Sorry for not getting people in games lately, had a full group of 5. Just played one this morning, our Eve jungled and died to a minion so she rage quit. After 87 minutes we pulled off a 4 v 5 victory. Damn it was close, we had one inhib up and the two nexus turrets. A video game should not give me this adrenaline rush but Jesus titty fucking Christ that was competitive.
Yeah asshole! Stop ignoring me! I want to play too! Seriously though, the best fucking games are the ones you think you are losing at first, but then come back and win when all your shit is down, you just made good plays, had a good build and won.
I don't know if any of you still play Starcraft 2, but I thought I'd share this anyway. Arguably the two best non-Korean players in the world (EGIdrA and Liquid`Jinro) are facing off in a Best of 7 showmatch this evening for $1500. EGiNcontrol is hosting the thing and has a big announcement he is unveiling at the end which is rumored to be a North American tournament to rival the GSL in Korea. It starts at 5 EST @ <a class="postlink" href="http://www.justin.tv/iNcontroLTV" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.justin.tv/iNcontroLTV</a>
March is gearing up to be a great month for PC gamers; Dragon Age II, Shogun Total War II, and Crysis 2.
Arc Systems' new game on XBox Live, Hard Corps: Uprising, is the best run and gun game I have played. A prequel to the Sega Genesis title Contra: Hard Corps, the diversity in environments, enemies, and game-types (sometimes you're fighting in a narrow corridor with trap doors, other times in the air like a horizonal space shooter) is incredible. There are a wealth of character movements, from bullet deflection to air-dashing to double jumps, and an RPG-style system where you can buy upgrades. On the peripheral side, the music is the typical excellent rock/metal selection from an Arc Systems game, and it looks gorgeous. Of course, it also features non-stop giant bosses with numerous phases, and is mind-numbingly difficult. Definitely a worthwhile purchase.
Well, here's one way they got the AI right, I guess. $100T2: 14/25, 32 pts (4 for 9 from downtown, baby!). Gilbert Fucking Arenas: 3/29. The AI just kept having him jack up fucking shots. And he does that every single game. I wish they had an option to demand management trade another player. The AI gave away Jameer Nelson but kept Arenas.
For everyone interested in Dragon Age II, the demo came out today for all three platforms. I'll be checking this out when I get home. Also, one of my favorite old school console RPG's, Xenogears, is coming to the PSN. I've also finally been getting around to playing AC:Brotherhood. I was having a hard time getting into it, but it took a turn for the better last night when I started recruiting and leveling up assassins. The ability to call in an assassin on a target is pretty neat. I was planning on skipping pretty much everything but the main story line so I could get through it in time for DA2, but I can't help but play with the assassins guild stuff, as well as upgrade everything around Rome. Hopefully the main story line plays out well enough.
Brotherhood was, by far, my favorite in the series thus far. The assassin's guild being among the top reasons. The best part is when you have 3 assassins available at any given time and can use the 'arrow storm' feature by holding LB/L1. It works wonders when you have a half-dozen guards poking in your shit and you have places to be. Regarding the main story line: the very, very end is nuts. Things definitely take a turn for the crazy, and then BOOM: credits roll. Talk about a cliffhanger. I cannot wait to see where the story goes in the next game. The Christina flashback side missions are pretty fun, too. So far I've only done the first two, but I plan on seeing where that part of Ezio's adolescence goes. Christina, in case you don't remember, was the beautiful Vespucci daughter Ezio got caught sleeping with at the beginning of AC2. Srsly, she's fucking gorgeous. It's amazing how far technology has come in creating people.
So I just finished Mass Effect 2. Wow. Great game, great story, epic ending. Spoiler Sad to say that Legion, Grunt, and Miranda did not make it through. They will be missed. Though, I can't figure out what I could have done to help them, since they were all loyal to the mission. Legion bit it almost immediately after hacking the gate, Grunt got shot to hell while I was moving through the Collector swarm, and Miranda caught one in the throat at the very end after taking down the big Terminator-looking Reaper machine. I am now even more anxious for ME3 than before. Sovereign's setting his sights on Earth? Fuck you, buddy. Commander Shepard says otherwise. I think my next game will be either BioShock or Arkham Asylum, though I'll probably wait a week or two before I get into either one. After the way ME2 wrapped up, any game that follows will pale in comparison.
I actually liked both the italicized games even more than I did Mass Effect 2. AA especially is very different from Mass Effect 2, so there's little chance of your experience being ruined by high expectations.
The easiest way to do it is to use a person's strength for exactly their purpose, loyalty doesn't really factor in to who lives or dies. I just completed it on Insane difficulty and made it through with the whole team alive. Here's who you use for what if you want: Spoiler Miranda as the leader of the backup team. Tali as the tech expert for the pipe run. Jacob leading survivors back to Normandy. Samara/Morinth as the biotic bubble giver. I personally took Mordin and Jack with me, because Mordin's Incinerate rapes Collector armor and Jack's Improved Shockwave knocks em off the platforms once their armor is gone, buying you time for shield regen and/or reloading. For my next play through, I plan on being the ultimate dickhead. I will not do a single loyalty mission, nor will I upgrade the Normandy at all, I'm seeing if I can kill off every single person, including Shepard, I'm hoping that without the ship upgrades everyone will die after passing through the Omega-4 relay.
How to make the Suicide Mission not a suicide mission. Preferably with loyalties. Spoiler This is the one time I really feel like a commander in ME. Basically, Dmix is right in that you have to choose the best person for the job. They tell you in the description, actually, and each character's blurb hints at how they'll fare in each position you assign. Miranda, Jacob and Garrus can all be chosen as squad leaders. They have the leadership experience. Choosing a shitty leader causes one of your party members to die in the first phase. Zaeed, for instance, is fucking awful. If you've ever listened to his stories, they always end in, "... and I was the only one to survive that day." Not your best choice. Choosing a shitty leader in the second phase causes that person to die. However, each of the tactical leaders can only be chosen once (with exception to Miranda). Legion, Tali and Kasumi (DLC) can all activate the tech vents. Thanks to their tech background, they won't butterfinger the door while the Collectors are raining fire on you, keeping your team alive. Apparently ancient millenia old tech is compatible with future tech. For the part where you decide on whether or not to send someone to guide the non-combatants back to the Normandy, choose a non-soldier type. Mordin, for example, is good. He's not cut out for the last phase and will die. Everytime. He is what is referred to as a "squishy". I think of him as a CIA operative instead of Delta Force. Sure, he can fire a gun, but prefers stealth instead of taking everything to the dome like Grunt would. Samara and Jack are your only options for the biotic phase. Miranda was basically an overconfident bitch when she suggested otherwise. Choosing anyone else guarantees that your second party member will be carried off because they can't hack it. So, now you've covered leaders, tech and biotics. That leaves you with soldiers. Don't bug out and choose "We've got to push forward" or some nonsense. Choose, "Hold the line" so you don't have to worry about a time limit while combating the Human Reaper. If you have any squishies (Tali and Mordin are the weakest), take them with you in your party. Otherwise, they will get mowed down during the firefight. Definitely leave Grunt, Zaeed, Garrus and Space Kanye if you can. With that, your team of badasses will be sipping on space Cristal with badass music in the background. I can go into the mechanics of the game, but I figured that's boring in light of watching the Reaper fleet converge on the Milky Way. Don't read this if you're wondering about the Omega-4 with no upgrades/loyalty. Spoiler 3 people die in the initial attack. Fucking up the order (or not having loyalties) can eliminate the rest. You'll need to keep at least 2 people alive if you want Shepard to live. Seth Green is apparently too much of a bitch to lend you a hand. Unfortunately, the Illusive Man isn't going to recover your body from inside a ruined space station situated at the galactic center, so SuicidalShepard can't be imported to ME3. With the way things played out in ME1, I doubt we'll see the characters of ME2 returning beyond anything more than a cameo, sadly.
Just started Castlevania: Lords of Shadow and am really digging it so far, despite being a little late to the party. Only complain so far is that after getting through the God of War series, the controls feel just a little clunky at times, especially when it comes to the grappling hook upgrade. Really impressed at how they've crafted the environments from an aesthetic standpoint. It's nice to not have to play through yet another action game where everything is fucking gray and brown. Enslaved was another one that really did that particular design facet well, and was an effing blast to play through. And speaking of which, anybody out there have any "sleepers" they could recommend? Blockbusters like Call of Duty and Gears of War are a good time, but I'm on the hunt for some more gems like Enslaved.
Not sure how you feel towards homages, or if you ever gamed as a kid, but if you want a heaping dose of old school 8-bit awesome, I've got just the game for you. 3D Dot Game Heroes - This is basically what happens when a company takes The Legend of Zelda from the NES, remixes it in a Lego world and adds a few creative tweaks, including the ability to design your own hero. Ever wanted to play Zelda with a dildo instead of Link? You can. You should be able to find a copy for around twenty bucks, completely worth every penny.
Spoiler "Legion, you can hack through anything. I'm sending you." Fuck-all good that did me. In retrospect, making Grunt a squad leader wasn't a wise move. With my shitty 27" standard def. and the tiny font that permeates ME2, I didn't have the patience to read their descriptions, but rather went on instinct. Samara seemed the only reasonable choice for me for the biotic phase, so that was simple enough. Zaeed was my choice to take the non-combatants back, since his experience as the game warden in Jurassic Park could aid in protecting them. In the end, I took Jack and Miranda to fight the Human Reaper. I guess Miranda was too much of a "squishy," and I'm not talking about her boobs. Nonetheless, it was still an exhilarating ending. From the moment I used the Omega-4 relay all the way to the ending credits, I've never been more captivated by a video game, and most movies/books/TV shows would be hard-pressed to compare. Like DMix said, it's the one time you truly feel like a leader of the squad, not some guy making his rounds on the Normandy to talk like some fucking politician. As for ME3 characters, I've been told that Tali and Liara are supposed to make returns as squad members, though I'm not sure how reliable that information is. I would love for Mordin to return, because his speech pattern cracks me the hell up. Zaeed, on the other hand, can go get bent. What an asshole.
If you like the 3D Castlevania, check out the DS Castlevania games, as well as the title I mentioned on the last page, Hard Corps: Uprising.
Agreed, his song and dance number was easily the most entertaining part of chatting with your ship mates, aside from eventually boning one obviously. I'm in the fuck Zaeed camp as well, he and Kasumi added virtually nothing to the game. Liara? Really? I didn't think she'd make the squad due to... Spoiler Her taking over as the Shadow Broker. It would be cool if she was a information hub for you, kind of like Oracle in Arkham Asylum. It's going to be very interesting to see how the choices that were made from both parts will carry over to part 3, which is why I'm planning on having at least 6 saves to carry over, each with varying degrees of success/failure as well as paragon/renegade and male/female.
I would love to do this, but I cannot, for the life of me, replay games anymore these days. I think it's a combination of there being a large selection of good games available combined with my extremely reduced amount of time to play games. Even the games I do have time to put in one play through I tend to stick to the main story line and not do much extra content. I fully intended to do all the monster hunter stuff in FFXIII but never got around to it and I'll probably zip through the main story of AC:Brotherhood and be done with it. Back in the day I put over 120 hours into FFX taking my main party through the entire sphere grid, getting all of the celestial weapons and beating all the extra bosses in the monster arena. Those were the days.
Like I said, it's what I heard. It could be bullshit, it could be that she'll be in the game, but not as a squad member just like in ME2. But it could very well be a bogus rumor. Personally, I'd like to see her in the game. She was one of my favorites from ME1. Aside from the hippie spiritual nature that all asaris have, Liara was fun to have around. As for the 6 saves, more power to you. As fun as it would be to see the various ways it could play out in ME3, I don't have that sort of patience. It goes to show how well this series is designed, that there could be so many possibilities. It's like the ultimate choose-your-own-adventure book.
I don't know, something about the way they handled the ME1 import just tells me they're going to completely shift the focus onto a new set of sidekicks for the grand finale. Really, how much did any of your actions in ME1 really affect ME2? Shit, the major decisions from the first game meant dick all and really just served to appease the people who made the decisions. Remember what happened to your team during the opening of ME2? "Oh no, you can't use him. He's on sabbatical. Oh her? Uh, toe injury. Can't make it." Examples: Spoiler Wrex lives - you get a friendly chat and continue on with Mordin or Grunt's mission. Wrex dies - you get a pissy chat with Wrex's brother telling you what a clown he was. Cue information on Mordin or Grunt's mission. Spoiler Save the council - They don't do shit for you. Leave the council to die, install new one or all human council - They still don't do shit for you. Spoiler Save Rachni Queen - Some Asari finds you and relays a "We're good, bro." Extinguish Rachni Queen - No mention of anything after the Turian Councilor bitches immediately afterward. Now, compare the decisions you made in ME1 to ME2. Spoiler Your team can die during the suicide mission. Any of them, in no particular order. That would require endless hours of programming to analyze your decisions, keep who you have and then fill the gaps with new members. Bioware is known for their story, not so much their reliability in keeping decisions relevant. Not only that, Bioware gave themselves an out concerning the continuity by forcing the mission to be about the Collectors. Not the Reapers, the Collectors. That's not to say you won't see cameos or nods, but more than likely, you'll have to grab the Milky Way's third group of incredible badasses to fuck shit up.