The game really takes off after L20 or so! You start finding things like class mods that improve skills and grants abilities related to the class, and makes it a lot more fun.
I played a few sessions of multiplayer with E and we got a couple of soldiers up to about that level,. Ammunition is no longer a worry. You effectively have unlimited ammo with the Support Gunner mods, the one I happen to use has a +8 ammo/tick on top of skills boosting. That's +8 ammo regeneration ALL the time, not only when using the Scorpion turret! I wonder what sort of goodies the other classes get?
There are multiple types of class mods, and they all give titles. I happen to like the Support Gunner one, and E is using a Leader mod that gives like +21% more xp from kills. There is also a Tactician one and a Shock trooper one, I should start looking up info about this stuff.
Previously I was sort of "meh" about this game, but now I'm actually kind of excited about it.
Upsen.
p.s. - Yes, I know ammo "regen" is a weird concept that breaks a few too many reality rules (even game-reality), but dammit it is useful. I just think of it as him always being well supplied.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Progress Quest
Once, way back when I was still playing Everquest, I came across this little satire of the MMO genre. The "selling point" of this free RPG is that the game automates all those annoying little things that you come across in regular RPG games, like navigating endless terrain, selling loot, buying upgrades, grinding trash mobs, and completing quests.
Basically the game plays itself and you watch it play. Or not watch it play and check up on it once in a while, since you don't have to be at the keyboard to play it. You can either check on the PC you have the character saved on, or on the game's home page. You can even check your progress in a handy facebook application too, I suppose if your workplace has banned the Progress Quest homepage. (sneaky!)
Yes, I found it again just yesterday and have installed it, haha. :P
While it doesn't really do anything, it is sort of soothing to watch. (listen to the addict talk, eh?) Maybe its like light therapy or radiation therapy or something.
Upsen.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Borderlands
I've been playing a bit of Borderlands, enough to get 2 characters up to about L15 or so, and 2 more started up past the tutorial.
However as it's supposed to be a multiplayer game and I haven't done any multiplayer on it yet, the game is starting to wear thin. It doesn't really seem to have a lot of... replay value - the replays I am doing with the 3rd and 4th characters are really tedious.
My current opinions on weapon types:
Assault Rifle - it has a decent rof, accuracy and damage, and you can carry enough ammo.
SMG - basically it does everything the assault rifle does, except it burns through ammo faster (more expensive), you can't carry enough ammo to feed it for a whole mission, it has less accuracy, less damage, and less range. I dont understand why so many SMGs have a 2.4x or higher zoom on them.
Repeater - not too bad if you can find a decent damage per shot one. Often they're more accurate than an SMG and have rofs ranging from slower than assault rifles to faster than an SMG.
Launcher - pretty good but the ammo seems a bit hard to come by still at my level.
Sniper Rifle - things zigzag so much at range, its really only good for a surprise shot, unless you know how to lead a target that is intentionally zigzagging to avoid a sniper rifle.
Revolver - these are pretty good damage but are horrendously slow - its kind of like the sniper rifle except close range. And eventually you meet foes that you require some serious damage to dent, especially if they're still a level higher than you.
Cheers for now
Upsen.
However as it's supposed to be a multiplayer game and I haven't done any multiplayer on it yet, the game is starting to wear thin. It doesn't really seem to have a lot of... replay value - the replays I am doing with the 3rd and 4th characters are really tedious.
My current opinions on weapon types:
Assault Rifle - it has a decent rof, accuracy and damage, and you can carry enough ammo.
SMG - basically it does everything the assault rifle does, except it burns through ammo faster (more expensive), you can't carry enough ammo to feed it for a whole mission, it has less accuracy, less damage, and less range. I dont understand why so many SMGs have a 2.4x or higher zoom on them.
Repeater - not too bad if you can find a decent damage per shot one. Often they're more accurate than an SMG and have rofs ranging from slower than assault rifles to faster than an SMG.
Launcher - pretty good but the ammo seems a bit hard to come by still at my level.
Sniper Rifle - things zigzag so much at range, its really only good for a surprise shot, unless you know how to lead a target that is intentionally zigzagging to avoid a sniper rifle.
Revolver - these are pretty good damage but are horrendously slow - its kind of like the sniper rifle except close range. And eventually you meet foes that you require some serious damage to dent, especially if they're still a level higher than you.
Cheers for now
Upsen.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Dungeons and Dragons: Tiny Adventures
After the Mafia Wars stuff, I decided to check this facebook game out instead:
Dungeons and Dragons: Tiny Adventures
Hopefully this wont be plagued by all the problems in Mafia Wars. Also there is less to do in this game so it wont become half as addictive.
Why are all these games time limited in such a way that you always have to check back on it?
Upsen.
Edit at 9:30am - Reading deeper, the game doesn't let you keep the character - it automatically retires after 11 levels, and you get to give ONE of your items to your next generation character created. So much for sense of progression and accomplishment.
Also you can't give any of the cool stuff you find to your friends, even if you can't use it. You have to sell it to the npc store for 10% of the actual value. WTF.
I've already stopped playing it.
Dungeons and Dragons: Tiny Adventures
Hopefully this wont be plagued by all the problems in Mafia Wars. Also there is less to do in this game so it wont become half as addictive.
Why are all these games time limited in such a way that you always have to check back on it?
Upsen.
Edit at 9:30am - Reading deeper, the game doesn't let you keep the character - it automatically retires after 11 levels, and you get to give ONE of your items to your next generation character created. So much for sense of progression and accomplishment.
Also you can't give any of the cool stuff you find to your friends, even if you can't use it. You have to sell it to the npc store for 10% of the actual value. WTF.
I've already stopped playing it.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Mafia Wars (Spamfia Wars)
Here's the good parts:
- Not much in this game requires you to be constantly in front of the computer so you can easily get up and walk away from it to do other stuff.
- You can play with your facebook friends.
- You play a mafia boss, and keep track of various stats - mafia hits, money laundering, wars with other mafia players, rosters of other players on your team etc. It's a nice little playground if if you like the theme.
- Also, you can level up almost indefinitely if you are good at min/maxing. You get points to do stuff. If you level up, you get a refill of your points. You can get into the position where you can reach the next level up before you finish spending all your points! So, I managed to crank myself a few hundred levels within a month, finishing scenarios that have taken other people a year to do. It did take me a 2nd character to figure out how to do it, and I abandoned my 1st one.
Here's the bad parts:
- There is always some timer about to refresh in a few minutes, so you are ALWAYS on the game.
- You have to add enough 'friends' to your Facebook account to reach the maximum number of 501 players in your Mafia - otherwise you are meat for other 501-mafia players. (though in the long run it doesn't matter if people attack you, looking at it from a stats perspective)
- 501+ Facebook members make for a lot of spam on your Facebook account. Most serious players with large mafias create a fake Facebook account and play the game using that, to avoid the spam on their real facebook account.
- You don't currently get to choose your character class - they have 3 classes available but they only let you start as a Maniac. Mogul class is gimped and Fearless class is overpowered due to a ridiculously overpowered Top-Mafia bonus for Fearless.
- You can't restart a new character if you are unhappy with your current character. It takes removing Mafia Wars from your account and waiting 90 days for the data to expire before you can create another character. You can however, create another facebook profile and play a new character from there. (which probably breaks a load of Facebook Terms Of Service agreements.)
- The game is incredibly buggy and they keep changing the rules, since they know the rules are broken.
- They don't compensate if rules change. (such as fighting stamina: it used to cost 1 point, then was changed to 2 points for a long time, and then changed back to 1 point - anyone who put points into stamina at the 2-point rate lost out and were never given back the difference.)
- Not everyone is actually playing the same game. some people get Properties to manage, others get Rackets (scams that cost points to buy) and there are a set of achievements that are based on Properties that Rackets people will never get.
- There are some RTM (Real Money Trade) elements to the game and a RTM player will always beat a free player.
Anyways thats just the tip of the iceberg on this one, but I dont think I will write too much about it. It is an annoyance to me right now since the latest updates have broken the game interface and I can't use the skillpoint distribution screen. (Makes levelling up a little difficult doesn't it)
Oh well. Back to Lord of the Rings Online. :D
Allen.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Lord of the Rings: Mirkwood
The new update is out for LOTRO. Handy that, since I just hit Level 60 with my guardian character. Now I'll be able to slag my way up to Level 65 while I get in good with the Elves of Mirkwood.
One of the new options available is a set of shared bank slots - no more mailing fees between characters. Very convenient.
One interesting change I saw when I logged in was in crafting - my armoursmith character's recipes no longer required animal pelts, instead using another measure of metal ore. What gives with that? Learning to work hides cost me a pretty penny (plus much time gaining reputation points to access superior workbenches) - and now its out of the equation? Why even bother having the Tailor skill alongside the Metalsmithing skill in the Armourer profession any more? We could replace it with something more useful, like Scholar to research armouring techniques (and give us the ability to craft our own bonus-to-crit items, haha)
Another thing changed - all of my -incoming damages skills and items have been converted into +defense, which technically is -damage. I guess they wanted to consolidate the stat instead of having to work with 2 separate systems.
Upsen.
One of the new options available is a set of shared bank slots - no more mailing fees between characters. Very convenient.
One interesting change I saw when I logged in was in crafting - my armoursmith character's recipes no longer required animal pelts, instead using another measure of metal ore. What gives with that? Learning to work hides cost me a pretty penny (plus much time gaining reputation points to access superior workbenches) - and now its out of the equation? Why even bother having the Tailor skill alongside the Metalsmithing skill in the Armourer profession any more? We could replace it with something more useful, like Scholar to research armouring techniques (and give us the ability to craft our own bonus-to-crit items, haha)
Another thing changed - all of my -incoming damages skills and items have been converted into +defense, which technically is -damage. I guess they wanted to consolidate the stat instead of having to work with 2 separate systems.
Upsen.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
LOTRO Quickslotting
The default keys in LOTRO I found hard to use, so I remapped most of it. Now i can run around and target anything, choosing enemy, players, NPCs, and objects in the games with the touch of one key for each type. Best of it being for the mining - I can ride up to a mining node, press 4 buttons, and queue up getting off the horse, target the node, mine the node, and get back up on the horse. I suppose I could write a game alias/macro in the system they provide, but this is as far as I've gone so far and its not too bad.
I also mapped all the quickslots to easier to reach keys like the function keys and the numpad - I have my guardian reactive parry chains going up the numpad so I can see the branching paths more clearly. I wish I did that earlier for some of my other games, it probably would have saved a lot of carpal tunnel grief. Eg, Num0-1-4-7 is a parry bleed chain, Num0-2-5 is a parry stun chain, and I can easily change my mind about which chain to continue on before I get to the home row of the numpad. (Num0-2-5-7 when I get the skill "To The King". Basically I can put the reactive charts here onto the numpad.)
The 2-key combos are generally things I will just click on instead of trying to find the 2-key combo.
Upsen.
I also mapped all the quickslots to easier to reach keys like the function keys and the numpad - I have my guardian reactive parry chains going up the numpad so I can see the branching paths more clearly. I wish I did that earlier for some of my other games, it probably would have saved a lot of carpal tunnel grief. Eg, Num0-1-4-7 is a parry bleed chain, Num0-2-5 is a parry stun chain, and I can easily change my mind about which chain to continue on before I get to the home row of the numpad. (Num0-2-5-7 when I get the skill "To The King". Basically I can put the reactive charts here onto the numpad.)
The 2-key combos are generally things I will just click on instead of trying to find the 2-key combo.
Upsen.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Lord of the Rings Online
Back a couple of years ago, I used to play Lord of the Rings Online. I got fairly far into the game, even picked up on some crafting and stuff. I can't even remember why I stopped playing, though it has to be some sort of disinterest, or something else caught my eye. Anyways, I was L49 of a possible 50 when I stopped playing, and an up and coming armour smith.
I picked it up again in the past week, since I have a lifetime subscription to the game, and found that many things had changed. So changed, in fact, that I had to start a new character from the ground up in order to relearn what all of my character's special buttons were. By about L20 (roughly the course of the week) I had figured out enough to get going again on my main.
On my main guardian character, I was basically levelled to 50 right away on killing a single foe. I guess there were some xp changes, since I remember being a distance away from L50.
Also, I started armoring again with the load of stuff I still had stashed away. The game's made a lot of changes to the armourer profession and it looks like I have a bunch of recipes that are marked as (OLD). Apparently it's a lot easier now, with 'crests' that are basically for levelling up, and don't require any leather like the armors. You can only make a certain number of crests per time period though. Now I have to find out what all the L50-60 stuff is about.
Anyways, more as I figure it out.
Upsen.
I picked it up again in the past week, since I have a lifetime subscription to the game, and found that many things had changed. So changed, in fact, that I had to start a new character from the ground up in order to relearn what all of my character's special buttons were. By about L20 (roughly the course of the week) I had figured out enough to get going again on my main.
On my main guardian character, I was basically levelled to 50 right away on killing a single foe. I guess there were some xp changes, since I remember being a distance away from L50.
Also, I started armoring again with the load of stuff I still had stashed away. The game's made a lot of changes to the armourer profession and it looks like I have a bunch of recipes that are marked as (OLD). Apparently it's a lot easier now, with 'crests' that are basically for levelling up, and don't require any leather like the armors. You can only make a certain number of crests per time period though. Now I have to find out what all the L50-60 stuff is about.
Anyways, more as I figure it out.
Upsen.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Gundam on the PS3
This trailer looked absolutely beautiful. A friend linked it to me and it was really impressive. Especially since PS3 games are not region-coded, something I just learned about today.
Releases on Sept 3 in Japan.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Champions Online - Decided against buying it.
I cancelled my preorder at the local EB, cause I wouldn't be getting the preorder bonuses or headstart from the beta program.
The reason is because of an account name issue. When I originally signed up on the Champions forum back in early 2008, they asked for a user login name, so I put in "Upsen_Downs". That was also the display name, but its not that big a deal, it is just a forum.
Feb 2008 -
Forum Login/Display name: Upsen_Downs
Later on, somehow that forum changes software or something, and split things up so that there is a separate login name and display name. Doh, I could have used that feature! Well, thanks a lot but I guess it's not too bad, it is just a forum.
Aug 2009 -
Forum Login: Upsen_Downs
Forum Display Name: Upsen_Downs
Then, I find out that the forum login is the same as the game login. This part is not good at all, I don't like it.
The Forum display name becomes the in game global identifier which is all right.
Aug 2009-
Forum Login: Upsen_Downs
Forum Display Name: Upsen_Downs
Game Login: Upsen_Downs
Game Global Name: Upsen_Downs
Now, I *want* to use the name Upsen_Downs in the game, but I dont want it to be the same as my game login!
I contacted their various support teams 3 times to try and get some help getting my account name changed. However their invioable policy states that they do not change login names. Something about the system being unable to change that sort of detail, sigh. They said for me to just open a new account to use my actual game key, and that they would not transfer anything from my old account, including my beta key bonuses (most importantly, a basic flying superpower, the whole point of preordering)
Apparently, I screwed myself over by signing up for their website early and chatting with other people who were interested in the development of the game.
Anyways, they changed my forum display name to Unhappy_Upsen, one of the 3 alternatives I listed in my "please help me" emails. Which doesn't hide my login at all, since the old name is clearly quoted several times in threads discussing login name problems.
For me, Champs has been one disappointment after another. Between the frustrating Fileplanet experience, the comedic style gameplay/characters, the botched account info, loss of my preorder bonuses, and the inability of their support department to help me out, I had enough.
I'm just glad that I didn't actually have to buy the game or give them a credit card number.
Upsen.
The reason is because of an account name issue. When I originally signed up on the Champions forum back in early 2008, they asked for a user login name, so I put in "Upsen_Downs". That was also the display name, but its not that big a deal, it is just a forum.
Feb 2008 -
Forum Login/Display name: Upsen_Downs
Later on, somehow that forum changes software or something, and split things up so that there is a separate login name and display name. Doh, I could have used that feature! Well, thanks a lot but I guess it's not too bad, it is just a forum.
Aug 2009 -
Forum Login: Upsen_Downs
Forum Display Name: Upsen_Downs
Then, I find out that the forum login is the same as the game login. This part is not good at all, I don't like it.
The Forum display name becomes the in game global identifier which is all right.
Aug 2009-
Forum Login: Upsen_Downs
Forum Display Name: Upsen_Downs
Game Login: Upsen_Downs
Game Global Name: Upsen_Downs
Now, I *want* to use the name Upsen_Downs in the game, but I dont want it to be the same as my game login!
I contacted their various support teams 3 times to try and get some help getting my account name changed. However their invioable policy states that they do not change login names. Something about the system being unable to change that sort of detail, sigh. They said for me to just open a new account to use my actual game key, and that they would not transfer anything from my old account, including my beta key bonuses (most importantly, a basic flying superpower, the whole point of preordering)
Apparently, I screwed myself over by signing up for their website early and chatting with other people who were interested in the development of the game.
Anyways, they changed my forum display name to Unhappy_Upsen, one of the 3 alternatives I listed in my "please help me" emails. Which doesn't hide my login at all, since the old name is clearly quoted several times in threads discussing login name problems.
For me, Champs has been one disappointment after another. Between the frustrating Fileplanet experience, the comedic style gameplay/characters, the botched account info, loss of my preorder bonuses, and the inability of their support department to help me out, I had enough.
I'm just glad that I didn't actually have to buy the game or give them a credit card number.
Upsen.
CS Response
Wed, 08/26/2009
Wed, 08/26/2009
Thank you for contacting Cryptic Studios Billing Support.
Your display name has been changed to Unhappy_Upsen. Not being able to change the account name is due to how our system is set up, so there is not currently a way around it on any level.
Setting up a new account when the game goes live would let you choose a new account name. We would not be able to transfer your old accounts information though.
Thank you for your patience!
Your display name has been changed to Unhappy_Upsen. Not being able to change the account name is due to how our system is set up, so there is not currently a way around it on any level.
Setting up a new account when the game goes live would let you choose a new account name. We would not be able to transfer your old accounts information though.
Thank you for your patience!
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Champions Online Open Beta Second Impression
A picture is worth a thousand words.
Phew this is turning into an essay.Not a very good impression. I couldn't log in for most of the night. After I managed to log in, I was stuck under the world. Something popped me above the ground after a while, but I kept rubberbanding back to the same spot and couldn't get anywhere.
Upsen.
Upsen.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Champions Online Open Beta First Impression
Well after it's all installed and working, I logged in and tried some of the game.
The powers you can select from are impressively varied - everything from swords to guns to fists, from magic to mecha, even supernatural and void.
The costumes are really nice too, many, many choices available. (though none of the armor seems to cover joints terribly well)
The faces really do leave something to be desired. No slider has a strong effect on changing the facial shape in a meaningful, appealing way. You can select a long round nose or a short round nose. No pointy noses or noses with a high bridge. You can choose thick lips or thin lips but you can't make the mouth bigger or smaller, or get rid of the outward curl in the upper lip. You can't create say, high cheekbones that look high, they are always engulfed by the round face/chins. There aren't separate chin/jawbone sliders that let you get away from the Incredibles style square jaw. The necks dont connect to the head properly.
In my opinion, the male faces always look like the dad from the movie "The Incredibles" and the female faces always look like they have Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. (google "indistinct philtrum" images.)
They default a pose and a costume where the character is hard to edit, with facemasks and long hair covering any sliding work you're doing with the ears and eyes. You actually have to go forward a few screens to where the costumes are, remove the hair and mask, and back up to the facial editor. Why make us jump through hoops to use the features presented?
The females get a boob slider that is always maxed out on all the template choices. Frankly, the first zoomed-in editing screen for editing the head showcases the breasts more than the head. Especially if you try to rotate the character for a 3/4 profile of the head. The view stretches the side of the breast in a really weird manner.
The various poses, while cool and dynamic, tend to bend more like cartoons than people. In the middle of editing, those poses are irritating as they keep moving the body & face out of the view that you are trying to line up for editing. The default should be something that doesn't move around so much! We can choose the cool poses later after we have designed faces and dressed our characters right?
After getting into the game, I played for about an hour or so of the tutorial. The interfaces and graphics styles are pretty cartoon comic feeling. The running animations and attacks I was exposed to, it's like we're playing something that doesn't try to take itself seriously. I'm exaggerating a bit of course, but the cool factor contains more Jackie Chan than Jet Li, there is a comedic effect somehow. Instead of Luke Wilson we are getting Owen Wilson. Its less like Chip and more like Dale. Its not "I'm cool", its "Hey look I'm cool, woo!!!" What is the term? :P Its like a parody of itself.
It's fun but its not serious enough. That would be my first impression.
I am low on sleep so I'll ramble another time.
Upsen.
The powers you can select from are impressively varied - everything from swords to guns to fists, from magic to mecha, even supernatural and void.
The costumes are really nice too, many, many choices available. (though none of the armor seems to cover joints terribly well)
The faces really do leave something to be desired. No slider has a strong effect on changing the facial shape in a meaningful, appealing way. You can select a long round nose or a short round nose. No pointy noses or noses with a high bridge. You can choose thick lips or thin lips but you can't make the mouth bigger or smaller, or get rid of the outward curl in the upper lip. You can't create say, high cheekbones that look high, they are always engulfed by the round face/chins. There aren't separate chin/jawbone sliders that let you get away from the Incredibles style square jaw. The necks dont connect to the head properly.
In my opinion, the male faces always look like the dad from the movie "The Incredibles" and the female faces always look like they have Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. (google "indistinct philtrum" images.)
They default a pose and a costume where the character is hard to edit, with facemasks and long hair covering any sliding work you're doing with the ears and eyes. You actually have to go forward a few screens to where the costumes are, remove the hair and mask, and back up to the facial editor. Why make us jump through hoops to use the features presented?
The females get a boob slider that is always maxed out on all the template choices. Frankly, the first zoomed-in editing screen for editing the head showcases the breasts more than the head. Especially if you try to rotate the character for a 3/4 profile of the head. The view stretches the side of the breast in a really weird manner.
The various poses, while cool and dynamic, tend to bend more like cartoons than people. In the middle of editing, those poses are irritating as they keep moving the body & face out of the view that you are trying to line up for editing. The default should be something that doesn't move around so much! We can choose the cool poses later after we have designed faces and dressed our characters right?
After getting into the game, I played for about an hour or so of the tutorial. The interfaces and graphics styles are pretty cartoon comic feeling. The running animations and attacks I was exposed to, it's like we're playing something that doesn't try to take itself seriously. I'm exaggerating a bit of course, but the cool factor contains more Jackie Chan than Jet Li, there is a comedic effect somehow. Instead of Luke Wilson we are getting Owen Wilson. Its less like Chip and more like Dale. Its not "I'm cool", its "Hey look I'm cool, woo!!!" What is the term? :P Its like a parody of itself.
It's fun but its not serious enough. That would be my first impression.
I am low on sleep so I'll ramble another time.
Upsen.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Champions Online installer is patching
Well I have the installer now and it is starting it's patching process. It seems to run in short bursts, and it will take a few hours to complete if it continues on. It's disconnected once while I was uploading this image, but it did change the patch remaining amount from 930ish megs down to 790ish megs when I restarted it. Hopefully it'll stay connected and be ready by tonight.
Upsen.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Champions Online installer woes
(with edits now that I'm a little calmer, I was quite irritated earlier.)
I had a heck of a time with Fileplanet. Fileplanet is the official, exclusive source of the Champions Online Beta installer.
They make you download a ad-driven DL program to pick up their files. Fileplanet also makes you wait before you can start downloading, unless you pay them for a subscription. In the Champions Online beta, the wait was listed as roughly 30 to 60 minutes. However, in reality, the wait was closer to 4 hours.
There are several servers to choose from - 2 west coast, 2 east coast, a mid-western one, and a Euro server, along with an estimated wait time, roughly 40-50 minutes when I started. Once you choose one, you see the time on the installer. After a while, the estimated time goes up and down, but your place in the queue stays the same.
It seems the estimated time is for the whole queue and not your position. I watched it fluctuate from a low of 32 minutes up to a high of 300 minutes, and it was always 30 or more minutes even when I was number 1 or 2 on the queue. I wish there was a distinction made, since I quit two queues to switch to different ones, wasting an hour's worth of queue time.
While waiting in the queue, I found a torrent link for the full patch. If you want to try and look it up too, check BTMon (or google it) and search there for "Champions online - Open Beta client-installer". I dont know if it's authentic or not to be honest, but it made me feel better that I was getting a 40k stream on torrent since I had nothing from Fileplanet for hours. Once the Fileplanet queueing was done though, I got a good 500k stream from them.
By estimates, BT= 13 hours continuous, and FP = 1 hour after a 4 hour wait.
This whole fileplanet mess was quite the annoyance and lowered my expectations of Champions Online. Hopefully the game and it's patching process will improve in the future. By a lot, please.
Upsen.
I had a heck of a time with Fileplanet. Fileplanet is the official, exclusive source of the Champions Online Beta installer.
They make you download a ad-driven DL program to pick up their files. Fileplanet also makes you wait before you can start downloading, unless you pay them for a subscription. In the Champions Online beta, the wait was listed as roughly 30 to 60 minutes. However, in reality, the wait was closer to 4 hours.
There are several servers to choose from - 2 west coast, 2 east coast, a mid-western one, and a Euro server, along with an estimated wait time, roughly 40-50 minutes when I started. Once you choose one, you see the time on the installer. After a while, the estimated time goes up and down, but your place in the queue stays the same.
It seems the estimated time is for the whole queue and not your position. I watched it fluctuate from a low of 32 minutes up to a high of 300 minutes, and it was always 30 or more minutes even when I was number 1 or 2 on the queue. I wish there was a distinction made, since I quit two queues to switch to different ones, wasting an hour's worth of queue time.
While waiting in the queue, I found a torrent link for the full patch. If you want to try and look it up too, check BTMon (or google it) and search there for "Champions online - Open Beta client-installer". I dont know if it's authentic or not to be honest, but it made me feel better that I was getting a 40k stream on torrent since I had nothing from Fileplanet for hours. Once the Fileplanet queueing was done though, I got a good 500k stream from them.
By estimates, BT= 13 hours continuous, and FP = 1 hour after a 4 hour wait.
This whole fileplanet mess was quite the annoyance and lowered my expectations of Champions Online. Hopefully the game and it's patching process will improve in the future. By a lot, please.
Upsen.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Gears of War 2 DLC
I had traded in my GoW2 game earlier this summer cause the last time I'd played it was December 2008, but E was saying something about how there is a new DLC pack available for it.
I picked up the game again today, but checking the DLC info, it's difficult to say if the DLC is multiplayer maps + 1 level of one-player only, or multiplayer maps + 1 level of co-op content. After all, in the game, there are sections that have to be done solo. Paying 1600 Gates to get a bunch of maps for Horde isn't really that appealing to me, especially if no one else ends up getting it.
(edit, I bought it.)
Upsen.
I picked up the game again today, but checking the DLC info, it's difficult to say if the DLC is multiplayer maps + 1 level of one-player only, or multiplayer maps + 1 level of co-op content. After all, in the game, there are sections that have to be done solo. Paying 1600 Gates to get a bunch of maps for Horde isn't really that appealing to me, especially if no one else ends up getting it.
(edit, I bought it.)
Upsen.
Gears of War 2: All Fronts Collection (1600 Gates)
"This content pack features all 19 downloadable Gears 2 multiplayer maps and a bonus deleted single-player chapter, "Road to Ruin," from the Gears of War 2 campaign. For multiplayer fans, this pack brings together the complete set of Gears 2 multiplayer maps: Allfathers Garden, Canals, Courtyard, Flood, Fuel Depot, Fuel Station, Gold Rush, Gridlock, Grind Yard, Highway, Mansion, Memorial, Nowhere, Sanctuary, Subway, Tyro Station, Under Hill, War Machine, and Way Station—everything in the Flashback, Combustible, Snowblind, and Dark Corners downloadable packs combined. There are no refunds for this item. For more information, see www.xbox.com/live/accounts."
"This content pack features all 19 downloadable Gears 2 multiplayer maps and a bonus deleted single-player chapter, "Road to Ruin," from the Gears of War 2 campaign. For multiplayer fans, this pack brings together the complete set of Gears 2 multiplayer maps: Allfathers Garden, Canals, Courtyard, Flood, Fuel Depot, Fuel Station, Gold Rush, Gridlock, Grind Yard, Highway, Mansion, Memorial, Nowhere, Sanctuary, Subway, Tyro Station, Under Hill, War Machine, and Way Station—everything in the Flashback, Combustible, Snowblind, and Dark Corners downloadable packs combined. There are no refunds for this item. For more information, see www.xbox.com/live/accounts."
Dark Corners Multiplayer Map Pack (1200 Gates)
"This downloadable content pack features 7 new Gears 2 multiplayer maps and a bonus deleted single-player chapter, "Road to Ruin," from the Gears of War 2 campaign. In "Road to Ruin," Marcus and Dom navigate the treacherous Locust highway, choosing stealth or blazing action to survive. For multiplayer fans, the 7 maps include a new War Machine, the much-requested Gears 1 map; Allfathers Garden, a heavy-weapons battle at a COG landmark; Highway, a fight deep in the Locust Hollow; Memorial, a battle at the Tomb of the Unknowns; Nowhere, a firefight in an old motel; Way Station, an unpredictable battlefield with parallel paths; and Sanctuary, a reimagined favorite from Gears for Windows. There are no refunds for this item. For more information, see www.xbox.com/live/accounts."
"This downloadable content pack features 7 new Gears 2 multiplayer maps and a bonus deleted single-player chapter, "Road to Ruin," from the Gears of War 2 campaign. In "Road to Ruin," Marcus and Dom navigate the treacherous Locust highway, choosing stealth or blazing action to survive. For multiplayer fans, the 7 maps include a new War Machine, the much-requested Gears 1 map; Allfathers Garden, a heavy-weapons battle at a COG landmark; Highway, a fight deep in the Locust Hollow; Memorial, a battle at the Tomb of the Unknowns; Nowhere, a firefight in an old motel; Way Station, an unpredictable battlefield with parallel paths; and Sanctuary, a reimagined favorite from Gears for Windows. There are no refunds for this item. For more information, see www.xbox.com/live/accounts."
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Fallout 3 - Mothership Zeta
This was a short but sweet DLC for Fallout 3 - it took about 3 nights to get through. I even had to ditch a few hours worth of saves to go back for some audio tapes that I'd missed, for one of the achievements.
A few things to remember before starting this add on pack - travel light, and dont bother bringing any heavy weapons. Fights are at relatively close range, and you will primarily be using the energy weapons you pick up from the aliens. You find some earthly ammunition around, but mainly you'll be working with the alien blasters and rifles that you pick up. I ended with a ton of rifles, and more pistols than I could count. I think I picked up somewhere in the neighbourhood of 4000 or so rounds of alien ammunition (with no ammo perks) Its convenient that the alien pistols, rifles, and cannons all use the same ammo.
There are unique versions too - if you find the shooting range, dont forget to poke around and find the unique rifle and cannon. Do the Albino Radscorp shoot for the Xenotech perk.
It was nice not having to think about radiation for a while. There are also health stations that charge you up to about 80% health or so, so dont worry too much about using stimpaks.
Another nice thing is that Somah can repair with a skill of 75 whenever she is around. Good prices too. I don't think she stays around after you complete the DLC, but I haven't checked.
The only bothersome part to this DLC was the Alien Archivist perk - you have to find 25 recordings at special terminals all through the ship. Here's the order to get them in, so you dont miss any. You can check the fallout wiki for more detail.
1. Holding Cells - 6
2. Engineering Core - 4
3a. Waste Disposal (via Maintenance Level) - 1
3b. Cryo Lab and Cryo Storage - 4 and 2
3c. Research Lab (via Cargo Hold) - 2
Insert space walk interlude...
4. Weapons Lab - 1
5. Experimentation Lab - 3
6. Biological Research - 1
7. Living Quarters - 1
Upsen.
A few things to remember before starting this add on pack - travel light, and dont bother bringing any heavy weapons. Fights are at relatively close range, and you will primarily be using the energy weapons you pick up from the aliens. You find some earthly ammunition around, but mainly you'll be working with the alien blasters and rifles that you pick up. I ended with a ton of rifles, and more pistols than I could count. I think I picked up somewhere in the neighbourhood of 4000 or so rounds of alien ammunition (with no ammo perks) Its convenient that the alien pistols, rifles, and cannons all use the same ammo.
There are unique versions too - if you find the shooting range, dont forget to poke around and find the unique rifle and cannon. Do the Albino Radscorp shoot for the Xenotech perk.
It was nice not having to think about radiation for a while. There are also health stations that charge you up to about 80% health or so, so dont worry too much about using stimpaks.
Another nice thing is that Somah can repair with a skill of 75 whenever she is around. Good prices too. I don't think she stays around after you complete the DLC, but I haven't checked.
The only bothersome part to this DLC was the Alien Archivist perk - you have to find 25 recordings at special terminals all through the ship. Here's the order to get them in, so you dont miss any. You can check the fallout wiki for more detail.
1. Holding Cells - 6
2. Engineering Core - 4
3a. Waste Disposal (via Maintenance Level) - 1
3b. Cryo Lab and Cryo Storage - 4 and 2
3c. Research Lab (via Cargo Hold) - 2
Insert space walk interlude...
4. Weapons Lab - 1
5. Experimentation Lab - 3
6. Biological Research - 1
7. Living Quarters - 1
Upsen.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Soul Calibur IV
I started playing a bit of Soul Calibur IV on the 360 and it's been pretty fun. There is a heck of a lot of detail in these fighting games these days, eh? I like the multiple fighting stances with multiple sets of specials, activated with different stick/button combinations. Its a pretty steep learning curve but fun.
At the moment all I really do is a few special moves and when it gets tricky I end up button mashing, which still works.
One of the nice options is the role playing game style ability to create your own character, that uses any of the fighting styles found in the game. Its complete with gear purchases that grant various bonuses, and you can select what sort of special effects you want the character to have, such as chance for unblockable attacks, health leeching, higher tick damage against blocking foes etc.
You can find this one used for a pretty good price these days - I picked it up for $25 Canadian, compared to the original $59.99 msrp.
Here is a place where I found some nice SC4 wallpapers.
As an aside, my favorite swordfighting video game was Bushido Blade, which interestingly enough, had multiple stances, with different moves and weapons too. Ditto for the multiple play modes too, such as a story mode, endurance mode etc.
Most interestingly, Bushido Blade had the "one hit kill", if you get in a good, solid sword strike to, say, the head or chest. I think it should be more common in swordfighting games with all that sharp steel swinging around. :D It made the endurance modes really challenging and lent a completely different sense of urgency to the gameplay, since fighters are always one (good) hit away from death. Generally this means I never reached a low-health desperation attitude, and could look at the game with a more calculating eye. After all, your foe is in the same situation, where they could die from one good hit from you.
Upsen.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Fallout 3 Pitt Glitch
I finally finished the Pitt DLC, and all the achievements for Fallout 3. Well, at least until the next DLC comes out: Mothership Zeta, coming out Aug 3, I hear.
Problem with the Pitt - in the Steelyard, I had a heck of a time with a glitch. Starting from the 2nd trip there, I would always fall through the corrugated rooftop that leads to the upper catwalks. I rebooted the console and the same thing happened. I went back and reloaded old saves on the rooftop, and I would actually just start falling after the game was loaded.
It turns out that this is because I also have the Point Lookout DLC installed - something goes wrong when you have both the Pitt and Point Lookout installed, and sections of that rooftop becomes a hit-or-miss affair. (usually a miss)
So I went into the console memory options and deleted Point Lookout. After loading the game again, the rooftop was solid. The game warned me that I would lose my Point Lookout gear and perks etc though.
I got the steel ingots I was missing, and the achievement after I turned them in.
You can redownload Point Lookout at no cost, if you purchased it online. (Assuming redownloading 400+megs doesn't impact your internet plan) If you installed it from a disc, you'll need the disc again, of course.
I didn't check the status of my perks and gear after reinstalling Point Lookout though, I haven't played the game since.
edit Aug 1 - I loaded up the game and found that the Perks and gear I'd gotten from Point Lookout had all disappeared. After the reinstall of Point Lookout, I got the message that there is a new ferryboat available, as if I had never done Point Lookout before. The location on the Capital Wasteland map is considered unexplored again too. Looks like I get a second romp through the Bogs if I feel like it.
Upsen.
Problem with the Pitt - in the Steelyard, I had a heck of a time with a glitch. Starting from the 2nd trip there, I would always fall through the corrugated rooftop that leads to the upper catwalks. I rebooted the console and the same thing happened. I went back and reloaded old saves on the rooftop, and I would actually just start falling after the game was loaded.
It turns out that this is because I also have the Point Lookout DLC installed - something goes wrong when you have both the Pitt and Point Lookout installed, and sections of that rooftop becomes a hit-or-miss affair. (usually a miss)
So I went into the console memory options and deleted Point Lookout. After loading the game again, the rooftop was solid. The game warned me that I would lose my Point Lookout gear and perks etc though.
I got the steel ingots I was missing, and the achievement after I turned them in.
You can redownload Point Lookout at no cost, if you purchased it online. (Assuming redownloading 400+megs doesn't impact your internet plan) If you installed it from a disc, you'll need the disc again, of course.
I didn't check the status of my perks and gear after reinstalling Point Lookout though, I haven't played the game since.
edit Aug 1 - I loaded up the game and found that the Perks and gear I'd gotten from Point Lookout had all disappeared. After the reinstall of Point Lookout, I got the message that there is a new ferryboat available, as if I had never done Point Lookout before. The location on the Capital Wasteland map is considered unexplored again too. Looks like I get a second romp through the Bogs if I feel like it.
Upsen.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Bought and returned an arcade stick
A while back, I bought the Samurai Shodown 2 download on the Xbox 360 and I was doing pretty miserably with the gamepad. I thought maybe a better controller, an arcade joystick, would help me with the control problems, and at the same time, help with all the other various fighting games that I have, like the Super Street Fighter HD Remix, Soul Caliber etc. So I headed off to the game shop at the local mall, and I picked up a Mad Cats arcade stick. The buttons had a nice feel to them, and the stick was metal with microswitches, which was pretty nice stuff.
Unfortunately, after trying it out for a couple days, I wasn't really doing that much better - the stick's base was too small and moved too much. I didn't like the 8 button layout either, I think I prefer 6. Or maybe I'm just getting too old for these darn reflex fighting games.
I took it back to the shop, where some skinny kid told me I couldn't return it since it was an open box. Of course, this stick is sold "open", there is no plastic wrap inside or outside of the box, and the stick is held in place by a couple of chunks of foam. It seems like he thought he held some power over my situation, and was enjoying my irritation, with a smirking "what are you going to do about it?" attitude. He even had the gall to tell me it wasn't his problem.
Luckily, the manager was around, and I spoke with him. He put the kid in his place, and made the kid process the return. After all, the stick was in pristine condition, that is, exactly as it was when purchased.
The best part of it is that after I got home, I found that the kid refunded me wrong and I have about $15 more than I started with. Not my problem I guess. :D
Upsen.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Fallout 3 Alignment Achievements
I've finished all of the achievements in Fallout, except for The Pitt, which I'm working on right now. I haven't spent this long on a single-player-only game in quite some time.
One of the achievement types is for reaching certain xp levels while at different alignments. If you reach level 8 as a good character, you get a certain achievement. If you reach it as an evil character, you get a different achievement. Neutral, and you have a third achievement. This seems to imply that you have to play through the game 3 times, once as each alignment.
What I did was I played through as a good character, saving fairly frequently. Whenever I levelled up at an achievement level, I would reload the save before I levelled, go to the Underworld where there is a computer terminal in the back room. Opening the terminal and closing it again right away takes away karma even if you don't actually use or hack the terminal, and can be repeated over and over again. After I knock myself down to neutral, I save and then destroy all the ghouls living in the Underworld, which finishes the levelup and gets the achievement. I reload the neutral save, and continue opening/closing the terminal till I get evil status, then do the Ghoul wipeout till the levelup hits.
Voila, you will have all 3 of the alignment based achievements for the level.
If Underworld is too difficult to get to, you can probably do the same trick with Colin Moriarity's terminal in his Megaton saloon. Just opening and closing red terminals will raise eyebrows but no armed response if npcs are around. I used Underworld cause there is a lot of xp available from the zombies and all on the one map.
Upsen.
One of the achievement types is for reaching certain xp levels while at different alignments. If you reach level 8 as a good character, you get a certain achievement. If you reach it as an evil character, you get a different achievement. Neutral, and you have a third achievement. This seems to imply that you have to play through the game 3 times, once as each alignment.
What I did was I played through as a good character, saving fairly frequently. Whenever I levelled up at an achievement level, I would reload the save before I levelled, go to the Underworld where there is a computer terminal in the back room. Opening the terminal and closing it again right away takes away karma even if you don't actually use or hack the terminal, and can be repeated over and over again. After I knock myself down to neutral, I save and then destroy all the ghouls living in the Underworld, which finishes the levelup and gets the achievement. I reload the neutral save, and continue opening/closing the terminal till I get evil status, then do the Ghoul wipeout till the levelup hits.
Voila, you will have all 3 of the alignment based achievements for the level.
If Underworld is too difficult to get to, you can probably do the same trick with Colin Moriarity's terminal in his Megaton saloon. Just opening and closing red terminals will raise eyebrows but no armed response if npcs are around. I used Underworld cause there is a lot of xp available from the zombies and all on the one map.
Upsen.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Fallout 3 DLC Pack: Point Lookout
I picked up the Downloaded Content Pack for Point Lookout.
The first thing I did when I got to the ferry was find what options there are for getting passage to Point Lookout.
Bsaically, the only choice is to buy a ticket from the boatman, Tobar.
The most you can really do is sell him enough junk to cover the 300ish cost of the ticket.
Tobar is marked as an essential NPC, so he gets the "unconscious" flag instead of death, so you can't kill him for his boat after he tells you how to get there.
You can't threaten or charm your way into getting there. You can't pickpocket him for a ticket, though I guess that doesn't really make much sense, stealing a ticket to give back to the boatman. If you attack him, he fights back, when you take him down, he just gets back up after a while and wishes you a good day. Same for after you arrive in Point Lookout, he is still an essential "friendly" npc.
So annoying.
As an aside, what is with the super tough foes inside Point Lookout? In the main game, you headshot stuff with a single bullet from a sniper rifle, two if it's a tough one. Here you can throw away the sniper rifle cause it hits like a almost-broken handgun. I'm relying on the TESLA CANNON to kill the hostile axe-wielding, shotgun-toting rednecks. And it takes 3 shots! Enclave soldiers in power armor only took one shot, geez. It's like they are all tough as giant albino scorpions or super mutant overlords.
The speed at which the Tribals hack through power armor with axes puts deathclaws to shame.
The difficulty is not impossible to handle, but it feels incredibly out of place compared to the rest of the Fallout world.
The first thing I did when I got to the ferry was find what options there are for getting passage to Point Lookout.
Bsaically, the only choice is to buy a ticket from the boatman, Tobar.
The most you can really do is sell him enough junk to cover the 300ish cost of the ticket.
Tobar is marked as an essential NPC, so he gets the "unconscious" flag instead of death, so you can't kill him for his boat after he tells you how to get there.
You can't threaten or charm your way into getting there. You can't pickpocket him for a ticket, though I guess that doesn't really make much sense, stealing a ticket to give back to the boatman. If you attack him, he fights back, when you take him down, he just gets back up after a while and wishes you a good day. Same for after you arrive in Point Lookout, he is still an essential "friendly" npc.
So annoying.
As an aside, what is with the super tough foes inside Point Lookout? In the main game, you headshot stuff with a single bullet from a sniper rifle, two if it's a tough one. Here you can throw away the sniper rifle cause it hits like a almost-broken handgun. I'm relying on the TESLA CANNON to kill the hostile axe-wielding, shotgun-toting rednecks. And it takes 3 shots! Enclave soldiers in power armor only took one shot, geez. It's like they are all tough as giant albino scorpions or super mutant overlords.
The speed at which the Tribals hack through power armor with axes puts deathclaws to shame.
The difficulty is not impossible to handle, but it feels incredibly out of place compared to the rest of the Fallout world.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
AC4A - Story Mode
I'm currently going through the story mode on Armored Core For Answer. As I mentioned before, the story mode is actually pretty decent. You play as a mercenary, choosing work from one of a few different corporations or resistance fighter groups. Who you support will have an impact on what missions you get in the future. There are supposed to be 3 story paths, one that is pro-corporation, one that is pro-resistance, and one where you side with neither and kill them all.
On my first playthrough, my choices took me through the corp path. On my second, I'm trying the resistance fighter path. I'm trying a lot of the missions I didn't get the first time around, partially to see the missions and partially so I can co-op play all the maps if I want to.
I wonder what the Line Ark resistance group thinks of me. On this second play through, I've attacked Link Ark's main base, and then defended it together with their White Glint ace. I took a contract to protect Line Ark's Megalis power station from Omer, and then 2 missions later, I took a contract from Omer to destroy the Megalis power station. Somehow I seem to still be on friendly terms with them and ORCA.
I've been using the following chart from off the net as a map:
Upsen.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Armored Core For Answer (AC4A)
This was a cool little title that E wanted to try out in multiplayer, and so we picked it up. T had a copy from last year too so that was a bonus.
However, we found out that the multiplayer parts require one of you to have ALREADY FINISHED THE MISSION PREVIOUSLY in order to join in. Plus, the joining player gets kicked after each mission, making for a lot of re-inviting.
To top it off, there are single-player-only stages that you end up having to do while the other player twiddles their thumbs.
Thank goodness we can chat in the Microsoft Party system so we dont have to rely on the game's chat, cause you need to spend time figuring out what equipment to bring, and you can't do that from the multiplayer screen at all.
As a co-op friendly game, this game fails.
The actual gameplay itself is pretty decent, with fast action and a zillion modifications to work with. You get weapons, power generators, fire control systems, even adjustable stabilizers that help offset a heavy weapon that would otherwise make your robot veer to the right.
Fun, but the multiplayer capability really needs some work.
Upsen.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Fallout 3
This one's been out a while but I haven't gotten around to playing it till a little while ago. Fallout 3 is a post-holocaust game where a futuristic 50s world launched World War 3, and you'll find plenty of info out there about the game. This post is just some of my notes.
First things first - look up "Fallout 3 perk: Wired Reflexes" on the net and make sure you get this when the opportunity presents itself. It's one of the few things in the game that you can't go back and get later. In fact, if you are a completionist, look up all the "quest perks" and make sure you are aware of them.
Its a nice story and a fun game despite all it's flaws. I find that's almost always how it is with Bethsoft RPG games - I hear about it, I'm wowed by what they say you can do, I'm wowed by what you actually can do, and then I am wowed by all the bugs. I play on despite them, until eventually the bugs overwhelm the desire to play. It's been that way since The Elder Scrolls: Arena way back.
Fallout's not the most polished game, with computer characters randomly dropping out of the sky on top of you, (Hello Paladin Hoss) and your follower suddenly appearing in rooms ahead of you. (Hello Charon)
The zoom in the VATS targeting system doesn't target properly - If you go behind cover but have a clear shot, half the time VATS will reposition you enough that your shots are blocked. Don't queue up multiple VATS strikes if you are behind anything that might block your target, whether it's a wall, hull-down cover, or too much rubble in the way, as you will just waste all of the action points shooting the same bit of blockage.
Sometimes the NPC comments really are irritating. If you stop with your crosshairs on any owned, locked container in the game, you can be sure someone will insult you with a "Yes thats locked for a reason, and yes I can see you eyeing it" within 3 seconds. That's one of the milder comments. Sometimes you are minding your own business when someone will walk by and say stuff like "You better not cause any trouble, or you'll answer to me." It's dialogue that make you want to ask them "Is that a threat?" while cracking your knuckles.
Tenpenny Tower was really bad for this stuff, so many people there will insult you out of the blue, no matter if I'm dressed in a business suit or a suit of powered armor. There's characters around who don't understand that insulting the wrong person means you pay with your life. The AI really needs to accommodate what they see you wearing. No one should be rude to a jetted out, heavily armored wasteland mercenary with a mini-gun strapped to his back, unless they think that they (or their guards) can take him on and win.
Another irritating spot was this one NPC called Herbert Dashwood - he holds a key you need for one of the quests. He tells you that you should try and steal it off of him and he wont tell anyone about it - but his perception is so high I couldn't do it - and he tries to shoot you in the face when you fail to steal the key, instead of letting you steal it while he looks the other way like he said. Wonderful programming. Of course, you can ask him for the key, and he'll call you uninteresting for not playing his game. Why add in that little "game" when the system just makes him shoot at you like any other NPC?
Anyways, this one location seriously make me stop being a do-gooder in the game and switch to just blowing anyone away that is too rude.
The conversation system is so filled with contradictions. Some characters will greet you warmly and then when you initiate conversation, they tell you to screw off. Others tell you to mind you own business and then have a whole dialogue tree available when you do talk to them. Get it straight Bethsoft. :P
Despite all this stupidity, it's still fun to play. So far.
Upsen.
First things first - look up "Fallout 3 perk: Wired Reflexes" on the net and make sure you get this when the opportunity presents itself. It's one of the few things in the game that you can't go back and get later. In fact, if you are a completionist, look up all the "quest perks" and make sure you are aware of them.
Its a nice story and a fun game despite all it's flaws. I find that's almost always how it is with Bethsoft RPG games - I hear about it, I'm wowed by what they say you can do, I'm wowed by what you actually can do, and then I am wowed by all the bugs. I play on despite them, until eventually the bugs overwhelm the desire to play. It's been that way since The Elder Scrolls: Arena way back.
Fallout's not the most polished game, with computer characters randomly dropping out of the sky on top of you, (Hello Paladin Hoss) and your follower suddenly appearing in rooms ahead of you. (Hello Charon)
The zoom in the VATS targeting system doesn't target properly - If you go behind cover but have a clear shot, half the time VATS will reposition you enough that your shots are blocked. Don't queue up multiple VATS strikes if you are behind anything that might block your target, whether it's a wall, hull-down cover, or too much rubble in the way, as you will just waste all of the action points shooting the same bit of blockage.
Sometimes the NPC comments really are irritating. If you stop with your crosshairs on any owned, locked container in the game, you can be sure someone will insult you with a "Yes thats locked for a reason, and yes I can see you eyeing it" within 3 seconds. That's one of the milder comments. Sometimes you are minding your own business when someone will walk by and say stuff like "You better not cause any trouble, or you'll answer to me." It's dialogue that make you want to ask them "Is that a threat?" while cracking your knuckles.
Tenpenny Tower was really bad for this stuff, so many people there will insult you out of the blue, no matter if I'm dressed in a business suit or a suit of powered armor. There's characters around who don't understand that insulting the wrong person means you pay with your life. The AI really needs to accommodate what they see you wearing. No one should be rude to a jetted out, heavily armored wasteland mercenary with a mini-gun strapped to his back, unless they think that they (or their guards) can take him on and win.
Another irritating spot was this one NPC called Herbert Dashwood - he holds a key you need for one of the quests. He tells you that you should try and steal it off of him and he wont tell anyone about it - but his perception is so high I couldn't do it - and he tries to shoot you in the face when you fail to steal the key, instead of letting you steal it while he looks the other way like he said. Wonderful programming. Of course, you can ask him for the key, and he'll call you uninteresting for not playing his game. Why add in that little "game" when the system just makes him shoot at you like any other NPC?
Anyways, this one location seriously make me stop being a do-gooder in the game and switch to just blowing anyone away that is too rude.
The conversation system is so filled with contradictions. Some characters will greet you warmly and then when you initiate conversation, they tell you to screw off. Others tell you to mind you own business and then have a whole dialogue tree available when you do talk to them. Get it straight Bethsoft. :P
Despite all this stupidity, it's still fun to play. So far.
Upsen.
Monday, May 25, 2009
RE5 Professional Mode Completed
T and I wrapped up the professional mode - jeez there were some headache moments.
All of the Hit-A-Button-To-Avoid-Damage/Death sequences are really, really fast - you have to be ready for them when you see the windup animation, not when the button flashes on screen. If you are in the middle of an animation of your own (shooting, healing, etc) you wont have time to do the button-check.
Ndesu (El Gigante) in the driving stage was a pain. First of all, NEVER let yourself overheat. Just tap the fire button repeatedly, dont ever hold it down for longer than a second or two. You will be screwed otherwise. Shoot his face to interrupt him or if you have no other targets. Shoot the parasites when they appear.
When Ndesu is going to throw a stone, we are supposed to shoot the boulder and nothing else. (once the freebie drum explosion that makes him drop the boulder is used up) It took a while of trying to figure out what to shoot. The easiest way to ensure hits is to start off aiming at the spot above his head where the boulder will stay a while. Follow the boulder movement from there. If you wave the gun up and down too much, a lot of the shots miss due to the bullet travel time. If you spend too much time missing, you will get hit.
Also, always take out the molotov majini every time - he does some serious damage and you get delayed from the damage animation where you flail around. Chris needs to do this with his instant-shooting machine gun, Sheva loses too much time spinning up her chaingun, and is better off working on Ndesu's exposed small parasite targets. The arrow guys Chris should shoot too, but the big ndesu parasite is higher priority if it shows up, you can afford to take a few arrow hits. Also to note, you can shoot the arrows and molotov down with the guns, though not really reliably.
The Excella fight was short but I wanted to note that we did it by having T use his M93R to sweep the little snots that were on the deck, and me blasting away with a SW-500 magnum on the glowing parts of the Orouboros. We didn't use the laser, it was too slow and kept getting us killed, even while running over to pick it up. We just stood by the entrance, and cause I could take out the left eyestalk quickly, we never had to do a button-check sequence. We did have to heal a few times. You should have seen how many ammo drops there were on the screen, the floor was covered with ammo and money. Though it would have been suicide if tried to move over to grab them.
Another pain in the neck spot was the Jill fight. Basically if she hits you with her VZ smg, you die. If you get kicked, you die. The reason for this is cause you are trying to catch Jill between Chris and Sheva, and you will be too far away from each other to heal in time. We also accidentally killed Jill many times cause our weapons (Magnums, sniper rifles etc) were too hard hitting. Here's the formula we developed in the end to beat her:
This is the 2nd game I've gotten to 1000 acheivement points!
Upsen.
All of the Hit-A-Button-To-Avoid-Damage/Death sequences are really, really fast - you have to be ready for them when you see the windup animation, not when the button flashes on screen. If you are in the middle of an animation of your own (shooting, healing, etc) you wont have time to do the button-check.
Ndesu (El Gigante) in the driving stage was a pain. First of all, NEVER let yourself overheat. Just tap the fire button repeatedly, dont ever hold it down for longer than a second or two. You will be screwed otherwise. Shoot his face to interrupt him or if you have no other targets. Shoot the parasites when they appear.
When Ndesu is going to throw a stone, we are supposed to shoot the boulder and nothing else. (once the freebie drum explosion that makes him drop the boulder is used up) It took a while of trying to figure out what to shoot. The easiest way to ensure hits is to start off aiming at the spot above his head where the boulder will stay a while. Follow the boulder movement from there. If you wave the gun up and down too much, a lot of the shots miss due to the bullet travel time. If you spend too much time missing, you will get hit.
Also, always take out the molotov majini every time - he does some serious damage and you get delayed from the damage animation where you flail around. Chris needs to do this with his instant-shooting machine gun, Sheva loses too much time spinning up her chaingun, and is better off working on Ndesu's exposed small parasite targets. The arrow guys Chris should shoot too, but the big ndesu parasite is higher priority if it shows up, you can afford to take a few arrow hits. Also to note, you can shoot the arrows and molotov down with the guns, though not really reliably.
The Excella fight was short but I wanted to note that we did it by having T use his M93R to sweep the little snots that were on the deck, and me blasting away with a SW-500 magnum on the glowing parts of the Orouboros. We didn't use the laser, it was too slow and kept getting us killed, even while running over to pick it up. We just stood by the entrance, and cause I could take out the left eyestalk quickly, we never had to do a button-check sequence. We did have to heal a few times. You should have seen how many ammo drops there were on the screen, the floor was covered with ammo and money. Though it would have been suicide if tried to move over to grab them.
Another pain in the neck spot was the Jill fight. Basically if she hits you with her VZ smg, you die. If you get kicked, you die. The reason for this is cause you are trying to catch Jill between Chris and Sheva, and you will be too far away from each other to heal in time. We also accidentally killed Jill many times cause our weapons (Magnums, sniper rifles etc) were too hard hitting. Here's the formula we developed in the end to beat her:
- Bring a basic, accurate gun that does low damage.
- Shoot Jill to stop her machine gun spin. (reason #1 for low damage weapon) You can get away with this perhaps 2 or 3 times.
Though if you stay close enough she wont ever do this. - Chris spams the X button liberally while trying to restrain Jill.
- Shoot the chest box when Jill is restrained. (reason #2 for low damage, if you miss)
- Dont go for a pull-off right away after shooting the box once, wait till the thing is totally sparking and damaged. We had to shoot it 4 times.
- After shooting the chest box, don't do the throw. Back away a bit and try to go for another restrain and shoot.
- You CAN shoot the box while Jill is not restrained, but we couldn't do it reliably and we killed Jill a few times trying it. Hence we didn't do the throws or try to get random shots in, maybe you'll have better luck.
- Dont let Jill shoot you, she likes to shoot from above, so stay behind pillars when you can.
- Dont rely on button-checks to knock down a charging Wesker, just move sideways, and then start running.
- Wesker doesn't like being restrained and breaks out almost right away - after you have a successful grenade detonation that stuns him, don't start restraining him until the other player is close enough to quickly administer the injection. (he stays in the stun animation way longer than the restrain animation)
- Use your heavy guns on him in the last fight, you are not going to get close enough to restrain him. PSG-1 for long shots, Magnum for close shots. He will shoot blobs of Oro at you as well, so you'd better be dodging if you are being targeted. No such thing as trading shots in Professional mode.
- In the plane, you can skip cinematics by pressing the back button, to get to the button-check steps more quickly. This one wasn't so bad actually since there are no distractions (applies anywhere really)
This is the 2nd game I've gotten to 1000 acheivement points!
Upsen.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Resident Evil - Professional Mode
I went through the last level of Veteran mode with T and we unlocked Professional Mode on my Xbox 360. It went pretty quickly, but it was a little bit disappointing, since I was fooling around with the rocket launcher and we took out the end boss before he even jumped up to the ledge to chase Sheva. I mean, I was lobbing rockets at him nonstop before he exposed his weak spot, and it wasn't doing anything, but as soon as the spot appeared, he was down. We were stunned that we could actually kill him with sheer damage and not go through the whole complex sequence of button tapping and scope aiming. it was a bit disappointing actually, as it became easier than the Wesker fights where rockets were being dodged left and right.
So anyways we went on to the Professional Mode to give it a try. (we left the rocket launcher behind, cause of the disappointing end-game stage earlier) In professional mode, even if you are wearing armor, a Majini grabbing you or even SHOOTING you with an arrow means you are instantly in dying status. It makes the solo sections quite a bit tougher. A dog mauling, strangely enough, was minor damage, at about 20% while armored. Also, enemies weren't actually any harder to kill than they were before, they just do nastier damage when they actually hit.
We didn't really get far enough to see what enemy gunfire does, I'd imagine it would put you into dying status since arrows do. Then again I could be wrong, it is a Capcom game after all, where a punch does 400pts base damage and a machine gun bullet does 200pts after $100k of upgrades.
We went through 1-1, 1-2, and 2-1, taking down the Executioner and Chainsaw Majini with shotguns, SW-500 magnum and Beretta M93R. You get a heck of a lot more points for clearing levels at this difficulty, I think we scored 2000 points on an A and 2500 points on an S, double the usual amount. There was definitely a lot of ammo missing from the stage - even the resupply points were empty. However that didn't really matter to the unlimited ammo option we had available. Speaking of unlimited ammo, it really does kill your accuracy rating when you know you can just fire off some more bullets to ensure a hit. I should stop doing that, it's costing me in points.
Upsen.
Achievements: (aside from Veteran finish)
While waiting for T to finish a game of Virtua On, I picked up the Lead Asprin achievement at the beginning of stage 3-2 - snipe a majini and 3 or 4 of them will rush your platform. Just blow their heads off as they jump up. It took me a few re-loads to get the sweet spot.
Also picked up the Masters of Removing while solo - I let Sheva shoot Jill's electronic system while I restrained her, until one of the animations was of blood instead of electrical crackle, then I manuevered Sheva into restraining Jill, and did the removal. It was actually pretty quick once you know what you need to do.
So anyways we went on to the Professional Mode to give it a try. (we left the rocket launcher behind, cause of the disappointing end-game stage earlier) In professional mode, even if you are wearing armor, a Majini grabbing you or even SHOOTING you with an arrow means you are instantly in dying status. It makes the solo sections quite a bit tougher. A dog mauling, strangely enough, was minor damage, at about 20% while armored. Also, enemies weren't actually any harder to kill than they were before, they just do nastier damage when they actually hit.
We didn't really get far enough to see what enemy gunfire does, I'd imagine it would put you into dying status since arrows do. Then again I could be wrong, it is a Capcom game after all, where a punch does 400pts base damage and a machine gun bullet does 200pts after $100k of upgrades.
We went through 1-1, 1-2, and 2-1, taking down the Executioner and Chainsaw Majini with shotguns, SW-500 magnum and Beretta M93R. You get a heck of a lot more points for clearing levels at this difficulty, I think we scored 2000 points on an A and 2500 points on an S, double the usual amount. There was definitely a lot of ammo missing from the stage - even the resupply points were empty. However that didn't really matter to the unlimited ammo option we had available. Speaking of unlimited ammo, it really does kill your accuracy rating when you know you can just fire off some more bullets to ensure a hit. I should stop doing that, it's costing me in points.
Upsen.
Achievements: (aside from Veteran finish)
While waiting for T to finish a game of Virtua On, I picked up the Lead Asprin achievement at the beginning of stage 3-2 - snipe a majini and 3 or 4 of them will rush your platform. Just blow their heads off as they jump up. It took me a few re-loads to get the sweet spot.
Also picked up the Masters of Removing while solo - I let Sheva shoot Jill's electronic system while I restrained her, until one of the animations was of blood instead of electrical crackle, then I manuevered Sheva into restraining Jill, and did the removal. It was actually pretty quick once you know what you need to do.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Living Room Rearrangement
I posted about this on my regular blog but I figured I'd comment on it here too since it affects my gaming experience. I picked up a wall mount for the living room LCD TV.
I had an Ikea office table in the living room that I put my LCD TV and 20" LCD monitor on. It was a convenient setup but not really great for space considerations. It was also a mess magnet - collecting DVDs and stuff like game controllers both above and below the table, not to mention a ton of dust. I had wiring for everything running everywhere behind the TV, since the stereo and other eletronics weren't that close to the wall socket.
The TV wasn't centered to the couch which was annoying, and there wasn't really any room for the front satellite speakers, so I had one on a stand and the other just kind of sitting on a ledge near the staircase.
You can see the old setup in the picture below.
Anyhow, after I set up the wall mount, I dragged the table down into basement storage. Ditto for all my rarely used game controllers (read: rock band) - into the basement until next time I need it. I stuck the 20" LCD monitor on my wife's upstairs computer since there isn't any room for it here now, as she was still using an old (but nice) 15" NEC CRT.
The best part is that the Oil-PC now has a decent spot that is nice and visible.
I had an Ikea office table in the living room that I put my LCD TV and 20" LCD monitor on. It was a convenient setup but not really great for space considerations. It was also a mess magnet - collecting DVDs and stuff like game controllers both above and below the table, not to mention a ton of dust. I had wiring for everything running everywhere behind the TV, since the stereo and other eletronics weren't that close to the wall socket.
The TV wasn't centered to the couch which was annoying, and there wasn't really any room for the front satellite speakers, so I had one on a stand and the other just kind of sitting on a ledge near the staircase.
You can see the old setup in the picture below.
Anyhow, after I set up the wall mount, I dragged the table down into basement storage. Ditto for all my rarely used game controllers (read: rock band) - into the basement until next time I need it. I stuck the 20" LCD monitor on my wife's upstairs computer since there isn't any room for it here now, as she was still using an old (but nice) 15" NEC CRT.
The best part is that the Oil-PC now has a decent spot that is nice and visible.
There's a lot more space and it looks much better now but I still haven't figured out what I'm going to do for computer gaming. I mean there is nowhere to put the damn keyboard and mouse except on the couch. I can't play CoH from the couch. This is why I've mainly been on my Xbox for the past while. Maybe I'll rig some snack tray table or something, I really dunno at this point.
Heck maybe I should build a new PC and stick it in another room. :D
Upsen.
Heck maybe I should build a new PC and stick it in another room. :D
Upsen.
Monday, May 11, 2009
RE5 Cooldown
I've let the game sit there for a bit, as I've finished collecting most of the achievements, including all the BSAA Emblems.
I got Ride the Lightning and Be the Knife by taking Sheva's gun away from her. You can even do it mid game and she will happily disarm herself entirely and hand you her last weapon. Well, she still has her knife, but in cover mode she will hardly ever try to use it.
I still have to get the Lead Asprin one. I think I will have to try it in Mercenaries when the foes are jumping off the ladder to get up to you.
Also should try to get the one where you take down a truck by killing the driver (in the driving stage rather than on the bridge on foot.)
I've been playing Fallout 3 instead, and will post about it another day.
Upsen.
I got Ride the Lightning and Be the Knife by taking Sheva's gun away from her. You can even do it mid game and she will happily disarm herself entirely and hand you her last weapon. Well, she still has her knife, but in cover mode she will hardly ever try to use it.
I still have to get the Lead Asprin one. I think I will have to try it in Mercenaries when the foes are jumping off the ladder to get up to you.
Also should try to get the one where you take down a truck by killing the driver (in the driving stage rather than on the bridge on foot.)
I've been playing Fallout 3 instead, and will post about it another day.
Upsen.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Achievements to go in RE5
Remember to say thank you when your partner heals you. I mean, use the stupid thanks-button option that makes the character say "Thanks Pardner!" or "I owe you one!" in the game.
Who uses a thanks-button when you have voice communications? Saying thanks is much easier than pressing a thanks-button when you're still knee-deep in Licker Beta monsters trying to stay alive.
Anyways, after I found out about that 30 point achievement, I took the unlimited rocket launcher, and a big stash of herbs in all the other slots for both Chris and Sheva. Then once the game was loaded up, I blew myself (Chris) up over and over with the rocket launcher, and Sheva would heal Chris. Every time she healed Chris, I pressed the thanks-button. After a couple save and loads, I got the achievement. So instead of blowing up just Chris, I blew up both Chris and Sheva to exit the level - how is that for achieving a certain level of trust?
I still dont have the achievement for killing Majini with a electrical transformer - the AI is too efficient with weapons to let an environmental object do the killing.
Likewise for Be the Knife and Lead Asprin- the AI wont stop and let me try arrow deflections or wait for a Majini to jump in, it just snipes instead.
Maybe I'll try doing a game where Sheva is not armed, or just try it in multiplayer some time.
Upsen.
p.s. Almost done collecting BSAA emblems!
Who uses a thanks-button when you have voice communications? Saying thanks is much easier than pressing a thanks-button when you're still knee-deep in Licker Beta monsters trying to stay alive.
Anyways, after I found out about that 30 point achievement, I took the unlimited rocket launcher, and a big stash of herbs in all the other slots for both Chris and Sheva. Then once the game was loaded up, I blew myself (Chris) up over and over with the rocket launcher, and Sheva would heal Chris. Every time she healed Chris, I pressed the thanks-button. After a couple save and loads, I got the achievement. So instead of blowing up just Chris, I blew up both Chris and Sheva to exit the level - how is that for achieving a certain level of trust?
I still dont have the achievement for killing Majini with a electrical transformer - the AI is too efficient with weapons to let an environmental object do the killing.
Likewise for Be the Knife and Lead Asprin- the AI wont stop and let me try arrow deflections or wait for a Majini to jump in, it just snipes instead.
Maybe I'll try doing a game where Sheva is not armed, or just try it in multiplayer some time.
Upsen.
p.s. Almost done collecting BSAA emblems!
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Resident Farmer 5
E and I finished our game last week, due to one delay after another. However, the delays meant that both of use had managed to pull off a significant amount of item and money farming. We were both armed to the teeth, armed with Sig 226s instead of M92s, and heavy weapons like 6 rocket launchers and Magnums with 300 rounds to spare.
I did various bouts of Stage 5-1 through the lickers for gems, 3-1 swamp for the rockets and eggs, and 3-1 village for magnum ammo.
We played from stage 5-3 to the end, so that involved a few irritating points where we ended up going to the FAQs. What steps were they?
The first Wesker fight. Now that was an annoying thing - all his dodging. We just ended up running around and wasting ammo for Wesker's declared 7 minutes. We didn't even find the L.Hawk pistol upstairs while running around.
The Jill scene where you have to tear off the box. Shooting killed her. Grabbing the box just meant getting kicked. We went through half a dozen dead Jills and maybe 10 boots to the head before we hit the faq, and found that we were supposed to shoot the box without hitting Jill, getting electrical sparks instead of blood. After a couple more dead Jills, we got it. So annoying. I used a heavy damage, fast, single shot weapon for it, the S&W M500. I couldn't imagine plinking through the box's HP with a pistol or machine gun. Maybe it counts the number of hits on the box, which would be nice, but we didn't try it at the time.
The Excella fight. Where the heck are these lasers they were talking about? We ended up defeating her with raw firepower and a lucky hit with a rocket. It wasn't excessively tough but I was kind of irritated we didn't find the lasers.
The reaper bugs. Don't use a magnum on them - I had to spend too much time aiming and died many times when the one shot missed. A shotgun is much better, less aiming required - it is enough to destroy the bug's soft parts. A rocket launcher is even better cause it chunks them even without waiting for an opening.
The 2nd Wesker fight - That official rocket launcher found on the stage works totally differently than the regular one you get in the game. Also the part where he plays catch only works in the dark? I guess we missed that part, but we managed to get him on the 2nd try, which was lucky. I managed to use all the grenades all over the map on a subsequent retry and ended up just winning by brute force damage, and took a while.
The ending is much easier with 2 sniper rifles, we only had one which made it a little more challenging. I was playing Sheva and had the rifle, which means I died a few times while E was figuring out how to aim at Wesker without a scope.
Now all I have to do is get some BSAA emblems and some more gems for achievement points.
Upsen.
I did various bouts of Stage 5-1 through the lickers for gems, 3-1 swamp for the rockets and eggs, and 3-1 village for magnum ammo.
We played from stage 5-3 to the end, so that involved a few irritating points where we ended up going to the FAQs. What steps were they?
The first Wesker fight. Now that was an annoying thing - all his dodging. We just ended up running around and wasting ammo for Wesker's declared 7 minutes. We didn't even find the L.Hawk pistol upstairs while running around.
The Jill scene where you have to tear off the box. Shooting killed her. Grabbing the box just meant getting kicked. We went through half a dozen dead Jills and maybe 10 boots to the head before we hit the faq, and found that we were supposed to shoot the box without hitting Jill, getting electrical sparks instead of blood. After a couple more dead Jills, we got it. So annoying. I used a heavy damage, fast, single shot weapon for it, the S&W M500. I couldn't imagine plinking through the box's HP with a pistol or machine gun. Maybe it counts the number of hits on the box, which would be nice, but we didn't try it at the time.
The Excella fight. Where the heck are these lasers they were talking about? We ended up defeating her with raw firepower and a lucky hit with a rocket. It wasn't excessively tough but I was kind of irritated we didn't find the lasers.
The reaper bugs. Don't use a magnum on them - I had to spend too much time aiming and died many times when the one shot missed. A shotgun is much better, less aiming required - it is enough to destroy the bug's soft parts. A rocket launcher is even better cause it chunks them even without waiting for an opening.
The 2nd Wesker fight - That official rocket launcher found on the stage works totally differently than the regular one you get in the game. Also the part where he plays catch only works in the dark? I guess we missed that part, but we managed to get him on the 2nd try, which was lucky. I managed to use all the grenades all over the map on a subsequent retry and ended up just winning by brute force damage, and took a while.
The ending is much easier with 2 sniper rifles, we only had one which made it a little more challenging. I was playing Sheva and had the rifle, which means I died a few times while E was figuring out how to aim at Wesker without a scope.
Now all I have to do is get some BSAA emblems and some more gems for achievement points.
Upsen.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Resident Evil 5
I started playing this game a while ago with one of my friends, but we haven't been able to co-ordinate a time to play lately. Even when we do schedule a time, something comes up and foils the plan. Sigh. We'll work it out eventually I guess. We've gotten to the 3-x stage where you are gunning down motorcycle Majinis from the jeep.
Anyways, about the game - it's a lot of fun. Kind of hectic with the number of zombies (Here, the zombies are people controlled by a baseball-sized bio-weapon parasite called the Las Plagas, rather than a virus.) and they rush you, unlike the older RE games I'd played on the Playstation way long ago.
I don't want to get too far ahead of my partner, so I've been playing the already-completed portions of the game casually. I set it on amateur mode where I can blaze away at the zombies with the guns and not really worry about ammo.
I read a few FAQs and they say that if you upgrade the Skorpion SMG fully and finish the game, it will unlock a minigun for Chris Redfield that has unlimited ammo. Sounds pretty fun. Similarly, if you upgrade the Sako Rifle all the way when you finish, you unlock a bow for Sheva Alomar. I wonder how much damage they do?
When you play with a CPU partner, the AI can really vary in response. Computer-Sheva can nail a zombie that is a speck on a cliff when in attack mode using the rifle. However there are times where there is a zombie right in front of you, and she does nothing with pistol nor rifle. (until you are grabbed and chewed on)
It was really annoying in the low light stage underground. If you take the light, Sheva goes stupid while something is coming after you. Its better if she takes the light, but you have to be a decent shot in the dark for some of those foes. It seems every 2nd foe in those tunnels turns into a Las Plagas spinning nightmare, so annoying.
I could see myself in the harder difficulty setting, trying to just run past it all instead of shooting it.
Maybe it isn't such a good idea to have maxed out the critical ratings on all the guns? The critical rating is a chance to blow their head off, which I think means that the Las Plagas might pop out and take over, and you have to kill the foe a second time. That is a bother since the critical upgrades were not cheap.
I guess I'll try upgrading a piercing or other weapon next.
Upsen.
Anyways, about the game - it's a lot of fun. Kind of hectic with the number of zombies (Here, the zombies are people controlled by a baseball-sized bio-weapon parasite called the Las Plagas, rather than a virus.) and they rush you, unlike the older RE games I'd played on the Playstation way long ago.
I don't want to get too far ahead of my partner, so I've been playing the already-completed portions of the game casually. I set it on amateur mode where I can blaze away at the zombies with the guns and not really worry about ammo.
I read a few FAQs and they say that if you upgrade the Skorpion SMG fully and finish the game, it will unlock a minigun for Chris Redfield that has unlimited ammo. Sounds pretty fun. Similarly, if you upgrade the Sako Rifle all the way when you finish, you unlock a bow for Sheva Alomar. I wonder how much damage they do?
When you play with a CPU partner, the AI can really vary in response. Computer-Sheva can nail a zombie that is a speck on a cliff when in attack mode using the rifle. However there are times where there is a zombie right in front of you, and she does nothing with pistol nor rifle. (until you are grabbed and chewed on)
It was really annoying in the low light stage underground. If you take the light, Sheva goes stupid while something is coming after you. Its better if she takes the light, but you have to be a decent shot in the dark for some of those foes. It seems every 2nd foe in those tunnels turns into a Las Plagas spinning nightmare, so annoying.
I could see myself in the harder difficulty setting, trying to just run past it all instead of shooting it.
Maybe it isn't such a good idea to have maxed out the critical ratings on all the guns? The critical rating is a chance to blow their head off, which I think means that the Las Plagas might pop out and take over, and you have to kill the foe a second time. That is a bother since the critical upgrades were not cheap.
I guess I'll try upgrading a piercing or other weapon next.
Upsen.
Monday, April 20, 2009
IO stagnation
I changed some of the plans for Tenmos, my tank.
Gave up on finding Ragnarok IOs and went for a set of Positron's Blast instead. For right cheap too - I spent about 50 million on all 5 of them. I still want the Eradications and the last Obliteration, even though the tank seems to be surviving everything. Except maybe a Mission Architect killer-deathtrap that Mira Moonshadow made from my Renaissance de la Veritas SG. I did last until the rest of the SG team were almost back from the hospital though.
I've been playing a Dark Melee/Shields scrapper and it's at L40 pretty easily. Put together a few decent IOs for him too, to try and cap up the defenses, but I've decided against trying to super-IO him. Its just too time consuming.
Also made a Peacebringer Nova which is about L18.
Tank IO list:
* 1 x Miracle: Heal/EndRdx (40) forget about it.
(have a placeholder Mira H/E/R right now)
* 1 x Reactive Armor: ResDam/EndRdx (40) forget about it.
(placeholder low level version)
* 1 x Apocalypse: Dmg/Rchg (50)
* 1 x Apocalypse: Acc/Dmg/Rchg (50)
* 1 x Apocalypse: Acc/Rchg (50)
* 1 x Apocalypse: Dmg/EndRdx (50)
* 1 x Apocalypse: Dam% (50)
* 1 x Eradication: Dmg (30)
* 1 x Eradication: Acc/Rchg (30)
* 1 x Eradication: Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg (30)
* 1 x Eradication: %Dam (30)
* 1 x Obliteration: Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg (50)
Gave up on finding Ragnarok IOs and went for a set of Positron's Blast instead. For right cheap too - I spent about 50 million on all 5 of them. I still want the Eradications and the last Obliteration, even though the tank seems to be surviving everything. Except maybe a Mission Architect killer-deathtrap that Mira Moonshadow made from my Renaissance de la Veritas SG. I did last until the rest of the SG team were almost back from the hospital though.
I've been playing a Dark Melee/Shields scrapper and it's at L40 pretty easily. Put together a few decent IOs for him too, to try and cap up the defenses, but I've decided against trying to super-IO him. Its just too time consuming.
Also made a Peacebringer Nova which is about L18.
Tank IO list:
* 1 x Miracle: Heal/EndRdx (40) forget about it.
(have a placeholder Mira H/E/R right now)
* 1 x Reactive Armor: ResDam/EndRdx (40) forget about it.
(placeholder low level version)
* 1 x Apocalypse: Dmg/Rchg (50)
* 1 x Apocalypse: Acc/Dmg/Rchg (50)
* 1 x Apocalypse: Acc/Rchg (50)
* 1 x Apocalypse: Dmg/EndRdx (50)
* 1 x Apocalypse: Dam% (50)
* 1 x Eradication: Dmg (30)
* 1 x Eradication: Acc/Rchg (30)
* 1 x Eradication: Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg (30)
* 1 x Eradication: %Dam (30)
* 1 x Obliteration: Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg (50)
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
My Brute - RAWRS
http://upsen-downs.mybrute.com
Just a little time waster flash game that I thought was interesting. Automated melee fights in an arena, create a little warrior and let it bash away. I get some points if you try it :D
Upsen.
Sound Blaster Audigy static crackling and popping
Well, I put in a Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Value edition I had lying around, and now I remember who I took it out and tossed it aside. It crackles and pops incessantly, whether or not anything is playing.
Back when I took it out, it was when I upgraded from WinXP to Vista (or was it Win2k to WinXP?) I dont even remember any more. But whichever it was, it was working fine before, and then cracking and popping after the software change.
Basically the drivers for the newer OS were broken or something.
When I went back to the older OS, it would work all right (good thing for multiple hard drives eh) But when your buy a new OS and want to USE it, some sacrifices had to be made.
Especially when you have an onboard sound card that works fine in either OS. Sure it isn't as high quality sound as the Sound Blaster, but the onboard sound was working while the SB sounded like a record player with a worn out needle.
Anyways, it happened long ago enough that I'd forgotten about it, since I could still get working audio even without fussing over an old SB sound card.
So, now that my onboard sound's jack is messed up, and the Soundblaster is still crackling and popping, I decided to poke around and see what other people have the problem, and perhaps find if there was ever a fix for it. Google search provided a ton of links when I searched for "Sound Blaster crackle crackling" showing it was an extremely common issue with the Audigy and X-Fi lineups.
As I understand it, Creative says that these cards can't handle the PCI buffer delays introduced by certain motherboards, making it a hardware issue. (what happens when you haven't changed any hardware like in my situation?) Even if it was a latency issue that is related to how the OS decides to allocate resources, you'd figure that the company would release fixed drivers, right? But there is a lot of conspiracy theory style talk about how Creative doesn't want to support these older products in order to sell it's newer products. Its a shame if that's true.
So, I found some alternative drivers that people say seem to eliminate the crackle problem, written or modded by Daniel Kawakami. They havent seemed to help me much but I had a hell of a time trying to get the newer official drivers uninstalled. Maybe something didn't work out. I'll try uninstalling and reinstalling the software again later - SB drivers take forever to install.
Back when I took it out, it was when I upgraded from WinXP to Vista (or was it Win2k to WinXP?) I dont even remember any more. But whichever it was, it was working fine before, and then cracking and popping after the software change.
Basically the drivers for the newer OS were broken or something.
When I went back to the older OS, it would work all right (good thing for multiple hard drives eh) But when your buy a new OS and want to USE it, some sacrifices had to be made.
Especially when you have an onboard sound card that works fine in either OS. Sure it isn't as high quality sound as the Sound Blaster, but the onboard sound was working while the SB sounded like a record player with a worn out needle.
Anyways, it happened long ago enough that I'd forgotten about it, since I could still get working audio even without fussing over an old SB sound card.
So, now that my onboard sound's jack is messed up, and the Soundblaster is still crackling and popping, I decided to poke around and see what other people have the problem, and perhaps find if there was ever a fix for it. Google search provided a ton of links when I searched for "Sound Blaster crackle crackling" showing it was an extremely common issue with the Audigy and X-Fi lineups.
As I understand it, Creative says that these cards can't handle the PCI buffer delays introduced by certain motherboards, making it a hardware issue. (what happens when you haven't changed any hardware like in my situation?) Even if it was a latency issue that is related to how the OS decides to allocate resources, you'd figure that the company would release fixed drivers, right? But there is a lot of conspiracy theory style talk about how Creative doesn't want to support these older products in order to sell it's newer products. Its a shame if that's true.
So, I found some alternative drivers that people say seem to eliminate the crackle problem, written or modded by Daniel Kawakami. They havent seemed to help me much but I had a hell of a time trying to get the newer official drivers uninstalled. Maybe something didn't work out. I'll try uninstalling and reinstalling the software again later - SB drivers take forever to install.
I did find a work-around late last night though. (or so I thought) I tried the Audigy's digital out port with my stereo jack-to-rca jack adapter, and found the R-audio could deliver digital audio that my stereo's co-axial audio would accept. With no static even! I was happy, why didn't I think of using digital audio to eliminate something that sounded like analog static? (well cause it always failed before) However that was short lived, as when I turned it on this morning, the crackle was back in all its glory, on a digital audio connection. I don't get it.
Maybe I should splice some jacks onto my Logitech USB audio headset's cable and split the sound to headphone and to the stereo. Then I could go office space on this stupid Sound Blaster and smash it.
Someone slap me if I ever buy Sound Blaster again.
Upsen.
Maybe I should splice some jacks onto my Logitech USB audio headset's cable and split the sound to headphone and to the stereo. Then I could go office space on this stupid Sound Blaster and smash it.
Someone slap me if I ever buy Sound Blaster again.
Upsen.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Oil PC Completed
I've been a bit busy at work so I haven't posted the results of my Mineral Oil PC - its worked, and I haven't seen any wicking yet. Though, I have the oil at a level where the interfaces are just above the oil. This was about 7 gallons plus a bit from the 8th jug.
Here I have the tank set up with all the parts inside - this actually took a while, since I had to figure out how to arrange the cables in a way that I could use them, and not have it running criss-crossed all over the place like in a closed case pc. I sort of regret going with such a tall fish tank. I suppose at some point I should try and locate some long cables like the ones they use in those clear-case modified PCs. Then maybe I can plug in the DVD drive again. I'll have to network off another DVD drive for now if I need it, which is rare in any case.
I almost gashed my arm putting these things in place - gotta be careful...
Rear view showing the vidcard
I filled it to a point where the oil is just covering the bottom of the interfaces on the back of the board. The computer turned on with no problem. The pump was a different story, it refused to pump oil through the radiator until I cleared all the air from the tubes. That was a bit of effort since it required me to basically suck the air out by mouth, without getting a mouthful of oil. The rubber tubing smell was pretty gross already, so I tried to just get a mouthful of air at a time as if it were a drink through a straw, without getting any in my lungs. It also changed the level of mineral oil in the tank, so I had to top it off again.
Checking the fans, the CPU fan was turning, but the video card fan and power supply fan ran only intermittently - on a bit, off a bit, as if the oil was too thick and had triggered a safety stop mechanism. I turned up the speed of the vidcard fan from 30% to 100% using NTune software and and that solved it. Though I have to do it in software every time I'm powering up - I wonder how I set the fan speed to 100% permanently? The power supply fan I haven't found a way to modify, blah.
---
The PC has run like this for about a week or so now. I haven't kept it on continuously, only when I'm using it. The video card runs at 50 degrees instead of 80 degrees now. The motherboard is still running at it's 30ish degrees that it usually runs at.
The system is a LOT quieter now - the pump's muted hum is the only sound. I did submerge the pump under the oil to help keep it quiet, so it's not in exactly the same spot as you see in the pictures above.
I put a chassis fan in front of the radiator the other day, to help with cooling - the chassis fan runs silently, though it looks kind of silly. I wish I had a desk fan or something bigger, that ran at a quiet, slow speed. The only ones I have sound like an airplane taking off. Maybe I'll get a potentiometer or something and modify it to run slowly and quietly. I only want to have a quiet breeze on the radiator otherwise what is the point of this whole project? :P
The only bad thing that's come out of this is that the built in sound card stopped working. I didn't actually find out till last night, since I'd been just using my USB headset. I think there is something messed up about the line out stereo jack. The software works, the drivers are fine, the meters indicate operation, and even the cables and stereo are okay when I hook up it up to something other than the computer. I messed around with the SPDIF in/out ports and tried to plug it into my digital inputs on my stereo, but I couldn't get it to work. I may have to try a seperate sound card. :P Yeesh.
Anyways, more later when I figure out how to tidy up the cable mess on top of the tank.
Upsen.
Here I have the tank set up with all the parts inside - this actually took a while, since I had to figure out how to arrange the cables in a way that I could use them, and not have it running criss-crossed all over the place like in a closed case pc. I sort of regret going with such a tall fish tank. I suppose at some point I should try and locate some long cables like the ones they use in those clear-case modified PCs. Then maybe I can plug in the DVD drive again. I'll have to network off another DVD drive for now if I need it, which is rare in any case.
I almost gashed my arm putting these things in place - gotta be careful...
Rear view showing the vidcard
I filled it to a point where the oil is just covering the bottom of the interfaces on the back of the board. The computer turned on with no problem. The pump was a different story, it refused to pump oil through the radiator until I cleared all the air from the tubes. That was a bit of effort since it required me to basically suck the air out by mouth, without getting a mouthful of oil. The rubber tubing smell was pretty gross already, so I tried to just get a mouthful of air at a time as if it were a drink through a straw, without getting any in my lungs. It also changed the level of mineral oil in the tank, so I had to top it off again.
Checking the fans, the CPU fan was turning, but the video card fan and power supply fan ran only intermittently - on a bit, off a bit, as if the oil was too thick and had triggered a safety stop mechanism. I turned up the speed of the vidcard fan from 30% to 100% using NTune software and and that solved it. Though I have to do it in software every time I'm powering up - I wonder how I set the fan speed to 100% permanently? The power supply fan I haven't found a way to modify, blah.
---
The PC has run like this for about a week or so now. I haven't kept it on continuously, only when I'm using it. The video card runs at 50 degrees instead of 80 degrees now. The motherboard is still running at it's 30ish degrees that it usually runs at.
The system is a LOT quieter now - the pump's muted hum is the only sound. I did submerge the pump under the oil to help keep it quiet, so it's not in exactly the same spot as you see in the pictures above.
I put a chassis fan in front of the radiator the other day, to help with cooling - the chassis fan runs silently, though it looks kind of silly. I wish I had a desk fan or something bigger, that ran at a quiet, slow speed. The only ones I have sound like an airplane taking off. Maybe I'll get a potentiometer or something and modify it to run slowly and quietly. I only want to have a quiet breeze on the radiator otherwise what is the point of this whole project? :P
The only bad thing that's come out of this is that the built in sound card stopped working. I didn't actually find out till last night, since I'd been just using my USB headset. I think there is something messed up about the line out stereo jack. The software works, the drivers are fine, the meters indicate operation, and even the cables and stereo are okay when I hook up it up to something other than the computer. I messed around with the SPDIF in/out ports and tried to plug it into my digital inputs on my stereo, but I couldn't get it to work. I may have to try a seperate sound card. :P Yeesh.
Anyways, more later when I figure out how to tidy up the cable mess on top of the tank.
Upsen.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Setting up for an Oil Cooled PC
After reading about some of these projects online, I figured it would be a nice little project to get going myself. My PC runs so hot that I can't shut the case cover on it, without it soon crashing. It's also a noisy bugger and collects enough dust to warrant a cleaning every few months.
Here it is, sitting with it's insides hanging out. Notice the chassis fan pointing at the video card? Yes, it is needed when I run important 3d applications like City of Heroes.
I figured that getting the parts over a period of time would soften the impact of the costs, so I've been occassionally buying a part here and a part there for the past 4 months. I am still a couple pieces short, but I am almost done. Basically there are 4 important things:
The computer I have. I bought a transmission radiator from Canadian Tire for the cooling, and you can see it as the black grid in the picture above. The container wasn't too hard, I just had to find a fish tank of a shape, size and price that I was happy with. It turned out to be a 10 gallon tank that is almost the same footprint as a computer case. Taller for sure though.
The hardest part seemed to be locating the mineral oil.
Mineral oil is sold several ways. It's sold as a laxative or enema at pharmacies in 250/500ml bottles and at the veterinarian's in larger amounts. Higher quality versions are sold industrially as napthenic electrical transformer oil by the barrel or truckload (yeesh), and as laboratory supplies from lab suppliers at like $10 per 5ml. In the end, I got a pharmacy to supply me with 8 1-gallon (~4 Litre) jugs of the stuff. 8 Gallons is worth about $300 Canadian, at retail price. I managed to get it wholesale, which was a lucky break for me. Though, the pharmacist must think I'm either really constipated or really perverted.
I disassembled the computer on a large cloth sheet - there was a ton of dust that I had to scrub off lightly with a toothbrush. I thought about using an air can, but I didn't have one around and besides it would have sent dust flying everywhere in the house.
After assembling it, I had to test it out to be sure it still works. So far so good. You'll see in the picture below that I stripped the plastic case off the video card. I dont think that the fan will push enough oil through the card to cool things properly.
Anyways, all that I have left to buy is something to line the bottom of the fish tank with, and perhaps something more to support the motherboard frame. Also, a way to cap off the fish tank that I can rest a hard drive or two on. Once I have that, the oil is going in.
I wonder if I have to worry about oil wicking out of the tank through the cables? I might have to mount a power bar and internet router above the tank to keep it dry, but I'll find out when I get to that stage.
Upsen.
Here it is, sitting with it's insides hanging out. Notice the chassis fan pointing at the video card? Yes, it is needed when I run important 3d applications like City of Heroes.
I figured that getting the parts over a period of time would soften the impact of the costs, so I've been occassionally buying a part here and a part there for the past 4 months. I am still a couple pieces short, but I am almost done. Basically there are 4 important things:
- the computer to submerge
- a cooling system
- mineral oil
- a container to hold it all in.
The computer I have. I bought a transmission radiator from Canadian Tire for the cooling, and you can see it as the black grid in the picture above. The container wasn't too hard, I just had to find a fish tank of a shape, size and price that I was happy with. It turned out to be a 10 gallon tank that is almost the same footprint as a computer case. Taller for sure though.
The hardest part seemed to be locating the mineral oil.
Mineral oil is sold several ways. It's sold as a laxative or enema at pharmacies in 250/500ml bottles and at the veterinarian's in larger amounts. Higher quality versions are sold industrially as napthenic electrical transformer oil by the barrel or truckload (yeesh), and as laboratory supplies from lab suppliers at like $10 per 5ml. In the end, I got a pharmacy to supply me with 8 1-gallon (~4 Litre) jugs of the stuff. 8 Gallons is worth about $300 Canadian, at retail price. I managed to get it wholesale, which was a lucky break for me. Though, the pharmacist must think I'm either really constipated or really perverted.
I disassembled the computer on a large cloth sheet - there was a ton of dust that I had to scrub off lightly with a toothbrush. I thought about using an air can, but I didn't have one around and besides it would have sent dust flying everywhere in the house.
After assembling it, I had to test it out to be sure it still works. So far so good. You'll see in the picture below that I stripped the plastic case off the video card. I dont think that the fan will push enough oil through the card to cool things properly.
Anyways, all that I have left to buy is something to line the bottom of the fish tank with, and perhaps something more to support the motherboard frame. Also, a way to cap off the fish tank that I can rest a hard drive or two on. Once I have that, the oil is going in.
I wonder if I have to worry about oil wicking out of the tank through the cables? I might have to mount a power bar and internet router above the tank to keep it dry, but I'll find out when I get to that stage.
Upsen.
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