I think I'm coming down with a cold - my throat feels all rough and dry this morning. I hope not. Colds suck :(

Anyway, I'm going swimming again today, and I'm seriously nervous about it. Basically, without a float, I'm horrible at swimming, and apparently the huge pile of floats my local pool has just sat by the changing room door is 'not for public use'. I think they belong to the swimming clubs that use the place or something. The life guard last Sunday was kind enough to let me borrow one - but only after I'd gotten into the pool and proved just how awful I was. I'm hoping with every fibre of my being that whoever's on duty when I go today will be just as kind.

Next week should be okay, since I plan on buying my own but can only do so on Monday. But if they turn around and tell me I 'can't bring my own float' then I'll just end them with it. They shouldn't do though, because I see kids there wearing what are quite obviously their own armbands. So if they're allowed to bring their own swimming aids, then so can I.

To illustrate just how bad I am at swimming... without a float, I have to hold on to the side with one hand and sort of 'swim' along with the rest of me, and it looks embarrassing. I just can't trust the water. In primary school and right up to Year 9 of high school (that's about age 13 for those of you with different educational systems) I had swimming lessons pretty much once a week for a term every year, but I never picked it up. My confidence in general was a mess thanks to bullying and whatnot, and I think this is pretty much why I never learned how to swim; because I was too self-conscious around my douchey classmates.

I'm going to ask about adult swimming classes today as well. I hope they have some going, because I seriously need them. I want to know how to swim! I don't want to be an Olympic swimmer with perfect form, I just want to be able to plod along without floats, without holding the side, and without worrying that as soon as I let go of something I'm going to fall over and drown. Plus being able to swim confidently would be a bonus in a situation like a sinking ferry, or a flash flood, or a pool party apocalypse.

Guess what we finally got yesterday, after almost a decade of coveting it? Sonic Adventure 2: Battle! It went up for sale on the XBox Live Marketplace a couple of days ago and we all agreed that it had to be ours. Me, Nathan and Ashley are huge Sonic fans, and Sonic Adventure for the Dreamcast is one of my favourite games of all time. Put it this way, we played it for years, almost every day we were on it. Between playing that and Soul Calibur, we actually played our Dreamcast to the point where it no longer works, and those things are sturdy little machines. Sonic Adventure has everything, good graphics for its time, fluent gameplay, a good mix of challenging and easy levels that are excellently designed and memorable, the characters are well animated, the Adventure Field (free roam! Yay!) and Chao Garden are both genius ideas and the music... oh man, I love the music.

So, Sonic Adventure 2 downloaded, we gave it a play...

And... honestly? I was sadly disappointed. It's an okay game, but Sonic Adventure is far superior. Here's why.

First off, they got rid of the Adventure Field. One of the best features of the first game. The whole reason Sonic Adventure was named as such was because you could free-roam around Station Square, Mystic Ruins and Egg Carrier. The entrances to all the stages were squirreled away in doorways or caves, like they were just extensions of the adventure field. You could look around, find stuff, interact with people and objects. Not on a massive scale like Skyrim or Fallout, but it was still quite a lot of fun. Sonic Adventure 2 just skips from level to level like a classic Sonic game - but the classic Sonic games could get away with that. In Sonic Adventure 2, after the whole Adventure Field thing in the previous game that actually served quite well to bridge together the gaps between action stages, the whole experience of just going from level to level with no inbetween makes the plot feel like you have perpetual hiccups.

I'll admit the graphics themselves are good; a fair bit better than in the previous game; but the characters themselves look a bit derpy. Amy especially, who is an unfortunate victim of this game - they didn't even bother to record a new version of her theme song like they did with Sonic, Knuckles and Tails, instead using her Sonic Adventure theme. I suppose that's what you get for being introduced after Sonic and Knuckles! The dialogue is so quiet - thank god there are subtitles otherwise I'd only be able to make out a few words here and there.

What the hell have they done to Tails' levels?! In Sonic Adventure, his Action Stages were all about racing Sonic to get the Chaos Emerald, or capsule, first. But now he's become Gamma! Basically, he's confined to the Tornado throughout the game, which transforms into a pair of robotic legs which he then walks around in shooting stuff up. Gamma's Action Stages were by far the most awkward in the first game since he was clunky and difficult to control, plus you were always running against the clock. Seriously, Sonic Team, of all the features you wanted to keep, you chose this one?! And not only that, but you ruined a character who really doesn't need robotic legs and missiles to survive. On his own two feet, Tails went through so much crap in the first game... and he made it! He even beat a gigantic robot four times the size of his Tornado using only his tails. So don't tell me he needs a robot to get through whatever Sonic Adventure 2 throws at him.

I think Tails using the Tornado in Adventure 2 is probably the beginning of Sonic Team's 'pointless gimmicks' phase. Later games, after all, saw Sonic with a sword, Sonic as a 'werehog' and Shadow with guns and a motorbike (WHY?!).

Due to the lack of an Adventure Field, Sonic Team had to devise a new way of entering the Chao Garden. This is where the Chao Key was introduced; an item which you have only one chance per playthrough of level to find. Consequently, the Chao Garden and all its associated features (the Black Market, classroom etc) are so much more difficult to access. Say you play through a level to gather animals for your Chao, but can't find the key... you're buggered. You have to play through different levels until you find one, which is a bit tedious. Not to mention the levels themselves are poorly designed (with the exception of City Escape, which I rather like), falling victim to awkward camera angles, often confusing layouts, death drops that just appear out of nowhere... plus they aren't particularly memorable, and when you're going at Sonic speed it all tends to rush by in a technicolour blur.

And, in classic Sonic Team style, some of the levels feel like homages to past games. These guys are the kings of recycled ideas. I suppose it's good for the nostalgia side of things - for many gamers, the Sonic series is all about nostalgia - but it's hard to keep that warm fuzzy feeling when you're trying to fix the camera angle and suddenly you fall down a hole and die.

Er... I think that's your lot. I'm done ranting. Basically, this game is a huge disappointment considering I dreamed about having it for ten whole years. It's not the most frustrating Sonic game I've played (Hello, new Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic 4 Episode 1!), and all in all it's not the worst game I've played (Rollercoaster World proudly holds that title), but... I dunno, I just convinced myself it would be awesome, and when it went up for download we were all freaking out... and... yeah. It just didn't live up to my expectations, and it certainly didn't live up to its predecessor. I do wonder if, had I played it years ago, just after Sonic Adventure, I might have liked it... but I think I would have just played it and felt sad inside because most of the awesome things from the first game weren't put into the second.

And then I would have been sad because it would only be downhill from there for Sonic Team, excepting maybe Sonic Heroes.

This has been a random game review.