and the PSP which are very much on my wish list.

Yie Ar Kung Fu

Yes there was actually fighting games before Street Fighter 2! I was quite the Yie Ar Kung Fu player. I'd knock seven shades out of all the characters with the grace one could whilst wearing white pyjamas. That is untill the dreaded Pole Guy. I don't know if it was a bug or not but if the Pole Guy snagged you with his lengthy green high jump pole he would continually hit you until you were dead. No getting away, no hitting back. DEAD! Your best bet of defeating Pole Guy was to jump around like a manic pyjama clad frog on a barbacue and get sly hits in.

That aside Yie Ar Kung Fu was a joy to play along with its colourful graphics and meaty sound effects. The sequel (imaginatively called Yie Ar Kung Fu 2) was just as good if not better.

Pole Guy... be affraid

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The graphics were amazing, the sound even better. Loading screens actually had moving colours and a high pitched 'sqwee-heeee-ooooo' noise to tell you the game was still loading and hadn't died.
The C64 itself looked almost identical to the Vic-20 except it was a rather dull colour (if it the DS were to release this as a new colour it would be nicotine stained or caramel).

The amount of games we horded was vast. This was almost entirely due to my older cousin who copied 100's of games for us. You could squeeze a hell of a lot on a double sided blank cassette. Also every Saturday I would venture to town to buy a game. This was always a cheap  1.99/2.99 budget game. I had no inkling how the game played. Good cover? Good screenshots? Buy it! Those big boxed and big priced games like Space Harrier and Barbarian I saw on the shelves were stuff of myth and legend to me.

The majority of these titles were utter dross which you'd play 30 minutes and then forget but you did find a few gems.

Thrust, Thing on a Spring and Jet Set Willy were all budget and were brilliant.

More on the C64 games soon.

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It all started with the Commodore Vic-20. I can't say I was terribly impressed with it even at the impressionable age of 4-5 year old. I was far to interested in He-man and poo jokes.

The big chunky Vic-20 was an off-white colour (if it was released today it would be enemal white or cr me de la cr me) and it came with a noisey cassette player to load in the games. Of course like all cassette games of the 80's it took an age to load in and unlike the Commodore 64 there was no way to tell if it had crashed. Only after 15 minutes of staring at a blank screen did you think "... bloody thing isn't loading". Then there was the power pack which weighed a tonne and over heated after a few hours. We used to have it raised off the floor to "let the air circulate". It didn't make a difference. You had to knock it off before it melted and set fire to your living room.

One game for the Vic-20 I did love was Blitz. The premise of the game was simple. Fly your ever-descending World War 1 plane over a city of skyscrapers and bomb them flat so you can land safely.
At the time I never questioned the morality of the bizarre storyline. I now realise the horror of killing thousand's of innocent citizens and leveling an entire city just so you can land. Do the noble thing! Find a quiet field or a lake to plummet into. You'll die a hero.
Still it was simple and addictive and it had that 'just one more go' quality to it.

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