Kettle of Nish

A bit late with this one because I finished it a few days ago. To be fair I took my time reading it - more out of my appalling reading habits these days than through choice.

I think Sushi & Beyond is one of the last printed books I bought. It was some time last year - whenever the Steve jobs biography was published. Almost every book I buy these days is on Kindle. (The exception is my recent purchase of The Canterbury Tales which is supposed to be a mess in Kindle format and it’s not the Penguin edition either. For such a hefty tome it was an amazing bargain. Less than a fiver for a used Amazon version in excellent condition.)

This’ll turn out to be more of a rant than a summing up of the game itself but don’t make the mistake of thinking I hated the game. Not at all. In fact it’s the only golf game I’ll ever play.

I’m sure I mentioned recently that after buying two versions of the game I finally managed to finish the game by beating the final opponent. All that was left to do was complete all the challenges (suggested by the game itself) for self-proclaimed, 100% completion purposes. This wouldn’t be a chore because I like the game.

Of course, there was a reason I had skipped those courses and moved straight to the final - they were tough. Still despite their toughness I enjoyed playing a couple of rounds in the late afternoon on my days off.

It was while I was playing the other day, though, that I decided apropos of nothing to check out if there was any DLC available.

Sure enough there were two extra, 18-hole courses at the unattractive price of £3.19 each as well extra characters and costume packs. Of more interest, however, was that all the additional content required the game to be updated.

Although I don’t often go online with the PS3 (because unlike the X360 it remembers the goddamn date and time after shutdown) I had been connected several times when playing EGWT. The game had never updated.

The reason for this, according to the PlayStation Store, is that you have to go to the Online section on the game’s menu. The game won’t auto update. So I thought I’d give it a go.

Choosing Online immediately initiates a download. I’m not sure how long it took but it was definitely over an hour (and before you cry out this was exceptional even for PS3 downloads). Worse was that other than the status bar and percentage there was no indication of how much data needed to be downloaded. Unable to do anything else I powered everything bar the console itself and went off to do something else.

When I returned I was advised to restart which I did. Noticing nothing different I went to Online again. Another download began.

Having no time for this (I wasn’t going to have the machine on for two hours and not get any game time out of it) I switched off and decided to try again another day.

A bit of Googling a day later revealed that there wasn’t anything wrong. The EGWT updates don’t come as one big package - you’re forced to download separately. Pissed off as I was I did take interest in that the game was updated as recently as February of this year (more on this in a bit). As you know regardless of the version, i.e. Minna no Golf 5 or EGWT, the game is old and was one of the early PS3 releases. (It actually sparked interest in the PS3 in Japan as a themed package following the lacklustre launch. It’s no surprise that Minna no Golf 6 was a launch title for the PSV.)

So yesterday I fired up the PS3 early and got downloading. It seemed quicker this time around, i.e. I could see the percentage increase occurring, but it was still slow compared to regular wifi downloads. When it was done I restarted. Still nothing. Uh-oh.

Fearing the worst I clicked the Online option once more. Of course, another download began. How could it be otherwise?

When I restarted this time I was immediately confronted by the PS Move warning screens. Something different at last! The title screen now added another option, which was dedicated to PS Move support. Also, the loading screens which displayed hints and tips had increased by one in number. The new screen told me that 3D support was now available too.

Despite the success I wasn’t in the best of moods but I still decided to play a round or two as some sort of reward. The conditions weren’t the best (late afternoon sunshine and a plasma screen don’t mix, and curtains aren’t an option) but so what? I only had one course left to finish too.

What are the odds, eh? Poor lighting, tough playing character (high risk-reward), poor mood, and a course in which I’d never finished better than 16th position. Bagged some Birdies and played Par to finish two strokes ahead of the competition on my first attempt that session!

The reward would have been insulting if my attempt was like a Trophy-hunting exercise (Trophies haven’t been phased in via the updates) and the suggestion to keep playing to improve my scores was less than warming too.

It was then that I decided to go back to the Store and buy the extra courses despite the rip-off prices. I still had money left in my wallet following my Final Fantasy spending spree and my recent purchase of Corpse Party for PSP (I’ve yet to play this but I was intrigued ever since I read the reviews) I was angered further by discovering that the courses were each just 100k in size, which has the faint whiff of on-disc unlocks.

The courses can only be accessed via the Stroke play option, i.e. you’re playing on your own for scores, but this was expected. It still gives me 36 new holes to play and injects a little more life into one of my favourite PS3 games. In fact I’m stoked for more but that would mean buying a PSV…

Too many great tunes to choose from but this is an old favourite.

(Source: Spotify)

Realised that when I made reference to ‘Crash’ by The Primitives I didn’t link. So…

I haven’t really listened to any Norah Jones since her debut record (I did see My Blueberry Nights though). The album was okay but nothing out of the ordinary considering the producer.

(Source: Spotify)

I still rate ‘Cigarettes & Chocolate Milk’ as my favourite from Rufus, but the title track from the new album is one of his more catchy efforts.

(Source: Spotify)

Remember that catchy song ‘Crash’? This is the same band albeit decades later. It’s a covers album but it’s still a nice listen.

(Source: Spotify)

I was listening to the album yesterday. It only received a 3-star review from the Guardian, but I really enjoyed it.

(Source: Spotify)

N.B. Apologies in advance for the poor picture - I didn’t bother with any editing whatsoever.

Shouldn’t really mention this at all because it’s not a first time completion, but there was something I wanted to say about the game and my game playing.

I can’t remember how I completed it the first time around but I sure as hell needed help this time. I was stuck on 93 exits and so rather than go through trial and error on every ‘red’ stage I Googled for tips.

It was only then that I gained access to the Top Secret Area which would have made life slightly easier when I needed power-ups, especially when Yoshi was required.

But the point I’m trying to make is that the location or know-how of these remaining exits were clean erased from my memory. (The only tricky exits that remains burned into my memory is the one on Cheese Bridge which involves nifty cape control.) What’s more I seemed to lack the nous to re-discover them.

Another surprise is that this version of the game lacks the special save screen star on completion of all 96 exits. Instead of this badge of honour you receive the inexplicable (and it has to be said crappy) distinction of your feat rendered in cyan.

Listening to the album, Heligoland, right now.

(Source: Spotify)