Beat the Heat, Clear the Pile

AndrewA wrote:

I'll be taking a shot at Machinarium (PC).

Put me down for that as well - need something light after all that fallout.

Having complained about it on Twitter, on Backloggery, and on TrueAchievements, I've come to say it here: Haphaestus sucks all the fun out of Bioshock and is a real letdown after the brilliance of Fort Frolic.

As a whole, Bioshock's levels all follow the same basic pattern: you arrive in a new area, and you're told to progress to a goal on the other side of the map. The map itself is typically built as a central hub with different sub-areas spoking outward from there. When you reach your first goal, something will happen there that will prevent you from progressing until you've ventured into each of the map's subareas and collected some item or other. This design can be very annoying, as it often requires re-exploring areas you've passed through previously to overcome entirely arbitrary roadblocks, but it doesn't have to be.

The Medical Pavilion keeps this from being annoying by making the items you're sent to fetch interesting new abilities; this is when you acquire the Inferno and Telekinesis plasmids. Fort Frolic keeps things fresh by placing the initial roadblock right next to the start of the level, by locking you out of side areas until you need to access them, and by giving you compelling plot reasons for exploring the side areas. Arcadia is when the pattern first becomes annoying, but it at least gives you access to a new area (the Farmer's Market) and has strongly differentiated subareas that are fun to explore.

Haphaestus, meanwhile, makes the game's level design tropes as annoying as possible. As with Fort Frolic, it has two different road blocks: you're first given a goal to reach Andrew Ryan's office, which takes awhile to get to and which you of course can't enter, and then you're given a goal to figure out how to override the locks on his office. The details of the override are in literally one of the furthest corners of the map, and it turns out that you need to collect an assortment of items from around the map; however, annoyingly, you've already walked past many of these items and simply weren't allowed to pick them up. Venturing into each subarea, you quickly find that they all look very much the same. The whole level is uniformly lit with a dull reddish glow, and the rooms are packed with big industrial boxes and catwalks. It's Rapture's equivalent of a warehouse.

As if the bland level design built around an Easter egg fetch quest wasn't bad enough, the level also introduces new, elite splicers. They're identical in function and behavior to all the splicers you've encountered up to this point, but they have more hit points. What this means is that if you've put time and effort into researching your enemies with the camera, all of the damage bonuses you've accumulated are negated in exchange for nothing. The enemies you're faced with aren't more interesting to kill or more challenging to kill, they just take longer to kill. This is a fairly standard trick with RPGs, throwing stronger but otherwise identical enemies at you when you reach a higher level, but there's usually a promise in those games of leveling up more and thereby surpassing your opponents again. Bioshock offers no such promise with these elite splicers, because by now you've already maxed out your bonuses against them, likely your plasmids and tonics, and a few of your weapons, and so have no way to get a leg up again. The game functionally resets your relationship with your enemies and leaves it there forever.

I finished off Portal and Ben There, Dan That this weekend. One campaign away from finishing Company of Heroes, and about 45% of the way through DA:O UE. Having a kid under one has kept my gaming time bite sized--I have a feeling Dragon Age will last me a while.

I'm starting to think I have bad taste in games...

I really enjoyed Medal of Honor. Yes, it was derivative. Yes, it was a Call of Duty wannabe. It had one key difference, an almost believable story line. No imprisoned SAS officers who know how to launch nukes from Russian subs. It kept itself in one theater of operation, and it followed three different soldiers (plus a couple of air support levels) through the course of a few days. I can only think of one level where it had respawning enemies (which drives me crazy in COD), and that almost made sense. I get that it's used to make you push forward, but in COD, since it's used all the time, it just gets frustrating. This part was towards the end of the game when you're searching for two operatives who got left behind from the previous mission.

Now, if I had paid $60, I might have gotten a little ticked, as it's pretty short. $30 or less is a good spot (I got it for $13), for 5-6 hours of entertainment.

Thumbs up

Bit late to the thread this month, but I was busy Bean Diving towards the end of last month in an attempt to neuter the throbbing loins of my pile, and I was a bit burnt out from it. Those with a TA friend feed including me will be glad that is over.

To sumarise, from July 9th to the 27th I played 135 games, lost 26.15% off my completion %, and added another 4370 achievements to my 'to do' list.

So, what caught my attention during this time. A LOT, and I have to say, that pile has some awesomeness hidden inside it.

This month, I will complete two titles that while not awesome, scratch a particular itch:

Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad
Mortal Kombat VS DC Universe (all achievements, bar the Kombat Challenges, f*ck that for a jar of monkeys)

I may dabble in some XBLA goodness, but I'll add that in if it happens...

Finally back at home! While I was visiting my mom, I did manage a bit of success on my old XBox:

Genma Onimusha (Xbox) - not listed
I can sum it up by saying that an action-y sword fighting mechanic should never again be married with old-style Resident Evil controls and camera angles. I finally beat it 7+ years after starting, but there is no way I'm suffering through the controls to beat the challenges that unlock various extras such as a super-sword and armor. There were some interesting mechanics and the setting was certainly new (especially at the time) for a survival horror style game. The "horror" was very light, however, as the only real terror I experienced was any time I heard the jingle of the animated doll's bell. All in all, the game hasn't aged well.

I also made a bit of progress on Dragon Quest IX while there. Now that I'm back, I plan to wrap up Bioshock soon and Quake II on PC (needs to be added) very soon.

Finished Machinarium - what an utterly charming little game (with some of the best art I've seen in any adventure game I've played).

Also can you stroke-out Fallout NV for me as well hemidal - still got a LOT to do in that game but the main quest has been beaten (Independant Vegas without Mr House, for the record).

stevenmack wrote:

Also can you stroke-out Fallout NV for me as well hemidal - still got a LOT to do in that game but the main quest has been beaten (Independant Vegas without Mr House, for the record).

I'll be happy to strike it out. I'll leave the stroke out to someone else.

Hemidal wrote:
stevenmack wrote:

Also can you stroke-out Fallout NV for me as well hemidal - still got a LOT to do in that game but the main quest has been beaten (Independant Vegas without Mr House, for the record).

I'll be happy to strike it out. I'll leave the stroke out to someone else.

:D

I was going to put stroke-off originally but on reading it back, thought better of it.

Next up : The second game is approaching fast, so I'd better get my arse in gear and finish Torchlight .

I knocked out all three Big Daddies in Haphaestus in about twenty minutes last night on hard without ever getting hit. That was a rush.

Saw the "THE END" screen on Quake II.
The single player game wasn't half bad, especially for the time, but multiplayer will forever be etched in my mind as a bitter disappointment. Many weapon sounds continue to leave me unimpressed, especially the rockets, and the game might even be browner than its predecessor. The most interesting aspect the game held for me was the fact that not only can the player revisit previous levels in an episode, but it is often required as accomplishments in one level unlock areas in a previous one and vice versa, giving the various episodes a feeling of real places instead of isolated areas. All in all the single player was an amusing diversion that almost never challenged me on normal except in a "where do I go next?" sense, so experienced fps gamers would do well to set the difficulty to hard.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I knocked out all three Big Daddies in Haphaestus in about twenty minutes last night on hard without ever getting hit. That was a rush.

Not sure I can follow that example, but next up for me is Hephaestus as well.

AUs_TBirD wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

I knocked out all three Big Daddies in Haphaestus in about twenty minutes last night on hard without ever getting hit. That was a rush.

Not sure I can follow that example, but next up for me is Hephaestus as well.

One of them took a bit of luck, but the other two are a matter of laying traps. If you're curious, here's what I did:

Spoiler:

Up the stairs to the right of Heat Loss Monitoring, there's a stack of barrels and a bunch of oil on the ground. It's right at the entrance to a little alcove with no other exits. The Big Daddy that wanders around that central hub will go back into the alcove; while he's back there, drop a bunch of proximity mines on the barrels. When he comes back by, he'll trigger the mines (even if he's not aggressive yet). The explosion from the mines and the barrels should be enough to kill him (it was for me), but if not, he won't have much health left, so you should be able to get him with a frag grenade or some electric buckshot.

The second good opportunity for something similar is in the Workshops. When you first enter the workshops, there's an area off to your right with a turret, a safe, and some ionic gel. As with the alcove, this area only has one entrance, and it works as a nice choke point. There are a lot of oxygen tanks in that little area; gather them up with telekinesis and pile them in the entrance. Wait for the Big Daddy to go back into that area, mine the tanks up with proximity mines, and let him blow himself to bits.

Please change my game from DA2 to Batman: AA GOTY. I am going to 1k it if it kills me, and then move finish up the original achievements on the vanilla version.

Ha, yeah, as opposed to the official games I have on the list (Deus Ex and Tropico 3), I've been spending a great deal more time on Bastion and The Tiny Bang Story. I will definitely finish the latter two this month, while the former two are far less certain.

Who knows? I'm powering through Deus Ex a lot faster since I changed to a run and gun style character. It's a shame I discovered/had a computer to play this game so late. I would definitely enjoy changing up the character load-out to play it different ways.

Figured I'd post in here for posterity:

Fallout 3 and Bioshock 1 bite the dust.

Next up: I'm thinking the first Witcher. I was somewhere in the 2nd Chapter I believe.

Making progress on Split/Second. I finished Episode 10 tonight. 2 more episodes to go in Season mode, so I should finish it this weekend. Also, please add Trine (PC) for me. If I'm not mistaken, it's only like 6 or 7 hours long, which would put me a bit under halfway through. Should be able to knock out the rest of it this month.

I finished my first play through in Mass Effect on August 5, 2011 and it was incredible. I started Mass Effect 2 shortly after that and I realize I'm stating the obvious, but Mass Effect 2 is incredible.

Yep, the games are that good. I'm not even that embarrassed that I'm abusing the word incredible when describing them.

I've now moved into Olympus Heights, which means I've made it farther in Bioshock on this playthrough than I did on my first.

Season Mode in Split/Second is done. Mostly a fun game. I may go back to it later to try to get 1st in all races, but the rubber-banding is so awful in this game, it may be a while.

Now to finish Trine.

Finally finished Company of Heroes, now on to the expansions!

I saw the credits roll last night night on Onechanbara, although I do want to go back and unlock a few more of the achievements, this one is officially 'done'. Unfortunately on this one, the difficulty doesn't stack, but on the plus side, all experience, etc does carry over, and not all Zombies have to be fought and killed.

Best part was:

Spoiler:

Fighting a Giant zombified Orca called Olga.

Most disturbing moment:

Spoiler:

Watching a wizened old woman turn into an amazing beauty, right before your eyes thanks to the power of baneful blood, with a thin piece of cotton covering what needed to be covered, with just a flash of flesh either side of that. Bordered on Hentai, so glad the wife wasn't walking past at that point.

Now to get some DCvsMK smack down happening before the month is through.

I defeated the big boss in Torchlight on the 360, so I'll consider that done, even though I still might go for the last achievement (getting maximum fame). Definitely a fun change of pace for me, and the button-mashing simplicity of the combat - at least on normal difficulty - makes it easy to play the game while I'm on the treadmill. Stationary exercise is a lot more fun when you earn loot.

Edit: Got the last achievement.

Think I'm going to add another game to the pile this month. Not sure what yet. I'll go dig through the stack when I get home.

I'm going to try and knock out Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands this month as well.

Finished Minerva's den, excellent DLC,

Put me down to finish Trenched and Splinter Cell: Conviction

Really, really enjoying SC5 on PC. Why did this get such middling reception again?

MadGav wrote:

Finished Minerva's den, excellent DLC,

Put me down to finish Trenched and Splinter Cell: Conviction

Really, really enjoying SC5 on PC. Why did this get such middling reception again?

Dude, Starcraft 5 is out?!

Seriously though, SCC is kind of hard to pin down, and the reception reflected that. Also, it probably shouldn't have been a Splinter Cell game. That was my feeling about it initially anyway. It's too linear/straight forward compared to the other Splinter Cells games, and the shooting mechanics suck for a corridor shooter. Initially, that really put me off, but I tried it again later on and loved it. It isn't really trying to be a traditional SC game, or a corridor shooter; it's kind of its own thing. I think as long as someone either doesn't care about or can look past the differences with earlier games in the series, and meet it on it's own terms, then they'll enjoy it.

Finished Tales of Monkey Island 2: The Siege of Spinner Cay. Definitely fun, though this one gave me a little more trouble than usual. I think I was just distracted, though.

No idea what I'll go for next. We'll see.

MadGav wrote:

Finished Minerva's den, excellent DLC,

Put me down to finish Trenched and Splinter Cell: Conviction

Really, really enjoying SC5 on PC. Why did this get such middling reception again?

Trenched is less than 2 months old. Maybe next month. SC:C has been added.

Having fun with MKvsDC, but I realise I am more of a Tekken/Soul Calibur kind of fighting guy. I like when the buttons match the limbs I am controlling.

Having said that, I only have my "all DC characters" run through arcade to do, and that one will fall as well. Might have to think of something else to see the month out, that's a pleasant surprise

I've rounded the corner into Point Prometheus. I'm one Big Daddy suit, one escort mission, and one boss fight away from the end of Bioshock. Overall, I've enjoyed it a lot more this time than the first time I played it (and abandoned it).