Someone at work tried this game out and got everyone hooked on it. You are supposed design an automated system to move an object from point A to point B, while handling all the obstacles thrown your way. Horribly addictive.
http://fantasticcontraption.com/
Friday, November 28, 2008
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Left 4 Dead
Usually I have a slight aversion for zombie and horror stuff, it really isn't my thing. But this game was pretty well done - the zombie 'infected' are believable within the setting and the discussion and responses from the 4 main characters are fun to watch. (even if they are a bit cliche)
I played the No Mercy level in the solo game on Normal difficulty. In this scenario, you have to make it from a rooftop safe spot to a hospital, since a helicopter is announcing they are picking up people there. Wading through levels and levels of infected, it was a lot of fun. Ammo is never really an issue unless you spray at every noise you hear. Even the default unlimited-ammo pistols are pretty good unless you're fighting some of the top level foes.
I was also surprised at how playing with surround sound on was really useful for figuring out where the enemies were, especially the crying witches you are supposed to avoid. Usually surround is more of a window dressing, nice but not needed. But here it was important, and I imagine in the expert difficulty it will be indispensable.
I got about half way up the hospital's renovation construction area when T popped online and asked if I wanted to try and multiplayer it. I hit the reply button and started texting him back and realized that the game doesn't pause when you are in the community menus - you actually have to hit the start button to pause the solo game before you go do texting etc.
We started fresh on No Mercy again, and in multiplayer, the infected seem to be placed randomly. A few times there were witches directly in the path that were not avoidable, and we had to take them down. I actually lucked out with a shotgun blast on one of these unavoidable witches, getting the Cr0wnd achievement for blowing off her head in one shot, and the Witch Hunter achievement for taking her down before she hurt anyone.
After we reached the end and were trying to make it to the helicopter, I was unfortunately knocked off the building before I could get in - the game ended with a movie credits roll that started off with the line "In memory of Upsen Downs". Blah! I didn't get the level completion, and T had to get going. So I decided to give it another shot on my own. (with 3 computer NPCs)
It took a few tries and some pipe bomb hijinks, and I got everyone to safety, but I still didn't get the level completion achievement - why?? Eventually I re-read the actual achievement text and found it said it was awarded for surviving the 'campaign' - perhaps it means I have to play in the campaign mode instead of the solo mode to get it. Oh well. I'll get it some other day I guess.
As an aside, the pipe bomb is great - it attracts the infected to it! So if you are getting overwhelmed, a pipe bomb will totally distract everything over to it, taking them all out when it blows up... though I don't think it attracted the crying witch this one time we tossed one almost next to her. It was very useful during the last few frenzied moments of trying to get on the helicopter.
I don't know how well the game will fare for longevity - we finished the whole scenario in under 2 hours and it was 1 of 4 available. But it was definitely a lot of fun.
Upsen.
I played the No Mercy level in the solo game on Normal difficulty. In this scenario, you have to make it from a rooftop safe spot to a hospital, since a helicopter is announcing they are picking up people there. Wading through levels and levels of infected, it was a lot of fun. Ammo is never really an issue unless you spray at every noise you hear. Even the default unlimited-ammo pistols are pretty good unless you're fighting some of the top level foes.
I was also surprised at how playing with surround sound on was really useful for figuring out where the enemies were, especially the crying witches you are supposed to avoid. Usually surround is more of a window dressing, nice but not needed. But here it was important, and I imagine in the expert difficulty it will be indispensable.
I got about half way up the hospital's renovation construction area when T popped online and asked if I wanted to try and multiplayer it. I hit the reply button and started texting him back and realized that the game doesn't pause when you are in the community menus - you actually have to hit the start button to pause the solo game before you go do texting etc.
We started fresh on No Mercy again, and in multiplayer, the infected seem to be placed randomly. A few times there were witches directly in the path that were not avoidable, and we had to take them down. I actually lucked out with a shotgun blast on one of these unavoidable witches, getting the Cr0wnd achievement for blowing off her head in one shot, and the Witch Hunter achievement for taking her down before she hurt anyone.
After we reached the end and were trying to make it to the helicopter, I was unfortunately knocked off the building before I could get in - the game ended with a movie credits roll that started off with the line "In memory of Upsen Downs". Blah! I didn't get the level completion, and T had to get going. So I decided to give it another shot on my own. (with 3 computer NPCs)
It took a few tries and some pipe bomb hijinks, and I got everyone to safety, but I still didn't get the level completion achievement - why?? Eventually I re-read the actual achievement text and found it said it was awarded for surviving the 'campaign' - perhaps it means I have to play in the campaign mode instead of the solo mode to get it. Oh well. I'll get it some other day I guess.
As an aside, the pipe bomb is great - it attracts the infected to it! So if you are getting overwhelmed, a pipe bomb will totally distract everything over to it, taking them all out when it blows up... though I don't think it attracted the crying witch this one time we tossed one almost next to her. It was very useful during the last few frenzied moments of trying to get on the helicopter.
I don't know how well the game will fare for longevity - we finished the whole scenario in under 2 hours and it was 1 of 4 available. But it was definitely a lot of fun.
Upsen.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Trade-ins at Electronics Boutique
Well I dropped by the EB Games on Saturday and ditched a huge pile of old games. It was a little heartbreaking to see how little some of the games were worth, but all they were doing was taking up shelf space. So I guess it was all right.
I ended up getting Call of Duty World at War, Left 4 Dead, and Rock Band 2 after the trade-in. Mostly cause these games are ones that are supposed to be decently multiplayerable with the guys.
I also picked up Sylpheed for $5 and the first Naruto game for $10.
The funny thing is that out of all these games, I think I've spent the most time on Sylpheed so far. It was sort of annoying at first but then I discovered that the fighter-to-fighter missle lock ons dont require you to have your ship pointed at the enemy, just your helmet - which means that the right joystick can be used to turn your head about for targeting, as well as the right stick click padlock view. The game became a breeze after that and was pretty fun.
Upsen.
I ended up getting Call of Duty World at War, Left 4 Dead, and Rock Band 2 after the trade-in. Mostly cause these games are ones that are supposed to be decently multiplayerable with the guys.
I also picked up Sylpheed for $5 and the first Naruto game for $10.
The funny thing is that out of all these games, I think I've spent the most time on Sylpheed so far. It was sort of annoying at first but then I discovered that the fighter-to-fighter missle lock ons dont require you to have your ship pointed at the enemy, just your helmet - which means that the right joystick can be used to turn your head about for targeting, as well as the right stick click padlock view. The game became a breeze after that and was pretty fun.
Upsen.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Gow2 - finished single player game
Well, I finished the 1-player part of the game.
I played at the hardcore setting until a point where you are looking for a path into the underground locust city and are fighting along the river bank - the action got just too hot to do on hardcore alone - I kept getting murdered by this flamethrower guy in a walled up part of the ruin. I turned the difficulty down to normal, got past that section and left it that way, I'll try the hardcore difficulty in multiplayer when I have someone more reliable than the computer AI to play with. IE, the multiplayer that I still haven't finished with E.
The game wasn't too hard on normal. I guess I should have turned the difficulty back up, but I didn't. I think I only died in a few do-or-die scenarios - I got chainsawed to death by the main bad guy once, and I slipped off the ice a few times to my doom. Other than that, it was pretty straightforward and sort of like watching a cheesy but fun interactive movie.
Upsen.
I played at the hardcore setting until a point where you are looking for a path into the underground locust city and are fighting along the river bank - the action got just too hot to do on hardcore alone - I kept getting murdered by this flamethrower guy in a walled up part of the ruin. I turned the difficulty down to normal, got past that section and left it that way, I'll try the hardcore difficulty in multiplayer when I have someone more reliable than the computer AI to play with. IE, the multiplayer that I still haven't finished with E.
The game wasn't too hard on normal. I guess I should have turned the difficulty back up, but I didn't. I think I only died in a few do-or-die scenarios - I got chainsawed to death by the main bad guy once, and I slipped off the ice a few times to my doom. Other than that, it was pretty straightforward and sort of like watching a cheesy but fun interactive movie.
Upsen.
Friday, November 14, 2008
GoW2 Solo on Hardcore
Well since it's been a while since I played and I haven't managed to catch up with E, so I decided to try a bit more last night. I found T online but he was giving W a hand with finishing off GoW1, I guess so W can unlock the characters for the multiplayer modes.
So I started up a single player game on Hardcore. (Though it seemed to say that a friend could drop into the game at any time) It was quite a bit tougher than the normal game mode. I don't think I died (do-or-die situations aside) as much in the Normal mode when I was playing with E, since the NPCs tended to rush the foes - I could go slowly and hang back a bit, picking things off from a distance without worrying too much about enemy retaliation. If they did start shooting at me, NPC Dom and Carmine generally got the aggro back and I could shoot some more.
The only real problem was the stage where I was on the transport and trying to do a do-or-die scenario - shoot down spore pods and shoot down reavers before they knock you off the road and down the side of the cliff. I think I heard "shoot that **** before it hits us!" a dozen times. I always got killed by the reaver that sideswipes the transport. The turret gun just couldn't lay down enough fire due to overheating. Ditto for trying to use the shotgun and the chainsaw rifle, not enough to kill it before it rammed me twice and off the road.
Eventually I figured out that the turret chaingun has a cooling system activated by the reload button. I didn't think that the gun would have a reload system cause it didn't have an ammo count, so I'd never tried it during the co-op game with E. That made the gun MUCH more usable and I dropped the reaver on the very same run.
Oh the exploding Tickers can hurt you pretty badly in Hardcore. one of them will take you to the brink of going down, 2 will turn you into chunks.
It was pretty smooth sailing until the stage in sinking Ilima where you come across those creature riders at close range - you can't chainsaw them and they do oneshot kills - I decided to call it a night there after getting shredded about 6 times.
Upsen.
So I started up a single player game on Hardcore. (Though it seemed to say that a friend could drop into the game at any time) It was quite a bit tougher than the normal game mode. I don't think I died (do-or-die situations aside) as much in the Normal mode when I was playing with E, since the NPCs tended to rush the foes - I could go slowly and hang back a bit, picking things off from a distance without worrying too much about enemy retaliation. If they did start shooting at me, NPC Dom and Carmine generally got the aggro back and I could shoot some more.
The only real problem was the stage where I was on the transport and trying to do a do-or-die scenario - shoot down spore pods and shoot down reavers before they knock you off the road and down the side of the cliff. I think I heard "shoot that **** before it hits us!" a dozen times. I always got killed by the reaver that sideswipes the transport. The turret gun just couldn't lay down enough fire due to overheating. Ditto for trying to use the shotgun and the chainsaw rifle, not enough to kill it before it rammed me twice and off the road.
Eventually I figured out that the turret chaingun has a cooling system activated by the reload button. I didn't think that the gun would have a reload system cause it didn't have an ammo count, so I'd never tried it during the co-op game with E. That made the gun MUCH more usable and I dropped the reaver on the very same run.
Oh the exploding Tickers can hurt you pretty badly in Hardcore. one of them will take you to the brink of going down, 2 will turn you into chunks.
It was pretty smooth sailing until the stage in sinking Ilima where you come across those creature riders at close range - you can't chainsaw them and they do oneshot kills - I decided to call it a night there after getting shredded about 6 times.
Upsen.
Monday, November 10, 2008
GoW-op 2 player game.
E and I gave this game a shot on Friday night in co-op mode. E played Marcus and I played Dom, and we spent about 4 hours in the game. It was pretty good, the mechanics of the game were pretty much the same as the first one, with it's take-cover mentality, tough-to-kill foes, and do-or-die(-and-replay-it) scenarios.
I was pretty bad at it. I was knocked out of action a lot but the NPC rookie kept reviving me. (Its ironic that I'm supposed to be the hardened veteran here).
The chainsaw gun never felt like it had enough ammo and I was always out. I probably just have to practice and keep my bursts shorter. The gun is great when you do have ammo though - it hits without delay like the Locust rifle and has a decent range. The chainsaw function is a godsend too. Even if it locks you in the animation sequence for a painful 2 or 3 seconds, you can be sure that enemy locust is hit and downed.
Unfortunately, during a really rushed section on top of the Betty armoured vehicle, I ended up dropping my chainsaw while in dire need of a weapon with ammo in it. The game saved before I could get it back, the weapons were bouncing around on the deck. Dammit! I had to go for many scenes without it, relying on dropped locust ammo and close range shotgun shots.
In the four hours of play we went through a LOT of scenes. But I think they tried to cram too much story into too short a time. I felt like we were always being rushed along, characters introduced, characters leaving.
There were some neat weapons and concepts along the way though - there was a new mortar launcher weapon that we could choose the range it hit at. There were also some nice portable chaingun turrets as well, even if they did slow us down a bit - sort of like the ones in Halo 2, except it had a heat meter in addition to an ammo count.
In the underground sections, you could use the indigenous rockworms as cover, except the worms really didn't like me and ate me on 2 occasions. I thought they were supposed to be vegetarian? The first one even snapped it's neck in half in order to turn around and get me, killing itself in the process.
Another thing about the game is that it felt like every short scene was giving a 10 point achievement. That's way too often and too automatic. They didn't feel like they meant anything since we were just playing through the game normally. :P
We wrapped up the game somewhere down the bowels of the planet (or was it in the bowels of some giant animal?) and we'll pick up again another day.
Upsen.
I was pretty bad at it. I was knocked out of action a lot but the NPC rookie kept reviving me. (Its ironic that I'm supposed to be the hardened veteran here).
The chainsaw gun never felt like it had enough ammo and I was always out. I probably just have to practice and keep my bursts shorter. The gun is great when you do have ammo though - it hits without delay like the Locust rifle and has a decent range. The chainsaw function is a godsend too. Even if it locks you in the animation sequence for a painful 2 or 3 seconds, you can be sure that enemy locust is hit and downed.
Unfortunately, during a really rushed section on top of the Betty armoured vehicle, I ended up dropping my chainsaw while in dire need of a weapon with ammo in it. The game saved before I could get it back, the weapons were bouncing around on the deck. Dammit! I had to go for many scenes without it, relying on dropped locust ammo and close range shotgun shots.
In the four hours of play we went through a LOT of scenes. But I think they tried to cram too much story into too short a time. I felt like we were always being rushed along, characters introduced, characters leaving.
There were some neat weapons and concepts along the way though - there was a new mortar launcher weapon that we could choose the range it hit at. There were also some nice portable chaingun turrets as well, even if they did slow us down a bit - sort of like the ones in Halo 2, except it had a heat meter in addition to an ammo count.
In the underground sections, you could use the indigenous rockworms as cover, except the worms really didn't like me and ate me on 2 occasions. I thought they were supposed to be vegetarian? The first one even snapped it's neck in half in order to turn around and get me, killing itself in the process.
Another thing about the game is that it felt like every short scene was giving a 10 point achievement. That's way too often and too automatic. They didn't feel like they meant anything since we were just playing through the game normally. :P
We wrapped up the game somewhere down the bowels of the planet (or was it in the bowels of some giant animal?) and we'll pick up again another day.
Upsen.
Elite Armour set finished, woohoo!
I obtained the last 2 pieces of the Bio-E elite armor on Sunday. It was a win and it pulled me out of my farming hell, but a little disappointing at the same time.
I was travelling from the start of WS3-4 to the usual spider farming area when a lowbie joined me - he was about L17. I had a bit of trouble with his accent at first, and I was still mid fight with about half a dozen dark elves and 3 missile goblins, so I told him to just hang tight.
Eventually when it was calmer, we had a bit of a discussion. He was asking me to powerlevel him from 17-20, which he felt was a dead-spot, and he was offering whatever I wanted in payment for it. So I told him what I was looking for - the rest of my Elite Armor set, so I could get out of the spider farm.
He said he had a Bio-E and a full set of Elite armor. (Actually he said he had 14 characters spread across a few memory cards, all with elite armors) Imagine my surprise when he said he was willing to part with whichever parts of his Bio-E armor in exchange for the power levelling!
I was stunned. This stupid Elite armor that was giving me grief for the past 3 weeks was being offered to me for about 15 minutes worth of powerlevelling.
So I did it. I think the fellow had a special technique with the trading using his multiple memory cards, so that the items went into my inventory without getting deleted from his. I guess that the game doesn't tag each piece of armor with an ID.
So now I have all the armor, even though it was kind of a cheap way to do it. However, it means I'll be spending weeks less of mindless spider farming because of it, so I guess it is a good thing. (the wife will probably be happier too)
I got the completion for the Elite Armor achievement when I put the last piece on. (completing all 1000 points for the game, my first complete game 8)
I dyed the whole set a nice red colour to get rid of the default green/blue scheme.
Maybe I'll post a pic of it later.
.JPG)
Upsen.
Friday, November 7, 2008
Gears of War 2
I picked up GoW2 today at lunch - can't wait to log in tonight. I wonder how the co op will be? We'll see soon enough I suppose. Game starts at 9pm.
Elite Armor - Getting Closer to Completion
Last night I picked up the leg armor for the Elite Armor set, which brings me up to 5/7 pieces now. Just 2 more to go - the arm and hand pieces.
The success of the spider farms really do depend on a patient and stable host. I've been in a number of them where the host is a non-talker. I've even been in one where the silent host looked like they were about to die, and instead of biting the bullet and respawning, decided to quit the game (and so it automatically kicks me out) So much for helping them stay alive numerous other times getting to the spider farm.
Anyway, this probably means that I will be hosting more often than joining farms... and only till I get the other 2 elite bits. :D
Upsen.
Head Mainframe of the Flesh Architect
Chest The Flesh Architect's Sterile Core
Arms The Flesh Architect's Grim Reach
Gloves The Flesh Architect's Digiclaws
Legs Metal-Shanks of the Flesh Architect
Boots Balance Augment of the Flesh Architect
Weapon The Flesh Architect's Incisor
The success of the spider farms really do depend on a patient and stable host. I've been in a number of them where the host is a non-talker. I've even been in one where the silent host looked like they were about to die, and instead of biting the bullet and respawning, decided to quit the game (and so it automatically kicks me out) So much for helping them stay alive numerous other times getting to the spider farm.
Anyway, this probably means that I will be hosting more often than joining farms... and only till I get the other 2 elite bits. :D
Upsen.
Head Mainframe of the Flesh Architect
Chest The Flesh Architect's Sterile Core
Arms The Flesh Architect's Grim Reach
Gloves The Flesh Architect's Digiclaws
Legs Metal-Shanks of the Flesh Architect
Boots Balance Augment of the Flesh Architect
Weapon The Flesh Architect's Incisor
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
La la la Rock Band
On Saturday night after a huge dinner out, I played some Rock Band at a friend's place.
We had played it before when it first came out, and we were fairly decent at it, having worked our way up to the Hard difficulty and passing it without too much problems, we had maxed out our fan base on the easier settings.
But Saturday, we had to go back down to Medium and Easy difficulties to stay alive through the songs. I had the worst of it as the vocalist, since not only had I forgotten a good chunk of the songs, my voice was also pretty rusty from not having sung in too long a time. My voice cracked about half way through the second song we played, I think it was one of the Oasis ones, Don't Look Back in Anger. Anyways after some coughing and clearing my throat, I continued, but I think I sounded funny all night. (partly cause of the rusty voice, partly cause of the rusty skills.)
I know I failed Reptilia - did I ever do that song before? I had no idea how to sing it.
K and I cracked it open again on Sunday at home, and I was a little bit better than before - I should keep at it a bit, there looks like there's been a lot of stuff released for RB in the interim period where we'd all stopped playing it.
I wonder if I can pick up a used Rock Band 2 for cheap somewhere?
Upsen.
We had played it before when it first came out, and we were fairly decent at it, having worked our way up to the Hard difficulty and passing it without too much problems, we had maxed out our fan base on the easier settings.
But Saturday, we had to go back down to Medium and Easy difficulties to stay alive through the songs. I had the worst of it as the vocalist, since not only had I forgotten a good chunk of the songs, my voice was also pretty rusty from not having sung in too long a time. My voice cracked about half way through the second song we played, I think it was one of the Oasis ones, Don't Look Back in Anger. Anyways after some coughing and clearing my throat, I continued, but I think I sounded funny all night. (partly cause of the rusty voice, partly cause of the rusty skills.)
I know I failed Reptilia - did I ever do that song before? I had no idea how to sing it.
K and I cracked it open again on Sunday at home, and I was a little bit better than before - I should keep at it a bit, there looks like there's been a lot of stuff released for RB in the interim period where we'd all stopped playing it.
I wonder if I can pick up a used Rock Band 2 for cheap somewhere?
Upsen.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Co-op Spider Farming
Goes much faster in co-op than in single player. Why? Cause one player can rush into the room to pick up the items while the other player holds the door open. No need to wait for the items to reach their timer limit and automatically go to your inventory. Also having some human company changes this farming from mind-numbing to tolerable. (not to mention possible trading with them)
Anyways, that's what I spent a couple hours last night doing this with some online player commando. I kept him alive through some of the more dangerous pickups with my bio-e, clearing status effects etc, and he beat down the spiders like a hot knife through butter. In the 2 hour span we played, we got at least 12 different red drops, mostly runes, but included my 4th elite armour piece - the Flesh Architect's Sterile Core. A lot of health on this piece at 30%, maybe it will help me through some of those missile barrages? (probably not, haha)
One thing I noticed about this farm is that you definitely need some ballistic range boosting, otherwise you will set off the whole room. A Commando has no problem, nor does a Cybernetic who has some ballistic range increase in his Cyber skills. Some runes could probably do the trick as well, but if you don't have any, then you are not going to have a lot of success with ranged fighting. You'll probably have to rely on running in to melee the spider while the whole room goes active on you, and have a co-op player holding the door open in the back. (risky but possibly more exciting, and probably not as fast as a Commando doing it.)
Gears of War 2 comes out soon, I may have to get that.
Upsen.
Anyways, that's what I spent a couple hours last night doing this with some online player commando. I kept him alive through some of the more dangerous pickups with my bio-e, clearing status effects etc, and he beat down the spiders like a hot knife through butter. In the 2 hour span we played, we got at least 12 different red drops, mostly runes, but included my 4th elite armour piece - the Flesh Architect's Sterile Core. A lot of health on this piece at 30%, maybe it will help me through some of those missile barrages? (probably not, haha)
One thing I noticed about this farm is that you definitely need some ballistic range boosting, otherwise you will set off the whole room. A Commando has no problem, nor does a Cybernetic who has some ballistic range increase in his Cyber skills. Some runes could probably do the trick as well, but if you don't have any, then you are not going to have a lot of success with ranged fighting. You'll probably have to rely on running in to melee the spider while the whole room goes active on you, and have a co-op player holding the door open in the back. (risky but possibly more exciting, and probably not as fast as a Commando doing it.)
Gears of War 2 comes out soon, I may have to get that.
Upsen.
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