Grazza

I know, I replied to Hero of Time earlier about Dragon Quest IV and V and now have a terrible urge to replay them! Indeed, and I also loved how the waves churned up and the colour of the sea and sky suited the time of day. There were so many different colour schemes - grey, turquoise, purple, sky blue, royal blue - and they all went together so well. Another thing I loved was the phases of the moon and how that affected certain things. It may not have been Majora's Mask, but to me it took the best aspects from that game and incorporated them in a more manageable way - eg. a 1-day NPC cycle instead of 3-day. I don't want to bash Twilight Princess, but it didn't have NPC cycles at all. One other thing I have to mention is the sublime controls - L and R triggers, shield controls, camera control via the C-stick... All this made it a joy to play, and I'm afraid to say it hasn't been matched yet.

Finding a Double Dragon machine at my local leisure centre in the 1980s and being totally and utterly blown away. Getting quite far into Bad Dudes vs Dragonninja at my local seaside and shaking with adrenaline, totally and utterly oblivious to what was going on around me. Playing Golden Axe with my friends on the Mega Drive. Receiving Landstalker for Christmas and loving it more than any previous Zelda, with its "exploring an island" and "having a fairy in your backpack" vibe. Buying the GameCube and loving the fact that in terms of graphics, controls and everything else, it was better than anything else I'd ever owned. Then playing Wind Waker and being utterly astonished that they had surpassed even the N64 Zeldas. Being introduced to Dragon Quest with DQVIII and finding the overworld, music and general vibe heart-achingly beautiful.

What I don't understand is this idea that you don't have to do anything whilst sailing. Personally, I keep a constant track of where the wind is blowing from, adjusting it when necessary, and keep making adjustments to the direction of the boat too, stopping to explore islands and submarines. If you literally pointed the boat in the right direction and went to make a coffee, you'd probably come back to find you'd gone to the wrong place entirely or Link had been knocked out of the boat by a shark or explosive barrel. And as for the vast ocean, I don't think people realise the importance of space. A certain amount of space was set between the islands for a reason (and it wasn't to annoy the player!) Remember when you set off from home and ended up on Windfall Island? It wouldn't have felt the same if it was only one square up. And when you left there to visit Dragon Roost, you felt you were in aother domain. How about when you sought Great Fish Isle? Its remote location was part of its spookiness. It's not as though there wasn't plenty else to explore. Actually, with respect, this is something I think people misunderstand about Twilight Princess. People say the world was too big and featureless, but it really could have been bigger. If the theme of that game was "Link and his Horse", there could have been much bigger fields in it. As it was, it felt like you were going down corridors, and only one of the fields really justified having a horse. A Zelda game on land as big as the Great Sea could be very enjoyable, as long as there were strange huts and things to encounter. As for Wind Waker, I'd agree there could have been one or two more "large" land masses with villages and I'd also agree the Wind Temple was a lowlight. Generally speaking, I think all the dungeons could have been shorter, as they were the only bits that reminded me I was in a game (most of the time I was totally and utterly immersed). If anything, the dungeons made it feel a bit old fashioned. Ah well, some games you "get", some you don't.

Yeah, a brownie's very good (I forgot what they were called), and then a little bit later I found the mud monster a welcome addition too.

I don't think Tall Trunk is technically timed either, but of course you are forced to keep moving.

I liked it and I'm not masochistic! There's so much variety to it. For a start, anywhere on the map is easy to get to using the warps and controlling the wind. As for the challenges themselves, I don't see the problem - mini-dungeons, a "Pit of 100 Trials", I enjoyed all of it.

I recently went to Tintagel Castle in Cornwall, which is the alleged birthplace of King Arthur. Whether that's true or not, I found it spectacular, up on the cliff with the sea air in my lungs. I was in the domain of the birds!

No, it's the untimed ones I dislike, as you can spend ages on it then make a mistake at the last minute. The desert and lava ones in Galaxy 1 were terrible for that. I think there was only one untimed one in Galaxy 2 - the cake-themed galaxy?

4th in your line-up should be a healer, so you could start with a Slime, then upgrade to a Slime Knight. Personally, I would replace him with a Healslime and then a Cureslime when you can get them. Don't forget, you can also have healers in your wagon. The 2nd and 3rd places in your line-up should just be general strong monsters. If you catch one and it has better stats than your existing monsters, use that. Some of them can use weapons, some of them breath fire, it just depends what you like. Depending on your play style, you might like your 3rd-place monster to be a magical/elemental creature. Elementals are better as they don't use MP. Personally, my favourite monsters were the ones that could use spears, axes etc.

That's true, that galaxy was a bit of a letdown (or rather, the fact that there weren't as many beach levels as I expected) - it didn't even have the churning water of Galaxy 1. That said, I found it less frustrating than the "race track" galaxy in the original - I remember spending hours and hours looking for purple coins and kept falling off the big tree! In fact, you've just reminded me why I prefer Galaxy 2 - there's only one untimed purple coin hunt!

I'm basing this on the playable demo (for journalists) from 2005. The orientation of the game world was the same as the GameCube's (with Link left-handed). In that way, the GC game is the "true version". On the other hand, the game was then modified to work on the Wii. The controls were simplified and this was ported back to the GameCube version. If you don't like to think of it as a port, think of it as "forced convergence". The easiest way to understand TP is "Started on GameCube, Ported to Wii, Ported back to GameCube". Again, they were developed at the same time, but the GameCube version had to "get in line" with how the Wii version was developing. I'm afraid I'm still bitter about this. Believe me, no matter how good or bad Skyward Sword is, it'll never be as controversial as Twilight Princess. Even for Red Steel 2? The game tells you to do the whole movement, using your forearm. I'd agree that simple pointing and tilting is fine. This is the irony of motion controls - the better they get, the more it's clear they are not the way forward! I could cope if all pads had tilting and pointing in the future, but I'm hoping the Red Steel/Skyward Sword level of interaction will come to be seen as a misguided time for the games industry. We'll see!

Oh no, it really was awesome. Fair enough if you don't like it, but don't underestimate it. It is much, much more technically and artistically advanced than any Zelda before or since. I'm not lazy, it's not about that at all. Games should be about enjoyment, and it is quite simply less enjoyable to swing my forearm, knocking into furniture, than it is to use a traditional, wired controller. The wireless controller runs out of battery power at a ridiculous rate. Of course I didn't! Believe me, I'd been following the game for years and pre-ordered the GameCube version. I only bought the Wii version a few years later when I found it for £15. Again, I'm well aware of that, trust me! It was once a true GameCube game, but was modified to work on the Wii. This modified version was then ported back to the GameCube, hence why the shield can no longer be drawn with the R-trigger and cannot be controlled with the analogue stick. This was in the game and was taken out. I take your points in the spirit you made them, but I did want to address them.

Mario needs to be put back on flat land (well, not flat, but you know what I mean!) The best thing about the Galaxy games was the variety, but you don't need a space theme for that! I loved the way the levels flowed - for example, the way you'd suddenly slide down a little chute to the next section. For me, the planetoid idea never truly worked. It worked well enough, but not enough to justify having a next-gen game on the same theme. There were too many control and viewpoint issues - not big ones, but any is too much for a Mario game! In all honesty, the only way the next Mario is going to improve upon previous outings is for it have better graphics, controls and gameplay - ie. the same things as usual. Nintendo's next system should ditch motion controls and have a wired, traditional pad! Only then will I be able to sit back and fully enjoy myself. In the meantime, they need to have at least three giant slides (like Super Mario 64) and only 120 Stars. Star 242 in Galaxy 2 was just stupid, it was only designed to frustrate people. The Galaxy games were good, but they need to take it back more towards 64 and Sunshine.

Well said. I'm not going to go on about this, but there is no doubt that the controls will work well. We all understand what happened at E3. The controls in Red Steel 2 work well - that doesn't make them fun. And yeah, people worried about motion controls affecting Twilight Princess in a negative way... because that's exactly what they did. That's not to say they didn't work, but neither version of TP had controls as good as Wind Waker's. (The GC version was not a true GameCube game. It was the Wii version but controllable with a GameCube pad - there's a difference.)

Personally, I thought Galaxy 2 had the better beginning. I'd better not say what happens (I suppose it's a spoiler), but I was more impressed with it than the original game (which did seem to take a while to get going). I would say Galaxy 2 also has the better soundtrack, if only for the Super Mario World influence. Overall, viewing both as 120-Star games, I'd say I enjoyed Galaxy 2 a lot more because of Yoshi, the power-ups and the general level design. They're so close though, it's easy to see why someone could prefer either of them.

It was not a bad finale at all. The only thing I had an issue with was how the Doctor got out of the Pandorica. Rory only managed to open it with the Sonic Screwdriver, which the Doctor gave him after he got out. Timey Wimey or not, that doesn't make sense to me. I'd rather it just required the touch of a time traveller (or near enough). Yet again the writer wrote himself into a hole it was not possible to get out of in a satisfying manner! However, there were some lovely moments, such as the stone Daleks in the museum and Amy's sluttish "You may definitely kiss the bride!", whilst Rory looked on, hapless as usual! Oh, I was also rather miffed the sinister voice in the Tardis wasn't resolved. I don't want to have to wait years to find out about that! If I could sum up this series in one word it would be "flat". It was good. It never reached the lows of Russell T Davies, but nor did it reach the highs. Watching RTD was "Brilliant! Brilliant! Brilliant! Argh, what rubbish!", whereas watching Steven Moffat is "OK, OK, good, OK, OK, good..." First, the positives: the casting. Karen Gillan was just brilliant, I loved her - 5/5. Matt Smith had the hardest job in TV by taking over from David Tennant, but he did brilliantly. I loved his geeky take on it. Not as good as the previous two Doctors, but probably the best actor available nonetheless. I'd give him 4/5, maybe more if he didn't mumble some of the lines! What I wasn't so keen on was the dull tone, which I thought was prevalent throughout the episodes. The lighting wasn't as good as usual - maybe it was meant to be moody or something? It didn't do it for me. Now, onto the complex matter of Steven Moffat. He's good, there's no doubt about it, but I feel he is too interested in time travel and all its complexities. That doesn't necessarily equal entertainment. I'm loathe to criticise him, as I respect him greatly for giving up Hollywood to write Doctor Who, but I find his style very calm and methodical, lacking in flair. The best stories do not need to be complex or high-stakes. I think one of the very best was in Season 3 when the Judoon transported a hospital to the moon. Their only aim was to find the Plasmivore, that's all, but it was done in an extremely entertaining way. As such, I thought the best epsiode this year was "Amy's Choice", written by Men Behaving Badly's Simon Nye. It really had that pacing and humour. Vampires in Venice and Gareth Roberts' The Lodger also had brilliant humour and dialogue, if not the stories to match. I loved the Doctor air-kissing everyone he met! It was a classic! I don't mean to imply Steven Moffat's scripts lacked this though. The most pleasant surprise of the series was that there were just as many funny moments as with Tennant. Personally, I thought Moffat's best story was the Weeping Angels 2-parter, as it was logical, plausible and the resolution was there to be deciphered. Overall, it's still a good programme. Not as good as it used to be, but probably as good as it can be at the moment.

Thanks for trying to explain it, but I don't want to play Zelda with Move, I just want to use pointing. Actually, I want to use a GameCube pad, but that's another matter.

The point is there is no benefit in using motion control for archery until the controller in each hand has more versatility, but if you lot want to ignore that and turn it into Sony vs Nintendo, fine, there's nothing more I can do to explain it!

MotionPlus is great, but the point is that the Nunchuk doesn't have the abilities of either Move or MotionPlus.

[spoiler=]Have you got the Comet Coin? It's off the ledge to the right of the Hammer Bros. If you have, then it must be the bank thing (I had 9999 anyway). Personally, I've got 241 Stars now. Star 242 is going to take quite a few swear words!

Thanks Retro! Yes, you can, but only from behind! This is what it looks like from the "other" angle: And this is what it looks like from behind (too close for my lens!): It's a Martello Tower from the Napoleonic War, but I don't know what that part is for. I suppose it must be for light aircraft, yes.

Retro Link, those car ones are absolutely stunning. Recently, I've been taking my camera around various villages and here are my favourite photos from them:

James is right. This isn't about saying "Sony is better", it's just about suggesting the optimum configuration possible on the Wii.

Indeed. I started to occasionally get eyestrain after I turned 30 and I have heard that people over 30 are more susceptible to it. I've got a feeling I'm going to get my 3DS and gradually turn the 3D slider down and down until I never use it! Still, that's not too bad as long as the graphics, resolution and games are up to standard.